1 in 3 of 18-34s will do mobile shopping this christmas
21.10.2011 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Mobile
Harald Wanetschka/pixelio.de
According to a UK survey by marketing community site UTalkMarketing and online survey platform Toluna. 32% of 18-34-year-olds will use their mobile to buy Christmas presents this year.
However, this might sound as if only the young generation is shopping via their mobiles, the study makes clear that also older age groups are purchasing mobile with an increasing amount: 14% of 35-54 year-olds and 9% of over 55s year-olds also plan to get their presents for Christmas by using their mobile.
“The fact that a third of young adults are planning to buy their Christmas gifts via their mobile device is proof that the year of mobile-commerce is finally upon us. The fact that most mobile shoppers will do so directly via a retailer’s app is also strong proof that brands wishing to contend in the mobile-commerce arena must do more than simply provide a mobile optimised website,” says Melanie McKinney, Publisher, UTalkMarketing.
The survey questioned 1,300 UK consumers and found that iPhone users are the most likely to make a Christmas purchase via their device. 42% said they will make a Christmas purchase via their iPhone devices. 31% of those that say they will make a Christmas purchase via their mobile will use a BlackBerry and 27% will do so via an Android phone.
However, the advent of HTML 5 is near, apps are the retail channels of choice for the survey’s respondents. 88% of mobile shoppers will only make a purchase this Christmas if their retailer of choice has a transactional app. Only 12% of mobile shoppers will make a purchase directly from a retailer’s mobile-optimised website.
“The results of this survey are a clear indication that retailers cannot ignore the mobile-commerce wave. They need to adapt to and embrace the changing ways consumers now shop,” states McKinney.
Spot On!
Poor shops on the streets… The study is a good proof that mobile commerce is on it’s way towards mainstream. Also, the tablet movement, especially with the increasing use of iPads these days, will change consumer habits to go shopping in the future. Another YouGov survey released earlier this week suggests that 84% of consumers will buy at least one gift online this year with a third saying they will buy all of their gifts online. However, marketers have to be clear about the fact that more than a quarter of consumers (26%) are concerned about privacy issues when it comes to shopping via mobile according to the uTalkMarketing survey.
Incentivized ads boost brand perception, study finds
20.09.2011 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Brand, English Content, Featured Stories
According to a recent study by KN Dimestore and SocialVibe brand messages and incentives influences most consumers to pay more attention to ads. In fact, if companies combine these two advertising and brand strategies, the interaction of consumers with brands increases by 91% and brand perception by 38%.
The study -which gathers data from more than 30,000 survey respondents- reported that when 48% of survey participants initially opt-in to engage with a brand for the incentive, they stay and pay attention to the brand message.
The aim of the study was to find out if and why incentives prompt people to engage with the advertisements, how they affect consumer perception of the brands, and if they influence people to visit the company’s website or „buzz“ their friends about the offer. Respondents gave feedback on ads from U.S. brands across financial services, CPG, entertainment, e-commerce and technology categories between June and July of 2011.
Some key findings of the study…
48% of those interact because of the incentive but pay attention to brand
12% interact purely based on brand
31% interact for brand and incentive
9% interact purely for the incentive
The results summary makes clear that engaging with the ad increased the odds that the consumers would purchase the product. Above that, incentives through ads drive website and in-store traffic, as well as purchases – and also conversions. Happy customers are coming back more often to the website when initially satisfied with an incentive through incentives. 36% of respondents were more likely to purchase brand-related products at physical store after interacting with the ad.
SocialVibe names the strategy “value-exchange brand advertising”. The company defines it as ads that ask for a consumer’s attention in exchange for something they want, such as virtual currency for social games or making a donation to charity. There is a clear differentiation from sign-up and straight purchase intended offers like cost-per-action (CPA) advertising.
Spot On!
The study is an interesting step in indicating the value of ads for branding. Generating consumer interest and awareness get’s more and more challenging these days with the masses of advertising we are faced with on a daily basis. Mobile advertising shows some similar development in terms of incentivization and engagement. Often companies said that the value of ads is getting lower as they just value it from a conversion-based ROI perspective. However, the study now shows that earning points, virtual currency or some other rewards finds the atention of customers. That’s when conversion comes into play, and that’s where brands need to foster engagement to a purchase via the right communication tactics.
Social Media around the word (study presentation)
14.09.2011 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Social Media
Steven van Belleghem from Insites Consulting is presnting findings from a global social media study with 9.027 consumers (age 15+) across 35 countries, representative for the online population for their counties on age, gender and e-commerce in Europe, the US, Australia and some of the biggest Asian countries like China and Japan.
82% of word of mouth conversations are face-to-face
19.06.2011 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Featured Stories, Web Marketing
The word of mouth and research company Keller Fay Group and Google have collaborated to understand the effects of the Internet and Internet enabled devices on word of mouth conversations about brands – and the Google Business Youtube channel published some findings now in a video.
In the US there are 2.4 billion conversations involving brands on a day, and the question is what role do various types of media play in this process? The study -based on 3.000 responding adults- comes to the conclusion that the vast majority of word of mouth conversations still happens face-to-face (82%).
However, the internet is the leading source of information motivating conversations. TV is already number two media to trigger word of mouth conversations. Google searches directly inform 146 million brand conversations a day, says the video. Are we surprised? Well, I wasn’t…
Obviously, Google would not publish it, if search wasn’t the main initiator in conversations as the study claims. According to the study, search is also said to outperform social media when it comes to credibility and likelihood to purchase decisions.
The study video concludes to mention the importance of search which is the leading source that inspires and informs, and thus triggers word of mouth brand conversations, followed by e-commerce with 7%. Social Media and branded websites are coming in at the same level.
Spot On!
The findings illustrate the importance to connect offline and online brand activities. Although search definitely has a major impact on our purchase behavior these days, and especially Google with all their opportunities and different service offerings, I would definitely stress that brand advocates also have a major impact on word of mouth conversations when using them to empower social media capabilities. The study did not use these special people as “online channels” of course. However, think about brand advocates and how you could leverage your brand with them.
PS: The full video can be seen here…
Travel industry marketers like Twitter… and not Facebook?
04.05.2011 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Web Marketing
Finding benchmarks for online marketing practise and business system structures was the idea of an internet-based survey by Verma and McGill. They polled 426 senior marketing executives in lodging and destination organizations looking at budget levels, marketing strategies, and organizational structures.
Twitter seems to be quite popular amoung the travel marketers. 80% of respondents stated they produced Twitter campaigns and Social Media promotions in-house versus pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SSEO) which are in most cases outsourced. However, there is a fine difference between accommodation firms and destination marketers: While accommodation firms often outsource all Social Media activities (i.e. Twitter campaigns and pay-per-click management), destination marketers prefer to handle those activities in-house.
“Each year well over 700 marketing executives gather for TravelCom, which is a high level marketing conference that was held this year in Las Vegas” (…) One major theme this year was online marketing, but we realized that there was no overall knowledge of where the industry stands in this area. This study provides those benchmarks.” Cornell Professor Rohit Verma, Executive Director, Center for Hospitality Research (CHR)
The bigger portion of the respondents (two-thirds) said their 2010 e-commerce budgets had increased compared to 2009. 71% of destination marketers and 60% of accommodation marketers see again an increase for 2011.
Spot On!
The travel industry is in a real change mode seen from a web perspective. Web traffic to travel brand sites decreased by 8% in March 2011 versus March 2010. During the same period, visits to Facebook pages jumped 20% according to the first-ever L2 Digital IQ Index. According to a report by PhoCusWright, an industry research group, the unmanaged business trips reserved online will rise twice as fast as the rest of the market. One in three trips will be booked online in 2012 and reach a value of $313bn. If you look at these numbers it surprises me that not more travel marketers are looking at ways to use Social Media and focus more on Facebook than on Twitter, i.e. like OmniHotels offers direct bookings from Facebook now.
Just a thought…
Can Facebook Fan Pages become the new brand websites?
24.08.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Featured Stories, Web Strategy
One of the latest articles of AdAge highlights the reach of the biggest Facebook fan pages of brands.
The article makes clear that many marketers have more success these days with their social media presence than with their traditional “owned media” – their brand sites. The question arises if the new “owned media” will become the Facebook sites where companies invest a lot of effort in these days. In just one year the shift from “onsite to offsite” becomes obvious when we can obey that Coke’s brand website and NabiscoWorld.com are showing a massive decline in traffic figures based on Compete data. Only Starbucks seems to maintain their brand sites web-traffic with significant e-commerce traffic success.
Many marketers are still not quite sure how and in which way to get engaged in all the social media hype. And if they do, a recent study by the Brand Science Institute shows that 73% had to show ROI figures after 12 months, although only 27% had a clear understanding of who their customers are… and probably none of how they interact on the social web. And 92% (!!!) were not aware of their Facebook dependency…
The expectations are high on social media… and especially when Facebook becomes part of the social media strategy. Posts like those of AdAge suggest that Facebook fan pages will become the new brand sites, or at least replace the importance of traditional brand sites.
And now to the experts… What is your take on this?
Studie: Bewertungen treiben Online-Shopping an
23.08.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Featured Stories, Sales, Web Strategy
Die aktuelle Studie „netz98 fragt nach – Einfluss sozialer Elemente im E-Commerce auf das Kaufverhalten“ des Marktforschungsunternehmens eResult GmbH im Auftrag der Internetagentur netz98 new media GmbH besagt, daß für fast 50% der Internet-Kunden Bewertungen und Empfehlungen anderer Kunden ein wichtiges Argument sind, überhaupt online einzukaufen. Gegenüber dem traditionellen Shopping biete Online Shopping mit dem Zugriff auf die Meinungen unabhängiger Verbraucher einen klaren Mehrwert.
Bei aller Euphorie sind Bewertungsmöglichkeiten für die meisten User kein zwingendes Element, wenn auch ein wichtiger Baustein eines Online-Shops. 70% sehen es nicht negativ, wenn die Bewertungskriterien in einem Online-Shop fehlen. Man möchte anfügen, das die Gefahr auf ein anderes Portal zu wechseln, wo Bewertungskriterien angegeben werden, dennoch durchaus gegeben ist. Und von dort zum Kauf ist es dann nicht mehr weit… Die Frage wäre also, was ist entscheidender für den finalen Kauf. Die Bewertungen oder das Vertrauen in den Shop?
Die Frage beantwortet sich teilweise mit den Rezensions-Optionen, die für mehr als ein Viertel der Befragten wichtig sind. Diese Nutzer weichen im Zweifel auf andere Online-Angebote aus, die diese Funktionen bieten. Denn: Wenn 45% der Teilnehmer angeben, Produkte oder Dienstleistungen sogar regelmäßig zu kommentieren oder zu bewerten, dann sollten Shopbetreiber dies Ernst nehmen.
Der Sharing Trend ist hingegen verhalten. Nur von etwa 10% werden die Weiterleiten Funktionen wiederholt genutzt. Frauen (13%) nutzen sie mehr als Männer (9%).
„Wir halten es für sehr wichtig, uns auch wissenschaftlich und quantitativ mit dem E-Commerce zu beschäftigen. Viele aktuelle Fragestellungen können eben nur die Nutzer selbst beantworten. Davon profitieren nicht zuletzt unsere eigenen Kunden – denn die Ergebnisse der Studie fließen unmittelbar in unsere tägliche Arbeit ein.“ Tim Hahn, Geschäftsführer, netz98
Spot On!
Interessant ist aber auch ein weiteres Ergebnis. Nahezu 40% der Befragten können sich vorstellen, unmittelbar in einem sozialen Netzwerk über eine Shopping App einzukaufen. Mit einer Einschränkung… Der Shop, bei dem eingekauft wird, muss dem Käufer bekannt und vertraut sein. Wer also eine App baut, sollte bei der Konzeption mit Check-out sowohl vertrauensbildende Maßnahmen (z.B. Gütesiegel) als auch die transparente Darstellung des übergeordneten Shops klar kenntlich machen.
Is customer-centric business the future?
05.02.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Featured Stories, Web Strategy
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?
E-commerce study: automatic recommendations disappointing for most customers
04.02.2010 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie English Content, Sales, Web Marketing
When we go shopping online today, we all get recommendations for additional or interesting products that might be relevant for us. Might be?! Well, a new research by ChoiceStream called 2009 Personalization Survey states that recommendations by e-tailers are still poor. A personalization strategy can be benefitial for businesses but also be an access killer for customers of online shops.
Almost 60% of the internet users were not happy with personal product recommendations on e-commerce sites in 2009. Compared to 2008 (14% less than this year) this negative shopping experience is massively increasing. The reason is obvious. On the one hand, data mining technology is affordable and used by more and more shops (http://www.thestrategyweb.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=9245&message=10although general knowledge on integration is probably low). And on the other hand, customer personalization expectation is increasing – 74% of the respondents notice product recommendations.
“Shoppers notice recommendations more than they have in the past and, in fact, have come to expect them” (…) “For this reason, quality and relevance are under a microscope.” Lori Trahan, vice president of marketing, ChoiceStream.
iTunes, Netflix and Amazon know their personalization business best and seem to have the lead in personalization efforts. The entertainment business (music and big book-stores) comes quite close with their recommendations, but shoe, toy and office supply sites seem to show bad results.
Spot On!
When results go up by almost 15% to the prior year, of shoppers who complain about not getting recommendations, then this should ring e-tailers’ alarm bells. Especially, if we learn from the study that nearly 60% who had spent at least $500 online in the past six months buy something according to recommendation features. Less successful are suggestions on order confirmations, promotional and transactional e-mails.
PS: Testing is important and e-tailers should be doing this in a periodical mode.
Heinz Ketchup wird Mitmachmarke 2.0
16.11.2009 von Martin Meyer-Gossner
Kategorie Featured Stories, Web Marketing
Die Marke Heinz Ketchup befindet sich in einem Wandlungsprozess. Erst Anfang des Jahres hat man nach 70 Jahren das Logo geändert. Nun zeigt sich in Deutschland der Webauftritt in neuem Gewande. Man hat offensichtlich ordentlich darin investiert und macht aus sich eine Mitmachmarke 2.0. Unter dem Titel “Open Sauce” geht man mit einer neuen Social Media Strategie ins Rennen.
Geht man auf heinzketchup.de bietet der Ketchuphersteller zahlreiche Web 2.0 Features, um sich mit “Heinz History 2.0″ zu assoziieren. Man kann seine Heinz Bilder auf Flickr hochladen, über YouTube wird ein Video Generator geboten sowie ein neuer TV Spot aus UK präsentiert. Selbstredend kann man auch Fan der Facebook Page werden… und das -theoretisch- alles ohne Seite zu verlassen. Und auch E-Commerce kommt nicht zu kurz: Im Markenshop gibt es vom Fahrrad über die Handtasche bis hin zum Serviettenspender so ziemlich alles, was man braucht (oder auch nicht).
Zum Start hat Heinz die Aktion “I love Ketchup” ins Leben gerufen und ruft zur Neugestaltung der Flaschenetiketten auf durch die Fans. Die Gewinner-Labels kommen Anfang 2010 auf einer Million Heinz-Flaschen als limitierte Edition in den Handel.
Spot On!
Die Idee der Webseite gefällt und ist ansprechend. Das Vogelgezwitscher im Hintergrund erinnert ein wenig an den Sommer in den derzeit kalten und unfreundlichen Tagen, was irgendwie angenehm ist. Für die Realisierung und Betreuung der Marken-Website zeichnet die Agentur Raumzwo aus Berlin verantwortlich. Die Kommunikationsstrategie kommt vom Heinz-Marketing-Team inhouse mit dem Berater Justus Hug, früherer Leiter New Media von Mast-Jägermeister.
PS: Die Log-Ins haben bei mir leider noch etwas gehakelt, aber das verbuchen wir mal unter dem Label “technische Herausforderungen 2.0″.
