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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

Chief Marketing Officers Admit Confusion and Concerns

graphChief Marketing Officers surveyed by Aprimo and Argyle Executive Forum at an Argyle event in New York City in April 2010 admitted to their current concerns and confusion, particularly related to calculating return on investment and integrating marketing efforts.

According to the survey, Chief Marketing Officers cited the following as elements that are “most broken in marketing”:

  • “Correlating marketing activities to revenues” = 39%
  • “Lack of marketing channel integration” = 27%
  • “Perceived lack of value from marketing” = 10%

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) were also asked to define “the CMO’s biggest challenges today” to which the top responses were as follows:

  • “Integrating and tracking multiple channels” = 37%
  • “Doing more with less” = 28%
  • “Accountability/measurement” = 18%
  • “Being able to control messages in light of social media” = 11%
  • “Keeping up with social media” = 6%

Furthermore, Chief Marketing Officer’s were asked “what is driving the highest degree of change to your marketing strategies” and provided the following responses:

  • “Increased requirement for ROI/accountability” = 27%
  • “Creating more compelling customer/prospect experiences” = 37%
  • “Drive to digital marketing” = 18%

Clearly the biggest problem for Chief Marketing Officers is accountability — without being able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that marketing initiatives directly drive profits, it’s nearly impossible to secure a future marketing budget, let alone keep your job.  However, so much of marketing these days cannot be accurately measured with hard metrics.  It’s not surprising that Chief Marketing Officers are typically the “fall guys” when companies aren’t making the numbers shareholders demand.

Additionally, the biggest area of confusion for Chief Marketing Officers is social media and digital marketing.  How else can one explain the low rankings in this survey for all things related to social media and digital marketing?  The reason those elements are ranked low is because Chief Marketing Officers don’t understand them enough to place value on them.  And since it’s very difficult to track social media marketing return on investment with hard metrics, it’s not surprising that social media is not considered a priority among this audience whose annual bonuses are directly tied to quantifiable results.

It seems marketers are living in a time where they’re set up for failure.  The marketing opportunities are there to leverage, but since they’re not easily quantifiable (similar to how brand value is not easily quantified but is inherently powerful), they’re ignored for easily trackable initiatives.  What’s a marketer to do?

Your thoughts?

Image: stock.xchang

More Brands Plan to Pay Bloggers, Tweeters and Online Publishers for Conversations

money_paid_blog_postsSponsored reviews, paid blog posts, sponsored tweets, and more are not new to the social Web, and whether you like them or not, they can be a cost effective way to generate an online buzz and word-of-mouth marketing about brands across the social Web.  This is particularly true when top bloggers and online influencers talk about a brand (whether or not they are paid to do so).

Despite the fact that in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ramped up regulations related to publishing paid reviews or endorsements (see the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 16, Section 255: 16 CRF 255), making it a requirement to disclose material relationships (no matter how immaterial they may be) and despite the fact that Google and other search engines have been known to penalize sites that publish sponsored reviews and paid posts, the tactic is expected to grow in the near future.

According to a study by PQ Media reported by BrandWeek, sponsored reviews grew by 14% to $46 million in 2009, and those numbers are expected to grow by 26% in 2010 to $56.8 million.

Consumer packaged goods companies are the biggest users of paid posts and sponsored reviews (25%) with food and beverage, health and beauty, media and entertainment, and technology and telecommunications following in that order.

It’s important to note that most brands pay bloggers and online publishers in the form of sample products (78%) rather than cash, although cash payment did grow by 37% in 2009.  That’s because to get top bloggers and online influencers to talk about your brand, you often have to offer monetary compensation rather than just offering a free product, particularly if the product you’re offering is inexpensive.

Think of it this way, unless you’re offering a product sample to a top blogger or online influencer that they are really, really interested in trying and talking about with their online audiences, it’s unlikely that they’ll take time away from more lucrative online activities to test and write about your product.  Therefore, offering a sizable cash payment, equivalent to what that top blogger or online influencer is capable of making in those other activities for the same time investment, is the best way to get them to agree to try and write about your product.

Izea is one of the most popular companies for paid posts and sponsored review publishers and advertisers with SocialSpark and SponsoredTweets. Both require disclosure from publishers and attract many top bloggers and online influencers into participating.  Of course, companies can also approach bloggers and online publishers directly with paid post and sponsored review opportunities.  Just remember, top bloggers are very busy and are unlikely to respond to your offer unless it’s worth their while and directly ties to the topics of interest to their audiences.

Image: Flickr

Wikipedia Puts Usability on Top around the World

Wikipedia is a popular site whether you want to admit it or not.  Sure, the content is user-generated and often flawed, but it is a handy place to get quick tidbits of information.  Personally, I find the links in the Resources section of articles to be a quick and easy way to verify facts and gather more information.  Again, it’s quick and easy, but we all know you need to do some additional research before you rely on anything you read on Wikipedia.

With that said, we’re all familiar with the boring, plain, text-heavy pages on Wikipedia as well as the iconic Wikipedia globe logo.  When you land on a Wikipedia Web page, you know where you are before you even have to scroll.

Despite that recognition, Wikipedia spent the past year researching the usability of its Web site, and last week launched a prototype new Wikipedia site design that is being beta tested with nearly 700,000 users.  The new look is shown below (you can get a better look here) and offers more color, a ‘boxy’ look that puts more content above the fold in a more organized design, and what looks like easier navigation.

wikipedia_prototype

Additionally, the new Wikipedia logo — an updated 3-D globe — has been launched, which is described on the Wikimedia blog as representing, “a new chapter in the history of the logo … as volunteers examined languages and scripts that were not represented in the previous iteration of the puzzle globe.”

wikipedia_logo_old_new

Users are even invited to create local versions of the Wikipedia logo to make it more relevant to local cultures.  I have to give Wikipedia credit for investing the time and money into making these changes.  Regardless of how you feel about the content on Wikipedia, this branding effort and usability initiative are both strong positives for the company and site overall.

What do you think?

BP – Flooded in Oil Rather than ‘Beyond Petroleum’

bp_beyond_petroleumFor years, BP has used the “Beyond Petroleum” tagline to massage the perception of the BP brand as being one that stands for so much more than oil.  While the company has been accused of greenwashing by using that tagline, given that almost all of its revenue comes from oil-related activities, the tagline did succeed in differentiating the brand from the Exxon’s of the world.  Remember, marketing and branding is all about perceptions.  Right?

But what happens when events prove those perceptions were fabricated?

BP never claimed it wasn’t in the oil business with the Beyond Petroleum tagline, but the company did attempt to position its brand as the antithesis of big oil companies that care only about profits regardless of the negative effects their products and businesses have on the environment.

Until April 2010, BP managed to protect its brand positioning as the oil company that puts the environment first, despite previous problems.  But can BP retain that positioning now that the company caused one of the biggest oil spills in history off the coast of Louisiana?

Probably not.  However, there is more to this story than brand positioning.  Do consumers truly care where their gasoline, etc. comes from?  Will they drive out of their way to find a non-BP gas station?

Certainly, consumers care, but the truth of the matter is that there is little difference in consumers’ minds about oil company brand positioning.  All of those companies are grouped together, for the most part, in consumers’ minds.

Therefore, BP will undoubtedly survive, but it’s highly likely (and suggested) that BP go through a rebranding.  Beyond Petroleum won’t get the job done anymore.  The more interesting question from a branding perspective is whether or not there is a brand message and position that truly could differentiate an oil company from its competitors — something that would make consumers pay more than the excessive prices they already pay and make them want to drive out of their way to find a gas station that offers fuel from a specific company.

What do you think?  Can it be done?  Leave a comment and let’s discuss!

Image: Flickr

Continental and United Airlines Merger Brings New Brand and Logo – Sort Of

This week, Continental Airlines and United Airlines announced a planned merger creating the largest airline.  While the two airlines claim their routes barely overlap and the merger should be completed by the end of 2010, the Chairman of the U.S. House Transportation Committee, Congressman Jim Oberstar has asked the U.S. Justice Department to block the merger.  While we wait for the merger to be approved by antitrust regulators and shareholders (and let’s face it — it’s unlikely the merger won’t happen), consumers can already see some of the effects of the merger with a new brand identity and logo — sort of.

First, a snippet about the new brand from the merger press release:

The holding company for the new entity will be named United Continental Holdings, Inc. and the name of the airline will be United Airlines. The marketing brand will be a combination of the brands of both companies. Aircraft will have the Continental livery, logo and colors with the United name, and the announcement campaign slogan will be “Let’s Fly Together.”

Next, a peak at the new logo, which combines the United name with the old Continental icon:

united_continental_logo

Finally, a look at the new airplanes that look very similar to the old Continental planes with the United name replacing the Continental name.

united_continental_airplane_585px

What do you think of the interim branding solution?  Love it or hate it? Would a complete rebrand with a new name and logo unrelated to either of the previous brands have been a better choice?

Of course, it’s still quite possible that a complete rebranding will happen in the year or so following the merger completion, so the question is whether the Continental and United brands have enough value to warrant keeping either.  Would consumers lament the loss of either brand?  It’s doubtful.

Truth be told, both brands carry a lot of negative baggage (no pun intended), and a complete rebranding could be just the ticket this company needs (again, no pun intended … well, maybe a little).

What do you think?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Images: UnitedContinentalMerger.com

Listening and Discussing – The Social Media Success Imperatives

listenOne of the most important aspects of any social media marketing strategy is research, which comes not just in the form of segmenting audiences and analyzing statistics but also in the form of listening to the conversations going on across the social Web.  For a company’s social media marketing plan to be successful, listening and joining discussions are the two most basic imperatives.

IBM understands that listening is the cornerstone of social media marketing.  In fact, IBM has a social media program called Listening for Leads that utilizes what the company calls seekers (who work on a voluntary basis) to listen to social media conversations happening on key Web sites where the company’s target audiences spend time.  When seekers identify conversations that could generate leads, they notify appropriate IBM representatives who join and follow up on those discussions.

According to an interview with Ed Linde of IBM, which was conducted by eMarketer last month, the IBM Listening for Leads program has been the company’s most successful social media marketing initiative citing millions of dollars in sales leads and a tremendous amount of closed deals.  Linde attributes IBM’s success from its Listening for Leads program to two primary factors:

  1. Using enough employees as seekers who each voluntarily spend a couple of hours per week listening to social media conversations (in addition to performing their regular IBM job functions) to uncover a good amount of credible leads.
  2. Knowing where to look for conversations (i.e., where target audiences spend time on the social Web) and what keywords to search for in order to find relevant, actionable discussions.

Thanks to the social Web, companies have the ability to legally and ethically eavesdrop on real-time conversations, join those conversations, and offer suggestions, help and solutions right when people are looking for information or assistance.  It’s an amazing opportunity!

Are you using your existing employees to help you keep up with social Web conversations that could lead to new business?  IBM’s Listening for Leads program is a perfect example of a company that understands the importance of social Web conversations and used out-of-the-box thinking to keep up with and respond to those conversations thereby turning them into tangible business results.

Image: Flickr