Welcome the age of Social Shopping

Research, just published in the US by ATG, suggests the UK like the US could be set to enter an age of ‘social shopping’.

In the US, 29% of respondents aged 18-34 said they had found a product or service through a social network and 37% said it was important or very important that merchants provide them an opportunity to interact through social networks.

The implications of this are that brands who research how their products interact with consumers in a retail environment now need to consider how best to incorporate social networking as a central part of their marketing strategy.

It is important to combine offline and online strategies with consistent messaging but taking advantage of the ability that social media permits to create communities around your products. Use the community to ask for input on product development – and reward consumer participation and interaction by taking on board customer ideas and creating social media-specific promotions.

We all know that social media is perfect for high value or aspirational brands and products, like the iPad, where consumers can meet together and discuss their feelings towards the brand but it can work equally well for lower value products, provided the context of the social media marketing fits with the brand.

One brand that does this particularly well is Lucozade Football, whose Facebook page now has in excess of 55,000 followers. Lucozade had recognized the importance of using social media to fit their brand in as part of their customers’ lifestyles and interests. It’s the perfect example of a brand engaging its consumers for the long term and creating an environment in which to share their mutual pleasure and interest in a subject pertinent to the brand. In this case it’s football, but it could just as easily be technology, music, books, coffee, chocolate or whatever.

Without overt selling, Lucozade has implanted itself in the psyche of its followers and will, almost certainly, be the brand of choice when those followers come to buy. And, crucially, it has all been done by conversation and engagement, not shouting and selling.

Collecting customer feedback still requires objectivity

We read this week that the electronics retail giant Best Buy has started using store staff to collect feedback from customers while they shop. The firm’s Voices of Consumers through Employees system has employees logging real-time customer feedback products, services, policies, store layouts and displays onto an intranet system.

The report we read said that Best Buy’s customer insights team will then analyse the information and generate “actionable consumer insight” from the data.

Using staff to monitor customer reaction has its attractions and could certainly be cost effective – but we worry how accurate and independent the data garnered can actually be if it is front line sales staff that are providing the information. After all, isn’t it in the interests of customer-facing staff to be overwhelmingly positive?

For us if negative comments are noted down and input by the staff, the potential for 'bias' would be a worry. Better perhaps if it is via some kind of electronic device which allows customers to privately score their views rather than declare that they give service 2 out of 10.

Companies looking for instant feedback in order to improve their service are, of course, to be applauded. The issue is method. Superdrug is one of the companies that puts a code on its receipts, which the customer can use to log on to an online survey, whilst Co-op collects feedback direct from customers in store using Chip & Pin machines at the tills. One wonders how many actually do. Then there is always the more traditional shopper route with interviewers in-store to collect views on the spot….though this does add cost. Perhaps this is the time for mobile – a simple mobile survey suitably incentivised on future purchases.

Moreover, the data accumulated then has to be interpreted and used to inform business planning. One of the biggest advantages of using an agency is its objectivity. Not only does the agency manage the data collection in a manner which keeps it free from even well-intended tampering, it can use its inherent objectivity to interpret the data is a manner that is free from existing ‘brand baggage’.

Look Abroad for New Markets...But Do Your Homework First

The Irish crisis and the downturn across the Eurozone has potentially far-reaching consequences for home grown British brands – and with a challenging year ahead now is the time for brands to take steps towards spreading risk and finding new markets in the months and years ahead.



The current crisis has highlighted the UK’s failure to redirect its own economy towards emerging markets. Not only do we export more to Ireland than to the BRIC countries combined, but our trade with Holland is worth more than most of our trade with Asia. We are, to an extent, at the mercy of the Eurozone even if we are not party to it.



So, is now the time for brands to begin exploring emerging markets in Eastern Europe and in Asia? Tesco clearly thinks so. It has just announced plans to nearly double its selling space in central Europe and Turkey over the next five years, whilst also aiming to quadruple sales in China to £4bn by the 2014 financial year.

Put simply, to grow the UK economy and for brands to achieve sustainability let alone profitability, they must start to find new markets outside Western Europe.



This needs to be a research-led process. Initial research can deliver insights that will help assess the viability of a particular market or markets for your products. Carefully structured research can provide extensive information on purchasing habits, particular taste buds and food choices, variations in brand meanings across different languages and even behavioural and cultural issues that would need to be considered. Start that process now and you will be ahead of the game if 2011 remains a little rocky.



There’s only one thing worse than not taking steps to explore new markets and that’s doing it without being armed with the research and customer insights you need to make informed decisions.

Evolve Creative

This week we have launched our new tool, Evolve Creative, which to designed to inspire better, braver brand advertising.

Email us to find out more (engage@engage-research.com)

Here's our first bit of press

http://www.mrweb.com/drno/news12667.htm

Engage Brain Latest!

Latest news on the 'Engage Brain'.... What’s So Cool About Being Cool? Part 1 of our search for all things cool!

Email us at engage@engage-research.com if you want the report.

Ideas aren't everything - the devil is in the detail!

We have seen an interesting article in 1to1 Magazine (http://bit.ly/aHqbKn) that looks at how companies are embarking on innovation management strategies that draw more heavily than ever on customer insight which, claims the article, ultimately leads to more successful product launches.

The article claims that, “fuelled by a hunger to succeed in this ailing economy”, companies are increasingly turning to customers, employees, and other stakeholders to come up with the ideas that will ultimately lead to new products and services.

The piece raises some interesting points, not least in setting out the increasingly varied ways in which companies are looking for and finding innovation within their own businesses. What it doesn’t demonstrate, though, is how necessarily to do it well. Ideas conceived in isolation are only half-formed. The real challenge for brands is in whether they are brave enough to implement the ideas that will create genuine stand-out for them in their market place and the attention to detail that goes into the execution of the concept.

And that’s the point at which customer insight agencies have a genuine role to play, providing the information that help brands prioritise those ideas for development and ensuring that budget is put to work on the most important and viable of the concepts developed via the engagement strategy.

October Article in ADMAP

We have an article in October's ADMAP on New Product Insight

...Consumer insight research can help to get the market positioning of a new product right and act as a pathway to success.

Email us and we'll send you a copy!

engage@engage-research.com