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The Scary Thing about Social Media

scary-faces

CIOZone just published a smart article by Michael Neubarth called Social Media:  How We Got Here, Where We’re Going.  It’s fairly long, and worth reading, so I won’t try to summarize all the content-which includes a backward look at a decade of predictions about the fate of mass marketing.

I just want to focus on this statement:  “Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, many observers say we are witnessing the collapse of the command-and-control power of corporate mass marketing.”

That’s a much bigger message than “you can’t afford to ignore Twitter.”  That’s the end of the world as we know it.

And fall of the wall requires a huge adjustment in strategy, not just some revision of tactics.  The story goes on to quote Tim Walker’s piece Social media: Control without command (on Hoover’s Business Insight Zone):

What’s required on the part of companies is to let go of the fantasy of command: You will not “command” the airwaves. You will not “command” the conversations around your offerings in the marketplace. Also, you will not “command” your employees, who can access all sorts of scary hiring-market information via LinkedIn and Jobster and Monster and Craigslist and the rest.

I added the italics, to focus attention on the effects this shift will have-and is having-on HR.  Just take it one step further, adding the caution that “you will not ‘command’ your candidates.”  The best prospects are already looking for something much more than one-way messaging and a one-size-fits-all application process.

Neubarth’s article is blunt about the stiff mental challenge this evolution presents for many corporations and executives.  Walker’s suggestion:

The antidote for this loss of command: just get over it. Historical and technological forces are against you, and those corporations and executives who insist on retaining command are destined to failure.

But you can exert a modicum of control. You can shape a conversation. You can rebut erroneous information about your company or your product. You can harness transparency so that it works for you. You can grow into the language of the social media so that you fall naturally into the mode of persuasion-and-recruitment rather than command-and-control.

Elsewhere in Neubarth’s article, there’s a discussion of Seth Godin’s concept of the “meatball sundae” (check out this podcast introduction), in which companies try to dress up old attitudes and ideas (the meatball) with some whipped cream and sprinkles.  Not an appetizing thought–even if the meatball might be tasty in itself!

Relevant question:   Has your company’s online recruiting strategy really shifted away from old models?  Or is it just dressed up with some creamy videos and a sprinkle of tweets?


(Thanks to Chris Breeze for the Very Scary Faces.)


France’s Crédit Agricole a Website to Bank on

Don’t know how I missed this one, but Crédit Agricole is the largest retail bank in Europe. Their website suits this status. In the Profile section, click on Organization and access an informative visual that gives the visitor a quick view of how the company and its components are organized.

Credit Organisation

Next Economic Research is a major navigational component and for good reason. This section contains a robust supply of economic information on a very wide array of subjects.

Credit Eco Research

In the upper left navigation box, you have access to–

  • Perspectives

A quarterly publication setting out the Crédit Agricole scenario for the economy, interest rates and currencies in the main economic regions, ie, the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Aperiodic publication – Tabular data for Crédit Agricole economic and financial forecasts.

  • Eco News

Eco News is an aperiodic publication providing up-to-the-minute analysis of a current topic.

  • Eclairages

Monthly Eclairages

Éclairages is a monthly publication featuring a series of articles addressing a single issue from a range of different viewpoints. The core topic is examined according to the different specializations of teams from the Economic and Banking Studies Department: macroeconomics, country risk, banking and finance, and economic analysis of individual sectors.

Eclairages Emergents

Eclairages Emergents is an aperiodic publication offering a series of articles addressing emerging economies or an emerging region from a variety of angles.

  • Eclairages Research

Eclairages Research is an aperiodic publication providing in-depth analysis of a specific topic.

An impressive menu of information and research offerings. Each topic can be viewed as a summary so you can decide if you want to download a PDF. Better if it was available as HTML and an option to download. Note the effective use of Tag Cloud that links to various topics.

My favorite section of this site is the Shareholders Corner. A link to this section is prominently displayed under the major navigation link Finance & Shareholders. This is the company’s unique method of communicating with its shareholders. What a great idea!

Credit Corner

Skeptics might say that this is nothing new since most companies already provide this type of information. This is only partially true — Crédit Agricole goes the extra effort to provide a section that makes easy access to relevant shareholder information on one page. Note how resources are organized and see the upper right Direct Access navigation. Then there’s the Shareholder Club and Consultative Committee.

To develop close relations and regular dialogue with shareholders, Crédit Agricole S.A. set up the Shareholders’ Club in June 2002. Its main purpose is to inform shareholders, helping them understand the company, its organisation and businesses, to learn about the stockmarket and finance, and to provide them with our analysis of the economy.

The Club provides information, publications and other resources to what appears to be investors with modest holdings. Another good idea. But the pièce de résistance is the Consultative Committee —

Crédit Agricole S.A. set up in 2003 a Consultative Committee to help the company communicate as effectively as possible with its retail shareholders.

Members of the Committee are judiciously drawn from representative geographic areas —

Credit Agricole

Brilliant!

Crédit Agricole clearly is an example of how to engage a company’s most important stakeholders — Investors, including those with modest holdings.

Is China’s Tuangou or “Team Buying” Concept the New Social Networking Hub?

So… you see a new car that you want, but it’s a little out of your price range. Of course, you’d be willing to negotiate if you knew the dealer would give you a fair but reasonable price. Do you go for it, haggling him down to a number that you can comfortably afford? If you decide to pursue it, you might well get it – – and a few hundred of your friends might decide to join you.

Some of  China’s consumers actively participate in huge team buying clubs called “tuangou’s” where they negotiate, haggle and convince retailers to lower their merchandise to a more affordable price. In the process, the consumer’s success means success for the entire group. The team buying concept that they practice demands that the retailer honors ALL participants of the group by giving them all the same fair price. For example, that means if you negotiate a couch from $1500.00 down to $500.00, the retailer will sell the couch to all members of the team for $500.00. It’s a win-win situation for both parties and a huge boost in confidence for the consumer!

China’s bartering teams or “tuangou” emerged in force over five years ago. The concept has taken off well, becoming quite popular and more preferred by Chinese consumers than going it alone with retailers. Also growing are the numbers of forums and web sites where these consumers meet, talk and strategize about their next planned purchase and buying power, where they also select a leader and determine what amount they are willing to pay – or not pay – for the item they all want.

Retailers closely monitor sites like Qeeka.com, and other consumer forums and chat rooms to see what people are buzzing about. They plan their own sales and marketing strategies based on the information they get from these sites. They prepare to do negotiation battles with the tuangou.

Social networks are quickly cropping up on Facebook with friends clusters who are banding together with their efforts. The largest Facebook friends network, Twangu, currently has over 1,000 users in its network. Almost in an eBay fashion, the portal is set up so that retailers have the opportunity to find customers and vice-versa.

(From Twangu’s Facebook page:)

Get volume discounts for the stuff you want by shopping as a team! Build your shopping team and watch thousands of vendors bid on our team’s business.

How does it work?

1. User A sets up a group buy and the terms of the buy

2. User B-Z joins the team

3. Twangu makes the team official and sends it out to vendors

4. Thousands of vendors freak out and bid on the business

5. Low vendor bid wins!

The bigger the shopping teams, the bigger the savings. Forget the other auction sites, and start Twangu’ing!

The potential for the group to grow is exponential on a social networking site like Facebook, but add to that the inviting addenda of bargain hunting, saving money and deal finding and the potential becomes even greater. The power of social networking with this type of audience can be quite influential. What retailer would NOT want to be invited in or pitched against in pursuit of the best (or fairest) price?

Do you think the social networking platform in this concept is going to only be successful in China? Do you think it could thrive and do well in any other country?

Several companies have tried to start group buying sites in America and Europe yet most of them failed due to a sheer lack of interest from consumers. The owner of StoreMob.com didn’t think so, after the idea didn’t go over well with the Americans or the Europeans.

“I had read about it in China and thought maybe it would work over here, but it didn’t work out too well,” said Eliot Sykes, founder of UK-based StoreMob.com, which is now inactive. “I am not sure people’s attitudes over here are right for it.” (CNN news article)

Why is that, do you think? A lack of interest? Too much (or not enough) competition? Perhaps not enough social media exposure?

I think that social media and social networking is the perfect platform to bring attention to a concept that sounds phenomenal. After all, social networking is based on the premise of establishing relationships, sharing information, giving advice, learning from mistakes, celebrating, sharing and creating. That’s what we all do on Facebook and Twitter, isn’t it? Share information, give warnings, advice, etc. Wouldn’t it then be befitting that a place where social networkers join forces and participate in an action that benefits them all, that it would almost guarantee success?

What do you think? Can it, would it actually work?

Websites Offering Business Management Tools

Maybe you landed a new job or got transferred to another unit in your company and you need to “”bone up” on management tools. You could read some books but you don’t have the time. Once again websites come to your aid.   My first suggestions are websites offered by two of the largest management consulting companies — Bain & Company, and Booz & Co.

Bain

Let’s say you need to learn more about such items as the Balanced Scorecard or Customer segmentation. Go to Bain’s Management Tools to find an overview of these tools and more —

Note the menu of tools and articles. You don’t have to register, Bain makes the tools freely available. OK maybe this is a promotional technique, but it does develop good will. Thanks Bain.

(As always, click on the images to expand them.)

Next Booz & Co. offers some interactive tools. Not as many as Bain but more comprehensive —

Booz

Note the topics are on target for the current business environment. These tools are well done, something you would expect from Booz. They are easy and fun to use. The Working Capital Profiler allows you to test various scenarios and immediately portrays the results. As with Bain, no registration needed and no ads. Kudos to both firms for offering useful tools.

Need to understand the three primary financial reports: income statement, balance sheet and cash flow? Go to New York based Baruch College’s “Guide To Financial Statements” for a 45 minute tutorial. OK, this will not make you a CPA but you will at least understand the basics.

SkyMark

Back to comprehensive. A vey comprehensive offering of management methods is offered by SkyMark, a software and consulting firm.

A bit more designed to get you to use their products and services but still well done. Note the wide menu of references. Good job SkyMark.

Need more? Try UK based BusinessBalls. Be careful, this one is loaded with information.

Now go to that new job or assignment with confidence.

Cultural Sensitivity: a Smart Move

Very often, mishaps occur in pronunciation of a company’s name. It can result from having misheard it or simply just a preference for saying it a certain way. Then also, there are instances when the dialect leans toward a more comfortable way of saying things.

Some take offense if their brand/name is mispronounced, preferring that the name is studied carefully, taking more time to say it correctly.

Has that ever happened to your company or brand?

But kudos to to the global advertising brand, BBDO (part of the Omnicon corporation) as having heard the brand “Pepsi” being mispronounced and using it as a marketing strategy. The misspeak of the brand’s name is being advertised to the Argentinian market where surely their campaign will get one of the major soft-drink leaders a sharp increase in sales. A small portion (25%) of the Spanish population in Argentina can’t help but to pronounce the “s” in P-e-p-s-i as a “c”. In the Spanish tongue, it’s much easier to pronounce that way, so the caramel-colored drink is called Pesci.

“Pecsi” is an easier pronunciation given Spanish phonetics, and it sort of comes naturally. According to a recent survey, 25% of the population says it that way. (Full article at Adage.com; image is theirs)

Instead of Pepsi or even BBDO ignoring that market segment, or worse, trying to change them, BBDO advertising savants have wisely catered to the culture by launching a Spanish-written Twitterfeed campaign, complete with a Pesci website that will market the soda Pepsi as Pesci instead. How wildly clever is that!

What I find so impressive about the campaign is their sensitivity to the population and respecting the pronunciation that they are comfortable using. Wouldn’t it perhaps seem all too obvious that they would maybe try to “inform” or “educate” the market and lean them towards the right enunciation? I’m glad they didn’t! But instead, the advertising brand has smartly embraced the slight of tongue, capitalizing on an idea with a share of the population that I’m sure makes them feel pretty special, and that their consumers’ voice is heard…and a response given.

What do you think about this marketing approach by BBDO? Do you think the idea would assimilate easily into other cultures and other markets? Would there be some that perhaps might be offended? Or would they be flattered? Do share!

Rebranding a Landmark — Chicago’s Sears Tower is No More

sears_tower_chicagoIt’s not everyday that a national landmark is rebranded, but in the U.S. where everything and anything has a price tag, that’s exactly what happened last week when the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois became the Willis Tower.  The new name comes from Willis Group Holdings, an insurance company headquartered in London that is leasing space in the Sears Tower (according to the BBC, Sears vacated the building in 1992 but the name has remained until now).

It’s always difficult for people to accept the rebranding of a landmark.  Even sports stadiums that are rebranded when a new company becomes the primary sponsor can be a difficult transition for consumers to accept.  However, in time, most of the rebranding backlash typically subsides as consumers lose their attachment to the previous brand name.  Truth be told, as far as venue branding goes, the brand name usually has very little to do with the experiences that happen inside of the building.  When it comes to stadiums and arenas, the same teams still play inside and the same types of music and entertainment groups still visit for performances.  The only thing that really changes is the name outside the building.  In other words, companies try to brand well-known buildings, stadiums, etc. to keep their brands top of mind, but the branding efforts typically lose their effectiveness over time.

My guess is that the rebranding of the Sears Tower in Chicago will leave many people upset and longing for better times in general — and better times in the past included the Sears Tower, not the Willis Tower.  Ultimately though, this too shall pass, and the Willis Tower will continue to exist.  Will people start referring to the Sears Tower as the Willis Tower anytime soon?  It’s unlikely because the building is ingrained in our lives as the Sears Tower.  It’s a habit that Willis Group Holdings needs to try to break if they want to benefit from the rebranding in the short term, and consumer habits are hard to break.

I also think that the transition would be easier and would happen faster if a well-known, popular brand had purchased naming rights to the Sears Tower.  When an unknown brand enters the picture and takes over, consumers are highly likely to resist.  Again, it goes back to the comfort and security issues that are innate for most consumers.

What do you think?

Image: Flickr