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Customer expectations on brands in a post-pandemic world

May 19, 2022 No Comments

Cheetah Digital has unveiled five key trends shaping the state of relationship marketing in the year ahead with the release of its recent digital consumer trends index.

The report details consumer preferences, including:

What they expect from the brands they buy from
The channels and formats they prefer to communicate
The type of data they’re willing to share
The terms under which they’re willing to share it

Key takeaways at a glance

Protection of privacy is on the rise

As privacy regulations sweep the globe and data breaches continue to dominate news cycles, consumers are more privacy-conscious than ever online. There have been huge rises in those turning to incognito browsing (50% increase), a PC cleaner (48% increase), password generator (40% increase), ad blocking tech (37% increase), paid for premium software (31% increase), and a password manager 31% increase).

Use data but with permission

While most consumers will trade personal data for personalised content, they prefer brands only use data that they’ve explicitly shared directly to the brand (zero-party data). Other tactics are considered “creepy.” Among those considered creepiest are ads based on location data (67%), retargeting ads derived from tracking cookies (62%), and ads related to something they discussed near a smart device (61%).

Brand loyalty comes with conditions

57% of consumers say they are prepared to pay more to buy from a preferred brand, with loyalty metrics spiking across the board. Among the growing reasons they stay loyal are when brands understand customers as individuals (110% increase), treat their data with respect (71% increase), align with their personal values (58% increase) and offer admirable loyalty programs (55% increase).

Contests, sweepstakes and exclusive access is in demand

Consumers’ expectations of the loyalty programs are maturing, with a desire for contests and sweepstakes increasing 73%, exclusive access and content rising 58%, and personalised product recommendations increasing 56%.

Email reigns

When it comes to driving sales, email remains one of the most effective channels, beating banner ads, social media ads, organic posts, and SMS by up to 108%. Half of consumers report purchasing a product directly as a result of an email they received in the last 12 months.

A critical time to recalibrate

This data comes at a critical time, as the effects of the pandemic continue to reverberate throughout the marketing landscape. While some consumer behaviours and attitudes remained the same, many others changed — and quickly. Shifts that once took years to emerge are taking place in a matter of weeks, pushing brands to arm themselves with the latest data to keep up and respond appropriately.

“The path to customer acquisition has evolved from a relatively straightforward train track to a bowl of spaghetti, with multiple channels and formats to navigate,” says Cheetah Digital, VP of content, Tim Glomb. “Brands can no longer get away with lumping customers into segments, but rather must treat them as individuals. This requires developing authentic relationships, offering real value exchange, and interpreting the right customer signals at the right time in the right channel. That’s a lot to absorb.”

Brands need “to assess their ability to create and execute campaigns that meet and exceed consumers’ growing demand for more personalisation, more privacy and a deeper relationship with the brands they know and trust,” Glomb says. “How brands respond will impact their bottom line in both the short and long term.”

Sourced from IT Brief NewZealand

In News

Create Brand Loyalty by Humanizing the Digital Experience

January 10, 2022 No Comments

By Melissa Stone

Here are three tips to retain your customers.

You already know that relevant, personalized messaging can make or break your digital marketing campaign. So as we think about cutting through the noise during the increasingly competitive holiday season — where brands fine-tuned their Cyber Monday promotions for months and worked to solve supply chain shortages — how can your company use personalized content to stand out and drive incremental revenue, both for the all-important holiday season and beyond?

While technology has enabled more personal, immersive experiences, consumers’ expectations remain higher than ever. Having a seamless e-commerce website experience is expected, and now is the time to go beyond offering transactional benefits — like low prices or free shipping offers — and instead focus on providing an enriching consumer journey, like with targeted messaging.

And there’s no time like the present if you’re looking to grow your brand’s holiday revenue. In fact, almost half of consumers start their holiday shopping by mid-November (before Black Friday and Cyber Monday), and 56% finish by mid/late December (Dec 11-31), according to the Facebook Holiday Discovery Moment Study by YouGov.

So, how do you make the most of it? Based on my experience managing digital marketing at companies like Nike, L’Oreal, and Meta (formerly Facebook), here are my three tips to increase brand loyalty and reconnect with ambivalent consumers to improve your online revenue.

1. Craft purpose-driven messaging

Think about how your customers’ priorities may have shifted this season and how your brand can meet their changing needs. Successful companies are re-evaluating how to stay relevant by crafting more purpose-driven messaging rather than creating purely transactional content. Your brand’s communication strategy should be an extension of its DNA and amplify what your company believes.

According to a Deloitte study, 25% of respondents said they stopped shopping with brands that appeared to be acting in their self-interest. My takeaway? Consumers will stay loyal to the companies that demonstrate authentic empathy, and relationships will last longer when your customers feel invested in your company’s success. When analysing your outreach strategy to your consumers, whether through social media or email, ensure that your messaging engages, inspires, or impacts others.

Consider the three phases of a consumer’s traditional path-to-purchase:

Discovery phase: How does your brand show up when your audience conducts research? When a consumer Googles you, do your brand’s philanthropic initiatives show up at the top of the search results page?
Consideration phase: How does your brand show up when a consumer engages with your content? Do your influencer/creator’s social media posts represent your brand’s values?
Conversion phase: How does your brand show up when a consumer ultimately shops on your website? What action do you want your consumer to take beyond making a one-time purchase?

Ensure that your purpose-driven messaging is woven throughout all of your brand’s “owned” channels.

For example, a recent blog post by Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s (formerly Facebook’s) Chief Operating Officer, announced its #BuyBlack Friday Show. It features episodes led by television host Elaine Welteroth on their Facebook Shops tab — to highlight select Black-owned businesses that have continued to be the hardest hit by the pandemic, helping consumers learn about their business journeys and encouraging people to #BuyBlack for the holiday season.

2. Build an affinity-focused customer profile

Who are you talking to? Get to know your audience. Data is one of the most valuable resources that companies have. We know cookies are going away, which will make it more challenging for brands to collect and attribute third-party data. This makes it critical to continue gathering information directly from your consumers on your brand’s owned website, like a consumer’s first name, gender, and the last category shopped (foundational data points to build customer profiles to better market to them).

But, be sure to take it one step further and go beyond merely capturing transactional data points. Instead, use this as an opportunity to learn more about your consumer’s interests and affinities. For example:

Are they interested in researching or buying? If they’re undecided, would they prefer that you send them a sample to “try before they buy”?
Who are they buying for? Are they interested in purchasing the product for themselves, or are they buying gifts for a friend?
After they complete a purchase, would they like monthly stylist tips on how to “update their look?”
To continue the conversation, either after they browsed your website or purchased, would they prefer to get text messages or email communications from your brand?

Rather than making assumptions about vague customer personas, humanize the data capture experience. Get to know your audience by understanding their unique preferences, which will ultimately help you retain your consumers and reduce their churn rate.

3. Redefine customer retention

Marketers closely monitor traditional e-commerce metrics like conversion rate and bounce rate and often keep a careful watch on CRM (customer relationship management) analytics, like the monthly number of one-time purchases, repeat purchase rate (usually defined by 2+ purchases), and consumers’ average replenishment rate (how long it takes a consumer to re-purchase from your brand’s website).

While consumer demand for online buying hasn’t waned, according to McKinsey, as many as 30 to 40% of consumers continue to switch brands or retailers. I encourage marketers to take this opportunity to redefine brand loyalty and retention before their customers start shopping elsewhere.

We should go beyond merely defining retention as a customer making two or more purchases and instead try to understand consumer behaviour across all channels. This goes beyond “last-click attribution,” which tells us the last channel they clicked before purchasing from your website.

What if we assigned tiered “values” to consumers who engaged with the brand during the “consideration” phase of their path-to-purchase, rather than just monitoring shoppers during the “conversion” phase of their journey? In other words, a loyal customer should be defined by both shopping and engagement behaviours.

For example, if a consumer searched for non-branded keywords in Google (“how to get glowing skin”), watched a how-to video, and then signed up for emails on your brand’s website, traditional marketers might disregard this research behaviour since they’re only in the “consideration” phase of their path-to-purchase. However, a more nuanced marketer might consider this an excellent opportunity to assign a tiered “value” to this type of consumer and develop relevant content with a targeted communication strategy — hopefully converting them to a purchaser and brand loyalist down the road.

By Melissa Stone

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

To Deepen Brand Loyalty, Stop Talking About Your Brand

May 25, 2021 No Comments

By Leeatt Rothschild,

Storytelling is powerful. When we read or listen to a narrative, our brains light up. Stories can help strengthen our memory, engagement and empathy, and they can even change our attitude about something.

The stories you tell about your brand shape how people feel about your business. But companies must be intentional about the stories they tell to illustrate their purpose in action. Too often, I’ve seen companies talk a big game about purpose without ever really demonstrating the value they provide to the people they serve.

If you really want your stories to resonate, stop telling stories about your brand. Dig deeper to find the stories that show why and how you make an impact through your business.

Here are three ways to garner positive attention and brand affinity by making others the main characters of your stories:

1. Give your partners and suppliers a platform in your marketing.

If your company produces a physical product, who are the people who make it? How does their work tie into your larger purpose? Make your production partners and purveyors a focal point of your brand story.

For example, Rothy’s is a sustainable fashion brand that makes shoes from plastic water bottles. In addition to using recycling materials to create its products, Rothy’s partners with the Envira Amazonia Project to offset carbon emissions, which helps the company get in front of eco-conscious consumers through press coverage.

Starfish Project is another example of a company that leverages its commitment to ethical production in its marketing. The jewellery company gives artisan opportunities to exploited women and girls. It has a “Stories of Hope” section on its website where you can read dozens of jewellery makers’ stories and shop the pieces that they designed and crafted themselves.

Consumers like knowing how their products are made. When you show the faces, places and impact of the work that goes into your products, customers will feel a deeper connection to your brand.

2. Spotlight your employees and your community engagement impact.

Your employees are just as important as your customers in upholding your brand values.

Rather than talking about how stellar your employees are, tell stories about how your company has helped your employees realize their own goals and purpose. Show that you don’t just hire great people; you actively nurture your employees to achieve their full potential.

Stryker, a medical manufacturing company that was voted the No. 1 workplace for diversity by Fortune, has stated it has a mission to make healthcare better and more inclusive of people from all backgrounds. It commits to that mission through its diverse hiring practices, which it showcases on its career blog profiles of employees who bring a wide range of perspectives and experiences to the company.

When it comes to community engagement impact reporting, numbers and accomplishments are impressive, but they can’t illustrate how you helped people on the ground. Try focusing on the story of someone who participated in a social impact program.

Salesforce, for example, has stated equality is one of its core values. (Full disclosure: Salesforce is a client of my company.) The company’s website has a dedicated section called “Our Impact” that details, among other initiatives, a workforce development program that serves veterans and people with disabilities, and one blog post highlighted how a veteran transitioned to a career in tech with the help of a Salesforce program.

Instead of a barebones employee engagement or corporate social responsibility report, empower the beneficiaries of your work to speak for themselves.

3. Put your customers’ stories front and centre to communicate brand value.

Make your brand’s core values more meaningful by allowing your customers to share them with your target audience.

It’s one thing to say, “We make clothes that last forever,” and another to let a customer share how, in their own words, they’ve spent more than 20 years hiking, building and spending time with his family in the same pair of shorts.

Patagonia is a beloved brand known for making sustainable outdoor apparel that people wear for life, but it doesn’t need to tell you that. Instead, the brand shows it through its Worn Wear webpage, which showcases long-time customer stories who have worn their Patagonia clothes through meaningful life experiences, travels and environmental work.

From my perspective, Patagonia demonstrates three central features of its business by sharing its customers’ compelling stories:

• Product quality: Stories about customers wearing the brand’s clothes help show the products are made to last.

• Company mission: Sustainability and environmental conservation are Patagonia’s bread and butter, and these stories endorse practicing mindful consumption.

• Customer ethos: Patagonia can attract like-minded people who identify with the customers in the stories they share.

Leading with brand messaging through your customers doesn’t just create goodwill for your company; it can also drive action tied to your purpose. One Porter Novelli study (registration required) found that purpose messaging is actually more likely to influence customer behaviour than product messaging.

If you can’t find a good story to tell, find something to do.

Purpose begets business opportunities when companies are vocal about how they’re making a difference. By illustrating your mission through the stories of individual people and programs, you build brand affinity in a world where consumers now expect businesses to care about the greater good.

And if you don’t yet have a great brand story to tell about how you help people, it’s never too late to start giving back.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Leeatt Rothschild

Founder and CEO of Packed with Purpose, where business gifts foster meaningful relationships and create deep societal impact. Read Leeatt Rothschild’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Trump Experiences the Downside of a Politicized Brand

January 15, 2021 No Comments

Sourced from The Customer

Since his election to the Presidency, the added-value the Trump brand engenders has ‘ping-ponged’ according to his political postures.

Editor’s Note: Brand Keys has been tracking consumer sentiment and brand loyalty for the past 25 years and has compiled one of the most robust longitudinal views of brand performance ever assembled. One of the beauties of this kind of research is that its utility transcends branding and loyalty and can be applied (very nicely) to things like politics. To wit, today’s news:

Trump Brand Loses Added-Value in 75% of Categories Tracked

Consumers – particularly republicans – see Trump as “Entertainer-In-Chief”
21% of Americans would tune in to ‘Trump TV’

For 30 years Donald Trump was one of the most powerful consumer brands that Brand Keys, the global leader in brand loyalty and emotional engagement research, tracked. Since his election to the Presidency, the added-value the Trump name engenders has ‘ping-ponged’ according to his political postures.

The Trump Brand Took A Sharp Right And. . .

Since Trump made a sharp right turn away from consumer marketing to politics, consumers’ tribal and political bonds have made their effects felt. “The Trump brand lost efficacy in a number of consumer categories it once dominated,” noted Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys founder and president. “It’s difficult for one brand, even one as strong as Trump’s, to operate successfully in the consumer and political arenas simultaneously.”

The Trump “Human Brand” – Lift And Drop

Mr. Trump was designated a “Human Brand” in 1991 by Brand Keys, which coined the nomenclature to describe people that were the living embodiments of particular value sets, who were able to successfully and profitably transfer those values to products and services. If a Human Brand could do that, it increased a product’s perceived value and desirability. Percentages reported by Brand Keys indicate the value-add (or reduction) produced by, in this case, adding the Trump name to a product category or sector.

Four Categories Survive Trump Politics and MAGA Hats Don’t Count

Ultimately, labels and retailers abandoned the Trump brand, and categories – clothing, suits, ties, watches, and jewellery traditionally tracked – vanished. “MAGA hats and tee-shirts were self-classified by respondents as ‘political statements’ rather than traditional clothing,” noted Passikoff.

Four categories in which the Trump brand still exhibits Human Brand-efficacy includes TV/Entertainment, Golf & Country Clubs, Hotels, and Real Estate. In the current tracking wave, the Trump brand decreased its value-add in three of the four categories. Only TV/Entertainment was up.

Political Branding Effects

The most recent national Brand Keys survey, conducted October 19-27, 2020, included 1,812 self-identified Republicans, Democrats, and Independents drawn from the nine U.S. Census regions. It examined the four categories where the Trump brand still resonates. The only category where attaching the Trump name showed any lift was TV/Entertainment – but only among Republicans.

Tuning Into Trump

Four years ago, when a win for Hillary Clinton was assumed, the expected move for then- candidate Donald Trump was a Trump TV channel. His surprise victory changed that trajectory, but with President Trump soon to exit the White House speculation about launching a Trump cable network has reemerged.

Twenty-one percent (21%) of the total sample indicated a top-two box likelihood (definitely/probably) of watching some form of Trump TV, with political affiliation clearly and unexpectedly influencing likelihood-to-view:

Democrats: 7%
Independents: 15%
Republicans: 41%

“Trump’s efficacy as the ‘Entertainer-in-Chief’ has already been demonstrated. Cable news network ratings have hit record levels since he became a candidate,” noted Passikoff. “And remember Trump was already a TV star as the host of ‘The Apprentice.’”

Launching a cable network is problematic as consumers continue to shift away from pay TV subscriptions. “It would be more viable for Trump to acquire an existing channel that caters to his conservative followers or to sign on as a program host at an established network,” said Passikoff. “Trump’s tweets reveal he already believes he is personally responsible for Fox News’ dominance in the ratings, although it has been the most-watched cable news source since 2002.”

“A Trump TV show might help to revive faded categories,” observed Passikoff, “This current survey is exclusively an American respondent group but there’s a whole world out there.”

Sourced from The Customer

In News

Where is Your CX Leaking Loyalty?

January 5, 2021 No Comments

By Greg Tucker.

Surprisingly few companies track the brand loyalty leakage throughout their customer’s experience to learn where loyalty is “won and lost”.

With over $600 Billion spent on advertising to create brand awareness, drive prospect conversion and build customer loyalty, surprisingly few companies track the brand loyalty leakage throughout their customer’s experience with them to learn where loyalty is “won and lost”.

Our customer journey research efforts with global brands covers four key aspects of the “Path to Purchase”:

Marketing / Prospect Leakage – Turning unaware prospects into buyers and minimizing the “leakage” of prospects from the “Awareness-to-purchase” stage
Sales / Revenue Leakage – Ensuring that customers can spend the full amount of their purchase intention during the sales & renewal journey, and that “Revenue leakage” throughout the customer lifecycle is minimized
Customer Retention / Customer Leakage – Ensuring that customers receive the positive experience that will keep them coming back year after year and renewing their purchases with the company and brand. Especially important in B2B contractual customer relationships.
Customer Satisfaction / Loyalty Leakage – Ensuring that customers receive the “on-brand” experience that results in high satisfaction/NPS scores that drives and sustains positive word-of-mouth” marketing.

Customer Satisfaction / Loyalty Leakage

Our customer journey research for existing customers is designed to answer these questions:
• For a customer starting their relationship with us, what is the “typical experience” they receive from start to finish? What is an “on-brand customer experience”?
• What differentiates the “on-brand experience” and the “typical experience” (or the “off-brand experience”)? What differentiates our experience with the leading competitor’s experience?
• What is the impact of our experience on our customer loyalty metric? What could our full potential of brand loyalty look like if we delivered the “most impactful, on-brand experience”?
• What can be done to improve the customer’s experience, the impact on loyalty and on business results? What improvements have the highest impact?

A popular restaurant company asked us these questions and asked us to identify the “Existing Customer Experience” and where it didn’t meet their expectations. Over 25 factors needed to be assessed as part of the experience – food, service, wait times, price, cleanliness, power & Wi-Fi, rewards programs, specials, etc. Several customer segments needed to be engaged across different restaurant formats and across multiple day-parts (breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and late-night snack).

Through qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic, biometric and eye-tracking research, it became clear that the current customer experience was solid, but not stellar. And customer loyalty scores trailed the leading competitor by a wide margin.

The insights that emerged included:
• There were 8 stages of the customer experience journey – and 20 friction points were encountered along the journey – well-known to the restaurant employees – but not prioritized or proactively managed on a systematic basis
• Many of the 25+ factors that were studied had little impact on the customer experience. They weren’t relevant to being “on-brand”.
• There were 4 “moments of truth” along the journey that defined the overall experience. Getting these 4 things right resulted in an outstanding “on-brand experience” – getting them wrong resulted in an “off-brand experience”. 90 points of customer loyalty (NPS) were “leaking” out of the customer journey through a failure to proactively manage these 4 moments of truth.

Linking these insights to business results allowed us to model and quantify the following:
• Focusing on delivering an “on-brand experience” in the 4 key areas (out of 25+ potential areas) of the customer experience results in an industry-leading customer loyalty result, with a measurable and immediate NPS improvement.
• This impact had a 30% improvement in customer lifecycle revenue, based on visit frequency, increased spending per visit.
• Improving the experience would allow the company to expand its customer base within the family members and their friends, making new customer growth faster and less expensive.

By Greg Tucker

Greg Tucker is a Who’s who of Customer Experience and award-winning CX practitioner, advisor and leader for more than 15 years. As CEO of Tucker & Company he consults to Fortune 1000 enterprises and emerging companies on Customer Experience strategies and programs, delivering transformational business results. As a CX Officer and CMO at Copart Auto Auctions, he implemented an end-to-end CX program across all channels that delivered a 20% improvement in Enterprise profitability and received the 2012 CX Innovation Award for delivering a powerful ROI from the CX Program.

Sourced from The Customer

In News

Confessions of an Automotive Chauvinist: A Look Back at Brand Loyalty

April 28, 2020 No Comments

By Frank Markus

My journey from GM to Ford to Chrysler and back again.

As a young car guy, I was raised an automotive chauvinist in a staunchly brand-loyal household. In those days whole families seemed to cleave to one manufacturer or another. Mopar folks never shopped “Found On Road Dead.” GM loyalists had so many brands to choose from they never needed to stray. AMC people felt everything else was either too big, powerful, fancy, or expensive. Of course, nobody bought “ferrin” cars.

Such brand loyalty is difficult to imagine today, when buyers’ automotive affections come up for grabs every time their lease expires or their odometer rolls past that magic sell-by number. Perhaps this intensified competition helped foster the high level of overall quality we enjoy today, but it has certainly kept marketing departments busy.

My family were GM folks. Mom’s uncle sold them in Wisconsin, and both sets of grandparents drove Buicks. We drove Chevys because that was the rung on GM’s price ladder we could reach. I came home from the hospital in a ’60 Bel Air two-door sedan that was soon traded for a new ’65 Impala fastback sport coupe, followed by a similar ’66 and a low-mileage formal ’68 Caprice custom coupe demo that dad bought at a cocktail party. Then in 1969 we bought a plain-Jane Townsman wagon, whose only “frills” were A/C, an AM radio, and a 350/Turbo-Hydramatic powertrain.

That was the car that really imprinted on me. It was in that driver’s seat that I first assumed command of both the steering wheel and the pedals after 15 years of yearning, helping steer, and driving the wheels off my pedal cars. For a variety of reasons, Dad decided to hang on to that Townsman for 170,000 miles, so when I went off to college, I inherited an even dowdier, un-air-conditioned ’69 Chevy Brookwood wagon from Dad’s cousin.

Even though my Chevy chauvinism was well established by this point, the first two cars I purchased with my Oldsmobile dealership (minimum) wages were ’66 Mustangs. I bought them despite their Fordness because they were iconic pony cars.

But I came to resent their Fordness every time I went to fix something, so my next purchase returned me to the Chevy fold: a fully loaded 10-year-old ’73 Caprice Estate wagon. When its horrendously thirsty 454 threatened to bankrupt me, I swapped it for a Canyon Brown metallic VW Dasher diesel wagon (yes, its manual transmission made it the ultimate car-scribbler ride). I admired its parsimony, loathed its lethargy, and parted ways permanently with the VW brand when its engine failed at only 150,000 miles.

An instant and permanent chauvinism shift occurred for my whole family when I took a job with Lee Iacocca’s post-bailout New Chrysler Corporation in July 1985. During my six-year engineering career there, sweet new car discount deals and access to the lot where cream-puff low-mileage exec lease cars were sold on the cheap helped Dad drop GM like an expensive mistress.

In addition to purchasing my one and only brand-new car—a custom-ordered 1986 Dodge Lancer ES Turbo—my newfound Mopar loyalty led to purchases of two “Forward Look wagons”—a ’59 Dodge Custom Sierra and a ’57 Plymouth Custom Suburban—and the 1967 Sunbeam Alpine I still own. (That was a quasi-Chrysler, produced by the death rattling Rootes Group subsidiary.) These days I also own a super cute 1985 Chrysler Town & Country K-car wagon that takes me back to my 22-year-old pocket-protected post-grad heyday.

Our dads are our heroes. We grow up assuming their choices were all well-reasoned and rational. But looking back, I have to wonder whether Dad would have made the same choices had he rigorously cross-shopped the competition. A few years back I got the chance to answer that question by comparing the very cream of the Chevy and Ford wagon crop in a head-to-head retro comparo for the late, great Motor Trend Classic magazine.

In the Bow Tie corner was, hands-down, the coolest ’69 Chevy wagon extant: the GM Heritage Center’s Kingswood Estate, factory-equipped with the crazy-rare L72 solid-lifter 427 engine. Only a handful of the 546 L72s installed in full-size Chevys went in wagons, and most of those were specced as stripper drag racing specials. This one was fully decked out with nearly every available option, and for added nostalgic value, it boasted the same Dover White over blue color scheme of the family Townsman. Representing Ford was a top-of-the-line Country Squire, similarly equipped with nearly every option and a 429 big-block in Presidential Blue with a gold woven-vinyl interior.

I spent a glorious day driving the two cars back to back and an additional day and a half piloting the Ford. My hard-nosed journalistic conclusion: That year—and perhaps for years before and after—the Ford was objectively the better car. It soundly trounced my beloved Chevy in terms of ride comfort, interior noise levels, body rigidity, seat comfort, wagon features, ventilation, radio—everything but quarter-mile times.

Of course, childhood chauvinism dies hard when I’m trolling Bring-A-Trailer for ’69 big-block wagons …

By Frank Markus

Sourced from Motortrend

In News

Inbound Marketing Plan for Small Businesses

January 22, 2019 No Comments

By Debra Murphy

Inbound marketing is something that most small business owners have heard of but few have implemented. But for those who do take the plunge, many are experiencing a more cost effective and successful form of marketing.

Unlike traditional outbound marketing where you push yourself on potential customers, inbound marketing is better aligned with today’s buyers who research solutions before they speak to a brand. Using inbound marketing enables you to build rapport and trust with those who want to purchase your products and services.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that uses content to attract your ideal prospects to your business. The goal is to pull your prospects to you using online activities such as social media, search engine optimization and content marketing to generate warm leads. These prospects find your brand primarily through search, looking for information they need to solve a problem or fulfill a need. The activities used are focused on expertise, authority and trust.

Why do I care?

Buying decisions, both consumer and business, have evolved where they begin with an online search. When a prospective customer finds your business through inbound marketing, the useful information you provide gives them a different perspective about your company.

For most small businesses, inbound marketing is effective because you:

Build brand visibility by developing informational content that attracts the attention of those looking for the product or service you offer.
Generate warm leads because they find your content when they are most interested.
Develop and nurture relationships with these prospects through additional quality content and online conversations.
Build your own, permission-based email marketing list.
Develop an expert reputation in your field, putting you in a position of authority and trust.

For most small businesses, adding inbound marketing activities to your marketing plan is important to acquiring long term, loyal customers.

What are the benefits?

Costs less

Employing inbound marketing enables you to engage in marketing tactics that cost less and are more effective than traditional outbound marketing tactics. According to Hubspot, not only is the cost per lead is 62% lower than leads generated by outbound marketing, inbound marketing tactics have a higher ROI than outbound marketing.

Creates brand loyalty

Inbound marketing attracts the right audience to your business like a magnet and connects with them more effectively. Most buyers today research the products and services that they need long before contacting a business. If someone is spending the time reading your blog, downloading your white papers and joining your email list, they are making a commitment to your brand. When you build brand loyalty, these warm prospects are more likely to contact you when they are ready to buy.

Builds trust

When you provide useful information, solve a problem and answer questions with no strings attached, you develop a more personal relationship that helps them decide whether to do business with you or not. When you continually push your sales pitch at people who may or may not be interested, they ignore your business and consider you an annoyance.

Expands your universe

For many small businesses, reaching a broad audience was unattainable due to the cost. Attracting potential customers to your website with quality content can help small businesses reach a broader, more geographically dispersed audience. If your business can service customers nationally or internationally, inbound marketing is a must for your business. Even local businesses benefit from inbound marketing, especially those who provide home improvement and major renovation services.

Now that you understand what inbound marketing is and how it can help your small business, it’s time to figure out your inbound marketing strategy and develop your inbound marketing plan.

How to develop your Inbound Marketing Plan

The following framework can be used as the base template for your plan. Remember that your marketing plan should be a living document that gets reviewed every 90 days to be sure it is working and that new market conditions haven’t come into play. If you create a plan and never look at it for the entire year, you will waste a lot of time and effort.

Define your marketing goals

Your marketing goals should define what you are trying to accomplish. It is not a vision but measurable outcomes that you want to accomplish over the next 90 days or so.

Measurable outcomes can be number of leads generated, leads converted into customers or revenue. By setting marketing goals, you can then organize your marketing activities around each goal to see if each is contributing to the outcome.

Analyze your web presence

A web presence analysis is an exercise that helps you determine how your business is viewed when someone searches for your products and services. In many cases, small businesses don’t know what is on the Internet about them or if they can be found at all.

If you haven’t searched for your business to see what is there, you could have some negative surprises waiting for you. If you don’t know how your business is perceived, it is difficult to determine what marketing strategies you need to help your prospects find you.

Know your target audience

Never underestimate the importance of defining your ideal target audience. Knowing who you want to work with and understanding the needs of this unique group of people or businesses allows your business to provide tremendous value to those who need it the most.

Intimately understanding your ideal client means you know with certainty what problem they are trying to solve or what need they wish to satisfy.

Being focused on one particular market enables you to make better choices for all of your marketing efforts. This saves you time and money on activities that don’t make sense for your business and the clients you serve.

Develop strategies to achieve your goals

Inbound marketing involves the strategic use of content, social media and search engine optimization. Each of these areas needs a strategy that align with your goals. Each of these activities are critical to the overall success of your marketing efforts.

Content marketing is the offer you make to those researching a solution.
Social media is a channel to deliver your content to your audience.
Well-written optimized content is critical to a successful search engine optimization strategy.

Content marketing

What type of content will you create for the various stages of the buyers journey?
Who will develop this content and share it?
What is your content distribution strategy?

Social media

Which social media tools make sense for your business?
How will you leverage each one to drive inbound leads?
How will you respond and engage those who share, comment and connect?

Search engine optimization

How do people search for your products and services?
What keywords will you use to optimize your content?
What is your link building strategy?

Lead nurturing:

How will you build a relationship with each person that signs up for your email list, subscribes to your blog, likes your Facebook page, joins your LinkedIn Group or follows you on Twitter?
What type of content will you provide at what point in their journey?
How often will you touch your prospects?

Analyze and measure:

How will you determine if your efforts are successful?
What will you measure?
What are the key metrics you will use to determine success?

There is too much distraction online to try to implement inbound marketing without a plan. Putting structure around your strategy helps you remain focused on the goal.

Don’t let this exercise overwhelm you. Go through each area and answer the questions. Be practical with what you can do given your resources.

As a small business, we have only so much time to devote to marketing, so use that time wisely.

By Debra Murphy

Sourced from Business 2 Community

In News

Product Brand loyalty or blind loyalty: does it make sense?

April 4, 2018 No Comments

By JC Torres

What Microsoft feared nearly a decade ago has come true. The mobile market has become a two-horse race, with just some extras on the sidelines. With only Android and iOS really to choose from, who do you think has more loyal users? Apple is often cited for having fiercely loyal fans but, surprisingly enough, for the first time, Android loyalty has exceeded iOS 91% to 88%, respectively. But before either camp brings out the champagne or the pitchforks, one really has to ask: does it matter at all?

What happened?

To be clear, nothing really happened. The Consumer Intelligence Research Partners’ (CIRP) study shows that customer loyalty to either Android or iOS has been steadily on the rise. Except for a dip in iOS retention in late 2014. Perhaps if not for that temporary decline, iOS would have overtaken Android with that exact same growth rate.

And before Android users celebrate, CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz has some insights that put that victory in a less impressive light. There are more Android users than iOS ones, that much is a fact. But to keep the iOS line growing stead, that would require an influx of more Android users switching to iOS. In contrast, Android needs less iOS refugees to keep its rate up. In other words, Android may have the higher numbers, but it may also have more people moving to iOS than the other way around.

For businesses

So what is all this Android vs iOS loyalty all about and does it even matter. For the businesses running or banking on Android or iOS, that’s a resounding yes. That means a big yes for Google, Apple, Samsung, and other Android OEMs. Brand loyalty means that people will keep using their products longer. That means, in a sense, locking them a lot longer into your services. That ultimately means making more money, or at least a steady influx of money.

Brand loyalty and customer retention are why companies work so hard to not only keep their current customers happy but to also convince those from the other side to jump ship. That last part is what sometimes causes tension, confusion, and sometimes even lawsuits, when companies fight and sometimes defame each other in order to pull their customers from other their grasp. In the Android versus iOS context, that usually involves things like saying how insecure one platform is or how closed off the other is.

For users

For users, however, brand loyalty is really nothing more than a badge, pretty much like sports team loyalty. Sometimes just as passionate, zealous, or even violent. It gives a sense of belonging or kinship to a group with similar interests and experiences. In practical terms, however, it matters very little.

iOS users are loyal to the iPhone because they don’t exactly have any other hardware to choose from. If someone else starts making iOS phones, especially better than Apple, you’ll see that iPhone loyalty wane instantly. Likewise, not all Android users are loyal to Android because of Android. Often they’re loyal to Pixels, Samsungs, LGs, Xiaomis, and the like. Often they might even be loyal to the brand of Android they only know from their OEM, not realizing how different Android might be from other OEMs.

Of course, there are those that are loyal to iOS or Android for the very platforms themselves. They agree with this or that way of doing things, of presenting things, of designing things. But then comes along a new version of iOS or Android that turns things around or yanks out those favorite features. Then you hear gnashing and weeping and the door slamming on the way out.

And then there are those who couldn’t care less about iOS or Android or Windows or Mac. It just so happens that the app they fell in love with or grew up with is only available in one particular OS. And when some of those become available in other operating systems, then the operating system becomes even less relevant. Then again, they might have become loyal to the app in the same way.

Blind loyalty

So what does brand loyalty bring? In this particular context, nothing relevant to users other than bragging rights. Indirectly, they do bring benefits, since consumer retention helps companies, which, in turn, retains or improves services that benefit users.

But not all those services are ultimately tied to those two platforms anyway. Brand loyalty, in fact, can actually become more harmful in some cases when they force users into a box of their own making. Some may never consider or use this or that app because it’s not made by this or that brand. Some won’t try out other phones because they’re too set in the ways of their old brands. Some would even go as far as admit that this or that OS is better but they’re not going to use it because it’s not iOS or Android.

Wrap-up: Breaking down barriers

We live in a world where the Internet has made the world a smaller place, where development happens at breakneck speeds, where features come and go, almost with no complete assurance they’ll be there in the next version. We live in an age that sticking to a brand just because of that brand no longer makes a lot of sense.

Of course, there will be the argument that so and so brand is synonymous with quality. As can be proven so many times, that is only true for so long. There’s no denying the fact that one brand, one platform, one app, will have better features and aspects than the others. But to equate those features to a brand and equate it for the long-term? Not exactly a sensible outlook.

Brand loyalty and customer retention are important for the companies that make these products, so hooray to the Googles, the Apples, and the Samsungs of the world. Those numbers, however, aren’t always representative of the actual quality of their products. More of then than not, it’s more representative of how good their marketing is.

By JC Torres

Sourced from SLASH GEAR

In News

The Psychology of Brand Loyalty: 5 Key Takeaways

September 15, 2017 No Comments

By Jayson DeMers –

In an ideal world, all your customers would be loyal to your brand. Loyalty means a customer is willing to come back to your brand for multiple purchases and experiences, forgoing your competitors’ — even if those competitors are offering lower prices or similar incentives

Some studies (and opinions) suggest that brand loyalty is a concept that’s dying; for example, 79 percent of the millennials polled in one survey ranked quality as their most important purchasing decision, rather than the name brand involved. In this current “Information Age,” where information on thousands of competitor products is instantly available, it’s no wonder that so many people believe brand loyalty is on its way out.

But that’s not the final word, apparently, because other evidence suggests that brand loyalty is as strong as it’s ever been: Fully 77 percent of consumers in one survey, for instance, said they return to the same brands over and over again, with 37 percent of them qualifying as “brand loyalists” — the segment of customers who will stay true to a brand even if offered a superior product from a competitor

So, if you go with the latter research, what are the psychological factors that might be responsible for this overwhelming manifestation of loyalty?

Novelty

First, there needs to be some degree of novelty to catch consumer attention. The world is full of different brands similar to yours; therefore, if you want a shot at winning a new customer, you either have to offer a product that’s never been offered before, or make a compelling, persuasive pitch that can potentially attract loyalists from other existing brands.

On top of that, novelty is linked to stronger memories, which, upon repeated customer exposure, can instill familiarity and positive feelings.

Brand loyalty doesn’t depend on novelty to sustain itself, but it is a necessary first ingredient.

Associations and positive reinforcement

Much of human psychology is built around the concept of associations; when we eat something sweet, we experience a release of feel-good chemicalsm like dopamine; that way, we learn to associate sweet foods with a pleasant experience. When we touch a hot stove burner, we associate pain with the stove and subsequently avoid a repeat of our mistake.

So, the marketing lesson from these real-world experiences is simple: Once you’ve captured someone’s attention, the next step to securing his or her loyalty is to ensure your brand is associated with positive feelings.

This goes beyond giving your customers a good experience, mind you: You have to somehow associate that experience with your brand. This could mean adding more overtly branded materials to your physical location, or using slogans and imagery at opportune times during the customer experience (whether that involves serving food or delivering a package) to reinforce the connection to the brand.

All this takes time, of course, but with every positive experience, your customers will become more loyal to you.

Identity and tribalism

Humans are a social species, and we’ve learned to engage with one another by forging an identity, sticking to it as stubbornly as possible and participating in tribalism (sticking close to people like ourselves and vilifying or avoiding people unlike us). This is the main reason politics are so divisive, and a contributing factor to the thrill of sports rivalries.

Tapping into this identity and tribalism, then, can be a good strategy to try, to secure brand loyalty. Apple is a notorious example here: It uses imagery of cool, laid-back, colorful people to showcase its brand, and stuffy, unlikable characters to portray its rivals’. Instilling a sense of community identity (and in this case, elitism) is the key to making your customers feel that they’re a part of your brand.

Once they have that feeling, they’ll become virtually inseparable from you.

The key takeaways

What can you learn from these psychological factors? What can you do to make people more loyal to your brand? Five things:

1. Stand out by being different. You have to start with a notable brand, that you can differentiate from the competition. Without this step, loyalists of other brands will have no reason to switch to yours.

3. Incorporate a series of positive, branded experiences. Always keep your brand present, consistent and top of mind. If customers lose sight of your brand, it won’t matter if they have a good experience — they won’t remember you.

4. Allow your customers to interact with one other. The best way to build a community is to nurture an organic one. Foster a sense of tribalism by allowing your customers to engage with one another.

5. Make your brand a component of personal identity. Find a way to make customers feel your brand is a part of their personal identity. Once it’s there, this identity factor going to become virtually impossible to get rid of.

So, my conclusion? Brand loyalty isn’t dead, and it’s not especially mysterious as a concept. With the right strategies, you can earn more brand loyalty from your most interested customers, and grow to even greater heights.

Feature Image Credit: Pres Panayotov / Shutterstock

By Jayson DeMers –

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Building Brand Loyalty Through Social Media and DOOH Integration

July 3, 2017 No Comments

By Shriranga Sudhakara.

Digital out-of-home advertising is unique because it intercepts active consumers with highly targeted messages as they move through their day.

Brands are constantly competing to get consumer attention and in an ideal scenario create brand custodians. The once humble billboard, now a connected powerhouse, is set to play a key role in building brand loyalty. For advertisers, never has there been so much opportunity to target on-the-go tech-savvy consumer with the rise of full motion DOOH screens, combined with smartphone penetration, WIFI connectivity, and wider reach. Similarly, social media can connect and build on to user generated content. Both social and DOOH at the end of the day are like the two halves of a digital medium. It is quite early to comprehend the possibilities the integration of DOOH and social media will bring about, amplify each other and deliver effective communication. Both channels are still evolving, but are already showcasing the potential of building a cohesive bond. With the ability to reach huge scale over a short period of time, both the mediums are ready to take it to the next level. So how are they going to work together?

NewAge integration

Social Media provides engagement and DOOH provides phenomenal reach. Both the mediums have the ability to deliver rich content based on context. Hence this is a natural integration, which will only strengthen the effect of the campaign. Earlier, advertisers often faced the challenge to measure the audience reach through traditional platforms like print and TV. With the rise in technology, the measurability of these two-high content generating mediums has gotten better with industry benchmark set across stakeholders. The same is true of these 2 mediums and as brands aim to introduce a trend of going beyond the traditional norm, a marriage of these two mediums becomes inevitable.

Amplify

Recently, there are two distinct trends. One, where the DOOH activity has been planned to amplify a primarily existing social media campaign, another trend is where social media is used to draw attention to the digital out of the home activity. With the former, the primary focus is on content from social media channels which will be delivered seamlessly to the connected digital displays. On the other hand, user generated content will play an important role as it’s produced through engagement with digital signage and then delivered to social media channels. For example, a simple use of a hashtag to trace twitter feed of the consumer or showcase content pulled from campaign’s Facebook page. The purpose of the integration is to complement social media campaigns and highlight what they are trying to communicate. DOOH became a medium which gave consumers a glimpse into the social space. For example, the user generated content is at the center stage for any social media campaign. Imagine use of images, videos and text uploaded by the audience at a high scale event. These posts are showcased on DOOH screens in and around the vicinity on a ‘Real-time’ basis. Thus, leading to much larger reach and quirky brand reputation.

In the latter, there is the usage of digital screens with creative content to grab eyeballs. DOOH here, becomes the primary channel for consumer interaction and social media channels will be used to focus attention on the outdoor creative. A unique messaging placed on digital screen, targeting young children to create awareness about child abuse. The screens are prepared with dual messaging which is altered according to eye level of the viewer. The actual message with contact details are shown to the child while adults are under the impression that the ad is a normal one-way communication. These campaigns effectively showcase the potential of the DOOH screens and social media becomes the extension of digital screens.

Interactivity

DOOH medium can deliver real-time and location-specific content to create interactivity with the customers. For example, the personalized content is created and updated on a real-time basis with the help of data available from the brand and the screens. Demographics and consumer buying pattern distinguish and arranges the advertisement placement. For instance, a general search in any urban area regarding best deals on electronic devices. Digital screens in and around that area and mass transport are now equipped by the same message highlighting amazing deals on certain electronic devices thereby creating a much larger impact. DOOH is now ready to grasp and take charge of the digital space, with the help of technological innovation and availability of data.

DOOH has the ability to enhance minimalistic content by adding interactivity through HD displays and connectivity. A simple ad of a phone which uses user content gathered through their campaign page on social media handles. Few images or videos taken by the participants through that phone equips DOOH with the messages. Quick gratification for the participants, photo and video credits are given on those advertisements. This level of interactivity through social media and apt use of DOOH medium is clear testimonial to the potential of this partnership.

Seamless

Digital out-of-home advertising is unique because it intercepts active consumers with highly targeted messages as they move through their day. Successful digital out-of-home advertising campaigns start with deep knowledge of consumer mindset and their location relevance. While, DOOH medium in the Indian market is yet to successfully showcase its compatibility to several digital mediums. It is quite noteworthy that with the use of mobile beacons, hypertargeting and dynamic data feeds, digital screens are able to amplifies campaign relevance and transform it into a significant consumer touch point

In the near future, it would get impossible to carry out a campaign without involving both social media and DOOH. The possibilities are endless and with wide range of technologies getting developed and implemented. Even prediction and analysis of consumers’ mood and instant measurement of ROI will be possible.

By Shriranga Sudhakara.

He is the managing director of Vyoma, started with the intention of captivating audience on the move, and enable brands to converse with their audience in the out of home space; Vyoma since its inception has quickly grown to become India’s largest digital out-of-home advertising company. More From The Author >>

Sourced from DWDisrupt