Alberta Business Marketing

Over the past few years, you’ve probably heard stories about drivers so focused on their GPS directions, they end up in a river. Whether true or made-up, like the one about lemmings following each other en masse off a cliff, I wonder if – in response to social media’s red hot popularity -- marketers may be headed somewhere they don’t intend.

Don’t get me wrong. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other sites may be effective communication channels to help reach your marketing objectives. I just wonder whether marketers are treating social media as an objective – “quick let’s get a Facebook fan page up!” – rather than understanding its usefulness and role as a tool.

Put another way, it’s important not to think of social media as the destination itself, but rather a tool to get us to our destination – in this case achieving our objectives. And, as with any potentially powerful tool, we need to learn more about how social media works, who’s using it and why before we’ll really know if it can help us get where we want to go.

Take how social media relates to the work I’m doing on WOM. Some hypothesize that influencers – because they like to talk – may be more active in the social media space. In fact, the research doesn’t bare that out:

? Influencers don’t have more accounts than the regular Joe
? They don’t spend more time on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter
? They still prefer to share information – which they may gather from email or social media sites – the old fashioned way, face to face

Charlene Li, formally an analyst at Forrester, and the co-author of Groundswell offers some other learnings and insights into the minds of social media participants and how they actually differ, dividing them into the following segments:

? Creators: create or upload content
? Critics: respond to content from others
? Collectors: organize content for themselves, others
? Joiners: connect in social networks like Facebook
? Spectators: read, listen but do not participate
? Inactives: neither create nor consume

These two quick snapshots alone, I think, demonstrate that developing a successful social media presence first requires understanding who it works for and why. Then you can figure out how best to use the new medium to promote, engage and dialogue with consumers so you can meet your marketing objectives – without getting all wet.

Do you agree marketers are jumping a little too quickly on the social media bandwagon?

EXTRA! EXTRA! We’ll be holding an information-packed webcast on May 19th to present key findings from our recent white paper on influencers, plus other research and case studies. Click to learn more or to register. You won’t want to miss it! P.S You can also follow us on Twitter - we'll be tweeting before, during and after the event - @icomwom - hope you can join us!

Tags: Research, social media, Strategy, technology
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Prior to this post:
Introduction
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

This post signals an end to our series on Dominant Canadian Social Values. We’ve outlined 4 Canadian Values: a unique balance between individualism and collectivism; an attitude of tolerance and acceptance; a heightened appreciation for a quality of life; and finally, an essentially peaceful predisposition.

We hope these guideposts will help you when crafting communications that can relevantly connect with and engage Canadians.

Defining Value #4
Borne of a legacy of cooperation and compromise, Canadians are essentially a peaceful people living in a peaceful place. An underlying sense of comfort and security manifests in our ideology with regards to peacekeeping and also is reflected in our business dealings. Further, it may be what allows us to attend to what we refer to as ‘higher level values’.

Points of Evidence
Canada truly and factually is a safer place to live. The murder rate in Canada is 1.85: 100,000 people, as compared to the U.S. at 5.6:100,000. The U.S. incarceration rate is approximately 6 times higher than in Canada; in fact, Canada’s murder rate has fallen by more than 40 per cent since 1975.

And perceptually Canadians feel safer as a people. Canadians afraid to walk at night is down almost 5% since 1975 and Canadians are more worried about Bullying than Terrorism.(MacLean’s Magazine Canada Day Report 2006)

How this Manifests
On Peacekeeping: When Canadians are asked about the traditional role of the Canadian military, they speak with pride about Canadian participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions. Over the years, more than 125,000 Canadian military personnel have served on peacekeeping missions for the United Nations – more than any other country. (cbcnews.ca, Canada: The World’s Peacekeeper)

In Business: Our peacefulness extends to our engagement style regarding business dealings. The 2008 Bribe Payer’s Index, prepared by the global civil society organization Transparency International, ranks Canada at No. 1, tied with Belgium—meaning our companies are the least likely in the world to engage in payoffs. Only four per cent of Canadian business people have ever bribed high-ranking politicians or political parties, according to the survey, well below the international average of 13 per cent. (MacLean’s Magazine Canada Day Report 2009)

On ‘Higher-Level Values’: Canadians embrace social responsibility. Almost 7 in 10 Canadians (68%) pay attention to issues related to Corporate Social Responsibility; 52% have consciously refused to buy a product or a service from a company not conducting business in a socially responsible way. And Canadians see the global environmental issue as second only to healthcare as a pressing issue facing the country (note that this ranking has bounced about a little with economy factoring in of late). (Social Responsibility in Canada, Ipsos Reid 2003 and 2006)

A Marketing Reference
Need we look any further than the spiritually-based success story that is Lululemon?

But in the interest of not repeating ourselves, let’s reference Marc Thuet’s restaurant in Toronto instead – Conviction Restaurant. Conviction Restaurant offers recently rehabilitated ex-convicts a chance to turn their lives around by helping give patrons “the most unforgettable eating experience of their lives”. As testament to the success of the concept, planning for a second Conviction location in British Columbia is currently underway.

Thanks again for your valuable time and attention!

Heidi McCulloch, V.P., Senior Strategic Planner, MacLaren McCann

Tags: Research
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Last week the topic of trust was raised in a Harvard Business Review post titled, “What trust brings to Amazon, Zappos and USAA.” The author, Peter Merholz, described how being bold, and proactively trusting your customers, can contribute to a company’s online success.

The article was very well written, and the examples were thought provoking, but for me there was something missing. Beyond examples, what evidence exists that proactively trusting your customers can contribute to online success?

What Neuroscience has shown

At Claremont Graduate University, the neuroconomist Prof. Paul Zac has been studying the topic of trust for a number of years. Looking at the role of trust in macro and micro economics, his studies have begun to focus on the brain chemical oxytocin, and how it can influence trust.

In 2005, Zac published studies showing that when a person sends a trust signal to another person, it causes a release of oxytocin in their brain, which can induce a social obligation to reciprocate that trust. Put simply, his research showed that trust leads to trust, and it provides strong support for the idea of proactively trusting your customers.

What Morphological Research has shown

Morphological research has also been used to study the phenomenon of trust. In fact, in a recent study of 1000 North Americans, Concerto Marketing Group set out to uncover the benefits and drivers of trust in businesses and brands (link to the study here if you are interested).

Through our research we managed to uncover six equally correlated drivers of brand trust. Two of these drivers have particular relevance to this discussion; Relationship and Practical Value. In order for people to trust a brand, it needs to provide some sort of Relationship. Furthermore, in order for that Relationship to be strong, it must deliver some sort of Practical Value.

Based on these two drivers, our research would also support the idea of proactively trusting your customer. When Amazon gives a customer the power to provide product reviews, or when USAA lets a customer deposit checks by email, they are delivering Practical Value, strengthening their Relationship, and ultimately building brand trust.

Building Brand Trust Online

For many companies and consumers, the online environment can embody the best and worst of humanity. It can provide facts and friendship on the one hand; on the other hand it can harbor lies and fraud.

Extending proactive trust to your customers is a powerful way to cut through this mess and build a strong brand. In fact, it would seem that Peter Merholz was on to something in his recent post; being bold and proactively trusting your customers can contribute to a company’s online success.

Nick Black

Tags: Branding, Research, Strategy
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Prior to this post:
Introduction
Part One
Part Two

Defining Value #3
“One difference between Americans and Canadians is that Americans are still waiting to win the lottery. Canadians live as if they have already won the lottery.” Michael Adams, Fire and Ice, 2003.

20% of Canadians cite Quality of Life as top source of pride in being Canadian. (Macleans Canada Day Survey 2006). Quality of Life is one of Canadians’ key defining values.

Quality of life, simply put, refers to how good life is. People throughout the centuries, and in various parts of the world, have defined quality in their lives in rather distinct ways.

Among developed countries, certain variables are consistent in defining quality of life – life expectancy, purchasing power, literacy and education, housing, employment, finances. Against these variables, in study after study, Canada has always landed in the top ranks. For example, in the 2009 Mercer Consulting annual Quality of Living Survey among 215 cities, Vancouver ranked 4th and Toronto ranked 15th. In all of the Americas, Canadian cities of Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary dominated the top spots.

Where does this come from?

• Canada is endowed with nature’s majesty, in lakes, mountains, fields in our backyard. Our physical closeness to nature likely inspires a more mellow approach to life and living.
• Since after the Great Depression, Canada instituted policies that would ensure that its people maintained certain standards of living - pensions, health care, protection from unemployment and other social support. Having a secure safety net gives people a certain reassurance that no matter what goes wrong, all will be well; in general, people have less to be anxious and stressed about. Unencumbered, people pursue a certain way of living that is more attuned to relationships, connections, rather than simply getting ahead in a rat race.

Points of Evidence
Macleans annual Canada Day poll offers up interesting proof points about Canadians’ distinct version of quality of life.

For Canadians, there is more to life than work: Canadians place A REWARDING CAREER behind Freedom; Family Life; Being Loved and Being Canadian on their list of things that they value the most. (Macleans Canada Day Poll 2006)

Asked which activities they enjoy most, Canadians cite: A nice meal with my partner; Having a few hours for myself. (Macleans Canada Day Poll 2006)

Canadians believe that Experiences, not Things, make one happy. When asked, what is the best thing that happened to you in the past year, milestones such as weddings, births, pregnancies, vacations, graduations rose to the top of the lists. Moving into a new house or getting a new car sat at the bottom of the list of best things. (Macleans Canada Day Poll 2006)
Canadians don’t care for keeping up with the Joneses. 29% of Canadians say it’s important that people admire the things they own, compared with 36% of Americans. (Fire and Ice, Michael Adams)

Marketing Reference
Lululemon
The brand believes in keeping healthy, exercising, and drinking eight glasses of water a day. They’re not just getting people to buy their clothes, but to embrace the lifestyle they promote. And that lifestyle, outlined in their manifesto, includes beliefs like, “Friends are more important than money.” Their mission: Lululemon athletic creates components for people to live longer, healthier and more fun lives. If we can produce products to keep people active and stress-free, we believe the world will become a much better place. Lululemon has successfully tapped into a Canadians’ unique view of what a good life looks like.

Molsons’ Made From Canada
The Made From Canada spot pays homage to Canadas’s natural beauty, and the uniquely Canadian impulse to enjoy it as much as we can. Copy: Fact is, its this land that shapes us. We know we have the best backyard in the world and we get out there every chance we get.

Lee Chapman, Strategic Planner, MacLaren

Tags: Research
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Our industry is excited – about Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, blogs and a whole host of new and evolving social media tools. But it’s important to remember that they’re just that – tools. And in the end, as marketers, we still have to first clearly understand what we’re trying to accomplish and who we’re talking to before we can determine the best way to achieve the results we want --results that admittedly seem more and more challenging to attain.

Which brings me to my main subject. It’s been three years since I first immersed myself in word-of-mouth marketing. My goal was to learn everything I could about influencers. I started out with many assumptions about how and why people talk about the products they love or hate, but interestingly many were disproved through research and discussions with other industry experts.

Like how influencers pass along information to others. Despite how they get it (email, websites, newsletters, social media sites) influencers do most of their recommending face to face – almost 90% of the time they pass it along to friends or family in person or by phone.

And how influencers don’t talk about everything. They talk about a few categories – likely because of interest or perhaps because of where they are in life. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Take diapers, for instance. If you’d talked to me a couple of years ago, you’d have walked away thinking I had a degree in baby undies – I could tell you which were more absorbent, which were softer, which were cuter and which were the best value. And if we were trapped in an elevator, you’d have no choice but to listen to Gillian’s 101 fun facts about diapers. A marketer could have gained a lot of free advertising from me at the time, but today my interest in diapers has – perhaps unsurprisingly – waned.

My husband, for his part, can talk your ear off about natural remedies and will do so at every opportunity and proactively, but, unlike a lot of other guys his age, will only discuss electronics when prompted.

Little nuggets like these – anecdotal as they may be – confirm a growing body of in-depth research that suggests targeting influencers to spread the word and drive traffic or
sales is more complex than choosing a few demographic or psychographic variables and sending out direct mail or an email – or a tweet for that matter. Understanding who these
brand advocates are, what motivates them and how they behave is an exercise that must be handled with care – especially when you consider that, while they’re a small group, influencers can have a dramatic effect on brand building and sales.

I have a lot more to come on this topic and I can’t wait to share it with you in coming posts. Hope you’ll join me.

In the meantime if you would like a copy of a paper we just prepared detailing much of our new research, email me – I’d be happy to send it along.

BTW, what has been your biggest eye opener in WOM marketing?

NEXT TIME: Do marketers have a clear roadmap for social media marketing or are they simply following the crowd?

Gillian MacPhersen

Tags: Research, social media
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