Bento Box E-Marketing

This isn’t a blog post to criticize the video posted above; rather, using this video, I would like to illustrate a point I have been wanting to address about a trend I have observed in the social media world nowadays.

There has been much criticism toward this music video created by Ark Music Factory, an independent record label based in Los Angeles, for their bad taste in song writing and music making. When this video was first featured by a couple of YouTube celebrities a while ago, it started receiving attention; it took only one day to jump from 2.2 million to over 6 million views as of today. In other words, it has gone “viral”–just like that.

And this is only one of the plenty of examples of (distasteful) things that had gone viral at a rapid speed. A recent one: Groupon’s poor Superbowl 2011 commercial.

People are curious and people love to share. Information is available at almost any time, anywhere.

Sometimes, it is scary to think about the power of social media, the high level of interaction between individuals using social media, and the speed at which information is now shared with others. Information now travels at the speed of who-knows-how-many light-years per second, far exceeding what we used to be amazed at back in the days when we simply had “Internet” and when we were impressed by news on the TV and the radio.

I found out about a new, interesting-looking iPhone app, Crowdbeacon, today and decided to blog about it because it is an app, although simple, based on a unique idea. It is a location-based communication platform that makes location-based services and information even more useful for your everyday needs by providing relevant, localized communication and information to users on what they need, whenever they are and wherever they are. Basically, it’s taking the location-based trends to a whole ‘nother level!

Here’s how it works:

For example, you visit a city that you are unfamiliar with and are looking for a great place to watch a comedy show. You can simply open Crowdbeacon, post your question and literally “ask the crowd for help”. Your question would be delivered to the experts and businesses in the local area who can respond instantly. In case everyone is busy and no one can respond immediately, Crowdbeacon also links to other location-based services such as Yelp, Foursquare and Google to provide information so the platform is not relying entirely on active users on the spot.

Here is what I think is so great about this app in terms of its ability to make the idea of “whatever, whenever, and wherever” a reality:

• actual identities are associated with advice given–they are less likely to be business owners anonymously writing multiple fake reviews on, for example, Yelp
• credibility of advice is higher since it is coming from local people who probably know best around the area
• information is much more timely (instant responses) and relevant (users are answering your questions directly)
• more convenience–no need to search or browse through a bunch of different businesses in a category
• it’s always a warm fuzzy feeling when someone genuinely wants to help you out!

Personally, I cannot wait to use this app myself.

We have all seen the significant impact that the current major players in social media such as Facebook and Twitter have had in the last few years: enhancing communication and interaction between people, shaping the way businesses market themselves, just to name a couple. Social media revolutionized the way people and businesses connect with each other.

This phenomenon is once again proven with the recent tragic events in Japan.

Due to the damage caused by the tsunami, phone lines are barely working. The death toll keeps going up at a rapid rate and many people with loved ones in Japan are devastated to get in touch with them.

Fortunately, while the earthquake and tsunami knocked out the electricity supplies among many other things, Internet is still relatively available for people to use, according to an Internet monitoring company Renesys.

Less than an hour after the number of tweets from Tokyo topped 1,200 per minute. On March 11th, Facebook counted 4.5 million status updates from 3.8 million users across the world that mentioned the words “Japan”, “tsunami”, or “earthquake”. Numerous Facebook events have popped up inviting people to volunteer their time, donate money or simply support the cause. Families and friends are using Facebook Stories and tweeting to stay in touch.

Social media has a vital role in not only building relationships and marketing businesses, but also reconnecting people in times of tragedy. Now we need to thank God for the Internet, and social media.

How Facebook users reacted to the Japan earthquake & tsunami (Source:  Mashable)

Today, Groupon offered a deal where customers pay $10 to get $20 worth of food at Nando’s Flame-Grilled Chicken. This deal was a bit more complicated than usual because it consisted of more restrictions in its fine print, including:

Limit 1 per person. Limit 1 per table. Limit 1 per visit. Valid only for location purchased.

However, this fine print wasn’t very clearly explained and there were a few customers that bought more than 1 Groupon (which is the limit in total per person, regardless of locations). “Chris V.” was one of them, and he wanted to clarify the deal by bringing it up on the deal’s discussion board. Below are screenshots of the conversation between Chris and a Groupon customer service representative, Kyle:

Now, you can tell Chris was starting to get frustrated.

…and so was Kyle.

Unfortunately, instead of taking Chris’ honest opinion and constructive criticism as a possibly loyal customer, Kyle seemed to have flipped out a little and showed a little bit of bad attitude. Kyle has basically violated many laws in listening and responding to customers online by:

• implying that the customer was wrong (denying that the Fine Print is not vague);
• making the customer sound stupid (mentioning the fact that if the deal was meant for more than one purchase they would have said that);
• refusing to listen to the customer (asking ‘What’s so confusing about “Limit 1 Per Person”?’);
• belittling the customer with a badly-intended rhetorical question “…does that mean you should be allowed to break the rules?”;
• demonstrating indifference and insensitivity toward the customer’s concern;
• giving an obviously insincere apology by saying “Sorry… but…”; and
• assuming the customer had nothing to lose since he would be able to get a refund anyway.

Of course, Chris was now even more angry.

To my surprise, Kyle seemed to have realized he had probably gone too far; he ended the conversation on a positive but awkward note by blatantly saying something that made him appear to have acknowledged Chris’ points, once again extremely insincerely.

Kyle didn’t even thank Chris for his feedback!

This is the first time that I’ve seen a Groupon representative handle the complaint so unprofessionally. Kyle is probably a new staff member or was just having a bad day. Either way, Kyle should have either taken the conversation offline and dealt with the customer directly (instead of posting on the discussion forum), or at least followed the Social Media Response Model,where Chris would be categorized as a “misguided” customer, and proceeded to fix the facts accordingly–with a positive attitude all the way. It would have helped if Kyle could have at least mentioned something along the lines of “Groupon will look into this technical issue and work on improving it…”

Twitter is big, popular and a revolutionary piece in the social media world. Because of this, many businesses are trying to tap into this little gem to try and enhance their business.

Is Twitter as healthy for your business as it seems? Well, I think it really depends. It’s kind of like trying to lose weight by eating only vegetables and fruits (using Twitter) without exercising (exercising care). You might get some positive results (successfully lost some weight), but often, the results could be the opposite of what you expected (e.g. you get sick because you lack meat and proteins), making the whole situation even worse than before.

Twitter is like that. In fact, it’s the same for any social media tool.

I’d like to illustrate my point by touching on a few examples involving Twitter.

Examples of good use of Twitter?

BakerTweet tells the world when something hot and fresh has just come out of the oven. People love it, and so do the businesses.

Arts organizations use Twitter to sell out tonight’s shows. Again, everyone is happy.

Examples of bad use of Twitter?

Michelle Phan is the #1 most subscribed female guru for beauty and makeup on YouTube. Her talent and passion for makeup and beauty earned her over one million fans, leading her to her recent steep rise to fame and a position to work for Lancome. Unfortunately, she is one public figure who does not know how to maintain a professional image on social media. On Twitter, where she is followed by close to 150,000 fans, she posts all sorts of status updates from her personal life without second thoughts and responds to negative comments in an immature manner. Once, she retweeted a negative comment by a 16-year-old girl, causing a flood of personal attacks and cyberbullying from her fans at the girl, who meant no harm, and public anger from those who were simply disappointed by Michelle’s childish act. Other times, Michelle, being a Christian, has posted religious comments which also raised debates from her fans, as well as posted updates about her dying bunny, which also aroused controversy where many people were questioning her attitude and cruelty for the pet. Her Twitter fiascos have lost her many fans, and many associate her image negatively with Lancome, who she now works for.

Kenneth Cole‘s recent tweet about the events in Cairo also angered the public. Not only did he use poor humour, he tried to promote his brand’s products along with it. Many people were disgusted by the distasteful humour and what appeared to be an unsympathetic attitude.

Even worse: Chrysler‘s Twitter account accidentally dropped the F-Bomb in a recent status update because an employee apparently confused his personal Twitter account with that of the company’s.
Oops.
The public’s reaction? Probably no anger or bitterness which Michlle and Kenneth had to face, but you’ve got to admit that it is quite funny and embarrassing.

The moral of the story?

There really is no black and white, right or wrong answers when it comes to Twitter. Things can go wrong whether you are using Twitter for professional or personal purposes. All that matters is that you watch what you say and be really careful with your choice of words… as you can see from the examples. Twitter isn’t exactly that healthy.

When I first found out about Groupon around one year ago, I was ecstatic. I am one of those people who love bargains and discounts, and are easily tempted by huge discounts such as those offered by Groupon. Needless to say, you can imagine how big of a Groupon fan I am!

Correction: how big of a Groupon fan I used to be…

I used to be one of those people who would get extremely excited every night when the clock was about to hit midnight because that is when Groupon posts their new daily deal everyday. I would literally wait in front of my computer, click “Refresh” on my browser repeatedly at 11:59pm until the new daily deal comes out. Then, I would get all excited about the new deal and start calculating in my head about whether I should purchase it.

Now, I don’t check as often, and even Groupon’s daily emails sent to my inbox are starting to get a little annoying.

• The variety in the type of clients they seem has taken a plunge (it’s always deals for fitness centers, salons, spas, and photography packages now)
• There is an overwhelming number of daily deals instead of one daily deal to look forward to — seems to be an attempt to maximize profits
• The quality of businesses featured is also going down (remote locations or reputation-questionable)
• The quality of the products or services provided has also shown a decline because some businesses are unable to handle the large volume of customers attracted through the deep discounts

In addition to these reasons which I can personally relate to, I also read an interesting article pointing out other reasons why “Investing in Groupon May Be a Bum Deal” after all:

• Business model is not unique, easy to copy and not being improved
• Competition in this industry is rapidly growing (low barriers to entry)
• Personalization of deals is lacking, while other businesses are doing everything they can to fulfill the “individualization” that consumers demand

Groupon is becoming junk food because as their quantity increases, their quality unfortunately seems to be going in the opposite direction.

Groupon: Good or Bad for Business?

I came across an old article the other day: Find a “Tweet” Deal on Advertising

Word of mouth advertising has been one of the most traditional ways of advertising and it has been proven effective for all these years. For example, this summer, all I saw on my twitter homepage was tweets on how good “Inception” is. Normally, I don’t usually go to a movie theatre to watch my movies, but with all the excitement building around me, I was inclined to go see it in a theatre.

Humans have a very special characteristic called curiosity. This is the only reason why our civilization advanced. If you see a crowd circling around something, you would likely want to go check it out and see what’s going on. Because of this curiosity encoded in our DNA, we would like to know what everyone is talking about and find out for ourselves. Twitter happens to be one of the places where many conversations are going on.

According to the article, social media is expected to represent 20% of overall advertising by 2014. I believe that percentage is going to continue to rise and more companies are going to invest more in social media campaigns and handheld marketing because it allows the companies to connect with their customers directly. Our society is adapting quickly to this emerging trend of social media, and it won’t be long when Internet will be offered anywhere, anytime you want for free.

For example, TweetROI, or the pay-per-tweet program, seems to be a good investment. It allows users to tweet ads for businesses, helping businesses advertise with low costs and targeting the right audience.

However, as good as the whole tweeting advertising may sound, I personally still have doubts for the success of the program. It is likely that TweetROI would help increase exposure and traffic to the businesses; however, just like how some consumers prefer not to click on “sponsored ads” versus organic search results on Google, some people would find sponsored ads not as credible and too commercialized. Twitter is supposed to be genuine conversations and sharing. When businesses try too hard to tap into this market to market themselves — it may not work as effectively as they have imagined.

One of the interesting topics touched on in my eMarketing class lectures was how businesses have either positively or negatively tried to have conversations with their customers online.

Having worked in customer service in the banking industry before, I understand the importance of effective communication with your customers. It makes a huge difference when the business actually tries hard to have an actual, sincere conversation with their customers, listen to them and respond to their inquiries in a timely manner.

Although my experience was the traditional form of offline communication — in person or on the phone — the same effort is required online. It is crucial for businesses to be able to create positive experience for customers. This is especially tricky online, especially through social media. Facebook plays a prominent role in helping businesses connect with their customers and has created a good environment to allow businesses to do so. However, many businesses do it poorly.

Again, this goes back to the Shiny Object Syndrome. Many businesses think they “should” or “need” to have a Facebook fan page, just because…
1) everyone else seems to have one
2) it seems to be expected for them to have one
3) …just because.

Yet, not all businesses do it properly. Many businesses create their pages and try to get as many people as possible to “like” their page. They makes a few updates within the first three weeks of launching their page. Then, they abandon it and never really come back to it, or when they do, they never really seem to post anything else or respond to messages that people leave on their wall. I have seen this many, many times and it is always frustrating to me to see this happen. What was the point of creating a page if you aren’t going to use it and let it do what it is supposed to help you do–having conversations with customers?

Fortunately, on the contrary, there are many business who do maintain their page and take Facebook seriously. One example is the Carnival Cruiseline.

Carnival has been able to actively engage first-time cruisers through their Facebook page through providing information, answering questions, and allowing them to see what others are saying on their page. They made efforts to focus on user-generated content (which is appealing to first-time cruisers looking for reviews and advice) and have recognized that social media changes at a pace that many marketers are not used to. For one thing, they started with the right objective: “to better connect with first-time cruisers–people who have never cruised before”. Social media is about interaction and even socializing, which is exactly what cruising is all about. Carnival has successfully taken advantage of this fact and improved their cruising business.

Groupon is the new addictive thing today. I am not sure about you, but I am one of those people who intentionally wait until midnight every day before I go to bed just to find out what the new daily deals are on Groupon. Because Groupon is so successful, many Groupon copycats who follow the exact same concept, format and even Website layout have popped up over the last few months. I thought this copycatting behaviour was never going to end…

…until I learned that Facebook has poked into a whole different type of the Groupon trend: Facebook Deals. Facebook Deals doesn’t work exactly like Groupon; however, it has an even more interesting concept which social shopping sites like Groupon isn’t able to offer: what Elmer Sotto, the head of strategy at Facebook Canada calls “serenpidity”

As opposed to purchasing a Groupon or other vouchers in advance for a business you have to plan to visit at a later time, Facebook deals offers spontaneity. Consumers may just happen to be close by, check Facebook Places, and see a deal they would be interested in that is near by. This leads to a different type of consumer behaviour, such as those who might just think, “well, it’s just one block away, so I might as well go check it out!”

Facebook Deals is going to attract a whole new market of businesses who would prefer this type of tactic to help them increase traffic. Even though traffic and sales aren’t guaranteed as they would be if they had chosen Groupon, at least businesses wouldn’t be incurring potential losses by offering customers deep discounts and paying 50% commission to Groupon (or any other social shopping sites).

Facebook Deals is a clever way for Facebook to take a share of the social-shopping or deal-addictives industry. People are already checking into places for fun. Offering them sweet deals simply for checking in would be a great bonus for the consumers, and also beneficial for businesses who get free marketing that is potentially more effective than online banner or text ads, or even traditional print or media ads.

Why? Well, you would probably agree that it’s always more convincing when your friends are also doing it or have done it. It creates credibility and increases your likelihood of trying the same things they have!

I know we all love shiny things (right?) and we tend to follow whatever seems to be the trend. Well, one of those shiny things is definitely mobile marketing. In fact, smartphones outsold desktops by over 7.9 million units in the last three months of 2010. That’s an 87% growth since last year!

So, there has got to be an appropriate way for us to experiment with that particular shiny thing.

There is a way. In fact, there are multiple ways. Here is a useful piece of advice on 9 Ways to Turn Up the Ringer on Mobile Marketing, answering questions you may have on how to maximize the value of investments on mobile marketing, or the “thrid” screen.

Before jumping into the tactics, a bit of thinking about the type of consumers that are most likely exposed to mobile marketing is essential. First, there were computers, and the computer-illiterate generation. And then there were smartphones, which are even trickier than computers. The screen is much smaller and features are much more complicated, let alone playing with the tricky touch screen…

As you could imagine, those with smartphones are most likely a smart and antsy bunch, demanding speed, access and usefulness through the oh-so-powerful handheld digital devices. They are good with technology, craves for convenience and looks for value in a mobile app (in fact, they would immediately rate it negatively if a mobile app barely provides value). Those consumers are demanding for positive customer experience and have a fairly large amount of power when it comes to sharing their experience.

Keeping that in mind, you would probably find these tips–which I have compiled and added my own thoughts on–helpful when it comes to creating a mobile app for your organization.

Create compelling campaigns
As always, do your research. Search for historical benchmarks on which to base your predictions and expectations and make your forecast. What are consumers looking for? What is the trend with a certain category of mobile app? Are there particular opportunities that you can tap into based on past results?

Require a consumer call-to-action
The whole point of social media is interaction, and there is a reason why interaction has the word “action” in it… that’s right, the best mobile compaigns include a call-to-action, whether it be casting a vote, submitting a review, or replying to a question. Those smart antsy bunch love to share, and enjoy the badge of honour for sharing what they know or are best at. Keep in mind the app should provide two-way communication to avoid dead-ends and allow you to receive feedback from your consumers.

Provide appropriate incentives for participating
Like I mentioned earlier, people enjoy the badge of honour. The reward of participating in these online communities does not necessarily have to be a financial or tangible one (although they are always nice), but most consumers crave for one. Often, it’s the title and recognition — or even the number of Facebook “like’s”! One example that I can think of is Trip Advisor, which indicates the number of contributions a user has made.

Adjust tactics based on campaign performance
Trial and error is inevitable for algebra, learning to bike, and, not surprisingly, even in marketing! The performance of your mobile app needs to be monitored continuously and feedback taken seriously. The most important next step is to be able to respond to issues and solve problems in a flexible and efficient manner.

Target campaigns to audience segments
There is no more one-type-fits-all approach to consumers. This goes back to your research and delicious data for you to narrow down your consumers into groups and coming up with a different focus for each group. The more catered and relevant a message is to a certain group of consumers, the more effective that message would be.

Invite consumers to other channels and media
Link consumers to your organization’s Web page or another interactive feature from the mobile app or even a text message. Lead them to where you would want them to go to increase traffic and awareness.

Integrate with other social media marketing programs
Help consumers connect and share with others. Allow them to voice their opinion on your brand, positive or negative. Provide options to “Facebook share”, “tweet”, or “post” in their blogs. Your consumers would really appreciate this linkage (which is another one of those things almost taken for granted nowadays with the prominent roles that Facebook and Twitter plays in the daily life of consumers).

Integrate with offline marketing campaigns
Not everything needs to be online. Traditional forms of media, such as TV, print ads and mail-home flyers, still work. It only makes sense for you to match your online campaigns with your offline ones to stay consistent in your branding and messages.

Identify and engage top influencers
This is one of the best things with mobile marketing: you can directly identify individual user accounts or their digital devices. Hunt down…okay, well, not really, but find those consumers who are most involved, active and supportive and take advantage of these advocates, or convert them into advocates if they already aren’t.