News Update – Best of the Day

This news update reads like: Back to the Roots.

Skittles changes their website strategy. Not even a year ago, Skittles has chosen to set up a social media hub website against a traditional website. Last week, the Skittles site has been relaunched and ends their extreme social media outfit – just the small social network logos on top indicate their social media engagement. Nevertheless, the PR effect was and is massive for them. Just the right time to use it for the launch of their new Twitter page…

The iPad drives the media in the world crazy and has ruled the news in the last weeks. Now, a recent study (poll) shows the customer’s buying desire for an Apple tablet both pre- and post iPad keynote. The results show that before the speech there were 26% saying they DON’T want to buy an iPad and after it, the numbers has increased to 52%!

The super bowl season 2010 is over. The winner is the team from the New Orleans Saints – Congrats guys – well done! After the final the first question is: Which TV commercial was the best (see a selection on The Strategy Web YouTube channel). My vote goes to Volkswagen. It’s about a funny game (Every time you see a VW drive by, you punch a friend.), it’s carries cool characters, creates suspense and the company advertizes with the German claim: Das Auto – and not ‘the car’ or ‘the auto’. Isn’t that authentic? Back to the rootes! So, take care when I am standing next to you next time…

Is customer-centric business the future?

In the last 12 years, the credo of my business life was “Customer First!”. It surprises and disappoints me when I experience poor customer service. Or when I hear from unhappy friends, colleagues or relatives telling me stories about how companies treat the centre of their business: customers.

Last week, when I was thinking about how to leverage this to a higher level, I came across a modern business strategy vision by Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School professor and author of the book “Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business“. In the following video Gulati tells us how to deliver what customers really want.

Reorienting vs. Reorganizing
Ranjay Gulati sees the fundamental changes appropriate for some movement in company processes. Customers have more information, more choices on products while companies are facing global competition. So, businesses have to think about their business (not only marketing or sales efforts!) and how it operates.

Redefining vs. Reinventing
The analysis of the customer base might show that the website is designed for male while the majority of the users might be female. So, we need to ask questions like “Who are my customers?”, “How do my customers shop?”, or “What do they really want?”.

Gulati explains with the latest success of Best Buy how women and men shop. At that point, he also hints to the upsale opportunity of recommendations.

Success for businesses, he believes, comes from “Inside-Out-Perspective”. Companies don’t have to produce everything themselves but need to make the client happy like Apple with the iPhone. 90% of the inputs are not made by Apple. The same occurs to the apps in the Apple store where Apple basically just orchestrates the customers wishes.

“Make this identity shift. I am not here to sell what I produce – I am here to solve a set of customer problems (…) and actually acting on that!”

How to get to a customer-centric business…
1. Shifting mindset: the intention to solve customer problems.
2. Sense of curiosity and humility: the wish to understand your customers.
3. Make a creative leap: the will to understand their needs.
4. Align the elements in the organization: the motivation to live the customer-centric business.

Spot On!
Interested to get your view on this modern business strategy. Let us know what you think about customer-centric business. Or do you think the social web will be leading us towards this business process anyway?

The Strategy Web – going mobile on an iphone app

The mobile iphone app trend can be heard all over the bloggosphere. We all know the future is mobile and people want to read their preferred social medians on the go. And some web-experts have launched their own iPhone app lately. The Strategy Web (download in iTunes) went mobile with the start of this year 2010 as well…

Two of my favorite web-experts Jeremiah Owyang and Seth Goddin started their iPhone app more or less at the same time. And they all can be read every day, for free. You just have to download it on your iPhone!

Jeremiah and I have chosen the nice developer guys from MotherApp to get our personal version of a real iphone app. It took the guys just one short week to get the app live on iTunes. And this is not only a mobile version of our blog without heavy graphic load in the back-end. This is a true iPhone app with native Apple interface which includes the integration of all the main relevant social media platforms of my social web strategy (except from Facebook): Blog, Twitter and YouTube.

Above: screenshot of the app start page and latest blog update

Above: screenshot of a post page, YouTube channel, and the Twitter timeline.

MotherApp offers an interesting way to get your brand and content mobile. Even if there is no internet connection the content can be read as it is downloaded. Good work!

Two further iPhone apps I woul dlike to recommend. Take a look at Guy Kawasaki and Brian Solis (he even has integrated location-based features).

This is still an early stages version. Two negative things that will hopefully improve in the future: Brands need a developer to create the iPhone app and only my comments can be seen – not really social web world, I know. But hey, who is perfect…?!

Let me know what you think. Looking forward to your feedback.

News Update – Best of the Day

Apple is one of the most mentioned brands in the bloggosphere. CNET editor Tim Lieberecht takes a different approach to argue about Apple -as a company- in the social media era – and compares them with another media company: Bloomberg. He asks: “But in the long term, can Apple sustain its community of loyal users without becoming a more transparent organization?” Good question…!

Is your company thinking about social media ROI – This video by Socialnomics author Erik Qualman showcases several social media ROI examples along with other effective social media strategies.

Sometimes, you just cannot decide which commercial is better – both are focusing the difference between men and women…

News Update – Best of the Day

While I just this week posted that SMB’s quickly adopt social media… they obviously don’t use Twitter that much. Only 9% says a study by the research firm BIA/Kelsey.

Talking about size that matters… Happy to see that somebody found some evidence that not the size of banners counts for the output. Eyeblasters Global Benchmark study finds some better arguments.

Windows 7 launched yesterday and Apple is prepared for this launch. They just recently launched their 3 new ads that take aim at Windows 7. .. but what do you think? Is this Apple as good as they were in the past? Just take a look and compare them…

Monitoring Ergebnisse – Deutsche Marken auf Twitter

Die Monitoring-Ergebnisse waren teilweise überraschend, teilweise aus Sicht der Twittersphäre (oder sollte ich sagen eines Social Median?) aber auch einfach zu erwarten.

Das Social Media Breakfast präsentierte gestern die Ergebnisse eines Twitter-Monitorings von 133 Marken in 20 Kategorien. Der Gründer von e.life, Jairson Vitorino, hat mit seinen Monitoring-Technologien im August über 23.000 deutsche Tweets von fast 8.500 Unique Twitter Usern ‘verfolgt’, die sich mit deutschen Marken auf Twitter befassen.

Die Hauptaussage des Monitoring-Ergebnisses zeigt Raum für Potential und für einen Einstieg von Marken in Twitter: Die Top 20 Brands in der Studie erhalten nahezu 66% des Twitter-Buzzes.

Die Marken iPhone und Apple generieren zusammen mehr als 18% der Twitter Nennungen und liegen damit weit vor Technik-Marken wie SONY (4,6%) und Microsoft (3,8%). Keine große Verwunderung herrscht sicherlich bei der Erkenntnis, daß IT, Auto, Elektronik, Smartphones und Telekommunikation die führenden Kategorien in den Tweets der Deutschen sind. Eher erstaunlich ist, daß sich als Nachzügler stark werbende Kategorien wie Luxusmarken, Kreditkarten, Kosmetik und abgeschlagen die Marken der Autoreifen zeigen.

IKEA ist die einzige Fachhandelsmarke unter den 20 Top-Marken Nennungen, die zahlreiche Tweets erhält (nahezu 3,4%). Überlegt man sich, wieviel Radio- und TV-Spots die Möbel-Retailer Segmüller oder die XXL Lutz-Kette machen, so sieht man hier die Chancen für genannte (oder hier nicht-genannte) Marken diese ins ‘Twitter-Spiel’ einzubringen. Aber auch, daß sich hier unterschiedliche Zielgruppen auf unterschiedlichen Medien- und Zielgruppenebenen tummeln.

Bei der Nutzung von Hashtags (welche von mir selbst eher selten Verwendung finden), sind die Deutschen sehr zuverlässig – auf rund 6 Tweets kommt ein Hashtag. Das beliebteste Hashtag ist #fail. Hier frägt man sich natürlich, ob dies ein “Mentalitätsphänomen” speziell der deutschen Twittersphäre ist. Da jairson ankündigte, die gleichen Monitoring Auswertungen in Madrid und England durchzuführen, wird sich bald zeigen, ob dort die Twittersphäre auch gern in Wunden bohrt?

Als führenden Twitter-Städte sind -ebenfalls nicht verwunderlich-Berlin, Hamburg und München auszumachen.

Spot On!
Sicherlich interessant ist, daß die sogenannten “Top Influentials” nicht zwangsläufig über die Topmarken twittern. Hierbei stellen sich mir einige Fragen: Will man sich nicht zu Marken bekennen, um die altbewährte redaktionelle Integrität zu wahren? Steht da die Bloggerehre auf dem Spiel? Ist das iPhone das einzige Brand, welches die führende Twittersphäre bewegt? Oder ist der Top-Twitterati wirklich markenresistent?

Liebe deutsche Twitterati, Eure Kommentare könnten hier wahrlich helfen…

Sämtliche Ergebnisse der Monitoring Ergebnisse gibt es hier zum Download.

Übrigens: Wer sich tiefergehender über Twitter und Business Cases informieren will, der kann dies auf einem der drei Termine der Tweetakademie machen.

Is this a social media (mis-)interpretation by an airline?

Now, that I have joined the social media circle of people who like the general principles of the -well how can we name it- new movement, I have a questions…

Is social media still social media for businesses? And in order to be clear what social media really means in a common sense, I double-checked the “communities voice” about the term – on wikipedia…

“Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content; it’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.”

When I see the latest development and how business care about the rules and principles of social media, it is a valid post to rethink what companies are doing here. One of the latest examples made me write this post…

The new American Airlines (AA) campaign
The airline launched a social media campaign last month in order to get their Facebook fan page above the 10.000 AA fans figure for New York. The benefit for “friends” is to offer an exclusive promotion via this fan page. The campaign is pushed via their Twitter account as well.

Is this social media – a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content? Yes, it is because years ago, people flying American Airlines were used to receive news and information via frequent flier programs. The way information is distributed is different in terms of the media that is being used.

Well however… Is this Facebook relationship, friendship or whatever it may be between brand and customer (if it is a fusion of anything at all…) the new form of social loyalty with a brand? What’s the difference then between a paying customer and a Facebook fan, the airline could have asked itself? And what is one worth compared to the other? Does this second loyalty program idea make any sense when I have a perfect customer loyalty system in place?

Or is this just another nice domino promotion idea? Another push method to generate new frequent fliers, or interest in the airline, or just another uplift in sales figures to make share holders happy?

From a marketing perspective, it is just a modern way of gathering distribution lists without the use of the good old email marketing method. Clever managers and companies use Facebook today to get access to different new users via Facebook. Or via Twitter like Dell, making it a well-organized sales funnel with the appearance of a customer service desk. And some simply get in touch with an Australian company and buy Twitter followers.

In some way, the meaning of social media communities is misinterpreted and transformed to sales channels. Is this really democratization of information and communication? Or just using new communication media channels for old sales and marketing techniques?

Installing a “many to many” communication from a business perspective is a challenge. The American Airline campaign is following the good old “one to many” way of corporate communication. Isn’t the term “campaign” already denying social media? And if a company sends out a press release to promote this “campaign”, it is even more the traditional way of corporate communication in my eyes.

The good examples of using social media according to the social media definition can be seen at Dell’s Ideastorm, Adidas Facebook fan page or the My Starbucks idea community … . People talk, create products, brand and customer listens and learns from each other, and they all share information and content.

It is the hand-in-hand dialogue between brand and customer – not the old-fashioned way of R&D economics “We create, you buy!”.

And not the idea of democratizing an open customer service hotline for unhappy customers…

Spot On!
Are these (mis-)interpretations happening because there exist so many “highly-rated” social media experts? Or do companies not know how to work with social media the “proper” way? Or do business just take care of their revenues and figures for share holders value – and make mistakes with the use of social media tools? Or social media is just a dream that has not been facing the real business world? I don’t know is the answer…

Maybe you have an answer?

Ad Effectiveness – Mixing Apples & Eggs?

Sometimes you read a study and think: “Ah, this is interesting information”. So, you write about it in a News Update.

And then, you stumble upon it again, and think twice about the research. This happened to me with the ‘Ad Effectiveness study’ conducted by Forbes. And browsing through it again, my feeling was that the title of this eMarketer article reflected the result, but the study itself mixes apples and eggs in some way…

Still, the main statement of the study remains an important trend in online marketing, and is an even more important praise for the work of online publishers (yes, probably a bit self-referential for Forbes).

“Respondents were by far the least happy with ad networks, with half saying that the results did not meet expectations” (…) “Ad network spending is all about demand fulfillment while direct-to-publisher display is much aligned with the traditional advertising goals of demand creation,” said Forbes.com president and CEO Jim Spanfeller.

However, it has to be said that ‘ad networks’ is not a tactic for generating conversion. It is a supplier that offers ‘cheap space’ by bundling platforms into offers in most cases. Platform owners have a much deeper understanding of their target group and can definitely do a better consulting in terms of converting their target group into potentials for their clients. Absolutely, I agree with that statement, having done this for years…

BUT: Taking my view on the study, the set up of the study is in some way irritating. When the marketing executives were asked on budget allocations the results were these…

…and what they see as most effective tactics for generating conversion? Site or page sponsorship and SEO were considered the most effective ways online.

Thinking about the answering options (and bearing in mind my brand theme ‘tools, tactics, trends’) that were given to the responding marketers though, these options need to be separated from each other…

The question, I was asking myself is… Is viral marketing really an ad tactic? In my eyes it is not. It is a strategic communication tactic which integrates viral ads as some relevant online marketing tool.

So, this study set up seems to be a comparison of apple and eggs. Viral marketing is done in social networks. It is the way in which brand awareness other marketing objectives can be increased. Viral ads is the tool that may be spread like a computer virus by the users. It cannot be influenced like banner or text ads. Nor can it be bought. So, it is a modern marketing trend with little historical definition or proven success.

And, maybe such a study should think about: What can be bought by marketers, and what cannot in our times of social media.

Spot on!
The following summary is meant to make clear what steps have to be done first by marketers to create the conversation results their bosses appreciate… and it is a guideline for the chronology of setting up an online marketing strategy.

1.) Tactics
At first, marketers have to think about the tactics they can choose from…
SEO, e-mail and e-newsletter, site and page sponsorship, corporate web TV or viral marketing.

2.) Tools
Then, they have to decide on the tools that can be used to make these tactics efficient…
good texts (I am missing this most interesting option), banners, or viral ads.

3.) Trends
And finally, we have options that might create powerful conversion…
The use of ad networks, behavioral targeting and pay per ‘x’ models (x=impression, unique user, sales, click etc.)

If the online industry continues to publish studies that mix apples and eggs, it is no wonder that 57% of respondents said they still spend less than 25% of their marketing budgets online.

It is still early days in online marketing, it seems…

Why Apple could buy Twitter

This is just some thoughts creeping up my neck…

Based on …
… the development of technology convergence of markets for a full-fledged digital value chain …
… an imaginary 5-year marketing and media reach spending projection …
… knowing that iphone user love Twitter and offer a great target group …

And then the thoughts are going on to …

Nokia A footwear, tyres and shoe company that suddenly builds mobile phones…
Verisign An IT security company that buys a mobile service provider company called Jamba that is selling downloads like ringtones, screensavers and music…
Apple An IT hardware company that moves to a full-fledged digital value chain company doing transaction, communication and information/entertainment via itunes, a search engine and the most powerful real-time news stream…

… resulting in an amazing infra-structure model supported by a popular hand-held. Times and markets are changing…

Concluding in thoughts: OMG, what happens if Twitter can be used only on iphones for free…?

No, no, no… let’s stop these thoughts!

News Update – Best of the Day

Interesting insights by MediaContacts showing that the last click is not best of breed for efficient reporting. For further reading also recommended… Conversion and Convergence: the transparency of click-rates

Rumors going round in Twitter town. Will Apple buy Twitter? Could Apple buy the micro-blogging service? According to TechCrunch Google is not in the game anymore…

Crowdscourcing offline for their advertising campaigns seems to become a popular element of the T-Mobile campaigns. Brandrepublic reports on Saatchi & Saatchi’s latest T-Moblie ad at Trafalgar Square: Staring the crowd on karaoke … and Pink.

PS: Social Media… an update from the Inbound Marketing Summit with Chris Brogan, Tim O’Reilly, Louis Gray and Charlene Li.

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