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Archives for July 2014

Most and Least Respected Brands of 2014

corporate brand office buildingThe most respected brand of 2014 is Coca-Cola while the least respected is Delta Airlines.

The ranking of the most and least respected brands of 2014 comes from the Brand Respect 2014 report from CoreBrand. Using its Corporate Branding Index, which is a 23-year quantitative study, CoreBrand’s team analyzed 1,000 corporate brands (not product or divisional brands) that have been publicly traded for more than five years, and have been tracked by its Index for more than five years.

Over 500 companies met the study’s criteria and were included in the final analysis. Each brand was ranked based on familiarity (i.e., how familiar U.S. survey respondents were with the brand) and favorability (i.e., how survey respondents who were familiar with the brand ranked it in terms of overall reputation, perception of management, and investment potential). The top 100 brands with the highest familiarity rankings were sorted by their favorability scores to create the list of the most and least respected brands of 2014. The top 10 and bottom 10 brands follow:

10 Most Respected Brands of 2014

  1. Coca-Cola
  2. PepsiCo
  3. Hershey
  4. Bayer
  5. Johnson & Johnson
  6. Harley-Davidson
  7. IBM
  8. Apple
  9. Kellogg
  10. General Electric

10 Least Respected Brands of 2014

  1. Delta Airlines
  2. H&R Block
  3. Big Lots
  4. Denny’s
  5. Best Buy
  6. Rite Aid
  7. J.C. Penney
  8. Capital One Financial
  9. Family Dollar Stores
  10. Sprint Nextel

CoreBrand warns that the least respected brands are not the same as the least favorable brands that it tracks. Rather, the least respected brands are those that have the biggest gap between familiarity and favorability among survey respondents. In other words, “These are among the most well known brands, but lag dramatically in perceptions and audience sentiment. These 10 brands represent the bottom of the most familiar in regards to brand respect.”

It’s also important to note that the data is relative. For example, Delta Airlines ranked as the least respected brand of 2014. However, in comparison to competitor airline brands, Delta ranked second highest for familiarity but it ranked lowest for favorability. The other airline brands analyzed in this study (US Airways, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines) all suffered from similar problems and low favorability scores were common across the industry. In other words, all airline brands suffer from low brand respect.

The brands included in this study are all household names. U.S. consumers (and in many cases, consumers around the world) are extremely familiar with these brands, but for some of these brands, that familiarity can’t make up for the lack of favorability.

How does your brand stack up in terms of familiarity versus consumers’ perceptions of the brand as favorable or unfavorable? When was the last time you invested in the necessary research to determine if there is a gap between familiarity and favorability for your brand? If that gap is growing, your brand respect is decreasing. Bottom-line, this is information you need to know as a brand marketer, so invest in the research before the gap gets too big.

Image: Stella Levi

3 Keys to Designing Effective Online Ads

facebook mobile appNew research from Facebook’s Marketing Science team identifies three keys to designing effective online ads as well as a variety of recommendations and warnings about things to avoid.

The researchers studied 350 brands in 18 industries between October 2013 and March 2014 by recruiting 700 people from around the world to rate more than 1,500 ads that ran in their Facebook News Feeds.

Using the data collected, the team identified the following recommendations for online advertisers to increase conversions:

  • Focus on the product.
  • Provide product information in the ads.
  • Provide a clear directive in the ads.
  • Focus on the brand.
  • Provide a strong link between the brand and the ad.
  • Provide a good fit between the brand’s personality and the ad.
  • Online conversion-focused ads should provide a clear connection to the brand’s personality
  • Single product-focused images should be used in ads to make potential customers perceive the brand as “approachable and accessible.”
  • To increase brick-and-mortar sales, use an iconic product image in the ad that grabs consumers’ attention and enables them to easily identify the brand.

The report repeatedly states that a strong brand link and product placement within online ads are important, but that doesn’t mean that ads that didn’t rank high in each of these elements among consumer participants were failures. Ads with diverse creative or ads that were highly tailored to the brand goals and audience preferences might not score well for all elements but could score very highly for the most important elements.

That brings us to the researchers conclusions. They identified three keys to designing effective online ads:

1. Know your objective because different elements are important for achieving different goals.

The researchers found that brand-focused advertisers consistently scored higher on elements like the link between the ad and brand, the emotional reward delivered by the ad, and the noticeability of the ad. However, direct response-focused advertisers scored higher ratings on call-to-action. These results make complete sense, but some advertisers still use the wrong types of ads for the wrong reasons and audiences, and in the wrong places.

2. For online conversions, focus on product or brand within the ad.

The researchers found that ads that focused on the product with a strong call-to-action and informational reward scored well in online conversions. On the other hand, ads that focused on the brand performed well in online conversions when the ads offered a strong link to the brand and a strong brand personality.

3. For in-store sales, focus on prominent product placement or well-rounded ad creative in the ad.

The researchers found that ads with strong product placement scored well for having a strong brand link, brand personality, and noticeability which successfully drove in-store sales. Similarly, well-rounded ads  that scored high on all elements (or most elements) were successful at driving in-store sales.

While none of these findings are groundbreaking, they do give you some insights into not only how Facebook users rate ads but also how well those ads performed. The researchers compared results of the rating study with previous research that tracked conversions and sales to provide a more comprehensive picture of what’s working (and what isn’t) in online advertising. Therefore, there is value in considering these research results and consumer preferences when you’re planning future online ad creative designs.

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

Image: Maria Elena licensed CC BY 2.0

Careers: Employees in their own words

belgacom-elkeBelgacom provide employee profiles in the careers section of the corporate website (as many others do) but include links and teasers to that employee’s blog posts.

Note, too, that the other employee profiles are listed in the sidebar with an indication of how many blog posts they’ve written.

What’s Hot in Social Media Marketing in 2014

hot flamesWhen it comes to social media marketing, tools and fads come and go in a heartbeat. What’s hot today, might not be hot tomorrow.

However, in 2014, we’re seeing some trends that won’t go away anytime soon. As truly useful tools rise to the top of the cluttered marketplace, brand marketers are gaining new abilities to drive real results via social media.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what’s hot in social media marketing in 2014. Each of these trends has been growing for years, but finally, brand marketers and corporate leadership teams are prioritizing them and giving them more budget dollars.

1. Incentives

The days of “Like our Facebook Page” are over. The thrill of clicking the Like button disappeared well over a year ago. Today, people aren’t willing to tie themselves to a brand or company unless they get something in return. The promise of great content can be enough of an incentive to get some consumers to Like your Facebook Page or follow your brand on other social media channels, but there is a huge difference between “liking” and engaging.

Incentives work, not only in getting people to take the initial step to “like” your brand across social media channels, but also to engage with your brand. In other words, one time incentives aren’t enough. Incentives should be ongoing to build a new audience and to reward your existing audience. The latter is the part that brands are finally getting better at.

2. Mobile

Finally, brand marketers and corporate leaders are realizing that a “mobile-always” strategy is critical to ongoing success. Content and communications must work effectively or the rapidly growing (and dominating) mobile audience won’t give your brand a second chance. Simply applying an existing online marketing strategy to the mobile world doesn’t work.

3. Hyper-Targeting

Broadcasting and mass communications are taking a back seat to hyper-targeting. Whether brand marketers are pursuing hyper-local targeting strategies or laser-focused targeting based on demographic, psychographic, and behavioral factors, they’re all realizing that the power of social media marketing comes from building one-to-one relationships, not one-to-many relationships. Finding the right audience is an essential step to boosting brand awareness, recognition, sales, loyalty, and advocacy.

What social media marketing trends are you seeing in 2014? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: CaptureQueen licensed CC BY 2.0

Local Marketing and the Effect of Online Consumer Reviews

local marketing business mapLocal marketing is becoming more competitive every day and online consumer reviews play a large part in motivating consumers to make purchase decisions. For the fourth year, BrightLocal conducted its annual Local Consumer Review survey and found that online consumer reviews are critical to small businesses and large businesses operating on a local level.

BrightLocal surveyed 5,000 consumers in its Local Consumer Panel with 2,104 people responding (90% from the U.S. and 10% from Canada). Overall, 57% of respondents search online for a local business more than six times per year, but 39% search online for local businesses at least once per month. Many consumers (15%) search for local businesses online almost every day.

As you might expect, all of this local business searching has increased each year, and online consumer reviews are used by nearly all of the respondents when making purchase decisions. In the last 12 months, nearly nine out of 10 (88%) of respondents had read reviews to gauge the quality of a local business before making a purchase. Furthermore, 39% of respondents read reviews on a regular basis. That’s a significant contrast to the small percentage (12%) who claim to never read online reviews.

All Online Consumer Reviews are Not Equal

Given the fact that so many consumers are taking the time to seek out and read online reviews about local businesses, it’s critical for all businesses that operate at a local level to increase the number of reviews published about their products and services. However, not all online consumer reviews are equal, and consumers know the difference.

Respondents to the BrightLocal survey are reading more online reviews this year than in the past in part because they need to confirm the validity of the reviews they read. In total, 67% of respondents reported that they read up to six reviews before they feel like they can trust a business but 85% read up to 10 reviews and 7% read more than 20 reviews. In other words, it takes a lot of consistent proof before consumers will trust the authenticity of the reviews published about your local business.

Taking a closer look at the data, 72% of survey respondents claim that reviews make them trust a local business more, and 88% claim that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Furthermore, consumers’ trust in online reviews is growing (up from 13% in 2013 to 21% in 2014). Nearly one in three consumers (32%) will trust a consumer review as much as a personal recommendation from someone they know as long as there are multiple positive reviews to read. Similarly, nearly one in three respondents (30%) will trust a consumer review as much as a personal recommendation as long as they believe that the review is authentic.

Bottom-line, online consumer reviews can lead directly to customer action and sales. Of the consumers who responded to the BrightLocal survey, 72% will take some kind of action after reading a positive online review about a local business while 57% will visit a local business website after they read a positive online review. It doesn’t matter if you’re marketing a brand for a local small business or a global company doing business at a local level, online consumer reviews can have a significant effect on awareness, reputation, and sales. Prioritize them!

Image: Vicchi licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Pinterest Best Practices for Brands

pinterest target most pinnedPinterest is an effective social media marketing tool, but few brands are actually using it effectively to connect with their target audiences.

Before you launch your Pinterest marketing initiatives, consider how your audience uses Pinterest. It’s used differently by different groups of people, and it’s used differently than any other social media site.

For example, people pin content in a fairly structured manner. Pins are related to categories in users’ minds and those categories turn into Pinterest boards. The same piece of content could be categorized in many different ways depending on the audience and the usage. That self-identified categorization system is also useful in helping people find content on Pinterest, particularly through their Pinterest feeds.

Not only do you need to create boards related to your brand that are interesting to your target audience, but you need to put yourself in their minds and create boards and content using a relevant system of categorization. Most importantly, categories should be well integrated, so you can lead visitors through your brand story.  Think of categorization as your brand’s visual map.

Next, you need to pin a lot of interesting content, pin the best type of visuals, share other people’s pins, invite others to pin content on special brand boards, and interact with other users. When you pin content, keep your target audience’s categorization systems in mind. How do they use your pins? How do they categorize their own pins? How do they categorize your pins and your competitors’ pins?

When you publish a pin, include a relevant description that makes it easier for people to identify how to categorize it in their own minds and within their own Pinterest activities. Avoid over-using keywords and hashtags that force a categorization to your pins.

Pinterest published a Pinterest Best Practices Guide for Businesses that offers excellent tips for writing great pin descriptions:

  • If your products are used in DIY projects, pin images of those projects and describe what the product or item is, how it was made, and what materials people need to make it themselves.
  • If your products are related to food, cooking, or dining, pin images of completed dishes with descriptions of recipes and ingredients.
  • If your products are related to fashion, pin images of clothing or accessories along with descriptions of the designers, season to wear it, style suggestions, and more.
  • If your products are related to travel, pin images of the location and describe the activities that people can do there.
  • If your products are related to design, pin images of design steps and results with the designer’s name, tools, tips, location, materials used in the design, and so on.

As with all brand marketing, the trick is getting out of your own head and out of the corporate point of view. Think and categorize like your target audience, and your Pinterest initiatives will drive improved results.

Image: Mike Mozart licensed CC BY 2.0