Top 5 Digital Marketing Insights
Top 5 Digital Marketing Insights
The 1968 classic film Powers of Ten directed by Charles and Ray Eames depicts the relative scale of the Universe in factors of ten. Every ten seconds we view the starting point from ten times farther out until the galaxy appears as a speck of light, following this, the camera moves inward, with ten times more magnification every ten seconds. Not only is the cinematography beautiful and technically brilliant, the film offers valuable insight that can be applied to all aspects of our life and society.
How is this film relevant you ask?
As Tim Brown notes, “it is a wonderful reminder of one of the most important principles in design – reframing the question.” In the digital age, the need for marketers to be creative is more important than ever. We live in an era where consumers are constantly bombarded by advertising messages and marketers from every direction are vying for consumers’ attention. To exacerbate the issue, our attention span has been reduced to a mere 9 seconds. Given this cultural landscape, in order to attract the attention of consumers, you must be doing something different as a marketer, something unique that sets you apart from your competitors. This requires a high degree of creativity. According to the principles of “Design Thinking” by Tim Brown, creativity needs to be stimulated. Creativity does not happen in a vacuum; rather, creativity is born from a process, which involves reframing the issue at hand in several different ways. The film reaffirms this ideology. As Tim Brown eloquently notes in response to the film: “Often the quickest route to new insight is to take a step back and look at the problem from a broader context, or to take a step closer and look at it in more detail.” If you want a creative solution to an issue, this requires readjusting your perspective by either taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture or zooming in and understanding the obscure details. For example, as big data continues to transform the digital marketing landscape, marketers need to be able to zoom in and out, digging deep in to the data to extract meaning from it, and taking a step back to see how the data fits into the bigger picture.
The film also has implications for what creates a World Wide Rave. According to David Meerman Scott, there are triggers that stimulate people to share:
- Nobody cares about your products (except you): People ultimately care about themselves and their problems. When it comes to marketing your brand, think beyond the product. Noone else really cares about your product so you have to create something that offers value to the consumer. Value can take the form of entertainment, education or information. Whatever it is, give consumers a reason to care.
- No coercion required: People rather be “pulled” than “pushed”. Being assertive in your approach to selling your brand will only chase people away, draw people in by offering inherently valuable content.
- Lose control: The information you create online must be free. This means, relinquishing all control and letting nature run its course.
- Put down roots: If you want your ideas to spread in the digital world, you need to be rooted in the digital world. You need to have an active presence where you want your ideas to circulate.
- Create triggers that encourage people to share: Shareable content is content that is interesting, valuable or entertaining. You have to give people reason to share what you have published.
- Point the world to your virtual doorstep: If you are creative and create culturally relevant, entertaining, valuable or interesting content, an online rave is bound to ensue.
According to David Meerman Scott, “you need to know that success requires a far different approach than what you’re likely doing now. Many of the easy techniques for triggering a World Wive Rave are the exact opposite of what you’ve learned on the job or have been taught in school”. The insight presented in the Powers of Ten reinforces this view. In order to create a World Wide Rave, marketers should go against the grain and embrace “thinking outside the box”. Marketers do not need to adhere to the norms and status quo. To stand out in the crowd, you don’t need to mimic your competitors; you should be doing something entirely different to get people talking. Moreover, to excel in the midst of tough competition, there is great value in embracing an alternate perspective and zooming in to really understand the psyche of consumers. Contrary to popular belief, marketers should think like consumers. In addition to focusing on detail, marketers should also take a step back to understand how everything fits into place. Effective marketers don’t focus purely on the product itself; effective marketers understand how their products fit into the bigger picture. I believe great marketing involves selling a lifestyle and emotions rather than just a product in isolation. Consider Harley Davidson for example. They have an extremely loyal customer base, so much so that people tattoo the brand’s logo onto their bodies. The major reason for their success is the way in which they have built an entire community, culture and lifestyle around their brand. Through their Harley Davidson merchandise, online communities, and clubs, Harley Davidson has built a strong culture and community for its consumers. For many, owning a Harley-Davidson motorcycle is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. It enables them to own a piece of history and grants them access to belonging to an elite click. Harley-Davidson is not just a motorcycle; it is a way of life.
The underlying message of this film can also be applied to my life as a student. As a Masters student of Marketing, part time Intern and freelance photographer, I often feel overwhelmed by stress because I place too much pressure on myself to pursue perfection in all aspects of my life. However, as Sheryl Sandberg notes: “done is better than perfect”. My preoccupation with perfection, whether it be crafting the perfect sentence or making sure my powerpoint looks flawless, ultimately undermines my efficiency and predisposes me to feel unnecessary stress. As David Burns eloquently said: “the pursuit of perfection is arguably the surest way to undermine happiness and productivity”. I tend to focus on and fret over trivial details that in the big scheme of things, don’t matter too much. It is useful to apply the lessons learnt in the film, there is great value in taking a step back once in a while. For example, in a year’s time, my GPA will be irrelevant, and most probably forgotten. Achieving good grades is undoubtedly important but ultimately, education is not defined by good grades – it’s about learning, proactive thinking and questioning.
Thus, the film provides a valuable framework for thinking that can be aptly applied to all aspects of our life and society. Whether it be marketing or our personal life, it is important to remember that everything is relative and there are many ways to frame an issue. Moreover, it is important that we adjust our perspective from time to time; lets take a step back to understand the bigger picture and take a step forward to understand those obscure details that are often overlooked.
In the digital age, consumers feel overwhelmed by the constant bombardment of advertising messages by marketers who are relentlessly vying for their attention. In order for marketers to captivate the attention of consumers, simplicity is key. Simplicity not only in terms of the delivery of a marketing message, but when it comes to purchasing, marketers should simplify their decision-making process. Although simplicity is indeed important in captivating a consumer’s attention and securing a transaction, I believe that simplicity alone is not enough. Ultimately, companies that invest and make a concerted effort in developing authentic relationships with consumers will enjoy long-term loyalty.
Keep it simple, stupid
Due to the over excess of information and our hyper connectivity, our attention spans are now shorter than ever before – a mere 9 seconds.
Our short attention span scans through a barrage of information to land on what is most relevant to us personally. Although consumers can access marketing messages 24/7, their hyper connectivity leaves them in a state of perpetual partial attention. As such, when crafting messages, marketers should be focused on making their point – fast! Not only do marketers need to keep their marketing messages simple and concise, according to the article “To keep your customers, keep it simple” by Patrick Spenner and Karen Freeman, marketers should focus their effort on simplifying the decision making process for consumers. According to their study, the best tool for measuring consumer-engagement efforts is the “decision simplicity index”, an indication of how easy it is for consumers to gather and understand information about a brand, how much they can trust the information they find, and how readily they can weight their options. As such, the easier a brand makes the purchase decision journey, the higher its decision-simplicity score. Brands that scored in the top quarter in their study were 86% more likely than those in the bottom quarter to be purchased by the consumer considering them. According to Spenner and Freeman, the most effective marketers use 3 tactics:
1) They minimize the number of information sources consumers must touch as they move toward a purchase
2) Provide trustworthy sources of product information and recommendations
3) Offer tools that enable consumers to weigh their options by identifying the features in terms of relevancy
Whilst I agree with Spenner and Freeman that simplicity is key in the age of hyper connectivity, I do not agree with their stance that marketers should solely focus their attention on simplifying the decision making process for consumers and disregard building relationships with consumers. Striving for simplicity and building a relationship with a consumer is not mutually exclusive, both efforts should coexist.
Develop relationships and engage consumers
In addition to striving for simplicity, marketers should also focus their attention on developing authentic relationships and engaging with consumers. In the article, Spenner and Freeman shed light on the fact that contrary to marketer’s perceptions, being part of a community ranked the lowest (22%) on the list of reasons why consumers interact with companies via social sites. Whilst the study reveals that marketers may misjudge the most important factors that influence why consumers follow them via social sites, this is not enough to suggest that marketers should discount focusing on building relationships and communities altogether. 22% is still a significant amount of people who value being part of a brand’s community. As the 80/20 rule suggests, your top 20% loyal customers contribute to 80% of the profits. Focusing on the needs and wants of your top 20% of customers will ensue in healthy profits.
Keep it short & sweet
The article also falsely suggests that pursuing a relationship and engaging customers equates to constant messaging and providing an overabundance of information. The writers frame the pursuit of simplicity and developing relationships with customers as ideologically incompatible. This is simply not the case. Such concepts should be in synchrony and ought to be pursued simultaneously. With regards to engaging consumers, the surest way to engage is by being succinct and to the point. Red Bull is a brand that has mastered the art of engagement by embracing simplicity. The company’s online writing style is characterized by being succinct and short & sweet. Facebook posts feature captions such as: “No better time than right now”, “flipping spectacular” and “This weekend, get board.” The series of short, catchy posts, captivate the attention of Red Bull fans and engage them. Due to their keep-it-simple-stupid school of wordsmithing, their Facebook page has reached 40,995,178 likes.
Empower consumers to get involved
People have an inherent desire to feel valued and important, which is why, providing ways for consumers to get involved and engage is important. Social media contests in particular have gained in popularity and can be a powerful catalyst for spreading a brand’s message. When Frito-Lay developed a new potato chip flavor, they bypassed focus groups and turned to Facebook to directly engage with the customers. Visitors of the Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” Facebook app were asked to suggest new flavors. In February of this year, the 3 finalist flavors were available in stores for people to buy and try. There were approximately 3.8 million consumer-generated flavor submissions. The staggering figure indicates that if you empower consumers and grant them with the opportunity to get involved in the brand, they will respond.
Strive for simplicity and engagement
In the age of hyper connectivity, the bombardment of marketing messages, excess of information and choice ultimately impairs the consumer decision-making process. Under this climate, it is particularly important for marketers to focus on simplicity; in terms of the delivery of a marketing message as well as simplifying the decision making process for consumers. However, simplicity can only get you so far. In order to secure customer loyalty and differentiate yourself from competitors, the key is to engage consumers – not by bombarding them with messages every few seconds, but rather by listening to them, empowering them to have their say and keeping communication short, sweet, and to the point.
I have always been intrigued by personality tests so when I heard about Sally Hogshead’s Fascination Advantage test, I was instantly curious. The Fascination Advantage test is the first science-based personality brand assessment test. The test reveals how your personality adds distinct value and determines your fascination triggers.
In the context of a flailing job market, a rapidly growing population, and a society that is more educated than ever before, our lives are becoming fiercely competitive. To compound this issue, the rapid dissemination of information and multitude of media channels in the digital age has ensued in another problem – diminishing attention spans. According to Sally Hogshead, our attention span now lasts a mere 9 seconds – equivalent to that of a gold fish.
In a competitive and distracting world, it has become of particular importance for us to understand what it is about us that sets us apart from everyone else? What exactly is it about us that fascinates others? In the context of marketing, what is our unique value proposition? I took to Hogshead’s Fascination test to answer these questions myself.
The Result?
According to the test, my archetype (which is a combination of my primary and secondary triggers) is “The Talent”. 3% of the people who took the test have the exact same trigger combination as me. I am expressive, stylish and emotionally intelligent.
Hogshead proposes there are 7 fascination triggers which we all use, but to varying degrees and intensity.
My primary trigger is passion. In other words, passion is how I am most likely to fascinate others. According to the test, I am expressive, intuitive, have high emotional intelligence and excel in relationships with others. I add value by being approachable and being able to intuitively understand ideas and feelings of others.
My secondary trigger is prestige. I am ambitious, constantly seek out new goals and experiences and I am in perpetual pursuit of improvement. I add value by constantly envisioning ways to improve and upgrade.
Based on my determined archetype, the top 5 characteristics that comprise my unique value proposition are:
The Verdict?
Overall, I found the results of this test to be fairly accurate and reflective of my personality. The passion trigger has correctly identified that I have a deep-seated curiosity and fascination for understanding people, I am sensitive to the emotions of others, intuitive and social (despite my inherent shyness). I set goals for myself, I tend to be self critical and I am constantly seeking to improve. Given the fact that it’s just a 28 question test – the results are pretty damn impressive. Not only does it provide insight into how you fascinate others, but it reveals your weaknesses, areas for improvement and provides practical ways you can utilize your fascination advantage in the workplace.
However, the test (as with everything) is not perfect. The subtle nuances and complexity of personality and human behavior cannot be captured by answering 28 questions. For example, certain aspects regarding the “prestige” trigger do not fully apply to me. Whilst it is true that I am driven and tend to be a perfectionist, I am not always perceived to be this way. From my personal experience, sometimes people (falsely) assume that if you have a happy disposition and tend to be soft spoken, you are not ambitious and driven – as if such qualities are mutually exclusive. In my case, the test did not account for the fact that sometimes there is a discrepancy between the way you are and the way people perceive you to be. Furthermore, upon reading the charts, I noticed that my “mystique” trigger comprised the same percentage (12%) as my “prestige” trigger. Yet, the test did not provide any results and insight into the “mystique” trigger, despite it being as “intense” as my “prestige” trigger.
Hogshead has taught me that we all have the capacity to fascinate, even though we do so in uniquely different ways. I recommend that you all set aside 3 minutes of your day and take the test. Once you understand how you fascinate others, you can capitalize on your strengths and build on your weaknesses to captivate and capture the attention of those around you.
How do you fascinate?
Our lives are becoming increasingly digital. With mobile now accounting for approximately 10% of our media consumption, our phones are occupying a more central role in our lives. In response to the steady rise of mobile usage, marketers are allocating more of their marketing budgets to mobile.
Whilst it is certainly true that mobile is a marketing gold mine, many marketers fall into the trap of assuming that mobile marketing is limited to display ads and text messaging ads. This is simply not the case. I personally find display ads and text messaging ads to be intrusive, disruptive and uninteresting. The moment I see an unwanted text from a brand, I automatically switch off and lose interest. What many marketers have yet to realize is that the true potential of mobile marketing lies in apps, not ads.
The beauty of branded apps lies in the fact that consumers don’t perceive them to be advertising. People use apps for a variety of reasons – for entertainment, functional, or social purposes. Whatever the reason is, one thing remains certain – apps add value to consumers’ lives. Understanding this is key. Brands should ask themselves “How can we add value to our consumer’s life?” rather than “How can we shove a branded message in front of our consumers face?”
Kraft is a brand that got it right. In 2008, Kraft launched its iFood Assistant app. According to Ed Kaczmarek, Director of Innovation at Kraft, “People’s lives are becoming increasingly complex and they’re looking for relevant content and solutions to make their lives easier.” Indeed, the iFood Assistant app is useful and makes customers’ lives easier.
The app allows users to browse recipes by category or occasion, stores their favorite recipes in a recipe box, displays how-to videos and offers a built-in shopping list. Since its launch in 2008, the app has reached the 2nd spot in iTunes’ lifestyle section and has since been included in iTunes’ list of top 100 paid apps. The reason for its success? The app is useful to its target market. By offering a variety of useful services and functions to the user, they are providing users with reasons to use the app, thus enhancing long-term engagement with the Kraft brand.
Not only is the app functional and useful, it is also user friendly. The app is organized and easy for users to navigate. Users can browse recipes according to the meal eg. breakfast, lunch or dinner etc. Additionally, if the user has a specific recipe in mind they want to learn, they can use the built in search engine to directly find what they are looking for. In terms of aesthetics, the app is soothing to the eye. The app uses a dark brown wooden background that is calming and pleasant. Moreover, each recipe available in the app is accompanied by an enticing photograph of the dish.
Kraft is a brand that truly understands what mobile marketing is all about. The success of the iFood assistant app has taught us that apps should provide value to the consumer, because ultimately value will drive brand engagement and loyalty. Lastly, you should always look for the “sweet spot” of what your brand can offer consumers.
Sources:
- http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/kraft-rings-iphone-ifood-assistant-104973
- http://adage.com/article/digital/kraft-hits-killer-app-iphone-marketing/133869/
- http://mashable.com/2010/10/06/branded-mobile-apps/
- http://www.kraftrecipes.com/media/ifood.aspx
- http://hbr.org/2013/03/for-mobile-devices-think-apps-not-ads/ar/pr
Effective storytelling touches hearts, fascinates and moves audiences. In the context of marketing, storytelling plays a critical role in the art of branding. A compelling brand story holds the power to emotionally engage consumers; creating a meaningful connection and resulting in unwavering brand loyalty.
In my opinion, no discussion of storytelling and branding is complete without mention of the Walt Disney Company.
The Walt Disney Company is the master of storytelling. The company was founded upon a story so powerful that it continues to drive what they do and underlies why they do it.
As a child, Walt Disney loved sketching cartoons. When he returned from serving as a Red Cross volunteer in World War I, he decided to dedicate his life to making cartoon motion pictures. With his heart set on pursuing his dream, in 1920 at the age of 19, he started his own company drawing cartoons of the creatures from his childhood. However, his journey to pursue his dreams was fraught with challenges. Upon starting his own company, Disney never had quite enough to eat, struggled to pay rent and was subsequently forced to live with friends. He enjoyed short-lived success when he created the short animation ‘Oswald the Rabbit’ however, in 1928, some of his cartoonists left taking Oswald with them. Disney was shattered. He returned to having nowhere to live and little money for food. Despite the obstacles and challenges Disney faced, he continued to persist and persevere. Nine decades later, Disney is one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. With a portfolio of brands, Disney continues to be the leader of creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and products globally.
The Disney brand story engages and emotionally connects with consumers worldwide because Walt Disney’s life itself was a living testament to the brand’s values and essence. His story of hardship, struggle and his eventual success in fulfiling his childhood dream adds to the brand story’s authenticity and magic. Walt Disney was able to live his ‘magic kingdom’ throughout his entire life. His legacy and life story continues to inspire consumers with the audacity to pursue their dreams.
Moreover, the Disney Brand story engages and connects with consumers because the company communicates a consistent set of core values across all of its operations. Disney’s theme parks, hotels, restaurants, TV entertainment and retail stores are all unified under the vision and mission to deliver happiness and magical experiences.
However, no brand is perfect and Disney is no exception. As children are their primary target audience, the brand is constantly under surveillance. The recent provocative and reckless behavior of former Disney star Miley Cyrus has undermined the credibility, trustworthiness and “innocence” of the brand, causing many parents to question whether Disney stars are good role models for their children. Indeed, as the Disney brand name is synonymous with innocence and childhood, it is under constant scrutiny and it is compelled to uphold a flawless reputation; any slip-up or controversy can be particularly detrimental to the brand.
For more than nine decades, the Walt Disney Company has been at the forefront of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to a leading global corporation, the story behind the Walt Disney Company is engaging, compelling and above all – inspiring.
Walt Disney once said: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Indeed, the success of the Walt Disney brand proves that all your dreams can come true, if only you have the courage to pursue them.
A new academic year means a fresh new start.
Moving forward, I will use this blog as a platform to discuss issues and topics pertaining to digital marketing, in addition to documenting my journey in the city of my dreams aswell as sharing my creative work; my photography and videos.
Why is digital marketing worth talking about?
The 21st century has ushered in an era of rapid change and a multitude of communication channels. With the advent of the digital age, the term ‘digital marketing’ has become somewhat ubiquitous. A lot of people are talking about it, but not many people know what it’s really about.
With this in mind, I endeavor to deconstruct ‘digital marketing’ in this blog; shedding light on what it really means for marketers and discussing the issues and trends shaping the industry. With the rapid advancement of technology and as our lives become increasingly digital, I believe it is an extremely exciting time to be a marketer. As such, this blog will be an open dialogue about the marketing industry with reference to digital trends and technology.
Without further ado, lets talk about the advancement of digital technology, how this impacts our culture and ultimately, what this means for marketers and how we should respond in light of these changes.
