GM’s Shifting Social Media Strategy: Is Dropping Facebook Ads a Smart Move?

The news that GM has decided to stop using paid Facebook advertising has created a big buzz. If the nation’s third largest advertiser isn’t getting enough bang for their buck from Facebook ads, the conversation goes, what does that mean for the rest of us?

GM reportedly spends approximately $40 million on Facebook. 75% of that investment is devoted to monitoring and maintaining GM’s Facebook presence, through the organization’s Facebook page. The remaining 25%, $10 million dollars, was going toward paid advertising.

Coming days before Facebook’s IPO, this announcement has left many people wondering if the social networking site’s financial model has a fatal flaw. Revenue projections based on increasing revenue from advertising may not bear fruit if dominant organizations—or those organizations that look to dominant organizations as a guide to their own marketing strategies—decide that the advertising on Facebook just isn’t worth it.

Should other organizations follow GM’s lead? Should Facebook advertising be abandoned? Should organizations focus exclusive on direct engagement with users on the organization’s Facebook page? Do those efforts even pay off, or will we see GM eventually pulling back from their $30 million dollar commitment?

Customers First: Brand Modeling to Make Smart Social Media Choices

If you read Customers First (or even one of our earlier books, like The Power of Cult Branding) you’ll see that successful companies gain their dominant market position by focusing intensely and exclusively on understanding their best customers. Developing a comprehensive, holistic view of who a brand’s customers are, with a special focus on the unconscious psychological factors that motivate their decision making, makes it possible to predict, with a high degree of certainty,  a patterns of customer preferences.

Knowing these preferences makes it easier for marketers to create marketing that will really resonate with their customers. It also helps them identify the best mix of marketing vehicles for their brand.  We call the process of identifying those preferences and deriving actionable information Brand Modeling. Put the right message in the right place is the first rule of marketing.

Customers aren’t shy.  They’ll happily tell you what they think about almost anything you ask, especially if you have established a relationship where your customers feel actively engaged with your brand. That’s why we think GM is making a really smart decision with their commitment to a content-heavy, high-touch approach to Facebook engagement.

To fully realize the potential of social media, it’s essential to focus on listening as much as—even more than—you talk. One of the best ways to develop a deeper understanding of your customer base is to listen to what people say when they tell you about themselves.  To do this in the most efficient manner, it helps to be equipped with the analytical tools necessary to derive meaning from conversation.

GM used their Facebook page to survey their fans directly about their Facebook usage and preferences. The data revealed from that conversation surely played a critical role in the decision to pull the plug on Facebook advertising.

Today, it’s the company that listens closely to its best customers’ wants and needs that wins. For GM, that means dropping Facebook advertising. For another organization, it may mean a more enthusiastic embrace of Facebook advertising. Your Brand Model will help you make the right choices for your organization. That’s the power of putting Customers First.

May 22, 2012 by

Safety in Social Media: An Impossible Dream?

Don Quixote in a Starry Night by mize2oo5 Creative CommonsSocial media is a powerful tool you can leverage to build your brand, but it can also leave you vulnerable to the the cruel contempt of the masses who think nothing of trashing your brand equity one “Like” at a time. That’s the thrust of this article in AdWeek, which details any number of social media “fails.” One misstep by a marketer—a poorly posed model, or too much enthusiasm for milkshakes—and suddenly, there’s a tornado in the Twitterverse.

No one, we’re to understand, is safe.  Henry Copeland of Blogads was quoted as saying, “The hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people out there are going to take your idea, and they’re going to try to shred it or tear it apart and find what’s weak or stupid in it.”

Obviously, this is bad news. Nobody wants the backlash. The situation gets worse when there’s no positive traction as a result of the campaign. An offensive marketing message is bad; an offensive marketing message that doesn’t resonate with your existing and likely potential customer base is worse.

Social media is starting to sound pretty precarious.

Are we faced with a Quixotic quest? Is communicating with our customers in an effective, compelling fashion while simultaneously avoiding starting Facebook firestorms even possible?

These are good questions. Answering them becomes easier when we have access to superior customer knowledge and the objective, analytic tools provided by Brand Modeling.

Social Media: The Challenge of Uncertainty

The biggest problem marketers are facing today is the biggest problem they’ve been facing for a long time. Well before Jack Dorsey sent his first tweet, business owners and entrepreneurs have been longing for a way to predict customer response to marketing messaging—preferably before the campaign is even launched.

Without the ability to predict customer response, we are in an undesirable state of uncertainty.

If we knew that a given campaign would be hugely, overwhelmingly popular and effective with our target audience, would that outweigh the impact of any potential controversy? That’s a legitimate decision, and one that leading brands have often made. What if the same campaign would only be moderately popular? What if the same campaign seemed to elicit no positive response at all? Dodging the controversy becomes much more appealing if there’s no identifiable benefit to be gained.

Without the ability to predict customer response, we can’t make intelligent, strategic decisions to secure and enhance our organization’s standing. It’s impossible. You can guess, of course, and lots and lots of companies are—but as the AdWeek article points out, there’s a better than good chance you’ll guess wrong at least once.

In Customers First: Dominate Your Market by Winning Them Over Where It Counts the Most we discuss the process of Brand Modeling, and how combining insights about the unconscious psychological drivers that motivate customer behavior with targeted statistical analysis makes it possible to predict, with a high degree of certainty, how customers will respond to your efforts to connect with them.

Yes, social media has been a game changer. It’s translated the cultural environment we were used to into a fast paced, dynamic and sometimes dangerous space. There’s no guarantee of safety here, but by making smart, strategic choices it is possible for your organization to consistently make the right choices, reaping benefits that far outweigh even the hottest Facebook firestorm.

We think Don Quixote would approve this message.

May 15, 2012 by

Leveling Up: Why The UBS/Guggenheim Collaboration Makes Good Sense

Pyramid of MenkaureThe contemporary art world is buzzing about a newly announced collaboration between UBS Wealth Management and the Guggenheim Museum. It’s easy to see what the excitement is about, especially from a creative perspective.  The five year initiative is going to chart creative activity and contemporary art from all around the world.

Many of the stories you’ll see about this collaboration will focus, with good cause, on the fact that the project is a substantial investment in moving the current conversation about contemporary art from a very Western point of view to a more global perspective.

The Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative will identify and support a network of art, artists, and curators from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa as part of a comprehensive program involving curatorial residencies, acquisitions for the Guggenheim’s collection, international touring exhibitions, and far-reaching educational activities.  It’s a huge project, with the potential to change everything we think we know about contemporary art and creative vision.

What we haven’t seen yet is an in-depth examination of why this collaboration is a good move for UBS Wealth Management. There’s no confirmed numbers available yet, but art experts have suggested that this type of project will easily set UBS back more than $40 million.

Why is UBS choosing to spend this much money, in this fashion?  This New York Times story hints at some of their thinking.  Jürg Zeltner, the chief executive of UBS Wealth Management, is quoted as saying, “As art is becoming more and more of an asset class, UBS is looking to increase our profile in these kinds of special fields of interest. More and more we are refocusing our strategy to reach emerging markets, and this project seemed like a perfect fit.”

That explanation comes from a place of logic and rationality, and does a great deal to explain why the collaboration will likely benefit UBS greatly.  It’s interesting to move the conversation to another dimension, and examine the unconscious psychological factors that will make this initiative appealing to UBS’s customers.

Customers First: What Motivates Your Customers?

Let’s take a moment to talk about Maslow. (Yes, that pyramid picture was a hint! Thanks for playing along.)

As you remember, Maslow’s research focused on identifying and prioritizing the compelling, if often unarticulated, needs that guide human behavior.  At the bottom of the pyramid, we find all the familiar needs—food, shelter, water, sex.  We certainly spend a lot of time here talking about the need to belong to a group and the esteem needs—it is essential that we find ourselves held in regard by those we respect, if we’re going to be contented human beings. For most businesses, identifying and meeting needs on this level can be an absolute game changer.  This is where dominant organizations begin to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.

But there’s another level on the pyramid. At the apex, the point of self-actualization, we see the needs for creativity, expression, morality—with an emphasis on agape and philanthropy—and freedom from prejudice. It’s important to note that these are needs everyone has, to some degree or another, but we don’t aren’t all equally consciously aware of or focused on them. Self-actualization is not a top priority for everyone.

However, UBS’s clientele is uniquely positioned to ensure that they have their self-actualization needs met.  Absent any other differentiating factors, an audience that is relatively free from the constraints of material wants will choose the wealth management service that provides the extra value of meeting these higher-order self-actualization needs. The collaboration with the Guggenheim allows UBS’s clients to participate in a creative endeavor on a global scale.

Will participating in this project gain UBS new clients? We’re not sure. But we can say with absolute confidence that it will strengthen the bond UBS has with their existing base, especially those who are most in touch with and aware of their ability to effect meaningful change in the world.  It’s a pretty picture for all involved.  That’s why the UBS/Guggenheim collaboration makes good sense.

April 24, 2012 by

The French Frontier: The Power of Predictability For Global Brands

PhotobucketStarbucks, it turns out, is not synonymous with seamless, stress-free success. Embracing a global strategy is an integral part of the coffee retailer’s much-talked about turnaround strategy, but after ten years of effort, things still aren’t great in Europe.  Particularly not in France, according to this New York Times story.

Starbucks has embarked on a multimillion dollar campaign to win over the European marketplace. Their efforts are pretty straightforward, and from our perspective, logical: everything from the the coffee recipe to the physical plant is being examined and altered to bring it more in alignment with the tastes and preferences of the local customer.

The changes may help—the strategy, after all, bears a close resemblance to what works for other American chain eateries that have gone global. But it raises one unavoidable question: How would things look different for Starbucks if they had done the groundwork to enter the European marketplace more effectively ahead of time? We’re not privy, of course, to the inner workings of their leadership team, but it seems a fair guess that not having to spend millions of dollars is always better for your financial position than being forced to spend millions in order to remain even vaguely competitive.

In other words, there’s power in predictability.  One of the key concepts of Brand Modeling is that developing a deep, comprehensive, humanistic understanding of your company’s best customers allows you to predict, with a high degree of certainty, how those customers will respond to your offerings. This allows you to be selective and efficient in your organizational decision making process.

For example, had Starbucks spent the time and energy to fully understand their best customers in France, they likely would have discovered their expectation—framed by the cultural mythos that permeates French life—that one does not walk down the sidewalk with a paper coffee cup in hand. Coffee is meant to be enjoyed in the cafe, at a leisurely pace. Armed with that knowledge, it would have been easier to see that the French Starbucks should include adequate seating space and avoid investing resources in takeaway coffee.

In Britain, incidentally, the situation is reversed. There, takeaway coffee enjoys popularity favorably comparable to the American experience. You can see where this is valuable information to have prior to breaking ground and building shops.

Starbucks isn’t alone in this situation.  Going global has stymied some brands. Burger King was a flop in Europe, whereas McDonald’s, who came very early to the wisdom of listening to local markets comprehensively and in detail, thrives.

It all comes down to customer knowledge. We are all competing in the environment full of empowered consumers. They know they have choices. The French consumer is not suffering from a lack of cafes to visit if Starbucks fails to please them. Dominant organizations are, and continue to be, those brands that are truly willing to step up and put their customers first.

April 10, 2012 by

Nestle: Trust Building Is Essential To Our Success

Nestlé corporate logoAlmost two years ago, Jose Lopez, executive VP of Operations for Nestle, was explaining to the Business Standard why the global foods, health, and nutrition brand, which claims to have a billion customers a day, is so successful. A particular focus of the interview was how Nestle decided to enter a marketplace, as well as their decision to source raw materials and labor in local markets.

What is revealed is that Nestle places a high value on knowing their customers, on a number of levels.  They’ve identified the universal concerns that cause their best customers to choose Nestle brand products rather than any other—product safety and high nutritional value tops the lists—and the local, market-specific criteria that helps Nestle bond with customers on an individual basis.

“Our factories here (in India) use Indian raw materials produced by Indian farmers to make products that are made to Indian tastes and are sold in the country. That is the way we operate.”

Nestle has been successful with this approach. The growth continues, according to this recent Wall Street Journal article, Nestle Projects Growth from Emerging Markets.

Customers First: How Nestle Reached the Top

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Lopez is very forthcoming about the reason for Nestle’s growth. “The first thing that comes to mind is clearly the trust that we have been able to build in our consumers. Second, is our passion for quality, and third, simple and clear business processes.”

Building that level of personal, profitable trust with customers is directly dependent on superior levels of customer knowledge.  Before you trust someone, you have to know them, and before that trust can be returning in any meaningful way, they have to know you. Transparent business practices are essential (and if Nestle has had stumbling blocks along the way, it has always been in those areas where they are perceived to be less than transparent in their marketing practices, particularly in the area of infant formula).

In Customers First:Dominate Your Market By Winning Them Over Where It Counts the Most, we examine some of the powerful unconscious psychological forces that motivate customer behavior.  There’s a universal need that we all share: we have a profound need to believe that we belong to a group, that we are valued and cared for as a member of society. We want to know—no, scratch that; it’s that we need to know—that we’re cared about.

This is a message that must reach the customer’s ears, heart, and mind. It’s always good to have the leadership spelling it out. In the Business Standard interview, Lopez said, “We want to provide the consumer a good diet. In addition to formulating such products, we want to teach them what’s good for them. Every Nestle product has a nutritional panel or compass on the pack which helps in understanding its nutritional value. The nutritional aspect of the products is what pleases the consumer, but it is also our responsibility to explain to him why it is good for him. The last thing we want is our consumers becoming victims of lifestyle-related diseases.” (emphasis ours)

Nestle’s making use of every touch point to convey their care and concern for customer health. Couple this with the substantial commitment the brand has made to understanding their customers wants and needs, and it becomes easy to see why the Nestle brand is one of the most successful in the world.  That’s what happens when you put Customers First!

April 2, 2012 by

Check Out the New Book: Customers First: Dominate Your Market By Winning Them Over Where It Counts The Most

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Customers are skeptical. They’ve been lied to by just about everyone who’s had the opportunity to do so. From role models who can’t keep extramarital affairs from wrecking their golf game to behemoth corporations betting against their own customers’ investments to politicians regularly resigning for engaging in the very activities they legislated against, no one has been telling the truth. You need an element of trust to get genuine customer buy-in, but we’ve spent a generation and a half teaching the
public to trust nobody.

This creates a problem for today’s business leaders. How do you connect with these empowered, educated, skeptical consumers?

This is a question of some urgency. If you don’t have the answer, you have to figure it out now, and you have to keep your business thriving at the same time. There’s absolutely no time to hesitate. If you cannot connect with your customers in a meaningful way, you will become irrelevant to them. When you’re irrelevant, you’re replaceable, and your customers will inevitably replace you with a brand that they do feel connected to.

Irrelevancy arrives in those still moments when an organization is facing uncertainty. These are the times when the
company is trying to figure out what to do. Choosing the right course is difficult: if you opt for the wrong direction, you’ll saddle your company with the burden of invisibility when you’re least prepared to bear it.

Customers First: How To Choose The Right Course Consistently

Choosing the right course is difficult, but it’s not impossible. Dominant organizations—companies like Nike, Apple, Harley-Davidson, and Ikea—seem to consistently pick the right course. They seem to know what the customer wants, even before the customers know they want it. They enjoy unparalleled customer loyalty, and that’s not all.  Dominant organizations seem to make fewer mistakes than their competitors. They make better decisions and enjoy greater profitability.

As a business leader, don’t you want to know how that happens? Don’t you want to be able to do it too? It’s possible when you have the right tools. That’s where Brand Modeling comes in. We’ve been doing exciting work, helping leading companies delve into the unconscious psychological factors that drive customer behavior, pinpointing those places where brand and consumer can form strong, lasting, and profitable bonds.

When you’re equipped with a comprehensive, multi-dimensional understanding of your customer, you can consistently choose the right course for your company.

That’s the topic of the new book, which is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I have to say, we’re pretty excited about this book. We worked hard to create the most complete, accessible explanation of the combination of complex psychological factors that control consumer behavior and what they mean to good companies striving to become great companies. Brand Modeling can provide your company with an unbeatable competitive advantage. You might want to check it out!

March 26, 2012 by

Seven Golden Rules of Cult Branding

 Why do people love this brand? Why are they so loyal to it? What does this brand mean to them? Why? Why? Why!

An interesting thing starts happening after you’ve asked a lot of questions for a long enough period of time. Not only do you start getting some really good answers, but you begin to see patterns and similarities between the responses that you receive.

This was exactly what happened in the dozens of interviews conducted. Clear patterns emerged. Although each of the nine brands was clearly different, their individual formulas for Cult-Branding success shared many of the same core ingredients.

These seven points won’t tell you everything there is to know about Cult Branding, but they will give you a nice overview and practical framework to utilize in your own marketing endeavors. Think of this list as your indispensable “Cult Branding Cliff Notes.” Here they are. Read them. Use them!

#1 – The Rule of Social Groups
Consumers want to be part of a group that’s different.

#2 – The Rule of Courage
Cult-Brand inventors show daring and determination.

#3 – The Rule of Fun
Cult Brands sell lifestyles.

#4 – The Rule of Human Needs
Listen to the choir and create Cult-Brand evangelists.

#5 – The Rule of Contribution
Cult Brands always create customer communities.

#6 – The Rule of Openness
Cult Brands are inclusive.

#7 – The Rule of Freedom
Cult Brands promote personal freedom and draw power from their enemies.

Learn more about each of the The Seven Rules of Cult Brands.

March 22, 2012 by

10 Strategies for Creating a Magnetic Brand that Attracts Loyal Customers

Brand loyalty doesn’t happen by accident. Brands that cultivate loyalty find ways to emotionally connect with their customers; these brands stand for something meaningful in their customers’ eyes.

How do you create and establish a successful brand that brings loyal, profitable customers to your door?

1) Build your business around your best customers instead of trying to aimlessly drive sales. Over time, your return on marketing and innovation efforts will rise. Apple is masterful at creating products especially for customers who love style, creativity, and simplicity.

2) Listen to what your best customers are telling you. Don’t be a transaction-making machine. Be a real person and build a business to serve real people. This is the key to cultivating customer loyalty. Southwest Airlines isn’t just another airline to its loyal customers who perceive Southwest as the “heart of the sky.”

3) Focus on what your brand does best. If you try to be all things to all people you’ll end up being nothing to everyone. Be bold. Be unique. Differentiate your brand around your strengths. Ritz Carlton is a hotel of ladies and gentleman serving ladies and gentleman. Volkswagen Beetle has built a distinctive brand around a special little car.

4) Understand what makes your customers tick. Learn how they think, feel, and behave towards your brand. This isn’t easy, but if you can decode these drivers, you’ll be better positioned to create long-term customers. Talk to your customers. Read their comments about you and your products on the web. Read blog posts related to your brand. Most of all, truly listen to what your customers are saying.

5) Identify your customers’ drivers of choice. Why are your current customers buying from you instead of your competitors? Knowing the answer to this question can define the future of your enterprise. Understanding drivers of choice isn’t easy because you need to decode the conscious and unconscious motivators influencing your customers’ buying decisions.

6) Be relentless in serving your best customers better than anyone else. Give them plenty of reasons to stay with you and no reasons to leave. Push your business to continually find ways to make your customers’ lives easier and better. Brands like Amazon.com and Netflix are constantly finding ways to enhance the customer experience by refining algorithms to recommend products and movies the customer will enjoy.

7) Find ways to wow and surprise your best customers. Do something extraordinary and unexpected for them. Instead of playing with “word-of-mouth marketing” programs, focus on better serving your customers and word of mouth will happen naturally. Online retailer Zappos is masterful at producing the wow factor by providing free, surprise upgrades to overnight delivery, random gifts, and hand-written notes to their customers.

8) Determine what your brand stands for and deliver on your promise. You must become relentless in your dedication to deliver on your brand promise each and every day. Harley-Davidson customers love the freedom of the open road and the brand promises that freedom. Oprah stands for empowerment, hope, and the promise of a better tomorrow.

9) Build a brand model that identifies the psychological motivators, key characteristics, and emotional connections your customers have with you. An effective brand model will describe your customers’ mindsets, attitudes, and behaviors toward your brand. Every successful brand has some form of a brand model. Major brands go through formal processes to construct their brand models.

10) Use your brand model to make all business decisions. An effective brand model accurately predicts customer behavior because the model takes into account the psychological drivers of your customers. If your new ad doesn’t hit on what’s important to your customers, don’t run it. If you’re innovating in a direction that isn’t relevant to your brand lovers, change directions. An effective brand model removes the guesswork in building a magnetic brand that attracts more loyal customers.

Most businesses struggle because they don’t identify whom their business is especially for. Market research and focus groups don’t provide the answers because ninety percent of consumer behavior is unconscious. Customers rarely articulate their true motivations even when directly questioned—people simply cannot describe why they really do what they do. Your job as an entrepreneur, brand manager or chief marketing executive is to figure out what motivates your best customers. You need psychological insights into the motivations behind your customers’ behaviors—how they think and feel about your brand. These consumer insights will provide the business lens needed to evaluate marketing strategies, advertising campaigns, and product innovations.

Where to go from here
March 22, 2012 by

Do you know why customers buy from you?

Why spend millions on research that doesn’t help grow your business?

Market research provides the wrong answers to the right questions. Over 90% of customer behavior is unconscious. Customers rarely articulate their true motivations even when directly questioned—people simply cannot describe why they really do what they do.

From our experience, the majority of market research and customer focus groups become irrelevant once you figure out what motivates your best customers.

Predicting customer Behavior

Most successful brands understand the value of a brand model: To predict customer behavior.

The Brand Lover Model® provides the right answers to the questions that drive growth.

Our unique approach to brand modeling provides accurate predictions of customer behavior. BLM unlocks customer loyalty and helps you attract profitable customers who create new customers for you through word of mouth.

BLM gives you the psychological insights into the motivations behind your customer’s behavior—how they think and feel about your brand. The Model uses humanistic psychology, archetypal imagery and cultural mythology to identify the patterns your best customers share.

We employ in-depth customer interviews with your best customers, customized psychological assessments, market surveys, and quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Why Build a Brand Model

But how we get to the answers isn’t as important as the answers themselves. Your completed Brand Lover Model offers insights you can use right away:

  • Drivers of Choice: Why your best customers buy from you instead of your competitors. BLM uncovers the conscious and unconscious psychological motivators driving your customer’s relationship with your brand.
  • Drivers of Differentiation: What makes your brand stand out in the eyes of your customers. BLM tells you how to differentiate and be chosen more often than your competitors.

Brand Lover Model® 2.0 provides critical customer insights that can help you better evaluate marketing strategies, advertising campaigns, and product innovations.

Marketing executives often make up what they want to hear. The Brand Lover Model helps you determine if what you’re doing is actually working. Instead of going exclusively with gut emotions—or with just doing what you’ve always done—our effective model can more accurately tell you what’s really going on with your business, with your customers, and in your industry.

Hire the leaders in Branding Research

Many consulting research firms and advertising agencies are trying to mimic what we do, but this process isn’t just about interviews, polls, and statistics.

Led by Cult Branding expert BJ Bueno, our team of thought leaders, brand strategists, psychologists, writers, biologists, photographers, technologists, and business philosophers brings fresh perspective to our creative process. To predict customer behavior and create your Brand Lover Model®, we combine analytical prowess with intuitive finesse.

Our clients include Kohl’s Department Stores, Turner Classic Movies, Scheels, Thomas Nelson Publishers and LA Lakers.

After completing our Brand Lover Model and learning who our best customers are, BJ Bueno and his team helped us construct an entirely new, innovative merchandising system based on the needs of the customer. Sales rose 26% over the previous year after book retailers installed the new system.
— Wayne Hastings, Sr. Vice President at Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Let us help you build a powerful Brand Lover Model® for your business. Review our frequently asked questions or fill out the form below for more information.

Ready to create your ultimate marketing plan?

Let’s get the conversation started >>

 

March 22, 2012 by