Bureau West

Advertisers are looking for ways to make direct mail more effective; here are two new approaches that combine direct mail with the power of the internet:

• A company called Dukky has an approach to turn the coupon in the mailbox into a viral-marketing phenomenon.  They use a personalized web address that is pre-populated with a target customer’s data. The individualized URL leads each customer to a microsite created exclusively for that individual customer. It mirrors the direct-mail campaign and provides the customers with the “payoff:” a coupon they can print out, for example. But before the payoff, they are required to share more information about themselves, which is then collected and tracked. Finally, the customer is offered a quick way to share the offer with friends through social media: If she likes the offer, she can post it to her Facebook page.

• Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands is teaming up with AOL to improve upon circulars and Sunday newspaper inserts.  They are working to create smarter online pamphlets that will prompt consumers to answer questions about their shopping preferences, such as their favorite brands or designers, and then serve up a catalogue of relevant products, retail locations and sales on related items. Consumers will also have one-click access to instructional videos and manuals. They aim to increase consumption by making shopping easier for people, seamlessly equipping them with Internet information they would otherwise hunt and peck to find.

To learn how to best engage your prospects and customers, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “The Future Has Been Delivered to Your Mailbox,” Entrepreneur Magazine, July 2010; “AOL, IPG Race To Keep Up With Consumer Habits Online,” Forbes, 6/17/10; “Meet the next generation of retail shopping,” IPG Emerging Media Lab Blog, 6/18/10

My colleague Lauren Isaacson just wrote an interesting white paper about the state of the iPhone in North America.  Among the highlights:

• The strongest growth for iPhone users is coming from people making between $25K and $75K. That bracket is growing at three times the rate of those making over $100K.

• 32% of mobile internet users are open to seeing ads on their phone as long as it is in exchange for something of value. Examples can take the form of free applications, access to information, or discounts on wireless bills.

• Tweens and teens are voracious app downloaders. Last Christmas application downloads for iPod Touches far surpassed (172% greater) those for the iPhone as kids raced to populate the screens of their brand new gadgets. This is great way to engage the youth market.

Source: “2010 State of the iPhone in North America,” Curio Consulting, July 2010

I recently returned from attending the Worldwide Conference on Qualitative Research in Prague.  There was a great presentation given by fellow researcher Wendy Gordon on the topic of behavioral economics, a field that looks into how people make choices.  Numerous experiments have shown that logic is not the only factor in making choices.  Rather, people’s choices are strongly influenced by:

• The context (i.e., the comparison set, the other choices available)
• Other people (what our friends and colleague choose)
• The person’s mood at that moment

An important implication of the above: when we conduct research and ask people why they made a choice, respondents look for logical reasons even though the choice may not be completely rational.  That’s why we should consider asking questions such as “how,” “where,” “when” and “who” before asking “why.”  In other words, learn as much as we can about the decision-making process without respondents’ logical analysis of the process.

For example, let’s say we wanted to learn more about how people go about deciding to purchase exercise equipment.  We could ask people who recently purchased why they made that choice.  But we might obtain even more valuable results by asking potential purchasers questions about what else they might consider buying when considering the possibility of purchasing exercise equipment.  Or how many of their friends use exercise equipment, or go to the gym, or do nothing at all.  Or conduct an exercise asking respondents to describe the typical exercise equipment purchaser, then the typical gym-goer, then themselves.  We look for ways to get people to tell us how they decide without going into “rational mode” and telling us how they think they should be making the decision.

To find out how your prospects and customers make decisions, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Making inspiring big theories into real chunks that have value,” Wendy Gordon, Worldwide Conference on Qualitative Research, May, 2010; Bureau West research

Marketing to ethnic and cultural minority groups can be a tricky proposition.  Marketers may want to reach out to those groups, but run the risk of insulting people if the approach isn’t just right.  Some questions we’ve dealt with lately:  Should a bank create a website with financial information targeting African-Americans?   Should a chain of hardware stores run an advertising campaign targeting gay men and lesbians?

We know that minority groups like to feel represented in advertising.  But advertisers need great sensitivity to make sure they’re not perceived to be reinforcing stereotypes.  A recent article reported on several studies where children of immigrants didn’t like ads with incongruous minority images.  That is, when a member of their ethnic group or a symbol of their culture was shown out of context, or seemed to be arbitrarily “tacked on” to the ad, they reacted negatively.

In order to figure out how to best approach appealing to minority groups, marketers need to ask two simple questions:

• What is important to people in that group?
• What are their unmet needs?

While simple, these questions frequently get overlooked.  In looking at the answers to these questions in comparison to the answers of mainstream (non-minority) consumers, marketers can decide whether and how to best approach multicultural marketing efforts.

We find that focus group discussions (whether online or in-person) are particularly well-suited to elciting the answers to these questions and are preferable to individual interviews and surveys.  In individual research, participants tend to be more “politically correct.”  In a group discussion, however, once participants start to feel comfortable, they’re more likely to open up and tell us how they really feel.

To learn how your prospects and customers really feel, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: Bureau West research; “Cents and Sensibility: Why Marketing to Multicultural Consumers Requires a Subtle Touch,” Knowledge@Wharton, March 03, 2010; How to boost your multicultural intelligence,” Quirks Marketing Research Review,  April 2010