Tag Archives: report

B2B significantly trails B2C in articulating compelling brand values

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A recent report by Temkin Group identifies leading practices that companies can use to establish client-centric relationships.

The ‘Best Practices in B2B Customer Experience’ whitepaper finds that B2B trails B2C in all four customer experience core competencies: purposeful leadership, compelling brand values, employee engagement and customer connectedness.

One of the most alarming gaps is found in developing compelling brand values where 37% of large B2C firms are rated as good or better, compared with only 24% of large B2B firms.

“Consumer companies may get the mass of media coverage when it comes to customer experience, but there’s enormous opportunity in the B2B sector,” says Aimee Lucas, customer experience analyst of Temkin Group and the report’s lead author.

The customer experience as the foundation of stronger B2B enterprise relationships is viewed as the ‘enormous opportunity’ with the research identifying B2B best practices across seven broad areas:

  • Develop closed-loop voice of the client (VoC) Programs. Having a reliable flow of customer insights across the organisation is critical to driving customer-centric actions,
  • use journey maps to better understand clients’ needs. To better understand how clients see their experiences, B2B organisations can use a tool known as customer journey mapping,
  • tap into virtual client advisory boards. Client advisory boards (CAB) and councils provide the opportunity to acquire more insight into customer needs and expectations,
  • account-level experience reporting. To acquire, retain, and grow B2B relationships, account managers need to understand what’s working and not working for each of their clients,
  • insightful business development. B2B organizations that gather and use the right customer insights during this early stage will create a differentiated experience from the start of the relationship,
  • collaborative account planning. By taking a structured and collaborative approach to developing in-depth account plans, companies can tap into their enterprise knowledge, and
  • proactive intervention and support. B2B organisations need to use customer insights and feedback from account managers to intervene in service experiences gone wrong as quickly as possible with well-defined, robust recovery procedures.

 

Adobe, Apple, Microsoft subpoenaed by Australian Government over pricing questions

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The Australian Government’s IT Pricing Inquiry has ramped up its investigation into the so-called ‘Australia Tax’ today by issuing subpoenas to Apple, Adobe and Microsoft to appear in court next month for questioning on why some prices are higher in Australia compared to other markets.

The legal summonses, as reported by Gizmodo Australia, call the three companies to appear before the House Committee on 22 March to address concerns over hiked prices on IT goods that have been sold locally.

Federal Member for Chifley, Ed Husic, told Gizmodo Australia today that he is disappointed with the lengths the committee had to go to, in getting the companies to cooperate with the inquiry.

“In what’s probably the first time anywhere in the world, these IT firms are now being called by the Australian Parliament to explain why they price their products so much higher in Australia compared to the US,” Husic told Gizmodo Australia.

“Adobe, Apple and Microsoft are just a few firms that have continually defied the public’s call for answers and refused to appear before the IT Pricing Inquiry.”

Prior to the Government-issued subpoenas, Apple met with federal politicians in Canberra in July last year, after been granted a closed-door hearing in the parliamentary inquiry, with US representatives for the computer giant arguing its case.

In addition, Microsoft provided a three-page public submission that questioned the inquiry’s comparison of technology prices locally and abroad, saying: “Any such comparisons are of limited use, as prices differ from country to country and across channels due to a range of factors.”

Now it seems any previous attempts to resolve the matter will have to wait until the hearing next month. If Apple, Adobe or Microsoft fail to appear in court on the set date, they will face further legal action. Currently, it is not know whether other tech companies have been ordered to take part in the inquiry.

 

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Facebook CTR up 157% in 2012, boosted by sponsored stories

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Click through rates on Facebook ads grew by 157% in the year to December 2012, while cost per click dropped 24% to close the year, according to a global report.

TBG Digital’s ‘Global Facebook Advertising Report’ found that cost per click (CPC) on Facebook continued to drop while click-through rates (CTR) continue to grow, particularly for news feed placements.

The study looked at 572 billion impressions in more than 190 countries for 306 clients across the year to track the performance of Facebook ad units.

The October to December quarter of the study found a decrease in advertising costs in the five major countries analysed – the US, UK, German, France and Canada – with the average CPC down by 24%.

“The cheaper cost per click values seemed to be derived from the fact that targeting desktop and mobile news feed placements together opened up more inventory with less competition,” the report reads.

CTR increased by 25% in the US in the past quarter and 157% in the past year. Similarly, France saw an increase of 103% quarter to quarter and Germany is up 34%. Canada and the United Kingdom only saw slight increases of 3% and 1% respectively.

“Normally a rise in CTR could be partially due to a general improvement in targeting techniques and ad creative or as we discussed in our previous report, because users are very engaged with ads on desktop news feed and mobile news feed,” the report notes.

“CTR in desktop and mobile news feeds is significantly higher than on the right hand side panel mainly because news feed is the most visible part on Facebook and where users gravitate towards.”

TBG Digital expects to see CTRs rise and CPCs fall even more as advertisers inspire advocates to share their content and continue amplifying it through paid media.

The report also looked at Facebook Exchange (FBX), Facebook’s real-time bidding platform, which TBG Digital has been serving ads through since October 2012. The agency found conversion rates on the exchange were high, but believes continued investment in standard Facebook inventory is necessary to scale FBX activity, as one fuels the other. “While standard inventory performs well on its own as a direct response channel, retargeting non-converters who may have previously seen an ad on Facebook to bring them back into the purchase funnel leads to incremental conversions.”

The combination of standard Facebook and FBX inventory can deliver up to 2.6 times better ROI, TBG found.

For the first time, TBG also looked at promoted tweets looking at more than 25 million impressions for promoted tweets in Europe and the US. Promoted tweets are offered on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis, which means that advertisers only pay when a user takes a specific action: replies to, clicks or marks the promoted tweet as favourite.

Promoted tweets in search proved far more effective than promoted tweets in timelines, with CTR for promoted tweets in search was 88% higher than promoted tweets in timeline, but tweets in timeline had a 29% lower CPE.

 

Piss pots to picky palates: alcohol brands ‘premiumise’ Aussie tastes

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Alcohol brands have succeeded in boosting yield in the face of declining consumption by ‘premiumising’ Australian drinking tastes, according to a report.

Analysis from IBISWorld forecasts the shift from a beer drinking nation towards higher priced ciders, spirits and wines will continue to accelerate, fuelling a 20.5% increase in alcohol spend over the next five years.

“Once a nation of beer drinkers, beer consumption has declined by 15% over the past decade to now account for 37.1% of total alcohol consumption, while wine and spirits have grown in popularity to account for 25.3% and 17.9% of alcohol consumption respectively”, Karen Dobie, general manager of the business analyst’s Australian operation explains.

Spend on alcohol is forecast to reach $33.1 billion during the 2012-2013 financial year, despite consumption dropping to 9.8 litres per capita per year from a peak of 10.6 litres in 2006-07. By 2017-2018, spend is forecast to hit $39.9 billion.

The growing spend and increasing competition from European and US imports will see more Australian manufactures launch premium products in the coming years, Dobie predicts.

“Australia’s beer drinking palate is becoming more sophisticated, with a number of European style beers now being produced on our shores. Traditional full-strength lagers such as VB, Carlton Draught and Tooheys are losing market share in favour of cider and premium beer.”

Cider has grown to account for 7% of total alcohol consumption, and is forecast to hit 13% by 2017-2018, while craft and boutique beers have grown to account for 5% of total production.

In the wine segment, European styles such as Sangiovese, Tempranillo and Pino Grigio have seen strong growth as Australians fork out for more exotic blends. Australian brands, such as Jacob’s Creek, have also been actively investing in their brand to premiumise their offering.

“Australian wineries have responded to this trend by rebranding themselves as premium to keep up with the resurgence of Old World wines”, Dobie adds.

Ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages, which account for nearly 64% of spirits revenue, are also undergoing a makeover as producers develop new products to capitalise on changing preferences, such as RTD cocktails targeted at female drinkers.

 

Experience is brand: marketing trends shape business

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Companies are grappling with an ‘experience-led business transformation’ as technology, real-time control and the blurring of online and offline experiences means brands are now defined by the collective experience of their touchpoints, both global and local.

This is the message coming out of SapientNitro’s ‘Insights 2013’ report, which forecasts that brands will increasingly be defined by the by the sum of the interactions and value exchanged with their target market.

Today, experience is the brand, write Hilding Anderson and Todd Cherkasky from the agency’s insights team and its ‘chief experience officer’, Donald Chestnut.

“We are witnessing fundamental changes at the intersection of technology, business and customer experience,” they write, delivering four trends set to impact on marketing. “The collective impact of ‘disruptive technologies’ on the human experience is causing chaos for companies. Old business models are failing. Communication and commerce are converging – in the home, on-the-go and at the store.”

One of the most critical trends identified in the report is consumer demand for real-time control of their data, their lives and the world around them, given rise by technology such as smartphones, internet TV, alternative methods of payment and new forms of content delivery.

While not always met, this expectation, and how brands are striving to meet it, is driving some of the most interesting developments in marketing today, the report claims.

Brands are playing an important role in shaping this desire for real-time control among their consumers, stimulating its demand by using mobile data, real-time analysis and social media. The report advises marketers to predict where these desires will lead and build the infrastructure to anticipate consumer needs in real time.

Another major trend in the evolution of experiences is the blurring of the online and offline worlds into one continuous spectrum, according to the report. Brands are increasingly using their assets to reach customers in the right time, place and with the right tools to shape the purchase decision.

A new concept of storytelling, the role of brand, new strategies for content and new retail models are elaborated on as key features of the marketers response to the blurring of online and offline experience.

Also identified as a key trend set to shape the marketing landscape is the rise of the global consumer. No longer are marketing assets, brands and messages restricted within a single country’s borders, the report adds. To adapt to this world, marketers must rethink how they operate to integrate global touchpoints with local initiatives.

These key trends are expected to drive marketing priorities over the next three to five years and make experience the centre point of marketing activity, the report concludes.

 

Study: Combining technology with ‘human moments’ key for retail

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In-store digital experiences have been flagged as a crucial tool for traditional retailers by a new report, which warns many are executing poorly, a sin that can be worse than not executing at all.

SapientNitro’s review of in-store digital experiences, which analysed 71 retail stores in New York City provides insights for retailers around integrating the digital and physical worlds to enhance the shopping experience.

One of the themes that stood out in the agency’s ‘Insights 2013’ report was the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, says SapientNitro’s director of research and insights, Hilding Anderson. “Today’s consumer is flooded with pervasive, innumerable brand messages, and it’s up to brands to share their stories by utilising the best times, places and tools to shape purchasing decisions. Combining technology with powerful ideas and insightful perspectives on human moments is key to creating highly relevant ways to connect.”

The study found that digital in-store displays have the potential to be powerful tools, an opportunity that went begging for half of the retailers involved in the review. In cases where digital displays were used, they were often poor executed, resulting in disastrous effects with poorly planned digital worse than having no digital at all.

When the right tools were used in the right way, in-store digital was found to generate positive return on investment for retailers. Companies that optimise their mobile web content outperformed those that didn’t by 80% in year-over-year increases in web traffic. Increased web to in-store functionality was also instrumental in driving conversion, boosting sales by 10% to 40% for those executing well in that area.

The report recommends focussing on digital in-store add-ons that support user tasks, also something in its infancy in the New York retail environment analysed.

Sephora, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and American Eagle Outfitters were the only four retailers to stand out for their in-store digital integration, scoring well in the areas evaluated. Stand out executions of in-store digital included Macy’s Clinique skin evaluation iPad displays, Sephora’s ‘Scentsa’ touchscreen kiosk interactive display for browsing fragrances and LEGO’s in-store augmented reality experience.

 

Digital teens: boys shun traditional media, flock to gaming and social

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Gaming and social media are the best places for marketers to find notoriously hard to reach teenage boys, a study from TNS suggests.

The research agency’s ‘TRU’ study, which interviewed over 800 teenagers between 12 and 19 years of age, reinforced the differences between male and female teens when it comes to media consumption. Certain magazine titles and TV shows are considered ‘rites of passage’ for young girls, making them easier to target – 60% read magazines, with Dolly, Girlfriend and Cosmopolitan the top three titles, while dramas, such as Home and Away, are their favourite shows.

In contrast, few teenage boys engage with traditional media, with only 7% nominating reading magazines or other forms of media as a pursuit they like to spend free time on. Playing video games and going online were the two most popular media-based activities for this group, with 49% and 29% electing these as a preferred uses of spare time respectively.

Preferred media pursuits in spare time

The findings come at a time when teen buying power is at an all-time high, according to Tania Kullmann, managing director at TNS Australia. The average spend per week among teenagers has now reached almost $100 per week, or $5000 a year. This is higher among boys, who average $124 per week, than girls, at $70 per week; and ranges from $56 per week for 12-13 year olds to $192 per week for 18-19 year olds.

Clothing and apparel was their number one area of spend, particularly among 18-19 year olds and girls, while mobile phones and technology to help them stay connected with friends followed a close second.

“Teens define themselves through their clothing, hairstyles, places they eat, and whom they associate with… and seek validation through brands,” Kullmann says.

Big, mainstream brands are favoured, with Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike, McDonald’s and adidas ranking among the top five.

While traditional media is still an effective channel for targeting teen girls, online methods are emerging as more fruitful, particularly for boys, the report suggests. Both boys and girls spend 2.5 hours using the internet a day (a figure as high as 3.5 hours for 18-19 year olds), a time that is all about social networking where they ‘hang out’ with friends in spare time at home.

“Social media sites are increasingly prominent ways to communicate with Aussie teens, especially for reaching older teens,” Kullmann says.

But for targeting boys, marketers need look no further than video games, the report concludes. “With half of all teen boys nominating video games as a preferred way to spend their free time, the medium offers the potential for a captive audience.”

Forrester: Social media ‘barely negligible’ as a sales lead

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Social media has a “barely negligible” impact on sales for online retailers, according to a study conducted in the US by Forrester.

The analyst firm’s ‘Purchase Path Of Online Buyers’ report, which tracked 77,000 purchases to identify the most fruitful sources of sales, found that only 1% of sales came from links placed in social media.

The value in social media is more in its slow burn effect, the report’s author, senior analyst Sucharita Mulpuru, writes: “While the hype around social networks as a driver of influence in ecommerce continues to capture the attention of online executives, the truth is that social continues to struggle and registers as a barely negligible source of sales for either new or repeat buyers.

“The reality is that even the most popular social image-sharing sites (like Pinterest) have failed to move the needle with respect to sales for most retail sites.”

Social media and other ‘top-of-the-funnel’ methods, such as display advertising, are more likely to play a role in the influence chain when it involves multiple touchpoints, which Forrester estimates occurs for 33% of transactions from new customers and 48% of the time for repeat customers.

As a direct source of sales, web marketing mainstays of search and email continue to be the most fruitful despite changes to the interactive marketing landscape and the growing number of shoppers, the report says.

For new customers, the most common single source of sales were direct visits at 20%, organic search at 16% and paid search at 11%. For repeat customers, direct visits at 20%, email at 13% and organic search at 6% brought in the most sales in a single touchpoint interaction. In multiple touchpoint transactions, they remained the most influential with the addition of display ads.

social media forrester

Mulpuru recommends perfecting email marketing techniques, a continual focus on search engine marketing, caution in overestimating the impact of social media and actively promoting simple URLs across a range of channels in order to play to today’s online influence model.

 

Marketers: sales ROI secondary to engagement on social media

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Australian marketers see social media as an engagement tool before a medium for generating sales, a new study suggests.

The survey of more than 100 senior Australian marketers, conducted by digital marketing conference iStrategy, indicates that for all the talk of ROI, being able to attribute actual sales to social media activity is secondary to building engagement.

Metrics used to measure social media success among the sample were more commonly focused on engagement and community building than sales, with 47% measuring engagement only and 20% measuring both ROI and engagement. A further 28% did not have any targets in place.

In terms of marketing strategy, 50% see social media’s role as community building, 11% a campaign based activity and 39% an even split.

The survey results provide a gauge on the marketing priorities of experienced marketers that the industry can learn from, marketing manager for iStrategy Conferences, Helen Hawkins, says.

The study also provides insights into the future of traditional media, senior management priorities, digital’s impact on operations and the impact of social on brand.

Among senior management, social media sits down the pecking order with other marketing areas perceived as more important, according to the sample. Slightly fewer believe social media boosts the dominance of major brands than believe it levels the playing field, with 25% of the opinion they’ll become more dominant and 30% that they’ll become less dominant. A further 36% were unsure while 10% believe it won’t affect brands.

The study also found that four in five believe traditional media won’t die, but will become a hybrid of new and old media.

iStrategy Melbourne will be held on the 22-23 November, 2012 and the conference’s ‘Digital Directions Survey’ report will be made available in late October 2012.

 

PwC report: IPTV and digital subscriptions set to be media’s new cash cows

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IPTV will be subscribed to by 27% of Australians by 2017 and is expected to be one of the strongest contributors to media revenue over the next five years, which will be driven by consumer spend ahead of ad dollars, a new report has found.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ ‘Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook 2012-2016’ report puts growth for the entertainment and media industry at 18% over the next five years, but revenue from advertising is only expected to grow 13% compared to a healthier 21% for consumer revenues.

The three strongest sectors of consumer revenues will be subscription TV, interactive games and internet access, according to the report. Research conducted by the management consultants in April found that 52% of Australian homes already own a device that could enable IPTV, such as a connectable television, connectable games console or a set-top-box. The availability of increased programming choice emerged as the number one reason why consumers would join such a service.

Top reasons consumers indicated they would switch to IPTV

PwC technology, information, communications and entertainment leader David Wiadrowski predicts that the sectors set to win over the next five years are those with strong offers on mobile devices.

“Demand for media by consumers has never been stronger,” Wiadrowski says, pointing to increases in viewership, readership and data consumption. “PwC expects the revenue declines in structurally challenged segments, such as newspaper and magazine publishing, to be partly offset by new digital subscriptions,” says Mr Wiadrowski.

“However these new business models require time and patience to be bedded down properly. It would be a mistake to look for instant or short term success when experimentation is crucial at times of change.”

PwC predicts revenue for the entertainment and media industry will $38.3 billion by 2016, with consumer spending generating $24 billion of the pool. The industry’s predicted compounded annual growth rate is 4.1% over the next five years.

PwC predicts that mobile commerce will grow exponentially over the next five years with mobile marketing and m-commerce set to merge to create new forms of transactional advertising exclusive to the mobile environment.

“The long-term success of mobile commerce in Australia will be largely driven by two critical factors: increased consumer confidence and trust in mobile, and the emergence of a secure and accepted mobile wallet offering,” Wiadrowski says.

 

Report: Online giants set to dominate local media for ad revenues

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Google, Facebook and other global digital giants will command one-third of the Australian ad market by 2017, leaving local publishers to battle over a depleted advertising pool, according to a report from Morgan Stanley.

The bank warns that the dominant digital media players will seize a larger share of ad budgets than local operators realise, with Facebook alone forecast to rake in $400-$600 million in Australian advertising by 2017.

“Our thesis is the addressable market for domestic media companies is not growing, is not steady but is actually shrinking,” the Morgan Stanley report reads. “In Australia, we estimate the advertising revenue number generated by social networks was much smaller (than in the US) – $50 million in 2011, but similarly it is growing fast.

“With 44% of the Australian population estimated to be on social media in 2012, Australia ranks as the fourth-highest worldwide behind the US, Canada and South Korea, but ahead of the UK, Russia and Spain,” the report adds.

“And where consumers go… we know surely businesses/corporates and advertising dollars will follow. It is interesting to note that Australian businesses have significantly increased their own social media presence over the last twelve months.”

Newspapers and magazines are likely to lose the most market share, although the report also forecasts that the attractions of social media will also diminish the price TV networks can charge.

“Facebook is not a substitute for Seven, Nine and Ten but it is an alternative.”

 

OOH scoring eyeballs and dollars

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A new report by the Outdoor Media Association claims the out of home (OOH) industry has experienced a 20% increase in net revenue year-to-date, compared to the same period in 2009.

The research was conducted after the third quarter, and also showed net revenue for this July to September segment increased 30% to $111.4 million, compared to $85.8 million in 2009.

Joana Barros of OOH advertising company Adshel says she has definitely noticed an increase in business.

Q3 has seen record breaking growth levels in both revenue and brand count for Adshel, she tells Marketingmagazine.com.au, as outdoor recovers from the downturn faster than most other media.

You may have noticed increasingly interactive OOH ads sprouting up around your city, where you can feel, listen, and manipulate billboards (see execution examples below)

Barros says Clients are also thinking bigger and are excited about the opportunities outdoor advertising presents to interact with their customers and create brand experiences.

Third quarter expenditure in Australian OOH

• Roadside billboards (over and under 25 square metres) $38.7 million

• Roadside other (street furniture, taxis, bus/tram externals, small format) $39.7 million

• Transport (including airports) $16.4 million

• Retail $16.6 million