Archive for March, 2010

March 12th, 2010

4 Steps for How to Retain Your Customers by Groveling with Class like Amazon, Netflix, and Southwest Airlines

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Sometimes we just mess up. Sometimes we mess up big. And sometimes, if we don’t clean up after ourselves, our mess ups get even worse. Add the bad buzz from social networks, and business blunders could spell death for our company.

In fact, customer loyalty has been shown to increase when a company apologizes for its mistakes.  Here are 4 steps from The Internet and Marketing Report that can keep us from losing customers.

1. Grovel: When Amazon messed up, CEO Jeff Bezos posted a humble apology online, prompting more than 700 customers to respond, including one that wrote, “My loyalty keeps growing stronger.”

2. Surprise: Netflix sent out unrequested refunds when it discovered its service didn’t match its promises. Many customers hadn’t even noticed the issue.

3. Anticipate complaints: Southwest Airlines sends out humble letters admitting their fault for customers’ discomfort based on reports from employees at Monday morning meetings. Letters often arrive before passengers even have a chance to write letters of complaint.

4. Explain: As always, the best apologies admit fault, explain what happened, and describe what’s being done to prevent it from happening again.

So go ahead and apologize like you mean it, and before the social media networks get a hold of you. It could save your business.

CategoryAmazon, NetFlix, Social Media, Southwest Airlines | CommentNo Comments »

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March 11th, 2010

How Seth Godin and Vook Are Changing the Way Content is Distributed

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By Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer, 60 Second Marketer

A few months ago, Seth Godin posted a blog announcing that he would be releasing his latest title using Vook, a new delivery platform that combines written content with the power of video and interactive.

I blogged about Vook in November. Here’s what I said at that time:

“I’m in the process of writing a book with Dr. Reshma Shah about social media. It’s due to come out in the fall of 2010. As part of our research, Dr. Shah and I are constantly searching for new technologies that are at the forefront of the way people digest content.

Yesterday, I came across a website called Vook and I’m so enthused about it, I just had to pass it along.

A Vook allows readers to digest the content of a book either on their computer or their iPhone. But here’s the twist — a Vook combines the written word with high-quality video into a single, complete story — all on one screen, without switching between platforms.”

You can see from the tone of the previous blog post that I’m excited about the Vook platform. It is, after all, the way books, videos, websites and other content will be distributed in the future (helloooooo, iPad).

For a quick look at  “Unleashing the Super Idea Virus,” and the Vook platform, take a spin through the video below. In 60 seconds, we touch on Seth’s Vook and why this new platform is an important tool for marketers around the globe.

Enjoy.

CategorySeth Godin, Social Media, Viral Video, Vook | CommentNo Comments »

March 10th, 2010

“United Breaks Guitars” Update: How YouTube Helped Shape the United Airlines Brand

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by Ann Pruitt

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When singer/songwriter Dave Carroll saw United Airline baggage handlers throwing, and breaking, his beloved Taylor guitar last year, he didn’t just complain to the deaf ears at United. He fought back. United gave him an initial “no” to his requests for compensation, so he promised to write 3 songs and publish them on YouTube. He writes on his blog, “This stopped being about compensation when the airline flatly refused to consider the matter.”  This week his revenge was complete.

The long-awaited United Breaks Guitars Song 3 is out.  The launch of the video, in true social media style, included a live webcast and launch party on March 1.

The entire saga is a great example of how social media can be used to get results when nobody in customer service seems to be listening.

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Results of the YouTube Trilogy

Here are just some of the results from Dave Carroll’s clever YouTube trilogy:

  • The first video has over 8 million views; the second has over 916 thousand, and the final one, released on March 1, 2010, already has over 30,000.
  • Traditional media picked up the story:  For example, CNN covered the story, and Dave was invited to appear on The View.
  • United Breaks Guitars is nominated as the 2010 East Coast Music Association video of the year.
  • Dave did eventually get two new Taylor guitars from United.
  • United also donated money to a charity in his name.
  • Taylor guitar responded with its own YouTube video with information on traveling with guitars.
  • Dave Carroll’s career and band, Sons of Maxwell , has taken off.
  • United is using the videos as part of training for its employees
  • Need a “United Breaks Guitars” hat or T-shirt? But one here.
  • Dave is doing public speaking about customer service.

From his website: “ Consider hiring Dave to share his personal “Customer Experience” story and what it means for each of us as consumers and employees in today’s social media world. Dave has many first-hand insights on the power of one person and how leading companies must compete through exceptional customer experiences.”

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Elements of Success

What elements have contributed to make Dave Carroll’s social media campaign so successful?

1. His YouTube videos have been direct, yet clever and professional. There isn’t any vicious malice or immature ranting. The professional manner in which the videos are done allows for, yes, even Mrs. Irwig to be able to see the humor in the entire situation.

2. Dave appeals to all of us. We’ve all had trouble with customer no-service (as consumer advocate Clark Howard calls it). We’ve all wished we could do something about it.

3. Dave had a distinct goal. “My goal in committing to this project was to place the videos on YouTube and attain 1 million hits in one year with the 3 videos combined,” he writes. The goal wasn’t just to stand in front of a camera and rant on about his problem.

4. There’s a story, told with the talent he has. With the three music videos, we get a beginning, middle, and end, and now we are left feeling like we can move on, strengthened by the knowledge that we can fight back, using the talents we have.

5. Customer Service can’t ignore the masses. When you’ve got millions of viewers watching a social media presentation of how bad you are . . . well, you’ve got to respond.

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The Real Victory

As Dave writes in his blog, “The UBG was really ‘everyone’s victory’ for the small guy against huge impersonal corporations . . . . I had hoped that creating these videos might make a big corporation rethink how they think of each and every customer but could never have imagined the potential hidden inside a music video and a few social media tools. Corporations of all kinds around the world now feel compelled, in part because of United Breaks Guitars, to build in a better model for customer care into their businesses.”

CategoryInternet, Social Media, Viral Video | CommentNo Comments »

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March 9th, 2010

The Social Media Revolution, brought to you by Erik Qualman

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Erik Qualman is the author of Socialnomics, a fascinating book that looks at the impact social media has had on our culture and on commerce. In the book, Qualman explores how social media is changing the way businesses produce, market and sell products via social media.

As part of his efforts to build awareness for social media (and his book), Qualman produced an amazingly-engaging YouTube video that has generated more than 1.5 million views. Yes, you heard right — 1.5 million views.

For perspective on this, more than half of the videos on YouTube get fewer than 500 views. Only 0.33% have more than a million views, which makes Eric’s video a rare gem.

Here’s a breakdown of YouTube views from the TechCrunchies website:

< 100 : 29.59%
100-500 : 23.03%
500-1,000 : 9.43%
1,000-2,500 : 11.43%
2,500-5,000 : 7.35%
5,000-10,000 : 6.03%
10,000-100,000 : 2.69%
100,000-500,000 : 1.73%
> 1,000,000 : 0.33%

What makes Eric’s video so appealing? For starters, the video doesn’t sell Eric or Socialnomics in any direct manner. It simply provides useful and fascinating information about social media that can be used by the viewer in conversations, presentations and business meetings.

In addition, the video is extremely well-produced and well-crafted. That’s an added bonus that makes it very, very watchable.

If you have a chance, check out Eric’s book which is available online an in bookstores nationwide. And if you have four minutes and 22 seconds, check out his video (below). It may be the best 4 minutes and 22 seconds you’ll have this month (assuming it’s not your birthday or anything).

Enjoy.

CategorySocial Media | Comment1 Comment »

March 9th, 2010

Get Wildly Creative About South Africa Ad Contest on Zooppa.com

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Here’s a brief summary of a press release we received last week. Looks like a good way to show the world your marketing prowess. Check it out, and try to remember us when you win:

CMO Council and South Africa’s International Marketing Council

team up in First People-Inspired

Nation Branding Initiative Using a Social Media Network

Think you can beat Madison Avenue at producing pithy one-liners or cool, zany brand commercials? If so, you’ll want to enter the Get Wildly Creative About South Africa ad contest leading up to the FIFA World Cup.

The eight-week, people-inspired, online ad contest, opening March 15,  will be hosted on the Zooppa.com people-inspired advertising platform and will use viral communications, online conversations, blog postings and cyber chatter to talk up interest and participation in this inventive country branding program targeted at the world’s 1.7 billion Internet users.

Cash and prizes  - donated by SA Tourism, in-country partners and creative technology solution providers – will be awarded to the top submissions within each category including Best Print Campaign, Best Online Banner Campaign, and Best Video Segment or Commercial. Winning entrants will have their work showcased globally to the CMO Council’s 5,000 members who control more than $150 billion in annual marketing spend and recognized at a special IMC-hosted reception in New York City.

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The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries.

The International Marketing Council of South Africa was established in August 2002 to help create a positive and compelling brand image for South Africa.

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CategoryGeneral Marketing, Social Media | CommentNo Comments »

March 8th, 2010

Don’t Lose Your Chance to Leverage Your Customer’s Loyalty

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by Ann Pruitt

Recent research from the CMO Council tapped into the insights of over 600 marketers regarding their use of customer loyalty programs. Unfortunately, marketers are not giving themselves high marks in meeting the needs of their business, and question their ability to meet the needs of the customer. They have challenges to face, but the rewards are worth it. What can marketers with loyalty programs do to leverage their customers’ loyalty?

1. Marketers need to extract greater value from customer loyalists. When it comes to in-depth profiling of customers, the vast majority of marketers still only aggregate and analyze limited customer data sets. Seventy-three percent collect basic demographics and 68 percent track the location of members, but critical insights – such as advocacy rates (14 percent), brand loyalty and attachment (27 percent), personal preferences (31 percent), satisfaction levels (33 percent), and product preferences (38 percent) – are  not being leveraged.

“Relevant profiling data continues to be a limiting factor in customer engagement,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, “Without a deeper customer insight, marketers will be limited in their ability to do meaningful predictive modeling, market segmentation and revenue forecasting. Better understanding of customer behaviors, predispositions, intentions and preferences enables more effective and relevant messaging. It is also an essential part of customer revenue optimization and lifetime value building,” Neale-May adds. 

2. Be aware, loyalty program operations are increasingly challenged. Some of the challenges:

  • Acquiring and retaining motivated and engaged participants is the number one problem facing 46 percent of marketers.
  • Measuring marketing value and effectiveness (42 percent)
  • Collecting, integrating and maintaining customer data (41 percent)
  • Deriving valuable insight and intelligence (38 percent)
  • Delivering more personalized offers and inducements (34 percent)
  • Creating more customized communications (33 percent)

With 79 percent of customers saying they are very satisfied, or pretty satisfied with their loyalty programs, marketing professionals have a real opportunity to further build their customers’  trust.

Don’t miss this opportunity – get more information about those customers!

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This content is from The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council , which is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries.

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CategoryGeneral Marketing, Marketing Best Practices | CommentNo Comments »

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March 7th, 2010

Five Tips for “Outside of the Inbox” Email Marketing

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By Justin Gray, Maas Impact

Here’s how to spend less time managing your marketing technology and more time being creative and strategic with your email campaign.

1. Forget the “batch and blast” technique and consider your email campaigns as part of a conversation. Begin to think of each email campaign you send out as part of an ongoing dialogue with each prospect. The way to keep the conversation going is to listen (how are recipients responding to the campaign), be relevant (what are their profiles and interests), and engage them in meaningful ways (if they visit your product page, your next communication should focus on products, not your blog).

2. Move beyond open and click-through rates – what else are your prospects and customers doing? The standard email success metrics are great, but explore all the valuable information available to you. After each email campaign, see where prospects went on your Web site, how often they visit, and whether there are new ways to think about how to segment your prospects based on the behaviors they exhibit.

3. While we’re on the topic of segmentation… Combine the “standard” segmentation approaches (lead source, industry, etc.) with behavioral data (e.g. who opened up an email, downloaded or, spent more than 30 minutes on your site and visited more than 3 pages) to create more complex segmentation strategies. The sky’s really the limit here, so have some fun with it.

4. Automate what you can and leave more time for creativity and strategy. Use your marketing automation solution as the extra marketing resource you never had. Set up automated campaigns based on event and behavioral triggers and rest assured that you’re building up relationships with prospects every time.

5. Mix up your campaign styles and methods. Experiment with a variety of email campaign types, some from marketing (HTML), some from sales (Outlook), and even some from you! You’d be surprised how receptive people can be when they know the message is coming from a real person— even a “marketer.”

You don’t have to be traditional in your email campaign. Creativity gets rewarded.

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Justin Gray is the Chief Brand Officer for MaaS Impact.  Justin’s vision is to transform traditional ‘grassroots’ marketing efforts through the use of cloud based marketing solutions. MaaS Impact  specializes in outsourcing the core functions of a marketing department either through on-demand solutions, consulting or both.  www.maasimpact.com .

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CategoryEmail marketing, Marketing Techniques | CommentNo Comments »

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March 5th, 2010

9 Frugal & Cost-Effective Tools to Boost Business

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By L. Drew Gerber

There’s a veritable ocean of products and services on the Internet right now to help business owners succeed.

As an owner of a full-service PR firm and creator of a successful PR training program, I’ve had the opportunity to test these products and services. Here’s a list of some of the most cost-effective tools found on the Internet that can boost your business, and your bottom line.

1) Social Networking

Free social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, offer companies endless possibilities to publicize their products and services. Social networking connects you with potential customers, existing customers and partners to build your business. It allows you to get a feel for what is happening in your market and to provide excellent customer service.

2) Query Services

Free services such as http://www.PitchRate.com can help you get valuable media coverage. Sign up and you will receive free daily opportunities via email to speak with the media about topics and trends in the news.

3) Media Lists

Research journalists and their work, and then prepare a list of journalists’ emails and contact information. Use Google and free sites like http://www.usnpl.com to find the publications or media outlets that best fit your expertise.

4) Databases

Sites like http://www.searchpresskits.com provide a database of online press kits for journalists to search through when looking for an expert source. With over 55,000 journalists a month scouring the database, an online press kit is a simple must-have for your business.

5) Article Portals

Free article portals allow you to post expert articles on the Web to promote your business. They offer a great opportunity for you to implement your SEO marketing plan by writing articles with specific keywords that will drive more traffic to your Web site.

6) Video Portals

Post videos to free portals like YouTube and Metacafe to increase your Web site traffic. Many of these portals will allow you to link to your site as well as offer a cool platform to market your business.

7) Press Release Portals

Free press release distribution sites like http://www.1888pressrelease.com allow you to post press releases on the Web related to your business and its happenings. They offer another great opportunity to implement your SEO marketing plan and gain attention for you business.

8) Social Bookmarking

Much like social networking sites, social bookmarking offers a network for consumers to share Web sites they like and find relevant. It’s important to make sure your Web site is listed so consumers find it and ‘bookmark’ it for others.

9) Niche Networking

Niche Networking is social networking for a specific group. All types of groups are represented, making this a great opportunity to gain the attention of your target audience.

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L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: AskDrew@PublicityResults.com or call him at 828-749-3182.

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CategoryInternet, Marketing Techniques | CommentNo Comments »

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March 4th, 2010

Integrated Marketing Summit Comes to Atlanta

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What is the most important role of marketing?

The Integrated Marketing Summit will gather in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 30th to discuss this, and other relevant topics  such as:

1. Social Media / PR

2. Online and Offline Marketing

3.  Marketing Automation & Lead Management

4. Tracking Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)

5. Integrated Marketing Best Practices and Case Studies

The business of marketing is in a state of rapid change, with social media allowing more interaction between customers and brands. You are invited to join us at the conference – where, incidentally, Jamie Turner will be the lunchtime keynote speaker -  and learn more in one day than you could in a month.

What is the most important role of marketing? The IMS believes it is to Drive Revenue Rapidly.

So come connect with us at the conference, the best place for sharing the best practices, technologies and expertise you need to Drive Revenue Rapidly.

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Check out their schedule in other cities, at the IMS website.

Sign up for Atlanta on March 30th

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CategoryGeneral Marketing | CommentNo Comments »

March 4th, 2010

When I’m Sixty-Five: How To Market To Boomers

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By Dr. Bob Deutsch, Brain Sells, www.Brain-Sells.com

The first Baby Boomers will turn 65 in 2011.  In the US alone, more than 3.5 million babies were born in 1946.   What are some ways to market to this large part of our population?

Baby Boomers can accurately be labeled “Pragmatic Idealists.”  As a demographic they are a “glass-half-full” group.  They feel they can make things the way they want them to be, or at least engage with the forces at work to tilt the odds 51% in their favor.   Even in our constrained economy, Baby Boomers still seek, and assume, growth, all the while acknowledging new limitations in resources.

Three Basic Life Structures of Boomers:

1. Identity – Optimism and Adaptation to Power Diminished: For the most part, the 65+ crowd embodies a vitality that makes them survivors, even if they can’t always be thrivers.

2. Territoriality – Space is Re-Articulated: Home range will become more important, and getting settled in new spaces – a smaller, closer-to-town abode or a move to a warmer climate – will require adaptation to new interpersonal and larger social arrangements. 

How they will develop new networks – digital and face-to-face – will provide new opportunities for marketers, as will their requirements for new types of mundane services, particularly in the domains of finance, healthcare, and personal care products.

3. Time – Perceptions of Past, Present and Future: Their nostalgic yearnings will grow, making them more receptive to advertisers’ and marketers’ use of what researchers call “a longing for positive memories of the past.”  Nostalgia should be considered as one marketing aesthetic to attract Boomers because it telescopes time and brings it more under each individual’s own emotional orchestration.

10 Points To Remember When Marketing To Boomers

  1. Boomers are at a time in life when they really don’t want to compromise their authenticity.
  2. For Boomers, process is at least as important as the end-result.  They want “the ride.”
  3. Boomers like to inspire others.  Help them feel helpful.
  4. Boomers have been around long enough to know there are few absolutes, little is black or white.
  5. Accentuate personal style over rote action or blind ritual.
  6. Boomers are oriented to the human dimension; that’s the only real thing.  They can see the humor in most situations.
  7. What Boomers really dislike is feeling put upon by arbitrary power, feeling trapped, conned, boxed-in, and being thought of as one of the masses.
  8. Boomers are creative and conservative (“A beautiful garden is wild and tended”).
  9. Boomers go for what gives voice to things they are thinking and feeling, but haven’t fully worked out yet.
  10. Boomers respond to what stands out by its presence, not its loudness, and to what shows them that it really listens and, therefore, understands.

Marketing Take-Away:

Now, in times of less goodies and more unpredictability, recognizing the authenticity of your audience and having deep insights into their self- perceptions and primal meanings (not garnered by traditional market research methods) will parse corporate success stories from those that muddle through or worse.  This is particularly true for marketers who seek the aging Boomer as their customers.

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Dr. Bob Deutsch, Brain Sells, www.Brain-Sells.com, where cognitive anthropology meets marketing to understand the nature of belief and attachment.

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CategoryConsumer Behavior, General Marketing, Marketing Techniques | Comment1 Comment »

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March 3rd, 2010

The Identity Effect: Ignore it at Your Peril

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by  Larry Ackerman, Founder and President The Identity Circle (http://theidentitycircle.com/)

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in; if you’re going to successfully re-shape your brand, you need to start by knowing who you are.

This imperative isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have, which we discovered recently through a research study, the Identity Impact Survey, that quantitatively demonstrates the impact of identity strength, both organizational and individual, on employee engagement and business performance. The key findings of the survey, which included nearly 2,000 participants across five diverse companies and industries, were dramatic.

1. Increases in identity strength translate into predictable increases in revenue and other economic benefits.

2. Organizational identity strength is more influential than individual identity strength in driving employee engagement and business performance. Their combined effect, however, is greater than either one alone.

3. Employees don’t typically think that their organization has a strong identity.

4. Organizational identity strength has a major impact on performance, but most people don’t believe their company has a strong identity. Now, there’s a gap to be reckoned with!

5. No other engagement activity to boost production can make up for low identity strength. Of all the innovative workplace activities companies use to increase engagement — better relations with one’s boss, more recognition, more work-life balance — none of them can make up for a poor identity.

What’s a smart executive to do?


1. Build Identity Strength Through Your Brand: If there’s one management portal companies have for building identity strength, it’s their brand. Not brand as a measure of consumer attitudes, but brand as the vessel that links the company’s identity to how it goes to market, starting with how employees contribute to building brand success. Call it branding from the inside-out, rather than outside-in.

2. Focus on Identity Building Blocks: Identity strength comes from eight building blocks, which constitute the primary  ”muscles” that account for identity strength and resultant business performance. These building blocks of identity include:

  1. autonomy
  2. differentiation
  3. change
  4. stewardship
  5. purpose
  6. alignment
  7. brand
  8. sustainability

3. Start With Your Brand: While brand is ultimately only one of eight factors, it is still the best place to start when seeking to build identity strength. That’s because brand reflects, and affects, all parts of the business, simultaneously. (Just ask Starbucks, Toyota, IBM or Disney.)

Socrates  famously said, Know Thyself. He was right. That’s where success begins.

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Larry Ackerman is the Founder and President of The Identity Circle (http://theidentitycircle.com/), creating a more coherent, productive world by unleashing the value-creating power of identity.

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CategoryBranding, General Business, General Marketing | CommentNo Comments »

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March 2nd, 2010

How to Improve Product Perceptions: Buy a Vowel (Sound)

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By Ann Pruitt

Aah. Here’s something interesting about naming your product, from Science Daily. The sounds that a word makes express a certain meaning — and this applies to product names. Check out this article, read about the research, then let us know what product names you think need a vowel change. In a hurry? Just read the bold. Ooh.

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Would you drive a SUV called a Himmer? Phonetic symbolism refers to the notion that the sounds of words, apart from their assigned definition, convey meaning.

Researchers found that product names with vowel sounds that convey positive attributes about the product and are deemed more favorable by consumers.

Front vowel sounds are ones that are made with the tongue forward in the mouth, such as the sound of the letter “I” in mill. Back vowel sounds are ones that are made with the tongue farther back in the mouth, such as the “a” sound in mall. Numerous prior studies have shown that the two types of vowel sounds tend to be associated with different concepts that are strikingly uniform, even across cultures. Front vowel sounds convey small, fast, or sharp characteristics, while back vowel sounds convey large, slow, or dull characteristics.

“The implications of phonetic symbolism for brand names are relatively straightforward,” write Tina M. Lowrey and L. J. Shrum (University of Texas — San Antonio). “If sounds do convey certain types of meaning, then perceptions of brands may be enhanced when the fit between the sound symbolism and the product attributes is maximized.”

The researchers created fictitious brand names that varied only by one vowel sound (e.g. nillen/nallen). They then varied product categories between small, fast, sharp objects — such as knives or convertibles — and products that are large, slow, and dull, such as hammers and SUVs. They asked participants to choose which of the word pair they thought was a better brand name for the product.

Overwhelmingly, participants preferred words with front vowel sounds when the product category was a convertible or a knife (by about a 2:1 margin), but preferred words with back vowel sounds when the product category was an SUV or hammer (again, by about a 2:1 margin).

The researchers also tested a vowel sound that is generally associated with negative meaning (e.g., the “yoo” sound in the word “putrid”). Regardless of product category, words this vowel sound were least preferred by consumers.

“New brands are frequently created, and thus so are new brand names. In many cases, brand managers use various linguistic devices to increase the memorability of those names,” the researchers write. “Our findings suggest that in these cases, understanding the relation between the sounds generated by vowels and consonants and the meanings that are associated with these sounds would be useful.”

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Tina M. Lowrey and L. J. Shrum, “Phonetic Symbolism and Brand Name Preference.” Journal of Consumer Research: October 2007. http://bit.ly/SMVowelSo

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CategoryBranding, Consumer Behavior | CommentNo Comments »

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March 1st, 2010

Increase Sales, Word-Of-Mouth Marketing and Customer Loyalty with Facebook

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Here’s some exciting news.

Companies that use the popular social-media site Facebook and its fan page module to market themselves to customers can increase sales, word-of-mouth marketing and customer loyalty significantly among a subset of their customers.

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business in Houston, Texas, did some interesting research regarding the success of using Facebook as a marketing tool. Here’s a brief summary of their findings.  Read the Harvard Business Review article or our 60 second summary of the research here:

Researchers set up one company’s Facebook page and measured the effect on customer behavior. The company was Dessert Gallery (DG), a popular Houston-based bakery and café chain. They launched the Dessert Gallery Facebook page and invited everyone on the mailing list to become a fan.

The bottom line for marketers:

1) Facebook fan pages offer an effective and low-cost way of social-media marketing.

The study, based on surveys of more than 1,700 respondents over a three-month period, found that compared with typical Dessert Gallery customers, the company’s Facebook fans:

·         Made 36 percent more visits to DG’s stores each month.

·         Spent 45 percent more of their eating-out dollars at DG.

·         Spent 33 percent more at DG’s stores.

·         Had 14 percent higher emotional attachment to the DG brand.

·         Had 41 percent greater psychological loyalty toward DG.


2) Use Facebook with other types of marketing.

Caution should be used in interpreting the study’s results. The fact that only about 5 percent of the firm’s 13,000 customers became Facebook fans within three months indicates that Facebook fan pages may work best as niche marketing programs targeted to customers who regularly use Facebook. Social-media marketing must be employed judiciously with other types of marketing programs.

3) Facebook marketing programs may be especially effective for iconic brands, which appear to attract a higher percentage of their customer base as Facebook fans. Only 283 (or 2.1%) of the customers on DG’s mailing list became fans within three months. This narrow appeal is not unique to DG’s customers. In an analysis of 50 Zagat-rated Houston restaurants, Facebook pages averaged just 340 fans despite the fact that most of the businesses had tens of thousands of customers.

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CategoryFacebook, General Marketing, Social Media | CommentNo Comments »

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