What We Learned
Companies referenced: Proctor & Gamble (Tide), Comcast, Starbucks, New York Times, Sprint, Apple, Lego
What we learned: 3 Easy Lessons
Easy Lesson 1: Know why you are doing it and how it will enhance the user experience.
Companies and brands use a wide variety of social media and networking tools such as twitter, facebook, and blogs; not all companies should do this. A Seth Godin witticism elaborates: sundae toppings are great, so long as they go on top of ice cream. If you’re taking a product or service like detergent, adding all kinds of ‘treats’ like twitter and corporate blogs is like putting gummy bears on a meatball – at best they add nothing, at worst they clash. To most people, detergent is detergent and talking about stains online does not build brand nor enhance the experience of using Tide (Tide Facebook Fan page has 429 members – the affect on P&G’s last year sales of $76.4 billion is indeterminate.)
http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/366046/companies-learn-online-communities-are-often-a-waste-deloitte-doesn-t.html
http://www.cio.com/article/30719/Companies_Use_Online_Communities_to_Grow?page=2
Easy Lesson 2: You need to have support and resources.
If you are going to turn detergent into a community, make sure you have support and resources. A quick and dirty perusal of the Tide forum boards shows a relative ghost town. For Example: a Tide Team Member responds 40 days later to a complaint about the lack of scent in a product and offers a coupon – not sure if this is exactly the way you build support for any community, large or small.
http://www.tide.com/en_US/messageboard/readthread.jsp?connectionID=600376
http://www.drama20show.com/2008/02/14/note-to-tide-detergent-is-detergent/
Easy Lesson 3: Make participation so simple that anyone can do it.
Web 2.0 is one of the few places where the pareto 80/20 rule does not hold – in its place is the 1/9/90 rule, where one percent of users contribute 99% of all user-generated-content (UGC), nine percent contribute the other 1%, and 90% lurk in the background surfing and reading and thinking about what the information means to them. If it takes more than one minute or requires too much personal data, you can forget about reasonable participation rates.
What we learned: How a few companies are successfully using the Groundswell Framework, and what exactly it is that they are doing.
Listening
- Starbucks: My Starbucks Idea (www.mystarbucksidea.com) – a place where registered users can provide ideas, feedback, and talk to each other about the drinks, the food, whatever; Starbucks also monitors twitter feeds and responds directly to customer complaints or questions.
- Sprint: monitors twitter feeds about the company.
- New York Times: The TimesPeople application (http://timespeople.nytimes.com/home/about/) allows users to share and recommend articles more easily than e-mail (which it also supports, though requires some fields have input).
- (Eventually listening) Comcast: Comcast began listening to and acting upon customer complaints at the customer blog Comcast Must Die (http://comcastmustdie.com/). Eventually won that user over by changing service levels and becoming a more customer friendly organization.
Talking
- Starbucks – gives feedback on ideas at its idea site (above), and responds to concerns via twitter. Example: Anon. twitters: “wtf - i thought starbucks had free internets now... gotta love random open network connections.” 09:02 AM September 26, 2008. Starbucks replies: @anon a registered Starbucks card will get you 2 hours of free at&t wifi ... at: http://www.starbucks.com/ca... 10:28 AM September 26, 2008.
- Sprint - responds to twitter concerns directly – see blog post from www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com attached at back.
- New York Times: Over 60 blogs with content updated at least daily – many with world class authors such as Steven Dubner. Also uses twitter to send out headlines to followers (subscribers.)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Evangelist Booth Photo
The photos just doesn't do it justice! It was great, there were scads of people that came to the event, everyone did a great job inviting, preparing and delivering...
Thanks to my team for putting it all together and doing a great job.
C
Monday, October 6, 2008
evangelist - Social Media...an exciting way to create brand evangelists!
Now, it's time to get it all together!
Here is one of the handouts we gave to attended at the Sauder eMarketronics trade show at Robson Square on the 6th of October.
Why are we doing this and how is it done?
e· van· gel· ist
Social Media – An Exciting Way to Create Brand Evangelists
Social media in the world is influencing more businesses today. Consumers are becoming more empowered through the use of blogs, forums and communities as these mediums of communication are being harnessed to their benefit. Consumers are using this social media to speak about corporations large and small, and this represents a significant opportunity for business.
What do customer evangelists look like and what do they do?
They:
- Passionately recommend you to friends, neighbours and colleagues
- Provide unsolicited feedback or praise
- Forgive dips in service and quality
- Are not bought; they extol your virtues freely
- Feel part of something bigger than themselves
Why are brand evangelists important to your company?
Think of a pyramid: at the bottom, people speak about your brand, the middle represents immediate outcomes that come form listening to them and the top completes the process in the form of financial benefit to the firm.
Pyramid – Bottom
-Are you listening? As stated, consumers will speak about your brand, in both positive and negative ways. Herein lies an opportunity to effectively listen and manage the conversation. Engage thoughtfully…
Pyramid – Middle
- How can you turn these conversations into new activity? Aligning corporate interests with desired consumer outcomes could lead to increased consumption, new and repeat customers and business referrals. It also allows companies to take a stringent look at operations and achieve synergies.
Pyramid – Top
- Listening to customers can lead to innovative product and service improvements, which ultimately lead to financial gain – top line sales, increased profit or an enhanced cost structure.
How do you identify Brand Evangelists and make harness their
energy?
- The first step to identifying who is speaking about your brand is to begin a brand monitoring system. There are people who love your brand – diligent search will uncover their thoughts and feelings. Search communities, forums and blogs to assess the degree in which people are talking, manage it by using existing social media or by creating it yourself. The choice depends on your firm’s product/service, marketing strategy and obviously what capital you intend to allocate. Either way, if you decide that social media speak is a strategy for your company there will be costs to train employees or executives, which can be expensive.
Next, how can you energize these individuals or groups to take their game to the next level? Provide these evangelists with some autonomy and incentives, although it is recommended that monetary rewards are not primary. Evangelists don’t require money; they long for attachment, the opportunity to influence product and service development and more than anything – referent power as being a part of the organization. Evangelists carry a lot of information about your organization and many of those want to give back – they want to help others see the true benefits of your company.
Finally, Empowering evangelists can take your company to the next level. An example of true empowerment comes from LUGNET, the Lego User Group Network. Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, two researchers at Forrester Research, unveil the power that these users have on Lego in their book, groundswell – winning in a world transformed by social technologies. It turns out that adult Lego fans purchase nearly $10 million in Lego product per year and evangelists of the product have a significant role in that sales attainment. Adult Lego fans from all around the world vie for 25 prestigious ambassador roles, where they consult regarding product development and provide the many other fans with information surrounding the product. Lego has acknowledged that fans speak about their highly differentiated product, which draws an inherently unique fan base and great potential to harness their collective energy.
Using social technologies isn’t for every company. Risks and benefits accompany an online presence and it must fit into marketing and corporate strategies – with a long-term goal in mind. Social communities are no fly-by-night process, but will only become more intricate with each passing day. If your target market is under thirty, you need to have some sort of presence online as most of your customers are already there. Finally, senior executives must see the value in this initiative and support the process through to the end. Again, patience is the overriding theme that will allow you to understand what people are saying about your company and guides the decision to capitalize on evangelist thought.
Here is a post that Mark Holder, a colleague in my group, made regarding the project:
Social Media… an exciting way to create Brand Evangelists!
evangelist |i_vanj_list|
noun
1 a person who seeks to convert others to the Christian faith, esp. by public preaching.
• a layperson engaged in Christian missionary work.
• a zealous advocate of something : he is an evangelist of junk bonds.
2 the writer of one of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) : St. John the Evangelist.
What is an evangelist you ask? Well, the dictionary that comes pre-loaded on a Mac defines it as “a zealous advocate of something”, as you can see above. Okay, so what is a brand evangelist? Naturally, this would be an extension of an evangelist…an individual that is a zealous advocate of a particular brand, say Nike for example.
So why the need to find these brand evangelists, what can they offer a particular brand? Probably one of the biggest reasons to have brand evangelists is the word-of-mouth opportunity that exists. Brand evangelists will go out of their way to spread the word (positive) of a particular brand the individual feels strongly about. The online community is filled with stories of consumers bad mouthing companies for a number of reasons. The reason, or reasons, a lot of times doesn’t matter, the fact that a brand is associated with negativity and bad publicity is a serious situation. These messages can spread very quickly throughout the digital world, which means companies must be prepared to react quickly to combat these “fallen angels” and these bad messages. So obviously it is better to have consumers spreading positive messages about a particular brand, but how else can brand evangelists make a difference? The opportunity for repeat purchases by these brand evangelists is important; gaining new customers because of the positive messages brand evangelists spread to other consumers is important; and the potential to harness new, innovative ideas is also very important. All of these things collectively help a brand to achieve increases in brand awareness, brand recall, brand equity, and ultimately increased sales and profits.
This post will look at a number of issues relating to identifying, energizing, and empowering brand evangelists. Consider this introduction the “what” of the topic; next will be a discussion of the “who”, the “why”, and the “how”, followed by some real-world examples of companies that have harnessed (and attempted to harness) the power of brand evangelists (online), and a short discussion of some research our team conducted on the topic of brand evangelism.
Who are Brand Evangelists? What are their characteristics?
Brand evangelism is not a new phenomenon; it has recently started becoming more popular, arguably to “buzzword” status. An e-book written by Ben Connell and Jackie Huba in 2004 entitled Testify! How Remarkable Organizations are Creating Customer Evangelists does a great job in summing up exactly what a brand evangelist is. Connell and Huba define brand evangelists as being “volunteers for your marketing and sales departments”. Brand evangelists can have a dramatic effect, and generally at no costs to the organization. The authors also define the difference between brand loyals and brand evangelists; a brand loyal (customer who purchases from a brand on a regular basis) may buy from a particular company for reasons of convenience or price, but this customer isn’t necessarily spreading the word to others about your brand. A brand evangelist does spread the word.
Connell and Huba define brand evangelists based on what they do. According to the authors:
- They purchase and believe in your product or service
- They passionately recommend you to friends, neighbours, colleagues
- They purchase your products as gifts to others
- They provide unsolicited feedback or praise
- They forgive dips in service and quality
- They are not bought; they extol your virtues freely
- They feel part of something bigger than themselves
It seems unfathomable for a situation to exist where a brand wouldn’t want customers to show any of the above characteristics of brand evangelists. Keep reading to learn how you can identify, energize, and empower brand evangelists for your brand.
How about survey results: Another colleague, Nick Weichsler, conducted an online survey on behalf of the group - the following outlines the results.
Using Surveymonkey.com, we generated four questions about customer evangelism, and some further ones to obtain demographic information:
1. What in your opinion turns customers into evangelists for a brand, product or service?
2. What brands, products or services are you an evangelist for (please list up to five, give a short description if the item is not commonly known)?
3. Do you frequently visit websites of these companies?
4. If yes, do you create, read or react (blog, forum, community and discussion posts) to content?
5. What's your gender?
6. What's your nationality?
7. Which country are you living in currently?
8. What's your age?
In total, the survey yielded 106 valid responses by the deadline we had set for harvesting the results (72 hours after putting it online).
Two thirds of our respondents were male, one third female. We had mainly respondents from Canada, followed by Germany, the US and the UK.
Most respondents regarded quality levels, service levels and trust as the most important things to inspire customer evangelism. The least important aspect according to our results were promotional activities and reward programs.
The most often mentioned brand was Apple, followed by Nike, Nokia, Google and Toyota (among all responses).
Among first responses (i.e., top of mind), the most mentioned brands were Apple, Nike, Nokia, Audi and IBM.
The segment with most responses was Electronics, followed by Food and Drink and Apparel (out of all responses).
However, regarding top of mind, the strongest segment was Electronics, followed by Food and Drink and Automotive. So these are segments people are thinking of more naturally when they're considering which brands they're evangelistic for.
Interestingly, there were strong divergences in the top 10 with regards to the ranking of segments, and even segments included in the top 10. Apparently, most people that considered themselves as recommending apparel to their peers, only thought of this after some thinking.
Surprisingly, 53% of respondents don't visit the websites frequently of the brands they endorse.
In total, 68 people mentioned that they don't generate content on the websites (however, this number includes the ones that don't visit websites at all. The respondents that generated content are almost equally distributed among the possibilities offered, but never above 10 responses.
It can be concluded that there is still a huge, untapped potential for customer evangelism even among our group's peers, which can be considered a sample of literate and heavy internet users.
Here is one of the handouts we gave to attended at the Sauder eMarketronics trade show at Robson Square on the 6th of October.
Why are we doing this and how is it done?
e· van· gel· ist
Social Media – An Exciting Way to Create Brand Evangelists
Social media in the world is influencing more businesses today. Consumers are becoming more empowered through the use of blogs, forums and communities as these mediums of communication are being harnessed to their benefit. Consumers are using this social media to speak about corporations large and small, and this represents a significant opportunity for business.
What do customer evangelists look like and what do they do?
They:
- Passionately recommend you to friends, neighbours and colleagues
- Provide unsolicited feedback or praise
- Forgive dips in service and quality
- Are not bought; they extol your virtues freely
- Feel part of something bigger than themselves
Why are brand evangelists important to your company?
Think of a pyramid: at the bottom, people speak about your brand, the middle represents immediate outcomes that come form listening to them and the top completes the process in the form of financial benefit to the firm.
Pyramid – Bottom
-Are you listening? As stated, consumers will speak about your brand, in both positive and negative ways. Herein lies an opportunity to effectively listen and manage the conversation. Engage thoughtfully…
Pyramid – Middle
- How can you turn these conversations into new activity? Aligning corporate interests with desired consumer outcomes could lead to increased consumption, new and repeat customers and business referrals. It also allows companies to take a stringent look at operations and achieve synergies.
Pyramid – Top
- Listening to customers can lead to innovative product and service improvements, which ultimately lead to financial gain – top line sales, increased profit or an enhanced cost structure.
How do you identify Brand Evangelists and make harness their
energy?- The first step to identifying who is speaking about your brand is to begin a brand monitoring system. There are people who love your brand – diligent search will uncover their thoughts and feelings. Search communities, forums and blogs to assess the degree in which people are talking, manage it by using existing social media or by creating it yourself. The choice depends on your firm’s product/service, marketing strategy and obviously what capital you intend to allocate. Either way, if you decide that social media speak is a strategy for your company there will be costs to train employees or executives, which can be expensive.
Next, how can you energize these individuals or groups to take their game to the next level? Provide these evangelists with some autonomy and incentives, although it is recommended that monetary rewards are not primary. Evangelists don’t require money; they long for attachment, the opportunity to influence product and service development and more than anything – referent power as being a part of the organization. Evangelists carry a lot of information about your organization and many of those want to give back – they want to help others see the true benefits of your company.
Finally, Empowering evangelists can take your company to the next level. An example of true empowerment comes from LUGNET, the Lego User Group Network. Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, two researchers at Forrester Research, unveil the power that these users have on Lego in their book, groundswell – winning in a world transformed by social technologies. It turns out that adult Lego fans purchase nearly $10 million in Lego product per year and evangelists of the product have a significant role in that sales attainment. Adult Lego fans from all around the world vie for 25 prestigious ambassador roles, where they consult regarding product development and provide the many other fans with information surrounding the product. Lego has acknowledged that fans speak about their highly differentiated product, which draws an inherently unique fan base and great potential to harness their collective energy.
Using social technologies isn’t for every company. Risks and benefits accompany an online presence and it must fit into marketing and corporate strategies – with a long-term goal in mind. Social communities are no fly-by-night process, but will only become more intricate with each passing day. If your target market is under thirty, you need to have some sort of presence online as most of your customers are already there. Finally, senior executives must see the value in this initiative and support the process through to the end. Again, patience is the overriding theme that will allow you to understand what people are saying about your company and guides the decision to capitalize on evangelist thought.
Here is a post that Mark Holder, a colleague in my group, made regarding the project:
Social Media… an exciting way to create Brand Evangelists!
evangelist |i_vanj_list|
noun
1 a person who seeks to convert others to the Christian faith, esp. by public preaching.
• a layperson engaged in Christian missionary work.
• a zealous advocate of something : he is an evangelist of junk bonds.
2 the writer of one of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) : St. John the Evangelist.
What is an evangelist you ask? Well, the dictionary that comes pre-loaded on a Mac defines it as “a zealous advocate of something”, as you can see above. Okay, so what is a brand evangelist? Naturally, this would be an extension of an evangelist…an individual that is a zealous advocate of a particular brand, say Nike for example.
So why the need to find these brand evangelists, what can they offer a particular brand? Probably one of the biggest reasons to have brand evangelists is the word-of-mouth opportunity that exists. Brand evangelists will go out of their way to spread the word (positive) of a particular brand the individual feels strongly about. The online community is filled with stories of consumers bad mouthing companies for a number of reasons. The reason, or reasons, a lot of times doesn’t matter, the fact that a brand is associated with negativity and bad publicity is a serious situation. These messages can spread very quickly throughout the digital world, which means companies must be prepared to react quickly to combat these “fallen angels” and these bad messages. So obviously it is better to have consumers spreading positive messages about a particular brand, but how else can brand evangelists make a difference? The opportunity for repeat purchases by these brand evangelists is important; gaining new customers because of the positive messages brand evangelists spread to other consumers is important; and the potential to harness new, innovative ideas is also very important. All of these things collectively help a brand to achieve increases in brand awareness, brand recall, brand equity, and ultimately increased sales and profits.
This post will look at a number of issues relating to identifying, energizing, and empowering brand evangelists. Consider this introduction the “what” of the topic; next will be a discussion of the “who”, the “why”, and the “how”, followed by some real-world examples of companies that have harnessed (and attempted to harness) the power of brand evangelists (online), and a short discussion of some research our team conducted on the topic of brand evangelism.
Who are Brand Evangelists? What are their characteristics?
Brand evangelism is not a new phenomenon; it has recently started becoming more popular, arguably to “buzzword” status. An e-book written by Ben Connell and Jackie Huba in 2004 entitled Testify! How Remarkable Organizations are Creating Customer Evangelists does a great job in summing up exactly what a brand evangelist is. Connell and Huba define brand evangelists as being “volunteers for your marketing and sales departments”. Brand evangelists can have a dramatic effect, and generally at no costs to the organization. The authors also define the difference between brand loyals and brand evangelists; a brand loyal (customer who purchases from a brand on a regular basis) may buy from a particular company for reasons of convenience or price, but this customer isn’t necessarily spreading the word to others about your brand. A brand evangelist does spread the word.
Connell and Huba define brand evangelists based on what they do. According to the authors:
- They purchase and believe in your product or service
- They passionately recommend you to friends, neighbours, colleagues
- They purchase your products as gifts to others
- They provide unsolicited feedback or praise
- They forgive dips in service and quality
- They are not bought; they extol your virtues freely
- They feel part of something bigger than themselves
It seems unfathomable for a situation to exist where a brand wouldn’t want customers to show any of the above characteristics of brand evangelists. Keep reading to learn how you can identify, energize, and empower brand evangelists for your brand.
How about survey results: Another colleague, Nick Weichsler, conducted an online survey on behalf of the group - the following outlines the results.
e-vangelist Survey Results
To get a better understanding about what turns a customer into an evangelist for a brand, product or service, we decided to do an online survey within our social media and business networks.Using Surveymonkey.com, we generated four questions about customer evangelism, and some further ones to obtain demographic information:
1. What in your opinion turns customers into evangelists for a brand, product or service?
2. What brands, products or services are you an evangelist for (please list up to five, give a short description if the item is not commonly known)?
3. Do you frequently visit websites of these companies?
4. If yes, do you create, read or react (blog, forum, community and discussion posts) to content?
5. What's your gender?
6. What's your nationality?
7. Which country are you living in currently?
8. What's your age?
In total, the survey yielded 106 valid responses by the deadline we had set for harvesting the results (72 hours after putting it online).
Two thirds of our respondents were male, one third female. We had mainly respondents from Canada, followed by Germany, the US and the UK.
Most respondents regarded quality levels, service levels and trust as the most important things to inspire customer evangelism. The least important aspect according to our results were promotional activities and reward programs.
The most often mentioned brand was Apple, followed by Nike, Nokia, Google and Toyota (among all responses).
Among first responses (i.e., top of mind), the most mentioned brands were Apple, Nike, Nokia, Audi and IBM.
The segment with most responses was Electronics, followed by Food and Drink and Apparel (out of all responses).
However, regarding top of mind, the strongest segment was Electronics, followed by Food and Drink and Automotive. So these are segments people are thinking of more naturally when they're considering which brands they're evangelistic for.
Interestingly, there were strong divergences in the top 10 with regards to the ranking of segments, and even segments included in the top 10. Apparently, most people that considered themselves as recommending apparel to their peers, only thought of this after some thinking.
Surprisingly, 53% of respondents don't visit the websites frequently of the brands they endorse.
In total, 68 people mentioned that they don't generate content on the websites (however, this number includes the ones that don't visit websites at all. The respondents that generated content are almost equally distributed among the possibilities offered, but never above 10 responses.
It can be concluded that there is still a huge, untapped potential for customer evangelism even among our group's peers, which can be considered a sample of literate and heavy internet users.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Trumpeting Groundswell
Last week I made a post that outlined what the essence of Groundswell is, a comprehensive review of social media - especially how it impacts the business landscape.
Today, it's all about an example that Li and Bernoff used in the book to trumpet social technographics - especially a way to identify profiles of people using social media. Recall that the Forrester researchers identified a way to identify those contributing to the groundswell and their way to categorize these people.
The result: Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives.
Case in point: Lego's LUGNET, the Lego User Group Network, which is made up of adult fans who use social media to stay in tune with the company's actions, directives and also act as ambassadors to the Lego movement. Adult Lego fans from around the globe vie for 25 coveted ambassador positions where they liaise between the company and the many fans on issues like new product development, yearly conventions and nostalgic bits that keep fans energized. By providing referent power to the ambassadors across Lego Land, the company benefits from
their energy and feedback; ambassadors benefit from an increased sense of ownership and connection to like-minded global citizens.
Ambassadors use social media by creating blogs and user communities to spread the good word , often uploading video or Lego manual information that dates as far back as the 50's. Indeed, the logo or the archetypal Lego man caricature evokes nostalgic feelings for many and if harnessed correctly, can be translated to ever-improving relationships and greater long run profits. When adult fans of lego attribute up to $10 million in annual sales, the impact of social media cannot be understated.
Today, it's all about an example that Li and Bernoff used in the book to trumpet social technographics - especially a way to identify profiles of people using social media. Recall that the Forrester researchers identified a way to identify those contributing to the groundswell and their way to categorize these people.
The result: Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives.
Case in point: Lego's LUGNET, the Lego User Group Network, which is made up of adult fans who use social media to stay in tune with the company's actions, directives and also act as ambassadors to the Lego movement. Adult Lego fans from around the globe vie for 25 coveted ambassador positions where they liaise between the company and the many fans on issues like new product development, yearly conventions and nostalgic bits that keep fans energized. By providing referent power to the ambassadors across Lego Land, the company benefits from
their energy and feedback; ambassadors benefit from an increased sense of ownership and connection to like-minded global citizens.Ambassadors use social media by creating blogs and user communities to spread the good word , often uploading video or Lego manual information that dates as far back as the 50's. Indeed, the logo or the archetypal Lego man caricature evokes nostalgic feelings for many and if harnessed correctly, can be translated to ever-improving relationships and greater long run profits. When adult fans of lego attribute up to $10 million in annual sales, the impact of social media cannot be understated.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Direct Reponse Marketing
A recent directive for my creative marketing class is to identify direct response types of marketing. I've come across a couple in the last few days.
RBC Student Banking
The biggest bank in Canada invites students to open a 'no limit banking for students' account and those who choose to can enter to win a Vespa. The Vespa is the grand prize and secondary prizes are a Sony Bravia TV and a Playstation. What makes this a little different than many other contests is that the bank has made it very easy to find a nearest branch to the school, all information derived from a print ad. Users can text their school name to 12345, upon which the nearest RBC branch is returned.
Great - students can see where the nearest branch is and then visit - free banking awaiting them.
Great - RBC now has your phone information and can target a marketing campaign around that newly acquired information.
http://www.rbcp2p.com/freeride/
Of course, students can view information about the promotion and can enter the contest from the above link.
Fire up the Vespa and hone your PS3 skills...
RBC Student Banking
The biggest bank in Canada invites students to open a 'no limit banking for students' account and those who choose to can enter to win a Vespa. The Vespa is the grand prize and secondary prizes are a Sony Bravia TV and a Playstation. What makes this a little different than many other contests is that the bank has made it very easy to find a nearest branch to the school, all information derived from a print ad. Users can text their school name to 12345, upon which the nearest RBC branch is returned.
Great - students can see where the nearest branch is and then visit - free banking awaiting them.
Great - RBC now has your phone information and can target a marketing campaign around that newly acquired information.
http://www.rbcp2p.com/freeride/
Of course, students can view information about the promotion and can enter the contest from the above link.
Fire up the Vespa and hone your PS3 skills...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Archetypes in Business
Archetypal Selling Propositions
So, as we saw from the previous post, an archetype is defined by:
a very typical example of a certain person or thing : the book is a perfect archetype of the genre.
• an original that has been imitated : the archetype of faith is Abraham.
• a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology : mythological archetypes of good and evil.
Companies and causes alike have utilized animals in their corporate communication strategies and many have centered advertising around things like bears, squirrels and dogs. In this post, I'll discuss how three organizations have at some time in their histories have used friendly bears to connect with consumers.
Coke Bears
The Coke Bear campaign was introduced back in 1993 as it introduced the 'Always Coca-Cola' campaign. It had been a dramatic shift for Coke, as it used the computer generated polar bears to show the playful side of the brand. Between the parent bears and the bear cub, no words were spoken; only little grunts that the bears let out - assuming to be displays of affection. The campaign grew to the 1994 winter Olympics where the bears slid down the luge and slid off a ski jump. The campaign was a big success during that period of time for Coke.
Check it out:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colahist.html
Smokey the Bear
Moving on to a constant usage of the mountain dweller, Smokey the bear has been part of the longest running ad campaign Ad Council history.
http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=129
Smokey began telling Americans that "ONLY YOU can prevent forest fires." He became the 'poster bear' for the United States Forest Service back in 1944 and has remained the symbolic spokesperson for the organization ever since. According to the USDA forest service "95% of the people surveyed could finish the sentence when given the first words."
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/centennial/smokey.shtml
Smokey represents a recurrent symbol in North American culture and with all of his character updates since the mid 40's, still evokes strong feelings and associations.
The A&W Root Bear ("Rootie")
What would a discussion be about archetypal
bears without discussing the Great A&W Root Bear? He first came on to the scene back in 1975 when the company needed a lift - interesting that again, a bear was the chosen messenger. Canadians are familiar with associations that come with the bear - like Tubas, tunes and Orange. He became so popular in their marketing strategy that the American A&W chain made the Great Root Bear their mascot as well. The bear remains as perhaps the largest influencing archetypal selling proposition the company employs; he is infused everywhere in advertising and messaging. Again, like Coke's polar bears and the Forest Service's Smokey, Rootie is a great example of how an organization has used a recurring symbol to position its marketing communication efforts.
While Coke used the polar bears as a temporary movement in its advertising, the U.S. Forest Service and A&W have used their bears to promote the brand and thus, are strongly associated with people in society. Kraft has also featured bears on the front of its peanut butter jars for decades and is wildly associated with the product. Perhaps its the playfulness or the raw message that is elicited from the bear's presence that makes the message so powerful. Smokey was created after a forest fire in New Mexico left 'Smokey' clinging for life up a tall tree. People resonate with stories like this - characters bring a certain touch to everyday life that humans sometimes fail to do. Regardless, archetypes will continue to reach us on a daily basis, keep an eye out as you open the fridge, watch TV or drive down the street... Smokey may be watching you.
So, as we saw from the previous post, an archetype is defined by:
a very typical example of a certain person or thing : the book is a perfect archetype of the genre.
• an original that has been imitated : the archetype of faith is Abraham.
• a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology : mythological archetypes of good and evil.
Companies and causes alike have utilized animals in their corporate communication strategies and many have centered advertising around things like bears, squirrels and dogs. In this post, I'll discuss how three organizations have at some time in their histories have used friendly bears to connect with consumers.
Coke Bears
The Coke Bear campaign was introduced back in 1993 as it introduced the 'Always Coca-Cola' campaign. It had been a dramatic shift for Coke, as it used the computer generated polar bears to show the playful side of the brand. Between the parent bears and the bear cub, no words were spoken; only little grunts that the bears let out - assuming to be displays of affection. The campaign grew to the 1994 winter Olympics where the bears slid down the luge and slid off a ski jump. The campaign was a big success during that period of time for Coke.
Check it out:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colahist.html
Smokey the Bear
Moving on to a constant usage of the mountain dweller, Smokey the bear has been part of the longest running ad campaign Ad Council history.
http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=129
Smokey began telling Americans that "ONLY YOU can prevent forest fires." He became the 'poster bear' for the United States Forest Service back in 1944 and has remained the symbolic spokesperson for the organization ever since. According to the USDA forest service "95% of the people surveyed could finish the sentence when given the first words."
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/centennial/smokey.shtml
Smokey represents a recurrent symbol in North American culture and with all of his character updates since the mid 40's, still evokes strong feelings and associations.
The A&W Root Bear ("Rootie")
What would a discussion be about archetypal
bears without discussing the Great A&W Root Bear? He first came on to the scene back in 1975 when the company needed a lift - interesting that again, a bear was the chosen messenger. Canadians are familiar with associations that come with the bear - like Tubas, tunes and Orange. He became so popular in their marketing strategy that the American A&W chain made the Great Root Bear their mascot as well. The bear remains as perhaps the largest influencing archetypal selling proposition the company employs; he is infused everywhere in advertising and messaging. Again, like Coke's polar bears and the Forest Service's Smokey, Rootie is a great example of how an organization has used a recurring symbol to position its marketing communication efforts.While Coke used the polar bears as a temporary movement in its advertising, the U.S. Forest Service and A&W have used their bears to promote the brand and thus, are strongly associated with people in society. Kraft has also featured bears on the front of its peanut butter jars for decades and is wildly associated with the product. Perhaps its the playfulness or the raw message that is elicited from the bear's presence that makes the message so powerful. Smokey was created after a forest fire in New Mexico left 'Smokey' clinging for life up a tall tree. People resonate with stories like this - characters bring a certain touch to everyday life that humans sometimes fail to do. Regardless, archetypes will continue to reach us on a daily basis, keep an eye out as you open the fridge, watch TV or drive down the street... Smokey may be watching you.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Archetypes...what are they?
archetype |ˈärk(i)ˌtīp|
noun
a very typical example of a certain person or thing : the book is a perfect archetype of the genre. See note at model .
• an original that has been imitated : the archetype of faith is Abraham.
• a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology : mythological archetypes of good and evil.
• Psychoanalysis (in Jungian psychology) a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.
source: Mac Dictionary
content comment coming soon.....
noun
a very typical example of a certain person or thing : the book is a perfect archetype of the genre. See note at model .
• an original that has been imitated : the archetype of faith is Abraham.
• a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology : mythological archetypes of good and evil.
• Psychoanalysis (in Jungian psychology) a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.
source: Mac Dictionary
content comment coming soon.....
Monday, September 22, 2008
Groundswell - winning in a world transformed by social technologies
Groundswell – Winning in a world transformed by social technologies; a book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, part of Forrester Research.
Empirically defined by the authors, Groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations .
Groundswell seeks to educate readers about the impact that blogs, community forums and wiki’s can have on the increasingly technology savvy consumer base. Strategic thrusts to the book are detailed in three major categories; Understanding the Groundswell, Tapping the Groundswell and How the Groundswell Transforms. More than ever, people have the desire to communicate and connect, albeit through increasingly varied mediums.
Understanding the Groundswell
In the first section of Groundswell, Li and Bernoff introduce how social technologies, organized by collective groups of people, can threaten companies that conduct unsatisfactory business practices. Naturally, the opposite may occur; people can create bonds to tout a company’s products and services. Either way, the key to this movement is that it is here, now. There is no denying the groundswell impact, it will impact organizational decision-making and must be recognized.
The key to understanding the Groundswell is through the Social Technographics Profile, in Figure 1 - a tool that the authors have created to analyze demographic groups to base decision-making activities.
Overall societal segments are shown between the ladder rungs, a large segment of the population chooses not to participate within the groundswell movement – yet many are clearly engaged in multiple segments. Figure 2 explains how specific demographic information can be applied to the model for further understanding and action. The example shows levels at which certain Alpha moms are engaged in the groundswell. These mothers are more apt to participate in forums as critics and spectators. They love to respond to published data (critics) while enjoying community forum content at a greater rate than the population (spectators) and organizations can tailor its online marketing strategy accordingly.
Tapping the Groundswell
The second part of the book introduces a planning process for companies to create a groundswell approach to its business. The authors have created the POST acronym; People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. The POST process begins by analyzing demographics through the social technographics profile, and then outlines certain objectives for successful participation.
‘Objectives’ refer to five ways that a company can interact with groundswell customers:
- Listening – companies must listen to what customers are saying to gain better understanding
- Talking – Through social interactive tools (blogs, forums, communities), begin spreading messages to customers
- Energizing – Determine who the most energetic users are and leverage their enthusiasm for the brand; essentially making them brand evangelists
- Supporting – Help customers support each other; an example is Dell’s user generated support forums – people have a natural affinit y to help
- Embracing – After companies have succeeded in the first four steps, engage customers in product development through active feedback principles
Figure 3 provides examples pertaining to the five objectives.
Note the emphasis on interaction between customers in each functional area. This is what makes the groundswell such an important focal point and can represent a real opportunity for successful organizational strategy.
How the Groundswell Transforms
After all of the preceding activities and effective, thorough market research has been conducted, organizations can begin implementing programs that seek to test their particular market and segment. Consider Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004; Unilever initially marketed through traditional media and gave away small, yet increasingly creative control by allowing teams on The Apprentice to devise brand ads. However, the campaign really picked up speed as it went online, taking small steps with identifiable metrics to test the effects of groundswell investments (ads like Evolution). Throughout the process, senior executives recognized the importance of the initiative and had the courage to stay the directed course.
In summary, successful companies that choose to enter the groundswell should focus on the three following directives; steps that in Dove’s case, proved to be extremely successful :
- Take small steps that have big impact – using the Internet to promote campaigns became viral successes – the Evolution video has been viewed over 7.5 million times
- Have a vision and a plan – Li and Bernoff recommend success to be measured in years. Dove took two years after starting the Campaign for Real Beauty to introduce Evolution
- Build leaders into the plan – senior executive support is crucial for a campaign to get off the ground and their continued support enables people the ability to learn and adapt to change in the operating environment
In addition to customer-focused promotions, companies are increasingly using the groundswell to speak with employees. Best Buy created Blue Shirt Nation in 2006 as a way to connect employees throughout the organization – a place where they can post thoughts about daily activities and potential areas of opportunity. Employees benefit by actually being heard; functional knowledge is communicated through programs centered on employee mentorship to enhance emotional attachment at Best Buy.
Final Groundswell Recommendations
Li and Bernoff note that the future of the groundswell will continue to flourish thanks to inexpensive barriers to entry coupled with the natural propensity of people who are seeking to connect with others. Final advice from the authors is asserted in seven recommendations:
1. Be willing to talk with many people – the groundswell is a personal activity
2. Be a good listener – listen to customers and employees alike
3. Be patient – buy in takes time
4. Be opportunistic – act when the time is right
5. Be flexible – adjust constantly
6. Be collaborative – seek out like minded people to overcome resistance
7. Be humble – the groundswell is powerful, engage carefully
My Thoughts to Groundswell
Significant Implications
Due to the heavy, groundbreaking nature of the book, I felt it necessary to include significant amounts of content for those to learn from and consider. Indeed, there is plenty of material to process, all of which can have an impact on an organization now and into the future. Resulting data can be extremely useful for marketers to tailor effective marketing strategies around. The social technographics tool, perhaps the star of the book, has been made available for researchers to access:
http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
Access to Brand Evangelists
Beginning in the social technographics section and continuing through to energizing the groundswell, Li and Bernoff came across LUGNET (http://www.lugnet.com/) – a community where adult Lego fans are actively engaged in promoting the brand, providing feedback to the company (in terms of design and usability) and speaking passionately about their hobby. The company has 25 Lego ‘ambassadors’ of which are competitively earned and represent adult fans from around the world. The site is user generated and truly exhibits how innovation in design coupled with customer responsiveness can attract and retain lifelong users – true brand evangelists.
Because evangelists are truly enthusiastic about the brand, marketers can make them part of their communication strategy. These people can become an integral part of a segment and can essentially make them category captains. According to Li and Bernoff, adult fans for Lego, represent $50 million (5 – 10%) in annual sales. Targeted segments such as this need to be monitored and listened to – after ensuring they represent an integral part to their online and offline strategy. Following, the five objectives (listening, talking, energizing, supporting and embracing) from the POST process will guide marketers to win, if implemented correctly.
Groundswell is a book that, in my opinion, created a new lens in which to view the increasingly powerful social technology sphere. The concepts are timely and powerful.
Citations
1. Li and Bernoff, Groundswell - Winning in a word transformed by social technologies. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press, 2008.
2. Li and Bernoff, Groundswell - Winning in a word transformed by social technologies. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press - page 202, 2008.
Empirically defined by the authors, Groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations .
Groundswell seeks to educate readers about the impact that blogs, community forums and wiki’s can have on the increasingly technology savvy consumer base. Strategic thrusts to the book are detailed in three major categories; Understanding the Groundswell, Tapping the Groundswell and How the Groundswell Transforms. More than ever, people have the desire to communicate and connect, albeit through increasingly varied mediums.
Understanding the Groundswell
In the first section of Groundswell, Li and Bernoff introduce how social technologies, organized by collective groups of people, can threaten companies that conduct unsatisfactory business practices. Naturally, the opposite may occur; people can create bonds to tout a company’s products and services. Either way, the key to this movement is that it is here, now. There is no denying the groundswell impact, it will impact organizational decision-making and must be recognized.
The key to understanding the Groundswell is through the Social Technographics Profile, in Figure 1 - a tool that the authors have created to analyze demographic groups to base decision-making activities.
Overall societal segments are shown between the ladder rungs, a large segment of the population chooses not to participate within the groundswell movement – yet many are clearly engaged in multiple segments. Figure 2 explains how specific demographic information can be applied to the model for further understanding and action. The example shows levels at which certain Alpha moms are engaged in the groundswell. These mothers are more apt to participate in forums as critics and spectators. They love to respond to published data (critics) while enjoying community forum content at a greater rate than the population (spectators) and organizations can tailor its online marketing strategy accordingly.
Tapping the Groundswell
The second part of the book introduces a planning process for companies to create a groundswell approach to its business. The authors have created the POST acronym; People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. The POST process begins by analyzing demographics through the social technographics profile, and then outlines certain objectives for successful participation.‘Objectives’ refer to five ways that a company can interact with groundswell customers:
- Listening – companies must listen to what customers are saying to gain better understanding
- Talking – Through social interactive tools (blogs, forums, communities), begin spreading messages to customers
- Energizing – Determine who the most energetic users are and leverage their enthusiasm for the brand; essentially making them brand evangelists
- Supporting – Help customers support each other; an example is Dell’s user generated support forums – people have a natural affinit y to help
- Embracing – After companies have succeeded in the first four steps, engage customers in product development through active feedback principles
Note the emphasis on interaction between customers in each functional area. This is what makes the groundswell such an important focal point and can represent a real opportunity for successful organizational strategy.
How the Groundswell Transforms
After all of the preceding activities and effective, thorough market research has been conducted, organizations can begin implementing programs that seek to test their particular market and segment. Consider Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004; Unilever initially marketed through traditional media and gave away small, yet increasingly creative control by allowing teams on The Apprentice to devise brand ads. However, the campaign really picked up speed as it went online, taking small steps with identifiable metrics to test the effects of groundswell investments (ads like Evolution). Throughout the process, senior executives recognized the importance of the initiative and had the courage to stay the directed course.
In summary, successful companies that choose to enter the groundswell should focus on the three following directives; steps that in Dove’s case, proved to be extremely successful :
- Take small steps that have big impact – using the Internet to promote campaigns became viral successes – the Evolution video has been viewed over 7.5 million times
- Have a vision and a plan – Li and Bernoff recommend success to be measured in years. Dove took two years after starting the Campaign for Real Beauty to introduce Evolution
- Build leaders into the plan – senior executive support is crucial for a campaign to get off the ground and their continued support enables people the ability to learn and adapt to change in the operating environment
In addition to customer-focused promotions, companies are increasingly using the groundswell to speak with employees. Best Buy created Blue Shirt Nation in 2006 as a way to connect employees throughout the organization – a place where they can post thoughts about daily activities and potential areas of opportunity. Employees benefit by actually being heard; functional knowledge is communicated through programs centered on employee mentorship to enhance emotional attachment at Best Buy.
Final Groundswell Recommendations
Li and Bernoff note that the future of the groundswell will continue to flourish thanks to inexpensive barriers to entry coupled with the natural propensity of people who are seeking to connect with others. Final advice from the authors is asserted in seven recommendations:
1. Be willing to talk with many people – the groundswell is a personal activity
2. Be a good listener – listen to customers and employees alike
3. Be patient – buy in takes time
4. Be opportunistic – act when the time is right
5. Be flexible – adjust constantly
6. Be collaborative – seek out like minded people to overcome resistance
7. Be humble – the groundswell is powerful, engage carefully
My Thoughts to Groundswell
Significant Implications
Due to the heavy, groundbreaking nature of the book, I felt it necessary to include significant amounts of content for those to learn from and consider. Indeed, there is plenty of material to process, all of which can have an impact on an organization now and into the future. Resulting data can be extremely useful for marketers to tailor effective marketing strategies around. The social technographics tool, perhaps the star of the book, has been made available for researchers to access:
http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
Access to Brand Evangelists
Beginning in the social technographics section and continuing through to energizing the groundswell, Li and Bernoff came across LUGNET (http://www.lugnet.com/) – a community where adult Lego fans are actively engaged in promoting the brand, providing feedback to the company (in terms of design and usability) and speaking passionately about their hobby. The company has 25 Lego ‘ambassadors’ of which are competitively earned and represent adult fans from around the world. The site is user generated and truly exhibits how innovation in design coupled with customer responsiveness can attract and retain lifelong users – true brand evangelists.
Because evangelists are truly enthusiastic about the brand, marketers can make them part of their communication strategy. These people can become an integral part of a segment and can essentially make them category captains. According to Li and Bernoff, adult fans for Lego, represent $50 million (5 – 10%) in annual sales. Targeted segments such as this need to be monitored and listened to – after ensuring they represent an integral part to their online and offline strategy. Following, the five objectives (listening, talking, energizing, supporting and embracing) from the POST process will guide marketers to win, if implemented correctly.
Groundswell is a book that, in my opinion, created a new lens in which to view the increasingly powerful social technology sphere. The concepts are timely and powerful.
Citations
1. Li and Bernoff, Groundswell - Winning in a word transformed by social technologies. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press, 2008.
2. Li and Bernoff, Groundswell - Winning in a word transformed by social technologies. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press - page 202, 2008.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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