Tag Archives: Marketing and Advertising

January 8, 2015 · 11:39 am

Getting A Chance

English: Food2u running on an Android phone. E...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone who has played sports has had the thought about getting a chance to prove their worth.  If I could only get a few more at bats, I know I could show what I can do.  I need more shifts on the ice. Throw the ball my way.  I suspect many of us hold the same thinking when it comes to our products or services.  If I can only get a sample in the consumer’s hand, they’d be a convert and a customer for life.  How do I get their attention?

The odd thing is that marketers are getting those chances more now than ever.  The sad thing is that many of us haven’t adjusted our strategies and tactics to take advantage of it.  It’s almost like the coach says “get in the game” and we are taking a nap on the bench.  Here is what triggered my thought.

The Harris Interactive poll discovered years ago in a survey of US adult smartphone owners that 63% of female respondents and 73% of male respondents don’t go an hour without checking their phone.  Much of it is messaging as Pew found that cell phone users between 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on an average day, more than 3,200 per month.  A lot of it is in apps.  An academic study of Android users’ app-habits revealed that while users spend nearly one hour on their devices a day, the average app session lasted only just over a minute.  Both messaging and apps hold the potential for communication to consumers.  The issue is that many marketers ignore those opportunities or use them badly.  You only get so many strikeouts before the coach decides the bench is a better place for you.

Example.  Ever see ads on your phone?  Most are cheap-looking banners reminiscent of the web in 1999.  Others interrupt your experience and as the above data points out these user sessions are brief, implying a time sensitivity.  We need to embrace the micro-experience and add value.

The above is easier said than done, I’m well aware.  The thing we can’t do is complain that we’re not getting any chances.  Instead of complaining about micro-segmentation and new technologies/platforms, let’s embrace them.  Consumers are more connected to one another and to us than ever.  How are we going to use that opportunity?

 

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January 5, 2015 · 12:33 pm

Reviewing Reviews

Now that the shopping season is over, you might be getting emails from stores to leave reviews for the products you bought.  Reviews are part of what should be a virtuous circle – consumers need information about a pending purchase, read reviews, select and buy the product, and leave reviews for the next person.  I certainly use them when making purchases and I suspect you do as well.

We’re not alone.  According to a YouGov study:

The majority of Americans rely on online reviews. 78% check out the review section before making a purchase and nearly half of Americans (44%) are active contributors, actively writing reviews if only occasionally. Americans rely heavily on online review ratings and comments despite believing that many ratings are untrustworthy.

Huh?  We think reviews are bogus and use them anyway?  Apparently so.

Overall 87% of Americans who read any online reviews find reviewer star ratings important, and 34% find them very important as an aid to decision making. Slightly more Americans find the written reviews to be important (90%) with 41% finding them very important. The main reasons given for using reviews are to ensure the product or service is of good quality (79%), that it works (61%) and to make sure that the purchaser doesn’t get ripped off (53%).

It’s easy to think that the only folks that leave reviews are those who wish to complain and that positive reviews should be taken with a grain of salt since it may be the company itself writing it.  Not so.

American reviewers generally write positive (74%) or neutral (32%) reviews, motivated to help others make better purchasing decisions (62%), or because they think it is polite to leave feedback (35%). Around a quarter want to share positive experiences (27%) and to help good vendors get business (25%). Only 12% are trying to expose poor vendors.

So what’s the business point?  Of all the forms of “content marketing” a brand might be considering, the review space is not one in which we want to play:

  • 90%, believe that some people review products and services without trying them and many believe that businesses manipulate reviews
  • 89% believe that businesses write negative reviews of competitors.
  • 91% believe businesses write their own positive reviews (36% believe that this happens often).
  • Only 13% believe online reviews are very trustworthy.

In other words, not only are the risks of being caught pretty high due to consumers’ natural suspicions but the value of the content is minimized both by the volume of other reviews and reviews seem to be only one of a multitude of sources from which consumers derive research.  Word of mouth and recommendations from informed friends are pretty important too.  Much better might be to monitor all reviews and respond to those which are off the mark in terms of product features, etc. as a comment and not a review.  It shows you care.

You do, right?

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December 18, 2014 · 1:51 pm

Cat Videos Can Be Good For Business

Many of the travelers on the interwebs spend their time watching cat videos. There is no denying it and you’ve probably done so yourself if you’re being completely honest. Kind of sad. Trillions of dollars of investment in hardware, software, and infrastructure all you we can gasp at how cute kitty is.

As it turns out, there may actually be a reason why so many of us watch cat videos and what’s really scary is that there might be a business lesson buried within that reason. Now before you become fixed in your opinion that I’ve finally lost it, here is what Dr. Radha O’Meara of Massey University in New Zealand has to say about them:

“Cats appear to perform oblivious to the camera. That seems quite a contrast to other similar videos online. Especially other ‘cute’ videos …things like videos of babies and dogs. Cat videos are comparably much more popular and cats don’t seem to acknowledge the camera at all and just do whatever they like, they are oblivious to it. I think that’s really appealing to audiences who are so used to being under the gaze of the camera these days.”

She goes on to say that the unselfconsciousness of cats in online videos offers viewers two key pleasures. It first allows viewers to imagine the possibility of freedom from surveillance and also to experience the power of using surveillance without it causing problems for those being watched.  Without getting off track and onto a rant on privacy, I find something useful in that notion which I can summarize in three words:

Cats don’t care.

We can learn from that.  Obviously not in the “we shouldn’t care” sense – you know that’s not remotely close to what I advocate as good business behavior.  I mean it in the sense of being who we are or what our corporate identity is at its core.  Many firms spend a lot of time worrying about refining their image instead of being honest about what lies behind the brand and letting consumers appreciate them.  If we behaved more like the cat in the videos – openly, honestly, and without a care about who is watching – perhaps we’d get the attention most companies and brands are constantly seeking.

What do you think?

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