Research

Online video isn't the future, it's the present

Google Canada hosted a showcase last week in Toronto, complete with recent case studies and numbers from YouTube.

The following stats had several jaws hitting the floor:

• 10 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds
• YouTube contributors produce 3000x more output than Hollywood
• Hollywood would need to premier 57,230 feature films a week just to keep up
• YouTube currently boasts 200M+ worldwide unique visits a month
• 25% of surveyed registered YouTube viewers watch more video content online than they do on TV

YouTube Demographics


• 55% suburban, 26% urban, 19% rural
• 71% employed, 15% students
• 47% married
• 69% college educated
(source)

Several case studies were featured, including a YouTube, HP and Fox Searchlight program called “Project Direct”.

Other highlights;
Mark Nicholson from ING Direct presented the Canadian Superstar Saver Search,
Paul McGrath from CBC presented some digital strategy including “The Hour” channel on YouTube

Here’s a little Advertising on YouTube primer to get you started:

Facebook Stats Primer

Do you want to reach Canadians age ...
any age ≈ 8,462,520 people
13 to 24 ≈ 4,070,400 people
25 to 35 ≈ 2,650,000 people
36 to 49 ≈ 1,238,220 people
50 to 65 ≈ 493,940 people

Do you want to reach people who say they are in ...
Ontario. ≈ 3,864,340
Toronto ON≈ 1,735,060
Woodstock ON≈ 19,120
Norwich ON≈ 440

British Columbia. ≈ 1,281,440
Alberta.≈ 1,091,720
Quebec. ≈ 952,220
Nova Scotia.≈ 364,040
Manitoba ≈ 271,140
Saskatchewan ≈ 246,660
New Brunswick.≈ 183,900
Newfoundland.≈ 133,320
Prince Edward Island ≈ 26,900

Do you want to reach Canadians who proclaim to be:
Liberal≈ 666,200
Moderate≈ 262,300
Conservative≈ 312,840

Do you want to reach Canadians who list themselves as
single ≈ 2,182,020
in a relationship ≈ 1,776,480
engaged ≈ 307,880
married ≈ 1,528,860

Do you want to reach Canadians who listed the following as favorites;
Britney Spears. ≈ 8,040 people
Rick Mercer Report.≈ 11,680 people
Canadian Idol. ≈ 11,840 people
To Kill A Mockingbird ≈ 38,560

Do you want to reach Canadians who work at
Rogers. ≈ 2,980
Bell Canada ≈ 4,840
MacLAREN McCANN ≈ 240
Organic ≈ 100 people
Cossette Communications. ≈ 100
Ogilvy.≈ 80
BBDO. ≈ 80
Leo Burnett. fewer than 20 people

Do you want to reach any cross section of them today? Do you see value in targeting your media down to hundreds of people, and pay for click? Or better yet, do you want to provide real value to any of these people beyond your message?

Do you still think Social Media is a fad?
All numbers sourced: Facebook Ad Manager application.

Numbers current as of 10:30 am, Thursday Jan 31st 2008

The Business of Clutter

Spending money is now, strangely, its own form of entertainment. We have always bought things we don’t need. But the consequences are having a substantial emotional impact on consumer behaviour and their shopping habits. Consumers are psychologically affected by their clutter, becoming anxious, while others suffer guilt and embarrassment.

A recent Australian survey found that 84 per cent of consumers bought things in order to deal with the excessive amount of things they have bought. 20 per cent said they feel anxious, guilty or depressed about the clutter in their homes. The findings confirm insights identified in a home improvement survey by Arcus. 88 per cent of homes have at least one cluttered room, and the average home has three or more cluttered rooms. The spare room is the most cluttered area in the home, followed by cupboards, the garage and bedrooms. Not surprisingly, people living in detached houses had more clutter than people living in townhouses or apartments, and people with kids in the home tend to have more clutter than those without.

Influencers
Women are much more concerned about clutter than men: almost half of the women surveyed said they were anxious, depressed or worried about the clutter in their home, while a third said they were embarrassed by it. Indeed, fully 59 per cent of women said there was a room in the house that they don’t like visitors to see because of the clutter. So what’s driving the business of clutter? It isn’t surprising that emotions have a big influence on decisions taken to deal with clutter. Consumers struggle between the need to satisfy an emotional need to acquire things and the aftermath of having to deal with clutter in homes.

Impulse buys
Impulse buys have a significant impact on clutter. Products such as clothes, books, electronics etc. make it to the top of list. The average Canadian household wastes $1,300 a year on items that are purchased but never used. This equates to $19.5 billion across the nation – or more than the federal government spents on universities and roads over the same period. “Bargain” shopping has also contributed to the trend. For example, high income groups are the fastest growing consumer segment for Dollar Stores. As retailers such as Costco make bargain hunting trendy, dollar stores have increasingly become frequented by upper-income households along with their main consumer segment of low to middle-income families. In fact, store growth within the dollar store channel is unparalleled by any other retailer. Top dollar store chains, including Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollarama and 99 Cents Only, have added more than 5,900 new North American outlets since 2001. The phenomenon of value-based shopping and commoditization of categories has accelerated this trend. Consumers want to know they are buying value when they shop. So they end up buying more products at lower prices than is needed. It validates an emotional need for “self actualization”. Maslow explicitly defines self-actualization to be “the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for the individual to become actualized in what he is potentially”.

Implications
These insights have significant implications for the business of clutter. In 2007, Canada’s home improvement retailers moved almost $37 billion in hardware, building materials, paint and decor, and other home products. Most of these transactions occurred at 8,923 major retail outlets.

Arcus estimates at least 10% ($3.7 billion) of the Canadian home improvement segment is linked to organization and storage. Companies like Rubbermaid (sales: $6.2 billion), have their entire business dedicated to storage. There are over fifteen business sectors that benefit from the trend of increased clutter. Some examples include home improvement, construction, organization services, storage companies, junk collectors. Junk collectors have grown rapidly over the past decade. One of them made it to the top of the Profit 100 list of fastest growing companies in Canada. Companies that focus on the storage and organization business are likely to grow rapidly as boomers downsize and more consumers start to address problems with clutter.

How Tweet it is

At first I didn't like Twitter. I found nothing wrong with using IM so I thought, who needs it? I remember saying that about cell phones too... and email... and Facebook.

For me: I don't like it, I try it, I'm hooked.

If IM is the cocaine of internet communication, then Twitter is surely the crack.

Don't know what Twitter is? Some call it Micro-Blogging, Tumblelog, Thumbcast, Sideblog, and more. Last November, Robert McIntosh did a great post on it. Check out Wikipedia here, or Twitter's Twitter about page, or check out Gaping Void's take.

How do you use it? Let's get started.

A) Go to Twitter.com and get a profile going.

B) Now you have a platform, but you still need an audience for your "Tweets". Look for a friend. (Go ahead and pick me, http://twitter.com/collindouma, the first tweet's free kid). Find the button that says "Follow". Now you're following my Tweets.

C) For more people, return to my Twitter page (http://twitter.com/collindouma) and click on the word "following" (right nav bar, below Stats heading). Recognize anyone? Click "follow" for the ones you know too. They'll receive notification that you've subscribed to their tweets. If they know you, or are interested in you, they may reciprocate. That's how you build an audience. You have to listen to be heard. Strange how that works eh?

You can do the same over and over and over, but there is plenty of time for that. I suggest you stop for now, and start to tweet.

D) Click the Home button, and then start Twittering. Maybe start by saying "Hello", and pressing "update". Remember, you only get 136 characters, be brief.

That's it. Your first Tweet. Try a few more.

E) To target a specific person, try putting an @ sign in front of a name. Use me, I don't mind. Type

@collindouma : Saw your post on the CMA blog about Twitter. Trying it now.

Remember, even though it's addressed to me, it's still a public statement. I'll get a little nudge which lets me know you said it. And you'll know if anyone has said anything directly to you by clicking "Replies" on your home page. It's the tab, just below the update button.

Basically, that's all you need to know.

I'll leave you with one last tip for your new Twittering habit.

You might want to share a website on your Tweet but the URL is very long. Try using this site: http://tinyurl.com. It turns long URLs into short ones that still are clickable. By making the URL nice and short, you can better add a description or comment without maxing out the 136 character limit.

For example, here's a Tweet I sent recently about a YouTube video:

Too funny... David Lynch re: watching movies on iPhone : http://tinyurl.com/2xsk89

Here's another recent Tweet.

Join the new Facebook group "Petition to Get Sean Moffitt On Twitter" Today! http://tinyurl.com/26bnm3

You don't have to use tinyurl.com if the url is short.

hey world, check this out : http://www.radicaltrust.ca

There isn't much more to it. You just have to do it.

Welcome to the world of Micro-Blogging. Good Luck

http://twitter.com/collindouma

Social Networks And Ad Spend - Should We Change What We Mean By Ad Spend?

eMarketer has reported $1.2 billion in projected advertising spend within social networks this year (an amazing 70% of money being spent is between MySpace and Facebook). As 37% of the US adult population and 70% of teens are frequenting social networking sites, it is a no-brainer that marketers and advertisers are keen to tap into these entities.

As more dollars shift to digital , eMarketer pegs total ad spend of $4 billion worldwide by 2011 against online social networks alone. Those are serious numbers. Naturally, the next question is "what will result from that spending in terms of effectiveness?"

My belief is that before we label social network marketing efforts as "ad spend", we should take a step back and see what is intended for those dollars and how they will be truly allocated. We know that Users do not want to be advertised to, so it may be misleading in terms of the investments marketers will make.

As I have previously written about over at The Client Side Blog and have recently read re:Chris Brogan's and Mack Collier's opinions, I wonder if we should begin segmenting our budgets to reflect "engagement spend" or "community spend" or "conversation spend"?

Outside of the online world we isolate budgets for sponsorship, local area marketing, community events etc.., all with unique objectives, goals and outcomes. So perhaps we should spend some time reviewing what we hope to achieve in social networks and take it from there. Lumping it all under advertising just sounds too easy.

The eMarketer study shows that brands see a huge opportunity to engage Users in social networks. My hope is that we are beginning to think beyond interruption and approach interaction as a platform. Marketers will have to challenge themselves to find the right balance of novelty, utility and relevance for todays consumers. Our best hope is that a good chunk of the "ad spend" goes to something other than ads.

The Ultimate Decision

The Promise:
It came upon us as a promise, wrapped in the innocence of simplicity. The inner core of a brand captured miraculously in a simple question.

“How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague.”

The Net Promoter Score was born. The brainchild of Fred Reichheld, a Bain & Co. Fellow and Dr. Laura Brooks of Satmetrix Systems. The sort of material that Harvard Business Review writes their cases about. In fact HBR did publish an article in Dec 2003 with the eye catching title “The one number you need to grow”. The equivalent of a viral campaign unfolded, supplemented with a book… global speaking engagements.

Just as a black hole, the simplicity drew everyone to it. The promise, incubated by field studies at 400 businesses (turns out to have been 50+ in the end) which held that if we managed our customers properly – our business would grow. To do so only required our focus on customers who are either our promoters (scoring you a 9 or 10), passives (scoring you a 7 or 8) or detractors (scoring you 6 or less). Wait a minute – that’s all our customers. Exactly, but we’ll get to that again at the conclusion.

The Formula: % of Promoters - % of Detractors = Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Therefore if 50% of your respondents were promoters and 20% were detractors – you netted out at a score of 30. The higher the score the better.

NPS we were told would accurately predict a company’s ability to impress customers, turn customers into advocates, and -- in turn -- become an indicator of potential business growth. Scientific proof that this simple metric was ultimately more powerful and meaningful than any other management theory about customer satisfaction, customer retention, passion, loyalty or …well anything. So simple even a CEO could follow it ;-^)

And so the market embraced the theory. From all corners of the world. Heavyweights like GE (Real Estate division) Philips, HSBC, IBM (Enterprise Content Management), LEGO, Enterprise Car Rental, Intuit, Schwabb, American Express, Microsoft and others.

A simple approach, developed by respected accreditted professionals, endorsed by a world class university adopted by companies. What’s so bad about any of this?

The Questions:
Cracks in the foundation started to develop because of the lack of support to the contentions. Namely that the NPS was not a strong predictor, that there was evidense of research bias in the support used to substantiate the NPS and that the ACSI was not uncorrelated with firm growth..

“We find no support for the claim that Net Promoter is the ‘single most reliable indicator of a company’s ability to grow.’ The clear implication is that managers have adopted the Net Promoter metric for tracking growth on the basis of the belief that solid science underpins the findings and that it is superior to other metrics. However, our research suggests that such presumptions are erroneous. The consequences are the potential misallocation of resources as a function of erroneous strategies guided by Net Promoter on firm performance, company value, and shareholder wealth.”

Source: Timothy Keiningham et al. July 2007 A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth

Other studies, other experts, opinion leaders, bloggers (see below) added their voices to the boisterous cacophony – worthy of the NYSE trading floor on a black bear day.

Undaunted, NPS supporters countered (see below) with their own assertions the NPS being as good as more complex measures and for the most part avoiding any direct discussions surrounding the statistical annomalies brought forward by Keiningham.

In this quote, Dr. Masden acknowledges being part of the team at the London School of Economics that vetted the NPS Score and asserts its ongoing validity as a reliable method of linking customer loyalty to growth.

"As far as the current debate goes, anyone who has read the information being disseminated from the “anti-Net Promoter” camp quickly comes to the realisation that the one Net Promoter question is, at the very least, just as good as more complex proprietary measures, that are tough to translate to the average executive and employee. But that leaves me questioning: why are we hung up on the measurement? The real conversation needs to be about how to get an organisation to be customer-centric and what that can mean for a company’s future”

Source: Clickadvisor.com on Sept 17 Net Promoter: the ultimate debate on customer loyalty

The Stalemate:

There is too much of an industry and ‘cult’ established around the NPS for it to dissapear on the basis of the allegations laid against them. In defence and defiance they point out that we are all ultimately pursuing the same path. True.

One can argue that the NPS may have accelerated the customer centricity movement, the other important benefit is that in its simplicity it has refocussed the dialogue on using metrics which can be widely disseminated and easily understood. Well in the words of Tim Keiningham

“ I too believe that loyalty consultants and researchers have over-complicated the message (and the analyses) with more advanced statistics than it took to get the Apollo space missions to the moon. It makes it impossible for management to understand, communicate, and rally support. This is ridiculous!”

The Ultimate Decision:
Believe it or not up to this point was the easy part. The hard part is deciding for yourself what happens next.

Will there ever be one metric to fit all needs? Highly improbable – and any contenders will not be allowed to make unsubstantiated claims. Instead of waiting for the new simple metric, we must continue to move forward with as simplified a system we can devise, implement and gain compliance with.

There are many competing schools of thought (Customer Experience Management, CRM, Loyalty/Continuity, Value Drivers, Image, WoM) reflecting the different successful business models/brands in the market.

To understand which approach will work best for your brand you must identify three things:

1. who your profitable customers are

2. what kind of relationship your profitable customers wish to have with your brand
a.Share of Wallet: the traditional CRM-centric make me a compelling (price/promotional) offer and I’ll buy it from you (or perhaps your competitors) – a brand relationship centered on the transaction.
b.Share of Mind: the traditional marketing promotions/communications approach – focussing on the key value proposition – a rational based brand relationship.
c.Share of Heart: Customer Experience Management – How people feel about the brand experience. Experience seen as a price mitigator and continuity reinforcer – an emotion based brand relationship.
d.Share of Life: How customers see the brand as a longer term partner for their category requirements, solutions and corporate/sustainability responsibility – an ‘adult/mature’ brand relationship.

3. within the relationship type identify the activities the enterprise must do to instill the longer-term repeat purchase pattern it seeks.

The key in my opinion is instead of defining your brand as an advocate of a particular ‘school of thought’ and then trying to mold your customers to fit within that model, we must instead look and manage this from the customer’s perspective. Therefore come to recognize the ALL of these relationship types exist simultaneously among different groups of your customers. What and how you communicate will be best served by understanding the type of customer they are first and from there make the ultimate decision as to how to relate and evolve with your customers.

Cheers
Miro

Suggested Reading:
NPS Adovcates:
The Ultimate Question. Driving Good Profits and True Growth. Fred Reicheld

www.satmetrix.com

www.netpromoter.com

Dr. Laura Brooks’s – VP Satmetrix latest blog posting

The Satmetrix white paper describing the research

Research conducted by the London School of Economics

Dr. Marsden from Clickadvisor.com on Sept 17 Net Promoter: the ultimate debate on customer loyalty

NPS Contrarians
Loyalty Myths: Hyped Strategies That Will Put You Out of Business and Proven Tactics That Really Work, Tim Keiningham, Terry Varga, Lerzan Aksoy, Henri Wallard

A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth

The Value of Different Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics in Predicting Customer Retention, Recommendation, and Share-of-Wallet

January 2007 Maritz Research White Paper

COLLOQUY magazine article

Read about a Marketing Investment with a Guaranteed ROI

One of the hallmarks of a great marketer is having a positive attitude and when asked, be ready to take on new challenges with enthusiasm. It’s part of our DNA to say yes and view the experience as an opportunity to learn, grow and become more accomplished.

For some, this “yes” is followed by anxiety, fear of failure or nerves until we know what the expectations are. This was my reaction when I signed up for “The Language of Leadership,” an intensive 3 day workshop designed to help improve interpersonal skills and use words and language more effectively.

After reading the outline, I was anxious. Why three days? Couldn’t we cover this off nicely in one afternoon? I'm really busy you know. Then, to make matters worse, I got a voice mail from organizers that all devices linking me to the outside world were verboten. There were to be no distractions, no messages delivered from people trying to get in touch with me. The expectation was clear – I needed to leave all my ‘stuff’ at the door and be 100% present with the facilitator. Oh boy. Hopefully this time investment would be worth going through hundreds of emails when I returned to the office.

Now I understand what it means to be "present" and I'm glad. It makes for a quality learning environment that has momentum and meaning. Over the three days, a subject we spent considerable time on was understanding the difference between intellectual IQ and emotional intelligence or “EI.” Let me explain.

When we come into this world we have basically the same set of smarts as when we leave it – IQ is what we were given to work with. However as the course showed, we can greatly improve our emotional intelligence, and in doing so relate more effectively to others and become powerful leaders.

What is effective leadership? What does it mean? A clear understanding eludes many people and organizations. One reason is that until recently, no research had been able to uncover which leadership traits yielded the most positive results for an organization. A consulting firm in the US, Hay McBer, completed a study that comprised a random sample of 3,871 executives. They found there are six distinct leadership styles, each one springing to life from different areas of our emotional intelligence. And most importantly, effective leaders in an organization can switch effortlessly between styles depending on team members and the situation at hand.

There are four components of Emotional Intelligence (EI):

Self Awareness – the ability to read and understand our emotions and realize the impact our emotions have on others

Self Management – how to keep disruptive emotions and impulses under control

Social Awareness – Sensing other people’s emotions and taking an active interest in their concerns

Social Skill – Taking charge and leading with a compelling vision

Who knew the impact of using the word “our” instead of “your” when relating to someone? How about building more empathy with the team? Realizing that your emotions in a room are contageous and set the tone for discussions? I do now. Speaking from my personal experience the program was, in a word – transformational. There was plenty of tailored coaching, honest feedback and heightened personal awareness of where I am and where I want to be.

If you’re interested in delving more into the subject, I highly recommend Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, and Working with Emotional Intelligence, all by Daniel Goleman. For information on the Language of Leadership 3 day workshop, contact Vezina & Associates (416) 466-9336.

I guarantee that the more you invest in understanding and developing your emotional intelligence, the more effective you will be as a person and a leader - no matter what your vocation is.

For any investment a marketer makes, that’s a pretty amazing return.

TV Alive and Well with Teens - For Now

The news in the media would suggest that teens have turned off the TV and are only watching the internet. Obviously this would be concerning to the TV industry because everyone expects teens and young adults to carry habits forward.

The following are some interesting statistics that help paint a current picture:
-Households with tweens and teens are most likely to have the greatest number of televisions.
-For households with tweens 12-14, there are an average 3.2 sets per household.
-For households with teens 15-19, there are an average of 3 TV's per household.

Physically speaking, TV's have not replaced computers just yet. (Source: Fast Forward Trend Analysis August 2006) Teen TV viewing has declined over the past 5 years but not as great as the buzz would suggest. In 2001, Canadian teens watched an average of 20.9 hours per week. In 2006, Canadian teens were watching an average of 20.0 hours per week. This represents a decline of 4.3% (Source: BBM TV 2007).

Teens are on the internet more than watching TV. The distribution of average time spent for persons 12-29 with the internet is 20% versus 17% for TV. (Source: Fast Forward Trend Analysis August 2006)

In conclusion, TV is far from dead with Canadian teens. In fact, we know that teens are on the internet, while watching TV. However, IPTV is only beginning to emerge.

Freedom 65 - Not so fast

Sixty-five might be the year of the gold watch, but by no means does it spell the end of a successful working career. Our parents may have gracefully retired like so many of their peers, but today’s 60-plus generation isn’t ready to be put out to pasture quite yet.

Articles appeared in all of the major dailies across Canada this week and all are abuzz with talk of boomers and retirement, or the lack thereof. The coverage revolves around a major report issued by Statistics Canada which illustrates an impending tectonic shift in the workforce.

2012 is the year when the first of the baby boomer generation will start turning 65. As illustrated from the chart above, the percentage of working-age people (the participation rate) resembles a tanking stock and unfortunately we can’t divest ourselves from this impending demographic drop.

With such important findings coming from the StatsCan reports, it’s easy to see why the story gained so much coverage. Some of the conclusions include:

- The proportion of the labour force aged 55 and over will dramatically increase to one in five in 2021, compared to one in seven in 2005.

- This study suggests that future economic growth may have to depend less on employment growth and more on higher productivity, which could offset the consequences of a slowdown, or even decline, in the labour force.

- This decline in the overall participation rate is mainly due to the aging of the population, a result of low fertility over the last three decades and the steady rise in life expectancy.

These findings should concern every Canadian and not just the economists and statisticians who prepared the report. The economic ramifications of StatsCan’s findings become more serious when you account for the fact that many boomers haven’t sufficiently saved for their retirement years. A long story short: there are going to be many more boomers continuing to work well into their golden years. Some of them will work because they want to and many will stay on because they have to.

Does your organization have a plan on how you will work with the new 40?

Challenge and Opportunity

Canadians were asked in a poll early in August 2006 which countries and regions held the most promise for their future prosperity and well being. A significant 42 percent of respondents identified China as the market with greatest potential. The poll was conducted by an independent market research firm, The Strategic Counsel, for a west coast Canadian think tank Asia Pacific Foundation, and for a national Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.

Asia Pacific Foundation is funded by the government of Canada and the government of British Columbia. Results for the national sample are accurate to within 3.1 points 19 times out of 20. From 1996 to 2005, every year almost 40,000 eager Chinese arrive in cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Some 1 million Chinese have immigrated to Canada over the last century, making a significant contribution to our social fabric and helping develop the Canadian values of tolerance and generosity that we live by each and every day. Chinese immigrants of various origins are attracted to Canada by promising economic opportunities, both business and employment.

Canada welcomes them mainly because of their potentials to contribute to the country’s economic growth. The Chinese Community in Canada is an emerging market, to face this important market, are you ready? Are your marketing method and strategic effectively? Are your products marketable in Canadian Chinese market? Do you know how to tap Canadian Chinese consumers? It’s really a challenge and opportunity for us.

Boomers Have Great Expectations

It should come as no surprise that much like Canada’s own Baby Boomer population, Boomers in the U.S. fully expect to have their cake and eat it too in their retirement years – and that simply may not happen for a lot of them.

A recent survey from the U.S. division of Sun Life Financial shows that many Baby Boomers will need more income early in retirement than previously expected. The survey also indicates 70 per cent of Baby Boomers expect their income needs to fluctuate greatly throughout retirement with the highest income amount needed in the first five years to fund the active lifestyles they're planning.

Boomers in the U.S. have high expectations for their early retirement years. In the first five years of retirement, Boomers indicated they plan to pursue the following lists of activities:

• 85% Domestic travel
• 83% Hobbies
• 82% International travel
• 81% Begin a new career
• 78% Spend more time with children/grandchildren
• 76% Start a business
• 73% Volunteering
• 72% Take classes or get a degree
• 61% Purchase a second home
• 56% Relocate to a new location
• 54% Assist charitable organizations

I have my doubts, but we’ll wait and see whether these great expectations become reality. As my good friend, David K. Foot, the author of Boom, Bust and Echo, often points out… the way Boomers perceive themselves usually bares little resemblance to the actual fact.

Regardless, the results should send a strong signal to marketers as to where to focus their efforts on connecting with this highly affluent demographic. And make no mistake, this survey focused on people with money. It was conducted with 1,000 non-retirees and 1,000 retirees aged 50 and over in January 2007. Each participant had over $250,000 in invested assets and was working with a financial professional in making investment decisions.

Indeed, the future for financial planners has never been brighter because as we all know many Boomers have done precious little to prepare for retirement so far. While eager to do it all, Boomers will need to figure out where to get the money. To be able to pay for retirement, I think you’ll actually see a lot more creativity coming from financial planners as people look into innovative products like reverse mortgages. In Canada, at least, I think you’ll see more people trying to unlock the equity they have managed to build up in their home. As for the U.S., the survey indicates 86 per cent plan to earn income from some form of employment. Those great expectations may never come to fruition if working longer is the answer for a lot of people.

To download a copy of the full research brief, entitled The Retirement Spending Boom, click here.

Focus Groups – A good Meal Goes a Long Way

Last week a colleague of mine attended focus groups in Montreal and Toronto. Her team was testing new advertising approaches for a segment of their customer base. It’s not often marketing teams have the chance to spend quality time with the people who pay the bills, so she was looking forward to the experience.

For two days she told me she heard nothing but customers complain. They had 'zero' relationship with the company, were too expensive, they doubted the value of the products they purchased, heard from the company very infrequently (usually when it was time to renew) and generally resented the fact they had to do business with the organization at all. Yikes.

And all this she said, before pulling out new advertising concepts from her portfolio to share with them. It was one of those moments where you say to yourself, "wow there is a huge opportunity to fix this," or "why did I want to work here again?"

Focus group testing is a 'qualitative' research approach that marketers use to hear current and prospective customers’ feedback about the products and services they use, their attitudes and impressions about companies and their competition. The topics that can be tested are varied, but mostly they are used to collect reactions to creative ideas in development. Also, for companies that haven't communicated to their client base in a while, focus groups help establish starting points for new message platforms or for an updated value proposition. This is valuable insurance that can minimize the chance of launching a program that has little credibility with customers yet looks or sounds great.

The focus group exercise is usually a series of 3 groups of 4 - 6 people each (any larger and they loose their effectiveness) plus a moderator who is part guidance counselor, part gym teacher. By that I mean they can create a comfortable sharing circle to ask questions, get candid opinions and probe to uncover motivations and prejudices. And they keep conversations on track and steer the group, including the loudest and most opinionated, through topics about the company and subject matter with as little bias as possible. Here are some principles I follow to get the most out of a focus group research exercise:

1. Hold the groups early in the planning stages. They should happen early in the marketing planning process (at least 8 to 10 weeks before launch). This gives enough time to evaluate feedback and decide how and what you've heard will affect your work and allow for any adjustments to your approach.

2. Pay close attention to who you invite. Assemble people with the characteristics you're looking for. If you want reactions from new customers, make sure no one slips in that may have a long standing relationship with your company and potentially lots of opinions. This means you need to pay close attention to the recruiting specifications that the moderator is using to confirm attendees.

3. Use your time wisely. Invest time in the discussion guide - it's the foundation of the conversation you're about to have, so make sure you include all the questions and topics you and the agency have. Ensure you don't exceed the two hour guideline. Any longer and you’ll see drooping eyes and chins resting on hands. Make sure you have a good conversation flow and logical segues from one topic to another. A good moderator will look for these bridges - themes that join one topic to the next.

4. Be ready to adjust your approach. If you hear provocative reactions or insights that you didn't anticipate, drill down during the next session. Good groups give you lots of sound bites and help you explore new ideas. They challenge your assumptions about what you think customers think - and help you discover new directions. Ineffective groups don't add to what you already know.

5. Schedule discussion time between each group. Have time to debrief with the moderator and other observers. Listen and share reactions to what you've just seen and heard. Often times, it's everyone's collective feedback that builds the overall reaction - not just one individual.

Done well, focus groups can provide insightful feedback at a point in the marketing planning process where you can make adjustments. And like my colleague added, “Always choose a facility with a reputation for serving up good food. It's amazing how a good meal can help bad news go down.”

And the survey says….

Sometime ago I read an article untitled ‘Customer Surveys: All Talk, No Action’. The article asks us why surveys are being done if no action is derived from the results. The article suggests that survey data is merely used to validate existing products and services instead of using the information to make change.

Recently I sat through a meeting recapping results of a customer survey and heard comments like, “the customer doesn’t get it”, or “they are missing the point”. I think great … now lets fix it so they get the point. Then I hear, “must be something wrong with the data”. Something wrong with the data … what?

I got back to my office and I thought I would check and see what the blogsphere is saying. Sure enough I found hundreds of entries. Real customers pointing out the same problems as did the results of the survey.

I am not saying this happens all the time. I have also sat in meetings where the client has embraced this and made changes to their products and services based on customer feedback.

I know change can be difficult…not to mention costly. I also know that corporate culture has not always rewarded employees for … well … ‘rocking the boat’. However, simply pointing out what’s right with your products and services does not help anyone. In a day and age where consumers are in control you need to ask tough questions to really understand what’s going on.

The New Year is only 15 days old and here we go again not listening to our customers. So … SHHHH … the customer is speaking!

Brand measurement

As organizations devote more funding to brand development, many marketers find themselves wrestling with the need to demonstrate to board members and shareholders that these efforts are resulting in tangible pay-back. Stakeholders want to see the ROI; they want quantifiable results from their brand building investment.

But how do you draw a hard data link between the customer experience and business success?How do you produce hard numbers that benchmark employee engagement with the brand promise?

I would be interested in your comments? We have had success recently through employee surveys. What is your organization using to measure employee engagement as it relates to your brand?

What are you thinking? – Session 2

Steve Levy of Ipsos-Ried spoke about what marketers and agencies are thinking, doing and planning to do in the Digital space. Findings were from advertising and marketing execs on both agency and client side. Here are some quick pointsd:

• Email – familiar and used for transactional and non-transactional usage.
• Paid search engine marketing and optimization was not as familiar as one would expect
• Social Marketing – very low on the radar - this includes blogging and podcasting which no one seems to be using yet or even understanding
• Interactive Marketing – seems to adopted by only half the audience
• ECRM – also low on the usage and familiarity

Key point is that marketers need more education on what is going on and their agencies need to help them see the opportunities. Lack of knowledge and examples of digital effectiveness seem to dominate why more $’s are not being shifted more rapidly in digital – but it is coming.
Bottome line is that the opportunity is there but it is still not permeating the senior levels as it should.

The most amazing statistic came via the interactive response from an audience poll at the conference that revealed that the majority of attendees have not read any of the books that are driving the thought leadership in the digital and new marketing space.