Marobella's Branding SoapBox

Social Media For CPG Brands

Recently heard from a CEO of a portfolio of CPG brands, "I want to show straight-line value for my social media efforts that prove I am selling more product as a result."

I get it. With finite marketing dollars, she wants to know why should I invest money and resources into a part of the 'marketing' mix that is an in-direct line to value-creation?

My sense is that this is not the first time any of you guys have heard a CEO/VP of Marketing/Marketing Director say something like that regarding social strategies. Of course, I launched into the categorization of metrics into three categories depending on the objective and the level of the organization we are dealing with and the positive sentiment, engagement and value that having a robust community around the brand can create.  

This chart from Forrester does a nice job of breaking out the types of metrics to aggregate depending on the view of the client organization, but the only real straight-line value metric there is coupon redemption for CPG brands. The sales figure for CEO's is a lagging indicator and takes time in the CPG/Distribution channel to measure and even so how can you attribute a 5% bump in sales to increased activity from a brand's Facebook promotion? 

It seems surveys are also a powerful tool in helping the CEO see purchase and frequency intent for people engaged in a CPG brand's social platforms. When a person is at the shelf in a grocery store and has a planned or even impulse need, your brand is the top-of-mind brand they reach for because they remember consciously or sub-consciously that they are engaged with you in the social space. Baselining those that are not engaged in a CRM/Social platform and those that are can show fruitful results in value. 

One attribute of brand categorization that we get excited about at [wire] stone when we have the chance to build a social strategy for a CPG brand is the 'passion' of the consumer-base for that brand. If people are inherently passionate and engaged daily with the category or brand itself, then the work of an engaging, valuable social strategy becomes an easier task. For example, creating a social engagement strategy for a brand like Brand Jordan in the sneakerhead world or the retailer A.C. Moore in the crafting category is like lighting a match in a dry field. The people that engage those categories and brands have a high emotional investment and very much align their interests and passions with them. The task becomes keeping them engages, fueling those passions, getting them to buy one more pair or visit the store one more time/month. Then, being able to measure that value in engagement that we are able to measure the intent and propensity as a result of that social engagement.

Beyond couponing or special 'community' only deals. I think we as social marketers have to make sure we aren't drinking our own kool-aid when launching into a diatribe about how social creates value even if you can't straight-line it. We have to be more empathetic to the position of the client in wanting proof that this new, emerging space is creating value. This is especially true if they are a 'distribution' business, which means that the more distribution they get on the shelf, the better sales will be. It is our job to help them get that distribution into the channel and then drive people to the shelf to buy that product. Once that CEO sees how passionate people are on their communities and sees the sales line move as a result. 

Showdown at the Social Media Corral - PR or Digital?

This post is bound to create some controversy. I hope it does.  The moral of this story is “Anyone can say they can do anything.” Focus on their core competencies and how it aligns to the various elements of creating a social influencer strategy and decide who fits in where. There may be a role at the table for multiple parties that will inevitably think they can do what the other partner can, but defining parameters and clear delineation will make everyone’s life easier. In addition, agencies will continue to reinvent themselves and every area of the advertising/marketing/pr categories are no exception. I think the services and core competencies of agencies will look very different in the next 5-years.

For some time, traditional PR agencies and digital marketing agencies have been on a collision course trying to win the hearts and social media budgets of our clients. Lately, the question has been asked of me in various high-profile brand pitches/meetings. “How do you guys distinguish where you play vs. our PR agency?” Now, in full disclosure I work for a digital marketing agency that works with global brands – where we sit on the spectrum of agencies certainly differs from traditional advertising agencies and digital agencies that rely on ‘traditional digital’ marketing including the purchase of media. I have many friends that run and/or own very successful PR-firms and perceived a first-hand perspective on how they are positioning themselves, which by the way is changing as fast as I’ve ever seen.

This post is written with the caveat that any agency can instantly change its complexion with a smart acquisition one way or another. A PR agency could become a powerful digital and technical player with one stroke of the pen or vice versa. I think we’ll see more deals in this area over the next 24-months.

I’d like to start with a few key words that are talked about consistently with regard to social media – Authenticity, transparency and conversation. How does traditional advertising stack up with those three words? Not well. Broad-based, manufactured brand marketing has always been accused of being one-way marketing, not authentic and certainly not transparent. And, from where I sit the traditional core competency of PR firms have been to create news based on a brand’s positioning or efforts and then rely on the firm’s connections to garner coverage for the brand or said another way – earn media rather than pay for it. Okay, so is creating a spin for a brand’s initiatives and then ‘pitching’ the media (whether traditional media or online) considered authentic and transparent? And in addition, most of the social media efforts for brands take place in the online world. A world that has endless possibilities with regard to technical creativity. In fact, many have said that the new creativity in social media is the planning of how applications, technologies and platforms are brought together to create a unique experience. No different than the words in the dictionary, the fonts in a catalog or the colors on a wheel are brought together to create an award-winning creative campaign – we all have the tools at our disposal, it is all in how they are brought together to solve a brand problem creatively. Are PR agencies positioned to create truly online contextual experiences where people come together and talk about a brand or company experience? Certainly, they can outsource the technical implementations and even the creative design elements but is that really what a world-class brand would want? I do think that PR agencies are well-suited in the content creation part of creating powerful experiences, whether brand-generated or developing relationships to syndicate. Also, the outreach initiatives that have moved online like blogger outreach could certainly be a core competency of PR.

I propose that an agency (digital or otherwise) with truly integrated strategic, creative and technical capabilities are the front-runners for the social integration partnerships. Here is my rationale:

Core competencies:

-       Connecting brands with influential customers rather than connecting brands with influential editors is where digital marketing agencies have always played. If a campaign or initiative is picked up by the media, then cool. I think that PR agencies have had to change their focus of whom they are ‘pitching.’ The more strategic digital agencies have the capabilities of developing deep segmentation and UX studies of the target customers and learning how technology integrates into their lives. Certainly, PR agencies have many smart people that understand segmentation and could play in the area of customer understanding and building relevant social programs.

-       The creation of rich, interactive contextual experiences that are based on well-informed user-experience analysis and built on powerful technical platforms are a critical component of properly situated social media programs for brands. A credible digital agency will go deep in this area and can be flexible in creating custom communities or platforms and/or customizing third-party platforms like Ning. In fact, the third party platforms are becoming more and more complex with customization capabilities.

-       Custom Application development – As the social media world moves into a social business design realm with consultancies like The Dachis Group espousing the next step of integrating listening and learning into core business functions, partners with technical chops to move away from a marketing core function of social media to integrating with other systems in the organization whether ERP, CRM or other systems will be critical.

-       Integrated Business Analytics: Any digital agency worth its salt has an integrated digital analytics team that includes data, web and social media analytics along with powerful listening and monitoring posts for brands. Analytics is not as simple as subscribing to Radian6 and then telling your clients that you play here as well. Analytics is a complex competency that requires a seat at the table from day one of an engagement. Certainly, PR agencies have always monitored the environments in which they’ve pitched their wares through clipping services and now have shifted to the social monitoring tools. Social monitoring is definitely an overlap.

-       Multi-media content creation is also an overlap area between PR and marketing. That’s what PR agencies do, they create content. I think that is why they are better situated to organize blogging initiatives and outreach to the new media editors. But content goes beyond writing into areas of video, applications, real-time content and more. This is an area that could certainly go into either camp. Of course, the creation of content is almost always linked to the improvement of an SEO strategy. Many PR agencies are starting to talk about how they are experts in SEO. I liken this to digital agencies saying “Of course we could write a press release and pitch it to the media.”

-       If a social media strategy is implemented properly it should create long-term value for a brand. Creating intellectual property and assets for the brand is the focus. At the end of the day, moving more product and/or services is what really matters for our clients. The brands that are doing it right are integrating CRM programs into their social efforts. The area of CRM is a competency in and of itself. Developing 1:1 relationships with customers and providing the right message at the right time based on an understanding of that customer is most definitely a core competency of many digital agencies. I think a PR agency would be hard pressed to develop the mechanics of a CRM program and then integrate into social efforts.

Now, it is probable that I’ve generalized the capabilities of both PR and marketing agencies for the purposes of making a point. However, like any marketing agency category, some agencies will be further down the path of evolving than others. Many PR agencies have taken important steps in becoming more relevant in social media while others are still dialing for dollars. Some digital marketing agencies are still building websites while others are integrating technical applications and developing experiences that congregate a brand’s most influential customers that creates value for the brand.

I’ve certainly presented some controversial points in this post and will let you decide who is better situated. Please add your $.02 on anything I may have missed one way or another. Please add some fuel to the fire. 

Learning From France's Gross National Happiness

Leave it to the French. 

President Sarkozy, a man married to a super-model, decided that a measure of a nation's worth shouldn't be measured in just GDP (gross domestic product) and should have other 'softer measures' to gauge the true value of the community and country. He embarked on this mission a few months ago when he hired former White House advisor and economist Joseph Stiglitz to create these measures. Mr Stiglitz calls this new measure, Gross National Happiness.

Surely with France emerging from the recession, like the US, unemployment is still high and much of the country's wealth has been diminished. So while the GDP figures will look better, people are working harder than ever, spending more time away from their families, taking less 'holidays' and generally doing less of what makes them happy. Now, this is in a country where short work weeks, strict labor laws and long holidays are the norm. Imagine what our Gross National Happiness would be in the US? Holy crap, we'd be depressed if we have a true economic measure that aligned and tracked with our GDP. 

But I digress. The real purpose of this post is to learn from this softer measure in measuring the true value of an entity whether a country or a company. We've talked a lot about the relatively new metric of 'sentiment' as the social media and listening tools allow us to get real-time feedback into the community's feelings about a brand, organization or product. Convincing CEO's that they should be concerned with sentiment along with their revenue and gross margin figures is difficult, for sure. Maybe the stud, Sarkozy's move will be a bellwether for us as we try to straight-line people's feelings about a brand to sales and the capitalized value of an organization. This isn't the first time that the bean counters and auditors have tried to value something that isn't tangible, think about the goodwill line item on a companies value statement. The notion of what is the brand worth to the price point and value of the company. 

I suspect that we will have to get in touch with our feelings a little more and determine how sentiment, happiness and well-being plays into how we value our own organizations, our lives and how we create value for our clients. 

The Social Media Silver Bullet For CEO's

The next time you are preparing for a pitch with a CEO about why s/he should invest in the new communications channels a.k.a social media, do a little digging. If the company is public, search through Seeking Alpha for a transcript of his or hers last few transcripts of investor calls. I'll bet you a shot of Cabo Wabo that you'll find a quote about his/her company doing a better job of 'listening' to their customers. Quotes about how they are developing new experiences, new products/services, tweaking customer service based on that 'mysterious' input and feedback. 

Pull out the juiciest quote from him/her and make it the first slide in your presentation. Remind him/her that listening is part of their agenda and something they've told Wall Street. Tell them that they can remind The Street that they've implemented new ways to capture feedback in real-time & can almost instantaneously inject change into their business. The learning organizations are the ones that create great value. They'll listen. 

Unless you're presenting to Tony Hsieh or Michael Dell, that CEO is looking for the straight-line between investment in the new communications channels and the value creation. That value creation search will most likely be for sales/revenue. But if you are reading this blog post, you already know that the new dialogue-channels create value in other ways that are measurable. In this case, listening & responding. It's no secret that world-class brands are deriving value from minimal investments (relative to an SAP implementation or a TV campaign) by turning on a new dial-tone through social platforms. In fact, I have always wondered how much value has been created for social brands simply through the use of their case studies and logos in the presentations given to senior executives. 

Then, after you've hooked them with the listening agenda through social platforms, show them how they can create values in other ways with the social influencer strategies - whether through marketing, internal functions, employee relations and so on. 

I'm Not A Social Media Expert

                                          

"Please don't call me a social media expert."

That is a phrase I've heard muttered from some of the best minds in the marketing business and I'm sure I will hear more of at Ad:Tech/Chicago, this week. So this dubious distinction got me thinking. Why would this offend any of us? Isn't it something that those of us that have been accused of being an 'expert' at anything we do, would welcome and be proud to have showered upon us? 

Approaching almost the 20-year mark in various aspects of a marketing/advertising career (I know, I don't look that old) I have reflected back on other areas of marketing that I've gained deep insight into. Early on in my career, healthcare marketing when I was at Blue/Cross & Blue Shield then leapt headfirst into the digital space where I was one of the early marketers trying to crack the code on the development stages of web marketing & online advertising sometimes with a media planning bent (mostly for B2B technology brands) and then into retail marketing (mostly print) and then back to digital marketing around the time digital marketing was going through it's second inflection point - social media - now at Wirestone. 

Two things have remained a constant for me throughout my career, which I believe, have been driving values in my passion for adopting the principles of integrating the new social computing technologies not only into marketing but for other core business functions. 

First, I've always had a passion for understanding what the consumer/customer really wanted from a brand/organization. Not what they tell you in a focus group, but what are the unmet needs that maybe they don't even realize and then how can we solve that challenge?

 Second, I've always had a passion for what's next in marketing.  Coming out of school in the early 90's, that what's next was interactive media and digital marketing. I happened to be there for that inflection point in marketing. I dove in headfirst and became 'an expert', I guess. Then around 2002, I moved into retail marketing at around the time digital marketing stagnated or progressed more slowly. In 2006, I came back to digital marketing and social media was starting to take off. I was hooked. It felt like a renaissance of digital marketing - I wanted in. To me, social media is the perfect storm of my marketing passions - consumer connection, consumer persuasion, technology, brand engagement & fast-moving.

And, as I think about the other people that have risen to the forefront of the new age of digital marketing, they have similar backgrounds and have embraced the challenge of waving the flag for a new type of enterprise and a new type of commerce through the use of non-technical functions (like listening) empowered by the new technologies falling under the heading of social computing - like the new entity The Dachis Group. We can all learn from their perspective and admire their pioneering spirit to espouse a new type of commerce. 

Being a rebel by nature also contributes to my passion to demonstrate to stubborn executives that business is changing. Their way of conducting commerce is changing. They can either accept it or decide to not change at their peril. More on that in coming posts. 

So, while I might have a real passion for integrating technology & social computing throughout this new age of digital marketing & might have a real knack for it. Don't call me a social media expert. If you must, refer to me as an expert in driving business, an expert in making the cash register ring by connecting brands with customers a new ways empowered by technology. 

Thank you. 

Social Media For Universities and Colleges

                                                            One of the first rules of social media for organizations is to "let go." Let go of your control over your brand, your inhibitions, your fears and your worst nightmares. If you really believe in your product, service or offering - the people will do the right thing and tell others the truth. If they tell the truth and it isn't flattering, well, congratulations you have something to fix. We all have something to fix in our organizations, that's for sure. If you don't think you do, you're the mark at the table. 

Recently, our company had the chance to work with a respected University in Illinois called Olivet Nazarene. They came to us with a notion that they wanted to be authentic, transparent and allow others to spread the good word about their school (hey, they're evangelical christian.) They wanted to connect to prospective students and parents on their terms. So, basically we had to create an environment that 17-year olds would find cool and that their parents would understand how to navigate. ONU wanted a place where students, alumni, prospective students, faculty and staff could tell the story of the school through the use of multi-media. 

The underlying strategy was to treat the school like a retail environment and allow people to post ratings and reviews of all aspects of the school. In addition, we added multiple layers of ratings for students, parents and more, since they will have a different perspective. In addition, we basically created a shell of an experience and the content is all populated using 3rd party API's of popular social networking sites where the brand was already present. So, we subscribed to the hub and spoke social media model for this effort. 

Among other things, the primary business objectives were to give people a transparent look at the school to ensure that they make an informed decision about the school. This reduces churn and transfer rate after the freshman year, creates a more engaged, positive student body and happier alumni. Also, a by-product of the ratings and reviews area is that the leadership of the school can track trends on areas of the school they might not have heard about, otherwise. A built-in research tool, if you will. 

I applaud ONU for taking the leap into social media and relinquishing control of their brand. That takes confidence and fortitude. It will take some time for this content community to take seed, but we are confident as this year's high-school seniors are evaluating schools, they will use SEEWHATSONU to make an informed decision. 

I've Been Ning'd

Where do you find the time? 

That is a question I hear a lot from people that are trying to find time to participate in the social-sphere. Frankly, I wonder where I find the time to be on twitter, stay connected on facebook, track my old colleagues on LinkedIn and stay up to date in other places like YouTube, Namyz and Flickr. But, for all of my engagement in those social networks, none of them help me amplify my true interests by connecting with other like-minded people around topics and things that I dig.

Recently, I dove deeper on Ning. The community platform that allows anyone to create a turnkey social network and invite others to join in. I've joined networks about tattoos, sneakers, The Boston Red Sox, marketing with more to come. My involvement in these communities creates a mosaic of who I am. If someone that didn't know me wanted to take a peek at what networks I belonged to on Ning, they would probably have a clear picture of who I am and what I'm interested in. 

Being on Ning goes beyond just being a 'fan' like on facebook or 'following' like on twitter. It allows me to pop in and out of material and content that I want to engage within. People that have real passions want to learn and engage others that share that passion - it is the common thread that connects people no matter where they are in the world. 

So, if you find the time come get Ning'd. 

I Feel 26, Again.

 

I feel 26, again. 

No, not because I am taking HGH or had some plastic surgery, but because of the way I felt in the interactive (or new media, then) marketing game back in 1996. It is the same way I have been feeling, these days. I keep having deja' vu conversations when I am with high-ranking  executives in recognizable brands that are slow to adopt marketing in the communications channels their customers are adopting. Read: Socially-Enabled Media.

In 1996 and now, the consumer-canary is leading us into the social cave rather than out. The fragmentation of a person's time in how they consume information, share experiences with others, keep tabs on their social graph and become more productive is happening with a screen and keyboard, not a TV remote, pen or paper. 

When the web started to become mainstream in the mid-1990's, I remember embarking into NYC's skyscraper-jungle talking to brands like Turner Broadcasting, IBM, ADP, Nynex (now Verizon), Blue Cross/Blue Shield and more. I was waving the flag for new media and why these brands must carve out marketing budget from their other line items to invest in this new communication channel. Seems crazy, right? We have short-term memories and don't remember that there was once a time that we didn't buy things off the internet, didn't have an email address or URL on our business card. And, it wasn't that long ago. Budgets for web development were experimental until around 1999. Sound familiar?

Now, there are many people like me (inside of Wirestone and around the world) espousing the merits of finding new digital ways for brands to connect in a lasting and meaningful way. The rate of technology development is rapid and people are rightly concerned that different aspects of digital marketing could be a fad, but watch that canary and where it is leading us.  That canary keeps going to the same place and it is proving that people want to connect with others and to the brands they love. If people don't love your brand, they won't connect no matter how hard you try and force fit. 

I applaud the brands that are diving in whole-heartedly to the social-fray, like Zappos, Best Buy, Starbucks, Dell and more. These are the brands that will persevere and survive through this recession, because they had the balls to invest significantly in areas of marketing that don't have a straight line to revenue, at least immediately. They have the vision and foresight to understand that the canary is leading them to the promised land. 

Now, if I could only fit into those 1996 jeans again all would be right with the world. 

Free Promotion For LoJack: Update

 A few week ago, I wrote about my laptop getting jacked here in Chicago. The premise of my post was that I wish I'd known about LoJack for laptops before it was taken. That I'd wished that I'd (or our IT guys) had seen a promotion from LoJack putting the fear of god into us. Well, it took me losing a machine to have that fear. Now I have Time Machine set up, double-backing on an external etc. All that will save data, but the price to pay to recover a machine and bring those to justice is worthwhile.

A few days ago, I received an email from Mr. Stephen Midgley, Director of Global Marketing for Absolute Software, their Computrace technology is the secret behind LoJack For Laptops.  Mr. Midgley offered to send me a free standard copy of his software to test-run and to protect my new MacBook. I wanted to publicly thank Mr. Midgley and tell the world about this amazing technology. I know each of you are caressing your laptop wondering what would happen if your precious baby was ripped from your arms like sucker from a baby, but I digress.

He was monitoring the social-sphere and saw that I wrote about his technology and reached out to me. I appreciate it and have spoken with one of our IT procurement leads and they will be discussing the technology for installation on Wirestone machines this coming week.

Thanks again Stephen. I thank you for your product and I hope that I never have to use it.

Starting A Corporate Blog

Mr. Joseph Jaffe recently wrote about 10 Reasons Why Companies Should Blog which was a response to B.L. Ochman in AdAge, who wrote about 10 Reasons Why Companies Shouldn't Blog. In fact, I agree with Jaffe that B.L.'s article sounded like every empty excuse that a company makes to not do something that matters - simply because they can't, don't understand it or are afraid of commitment. In fact, I could have sworn I was reading an article written by a 'dead client walking'. Do you know what that is? That is the client inside of an organization that refuses to accept that the world is changing around him/her and will be obsolete in a matter of minutes.

The irony in all this is that the best companies with blogs are the ones that have limited resources (start ups) and understand the value in connecting directly with the marketplace rather than speaking at the market.

Writing a blog does take time, nurturing, reciprocation with the other bloggers/commenters and most of all patience. This is not if you build it, they will come proposition. It takes the time of a dedicated person on staff that understands the blog-o-sphere and how to navigate it, the etiquette and the connections that exist. That person becomes your brands ambassador to the blog space. They have to get it. The reciprocation is also critical, not being afraid to post on other company's blogs or respond to negative remarks. Even things as simple as understanding with a trackback is and how to use it....

The blog is the forum for brands to be transparent without spinning, show the flaws without being insecure and truly build relationships with customers, prospects, recruits and their own people internally.