Although I read blogs for a
living, the thought of consulting blogs and message boards to plan my wedding
was far from my mind.That is, until I
read a post that referenced a wedding blog in passing.Now my wedding includes lots of ideas I
picked up from other bridal survivors.One
example is table numbers.I never knew
how creative you could get with labeling the tables.Instead of large numbers or cardboard signs, we
will be displaying notebooks at all of the tables.Not only will the notebooks function as table
numbers, but they will also provide guests with a place to record notes to the
bride and groom (idea credited to oncewed.com).
This led me to contemplate where
else social media would be valuable, and why this would be true. I settled on: Any industry where a consumer
would become emotionally involved.At Cymfony, we have seen it time and time
again, when there is something on the line, whether it be money, a new car, or
the perfect tablescape, consumers turn to social media to give or get
advice.Additionally, as they become
more prolific, blogs and message boards are gaining a more authoritative
reputation.These aren’t unintelligible
rants, but thoughtful opinion.
What I get from bridal blogs
that I don’t get from wedding magazines or official websites is advice without
strings attached.I know that when I click
through to see how something is done I’m going to get a series of pictures taken
in someone’s living room, not an online marketplace.I have a trust in these women, I feel that
they are only there to help me and are looking for nothing in return.It’s almost like they are my cousin sharing a
wedding planning notebook from her wedding last year.
This
changes the media – marketer – consumer landscape.We are no longer a captive audience looking
to follow the methods and ways as spelled out by the publishing house.Just as banner ads have lost their efficacy
in online marketing, so too have magazines and company websites when dealing
with matters of emotional importance.
Notes from OMMA Social Panel: Authentic Conversations
I just finished a great discussion about how marketers can create authentic conversations in social media here at OMMA Social. Here are the highlights....
Even
in this economy, the cheaper option doesn’t always score high on preference
measures.
Hi,
I’m Cathy, an Analyst here at Cymfony. I take the lead on technology
clients, but with my marketing background in travel, I recently had the
opportunity to work on a study for a travel client and came across an
interesting angle on consumer sentiment towards price points.
Anyone
can tell you that consumers are becoming more price sensitive than ever in
these economic times. Across common goods and services, “budget” brands
and wholesalers are gaining traction; “premium” brands are struggling. In
social media, positive sentiment is stronger for budget brands. “Value” is the
most resonant discussion theme in message forums, indicating prioritization of
cost over inherent product attributes.
Does
this mean all companies should work towards significantly lowering price points
to compete in the marketplace? The answer seems to be, “Not
necessarily. In social media, “premium” brands equated with high quality
AND high price still trump “budget” brands when it comes to measures of
consumer preference. Looking closely at what people are saying, customers
still strongly prefer a better product or a higher quality experience in spite
of tough times compounding the price barrier. While discussion suggest
that the pragmatic mind gravitates to cost as a priority, many posts indicate
that raw emotions crave goods and services of the highest quality.
Clearly, there is opportunity to tap emotions that are not “selling out” to
cheaper alternatives.
Consumers
are price-watching across the board but have their eagle eyes on premium
brands. Furthermore, conversations indicate that they are more keen on opening
the wallet if they believe they are getting a sweet-ENED deal on a better
product. We see statements like “I’ve tried them. It was more
expensive but I had a good experience, so when there was a price drop, I
immediately took advantage” or “I heard good things about them, so I’m just
waiting for a discount.” An itty bitty savings can potentially multiply
desirability for a premium product (more so than a huge discount on a low end
product) and push the consumer over the edge to close the sale. Savvy marketers
believe this in their gut. Now social media analysis validates this belief in
the voice of the consumer.
Check out this hilarious video. Media and marketing industry veterans will especially appreciate this. (Warning: watch at home or close your office door: you'll be laughing so hard your co-workers will think you've gone over the edge!)
Will Google Wave be the Fifth Wave of the Internet?
The Internet has evolved through four waves since it entered everyday usage: communication, content, commerce and community (aka social media). Will Google Wave usher in a fifth wave: Collaboration?
Social media tracking is no
longer just for damage control and seeing what the consumers have digested, it
is about looking toward the future and discovering what the consumer wants and
how they make their decisions.
Recently
the Cymfony CPG team has been working on bringing more of our Clients away from
the purely tactical uses of social media and into looking at it as a strategic
tool.Currently I am working with a
Client who has been with us for years.They originally came to us to use our tools to track a negative PR
episode and never adjusted the scope of work after things had died down.For the last three years we were able to give
them metrics that allowed them to keep a handle on damage control, but last
week they came to us and asked, ‘how are some of your other Clients using the
data you give?’
As social media evolves, it is
becoming a more strategic tool for businesses and brand managers. We have
been hearing feedback from Clients in various verticals about using our data
and insights to make changes in their customer service relations, or as fuel
for long-term campaigns.
So for this Client, instead of reviewing the data on a monthly basis, we
looked at the first quarter of 2009. Rather than looking at the same data
that we reported on, we looked at everything that was brought into our systems.
And finally, instead of looking at our narrow scope, we did a blanket
search for "unbranded" key terms in all social media that is
available to us at this time. By doing that, I was able to describe consumer
motivations in the category and identify alternative services outside of the Client’s
definition of ‘direct competitors.’This
gave them data that validated a direction they were considering and helped them
move forward to execute it.
There's still time to learn how to Put the Social Web to Work
We've had a great response to our webinar this Wednesday 2/25 at 12 noon eastern time, "Putting the Social Web to Work". But there is still time to sign up -- click here.
Author Dave Evans will take attendees through a straightforward and practical evolutionary process for how to incorporate the Social Web into your marketing plans. He'll begin with listening, then talk about developing a sensible response, and ultimately influencing the markets that are critical to success.
Did Facebook just set the stage for sharing revenue with consumers?
In case there was any doubt before, the backlash against Facebook's change in policy to take more control of consumer-created data and content shows that consumers will militantly protect what they create. Will users next demand a cut of any revenue that Facebook derives from their work?
February 25 Webinar: Putting the Social Web to Work
I'm really excited to host a webinar next week with my friend and someone I consider a guru of all things digital: Dave Evans. Read on to learn more or click here to register -- and you may win a free copy of Dave's new book!
Hi – My name is Jessica and I’ve worked at TNSCymfony for about a year and half. In that time I’ve had the opportunity to work in a variety of different industries, finally settling in to the insurance industry over the past year. Oh yes, I’m talking about property/casualty, auto, life and homeowners insurance. If you’re thinking this doesn’t apply to you, take a moment to think about how much money you spend on insurance in a month, a year. Or better yet, think about the last time you had to file a claim with your insurance company… So, yes, it’s that important.
Ok, let’s start off with the obvious stuff – Advertising.
Advertising in the insurance industry is all about brand promise. I’m sure you can think of a few tag lines off the top of your head (or maybe I just read too many insurance blogs):
Geico - “Save you 15 % or more on car insurance”
State Farm -“Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”
Do these phrases resonate with you? Do they make you want to seek out their insurance? If not, maybe their funny, bizarre, perhaps more serious commercials catch your eye... no? If you’re like many other people out there, you’d say you’re just looking for the best rate and that’s it. Well, I’ve got news for you – it’s not all about the rate.
After over a year of reading about the ongoing quests for the “best” care/home/life insurance, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not just about price. Many people post on message boards and blogs about their rates and their experience with specific insurance companies. For the most part, these people have exposure to at least two or three different companies, switching primarily because of poor customer service, or negative experiences when having to file a claim.
Initially, yes, people want the best deal in town (often asking complete strangers possibly on the other side of the country about what they should be paying for car insurance), but then comes the life change (the accident, the baby, the flood, etc.) and all of a sudden these people are wishing they had better customer service or an agent that was more explicit about their coverage and rates go right out the window. I’ve read too many instances of people not getting enough money for the house/car because they didn’t know the fine print of their insurance policy.
Insurance companies are only as good as what they can do for you when things go wrong. It’s a tough business but there’s a unique opportunity here – to listen and respond to the specific needs of their customers.
Companies do not want to compete on rates alone in the market. Progressive and GEICO have pretty explicitly carved out that portion of the space, so move on.
Social Media gives insurance companies the opportunity to respond to the needs of their customers, far beyond straight rate comparisons.
With so many people asking complete strangers for insurance recommendations, a company could establish itself as a trustworthy knowledge base for people to research their overall coverage needs, breaking free of rate only competition.
A recent Cone LLC study confirmed that not only are people looking for company involvement in social media, but 85% of social media users believe a company should be present AND interact with consumers via social media. It’ll be those companies who listen to their customers and evolve to meet their particular needs that end up truly delivering on their brand promise in the end.
The Big Super Bowl Ad Winners: Not Pepsi, Coke or Bud
This Ad Age article cites our respected competitor, Collective Intellect, saying that Pepsico dominated the social media discussion of the Super Bowl ads. Not so fast. Movies outstripped Pepsico's performance, and Transformers beat brand Pepsi in the immediate post-game discussion.
Hello, my name is Kate and I
have been working at Cymfony for just over a year.In that time you could say that I have become
the go-to person for all of our food clients.It started with a simple project looking at peanuts and now has exploded
to bars, crackers, and most recently cereal.Throughout this time spent knee deep in food discussion, Jim Nail has
been consistently asking me to blog about some of my findings.Not wanting to bore you with talk about inulin
(a particular form of fiber) and high fructose corn syrup, I have been hesitant
to put my thoughts on the subject out here until one very dominant trend
emerged.
The topic of today’s reading
will be on what I call ‘the weight watchers.’These individuals are not necessarily in the Weight Watchers program,
but they are consumers who regularly and learnedly discuss weight management on
the web.In every food study that I
have worked on, whether it is about the intersection of food, health and
wellness, or an investigation on why one cereal brand has been the most popular
brand in the last twelve years, the weight watchers emerge as the dominant
voice.
This group is made up of two
large sub-groups: weight conscious women* and the body-building men.Both of these groups are very conscious of
what foods and which ingredients they put into their bodies.Additionally, both groups keep avid food
diaries, and in many cases, these are online journals.The weight watchers have all been through
tough times and have struggled to get to where they are.They are an online community that is simply
there for support and encouragement of the new members.
Discussions on food are quite
different than discussions of other products that we analyze. Social media
tonality for most of our clients is usually neutral**, but with all of our food
clients to date, the tonality breakdown has been 80-90 percent positive.The biggest reason for this is that weight watchers
go online to offer advice and to educate, not to complain or ‘bash’ a brand or
product.Additionally, most of the
discussion drivers*** for our food clients have also been positive.This shows that the weight watchers are
online advocating products.This is the
group’s most defining characteristic, with all of the things to complain about –
high price, high calorie count, etc. weight watchers only comment on what they
deem helpful to another blogger.When
comparing two similar products, a post will typically only explain why one
product is preferred over the other, and not call attention to the lesser
product’s flaws.
We also see that discussions about
food take place on a variety of sites, including general discussion sites and
general health sites such as ivillage.com
and answers.yahoo.com, as well as
specialty weight loss sites you might expect like calorie-count.com.This
shows that food conversations online are diverse in topic and location.
Next
time I’ll talk about where health management fits into all of this and what
those trends look like!
* With social media it is very difficult to discern age,
gender and life stage.
** Meaning that a majority of the documents collected
speak neither positively or negatively about a brand being tracked.
***Discussion drivers are the topics with the highest
volume.We look at a wide range of
discussion drivers, including taste, recommend, price, health, etc.
In November, TNS Cymfony received top honors from the Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications.
Now we have received top ranking from a certain analyst firm that modesty (and their citation policy) prevent me from telling you about. But you can read about it at Ad Age
The end of Pownce -- or the beginning of microblogging?
Blog service SixApart has bought Pownce -- and will shut it down. Twitter came this close to being swallowed by Facebook. So why do I think this is the beginning of microblogging?
In a recent post, speculated that President-elect Obama will not abandon the social network he built during the campaign but use it to mobilize supporters to push the change he envisions. Here's an article with the full scoop....
Transforming Research, Step 3: Storytelling -- or tailoring?
At the October 29 ARF Transforming Research conference, there was a strong theme that market researchers should weave interesting stories about how consumers interact with brands rather than present reams of data to induce a Powerpoint coma. But storytelling risks creating a fiction that loses touch with the carefully gathered facts in our research. Perhaps the better way to think about it is tailoring...
A WSJ article today says that many long-time advertisers are wondering if, in this tough economy, they should invest $3 million for :30 seconds on the game. The key is not the game: they key to ROI is the PR activity before the game.
Since Tuesday I've seen lots of stories and posts about what marketers and PR people can learn from president-elect Obama's use of social media. My main takeaway: wait. There's more to learn in the coming year as President Obama mobilizes his social media skills to use the power of "We, the People" to trump the lobbyists and legislators who will try to advance their own agenda over his.
