Corporate Eye

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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

5 Reasons Internal Brand Building Must Be a Strategic Priority

Over a year ago, I wrote a post on the Corporate Eye blog about the importance of internal brand building. In the post, I provided 10 suggestions for creative ways you can build your brand among employees. Unfortunately, many companies are still failing in this area. If your employees don’t believe in your brand and support it, why should consumers?

Still don’t believe internal brand building should be a strategic priority? The 5 reasons below just might change your mind.

1. Increase Motivation

When your employees believe in your brand, they’re is a natural increase in morale and productivity. If employees feel good about the company they work for, the brand their efforts support, and the work they do, those positive feelings translate directly to a positive impact on your company overall.

2. Increase Personal Accountability

If employees understand the brand promise that they work to support and how their efforts directly affect the brand’s success and fulfill consumer wants and needs, they’ll develop a stronger sense of personal accountability. In other words, they’ll take greater pride in their work, and they’ll want to deliver better results. In a nutshell, they’ll care.

3. Increase Word-of-Mouth Marketing

If your employees believe in your brand, they’ll be more likely to talk about it to friends, family, and anyone who will listen. They’ll advocate the brand online and offline to anyone who will listen, and they’ll guard it against naysayers. You can’t buy that kind of dedication, support, and positive publicity.

4. Increase Communication

When employees feel like they have an important place in the brand’s success and feel like they’re truly part of something greater than themselves (i.e., meeting consumer wants and needs), they’re more confident in sharing their thoughts and ideas. This increased level of open communication can lead to fantastic new innovations and opportunities for your company. It can also help to raise potential red flags before they turn into disasters.

5. Increase Talent Recruitment and Retention

Who doesn’t want to work for a company where the employees are motivated and happy? When your employees speak highly and openly about your brand, your company has a better chance of increasing retention rates and attracting new talent.

Image: stock.xchng

Study Puts Numbers to the Value of Facebook Fans for Brands

Just how much is each fan of your brand’s Facebook Page really worth? A new study by SocialCode puts the number at $9.56. As reported by AdAge, this number was derived from a study of over 5 million Facebook ads in multiple verticals which were placed by over 50 companies between May and September of 2011.

The research focused on the cost of getting new Facebook Page fans and on seven specific actions that brands typically want to motivate consumers to do on Facebook: install an application, enter a contest, vote in a contest, become a fan, sign up for a program, make a purchase, and enter a sweepstakes.

Using that data (shown in the chart below), SocialCode calculated the cost per acquisition by dividing the total cost of clicks by the total number of actions and came up with a Facebook Page fan value of $9.95.

Regardless of the monetary value the study places on a Facebook Page fan (which differs from study to study these days), you can trust the fact that this study demonstrates again that Facebook Page fans are easier to move to action and are more likely to convert in terms of performing a desired action than non-fans.

The SocialCode research found that the conversion rate for Facebook Page fans is 19% versus just 7% for non-fans. In fact, Facebook Page fans showed conversion rates as high as 500% in this study.

Therefore, while marketers still struggle to find ways to accurately value Facebook Page fans and social media as a whole, companies that understand the potential of that “500%” and what it means to a business in terms of brand-building, brand loyalty, and brand advocacy will be on their way to long-term success while everyone else will still be trying to muddle through the “value” numbers.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts about the value of Facebook Page fans and social media marketing. Can your executives make the necessary leap and understand that the brand needs to be in the social media space even if you can’t provide perfect numbers yet?

Image: AdAge

Blogs Influence Purchase Decisions More than Ever

Blogs are influencing purchase decisions and recommendations more than ever. According to Technorati’s 2011 State of the Blogosphere report, 38% of bloggers talk about brands positively and negatively on their blogs, and 34% write product, service, and brand reviews.

Furthermore, bloggers are influencing each other a lot more than they were just a year ago. In 2010, 29% of bloggers claimed to be influenced by the blogs they read, but in 2011, that percentage jumped to 68%.

There is no doubt that bloggers are gaining influence, particularly professional bloggers who are paid to write about specific topics. These authoritative bloggers have carved out a niche as credible sources of information, and people are listening to them.

Unfortunately, the 2011 State of the Blogosphere report provides some unfavorable information related to how brands interact with bloggers. Despite the broad reach and influence that bloggers have, only 1 in 2 feel that their interactions with brands are favorable. 17% indicated that brand representatives have asked bloggers to publish something or do something that would compromise the blogger’s credibility or the blog’s content standards. Furthermore, only 14% said that brand representatives are knowledgeable about the blog, its content, and its audience, and just 16% said that brand representatives are actually interested in building relationships with them. Amazingly, only 23% of brand representatives provide information that has value for a blogger’s readers.

Those are some poor statistics that clearly show brand representatives don’t understand how they need to approach and interact with influential bloggers. Traditional publicity pitches don’t work, and brand representatives need to work on understanding the blogger, the blog’s content, and the blog’s audience in order to build relationships with the blog and its readers. The statistics in the paragraph above are disappointing to say the least.

Are you or your brand representatives approaching bloggers in the wrong way? You’re not doing them any favors by “letting” them write about your brand. Influential bloggers know that they’re helping brands by writing about them. There needs to be something in it for them and their audiences or they won’t help you. Remember, influential bloggers are very busy people who get dozens or hundreds of pitches each day. If you want to get in front of their audiences, you need to do more than send an email with a copy of your latest press release.

Image: Flickr

Brands Increase Mobile Marketing Spending with a Local Focus

Each quarter, Millennial Media releases a report that tracks mobile marketing campaigns. The 3rd quarter 2011 report states that mobile advertising spending has grown across all verticals with 6 verticals growing over 140% in the past 12 months.

Fueling that growth during the past quarter was a 50% increase in local market targeting and a 78% increase in “post-click” options like the ability to watch a video.

The 6 verticals seeing the most growth in mobile marketing spending during the past year were:

  • Technology = 687%
  • Consumer products = 378%
  • Finance = 356%
  • Retail and restaurants = 184%
  • Pharmaceuticals = 163%
  • Entertainment = 145%

Looking at actual mobile advertising spending during the third quarter of 2011, the finance vertical topped the list in the United States followed by entertainment and retail/restaurants. Internationally, the entertainment vertical came out on top.

Location-based marketing and targeting really is the hot thing for mobile marketers, and the Millennial Media report found that campaigns which allowed consumers to view a map (for example, to find the location of a store to purchase a product) grew by 27% during the third quarter of 2011.

Furthermore, consumers are interacting with mobile marketing campaigns while they’re shopping. During the third quarter of 2011, the top activity among consumers in this study was searching for specific items in order to find a better price. Also, while shopping consumers use their mobile devices to search for product reviews.

The take-away from this study is simple. Brands are not only investing more money into mobile advertising and marketing campaigns but they’re also actively testing a variety of tactics to drive brand awareness and sales. Consumers are actively using their mobile devices to find information about brands both before and during their shopping excursions.

Brands want to find ways to tap into the “always on” consumer population who always have their mobile devices with them and use those devices all the time. It’s time to get on board and start conducting your own experimentation with mobile marketing before it’s too late and you’re left desperately trying to catch up.

Image: Flickr

Brands Create Unique Print Ads with QR Codes

Quick response codes (QR codes) are hot these days and brands are doing some really creative things with them in an effort to discover how best to use the technology to drive buzz and sales. Open a magazine, and you’re likely to find many ads with QR codes in them. However, simply displaying a QR code isn’t always enough to motivate people to use it. There needs to be a hook to move people to action.

Metrokane manufactures household products, including wine accessories. In an effort to creatively demonstrate how some of those wine products work, the company created a campaign that used strategically placed print ads, QR codes, and mobile apps.

Check it out in the three ad samples below. Each ad includes a message that says, “Scan the code and place your phone within the dotted area.” Instantly, there is sense of curiosity. When people do scan the code and place their phones in the dotted area in each ad, they’re rewarded with a demonstration of the product in action.

Clever copy taps into an emotional trigger that wine drinkers are likely to relate to. For example, the Upright Rabbit cork remover ad says, “Simple stopper. Aggravation dislodger.” The Electric Rabbit cork remover ad says, “Automatic cork/frustration remover.” Anyone who has ever struggled to remove a cork from a bottle of wine will relate to these messages!

Click each image to view a larger version with legible copy via Ads of the World.

Overall, this is a great example of how to use QR codes within offline media — no website required! The lesson to learn from the Metrokane ad campaign example is simple. Instead of just using QR codes to send consumers to your website or Facebook Page, think about how you can use them to enable your brand to interact with consumers within the media experience they’re already having — instantly.

What do you think of the Metrokane print ad campaign? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Coca-Cola Launches National QR Code Program in the United States

Together, Coca-Cola and the World Wildlife Federation are are finding creative ways to raise awareness about the conservation efforts taking place to help polar bears in the Arctic. Using a QR Code, an iPad and iPhone app, and Facebook, Coca-Cola has created a social game complete with prizes (including iPads) and a cause marketing connection.

Consumers can join the game by visiting a local 7-Eleven store where they can scan the QR code on cups in the store to download the Snowball Effect by Coca-Cola app to their iPhones or iPads. The app is also available in the iTunes store. Once the app is installed and connected to Facebook, players can start playing the entertaining snowball-throwing game.

The game is actually very simple. The more you play, the bigger your snowball gets and the better you can protect the polar bear’s home in the game. that means more points and better chances for prizes. Alternately, players can become members of 7-Eleven’s Slurpee Rewards program to get additional points by scanning QR codes on select Coca-cola product packaging.

7-Eleven will award the eight iPad prizes each week to players with the highest cumulative scores. After the final week of the campaign, eight randomly selected players will each get an iPad and the single player with the highest cumulative score will win a trip for 2 to the Arctic to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

Players can play alone in a practice mode, challenge their Facebook friends, or accept challenges from others, which adds a social element to the game. There is also a link in the app that leads directly to the World Wildlife Federation page where players can donate money to help with polar bear conservation. Coca-Cola will match all donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million.

The reviews for the app and game from players are positive so far, and the campaign is generating a lot of buzz. That’s great for Coca-Cola, 7-Eleven, the World Wildlife Federation, and polar bears!

Dubbed the Arctic Home campaign, this is a great example of how multiple brands can work together to create a meaningful social media campaign that integrates online and offline marketing as well as cause marketing strategies. Kudos to Coca-Cola, 7-Eleven, and the World Wildlife Federation for getting it right.

What do you think of the Arctic Home campaign? Love it or hate it? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Slurpee.com