Digital CPG Blog

YES!

But they often don’t. Which makes very little sense to me and shows a lack of understanding of the social space. But alas, let’s get to the latest research on the topic:

According to customer experience research company Maritz Research, nearly half of consumers who tweeted a complaint directed toward a brand expected the company to respond—or at least to read their tweet. However, only a third of those consumers received a tweeted response from the mentioned brand.

Consumers ages 55 and older are particularly expectant of a company to read their complaint on Twitter. Gen Y and Gen X consumers, who tend to be more active on Twitter, were less hopeful that a company would read their complaint—perhaps because they believe those expectations will not be met.

Despite the gap between consumer expectations and brand delivery, consumers are overwhelmingly positive when brands take the time to actually respond to them on Twitter. The Maritz study indicates that 86% of Twitter complainers would have liked or loved to hear from the company regarding their complaints—and out of those who heard back, 75% were satisfied with the company’s response.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and you’re all caught up! Last week, we talked about “Social Moms”  and continuing on with that research, let’s discover how much “liking” women do on Facebook:

The research focuses in particular on the consumer-packaged-goods category, based on an analysis of 40 CPG brand pages on Facebook. Women account for 65% of CPG Likes, while they make up 55% of the U.S. Facebook population overall and account for 57% of all Likes. This lends support to the notion that women are more apt to Like a CPG brand than men.

“It is very interesting to note that older women make up a large percent of Likes for CPG brands than for average pages analyzed. My assumption is that older women tend to be the decision makers for CPG products in their family,” wrote Fred Stuk, Vitrue’s analytics manager, in the company’s blog.

Looking at the Facebook audience more broadly, it’s clear that younger users tend to be overrepresented when it comes to Likes. For example, 13-17s account for 29% of Likes generally, although they only make up 6% of the U.S. Facebook population. Similarly, the 18-24 age group is 24% of the Facebook audience, but drives about 38% of Likes. By contrast, the 35-44 bracket makes up 28% of the audience, but only drives 8% of Likes.

“Social moms” (defined as females with at least one child who actively participate in social networking) are quite influential. They’re more likely to do just about everything:

How Social Moms Access Content
The social mom is highly active in accessing social networks via mobile devices. Fifty percent of all moms actively participating in social media access platforms via mobile devices, in comparison to 39 percent of females overall, and 37 percent of the overall population in general.

How Social Moms Shop
Social moms tend to be cost-conscious, being 56 percent more likely to download coupons than the general population. They are also more likely to shop online for CPG products than other product categories, with the research showing that 86 percent are more likely to shop online for cosmetics than the general public, as well as skincare products (85%), hair care goods (74%) and fragrances (68%).

Social Moms: Likes and Dislikes
The growing influence of women and moms is increasingly apparent, and so too is their level of activity in social media. Moms who actively participate in social media are 81 percent more likely to become a fan of or follow a brand online, 86 percent more likely to post a status update, and 84 percent more likely to comment or post content than the general population. The research also shows that social moms definitely aren’t shy in sharing their advice and reviews of products with others. This segment is 85 percent more likely than the general population to share frequent advice about beauty and cosmetic products, 28 percent more likely to provide frequent advice about online shopping/e-commerce and 6% more likely to post a product review online.

Let’s have a bit of fun today and let this infographic take us through the process of social commerce. It’s as easy as 1-2-3-4-5!

On the face of it, f-commerce seems to be taking off, so should brands be launching F-commerce stores? Econsultancy investigates:

Brands use Facebook for two reasons: to reach the widest pool of consumers by going where their customers are congregating; and because of the potential for consumers to share information with each other, effectively marketing the brand to their friends.

So why do consumers use brands on Facebook? Ultimately, they’ll buy from retailers they know and trust. A social media campaign may not yet mean that consumers buy from the brand on Facebook, but if [UK retailer] ASOS is anything to go by, it will influence sales through the brand’s site.

And, after all, isn’t that a better result for the retailer [or manufacturer] who’ll have more control over the buying process?

But f-commerce shouldn’t be simply a replica of an e-commerce experience. Nor should it cannibalise sales from the brand’s website. Facebook can be a great place to trial exclusive or new products, as long as the brand is prepared to listen to feedback and act on it.

I agree with this analysis. As we talked about earlier this week, putting all your eggs in the Facebook basket is dangerous. But Facebook can be an extremely viable piece of your strategy.

For better or for worse?

A comScore analysis of online ad impressions from July shows CPGs have become the heaviest users of “socially enabled” ads that appear on sites outside Facebook but include “visit us on Facebook” or other “Click to Facebook” appeals to get users to brand pages.CPG marketers are 10 times more likely than advertisers to use “socially enabled” ads, which appear outside of Facebook but urge visits to a Facebook site, finds a comScore analysis.

They were 10 times more likely than advertisers generally to use socially-enabled online ads.

“In many ways the fan page is replacing the brand website as the primary destination for outbound marketing online,” said a comScore executive.

The only thing that makes me nervous about this is that it is a short-term strategy. Yes, Facebook is HUGE, but wasn’t MySpace? I worry when marketers spend all their time, energy and money building on one platform only to have it disappear a few years later. ultimately, marketers should have a diversified strategy that always includes their own brand website where they have full control on collecting data and emails.

Seventh Generation has recently launched a loyalty program that takes in to account how people behave on the Internet:

The Seventh Generation Rewards program lets you earn points for taking actions that help your family and the environment!

You can earn points for reading articles about green and healthy living and for telling your friends to join. You’ll also get points for reading articles, watching videos about Seventh Generation products, and for participating in our fun challenges. Click here to participate in our Naturally Bright Ideas challenge and to see other current Reward Points opportunities. You can also donate your points to charity.

We post new points opportunities each month! You can trade in your points for coupons and free products from Seventh Generation and our partners, or you can donate your points to charity. We hope you’ll start earning points today.

People who use coupons aren’t just deal-chasers, they’re your best customers:

According to a new survey of consumers conducted by Forrester Consulting (commissioned by online coupon company WhaleShark Media), active coupon users reported spending more than $800 per year with e-commerce sellers than the less active coupon users ($1,805 vs. $1,025). Moreover, nearly three-quarters of active coupon users said they would be more likely to try a new brand if they had a coupon or promotion code, compared with 54% of less active coupon users.

“[Online coupon use] generates new users and it increases spending,” Cotter Cunningham, CEO of WhaleShark, tells Marketing Daily . “I had this image in my head of the coupon user who buys the most expensive thing they can [with the coupon] … but it clearly isn’t the case.”

In addition, 88% of the respondents said the promo codes and coupons were the deciding factor when it came to making a purchase. The codes and coupon also reduce shopping cart abandonment, with 60% of respondents saying they would be more likely to reconsider buying a product they had placed in an online shopping cart, but had not bought if they received an online coupon or promotion code for that product.

“Consumers seem to be more loyal and have more positive feeling to merchants who [offer] coupons,” Cunningham says. “And if I’m a merchant I would find it exciting.”

Ah, the Brits are selling personalized cans of soup on Facebook – here are the details:

The pop-up store allows Heinz fans (and-only fans) to send personalised ‘get-well’ cans of Heinz soup to friends suffering from post-summer distress disorder – i.e. Autumn colds and chills, for a £1.99 ($3.00) PayPal payment via an store app on the brand’s Facebook page.

The customised cans feature a personal get-well message on the label, via a custom store app on the Heinz fan-page from London-based social media agency We Are Social.

What we really like about this Heinz pop-up fan-store is that it taps into Facebook strengths – gifting – an eminently social activity, and personalisation (although not, in this case, via the social graph). Personalised gifts in Facebook make real sense. Kudos Heinz.

Heinz is emerging as something of a poster-child for f-commerce in FMCG/CPG – earlier in the year it opened a pop-up fan-store in Facebook to support the launch of a new line of ketchup by offering fans exclusive fan-first access to the product before it became available in-store (also by We Are Social). And last month, Heinz ran a social couponing campaign, where the value of the coupon doubled when shared.

We really enjoyed this post from Chris Brogan about some CPG brand’s failed attempts at social media. We’ve pasted one example below, but encourage you to head on over to Brogan’s blog for the full review of CPG brands on Twitter.

There are plenty of abandoned “official” Twitter accounts for food. With the poor quality of these tweets, no wonder someone was discouraged and let this account lie fallow. Dear someone who likes Swanson’s chicken: please go rescue this company’s account and put it to better use.

View all CPG on Twitter examples >