Bureau West

In an interesting article on Adotas.com, Daniel Laury points out that the “journey” consumers take toward making a purchase decision has gotten much longer.  Consumers no longer make a decision while standing in front of the store shelf; rather, they have many more sources of easily accessible information, such as informational websites, customer reviews and social media, accessed through computer, smart phone and tablet.

As a result, Laury suggests we consider a longer purchasing cycle when planning marketing:

“As a marketer, instead of placing all your attention on a single moment, the last click, at which you try to intercept and grab your buyer’s attention, try to think of marketing as a longer purchase cycle. Successful advertisers in 2012 will take their customers from awareness to engagement to acquisition to retention. They will define a clear consumer engagement path that tells customers a story across multiple internet channels, complete with precise tracking and reporting that measures and lifts conversions and delivers increased volumes under the same ROI.”

Of course, taking customers “from awareness to engagement to acquisition to retention” works differently in different categories, but it’s worth heeding the overall point: marketers should consider the messages their customers receive far earlier than the “moment of truth” of the actual purchase.

Case in point: in recent focus group research we conducted, participants complained that they didn’t hear from a service provider until it came time to renew the service.  Does this mean they want more ads?  Not exactly.  They want reminders of the value provided by the company. While consumers dislike communications perceived to be solely for advertising, they welcome information that’s valuable to them.  Provide that kind of information over time, and the final purchase decision will become a no-brainer for your customer!

Find out what your customers and prospects value.  Give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Redefining the Consumer Engagement Path,” Adotas.com, May 9, 2012; Bureau West research

For marketers, the “holy grail” is for customers to not just use the product; we want them to love it so much that they tell all their friends!  But how do we make that happen?  Forbes asked Jeff Mancini, Director of Digital Strategy for Interbrand.  He had some great advice.  One interesting point: brands need to earn customers’ advocacy:

“We are hard-wired to return a favor.  We advocate for brands because they have earned it with us.”

He also pointed out that engaging with customers is not the same as just reaching customers.  They way to get real engagement is through content:

“Smart brands are driving real business value by creating content for the consumer that adds value and deepens the relationship.”

Read the full article here.

The kind of engagement Mancini talks about is what we’re seeing with Facebook’s emphasis on “sponsored stories” as against traditional ads.  With sponsored stories, users don’t just see an ad that’s targeted to them; rather, they see a notification that tells them about one or more of their friends who like the product.  Talk about advocacy!  The different types of Facebook sponsored stories are explained here.

To learn more about how to engage with your customers and prospects, talk to them!  Give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Why We Love Brands Like They’re Friends: 3 Questions with Interbrand,” Forbes.com 3/12/2012; “How Facebook Sponsored Stories Can Boost Engagement,” Mashable, 3/13/12

If you haven’t heard of Pinterest yet, you will!  Pinterest is a social media site that enables users to create online collages (“boards”) with images from the internet.  It’s catching on like wildfire, and may offer significant opportunities to marketers.

In a fascinating article on copyblogger.com, Beth Hayden writes about “56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest.”  (Thanks to my friend Christine O’Kelly, co-founder of Online PR Media, for pointing out the article.)  Some of my favorites:

32.   Pin tutorials on your boards. Need to walk a client through how to use your products or services? Or do you want to create free how-to videos to use as promotional materials? Pin your videos and presentations on special “How-To” or “Tutorial” boards. Anything you teach your clients can be made into a tutorial.

47.   Allow your best customers or star students to join in on certain boards and pin ideas and suggestions about how to use your product, or themes that go along with your products and services.

49.   Use Pinterest boards to tell client stories. Turn boring written case studies into powerful visual stories.

Pinterest can also be a great way to conduct research to find out what types of things people want currently (many of the boards are “things I love” or “things I want”).  Note that Pinterest users are not necessarily representative of society as a whole; they tend to skew female – you know, those people who have a disproportionate say in most purchase decisions!

A word of caution, though.  There are some questions regarding the legality of re-posting (“pinning”) copyrighted material.  Business Insider interviewed a media law attorney on that topic, here.

To learn more about what your customers and prospects want, talk to them!  Give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest,” Copyblogger.com, 2/14/12; “Pinterest Might Be Enabling Massive Copyright Theft,” Business Insider, 2/17/12; Bureau West research

It’s January, that time when pundits and prognosticators tell us what the future holds… or at least give us their best guesses.  Of course, understanding consumer trends is invaluable to marketers.  The question, of course, is which ones do we believe?  I try to view stated consumer trends on the backdrop of what we see when we speak to research participants.  Two such trends:

• Companies exposing their flaws
• Personalized marketing

Trendwatching.com has just released their “12 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2012.”  One trend in particular resonated with what we’ve been hearing from consumers.  They call the trend “flawsome,” and explain it as follows:

“In 2012 consumers won’t expect brands to be flawless; they will even embrace brands that are… honest about their flaws, that show some empathy, generosity, humility, flexibility, maturity, humor and dare we say it, some character and humanity.”

We’ve seen that in our research: consumers dislike brands that won’t admit mistakes, but when a company admits to a mistake, not only are consumers forgiving, the admission tends to generate positive regard.  (For an example of what not to do, consider Netflix.)

The next trend, personalized marketing, is not new, but its time has come with the tools now available to marketers.  As my friend Jenka Gurfinkel put it (in a fascinating blog post), we are now a “confederacy of niches.” We should no longer target an “average” consumer based on demographics, but rather consider narrower targets based on consumers’ attitudes and circumstances.  And we now have the tools to do so.  Consider the precise targeting available when advertising on Facebook as well as the wealth of information available from website analytics.  Oh, and let’s not forget another way to uncover those psychographic segments: well-designed market research!

To design market research that will uncover your customers’ attitudes and circumstances, give us a call.

Sources: “12 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2012,” Trendwatching.com, January, 2012; “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It…. And I Feel Fine,” social-creature.com, 1/4/12; “No More Average 32-Year-Old Woman, but Market Myth Persists,” Advertising Age, 1/2/12; Bureau West research