Seven consumer trends worth embracing
Dianna Mella’s video response to the Budweiser Lyric spot. Everyone wants to participate.
Trying to figure out how to approach your next marketing plan? Where to invest? What media to embrace? How much to move from traditional digital to social? Whether to put more money into search? Welcome to the club. Unfortunately no one can answer all those questions for you in a generic blog post, but here’s the next best thing. Maybe. Some observations about consumers that might help you figure it out.
1. Consumers want more participation and even control
Look no further than video uploads, comments on blogs and the hijacking of brands (MadMen, CocaCola). Consumers want a say and they want to play. They don’t even care if they get paid. (That’s the good news and bad news.) Anyway, what does it suggest? A. Embrace crowdsourcing as a way to engage them. B. Release control of your brand (you can do this). Let consumers run with it. Hey, they might take it somewhere good. C. Seriously consider building more memes into your content.
2. No one wants to do business with a company.
Do you? I don’t. People want to do business with people. Real live honest to goodness people. So what’s a corporation to do? First, learn social media and all of its protocols. It’s not that hard. Second, put a face, not a logo, at the front of the company. Third, give more employees the opportunity to represent your brand. They might do a really good job.
3. Consumers’ relationships with media are more complex than ever
We watch, comment, criticize, socialize and share.
Your customers and prospects are content creators, critics, sharers, and spreaders as well as viewers. Ramifications? Understand how your customers and prospects alike use and interact with media not just a brand. Learn to be as engaging in social media and community as you are on TV. Finally, take your content to your community. They don’t always want to come to your place. Plus it will save you money building another flash heavy website.
4. Everyone’s attention span is shorter
Ready for this? One 15-second pre-roll ad causes 8% of the audience to abandon the clip before it starts. A 30-second pre-roll sends 22% of the audience packing. I read Bob Garfield so I know. Perhaps it’s a good time to focus on relationships not just messages. Messages disappear; relationships last. Also, try standing for something memorable that can be expressed in many different ways. And finally, master search. Organic search especially. You need to be found.
5. Expectations are higher
The power of the Internet gave us control and introduced us to on demand. That resulted in our high expectations for satisfaction and problem resolution offline, too. The brands we engage with better get it. Remember the United guitar story? Even if United was in the right, it didn’t have to happen. Avoid a similar PR fiasco. Give your service people flexibility; let them apply their own judgment. Build better UX into everything, not just websites, everything. And finally, surprise and delight in unexpected ways, particularly when people least expect it.
6. There’s no such thing as perfect. Only perfects.
Nothing you do, say, or create will satisfy everyone. More importantly, the consumer doesn’t know what she wants. Ragu and Prego learned that years ago and the lesson remains relevant. (Watch the video; it’s brilliant.) So, think about enabling customization. Works for Nike. Create content that allows for multiple versions; there are services to help. And constantly invent to see what sticks.
7. The MP3 is good enough
Put another way, there’s a new definition of quality for everything and it’s not about production value, polish, fine-tuning or dropped shadows. Look at YouTube versus television, blogs versus the NY Times, the MP3 versus real audio. The new definition of quality is about content that’s easy, accessible, and portable. You now have the freedom to make things fast. And also inexpensively. Go for it.
Those are the trends (some obvious, hopefully some not) that I see. Got any to add?
Comments
Did you clear the use of Seven as a valid headline number with @amyflanagan? ;) Nice post Edward.
.-= Jim Mitchemu00c2u00b4s last blog ..My Daughter's First Blog Post =-.
Adding to your point number 1: Consumers want to participate and engage with brands. Product innovation is going to happen when companies collaborate with their consumers. Crowdsourcing can provide great ideas that lead to innovating products or services based on consumer needs.
Also the other trend I would add is that social media is changing the very nature of traditional research. Social Media listening tools give us a chance to hear what consumers really think of brands when brands are "not in the room." I think companies can learn a lot about what messages resonate with consumers by "listening" to how consumers talk about them across SM platforms.
.-= Sarah Montagueu00c2u00b4s last blog ..Are you asking a more powerful question? =-.
Sarah:
Agree with crowdsourcing and co-creation as you no doubt know. Also, in the increased use of memes and propagation techniques. Agree that sm is changing research; just didn't think of that as a "consumer" trend. Interestingly, if you ask most of your clients if they have set up robust, personal listening stations to track their own company, competitors, and supplier/distribution, guess what the answer will be?
Sam,
Possibly that's what we all *want* to believe. But it's also possible that it doesn't matter to a consumer. A video, shot on video for cheap, not as beautiful as film, or not edited as smoothly as a great editor might do is often enough to totally engage a consumer. Does it meet your standards or mine? No. But, if it works for the client and it's all that they'll pay for, what are we to do, say no? Convince them they're wrong? Anyway, thank goodness this wasn't an issue when Michelangelo was working or we might have hotel art on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel.
Wow - I'm writing from London and you're up pretty early ;)
UGC has to exist as part of a transmedia approach to any strategy.
The proletarian has the power and exercises this democratically, en masse......That's a good thing undoubtably.
I think this has to be augmented with portable, affordable quality. The sheer exponential growth in choice means popularity will be a function of honesty, accessibility & quality. specific combinations will be tuned to specific audiences.
Sam,
First of all social media doesn't sleep. :-)
Yes on the UGC, crowdsourced component. But we also have to figure out where we should spend out time and money. On polishing and finishing? Especially for something that is short-lived and viewed on a small screen? Or do we put it elsewhere, in inventiveness and frequency of content.
Good post.
Although I don't wholly agree with point 7.
Quality content created by pro's is important. As is the noise reduction of professionals so we can adhere to point 4.
The issue is portability without the sacrifice of functionality whilst maintain the payoff against quality. An mp3 has pretty much the same degree of resolution as definable by the human ear as a real audio....or wav, aiff etc. However given it's size it's more functional.
Interesting. Think about it this way. Steve Jobs is Apple. Branson is Virgin. We feel more connected to the companies because we know the people behind them. Same with Tony Hsieh at Zappos. So, if you have a company or a client, who is the person(s), faces, human voices (not body copy) that bring them to life? We Tweet for lots of clients, Stanley, Panera, GFF, et. al. But we put people and names on Twitter, not logos. Frank has made Comast a little less evil, yes? Your customers want to know the people they are doing business with. Simple enough? Or am I wrong?
From the CEO perspective I follow you. If the co. is blessed enough to have a dynamic and interesting leader, this works. The 3Ms of the world may have to explore other routes to humanize their brand - how many people know George Buckley? Is it wise for 3M to visibly position him out front?
I saw what you do for Panera on Twitter and love it - introducing a single individual who Tweets on behalf of the company, or Frank at Comcast as you mentioned. I see a lot of brands using co-tweet, or something similar, to "empower" a number of contributors to tweet under the same brand. This is where I see it tend to get disconnected.
.-= David Saxeu00c2u00b4s last blog ..Agency New Biz: Just Be Yourselves =-.
David:
Not sure it always has to be the CEO. Could be head of service, or HR, or even an annointed employee whose job it is to get out there and be a cheerleader or catalyst. In the right way of course. I have clients ask all the time, "who should do this?" Often we tell them that we'll do it. But other times we suggest they find the employees in their company who are passionate and set them free. With some guidance, of course.
I love your second point but struggle a bit to make it black and white. Taken in the context of Twitter, I have a brand - a web personality - that's been defined. Maybe that personality is the exact personality of the CEO. I also want to leverage the skills and personalities of others in the organization. Recognizing that, I see that I have 2 choices:
1) Create a single account for my brand - the contributor(s) to that account is either one person (the person with the personality) or a number of people governed by that personality that may or may not be their own. (and "governance" is not a good word to use when asking for social influence contributions)
2) Create multiple accounts held by the individuals you want contributing (e.g. @aprilsweetleaftea, @alexsweetleaftea). Each individual has his or her own personality but are representative of the brand's internal culture - strong statement and vote of confidence in your people.
I lean toward option two but recognize that I'm disconnecting the brand a bit for the sake of humanizing it. I know a lot more about Edward Boches than I know about Mullen, for example, but this could be a good thing. What are your thoughts?
(and thanks for posting the Gladwell video - had never seen it - I'm a little smarter now)
.-= David Saxeu00c2u00b4s last blog ..Social Media: My Job Just Got A Lot More Complicated (IS Conference u00e2u0080u009809) =-.
Edward, I have to compliment you on your writing style. I've read a few articles on your blog now and you have a great approach and provide your information in a clear and concise way. Thanks for providing good information to which I can refer others!
.-= Marianou00c2u00b4s last blog ..Adding Flair to your Site: Private Little Video Studio =-.
Thanks for the concise and thoughtful post. Letting go of our brands does take time, but if we don't, we limit the emotional connection and evolution. I particularly like your first point about humanizing our companies. GM's @gmblogs account has a few Tweeters and we show their photos.
We recently began a blog to highlight the men and women of GM / http://www.facesofGM.com
We know it's easier to dislike "GM" than us as individuals. Our employees have such passion and want to talk about what they're doing to help our customers.
We have an on-line course for employees, a social media 101 type of class, and now we're doing more advanced in-person training -- everyone can tell our story now. Thanks again. I'm going to share this post with my colleagues.
Mary Henige
GM Social Media Communications
@maryhenige
Mary:
Thanks for showing up and for your comments. Agree that GM has tremendous opportunity in this space and has, for years, done some pretty good things. I watched the Chevy Volt fan page grow so quickly after the mileage announcement that it's a reminder of the passion that is out there. Lots that can be done to inspire and mobilize that.
The 15 second ad is way too much before an on-line video. I would look favorable on a NPR style 2 second "support of this content by:" badge. I'm suspicious to start if watching the video on-line will be worth my time in the first place.
.-= Mark Harmelu00c2u00b4s last blog ..donu00e2u0080u0099t bet against jay leno =-.
Nice post, Edward. Regarding your comments on social media, businesses really need to realize its impact on customer relationships. Especially the little guys. Case in point: I recently posted a largely positive review on Yelp for an Atlanta deli. The owner, however, took issue with one trivial comment I made. Instead of taking a constructive approach, she lambasted me for "destroying her reputation." With her tirade now in a public forum for potential customers to see, she's the one who's destroying her reputation. I, certainly, will never be returning. And I have to imagine others will be discouraged by her attitude.
.-= Chrisu00c2u00b4s last blog ..chrisboylescopy: RT @PointToPointInc Using your CEO in your advertising? 10 things to think about http://bit.ly/S8wMb <GM falls under #5, I believe> =-.
Okay, so I'm over-simplifying, but ... once again, it's content.
The Budweiser Lyric spot was/is memorable, engaging, and wonderfully inviting.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dean Oelschig. Dean Oelschig said: RT @edwardboches: Seven consumer trends we should all embrace (along with some ramifications for marketers) new post http://bit.ly/7BPTu [...]
[...] Seven consumer trends worth embracing (tags: trends branding crowdsourcing culture marketing research) [...]
[...] a greater opportunity to humanize our brands now more than ever because we have the tools to do it. Edward Boches, of Mullen, has qualified consumer desires to work with people as a consumer trend worth blogging [...]
[...] as common these days as an email. And guess what? Most consumers and online viewers don’t care. New trends abound. We’re in the midst of “The Good Enough Revolution,” as Wired so aptly labeled the new [...]