Consumer feedback and indicator of future recommendations

According to an article in AdAge, online contact with brands has been shown to be substantially more effective than contact via other media types. Particularly important are those who produce content online for YouTube or in blogs. Those people are likely to have stronger brand interest and involvement than average, including the high probability they will contact the brand via their website to provide feedback. Those who contact brands with feedback are also highly likely to recommend the product to others. This makes a lot of sense if you think about it. If I try a product and don't like it, that's the end of it. But if I have a product that I use regularly and at some point it lets me down, I am likely to let the company know. I would take the time for products I care about. The thing is, due to staffing concerns, many companies provide little or no means to offer such feedback. And those that do, often do so without any sort of followup to let you know that your message was even read by a human. Consumers want a connection with their favorite brand that goes beyond simply purchasing it, they want a dialog.

Simple... to the point...

A book won't let you down...
Although this is picking on Microsoft Windows, it is also making a statement. Technology is changing the world we live in, but it doesn't need to infiltrate every part of our lives. It is possible that we have already found the best solution for some things.

Time Magazine Person of the Year: You

As if more evidence is needed of the scale of cultural shift we're undergoing, Time Magazine has awarded Person of the Year not to any one person, but to everyone who has been a part of the Web 2.0 trend.

Google Zeitgeist

Google released their summary of the most popular searches for 2006. Number one is Bebo, which I had never heard of but it is apparently a new social networking site. Number two is MySpace... also a social networking site. Number four is MetaCafe which is apparently an alternative to YouTube. Number seven is a generic search for Video which is likely looking for YouTube. And numbers six and ten are Wiki related. So some 50% of the top 10 Google searches for 2006 are related to user created content and social networking. Any guesses as to where marketers might want to focus their attention in the coming year?

Stealth Marketing Unethical?

arsTechnica has an article about the FTC issue of a public statement coming out against so called "stealth marketing" where people participate in the marketing of a product on behalf of a company without being aware of the fact that it is a marketing effort. Essentially this is viral marketing used in what the FTC deems an unethical way. A consumer group called for them to investigate it, but they declined. This draws a very fine line from my perspective of what is considered ethical and what isn't. The arsTechnica post specifically references the Sony PSP site I listed a few days ago. I don't really see a problem with that. In some of the examples the FTC cited, I can see a possible conflict. But I would hate to see viral story sites fall into the unethical category. They aren't really asking people to do anything, it's more just a storyline people are following. No one believes everything they read online, as long as a site doesn't try to pass itself off as official, I don't see why it would be misleading in a harmful way.

User Generated Ads not Believable?

After a study showed that user-generated commercials were not trusted by the young demographic they were intended to appeal to most, Dave Morgan, CEO of Tacoda offers a great explanation for why. It's not that user-generated ideas for ads are bad, it's the way they are executed on by the company or advertising agency involved. There is the feeling that they should "pretty it up" or make "a few tweaks" to appeal to or avoid offending an audience. In doing so, the qualities that made it a good ad get lost, and then studies show the effectiveness is low.

The Woes of the Email Marketer

New spam laws are in the works, including one that aims to change email from an opt-out system to an opt-in system. Not that it will make much difference since most of the worst spam is sent via compromised PCs or originates outside the country. Among marketer's biggest woes are people who want to unsubscribe from a legitimate newsletter and do so by using the spam button rather than the unsubscribe link. This results in the marketer getting a bad reputation if the spam button reports back to the ISP. But people are taught to use the spam button rather than the unsubscribe link because for true spam, the unsubscribe link often only validates your email address as active and leads to more spam. In my own experience, unsubscribing from legitimate marketing emails doesn't work much of the time anyway, so it's easier to just filter them to the trash. And even companies I don't mind hearing from, get carried away, thus forcing me to unsubscribe.

North Belgium Seceeds?

I don't know that this was intended to be a marketing stunt, but it's a good example of intentionally misleading people with false information coming from a reputable source. A public television network in Belgium broadcast a fake news story complete with fake interviews a la War of the Worlds. The story definitely woke the country up, causing a stir that showed television still commands a strong viewership despite new options like YouTube. Though to the well informed, YouTube is nothing like television...

Rueters has recognized that at least half of reporting the new effectively is being in the right place at the right time. With so much happening all over the world, it is impossible for any news organization to do that. So they have partnered with Yahoo to offer a "You Witness News" citizen's news site. Without the coverage potential by this and other news and blog sites, things like the student being Tasered by police in the UCLA library might not have gotten the attention it deserved.

Word of mouth still best branding tool

According to this article, "Americans make about 4.5 billion brand impressions a day just through conversation." This doesn't include the word-of-mouth brand mentions that are made online in product review entries, project-focused discussion forums, and more. I find that I do it often in person myself. As someone who practically lives online, I contantly offer people websites or company names I have found that might help solve problems they are having.

Pick on Sony day

Sony has its share of problems and has made lots of mistakes. I wonder if the fuss over this is just jumping on the anti-Sony bandwagon or if people really find this tactic offensive. It's not much different than the marketing campaigns I mentioned a few days ago. I still feel that when done right, it's an incredible way to market. Perhaps the difference is that the other campaigns were so over the top that people didn't feel silly for believing it? The LonelyGirl15 thing caused a fuss when the truth came out, but I don't think it put an end to it. Some people were upset, but overall her fans got over it and enjoyed it as the soap opera it is.

Landlines are so... old

According to this HarrisInteractive survey from April 2005, "one in 10 (9%) U.S. adults said that they had abandoned their wireline (landline) telephone service completely in favor of using their wireless phone exclusively. At that time, another five percent said that they were seriously considering this and would switch within a year and forty-seven percent said that they were somewhat considering it." I don't have a land line, but I have Voice-over-IP. I don't really use it though, I mainly give out the number to companies I do business with and use it as a spam trap for telemarketing calls. In fact, if I could get just voicemail service at that number, that would serve my needs nicely. I generally don't use the phone much at all, preferring to contact companies by email and friends by instant message. Hear that AT&T?

Online advertising expected to grow...

Not surprisingly, companies are expected to devote more advertising dollars to the online world. I'm sure the shift in focus will pay off for most companies who try, but I don't think it is simply because of the novelty. The reason online advertising can pay off is because it can be highly targeted, and not by demographic, but by situational context. You can send me all the ads you want for vinyl siding, but I live in an apartment so you're not going to make a sale to me. Offer me something related to what I'm searching on though and I'm perfectly willing to check it out. Some companies have been manipulating the context matching though, the first ads returned on Google are often fill-in-the-blank ads, so looking up reasons for my cat being ill, might list "shop Ebay for cat vomit." Huh? Please, I don't mind ads as long as they are relevant and non-disruptive. If I'm interested, I'll click, otherwise, leave me alone.

Madden NFL Viral Campaign

The company that led the marketing effort for The Blair Witch Project movie, has executed a highly successful viral campaign for the recent release of Madden NFL. All I can say, is wow... a very complex, but also fairly simple in concept. Executing such a thing requires you to be very careful at every step, but it can be wildly successful. As a technique, it's largely unknown, so it's an opportunity to get in before the market gets saturated with these fabricated story lines, some better than others. But only if it's done it well... it would be worse to do it and mess it up. The potential is so great, it's exciting to contemplate. It's sort of like the Pitch Black II promotion, I heard about a year ago that was about a fictional character who decided to live in total darkness for 30 days and film it. I guess you could hear him running into things in the dark!

Nike Van Experience

Yesterday, I wrote about a marketing effort that doesn't look like marketing. Here is another example. Nike is traveling the country with a van full of its sneakers for people to try out. One of the key elements is that the Nike rep is not allowed to sell the shoes, it's intended only to let people experience the brand. This makes a lot of sense to me. I know I am increasingly resistant to anything that might appear to be a sales pitch. As consumers, we know the game, and we're less interested in playing it these days.

Starbucks Cheerpass

I just read about a promotion that Starbucks is running involving something called a "CheerPass." I didn't find much information on it because I didn't get a CheerPass given to me, but from what I can surmise, it's a card issued from Starbucks that you give to someone else as part of a favor you have done for them. Before passing the card on to someone else with a favor they do for them, the recipient can go to the website and write a short story about the experience. The concept is based on the Pay-It-Forward idea that was the storyline of a book and movie a few years ago. Tracking the pass adds a 6-degrees of separation aspect to it and allows you to see how far of a "reach" your favor had in encouraging others to do good deeds. It's similar to tracking your money as it changes hands as is now possible with the Internet. I like the idea because it encourages people to do nice things for others and gets them to write about it on a branded site so others can share in the joy. It's marketing without looking like marketing, and as such it is likely to get past our "filters."