Digital CPG Blog

Market research firm Kline reports adoption of social media marketing by beauty companies is growing, and makers of cosmetics and toiletries grew their viral campaign efforts this past holiday season. Driving the growth in their use of social media is the realization that consumers aren’t always reachable via traditional (and more expensive) channels, like television.

But that doesn’t mean that beauty marketers are moving away from traditional channels. Couponing promotions, for instance, have been popular of late due to a competitive pricing environment. Beyond that, Kline Senior Associate notes, “there is no cookie-cutter approach…and brands are experimenting with what approaches work best with their business model, their consumer base, and the image they want to project.”

But you can definitely use traditional channels like couponing in the social media channel as well. Indeed brands that do both will probably excel in their conversions.

If you’re wondering just how often you can engage with your customers, here’s the latest:

The average news feed post by a Facebook Page receives Likes and comments for 3 hours after being published. To maximize the engagement, impressions, and traffic driven by the news feed, Facebook Page owners should wait at least 3 hours between posts.

This new finding from a study by Facebook Page analytics company EdgeRank Checker could help Page owners avoid cutting short the lifetimes of their posts and overshadowing them with new content. Each Page is different and needs to find its own optimal posting frequency depending on its content and audicence, but no more frequently than every 3 hours is a good general guideline.

Last month after Facebook changed the news feed in September, EdgeRank Checker analyzed 30,000 posts by over 500 Pages with an average fan count of 140,000. The company defines the end of a post’s lifetime as when it receives 10% of the engagement per hour as it did in its most popular hour. It’s important to maximize engagement because this influences the EdgeRank, or news feed visibility of a post and a Page’s future posts. Engagement is also strong indicator that a post is being seen and receiving clicks for Pages looking to drive awareness or traffic.

The study found that the average post lifetime was 3 hours and 7 minutes, while the median post lifetime is 2 hours and 56 minutes. After a post’s death, it only receive a trickle of engagement and there’s little lost by posting again.

Of course, just because you can doesn’t mean you should post every 3 hours. Once to twice a day is plenty! Have you tested when and what to post on your Facebook page?

Businesses are beginning to get in on the Pinterest action, according to AdAge (via), including companies like Time Inc, Nordstrom, Etsy and Land’s End.

But, what’s the appeal? Several factors come into play:

• Traffic. Time Inc’s Real Simple magazine site saw more traffic from Pinterest last October than it did from Facebook.
• Purchases. Brands are counting on Pinterest’s ability to influence purchase decisions. During the holidays Land’s End even kicked off a contest focused on the site called “Pin it to Win it.”
• Engagement. Nordstrom, which created a Pinterest page last March, uses the site as a way to learn about the community and engage with customers.

Pinterest currently has no formal policy regarding business involvement on the site, though it does decry blatant self-promotion. As with the early, pre-business page days of Google+, brands are finding ways to take advantage of what the site has to offer and connect with a well-defined user demographic (Women between the ages of 25 and 44, which comprise 59% of its readership, cites Mashable.).

A post at Read Write Web – How Businesses Are Using Pinterest – lists three ideas for brands considering establishing a presence on the site:

1. Share ideas on how to use a company’s products. Whole Foods is doing this by creating “food porn” inboards that encourage use of its products.
2. Host contests. RWW said Land’s End contest resulted in 10 Pinterest users receiving $250 gift cards for creating “inboards” of their favorite Land’s End products.
3. Make products accessible. Users are posting images of their dream product – perfect last meal, over-the-top wedding or dream vacation – and companies are responding with images of their own.

Have you seen other successful company strategies on Pinterest?

Here’s an interesting report via E-Consultancy regarding Axe and Facebook:

As part of the launch of a new fragrance called Anarchy, Axe is to use Facebook to create a graphic novel that fans will help to write.

A far cry from its usual – and often controversial – creative, the brand is for the first time launching a scent for women as well as men, and hopes that this campaign will appeal to both genders.

The plot will follow the exploits of the ‘Anarchy Girls’ as they unleash chaos around the world. In an interactive twist, fans will be able to direct the characters, plot and outcome of the story.

But appealing to women could be difficult. Axe and its UK counterpart, Lynx, have until now promoted the brands with campaigns agressively targeted at a male demographic.

Not only that, but will this send a confusing message to an already well-defined audience?

David Vinjamuri, author of Accidental Branding and an adjunct professor of marketing at New York University told New York Times that historically a teenage boy would look at Axe’s advertising and see: “the girl that you want and the guy that you are”.

What was brilliant about Axe is they said make the girl hunt you based on your smell.”

However, he warned that when when you start talking to those outside of your core audience, you lose credibility. “The moment you start talking to girls, you lose credibility with teenage boys.”

As a creative idea, Axe’s use of Facebook is interesting. The graphic novel market has been enjoying a renaissance for perhaps the past decade, thanks in large part to Hollywood’s continuing love affair with an array of superhero characters.

Yesterday, we talked about how you should probably be on Pinterest (and we’re featuring it again below!). Today, here are many more places your customers would love to see you:

1. On YouTube As the second largest search engine, YouTube provides moms an easy way to not only search for products, but to also learn how to use them. Create short videos — less than three minutes — that tell moms how to create solutions with your product. Use mom vloggers or mom employees to produce videos in order to create a relevant connection with the female audience.

7. On iTunes More and more moms are listening to podcasts. It’s easy and inexpensive to create a podcast for your brand. Consider what solutions you can offer mom and pull up a microphone. For example, if you are a car company, create product podcasts on travel ideas or destinations for families. If you are a food brand, consider a cooking podcast. If you can’t find a radio guru in your hallways, think about contracting with a mom podcaster to host your show for you.

“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!

The last few years have witnessed manufacturers of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) embrace social media with great enthusiasm. When it comes to social media, industry giants like Kraft and P&G have adapted rather impressively, having not just a Twitter or Facebook presence, but also putting immense efforts at being the ‘customer’s brand.’ Let us look at some reasons why CPG brands should give social media marketing its due importance:

• Of the total companies surveyed (The Shopper Technology Institute Study) 76% said that the budget for social media has increased in 2011 compared to the previous year.
• The survey confirms that consumers are willing to connect with brands via social media; although this is mainly influenced by the degree of emotional connection they have with the brand. For manufacturers of consumer packaged goods, this translates into an opportunity waiting to be explored.
• The most commonly used networking channels by CPG brands are Twitter and Facebook. For the 11% that don’t use either one, we recommend they start doing so, considering the fact that Facebook and Twitter are two channels where they are most likely to find their target audiences.
• A joint-study, conducted over a two year period bycomScore and dunhumbyUSA, found a median 21% in-store sales increase among shoppers who had been exposed to online ads for CPG brands compared to those who had not seen them. Almost one-quarter of campaigns received a boost of +40%.; a good reason for CPG manufactures to further increase focus on their online promotional strategies.
• According to eMarketer, 2011 is likely to witness 35% increase in online CPG advertising. Although the growth will slow, consumer products are likely to have as much as 10% of the total ad spending by 2015.

P&G’s re-entry into e-commerce via Facebook indicates just how crucial social media is becoming to CPG brands. The company recently added “Shop Now” buttons to the Facebook fan pages for several of its brands including Gillette, Olay and Tide. The global giant is one of the many CPG companies that are exploring the concept ‘e-tailing’ with renewed interest and are talking internet marketing more seriously than ever before. Considering the fact that the modern consumer is willing to make purchases online, the recent upsurge in social media activity by CPG brands isn’t surprising at all.

We’ll share some more info in tomorrow’s post about how to connect successfully with your CPG customers on social media.

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.

The Don’ts

• The @SwansonChicken Account: A definite fit into the ‘don’t’ slot, Campbell Soups’ @SwansonChicken account is updated a tad infrequently than their fans would like. With less than 2,500 followers, the CPG behemoth is an example of how infrequent activity can impact the followers count.
• Where’s my Balsamic Ketchup? Heinz’s Facebook page recently promised fans that they could buy their limited edition Tomato Ketchup with balsamic vinegar, only to inform annoyed customers who had trouble purchasing, that they were experiencing “technical difficulties” with the Balsamic Ketchup tab. This was soon followed by several posts, where the complaints ranged from “Fix that tab! I got fries waiting!” to “How do you get the Balsamic Ketchup you promised on the 14th?” The food conglomerate has assured fans that they would soon fix the glitch. What can the others in the industry learn from this? Fans have little patience; therefore, it would be a good idea to perfect those social media pages and test them before going ahead with promotional announcements.
• Spamming the Ragu Sauce Way: This is clearly an example of what a combination too many tweets with irrelevant content can do to a company’s reputation. While the @Ragusauce twitter handle is frequently updated, a closer look reveals that the posts aren’t the best example of appropriate content. Spamming your followers sure is a ‘don’t’.

The Dos

• Do it Like Old Spice: Previously, Old Spice was known as the brand used by “grandpa”. P&G aimed to change this; and that’s exactly what they did by roping in the hunky, towel-clad Isaiah Mustafa to market Old Spice to the younger demographic. The YouTube videos that were aired were not just a massive hit, but also successfully changed the brand’s image by using the tagline “The man your man could smell like.” For older brands aiming their products at younger audiences, we say ‘Do it the Old Spice Way’.
• Learning from Little Debbie: CPG brands have a lot to learn from American snack cake brand, Little Debbie, which comes across as one of the most human accounts on Twitter. The @LittleDebbie handle features tweets that give the impression that the person handling the account really cares.

(via)

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