Corporate Eye

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Archives for October 2014

The Rise of Mobile for Brand Marketing in the U.K.

mobile phoneRemember when you had to be very careful about the content and offers you displayed on your brand website because dial up speeds were so slow? Can you remember when mobile phones were analog only? How about when text messaging from one mobile device to another debuted, but the high cost of each message meant that many people still carried pagers? Remember?

If not, then you’re too young and you missed out on having to search for a pay phone. To you, using a mobile phone is probably less about being able to call someone to pick you up from a friend’s house than it is about being able to digitally chat and share photos with your friends instantly as well as to engage with larger audiences through social media and to look up anything at a moment’s notice through a quick Google search.

If you do remember, then “mobile” is probably important to you but it’s not the only communication method you use. It’s convenient, but it might not be your go-to device to browse the web or ask a friend a question (unless you’re the parent of a teenager, but I digress).

Whether or not you remember what it was like before smartphones became the norm, as a brand marketer, you must leave those times behind and embrace mobile. Eventually, mobile will be the way that people communicate, learn, share content, shop, and more. In the U.K., data from the Office of Communications (OfCom) shows just how quickly mobile is growing and how critical it is for brand marketers to make the strategic shift in focus to mobile.

In OfCom’s The Communications Report, the data tells the story. Time spent using mobile devices for a variety of communication and media activities is on the rise in all age groups while time spent with television, live radio, and mail are flat or falling. Here are some of the key stats:

  • Proportion of adults who use their mobile device to access the internet: up from 49% in Q1 2013 to 57% in Q1 2014
  • Proportion of UK adults with a smartphone: up from 51% in Q1 2013 to 61% in Q1 2014
  • Proportion of adults who live in a mobile only home: up from 15% in Q1 2013 to 16% in Q1 2014
  • Number of households taking up tablet devices: up from 24% in Q1 2013 to 44% in Q1 2014

Compare those increases in mobile activities to the decrease in the number of minutes of TV people above the age of four watch each day, which is down from 241 minutes in 2012 to 232 minutes in Q1 2013. Furthermore, listening to live radio is the third most popular audio activity after listening to streaming music and listening to music in personal digital collections, respectively.

You need to take your brand marketing where consumers are. Just as users are shifting more of the time in their days to mobile activities, you need to shift more of your brand marketing budget and activities to the mobile space.

Image: Natalia Pankova

Recruitment and Equality: Diversity and Inclusion

diversity-equalityIt is all too easy for statements about equality and diversity to become unread boilerplate on a corporate website. After all, not many can acceptably say that their company is institutionally discriminatory, or are going to say that they deliberately recruit only Oxbridge-educated white men.

So how can you avoid the boilerplate text, and demonstrate that – for your company – diversity really is important, and that you truly do try to treat everyone equally?

Companies take different approaches to try and communicate the importance of ‘diversity and inclusion’. Here are a few examples of how to add some interesting extra material on this subject…

  • Safety: Everybody’s voice should be heard

    In their Careers section, Weir Group have posted a video of their Finance Director discussing the importance of diversity for innovation, but also discussing the importance of diversity in the supply chain with one of their key customers, EDF.

    Interestingly, in this video, Janet Hogben, the Chief People Officer of EDF, talks about the importance of inclusion for a safety culture, so that everyone can feel they can speak up and be heard if they see a safety problem.

  • Health: Everybody needs to be considered

    Novartis also discuss diversity and inclusion in their Careers section, and offer a Diversity and Inclusion Report with interviews from senior management about how diversity and inclusion is embedded in the organisation’s values and behaviours.

    They also discuss how important inclusion is when developing medicines, to be sure that the medicines are suitable for all.

  • Zero-Intolerance: Build a dynamic team

    Yara explain their ‘zero-intolerance’ philosophy on this issue in their Careers section.

    It’s interesting to see that one aspect of their approach is to deliberately secure ‘complementary skills sets, taking key factors such as gender, nationality, age, education and experience into the mix to build dynamic teams’.

  • More than compliance: it’s in our DNA

    In their Careers section, Corning’s focus is on innovation. Refreshingly, they say that their diversity initiative began as a compliance-focused effort – but that now it has grown into a strategic advantage and a celebration of diversity and inclusion on a global scale.

    They include a leadership message, a diversity brochure, a one-pager (in multiple languages) and an annual diversity report.

  • Thought leadership: diversity breeds innovation

    Rather than being in the Careers section, Merck’s diversity pages are in a ‘Topics and Viewpoints’ section in the Media pages of the corporate website. The diversity page is based around research that shows that companies which attach a high degree of importance to diversity are demonstrably more innovative than those with a more homogenous workforce. It includes:

    • A video from a roundtable discussion with over 20 leading German companies emphasizing the importance of acceptance of diversity and corporate culture
    • A summary of the research conducted by the CTI
    • A press kit covering the study, and packed with useful documents

    Merck aim to foster diversity, and have given responsibility to a member of the Executive Board, as well as appointing a Chief Diversity Officer. The section on The Merck Way explains how diversity is integral to their values and culture.

  • Bring your experiences to the table

    On the main US diversity page, the Why IBM Works video is posted; we’ve talked about this one before, but it is always moving.

    They also offer a section on their diversity heritage, and (unusually) a tab of diversity news, as well as a copy of a diversity brochure and a letter from the IBM chairman and chief executive.

    Note that IBM have a YouTube channel devoted to IBM and diversity.

  • Recruiting, targets and Board level involvement

    In the Careers section of the BP corporate website, there is an explanation about how the BP executive team tracks progress against their diversity and inclusion targets quarterly, as well as results against their targets (for example, 74% of employees believe that managers seek out diverse views from their teams).

    “The more diverse we are, the more successful we’ll be”

    In the Sustainability section, BP describe their diversity and inclusion ambitions and progress, and explain that when recruiting they aim for a balanced selection panel, and try to ensure that their diversity ambitions are reflected when selecting qualified candidates for consideration.

  • Employee experience: including the taboo topics

    ScotiaBank offer an interesting PDF of their diversity history. They also include transcripts of various employee experiences, from immigrants to people with mental health illnesses. Sometimes mental health issues are not discussed, so it’s great to see this out in the open on a corporate website.

  • Employee surveys: what do they really think?

    EY survey their people every two years, and include questions on inclusiveness, respect, teamwork and career progression. They present the resulting statistics online.

So there are options beyond simply posting a boilerplate statement that you support equal rights and diversity, and showing what awards you’ve won. Which would work for you?

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BAD2014blockinfo-300x168This post is part of Blog Action Day, which this year is discussing inequality.

Previous contributions to Blog Action Day have been:
2013: Communicating Human Rights
2012: One Plus One Can Be Greater Than Two
2011: Lessons From Food Security: Telling Us What Matters
2010: Mixing Oil and Water
2009: Climate change and the corporate site
2008: Celebrating the FTSE 100: action on the breadline
2007: Enticing the green investor

Best Global Brands of 2014

global brand valueInterbrand has released its 15th annual ranking of the best global brands, and the 2014 list reflects a lot of brand value growth in all industries.

The ranking is developed based on Interbrand’s analysis of three things: the financial performance of the branded product and service, the role the brand plays in influencing consumer choice, and the strength the brand has to command premium prices or to secure earnings for the company.

Overall, the best global brands according to Interbrand’s ranking haven’t changed much since 2013. In fact, the top 6 brands are identical to the 2013 ranking.

The top 10 global brands of 2014 according to Interbrand are:

  1. Apple = $118.9 billion brand value
  2. Google = $107.4 billion brand value
  3. Coca-Cola = $81.6 billion brand value
  4. IBM = $72.2 billion brand value
  5. Microsoft = $61.2 billion brand value
  6. GE = $45.5 billion brand value
  7. Samsung = $45.5 billion brand value (2013 rank: 8)
  8. Toyota = $42.4 billion brand value (2013 rank: 10)
  9. McDonald’s = $42.3 billion brand value (2013 rank: 7)
  10. Mercedes-Benz = $34.4 billion brand value (2013 rank: 11)

It’s interesting to compare the Interbrand ranking to the 2014 ranking of the most valuable brands by BrandZ that was released in May. That analysis ranked Google first ($158 billion brand value) and Apple second ($148 billion). IBM came in 3rd ($108 billion) in that ranking while Microsoft ranked fourth ($90 billion) and IBM ranked fifth ($108 billion).

Back to the Interbrand ranking, here are some of the most interesting findings within the data:

  • 40% of the top 10 brands (and 40% of the top 20 brands) are in the technology industry.
  • Only 17% of the top 100 brands lost brand value between the 2013 and 2014 rankings.
  • The biggest loser in terms of lost brand value between the 2013 and 2014 rankings was Nintendo, which decreased its brand value by 33%.
  • The biggest winner in terms of gained brand value between the 2013 and 2014 rankings was Facebook, which increased its brand value by 86%.
  • There were five new brand entrants on the 2014 ranking: DHL (#81), Land Rover (#91), FedEx (#92), Huawei (#94), and Hugo Boss (#97).
  • The gap between the top ranked brand and the brand ranked 100 is enormous: #1 Apple’s brand value in 2014 is $118.9 billion while #100 Nintendo’s brand value in 2014 is $4.1 billion.
  • This was the first year that Interbrand tracked two global brands with values over $100 billion (Apple and Google).
  • 54% of the top 100 brands are from the United States.

Five brands on the 2014 list of the best global brands are from the United Kingdom. All five increased brand value between 2013 and 2014, and one is a new entrant to the 2014 ranking. The best global brand from the U.K. is HSBC (#33) with a brand value of $13.1 billion (up 8% over 2013). Burberry ranks at #73 with a brand value of $5.6 billion (up 8% over 2013), and Johnnie Walker ranks at #86 with a brand value of $4.8 billion (up 2% from 2013). Smirnoff ranks at #90 with a brand value of $4.6 billion (up 8% over 2013). Land Rover is the new U.K. entrant to the ranking at #91. Its 2014 brand value according to the Interbrand ranking is $4.5 billion.

You can follow the link at the beginning of this article to get all of the data from Interbrand’s 2014 ranking of the best global brands. What do you think? Any surprises on this year’s list? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Barun Patro

The Growing Importance of Online Brand Ambassadors

online brand ambassadors“The reach of Facebook paid brand posts is dropping.” That quote comes from Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing, whose company just released the results of a survey of more than 500 active social media users. According to the data, getting Facebook users to share information and deals about your products and services is far more important than you might realize.

In total, 34% of active social media users have shared some kind of product offering with their followers and 94% of them have shared offers through Facebook (significantly higher than offer-sharing on Twitter and Pinterest, which had been done by 15% and 10% of the respondent audience, respectively).

For marketers, the gold in the data is how people react to seeing brand information and offers on social media sites. According to this survey, consumers are 23% more likely to make a purchase after seeing an offer that was shared by a friend or family member on a social media site than if they saw that offer as a sponsored post published by the brand on a social media site. Furthermore, they’re 55% more likely to make a purchase after seeing an offer shared by a friend or family member via social media than they would if they saw a display ad for the same brand on a social media site.

Brand Ambassadors vs. Affiliate Marketers

Before you run out and try to get more people to talk about your brand and share your brand offers on Facebook and other social media sites, you need to understand that developing brand ambassadors is very different from recruiting affiliate marketers.

While 40% of all social media users who responded to this survey indicated that they would be more likely to share brand offers and deals if they received some kind of incentive to do so, that incentive doesn’t have to be cash. To retain some level of authenticity among your online brand ambassadors, their followers shouldn’t view them as salespeople who are pushing your products and services in an effort to receive monetary compensation. Eventually, their followers will get tired of seeing repeated promotional posts and will stop paying attention to them.

Instead, consider incentives that reward their loyalty. Respondents to the survey said they would be most likely to share brand offers and promotional deals if they received a percent off of their own purchase (36%), money off of their own purchase (26%), or a buy-one-get-one free offer on their own purchase (17%). By rewarding loyalty rather than handing over cash, the brand ambassador’s evangelizing retains more of its authenticity.

Keep in mind, some brand ambassador programs are more successful than others simply because of the type of products or services being offered by the brand. The study found that social media users are most likely to share offers for:

  • Restaurants: 58%
  • Entertainment: 42%
  • Electronics: 31%
  • Clothing and Accessories: 31%
  • Groceries: 31%
  • Travel and Hospitality: 24%
  • Pet Supplies: 16%
  • Household Goods: 15%
  • Professional Services: 13%
  • Daily Deals: 13%
  • Other: 12%
  • Children’s Toys and Supplies: 10%
  • Furniture: 4%

Bottom-line, give your loyal customers a reason to be even more loyal and give them offers that they’re confident to share with their followers (because those offers are relevant and attractive). As a result, your brand’s organic social media reach and sales will increase.

Image: Svilen Milev

The Gap Between Most Effective and Easiest to Execute Digital Marketing

digital mapNew research from Ascend2 identifies just how big the gap is between the most effective digital marketing initiatives and the digital marketing initiatives that are easiest to execute.

A total of 333 marketing, sales, and business professionals from around the world were interviewed for the Digital Marketing Strategy study, and an overwhelming majority (89%) reported that their digital marketing was very successful or successful to some extent.  More than one out of two respondents (51%) indicated that their biggest challenge to digital marketing success was a lack of an effective strategy.

However, the most interesting data in the report focuses on what respondents identified as the most effective digital marketing initiatives vs. the easiest to implement. In fact, there was an obvious correlation between the two. The easier the digital marketing initiative is to implement, the more likely respondents were to cite it as being effective.

Let’s take a closer look at the data.

When respondents were asked to identify the most effective types of digital marketing that they have used, the following results were recorded:

  • Email: 54%
  • Website and blogs: 48%
  • Search engine optimization: 47%
  • Social media: 43%
  • Content: 38%
  • Paid search and PPC: 24%
  • Mobile and SMS: 9%
  • Ecommerce: 8%

When respondents were asked to identify the most difficult types of digital marketing to execute, the following results were recorded:

  • Social media: 49%
  • Content: 42%
  • Search engine optimization: 39%
  • Mobile and SMS: 34%
  • Paid search and PPC: 23%
  • Website and blogs: 23%
  • Ecommerce: 19%
  • Email: 11%

Notice that email was ranked as the most effective type of digital marketing by 54% of respondents, and it was only ranked as the most difficult form of digital marketing by 11% of respondents. That’s a gap of 43 percentage points! Similarly, 48% of respondents said websites and blogs were most effective while 23% said it was the most difficult to execute. That’s a 25 percentage point difference.

Next, notice that only 8% of respondents ranked ecommerce as the most effective form of digital marketing while 19% ranked it as the most difficult to execute. That’s a gap of 11 percentage points. There is an even bigger gap for mobile and SMS. While 9% believe it’s most effective, 34% believe it’s the most difficult to execute. That’s a 25 percentage point difference!

Marketers and business executives should be trying to close these gaps by finding the right talent and investing in both human capital and resource capital (e.g., technology). If the right talent is on hand and that talent has the right tools and resources to effectively execute the digital marketing initiatives that are perceived to be the most difficult (and therefore, the least effective), it is very likely that the results to surveys like this one will change significantly.

Marketing is only as effective as the people developing the strategy and implementing the plan. All the tools and tactics in the world are useless if no one knows why they’re using those tools and resources or how to effectively use them.

Image: Elementa1