The hype about Social Media marketing begins to take dot.com boom proportions. The advantage here is that with the exception of some extreme cases most social media marketing efforts do not include any dramatic changes of busieness models and do not require huge investments as in the dot.com case. A recent report of eMarketer titled "How Many Marketers Are Using Social Media?" argues that 80% of the US companies with more than 100 employees will use Social Media Marketing in 2011.
For sure 2011 will be an excited year I only hope that businesses making their entry into the Social Media arena will put also some attention in educating their management, employees and mainly their marketers in this new form of marketing. Crucially important is to learn to listen to the customer (social) voice, put effort in engaging the customer not only in discussion but also on co-creation and last but not least draft a number of rules for the active use of Social Media by their employees; this can help prevent problems for them and their people.
Showing posts with label web 2.0 marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web 2.0 marketing. Show all posts
December 10, 2010
December 8, 2010
KLM Surprise
As past KLM colleague (I worked for this company in the 80s) I was glad to follow their latest social media campaign combining several tools and innovative ideas. With this video you can get a good idea of the campaign. Goed gedaan KLM.
April 28, 2010
The Nestlé Social Media case
You might have heard about the recent dispute between Nestlé and Greenpeace in the social media about the alleged use of illegally produced palm oil by Nestlé for its products. My colleague Corinne Weisgerber from the US presents this story in her blog. A very good case about the power of social media and maybe new lessons for businesses about damage control
April 23, 2010
Umair Haque's Efficient Community Hypotheis
With all the hype around Social Media and a number of running research projects on the issue of online communities and social networking it is not strange that I am interested in educated views on the subject. One of my regular sources is Umair Haque who posted an interesting article in his HBR blog of 16 April. It is titled "The Efficient Community Hypothesis" and for sure worth reading (mainly from managers who wonder what the Social Media really mean to them) . According to Umair:
"Markets need communities. Yesterday's institutions are collapsing around us. In their remnants and rubble lies a lesson. Perhaps the biggest reason 20th century institutions failed so badly is that they replaced communities with markets. Yesterday, the primacy of the EMH (Efficient Market Hypothesis) said: communities were historical anomalies, sources of friction and waste, unethical barriers to "free" trade and exchange. Today, the ECH says exactly the opposite: it is only when markets are held together by communities that markets can move past the boundaries of mere informational efficiency; that they can do more than just suck in "all known information," only to misprice everything from tech to houses to people to the future itself." (Umair Haque, http://blogs.hbr.org/ 16 April 2010)
Businesses that do not realize the power of communities and social networking will have a big problem coming to terms with the 21st century markets. This is also a fact requiring attention from all of us who instruct the marketers of the future. The issue comes tenaciously to my mind for some years now every September when the new season of teaching the essentials of Marketing starts for me.
To be continued.
"Markets need communities. Yesterday's institutions are collapsing around us. In their remnants and rubble lies a lesson. Perhaps the biggest reason 20th century institutions failed so badly is that they replaced communities with markets. Yesterday, the primacy of the EMH (Efficient Market Hypothesis) said: communities were historical anomalies, sources of friction and waste, unethical barriers to "free" trade and exchange. Today, the ECH says exactly the opposite: it is only when markets are held together by communities that markets can move past the boundaries of mere informational efficiency; that they can do more than just suck in "all known information," only to misprice everything from tech to houses to people to the future itself." (Umair Haque, http://blogs.hbr.org/ 16 April 2010)
Businesses that do not realize the power of communities and social networking will have a big problem coming to terms with the 21st century markets. This is also a fact requiring attention from all of us who instruct the marketers of the future. The issue comes tenaciously to my mind for some years now every September when the new season of teaching the essentials of Marketing starts for me.
To be continued.
April 20, 2010
A piece of advice to CEOs (and everyone else interested): The Social Media is not the silver bullet
The response of businesses to the Social Media as marketing tools is overwhelming. It is getting hard to find any company home pages that do not display proudly Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, RSS and other social links. To many managers the Social Media hype has triggered euphoric expectations and the illusion that jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon will magically solve all their problems and give them “competitive advantage”.
The countless Social Media aficionados and self-proclaimed “gurus”, “experts”, “evangelists”, “specialists”, and “prophets” I wrote about earlier are also contributing to the confusion; a very similar picture to the dot.com frenzy that some of us still remember but obviously many of us have already forgotten.
One of the big management fallacies (shared and distributed by most of the ignorant “experts”) is that the logos of the trendy apps on the web site will make customers believe that things have suddenly changed: our products got better, the customer service works, we listen to the customer. Some serious research is of course necessary here to see whether these management perceptions have anything to do with reality and whether the introduction of Social Media is really by itself leading to any improvements.
Until such evidence is available I would rather advice some cautiousness: the Social Media is not the silver bullet. I consistently explain to those who follow my lectures on the subject that the Social Media is only part of the solution. Other parts are the Customer Advocacy and the of course the Marketing strategy on different levels. I explain them that you should not start investing (or rather throwing) money in social Media strategies if you do not first address the issues in the (E)-Marketing Strategy Pyramid.
Borrowed from the well-known Hierarchy of Needs Maslow model my pyramid simply says that in order to be able to apply any Web 2.0 / Social Media strategies you should consistently address ALL lower levels of the model. In simple words you can not have Social Media ambitions with lousy products and customer service, a marketing organization in a permanent state of winter sleep and a dysfunctional web site that was last updated in the previous century.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that indeed such situations are not the exception. I recently read the post of Tom Davenport and the post of Umair Haque in the HBR blog that discuss the problem from different angles.
For those who want to address effectively some of the issues arising I have a few simple advices. Before you start talking about Social Media Marketing:
- Place yourself in the place of your customer
- Try to listen (and hear) the real customer voice
- If you have outsourced your customer service to a Call Center break today the contract with them (if possible). If you do not do this you can never apply the first two advices
- Look to your organization carefully and without bias (or maybe let someone else to look to it).
- Have you ever heard the terms CRM (not the software packages that are called so) and Customer Advocacy? If not go to Google (or maybe in an old fashion library) and try to find out something about them.
The countless Social Media aficionados and self-proclaimed “gurus”, “experts”, “evangelists”, “specialists”, and “prophets” I wrote about earlier are also contributing to the confusion; a very similar picture to the dot.com frenzy that some of us still remember but obviously many of us have already forgotten.
One of the big management fallacies (shared and distributed by most of the ignorant “experts”) is that the logos of the trendy apps on the web site will make customers believe that things have suddenly changed: our products got better, the customer service works, we listen to the customer. Some serious research is of course necessary here to see whether these management perceptions have anything to do with reality and whether the introduction of Social Media is really by itself leading to any improvements.
Until such evidence is available I would rather advice some cautiousness: the Social Media is not the silver bullet. I consistently explain to those who follow my lectures on the subject that the Social Media is only part of the solution. Other parts are the Customer Advocacy and the of course the Marketing strategy on different levels. I explain them that you should not start investing (or rather throwing) money in social Media strategies if you do not first address the issues in the (E)-Marketing Strategy Pyramid.
Borrowed from the well-known Hierarchy of Needs Maslow model my pyramid simply says that in order to be able to apply any Web 2.0 / Social Media strategies you should consistently address ALL lower levels of the model. In simple words you can not have Social Media ambitions with lousy products and customer service, a marketing organization in a permanent state of winter sleep and a dysfunctional web site that was last updated in the previous century.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that indeed such situations are not the exception. I recently read the post of Tom Davenport and the post of Umair Haque in the HBR blog that discuss the problem from different angles.
For those who want to address effectively some of the issues arising I have a few simple advices. Before you start talking about Social Media Marketing:
- Place yourself in the place of your customer
- Try to listen (and hear) the real customer voice
- If you have outsourced your customer service to a Call Center break today the contract with them (if possible). If you do not do this you can never apply the first two advices
- Look to your organization carefully and without bias (or maybe let someone else to look to it).
- Have you ever heard the terms CRM (not the software packages that are called so) and Customer Advocacy? If not go to Google (or maybe in an old fashion library) and try to find out something about them.
January 7, 2010
Social Media Marketing Case: the Dominos Pizza Effect II
The Dominos Pizza Effect is on of the favorite posts for many new visitors of this blog for some reason. Maybe because the search term "Dominos Pizza" is popular (see the advantage of using the right labels!). Today another story of Dominos Pizza and Social Media: it is about how Ramon DeLeon, a social media savvy Dominos Pizza manager in Chicago turned a potential (social media) publicity disaster to a textbook social media marketing case study.
It all started when a customer in Chicago (who happened to be none less than Amy Korin also known as Interactive Amy) received the wrong pizza after an hour delay. The details of the story you can read in the Social Media Examiner ; the video of Ramon setting the record straight is quite interesting. For those of the blog visitors who have followed my lectures on Social Media Marketing the situation must be familiar. (Remember the Passive and Active ways of engaging Social Media as Marketing tools?).
My thanks to Sander Duivestein for his post that put my attention to the case.
It all started when a customer in Chicago (who happened to be none less than Amy Korin also known as Interactive Amy) received the wrong pizza after an hour delay. The details of the story you can read in the Social Media Examiner ; the video of Ramon setting the record straight is quite interesting. For those of the blog visitors who have followed my lectures on Social Media Marketing the situation must be familiar. (Remember the Passive and Active ways of engaging Social Media as Marketing tools?).
My thanks to Sander Duivestein for his post that put my attention to the case.
December 1, 2009
October 8, 2009
Bloggs have to disclose freebies
It is no secret that the best way to launch a product today is the persuade the New Influencers to write something about your product in their blog. Top blogs attract millions of visitors every day and are linked to thousand other blogs creating this way a tremendous communication effect about any product they mention. A recent decision of the US Federal Trade Commission attempting to increase the transparency of such product endorsement testimonials requires bloggers to mention explicitly in their site what they get in return: free products, money (what about paid vacations in Hawaii?). See also the news in the CNN
A good move (Maybe the European Commission should look to this issue also) although I do not expect to bring any important changes in the "blogsphere". Most high caliber blogs will comply (some do this already without having to) since their reputation and trustworthiness is largely based on openness and sincerity. It will be interesting though to see if there are any exceptions to the rule and if some blogs are not as independent as they claim to be.
A good move (Maybe the European Commission should look to this issue also) although I do not expect to bring any important changes in the "blogsphere". Most high caliber blogs will comply (some do this already without having to) since their reputation and trustworthiness is largely based on openness and sincerity. It will be interesting though to see if there are any exceptions to the rule and if some blogs are not as independent as they claim to be.
September 7, 2009
Augmented Reality: Redifining print advertisement
Till today I thought that Augmented Reality is something for mobile applications only and certainly not for printed stuff; today I found out that I was wrong! It is no secret that people reed less printed media and that the effect of advertising (and printed advertising for that matter) is fading. Engaging customers with printed advertising is difficult but there is hope. A number of companies are already experimenting with augmented reality ads that create a very interesting and engaging effect. With the help of a webcam specially made advertisements come to life. See how it works http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBser6_gToA Companies like P&G and ABC are also experimenting with this technique
August 29, 2009
Dad blogs: The most recent online Influencers
In his 2007 book The New influencers Paul Gillin argues that in the Social Media era the real opinion leaders are bloggers who attract millions of readers daily and can make or brake a new product but endorsing it or disapproving it. Next to the well known influential blogs that without doubt can play a very important role as PR tools as I have mentioned before, a new category of “amateur” bloggers seem to emerge, capable of influencing million of people: the mom bloggers for some time already and recently the dad bloggers! An interesting article in the New York Times
August 28, 2009
Social Incubators: marketing savvy for tech-savvy entrepreneurs
Social Media marketing expands rapidly to new and unexpected terrains. Incubators that are not famous as marketing savvy have also discovered the advantages of blogs, social networks and online communities in attracting and retaining customers. An interesting article sent to me by my colleague Rob published in the National Business Incubator Association Review
August 7, 2009
Virtual Touch and virtual Scent: Next steps in Virtual Reality?
Looking for killer apps? This can be the Touchable Holography developed by researchers of the University of Tokyo. If this really works (and it seems from the YouTube videos that this is an interesting area of research) and in combination with virtual scent could bring the e-shop a step closer to the consumer who wants to touch and smell before buying. I will keep following and update on this.
Social Media Marketing: Twitter as promotional tool
Twitter becomes more and more a promotional tool rather than a personal communication tool as I predicted some time ago. Twitter is a new (and most probably effective) way of reaching customers with low airline fairs by Jetblue (that as you maybe remember I found to be the most "social" airline) and United Airlines . A quick test confirms that Jetblue is still far ahead of United as to its social presence, with micro-blogging (in fact Twitter) being the reason for this.
July 24, 2009
Study: Social Media as marketing strategy pays off
One of the standard reviewer comments whenever I submitted a paper about Social Media Marketing is the lack of data backing the claim that Social Media Marketing positively helps the marketing strategy and therefore is necessary for strategists to include these media into their marketing toolbox. The reviewers are in principle right, there are no academic studies yet providing any ROI measurements of Social Media strategies or other similar data.
Yet there are some interesting very recent publications from the practitioners’ quarters; the co-author of the Groundswell Charlene Li released a new report she wrote in co-operation with Wetpaint titled "ENGAGEMENTdb“ making the point that Social Media pays off. The study looked at how the 100 most valuable brands — as identified by the 2008 BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands classification — engaged in 11 different online social media applications. The interesting thing is that the study next to measuring the "breath" and "depth" of the engagement of these brands across the different online social media channels has also found a connection between high social media engagement and an average revenue increase of about 18% over the last year versus an average revenue decrease of 6% of the least socially engaged companies. Time for us academics to look to the issue in more depth and breath.
Yet there are some interesting very recent publications from the practitioners’ quarters; the co-author of the Groundswell Charlene Li released a new report she wrote in co-operation with Wetpaint titled "ENGAGEMENTdb“ making the point that Social Media pays off. The study looked at how the 100 most valuable brands — as identified by the 2008 BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands classification — engaged in 11 different online social media applications. The interesting thing is that the study next to measuring the "breath" and "depth" of the engagement of these brands across the different online social media channels has also found a connection between high social media engagement and an average revenue increase of about 18% over the last year versus an average revenue decrease of 6% of the least socially engaged companies. Time for us academics to look to the issue in more depth and breath.
July 17, 2009
July 10, 2009
Technographic Segmentation: Forrester Consumer Profile tool
Many visitors of this blog look for information related to Technographics Segmentation. This tool of Forrester Research (the inventor of the term) will help them find more about the technographic profil of their customers (for B2C markets) and of course about the technographics segmentation if they follow the link. In the Forrester site there is a similar tool for B2B customers.
July 8, 2009
YouTubercial: The commercial of the future?
With traditional media loosing ground and the success of social sites like YouTube evident to everyone more and more marketers understand the advantages of viral marketing and look seriously to Web 2.0 media as a way to reach the new consumer. Unlimited duration of messages combined with 24/7 transmission possibilities, unrestricted schedules and the willingness of people to spend more time watching online videos result in creations like the Schweppes' "Signs" YouTubercial.
Enjoy the commercial of the future!
June 30, 2009
Co-Marketing: Customers as Strategic Allies
One of the important contributions of the Internet and especially of the Web 2.0 to modern management is without doubt the fact that these technologies gave voice to the previously passive customer/consumer. This sound like a curse in disguise: While this form of customer empowerment is sometimes seen by marketers as a threat, it has in fact created new opportunities and new ways to establish competitive advantages and enhance customer loyalty. One of these ways is to create "Customer Strategic Alliances" making the customer part of the Marketing process.
Although the term Co-Marketing is not new I use this term to describe something different namely the active cooperation between a firm and its final customer utilizing the best of the collective wisdom in different ways: Co-creation of new products and services or Co-creation of advertising concepts. In all cases involving the motivated and eager customer is the key. I am collecting at the moment literature on the issue as the first step for a review article about this new form of strategic alliances. I will keep my blog followers updated (about the article and the findings).
Although the term Co-Marketing is not new I use this term to describe something different namely the active cooperation between a firm and its final customer utilizing the best of the collective wisdom in different ways: Co-creation of new products and services or Co-creation of advertising concepts. In all cases involving the motivated and eager customer is the key. I am collecting at the moment literature on the issue as the first step for a review article about this new form of strategic alliances. I will keep my blog followers updated (about the article and the findings).
June 16, 2009
Social Media / Web 2.0 definition
Defining the terms Web 2.0 and Social Media is not easy; there is no officially accepted term yet and a Google query with this term will deliver millions of pages. Readers of the blog maybe remember that some time ago I posted the definition of Web 2.0 / Social Media as it stands in one of my articles. I found an interesting video in YouTube explaining the term in plain English. Up to you to decide what really Social Media is!
May 25, 2009
Coca Cola's new soda fountain dispenser brings Mass Customization in the Point-of-Sale
Something really original; In an article posted in The Pitch Owen Morris revealed in February the plans of Coca Cola to come to the market with a new proprietary fountain dispenser that will be able to offer more than 100 different drinks!!! How could a soda fountain have space for the enormous stock required in order to offer such variety? No problem, they simply have developed a way to mix the drink in the machine! The news was announced on 28 April in a company press release revealing the name of the product: FREESTYLE. Let's wait and see. The next step? Maybe 150 variants of the Mars chocolate bar in a vending machine?
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