I sit down with Libby Issendorf, Digital Strategist for the Flint Group, to discuss her past experience at Campbell Mithun and what brought her to Fargo. We’ll also talk about her social media work with the US Speedskating team, her upcoming trip to the Winter Olympics, and where businesses should start their social media efforts.
Who is more helpful, the company or the customer?
About a week ago I booked a long overdue family vacation. We looked at several options from resorts to villas to cruises, and settled on a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. Needless to say, my 4 and 6 year olds were bouncing off the walls.
Last night I was thinking about the process we went through in booking our trip. Many queries started either on Google Maps, Cruise Reviews or Trip Advisor. From there, it was usually a brief stop on the website for the property, then right back to consumer reviews and photos on a third-party site. This happened over and over.
When we settled on the cruise, we wanted to look at the excursions the ship had to offer. We found ourselves off the NCL website and on to caribbeanportreviews.com to get what we really wanted, which was firsthand opinions of the excursions. My kids wanted to see every square inch of the ship, so we looked at pictures posted by past vacationers, again off the corporate site. NCL did provide some nice 360 view tools, but there were large parts of the ship missing.
I have seven different websites bookmarked, and when I put them all together, they answered most of the questions we had. It shouldn’t take that many sites to get the content I’m looking for. That just leads to a very poor customer experience. I know it is a big undertaking, but why wouldn’t NCL want to provide a one-stop platform for this information? Six of the seven sites (the seventh being ncl.com) I used to make my decision had information on all the major cruise lines. Do they really want potential customers reading about everything everyone else has to offer?
Are you providing what your customers want? Have you asked them what they want? Remember, if they are not getting the information they need from you, they are getting it from someplace else. Do you know where that is?
People are looking for authentic content when making buying decisions. You need to provide the opportunity for your customers to provide it. If you don’t have the capacity to maintain a sharing platform, you need to at least provide links out to sites that have this information, like Amazon reviews, Yelp, or Trip Advisor. Make it easy for your audience.
Question: Are reviews, tips and photos less credible when they are on a corporate website, even if they are not being sanitized? Do you trust them? Would you go to a third party site anyway? Tell me what you think.
Brands Re-Imaging to Test Consumer Appetites
Starbuck’s, Target, Wal-Mart and Bloomingdale’s are just a few of the major brands that have been engaged in brand tweaks, tests and teasers in-store, down the street and around the corner in several markets.
In the case of Starbuck’s, three “stealth” stores opened as a test in the Seattle area as reported in Entrepreneur magazine. The strategy was to introduce a new store concept that was “inspired by Starbuck’s,” and as a possible strategy to a larger rollout of “unbranded” cafes.
Bloomingdale’s created a “pop-up” Nespresso coffee bar brand in the center of its recently renovated cosmetics department in New York’s 59th Street location. Bloomingdale’s officials described the strategy; “cosmetics sharing space with a coffee company is a little out of the box,” an unexpected discovery that Bloomingdale’s holds core as an approach to keeping loyal customers – well, loyal. The boutique functions as a location to make a few gift purchases and enjoy a free specialty caffeine drink and learning a bit more about the specialty coffees.
Target Corporation introduced four temporary “bodegas” in Manhattan in the fall of 2008. The high-profile spaces called attention to a collection of design-inspired products. None of the products were scheduled to appear in the traditional Target stores until much later.
Even Wal-Mart has been tinkering with the notion of reaching out through a Latino-themed warehouse, based on its more traditional format. The Mas Club opened in August 2009, as part of an attempt to lure recent immigrants, hungry for familiar foods from home, to buy products in bulk-sizes, ala Wal-Mart style.
While it’s important to note that brands must evolve to remain relevant and continue to engage consumers, the articles referenced for this post suggest that either leaders of the brands are trying much harder to keep their image fresh, or they are becoming more active in the search for new consumer markets.
From a research perspective, imagine being able to drop your brand into a new location, observe consumer interactions within the environment, study the results and rollout a bevy of new “tested” products to your target audience. It must be working, otherwise these brand leaders wouldn’t be going through such efforts.
Marketing 2.0 – The Extreme Makeover Edition
One of my favorite SNL characters is Stuart Smalley, portrayed by Senator Al Franken. He used to look in the mirror and say, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” A humorous yet inspirational daily affirmation that reminds us that we are good just the way we are. In the same manner, I confess that I thought marketing was, indeed, beautiful just the way it was—despite its disparate processes and imperfections.
photo by tanakawho on Flickr
But the world went and changed. Communication technologies evolved and altered how we consume media. The next thing I knew, the marketing practices I fell in love with back in college had grown unsightly and questionably obsolete. But have no fear, marketers! Our old friend just needs a little nip-tuck, and she’ll be generating leads and building your brand just like the good ol’ days.
Here are five makeover trends meant to upgrade your marketing strategy.
1. Interruption to Engagement
“Psst. Hey you! Stop what you are doing. Look over here, and listen to what we have to say!” If our marketing efforts could talk, this is what they would be saying.
Our tactics and messages are typically about interrupting our audience in hope of gaining mind share. However, technology allows us to imbed our messages into our consumers’ lives without nearly as much disruption: emails read on smart phones, online pre-roll advertisements before watching your favorite sitcom on Hulu, and rich media banner ads that practically bring your website to your consumer without yanking them away from their current web page. Be where your target audience consumes media. Make it seamless and easy for them to participate with your brand.
2. Awareness to Participation
Did someone say participate? Previous marketing intellect prescribed a healthy dose of “attention grabbing,” taken with a full glass of “awareness building.” While both are still imperative, the latest studies show we need to take our marketing beyond simple awareness. Consumers don’t want to be talked to; they want to engage in a conversation.
Social media is about having a personal voice and sharing it with the world (or connections, friends and followers, depending on the social tool of choice). Successful companies have found ways to transform customers into vocal consumer advocates via Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, YouTube and community blogs. Craft your message, provide a platform for discussion, and engage in a dialogue with your audience—they are dying to be heard.
3. Marketer-Centric to Customer-Centric
Bad news. We’re marketers and we have two things going against us: time and subjectivity. First, most of us are strapped and burning the candle at both ends—so we send communications out to consumers when we find the time, or when it’s scheduled on the promotion calendar.
Secondly, we forget to be objective. We force-feed our customers the value prop we’ve defined for our product or service. The reality is, customers don’t care about how smothered your inbox is, and they don’t care about your functionality spec sheet. Customers are looking for relevant information when it’s convenient for them, not you.
Marketing automation technology allows for triggered direct mail, email, and mobile responses which deliver that instant gratification your customers demand. Optimization features in these tools will soon allow us to automatically test and improve results of marketing campaigns for each individual—including collection of time and behavior-based data that will forecast when your customers are most likely to view your marketing communications.
4. Segments to Individuals
Did someone say individual? (I’m getting good at this transition thing). A number of years back, we thought we got smart. We started communicating to our consumer base differently by segmenting them into groups using demographics, firmographics, and purchase history.
We just can’t seem to catch a break. Today, by tracking web-based behavior (website activity, email click-throughs, web form submissions, and social media interaction), we harness the power to completely customize creative and copy for each communication, ensuring the right message is used to resonate with your customer.
Personalized direct mail, email, banner ads, mobile messages are all feasible or on the horizon. It’s not just cool (and a little freaky I’ll admit), it will soon be an imperative in order to break through the “one size fits all” clutter.
5. Business Gets Personal
Business used to be personal. I’m talking small-town bakery personal. Then, mass communication exploded. Service had to scale, and the goal was to reach as many people as possible with a single message.
However, marketing is in a throwback trend. Corporation executives are having interpersonal two-way conversations with their consumers while the world observes. Studies show people trust other people more than any other marketing medium.
Subsequently, organizations are starting to share stories of people impacted by their brand. People listen, people respond with their own story, more people listen and respond. Soon everything becomes marketing. Organic, consumer-driven discussion trumps the carefully crafted corporate message.
Coming SOON – Joel Kotkin’s book THE NEXT HUNDRED MILLION: America in 2050
THE NEXT HUNDRED MILLION: America in 2050
By Joel Kotkin
Release date: February 4, 2010. Published by The Penguin Press
Read more about The Next Hundred Million
In stark contrast to the rest of the world’s advanced nations, the United States is growing at a record rate and, according to census projections, will be home to four hundred million Americans by 2050. This projected rise in population is the strongest indicator of our long-term economic strength, Joel Kotkin believes, and will make us more diverse and more competitive than any nation on earth.
Drawing on prodigious research, firsthand reportage, and historical analysis, The Next Hundred Million reveals how this unprecedented growth will take physical shape and change the face of America. The majority of additional hundred million Americans will find their homes in suburbia, though the suburbs of tomorrow will not resemble the Levittowns of the 1950s or the sprawling exurbs of the late twentieth century. The suburbs of the twenty-first century will be less reliant on major cities for jobs and other amenities and, as a result, more energy efficient. Suburbs will also be the melting pots of the future as more and more immigrants opt for dispersed living over crowded inner cities and the majority in the United States becomes nonwhite by 2050.
The Next Hundred Million provides a vivid snapshot of America in 2050 by focusing not on power brokers, policy disputes, or abstract trends, but rather on the evolution of the more intimate units of American society—families, towns, neighborhoods, industries. It is upon the success or failure of these communities, Kotkin argues, that the American future rests.
Visit Amazon…
Visit Barnes & Noble.com…
Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and is a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. He is author of The City: A Global History and is finishing a book on the American future.
Joel serves as a Senior Consultant with Praxis Strategy Group a partner with the Flint Group
Departmental Convergence – How Digital is Changing Your Business
Traditional evolution of business has lead to segmentation by department for many companies. Marketing, sales, customer service, human resources, finance and fulfillment are some of the most common. But digital communications is creating a virtualization and convergence that is dramatically changing the way businesses operate.
How customers engage with companies has changed with the explosion of digital and social networking tools. Customers have wrested power to engage with companies on their own terms and in a fully visible environment. One-to-one conversations have now become open forum, placing greater pressure on companies to be well organized and prompt in response.
Customers can choose to engage on your company website using Google Sidewiki or your own message boards. They can also engage via social media outposts should you have a presence there. And if you don’t have social media outposts, they can still engage your brand in discussion whether you are present or not!
A service question, warranty question, sales question, human resources question, finance question or shipping question or concern can all be directed to the same place in the digital environment. Customers look at your company as one entity, not as a network of departments, and they expect your company to respond as one entity. The lines blur, the departments converge and at the end of the cycle only one thing matters – have you answered the customer’s question?
Your company’s success is based on the brand promise that you communicate to your customers. How well you manage customer expectations through their engagement with your brand, your company, ultimately determines your long-term viability and growth.
Step back and have a look at your organizational structure. Now look at all your customer touch points. Are you prepared to respond to your customers in an efficient, timely manner regardless of question? Do you have a strategy for managing customer interaction in a digital open-forum environment? Are your departments prepared and trained to work cross-functionally?
If not, it is time for digital strategy and social media strategy to integrate with your company’s management and planning process. Your customers are already converging. Are you prepared?
Colin is a senior strategist for AadlandFlint and the Flint Group. Follow him on Twitter at @colinnclarke.
Image courtesy CubeFigures.com
5 Question Friday with John Hyduke
After the holiday hiatus, we are back with another “5 Question Friday”. John Hyduke, President of WestmorelandFlint and Business Development Director for the Flint Group, sits down to discuss what goes into opening up a new location and the growth of Flint Direct. We also manage to sneak in a conversation about hockey and his four lovely daughters.
Link Building for Increased SEO
A common misconception
is that search engine optimization (SEO) techniques within the pages of your website will solve all problems related to poor or less than desirable search engine performance. While accurate page titles and keyword-rich copy are important, there are several off-page SEO techniques that often have a faster and more significant impact on your website rankings.
Off-page SEO refers to the strategies you execute outside the pages of your website—all of which are aimed towards link building and increasing site traffic. Here are a few contextual opportunities to generate inbound links for your website:
Article Marketing
Writing and submitting articles is one way to get your site indexed. Submit one-page articles that discuss an area of expertise. Look for submission sites that specialize in the article topic and get your article posted on their website. Make sure to use anchor text in your article that directs readers to relevant content on your website. A few well-known submission sites include: Ezine Articles and Go Articles.
Blogging
Search engines love text that changes regularly; thus, making a blog a great solution for improving your ranking. A blog is the most effective, honest and fastest way to receive inbound links. However, keep in mind that blogs need to be updated regularly to keep the content fresh and exciting. A neglected blog is a bad sign for both search engines and users. Make sure you have the staff and resources in place to maintain an effective blog.
Social Media
Social media is another fast way to generate inbound links to your website. Social media also implies interactivity, which is a positive sign to both users and search engine crawlers. Look at different social media options, such as Twitter, Digg and YouTube to provide users with timely content and to help generate buzz about your website. Along with social media, however, comes reputation management—whether or not you are out actively participating in social media, your customers are out there talking about you. Keep a close watch over social media sites to make sure that the buzz being generated portrays your company in a positive light.
Quality trumps quantity when it comes to link building. Select only reputable online environments that are relevant to the content on your website. This is the ethical way to garner inbound links, and it will help you reach a targeted audience that is genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
Building Strong Brands
What are the 2009 top brands? A quick search on the web will give you numerous lists to choose from as defined by various criteria. All of us know that strong brands directly result in business value. But what do we mean when someone says a company has a “strong brand”?
It’s easiest to start with what a brand is not. It is not a logo. It is not a company name. It is not a product. A brand is the sum total of all the interactions, good and bad, an audience has with a company or product. It is the gut feeling a person has about the company or product; the place the company or product holds in the person’s mind and heart.
Your brand is not what you say it is, but rather what your audiences say it is.
So, if the brand is not what you say it is, how do you build a strong brand? Branding is creating an emotional bond with your target audiences. To do this, you need to know your unique distinctions and how you bridge the gap of what your target audiences need or want and what you uniquely offer. Once you develop a solid, relevant brand promise, you then need to deliver it consistently. One of the core building blocks of brand delivery is your employees.
Your employees are your brand’s biggest ambassadors and are an extremely important internal audience in brand building. Branding is experiential and is everyone in the organization’s responsibility. Branding starts from within and begins with commitment. In the brand development process, it is vital for communications to work with human resources to develop strategies, processes and tactics that engage employees and create a shared understanding of the brand. This activity should identify brand behavior for employees and show them how to “live the brand”.
So, how do you live your brand promise?
