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Teens Loud and Strong in Word-of-Mouth Marketing

teen-word-of-mouth-marketingA report from the Keller Fay Group, reported by BrandWeek, delivers interesting results related to a year-long research study.  According to the study, the hyper-social lives of teenagers helps brands.  It turns out, teens are responsible for a “disproportionate amount of word-of-mouth about products and services.”

What amazes me from this study is not that teens talk about brands and are a powerful form of word-of-mouth marketing but that the majority of those discussions happen in-person.  In a time in history when it seems teens are hyper-connected and the forgotten art of face-to-face communication is fading away faster than ever, a full 75% of word-of-mouth marketing generated by teens is done through face-to-face communications.  Just 13% of word-of-mouth marketing by teens occurs online and only 10% happens via telephone.

Another point that stands out in the Keller Fay Group study is the finding that tell us which brands teens are talking about the most:

  1. Coca-Cola
  2. Apple
  3. Verizon
  4. iPod
  5. Ford
  6. Pepsi
  7. McDonald’s
  8. AT&T
  9. Sony
  10. Nike

It turns out that teens involved in the study engaged in “significantly more” word-of-mouth marketing related to “all categories” than the total consumer audience.  Consider these statistics:

  • 78% of teens engage in word-of-mouth marketing related to entertainment and media compared to just 57% of the general public.
  • 67% of teens engage in word-of-mouth marketing related to technology compared to just 39% of the general public.
  • 63% of teens engage in word-of-mouth marketing related to telecommunications compared to 39% of the general public.
  • 59% of teens engage in word-of-mouth marketing related to retail and apparel compared to 38% of the general public.
  • 63% of teens engage in word-of-mouth marketing related to sports, recreation and hobbies compared to 42% of the general public.
  • 45% of teens engage in word-of-mouth marketing related to personal care and beauty compared to 26% of the general public.

Of course, it’s important to remember that a teen’s audience is typically not as broad as an adult’s, and a teen’s reach is not as wide as an adult’s.  Furthermore, a teen’s sphere of influence and credibility is not often well-established as an adult’s might be.  Therefore, the power of a teen’s word-of-mouth marketing is relative to his or her reach and authority.  However, for brands that target teens, this data should be considered quite compelling and used to support budget requests for brand-building, social media marketing, content marketing, and other activities that elicit word-of-mouth marketing.

What do you think?

Image: stock.xchng

Wildlife Trust Rebrands as EcoHealth Alliance

wildlife-trust-logoWildlife Trust is a nonprofit organization that began in 1971 with a focus on wildlife conservation, but over the past 20 years, the organization has expanded its focus to include conservation medicine based on research about the relationships between ecosystems and animal and human health around the world.

Throughout the past two years, the organization’s board of directors, staff and alliance members have been working on rebranding Wildlife Trust, and today, the new brand was introduced officially via a press release.

Wildlife Trust has been renamed as EcoHealth Alliance with a new website and slogan: “Local Conservation, Global Health.”  The new EcoHealth Alliance logo is shown below.


ecohealth-alliance-logo


The goal of the rebranding effort is to more accurately present the organization’s dual focus on local wildlife conservation and it’s ongoing leadership in the area of conservation medicine and the relationships between animal ecosystems and human health.  The effort won’t stop with a new name, logo and website.  EcoHealth Alliance is also hiring new scientists, forming new alliance partnerships, and developing more programs to support the brand’s dual focus.

As the EcoHealth Alliance website explains:

“EcoHealth Alliance works at the intersection of ecosystem, animal and human health through local conservation programs and develops global health solutions to emerging diseases.”

Furthermore, EcoHealth Alliance is marketing its new brand focus with messaging that positions the organization as being on, “the forefront of informing the public, businesses, and the scientific community about emerging diseases, including potential pandemics.”

If it was the organization’s goal to shift its brand focus, then one would think that they made a wise strategic move in rebranding to better promote their efforts related to health and medicine.  To the average individual, the Wildlife Trust was very much rooted in wildlife conservation with the masses knowing very little about the organization’s other priorities.  The new branding puts health and medicine center stage with wildlife conservation taking a back seat.  It appears that this was the intent of the rebranding effort, and if that’s true, then the rebranding should work well.

What do you think?  Does the rebranding work?  When you look at the new logo and hear the new brand name, do you still think of wildlife conservation or has the entire brand promise shifted with this rebranding effort?  I’m leaning toward the latter.  I wonder if that was truly the organization’s intent.

Your thoughts?

Two Colors Dominate Web Branding

social-web-logos-2In a recent article on ColourLovers.com, the two most popular colors for brands on the web were determined to be blue and red.  In fact, blue and red aren’t just in the lead — they dominate the web.  Take a look at the image showing just a handful of logos for major players in the world of social media to see for yourself!

Interestingly, the research done by ColourLovers.com also found that brands in similar categories use similar color schemes in their branded online destinations.  However, it appears that for most of these brands, color palettes were chosen in a far less technical manner than you might expect.

Most of the popular online destinations started small with no budgets for logo development.  Colors were chosen not based on research but rather on what leaders of these technology start-ups thought looked good.

Sometimes branding really is that simple, and sometimes that simple approach actually works.

The popularity of blue and red online isn’t really surprising if you look at color branding offline.  As ColourLovers.com points out, a study conducted a decade ago by Wired Magazine revealed that blue and red dominated brands and logos of Corporate America at the time.  This was years before brands like Twitter and foursquare became household words.

But what do blue and red actually mean?

Blue: Cool blue is perceived as trustworthy, dependable, fiscally responsible and secure. Strongly associated with the sky and sea, blue is serene and universally well-liked. Blue is an especially popular color with financial institutions, as its message of stability inspires trust.

Red: Red activates your pituitary gland, increasing your heart rate and causing you to breathe more rapidly. This visceral response makes red aggressive, energetic, provocative and attention-grabbing. Count on red to evoke a passionate response, albeit not always a favorable one. For example, red can represent danger or indebtedness.

What do you think?  Are blue and red the best choices for online brands?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Twitter Repositions with a New Brand Message

tweeterSince Twitter debuted a few years ago, the site has been considered a social destination — a cross between blogging and social networking dubbed microblogging where users can share 140-character or less snippets with links to more content through third-party, off-site applications.  This week, the Twitter team announced that the time has come for the Twitter brand to be repositioned as a news site rather than a social site and with that comes a redesign of the Twitter site.

The reason for a Twitter brand repositioning is cited as a change in usage habits.  No longer are people tweeting simply to converse with other users.  Today, people tweet breaking news as they witness it.  Examples include an eyewitness who tweeted the crash of an airplane in New York’s Hudson River, news from people in Iran during the protests following a controversial election, and even tweets from people trapped with few other communication options after earthquakes destroyed areas of Haiti.

Both journalists and individuals turn to Twitter as a place to share news and consume news, and it’s that news consumption that Twitter sees as leading the next generation of the site.  The new redesign is intended to keep people on the site longer, whether or not they are actively tweeting.  If people spend more time on the site, advertisers will be more inclined to invest and those investments will be larger.

It makes sense that the Twitter redesign is being rolled out with a two-pane design — one where tweets are visible and another where additional related content will be displayed.  According to an article from BBC News, Twitter reports having closed deals with, “16 photo and video sites including YouTube and Flicker to have their visual content embedded on the site.”  In other words, contextually relevant content will appear alongside the tweets that people are already interested in.  It stands to reason that if the additional content is interesting to both Twitter users and Twitter consumers, those people will stick around and take a closer look at that content.

What do you think?  Has the Twitter brand evolved organically into a news source or is it still a social site that happens to offer an easy way for news to spread quickly?  Will the Twitter team’s efforts at repositioning the site as a news destination rather than a social destination work?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts on this interesting branding story that truly is playing out in real-time right before our eyes.

Image: stock.xchng

YellowPages.com Rebrands as YP with New Ad Campaign

yp-logoIn a press release published by AT&T this week, a rebranding ad campaign was announced that will kick off with a series of ads intended to reposition YellowPages.com as the new YP with a message to users — “live locally.”  The press release explains:

The multimillion dollar campaign shines the spotlight on how the YP brand can help users to experience more, do more, and ultimately live more through a better local search experience. Inspirational advertisements across national TV, print, digital and local-market outdoor ads capture the evolved brand personality and position YP as a brand that understands the intent behind a local search. Each ad builds on that theme by sharing a person’s story and real motivation behind their search.

“This major brand campaign reflects how much the YP brand has evolved and how it continues to play a significant role in consumers’ lives,” said Erick Soderstrom, vice-president of AT&T Brand Management and Advertising. “The TV spots kicking off this week emphasize that the YP brand isn’t just an everyday utility, but something that encourages users to spend more time discovering and doing the things they love.”

As BrandWeek reports, “the campaign’s goal, according to Erick Soderstrom, vp of brand management and advertising at AT&T, is to move beyond the basic, or ‘functional’ side of local searching and into the ’emotional’ side.  The message is targeted toward consumers ages 18 to 35, who are heavily immersed in the idea of ‘experiences.’ The company calls these local search users ‘digital do-mores,’ or people who are ‘very multifaceted, very mobile and digitally savvy,'” Soderstrom said.

YP.com is one of the top 40 Web domains in the United States, according to BrandWeek, and the new campaign and local focus will undoubtedly help to keep it there.  Can AT&T successfully build YP.com into an emotional brand linked with experiences?  Given AT&T’s reported focus on the mobile consumer audience for the new YP.com, it appears they’re on the right track.  However, it seems that a mobile-social element is the puzzle piece that could take this effort to the next level of success.  For example, there is a reason why people like foursquare.

What do you think?

The Real Reasons People ‘Like’ Brands on Facebook

A report released by ExactTarget reveals some interesting insights into the real reasons why people “like” brands on Facebook.  In an April 2010 survey reported by eMarketer, ExactTarget asked participants what their motivations were for “liking” a company, brand or association on Facebook.

The main reasons according to the study are listed below:

  • 40% = To receive discounts and promotions
  • 39% = To show my support of the company to others
  • 36% = To get a freebie such as free samples or coupons
  • 34% = To stay informed about the company’s activities
  • 33% = To get updates about future products
  • 30% = To get updates about future sales
  • 29% = For fun or entertainment
  • 25% = To get access to exclusive content
  • 22% = Someone recommended it to me
  • 21% = To learn more about the company
  • 13% = For education about company topics
  • 13% = To interact, share ideas, and provide feedback

The most interesting point about this data is that three of the responses are related to receiving discounts and coupons (40% want to receive discounts and promotions, 36% want to get a freebie such as a free sample or coupons, and 30% want to get updates about future sales).  These results aren’t that different from prior research reports related to why people follow brands and companies on the social web.

The biggest takeaways from recent studies related to why people follow brands are:

  1. People want access to discounts and freebies.
  2. People want information about upcoming products before products hit stores.
  3. People want to have fun and be entertained.
  4. People want to learn through interesting, exclusive content that adds value to their lives.

That’s what you need to do to get people to like your brand on the social web.  Give people the four things listed above.  If they get those things, they’ll “like” your brand.  They’ll tell their friends about it.  And they’ll even join the conversation.  Why?  Because you’re engaging them by delivering what they want and need in an interesting, entertaining manner.

In other words, take the social web down to its most basic level.  What do customers want?  Those things are listed above.  Give those things to the online audience, and you’ll have taken your first step to social media marketing and online brand building success.