Brand Utilities: The End of Advertising Magic?
Consider this. By 2010, Best Buy’s Twelpforce had responded to over 29,000 questions and accumulated 26,837 followers on Twitter. But consider this too. It was the largest electronic retailer in the country – it takes a lot of shoppers to generate revenues of $4.4 billion in the month of December 2010. Consider too the sheer breadth of its offering, and that there are 245,267,292 people aged 15 years and over in the United States many of whom will presumably be in the market for some kind of electrical goods. And remember that the service was promoted through TV advertising as well as in-store-messaging. Suddenly it begins to feel as if that utility was actually delivered to and experienced directly by a relatively small population.
So, it is worth considering whether the mere availability of this service worked to elevate the brand’s reputation as being knowledgeable and responsive amongst a much broader population. Even though they never took advantage of this piece of utility. So was Twelpforce really a piece of utility?
One of the most eloquent and thought provoking essays on Advertising, Brand Utilities and Tech hypes I’ve read in quite some time. If like me you’re craving for some food for thought and sharp analysis Re the intersection of / hype surrounding the (much vaunted death) of Advertising and the rise of Brand Utilities, this is it.
Read the whole essay by Martin Weigel (@mweigel) here » The Enduring Power Of Stuff That Isn’t Useful And Why ‘Utility’ Will Not Overthrow Magic.
Post maintained by Anibal do Rosario
Do Rosario’s Three Laws of Customer Centricity
The Three Laws of Customer Centricity (Beta)
1. A company may not wilfully and knowingly harm the interests of a customer/partner/stakeholder or, through inaction, allow a customer/partner/stakeholder’s interests to come to harm.
2. A company must, to the best of its efforts and resources, service the customers and put them at the centre of every business decision, except where providing such services would conflict with the First Law or Third Law.
3. A company must protect its own long-term interests and existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The above was an idea I derived from the famous Three Laws of Robotics, a set of three rules written by SF author Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey.
I was thinking of coming up with a “Three Laws of Customer Centricity” adaption, but I think the model still needs some tweaking here and there. Any ideas?
Pay with Facebook: The “One-Click” Solution to Save Newspapers Online?
“…there is a group of executives inside the company that believe “Pay With Facebook” could end up a bigger revenue source than Facebook’s advertising revenues. We’ve estimated Facebook’s advertising revenues will reach $475 million in 2009.
To get an idea what kind of challenges Facebook will have to overcome to get there, consider that during the second quarter, eBay subsidiary PayPal’s revenues were $669 million, up 11% y/y.
It got there with:
- 75 million active registered accounts
- A total payment volume of $16 billion in the quarter
- With accounts containing approximately $3 billion in stored value that is spent every 2 weeks
- Supporting 19 currencies
- With a .30% fraud rate
Facebook can’t approach any of those numbers yet, but it does possess one distinct advantage — nearly 300 million monthly active users.
What’s more, the rousing success that is Facebook Connect — the service that allows users to log in to participating third-party sites using their Facebook IDs with one click — hints that Facebook users might appreciate a similar “one-click” simplicity when paying for merchandise on the Internet.”
Be sure to check the whole article at BusinessInsider.com
Privacy concerns aside, one can imagine that Facebook’s One-Click payment solution, along with the social sharing of articles and posts through Facebook Connect, could be the panacea for newspaper publishers looking for ways of monetizing content beyond the stale and flailing “generate-pageviews-sell-banners” business model.
How so?
Well, besides the general mentality that digital content should be “free”, one of the major issues in monetizing content on the web by surrounding it with a “Pay-First wall”, is the fact that visitors don’t know in advance what (quality) they’ll exactly be paying for; consumers fear buying a shrink-wrapped magazine purely based on its cover, only to be disappointed afterwards.
Whereas on iTunes or with Steam you usually know that what your getting is guaranteed to have a substantial replay-factor or, in the case of iTunes, since the price is relatively low, you can afford the risk of a dud every now and then.
This, arguably, is not the case with ubiquitous news, or in-depth articles.
Utilizing Facebook’s micro-payment solution combined with Facebook Connect however, publishers will have the opportunity of using a “hassle-less” One-Click online payment solution, powered by trusted(?) recommendations of friends: “Hey Todd, here’s an article I just read about Obama’s healthcare reform, touching it from a viewpoint I believe you’d find interesting, check it out. Cheers, Brian.” Ching!
Farfetched? For a showcase of the true power of social sharing: Think the Bit.Ly-shortened links being universally shared on twitter, spreading idea’s, content (and malware) virally. Only this time it’s done by folks with verified Facebook ID’s so you know they’re actually real and can be trusted.
Off course, should the scenario sketched above come to fruition, Facebook will have to get a piece of the revenue pie too, but the publishing moguls ‘d be wise to carefully re-consider jumping into their fabled “No-Can-Do” reflexes, since it’s becoming increasingly clear that the other option for them and their companies’ stakeholders is not having a pie to share at all…
(PS please note that I deliberately left all privacy concerns regarding Facebook out of this exercise, since I believe that we should topple the online publishing troubles in a concentric way; shilling away to the core, tackling the multifaceted problem layer by layer, instead of pre-maturely obstruficating any possible solution by thinking in limitations only.
This, however, does not imply that I don’t see the possible dangers of Facebook not only owning your social graph and personal data, but also knowing when you bought what (and whom approved said purchase!) and where you’re likely to go to form a political opinion or otherwise.
Though I feel and see that having this kind of aggregated combined profile data of possibly more than 300 million people in the hands of one party could pose a real threat when falling into the wrong hands, I urge you to go and take a look over at Alexander van Elsas’s blog, as he has already indentified and dissected this problem with great abandon.)
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Als ik de baas was van ING (Column)
Column ING personeelsblad, April 2009: Als ik de baas was… Met Anibal do Rosario
Juist in deze onzeker tijden kun je je als grootbank onderscheiden door de klant van een helder advies te voorzien. Door mee te denken en een stapje verder te kijken. Maar vooral door te doen wat je belooft. Je dienstverlening en product op peil brengen, en daarna pas overgaan tot grootschalige reclamecampagnes. Want de klant van vandaag is extra scherp op de steken die je laat vallen.
Ik zie service verlenen als een kerntaak van de bank en vind dat je dat niet moet willen uitbesteden. Dus zou ik juist meer bankwinkels openen met adviseurs die persoonlijk, op maat gesneden advies geven. Zo krijgt de ING een menselijk, lokaal gezicht. Ook zou ik meer mogelijk maken via internet voor die klanten welke zelfstandig hun bankzaken willen af wikkelen.
Ik zou de bank open gooien voor de klanten en collega’s meer verantwoordelijkheden geven, waardoor de klant écht merkt dat ze direct verder geholpen wordt. Ook zou ik bijvoorbeeld studenten meer perspectief geven op groei binnen de ING.
Als baas zou ik verder onderzoeken hoe we onze klanten en toekomstige klanten kunnen betrekken bij het merk ING door inzet van bijvoorbeeld Sociale Media zoals Hyves en Facebook. Hoe kunnen we onze formulieren en processen duidelijk en korter maken? En hoe geven onze concullega’ s hier invulling aan?
De uitdaging die ik samen met collega’s zou willen aangaan zou zijn: Hoe kunnen we met ING van een Procesgeoriënteerde naar een Klantgecentreerde organisatie groeien, die daadwerkelijk klaar is voor de nieuwe uitdagingen van morgen?
Coaching en training zou ik ook graag naar een hoger niveau willen tillen. Aangezien iedereen ook meer eigen verantwoordelijkheden krijgt, zullen managers minder hoeven aansturen, en zich meer kunnen inzetten voor persoonlijke ontwikkeling.
Met minder marketingbudget kunnen we via internet klanten toch nog op een slimme en doeltreffende manier benaderen. En binnenhalen natuurlijk! Maar dan moeten we ook onze organisatiecultuur durven aanpassen (Google maar eens op Enterprise 2.0). Als we onze dienstverlening aantoonbaar kunnen verbeteren, zullen onze klanten als ware ambassadeurs hun omgeving enthousiasmeren om klant bij ING te worden en kunnen wij onze beloftes vaker waarmaken!
Deze column is ook gepubliceerd in de April 2009 (“Amsterdam in Beweging”) editie van personeelsblad “ING Verder…”. ING Verder… is een Magazine voor alle medewerkers van het ING Callcenter Amsterdam (voorheem Postbank).
Beyond Web 3.0 and Augmented Reality 1.0: Office 2019
Microsoft dares to take a peek: fast forwarding 10 years into the future of the interwebs; location based services seamlessly integrated with flexible Miniware (thin-clients!) and all topped off with a sweet layer of Augmented Reality…
Very Star Trek indeed, yet, it shows us that beyond the technology, the real challenge is going to lie in syncing all these services from various international competitors (Open Source and Interoperability Standards anyone?) AND getting the User Experience Design perfect.
Check out the inspiring video below:
MS Office Labs 2019
Crisis Marketing: On Service Strategy and Customer-Centricity (What Every CMO Should Act On.Now)
Alain Thys at Marketing & Strategy Innovation weblog on your TRUE core-business:
“no matter what books or gurus may say, customer-focus is a top-down game. from childhood we have learned to follow the example of those that lead us, and that means that customer-centricity should be mindset of all c-level executives. not in words, but in actions…”
“…of course, no self-respecting CEO will reorganise a business around the customer without a solid business case… …the CMO’s second step on the customer-centricity ladder is therefore to demonstrate the financial benefits of “happy customers” to the organisation…”
“to really focus on the customer, companies will need to… …tear up the detailed customer interaction and scripts. show staff and vendors how to listen and care. not only in the front lines, but at every level of the organisation. every department eventually affects the customer experience…”
He goes on to mention five steps to make your organization truly customer- (and prospect!)-centric:
- Step 1: start at the top
- Step 2. show them the money
- Step 3: start with the people
- Step 4: help them do the right thing
- Step 5: make it clear you mean business
Now, the real problem addressed here by Alan, of course, is “isle-thinking” or Department Silo Mentality SyndromeTM -a state of mind inherent to the way we humans are hardwired by evolution/mother nature, as any anthropologist worth his salt could tell you.
When bands of humans grow past the dunbar number, things (read: the consumer) tend to slip out of eye-sight or get dehumanized quickly; this is bad thing for your brand advocacy hopes, so this challenge requires a thorough rethinking of your Service Strategy and maybe even a restructuring of your organization chart…
The above is probably going to require some serious change management (skills) -see point 5 mainly-, effort and lots of lots of passion, training, coaching & patience. Lots. Of. Patience…
Read the whole post over at FUTURELAB: Future Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog.
Interactive Marketing In Times Of Crisis (Thinking Anti-Cyclic)
Cutting deep in your Marketing budget (and thereby seeing it on default as a cost instead of an investment) is a short term tactic that isn’t going to help your company weather these uncertain times ahead of all of us. Instead it would be more sustainable to take a long term approach; a more critical look at what channels your spending this budget on and whether the story you’re telling is in line with the quality of your services or products.
And though your Marketing Department may stop talking about your company, products or service, the consumers are not: Au contraire; their conversations (in the Social Media space) are increasing exponentially!
Furthermore don’t forget to also take into account that most of your competitors are probably not as comfortable with such a progressive world view and will focus instead on the short term outcome. This means that by keeping your budget stable, but spending it more wisely, you could seriously gain competitive advantage.
“So, then since online has the reputation for being measurable, we’ll just cut back in our offline efforts.”
Contrary to popular belief among some of my peers, right now is NOT the time to cut in offline Ad spending: If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far, it’s that in times of Crisis there is a peak in the amount of readers, visitors, viewers and listeners to (in this particular case financial) news papers & websites, TV and radio. People are looking for guidance and a steady rock to cling on to. This means that if you have a relevant story to tell there’s never been a better time to reach out to your customers and core audiences than right now!
The core thing to keep in mind here is of course that the Old Media are by their very nature geared towards Branding, and thus, -though it’s not really scientifically-rock solid-proven-effective in generating revenue- it is a perfect instrument to instill customer thrust in your brand, if handled the right way and in conjunction with Social Media Marketing and other forms of Online Marketing.
The key challenge would be timing, as you wouldn’t want to have a multi-million dollar tagline -Here Today, Where Tomorrow?- proven meaningless overnight…
One way to manage your Marketing budget would be to higher or lower it every Financial Quarter, in a wave as it were, analyzing the results and reacting accordingly. Moreover reallocate the money spent on different channels based on campaign directive. So, depending on the field or sector your operating in, decrease the amount of money spend on Branding through offline channels and shift the resulting saved money towards Online Results Based Marketing, such as SEA and in optimizing the Task Completion Rate by Primary Purpose on your website…
Yep, I’m not advising you to plainly look at Conversion Rates, I’m suggesting to take a more holistic approach ;) Back in 2006 Google’s visionairy Web Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik already foresaw that the Focus (should be) Shifting from Conversion to Task Completion Rate by Primary Purpose.
Upcoming Interactive Channels that haven´t quite fully lived up to their potential yet like Social Media and Mobile are likely to be confronted with closed wallets and plummeting ad spending, not just because of advertisers cutting back in costs and investments, but also because the consumers themselves are being hesitant to spend money on luxury products and services including Mobile Internet and Mobile Wireless Internet Devices.
Yet again here it would be wise to be wary of and avoid the FUD; for example here in the Netherlands the mobile version of the largest news website Nu.nl (translated: Now.nl) is also the largest mobile news site. It is known that CTR’s in mobile enhanced sites are up to 7% or even higher, putting Display efforts on the desktop internet to shame; so though it’s understandable to make a Pavlov Reaction and eschew Mobile altogether, the contrary might be a better move. Whether your campaign is geared towards gaining a high CTR in the first place is of course a different thing altogether (I’d beg to differ, basing a campaign on CTR alone isn’t the most cost-effective way of spending your Marketing Euro).
As for Social Media, as I’ve pointed out at the beginning of this post: Your target audience, consumers and people in general aren’t going to be less critical, or dependent of peer advice and ratings and they’ll definitely be looking for bargain deals on price comparison communities, so keep joining that conversation!
What Every CEO Should Know About Online Reputation Management; an Interview with Andy Beal
Martijn Ros (Brandmerck) did an interview with Andy Beal for his Graduation Thesis on Online Reputation Management in The Netherlands, though the core message is universal.
Andy -a speaker and consultant specializing in Online Reputation Management (ORM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing- is considered one of the world’s most respected Reputation Management experts, and has worked with many brand-leaders, such as Motorola, NBC, GlaxoSmithKline and SAS.
Beal’s current projects include his new book Radically Transparent: Monitoring & Managing Reputations Online, his blog Marketing Pilgrim and Trackur -an online Reputation Monitoring tool.
Two interesting outtakes, highlighting the arguments that every CEO/Marketer should keep in mind when conjuring up a business plan or marketing strategy:
“Martijn Ros: I am convinced that companies that have a so-called ‘interactive online profile’, and are known for their online presence through blogs and social networks, have a head start when it comes to any unforeseen online reputation crisis. Could you tell something about the way you advise your clients when they want to create an interactive online profile?
Andy Beal: I absolutely agree with you. When a company creates an interactive online profile, it’s effectively telling its stakeholders -customers, investors, employees, etc- that it cares about the community and wants to be a part of the conversation. When an online reputation crisis hits, companies that have an social media profile are more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt and more likely to be able to respond quickly, within that channel.
I advise my clients to look for the “centres of influence.” Where are their stakeholders hanging-out online? When you understand the types of social media your stakeholders are using -maybe they prefer blogs over forums -you’ll increase your chances of successfully engaging them.
Martijn Ros: Do you advise organizations when they already have problems with their online reputation? Can you give an example of a case, and your approach in that matter (the name of the company can of course remain anonymous)?
Andy Beal: Right now, most companies only react to an online reputation crisis when they see it having an adverse effect on their Google reputation. When a negative blog post is on the first page of Google’s results, for your brand name, you tend to take notice. In these cases, I simply work with clients to help create and optimize positive web content. Our goal is to try and provide Google with positive web content that is more relevant, thus suppressing the negative pages.
The very smart companies are realizing that simply managing their Google reputation is akin to placing make-up over a cancerous mole. You have to treat the underlying cause -not just the symptoms. It’s with these companies that I work to help them address and fix the actual complaints their stakeholders have with their business.”
Read the whole interview over at Brandmerck.nl
Servicestrategie
Net een zorgvuldig in elkaar gedraaide artikel door Theo van Vugt Jaap Sluijter van Boer & Croon op Molblog gelezen:
“Hoe willen we dat de klant ons ervaart en hoe zorgen we ervoor dat deze ervaring consistent is door de hele organisatie heen? Om die consistentie te bereiken heeft een goede servicestrategie invloed op drie aspecten: het gedrag van de medewerkers, de manier waarop de organisatie medewerkers aanstuurt en de wijze waarop ICT dit ondersteunt.
Bij de formulering van een servicestrategie wordt de strategische richting van de onderneming als uitgangspunt gekozen. Zo zal de keuze voor customer intimacy (alles draait om de klant), cost leadership (zo goedkoop mogelijk) of product leadership (focus op het product) grote invloed hebben op de wijze waarop de service wordt ingevuld. Uiteindelijk helpt de servicestrategie een organisatie bij de invulling van de schaarse resources met als resultaat een voelbare, consistente positieve klantervaring.”
Bron: Molblog.nl
Noot: Er zitten haken en ogen aan het (lukraak) toepassen van de Net Promoter Score (NPS). Verdere kantekeningen plaatsen acht ik niet nodig, het is een vrij uitgebreid artikel en wat mij betreft een aanrader.
