Forrester's Consumer Forum Blog

Andy Sernovitz: Join the Conversation...not just about marketing

I had the opportunity to spend a little time talking to Andy Sernovitz, CEO of WOMMA, following his participation in a panel discussion moderated by Peter Kim with the topic,  Word of Mouth Marketing: Have You Heard The Latest? The other panel participants were Sam Decker of Bazaarvoice, Dave Balter, BuzzAgent and Jon Berry, Keller Fay. Chloe Stromberg has a great write up of this panel discussion.

Andy has written a new book called, Word of Mouth Marketing, How Smart Companies Get People Talking. A few weeks earlier I had received a review copy of the book that was packaged along with a bag of popcorn from Dale and Thomas Popcorn. Apparently the popcorn was delicious...my son grabbed it, tossed me the book, and all I actually experienced of that, was the empty bag. In any event, Andy does practice what he writes. He also brought copies of his book for the panel audience.

I asked Andy what he wanted the book to accomplish and he said simply, he wanted to provide an easy to understand guide for people to use to get started in word of mouth marketing. That answer was in keeping with the Forrester Consumer Forum where the question, "How Do You Get Started?" was frequently asked and answered as it related to social computing, social media, and improving customer experience. So many conferences lead you to the place where you want to get started, but stop just short of telling you how.

Business books seem to come in two flavors: Why you should and How to. Andy's book starts with the basic concepts of word of mouth, hits the high points of why you should, and then gets right down to building the plan; he ends with sixteen things to start doing right now. He delivers on his goal of providing a quick start guide to word of mouth, with just enough background and concepts to keep you going.

Another really great thing about the book is Chapter 7,  Taking Part: How Can You Join The Conversation?

He points out that although word of mouth marketing is marketing, in other words an outbound function; that the conversation is not just marketing. He highlights this "Big Idea: Word of mouth is as much about customer service as it is about marketing." He suggests that the customer service team should monitor the Internet for product and company mentions. He says to view customer service calls as part of THE conversation; I think we might just miss this subtle point when we talk about "joining the conversation" in the context of social media.  Whether you or your company blog or not, or whether you are being blogged about, you are involved in "the Conversation" every time a customer service rep or tech support speaks to the customer.

The disconnect between the marketing message whether delivered via word of mouth or via any other manner, that can occur in customer service can stop positive word of mouth and make it negative faster than you can say, press 1 to confirm that you are already upset or you wouldn't be calling and that you understand you will be waiting for a long time before you are connected to our untrained support team who does not speak your language....

So, read Andy's book and remember to include all consumer touch points in your word of mouth plans...and listen. And #16 of the must do's: Be nice.

Andy Sernovitz, forrcf, Forrester, Forrester Consumer Forum, Peter Kim, Keller Fay, BzzAgent, BazaarVoice, Marianne Richmond, WOMMA, word of mouth, customer service

Voices on the Consumer Forum blog

By Chloe Stromberg - Researcher, Marketing, Forrester

This is just to say that, with all of our bloggers' blessings, I've added a by-line to the top of each of our posts on this blog.  Again, our two guest bloggers are Christopher Carfi, Co-Founder of Cerado and Marianne Richmond, Founder of Resonance Partnership.  Sarah Rotman Epps and I are Researchers on Forrester's eBusiness and Marketing teams, respectively.

Leadership

By Chloe Stromberg - Researcher, Marketing, Forrester

Lisa Bradner presented a powerful idea during her Tues session on Organic Branding.

The gist was this: Social computing, Web 2.0 -- call it what you like -- is the perfect storm of massive broadcast power and accessible communication tools in the hands of consumers.  This represents a seismic shift in the power relationship between consumers and companies.  Consumers now have the power to hold brands accountable for the promises they make -- like this Comcast customer did by video-taping the Comcast rep who fell asleep on his couch while on hold with his own customer service department -- and they can protest unfair practices that they have to endure -- like Facebook users did when they felt a new site feature violated their privacy.

The following analogy may be too strong, but it makes the point: you can think of the current brand management paradigm as a totalitarian state, where brand managers decree what will be, create policy, and enforce it, while customers hope they're benevolent.  But when consumers have the power to rise up and protest changes, building a successful brand will take the ability to lead, not just manage, them.

Part of the reason I think this is exciting is because there's a rich literature on leadership in organizational behavior and social psychology.  Here, for example, is Harvard Business School's leadership research initiative.  Bringing some of this leadership intelligence into brand marketing could really energize and transform the role.  This is radical because it requires thinking about customers as part of the "brand organization".  It starts to challenge the idea that the employees are inside and customers are outside the organization.  This, in turn, has synergies with the idea that employees are a key source of word of mouth, who need to be marketed to as well.  It could be a valuable exercise for brand marketers to redraw the lines of the organization they serve and then redefine their own role relative to it.

Social Computing with Charlene Li

By Marianne Richmond - Founder, Resonance Partnership

Charlene Li's advise on how to get started in Social Computing:

Decide how you want to be involved in social computing.
Does it fit your customer?
Map out the relationship you want to build.

In other words, she noted, start with where you are, think about where you are going and what you want to be.  Christoper Carfi has a more detailed post of Charlene's presentation but I just wanted to mention that from my perspective what makes Charlene's advice all the more meaningful is that it puts social computing/social media into its correct context.

There appears to be a lot of "I want a blog..everyone has a blog...get me a blog" swirling around the marketing/advertising world; a frequent line of questions are, "How will we evaluate whether it is working...what will it do for us and how will we know if it is doing it."

I think Charlene nails it when she says, to get started,{ like any other strategic decision} consider the ways to get involved, think about  your customer in that context, and map a direction with the relationship you want to build as the objective. It's a strategic decision and when viewed in that context I think marketers will understand its role in the mix.
Technorati Tags: Charlene Li, forrcs, Forrester, Christopher Carfi, social computing, marketing

Who Wants Daily Email From A Retailer? 1.5 Million Neiman Marcus Customers, That's Who

By Sarah Epps - Researcher, eBusiness, Channel & Product Management, Forrester

Did I hear that correctly? Yes, according to Brendan Hoffman, President and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct, Neiman Marcus sends daily emails to 1.5 million customers. Their secret to creating demand for such frequent communication? They send primarily informational--rather than strictly promotional--messages. Emails read like fashion magazine articles rather than newspaper ads: the latest designs, trends, top 10 must-haves, and runway reviews rather than promotions on free shipping (although they do occasionally send these too).

Key tenets of Neiman's online merchandising strategy include:

• Personalization based on customer history and demographic segmentation. Emails and homepage images are personalized based on what Neiman knows about the customer.

• Real-estate optimization based on A/B testing. Neiman leverages the ability to show different content randomly to different customers to test things like homepage redesign and promotional offers, knowing with certainty what the results of a change would be before assuming the risk of widescale execution.

The audience was eager to know: Is the investment in merchandising worth it? Hoffman's response: "We don't have to be perfect, just better than we were last year" at metrics like emails opened, clickthroughs to the online store, and conversions to sales. A small increase can make a big difference.

Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Senior Analyst, who introduced Hoffman has written Forrester's bible on how to merchandise online. I highly recommend this report for any company that sells to consumers online, or any company that helps other companies sell online (and that's probably you, if you're reading this blog).

One Laptop Per Child: The New "Yellow Bracelet"

By Sarah Epps - Researcher, eBusiness, Channel & Product Management, Forrester

Nicolas Negroponte's presentation on the "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC) initiative spurred heated lunchtime debate about corporate charity. Are we ushering in a new age of Carnegies, or is this a passing fad? Will the newly minted gazillionaires at Google and YouTube be as giving as Gates and Buffett? Is it driven by an Enron backlash? The egos of CEOs who want an enduring legacy? Does The Gap really expect anyone to buy those ugly red jackets?

Whatever the drivers of corporate charity, the possibilities are incredibly exciting, especially for this particular project. As OLPC takes off, it will spur innovation in:

• Peer-to-peer communications like IM
• "Constructionist" software that lets kids make stuff
• Image-based software for non-literate users
• Stripped-down software and hardware that require less power

Will OLPC laptops ever come to the US and other developed countries? Negroponte says yes, in the form of "buy two get one" or "buy three get one" (i.e., developed countries may pay $300 for a laptop, which will finance the purchase of two laptops in a developing country). Toting one of those cute greenies may indeed become the "yellow bracelet" of the future.

Willy Wonka Knew A Thing or 2 About Customer Engagment

By Marianne Richmond - Founder, Resonance Partnership

So does Henry Harteveldt. By using the image of the Wonkavator to illustrate that the best digital experiences allow consumers to take their own path to reach you, he moved an over used and under-defined concept, customer engagement, to understandable and memorable.

Consumers, don't always want to go up in the same direction....let them take the Wonkavator....


"An elevator
can only go up and down, but a Wonkavator goes sideways and slantways and longways and backways
and frontways and squareways and any other ways that you can think of..."

His support: 77% of consumers are on-line now (85% in 5 years); 63% research on line priurior to buying off line;20% use mobile data services and 61% use a kiosk to check in to an airline.

He also instructed on how to get started. Useful "how to" versus "wouldn't that be interesting if you"; The difference, to paraphrase Richard Saul Wurman,  is that to be conversation, there has to be instruction. Instruction in this case, made the conversation.

Henry said to begin by answering 3 question. And let me just add here that all of the Forrester analysts that I heard speak today used the strategic approach of assessing and defing the situation, assessing your goals and objectives, and looking at what you will have when you get there. Excellent advice.

The 3 questions:
1.How do today's digital experiences fall short?
2.What is a humanized digital experience?
3.What are the priorites that shoud guide you?

He gave vivid examples of situations that are disconnects. For instance, if you say you are providing live assistance, don't record a voicemail message that says to call during regular business hours.

Other great learning:

1.There are three building blocks for an emotionally engaging digital experience:

                     It must be useful; this is the foundation. (value)
                     It must be usable: provide easy access
                     It must be desirable (appeal to emotions)

2.It might seem basic...but as his examples illustrated, there are lots of broken places.

3.What makes a good widget? Available to all, but meaningful to one. Add more initials here: empathetic and engaging, and empowering.

4.Social media allows people to engage. You can add it to your site. Nuff said.

5.Its not how you want to sell, its how your customers want to buy it and where.

6.Explore new technolgies that give consumers more control...support non-linear ways.

7.Don't over look the small stuff. Literally as demonstrated by increasing font sizes for the over 40 vision challenged

8. Add podcasts, social media and things to share on your
computer...exploit social media. People are already using these
tools...and talking about you. Engage them with you.

And of course, What is a humanized experience? One in which the human benfits are more visable than the technology.

He closed with the wonkavator, sometimes you just don't want to go back and forth: Remember to build value, use the 3Es and always support non-linear paths.




Technorati Tags: customer engagement, engagement, Henry Harteveldt, Forrester, forrcf,

Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop Per Child

By Christopher Carfi - Founder, Cerado

Nicholas Negroponte was the keynote this morning, discussing the One Laptop Per Child program.

Some points:

• 1.2B worldwide children in primary/secondary schools
• 50% w/o electricity
• 50% in rural parts of the world
• 50% in china & india
• There is some overlap b/w above groups

OLPC is taking an interesting path. Some say more teachers, more schools are the keys to education...and those are good. And that will take a VERY long time.

What can we do in the meantime, to leverage the children themselves? Can we think about learning as "the things we know," as opposed to learning equating to "teaching." We learn via interacting with the environment and each other. That kind of learning ... walking, talking, common sense... ends at age six. At that point, the process switches from "experience" to "teaching." However...in addition to teaching, there are other forms of learning. This peer-to-peer learning is what can be enabled with this project.

It's a laptop because it needs to be a part of their lives...there's no "this is work, this is school, this is fun"...there should be no separation between the areas. It should just be there.

Kids love 'em. They charge them up at night at the school. Parents love 'em because they are the brightest light source in the house.

It's about SCALE, SCALE, SCALE. 5-10 million in 2007, 50-100 million in 2008. Scale changes corporate strategy.

(Very cool tech note: each laptop is a node in a mesh network...even when the laptop is closed!)

Launch countries

One Laptop Per Child Rollout Plan
Originally uploaded by christophercarfi.

Great insight: "If anyone in this room has a use for the CAPS LOCK key, please send me an email! Who put that thing there, right above the shift key?"

Funny exchange:

Forrester: Bill Gates said "The last thing you want for a shared use computer..."
Negroponte, interrupting: "Huh? Shared use? This is One.Laptop.Per.Child. Continue..."
Forrester: "...with a tiny little screen..."
Negroponte, interrupting: "Huh? Tiny little screen? The screen is 1/2" LARGER than Bill's 'Origami' computer."

Interesting intellectual property note: OLPC is patenting the aspects of the machine as quickly as they can...the display, the charger, etc. are being patented in order to ensure the OLPC program will always be able to use the tech, and not get boxed out by other folks who might subsequently claim prior art.

Final quote: "We think of the kids as CREATORS, not recipients. They are makers of things. MAKE is a key word. SHARE is a key word."

Oh, The Humanity!

By Christopher Carfi - Founder, Cerado

Solid overview from Harley Manning on how "inhuman" technology-based connections can be, as well as some things that can be done to improve them. The highlights:

What's Inhuman?
Inhuman examples:

• Questions that are nonsensical in the real world: "What country are you in?" is a commonly-asked inquiry at many websites. Think about this in the real world...how many times have you been asked that when going into the store? "Hi, welcome to Bed, Bath and Beyond...what country are we in?"
• Jargon, jargon, jargon: The Motorola only spec sheet for one of their phones states : "PIM funcationality"...when was the last time anyone ever used that phrase? (Goes back to the example from yesterday at the online shopping site for Bloomingdales, have you ever used the phrase "Casual China" in real conversation? "Honey, the Wilsons are coming over for dinner, can you please put out the Casual China?")

Expectation setting in design is also key. Harley gave a great example of trying to make a deposit at a BofA automated teller machine. The website said he could make a deposit. The physical signage above the machine said "All Transactions"...yet, "deposit" was not an option on any of the ATM menus, despite the fact that the physical machine had a deposit slot!

How to humanize the interactions?
The suggestion is to adopt "human-centric" design practices:

• Not "tech-centric"
• Not "self-centric"
• Not even "user-centric"...people are PEOPLE first, THEN users

Human centric design has three practices:

A) Enthographic research
Derived from cultural antrhopology. Interview and observe. Distill observations into "segmentation models." Rep each "persona" as a vivid description.

"kate"
Originally uploaded by christophercarfi.

[ed. - I had a little bit of issue with this point in particular...the granularity that is lost when coming up with what is, in effect, a stereotype seems a little bit contrived. We all have so many facets of our selves that putting any individual into a stereotypical segment seems a bit off to me.]

B) Scenarios
Donald Cho scenario

scenarios
Originally uploaded by christophercarfi.

At each step note what things YOU (the system provider) are responsible for, define what is done at each step, and show how channels work together

C) Expert reviews

• Start with expert-derived list of common user experience problems
• Identify goals for each channel
• Reviewers try to accomplish each goal, while looking for each problems on the list
• Great for: giving a common checklist, find basic navigation flaws, shines a spotlight on presentation problems

Ex: Macromedia.com

• Personas highlighted problems (marketing speak in the developers section)
• Half of site received little or no usage
• Redesigned site after reviews
• Home page abandonment down 11%
• Conversion up 297%
• Units sold per visit went up 67%

Ex: Cellular One

• Installed phone self-service: complaints up, transfers b/w reps up
• Observed 300 callers
• Customer satisfaction up after the redesign
• Automation rates up, 76% of customer payments now handled
• 100% ROI in < 3 mos.

Is it worth it for you?
Harley's point on building an ROI model. Not rocket science; basic blocking and tackling.

1) List explicit business goals for the channel
E.g For a website: conversion rates, avg order size are common metrics

2) Document current channel performance
For the goals above, list current values of the agreed upon metrics (e.g. current conversion rate is 2.6%)

3) Agree on possible ranges of improvement
E.g. website conversion rate increase of 10%-25%, ATM transaction rate improvement of 1% to 2%

4) Estimate costs
Go internally, or get external expert model (e.g. $500K to improve website)

5) Run what if scenarios
This is where the "magic" happens, however. [ed. -- One can say that an activity "will increase conversion rates by 2.6%...but the best-laid-plans, etc....Manning glossed over this point. It's ultimately all about execution.)

Ex: Eddie Bauer redesign
Spent $124,150 on design and dev, estimated added $5.5MM in profit as a result of the redesign.

The chicken's job: momentum

By Chloe Stromberg - Researcher, Marketing, Forrester

Interesting...  Yesterday we were talking about how pop-y viral campaigns like the chicken (you know which chicken) and Paris Hilton will become less important compared to campaigns that drive sustained support for a brand.

But today, Jeff Hicks of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky talked more about the chicken's job.  The chicken was brought in not just to increase brand exposure -- it had to get attention to truly disrupt the BK brand's inertia.  The chicken's job was to create momentum by generating interest and anticipation about what the brand will do next. 

Often, we use the chicken as a general example of word-of-mouth, but I'd argue that the chicken's job is much more specialized...  The chicken is the guy you bring in when things are dire for the brand.  He's the clean up artist.  It ain't pretty, but he gets the job done.