Happy Customers Everywhere: An Evening with Prof. Schmitt and Friends (5/2/12)

Columbia Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership presents One Happy Book Launch: An Evening with Author Prof. Bernd Schmitt Co-sponsored by the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York Wednesday, May 2, 2012 6:30pm – 8:30pm Cost: $20 ($15 for Columbia Business School alumni) Hosted by: Edelman 250 Hudson Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY

Join us for a wine reception with author, Professor Bernd Schmitt, and a special discussion with leading marketers on their efforts to create happy customers and organizations.

	Bernd Schmitt Robert D. Calkins Professor of International Business, Columbia Business School
	Julie Cottineau Founder, BrandTwist; Former VP of Brand, Virgin USA
	Peter DeNunzio President, Customer Loyalty, Aimia US
	Owen Rankin Executive Vice President, Brand Stewardship, Edelman

Includes: Food, wine, special snacks and a free raffle for copies of Happy Customers Everywhere

REGISTER AT: http://happycustomerseverywhere.eventbrite.com

About the Book:

Every business knows that the best customer is a happy customer. They return time and again, bring their friends and family, and deliver tons of free advertising via word of mouth and social media. But in order to grow that loyal base, you must be keenly aware of your customers’ needs and preferences. Drawing on the latest research in the exploding field of positive psychology, SCHMITT offers three unique approaches any business can use to turn a casual customer into a committed fan:

• The Feel-Good Method: Use the experience of pleasure and positive emotion to hook new customers, and watch those feel-good moments transform a casual customer into a committed loyalist
• The Values-and-Meaning Method: Attract passionate customers by appealing to their core values, like being socially responsible, protecting the environment, or living a simple life
• The Engagement Method: Get customers to notice a unique or limited offer, immerse them in the experience, and have them share it with friends and family.

Schmitt shows marketers, brand managers, and entrepreneurs how to design an authentic and successful campaign that will reach, grow, and sustain a devoted base of customers.

New Study: Marketers Struggle with “Big Data” & Digital Tools

The Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA) are pleased to release the results of a major new study on the changing practices of large corporations in:

• data collection and usage,
• marketing measurement and ROI, and
• the integration of digital and traditional marketing.

The BRITE-NYAMA Marketing Measurement in Transition Study was authored by David Rogers, Executive Director of BRITE, and Columbia Business School Professor Don Sexton. Results were first released at the Center’s fifth annual BRITE conference on May 5, 2012. The findings have been reported in numerous publications, including the top front-page story of Ad Age.

The study’s results focused on 3 main findings:

1. The failure of “Big Data” for marketing
2. Marketers are quick to adopt the newest digital tools, but struggle to measure them
3. ROI – marketers know they need it, but cannot agree on its meaning and implementation

The full report can be viewed at http://j.mp/MarketingROIstudy.

FINDING: THE FAILURE OF BIG DATA FOR MARKETING SO FAR
The researchers found that marketers’ desire to be data-driven is not yet matched by a consistent effort to collect the data necessary to make these real-time decisions. 29 percent report that their marketing departments have “too little or no customer/consumer data.” When data is collected by marketers, it is often not appropriate to real-time decision making. 39 percent of marketers say that their data is collected “too infrequently or not real-time enough.” Furthermore, marketers today are still much less likely to collect new forms of digital data like customer mobile device data (19 percent collect it), and social media data (35 percent), than they are to collect traditional customer survey data on demographics (74 percent) and usage (60 percent).

FINDING: MARKETERS ADOPT NEW DIGITAL TOOLS, BUT STRUGGLE TO MEASURE THEM
Marketers are also struggling to measure the impact of the newest digital tools, despite the widespread adoption of these applications. 51 percent of marketers said they use mobile ads (in-app, or SMS); 85 percent use social network accounts (brand accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Foursquare). Yet these tools are among the least likely to be measured for ROI despite their profusion of data. Only 14 percent of the social networking users are tying them to financial metrics, and only 17 percent of those using mobile ads are tying them to financial metrics. By contrast, 41 percent of email marketers measure their results with financial metrics. In addition, as number of marketing tools expands, the challenge of measuring and comparing them grows. 60 percent of companies report that comparing the effectiveness of marketing across their different digital media is “a major challenge.”

Click image to enlarge

FINDING: ROI – MARKETERS KNOW THEY ALL NEED IT, BUT CAN’T EVEN AGREE WHAT IT IS
The study also revealed that there is confusion about the meaning and significance of ROI among marketers. Specifically, 31 percent of respondents said that they believe simply measuring the audience you have reached is “marketing ROI.” 57 percent are not basing their marketing budgets on any ROI analysis, and 28 percent are basing marketing budgets on gut instincts. 21 percent are using financial metrics for “little” or “none” of their marketing budget and seven percent are spending most or all of their marketing budget with “no metrics” at all. However, marketers are under pressure. 70 percent say that their marketing efforts are under greater scrutiny than in the past.

CONCLUSIONS: FIVE IMPERATIVE ACTIONS FOR CMOS
After its analysis of the dynamic and challenging environment for marketing today, the report recommends that Chief Marketing Officers should focus on five key leadership imperatives: Set objectives first; Design metrics to ensure marketing is linked to these objectives; Gather the right data for those metrics; Communicate to the entire organization what your objectives are and how they are being measured; and Evaluate and reward employees in part on how well objectives are achieved.

Read the complete findings and conclusions at http://j.mp/MarketingROIstudy.

# # #

METHODOLOGY
253 corporate marketing decision makers, director-level and above, were surveyed online between January 27 and February 8, 2012. These professionals are employed at large companies (90 percent have a global annual revenue of over $50 million; 45 percent are over $1 billion). Respondents were from b2c and b2c companies in diverse industries. The study was made possible with support from Research Now and GreenBook.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH PARTNERS:

The Center on Global Brand Leadership was founded at Columbia Business School in 1999 and has grown into the leading global forum on brands. The mission of the center is to turn the research and intellectual capital of academia’s foremost thinkers on branding into practical tools and insights for real-world application. The Center has worked with a wide range of sponsor companies to develop a variety of thought leadership including: conferences, case studies, videos and webinars, and sponsored research. The Center’s flagship BRITE conference on brands, innovation, and technology presented was founded in 2008 and is presented each spring at Columbia University. BRITE ’12 speakers included John Hayes (CMO, American Express), Marc Speichert (CMO, L’Oreal USA), and Bob Garfield (host of On the Media, editor for Ad Age).

The New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA) helps marketing professionals navigate to success in today’s dynamic business environment. We serve the marketing community by giving members opportunities to push the boundaries of marketing, expand their skills and exchange ideas with other experienced professionals. The BRITE/NYAMA study is one example of how we are contributing to the advancement of marketing.

Research Now is the leading global online sampling and online data collection company. With over 6 million panelists in 38 countries worldwide, Research Now enables companies to listen to and interact with real consumers and business decision makers in order to make key business decisions. Research Now offers a full suite of data collection services, including social media sampling, and operates the Valued Opinions(tm) Panel and e-Rewards(r) Opinion Panels. The company has a multilingual staff located in 24 offices around the globe and has been recognized for four consecutive years as the industry leader in client satisfaction.

GreenBook® brings stimulating, practical, and timely resources to marketers and market researchers on both sides of the table. Through its targeted multi-media platform, GreenBook offers effective marketing and lead generation opportunities to businesses that communicate with buyers and users of market research.

6 People Vital for a Smart Digital Strategy

Businesses of all kinds are seeing their relationships with customers transformed by new digital technologies and behaviors. Companies that used to sell to end consumers solely via retail channels, suddenly find themselves selling directly via their websites and mobile apps. Businesses that used to communicate only by billboards, direct mail, and radio spots, now find their customers communicating back to them via Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

As businesses reorient themselves to interact with customers in our increasingly digital world, the task of developing a digital strategy is often taken up by the marketing department. After all, marketers are used to focusing on customers. They are typically tasked with gathering customer insight and using it to generate customer demand for products and services. Why not let them handle these new digital customer relationships?

The shortcoming of this approach is that customer interactions in the digital realm cut across every aspect of your business. Leaving your digital strategy to the marketing department alone may mean it is aligned with your brand and has a good focus on selling. But your business can use digital media for much more. A truly effective digital strategy requires an interdisciplinary approach, one that actively involves your other departments, even if marketing is in the lead.

Here are 5 other departments you should be sure are joining your marketers in carrying out your digital strategy:

1. Information Technology. It should go without saying that a digital marketing strategy needs to be built in close cooperation with IT. Not only will their help be critical to any in-house development of web services, mobile apps, or social tools. IT will also be needed to integrate any data from your customers (e.g. email addresses captured on Facebook) with your existing customer databases. When Nike built its Nike Plus running platform, it needed I.T. skills from inside and outside the company to integrate its running shoe sensor, Nikeplus.com website, and its online community of runners.

2. Public Relations / Communications. The P.R. department in most companies is traditionally much more adept at the kind of two-way conversations that happen with customers in digital media than the marketing department (which grew up broadcasting out ad messages, rather than listening and persuading). Communications departments are a great resource in developing strategies and guidelines for interacting with customers in online communities and other social media. Unilever, for example, uses its communications team to manage social media for its major brands, such as its Dove Facebook page.

3. Customer Service. It has been often said that “customer service is the best P.R.” Used properly, digital media can amplify your existing channels for customer service, so as to prevent the kind of negative customer experiences that spread quickly in social media. Comcast found its poor reputation for customer service improved when it allowed members of its customer service team to employ tools like Twitter (with an @comcastcares account) to solve customers’ problems more quickly, responsively, and publicly.

4. Innovation. As companies interact with customers online, they often find many more opportunities to gather insights, ideas, and suggestions from those customers. Capturing these ideas effectively requires more than just a marketing mindset; it requires the involvement of your innovation or R&D team, so that customer input can be funneled into appropriate channels for consideration in new product development. Dell has used the Ideastorm platform from Salesforce.com to gather customer ideas that have led to the launch of countless new services and products, such as the Latitude 2100 notebooks for schoolchildren.

5. Human Resources. The hiring process has also been transformed by digital media, as employers screen candidates by their social media profiles, and candidates get the inside scoop on working at your business from online communities like Glassdoor.com. But the relevance of H.R. to digital strategy extends beyond the hiring process. Effective and appropriate use of digital media is becoming an important part of employee training. And many businesses are finding that spotlighting the faces and voices of their own employees is a powerful branding and marketing tool in digital media – from Fedex‘s “I Am Fedex” campaign, to IBM‘s “I’m an IBMer.”

Of course, a strong digital strategy doesn’t belong to any single department. It needs to start at the C-suite, where strategies are made for what products, services, and business models will best serve your business and your customers in a world of constant digital change.

But as you carry out your own digital strategy, remember:  you may want to put your marketers at the head of the table, but just make sure they have plenty of company.

BY DAVID ROGERS

This post originally posted by David on his BNET.com blog.

NOTE: Image courtesy of flickr user, Beige Alert

CMO Lucio Is Making Things Go at Visa

Antonio Lucio’s (BRITE ’11 speaker) decisiveness and creativity during an economic crisis earned him a mention as one of Fortune magazine’s eight most innovative people in 2009.

When Antonio Lucio became Visa’s first global chief marketing officer, he undertook the daunting task of finding “the tone of the times,” implementing it globally and ensuring it was cost efficient and effective.

In 2009, Lucio launched Visa’s first global themed campaign, “More People Go With Visa,” in 48 countries within a three-week window. “Go With Visa” is meant to motivate consumers and businesses to migrate their cash and checks usage to Visa’s electronic payment system. Lucio told BtoB magazine to expect a deeper focus next year on leveraging Visa’s product platforms, including mobile, debit cards, affluent credit cards, e-commerce and money transfer.

The “Go” campaign struck a “glocal” (global-local) balance that made it a success around the world.  In 2010, Visa launched another global campaign tied to the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Besides being global, the campaign involved more promotional and more digital elements than ever before, including Visa’s first-ever 3-D ads, a dedicated Facebook page and YouTube channel, as well as promotions that included a chance to win tickets for life to the Olympics.

“We are a technology company, and we’ve built a business based on innovation,” Mr. Lucio told AdvertisingAge. “Whether it is the success of the debit card or anything we’re doing on mobile and money transfer, we want to leverage the same innovative skills that we use on our products in our marketing.”

Hear Antonio Lucio speak at our BRITE ’11 conference (Mar 2-3, 2011). Register now!

BY MATTHEW QUINT

The [Woman] Is Your Customer

It’s long been a truism that marketers (and business in general) have overlooked the importance of women, both as individual customers, and as key influencers of family purchase decisions. That importance is continuing to grow, due to a number of social and economic trends.

This was the subject of discussion at NBC Universal’s “Power of the Purse” event I had the chance to attend yesterday, thanks to an invite from Maryam Banikarim, a member of our Brand Leaders Forum. The lineup included a panel of speakers from brands, marketing, academia, and media, as well as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

NBCU’s Lauren Zalaznick pointed out that the US gender gap in wages is the smallest ever during this recession (or “mancession,” due to its greater impact on male employment), and women will soon outnumber men in the workforce. Ten million more women than men voted in the 2008 elections (70 million vs 60 million). And, according to Zalaznick, 96% of women customers surveyed say that: if I like your product, I will “tell everyone.”

Mark Addicks, CMO of General Mills (and lone male panelist) represented a consumer-goods company that has long focused on women as its prime customers. Recognizing the growing voice of customers in digital networks, and the fragmentation of their media experiences, Addicks proclaimed, “We no longer do ‘marketing’… our job now is engagement.”

Kim Brink, from Cadillac, represented an industry that has long underestimated the importance of women in its purchase decisions. She said the auto industry is just now beginning to realize it needs to not only “market to” women, but to incorporate their perspectives from the beginning of the marketing process, in customer insight gathering and new product innovation.

Echoing the shift in consumer values discussed by John Gerzema at BRITE this year, Brink also raised an important challenge for marketing a luxury brand like Cadillac to women. During the current recession, she said, 60% of women feel guilty buying a luxury product in this economy (vs 40% of men). Allaying that guilt needs to be a major focus of some marketers.

The other major focus discussed was connecting with women (and all customers) in a digital age where media are ubiquitous and there is no longer a predictable sequence of brand message + brand message + brand message = customer purchase. MediaVest’s Donna Speciale, said that marketers increasingly need to be “hyperlocal,” finding the right message at the right place and moment. Tina Brown, founder of the Daily Beast, argued that curation and editors have never been more important in media than current environment (as my friend Steve Rosenbaum argues in his forthcoming book).

On the subject of female leaders, the panelists decried the continuing paltry representation of women at the highest level of corporations (comparing it to the “boys club” that the U.S. Congress was when Pelosi first arrived). But Barnard College President Debora Spar offered a note of encouragement in looking at the education of today’s young women. The impact of Title IX (on college sports) is still being observed, but recent research shows that sports participation in younger girls has a strong impact on their future leadership skills, and that adult women in leadership positions today are much more likely than others to have participated in sports in high school. Great tip for parents.

BY DAVID ROGERS

Photo: Nancy Pelosi and Jeff Zucker, by me.

This post originally posted by David on the DavidRogers.biz blog at: http://www.davidrogers.biz