As early as 2006 the phrase “Every Company is a Media Company” began to appear in speeches, news stories and blog columns, presaging a paradigm shift in the way business of every stripe must communicate with their audiences in the Internet / social media age.
But for years innovative companies like apparel giant Benetton Group have pioneered the concept. In 1991, it launched its oft-controversial Colors magazine, each issue of which focuses on a single topic and is published in four languages in 40 countries by its’ Fabrica research center. www.benettongroup.com/en/whatwesay/colors_magazine.htm
Or consider, leading industrial design firm frog (www.frogdesign.com/), which last July launched Design Mind magazine (now in its 9th issue) (design http://designmind.frogdesign.com/magazine/motion/). Why are companies as diverse as an apparel manufacturer and an industrial design firm investing so heavily in becoming “media companies?”
NYU professor Clay Shirky put it succinctly. (In the era of social media) “It is inescapable, ‘every company is a media company.’ Every company, no matter what industry, is essentially tasked with gathering and distributing information to employees and external audiences.” In other words, content, media, conversation with all key stakeholders is key.
Examples are more numerous by the day as this trend rapidly gains traction across business channels. We're witnessing a paradigm shift in which traditional media companies are moving towards becoming software / digital companies (aka, The New York Times' strategy) while manufacturers, service and creative firms are becoming media companies.
The shift is one of both strategy and format driven by necessity – the consumer’s demand for information. Show by Telling…. Take frog’s print magazine, which is but one component of a broader effort to invest in proprietary media channels to produce and disseminate their own content as a showcase for frog’s thought leadership.
As frog says, we "transform by doing," and in their media channels they "show by telling." frog hasn’t fallen into the self-serving trap that snares many companies’ by just telling the frog story. Instead they tell ever-changing stories from multiple perspectives by many authors because “if you want to have a true conversation, you've got to change the message.”
That's why it is the voices of frog. And that's why they don't talk about frog per se but rather articulate what the contributors see, feel, and think. Design Mind is an invitation to write, to co-create, and to invigorate the brand.
Signs of the need for change in BtoB and BtoC conversational patterns are everywhere. The fast evolving consumer preference for uncensored content and open conversation over corporate speak and website cant, was documented in 2007 by Cisco’s Dan Sheinman who showed charts / stats highlighting how the companies’ web traffic has switched from page views to RSS feeds and blog posts. http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/1416/every-company-is-now-a-media-company.html
The media revolution continues to accelerate, moving into video (YouTube and its imitators) FaceBook (social networking at large), Twitter (instantaneous messaging), and emerging platforms. Every day more businesses awaken to the realization that they must become media companies if they hope to engage consumers in a productive and profitable dialog / relationship.
So what does this bode for the PR profession? It means PR too must be revolutionized if it wants to lead the new media management process, PR must educate clients to understand, accept and adopt this new dimension of communications. Tom Foremski (Silicon Valley Watcher, April ’09) said, “Every company has to learn how to publish using the new (two-way) media technologies, to reach their customers, their employees, partners, local communities, etc.
And one role of PR is to help companies become media companies and help them tell their stories.” http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2009/04/guest_post_futu.php The unfortunate reality is that the majority of companies, even in light of recent research findings that most executives get their news online, still mandate that PR focus on generating big stories in major print media.
Certainly, this is one leg of the PR stool but it ignores the importance of a creative, open and on-going conversation between source and audience. Marketers today face a revolution in communications, a near perfect storm in changing style and channels.
Consumers with their personal brands are battering down the walls of the old communications regime, while PR, if it is to prosper, must find courage to lead client companies into the promised land where every company is a media company and everyone is a marketer – but that’s a subject for another day.
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It is clear what the benefits of sales promotions are for consumers – and they know it. Demand for rewards and consumer incentives have grown immeasurably in the last year and it’s now what consumers expect wherever they shop. On the surface it would appear that this is a one-sided relationship in which consumers are holding businesses over a barrel. Sales promotion shouldn’t and mostly isn’t something that businesses are forced to resort to. Managed properly and thought out thoroughly, sales promotion can be mutually beneficial – particularly in the current economic climate. So what are the benefits of consumer sales promotions for businesses?
Consumer retention
In the long-term a loyal customer is worth far more to a business than an occasional high purchaser. When a customer is recognised as loyal the emotional involvement with the brand is increased. Showing recognition by offering consumer incentives for loyalty stands to solidify the idea of staying loyal to the brand. Loyalty can be rewarded in a number of ways from offering a coupon at the checkout to points collection cards.
Create positive brand associations
Working together with another brand creates a sense of corporate validation and helps your brand to tap into new loyal customer bases. Whatever you trade in there are sure to be a synergistic brands for you to work with, for example hotels and theatres or gyms and sports clothing retailers. It can also work well for pushing you brand’s image in a new direction by moving away from the logical partnerships, for example if you want to raise your green credentials how about teaming up with environmental brands such as The National Trust.
Increase brand recognition
Brand recognition is essential for enticing customers to buy your product/service over another. The authority recognition gives your brand offers consumers confidence in your product/service, as they know what to expect. Increasing brand recognition comes from offering your sales promotion to a wider audience than your regular customer base. A good example of this is featuring a consumer incentive or exclusive discount in a loyalty and membership programme or discount club. These programmes are usually a free marketing option, managed by an external agency that have an large existing customer base.
Reach new consumers
Sales promotion can be one of the most effective ways to catch new customers’ eye. The best ways to offer a discount or consumer incentive is through a loyalty and membership programmes/ discount club or a chance to win a grand prize. By doing this you are giving consumers a reason to stray away from the brands they are usually loyal to. Competitions are an instant way to catch people’s attention but loyalty and membership programmes or discount clubs go out to an established customer base and can sustain a lasting message.
These rewards are useful to any business and however you want to represent your brand there is a sales promotion answer for your business, that can be effectively integrated to compliment any marketing plan.
Contact The Rocket Marketing Group if you would like to discuss how a loyalty and membership programmes/ discount clubs or consumer incentive and rewards can benefit your brand. For more information visit www.rocketmarketinggroup.com
Demand for micropayments is increasing fast as social networking and dating sites wake up to the benefits of taking small subscriptions via secure SMS or voice billing services. Adding to this and as part of the Digital Britain report, the Government's body for business innovation in technology, the Technology Strategy Board, has announced a £10M investment to work, at least in part, with industry partners to create and trial new models, including micropayments for online content and video on demand.
But with the organisations receiving only 66 pence in every £1 for micropayments due to network charges, compared with 96 pence for credit card transactions, there is a very real danger that the market for micropayments for a range of online goods and services could be severely constrained.
Given the lack of credit card penetration in many countries, including China, and within the younger demographic that still dominates the online customer base, the need for robust and commercially viable micropayments is pressing.
With the arrival of proven technology that can be delivered globally and rapidly integrated into core systems, online vendors now have seamless access to a whole new revenue stream - but just how many organisations will be deterred by the excessive network charges.
Payment Flexibility
Whilst providers of online goods and services continue to buck the economic downturn, it is clear that a significant proportion of potential online revenue is being lost due to the near reliance on credit cards for payment. Whilst a number of micropayment solutions have been introduced in recent years, a lack of global integration and the complexity of attempting to manage different mechanisms across different countries and networks have deterred the vast majority of organisations from supporting any payment option other than credit cards.
But as a growing number of organisations are now discovering, the arrival of viable, global micropayments technology is opening up a whole new revenue stream. The micropayments model works perfectly for sites operating a model of small, regular subscription, such as dating or social networking sites, especially in areas such as China, where credit card penetration is very low.
But the potential for micropayments is not limited simply to subscription services. A global micropayment service using SMS or voice billing as available across each continent provides organisations with a fantastic opportunity to achieve new revenue streams, and not just with products aimed at the younger demographic unlikely to hold a credit card. Whilst music downloads and gaming sites will obviously benefit from a flexible, robust and convenient payment method, there are very real opportunities to also offer micropayment facilities for additional services such as in hotels - reducing the need for late night reception staff to process payments, for example.
Grossing Up
Evidence is growing that the adoption of micropayments opens up a massive untapped market - with no upfront investment. However, one of the key concerns for many organisations assessing the pros and cons of micropayments is the network tariff. And for good reason: whilst organisations receive 96% of credit card based transactions, high network charges mean only 66% of the payment is received from a micropayment.
For any organisation with a low margin product or service offering, this approach could theoretically make micropayments unfeasible. Indeed, low levels of micropayment adoption to date, point to the fact that organisations are concerned about margin erosion created by these high network charges despite the proven access to new customers.
Early adopters of this payment method have demonstrated that consumers are actually happy to pay more to leverage the flexibility and ease of use of micropayments for the time being.
By offering the customer the option of making a micropayment but charging a little more (grossing up), the organisation can maintain its margin without cannibalising the existing customer base. With the right integration into the core product/service software, it is a simple process to offer two prices - one for credit card transactions and one for micropayments - enabling the customer to make the choice.
Secure, Simple
Key to user adoption of micropayments is the delivery of a completely seamless, flexible service irrespective of country or network. Micropayments must also be easy to use, secure and support a wide range of payment values - from the €1 ringtone download upwards.
Delivering this consistent service globally is a major challenge for many providers of micropayment solutions. The payment market is highly regulated - for obvious reasons. Organisations must comply not only with local, state and national regulations but also meet the demands of each network supplier in each country.
Furthermore, payment technologies need to be integrated with back-end customer service and web content management systems to deliver a complete, auditable solution.
To achieve this successfully and rapidly requires significant expertise and experience of different global markets. It demands strong integration skills and the ability to rapidly respond to organisational requirements to roll out into new markets to address customer opportunities. With the right technology, infrastructure and experience, micropayments technology can actually be deployed within days, with little or no upfront investment, allowing organisations to trial the technology in specific markets to assess its potential.
Global Opportunity
Indeed, those organisations that have opted to trial micropayments have all opted to extend the service across new geographies as a result of a significant increase in revenue. Customer feedback reveals that the process is simple to understand and extremely transparent; whilst there is strong anecdotal evidence that organisations are achieving higher conversion rates via micropayments than credit card payments.
As a result, growing numbers of social networking sites are now offering micropayments although, to date, this has been limited to sites in the UK, US and Australia. With the arrival of proven global solutions, organisations are looking to leverage the new market opportunities in China, Africa, the Caribbean and South America.
Furthermore, given the strong consumer response, the networks are showing increasing interest in introducing new micropayment tariffs to enable organisations to move beyond existing services towards a true mcommerce model. Indeed, as consumer awareness of the additional costs associated with micropayments grows, there will be growing pressure on networks to offer far more competitive rates.
A major shift is on the way: micropayments not only offer unprecedented ease of use for the consumer, overcoming the resistance to buy online via credit card, but also provide the opportunity to leverage the billions of mobile owning individuals globally to add revenue consistently and easily for a range of online goods and services.
By agreeing to operate on smaller margins, it is likely that the networks could precipitate a massive adoption of micropayments that would generate significant additional revenue. Without that change in policy, the real micropayment opportunity could remain untapped.
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It’s undoubtedly very exciting that Twitter has struck deals with Microsoft and Google which will see people’s tweets added to their respective search engine results.In certain respects these are landmark deals – rather than a particular search engine trying to take market share off the other, what we’re seeing is two search engines clearly recognising the importance and influence social networking now has within the search marketing space. The fact is social networking is now mainstream – that the search giants are now actively adding tweets to their search results underlines that. This isn’t something that has happened over night, and many industry gurus will be quietly thinking ‘I told you so’ and breathing a sigh of relief after years of trying to convince advertisers to take social networking seriously. In recent years we’ve seen ideas such as desktop search and search content ads fall by the wayside as search companies try to increase revenues and improve user experience. This latest Twitter deal will be different as it offers something in search results that is incredibly useful to users - opinions, real stories and snippets of information that will help them to navigate the web better, purchase products/services that are right for them, and warn them off anything that perhaps sounds too good to be true. The integration of tweets into search results needs to be done properly to avoid diluting the quality of search results. ‘Bing’ especially, has spent a lot of time improving relevance. But for brands, the development means they'll have an even bigger job on their hands as user opinion spreads even further. Author: Tim Cook, Group Account Director, CheezeDMG - www.cheezedmg.com, twitter.com/Cheezedmg
With CNN launching it’s new website with a focus on better integrated video and photography, it highlights the importance of considering a multimedia approach for all new stories.
Brian Stelter of The Washington Post said last week:
“The Web site, which will come online Monday, aims to highlight CNN.com’s original content. The red-hued home page will place breaking news and headlines to the left side, and add a feature section in the centre. It will often include a video player front and centre, reflecting the growing popularity of online video. “
“With 38 million unique visitors a month, CNN.com exists within the top tier of news Web sites, making any redesign particularly influential.”
As someone who not only works in a news agency but also works in communications, I get my news through many channels through out the day:
Wow, just writing that list shows how much news I personally consume in any given day and all the different channels I use to get it. I am sure that most people would find that if they did the same list, they also would be consuming their news through a variety of platforms.
Of course, not all media avenues will be relevant or possible for each campaign as budgets and content are of course varied but starting off by thinking about a multimedia approach to any campaign can be key to getting the most coverage and therefore the biggest impact for yours or your client’s message.
Posted by Suzy Richards @ TNR Communications
Marc Munier, commercial director at email marketing provider Pure360, discusses ways in which marketing professionals can get the most out of the working day – by targeting consumers when they are most responsive.The media’s stereotype of employees taking advantage of work-based email and internet to browse online is leading marketers astray. Consumers’ behavioural patterns continually shift throughout the working day and email marketing providers must be aware of the changeable consumer mood if they are to reap the rewards.For example, many marketing professionals believe that lunchtime is the perfect opportunity to engage with their audience. But new research by Pure360 contradicts this theory. Contrary to popular assumptions, the volume of marketing emails opened actually drops markedly during the lunch hour. In fact, recipients are far more likely to open emails in their own time rather than at work. Almost half (48%) of all marketing emails were opened outside office hours. Marketers would benefit by targeting consumers at specific times of the day, instead of relying on ‘gut instinct’. Pure360 analysed hundreds of thousands of emails sent by 34 companies and discovered that a mere 9% of the emails sent were opened between noon and 2pm. Sixty two per cent of those opened were news or magazine alerts rather than promotions on goods or services. It seems that employees like to spend their lunchtimes catching up on all the latest news, sport and gossip and are significantly less receptive to marketing emails during this period than at other times of the day.Consumer AM and a Life-Changing AfternoonWhile the lunch break is something of a wilderness where email marketers are concerned, the research indicated that they can capitalise on consumers’ desire for a ‘morning boost’ to engage with their audience. Employees are very receptive to consumer promotions, such as discounts on clothes, gadgets and events, at the beginning of the working day.Counter-intuitively, offers relating to dining and going out are far more likely to be opened first thing in the morning. For example, 27% of all restaurant promotions and 19% of promotions on live events, such as concerts and rugby matches were opened between 9am and 10am. The ‘instant gratification’ of planning outings or shopping for bargains gives workers the ‘morning boost’ they need to get through the day, with 16.5% of all emails being opened between 9am and 10am.In contrast, it seems that job-related apathy may be leading employees to be more receptive to life-changing promotions mid-afternoon. The research indicated that during the well-documented post-lunch slump period (between 3pm and 5pm) people become more responsive to marketing emails that address ‘bigger picture’ and often more serious issues, whether that involves sorting out their finances, finding a new job or looking for a new property. Nearly 43% of all the financial services emails that were sent were opened mid-afternoon.
Following the Latest TrendsBased on our research, we identified patterns in consumers’ responses to different email marketing promotions throughout the day:The Abyss (10pm to 9am)This is an ineffective time to send email promotions – it’s akin to throwing them into a black hole.Consumer AM (9am to 10am)The second most prevalent opening time is at the beginning of the working day, when consumers allow themselves to be distracted by offers on clothes, live events, restaurants and consumer goods.Do Not Disturb (10am to Noon)Consumers are not opening marketing emails, choosing instead to focus on work.The Lunchtime News (Noon to 2pm)Counter-intuitively, consumers are also unlikely to open marketing emails during their lunch, choosing instead to spend time on news and magazine alerts.In The Zone (2pm to 3pm)In the immediate post-lunch period consumers remain focussed on work, responding mainly to email offers relating to financial services. A Life-changing Afternoon (3pm to 5pm)Job-related apathy sets in and consumers start thinking about their personal situation. As a result, more emails relating to property and financial services are opened between 3pm and 5pm than any other type of promotion.‘Working Late’ (5pm to 7pm)There is a dramatic rise in recipients opening holiday promotions during the period (17.9% of all emails promoting holiday promotions were opened in these two hours). Counter-intuitively, this is also the timeframe within which recipients are most likely to open B2B promotions (26.4%). Last Orders (7pm to 10pm)Recipients are more likely to respond to consumer promotions in their own time, with 23% being opened in this period. Offers on clothes, special interests such as sports and gym promotions (26% opened during this time) performed extremely well in this period.Make It PersonalOur research reveals trends and opening times that marketing professionals should be aware of. The most effective email marketing campaigns will go that step further, looking at the behavioural patterns of individual recipients.Tools such as Intelligent Time Saving (ITS) enable marketing professionals to identify when individual recipients are most likely to respond to email marketing campaigns. By analysing when people have opened and clicked through on previous messages, ITS can ensure that emails are delivered at the time they are most likely to be read. Everyone opens their emails at different times and professional marketers should use technology such as ITS to help them spot these trends. For the best result, marketers must endeavour to adapt their campaigns to suit the consumer’s individual needs.
Marc Munier is commercial director at progressive email marketing provider Pure360. Founded in 2001, Pure360 provides big brands and small companies with the technology, know-how and support to run effective email marketing campaigns that have a measurable, positive impact on business for more information, please visit www.Pure360.com
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Well, the online revolution has taken a lot longer to happen than many of us would have thought back in 1999. And that puzzles me. Then again, I am still running into businesses and marketing executives who (albeit increasingly shamefacedly) admit to ‘not really understanding this online thing'. Likewise, many traditional agencies still find themselves unable to properly embrace digital and make it a core part of their service offering. How odd. I'm occasionally tempted to wonder "Where have these people been for the last 10 years?"In fact, the answer is rather obvious. They've been extremely busy running their existing businesses, of course!I'm being flippant to exaggerate a point. Embracing ecommerce is potentially a painful, expensive, time consuming and probably frightening undertaking for many retailers. We are talking about fundamental organisation change in many cases - and that's not something that any business really wants to contemplate, given a choice.But therein lays the rub. Consumer behaviour is now driving businesses to develop and change at a pace that they either can not, or are simply not willing to attempt. And many are failing to wake up to this realisation until it's way too late.In the end, ecommerce (and the rise of the internet in general) are merely symptoms, as opposed to causes of this new consumer attitude. It's not about technology, digital television or the internet. It's a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour and expectations. The balance of power being wrenched from the hands of advertisers and media owners by a generation of information hungry, time poor, technologically savvy consumers who expect to be able to get what they want, when they want it, 24/7 and have little time or sympathy for any business unable to meet their demands.And here's the crux. What we are seeing today is undoubtedly the thin end of the wedge. Maybe the only reason that some existing retail models still work as well as they do is that there are enough of us ‘oldies' left in the market place that still remember what it was like before the internet came along and changed everything. Now isn't that a scary thought?Meanwhile, across the country, continue the (I suspect) almost ubiquitous client / agency conversations about digital strategy which tend to go along the lines of;Digital Agency; "Why don't you take this more seriously, look at the potential? It's essential to get to grips with this stuff, because it's potentially the very future of your business that's at stake".Client; "It's only 1,2,3,4 (insert your own number)% of our turnover, so our Board / CEO aren't interested - anyway, we are having way too much fun signing off our new TV campaign to bother with all that technical stuff".Digital Agency; "Ok, that's obviously the case today; but have you seen how profitable that business could be? And, it could grow quite quickly to become somewhere in the region of 20%-30% of your total business - with a very flat cost base, resulting in the potential to generate very significant additional profits... AND anyway, it's not really a technical issue; it's more about how your brand understands, relates to and interacts with consumers in the coming years. The technical stuff is the easy part.... "Client; "Ahh, but.... "And off we go again. Our business is different. Our customers are different. Our products are different. We don't want to upset the salespeople in the stores. Well, my wife doesn't shop online, etc, etc.And, undoubtedly most of that is true. No one said this was going to be easy. But, as the almost unfeasibly futuristic sounding 2010 draws ever closer, the question is, I think for many, one of survival.
In the wake of Facebook's first profit generating quarter and recent improvements to its self service advertising platform, signs are beginning to emerge that Google may finally have a serious contender on its hands for online marketing budgets.
As Google's search market share has risen above 65% in both the UK and US, many marketers have come to rely exclusively upon Google’s Adwords platform for running their campaigns. During this period Google has also established its Content Network as the largest online display advertising network and cemented this position through a string of acquisitions, including DoubleClick and YouTube. However, there are signs that the days of Google's advertising hegemony may be over.
With the high CPCs common in many niches on Google, marketers are starting to look at alternative channels and many are choosing Facebook. Although Google can usually boast higher conversion rates stemming from the intent of users to purchase the products they search for, Facebook's enormous reach can now potentially offer higher sales volumes. Add in the value of the brand exposure gained, something which can now be quantified with multi-variate tracking solutions such as AgencyDMG’s Digital Brain:Search; and Facebook DR campaigns offer a compelling return.
In addition, Facebook has been investing heavily in its self service Direct Response platform, which offers reach and targeting on a par with Google's offering, but until recently only a fraction of the functionality of the Adwords platform. Bulk advert uploading is now being trialled which will enable advertisers to execute much larger and more targeted campaigns. Also, a host of companies are developing bid management systems to plug into the new API, which is also under limited release. Facebook has taken its time to build a viable self service advertising platform, but now it is seriously adopting the formula that has worked so well for Google, it is beginning to make up ground in market share.
Although Facebook still has a way to go before it can match the net revenues recorded by Google - £1.64BN in their recently announced Q3 2009 results, Facebook’s huge inventory and low CPCs have already tempted many marketers to begin shifting budgets. Is widespread advertiser adoption of its DR platform what Facebook has been waiting for before entering into a much anticipated IPO? Only time will tell, but having won the war of the social networks, Facebook now appears to be readying itself for a final showdown with the search giants.
Author: Andrew Griffiths, Senior Account Manager, CheezeDMG
www.cheezedmg.com, twitter.com/Cheezedmg
In the beginning there was mass marketing, remote from the consumer, with very clever creatives persuading buyers with their great copy and their inspirational imagery of a better life with brand X. It works, but with more savvy buyers and greater competition, there has become a need for something more.
Now there is event and experiential marketing, where brands and buyers get to meet and spend time with the product they are expected to fall in love with. And we're not talking about the lure of the free sample. Suddenly, brands are making much more of an effort for their potential customers, demonstrating their understanding of everything from what makes someone buy a computer to a company's service.
Ten years ago, an engaging brand experience was a rare treat. Today everyone is talking about it. Brand owners increasingly want to master it and big, integrated agencies are adding event and experiential marketing to their list of services. The reason for this? Events are a great way to engage with your target audience and used as part of an integrated campaign will help challenge brand perceptions and change purchasing behaviours.
In the last few years, everything from make-up to motorcycles has become an experience, and brands as diverse as Sony, Toyota and Initial Integrated Services have implemented successful experiential event programmes to reach their target audience in different and captivating ways. As well as hitting the target in terms of audience reach, experiential events can also provide a perfect platform for gathering of useful sales and marketing data, client entertainment, competitor research and even recruitment!
In an increasingly virtual world, people want to get closer to brands (and the people behind them) before they buy. In fact, a recent white paper showed that 82% of people believe that participating in an event experience is more engaging than any other form of communication. Events and experiential will continue to grow in strength as consumers seek a more tangible experience to identify the subtle differences between competing products and evaluate their suitability.
As the IXMA (International Experiential Marketing Association) says in its recent manifesto, "Businesses will live or die not by the attributes they promise, but by the experiences they offer customers at every touch point - in the store, at the website, with their product and through events and advertising."
The best marketing campaigns seek to create more engaging customer connections and there is nothing like event/experiential marketing to deepen new customer relationships.
Unlikely as it sounds, if the pollsters have got it wrong and the swing against Labour isn't as great as they think, we could find ourselves with a hung Parliament this time next year. The thought of the main rival parties trying to work together to drag the country out of recession is enough to make most people shudder with scepticism.
But there are advantages to coalition. Working together with rivals can actually create common ground and help find solutions to issues affecting the many, not the few. There is nothing wrong with coming at something from two different angles to find a unified way forward.
The National Readership Survey business model is all about collaboration. Without the backing and joint funding of the PPA, NPA and IPA, as well as involvement from ISBA, our organisation wouldn't exist. But it soon became obvious not long after I became NRS chief executive 10 months ago that the time was right for us to work closer together with our closest so-called (but misperceived) ‘rival' in the publishing measurement space, ABC.
NRS has suffered from perceptions of being at odds with ABC, partly because we haven't until now started making the most of the robust and extensive data provided by the survey, and partly due to ABC's long-term marketing and PR strategy which has helped it appear to be the industry measurement leader.
Of course, we have made great strides towards refreshing NRS as a business. We have launched a new website with greater access than ever to the data; we're doing away with the heavy print volumes in favour of digitised data; and we're taking steps towards an exciting multi-platform future. We've also set up a User Advisory Panel to allow those who employ NRS data in their planning and buying - be that at a media owner or agency - to have a say in what works and what doesn't. The key thing with the panel is that members aren't all advocates of the survey as it stands!
But a central plank of the work we're doing is building a much stronger and closer relationship with ABC. It makes sense for the two organisations, as pillars of the publishing community, to collaborate. It's about educating the industry with regard to the use an abuse of circulation and readership data, and to this end we've included eight-year trend data from both organisations for scores of publications in the non-subscriber section of our new website, http://www.nrs.co.uk/, for the first time. It will also be accessible via http://www.abc.org.uk/ to provide better insight than ever into the data for the benefit of all users.
There will doubtless still be areas where NRS and ABC don't see eye to eye; we are both separate businesses, after all. But forging a closer relationship will be a great benefit to the whole media industry. We will be much more capable of driving our corner of the media forward if we admit our similarities, and work in tandem rather than continuing to plough separate furrows.
Whether we like it or not Christmas is on the horizon. You can’t ignore the first signs of the festive seasons creeping into our shops – surely we have Halloween and Bonfire Night to exploit before we even want a glimpse of the likes of chocolate advent calendars and twinkling lights in every colour? No such luck for retailers who are in desperate need of a sales boost and are still pulling out all the stops with consumer incentives, improved offers in loyalty and membership programmes and many other recession solutions.
Last year sales were low due to the bleakest era of the credit crunch but this year there are reports that the recession is or could soon be over. House prices have risen to the level they were last year and people are starting to feel more confident about an economic recovery. What does this mean for the high street? Will there be a retraction of the sales and consumer incentives in the run up to Xmas if retailers feel there is no need for recession solutions anymore? If so, what will be left for the January sales?
In Nationwide’s latest Consumer Confidence Index it is clear that consumer confidence is growing, Mark Saddleton, Head of Economic & Market Analysis said: “September saw a much stronger increase in overall confidence compared with recent months and the index is now at its highest level since April 2008. Expectations for the future economic situation are also buoyant, with pessimism about the labour market situation starting to decrease.”
These statistics teamed with the fact that traditionally people spend more at Christmas could be seen to be a positive indicator of people reverting back to traditional spending habits. This could also mean sales figures dive again in the New Year as people have spent money and become cautious again when short of money. It’s a case of time will tell and nothing is certain at the moment.
The road to change is usually a slow one though, as people will remain cautious well into recovery, so to pull back discounts, consumer incentives and recession solutions could be a brave mistake for companies to make. The spending habits are still rooted in bargain hunting and whilst consumer confidence is returning, retailers still need to do all they can to encourage customers to spend money with their brand. Whether they choose to offer discounts in-store or through an exclusive loyalty and membership programme it’s still what consumers expect.
Contact The Rocket Marketing Group on 0845 241 2135 or visit www.rocketmarketinggroup.com if you are interested in creating recession solutions that feature consumer incentives for your brand through loyalty and membership programmes.
I recall being at one of those advertising agency tree-hugging/team-building weekends a while back where I was forced to reveal my answer to the question, "what do you think is the best thing you can give your children?" My answer at the time was "a sense of self-esteem" words which came back to haunt me recently when I read "Generation Me" by Jean M. Twenge. This well-researched, keenly-observed book is an analysis of the thoughts, dreams and aspirations of the post-Baby Boom generation. The thrust of Twenge’s argument is that Baby Boomer parents have spent far too much time boosting the self-esteem of their children, to the point where they now have an unrealistically inflated sense of entitlement. It also points out that any potential employers of today’s graduates and interns have a responsibility to act as a kind of "reality decompression chamber", helping this generation come to terms with the cold, harsh environment of the job-free marketplace and frozen economy. We have to politely but humanely point out that the six-figure salary won’t be there on demand like a Starbucks cappuccino, and that it might be slightly harder to become a CEO than it would be to pass an X-Factor audition. And, that successfully ascending the career ladder might be down to such unsexy characteristics as persistence, patience and hard graft rather than easy charm and natural intelligence. It’s no simple task – giving out a cold, hard dose of reality without dampening the ambition and enthusiasm of our graduate intake. But for the sake of our industry’s future and for the future success of our new blood, maybe those of us in positions of seniority have to take a deep breath, gird our loins and access our inner Simon Cowells.
I recall being at one of those advertising agency tree-hugging/team-building weekends a while back where I was forced to reveal my answer to the question, "what do you think is the best thing you can give your children?" My answer at the time was "a sense of self-esteem" words which came back to haunt me recently when I read "Generation Me" by Jean M. Twenge.
This well-researched, keenly-observed book is an analysis of the thoughts, dreams and aspirations of the post-Baby Boom generation. The thrust of Twenge’s argument is that Baby Boomer parents have spent far too much time boosting the self-esteem of their children, to the point where they now have an unrealistically inflated sense of entitlement.
It also points out that any potential employers of today’s graduates and interns have a responsibility to act as a kind of "reality decompression chamber", helping this generation come to terms with the cold, harsh environment of the job-free marketplace and frozen economy. We have to politely but humanely point out that the six-figure salary won’t be there on demand like a Starbucks cappuccino, and that it might be slightly harder to become a CEO than it would be to pass an X-Factor audition. And, that successfully ascending the career ladder might be down to such unsexy characteristics as persistence, patience and hard graft rather than easy charm and natural intelligence.
It’s no simple task – giving out a cold, hard dose of reality without dampening the ambition and enthusiasm of our graduate intake.
But for the sake of our industry’s future and for the future success of our new blood, maybe those of us in positions of seniority have to take a deep breath, gird our loins and access our inner Simon Cowells.
In recent years our food, clothes and household goods have become coated with a layer of ethical labelling. Many products have been marketed with a Fairtrade, Organic or Rainforest Alliance stamp – but do we really know what this means?A global survey of Fairtrade was carried out by Nielsen in 2008 and found half of European consumers ‘always recognise Fairtrade products’. However the European Commission noted in a communication on Fairtrade that ‘the multiplicity of these schemes carry risks of consumer confusion.’ The challenge for consumers is to decipher what these labels mean and distinguish between the legitimacies of the claims.The purpose of labelling is to prove that the company producing the product is conforming to ethical best practice, as set out by whichever not for profit organisation is providing the labelling stamp. In addition, the company should be giving an amount of its profits to the not for profit organisation - but how much the organisation receives can vary greatly.The lack of trust in where and how profits are distributed has led some eco aware consumers to doubt the validity of commonly seen labels like Fairtrade and Organic. Companies such as Nestle have devalued the Fairtrade brand by using it as a tool to ‘green wash’ its brands. Uproar ensued in 2007 when Nestle received Fairtrade status for one of its coffee products, particularly from Monsanto, which supports GM crops and also has Fairtrade status.When launching a new product, it is wise for companies to consider carefully which ‘ethical label’ to support and investigate the legitimacy of the company and the work they carry out. Ultimately, this could have a strong negative or positive effect on the way a company is perceived.There is a danger that small companies looking to gain an eco or ethical status are beginning to suffer against the ‘fat’ labelling organisations and are being pushed out of the framework by large companies, which can afford to get accredited.There is some merit to suggest a new organisation could benefit from developing its own ethical labelling model. If a new product was launched that supported a new or alternative way of harvesting, farming or producing, a company should not be afraid to display its ethical credentials in its own way.Increasingly, many eco savvy consumers actively look for companies that are supporting more niche, tailored, not for profit organisations such as the Rainforest Alliance or Marine Stewardship Council.Regardless of some spikes of awareness in the sector, the mass market still seems to perceive the Fairtrade stamp as a ‘pat on the back’, allowing them to purchase their favourite Nestle coffee in comfort. When it comes to Fairtrade and Organic, consumers do seem willing to accept the premium price. But, they may not be paying for ideological reasons or even quality, but simply to provide peace of mind and massage the green ego of the parent organisation.
Amy Stobie, partner at TheAgency
Generally 20-30% of a direct business’ costs are spent on marketing, so if brands really can start using their customers as an extension of their own sales efforts, there’s a lot to gain. The concept of encouraging or rewarding your customers to spread the word is not a new thing. MGMs, recommend-a-friend and testimonials do just that.
Online, it’s a difficult balancing act; if you’re inviting your customers to have their say, you need to be prepared for views you might not like. There’s also a fine line between encouraging and rewarding customers to do your marketing for you. If it starts looking like and out and out bribery, your recommendations lose all credibility.
So, how do you turn customers into evangelists?
• Make sure you have a strong and differentiated offer – without one, you’ll never be a talking point.
• Let customers express their experiences or feelings in your purchase and customer service processes. Include reviews, ratings, voting or passing on a recommendation. This content will help with your search rankings too.
• Reward but don’t bribe – find appropriate levels of incentives to encourage member get member and natural word of mouth.
• Offer creative components that can be taken to other sites. Games, product configurators, calculators or new product videos can all provoke sharing and discussion.
• Involve users in your product/service development. US t-shirt company Threadless invite users designs, with significant financial reward and kudos if one of your t-shirt designs is produced.
• Make users famous. Some love to see their name in lights and are happy to spend ten minutes extolling a product or experience. Let them do a more detailed product review, or be interviewed about their experience, and promote it on your site.
• Embrace bad feedback. Customers who have had bad experiences and are shouting about it can be your strongest evangelists of all. Take online feedback, good and bad, involve critical customers in beta-testing of enhanced products or services and release your updates to let everyone, fans and cynics, letting them know that you have listened and improved. Don’t be afraid to invite them to further critique your offer – you’ll gain great credibility.
Anyone got any other particularly interesting examples?
