While there has been ample “Monday morning quarterbacking” regarding Poland Spring’s decidedly low-key social response to the brand’s unexpected appearance during GOP spokesperson Sen. Marco Rubio’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, the brand’s resulting media exposure saw a massive snowballing effect. As of early morning Feb. 14, the day after the SOTU broadcast, MSNBC had shown a replay of Rubio’s Poland Spring lurch-and-swig about 155 times (including 101 times during “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which played the clip on a loop at the boom of the screen for more than 13 minutes), reported TheDailyCaller.com. In addition, CNN aired the clip 34 times between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. EST on Feb. 14. (Fox News, which attacked rivals MSNBC and CNN for being “obsessed” with the “water-gate” moment, logged a relatively tepid 12 replays during the same period.) How did all of these affect consumer perception of the Nestlé Waters North America brand? According to YouGov’s BrandIndex, which tracks brand perceptions over social and other media on a daily basis, the incident yielded relatively small rises in brand awareness and “buzz” for Poland Spring during the first two days following the broadcast. As of Feb. 12, the day of the evening broadcast, Poland Spring’s BrandIndex “Awareness” score was 48 (which translates to 48% of Americans having heard something about the brand during the previous two weeks). Its Awareness score remained at 48 on Feb. 13 (compared with an average of 75 for all tracked bottled-water brands on that date). By Feb. 14, Poland Spring’s Awareness score was up by three points, to 51 (compared with an average of 76 for all bottled-water brands on that date). The brand’s BrandIndex “Buzz” score -- reflecting response to the question "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" -- rose just two points over the two days. As of Feb. 12, Poland Spring’s Buzz score was 0 (indicating equal positive and negative feedback), compared with an average Buzz score of 3 for all bottled-water brands tracked on that date. On Feb. 14, its Buzz score was 2 (the same as the average Buzz score for all tracked bottled-water brands on that date).
If brands want to improve their customer perception, having a well-rounded social communications practice that serves both as a marketing outlet and as a place for consumers to solve service issues will help. In a new study, J.D. Power and Associates measured consumer experience working with companies through their social platform for both marketing (such as receiving a coupon or some other offer through a social channel) and service (such as answering questions about a product or service or solving specific problems) needs. The study was based on the responses of more than 23,000 consumers and covered 100 brands in six industries: airlines, auto, banking, credit card, telecom and utility. The bottom line: very few companies doing both marketing and service particularly well. “Hardly any companies are doing equally well on social marketing and social servicing,” Jacqueline Anderson, director of social media and text analytics at J.D. Power, tells Marketing Daily. The discrepancy, she says, has a negative impact on brand perception. The study found a correlation between a company’s overall social communications and a consumer’s likelihood to purchase and overall perception of the company. Among highly satisfied consumers (those with satisfaction scores of 951 or higher on a 1,000-point scale), 87% said their online interaction with the company “positively impacted” their likelihood of purchase from that company. Meanwhile, 10% of consumers with low satisfaction scores (less than 500) said their experiences with a company’s social communications “negatively impacted” their likelihood of purchase. According to the study, nearly a third of consumers ages 30-49 and 38% of those over 50 interact with companies via social marketing (compared with only 23% of consumers 18-29). However, 43% of the younger demographic use the channels for social media interactions, while only 18% of those over 50 do. Understanding exactly which consumers are using social media channels to what end will go a long way in helping companies improve their overall communications, Anderson says. Companies will have to evaluate how consumers are using their social media channels and then develop a strategy to address those patterns. This may require some of them to reorganize. “It’s kind of a failure to understand why consumers are reaching out,” Anderson says. “Many companies are still organized around servicing on one side and marketing on the other.” Among the industries evaluated, the auto industry is the only one that performs particularly well when it comes to marketing and servicing via social media. The wireless industry scores well when it comes to social servicing interactions, while utilities perform well in social marketing.
Hilton, Marriott, and Four Seasons (in that order) have the highest “conversational relevance” in online discussions among leisure and business travelers, according to a study. The conclusion is based on an analysis by Brodeur Partners and MavenMagnet of what is "relevant" in online brand conversation. The study measures brand resonance across thousands of online conversations. "We wanted to go beyond speculation and opinion, and really see what drives online behavior, in this case, conversation, around different hotel brands," said Boston-based Brodeur Partners CEO Andy Coville in a release. The “conversational relevance” scale is a measure of how much people are talking about a brand and how impactful and positive that conversation is. Brodeur and MavenMagnet parsed more than 18,000 online conversations between May 2012 and October 2012 across social networks, profiles, forums, news Web sites and blogs. "We looked not only at practical considerations but at how the brands resonated with hotel guests' senses, values and social needs, which are the other dimensions of Brodeur's relevance model," said Jerry Johnson, Brodeur executive vice president of strategic planning, in a release. "When a brand is engaging all four dimensions, it inspires strong feelings and an abiding loyalty in those who experience it." The group used proprietary technology to tap into the “collective intellect of engaged consumers” -- in this case, consumers sharing their experience about travel and hotels, said Aditya Ghuwalewala, founder of NewYork-based MavenMagnet. The top hotel brands in the analysis displayed highly positive overall “conversational relevance” scores based on positive/negative buzz differential, with Hilton earning a 58% score followed by Marriott (56%) and Four Seasons (51%). The analysis also looked at each of the 10 brands' attributes through Brodeur's four relevance pathways: Functional, sensory, values and social. Functional includes practical attributes people care about like service, location, rooms, recreation and rewards programs. Comments in this area dominated the conversation about hotels. Marriott, Hilton and Sheraton were the winners here. Sensory covers attributes that appeal to all five senses like the view and water pressure in the shower (which surprisingly eclipses bed comfort in online attention). Ritz-Carlton and Hilton led the category. Values includes attributes that reflect personal values such as the hotel's service ethic and commitment to indulging patrons. Four Seasons dominated. And finally, social covered attributes related to customer status, such as the brand's cachet. Four Seasons dominated here too. The analysis further broke down results between leisure and business travelers. Room cleanliness, for example, means more to business travelers than leisure travelers. It's the other way around for recreation.
If you have an idea for a wristwatch that senses underarm odor, a soup-resistant tie, a device that infuses coffee directly into your carotid artery, or an undershirt that performs acupuncture, now is the time to tweet it. That's because GE launched a campaign with BuzzFeed on Inventor's Day last week that asks people to submit ideas, outré or not (although the former is probably better), for a chance to win an actual blueprint of the inventive idea. To support this effort, BuzzFeed's EVP of video content, Ze Frank, created a humorous documentary short about inventors and how their ideas influenced products and media. The campaign directs people to submit ideas to the #IWantToInvent. "We have had a long relationship with GE, and we met with them about what we planned to do with the video," says Frank, adding that the challenge is making teaser content strong enough to direct people to the longer piece. "Give us five seconds of time, and let us convince you that this is worth watching; it puts the onus on you to make something amazing. Overall, our mandate is to make great editorial content that orbits around the main premise, and do what we can to further the ancillary participation objectives they have." Paul Marcum, GE's director of global digital marketing and programming, tells Marketing Daily that this kind of campaign is -- excuse the contradiction -- a no-brainer, since GE was founded by a certain obscure inventor named Thomas Edison, whose name is known only to people in Edison, N.J. "This is probably the largest program we have done around Inventor's day, though we have given it some attention in the last few years," he says, adding that the program fits nicely with the company's overarching "Imagination at Work" platform, and its current TV and digital campaign, Brilliant Machines. "It's at the heart of our brand values, our focus on constant product breakthroughs." He adds that the humorous aspect also makes sense, given the sort of person that "inventor" evokes for a lot of poeple. "It's probably impossible at this point to even say the world 'inventor' without it conjuring up the wild-haired oddball, the sort of guy who invented 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.' We wanted to have fun with it. And BuzzFeed understands how their content feeds off of and into social channels." The effort also involves New York-based social-media marketing firm VaynerMedia, which is handling things like the blueprints for submitted inventions like an edible cupcake holder, or Frank's own buzz-free bar, that deactivates your smartphone alerts when you pour a stiff one.
More people may be shopping and browsing on mobile devices, but luxury brands have made little additional investment in mobile in the last year to capitalize on that shift. That’s the conclusion of the second annual study of “prestige” brands’ mobile offerings by digital think tank L2. Citing various research sources, the report notes that nearly one in four site visits originates from a mobile phone or tablet, a fifth of search traffic is driven by mobile queries and 23% of Google Searches for prestige brand terms originate from a mobile device, up from 14% last year. However, L2 does spotlight examples of some companies and brands innovating in mobile. These include Zegna, Benefit Cosmetics, Montblanc, Nordstrom, Conrad, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Kiehl’s and Crate & Barrel. Among the study's key findings: --Only 57% of the 100 brands examined offer an optimized m-commerce experience. Nearly a third of brands rely exclusively on their desktop site to sell items available online to mobile consumers. --Only a quarter of prestige brands pursue mobile-specific paid-search strategy -- actively optimizing ad copy and links to make the most of small-screen real estate. --27% of the 238 apps produced by prestige brands for the iOS platform have never been updated following the initial release, signaling experimentation versus a commitment to refining engaging apps that “stick.” --Only 10 of the 100 brands studied have launched an iPad or tablet specific site. Eight still redirect tablet users to mobile sites tailored to mobile phone screens. --Despite getting more bookings from tablets than smartphones, less than a quarter (23%) utilize “swipe” browsing on tablets to ease navigation. --The 100 brands introduced 94 new apps for iOS devices and pulled 52. The mixed investment is indicative of an industry still struggling with the underlying utility of native mobile apps. More than half of new apps (53%) have been for the iPad. Unlike last year's study, the latest L2 mobile report doesn’t rank the leading 100 luxury brands based on their mobile properties, instead focusing more broadly on differences across platforms and mobile services. Montblanc, for instance, launched an app inviting users to submit a single image at a certain time each day as part of a global photo contest. Participants were able to share photos via social media, and winners were awarded a Montblanc watch. The contest helped the company increase its Facebook fan base 68% to 150,000 in the fourth quarter. Some brands have also taken steps to combat “showrooming.” Crate & Barrel’s wedding and gift registry app, for example, allows users to scan items in stores without help from a sales assistant. Kiehl’s “Snap & Shop” app allows iPhone owners to interact with its new “Shopping Wall” exhibits that fulfill orders directly from its Web site.
With brand allegiance up for grabs and mobile technology being the lynchpin of it all, loyalty programs in 2013 will be critical in attracting and retaining customers. And as the convergence of marketing channels continues, expect omnichannel loyalty to rise to a new level of prominence of the minds of marketers. Big Data became better understood last year as the ability to categorize and act on collected customer metrics reached new levels of proficiency. Yet even with growing awareness, Big Data remains a major area of opportunity -- especially as businesses of all sizes and industries use the insights to drive business decisions and optimize communication, helping to break down siloed corporate divisions now that marketers can use the insights to predict and drive future purchases and incremental behavior. And the more the insights gained from Big Data are used, the better those predictions and the ability to impact customer lifetime value will become. As we look ahead to what the rest of 2013 will bring, I offer four predictions: