Archive for the ‘Brand Management’ Category
How digital apps can drive e-commerce and m-commerce sales
With e-commerce spending reaching a double-digit share of all retail spending, online B2C marketers are devising push-and-pull strategies to grab the attention of consumers. These methods must provide assurance and convenience, while also standing out amongst other similar techniques in practice.
One way to do this is through digital applications, a slight shift from e-commerce to m-commerce. Not all shoppers are ready for this yet, but they soon will be and smart brands will be waiting for them when they arrive. Below are 3 ideas to drive online sales.
1. Blend Physical and Digital Interaction via a Unique Social Spectacle
Launch a provocative digital-based spectacle that causes consumers to gather in a physical space to engage with your brand and, ultimately, make a same-day purchase. Here’s how you do it:
- Connect the event with a phenomenon or cause (not related to the brand) that resonates with the target group.
- Include a digitally-based spectacle that consumers can interact with only through their mobile devices; the same tools they can then use to make a purchase.
- Bring consumers closer to the brand with a promotional offering they can’t resist.
Once they make the purchase on a mobile device via a digital application, allow customers to pick the most convenient route to obtain their goods (i.e. delivery or pickup).
While congregated, consumers can mutually influence one another’s purchases through group think, engendering effective social shopping.
If executed adeptly, the spectacle will wow the masses, including media. More importantly, it will induce multiple and instantaneous online purchases.
South Korean big-box retailer Emart did this with its ‘Sunny Sale-QR Code’ campaign. The stunt boosted sales and earned lots of free publicity.
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How to get to the heart of what you’re writing
Writers have a habit of getting in their own way. Faced with a writing assignment — a white paper, a press release, a blog post, ad copy — we tie ourselves in knots wondering how to begin. Too often, we tangle the opening paragraphs in clauses and context and never really get to the point until later in the piece. Maybe our readers will trail along after us that far, but probably not.
I was taught a good way to avoid this when I was a reporter for a daily newspaper. Though it originated in journalism, I’ve found it works for marketing as well. Whenever reporters would get together at lunch or Happy Hour, we’d talk about our latest stories. It was understood that no one wanted to hear a lengthy recap so the response inevitably was a quick summation delivered between swallows of beer or bites of a sandwich.
“The mayor and City Council are fighting over block grant funding.”
“Warehouse fire on the East Side. Nobody hurt, but hazardous waste was hidden inside so they had to call the EPA.”
“Acme Corp. is expanding its anvil factory. Adding a new production line and 200 jobs.”
Because we didn’t have the time or feel the need to formulate elaborate explanations, we summarized quickly and accurately, delivering the news and skipping all the extras. That summary is never the entire story, but it is the kernel, the most important part of the message.
Next time you find yourself paralyzed at how to begin a writing assignment, imagine you’ve been asked about it by someone who doesn’t care to hear too long or too detailed of an explanation. What you come up with might not be the lead of the piece, but it will be the essence of what you’re trying to say and that’s always a good thing to remember when you’re sitting at the keyboard.
Using employee expertise to market
Les Paul knew how to sell guitars.
Certain retail businesses are more likely than others to attract knowledgeable salespeople. The cashier at Target ringing up your car floor mats, laundry detergent, flip flops and deodorant is not likely to be particularly enthused about or expert on any of the items.
On the other hand, the guy selling you a new Harley-Davidson Super Glide Custom is almost certainly a biker. You wouldn’t want to buy one from someone who wasn’t. He’s selling bikes because he loves them and loves riding and wants to share that passion with you.
Employees who are passionate about what they sell – whether it’s tropical fish, quilting supplies or snowmobiles — can help your marketing. Guitar Center, the national music store chain, hires musicians in each of its 220+ stores and it’s not unusual for customers to turn to the clerks for advice about everything from guitar strings to the relative merits of Zildjian vs Paragon cymbals.
Questions turn into discussions turn into swapped advice and news about whose band is playing where this weekend and who’s looking to add a keyboard player to their lineup. As a result, the stores become more than just a place to buy a new pedal or mic stand; they become resources and hangouts for musicians.
Guitar Center has taken the next logical step by posting the photos, bios and expertise of employees at each store online and inviting people to email them questions. By positioning their employees as experts and not merely salespeople, the company accomplishes the following:
- It establishes itself as an authoritative resource.
- It humanizes itself in the eyes of consumers who can see online that Jeff is a guy who really knows recording equipment.
- It lets music-loving customers see what they have in common with the salespeople and, by extension, the brand.
- It creates goodwill by offering free advice to people who aren’t in a store.
Well played, Guitar Center.
The Future of Market Research: 5 Innovations to Watch for in 2012
The great David Ogilvy once said, “I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.” Those words from the great David Ogilvy are as true today as they were then.
Market research professionals, firms and organizations from IBM to Forrester Research are projecting the next trend in market research to be “making the transformation from research to insight.” If you ask me, that’s what market research has always been. An effective market researcher should be able to plan, conduct, analyze, and report actionable market insights and solutions to clients.
If you can’t do that, you’re probably just sharing stats that you found on eMarketer. I’m not discrediting eMarketer, which is an excellent research provider, but I see many advertising and marketing professionals searching for and relying too much on the latest stat or trend instead of taking that data point and translating it to something of value. Does that trend even make sense for your client’s unique situation? Or are you simply trying to impress them? This is not a problem with the research provider, but the researcher himself.
Instead of projecting the next trend in market research to be “making the transformation from research to insight,” which should already be innately infused into the mantra of the market researcher, I project the future of market research to be the convergence, or mash-up, of emerging technologies and lateral creative thinking across industries with the discipline of market research.
We are all living in a perpetual state of beta. We all have the ability at any time, to analyze our past and present to optimize for the future. And for market researchers, now is the perfect time to seize the opportunity to innovate the industry in ways George Gallup could have never imagined. So borrow from other competitors, borrow from other industries, borrow from culture – use lateral creative thinking to expand your potential and create new methodologies to reveal new insights and solutions. Below are five examples of this approach, which will continue to grow, especially in 2012.
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Emphasize Customers and Realize Value
It’s a huge value, you know that, right? If a business would place more emphasis on their customers instead of themselves they will see better results for both their customers and their business.
In one well-known example, The $300 Million Button, UIE’s Jared Spool made one simple change and the rise in revenue was enormous. He writes:
When the team contacted us, they’d already pretty much decided what the problem was and how they were going to fix it, even though they had never watched any shoppers make purchases. And they were dead wrong. Not only was their fix not going to help, our research showed that it was going to increase abandonment.
Two weeks of usability testing on the live site (and on competitors’ sites), followed by two weeks of iterative paper prototype testing produced a streamlined checkout process, which, once implemented, showed a dramatic increase in revenues. It’s amazing what you’ll learn when you actually watch your users.
Our first Super Bowl commercial microsite
We didn’t make a Super Bowl commercial, but we did make a microsite that supports a Super Bowl commercial.
It’s not an ad for companies that sell beer, pickups or soft drinks; it’s for a foundation that helps people start companies that could someday grow big enough to pay $4 million for their own Super Bowl spots.
Our client is the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City organization that studies and promotes entrepreneurship. The commercial asks viewers if they have it in them to become the next great entrepreneur and directs them to the website we built for more information on getting started.
The entrepreneurial subject matter, unusual for a Super Bowl spot, has caught the attention of CNNMoney.
The commercial is airing only in the New York, Washington, Kansas City and San Francisco markets, but the microsite can be seen everywhere.
No Matthew Broderick or Go Daddy girls on the site, just information on turning dreams into reality.
Super Bowl commercial preview
There was a time when you would have had to actually watch Super Bowl XLVI to see the commercials. This year, the best ones have leaked out all over the Internet. In fact, there have even been commercials supporting the main commercials.
Ferris Bueller is back. So are the Coca-Cola polar bears. In case you haven’t had the chance to see the commercials, here are links to some of the best:
- Volkswagen, “The Bark Side”
- Honda CR-V, “Matthew’s Day Off”
- Chevy, “Happy Grad”
- Acura NSX, “Transactions”
- Suzuki, “Sled”
- Audi, “Vampire Party”
- Pepsi MAX, “Check-out”
M&Ms will also be making a splash first quarter with the introduction of their sixth computer-animated mascot and second female M&M, Ms. Brown. Ms. Brown and the M&Ms crew have been promoting her anticipated arrival on the M&Ms Facebook page to drum-up excitement.
Other advertisers, like Coca-Cola®, are also incorporating social media into the mix. For instance, the Coca-Cola® Polar Bears will throw their first-ever Polar Bowl Party via Facebook. According to the CokePolarBowl Facebook page, fans can watch the game with the famous polar bears, receive highlights, learn how to do a polar dance or two as well as chat with friends.
No matter who wins, Super Bowl XLVI is sure to be an exciting advertising game!
Adcom hires Stacey Vaselaney, Derryl Strong, Alicia Lenhart and seven others
CLEVELAND, OHIO – February 1, 2012 – The Adcom Group of Companies, a Cleveland-based full-service marketing firm, is proud to announce the additions of Stacey Vaselaney as senior public relations strategist, Derryl Strong as art director, Alicia Lenhart as senior media planner and buyer, Jacob Pniewski as email marketing developer, Rachel Bucey as content and SEO strategist, Steven Logan as digital production artist, Jay Bonning as back end developer, Morgan Rooks as digital media traffic manager, Michelle Phillips as media associate and Steven Eng as assistant systems administrator.
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Adcom helps KeyBank thank customers
KeyBank wanted to thank its customers in unusual ways over the course of a week. Adcom helped create the promotions and mapped the social media campaign that spread the word throughout Greater Cleveland.
The Adcom campaign in mid-December was a big success, earning KeyBank lots of friends and lots of free media. It turns out giving away free food, popcorn, movie tickets, T-shirts, parking, ice cream and coffee is a pretty good thank you.
Adcom Group hires Nick Dyko, James Abrams and Benjamin Murphy
The Adcom Group of Companies, a Cleveland-based full-service marketing firm, is proud to announce the additions of Nick Dyko as interactive designer, James Abrams as account executive and Benjamin Murphy as assistant account executive.
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