Recession-Busting Top 10

The various ‘war/s on terror’ of recent times have almost conditioned us to fear - a type of addiction. The dictum, 'be alert but not alarmed' usually meant 'look over your shoulder at all times’. That appetite continues to be satiated by media but now, with a new fixation on the GFC (Global Financial Crisis).

Going against the tide, as I like to do, it's fascinating to analyse the media because it raises the question of how to create antidotes to such things as the GFC. This has been the topic of discussion of clients lately with many themes emerging from the media we analyse. Here is a summary of my broader research and also some of the ideas coming from conferences. These are blended into my top 10 Recession-Busting ideas below:

1. Humour brings relief – good playwrights understand that humour is the best relief to tragedy. Having fun works similarly.

2. Familiarity and safety – the human instinct to retreat and cocoon oneself is foremost in many minds right now. Stay-at-home is the new going out. Be sure to synch that within a context of comfort.

3. Trustworthiness – consumers and the media are now ultra-sensitive to rip-offs or inequities. Note the important role of CSR here.

4. Value focus – expect that consumers will shamelessly price-shop, so be the consumer champion and demonstrate value in your offering. New pricing options can help by giving back a sense of control to the consumer.

5. Rally for the Underdog – perhaps it's our convict heritage but Australians like to support the underdog and media love to use leverage on that concept. Ensure your brand truly respects this and doesn’t create underdogs! (Monitor service and satisfaction closely).

6. Be Genuine – more than doing what you say you will, being genuine also brings in authenticity. And that is also about heritage.

7. Continue CSR activity – when done well, it can tick many of the boxes above and recent US surveys show customer expectations of companies acting responsibly are not much lower in an economic downturn.

8. Use Research & Analysis – to set and refine your approach. A key step is linking your communications to your brand using metrics. Adding diagnostics at each step helps answer the ‘why’ (see more below).

9. The Opiates – analysis of past recessions suggests gambling, alcohol and tobacco benefit from recessions but perhaps this just highlights the human need for escape into a different world that has a few little ‘luxuries’.

10. Thought Leadership – lead and inspire, it is what everyone needs but few provide.

It is no mistake that most of the above are emotional in nature. Skillfully addressing attitudes and emotions is almost always more effective at driving purchase behaviour than rational arguments.

Look forward to any comments.

Show me value!

A colleague called recently preparing for a conference. They were seeking thoughts on measurement of Social Media and were disappointed to find no decent research available, particularly on the link between SM and business results.

We started chatting through some classic consumer behaviour theory and how influence models work, when a simpler approach struck me. At the time, I also had in mind an article from the AFR describing an advertiser building an engagement index rating their viewers. Guess what they learnt? Programs that rated low in volume can be high in engagement. The argument is, presumably, such shows COULD therefore be more effective for advertisers. Conspicuous by its absence was any discussion on how they prove those shows ARE more effective!

Where’s the Value?

In this economic climate, marketers are chasing how to create value for their customers. Then they want to get there by doing more with less. But if we don’t define value then how can you recognize it? Or measure how much you find? And was it worth the cost or effort anyway?

No surprise then that nearly half of senior marketers in a recent survey wanted media agencies to improve their measurement of campaigns. The survey was taken in Dec/Jan of clients from several media agencies. So the rationale is obvious.

A Simpler Approach

A simple bit of structure here goes a long way. In a few steps we can capture at a macro level the critical steps that create value:

1. Planning - Research and understand your target audience segments

2. Communications Activities – supporting and supported by good marketing activity

3. People Outcomes – what effect the activity had on people’s thoughts (cognition)

4. Business Outcomes – what tangible business benefit results? Eg. Sales, Share price gain

Most of the C-Suite (eg.CEO) people are keenly interested in tracking step 4. But how many of them have metrics for the other steps? Without knowing exactly what has occurred in step 2 and 3, there are no diagnostics of this ‘Value Chain’. If results didn’t meet expectations no one knows why or what to do differently next time.

With so much advertiser effort focused on tiny parts of step 2, how do they actually learn if and where anything went wrong?

So, whilst marcoms activity can create value it may not. Even if it does create value you need to be able to show it. The further down the Value Chain you can show it the greater business success you should have.

I look forward to your comments on the above.

Good 'ol Fashion Word of Mouth

With the bombardment of some 400-600 advertising messages per day, consumer cynicism is easy to understand. As people seek more credible opinion they turn to Social Networks, according to Damien Arthur of University of Adelaide. In a recent presentation, he quotes research which suggests the number of consumers influenced by WOM is nearly 5 times higher than that for advertising for new car purchases (71% vs. 17% respectively).

The simple but research-proven rationale for this: the motivation for WOM is about boosting status in the eyes of peers. Good advice boosts status and bad advice reduces it.

His Australian research suggests three states for WOM: Seeking opinion, Receiving opinion actively and Observing opinion passively. When others follow, the peer status of an opinion leader improves. So a key goal is to harness those opinion leaders but this is not easy.

From a communications point of view, the research confirmed what many suspected: WOM that pans is more powerful than WOM that praises. This is because more people are told and the advice is weighed more heavily from friends. That result underscores the nature of WOM as a conversation. It also implies before engaging ensure you have listened and understood where and how you can add value with your communications. Whilst few maybe speaking on a site, thousands are watching.

Some really interesting International research is emerging around how to effectively harness social networks. For instance, this study profiles LinkedIn users. And this post from Marketing Profs covers ROI of Social Media in a very pragmatic way.

A really big picture context for Communications Professionals comes from this lecture to the US Institute for PR by Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP. Download it here. Even if you only read the first few pages, this is truly inspirational.

Advertising on PR turf?

I was fascinated to read some takeouts of the World Advertising Research Center conference. The context was set as ‘people power, participation and the herd effect’. The conference particularly highlighted the growth of Word of Mouth (WOM) and Consumer Generated Media (CGM). Whilst the investment in these new media is yet to make much of a splash next to advertising, the ad industry does recognise its role is changing.

They see themselves moving away from ending conversations and towards starting them. But isn’t this what PR has been doing forever? So whats stopping PR Professionals taking ownership of these media?

The conference made an important distinction between types communications assets such that relevant measurement could be applied. The suggested asset types were:

• Rented – Advertising
• Earned – WOM, Reputation
• Owned – Instore, installed base

The point was made that clients can achieve stand-out by focusing spend on the last two and leverage their existing advantages in these. My interpretation of this is:

• Earned – encourage/support customer discussion. Something PR excels at, particularly via third party endorsement.
• Owned - seen through usage (installed base) and/or in-store. This is what ‘buzz’ PR is so good at creating.

With advertisers and PR professionals both playing on the same communications oval, I find it curious to reflect on how well they are actually playing to their strengths...and for the team!

Read more here

Forget Reach & Frequency, Trust is now king

Many people are still wondering about the role of social media. Some are even still wondering what it is (see my various links at right for examples). Well, it isn’t just a youth channel anymore - I saw a recent statistic that half of Australians are involved in some form of social media network. It is evolving organically and fairly quickly probably driven by a variety of forces:

• A need to return to old fashioned values of trust and genuineness – Word-of-Mouth satisfies that need
• A closed door creates interest – the curiosity of online users
• Steadily growing online popularity for search, purchase, gaming, relationships
• Massive amounts of US Venture Capital directed to various Web 2.0 ‘bets’.

It is logical to suggest that these forces should be driving a similar increase in corporate engagement of social media.

Yet many companies struggle to understand the context and implications of it. Perhaps this is because their more traditional management structures typically act to limit curiosity. It seems from some reading on this point that Australian companies are well behind their US counterparts in creating social media comms teams to embrace the shift.

Unlike advertising, it's not really necessary for a publicity campaign to reach everyone. Forget reach and frequency. Think credibility and trust. When you can convince a handful of influential people, you can count on word-of-mouth to fill in the cracks and carry your message to the rest of the market.

As Einstein said,

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Evolution not Revolution

Welcome to my inaugural blog. Having found this probably means you are somehow connected to the communications profession. You probably also have an interest in measuring, proving or improving your world. Well I hope this blog series satiates your needs but please post here either way and I will adjust accordingly.

One of the fundamental tenants I want to start with is the concept of change. Working with Microsoft in the ‘90’s taught me a big lesson about that: Perhaps the best way to manage change was to create it! No point being worried or ignoring it, communications is changing and evolving around us with: new tools, new approaches and, compressed timeframes.
So, three questions come to mind:

• How do communications professionals best respond to change?
• What do customers now seek and how different is it to what they wanted before?
• How do we find opportunities created by this new context?

I hope to explore these themes over the next few posts but until then, all thoughts welcome!