For those who are tired of hidden restrictions and charges of wireless contracts, T-Mobile has a new pre-paid wireless brand: GoSmart. “We wanted to create a completely new offering from the ground up for a new segment for customers, which the bigger brand may not be able to serve,” Shailendra Gujarati, marketing director for GoSmart Mobile, tells Marketing Daily. “It’s the fastest-growing space in the wireless market right now. We believe there’s a segment of customers whose needs are not being met because of what’s going on in the wireless industry. We don’t want customers to be left behind because they don’t need or can’t afford 4G plans.” The GoSmart will be targeted toward younger, less affluent and/or multicultural consumers who don’t need or want to be in a contract plan or higher-fee prepaid plan, he says. The brand will be built on three pillars: price, simplicity and network quality. To differentiate itself from the parent brand, GoSmart will shy away from using its T-Mobile’s imagery (including its Carly spokescharacter) and signature magenta coloring. With a smaller marketing budget, much of GoSmart’s marketing communications will be through retail and social media channels, Gujarati says. “We will be much more grassroots and scrappy,” he says. Much of the communications will employ the word “DUM,” which he notes is not an acronym: “It’s simply a playful spin on the word dumb.” “It’s a bit edgy and mischievous,” he says. “There’s a lot of dumb things that happen in the wireless space in terms of nickel-and-diming and [contract] shackles.” Though launching a brand that is owned by, though separate from, another larger company is challenging, it’s not entirely unheard of in the telecommunications (or other industries). Sprint, for instance, has its flagship Sprint brand, as well as prepaid brand Boost, Virgin Mobile and Paylo brands. “The notion of creating multiple brands for multiple segments may be a bit new for wireless in the U.S., but it happens in other industries,” Gujarati says, noting Gap Inc.’s model of having Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy stores to reach different segments. “In our case, we are doing this organically, and creating it from the ground up.” The GoSmart brand isn’t intended to replace T-Mobile’s contract or pre-paid plans, but instead is to go after an entirely different segment, Gujarati says. He also expects the brand to continue should T-Mobile’s proposed merger with MetroPCS go through. “We truly believe the brands T-Mobile has today and may be having in the future will be complementary,” Gujarati says.
The consumer shift from desktop PC to mobile devices is underway, but the marketing efforts of most high-tech companies aren’t following suit. Fewer are employing mobile marketing now than a year ago. A study by the Software & Information Association surveyed 100 marketing executives from member and other companies in the fourth quarter, focused on social media, mobile and email use. It found only a quarter are including mobile in marketing programs, down from 29% a year earlier. That’s partly because mobile isn’t a priority for their customers. Nearly half say the mobile solution they offer is being used by 5% or less of their customers. “Mobile is unquestionably changing the way people live and work, but has yet to significantly change the way companies market,” said Rhianna Collier, VP of the SIIA software division. Still, about a third say they plan to spend more of their marketing budget in mobile this year. One SIIA member that recently announced its intention to focus more on mobile is IBM. Through its MobileFirst initiative, the computer giant plans to double its investment in mobile technology this year. Executives were more bullish on social media. Virtually all are using social platforms in marketing efforts, and 69% say it’s having a positive impact on their business. That’s down from 74% a year ago, but still a high proportion. Almost six in 10 (58%) plan to spend more on social marketing in 2013, with LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs/wikis the biggest beneficiaries. The majority (63%) said social media hadn’t changed overall marketing costs, while for 30% it increased costs. How to best measure ROI in social media is an ongoing industry debate. Among those surveyed, Web traffic, the number of connections or conversations, and lead-generation were cited as the key ROI metrics for social campaigns. When it came to email marketing, click-through rates, open rates and post-click conversion rates were the top ways to measure ROI. About 40% said open rates were in the 11% to 25% range, with roughly a third reporting rates of 6%-10%. The average click rate for almost half was 2%-3%. Overall, only 55% said they feel they can measure online marketing returns effectively. Looking ahead, marketing executives pointed to cloud-based marketing as the next big trend (27%) in the software and services industry, followed by Big Data/Analytics (19%), target marketing (16%), mobile use expansion (13%), customer experience (10%), social adoption (7%), and internal business operations (5%). Most of the companies covered in the SIIA survey ranged in size 1 to 99 people (65%), with a quarter employing between 100 and 999 people, and 10% employing over 1,000. SIIA’s more than 500 members include Accenture, Google, McGraw-Hill Companies, and Qualcomm Wireless.
Maybe the purchase funnel exists with beer, dental floss, toothpaste and a bottle of floor cleaner, where the conversation ends at purchase. But arguably, the more expensive and complex the item, the truer it is that the real paradigm is maybe something like a Klein bottle because social media has made the consumer awareness-to-purchase process a continuum: one consumer's auto purchase begins another consumer’s consideration. The first thing you and I are going to do after we roll off the lot is begin broadcasting our opinions. A new study by media agency Starcom MediaVest led by Big Fuel and executed by New York-based social media market research firm Mashwork finds that people in the U.S. talk about their auto purchases on average 30,000 times per day, 1,250 times per hour and 21 times per minute on social media, and that Twitter alone generates 184 million potential impressions per day. The firms say that 19% of total conversation is from people extolling the virtues of -- or perhaps denigrating and kicking themselves for buying -- a given vehicle. The study says that when declaring car purchases, new owners are 2.4 times more likely to attach a photo of their new car to add visual appeal to the excitement than to check-in or self-identify as being at a dealership. The firms suggest social direct marketing is important during the “declaration of purchase” phase, because automakers can connect with other potential buyers and offer relevant added-value benefits and "amplify the joy generated by the purchase." Surprisingly, “post-purchase satisfaction” conversation occurs three times more often than “post-purchase dissatisfaction” conversation. But dissatisfaction conversation tends to be more passionate. The study says continuing the relationship and “post-purchase satisfaction” conversations with buyers can keep loyalty strong by leading consumers through to their next purchase. "The balance of emotional statements suggests the relationship gets stronger and can be optimized via extended conversation and relationship marketing." In addition to new ways of delivering messages and digital "brand experiences," notes the firm, marketers also need to brand ambassadors or customer service representatives whose job it is to watch and respond to post-purchase dissatisfaction. "Social data, including listening and measurement, should be used to amplify the impact of all marketing activity," say the study authors.
For those who are tired of hidden restrictions and charges of wireless contracts, T-Mobile has a new pre-paid wireless brand: GoSmart. “We wanted to create a completely new offering from the ground up for a new segment for customers, which the bigger brand may not be able to serve,” Shailendra Gujarati, marketing director for GoSmart Mobile, tells Marketing Daily. “It’s the fastest-growing space in the wireless market right now. We believe there’s a segment of customers whose needs are not being met because of what’s going on in the wireless industry. We don’t want customers to be left behind because they don’t need or can’t afford 4G plans.” The GoSmart will be targeted toward younger, less affluent and/or multicultural consumers who don’t need or want to be in a contract plan or higher-fee prepaid plan, he says. The brand will be built on three pillars: price, simplicity and network quality. To differentiate itself from the parent brand, GoSmart will shy away from using its T-Mobile’s imagery (including its Carly spokescharacter) and signature magenta coloring. With a smaller marketing budget, much of GoSmart’s marketing communications will be through retail and social media channels, Gujarati says. “We will be much more grassroots and scrappy,” he says. Much of the communications will employ the word “DUM,” which he notes is not an acronym: “It’s simply a playful spin on the word dumb.” “It’s a bit edgy and mischievous,” he says. “There’s a lot of dumb things that happen in the wireless space in terms of nickel-and-diming and [contract] shackles.” Though launching a brand that is owned by, though separate from, another larger company is challenging, it’s not entirely unheard of in the telecommunications (or other industries). Sprint, for instance, has its flagship Sprint brand, as well as prepaid brand Boost, Virgin Mobile and Paylo brands. “The notion of creating multiple brands for multiple segments may be a bit new for wireless in the U.S., but it happens in other industries,” Gujarati says, noting Gap Inc.’s model of having Banana Republic, Gap and Old Navy stores to reach different segments. “In our case, we are doing this organically, and creating it from the ground up.” The GoSmart brand isn’t intended to replace T-Mobile’s contract or pre-paid plans, but instead is to go after an entirely different segment, Gujarati says. He also expects the brand to continue should T-Mobile’s proposed merger with MetroPCS go through. “We truly believe the brands T-Mobile has today and may be having in the future will be complementary,” Gujarati says.
The consumer shift from desktop PC to mobile devices is underway, but the marketing efforts of most high-tech companies aren’t following suit. Fewer are employing mobile marketing now than a year ago. A study by the Software & Information Association surveyed 100 marketing executives from member and other companies in the fourth quarter, focused on social media, mobile and email use. It found only a quarter are including mobile in marketing programs, down from 29% a year earlier. That’s partly because mobile isn’t a priority for their customers. Nearly half say the mobile solution they offer is being used by 5% or less of their customers. “Mobile is unquestionably changing the way people live and work, but has yet to significantly change the way companies market,” said Rhianna Collier, VP of the SIIA software division. Still, about a third say they plan to spend more of their marketing budget in mobile this year. One SIIA member that recently announced its intention to focus more on mobile is IBM. Through its MobileFirst initiative, the computer giant plans to double its investment in mobile technology this year. Executives were more bullish on social media. Virtually all are using social platforms in marketing efforts, and 69% say it’s having a positive impact on their business. That’s down from 74% a year ago, but still a high proportion. Almost six in 10 (58%) plan to spend more on social marketing in 2013, with LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs/wikis the biggest beneficiaries. The majority (63%) said social media hadn’t changed overall marketing costs, while for 30% it increased costs. How to best measure ROI in social media is an ongoing industry debate. Among those surveyed, Web traffic, the number of connections or conversations, and lead-generation were cited as the key ROI metrics for social campaigns. When it came to email marketing, click-through rates, open rates and post-click conversion rates were the top ways to measure ROI. About 40% said open rates were in the 11% to 25% range, with roughly a third reporting rates of 6%-10%. The average click rate for almost half was 2%-3%. Overall, only 55% said they feel they can measure online marketing returns effectively. Looking ahead, marketing executives pointed to cloud-based marketing as the next big trend (27%) in the software and services industry, followed by Big Data/Analytics (19%), target marketing (16%), mobile use expansion (13%), customer experience (10%), social adoption (7%), and internal business operations (5%). Most of the companies covered in the SIIA survey ranged in size 1 to 99 people (65%), with a quarter employing between 100 and 999 people, and 10% employing over 1,000. SIIA’s more than 500 members include Accenture, Google, McGraw-Hill Companies, and Qualcomm Wireless.
Maybe the purchase funnel exists with beer, dental floss, toothpaste and a bottle of floor cleaner, where the conversation ends at purchase. But arguably, the more expensive and complex the item, the truer it is that the real paradigm is maybe something like a Klein bottle because social media has made the consumer awareness-to-purchase process a continuum: one consumer's auto purchase begins another consumer’s consideration. The first thing you and I are going to do after we roll off the lot is begin broadcasting our opinions. A new study by media agency Starcom MediaVest led by Big Fuel and executed by New York-based social media market research firm Mashwork finds that people in the U.S. talk about their auto purchases on average 30,000 times per day, 1,250 times per hour and 21 times per minute on social media, and that Twitter alone generates 184 million potential impressions per day. The firms say that 19% of total conversation is from people extolling the virtues of -- or perhaps denigrating and kicking themselves for buying -- a given vehicle. The study says that when declaring car purchases, new owners are 2.4 times more likely to attach a photo of their new car to add visual appeal to the excitement than to check-in or self-identify as being at a dealership. The firms suggest social direct marketing is important during the “declaration of purchase” phase, because automakers can connect with other potential buyers and offer relevant added-value benefits and "amplify the joy generated by the purchase." Surprisingly, “post-purchase satisfaction” conversation occurs three times more often than “post-purchase dissatisfaction” conversation. But dissatisfaction conversation tends to be more passionate. The study says continuing the relationship and “post-purchase satisfaction” conversations with buyers can keep loyalty strong by leading consumers through to their next purchase. "The balance of emotional statements suggests the relationship gets stronger and can be optimized via extended conversation and relationship marketing." In addition to new ways of delivering messages and digital "brand experiences," notes the firm, marketers also need to brand ambassadors or customer service representatives whose job it is to watch and respond to post-purchase dissatisfaction. "Social data, including listening and measurement, should be used to amplify the impact of all marketing activity," say the study authors.
The way this week has been going, it may not end up being just The Week of the Hacker but the Year of the Hacker. First there was Burger King’s Twitter account, which suddenly started to proclaim that it was, essentially, the Home of the McRib, followed by a hack of Jeep’s Twitter account to make it look like the brand had been bought by Cadillac. Even Donald Trump got thrown (tee-hee) in to the Twitter hack-a-thon. For one brilliant moment he was tweeting like Lil Wayne. And I haven’t even mentioned the Chinese, whose quest for the Olympic Gold Medal in Hacking seems to know no level of shame. As The New York Times -- which has been a target of Chinese hacks -- reported this week, much of the country’s sophisticated hacking activity can be traced back to a nondescript office building on the periphery of Shanghai that also serves as the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398. (That’s ”People’s Liberation Army” for you non-Communists.) But, in such a hack-heavy week, much of the advice I found about how to handle a corporate social media hack was, well lacking. Sure, it’s a good idea to change the password on the corporate Twitter and Facebook accounts when someone who has access to them leaves the company (duh!), and take other measures. But, such tech-based advice – which has been on ample display all week -- doesn’t deal with a core truth: When nothing else is left after the nuclear holocaust, cockroaches and hackers will still roam the earth. Hate to break it to you, but, deep down, you know it to be true. What this means is that while you must remain ever-vigilant against hackers, you also need a more philosophical approach to dealing with your accounts’ inevitable hacking. Here, then, five pointers: 1. Remember, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Well, maybe if you’re Anthony Weiner there is, but when it comes to having your corporate Twitter account hacked, not so much. As has been widely reported, the Burger King Twitter account’s followers surged from 83,000 to 110,000, not to mention all of the free publicity, which -- in Burger King’s case -- serves to remind the world that your company is still very much alive even though it is dominated by McDonald’s. And this is a bad thing? 2. Don’t get too obsessed with the hacker’ s idea of “content.” Sometimes it feels as though hackers like naughty content even more than they like hacking, as if the hack is simply the means by which they can achieve distribution for the naughty content. That said, no sentient being actually believes that Donald Trump would suddenly start tweeting about “hoes,” even though his Twitter account did this week. They are also unlikely to believe that Burger King has been bought by McDonald’s, for that matter. If people remember anything in the haze of their information overload, it’s the fact that an account was hacked. That’s all. 3. The more hacking happens, the less potent it is. Hackers may always be with us, but there are so damn many of them that, when it comes to mundane hacking like taking over a company’s Twitter account, it’s quickly turning into a “been there, done that” situation. Bo-ring!!! A real hacking problem is when China breaks into your corporate servers to steal trade secrets. In the big scheme of things, these kinds of social media account hacks just don’t rise to that level. Get over it. 4. It is possible to capitalize on a hack. After Burger King got its account back, it tweeted that it hoped the account’s new followers would stay on. But imagine this scenario: BK Twitter followers were rewarded with a coupon to use at their nearest BK restaurant. That’s the most powerful weapon I can think of against a hacker. When life gives you hackers, make hack-en-ade. 5. Keep your (corporate) sense of humor. I know, this is a hard one, especially within the confines of corporate America. One can only imagine the finger-pointing that went on inside Burger King, and Jeep, and the Donald’s large head this week (oh, wait, maybe not there -- Trump’s hack was all Twitter’s fault). But the fact remains that people prize companies that keep events like Twitter account hackings in context. It’s not as though customer information was accessed. I write these tips knowing that I have the freedom that few readers of this column have: the freedom of not having any responsibility for my company’s or client’s social media presence. It’s a beautiful thing. But remember, most of the followers and fans a brand has are also outside observers. And they care much less about your account being hacked than you probably think. Keep that in mind while you’re thinking up that ultra-secure password.
Remember the old adage? If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Consider the adage when you apply it to your Facebook strategy. For most businesses, setting up a Facebook brand page is almost mandatory in this age of social media. The benefits for setting up a brand page have been written up countless times, but at its core, the benefits a Facebook page can bring to brands include:
I love my job. Today I’m filing my column from 38,000 feet, on my way to San Francisco from New York. As usual, I chat with the folks next to me. Turns out the guy to my left is on the marketing team at Facebook, helping companies use the platform more effectively and get better results. “Sweet!” I say. “Can I interview you?” I ask him -- what else? -- how to use the platform more effectively to get better results. Of course, it’s not a simple answer. “Good Facebook marketing includes everything from smart Page posts, to ads, to platform ideas and integration (sharable stories, etc), to apps. And it’s growing all the time,” he says. “As an example, Doritos has been running a Super Bowl campaign for years where people get to make videos and vote on them. It used to be hosted on YouTube, but this year it’s on Facebook, because it’s easier to share and vote on [there]….We were able to change the language at the end of the videos from ‘Replay this ad,’ to ‘vote for this video now,’ and votes went up 25%.” This kind of rapid adaptation works for content as well as functionality. The old way of thinking for marketers was, get your campaign perfect and then release it to the wild. With something like TV ads, you don’t have much choice. But in digital, you get so much feedback; you can see how people are behaving and tweak it pretty easily. Obviously, this isn’t exclusive to Facebook -- just think of Oreo’s Super Bowl blackout success -- but it certainly represents a paradigm shift. “The trilogy is targeting, ads, and measurement,” my Facebook source suggests. “Make sure you’re targeting the right folks, make really smart ads, and then measure everything so you can adjust accordingly. Data settles arguments. You don’t have to guess anymore; you can actually see how stuff’s performing. If you’re unsure, just test it -- if it works, boost it, and if it fails, kill it off. Or A/B test: release ads with different images or copy and see which one works better. But make sure to save part of your budget to boost posts that are doing really well.” I ask him the biggest mistakes marketers make, and I love his answer: “People get distracted by Facebook metrics -- likes, comments, and shares -- so they do stuff that’s not really relevant to their business, like post pictures of cats.,” he says. “Start with your business objectives and work backwards -- don’t start with vanity metrics. The smartest thing you can do is design your story for Newsfeed, because that’s where the majority of people spend the majority of their time. But respect people’s Newsfeed -- don't spam them. People hate that. Put your human hat on, not just your marketing hat. “That being said, you still want people to like, comment on, and share your stories. People sometimes build apps that take you out of Newsfeed into an experience that kind of dead-ends. Your friends can’t see it and it can’t really grow. Compare that to the viral loop that happens when 20 of your friends comment on something; you’re obviously much more likely to check it out. If a bunch of your friends have liked a TED talk, you’re more likely to watch it.” Do’s and Don’ts? “Don’t do an app unless you have to, and if you have to, make sure your app generates stories,” he cautions. “Do design for Newsfeed. And do design for mobile: make it a lightweight interaction. Think of the screen size. Don’t have a really complicated picture that’s not going to reproduce small. Make it thumb or finger-friendly.” Additional suggestions: “Make sure you’re not posting irrelevant stuff, even though you’re designing for Newsfeed. You’ll just annoy people. You’re better off having a higher quality fan base with a lower number of people. If you have a competition to win a million dollars, of course everyone’s going to enter it. You might think you’re building your fan base, but there’s no point building a huge database of useless people. If you work in sales, you’d rather talk to 10 people and sell three things, than talk to 1,000 people and still only sell three things.” We talk about targeting. “Everyone’s like, oh it’s [Facebook’s] a billion people -- but you can get really specific with your ads and who you’re going to hit. We’ve got a thing called custom audiences, where if you have a database of unique identifiers (email addresses, phone numbers, loyalty numbers), you can target the people in that database who are on Facebook. So you can do lighter-touch interactions with your loyal fan base without pushing emails onto them all the time.” Final words of advice? “Sometimes people say it’s hard to market a boring product. But that’s just a lack of imagination. Red Bull makes a fizzy drink a cultural icon by connecting it with extreme stunts. Oreo got over 300,000 likes in 24 hours with their rainbow-filling Pride post. That’s marketing.” And, with that, it’s time to fasten our seatbelts, bring our seats back to the upright position, and put away our electronic devices. See you on the other side.