Digital CPG Blog

Consumers want ‘free stuff’ from social, marketers think they ‘want to be heard’:

According to the 1,300-plus consumers surveyed online globally, there was found to be an expectation that a brand follow, like, post or preference in a social media environment would enable a person to; be eligible for exclusive offers (67%), have the opportunity to interact with other customers who share the same experiences (60%) and gain access to games or contests (65 %).

When the same question was asked to over 120 CMOs, the results were very different.

The CMOs surveyed believed that social engagement is more of a by-product of quality content, and are less concerned with incentivising loyalty among their followers.   According those surveyed, customers interact with brands because they; want to be heard (41 %) or are looking for news or information about products (40%)

Only 33% believe their fans are looking for incentives or rewards, and only 27% believe customers are seeking special savings or experiences exclusive for followers.

Think Facebook is the be-all-end-all? Think again:

“We call email the original social network because it really is social,” said Tynt CEO Derek Ball. “If you follow the popular media today, you would believe that the world revolves around what they deem social — which means Twitter, Facebook, and other things, which have social components to them.”

Social media is an important marketing platform for sure, he said, but “email is still a very, very critical component and will be for a long time.”

Ball offered data from March 2010 that shows 73% of sharing was happening on email, 25% on Facebook and 2% on Twitter. That has since changed markedly. Now, Facebook represents 69% of sharing and email represents 27%. But Ball said email marketers should not be unnerved.

“This initially sounds ominous,” he said. “This sounds like Facebook is cannibalizing email … [but] sharing as a whole has gone up massively in 18 months … so in fact, sharing via email has gone up a little over 20% in 18 months, so email is continuing to grow. It’s just that Facebook grew faster — much faster.”

Ball offers the following reasons why email maintains an advantage over social.

1. It’s “asynchronous,” meaning time is not necessarily of the essence. A received email waits for the recipient in an in-box.

2. Email is more personal than, say, Facebook or Twitter. Ball referred to them as “broadcast platforms,” while “most of what comes into your email is very personal and tuned to you.”

3. Email is also very trackable, with data on open rates and other behaviors, while it is “infinitely flexible” — there is no need to build a following or “friend” people or join a group.

4. And,  it is “decentralized.” There is no big brother — no one controlling force. Facebook may change a rule and frustrate millions. Email has no rules.

If the brand creates the right experience around the product, it will have the beginnings of a great relationship with mom. Here’s the top 3 CPG brands that understand moms:

1. Johnson and Johnson

For 125 years, Johnson & Johnson has made products that moms trust. But how does it keep itself relevant with today’s mom? It understands that you don’t have to fill your brand messages with content about the brand in order to connect with today’s social mom. Providing a service as it has with these two tools will create a long-term relationship. Its free Text4baby mobile app delivers on-the-go health information for new mothers and the first year of baby’s life. The text messages are timed to the baby’s birth date so the information is always pertinent and right at her fingertips. And for the mom who is a blogger and wants to showcase her favorite charity, J&J has created a simple to use widget that allows her to show her support of multiple non-profit organizations.

2. Gerber

Aren’t we all Gerber babies? Since first launched in 1928, the Gerber baby has been an iconic symbol for healthy babies. To keep up with this generation of babies and their moms, the brand has created numerous mobile apps from the birth app to track sleep, feeding and even a mobile scrapbook to a pregnancy calendar app to track your weight and record appointments. Long known for care and nutrition, Gerber’s Start Healthy, Stay Healthy app is filled with tips, quizzes and information for keeping baby healthy. Gerber really understands moms hunger for content and information, especially when it comes to raising a healthy and happy baby.

3. Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods has so many wonderful applications and tools to offer moms. Who wouldn’t love the My Recipe Box, where the recipes you choose can be exported out into a shopping list and it’s organized by category? A fabulous companion piece to the recipes is its YouTube Cooking School for those who like a tutorial. Kraft is getting very creative by listening to the moms and the Twitter chatter to identify trends and ideas for new products and recently launched a social plug-in called Smiletagging for bookmarking sites that make you smile. It understands moms love a few smiles and a bit of humor to brighten the every day.