Monday, December 19, 2011

Is Facebook important to your marketing communications programme?

Facebook seems to be a bit like Marmite. You either like it or hate it.

We have clients who really love Facebook and have embraced it as the lead platform in their social media strategy. On the other hand we also have clients who totally reject it, regarding it as having little to do with business. As an agency we are constantly looking for results that support the resource put into Facebook and preferably in the form of attributable sales leads. At present trackable actions via Google Analytics are pretty lightweight, so the response is lets put more resource into Facebook then for sure we will see positive results. But here's the thing, it is easy to see what other platforms offer. YouTube is a pretty neat way to publish videos and videos can be powerful ways of demonstrating products. Twitter is the darling of the news community and sticks to the simple format of posting headlines, immediately and as it happens and is both a source of news and route to publish your own news. Blogging is an informal diary style medium that offers the opportunity for comment and allows you to publish material that wouldn't interest the trade press. But what is Facebook really good at?

For a start visitors also need to be signed up to participate, but with 800 million or so world-wide that may not be an issue. Because we administer several different accounts I am always signing in and out and am  disturbed to see pictures of people's dogs, babies and other personal stuff turning up between company news. But then it is still really a personal platform - the business bit is kind of tacked on. But it is business that will pay for the advertising, not people sharing family pictures with friends. Friends are at the heart of Facebook, one article suggested on average people had 800 friends - that's a lot of dog and baby pictures - but in real life they might have just 4. Or perhaps none if they spend their lives tracking 800 fantasy friends! Is getting people to 'like' a company actually of value? if they like you so much they buy or recommend your product that is great, but b-2-b case studies providing such irrefutable evidence never seem to get mentioned.

Facebook's founder didn't come out too business-like in The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich and the movie The Social Network and Facebook appears more a phenomenon than a regular business which is despite this valued in billions of dollars. But then again so was the market in collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps, built on sub-prime mortgages by banks thought to be too big to fail. Maybe they have figured out what makes the Facebook phenomenon so valuable (other than advertising access to hundreds of millions) that will build a sustainable business that won't evaporate overnight or have its users migrate to the next new thing. Traditional advertising agencies are cautious about putting client's advertising money into new publications until circulation is properly established, audited and certified. Writing in iMediaConnection Douglas Kerr's article 8 reason's marketers can't trust Facebook raises issues of control, access, copyright and moreover investment by advertisers in the medium.

To use marketing speak, Facebook is a dilemma. For b-2-b businesses with modest marketing communications budgets the best advice right now is add it to the marketing programme but measure response carefully and don't invest at the expense of methods that are proven.

Innovate or die

New product development is the lifeblood of a business. Failure to innovate will result in stagnation and eventual decline. 


The rate of new product introduction in most markets is now relentless, so just to keep pace calls for a regular flow of new products. Few will be genuinely innovative, most will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary but the evolution will move forward the market’s expectations. 


So where to start? Having reviewed the focus for the new product and market positioning through preliminary research, it is time to start putting together a brief for the development team and a specification for the new product. Perhaps the most important consideration is the target market. What is the role of the product, who will buy it and use it and what does it compete with or replace? Developing a product without a clear understanding of users' needs  will raise marketing problems throughout the process. So it is vital to get this right from the start. 


Today many companies find themselves competing in the global market with all sorts of regional variations due to custom, culture and legislation working against their attempts to develop a single, universal product. One approach could be to develop a core product or technology, which can be adapted or customised to suit different market needs. Such decisions have to be taken before any other work starts and if they are wrong, the product may be loaded with unnecessary costs for any one market, or too bland for acceptance anywhere. The attempt to incorporate everything for everywhere is not only expensive to implement, but results in an unsuitable product for any country. Another outcome can be the ‘lowest common denominator’ solution where the product brief meets the minimum needs of its principle markets, but ends up being totally uninspiring and unexciting to everyone. 


Finally by designing with only one country’s needs in mind, may for want of some simple-to-do considerations at the briefing stage, enable far greater sales to be achieved in many more countries.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Ready to launch a new product?


New products are at the heart of any integrated marketing strategy. Apple and the late Steve Jobs are masters of the new product launch. An event which presents a great opportunity to boost the brand and remind loyal customers of why they purchase your products and tempt others to buy.

But even the best executed marketing campaign will not compensate for poor products or products that the market does not want. So the first stage of any new product programme is research. Initially there may be dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ideas to sift and evaluate, but new products will most likely arise from one of three key drivers:-Technology, Market Need, or Price. Whilst market input is important, it’s not likely to result in any real progress in understanding what to develop. As one commentator remarked, ‘you don’t know, what you don’t know’. Once again Apple choose to think differently and created products that offered far more than mere functionality. Asking customers what they want is not the way to build innovative new products.The lack of imagination conditioned by the existing supply chain through to the end user, will deliver a verdict which can be summarised as ‘more of the same, plus a few ‘bells and whistles’ that the competitors offer on their product - and all delivered at a lower price’. And know what? They probably won't want a product where the design brief is guided by a lists of current wishes.


Technology, not surprisingly is a critical driver, either applied to the product itself or to the process of manufacture, or a combination of both. But basing new product development on a new technology platform can be a high-risk strategy unless relevant to the target audience. New technology for its own sake will not succeed unless it also fulfils a market need that the customers are willingly to pay for. Failure to recognise the value of new technology or adopt too late can be equally disastrous. Sometimes the technology is a good idea in search of a genuine user application. The key factor is an ability to bridge the gap between the possibilities afforded by adoption of the technology and the implementation and acceptance by the market. Good industrial design can be a great differentiator making the product not just good to see but easy and intuitive to use.


Finally price can be the driver for a successful new product, but to achieve this will generally require having a lower cost-manufacturing base than any of your competitors. This may be achieved through entry barriers to the market such as high level of investment in plant, or patent controls that are beyond the reach of your competitors and will usually also need to be accompanied by high volumes and a dominant market share. Of course dominant market share is just one strategy. There are premium price segments of the market that can actually prove more profitable  for products that can command that price point ... Apple?

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Logo as an expression of brand identity

Because of their essentially visual form, logos exert considerable influence on the way that customers perceive and react to a brand. 


Their aspirational value is amply demonstrated in the power of global brands, such as Nike, to inspire a credible fashion statement for the wearers’ of garments prominently displaying its swoosh logo. But an ill chosen logo can have a detrimental affect. When some years ago British Airways phased out the stylized Union Flag in favour of ethnic art on the tail planes of its fleet of aircraft, there was ridicule that they had substituted graffiti. The Prime Minister went so far as to drape a tissue over the offending logo on a model aircraft in the new livery she had been invited to inspect . Credibility is a key to a successful logo. 


For b-2-b marketers logos are not a fashion statement or prominently displayed to the public, but appear on stationery, business cards, sales literature, web site and on products. The logo symbolizes the company and as such must convey expertise and trust in the company. Research studies have shown that the content of a message is credible if the source is itself credible and trusted. The logo must visualize the brand values and communicate these to the customer. One expert has identified three main styles that most logos conform to - the name only, the monogram and a symbol - above or to the left of the company name. 


Words only and monograms limit the ability to express credibility traits, whereas the symbol, well executed can be interesting and express authority. Just as with advertising keep to a single message, the temptation to build too many ideas into the image can confuse rather than project a clear communication. Colour too is important and practical needs for adequately repeating the logo in various media and on products needs careful planning. 


Logos must then be applied consistently, without variation to build both awareness and a positive perception of the enterprise through the visual expression of everything the business stands for. So designing a logo is not a task to be undertaken lightly. A strong logo, properly used can support and develop the brand. A poorly executed logo can undermine a company’s credibility and trust.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Integrating a socia media component to the marketing communicationsplan


Including social media as a component of an integrated marketing communications programme that also includes traditional media, web site and email campaigns should start with some research.

The big question for many b-2-b companies now, is where are their customers and prospects looking for information? There is a general acceptance that display advertising campaigns in the trade press are not the best way to invest so much of the marketing budget as they once were. That there is migration to other media and the web site is the vital  hub, but how do people get there and how do they learn about your business before reaching your site? This is where some fundamental research is called for. In this fragmented media landscape it is important to understand current customer preferences for discovering information and their route to a purchase decision. At the very least discover how many rely on traditional editorial recommendation in the trade press, or like the 'hands on' opportunity afforded by exhibitions, are content to search the Internet or maybe like the more relaxed style of social media? And there is another thing - what formats and platforms do they tend to use - print, desk top computers or mobile devices? It might be worth just checking how well the company web site displays  on mobile devices. In fact this piece of research is going to need to be done regularly as migration continues and media continues to offer new communication channels.

Armed  with this research insight - what next? With an up to date understanding of what media customers and prospects prefer, then there is a rationale to determine how scarce marketing resources of funds and time are best deployed and to set objectives. The overall aim is to lead through to sales leads, but some channels may work better at the early stages of engagement and social media probably works best as a soft sell, hence it needs to work within a fully integrated marketing communications programme.