Month: September 2014

Simon Whitehouse (pictured) offers expert advice on avoid the social media pitfalls.

Social media presents the modern organisation with many opportunities to better engage with their audiences, monitor emerging trends and even take advantage of the immediacy of the phenomenon by conducting real-time market research. Social media also enables companies to listen to customers, take note of their feedback and adapt offerings and customer service approaches accordingly.

The benefits of using social media within a wider marketing strategy are evident in the fact that more budget is being allocated to the digital arena, with research conducted by analyst organisation Gartner indicating that digital marketing budgets will rise by ten per cent in 2014.

However, the viral, instant and widespread nature of these networks and apps also has downsides that organisations often overlook, such as  the need to monitor for brand protection-related issues, including brand impersonation, account spoofing, and counterfeit goods. This is reinforced by research conducted by Grant Thornton in which it was found that 59% of companies do not perform a risk assessment when it comes to their social media strategy.

Incorporating some form of brand protection within the overall digital marketing strategy is critical, not only in allowing an organisation to gain advantage from the benefits of social media, but also to avoid damaging hard-earned customer and brand trust, and the ability to engage with customers one-on-one. The danger is that as a medium which is characterised by a brand’s way of presenting consumers with its human side, many customers may take brands’ social media accounts at face value.

Before addressing the important issue of what can be done from a brand protection point of view, it is important to understand just what risks a brand faces.

Social media – what’s the risk to a brand?

One of the biggest risks a brand faces is impersonation. The nature of the Internet is such that impersonators can use items such as copyrighted images, photos or trademarked brand names or slogans to communicate with a brand’s audience in the guise of being the brand itself. The motivation for impersonation varies, from financial gain, to merely wishing to discredit or damage the brand. Regardless of the reason, this can negatively affect consumer perception and trust.

When motivated by economic reasons, scammers and impersonators can use social media to mislead consumers in terms of fraud or counterfeiting. This can be accomplished by setting up fake pages or profiles with the unauthorised use of copyrighted materials and/or trademarks in order to appear legitimate.

So how then does a brand ensure it doesn’t fall victim to scammers, counterfeiters or impersonators in the social media space?

Brand protection tips

Keeping a brand safe and healthy in the social media sphere is an ongoing endeavour that requires a solid strategy to combat instances of brand misuse or misappropriation. There are a number of best practice approaches that can be incorporated into a brand’s overall brand protection strategy to help preserve customer trust.

Top tip 1: Dot the i and cross the t

A brand should be officially registered across a host of social media websites, from blogs, and microblogs, to various networks. An organisation needs to make sure that it has taken the appropriate steps to make it official by proactively registering the brands as usernames across leading and new social media sites.

Certain social media sites have a verification process whereby brands or organisations can prove their legitimacy. For those sites that do not offer this option, organisations can ensure that their official website includes icons, information and links that explain and lead to their social media sites.

In addition, while a company may already have registered and / or recovered all of a brand’s vanity URLs, an organisation should also pay attention to emerging, special interest or lesser-known social media sites. With the growth of social media and the establishment of new sites, this should form an ongoing part of brand protection strategy.

Top Tip 2: Be vigilant

Social media networks, and indeed the scammers who make use of them, evolve constantly. It can be fairly easy for scammers and fraudsters to impersonate a brand online, which means that these networks need to be monitored on an ongoing basis to prevent a brand’s misuse and stop scammers from engaging with customers. There are tools available in the market that can assist in automatically searching social media for unauthorised use of your brands and trademarks.

Top Tip 3: Take action

Once any misuse or abuse of a brand is identified, appropriate action must be taken. This can vary, depending on the circumstances, and can include a number of approaches. Organisations can contact the scammer or impersonator directly to understand their motives and explain how this activity is in violation of their brand guidelines. Alternatively, brands may need to catalogue the activity and report the impersonator or scammer to the relevant social media site so that it can enforce its terms of service.

In order for a brand to reap the benefits of using social media within their digital marketing strategy and to keep customers safe from impersonators, incorporating a social media element within a brand protection strategy is crucial. If overlooked, this can negatively affect brand credibility and customer trust, the effects of which will be seen on a business’ bottom line.

Simon Whitehouse is senior director, EMEA sales, MarkMonitor.

Richard Rosen (pictured) links customer engagement to a brand’s genuine values.

I believe most of you will agree, we live in a new era of unprecedented customer empowerment.  Any one person’s opinion—good or bad—can be shared with millions instantly. And, according to Forbes, 90% of us will boycott a firm if we learned of a company’s irresponsible business practices, and more than 55% have done so in the past 12 months (Mainwaring, 2013).

In short, today’s customers are more vocal than ever about how their purchasing decisions affect their well-being and the planet. 

Let’s face it, the threats and opportunities of customer engagement have never been greater.

When  61% of Millienials are worried about our planet and feel personally responsible to make a difference (Mainwaring, 2013), it’s clear that companies that will have sustainable success are the ones that blend into the business model the quest for profits with social purpose. Simply put, your brand is more favourable in today’s business environment if it’s good for society and the planet.

So what does this mean for us as marketers?

It’s safe to say this adds a whole other layer to our brands’ messaging platforms. We now need to deliver an improved level of meaning behind the brand that includes authenticity, transparency and vision. Incorporating genuine values into the fibre of your brand will win the hearts and minds of the consumer. This strategy is proven to increase interaction rates leading to greater sales. It’s a far better strategy than merely appealing to their basic needs by delivering a product or service at par or better.

How exciting. The ultimate competitive advantage is right at our fingertips!

I am thoroughly convinced that getting customers’ attentions at this higher level and fulfilling a deeper meaning in their lives will spark an even greater connection with our brands.  After all, our goal as marketers is to continue to drive a meaningful dialogue and ultimately garner long-lasting customer relationships.

Coca-Cola is an example of a brand struggling in this new landscape. For years, it succeeded by creating larger and larger soda sizes despite growing sentiment that sugary soft drinks were contributing to the obesity epidemic. Now they’re paying the price. Soft drink sales are falling and the company has become a corporate bogeyman akin to Walmart or McDonalds in the 2000s. Type ‘Coke’ into YouTube. The first video that pops up isn’t a Coke ad. It’s a video called, “What Will Happen If You Boil Coke?”  Spoiler alert: it doesn’t turn into rainbows.

What would have happened if Coke had stood for higher values? For one thing, the decision to sell 128oz big gulps at 7-Eleven never would have been approved. Perhaps instead they would have gone smaller and emphasised Coke as a premium treat to be enjoyed occasionally, a strategy they are only now experimenting with (Bloomberg, 2014). In the world of new media, genuine values serve as a hedge against negative PR storms, a way to ensure your brand doesn’t become a pariah.

But if that’s the downside potential of forgoing genuine values, the upside potential for employing them is even greater. Ben & Jerry’s is a prime example. Since its founding, the company has allowed its values to guide its every decision. This has lead the company to vocally support everything from the local food movement to GMO labelling, to limits on campaign financing, to the Occupy Wallstreet movement. The company has taken a bold stand for genuine values, and as a result won a vibrant social media following and many engaged and trusting customers. On the surface, Coke and Ben & Jerry’s sell sugary treats, but the difference in their values has thrown them worlds apart. One is pointed to as a poster child of the health crisis, the other is a loved brand making a difference.

I am convinced that the better way to succeed in this new era is not only to spin the online and offline tools essential to marketing, but to take a stand for genuine values that tap into the higher purpose and potential of people, as Ben & Jerry’s did. Ultimately, today’s customer pays attention and falls in love with those companies that make them feel empowered.

This is one of the most dramatic and overarching shifts in marketing and advertising we will see in our lifetimes. I trust you to look forward to this new challenge.

Richard G Rosen is president and CEO of ROSEN Convergence Marketing, a certified B Corporation. As the originator and chief architect of Convergence Marketing, he consults with leading brands to improve their marketing campaigns through empathetic dialogue. His book, Convergence Marketing: Combining Brand and Direct for Unprecedented Profits, (Wiley & Sons), is a ‘how-to’ tool for marketing professionals. Rosen will be presenting a keynote at the annual DMA conference in San Diego with Rob Michalak, global director of social mission, Ben & Jerry’s, on Sunday October 26 at 2pm.

 

Udesh Jadnanansing (pictured) looks at how businesses should embrace their enthusiasts as well as concentrating on customers who have issues.

When it comes to customer loyalty, it’s very easy for businesses to focus on those people who have had problems or issues and want to complain. In some ways, this is the ‘low hanging fruit’ of customer relations because often this group will be proactive in contacting you (they have a problem they want to solve after all!) and increasingly they will be vocal about their issues to their peers.

So, the sensible thing to do is to court these customers directly and promptly – and it’s commonly acknowledged that this can actually create strong customer loyalty if done well.

However, this line of thinking can make it very difficult to concentrate on the ‘enthusiasts’ who already think highly of your company, products and services and are already evangelising about you online and in the real world!

Rather than treating this loyalty as a passive bonus, court these enthusiasts as well. Perhaps some of this apparent neglect comes from the popularity of using Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) measurements. Undoubtedly, these systems are very good at giving a measurable ‘snapshot’ of how well your relationship is going with your customers and use a closed loop feedback model which has very specific aims of finding problems. However, these systems also work on the assumption that a customer experience will start off on a high but can deteriorate if neglected, encouraging the business to ensure this doesn’t happen by engaging the potential pain points as a priority. When things go wrong NPS and CSAT ring the alarm bells to alert you – but they have no real scope to highlight the positive feedback as well.

Knowing what your company does well, is arguably just as valuable as knowing what faults your service has. Enthusiasts will often be busy telling the world about the benefits of your products or services so it makes sense to court them and encourage their continued support. Most people have at least one product, service or brand that they like or feel devoted to, and they will continue to purchase it when appropriate. So a ‘thank you’ from your favourite supplier, be it a free offer or discount for example, is usually appreciated and is a positive way of reinforcing and further encouraging this customer loyalty.

Thinking from the perspective of enthusiasm can be a radical shift for some organisations. Tackling potential problems has been the default response for many businesses for a long time, but successful and truly brand-savvy organisations realise that positive feedback can be very beneficial. Here are five reasons why a shift to also focusing on promoters and enthusiasts can help a business to thrive:

Enthusiasts help to create a positive flow throughout your company, at all levels – whether it is contact agents (who may be more accustomed to tackling complaints, which in isolation doesn’t make for a happy work balance), the sales team (who can offer real anecdotal evidence to their pitches) and account managers, etc. Being able to discuss and celebrate what people like about your company as well as being aware of any problems, gives your team positive reinforcement that they are doing a good job and providing a valued service that is appreciated.

Concentrating on the good things your customers highlight, helps to identify your key differentiators – which is highly useful in sales and marketing planning.

Promoting and supporting a group of customers that is very enthusiastic of your products and services helps to propagate these positive attitudes. These enthusiasts will praise you via word-of-mouth or online, providing a new stream of clients that will further promote you to an increasingly widening audience.

Enthusiasts will ensure you have a group of extremely loyal groundswell market that is less likely to buy from your competitors. In larger numbers this can represent a valuable customer base for your business and is well worth supporting.

Promoters and enthusiasts of your products/services will be more engaged and reflective on what you deliver. This feedback will help you positively to develop better products and services for the demographic of customer that wants to buy from you.

Udesh Jadnanansing is founder and managing partner at Mopinion.