Posts Tagged ‘Social media
Marketing Globe: Difference in Behaviors
Another challenge for a marketer to attempt a one-size-fits-all model in this global environment is that behaviors differs greatly in each location. Heck, we can’t even agree on the spelling of the word behaviours. Why is it important to understand the difference in behaviors? It’s because that’s the only thing we can intercept and try to influence. If someone never acts upon what they think, you would never know what they are thinking. Many books have depicted an oppressive society where people acts according to the social standards and they are each model citizens. However, their thoughts can be quite different. And there is nothing you can do about their thoughts as long as they don’t speak of it or act on it. And there is no way you can even know that they have uncondoned thoughts. This is an example of how we can only intercept someone’s thinking when we can intercept their behavior.
In fact, that’s the power behind the word “Insight.â€
IN:Â What they think
SIGHT:Â What we see they do
INSIGHT:Â What we see they do based on what they think
IN: I’m feeling the pressure of an uncertain economy. I may lose my job tomorrow. I’d better be careful with my spending.
SIGHT:Â I started clipping coupons and stocking up on deals.
Marketers leveraging the insight: Put coupons in newspaper. Thus, offering consumers incentives to buy my brand over my competitors.
So, a difference in behavior can greatly change how we market to different consumers in different locations. As this is a blog, let’s take the hot topic of social media and internet use as an example. According to a recent survey conduct by TNS, a leading market research firm, the predominate profile of an internet user in the United States is a Networker. However, simply cross over the our neighbors up north however, the predominate user profile in Canada is a Functionals.
Networker: The internet is important for me to establish and maintain relationships. I have a busy life whether it’s my profession or managing the home. I use things like social networking to keep in touch with people I wouldn’t have time to otherwise. I’m a big home internet home user and I’m very open to talking to brands and looking for promotions. That said I’m not really the kind of person to voice my opinions online.
Functionals: The internet is a functional tool, I don’t want to express myself online. I like emailing, checking the news, sport & weather but also online shopping. I’m really not interested in anything new (like social networking )and I am worried about data privacy and security. I am older and have been using the internet for a long time.
Okay, would you talk to these two people the same way? Would you even find them the same way? The answer is of course no. Of course, this is a simplified example. You may not be trying to reach the typical American or the typical Canadian. Also, I’m highlighting the predominate profile, but there are plenty of Functionals in the US and plenty of Networkers in Canada. However, it still illustrates the point that it’s probably unwise to have a one-size-fits-all marketing campaign. This is why companies have different websites for different countries. We need to recognize even on the world wide web, we are targeting one country at a time. In fact, depending on the business, it may be one city, one neighborhood, at a time.
More from the Marketing Globe Series.
Photo Credit:Â Thinking by Gal.
Related articles
- Marketing Globe: Difference in Culture (curiousmarketeer.com)
- Mobile Usage Across The Globe (viralblog.com)
Am I too old-school for Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories”?
Dabbling into social media has always been scary for big brands. Because we lose control of it all. Because we allow the voice of a few to be heard, and we can’t just use TV advertising to drown them out. It’s like you have handed over a microphone to everyone, including your haters, and to let them broadcast to the world whatever they want. However, it is still generally advocated that big brand should participate in the social media discussion, good or bad. Why? Well, the discussion is happening anyway, so you may as well be a part of it. It’s the only way you can learn and improve. If someone at your office is circulating rumors about you, wouldn’t you like to know what exactly is being circulated?
Sue is always eating at meeting. What’s worse, she leaves all her napkins and breadcrumbs and stuffs behind in meeting rooms. I hate going into a conference room afterwards. She’s such a mess.
There’s no reason to go talk to John. Just go talk to his boss. I sent him three emails this week, and he didn’t reply to a single one.
Well, turns out John’s grandma passed, and yes, that’s making him a little less responsive. If you were John, you’d want to set the record straight.
Turns out Sue really is a mess. If you were Sue, and you didn’t bother to pay attention to these stories, you may never realize what you were doing is unappealing to people.
So, yes, it’s important to participate in the social space. It’s just part of good customer service – paying attention to your customers.
However, allowing negative comments to happen organically is one thing. I wouldn’t want to pay for negative comments to be broadcasted. Am I really that old-school?
The latest in Facebook’s ad offering is “Sponsored Storiesâ€. This means when a Facebook user interacts with your brand via, Likes, Check-ins or page posts, it gets broadcasted to a much wider Facebook community like an ad would on the sidebar. For example, if a user check-in to your venue, you can paid to have that broadcasted. Now, that’s no so bad when the check in is positive. For example, Megan may check-in at bar X (bar X being the advertiser) and with the comment of “having a great time at happy hour with friend Jane.â€Â Now, all (if the advertiser pays for it all) of Megan’s friends will see on the sidebar that Megan has checked in to venue x and is “having a great time…â€Â This is very on-strategy with a recent Nielsen study that found ads to have social context to be more successful. In this case, Megan is serving to be an endorser of bar x to her friends, without her realizing it.
It wouldn’t be horrible either if the check in turned out to be Jason checking in Starbucks with a comment “still waiting for my date to show up… hope she’s not a no showâ€.
But what if someone check in to restaurant Z with a comment “just got served raw chicken…â€Â That isn’t so good.
Or someone may just post a negative post on your fan page and says “your place sucks!â€Â And that became the copy that shows up as a “Sponsored Storiesâ€.
Now advertisers do have some control. Advertisers could limit this to just “Likesâ€. “Likes†are by definition positive. Generally speaking, I don’t have any problems with the existence of the negatives either. I’m believe in negative comments. Because in general, every brand stands for something, which automatically means they are not going to stand for something else. Every brand is supposed to have their pagans. These are people who doesn’t believe what your brand is selling. These are the people who never got it. These are the exactly the opposite of your core consumers. For example, these are the tree huggers and you are a fur coat maker. (I’m using this as an example and using labels to simplify the example. I am not making a political statement here.) But that’s okay. These two can co-exist. Fur coat makers are not trying to sell fur coats to tree huggers. Tree huggers are not their demographic. Fur coat buyers also know that they are not tree huggers, and they’re okay with that. They are okay with tree huggers saying fur coats are bad, and they’ve reconciled themselves with that opinion.
Negative comments are there. They exist regardless of whether social media is around. PETA existed long before Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook promotes this new tactics as being more effective to buy word of mouth.
However, as open minded I’m about negative comments, I’m not sure about this. For some brands, this may not be a concerned at all. For others that have put a hard line in the sand on what they are selling and what they’re not, this is not just embracing the existing of negative comment. This is paying to have them broadcasted. Am I too old-school to think that’s not necessarily a good advertising model?
Photo Credit: Microphone by Daehyun Park. Â Facebook image via AdAge.com
Related articles
- Facebook Turns Friend Activity Into New Ad Format (mashable.com)
- Facebook Turns the ‘Like’ Into Its Newest Ad (AdAge.com)
- Facebook Adds ‘Sponsored Stories’ to Ad Arsenal (AdWeek.com)
Facebook is the new gym
It’s January. How do you know? Go to a gym. It’s pack with people who have made this year the year to lose those extra pounds. Where were they last month?
This happens every year. Everyone is enthusiastic in January. People join aerobic classes. People sign up for gym memberships. People commit themselves to showing up at the gym every night. A month goes by, that long wait for a treadmill disappears. Another month goes by, the classes become less crammed. By March, well, no one keeps resolutions anyway!
It’s easy to make resolutions, but it takes dedication and commitment to keep them.
It’s easy to make a jump into the social media bandwagon. It takes dedication and commitment to maintain them and make social media work.
This was the thesis of Tom Fishburn’s cartoon this week. He highlighted a particular example where his local diner still calls attention to a Facebook page that hasn’t been updated for months. A Facebook page doesn’t run itself. Online dialogues with your fans won’t magically happen. Just like those extra pounds won’t magically disappear. You have to commit to make it happen.
Coincidentally (or perhaps timed purposely), Tom launched his Facebook page today. Go friend him!
Photo Credit: Tricia Wang
Jeannie Chan is a Brand Manager for a Fortune 500 consumer goods company. She considers herself a marketer, a traveler, and a foodie. Jeannie lives in NYC. 
