Corporate Eye

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Archives for April 2012

Moving Beyond Data Paralysis in Marketing

In article written for Ad Age, Xerox chief marketing office Christa Carone discussed a topic that I write and talk about frequently — the risks of falling victim to data paralysis. Christa shared a story about a recent repositioning initiative at Xerox that was nearing launch, but she felt in her gut that a key creative piece tied to the initiative wasn’t right. Research told a different story, but she relied on her knowledge, experience, and intuition and pulled the piece.

Money had been spent and the clock was ticking, but in a demonstration of true leadership, Christa made the decision to hold up the launch and retool the creative. Sacrificing results for creative that she knew in her heart, mind, and gut wouldn’t deliver the highest results wasn’t an option.

Christa’s story is an inspirational one, and it’s worth a read. I continually talk about the risk of data paralysis and how having access to so much information can make businesses slow to act. Furthermore, data can be massaged to tell a wide variety of stories. A single set of data can be turned into a variety of charts and graphs to highlight specific pieces of information.

I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count. The CEO loves a specific product, so the data presented to the CEO based on market research is massaged to support the CEO’s preferences. I don’t agree with that practice and don’t do it myself, but it’s a reality in many organizations. Too many people are too afraid to lose their jobs to stand up and tell the true story. Instead, they tell the stories executives want to hear. The result — failure.

Bottom-line, at a time when data is easy to get and has become the sole criterion for decision-making, Christa Carone did what few marketers are willing to do today. She recognized a moment when her marketing experience, knowledge, and intuition trumped the data and made the executive decision to question that data, likely making a lot of people angry.

Christa’s goal was simple. She wanted the Xerox repositioning to be as successful as possible. Doesn’t that define a great marketer, employee, and leader? Should companies expect any less? The logical responses to those questions are “yes” and “no” but that’s not always the reality in companies today.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the state of marketing, data paralysis, and intuition.

Image: Carlos Sanchez

Making a Hero of the Twitter Feed

Unusually, Novo Nordisk have embedded their Twitter feed into the hero slot at the top of their Sustainability section. If included at all, this is usually in the sidebar or in the footer.

The emphasis indicates the importance to Novo Nordisk of communicating with stakeholders – and dramatically draws attention to their Twitter feed. Only the last three tweets are included, which means the font used can be large, with plenty of whitespace.

And, of course, it makes a change from big hero images…

CSR, Women and Violence

Today I had thought to report on some ideas for constructing a sustainable economy.  Some other time.

Instead the ever readable Akhila Vijayaraghavan, founder of international CSR consultancy The Green Den, has written a potent blog about the treatment of women in her native Indian society.

In particular she points to the recent deaths of two baby girls named Neha Afreen and Falak, who have died through severe battering within the last 6 weeks.

Here is a bit more detail of the cases: those of a sensitive disposition should look away now.

[Read more…] about CSR, Women and Violence

Seagram’s Rebranding Focuses Sophistication

Seagram’s (distributed by the Coca-Cola Company) is known for its Ginger Ale and line of mixers such as club soda, tonic water, and so on. In an effort to differentiate its brand as the choice for sophisticated adult consumers, Seagram’s launched a rebranding effort that includes a new logo and package design. The rebranding coincides with the Coca-Cola Company’s plans to expand the brand into new markets.

You can see the old and new logo below.

Check out the new package design below.

And see the new can design below.

The line of Seagram’s products will maintain a consistent design with color used to differentiate flavors. For example, can designs will retain the metallic color palette shown in the image to the left. Similarly, the simpler Seagram’s crest design will be used as a supporting element but notice how it still becomes a centerpiece of the design? It’s very clever.

Overall, this rebranding effort is excellent for a brand that wanted to position itself against the traditional soft drink category and stake its claim in the market of adults looking for a modern brand to offer at parties and events for mixing sophisticated cocktails.

Simple design and metallic colors might seem like an overused trick to represent brands that want to be known as high quality, luxury brands, but when the trick is executed well, it works. This design, by Hatch, demonstrates the importance of restraint in branding — a concept that’s typically associated with brand strategy, extensions, and so on but as the Seagram’s rebranding demonstrates, also applies to brand identity.

The Seagram’s product line will look much more relevant on the shelves in the liquor aisles of stores than the previous design. Of course, the rebranding will draw both supporters and detractors, but one thing is for certain — this rebranding is an improvement over the previous identity and is better aligned with the company’s goals for the brand.

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

Research Shows Consumers Want Online Video from Brands

online video brandNew research from Digitas and Harris Interactive reveals that 46% of U.S. online video viewers are at least somewhat likely to look up a brand or product when it’s mentioned in an online video they’re viewing. Similarly, 49% of people who follow brands on social networks are at least somewhat likely to watch videos published by those brands to learn more.

According to Stephanie Sarofian, managing director of Digitas’ brand content unit, Third Act, “Investing in online video is no longer optional. Consumers are hungry for online content and ready to take this journey with brands. Today’s viewer isn’t just passively sitting and watching — they’re sharing, talking, clicking, and testing.”

The March 2012 survey of 2,211 Americans 18 years and older also revealed that 63% of respondents have viewed online content while they’re watching television. However, just 27% have actually looked at online content related to a show they were watching while they were watching it.

Still, that’s nearly one out of every three respondents and reflects a growing trend in viewing diverse content on multiple screens simultaneously. For example, consumers watch television while using their smartphones or tablet devices. Just last week, I published an article here on the Corporate Eye blog that discussed results from a recent Nielsen study that showed just how far this trend has already grown in terms of stealing eyes from television commercials.

Despite the willingness to watch online video from brands that consumers have demonstrated, brands are still struggling to create the right kind of video content. The Digitas survey found that consumers are looking for entertaining and informative online video content. One out of two respondents to the survey claimed that they usually share online videos that they like with at least three of their friends and online connections. This is a powerful word-of-mouth marketing opportunity that brands which are creating online video content that adds value to consumers’ lives are seizing.

The study also found that while online video viewing and sharing is still more common among younger audiences, the 55+ audience is not lagging as far behind as you might think. However, women in the 55+ demographic are far more likely to watch and share branded online video content then men in the same age range.

It’s safe to assume that these statistics will continue to increase. Has your brand leveraged online video content to connect with consumers yet? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Digitas Photos

Facebook Acquires Instagram – The Value of Photos in Social Media

instagramFacebook has acquired Instagram for $1 billion — a number that few people predicted the company’s valuation would come close to reaching. At just two years old, Instagram is a mobile app that makes it easy for people to share photos with friends and families from their mobile devices when they’re on the go.

Now, those images and user information and behaviors will become part of the Facebook data mine. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in a post announcing the Instagram acquisition, “For years, we’ve focused on building the best experiences for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”

One might wonder why Facebook didn’t simply create its own tool to compete with Instagram, but with an estimated 25 million users, the value of Instagram comes more from the content and information that can be extracted from user behaviors than the technology. The race for social search supremacy is on and Facebook and Google are in the lead right now. Simply recreating Instagram wouldn’t help Facebook reach its goals as effectively as acquiring Instagram’s users and existing content can.

One might argue that many Instagram users are probably also Facebook users, but there is a reason why those people turned to Instagram for mobile photo sharing. Facebook doesn’t want to lose those users or the activities those users participate in on Facebook related to photo sharing. The acquisition eliminates the threat that Instagram poses.

At the same time, Facebook made an offer that Instagram couldn’t refuse. Again, the company is making a clear statement that competitors are sure to understand. After all, Facebook leaders don’t even call Facebook a social network anymore. Instead, they favor the term “social graph,” and Instagram content and user behavior are perfect additions to creating the ultimate social graph.

Of course, Zuckerberg is quick to point out in his announcement that there are no plans to make any changes to Instagram. Losing Instagram users would defeat the purpose of the acquisition. For now, enhancements will be made to integrate Instagram more seamlessly with Facebook but other changes should be minimal.

In his announcement, Zuckerberg wrote, “[Existing] features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.”

No matter how the Instagram acquisition by Facebook story evolves, one thing is for certain — photos are valuable property for brands in social media. People like to publish them, share them, and talk about them. Think about how you can integrate photos into your brand’s social media marketing strategy. How can you use tools like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Flicker, and so on to do it?

The old saying tells us that a picture is worth a thousand words. Let the power of photos work for your brand by integrating them into your social media strategy right now.