customer
It’s Incredible How Much Reputation Matters For Brands
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/its-incredible-how-much-reputation-matters-for-brands-2012-12
In a time where trust in companies is at an all time low, it’s more valuable than ever. That’s not a moral or values based statement, it’s about the impact on the bottom line.
This chart, from a presentation at McKinsey’s Chief Marketing And Sales Officer Forum, shows how much investors and consumers reward an outstanding reputation:
Despite the incredible value of reputation, according to McKinsey’s Betsy Holden, companies aren’t taking full advantage of their opportunities to increase it:
One thing they can do to improve their reputation is bolster their social media presence. They can publish material related to the above, like information about transparency or environmental efforts, and can use it as a customer service tool. Being accessible and accountable increases trust.
That route may be particularly effective because social media is trusted by consumers at a rapidly increasing rate:
NOW READ: McK insey Predicts The War For Talent Will Go Nuts By 2020
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4 in 10 Millennials Interested in Co-Creating Products With Brands
Research from Cognizant has shown that companies that involve direct customer input in their innovation processes report higher satisfaction with a variety of innovation areas than those who don’t. For brands looking to go that route, Millennials may prove a willing source of ideas. According to new survey results from Edelman Berland and Edelman 8095, […]
report
Source: http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/11198-mobile-marketing-mainly-used-for-customer-acquisition-report
However, as search is second only to email as the most popular smartphone task, there is certainly value in using mobile for customer acquisition and awareness.
The survey also asked respondents which mobile marketing tactics they use.
Reflecting the fact that social media is a hugely popular activity on smartphone, 66% of marketers said they invest in social mobile advertising.
Display was the second most popular activity (44%) followed by mobile web landing pages with promotions and location-targeted advertising (both 37%).
Interestingly, only 22% said they invest in mobile paid search, which suggests advertisers are missing the opportunity presented by this channel. We’ve seen numerous surveys which show that although mobile search spend is increasing rapidly, it’s still a relatively untapped area for marketers.
For example, data from Marin Software revealed that mobile devices accounted for 13% of search spend in June 2012, yet took a 20% share of clicks.
This is despite the fact that separate surveys shows that search spend increased 250% in Q1 and 333% in Q2 2012 compared with the same periods in 2011.
KPIs
Forrester also asked respondents what KPIs they use to assess their mobile marketing initiatives.
The most common answer was web traffic and visitors (63%), followed by CTR (58%), brand awareness (54%) and revenue (44%).
The report takes this as further evidence that too many mobile advertisers are using desktop marketing tactics and haven’t yet adapted to the opportunities presented by mobile.
It recommends that marketers use mobile to deliver highly contextual, relevant information that directly engage individual consumers.
For further information on this topic check out our blog posts on whether your mobile strategy is fit for purpose and seven best practice tips for mobile marketers.
Small Businesses Are Backing Away From Groupon This Holiday Season
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/small-shops-skip-groupon-for-holidays-2012-11
This holiday season, small retailers are leaving Groupon off their lists as far as sales strategy goes.
This shopping season is the biggest one of the year, and small businesses often rely on sales made during this period to bring them into the black as the year comes to a close.
A sales strategy that didn’t work during the rest of the year is out of the question for the holidays, says Pamela Springer, CEO of online small business network Manta.
This doesn’t bode well for Groupon and other daily deals sites. Only 3percent of retailers got repeat customers out of daily deals promotions, according to a survey Manta released Oct. 30.
“They’re doubling down on things that work, and leaving things that are less proven or they’ve had experience with and didn’t work off to the side,” says Springer.
If businesses aren’t getting repeat customers out of Groupon deals, they’re losing money, says Anthony Bruce, CEO of retail data analyzer Applied Predictive Technology. Groupon often charges businesses as much as half the revenue of a deal sale, which is usually a drastic discount already.
“If there are future purchases that occur because of a Groupon, that’s great,” says Bruce. “If it’s an incremental visit I wouldn’t have gotten anyway, it’s bad. If it’s a visit I would have gotten anyway but did it with a Groupon, that’s terrible.”
Jennifer Untermeyer says she won’t use Groupon this holiday season, because she lost money on the five daily deals she ran last year for her business, TravelKiddy, an online store that sells toys and games to keep kids busy during road trips or plane rides. She ran her first $10 deal for $20 of merchandise on Eversave last November, trying to snag holiday travelers, and ran four more similar deals on niche mom-! themed d eals sites, hoping to score new customers.
It didn’t work.
“We can tell how many people we’ve had repeat, and it’s eight or nine out of 3,000 deals,” she says. “We ended up in an overall loss, even factoring in the marketing benefits.”
Sales chief Kal Raman says Groupon helps businesses retain customers through its reward program, which is sort of like a frequent-flier program for customers. The program helps businesses track purchases a Groupon customer has made, and after a certain level of spending is reached, Groupon automatically sends the customer a free deal.
“We effectively become their loyalty-management company,” says Raman, who sees Groupon as a great way for retailers to sell inventory they’d otherwise be sitting on. “As a small-business owner, you can aim high, and we can hedge that risk.”
Will Ander, senior partner of retail strategy firm McMillan Doolittle, says liquidation is the only good thing Groupon does for small retailers. “It’s more effective than giving it to the Salvation Army.”
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Here’s How We Sold 100 Million Doritos Locos Tacos In 10 Weeks (YUM)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/taco-bell-doritos-locos-tacos-2012-11
Taco Bell sold a whopping 100 million Doritos Locos Tacos in 10 weeks — the biggest launch in the history of the fast food chain. The item has since passed 200 million in sales.
Fast Company’s J.J. McCorvey interviewed Taco Bell CMO Brian Niccol who described what it took to make the Doritos Locos Tacos successful.
It wasn’t enough to tell customers, hey, these taco shells taste like Doritos and you should eat them, he said.
Instead, it was about allowing the customers to tell the brand’s story, and having them run with it.
Niccol explained to Fast Company:
“Once the idea is no longer just a Taco Bell idea and becomes the customer’s thing, it’s almost like they’re going to socialize for us. They own it. They get convicted about it. The next thing you know, they’re telling their friends they gotta go try it. So the second you can get it to move from, we’re telling you should go try this, to consumers actually advocating for it, that’s when the brand moves into an experience that is worth you repeating.”
Taco Bell let the customers have control, and it did it through social, mobile and even had a national TV ad that featured a customer’s story. It worked.
NOW SEE: 13 Fast Food Menu Items With Fanatical Cult Followings >
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How Burberry And Caesars Took Different Approaches To Dominate The Competition Online
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-burberry-and-caesars-went-digital-2012-11
“It’s all very nice being a digital leader, but do you make more money?” According to a recent study from Capgemini Consulting and MIT’s Center For Digital Business, the answer is yes, to the tune of a 26 percent increase in profitability.
According to Didier Bonnet, Capgemini’s Global Practice manager, what distinguishes these companies is an intense focus on transforming in one area that they’re best at, getting it right, and then applying those lessons and data throughout the rest of the business.
These companies see digital technology as the thing that sets them apart, not just another tool. It’s not an experiment, but an intensely focused program based on getting business results.
“They were very focused to start with in their investment,” Bonnet says, “so rather than just going all over the place and investing in, you know, people, collaboration, customer experience, and operations, they had a pretty clear starting point.”
But that starting point can be very different depending on the company, as Bonnet highlighted with these two digital outperformers from the report:
Burberry: Starting with the customer
“For example, Burberry, the fashion retailer, really started with customer experience, they first tried to get their shop sorted out very well, they put screens in that connected all of the shops to the head office. From there, they moved on to slightly more sophisticated social media applications where they actually launch their collection on soc! ial medi a first before they’re at the Milan or Paris shows. From there they moved on to mobility, and now they’re right in the middle of using all of the data for analytic purposes that they’ve managed to gather from connecting their organization. But it started from the customer experience.”
Burberry took the customer experience, invested heavily, then used that data and experience across every channel. Bonnet says “it’s the difference between sticking a technology in an existing process, substitution if you will, versus really transforming the process with the power of what the technology can do.”
Caesars: Using data to make everything personal
“Caesars has really started on analytics, so they tried to really work on how to personalize the experience for the customer. Once the analytics were sorted out, they moved into mobility with location based marketing, eventually reaching a point where you can get recognized when you walk into a store and get preference based coupons and advice on what you can do in the resorts and the casinos. Now they’re moving more and more into the operations side.”
Caesars’ business encompasses shopping, restaurants, casinos, and more. Starting with data from their customers allowed them to take every other tool digital technology has to offer and use it to boost performance across all parts of the company.
Though the paths were very different, the lessons are the same.
Find the report here
NOW READ: Digitally Mature Companies Significantly Outperform Everybody Else
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I Really Want a Credit Card with a LCD Screen and Touchscreen Keypad
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5958721/i-really-want-a-credit-card-with-a-lcd-screen-and-touchscreen-keypad
You can have your black card and your credit card carved out of adamantium (just kidding, I would really like that), the only credit card I want is MasterCard’s Display Card. MasterCard has been testing the card that comes with a LCD and touchscreen keypad, for some time and has now introduced it in Singapore. They say the added tech is for security: users can generate a one-time password as an authentication security measure.
Here’s MasterCard:
At present, banking institutions that necessitate a higher level of security for their online banking services require the use of a separate authentication token or device. The innovative 2-in-1 device, which combines the functionality of a standard payment card with a state-of-the-art security token, currently reflects the customer’s OTP. In future, this card could incorporate additional functionalities and be able to indicate other real time information such as available credit balance, loyalty or reward points, recent transactions, and other interactive information.
I’m in the camp of throwing a LCD screen and touchscreen keypad on as much things as you can. I don’t even really care about the security function, I just like staring at screens. [Mastercard via CNET]
It Seems That Target Is Still Being Haunted By A Donation It Made More Than Two Years Ago
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/bWwNmtwA7GE/target-brand-perception-2012-10
Back in 2010, the retailer made a controversial — and much publicized — $150,000 donation to MN Forward, which then supported a gubernatorial candidate who was anti-gay marriage. It resulted in calls for a national boycott.
Consumer recommendation levels have been steadily dropping ever since, according to brand perception firm YouGov.
“[Target’s] customer loyalty seems to be still haunted,” writes YouGov BrandIndex SVP and managing director Ted Marzilli.
Marzilli explains:
“Once the political donation news broke in July 2010 and became a political flashpoint, the two brands took different paths: while Amazon went on to climb modestly from 53 to its current 56 score, Target’s score fell for more than three months, from 53 down to 44 at the end of October. Since that bottom point, Target’s highest recommend score was 50 in February 2011, but it is currently at 46.”
Here’s a chart of Target and Amazon on the YouGov BrandIndex:
NOW SEE: The Mega-Trends That Are Changing Retail Forever >
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Source: http://gizmodo.com/5947877/a-serious-security-flaw-lets-hackers-steal-your-twitter-account
Do you have a highly coveted Twitter handle? You should probably change your password. One user, Daniel Dennis Jones,—who formerly went by @blanket—has uncovered a very serious flaw that lets hackers crack your account and put it up for sale.
On Saturday, Twitter customer service notified Jones that his password had been changed. Alarming, because it clearly meant someone was trying to find a way into his account. He tried to log in but couldn’t, but was still logged in on his phone, and saw that all his tweets had been deleted and his follower count had dropped to a big fat goose egg.
Once he was able to log back into his account, his username had been changed to @FuckMyAssHoleLO, and his original handle, @blanket, now belonged to someone else. Jones did a little online digging to find his name with a bunch of other sought-after names on a site called ForumKorner, which is where his and other Twitter handles, some of which have been illegally obtained, are being sold.
BuzzFeed FWD explains how hackers were able to break into his account so easily:
Most sites, including Twitter, flag or disable user accounts, or throw up a CAPTCHA, after a certain number of failed login attempts. But whereas many services, including Gmail, limit login attempts on a per-account basis, Twitter apparently only prevents large numbers of login attempts from the same IP address. In other words, hackers – or crackers, as they would call themselves – can try to log in as many times as they want, so long as the login attempts appear to be coming from different computers.
You can read Daniel’s entire tale on Storify. It’s a good reminder that you should be changing your passwords regularly to protect yourself from losing any ounce of your digital life. [BuzzFeed FWD]
Urban Outfitters Says It Will Never Buy Another Cash Register Again
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/urban-outfitters-replaces-all-cash-registers-with-ipads-2012-9
Retailer Urban Outfitters had its first ever annual analyst day today.
You can listen to the whole presentation here, but about halfway through CIO Calvin Hollinger makes some interesting comments about the future of point-of-sales systems in retail.
Specifically, the company is going all Apple devices for its stores. Sales people will have iPod touches, and cash registers are being phased out in favor of iPads on a swivel.
In fact, he says: “Two or three weeks ago, we placed our very last register order… once we make sure this ipad works.. all stores will be equipped with iPod touches and iPads.”
iPads, he explained, cost about 1/5th as much as a cash register, and can be used for so much. As shown in the picture, they can be turned towards the customer, who can view content, put in personal information, use it as a gift registry and so forth.
What’s more, it makes a lot more sense from a space usage standpoint. An iPad on a swivel that’s not in use can quickly be taken off, with that space being used for packing or more merchandising or anything else.
SEE ALSO: The 29 best stocks in the market right now >
(Via @montoyan)
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Digital Consigliere
Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
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