Digital CPG Blog

Photo Credit: Lululemon.

Online video continues to explode, and guess who has lit the fire? Women aged 25-44 are a major force behind the rapid adoption, according to Nielsen who worked with TODAYshow.com to “delve into the motivations and mindsets driving women’s video consumption.

Four key themes stood out:

• Streaming among women is governed in large part by life stage and daily to-do lists, rather than age or employment status.
• Digital mindsets change over the course of the day and vary according to time, mood, location and “available mindshare.”
• The value of video as “social currency” is on the rise, leading some women to largely favor links suggested by friends.
• Emotional triggers impact viewing, specifically the types of content consumed.

So if you’re looking for a cutting-edge campaign to connect with your target demographic of women, consider perhaps, creating online video content. It could be a relevant series to your brand, or even a commercial, since online advertising is often seen as entertainment itself.

“E-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2010 accounted for 4 percent of total retail sales, according to a Census Bureau report released on Friday,” reports the New York Times. That’s a record share of retail sales, but it’s still a small percentage. Will Cyber Monday ever effectively compete with Black Friday?

This week, you will probably see those with whom you have strong emotional bonds for Thanksgiving. And the most influential word-of-mouth effects arise when people tied together by those bonds share and spread a message.

“You will naturally listen more to recommendations and opinions from your family and close friends than from people you do not know. This insight was strengthened by a Harvard Business Review study showing that out of the famous ‘Six degrees of separation,’ only the first three degrees of social connectedness actually have impact on people’s behaviour and opinions,” reports the Word of Mouth newsletter.

But there is also a gray area, and this loophole helps to explain the influence of bloggers:

“The grey area I am referring to holds the people you know well but don’t have truly close emotional ties with. That guy you went to school with and you now meet from time to time through common friends but that you never really hang out with, would qualify as such a ‘grey area connection.’ Beyond the grey area, you have people you do not know as well, and they may actually be more influential than your grey area connections. I recently found a post over at PsyBlog that made me think that this may be the case. PsyBlog lists a number of studies showing that the better you get to know people, the less you seem to like them.”

Bloggers and other social media influencers build relationships with followers without letting them get too close, argue the authors.

What do you think? Do you buy this line of thought? I think it’s more probable that followers perceive that they do actually have a relationship with the influencer. The influencer wouldn’t define it as such, but the follower feels very connected, thus willing to follow in the influencer’s footsteps.

We talked about the rise of mobile yesterday and today’s research reveals that social networking is more popular than voice or SMS (texting) on those phones. Or at least will be in five years, reports Read Write Web.

“When examined individually, traditional forms of communication still appeared to be at the top of the list. The operators said that 87% would use messaging (SMS/MMS) and 81% would use voice. However, when all the social networking options were combined, they totaled 94%, thus becoming the new majority.”

The study reported that social networking “wouldn’t just be the most heavily used service among applications, it would be the ‘most important form of communication,’ too.”

For brand marketers, it will become increasingly important to integrate mobile campaigns with existing social networks and apps. I think it will be interesting to see if brands go to where the customers are (Facebook, Foursquare) or build their own social network apps to talk with customers. Especially with social networks like Facebook introducing – and potentially dominating – new forms of communication like Facebook Mail (a potential email killer for younger generations), brands will need to quickly adapt how they communicate with the consumer.

With so many channels, can a cohesive result be achieved? Which strategy do you think would be more successful?

Targeted messaging at the point of purchase is becoming easier with the increased use of mobile.

“PepsiCo, Tyson and Seventh Generation are among the major companies teaming up with the likes of Foursquare, Gowalla and CheckPoints, promoting programs that reward consumers for picking up products and giving them added incentives to put that product in their cart,” reports AdAge.

“Through the end of the year, customers earn virtual Tazo bottles for checking in at any Whole Foods, as well as the chance to win a gift card. A week into the Whole Foods program, more than 1,000 virtual Tazo bottles had been collected, according to a spokeswoman. Meanwhile, through Dec. 29, consumers can check in at one of 643 Hess gas stations via Foursquare to get a Brisk and Frito-Lay product combo for $1.99. Via the program, consumers are also entered into a sweepstakes to win free gas and free Brisk iced tea for a year.”

“Tristan Walker, director-business development at Foursquare, said the PepsiCo-Hess promotion is one of the first cases of a CPG company working directly with a retailer to drive in-store purchases. And he expects there will be many more programs like it. Asked whether Foursquare would be doing more such deals, Mr. Walker said, ‘Yes. Stay tuned. We have big plans for CPG.’”

There have been a lot of privacy concerns with location-based apps, however, so it will be interesting to see if consumers find it valuable enough to reveal their location to reap whatever incentive is offered. Location-based apps only work if a majority of a group is on them, and so far, Foursquare and Gowalla haven’t been able to reach a critical mass. With Facebook joining the location games, however, an integrated campaign could make location-based check-ins the hot ticket.

Brands are increasingly incentivizing consumers to “like” them on Facebook.

Brandweek reports that marketers are trying a new approach “when it comes to winning followers: Online coupons and incentives that grow in value as more consumers “like” a brand on Facebook.”

Take Healthy Choice which offered deep discounts to become a fan and stay a fan.

“Users who ‘liked’ the brand received a coupon for 75 cents off their next Healthy Choice purchase. ConAgra then coaxed more consumers to join its Facebook page by dangling a ‘buy one, get one free’ coupon offer. Within 25 hours after launching the promotion, the Healthy Choice Facebook fan base nearly tripled and it ‘continues to grow,’ the company said. (It currently has 53,000 fans.)”

Healthy Choice explains their reasoning in part for wanting so many friends was to “to engage with the [target consumer—mom] and truly start a dialogue about how Healthy Choice is a great value for the money.” Although I’m not sure how they’re actually capturing and using that data on a social network platform.

It’s great to be where your customers are, but brands should be careful they’re not offering deals just for inflated (friendship) numbers.

The recession was good for one industry – coupon clipping. And while the newspaper industry can thank the deals for holding off their eventual defeat, the part of the industry that is really seeing growth in coupons is the digital side.

“Newspaper inserts still prevail,” reports AdAge, “but as a younger generation gets hooked on print coupons, they’ll likely be ones that arrive in the mail or from their own printers. And that doesn’t even factor in the harder-to-quantify growth of mobile coupons, which don’t go through clearinghouses.”

And that means there’s a lot of opportunity for internet coupons, which still only account for 1% of the distribution.

“I think we’re seeing this whole recession really helped us pick up those millennials who were not as focused on money management and savings and now have entered the marketplace with a real savings mentality,” said Suzie Brown, chief marketing officer of Valassis.

How is your brand responding? Will you offer deep discounts to lure Gen Y attention and loyalty?

Have you bought anything online without reading the product review first? Chances are, no. We love seeing what our fellow strangers think on just about everything and trust their opinion.

New research from eMarketer says that 92% of internet users read product reviews, and retailers are responding with over 80% of retailers planning to feature them by the end of 2010. And not only are shoppers reading reviews, but they’re spending a lot of time with them:

• 64% of shoppers took 10 minutes or more to read reviews, vs. 50% in 2007.
• 33% took a half hour or more to read reviews, vs. 18% in 2007.
• 39% read eight or more reviews before buying, vs. 22% in 2007.
• 12% read 16 or more reviews before buying, vs. 5% in 2007

Never fear though. Consumers are realistic about the validity of product reviews. Some 57% of shoppers trust customer reviews but place them in a supportive role to other information sources. Another 35% of respondents expressed mixed feelings by indicating that customer reviews are interesting but sometimes questionable in their authenticity.

Photo Credit: James Vaughan.

Mom is shopping for just about everybody this holiday season, but it’s not always easy figuring out what to buy. Brands “should note that this gift idea quandary is solved by websites and blogs, with 71% of Moms relying on websites and 62% using blogs to find the “perfect” gift. If your product or brand is unique and fits the “in-laws” demographic, reach out to top bloggers and websites with a sample of your product. Many bloggers publish gift guides or suggested gift lists. Remember to seek out bloggers who have a popular social media presence, as almost 70% of Moms will look for product reviews on Facebook or LinkedIn,” reports BSM Media.

Other key findings;

- A whopping 90% of Moms have not started shopping for holiday gifts, or have only picked up a few things. Almost 40% indicated that they would shop after Halloween and on Black Friday, which means there is still time to place ads, recruit bloggers for product reviews or schedule a Twitter party.

- An overwhelming majority of moms in our survey are planning to buy online. An even 66% of Moms surveyed said they plan on purchasing more than half of their gift items through online retailers, with Amazon and eBay leading the list.

- Presents aren’t the only items on Mom’s Holiday Shopping List. Don’t forget the holiday dinners, office parties and get-togethers. Food retailers should take note that the majority of Moms will try a new product when offered a coupon. Fifty-six percent of Moms would “always” try a new product with a coupon and 40.9% would “sometimes” try a new product when enticed with a coupon.

Is your brand approaching moms this holiday season?

On Monday, we talked about how word-of-mouth is primarily still an offline phenomenon. But one thing still spreads far and wide online, and that’s bad customer service experiences.

“The Customer Experience Impact 2010 report reveals that 82% of consumers in the U.S. said they’ve stopped doing business with a company due to a poor customer service experience,” reports Tech Crunch. “Of consumers who took to social media sites including Facebook and Twitter to publicly air a complaint, 58% expected a response from the company, 42% expected a response from a company within a day, but only 22% said they’d actually gotten a response as a result of griping there.”

And expecting to receive great customer service online is only a growing trend: “In 2007, 60% of U.S. consumers said when they had a negative customer experience, they wanted to speak to a live agent about it. At that time, 26% preferred email, 5% chat, but Facebook and Twitter weren’t used by corporations to handle complaints and resolve problems. This year, 83% of U.S. consumers said they wanted to speak to a live agent, 66% preferred email, 12% chat, and 7% choose social networking sites when trying to resolve a problem.”

Do you have a presence on social media that is consistent and helpful? If not, how will you ensure your customers are being heard?