Business and Consumer Market Research

Once Skeptics big Brands embrace Facebook
24.02.2010

Procter & Gamble, Unilever Integrate Social Network Into Marketing Plans

Procter & Gamble Co.'s top digital-advertising executive had some serious reservations about Facebook as a marketing tool. Now, the world's biggest marketer wants all of its brands to get a presence on Facebook this year and has recently opened a research-and-development office in Palo Alto, Calif., not far from Facebook's headquarters, in an effort to co-develop capabilities in digital and social media.

It's a clear sign that Facebook, by its sheer mass of 400 million global users and status as the digital world's biggest time-sink, is a marketing force not even the world's biggest media spender can ignore.

P&G rival Unilever and beverage giant Coca-Cola have begun shifting attention in digital marketing from campaign websites to more-permanent relationships with consumers on their Facebook pages. And other marketers such as Honda and Ikea are moving beyond the "planting the flag" stage to find new ways of using Facebook's intrinsic ability to connect with consumers.

"What Facebook does is connect people into communities," said P&G Global Brand-Building Officer Marc Pritchard. "It's also just a pretty good way to reach consumers through messages." That doesn't necessarily mean giving up on brand or campaign websites, he said. "You can use Facebook and websites in different ways," he said. "You can go deeper in content on your website in many cases."

Focus on partnerships
Aside from hopes that marketers will buy more of its Social Ads, none of this has put much cash in its tills yet. But Facebook's focus on integrated partnerships -- lucrative or not -- in lieu of display advertising (it abandoned banners earlier this year) is a big reason it's at least on the same page as brands, rather than pushing products marketers did not want.

Clearly the messaging part stood out when P&G launched its Winter Olympics sponsorship with a 60-second "To their moms, they'll always be kids" ad from Wieden & Kennedy. Most of the 18 P&G brands involved in the corporate effort posted messages on their Facebook walls the next day linking to the ad on YouTube.

Some, such as Olay, put their pages up for the first time just this month, a week ahead of the games, garnering about 9,000 fans within the first 10 days. Pringles, with 2.9 million fans, already had a substantial presence that had grown largely organically. The men's personal-care brand from Unilever, which has long used disposable campaign websites, is instead channeling consumers toward its Facebook page now. The page has become a place to host viral videos the brand launches, and Axe recently added a human face aimed at appealing to its male clientele -- Jennie from Axe, actually part of the brand's team at PR shop Edelman.

The men's personal-care brand from Unilever, which has long used disposable campaign websites, is instead channeling consumers toward its Facebook page now. The page has become a place to host viral videos the brand launches, and Axe recently added a human face aimed at appealing to its male clientele -- Jennie from Axe, actually part of the brand's team at PR shop Edelman.

It remains to be seen, however, whether brands' Facebook pages will become a force even bigger than their own brand websites.

As of last week, Axe's Facebook page had fewer than half the fans that its most recent campaign website -- AxeHairCrisisRelief.org -- attracted in one month last June in the U.S. alone, per Compete.com. The 200,000 fans of P&G's Pampers on Facebook are dwarfed by 1.5 million monthly visitors (per Compete) to Pampers.com, which anchors one of several online relationship programs with seven-figure databases for P&G brands.

Then again, in many cases those databases have been in development for more than a decade. And, as a counter-example, Coca-Cola's 5 million Facebook fans easily outnumber the roughly 300,000 monthly U.S. visitors to its brand website, and came largely without the brand's involvement, or, until last year, even formal consent.

The reality is that branded Facebook pages, still relatively rare only a year ago, became commonplace for a variety of marketers in the past year, particularly as Facebook gave them a chance to control and own their vanity URLs such as Facebook.com/Axe.

Channeling rather than parking
It remains to be seen, however, whether brands' Facebook pages will become a force even bigger than their own brand websites. American Honda Motors Co. did increase the fans of its Facebook page nearly fivefold to more than 300,000 through its "Everybody Knows Someone Who Loves a Honda" campaign, launched in October. But the point really was to point out that everyone knows a Honda lover, and to that end the campaign website has calculated more than 3 million friends of self-proclaimed Honda lovers.

And Ikea in August used one of Facebook's most-popular functions -- photo tagging -- to promote the opening of a new store in Malmo, Sweden. Agency Forsman & Bodenfors created a Facebook profile for the store's manager, Gordon Gustavsson, and posted about a dozen photos of Ikea showrooms. Whoever was first to tag his name on the items in the pictures won them, encouraging people to tell their friends about the deals (at least after tagging one for themselves).

Among the more-interesting signs of Facebook's emergence as a marketing tool over the past year have been marketers trying to channel the intrinsic power of the networking site rather than using it as a place to host content they might once have parked on their brand sites.

American Honda Motors Co. did increase the fans of its Facebook page nearly fivefold to more than 300,000 through its "Everybody Knows Someone Who Loves a Honda" campaign, launched in October. But the point really was to point out that everyone knows a Honda lover, and to that end the campaign website has calculated more than 3 million friends of self-proclaimed Honda lovers.

It's hard to know what additional ways marketers will find to use Facebook's ability to connect with consumers. But with the biggest ones now clearly committed to tapping the network's potential, they'll soon find more.

Secrets to Success in Recessions: Expand Marketing
03.02.2010

Recessions are not new and this is not the first time companies of all sizes and in all industries have to face into difficult economic times. Research from many sources including Bain & Co. and Harvard Business School continues to show businesses are self-destructing when they cut back on marketing in downturns. If implemented and evaluated properly, marketing creates a return on investment in multiple ways.

Recession or not, a good marketing approach requires intensity and is based on thought leadership about every facet from social media to internal company communications. And marketing, of course, includes strong public relations. If anything in difficult times, maintain your marketing investment and expand your PR efforts.

“Though this strategy might seem to make common sense, recessions are times that call for uncommon business wisdom,” wrote Ms. Blaine, president and CEO of the The Blaine Group, Inc. in Los Angeles. “Recessions reward the aggressive marketer and penalize the timid one.”

Ms. Blaine cited a noteworthy study, “Advertising & Marketing During An Economic Downturn,” by David Stanley of Industrial Equipment News. It analyzed the situations of more than 1,000 manufacturers in what’s called “Profit Impact of Market Strategy” (PIMS).

Far too often, studies appear to be self-serving for special interests. But this study, www.tinyurl.com/lokgyd, is objective and unique. It is from The Strategic Planning Institute in Cambridge, MA, which describes itself as a non-profit membership association that promotes “strategic business management.”

The PIMS study concluded that bold marketing in a downturn resulted in strong performance while tepid marketing had undesirable consequences. In addition, the higher marketing investments did not hurt profits for the short-term.
1990’s Study

“Penton Research Services reports that shortly after the 1990-91 recession, Coopers & Lybrand, in conjunction with Business Science International, surveyed CEOs from growth companies about the effect the recession had on their profit growth and the actions they had taken in response,” cited Ms. Blaine.

“A strong marketing program enables a firm to solidify its customer base, take business away from less aggressive competitors, and position itself for future growth during the recovery,” she concluded.
Companies that view marketing strictly as a percentage of their budgets miss opportunities for growth. Successful companies look at the short and long-term ramifications.

During downturns, good companies that cut marketing budgets soon learn they do not retain dominance in their marketplace, and they will learn they have lost market share once the upturn begins. So go to yuor CFO or boss armed with this knowledge and ask for a bigger marketing budget for 2010.....

Unilever to cash in on benefits of online web research
15.07.2008

The percentage of Unilever’s US research conducted online has more than doubled to 80 per cent in five years. This is part of a long-term policy by the company to exploit the speed and low cost of the web to research customers’ behaviour.

While the US is its most advanced market, Unilever envisages similar trends in countries where internet access is widely available, such as the UK and Ireland. The shift to internet projects by Unilever, which spends an estimated €400m (£272.2m) a year on research, reflects the web’s accelerating impact on the global market research industry. Internet research advocates believe it produces results more quickly and cheaply than phone or face-to-face interviews and focus groups.

Chet Henderson, vice-president of Unilever Insight, the group’s research division, said the catalyst for putting projects online in any country was the point at which half the population had internet access -a figure the UK achieved in 2003 and Ireland in 2007. Mr Henderson said: “As soon as we get to that, we can get the benefits of the speed of internet research.”

Mr Henderson said that according to Unilever’s internal data testing, internet responses also tended to be more honest than those gained by traditional methods. “In some countries, people are far more honest on the internet,” he said.

Webcams and online chatrooms are sometimes used to create virtual focus groups.

In Unilever’s case, it believes the web could be 10-20 per cent cheaper than traditional methods. Senior Unilever brand executives think that greater use of technology has gone hand in hand with a broader change in research approaches. Mr Henderson said: “Where you lose is in not being able to have a conversation. People type in a lot less than they say and online you miss the non-verbal way people signal their reactions.” Nevertheless, Unilever believes it can exploit the web to conduct increasingly sophisticated research.

Consumers Going Green - It's not all good news
11.06.2008

In recent years, increasing numbers of organisations have recognised that there is a powerful case to manage the social, environmental and wider economic impacts of their organisations ' activities. Many organisations, however, are unsure of how best to act.

The successful organisations of the future will be those committed to sustainable development, delivering better social, environmental and economic value simultaneously. What might focus the mind is the negative impact green issues can have on a global or local brand. Unfair labour practices and unhealthy products mean shoppers leave the goods on the shelves showing how awareness of environmental and labour concerns directly impact on purchasing decisions by global consumers,

Believe it or not, amongst the keenest boycotters were the Chinese, with more than half of the respondents saying they refused to buy products from certain manufacturers. Denmark (49%) and France (46%) came a close second and third. Mexican and Japanese consumers on the other hand seemed to be most tolerant with only 15% of Mexican respondents and one fifth of Japanese respondents avoiding particular brands.

Overall, 36% of all consumers worldwide and a higher percentage of men than women said they were boycotting products. The most boycotted brands, according to the survey, were Nike, Coca Cola, McDonalds and Nestle. The Germans had the highest number of brands on their black lists including local ones such as Adidas, Opel and Mercedes, while Chinese consumers said they avoided mainly local brands and Sony.

Among the most frequently given reasons for boycotting were unfair labour practices and unhealthy products. Bad publicity and country origination played a less important role. However, 18% of those asked also said they would nott buy products produced by countries that do not respect the Kyoto agreement aimed at slowing down global warming, while 28% weren't aware of the agreement at all, so some work to do...........

The rise of the Silver Surfer in Ireland
18.03.2008

Recent iReach research of Online User demographics in Ireland highlighted a significant trend – or emerging online demographic; the Silver Surfer in the Irish marketplace. iReach surveyed the Irish online Adult population last January, which highlighted some significant changes to Internet usage profiles in Ireland.

Only 25% of the adult population in Ireland contribute to Social Networking sites, with 70% of young adults under 24 years being regular contributors. However a key emerging trend is that of the Silver Surfer.

In population terms, 21% of adult Internet users are older than 50 years, and account for the largest online spend across a range of Internet areas including Holiday and Travel services. Half of over-50s said life without the Internet was unimaginable. The Silver Surfers shop as often as younger generations with 70% of 50 year old - plus shopping online regularly, a similar level to the 18-34 year old groups. The actual spend of the Silver Surfer is significantly higher than that of the younger groups accounting for 30% on actual online spend in Ireland estimated at €150 million in 2007.

The rise of fast net connections means people are more able to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games.

The internet can be an effective means of delivering access to vital services and information about health, hobbies and employment, as well as helping older people keep in touch with friends and family and access vital public services and better information, education and advice was vital in closing the digital divide in Ireland.

The Irish Silver Surfers and the most regular and active online users of Internet Banking, Online Shopping, Tax Returns and access to News and Entertainment sites and email, so an important and forgotton demographic in Ireland. While the media is focused on the kids using Bebo or Facebook, the Silver Surfers are getting on (no pun intented) and transacting real commercial activities online, with significant disposal income (unlike the young adults or teenagers).

Online Advertising - The next frontier……
02.02.2008

We have recently completed a study of Online Advertising in Ireland to project spending in 2008. What this study shows is marketing spend locally significantly lags the UK in terms of annual investment in online advertising. In the UK, over 12% of Marketing Media budgets is spent on Online advertising campaigns while only 2.5% of Irish Marketing Media budgets were spend online in 2007, estimated by iReach at €35million.

As Internet penetration continues to grow in Ireland, accelerated by wide scale availability of Mobile Broadband from O2, Vodafone and 3 Ireland; Irish subscribers now have the widest range of access methods to the Internet over many European Markets including the UK. The announcement of the Microsoft $45billion bid for Yahoo further highlights a market for significant revenue opportunities.

The age profile of Irish online users are changing also. The Internet is no longer the domain of music file sharers or Bebo users. The fast majority of all Irish Internet users are doing online banking, online shopping and other mainstream commercial activities.

Last year iReach estimated Online Advertising spend would reach €35m accounting for just 2.5% of all Advertising spend in Ireland during 2007. While overall Advertising budgets continue to grow in Ireland and will exceed €1.5billion for the first time in 2008, the Online proportional share of this budget is growing fast also, however the pace of this growth is significantly slower than the UK.

The opportunity for Advertisers to extend campaigns to the web is significant and cost effective, but a clearer understanding of online demographics is key. Online Advertising spend in Ireland across all channels with grow to over 3.6% of total Advertising media spend in 2008 totalling €55m, still lagging the UK market by a significant margin, but at least it is going in the right direction……….

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