Category / Retail

by adam

The Brand Factor: Do Established Brands Have It Easier?

Do big, well-known brands have it easier or harder than start-ups trying to make an impact and leveraging social media?  Jeremiah Owyang, the well known social media analyst from Forrester Research, recently wrote a very thoughtful post on the current challenges in social media.  I also recently attended Social Media Camp Boston, which had a number […]

Social MediaDo big, well-known brands have it easier or harder than start-ups trying to make an impact and leveraging social media?  Jeremiah Owyang, the well known social media analyst from Forrester Research, recently wrote a very thoughtful post on the current challenges in social media.  I also recently attended Social Media Camp Boston, which had a number of enterpreneurs presenting on tactics they take to leverage social media platforms.  This got me thinking – what types of companies lend themselves to social media?  I see three major factors that can help to answer this question, among others:

1.  "Traditional" Marketing and PR
2.  Budget for Social Media Efforts
3.  Community Leverage

Traditional Marketing and PR

Many large companies and established brands have yet to embrace and understand some of the tenets of social media.  They are unwilling to relinquish control of the message.  They struggle with fears of engaging customers directly and giving them a voice – looking to avoid negative PR instead of embracing customers and engaging customers.  They term "audience" is still used prevalently because of the one-way communication mindset, where "community," "listening" and "conversation" are not words some of these companies would associate with marketing. 

In some ways, this parallels a presentation I attended at Forrester's Marketing Forum called "The Interactive Marketing Maturity Model."  Shar Van Boskirk did an excellent job capturing four levels of maturity in embracing interactive marketing, which I believe also applies to leveraging social media:

  • "Skeptics," characterized by little or no interactive experience and assessing if interactive has value for them
  • "Mavericks," organizations that have a few isolated team members that appreciate interactive and run stand-alone programs but lack support to improve current efforts
  • "Practitioners," companies who have several years of experience and are piloting emerging media, and
  • "Optimizers," who have company-wide support for interactive efforts and are working to optimize multi-channel (including offline) efforts.1

With very few "optimizers" out there in the big corporations, it can be difficult for those companies to bridge the gap and trully leverage social media.  They need to retain talent in the industry, like Ford's recent hire of Scott Monty and Nationwide's recent hiring of Shawn Morton.

On the flip side, smaller startup organizations can be more nimble and have few constraints around controlling the brand message.  A great example of this is Freshbooks, led by chief "magic maker" Saul Colt.  Their entire marketing approach is to build a community of passionate users and embrace their customers with open and earnestly helpful dialog.

Budget for Social Media Efforts

More traditional organizations will ask the ROI question.  As Jeremiah points out, it's difficult to measure ROI on "engagement" and no industry standard exists.  Larger established brands may be less willing to take risks – where startups practically need to take a risk to differentiate themselves.  An untapped, unproven landscape in social media is ripe for startups (even though they may be spending funding rather than profits).  Albert Maruggi of the Marketing Edge, thinks companies need to get past the ROI question, using magazines' spending $14 million to buy a baby picture of Brangelina's kids as an example.

I think it should be easier for larger companies to allocate budget (including resources) to focus on social media due to their scale and the relatively low barrier to entry of leveraging many of these tools.  Sometimes process and a lack of executive sponsorship get in the way.

Community Leverage

Another factor in determining whether big brands have it easier is whether they already have a community to tap into.  Nike's Jordan division is a well known and loved brand – leveraging social media platforms and tools should be easy since there are passionate fans out there who would willingly participate.  For crying out loud, people fight and even risk lives in getting a hold of the latest shoe design. 

Smaller startups need to build communities, one person at a time.  Melanie Notkin has done a terrific job at building a community over months leading up to the launch of SavvyAuntie.com, using her blog, Facebook, and Twitter.  It can be arguably harder to build a community than to engage one that exists, but I'd be interested to hear from folks who have more expertise on each before I decide on that one.

So which is it?

Do big brands have it easier or harder leveraging social media?  Are there other factors to consider?  Please take the poll and let me know what you think.

1 Source: The Interactive Marketing Maturity Model, Shar Van Boskirk, Forrester Research, April 9, 2008.
Photo credit: mrwilleeumm via Flickr

by adam

Widget Review: CokeTag Has Potential

Several weeks ago, Coca-Cola launched an application in Facebook which is a “personal, customizable widget for individuals, bands, bloggers, artists, and companies to share links to content they want to promote and drive traffic to anywhere on the Web.”  I spent some time playing around with the app (which is still in beta) after I […]

Adam's Coke Tag in FacebookSeveral weeks ago, Coca-Cola launched an application in Facebook which is a “personal, customizable widget for individuals, bands, bloggers, artists, and companies to share links to content they want to promote and drive traffic to anywhere on the Web.”  I spent some time playing around with the app (which is still in beta) after I was contacted by Advance Guard and the Coca Cola company asking for an honest review.  I had also spotted it on C.C. Chapman’s blog. 


There are two areas around this widget I am going to review – First, the application itself, and Second, the approach to distribute, launch and promote it.


Simple Application, But Will It Take Off?


The application right now is still in beta and only available on Facebook.  The application let’s you build a slick looking tag, change it’s skin (including a design that promotes Coke’s we8 program uniting Chinese design firms and progressive western artists) and customize links to share, and anyone who sees it on your profile will be able to click through links.I added the tag to my Facebook profile in under a minute – it was easy to set up, put in some things about me and be done.  Ease of use for a widget is important and Coke nails it for the casual, generic user.


There are two differentiators for CokeTags that may contribute to its success.  First is the slick interface.  For a novice techie, the Web 2.0-like view is fun and different.  I am not sure I would put it on my blog (when available) since a) the style options are not consistent with the look and feel of my page, and b) I’m not sure why I would want to endorse Coca-Cola.  But to a casual user, this might spice up a web page, blog or Facebook profile enough to be different.  Style Issues with CokeTag on My Facebook ProfileThe interface does promote Coke, but it’s emphasis is on sharing content unrelated to the beverage.  Chris Abraham was spot on when describing that the widget “isn’t nefarious.”  Still, they have some kinks to work out.  After repeated attempts to edit and republish links, the widget looked fine previewing in the application (above) but the style sheet on my profile page still looked funky. 



The second differentiator is the ability for the CokeTag creator to go to one place, maintain content/links, and push out to all the sites/profiles/pages that have the widget.  For a mini version of a web content management system, that is empowering to a user.  The app also provides a mini version of web analytics, showing which users in Facebook have expanded your CokeTag and which links have been clicked on.  That’s a good amount of functionality built in to a simple widget.


A Challenge: Engaging the User


The challenge I have to Coke is to make this widget more compelling to use.  There are tons of tools out there to share links and fill in information about oneself.  I already have the ability to put this same information in my Facebook profile, so to me the information the widget provides could be a bit redundant.  The categories of links are customizable, but simply sharing links that I put in doesn’t make it very “sticky” for me.  Bands or artists looking to disseminate information and links can do this easily directly in the content on their Fan Pages or Myspace pages, even though this tool provides a way to maintain/publish the links in one place. 


Christopher Penn suggested to blend this widget with Coke rewards points, which would be great.  While admittedly I may be asking for too much, my suggestion would be to add a level of interaction within the widget itself – perhaps personalized recommendations, suggestions of related content, or allowing people to comment on what’s in there like the comment system in FriendFeed.  For example, if I was a band and posted a link to “Concert Saturday Night” with a click through link, it would be great to allow users to comment right in the widget – “I’ll be there!” or “Is it standing room only?” or “Hey, when are you coming to my city?”  I realize Coke needed to start somewhere, and what they have is great for the basics.


One minor question for the Coke team – I am curious when the widget is release through OpenSocial and other platforms for blogs if the links are exposed for SEO purposes.  That would make it at least as beneficial for promotion as putting links directly in content on pages.


Using Social Media to Promote Social Media


Using a Social Media Release, Coke and Advance Guard do a great job of announcing the widget, sharing what it is about and seeking feedback from the community.  I know C.C. Chapman worked on the project and has direct access to the interactive team at Coca-Cola, but it is still great to see Mike Donnelly, Director for Coca-Cola’s Worldwide Interactive Marketing team, respond within minutes to the first comment on C.C.’s blog post about the project – especially starting his comment with “Yup, we are listening…”  Coke is clearly committed to starting something innovative and different and learning from the experience.  I’d be interested if they are banking on ROI from the widget or have executive buy-in that this is an experiment that requires some investment in dollars, time and faith.  The way the promotion is being handled gives them a terrific shot at making the widget a successful campaign.


Thanks to Advance Guard and Coca-Cola for inviting me to review.  Would you add it to your profile?  Have you tried out CokeTag? 

by adam

Study: Only 30% of Top Retailers on Facebook

Opportunity Brulant, my employer, recently completed a study of 100 of the top online retailers to see which ones have a “fan page,” a feature that Facebook launched in November 2007.  Only 30% of the retailers surveyed had a page out there.  Yep, only 30%, despite lots of hype about the platform.  That’s it?  I believe retailers are missing out.  According to the study, some of the leading brands currently leveraging fan pages on Facebook include Bath & Body Works, Linens-N-Things and Victoria’s Secret. Among those that do not have a fan page presence are Bed Bath & Beyond, Circuit City, and J. Crew. 

Let’s take a step back for a minute.  I have been using Facebook for several months.  Like many, I went through the Facebook cycle of addiction:

  1. Shock (from my younger-recent-college-grad-cousins finding me online),
  2. Elation (reconnecting with summer camp, high school and college friends),
  3. Saturation (deluge of work and professional colleagues’ connection requests) and
  4. Annoyance (no, I don’t want to be “bitten,” “poked,” or compared to a celebrity, but thanks for asking repeatedly).

During this time I have learned much about viral marketing, useful and useless applications, and even met with a Facebook rep to learn about the advertising platform (see Top 10 Things You May Not Know About Facebook…For Marketers).  Facebook is a marketer’s dream – the platform has an average of 200 data points on each user.  As more compelling applications are developed, and Facebook explores new ways to achieve better usability, the potential for “stickiness” is improving.  People are spending more time on Facebook (despite recent declines in unique user growth), the company is expanding it’s presence globally, and users have more and more platforms to express what they like and dislike.  Online retailers should be looking at this as unchartered opportunity.  So why are so many retailers holding out? 

A ‘fan page’ is a free profile that a company can set up and maintain, allowing users to declare they like a brand.  If consumers like a brand, they can “fan” the page.  If they don’t like the brand, they simply ignore the page.  Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester wrote a thoughful post about “fansumers” explaining the implications to Facebook, in November 2007.  The Facebook Page is a surefire way to connect with passionate fans of a brand.  There is no requirement to buy advertising on Facebook (although once a company has a page it’s easy to do).  The “Facebook Pages Insider’s Guide,” available to anyone who sets up a fan page, describes the opportunity:

Facebook Pages give business the opportunity to build a consumer base, sell products, run  promotions, schedule appointments or reservations, share information, and interact with customers…Pages enable customers to interact, learn, purchase, and spread the word about your business to their friends. [emphasis added]

Retailers that are not at least considering whether their customers are on Facebook are missing out on an opportunity.  With little to no investment, minimal PR risk, and big upside potential, a page can be set up and become a natural extension of their online presence.  There is no need to “push” your page – if a company already has a loyal consumer base the word of mouth proposition will be a good start.  With some experimentation and a willingness to interact with “fans” retailers can improve their customer engagement, build brand awareness and take advantage of word of mouth marketing.  What is holding these companies back?

Please reach out to me, on Facebook if you like, if you would be interested in a copy of the survey or would like to talk more about Facebook Pages.

UPDATE: Day after this was posted, TechCrunch published metrics on Facebook overtaking MySpace as the #1 social network.  Opportunity knocks…

 

Photo credit:  Iain Alexander via Flickr

by adam

Indiana Jones and the Lost Marketing Plan

"How odd that it should end this way for us after so many stimulating encounters. I almost regret it. Where shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level?" – Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Raiders is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time.  I've been less enamored with […]

Ij "How odd that it should end this way for us after so many stimulating encounters. I almost regret it. Where shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level?" – Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

Raiders is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time.  I've been less enamored with the rest of the series so far and have not seen the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull yet.  I won't dispute that Indiana Jones is a cultural icon.  Lately the promotion for the new film has been all over the place – from selling Indy's Fedora hat as a Facebook "gift" to Major League Baseball trying everything but on the field advertising to the NBA shameless opening segments during the playoffs.  Some of the placements are harmless.  Others are causing a stir – Not-The-Real-Ronald-McDonald is one of many folks blogging about the negative Burger King promotion for the film, targeting kids and fast food.   But what about the whole premise of targeting kids in general?

I have 3 boys (all under 8) and I can't wait to watch Raiders with them one day.  No way I would let them see the series now.  Yet the marketing team is promoting Burger King, a massive Lego genre (no way AFOLs would sustain the product alone), and a ton of other products.  "Indiana Jones Role Play Whip" for ages 6-10?  "Playskool Mr. Potato Head: Taters of the Lost Ark Idaho Jones Spud" for ages 2-7?  The spark for this post was seeing Indiana Jones Madlibs in an airport bookstore.  Even tongue in cheek these types of toys are a bit over the top targeting the wrong age group, for films that are based on the original R-rated film (all the others were PG or PG-13).

Let's review.  In the first film, in the opening scene, a former Indy assistant gets skewered in a jungle cave.  Aside from the obvious snakes scene, a German officer getting run over by a truck and the bald soldier getting chopped up by an airplane propeller, there's always the 2 Germans and 1 French archaeologist melting into a bloody pool at the end of the movie.   In the second flick, a shaman pulls a pumping heart out of a guy before dropping him in magma.  In the third, I think the worst is when a pile of guys' heads get chopped off as they neglect to heed "Only the penitent man shall pass."  

These are not scenes I want my boys re-enacting around the house, sorry.  (I can't wait to watch the movies with them one day though.)  There are so many other ways to market this film, I think the extra targeting of young kids just doesn't sit right.

Photo credit: Despotes via flickr, titled "For your toddler, a Jewish religious artifact and a killer ghost!" (note "Ages 3+" on the package). 

by adam

Transitions: The new Borders.com

Borders2 On Memorial Day, 2008, with little fanfare, Borders Group, Inc. embarked on a new chapter novel in the history of the company.  And it was most certainly, memorable.  With a few final technical switches thrown, Borders transitioned the outsourcing of their eCommerce site from Amazon to a robust, unique and compelling Borders.com presence.  It’s daunting being an internet retailer in 2008, without having access to customer information or control over the multi-channel experience.  Now Borders has brought their .com presence back inside the walls of the headquarters in Ann Arbor, MI. Welcome back home, Borders.com.

The basic design principle of the site is to create a real bookstore experience online.  In this case, the store holds nearly 3 million titles including DVDs and CDs.  In a market where Borders is trying to differentiate itself against competitors, this experience is different and more engaging. If you ever wanted to start your own business training, this would be the place to get your resources from.  I find myself browsing the site much like I would a store – wander in to a section and drill deeper using the guided navigation.  The Magic Shelf on the homepage gives the same feel of being in a bookstore, complete with staff picks, and goes beyond with personal recommendations based on your preferences.  The look of search results and the Magic Shelf, rich with images of cover artwork, are right in line with Borders’ recent strategy to merchandise books with the covers facing out.

I’m biased, I admit it.  Brulant, my company, has played a major role in the Websphere Commerce design and development of this project, along with many other partners.  In the interest of full disclosure, I am currently the client engagement partner for Brulant’s work at Borders.  Borders has been a significant client of Brulant since mid 2006.  From February 2007 until now, I personally have spent nearly full time on working with Borders as a client.  I did ask for and receive permission from Borders to blog about this event.

The best part of the culmination of years of work: I couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome.  There has been a lot of “sweat equity” invested by the entire team – Borders, Brulant and other partners alike – and it’s rewarding to see it all come together.  There were some hard times and some good times, as any business partnership between two companies would go through.  In the end, there is absolutely nothing more satisfying, invigorating and motivating than when it all comes together, the team produces high quality work, the site is launched, and orders start rolling in.

For the last several years, Borders’ eCommerce team has been looking forward to doing what most eCommerce teams do – interact with customers, fine tune the user experience, adjust functionality based on web analytics and market the bejeezus out of the site.  (The site just launched officially today, so not a lot of heavy marketing of the site yet…but do a Google News search on “Borders.com” and you’ll see the extensive press coverage.)  Now the team can take the reins and start the evolution of web commerce optimization.  As much as it is the end of a multi-year project, it’s the beginning of a new journey for the company.  Today the entire team on site in Ann Arbor signed a copy of the first order shipped to be framed, to signify the start of that journey (see picture above).

It’s a new journey for yours truly as well, as I focus on trying to do more good work for other clients while continuing to figure out ways to help Borders on their journey.  A special thank you to the entire Brulant team who worked through many project challenges and set a high bar for delivery with future clients.  Another thank you to the Borders crowd, who are a passionate and diverse group, fun to work with and gracious hosts for having our team walk the halls.  I think the thing I am most grateful for is the opportunity to continue learning, while being a part of a core strategic initiative for a retailer.  Thank you and Congratulations, job well done.

Special thanks to Kevin Ertell, VP of eBusiness for Borders, for encouraging me to post about this event here. 

UPDATE: Here is Brulant’s official press release related to our role with the new Borders.com. 

Please check out the new Borders.com – it is a different experience than your traditional online bookseller.  Feedback, suggestions, comments are welcome.

The New Borders.com

by adam

Don’t Let the Packaging Fool You: Tropicana and Poland Spring

Paint Water and orange juice are two of my favorite drinks, specially when I drink them withthe food of my diet from thestylishmagazine.com.  My family just bought a Poland Springs water cooler to put in my kitchen.  I love fresh squeezed OJ with a great Sunday morning breakfast while reading the Boston Globe. My kids hate the pulp so we buy Tropicana OJ, which to me is remarkably consistent and tastes great.  Recently I noticed both of these brands try to pull a fast one, or at least it appears so to me.

Each company has been recently hyping up changed packaging while the customer pays more for the product.  I’m all for fancy retail packaging, but when you change the container and reduce the amount of product for the same price then I think customers should be warned. The big multinational companies have started to use Thermal Labels as they are easy to use and also as they are a perfect match to the commonly used zebra printers.

Img00084First, Tropicana.  Tropicana is playing a lot in interactive marketing with the launch of their Tropicana Pure product line.  This link, to a site trying to tie sight and sound online to drinking expensive juice in real life, has been going around Twitter with a title of “OJ porn” (no, not that OJ): http://www.tropicanapure.com/.  Perhaps Tropicana is just trying to change their image to a more premium juice, who knows.  Admittedly I don’t have all my facts together here, but I have been buying the juice in large plastic (recyclable) containers for quite some time.  The old package had 96 oz and used to cost around $5 when not on sale.  It was heavy and had a large circular pouring spout.  The new “improved” pouring technology, including a kinder, gentler handle and an oval instead of round spout, costs $4.99 as you can see here in this photo I took today at the market (yes, I drove there to make a point).  How much juice fits in this new-supposed-to-improve-my-drinking-experience container?  89 oz.  That’s seven ounces less.  I noticed the market quickly phased out the old 96 oz container.  So now Tropicana is making a few more margin points on juice, and I’m starting to question whether it’s worth it.

PolandspringsSecond, and perhaps more noticeable, Poland Spring.  Looking for packing a product you need to ship? Before we bought the 3-gallon-jugs-piling-up-in-my-garage delivery service, we would buy single gallons.  You know, those typical containers that milk comes in, which invariably cause 4-year-olds to spill half the container on the kitchen table when they try to pour on their own.  $1.29 for one, can’t beat that (unless you have figured out that tap water is just fine).  Poland Spring recently launched a clear container that is ergonomic (although I would say arguably harder to pour when full) and stackable.  If you are in the habit of buying large amounts of single gallon containers, are short on storage space and hate foggy plastic – these containers are for you and if you need fragrance packaging we recommend using industrial aluminum bottles since is better for these packaging purposes!  Except they will cost you more per gallon.  Sure, they are also $1.29 each, but they contain less water.  They are sold side by side in Stop & Shop.  It costs $1.63 per gallon (unit price) for the same water, new fancy container.

Don’t be duped – fancy packaging doesn’t always mean a better product, and the same price doesn’t always mean the same amount of the product. If you are on a keto diet you need to be careful about eating packed food. Sometimes Keto diet meal plans can give you a severe hair loss if you do not follow it properly. To know more on keto diet and how it affects your hair growth check out ” can the keto diet contribute to hair loss?”

In this case, it means we are just going to pay more if we buy it.  Do you buy it?  What other packaging dupes are out there?  Is anyone from either of these companies listening?

Roberts Technology Group is one such industry that I’ve found to be using good quality of materials for its packaging processes.

(photo credit: dreamsjung via flickr)

by adam

Forrester Marketing Forum: Tie Customer Engagement to Company Performance

EngagementWhen I was with one of the Big Four consulting firms (rhymes with Indenture – just kidding, I loved my time there), I spent a small amount of time on a task force focusing on making the firm a “Great Place to Work” in our market unit in North America.  This committee was filled with passionate people in the organization who understood clearly that people were our #1 asset.  The committee’s charter was to go beyond happy hours and newsletters to come up with game-changing initiatives to improve engagement.  In 2005 the group began to get a lot of attention from senior executives in the firm due to some studies tying employee engagement to outperforming stock prices.  The studies measure how individuals responded in surveys to the “Three Ss”: Say, Stay and Strive (developed by Hewitt Associates), measuring how effective an employee would talk about the firm, have a desire to stay with the firm for the next couple years, and optimally thrive in their careers while with the firm.  After an annual employee satisfaction survey was done, we received an “Engagement Index” score and were compared to 1500 other companies who had asked their employees the same questions.

The result: While one could debate the “chicken and the egg,” there was a direct correlation between the increase in employee engagement and the increase in stock price across 1500 companies surveyed.  High performing companies had high levels of employee engagement.  This was eye opening and got senior leadership to pay immediate attention and “get in the game” on programs that improved engagement.

After all the talk at Forrester’s Marketing Forum 2008 about customer engagement, I got to thinking.  There were great presentations from Forrester, retailers and software vendors about how we need to measure or quantify customer engagement.  High performing companies like Dell, Nike and FedEx presented on strategies that have helped them increase customer engagement.

What I’d like to see:  A study that ties a measurement of customer engagement to stock price over time.

Take some of the key brands represented.  Jordan Brands, part of Nike, Inc., has seemingly a brand that can do no wrong.  They are undertaking innovative ways to engage customers in the same ethos of Michael Jordan himself – launching a breakfast club to motivate young athletes and track or suggest training programs, launching an exclusive “Flight Club” with premium offers, etc.  What has happened to Nike’s stock price in the last few years, and what are analysts saying now, despite a weak economy looming?

 

Nike_4There are many factors around operating a company that impact the stock price, no doubt, and this is only one example pulled from a list of companies doing great things with customer engagement.  I know this can’t be the only factor, but I am still wondering if any similar correlation can be drawn. Every person must have a reliable source of information before starting to trade in stocks.

One of the breakout sessions I attended at the Forrester Marketing Forum was The Interactive Marketing Maturity Model presented by Shar VanBoskirk, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research.  In her presentation she explained how few companies have interactive marketing efforts that are optimized, and there is a disparity between the high level of belief in interactive marketing and a low level of actual investment or support to execute.  If this correlation plays out to support a positive association, I suspect it would lend credence to the army of interactive marketers who sense or are trying to prove value but have trouble convincing executives to invest in their campaigns.  I also suspect it would open corporate executives to new ways to engage the customer, making a better case for why interactive marketing, social media and engaging customers are imperatives and not optional.

Have you seen any research out there like this?  What do you think would help legitimize interactive marketing and social media campaigns that impact customer engagement?