Corporate Eye

...compare, compete, excel

Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

Surprising Statistics for Digital Coupon Marketing

digital couponA new study by RevTrax reveals some interesting statistics related to the relationship between consumer demographics and digital coupon conversion behaviors. The researchers studied millions of digital coupons used to drive in-store sales and cross-referenced that data with coupon activation rates by age, income, education, location, and more. Several key demographic groups demonstrated significantly different digital coupon in-store conversion rates than other groups.

Some of the findings from the study include:

Age

Older consumers are more likely to use digital coupons. “On average, a 10% increase in median age yields a 2.49% increase in activation rates for retail coupons in urban U.S. counties. Increased median age also correlates with higher activation rates for retail coupons when compared to CPG coupons (whether urban or rural).”

Millennials are least likely to use digital coupons. “On average, a 10% increase in people ages 15 to 24 resulted in a 1.20% decrease in activation rate for retail coupons in urban U.S. counties and a 1.35% decrease in activation rate for retail coupons in rural U.S. counties.”

Income

Consumers with higher incomes are more likely to use digital coupons. “On average, a 10% increase in median income yields a 1.59% increase in digital coupon activation rates for retail coupons in urban U.S. counties. Increased median income also correlates with higher activation rates for retail coupons when compared to CPG coupons (whether urban or rural).”

Employment Status

Consumers who are employed are more likely to use digital coupons. “On average, a 10% increase in unemployment rate yields 0.46% decrease in activation rate for both CPG coupons in urban U.S. counties and CPG coupons in rural U.S. counties.”

Education

Consumers with a college education are more likely to use digital coupons (in urban U.S. counties). “On average, a 10% increase in bachelor’s degree percentage yields a 0.70% increase in activation rate for retail coupons in urban counties and an extra 0.18% increase in activation rate for CPG coupons in urban counties.”

Gender

Women are more likely to use digital coupons than men (in urban U.S. counties). “On average, a 10% increase in the number of males per 100 females yields an 11.86% decrease in the activation rate for retail coupons in urban counties and a decrease of 2.46% in activation rates for CPG coupons in urban counties.”

RevTrax expects that the data revealed through this study will help brands and retailers better understand the relationship between coupons and consumer behavior and the need to align digital advertising with both ecommerce marketing budgets and brick and mortar budgets. Of course, this makes complete sense. A fully integrated marketing plan is always the most powerful marketing plan.

What do you think?

Image: Ayhan Yildiz

Personalized Branding for Absolut Vodka Means 4 Million Custom Bottle Designs

absolut uniqueAbsolut Vodka is rolling out 4 million custom bottle designs in an effort to turn the limited-edition packaging trend into an effective personalized branding tactic.

Unlike other brands that roll out limited-edition package designs for cause marketing and seasonal marketing campaigns, Absolut is going a step further by creating 4 million unique bottle designs, each slightly different from the next and all with their own identifying number. The campaign tagline and copy reads, “Absolut Unique. One of a kind. Millions of expressions.”

As Gabriel Beltrone of AdWeek explains, the “exclusivity” of the promotion targets an audience who responds to campaigns that play to vanity and drives the desire to own one of a small number of collectible branded bottles or items. Gabriel writes, “The new Absolut is meant to deliver that same dopamine kick, on steroids.”

You can see the behind-the-scenes video from the Absolut marketing team that provides more details below:


The question is whether or not the personalized branding effort by Absolut will drive the results the company wants. Producing 4 million custom designs is a unique undertaking, and already, people are talking about the brand online as a result. Will consumers flock to stores to purchase their own unique bottles? How many people will purchase Absolut in order to get a custom bottle who would not have purchased Absolut otherwise?

Absolut’s advertising has always been creative and successfully personalized the brand to fit just about any occasion or audience you can think of. Limited-edition, personalized packaging seems like a good fit for the brand overall. I’d love to see some integrated marketing efforts such as Pinterest boards and Facebook contests where people who purchase the personalized bottles can share pictures of their designs and get even more exposure for the campaign and the Absolut brand across the social web. It’s the perfect place for the brand to extend its reach into the broader consumer conversation.

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

Image: Absolut

Facebook and Twitter Ranked Riskiest Social Media Sites for Brands

facebook schwagFacebook and Twitter rank as the riskiest social media sites for marketers, meaning these sites have the highest levels of risk associated with them in terms of their abilities to damage brand reputations. That statistic comes from an August 2012 study by Altimeter Group which surveyed professionals who list social media risk management as part of their job descriptions. The respondent audience included social media managers, lawyers, and compliance officers.

When asked which social networks present the greatest risk to companies worldwide, 35% of respondents stated that Facebook is a significant risk and 25% indicated that Twitter is a significant risk. Coming in at a distant third was YouTube, Vimeo and other video sharing sites which 15% of respondents indicated presented a significant risk.

The data gets even more interesting when you consider which social media sites are perceived as “not risky” for brands. The data from the study might surprise you:

  • 8% believe Twitter is not risky
  • 10% believe Facebook is not risky
  • 10% believe Third-party blogs and comments are not risky
  • 15% believe YouTube, Vimeo and video-sharing sites are not risky
  • 31% believe company blogs and blog comments are not risky
  • 33% believe Google+ is not risky
  • 35% believe Photo-sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa are not risky
  • 45% believe LinkedIn is not risky
  • 45% believe ratings and review sites like Amazon, Epinions and Yelp are not risky
  • 45% believe Yahoo! Answers, Quora, and other Q&A sites are not risky
  • 48% believe Pinterest is not risky
  • 48% believe enterprise or internal social networks like Chatter and Yammer are not risky
  • 58% believe foursquare is not

These results are incredibly surprising for a few reasons. First, every social media site poses a risk to businesses, so the fact that even one of the sites included in this survey was deemed by even one respondent to be “not risky” is problematic. Second, nearly one out of two respondents indicated that they do not believe a wide variety of social media sites are risky, including LinkedIn, review sites like Yelp, foursquare, and more. Third, some of the respondents to this study didn’t think Twitter or Facebook are risky.

Those three things alone make me wonder what’s happening. The Altimeter survey was conducted with professionals who deal with social media risk as part of their jobs. However, they might not be the people who actually deal with social media on a daily basis and understand how the world of social media and branding really works. I think that’s where the disconnect is and that’s why the results to this study are so alarming.

The message to companies is loud and clear based on the results from this study. Make sure your company takes brand reputation and social media risk seriously and have a team of people in place who understands social media to manage potential and real threats that can negatively affect brand performance and ultimately, brand equity.

What do you think of the study results? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Mari Smith

No Brand Loyalty for Mobile Phone Users

iphone ipadThere are 6.5 billion mobile phone subscribers in the world, but according to a survey of 1,660 of those mobile subscribers during the second quarter of 2012, only 34% are loyal to their mobile carriers, meaning they’ve stayed with the same mobile service provider for more than five years.

That’s according to the study report by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and Ricoh. Not only do mobile phone subscribers lack loyalty to mobile carriers, but they are also extremely willing to complain about poor experiences with their carriers — not just to the company but to everyone they know. Check out the statistics from the study below:

  • 34% of mobile subscribers have been with the same carrier for five years or more.
  • 29% of mobile subscribers consider themselves loyal to their carriers.
  • 41% of mobile subscribers say they are apathetic, on the fence, or just about gone when asked about their relationships with their mobile service providers.
  • 41% of mobile phone subscribers will lodge a complaint about a poor experience.
  • 36% of mobile subscribers will cancel their service after a poor experience.
  • 29% of mobile subscribers will tell everyone they know about a poor experience with a carrier.

Lack of loyalty and a propensity to tell anyone and everyone about negative experiences are huge problems for brands, and mobile carriers should be aggressively trying to turn both problems around. However, mobile carriers continue to ignore the warning signs and have yet to make the necessary changes to attract and retain customers as well as to increase positive word-of-mouth marketing.

When mobile subscribers were asked why they switch mobile carriers, money was the most mentioned factor. In fact, nearly three out of four respondents cited money as the reason they switch mobile carriers (74%). The breakdown of survey responses showed the following:

  • 48% switch due to high service plan costs.
  • 26% switch due to better deals with more all-inclusive options from competitor carriers.
  • 23% switch due to poor quality of service, including dropped calls and bad reception.

The biggest complaints among mobile subscribers according to survey responses are:

  • Hidden fees = 21%
  • Bad service or network speed = 17%
  • High data or text costs = 17%

The study shows that customers want lower fees and more personalized service and they make those demands very clear. However, a separate study by the CMO Council and Ricoh, which surveyed 147 marketers at mobile carrier companies around the world, found that marketers think technology innovation and advancements are what consumers want and what will build brand loyalty. That’s in stark contrast to the findings in the customer survey which reports just 13% of mobile subscribers consider themselves to be technology fiends who anxiously wait for the next big innovation.

Mobile carrier marketers describe their top engagement priorities as:

  • Retaining their most valuable customers and increasing loyalty = 47%
  • Improving the relevance of communications to customers = 40%
  • Developing new points of engagement = 38%
  • Educating customers through relevant content = 33%

One thing is certain, until mobile carriers accept and deliver what mobile subscribers actually want and need, there will continue to be a lot of carrier switching by unhappy consumers. What do you think?

Image: Yutaka Tsutano

What the Media Wants from Brands

Journalists and bloggers aren’t getting what they want from brands, which means brands are getting less publicity in media stories. That’s the primary finding from the PRESSfeed 2012 Online Newsroom and Digital Media Relations Survey. Today, journalists and bloggers find stories in different ways and expect story sources, like corporate newsrooms,to provide more than a bit of text if they want to see their brand names in media coverage.

The problem for corporate newsrooms whose employees work to generate publicity for the company and its brands is that they don’t know what journalists and bloggers want from them anymore. Times have changed and the statistics below show you what journalists think is important versus what corporate public relations professionals think is important:

  • Images: 80% of journalists vs. 26% of PR professionals think images are important.
  • Embed Codes: 76% of journalists vs. 28% of PR professionals think images are important.
  • Video: 75% of journalists vs. 43% of PR professionals think video is important.

The disparity between what journalists think is important to get from PR professionals and what PR professionals think is important to give journalists is significant. Despite the fact that research has shown images can increase story views by more than 75%, only 56% of PR professionals routinely include images with their press releases.

Furthermore, since more than three-quarters of Internet users get their news online today, it’s more important than ever to optimize story content for search engines. Images can also be search optimized, which means not only are images and video useful in getting journalists to notice and write about your brand’s news, they also help more people find those published stories via search engines. That means more exposure for your brand!

The infographic below shows all of the key data from the 2012 Online Newsroom and Media Relations Survey.

Click the image to view the full-size infographic in PDF format.

pressfeed infographic

What’s Next for Branded Apps? [Infographic]

age of apps infographic thumbnailThe past, present, and future of mobile apps, including branded apps, are depicted visually in an infographic from Neolane, which is shown below.

The Age of Apps infographic starts in 1993 when the first touchscreen phone debuted by IBM followed nine years later in 2002 with RIM’s first BlackBerry device. Fast forward just five years later to 2007 and Apple debuted the revolutionary iPhone. One year later in July 2008, Apple launched the App Store (followed in October 2008 by Google’s Android Market launch) and the worlds of mobile devices and mobile apps have never been the same.

By April 2009, over 1 billion apps had been downloaded from the Apple App Store, and exactly one year later, the iPad debuted. By August 2010, the Android Market reached over 1 billion apps downloaded. In 2012, Google Play (the new name launched this year for the Android Market) had reached over 15 billion app, and the Apple App Store exceeded 25 billion app downloads.

So what’s next for mobile apps? And why does it matter for brands? According to the infographic, some very important things will happen by 2016 that relate directly to brands:

  • By 2016, 44 billion apps downloaded
  • By 2016, app-to-person messaging will overtake text messaging
  • By 2016, 70% of iPhone users will have downloaded apps from well-known brands
  • By 2016, 60% of iPhone users will be interested in downloading apps from well-known brands

Check out the suggestions for creating branded apps based on the research presented in the infographic below. Hopefully, it will get your mobile creative juices flowing!

age of apps infographic

Image: Neolane