Traditional Media and the Buzz Lightyear Effect

The decline of traditional media has been well documented and highly lamented in recent years. But, if more proof is needed of the shift away from old-school mass media as marketing channels, look at the results of a recent study by Aquent and the American Marketing Association. Responses from 2,600 marketing executives send yet more signals of the demise of traditional media. In fact, the top five channels that will see a decline in focus from marketers this year are:

  1. Newspapers: 32%
  2. Consumer Magazines: 28%
  3. Radio: 24%
  4. Trade Magazines: 22%
  5. Television: 21%

 If these communication channels are going to get less play, what will take their places? Perhaps not surprising is that mobile marketing and social media will experience the largest increases in focus among marketers at 82% and 76%, respectively. The shift in focus from traditional media to digital channels reflects the expansion of tools available in the marketer’s toolbox, but what does it say about the future of traditional media?

Instead of writing obituaries for newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV, a more appropriate response to these trends is to understand that traditional media is not being permanently replaced by digital communication channels. What is transpiring reminds me of what happens in one my favorite movies, Toy Story. Woody’s status as Andy’s favorite toy is jeopardized when Andy receives a Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday. Woody is no longer the go-to toy as Andy is enamored with the bells and whistles in Buzz’s repertoire. In the end, Woody and Buzz co-exist to make Andy a happy child (not to mention go on to make two more movies and a lot of money for Disney and Pixar).

Like Sheriff Woody, traditional media may have lost some of its prominence but will not be replaced by the shiny new toy that is digital marketing. Like tools in a toolbox, traditional media and digital channels have certain strengths and capabilities. Marketers are wise to use all resources at their disposal to build their brand and manage customer relationships. If Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear can work together, so can traditional and digital media.

Marketing Charts – “Marketers Say They’re Shifting Focus Away from Traditional Media”

Social Media: If You Start Talking, Be Prepared to Listen

One characteristic that I truly appreciate about social media is that it can open a direct line of communication between customers and a business. Questions, complaints, praises – whatever the reason for interaction – can be accomplished easily and quickly via social media channels (sure beats the mind-numbing process of going through a phone tree). Yet, there is one important caveat that too many brands with a social media presence fail to understand: If you start talking, you must be prepared to listen.

Social media expert Steve Olenski goes so far as to say that failure to listen and respond to customer-initiated communications on social networking sites is the number one mistake that retail brands make. Olenski cites statistics revealing that although 90% of the top 50 retailers have a presence on Twitter, only 29% use the platform to actually engage in communications with customers and others. The problem according to Olenski is a mindset of “set it and forget it.” In other words, more thought goes into establishing a social media presence than developing objectives and strategies for social media. He points out that setting up a Twitter account for a business then failing to respond to people who interact with your brand would be like opening a call center but not answering the telephone. It would be a waste of resources and harmful to brand image to ignore ringing telephones; failure to acknowledge or respond to posts on social networking sites potentially has the same effect.

For most businesses, the question to ask is not whether to have a social media presence – the answer is usually “yes.” The more pressing issue is once you decide to establish a presence for your brand on Twitter, Pinterest, Google + or any other social network, you must be ready to listen. It is like throwing open the doors to your business, inviting people inside to interact with you. You would not leave your business unstaffed when customers are coming in, so why would you invite interaction on social networks without a plan for sustaining the interactions?

When it comes to social media as a marketing channel, listening trumps talking. Be willing to listen, assign sufficient human resources to make listening happen, and empower your listeners to resolve problems or concerns.

Forbes – “The Number One Mistake Retail Brands Make When it Comes to Twitter”

Weighing Reveal Strategies for Super Bowl Ads

Social media has impacted marketing on many fronts, including one of the most hallowed grounds of advertising, the Super Bowl. A tradition of Super Bowl advertising has been the debut of new commercials and ad campaigns by brands using the platform of the big game to reach a huge and involved audience. That tradition seems to be eroding as more advertisers are posting versions of their Super Bowl commercials on their websites and social media pages several day ahead of Super Bowl Sunday. Does this strategy fall under the category “just because you can do it does not mean you should?”

Super Bowl advertisers must weigh the impact benefits of waiting to reveal a commercial during the Super Bowl broadcast versus the added exposure of a campaign that launches before the Super Bowl. Using a reveal strategy for Super Bowl commercials plays to the anticipation that Super Bowl viewers have about commercials. It marks a drastic departure from our normal viewing behavior the other 364 days in the year when many of us actively avoid commercial messages. The buzz created when a commercial airs for the first time in front of more than 110 million viewers can be powerful. The water cooler effect has been amplified and brought to real time by social media. Word-of-mouth about Super Bowl commercials does not begin on Monday morning in the office; it unfolds as ads appear during the game. Thus, a reveal approach seems to enjoy the benefits of anticipation from build-up to the debut as well as online chatter created once viewers are exposed to a commercial.

In the end, Super Bowl advertisers must acknowledge what the objectives are for their commercials and select an ad launch strategy that fits with the desired effect. If the aim is simply to create brand buzz, then a reveal strategy may still be an appropriate choice. Not only do advertisers enjoy the impact of viewers seeing a commercial for the first time, but they can also encourage word-of-mouth and engagement via social media. Including Twitter hashtags, for example, related to the Super Bowl, the commercial, or the brand can spark brand mentions and interactions after a spot airs. If the objective is tied to achieving outcomes more directly connected to revenue generation such as acquiring new customers or sales increases, then maximizing a Super Bowl commercial’s impact by making it part of a campaign that bows in advance of the game may be a better fit with marketing objectives.

Ad Age – “Is Social Media Spoiling the Super Bowl Ad Surprise?”

"C" is for Consistency in Customer Experience

More than a few eyebrows were raised when a recent study by ForeSee revealed that consumers believe Apple is losing its polish when it comes to a great customer experience. In an annual survey of customer satisfaction with online retailers, Amazon maintained its hold on the number one spot among the top 100 e-retailers with a score of 88. Apple’s score dropped from 84 to 80, changing the website’s ranking from top 5 status in 2011 to top 15. In general, pure online retailers fared better than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Two examples include Barnes and Noble losing two points to 79 and JC Penney falling five points to 78.

It is suggested that one reason why e-retailers may fare better than their multichannel competitors is they have honed a more consistent online customer experience. Companies like Amazon, LL Bean, and QVC serve their customers through direct channels. The customer experience is well scripted and because it is driven by technology, there is little variation in the interaction we have with online sellers. In contrast, brick-and-mortar stores are challenged during the holiday season to balance larger inventories, increased store traffic, and temporary employees in addition to striving to deliver a great customer experience. Moreover, it is challenging to create consistency in the customer experience to the point that shopping in-store and on the store’s website have a similar feel.

E-commerce offers the “wow” factor to buyers. E-tailers like Amazon have tremendous merchandise assortments. Also, the convenience of shopping on your computer, tablet, or smartphone makes fighting crowds in stores less appealing. Free and expedited shipping is another way online sellers add value to the shopping experience. These factors combined give e-tailers a significant advantage over brick-and-mortar stores. And, the factors listed here can be offered consistently. Whenever a person logs on to an e-commerce site these factors will be present. In contrast, brick-and-mortar stores may be short-staffed, too busy to deliver the best possible merchandise presentation, or run out of merchandise in individual stores. But, regardless of the channel used to sell products, striving for consistency in the customer experience must be a priority. Add value by “wowing” customers in 2013.

ForeSee Holiday Customer Satisfaction Study: Amazon Sets Standard; JC Penney, Apple, Dell Drop

Why Loyalty is Not Enough

Have you ever realized that the way you are looking at something has been wrong all along? Your view changes in an instant, and you wonder why you did not see the flaws in your thinking long before now? It definitely happens to me; in fact it most recently occurred a couple of days ago when reading an article about customer loyalty. Larry Freed, president and CEO of marketing analytics firm ForeSee, took the stance in his headline that “all loyalty is not created equally.” He got my attention, but was this another hyped-up headline with little substance to follow? No, it was mindset changing for me.

Mr.Freed contends customer loyalty is not a single-dimension construct. Two types of loyalty are behavioral loyalty and emotional loyalty. Behavioral loyalty seems to be the aspiration that most marketers have for their customer relationships. After we acquire customers, the aim is to develop repeat purchase behavior. They buy our brand and not competitive offerings. Loyalty can be encouraged by rewards programs, incentives, and price breaks. If we achieve repeat buying behavior from enough customers we win, right? Unfortunately, Mr. Freed says “no.”

A significant limitation of building behavioral loyalty is that the willingness to buy over and over may have less to do with the brand and more to do with the system that promotes loyalty. An episode of Seinfeld makes light of the limitations of behavioral loyalty. Elaine is on a quest to get a loyalty card punched 24 times at a sandwich shop so she can be a “submarine captain” good for a free sandwich and a captain’s hat. She did not have loyalty to the shop (she said she had eaten “23 bad subs”) but she really wanted the rewards. Of course Elaine is a fictional character, but does her behavior mirror that of some customers who are hooked on the system, not the brand or customer experience?

What is the alternative, you might be asking. According to Larry Freed it is building emotional loyalty. Unlike behavioral loyalty that can be bought using incentives, emotional loyalty is a true feeling of connection with a brand resulting from satisfaction with the brand experience. It is true loyalty in that such a bond with your brand not only results in repeat purchases, but it leads to other behaviors like advocating for your brand via word-of-mouth and willingness to pay price premiums. To get to this point, Freed encourages a focus on customer satisfaction as the catalyst for building emotional loyalty. Simply put, what do customers want from their experience with your product or service?

Loyalty is the holy grail of marketing, but understand the difference between loyalty to your marketing system and loyalty to your brand. Reaching the pinnacle can be achieved by starting at the foundation, returning to basics having a better understanding of what customers want from you.

Social Media: Career Track or Job Duty?

Social media has become an indispensable marketing tool for most organizations. But, the need to create and maintain a social media presence brings up a practical matter that must be faced: Who will manage it? Is social media a specialization like public relations or sales that requires hiring dedicated staff? Or, should social media marketing efforts be viewed simply as a new task that is to be performed as part of a marketer’s daily duties? Results from a survey conducted by Ragan and NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions indicates the latter is the current practice today.

From an organization chart standpoint, social media has not arrived as a dedicated sub-function within the marketing area. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) said that social media was an add-on job task; only 27% of respondents indicated that their organization had a dedicated team to manage social media efforts. The term “team” is used loosely as 82% of respondents said their dedicated social media teams consisted of 1-3 people.

Survey findings debunked a myth about social media marketing: Let interns handle social media given their familiarity and experience with Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks frequented by young people. Only 25% of respondents said interns helped with social media communications. Among firms that utilize interns in social media marketing, 78% of them involve interns with Facebook and 69% have interns involved with their Twitter account. The large percentage of organizations not involving interns with social media is surprising, and not because college students should be used because of their social media experience. Rather, how will social media marketing talent be developed if aspiring marketers are not afforded learning opportunities?

A final takeaway from the survey to consider is the desired education and skills for employees involved with social media. Communications and public relations were the majors deemed most desirable when respondents were asked about education background. Writing skills was cited by 18% of respondents as the most important factor in hiring social media employees. Higher education institutions should take note. Social media marketing classes and programs are popping up with increasing frequency. It is challenging to develop curriculum around a field that is changing so rapidly on one hand, but on the other hand there are fundamentals like effective writing and presentation that should be the foundation of social media education.

Will social media become a specialized field within the marketing profession, or will it be treated as just another way businesses communicate with their target markets? Of course, factors like firm size and available resources will influence whether dedicated social media teams become more commonplace or whether those teams will actually be a committee of employees tasked with taking care of social media communications. There are advantages to each approach, and an organization can successfully manage social media using either a dedicated team or through its existing marketing and communications personnel. The key is for communications to remain true to your brand regardless of the approach used.

Center for Media Research – “Social Media Just an ‘Add-On’ Job Description”

Build Your Future by Honoring Your Past

The holiday season is a time for reflection, and as I think back over the events of 2012 a bittersweet feeling is inescapable. On a professional level, it was a great year, highlighted by publication of a sports marketing textbook co-authored with Mike Fetchko and Ken Clow. The concept of being a lifelong learner has been front and center for me as I have explored a wide range of topics and subjects in an effort to make me a more knowledgeable marketer and more complete scholar. On a personal level, the achievements of my children, most notably my oldest son’s graduation from college, served to remind me that I am blessed with a wonderful family.

The world around us provided stark reminders of our frailties and mortality. Our hearts were broken on December 14th when 26 innocent children were gunned down in Newtown, Connecticut. Celebrity deaths like the passing of Andy Griffith, Richard Dawson, and Larry Hagman felt like a little part of my childhood died. And closer to home, it seemed that too many friends and acquaintances were dealing with the pain of losing loved ones. The most painful of these events for me was the passing of my beloved Aunt Marcelle, who taught me to take time to appreciate beauty whether it be in nature, classical music, or a sunny day.

Like many people, I use this time of year not only to reflect on what has happened but also prepare a clean slate that is the new year. As I get ready for 2013, my plan is to build my future by honoring my past. It is clear that my past has shaped my life to this point – the influence of people, places, and events is undeniable but not always remembered. There are people in your life that may not be around any longer, but their impact remains. Similarly, there are schools, clubs, and churches to which you have been connected. You may not be an active participant in them today, but your involvement with them played a role in your development.

My blog posts usually deal with marketing, but the thoughts shared here apply regardless of your profession or situation. The future is always an exciting prospect. In 2013, take on that future by drawing on the wealth of character and knowledge you have built in your past. Best wishes for a joyous holiday season. May 2013 be your best year yet – in honor of your past, of course.

Instagram Terms of Service: Stupid or Strategic?

For people who subscribe to the belief that there is no such thing as bad publicity, they should be thrilled at the exposure photo sharing social network Instagram has received this week. On Monday, Instagram posted changes to its Terms of Service scheduled to take effect January 16. One item that raised the ire of many Instagram users was language that said “To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your user name, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.”

The rights extended in this language meant Instagram had latitude to include users’ photos in advertisements. Another aspect of the revised TOS agreement is an extensive sharing of user data between Instagram and Facebook, which acquired Instagram for $1 billion earlier this year.

User feedback was swift and furious. Instagram boasts more than 100 million users, ranging from teens to professional photographers to celebrities. Upset users voiced their displeasure by deleting their accounts (or saying they will by January 16). There has even be talk of an organized effort to encourage users to drop their Instagram service. The company was listening to the intense backlash, and on Tuesday Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom said that the language concerning image use in ads would be dropped from the new TOS because “we do not have plans for anything like this.”

Assuming there really were no plans for integrating users’ photos into advertising, then why would Instagram go down the path of writing it into the TOS agreement? Management would have to be either very arrogant or extremely out of touch with social media users’ reactions to changes in TOS agreements that impact privacy, as we have seen most notably from Instagram’s parent, Facebook. On more than one occasion, Facebook has had to backpedal on changes to its service that were perceived as threats to users’ privacy.

If stupidity is not to blame for the changes in Instagram’s TOS and resulting backlash, then perhaps it can be chalked up to strategy. Facebook has been adept at pushing the envelope on information sharing. When it has crossed a perceived line, Facebook has backed off enough to satisfy the majority of people with concerns. And, such responses can be positioned as showing empathy to users’ concerns and being customer oriented. It seems that Instagram was testing the waters. A quick, ferocious backlash had to be expected. In that case, a swift response of “we’re sorry” and a pledge to not make the most controversial of the proposed changes would be in order… which is exactly what Instagram did.

It could be argued that the strategy behind the proposed change to TOS was to determine the limits to which user data can be shared and used for commercial gain without alienating the very people that have made Instagram a social media success story. If users pushed back against some, but not all, of the changes, then the end result would still be broader rights for Instagram. The challenge remains for Instagram how to monetize its wildly popular service now that the trial balloon of users’ photos in ads has been shot down.

The Engagement Gap in Email Marketing

 Email is an inexpensive marketing channel for sending targeted messages. Another strength of email is that it can be used to meet a variety of marketing objectives – creating awareness for a new product, building brand or corporate image, and of course, generating sales. Permission-based marketing is one of the most important innovations in the marketing industry in the last fifteen years. While email marketing offers many advantages, work remains to be done to make email a more meaningful communication channel for buyers.

A recent study by Epsilon and the Email Institute reveals that there is great opportunity for email marketers to improve their efforts to engage people in their opt-in programs. Inactive subscribers, people who join an email list but do not open or click through messages, make up a large segment in the typical email program. Two pieces of evidence are:

  1. 66% of new subscribers to email lists had no opens or clicks in the previous quarter.
  2. 49% of long-time subscribers were inactive for the previous 12 months

 The latter stat on long-term relationship deterioration is not too surprising. After all, our interests change, particularly as we are exposed to new brands and options. But, if two-thirds of those people who sign up to receive communication never open the messages, the impact that email marketing is capable of attaining will not be realized.

 The results of the Epsilon study should be taken as a challenge by email marketers to close the engagement gap. Unlike other media that is characterized by audiences avoiding marketing messages, the concept of permission-based email is based on the audience saying “I want to hear from you.” It is up to marketers to make communications compelling so that messages are worth the recipient’s time to open. Among ways to increase relevance are:

  1. Do not overdo it! One of the main reasons people opt out of permission email programs is that they tire of frequent messages.
  2. Be timely – Triggered emails, or communication spurred by a particular behavior, have the effect of serving as a nudge or prompt to action. Examples include a welcome email containing an offer for new members and e-commerce triggered emails that follow up on abandoned shopping carts are two examples of interacting with people at very different stages of the buying process.
  3. Be relevant – I cringe when I hear marketers talk about email “blasts” – as a consumer, do you want to be blasted? Relevance is correlated with #1; email messages can be personalized to a person’s characteristics and tailored to appeal to their interests. Avoid thinking of email as merely a cost-effective substitute to traditional mass media for broadcasting messages .

Email marketing is a valuable tool in the IMC toolkit for building relationships and spurring sales. Take on the challenge of narrowing the engagement gap in 2013 by employing a strategy of timely, relevant messaging… that is timely and relevant to customers, not your marketing priorities.

Turn Up the Heat on Cold Calling

Cold calling is a term synonymous with selling. The thought of contacting potential prospects with whom there has been no prior communication is unsettling to many marketing students who want to avoid a sales job requiring cold calling at all costs. It is understandable – asking total strangers to consider buying a product is not exactly consistent with relationship selling practices students learn. While many sales pros have made their fortune because of their ability to cold call, the long-term goal of salespeople should be to turn up the heat on cold calling so that reliance on it is minimal.

Sales expert Jeffrey Gitomer offers 7.5 “one a day” strategies that if practiced eliminate the need for cold calling and are 10 times more effective than making dreaded cold calls. The three ideas I like most are:

  1. Visit one customer a day – Too often we are so focused on making sales that we do not devote enough time to building relationships that drive future sales and referrals.
  2. Give one referral a day – When salespeople think about referrals it is usually in terms of how can we get customers to refer people to us. Add a twist to your thinking about referrals and commit to giving one referral a day – promote the good work of your clients by sending business their way.
  3. Attend one face-to-face networking event a day – Salespeople are in the relationship business. You cannot form relationships sitting in your office or driving around in your car. Be intentional in putting yourself in situations that enable you to meet other people.

Check out all 7.5 strategies in Gitomer’s article. His recommendations are a mix of old school relationship building and new media savvy. Leave cold calling to the salespeople unwilling to make the needed effort to build relationships with current and future customers.