Trends and Tragedies of 2011

With the end of the year approaching I figure it’s time for an end of the year review of what went right and what went wrong in 2011. In fact, this will be the start of an annual review. Without further ado, here are my top two trends and top two tragedies.

Trends :

2) Groupon Epidemic: Perhaps the most interesting development of the year was the Groupon epidemic, as dozens of other daily deals sites quickly sprang up to compete. LivingSocial, Facebook Deals, Google Offers, and many more. Along with that has been the quest to turn their often one-time customers into repeat customers. My guess is that until there are memberships and membership rewards for sites like these that pattern will continue.

1) Google+: Marking the expansion of social media was the arrival of Google+ September 20th. Google+ went where Facebook had yet to go, the next plateau so to speak. Google+ offered users the ability to create social circles and chose what was shared with each group (or circle). Additionally, Google+ gained attention with its “Hangouts” video chat feature where you can chat with up to ten people at a time and share content while chatting. Meanwhile, MySpace tried to reinvent itself by focusing more on music. Haven’t heard how that worked out, so either MySpace is hanging out under the radar or it died for the second and final time.

Tragedies:

2) Lowe’s: Yes, the recent incident with Lowe’s makes my list for a few reasons. Not only was it the wrong move, it came at the worst possible time when all companies are under the microscope. The holiday season. Lowe’s pulled its advertising from TLC’s American Muslim based on a call to boycott by Florida Family Association. Then they tried to claim it was because the show sparked a lot of controversy and they wanted to opt out of that conversation. Basically it made them look racist. It was poorly timed and badly handled, need I say more?

1) Groupon: In this case a top trend was also a tragedy as demonstrated during this year’s Super Bowl. Something Groupon has in common with Lowe’s is that the Super Bowl is also a poor time to make a poor statement. However, it’s even worse when it’s your public debut as was the case here. Groupon’s first ad spot was a series of commercials that turned tragedies into punch lines to drive deal-seekers to its site. Most notable was the plight of Tibet being turned into an opportunity to try its food. Oppression, destruction of the rainforest and decreasing whale populations are hardly material for a joke, but that’s where Groupon went here. Although it did attempt to make amends, Groupon learned a valuable lesson. Think before you speak or insert foot in mouth here.

Well, there you have it, a few things that made positive and not so positive imprints on the year 2011. A lesson in what to do, and what never to do again. As companies and brands prepare to start the year with a clean slate, well some of them anyways, we look to 2012 and the possibilities it brings for advertising, marketing, social media and journalism. Possibilities for new things, and in some cases rebranding and retribution, but mostly new things. Until next year, this is me, signing off.

 

The Best Present? More Customers

Christmas is coming. You’ve baked cookies, decked the halls and stressed endlessly over getting the best present for everyone. Now it’s time to give yourself the best present of all, and that is more customers. This is the time of year where you have numerous opportunities to capture email opt-ins for email marketing campaigns. MediaPost’s Loren McDonald stresses the importance of addressing five key areas: website, transactional email messages, social presence, in-store locations/mobile opt-ins/direct mail, and regular promotional emails http://bit.ly/vyVhWe.

1) Website: McDonald’s main point here is that there should be an email sign-up on every page of your website.

2) Transactional Email Messages: Transactional emails aren’t just for informing your customer about their order anymore, but McDonald states the transaction should still be the most prominent piece on the page. Whatever messages you send, each should offer an opt-in.

3) Social Presence: Customers should also be able to access your opt-in on more than just your webpage. McDonald advises to create a Facebook email tab and opt-in form, highlight it on your Twitter profile page, highlight the value of your email program via tweets and Facebook newsfeed often, and use social sign-ins like Facebook Connect to capture email addresses and other data points.

4)In-Store/Mobile Opt-Ins/Direct Mail: POS tactics aren’t enough, creating a streamlined registration page makes your program more mobile friendly and appeals to a wider variety of people. According to McDonald, this involves QR codes that link to the registration page, promoting SMS to email opt-ins on POS signs or receipts, if emailing receipts offer opt-ins there, create in-store, POS tablets or kiosks for email address entry, train call-center reps to capture them, use Foursquare, and use opt-in cards at POS.

5) Regular Promotional Emails: A more visible “subscribe” button, more prominent forward-to-a-friend and share-to-social links and standalone email messages designed to be forwarded or shared in social networks.

More email opt-ins bring you more customers, but how exactly do they do that? One word? Content. In order to be persuasive and engage customers you must have content that connects and resonates with customers. One trend, according to E.B. Boyd, involves brands becoming more human and adopting more human qualities http://bit.ly/s15JeZ. It’s about projecting relatable qualities like kindness, honesty and humor through all channels and brands like Pepsi and Patagonia are two examples. Pepsi launched Refresh Project last year, in lieu of Super Bowl ad spending, and Patagonia lets companies see the environmental impact of their garments on its website. Adopting a more human tone makes you seem more like a friend and less like a corporate drone, making people more likely to embrace your brand and support it.

Another tactic involves appealing to the intricacies of the human decision-making process. Michael Lewis touches on cognitive psychology concepts like the availability heuristic and the conjunction fallacy http://vnty.fr/tYbBwZ. Humans have these natural tendencies in their thinking process and they can be targeted through content creation. Lewis cites Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s availability heuristic, which states people assess the probability of an event by asking whether relevant examples are cognitively “available” (easily remembered). Essentially if you can inject something that is easily remembered, or memorable, into your message than you will have a large following. Their second principle, the conjunction fallacy, focuses on the human mind’s tendency to be drawn to stereotypes and vivid descriptions over relevant facts. Not that relevant facts shouldn’t be included, but it can’t hurt to be overly descriptive as well. The better people can visualize, the more accessible your brand is to them.

At this time of year, when goodwill and humanity reign, people are looking for those they identify with and who speak to them. Using this combination of tactics is the best way to stand out and gain their trust and repeat business. They always say the best things come in small packages, but some of the best things come in something much more. Sometimes words and actions speak the loudest of all.

Avoiding the Naughty List

It’s the holidays, the 4th quarter, the most wonderful (and crucial) time of the year. This is where some companies, journalists and PR teams stand out and others bite the dust…hard. Making a good impression at this time of the year doesn’t just solidify your holiday season status, it affects your year-round status. There’s a lot at stake. It’s time to do more than just survive the holiday season, it’s time to thrive. Here’s how to do it up right without ending up on the naughty list.

1) Spell and use holiday references correctly: The Associated Press recently released a holiday style guide of words, phrases and definitions related to the religious and cultural holidays of December and January http://bit.ly/vBo3AC. I especially like the last entry: “Xmas: Don’t use this abbreviation for Christmas.” The holidays are about peace on earth and goodwill, and butchering holiday terms goes against both. Furthermore these aren’t just any holidays, they’re sacred holidays, and messing them up is the quickest way to make enemies. Further proof that careful fact checking and spell checking can save a lot of grief.

2) Cater to the Customer: Provide some sort of incentive for shopping at your company’s store. This goes beyond great customer service, which is certainly part of it but not enough in today’s world of daily deals. Today’s customers are looking to be rewarded. A good example of this is Wal-Mart’s Christmas Price Guarantee http://bit.ly/tnoutq. Between November 1st and December 25th, if a customer buys an eligible product at Wal-Mart, and then finds the same item advertised for less at another store, Wal-Mart will give the customer a gift card for the difference through December 25th. Wal-Mart’s Christmas Price Guarantee is a reflection of the everyday low prices they are known for, which makes this a great fit for Wal-Mart while bringing in more customers who may not usually shop there. Results? Profits go up, more people become lifelong customers…you see where this is going.

3) Be Like Mike, Not Like Lowe’s: Lowe’s recently has taken a lot of grief over their decision to pull their advertising off of TLC’s “All-American Muslim” http://apne.ws/sL56qO. Perhaps if they had other logical reasons for doing so this would not be the huge blowup it has come to be, but they don’t. Basically, they decided to base their decision on the views and urgings of a Florida evangelical group called Florida Family Association. Florida Family Association stated the program was “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.” They urged advertisers to boycott the show and Lowe’s followed suit. Although Lowe’s later apologized on Facebook, and claimed they pulled out because the show is such a volatile topic, it isn’t enough. A Facebook apology won’t prevent a boycott and their actions speak of discrimination louder than any words they say to claim the contrary. Not a good move during the holiday season, or anytime, and not a good way to handle the situation that results.

Alright, so now we’ve looked at three ways to avoid the naughty list. Although each point seems to point to a specific group of people, each is by no means exclusively limited to a certain group. Journalists, public relations professionals and companies should pay careful attention, at this time of year especially, to their words and actions. Sometimes actions speak louder than words, and other times words speak louder than actions. Regardless, either can land you on the naughty list. Economists are cautiously optimistic about 2012 so it’s more important than ever to end the year and begin the new year on the right foot. Till next time, make the holidays merry and remember, Santa is watching you.

Social Shopping: A New Holiday Gathering

When one hears the words “social shopping” at this time of year, they probably think of a guys or girls shopping night or a group visit to the mall with a side of Santa Claus. Yet social shopping refers to something altogether different from traditional shopping. Social shopping is about turning the web shopping experience into a social one. Erin Griffith points out that this concept is still very much in development and has had several failings already, such as Facebook’s Beacon and Apple’s Ping http://bit.ly/usZ53T. However, she also points out that companies are starting to get smart and focus more on directing traffic to their e-commerce sites through social media, rather than trying to build a store on Facebook. If they involve Facebook at all it’s more likely to use Facebook Connect, like Levis.com. Levi’s “Friends Store” uses Facebook Connect so its customers can see comments, shares and likes from Facebook friends within the Levi’s site, without any awkward public sharing. While that’s ongoing, more focus right now is placed on the development of tools to make social shopping more convenient and comfortable. One tool is the development of sites like Fab.com, OpenSky and Gilt Groupe, which offer unique items that people can’t resist sharing with friends. Virtual wish lists on sites such as Pinterest, Polyvore, and Svpply are another tool, not only for consumers but for stores. Stores can post collages of items that drive traffic to their stores, while consumers can make a wish list collage. If they make these more social, and I hope they do, it could involve a social network where friends can check out their friends’ wish lists and each picture could have a link to the site where they can purchase the item. A third angle involves websites without a search box, like OpenSky, which targets women and lets them discover new products that reflect their interests.

On the flip side of these approaches are sites that could expand their social interests. A particularly interesting one is Decide.com, which lets shoppers know what and when to buy new electronics http://tcrn.ch/rwVOEf. For now, Decide.com is more of a blog and reviews site featuring Consumer Reports’ product recommendations coupled with Decide.com’s own data. For its own data, it does more than compare prices and availability. Decide.com also bases its recommendations on product release cycles, historical trends, company announcements, news, rumors published by media and more. Now the last two points may seem risky, but Decide.com technology allows it to weed out echoes created by blogs republishing rumors and over time it builds up a track record and history of a site’s accuracy. If this were made social, the next step would be to add in a group feature for specific categories of items. In these group forums consumers could discuss the items further and share the results of their purchases. A second site that is making more of a social imprint is that of LivingSocial. The daily deals site is now partnered with Clear Channel radio stations and these stations are announcing LivingSocial deals on the air that relate to local business offerings http://nyti.ms/tUh2Ps. The radio is already a tool for gathering data about entertainment and happenings in one’s community, so this is a natural fit. Plus, the more people who hear about these deals the greater the chance it will turn into a real-life social venture. It’s already social by sharing it with an audience, the next step would be groups of friends meeting up to take advantage of these deals together. Social shopping can be a great way to reframe the thinking behind shopping online. Sure, perhaps for now nothing beats the glitz and the glamour of experiencing holiday shopping in person, but as customers tire of the hassles that go along with it they may increasingly turn to this alternative form of social shopping. Think about it. It could become a new holiday tradition, and a new holiday gathering for one and all.