 November 18, 2008
 Tylenol's Feel Better Should Work Harder OnlineTagged as: engaging, personalPosted by: Kelly Mooney
November 12, 2008
 Actionable Customer Insights through Site Side SearchTagged as: Open brand, new consumer journey, personalPosted by: Mila Goodman What are your customers looking for? This is a question that plagues many an eCommerce team. The answer is in your web analytics. Customers find products either by using search or navigation. For those customers who use site side search, their satisfaction relies on the quality and speed of your search results. Regardless of how good your search results are, it is inevitable that your customer will enter a search term for which you do not have a product match. Hopefully you have already eliminated the following error message
and provide smart cross links or suggestions to similar things that may be of interest to your customer. If you listen to what your customer is telling you, you are regulary running one of my staple analytics reports - the shadow demand report. The shadow demand report provides meaningful customer insights because it reports the search terms your customers have entered which did not return products. Is there a better way to get into the mind of your customer? They are telling you what they want to find and this report tells you when they reach a dead end. Since dead ends are bad for customer experience, the shadow demand report is instrumental in preventing these in the future. The shadow demand report can provide direction to your merchandising team. If you see a sizable bump when customers are searching for a particular product, you may identify a trend. This report represents customer demand and an untapped opportunity to meet customer demand by adding this product to your site or at a minimum, providing alternates to what they seek. Understanding this element of your customer is an easy report to create and may even be standard in your analytics package. It is a tool that can be used to gain actionable insights about your customer. Activate this report, review it regularly and serve your customers by offering them products they are telling you they want. October 18, 2008
These days I am the road more frequently and realized how much the DVR (which I still refer to as Tivo even though it’s a no frills Scientific something or other) has altered my television consumption. Even when I’m home, I very rarely watch TV “live.” I rationalize how much TV I watch by getting in 2 or 3 shows in a time frame that would normally include 1 or 2. This past week, I realized a few things:
For me, the DVR is an empowering technology—it allows me to forget about what I want to see because when I press the list button, it will tell me what I want to watch. It also empowers me to avoid living my life around that must see show—whether it’s the NBA finals, the Olympics, Gossip Girl or Mad Men. It empowers me to consume more television in the same amount of time—I don’t have to horse trade shows that are on at the same time. I may need to invest in the Slingbox PRO-HD.
Outside of my personal addiction to the DVR, see below for penetration statistics for US households from Forrester Research. I’m glad to see that I’m not alone. October 16, 2008
Like any data, value is derived from use. There’s a rich vein of opportunity, but it requires a shift in mindset and some creative thinking. Are you willing and able to spend the time to build the relationships – or do you just want more effective advertising? Influence Vendors Here’s an overview of the types of vendors in this space, though with the current speed of progress this post is certain to be obsolete by the time you read it. If you are a vendor, please send me your creds and I’ll add you to the list. 1. Method: Analyze & Rank Blogs What brands get: List of most influential blogs in your category and in the case of BuzzLogic, a solution for targeting blog readers via advertising Easy win: Increase advertising effectiveness Vendor example: BuzzLogic, Nielson BuzzMetrics Blogpulse
2. Method: Analyze & Rank Social Network Relationships What brands get: target social ads to friends of brand fans Easy win: increased advertising effectiveness Vendor Example: SocialMedia.com
3. Method: Analyze & Rank Email Database What brands get: Rich customer data based on social network influence and observed behaviors Easy win: More effective CRM programs Vendor Example: Popular Media
4. Method: Analyze and Report Names of Influentials, based on phone surveys of community What brands get: names of individuals cited most influential on buying decision within a community, for a given topic. Easy win: More effective direct sales program October 2, 2008
Facebook – Delivering value to this Gen XerTagged as: O.P.E.N., networked, personal, social web, trendsPosted by: Mila Goodman I have two digital social profiles – my professional one and my personal one. In my professional world – I have an avatar, I twitter, I shop online and am an active member of several social networks. My personal circle – comprised mainly of my non-work friends – is mostly offline and connected by phone and face to face. They don’t twitter, post pictures online and rarely use email or IM. In the past 2 weeks, these worlds finally collided. My high school and college friends made their way onto Facebook and I am re-connected with them. Facebook now delivers the promise of being a social utility – not because of any updates or re-designs but simply because the people I want to stay connected to are finally there! I can keep tabs and update both of my worlds with single strokes on the keyboard (or more likely my Treo). The fact that it successfully juxtaposes my work self with my personal self is truly an awesome thing. In my experience, my generation—unlike the Digital Millenials—is either in the digital space or still trying to figure it out. For my Xer friends not in the business, the online channel is not part of their DNA or even seen as a useful way to communicate. Notwithstanding the social convenience Facebook has recently delivered for me, it is a part of mass culture. Consider some of these stats… - Facebook has over 110 mm active users - Facebook is the 4th most-trafficked website in the world - Facebook is the most-trafficked social media site in the world - More than half of Facebook users are outside of college - The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older - Maintain 85 percent market share of 4-year U.S. universities - Over 24,000 applications have been built on Facebook Platform - 140 new applications added per day If you’re an Xer or Boomer looking for an easy entry into the social web, visit Facebook.com and re-connect with your family and friends or friend me and I’ll show you the ropes. August 27, 2008
Last week, I spent a great deal of time talking to clients, partners and colleagues about mobile. Seems like everyone in the U.S. is interested in mobile experiences again. Why is that? The iPhone, The Olympics, Ralph Lauren’s new mobile site? I’m not sure, but I can tell you the space is hot. Problem is, mobile tends to cool down quickly when you worry about the customer experience. We want to reach the widest applicable audience and we tend to agonize over the stats. What percentage of mobile phone users text? What percentage have unlimited data plans? How many use the mobile web regularly? If we get past those numbers (and some of us don’t) we worry about how to engage them. Will the user text a number to a short code? Depends. Will they type in your mobile site’s address? Probably not. Here is something to remember…every single one of the roughly 254 million cell phone users in the United States have one thing in common. Their devices can send and receive voice calls. Start there. Look at great services like ChaCha and Jott. Think about expert assistance and point of sale shopabilty. Try using voice as a way to start an experience that leads to a text message, offer or the link to your mobile site. Hang on a sec. I gotta get this call. August 8, 2008
 Let the (digital) games begin!Tagged as: O.P.E.N., creative, digital millenials, engaging, iCitizen, mobile, networked, new consumer journey, on-demand, personal, retail, social web, technology, trendsPosted by: Dan Shust
Here are my podium picks: Bronze Medal: McDonalds “The Lost Ring” In March 50 bloggers received a mysterious package in the mail. It contained an Olympic poster and a ball of string that, when unraveled, revealed a web address. Thus began “The Lost Ring” an Alternate Reality Game (or ARG) that is currently being played in 7 languages across 100 countries. The players work together to hunt for clues to solve an ancient Olympic mystery. Immersive gameplay leads them to websites, blog posts, wikis, podcasts and even Twitter. 4 million people and counting have visited the launch site. Silver Medal: Lenovo “Voices of the Olympic Games” In an attempt to bring attention to a variety of less mainstream Olympic sports, Lenovo has given laptops and Flip video cameras to 100 athletes. (No other compensation is being provided.) Their only direction was to tell the rest of the world about their Olympic experience. Their blog posts are revealing, touching and sometimes humorous. Mainstream media will blast us with Phelps, LeBron, Kobe and Torres, but Lenovo’s athlete bloggers allow us to partake in the “common” Olympian’s experience. Gold Medal: NBC - Digital Coverage In 2006 NBC streamed one hockey game live form the Turin Winter Olympics. This year the network will stream over 2200 hours of live coverage and 3600 hours of on demand video will ultimately be available. Their custom video player is ground breaking, allowing the user to enjoy such features as closed captioning, expert commentary even for less popular events, integrated trivia, picture-in-picture and a “control room” view in which you can enjoy up to 4 live events simultaneously. NBC’s coverage also includes a robust mobile web site, text messaging, e-mail alerts and mobile video. So, there are my “Digital Olympics” medal winners. Each effort is game changing in its own way, but just imagine if they were all on the same team. When you do, you can almost see the future… June 24, 2008
I’m hard at work here on another post on escapism. Relish the irony. Earlier this year, I attended Leveraging Online Media and Online Marketing, hosted by the Marketing Science Institute, the Jaffe Center for Persuasive Communication, and the eLab Sloan Center for Internet Retailing. We gathered at the UC Riverside Palm Desert Graduate Center—a vaguely Frank Gehry-like structure griddling in the sun, surrounded by the Santa Rosa mountains. And it certainly proved to be no country for old people. The sociological and econometric working papers presented are gold mines, but only for those marketers willing to prospect in the craggy cliffs separating academia from the business world. (As most of you know, I was born with a rock pick.) Ann E. Schlosser’s paper, Will the Real Me Please Stand Up? An Exploration into Virtual vs. Physical Identity and Its Effect on Consumer Behavior investigated among other things the influence of virtual world avatars on real-world shopping. Subjects who had virtual product experience had higher intentions to purchase the product (online and/or offline) than those who simply read and viewed pictures of the product or those who watched a video of the product being used. Avatars, whether physically congruent with the real person or not (the research into avatar physical traits and corresponding interpersonal dynamics is just plain fascinating), have this effect on purchase intent because they provide escape from objective self-awareness. They reduce awareness of self-discrepancies (a marvelous notion). Avatars, in other words, deemphasize the real self in favor of the aspirational self marketers are always referencing. There are two lessons here. First, it seems to me that shopping online itself favors subjective self-awareness, or a self less split between the idealized and the actual. Shoppers can maintain trance-like states unfettered by sales associates, traffic jams or money itself (particularly true when credit cards are registered, thereby eliminating the reality check that should come with reaching for one’s plastic or cash.) The self we think (or our friends and significant others think) we ought to be, at least as it relates to our material possessions as a form of self-expression, has extraordinary license to thrive online. And I don’t believe marketers think about this enough. We should always be asking, “What are the proper fantasy supports for our fashionistas or homemakers or outdoor enthusiasts?” And at the motivational level, what are the best supports for our consumers’ celebrity aspirations, for their co-creation ambitions, etc.? (Do these ring an OPEN bell?) Second, marketers should be less literal-minded when it comes to avatars. Not all require a full-blown virtual world to inhabit (though this is the definition Gartner uses when predicting that by the end of 2011, 80% of active internet users will have an avatar.) Avatars on Yahoo Messenger show up simply when you’re IM’ing a friend, and change expressions as you change your emoticons. Personalizing consumers’ experiences of ecommerce and branding sites is, essentially, accommodating more fully their virtual selves, their thinner, richer, more book-reading and world-changing alter egos. My “avatar” when shopping for shoes online is a gal whose feet never touch the ground. |
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