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Brand Messages Affect Just 1 in 10 Purchase Decisions

laptop_web_searchA new study from Alterian (via eMarketer) reveals some statistics that are actually not all that surprising if you’ve been following my posts here on Corporate Eye for the last year or so.

According to the survey, only 1% of respondents (made up of Internet users from the United States and the United Kingdom) never compare products and services before making a purchase.  The results of the survey were as follows:

  • 51% always compare products and services before making a purchase
  • 44% sometimes compare products and services before making a purchase
  • 4% rarely compare products and services before making a purchase
  • 1% never compare products and services before making a purchase.

And of those people surveyed, 71% said they look for as many sources to find information as possible to ensure the information they find is accurate.

However, the above findings are not the most interesting from the Alterian study.  The far more interesting information comes from responses to who respondents are most likely to trust for advice when researching a product or service.  In answer to that question, only 13% said they trusted what a company says about itself or advertising or promotional features.  The results of the survey were as follows:

  • 40% trust friends and family
  • 28% trust professional reviews on Web sites, newspapers or magazines
  • 19% trust reviews from people “like you” on Web sites
  • 8% trust what the company says about itself
  • 5% trust advertising or promotional features

This is not the first time these type of research revealed similar findings.  Back in 2007, I remember writing a piece about research conducted at that time that showed consumers trusted advertisers and companies less than they trusted friends, family members, and even complete strangers who wrote about products and services online.

In other words, the findings from this survey are not new, but they certainly do add to the growing pile of evidence that supports shifting marketing budgetary investments away from traditional advertising and toward new media conversations.

What do you think?  Has your company made the budget shift to actually gain favor with consumers where their eyes, ears and trust are?

Image: stock.xchng

Online Display Advertising is Growing but No Single Brand Dominates

internet__browserAccording to comScore, display advertising is making a big comeback since the economic downturn in 2009.  During the first quarter of 2010, the U.S. Internet audience received over 1 trillion display ads (up 15% from the same period in 2009).

Facebook and Yahoo! served the most display ads to the U.S. Internet audience during the first quarter of 2010 as shown below:

  • Facebook.com = 16.2%
  • Yahoo! Sites = 12.1%
  • Microsoft Sites = 5.5%
  • Fox Interactive Media = 4.9%
  • AOL LLC = 2.9%
  • Google Sites = 2.4%
  • Turner Network = 1.4%
  • Glam Media = 0.7%
  • eBay = 0.7%
  • Tagged.com = 0.6%

The story is a bit different, however, in terms of companies that pay for those display ads with no single company or brand leading the way.  According to comScore, the share of first quarter 2010 display advertising impressions was spread across a large number of companies and brands as you can see from the list of the top 10 display advertisers by number of impressions to the U.S. Internet audience during the first quarter of 2010 shown below:

  • AT&T = 2.4%
  • Verizon Communications – 2.1%
  • Scottrade, Inc. = 1.5%
  • Experian Interactive = 1.4%
  • Sprint Nextel Corporation = 0.9%
  • Netflix, Inc. = 0.9%
  • eBay, Inc. = 0.9%
  • Intuit Inc. = 0.8%
  • Privacy Matters 1-2-3 = 0.8%
  • IAC – InterActiveCorp = 0.8%
  • Everyone else = 87.5%

Online display advertising is fair game for any company or brand.  The fact that does stand out from comScore’s findings is that the mobile communications carrier category is represented three times in the top 10 list of display advertisers by brand impressions (AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Sprint Nextel Corporation).

Another finding that’s not particularly surprising is Intuit’s place on this list.  Given that the first quarter of the year in the United States also marks tax season, it’s not surprising that companies like Intuit (a tax software provider) is included in the top 10 list above.  The vast majority of Intuit’s advertising budget is probably spent during the first quarter of the year.

I’d love to see a trend chart using this data over the course of a year or longer.  What do you think?  Any surprises in this list?  Were you surprised to learn that there isn’t a dominant player (or players) when it comes to number of display ad impressions?

Image: stock.xchang

Chief Marketing Officers Admit Confusion and Concerns

graphChief Marketing Officers surveyed by Aprimo and Argyle Executive Forum at an Argyle event in New York City in April 2010 admitted to their current concerns and confusion, particularly related to calculating return on investment and integrating marketing efforts.

According to the survey, Chief Marketing Officers cited the following as elements that are “most broken in marketing”:

  • “Correlating marketing activities to revenues” = 39%
  • “Lack of marketing channel integration” = 27%
  • “Perceived lack of value from marketing” = 10%

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) were also asked to define “the CMO’s biggest challenges today” to which the top responses were as follows:

  • “Integrating and tracking multiple channels” = 37%
  • “Doing more with less” = 28%
  • “Accountability/measurement” = 18%
  • “Being able to control messages in light of social media” = 11%
  • “Keeping up with social media” = 6%

Furthermore, Chief Marketing Officer’s were asked “what is driving the highest degree of change to your marketing strategies” and provided the following responses:

  • “Increased requirement for ROI/accountability” = 27%
  • “Creating more compelling customer/prospect experiences” = 37%
  • “Drive to digital marketing” = 18%

Clearly the biggest problem for Chief Marketing Officers is accountability — without being able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that marketing initiatives directly drive profits, it’s nearly impossible to secure a future marketing budget, let alone keep your job.  However, so much of marketing these days cannot be accurately measured with hard metrics.  It’s not surprising that Chief Marketing Officers are typically the “fall guys” when companies aren’t making the numbers shareholders demand.

Additionally, the biggest area of confusion for Chief Marketing Officers is social media and digital marketing.  How else can one explain the low rankings in this survey for all things related to social media and digital marketing?  The reason those elements are ranked low is because Chief Marketing Officers don’t understand them enough to place value on them.  And since it’s very difficult to track social media marketing return on investment with hard metrics, it’s not surprising that social media is not considered a priority among this audience whose annual bonuses are directly tied to quantifiable results.

It seems marketers are living in a time where they’re set up for failure.  The marketing opportunities are there to leverage, but since they’re not easily quantifiable (similar to how brand value is not easily quantified but is inherently powerful), they’re ignored for easily trackable initiatives.  What’s a marketer to do?

Your thoughts?

Image: stock.xchang

Wikipedia Puts Usability on Top around the World

Wikipedia is a popular site whether you want to admit it or not.  Sure, the content is user-generated and often flawed, but it is a handy place to get quick tidbits of information.  Personally, I find the links in the Resources section of articles to be a quick and easy way to verify facts and gather more information.  Again, it’s quick and easy, but we all know you need to do some additional research before you rely on anything you read on Wikipedia.

With that said, we’re all familiar with the boring, plain, text-heavy pages on Wikipedia as well as the iconic Wikipedia globe logo.  When you land on a Wikipedia Web page, you know where you are before you even have to scroll.

Despite that recognition, Wikipedia spent the past year researching the usability of its Web site, and last week launched a prototype new Wikipedia site design that is being beta tested with nearly 700,000 users.  The new look is shown below (you can get a better look here) and offers more color, a ‘boxy’ look that puts more content above the fold in a more organized design, and what looks like easier navigation.

wikipedia_prototype

Additionally, the new Wikipedia logo — an updated 3-D globe — has been launched, which is described on the Wikimedia blog as representing, “a new chapter in the history of the logo … as volunteers examined languages and scripts that were not represented in the previous iteration of the puzzle globe.”

wikipedia_logo_old_new

Users are even invited to create local versions of the Wikipedia logo to make it more relevant to local cultures.  I have to give Wikipedia credit for investing the time and money into making these changes.  Regardless of how you feel about the content on Wikipedia, this branding effort and usability initiative are both strong positives for the company and site overall.

What do you think?

Listening and Discussing – The Social Media Success Imperatives

listenOne of the most important aspects of any social media marketing strategy is research, which comes not just in the form of segmenting audiences and analyzing statistics but also in the form of listening to the conversations going on across the social Web.  For a company’s social media marketing plan to be successful, listening and joining discussions are the two most basic imperatives.

IBM understands that listening is the cornerstone of social media marketing.  In fact, IBM has a social media program called Listening for Leads that utilizes what the company calls seekers (who work on a voluntary basis) to listen to social media conversations happening on key Web sites where the company’s target audiences spend time.  When seekers identify conversations that could generate leads, they notify appropriate IBM representatives who join and follow up on those discussions.

According to an interview with Ed Linde of IBM, which was conducted by eMarketer last month, the IBM Listening for Leads program has been the company’s most successful social media marketing initiative citing millions of dollars in sales leads and a tremendous amount of closed deals.  Linde attributes IBM’s success from its Listening for Leads program to two primary factors:

  1. Using enough employees as seekers who each voluntarily spend a couple of hours per week listening to social media conversations (in addition to performing their regular IBM job functions) to uncover a good amount of credible leads.
  2. Knowing where to look for conversations (i.e., where target audiences spend time on the social Web) and what keywords to search for in order to find relevant, actionable discussions.

Thanks to the social Web, companies have the ability to legally and ethically eavesdrop on real-time conversations, join those conversations, and offer suggestions, help and solutions right when people are looking for information or assistance.  It’s an amazing opportunity!

Are you using your existing employees to help you keep up with social Web conversations that could lead to new business?  IBM’s Listening for Leads program is a perfect example of a company that understands the importance of social Web conversations and used out-of-the-box thinking to keep up with and respond to those conversations thereby turning them into tangible business results.

Image: Flickr

Advertising, Social Media, and Neuroscience – Marketing by the Numbers

neuroscience_brainwavesIn the first study of its kind, NeuroFocus (a leading neuromarketing company) researched how consumers subconsciously react to ads viewed on different media.  Specifically, the company used its own brain measurement technology to analyze consumers’ responses to VISA’s “Trip for Life” television commercial related to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.  Consumers watched the ad on television during the Olympic Games, on a special VISA-created Olympics Web site, and on a VISA-created Olympics Facebook page.

Key results reported by NeuroFocus included:

  • Overall effectiveness for the ad, especially with women: highest on Facebook
  • Purchase intent generated by the ad: highest on both Facebook and TV
  • Messaging carried by the ad: strongest on the Internet, with Facebook stronger than the Web site
  • Attention-getting: highest on the Internet
  • VISA brand perception: lifted most strongly TV

These findings certainly indicate that social media marketing has strong effects on consumers’ subconscious minds and can even effectively boost purchase intent.  However, it’s also important to note that social media comes in many forms and those forms are multiplying and changing quickly.  With the widespread use of smartphones, the new iPad, and more gadgets undoubtedly coming soon to make it easier to access the Internet than ever, social media marketing is like the Wild West with few rules and even fewer people knowing what they’re doing.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that executives are afraid to take the risk necessary to build a social media marketing strategy that actually works.

For corporate brand managers and marketers, you can add the results from this report to your arsenal.  Next time you need to argue for social media marketing for brand building and marketing with senior management, take these statistics with you as evidence that social media marketing has tangible benefits in terms of motivating consumers to action just as traditional advertising and marketing does.  Ask them to argue the case for television advertising over social media marketing.  See if they can provide any argument other than “because TV ads are what we’ve always done,” and then challenge them to come up with a better argument.  You might not win, but you might successfully plant a seed that will grow into a bigger social media marketing budget in the future.

Image: Flickr