Digital CPG Blog

“I pinned it.” Chances are if you are a mom you have heard this phrase in reference to Pinterest, a self-expression engine powered by its users. Members post images to the site that inspire them, as well as create and share collections across endless categories. The social-sharing site then collects the images, or pins, on “boards” that other users can follow and comment on. For example, a search for “playtime ideas” results in pages of pins including 101 things to do with your toddler to DIY craft ideas.

“Love it [Pinterest]! There are tons of pictures of anything and everything. I love daydreaming about future houses, finding new recipes (and trying them out), finding craft projects, finding school projects (we homeschool).”

From emotive aspiration to functional inspiration, Pinterest empowers moms with their user-generated content by saving them time, money and hassle—all commodities that mothers run scarce on. According to Comscore, there was an 1100% increase in unique mom visitors to Pinterest from May to October, 2011. On top of which, moms spend an average of 13.7 minutes per visit.

Tapping into our social listening dashboard and online communities, we discovered what moms really think about Pinterest…and it seemed that the site was all the rage among moms as a source for ideas, ideas and more ideas.

So, is your brand on Pinterest? It probably should be!

Mobile commerce sales will reach $6.7 billion this year. Wowsa!

If 2011 was a year of apps, commerce and analytics, what does 2012 have in store for mobile marketing? Here are five trends:

1. Your Site, App And Brand Will Be Mobile-ized

Half of all mobile phones currently sold are smartphones. By the end of 2012, we may see eight of every 10 phones sold being a smartphone.

To keep up with the growing market, mobile-optimized content becomes the standard.

Brands will also move rapidly to deploy “tablet-specific” applications that better utilize the form. In 2012, app mania will be as much about tablet apps as 2011 has been about smartphone apps.

2. More Attention – and Dollars – Shift To Mobile

A recent eMarketer CMO survey revealed that more than 80% of all CMOs are prioritizing digital — and specifically, mobile — as two areas of focus for 2012 and moving forward.

3. You Will Buy More Stuff Via Mobile (and Social)

According to new research from comScore, 38% of smartphone owners have used their phone to make a purchase at least once. While digital content purchases like music, ebooks and TV episodes were the most popular items bought in September, clothing, accessories and event tickets were also purchased. There’s a place in the mobile commerce sphere for retailers across all verticals.

4. App Mania Continues — But More Meaningful Ones

In 2012, branded apps will be more about loyalty and commerce and less about awareness and engagement. They will deliver value. They may provide special deals or coupons or exclusive content, but they will be stickier and more meaningful.

5. Marksmanship Marketing: Segmentation, Targeting And Optimization

Insights will allow marketers to create personal level profiles for mobile users, tracking attributes and insights into mobile customer behaviors both within the mobile channel and in relation to a brand’s other digital properties. It will also mean more personalization in terms of advertising and content, and exciting new possibilities with geolocation.

Yesterday, we discussed how CPG brands are winning! with social media. Here’s how you can connect with your social media fans and keep your streak going:

• Social Couponing is Highly Effective: One of the major reasons why people visit a brand’s social media webpage is for discounts and coupons. By offering discounts and giving away coupons, brands a) make their customers feel valued and b) give them a good reason to revisit their webpages. Although some brands are worried that coupons may reduce the premium value of the brand, most agree that social couponing offers unique benefits, one of them being building a loyal customer base. According to a survey from Ipsos Marketing, Consumer Goods, the second most important reason why people visited a CPG brand’s website is to obtain coupons. This explains why the likes of General Mills and Unilever, after partnering with Groupon, have had a solid customer base and a loyal fan following.
• Being Best Friends: It is every CPG brand’s wish to be best friends with their customers. Although coupons and discounts contribute towards making the social consumer feel special, moving up the relationship ladder is all about being available when they have something to say. An overload of sales talk won’t solve your customer’s problems; being best friends is all about listening and responding. Listening in and engaging with your customers online shows that they are important to you and you care enough to be there to soak in the suggestions, act upon complaints and interact with them.
• Going That Extra Mile: When the packaged goods industry ventured into the world of online marketing, it was all about creating interesting online promotional material, offering the occassional discounts and resolving customer complaints when required. This, however, is slowly changing. There are those companies that monitor conversations pertaining to their brands and meet customers’ needs as they arise; and then there are the others that go the extra mile to give their customers much more than they have asked for. General Mills, which has a well connected online customer base, is one such brand.
• Besides marketing their regular range of baked products online, the company also offers gluten-free products aimed at 2% of the population with Celiac disease as well as the additional 10% interested in avoiding gluten, a demographic that was otherwise dismissed as too small and insignificant to target profitably. When the word about General Mills’ gluten-free range was out in 2009, the news spread like wildfire across Twitter and Facebook. Now that’s what we call making customers feel valued!

We’ll finish up the CPG and social media week with do’s and don’ts from real campaigns tomorrow.

It’s been awhile since we featured an infographic. Here’s one on social media based on AdAge data:

• Auto-posting to Facebook decreases likes and comments by 70%
• B2C Facebook results go up by 30% on Sundays
• 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter and 20% have closed deals using Twitter
• 55% of people access Twitter via their mobiles
• 40% of bloggers consider themselves professionals
• 56% of college students said that if they were offered a job by a company that banned social media use, they’d turn it down

We all understand that in order to effectively market products to consumers you need to have a good understanding of the attitude and behaviour patterns of your target audience. Psychologists have defined six universal traits that have been seen in shoppers and are now being seen in social commerce.

• Social Proof: 81% of customers reach out to friends and family members on social networking sites for advice before purchasing products
• Authority: 77% of online shoppers use reviews to make purchase decisions
• Scarcity: 77% of people like getting exclusive offers that they can redeem via Facebook. We assign more value to products that are less available
• Like: 50% of shoppers have made a purchase based on the recommendation of the people they follow(and like) on social networks. We follow those we like and do the things they do
• Consistency: Purchases made from the brands we trust reinforce our future shopping patterns
• Reciprocity: We have an innate desire to repay favors in order to maintain social fairness, whether those favors are invited or not

(via).

Research shows that getting consumers to like a fan page has some positive effect on conversion rates. In fact, where commerce is concerned, Facebook could replace the thumbs up icon with a foot – as in “foot in the door” – because that’s what brands are getting with the like. It’s a social gesture that potentially manifests in the consistency rule kicking in (yes, pun intended).

Social commerce platform provider 8thBridge wondered just what effect the “like” had on purchase behavior, so the company conducted a survey to find out.

The above graphs are what they found.

Do you encourage “small steps, big steps ” approach in your strategy?

“If we ever move, it had better be to someplace with good grocery delivery, because I’m not sure I can live without online ordering!”—a mom

Here are some of our favorite rituals of the online mom shopper:

1. She’s shopping around, because she knows that options are only a click away. A full three-quarters of moms shopped online in the past 30 days and half would do all of their shopping  online. That’s a lot of online shopping! She’s using a variety of tools and services to get the job done: 53% of moms use expert parent sites to get product recommendations and 48% use retailer websites. One mom told us: “I was in the Babies R Us store in the gates aisle and I went on my phone to the BRU website and ordered the gate online, with the “ship-to-store” option, so that I could pick it up while I was at the store. I saved $10!”

Action: Execute complementary digital, mobile, and in-store programs that leverage each medium’s ability to support moms’ needs and behaviors.

2. She’s shopping as a sport, promoting savings to build social currency and seeking discounts and deals before buying items big or small. She uses coupons, barcode scanners, QR codes, and buying services to compete—84% agree with the statement: “When I save money on a shopping trip by using coupons, sales or other deals, I feel like I won.”

Action: Give mom offers at unexpected times and in new places. Enable her to share with others and reward her efforts to create loyalty.

3. She’s reading the labels and is willing to make trade-offs based on price, effort and availability; but she won’t skimp on safety. More than half prefer purchasing organic or natural alternatives when shopping for groceries. Case in point? This mom says: “I will spend a little more at the farmer’s market or Trader Joe’s, because I know I am supporting something I love and believe in.”

Action: Detail Dr. Mom with info & ingredients; educate her on causes in support of children’s health and safety.

4. She’s demanding convenience, rewarding brands that simplify her life and will pay more to make her life easier. Thirty-eight percent would pay for online shipping to save time, and 35% of moms agree that simplicity, multiuse, and convenience are the biggest priorities in the technologies she buys. One of our moms hasn’t shopped in a physical store at Christmas in 10 years: “Let’s put it this way, I recycle A LOT of cardboard!”

Action: Demonstrate that you get her needs by focusing on convenience, ease of use and saving time.

How can you put these steps into action for your brand?

Let’s take a quick trip to Sweden to get some digital marketing inspiration. I am loving the concept and think it would be a great way to engage blog communities.

To seed buzz and demand for the opening of a new online store, Swedish interior design retailer Lagerhaus (no they don’t sell lager) has implemented an interesting variation on the online pop-up fan-shop trend.

Rather than take the traditional route of opening a temporary pop-up shop on their Facebook page, as Oscar La Renta, Burberry, Chanel, Joop!, Electronic Arts, Heinz, and others have done, Lagerhaus created a distributed pop-up shop widget for blogs – and invited leading popular interior design blogs to embed the widget on their blogs and customise it with their favourite products (see campaign video below).

…what’s smart about this alternative blog-based pop-up shop campaign is the extra reach and credibility they have.  By embedding the pop-up shop on popular blogs, more people are more likely to see it – than on a brand’s Facebook page, and it will have  implicit, if not explicit, third-party endorsement from the blogger hosting the pop-up shop.  It’s social proof, baby.

CPG’s core demographic – the young mom – is usually a very active blogger, and this seems like a no-brainer to try back here in the States. What do you think?

Need a primer on social commerce or just a break from work today? Look no farther:

“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.