BCA

From: World Advertising Research Center

Creating customer “excitement”, rather than maintaining ”satisfaction”, should be the key aim for marketers, McKinsey has suggested.

In a new report, the consultancy claimed satisfaction is useful for retaining consumers already loyal to a product or service, but that excitement is needed to attract new customers or encourage shoppers to pay a premium.

The study defined consumer excitement as “the feeling of experiencing something unexpectedly positive”.

“Companies that want to acquire customers for the long haul must surprise, thrill, and captivate them,” it added.

Excitment builds value

“Customer excitement creates immediate value because it gets customers talking about products and increases their willingness to buy and pay higher prices … marketing experts need to understand and channel these supposedly random occurrences and set up a process for systematically producing excitement.”

McKinsey claimed that selecting the correct market research techniques is a crucial part of this strategy.

For example, customer sentiment might not be most usefully gauged by gathering as much data as possible and then looking for average responses.

Excitement occurs at outlier points

“Customer excitement … always occurs at outlier points and is not found in standard quantitative measurements,” the report stated.

“It is therefore recommended to use new techniques and metrics that enable the tracking and assessing of emotions, such as capturing sentiments in social networks.”

Case studies cited by McKinsey as evidence for this view included that of Fiat, which successfully launched its Fiat 500 model in 2007 through a “big bang” campaign which resulted in a “huge wave” of customer excitement.

Fiat price 30% higherAs a result, the Italian carmaker was able to charge as much as 30% more for the Fiat 500 than rivals in the same category.

Tipp-Ex was also praised for creating “wow effects” thanks to its viral “A hunter shoots a bear” video, spread via YouTube.

The spot generated 10m hits soon after launch and “massive” word of mouth on social media platforms, blogs and online forums.

Data sourced from McKinsey; additional content by Warc staff15 February 2011

For complete data charts and story, go to e-marketer.com

From: e-Marketer

People like me” vs. the experts

Social media has put power in the hands of the consumer, giving everyone a publishing platform to push out their thoughts and feelings to the world at large. This has given great power to word-of-mouth, typically considered the most trustworthy form of marketing. But social behavior is changing as it matures.

The GlobalWebIndex “Annual Report 2011,” which includes data from Trendstream and Lightspeed Research, outlines a shift in consumer behavior on social media. As usage of social sites increases around the world, the landscape is maturing. According to the report, usage is shifting to focus on distributing content rather than creating it. Social media users disseminate and share professionally created content more often on microblogs, social networks and video-sharing platforms.

But the human element remains key to engendering trust. Internet users worldwide reported a nearly 50% increase in their trust of social network contacts giving product recommendations, and a 21% increase for microblog contacts. Even though many of those contacts are likely sharing some professional content with or alongside their personal recommendations, professional sources of information like newspapers and TV barely gained any trust over the same period.

Confidence rises in trust of experts

But Edelman’s “Trust Barometer” report for 2011 shows, for the second year in a row, an apparent decline in trust of a “person like me” (from 47% in 2009 to 43% in 2011) and a concomitant rise in trust for experts.

That survey polled college-educated consumers ages 25 to 64 who are in the top 25% of household income relative to age group in their home country and who follow business news and public policy. The opinions of such an affluent, highly educated, highly informed group cannot be extended to the general population.

Query focuses on consumer issues

Further, Edelman asked about trust in “information about a company,” a different query than product or brand recommendations. The inclusion of answer choices like “a financial or industry analyst” or “government official” orients the question more toward investor than consumer issues.

Other research tends to support the traditional view that word-of-mouth from friends, family and other peers is still the most trustworthy way of getting information about products and services. Teen influencers told Ketchum in May that friends with their top source of information. The importance and trustworthiness of customer reviews has grown, especially when shoppers feel they are authentic peer opinions. And social media users say dialogue and comment quality are key to trust on social sites. They’re also even more likely than the average consumer to place trust in friend and family product recommendations.

Scientists Suggest Protocol for Messaging Aliens

In 1974, humans broadcast the first message targeted at extraterrestrial life using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The message, which was aimed at the globular star cluster M13 located 25,000 light years away, consisted of binary digits that encoded information about our DNA, as well as graphics of a human, our Solar System, and the Arecibo telescope. Since then, humans have sent three other messages to nearby stars and planets (20-69 light-years away). These messages have become more complex and anthropocentric, with music, photographs, and drawings submitted by the public. 

 Scientists Build World’s First Anti-Laser

 More than 50 years after the invention of the laser, scientists at Yale University have built the world’s first anti-laser, in which incoming beams of light interfere with one another in such a way as to perfectly cancel each other out. The discovery could pave the way for a number of novel technologies with applications in everything from optical computing to radiology. 

 High Performance Capacitor Could Lead to Better Rechargeable Batteries

 In order to develop next-generation electric vehicles, solar energy systems, and other clean energy technologies, researchers need an efficient way to store the energy. One of the key energy storage devices for these applications and others is a supercapacitor, also called an electric double-layer capacitor. In a recent study, scientists have investigated the possibility of using a material called zeolite-templated carbon for the electrode in this type of capacitor, and found that the material’s unique pore structure greatly improves the capacitor’s overall performance. 

 Prairie Dogs Kiss More When Being Watched

 Researchers in the US studying the behavior of black-tailed prairie dogs at a local zoo have discovered they behave differently, kissing and cuddling each other more when people are watching than when they are unobserved. 

 Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) are known for their extremely social behavior, which includes kissing, grooming and touching each other. They are also known for their complex language of around 100 different barks, chirping sounds and yelps that convey information about predators, including the type of predator, their size, direction of travel, speed, and even their color. Previous research has shown they can also describe different human beings.

 How Gendered Beliefs Funnel Women Away From Science and Engineering

 Women earned only 18% of all Computer Science degrees and made up less than 25% of the workers in engineering- and computer-related fields in 2009. These statistics stand in stark contrast to the gains they have achieved in law, medicine, and other areas of the workforce. While this dearth of women in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is often attributed to lack of innate ability or desire on the part of women, the director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford, sociology professor Shelley Correll, sees this explanation as incomplete. And she offers a competing one: stereotypes.

 Brief Diversions May Help Employees Improve Work, Study Says

 A University of Illinois professor says people don’t need to feel guilty about checking personal e-mail, chatting with co-workers or addressing other minor distractions throughout the work day.  Brief diversions may actually help people concentrate and improve their performance on more important tasks, says Alejandro Lleras, who wrote a study on the topic for the journal Cognition. Lleras works at the university’s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Urbana.

 Lleras’ research seems to contradict long-standing theories that attention is a finite resource that runs out after a lengthy period of focus.

 The Green Machine: Algae Clean Wastewater, Convert to Biodiesel

 Let algae do the dirty work. Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology are developing biodiesel from microalgae grown in wastewater. The project is doubly “green” because algae consume nitrates and phosphates and reduce bacteria and toxins in the water. The end result: clean wastewater and stock for a promising biofuel.

 Scientists Investigate How Chemicals Evolved into Communication Signals

 Living things possess many diverse ways of communicating, but perhaps the oldest and most widespread form of communication involves the use of chemicals. From animals and plants to bacteria and fungi, organisms emit and receive chemical signals as a way of transferring information between one another. Organisms are sensitive to a very broad range of chemicals; for example, scientists estimate that rodents can detect thousands or even tens of thousands of odorant molecules.

 Experts Determine Age of Book ‘No Body Can Read’

 University of Arizona researchers have cracked one of the puzzles surrounding what has been called “the world’s most mysterious manuscript” – the Voynich manuscript, a book filled with drawings and writings nobody has been able to make sense of to this day.

 Using radiocarbon dating, a team led by Greg Hodgins in the UA’s department of physics has found the manuscript’s parchment pages date back to the early 15th century, making the book a century older than scholars had previously thought.

 This tome makes the “DaVinci Code” look downright lackluster: Rows of text scrawled on visibly aged parchment, flowing around intricately drawn illustrations depicting plants, astronomical charts and human figures bathing in – perhaps – the fountain of youth. At first glance, the “Voynich manuscript” appears to be not unlike any other antique work of writing and drawing.

From:  World Advertising Research Center

Major brand owners like Unilever, HSBC and Johnson & Johnson are focusing on sustainability, in the belief it will offer significant competitive advantages.

The MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group polled 3,000 executives across the globe, combining these findings with insights from in-depth interviews.

As a result, it divided companies into two groups – “embracers”, blazing a trail concerning best practice, and “cautious adopters”, proving slower to react.

Some 30% of embracers made products and 23% came from the services sector, and two-thirds of organisations within this group said their prior initiatives had boosted profits.

Exactly half the survey panel argued innovating to achieve genuine differentiation was one main challenge lying ahead for the next two years, while increasing sales posted 39%.

This compared with 16% depicting the opportunities and threats posed by sustainability as an obstacle. In all, 59% of firms heightened their sustainability commitments and expenditure last year, when 3% cut back, totals standing at 68% and 2% looking to 2011.

“Unlike in previous downturns and recessions, people haven’t necessarily put sustainability on the back burner,” said Nick Robins, head, climate changes center of excellence at HSBC.
“Our clients are already moving heavily into these areas; some of them are big industrial groups. We have a reasonable share. And with investment coordination, we could claim a greater share.”

On a five-point scale, senior leadership received 3.75 points regarding such activity, and customers attained 3.47 points, but only 24% of contributors agreed sustainability constituted a “core strategic consideration.” In identifying the benefits from addressing this matter, 49% of executives referenced improved brand reputation, 28% cited reduced costs and 26% thought it could yield a competitive advantage.

Consumer views resonate

“There is an additional element in the business case, which is brand composition and brand equity,” said Santiago Gowland, Unilever’s vp, brand and global corporate responsibility.
“The views of consumers increasingly resonate with some of the social, economic and environmental messages of brands.”

A further 22% of respondents hoped to access new markets, 21% anticipated gains covering margins or market share having adopted an eco-friendly positioning, and 17% named enhancements to innovation.

Turning to investment, 21% of the sample said spending was managed in the standard way, 19% analysed intangible or qualitative factors, 15% revealed ROI expectations were lower, and 10% asserted longer term timetables are usual.

Difficulties in measuring effectiveness

Difficulties related to evaluating effectiveness include quantifying the impact on reputation, with 3.2 points out of five, and predicting the value of customer uptake, lodging 3.16 points.
However, 54% of participants claimed sustainability was essential to competitiveness and 32% forecast it would become so in the future, measured against 8% not affording it an elevated status.

Another 34% reported past environmentally-driven schemes had enhanced profit levels, 24% broke even, and just 11% suggested these programmes served to drain income.

“It’s been better for the bottom line, especially in terms of energy costs,” said Al Iannuzzi, Johnson & Johnson’s senior director, worldwide health and safety. “Waste is cost to the corporation,” he added. “And, of course, the less waste you send out of your gates, the less expensive it is to make your product.”

GE tops field of  world-class companies

When choosing “world-class” companies in the field, General Electric topped the charts, doubling the number of votes secured by second-placed Wal-Mart.

Toyota, IBM, Google, Apple and Microsoft all featured in the rankings, as did Procter & Gamble, which has made sizeable investments in this area. “Nobody’s asked me to talk about the business case for several years,” said Peter White, P&G’s director, global sustainability. “From our point of view, it’s a done deal – it’s proven, let’s get on with it.”

Data sourced from Boston Consulting Group; additional content by Warc staff14

By R. Steve McCollum

What is eCommerce, and how can it change the way one does business? For starters, the word eCommerce, or sometimes e-Commerce, is an abbreviation of the term electronic commerce. Commerce is simply another word for business – the buying and selling of stuff. Thus, electronic commerce is about doing business electronically.

However, there is a lot more to the story. So, to flesh out my answer, I will rely on the following comparison of the way I did business 25 years ago to the way I do business today.

Started the business in my garage

My arcade video game business began like many other small businesses, in my garage. The year was 1984. Personal computers were around (remember the IBM PC Jr.), but there was no Internet, no World Wide Web, and no eCommerce. When I needed business supplies, I drove 20 miles to a distributor’s store in another city, wrote a check, and carried my merchandise another 20 miles back home.

To market my business, I bought annual Yellow Page telephone directory ads, and local daily and weekly newspaper classified ads. Regularly, I also waged direct snail mail campaigns. As my business grew, there were also some nice word-of-mouth referrals. Nothing fancy, I was just another small businessman serving a small, entirely local market.

Today, everything about how I do business has changed, except for two things. I am still a small businessman, and I still get nice word-of-mouth referrals.

An eCommerce example

But now, when I need supplies I sit down at my computer and perform a product search. Although, there are times when I remain standing up, or walk around, or stay seated while eating lunch, and just use my smart phone. After a few clicks, I have found, ordered, and paid for the highest quality merchandise, at the best price, with the cheapest delivery cost, and the fastest delivery time. That is one example of one aspect of eCommerce conducted over the World Wide Web. Oh yeah, perhaps best of all, my purchase arrives at my doorstep in a couple of days without me having to drive anywhere.

When it comes to marketing my business, things have really changed. Now, I can tell folks about my business, myself, and my products, literally, in thousands of ways. And, simply by using my computer – no driving required. My market area has grown, too. No longer are the physical boundaries of my business market defined by how far I am willing to drive. Instead, my marketplace is the entire world, thanks to eCommerce and the World Wide Web.

And, no longer am I restricted by a small budget to a few measly too small to read words in a couple of small expensive Yellow Page directory ads on a couple of pages in not quite right categories surrounded by bigger ads from my competitors in a book full of hundreds of categories, competitors, and pages. Now, with a few websites, storefronts, articles, and some other techniques, I can have what effectively amounts to the whole book – unlimited categories, unlimited number of full pages, and unlimited number of words. Plus, all the words are of the size, color, and font that are most effective for my business.

My marketing costs drop by a third

My marketing costs have changed, too. Yellow Page and newspaper classified ads were expensive (and still are), amounting to several $100 a month. Now, my monthly marketing expense is roughly one-third what it was previously. That is, if you count my Internet connections as a marketing expense. Plus, I reach the world, not just the folks within a limited driving distance.

So today, I am still a small businessman, but one who can electronically buy parts and supplies locally, nationally, and internationally. And, who can electronically sell his goods locally, nationally, and internationally. Whether I am buying or selling, and whether you are the one buying from me or selling to me, all that is required to complete our transaction are a few

I switched to VoIP and cut phones costs by a third

Further, if we need to communicate, that too, has changed. Telephone calls and snail mail have, at least in most ordinary day-to-day business transactions, been replaced by email (electronic mail), mobile text messaging, and online chat. If you do have to make or receive telephone calls, there have also been many big changes. Of course, there are now mobile phones. But, there have also been big changes for land line users. Now, we have VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). So, for about one-third the cost of regular phone service, you can have a local business line, a fax line, and an 800 number. Thanks to the Internet.

Indeed, if we so choose, all of our business marketing, communication, ordering and paying can be handled electronically over the Internet. And, that basically is what eCommerce is all about.

Visit R. Steve McCollum at http://www.SellingOnTheNet.info for more eCommerce information, tips, and strategies.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=R._Steve_McCollum

From: e-Marketer

Increasing ownership leads to increasing opportunities

Momentum in the mobile device market has swung in favor of smartphones, led by the allure of Apple’s iPhone and the legion of now-viable competitors it has spawned.

Most mobile owners in the US still have only a feature phone, but eMarketer predicts smartphone ownership will rise from 31% of the mobile population this year to 43% by 2015. Nearly 110 million Americans will have a smartphone by the end of that year.

“Smartphone owners already command the majority of marketers’ attention,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report “Smart and Getting Smarter: Key Mobile Device trends for Marketers.” And the simple reason is: They do more of everything than their counterparts with feature phones: messaging, gaming, listening to music, watching videos, social networking, shopping, using apps and browsing the web.”

As of the end of 2010, eMarketer estimates 30% of smartphone users in the US had a BlackBerry and 28% had an iPhone, the top two operating systems. But Android’s share of the market is rising quickly. Nielsen tracking surveys found Android pulling ahead among recent smartphone purchasers, and eMarketer predicts that by 2012 Android will be the No. 1 mobile OS in the country.

The changing device landscape is encouraging changing usage patterns. eMarketer estimates that time spent with mobile phone devices is rising faster than for any other medium, up 28.2% in 2010. Smartphone owners, more active with every type of mobile content than feature phone owners, are likely on the leading edge of this trend.

“Marketers need to pay attention to these trends as they project budgets and develop market strategies,” said Elkin. “Mobile devices will claim more and more media time per day, while TV, print and radio will slowly lose ground to digital media. For marketers, half the battle of staying relevant is showing up in the right place and on the right platform.

For complete data charts and story, go to eMarketer.com.