consumers

Want To Reach Customers? Think Like One!

Why EMPATHY for your CONSUMER will always result in a Better, More Effective Marketing Plan.

It’s pretty easy to sit in a room and come up with a flashy marketing plan that’s sure to please other marketing experts. That doesn’t mean it will be a good marketing plan or that it will be at all relevant to your consumers, but you’re certainly free to try the locked room method. Plenty do. The plan often fails; the team repeats the process all over again, and somehow nobody realizes that the key ingredient for success has been missing the whole time.

I’m not talking about data here. It’s easy to get seduced by numbers and graphs and demographics. However, if you want to create effective marketing for your consumers, then you need to walk a mile (or ten) in their shoes.

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Are Bloggers/Influencers, Worth the Money to Influence Consumers?

Are bloggers/influencers, worth the money to influence consumers?

My take…

#1… it’s all about the situation, the context, and the bloggers/influencers. #2… it’s most often, although not always, more about the content than the “influence.”
#3… everyone influences someone, so empower your customers, potential customers, and especially employees personal influence.
#4… most of what the marketing community refers to as “influence” is simply media.

You are buying media impressions (hopefully contextual and/or interesting ones) so measure and invest in them that way.

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Banking With Apple Could Pose Serious Challenge to High Street According to a New Research Report

From PRnewswire: Leading strategic marketing and research consultancy KAE, in conjunction with Toluna, a global pioneer in online polls, surveys and opinions, this week reveal the startling findings of a new research study into the opinions of consumers towards the potential of technology giant, Apple, breaking into the banking sector.

The survey, using Toluna’s global research panel community of 4 million consumers worldwide, collected data from over 5,000 respondents, across the US and UK, and revealed that one in ten people (10%) would consider banking with Apple. Of those who are already Apple customers, 43% would switch to Apple for their day to day banking needs.

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Context, Content and Caring

A recent blog post by Brian Solis calls out a systemic issue we are faced with every day as marketers – the issue of understanding consumers. Brian points to a serious lack of understanding that brands have for the context in which their consumers live.

You see folks, there once was a time when businesses believed that they were in business because they had a product – not necessarily because there was a market for this product. And, there once was a time, only shortly after businesses believed their product was enough, that marketing was called upon to cater to the people who consumed. But, what catering to the consumer meant – at least at that time – was to put pretty pictures and nifty words on a poster and hope it would make people want the product.

The issue with this approach was that brands would broadcast to their consumers all the things they thought their consumers wanted to see and hear.

Now, with the advent of social media platforms and quick adoption rates, marketers, businesses and brands rejoice. There is a direct view to the consumer and more of what “we think they want”. This plethora of information has been taken in and more than one brand is taking the opportunity to talk to their consumer. But that’s the problem, isnt’t it? The dialogue isn’t really dialogue.

I recently gave a presentation at Social Media Masters in Toronto. The premise of my presentation was to share that brands must become human again. We, as marketers and business owners, must allow brands to become human again. Taking notice of the social media chatter is only one part… It empowers us to better understand the context in which our consumers live, but it also gives us the opportunity to see the type of content that genuinely engages them. It is this engagement that gets us one step closer to real dialogue. And real dialogue is the beginning of creating human brands.

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The “Wisdom of Friends” Powers Brand Advocacy

We are hearing so much now about how social media is creating a shift from ‘the wisdom of crowds’ to ‘the wisdom of friends’, but what does that really mean for brand advocacy?  A lot.  It’s this ‘wisdom of friends’ that brings a new “social power” to brand advocacy.

Social power (the ability to influence) used to be determined by who had the most money, was the most intelligent, or was the most effective at impressing their will on others, but that’s changing thanks to social media.  Now social power comes through connections of friends, or the “wisdom” of friends, so Advocates have much greater influence.

Numbers still hold some power, and they always will, but the strength of connection is becoming even more powerful.   Consumers care about reviews, evaluations and what other consumers say about your product, much more than advertisements… and that is great for a brand.  What they care about even more is what their friends think about your product.  One or two friends’ opinions — the “wisdom of friends” – carry more weight than many other opinions combined.

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Brands Need to be Prepared for Social Shopping

Social shopping has many components is expanding everyday, and has been around for centuries. Women shop socially with friends and family, and always have, so convincing them to share, participate and have fun with it is not the issue, but rather its the myriad of choices, the ever evolving applications, and the education process that goes along with all this innovation.

The problem as I see it is discovering and using the appropriate applications that will get the traction and scale required to make them valuable to both shoppers and brands alike.

Brands needs to work with companies that specialize in getting out on the front lines constantly testing, vetting and crowd sourcing to determine the viability, user friendliness, and potential long term value of new applications and how they will change the evolving social shopping landscape.

Ted Rubin

New “Participation Chain” – Tying contributions together to gain deeper customer engagement… and results!

Ze Frank and I were having dinner a several months ago at a fantastic Thai “hole in the wall” in New York. The conversation turned to a subject we think about a lot, albeit coming from different perspectives. We started talking about how conversations and ongoing touchpoints really make the difference – when actions build upon each other, it can be incredibly impactful. We decided to call this the “participation chain.”

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