A ll Posts

The Voice of the Customer… Are You Listening?

 

 

With all the noise online today, people are tuning out things like advertisements and promotions from brands. When considering a product or service, what’s more important to them are the thoughts and opinions of their friends—especially in social media.  Reviews have become the first go-to resource for most people searching for something online these days, so brands need to pay attention to this trend.

For instance, when you’re looking at books to read on Amazon, don’t you check out the reviews to see what others thought about the book before you hit the “Add to Cart” button? It’s human nature to seek out the opinions of others who have tried something—from the books we read to the music we listen to—and especially big-ticket purchases.

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When A Brand Promise Backfires

Like every other marketing-related word or phrase, the term “brand promise” has its fair share of definitions. The one I like best is one that I think captures the essence perfectly for it speaks to the relationship marketing aspect.

It was written by Jean Wilcox, one of the authors of the book AbuLLard’s ABC’s of Branding: “A brand promise is the statement that you make to customers that identifies what they should expect for all interactions with your people, products, services and company. It is often associated with the company name and/or logo.”

Wilcox also believes a brand promise is also the tagline for a given brand – and she’s right.

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MY TOP TEN REALIZED BENEFITS OF TWITTER ~via @Sbarro CMO @SarahMcAloon

Guest post by Sarah McAloon… originally published at Full Impact Marketing

 

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about Twitter recently, both my personal use of it and for the brand I work on @sbarro.  For the last year I’ve been on a Twitter deep-dive and I’d say I’m an intermediate with ~900 followers.

I wanted to write this blog to help other executives realize the opportunities that I have found in Twitter, for themselves and for their brands.  If you know anyone who can benefit from Twitter please feel free to forward.

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Ted Rubin shares, with @newscomauHQ’s @ClaireRPorter, the top 10 things businesses are getting wrong on social media

Using social media to broadcast a campaign or initiative isn’t social media, says Ted Rubin.

BUSINESSES should stop tweeting so much and shut up and listen to what their followers are saying about their brands on social media, according to Ted Rubin, Chief Marketing Officer of social media company Collective Bias.

And he would know. Of all the CMOs in the world, Ted has the most Twitter followers.

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The Accidental Narcissist And The Future Of [Connected] Customer Engagement

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Have you ever noticed that your Facebook News Feed is the digital equivalent to “It’s a Wonderful Life?” Perhaps you’ve likened your Instagram stream to that of  “Lifestyles of the Digital Rich and Internet Famous.”

In each network, and across multiple social streams, you’re fed a visual buffet of seflies, travel, food, fashion, and celebrations. In assemblage, they tell the story of life well lived, or at least a life well curated. At the center of each of these experiences is the person living and sharing them in real time.  Every day that passes, it seems that a growing network of our friends, family, and colleagues are charmed with this picturesque life.

Some may see this behavior as self-centered, self-promotional, or view it as a form of attention seeking, but at a human level, it’s simply a new form of self-expression and an open invitation to interact.

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How NASCAR Uses Relationship Marketing

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I am the first to admit I am not the biggest NASCAR fan – by a long shot. I am however, a huge fan of any brand that uses relationship marketing to better engage with its fans.

Such is the case with NASCAR, who recently re-launched their digital platform. Seeing the need to engage and relate to their very large and impressive list of fans, they entered into an agreement with Livefyre, the leading provider of real-time social software which allows fans to have conversations in real-time across NASCAR.com, whether it be on a PC, tablet or mobile device, to discuss everything NASCAR from the latest in-depth news to live action on the race track.

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Real-Time Marketing: 4 Best Practice Examples of Getting It Right at the Right Time

Amazon, Walgreens, eBay, and Netflix—you know these companies. And if you’ve done business with them, or visited their websites, they know you, too. Not everything, of course—that would be creepy.  But they probably know more than you think; they probably placed you in a category or two; and they probably know you watch spy thrillers on the weekends and order four pairs of shoes for your kids to try on, but that you usually keep just one. Even though it seems invasive on the surface, you’re probably just fine with it. Why? Because they take that knowledge and enhance your experience using real-time marketing—at the right time.

 

The following marketing executives all know how to use real-time data to solve problems, offer support, and make recommendations based on your needs and interests. They have helped their companies establish customer loyalty by engaging in the proper context and allowing customers to feel control over the message, which leads to an emotional attachment with the brand and at the very core—a Return on Relationship.

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Social Business Strategy: Vision, Purpose and Value drive a new era of digital engagement

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In an era when media is largely created and broadcast by the few to the many, social media emerged to facilitate the co-creation of media in addition to creating it. While difficult to trace its origins, the philosophy of social media dates back to the mid-1990s. It wasn’t until the mid 2000s however, that businesses would encounter the idea of a new medium where brand democracy prevailed over brand dictatorship.

Suddenly the voice of the customer took on an entirely new meaning and the promise of customer-centricity and engagement was thrust into the spotlight. But after all these years, businesses remain confounded. Even though most are experimenting with social media, how it improves relationships while impacting important business metrics is persistently elusive.

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