Brand Rants

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HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS SHAPING CONSUMER PREFERENCE

Almost 70% of US on-line adults now use blogs, communities or social networks regularly according Market Tools’ August/September Insight Report. 

Why is this important to marketers? Because on average, one third of all that social activity is to research purchases they plan to make. And the more money they have the greater the likelihood that they will research their purchase using social media. Among those people with annual incomes of  $75,000 or more,  43% say they visit blogs, communities and social networks with the specific intent of researching products.

Nearly half the respondents claim that what they have learned online has had a direct impact on their decision to purchase a particular brand at least to some extent. Just as significant, an average of 26% of respondents (29% of women, 22% of men) said they changed their mind about buying a particular brand based on what they read online. The susceptibility to negative comments is greatest among young adults, 35% of whom had changed their mind after reading a negative review online. 

The study also demonstrated robust growth in the use of social media with 42% of respondents reporting to have increased their use of social media over the past 6 months.

As one would expect the regular use of social media is inversely proportional to age. Among those in their 20's 83% frequent blogs, communities or social networks. But the 30 and 40-year olds are not far behind with 75% of them using social media regularly. Even when we look all the way to seniors, the percentage using social media never falls below 50%. This gives every indication that this role of social media in shaping purchase decisions and brand preference will continue to grow steadily and indefinitely. 

The bigger message from this study is that companies who have succeeded despite being distant from customers and their needs will find it increasingly difficult to compete. The swiftly approaching wave of consumer behavior will favor companies who embrace the value loop as opposed to the value chain. These companies understand social media, are in touch with buyers and have a credible web presence. All of which helps them provide superior value to consumers and superior sustainability for shareholders.

If you are not in this latter category, you’re surely not alone. Most established businesses were not built to cope effectively with the fundamental changes that social media introduce into a competitive market place. But studies like this show that the time for “let’s wait and see” is over. Social media has already started shaping consumer attitudes towards your brand and will continue to do so with increasing influence. To ensure this is a positive influence, you will need to make some basic changes in how you do business. There is plenty of opportunity for your businesses to prosper from this hyper-connected consumer but the time to start is now.

Microsoft launches the best Apple ad campaign in history

Like most of you I saw the Microsoft spots with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld when they aired in early September. I thought it was the best ad I had ever seen ... for Apple. It did more to define the PC world as out of touch than any Apple ad ever could have.  I’d guess Microsoft realized that too. Which is why they panned the Seinfeld concept last week.

Sam Diaz on zdnet summed it up well: "The commercials were a train wreck from the beginning and only reinforced the idea that Microsoft is so far disconnected from regular consumers that it has no idea how to talk to them – even in an ad campaign."

Then came part two. I thought the Bill & Jerry ads were weak and predictable. Which, if you put the word “more” in front of them, are the same two words I’d use to describe the “second wave” of the campaign. These new ads actually address the Apple ads in a defensive and unconvincing head-on rebuttal.

Someone should tell Microsoft that the campaign has a big sign stuck on its back that says “Kick me I’m a nerd”.

Even off screen, Microsoft is tripping over its own feet. Instead of gracefully exiting, Microsoft did what the fumbling nerd would do: They claimed everything is on purpose and serving their master plan. In a statement to the press, Mich Mathews, a Microsoft marketing VP,  maintained that "The notion that we're doing some quick thing to cancel (the Seinfeld ads) is actually preposterous," Mathews said. "Today was always the day. ... Media buying is something you have to do months in advance."  Yes, reserving media space is done months in advance, but switching out one spot for another could easily have been done in the weeks since the fist campaign bombed. If, on the other hand, I'm to believe that this disjointed patch-work stream of vacant messaging was actually planned like this from the start, then I would find the campaign an even greater disappointment.

Microsoft has made so many tactical mistakes with this campaign that it is hard to believe it wasn’t scripted by Steve Jobs. It violates the most basic rules of brand building. The fist of those rules says if you are the number one brand and a much smaller competitor launches a potent ad campaign you never go to fight them on their playing field. You create your own field. A new field.

Microsoft’s actions since the Apple campaign broke have only played to Apple’s hand. During that time the world has not only seen Microsoft flinch in the face of the Apple challenge, we’ve now seen them breaking out in flop sweat and soil themselves. If Apple is smart, it will show restraint and not make the same mistake by acknowledge the Microsoft advertising in their "I'm a Mac" campaign.

Microsoft is now fighting Apple on Apple’s terms. That is a fight that only Apple can win.

The Easiest Question in Marketing

I read a recent post by one of my favorite marketing authors, Seth Godin, titled “The Myth of Launch PR”. He talks about companies who are obsessed with publicity as they launch their brand onto the market. He then reminds readers of the many successful brands than received no publicity on launch. Brands like Starbucks, Apple, Nike, Google, Wikipedia, and Microsoft.  The lesson: spend a little more energy focusing on your product and you won’t have to worry so much about your launch tactics.

Seth raises an excellent point, but I think a better title for his post would have been “The Seduction of Launch PR”. 

Brands become popular when the product they represent delivers value to people.  All the brands Seth mentions have that in common. Brands generate wealth for their owners when they are backed by a business plan that can monetize that popularity. If you have those two things in place their is no myth to good publicity. It works. It accelerates uptake, helps a product reach its market potential sooner, and makes it easier for competitors to enter your category but much more difficult for them to take your leadership of that category. All good things. 

The seduction comes in when CEO’s who don’t understand the role of marketing expect PR or advertising to make up for deficiencies in their product and flaws in their business plan. I believe there was a time when this worked. Probably when Mad Men began to feel their oats and realized the power of mass messaging on a media-naive public. 

The days of making an inferior (or even average) product and convincing the world it is better based on launch hype and fancy ad campaigns are over. At least in developed nations. I’m not saying con artists can’t make a quick buck hyping junk. But the sustainability of those schemes has dwindled from years to days.

Still old lessons die hard. At least once a month I have some executive ask me, in so many words, how they can make their target audience believe that their product is better than their competitor’s.  That’s the easiest question in marketing: “Make a better product.” I tell them. The answer always surprises them. But it surprises me even more how often really smart business people put so little focus on providing value and so much focus on trying to create the illusion of it.

If you want a successful launch, the best advice I can give you is to focus less on generating excitement and more on generating value. And if you don’t know how to do that, I’d advise you take your launch budget and invest it in getting to know your customers better and developing a product that will knock their socks off.

Free publicity - really

This afternoon I received inquiries from 40 journalists. No, I didn’t get nominated for vice president, win the lottery or father one of Angelina Jolie's twins. How did I do it? Easy, I’m on Peter Shankman’s A-list — and you could be too.

Reporters from all over America (and beyond I imagine) contact Peter looking for experts on one subject or another. He collects all those inquiries and sends out a daily email to people who subscribe to his HARO (Help A Reporter Out) service.

If you find a story about something you’re into — BINGO — you contact the reporter and spill your guts. Maybe you’ll be quoted.

Here is a smattering of the inquiries I received today:
•    Online Reputation (USA Today)
•    Brand Alliances (Greentree Magazine)
•    Too Late for a Fall 2008 Internship? (Examiner.com)
•    Looking to Interview CMOs/Marketing Execs (MarketingProfs.com)
•    Need Stories of Mispronunciation (Macmillan)
•    Stories Behind Roadside Crosses
•    Head Lice
•    Did a Self-Breast Exam Save Your Life?
•    Sources Needed for Teen Health Blog
•    Married Couples who Work Together (Eliza Magazine)
•    Seeking Female and/or Minority CEOs (National Business Pub)
•    Social Media Helped me Get My Job! (Blog-Talk Radio)
•    Daycare at Work (Canada - Globe and Mail)
•    Employees of Enron or Worldcom
•    New Advertising and mktng Campaigns
•    Unknown/Emerging Shoe Designers
•    Apple's "1984" Superbowl Ad: Thoughts Needed
•    Do you collect something unique?
•    My Friends are Eco-Freaks! (CNN.com)
•    Dealing with Supply Chain Interruptions

As you can see its not all Woodward and Bernstein, but so long as it doesn’t take much time and you have something worthwhile to contribute, go for it — the press won’t hurt. For my own case, I’m no expert on head lice, have never examined my breasts nor worked at Enron. But I do have something to say about Apple’s 1984 spot and wouldn’t mind sharing my views on brand alliances or new ad campaigns. Better still, I have clients working in several of the areas listed above who wouldn’t mind the exposure either.

The service costs nothing to join but does require a solemn oath: “Promise us one thing: When you join, you'll promise not to email a reporter with an answer that doesn't match what they're looking for. In other words, you won't waste a reporter's time. Promise?” 

For reporters and experts, it’s win-win thanks to Peter. So check it out and pass it on. In Peter's words: “Wanna do me a favor? Give your PR buddies this link:www.helpareporter.com, and give your reporter/editor/journalism buddies this link: www.helpareporter.com/press - I'd really like your help in growing this list.”

Person Peter Shankman

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I R Google, Eatin’ UR Browsers

Google Chrome is out and like any new product destined to revolutionize the way we use the web, the Internet is aflutter with activity.  What is Google Chrome? Google’s answer to your current browser.  In their blog post, they are throwing around words buzzwords like “rich” and “interactive” experience.  But so what, isn’t Mozilla’s Firefox, Flock and Window’s Internet Explorer also “rich” and “interactive” experience?

Yes and no.  I’m going to use a term that strikes fear into the heart of most everyday web users and gives web nerds warm feelings in their special places, “open-source”.  Chrome is designed to be the first open-source web browser that you can design for your needs and acclimates to how you browse the web.  When it launches it will be for Windows users only with Mac and Linux shortly. 

I was skeptical when I heard that Google is launching a web browser.  It’s hard to compete in a market that is already well saturated and I’ve got my Google Homepage and Netvibe accounts set up so all of my web needs are gathered in one spot.  Plus the open-source probably means I’ll have to program a bunch of stuff before I can use it.  Then I read the Scott McCloud comic that outlines all the features and how the browser will run, it’s impressive and if they can pull it off, Google will once again prove they own the internet.

Here is a quick highlight of a few of the features.

•    It works out of the box so you don’t have to worry about programming anything.  Chrome takes the best of Apple's Webkit and Mozilla’s Firefox and makes them open source so you can create and share features for your browsers if you want.

•    They super charged JavaScript though a company in Denmark with a new engine called V8.  It looks at your cpu and writes it’s code to the specifications of your machine.

•    Each tab is it’s own “sandbox”, which means each tab gets it’s own processing engine instead of sharing with all the tabs.  That means if a tab crashes, it doesn’t kill the browser but just the tab so you can keep on searching without having to find all the sites you were just on.

•    Chrome gets a constant list of malware sites and protects against them.   Nothing is written to your hard drive and if the window is closed, all the processes associated with that window are closed as well.  If you hit a site with malware on it, Chrome will let you know.

•    Incognito lets you surf the web without saving anything in your history and cookies are wiped clean when that window is closed.  They say it’s a great way to cover your tracks if you are look for that perfect gift, but I’m willing to bet it’s used for other reasons.

•    The Omnibox is an interesting feature that will either be a great asset or a bust.  It serves two functions; each tab gets its own set of criteria depending on what the url is.  Say you’re looking at cars, the omnibox will offer suggestions for searches, top pages you’ve visited, pages you haven’t visited but are popular and a full text search of your history if you can’t remember that great car site you went to yesterday. 

•    When you open a new tab, the omnibox will default with the nine boxes containing the most visited pages and list the sites most searched.

The features go on and on.  Google Chrome is something to keep an eye and it’s easy to see why the Internet is a buzz with news of the beta release.  Being a Mac user, I’m going to sit back and see how the windows roll out goes in anticipation of the Mac release. I've just worked most of the kinks out of Flock so the idea of starting over again is daunting.