Brand studies and relativity – It’s all about trust…
24.06.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Webstrategie
The theory of brand strength and leadership is all around and about trust. No wonder that a lot of companies, agencies and consulting companies produce studies that show the importance of results in favor of their business reason – in order to make it a valid business reason.
Some days ago, a marketer said to me: “One day I will write about the theory of relativity research offers”. I can understand my business contact. Especially today. Why? See what kind of study results came out today focussing the relevance of trusted brands in connection to social networks.
As I read the RSS feed of a lot of advertising magazines, it appeared that in not more than two hours (!!!) I came across the following two “studies”.
A: Study, Scource Reuters – Study by Fleishman-Hillard, conducted with Harris Interactive
This Digital Influence Index study says brands using microblogging site elements that provide real-time responses to the public (like Twitter or Facebook) are winning a higher degree of trust from consumers.
Around 75% of respondents say they trust more more in companies that send out short, frequent messages like status updates on social networking sites. These companies deserve more trust from a consumer perspective. In times where leading companies have felt the power of social networks (BP, Toyota, Johnson&Johnson or Procter & Gamble), these findings show the importance of social web engagement companies should consider.
B: Poll, Source AdWeek – Study by Zogby Interactive
This poll suggests that Apple, Google and Microsoft are trusted brands about equally by consumers. But according to the study Twitter and Facebook lag far behind in that respect.
Only 13% of respondents said they trust Facebook completely or a lot. Now, the unbelievable number of 75% are just trusting it a little or not at all. And Twitter does not show better results with 8% trust completely/a lot versus 64% a little/not at all (28% were not sure).
And the numbers in the Gen Y were not better: 20% of the 18-29s trust Facebook completely/a lot – 72% trusting it a little or not at all. For Twitter it is 15% trust it completely/a lot and 66% saying they trust it a little/not at all.
Can you believe these numbers? People are posting their lives and conversations on this social networks. Though they don’t trust them. Strange, right?
Spot On!
So if we take these numbers of the study and the poll for granted, transfer and aggregate their essence, does it mean that we trust brands which show up regularly on Twitter and Facebook, but we don’t trust the platforms of Facebook and Twitter. This sounds bizarr to me. Now, I know that we have to double-check the number of repondents, the way in which the questions were put to the responding audience, the research conducting company’s interest and so on. And sure, a poll offers probably less value than a verified study. Nevertheless, it shows that trust in brands can be seen from different angles. News companies sell both with the same unverified trusted value of one news story. Reuters and Fleishman-Hillard to me sound more like a trusted news source, so I will trust with their findings. It reflects my knowledge…
And in some way I can understand what my customer meant when we was talking about the “theory of relativity of research”.
Top-Banken nähern sich Social Web langsam
30.04.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Featured Stories, Webstrategie
Es ist eine Weile her, daß ich über Deutsche Top-Banken zu Social Media und Web 2.0 geschrieben habe. Und in den letzten Wochen wurde mehrfach die Frage aufgeworfen, ob hierzu nicht mal ein Update notwendig wäre. Gute Idee meiner User – machen wir!
Nun könnte man annehmen, daß nach der Finanzkrise in 2009 bei Banken vermutlich ganz andere Prioritäten auf der Liste der Verantwortlichen stehen. Aber da gerade jetzt Vertrauensbildung Not tut, entdecken auch die Banken die Möglichkeiten des Social Web. Und wie man sich strategisch geschickt als Bank im Social Web ins Gespräch bringen kann, hat Mashable kürzlich mit einer guten Zusammenstellung der verschiedener Social Media Optionen und Cases des amerikanischen Marktes gezeigt.
Dieser Post soll nun den deutschen Markt durchleuchten. Methode: Eigene Recherche, ohne die Hilfe der PR-Exeperten aus den Bankhäusern. Schließlich sind wir Kunde und wollen uns den Markt selbst erkunden.
Deutsche Bank
Die Deutsche Bank hat wahrlich einen erstaunlichen Aktionismus hingelegt in den letzten Monaten. Alle aktiven sozialen Kommunikationsstränge bekommt der Kunde als eigene Sub-Seite innerhalb des Webauftrittes angeboten. Von diversen Social Networks wie Facebook, YouTube, Twitter bis hin zu RSS Feeds ist alles übersichtlich dargestellt. Die Deutsche Bank hat aber nicht nur einen Account in den Netzwerken sondern bei den meisten gleich mehrere mit klarer Zielausrichtung (Investement, Karriere oder auch Corporate Communication) bei der Kundenadressierung.
Kundenadressierung? Ja, von Kommunikation kann noch wenig die Rede sein, eher von klassischem PR Broadcasting. Twitter Accounts sind mit Facebook 1:1 verbunden und es sieht aus, als füttere lediglich der RSS-Feed der Presse- und/oder Marcomabteilung die Accounts inhaltlich. Klassische Push-Kommunikation in meinen Augen, da meist mit Webinaren, PR-Meldungen und Promotions mehr die Leadgenerierung im Vordergrund steht.
Da manche Accounts allerdings noch jung sind und wenige Follower haben, bleibt abzuwarten, wie sich der Umgang mit den modernen Medien etabliert. Auf jeden Fall hat die Deutsche Bank das Ohr nah am Markt und bereitet die Kunden auf zukünftige Banken-Trends vor: “Nach Schätzungen der Deutschen Bank werden bis zum Jahr 2011 weltweit bis zu 150 Millionen Menschen ihre Bankgeschäfte online und mobil tätigen.” Eine gute Idee, gleich einen Ratgeber anzubieten: “Sicherheit beim Mobile Banking”.
Dresdner Bank
Eine schnelle Recherche eröffnet einem, daß anscheinend an einem Corporate Twitter Account und an einem Corporate Facebook Account gearbeitet wird. Und auch die Investoren-Riege Dresdner Kleinwort der Unternehmensgruppe hat sich auf Facebook schonmal einen “sozialen Anfang” eingerichtet. Die sozialen Aktivitäten der übernommende Commerzbank AG hat vor kurzem erst Armin Cremerius beleuchtet. Die Dresdner Bank öffnet sich langsam (ganz langsam) auf den Weg zur sozialen Webkundschaft.
HypoVereinsbank – UniCredit
Stilles Twitter-Monitoring? Der Sparkasse hört man jedenfalls schonmal fleissig zu, wenn man sich die Following-Accounts ansieht.
Interessante Erkenntnis war für mich, daß bei YouTube die Branded Accounts offensichtlich nicht wie bei Facebook in die Markenhoheit der Unternehmen migrieren oder für diese freigehalten werden. Wenn man sich mal den HypoVereinsbank Account ansieht. Ob das für die Marke so dienlich ist…?
Bei meiner Recherche fand ich als erstes Googleergebnis eine Stelle als “Praktikant/in für Projekt im Bereich Social Media / Web 2.0 / Employer Branding”. Eine Praktikantenstelle für eine Person, die Internet-Trends erkennen soll? Eine tolle Herausforderung? Oder unterschätzt man angesichts der Job-Beschreibung nicht ein wenig die Macht des “Web 2.0″?
Die HypoVereinsbank nutzt offensichtlich die Kraft von Social Media zur Markeninszenierung, wie sich beim HypoVereinsbank-Lego-Tower-Event über Facebook zeigt. Kommunikation mit den Kunden kann im Social Web auch so entstehen – allerdings mit fragwürdiger Nachhaltigkeit und auf klassischem Marketing- oder PR-Kampagnenlevel. Ist die Aktion vorbei, kommt der Facebook Account zum Stillstand.
Sparkasse
Die Sparkasse zeigt aufgrund ihrer Unternehmensstruktur vor allem regionales soziales Web-Engagement. Die Sparkassen Holstein und Pforzheim Calw twittern schon fleißig. Letztere haben sogar schon Facebook für sich entdeckt. Die Nürnberger haben sogar ein Weblog, welches von Mitarbeitern der Sparkasse Nürnberg geschrieben wird und “offen und ehrlich über verschiedene Themen, z.B. Finanzen, Ausbildung, Gesundheit im Beruf und vieles mehr diskutieren”.
Die Sparkasse Berlin integriert Facebook zur Marketingunterstützung beim aktuellen Konzept “Giro Challenge 2010″. Eine gute Idee, die zum Mitmachen anregt und auf einem interessanten Konzept für Jugendliche basiert. Gut auch der Brückenschlag der Synergieerzeugung mit der Hautpstadtseite Berlin.de, die die Kandidatensuche ausschrieb.
Der Corporate Twitter Account ist eher ein erweitertes Sales-Promotionstool wie man derzeit am Beispiel der Autokredit-Aktion mit Gebrauchtwagen.de ersehen kann. Der übergreifende Youtube Channel der Sparkasse und auch der DEKA Investment Unternehmensbereich vorwiegend auf die eigenen Werbespots zurückgreift, wobei letzterer auch schon kleine Ansätze von informativem Web-TV liefert.
Generell wirken die Accounts noch wenig lebendig und wird selten aktualisiert.
West LB
Man könnte wahrlich sagen, im Westen nichts Neues. Wenn bei Google mein Post zu Social Media und Web 2.0 in Verbindung zur WestLB immernoch als erstes Ergebnis angezeigt wird, dann steht dort offensichtlich Social Media nicht auf der Tagesordnung und ist auch weiterhin kein Bestandteil der webstrategischen Planung.
Spot On!
Vielleicht machen die Banken ja ordentliches Social Media Monitoring. Dann wird sich in den Kommentaren sicherlich bald eine Antwort auf einige Fragen finden. Grundsätzlich fällt auf, daß die populären Social Networks gerne als verlängerter Marketingkanal gesehen werden und sehr kampagnengetriebenen Einsatz erfahren.
Ansonsten muss man mal feststellen, daß Social Media selbst in einer größeren Studie zur Bank 2015 nicht einmal erwähnt wird. Verwundert es da, daß einige Banken sich die Kundenkommunikation nach traditionellem Vorbild genehmigen und stärker auf ihre Kernkompetenzen Beratung und Vertrieb konzentrieren sowie strategisch wenig relevante Bereiche outsourcen?
Ob Social Media wohl zukünftig im Kundengeschäft des Bankenwesens eine Rolle spielt? Und ob Social-Banking auf Facebook bald zum Alltag gehört, darf man trotz einer verheissungsvollen Steria Mummert Consulting Studie wohl eher anzweifeln.
Unerklärlich bleibt mir, warum das Thema Blogs wenig Anklang bei Top-Banken findet. Obwohl doch selbst die Deutsche Bank in ihren Marktforschungsbemühungen das Wirkungspotential bereits vor Jahren erkannt hat. Aber vielleicht habe ich die auch übersehen…? Wer weiß…
PS: Danke an Brandflow für ein paar Links zum Post.
News Update – Best of the Day
18.03.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Daily Top 3
Mobile apps are becoming more and more popular. A new study by Chetan Sharma Consulting projects $17.5 billion in mobile app sales in 2012. But this sounds extremly positive thinks PC World…
Customers always expect the best service possible – no matter if online or offline. But especially online, retailers can loose customers just by small technological fails to more tech-savvy competitors, states a global survey by IBM. Customers want to check out a retailer online before heading to the bricks-and-mortar store. Key take-aways what customers want to do…
- 84% use websites to access and print coupons
- 75% use mobile phones to find out where the nearest store is located
- 72% see what goods are in stock before going into the store.
Creating a fantastic viral advertisement story is a real challenge. Heineken Italy convinced real boys and men on October 21st when Real Madrid played Champions League match against AC Milan to miss the match for a concert. Watch what happened then…
Neurological study: Bad websites causing ‘web-stress’
26.02.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Featured Stories, Webstrategie
Bad designed websites and slow loading times are causing ‘web stress’ for internet users. This is the result of a new neurological study by CA in cooperation one of the leading customer experience and consultancy consulting firms Foviance. The study even shows that bad websites have a negative effect on the users health.
During the study, which was conducted at the Glasgow Caledonian University, volunteers (eight women and five men between the age of 25 and 42 years) were wired up to sophisticated neurological and physiological testing equipment (incl. an Electroencephalography cap) which was used to monitor brain wave activity. The volunteers carried out a series of everyday online tasks such as finding and buying a laptop PC and travel insurance. During the test the internet connection was slowed down to increase the stress factor.
With the generated data, CA and Foviance found the two most stressful points of the online sales cycle which caused a high level of ‘web-stress’: search and checkout. Although the volunteers completed the purchase, more than three quarters of customers will abandon the site in reality. And it took the volunteers up to a minute to recover from that ‘web stress’.
This result corresponds with CAs Web Stress Index study. In 2009 CA interviewed 2500 consumers. The key finding was that slow loading websites were a frustrating experience for 92% of the repondents. No wonder that volunteers in the experiment were leaving bad websites, or wanted to call the company’s hotline
“The results of this study sends out a clear message – businesses need to reduce ‘web stress’ and improve the online experience of their customers if they’re going to maximise returns from their web channel” (…) It’s not just about website design or internet connection speeds – the performance of a website is dependent on the performance of the web applications that support it. Businesses need an Application Performance Management (APM)** solution which not only provides real insight into how customers are experiencing their web applications, but will proactively manage the performance and availability of these applications. This translates into better customer service, improved brand loyalty and increased sales.”
Kobi Korsah, Director, EMEA Product Marketing, CA
And Foviance adds…
“Consumers have very high expectations of web applications and web sites – to be always available and instantly responsive. This experiment simulated the experience of underperforming web applications for our volunteers. The results show that when online expectations aren’t met, people quickly become agitated, confused and have to concentrate 50% more than normal. All these problems can be detected and prevented as long as businesses take a proactive approach to measuring the customer’s experience of web applications.”
Catriona Campbell, Director and Founder, Foviance and leading behavioural psychologist
Spot On!
In the summer of 2009, Akamai already revealed that 2 seconds is the new threshold of acceptability for eCommerce websites response times. The study showed that 40% of consumers won’t wait more than 3 seconds for a web page to load before leaving the site. This study by CA and Foviance makes this clear again: Corporations should have a close testing eye on the essential features (loading time for search and checkout) in order not to affect online shopping revenues. Especially if you bear in mind that online retail is predicted to grow to 320 billion EUR in 2011. More information can be found in this video on the CA study.
News Update – Best of the Day
30.11.2009 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Daily Top 3
Although web 2.0 provides all the benfit for e-learning, the use is till low. The study “Benchmarking Online Operations: Snapshots of an Emerging Industry” by the consulting company Eduventures shows that the education they offer is still based on “rudimentary, text-based technology”. This stands in contrast to webinars, web-conference or any kind of podcast or vidcast tools that the web 2.0 world offers today. “But when it came to technology, the Eduventures survey found that the widely used tools are e-mail, text discussions that don’t happen in real time, physical textbooks, and word and PDF documents”, reports http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Online-Programs-Profits-Are/8517/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en.
Blogher released a new study on how social networks are used by men and women in the US. The main findings are…
- 84% (16 out of 19) of the sites have more female than male users.
- Twitter with 59% female users and Facebook with 57%.
- Most female-dominated sites: Bebo 66%, MySpace and Classmates.com 64%.
- Average ratio of 19 sites: 47% male, 53% female.
MINI started a great project“Wash me” at retail on the 3rd of November “when 10 different artists are each presented with a MINI to deface — ahem!…design at will”. See what these guys came up with…
News Update – Best of the Day
28.10.2009 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Daily Top 3
Measuring the return on invest (ROI) is difficult - especially when it comes to social media activities. Christina Warren wrote an interesting post on how to define goals, which metric tools and the sentiment analysis. And she refers to a presentation by Oliver Blanchard who created a funny presentation on social media and the ROI…
… and btw: Omniture just announced a new social media measurement product that they will launch.
A recent UK study by the IT consulting company Morse showed some very interesting findings… The use of social networks by employees at work is costing UK businesses £1.38 billion each year in lost productivity – including especially the security dangers) . 57% use it for personal purpose instead of business means. More about the study on the Morse homepage…
A funny commercial just reminded me of the cold age that is about to come up… and I am asking myself where I have seen this years ago. Can you help out..?
PS: The Premier League has made its way to Facebook. See who is leading…
News Update – Best of the Day
14.10.2009 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Daily Top 3
A annual study by Financial Times and Doremus Decision Dynamics among 470 senior executives indicates, that these executives are loosing trust in service providers. The top 5 negatives are…
Advertising and communications -10%
Commercial banks -31%
Investment banks -29%
Management consulting -17%
Insurance -15%
A quite new futuristic tool for media planning seems to be ‘psycho-graphic targeting’. Well, at least this new tool by Peerset -well explained by ReadWriteWeb- sounds very interesting. Peerset’s targeting algorithm uses keywords and meta data from online profiles and matches them with relevant information. Read more…
Ruffles knows what men are thinking… and thus, they have produced a great commercial. And guess what gets us away from think of something else than… well you know it.
News Update – Best of the Day
30.07.2009 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Daily Top 3
Connecting the offline with the online world is one of today’s biggest challenges – not only for businesses but also for the individual. A recent study by Forrester reveals some insights in the increase and decrease on figures focusing the online behavior and internet usage of Americans in the last five years. Frank Reed gives a deeper analysis of the study and brings the message of the study to the point for marketers…
“As Internet users know more about what they want from their online experience it will be critical for marketers to be able to pinpoint those activities. There is less experimentation with broader activities. People know what they like to do online and they go to do that rather than poking around aimlessly.” Frank Reed
And he sees the internet as the extension of offline world. This comes close to my view of my vision…
“Online is just a catalyst of the offline world.” Martin Meyer-Gossner, The Strategy Web
Social media is nothing for lawyers and law firms? Who said that? Just found a very remarkable and long short-list of such companies, written by JD Scoop. If you need some ideas to promote your law business, this is the place to spend some time for “cost-free consulting”.
Adidas produced a wonderful funny commercial. You will be surprised when you see who “runs” these shoes…
Ad Effectiveness – Mixing Apples & Eggs?
15.06.2009 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Featured Stories, Webmarketing
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…
Study: Agencies moving to slow for consumers?
25.03.2009 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Featured Stories, Webstrategie
If we can believe in a recent study ‘Beyond advertising: Choosing a Strategic Path to the Digital Consumer‘ by IBM Institute for Business Value, then ad agencies are years behind in catching up to digitally savvy consumers – although consumers are moving their media consumption online more quickly than anybody could have expected.
Now, despite the difficult economic climate there are some good news for the digital industry: IBM’s study states that interactive, measurable formats will be expected to account for 20% of global ad spending by 2012. The interviewed CMOs said they will increase interactive and online marketing spending in 2009 while 63% while 65% will decrease on traditional advertising. Generally speaking, the same trend that we acknowledged from the latest CMO report.
So, what are further interesting findings? Between 2007 and 2008 the proportion of consumers answering they used social-networking tools went up to 60% (from 33%). It even doubled for for online and portable music services to 46% and almost tripled for mobile internet. And believe it or not, the access to mobile music and video quadrupled to 35%.
Seeing these numbers, it is surprising that 80% of the interviewed ad executives forecast the industry to be at least five years away from being able to deliver whatever might be necessary in terms of cross-platform advertising, encompassing sales, delivery, measurement and analysis.
The problem seems to be the agencies according to study co-author Saul Berman, IBM global leader, strategy and change consulting services. Agencies need to identify and keep pace with the value shift in order not to loose out the same way the music industry did, he summarizes.
“To succeed — especially in the current economic environment — media companies will need to develop a new set of capabilities to support the industry’s evolving demands which include micro targeting, real-time ROI measurement and cross-platform integration,” said Saul Berman, IBM Global Leader for Strategy and Change Consulting Services, and co-author of the new study. “Now is the time for companies to move quickly to become more effective with their assets and build for the future.”
Spot On!
Watching the last decade, companies and agencies followed their customer audience and pushed their budgets to more interactive, measurable formats such as the internet and mobile (gaining 20% of the overall spend). This is not surprising as digital advertising enables advertisers to measure more effectively campaign success to prove the value of their budgets.
In terms of platform owners it shows that these need to identify new opportunities to monetize new consumer experiences before it is too late like the music industry has shown. The options are obvious: value of content, visual goods sales, value-added services plus hardware or software offerings.
For this study IBM conducted 70 interview sessions with global industry execs and surveyed more than 2,800 consumers in Australia, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.
