Retail marketers shift their focus locally

by Marketing ON 23 May 2013

A new study has found a strong shift in the balance of local vs. global marketing as Australian companies attempt to gain an edge on their competitors. Some of the country’s largest companies are planning to increase their allocation of localised marketing by up to 60% according to a report released by the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS).

The study commissioned by Retail Safari, part of the global CPM group, outlines the growing phenomenon of local and personalised marketing in a rapidly evolving and channel-saturated retail landscape.

ACRS research director Dr Sean Sands says the implications of companies developing stronger engagement within local communities is clear.

“Localisation is no longer just about customising creative messages and running a few local promotions, but has to integrate and involve all channels and touch points. It encompasses everything from strategy, pricing and merchandising to ﬁeld teams, websites and media planning,”

“Fundamentally there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way marketers develop strategies for acquisition and sales,” he explains.

Some of the key outcomes of the study indicate that by centralising the strategic and operational development of localised marketing activities, organisations can expect signiﬁcant cost savings while improving brand integrity and overall sales performance.

However, the benefits of thinking local also come with some barriers to developing a more locally focused approach – a key one being access to suitably skilled resources, understanding of local market dynamics, segmentation challenges and the high cost of Australian media.

Gingkai Tan, managing director of Retail Safari, believes the research validated the focus on driving local market penetration across multiple channels.

“This is not just an Australian phenomenon,” he says, “we are seeing our international businesses moving in the same direction, driven by the demands of the market and our clients.”

“The challenge for retailers and manufacturers today is clearly one of cost – how to manage national or global scale and resource availability with local market realities and proﬁt opportunities”.

How advertisers can use social TV to their benefit

by Seb Rennie ON 9 May 2013

How advertisers can use social TV to their benefit

A world-first neuro study has served up some interesting facts on social media interaction and the first screen, writes Sebastian Rennie. The most important impact will be on when and how advertisers manage their in-program messaging.

Australians, like everyone else in the world, are watching more screens, more often and in more places. The concept of the second screen, or even multi-screening – engaging with more than one screen simultaneously – has been around for some time now.

Nielsen statistics show that the percentage of Aussies participating in multi-screening has been relatively static at 60% for the past five years. Conventional thinking, within and from outside the industry, assumes that if viewers are spreading their attention across more than one device, then TV must be suffering. According to such thinking, the second screen must be distracting viewers, resulting in diminished levels of engagement – a concern for both broadcasters and advertisers.

Eager to answer these concerns with some empirical data, MEC partnered with the Seven Network and Neuro-Insight to undertake a neurological study of social TV viewers and their live social interaction between the first and second screen. Good news – the study shows that social TV viewers’ engagement levels rise.

But first, here is an explanation on how we conducted the study. We recruited four different groups of social TV viewers and invited them to the Neuro-Insight lab. These participants watched a live broadcast of the Seven Network’s reality show X-Factor, while wearing equipment to measure their neurological activity. We left them to their own devices as they watched the broadcast and interacted on social media.

Neuro-Insight developed a bespoke methodology and technology for this task, enabling us to contrast the different behavioural states to measure the neurological change before, during and after social interaction.

Our goal in conducting this world-first study was to determine whether social TV is a threat or an opportunity for broadcasters and advertisers. With millions being spent annually on TV sponsorships, clarity around viewer engagement is crucial for both parties.

The study highlighted the rise and fall of the participants’ engagement levels as they interacted with the first and second screen. Of the 153 social interactions measured, there were on average four tweets per participant, with a high of 14 and a low of two.

The results challenge the conventional wisdom that second-screen usage during TV viewing negatively impacts audience engagement. In fact, by the end of the 30-minute show (and a number of second screen interactions), the cumulative engagement levels of the participants had increased on average by 23%.

The results offer some guidance to broadcasters and those advertisers integrated into a program. Producers can introduce triggers to involve social TV viewers earlier in the program, while brands that are fully integrated in a TV show can capitalise on the higher intensity of engagement, improving the effectiveness of their marketing investment.

Even more relevant to advertisers was the discovery of two memory states in the minds of viewers. The first is a “global memory”, where people store imagery, jingles and brands. The second is the “detailed memory”, where more detailed information around products, price points, website addresses and the like is stored.

After social media interaction, people’s detailed memory is higher than their global memory – this usually occurs towards the end of a TV show. That means social TV viewers are more likely to pay attention to and retain details on products and special offers than the average TV viewer.

This represents a powerful new piece of intelligence in the ongoing battle to improve advertising effectiveness. Advertisers can use this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of their program sponsorships and integrated advertising deals.

For example, they should serve up brand messages at the beginning of a TV program, when viewers’ global memory is more receptive, and push product specifics, price points, promotions and offers towards the end of the program when the detailed memory kicks in to better exploit viewers’ heightened receptivity to details.

Multiscreen usage is only likely to increase in the future, so this discovery comes at the right time to enable advertisers and their media agencies to manage the timing and content of their messaging during a TV program.

The results are certainly positive, but just because we are seeing engagement levels rise with social TV (with an average of four interactions over 30 minutes) there isn’t going to be a linear increase in engagement as the social interactions increase. In extreme cases, where viewers turn to social media every couple of minutes, I doubt they would be paying an awful lot of attention to the program.

Everyone’s on Facebook – so why aren’t the ASX100?

by Marketing ON 7 May 2013

Half of the ASX100 use social media – but only a third are choosing the social media platform that Australians favour, Facebook.

53% of ASX100 companies are now using Twitter, 27% are using Facebook and less than a quarter of the top 100 Australian companies are using both.

According to a study by Web Profits, 11.5 million Australians are currently active on Facebook but only an estimated 2.2 million are currently active on Twitter.

However, the results suggest that large Australian companies are choosing to use less populated Twitter to ‘hide’ their social output, forgoing the opportunity to connect with customers and stakeholders in fear of having their mistakes seen online.

Source: Web Profits

“The results indicate that companies that feel pressured by their boards to embrace social media are choosing Twitter because it feels safer,” says Paul Sprokkreeff, MD of Web Profits.

“Comments on Twitter fly by so quickly, while a faux pas on Facebook often sticks there for everyone to see. Rather than formulate a strategy to turn this to their advantage, many companies are confining their engagement strategy to tweeting the odd media release or pre-spun factoid to a handful of followers.”

Source: Web Profits

It appears that the big four banks are cottoning on to the higher engagement levels of Facebook.

The Commonwealth Bank leads the pack, coming in at number one of the ASX100 for effective social media deployment, with NAB, Westpac and ANZ coming in at 6th, 7th and 8th place.

“That the big four banks have caught on indicates that even traditionally risk-shy companies know that the blend of information and customer service that social media can achieve is a powerful marketing and loyalty tool,” Sprokkreeff says.

“I think we’ll see social media grow significantly in importance to exceed that of the call centre in the next five years.”

Web chat the preferred customer service channel, not social media or apps

by Marketing ON 23 April 2013

Consumers prefer to communicate with brands via web chat more so than social media or smartphone apps, a new study by customer service firm Fifth Quadrant has found.

More than 400 consumers and a total of 53 businesses were surveyed for the study that found web chat is the most used medium for customer service queries after social media and smart phone apps. The study noted that web chat was perceived to have the highest suitability for general enquiries, technical issues, purchase or sales related questions, and complaints or service issues.

The technology to facilitate web chat has been around for over five years, but only one quater of Australian businesses today are currently using web chat. However they are catching on, with the use of web chat technology has multiplying over the past two years.

Head of research at Fifth Quadrant, Chris Kirby, says, “Web chat has a great value proposition for consumers. It is a convenient offer of help at an appropriate time. When carried out properly, it is non-intrusive and simplifies the consumer’s experience.”

Three in five survey respondents reported feeling confident that their web chat services were well resourced and that they would be capable of scaling up support services in demand for the customer. However respondents didn’t feel quite so confident with their social media channels as a way to provide customer support and service with just under half being confident to scale up social media support in that area.

The way the different channels are managed might explain the disparity between the systems. Four out of five organisations left the responibility of the web chats to the businesses call centre/customer service enquiry divisions. Whereas traditionally social media and smart phone services are usually managed by the marketing or IT departments.

AFL taps online fan community for customer insights

by Marketing ON 9 April 2013

The Australian Football League (AFL) has launched the first online insights community for a major football code as it seeks to bring regular customer research into its game plan.

The fan community, known as AFL Fan Focus, was developed in partnership with insight community technologies firm Vision Critical. The digital platform will allow the AFL to hear from its fans regularly, in an online community, with the sharing of ideas and experiences through interactive surveys and topical discussions enabling the AFL to understand the issues facing its audience.

Selected fans, currently numbering 1000, have the opportunity to regularly provide their opinion and the AFL will respond to the thoughts, discussing match day experience, ticketing, what it means to be a member and the advertising of the brand.

“AFL Fan Focus will provide the AFL with the opportunity to engage fans in meaningful conversations and thereby help it to make the right decisions about what fans really want from the AFL experience,” says Vision Critical managing director Australia and New Zealand, Peter Harris.

The AFL will pioneer the trend in 2013 with Shaun Welch, AFL consumer strategy manager, explaining that the future of the AFL is in the hands of its core supporters, not just the AFL administration. “We know that our AFL fans are passionate about football and are a valuable source of ideas and inspiration. That’s why we have set up this dedicated platform of supporters to help us shape the AFL experience in future,” he says.

App-and-mortar economy: Retail apps usage surges 525%

by Marketing ON 14 March 2013

Forget bricks and clicks, as the world becomes more mobile retailers are looking at the reality of an app-and-mortar economy, according to app services firm Flurry.

The US based measurement specialist found time spent in retailer apps grew by 525% during December 2011 and December 2012, in a study of more than 1,800 iOS and Android shopping apps.

Retailer apps indexed well above the general shopping category, which was broken down into five sub-categories: retailer apps, price comparison, purchase assistant, online marketplace and daily deals. Together, these five categories experienced 274% growth throughout the year.

The opportunity for retailers to extend their relationship with consumers outside the store has never been greater, Simon Khalaf of Flurry writes. “In the new mobile app economy, devices are always with you, always on and always connected… In the new app-and-mortar economy, they serve as virtual, portable show rooms that consumers can use to shop anytime, anywhere.”

This growth in retail apps exceeds overall app growth, which came in at 132% over the course of 2012, showing the uptake of retail outpacing general app growth. Time spent in price comparison and purchase assistant apps has grown significantly, up by 247% and 228% respectively. However online marketplace and daily deals apps did not grow as quickly, with 178% and 126% increases respectively.

Retailers saw the greatest increase in share of time spent, which grew from 15% of time spent by consumers in shopping apps in 2011 to 27% by the end of 2012. The enormous growth in retailer app share has come largely at the expense of daily deals, down in share from 20% to 13%, and online marketplace apps, which contracted from 25% to 20%.

This suggests that retailers are beginning to better respond to the tectonic shift created by the collision of online- meeting offline-shopping through mobile apps, Khalaf says

Retailers need to re-examine the consumer relationship from the ground up and through the lens of mobile-first, Khalaf concludes.

Tablets to reach 70% by 2017, smaller set to dominate

by Marketing ON 13 March 2013

Tablet penetration is forecast to hit 70% by 2017 with smaller models set to dominate, new research from Telsyte shows.

The technology analysts found more than 5 million people in Australia were using tablets by the end of last year, with Apple making up around 70% of the 2.4 million units sold throughout the year.

The arrival of the iPad mini in November 2012 buoyed Apple’s sales, Telsyte says, which were being eroded by the flood of cheaper Android products hitting the market. Samsung claimed 9% of sales across the year, while the next closest competitor, Asus, accounted for 8% of sales.

The smaller form factor appears to be where the future of the market lies, with 7 to 9-inch tablets forecast to exceed sales of 10-inch devices by 2014, and a decline in cellular-enabled units expected as the home emerges as the main location of use.

“Low cost and smaller form factor media tablets, typically without cellular connectivity, are shaping the market,” Telsyte research director, Foad Fadaghi, says.

By 2013 Telsyte forecasts tablet penetration to hit 50% of homes, supporting figures in Nielsen’s ‘Australian Connected Consumers‘ report, and by 2017 prevalence of the device is expected to reach a level comparable to today’s smartphone user base.

Despite a slow start, Windows 8 tablets are expected to steadily grow in popularity, particularly with the business market, younger users and consumers looking to replace aging laptops.

The study also found tablet related ecommerce is booming, with half of all tablet users having purchased a physical product or service via their devices in 2012. Some categories are approaching similar rates of ecommerce uptake as on computers, such as event tickets and travel related purchases. Telsyte expects this trend to continue as more shopping and catalogue applications appear in 2013.

“The explosion in commercial transactions on media tablets highlights the importance of a multi-screen strategy for digital advertisers and retailers,” Fadaghi says.

Telsyte’s ‘Australian Media Tablet Study 2013-17’ surveyed a representative sample of 1000 Australians.

Email remains preferred communication channel: study

by Marketing ON 21 February 2013

Consumers want better experiences from brands’ websites and Facebook pages, but email remains their preferred communication channel, marketing software provider ExactTarget found.

ExactTarget’s ‘Marketers from Mars’ study shows 33% of consumers want marketers to invest more in email, 24% want marketers to invest in the brand’s website and 22% of consumers wish marketers to invest in creating a better Facebook experience.

Jeff Rohrs, ExactTarget’s vice president of marketing, explains that consumers are no longer satisfied with “single channel interactions and moving into multi-channel relationships”, and as the report clearly defines, the increase has been somewhat substantial.

“This research provides insight into consumer expectations, offering marketers exclusive new insight on how to avoid the pitfalls of personal biases or becoming a ‘focus group of one’ when creating marketing strategy,” he says.

In terms of the key findings of the research, they include the following:

EMAIL

– 36% of consumers with a smartphone prefer to interact with brands on email, compared to 49% of consumers who do not own a smartphone

– 49% of consumers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message

– 93% of consumers subscribe to at least one brand’s email, remaining consistent compared to 2010.

FACEBOOK

– 31% of consumers with a smartphone prefer to interact with brands on Facebook compared to 26% of consumers who do not own a smartphone, making it the second most common place consumers look to connect with brands online

– 58% of consumers have liked a brand on Facebook, a 20% increase since 2010

– 21% of consumers have made a purchase as a result of a message they saw on Facebook.

TWITTER

– Among those actively using Twitter, 46% of consumers follow brands to receive advanced notice about new products

– 12% of consumers follow a brand on Twitter, a 7% increase since 2010.

Customer satisfaction awards: Aldi pips big two, NAB tops banks, Virgin topples Qantas

by Marketing ON 20 February 2013

In 2012 NAB was the most customer-centric consumer bank, Aldi the best supermarket, Myer the best department store and Virgin Australia the best domestic airline, according to Roy Morgan Research’s ‘Customer Satisfaction Awards’.

Announced last night at a gala dinner in Melbourne, the awards honoured 37 businesses measured as having the highest customer satisfaction levels for 2012, based on its single source data.

Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan Research, congratulated not only the winners but all successful businesses, large and small, that consistently strive to satisfy their customers.

Some of the winners received an award for the second consecutive year, including The Good Guys, Internode, Michel’s Patisserie, Aldi, Virgin Mobile, Crowne Plaza and JB Hi-Fi.

Home Hardware pipped Bunnings for the Hardware Store of the Year title, ActewAGL followed up success in 2011 for best gas provider to take a clean sweep of the utilities categories, and Virgin Mobile won carrier of the year.

NAB took out the Major Bank award for most satisfied customers, over last year’s winner ANZ, while Westpac maintained its success among Business customers.

Department Store of the Year was taken out by Myer, de-throning last year’s winner David Jones while Best & Less lived up to its name winning best Discount Department Store for 2012.

Apple’s iPhone retained the number one spot for Mobile Phone Handset Customer Satisfaction but looks set to be challenged by Samsung in 2013, according to the research.

The full list of winners:

Car Manufacturer of the Year: Mercedes-Benz
Bank of the Year: Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank
Building Society of the Year: Newcastle Permanent Building Society
Credit Union of the Year: Police & Nurses (WA)
General Insurer of the Year: Defence Service Homes Insurance
Major Bank of the Year: NAB
Private Health Insurer of the Year: CBHS
Risk & Life Insurer of the Year: Real Insurance
Business Bank of the Year: Bendigo Bank
Business Insurer of the Year: WFI
Business Superannuation Manager of the Year: Cbus
Major Business Bank of the Year: Westpac
Quick Service Restaurants of the Year: Fasta Pasta
Auto Store of the Year: Supercheap Auto
Chemist / Pharmacy of the Year: Guardian
Clothing Store of the Year: Suzanne Grae
Coffee Shop of the Year: Michel’s Patisserie
Department Store of the Year: Myer
Discount Department Store of the Year: Best & Less
Discount Variety Store of the Year: The Reject Shop
Furniture / Electrical Store of the Year: The Good Guys
Hardware Store of the Year: Home Hardware
Music / Book Store of the Year: JB Hi-Fi
Shoe Store of the Year: Williams
Sports Store of the Year: Sportspower
Industry Superannuation Fund of the Year: ESS Super
Retail Superannuation Fund of the Year: Colonial First State
Supermarket of the Year: Aldi
Handset Provider of the Year: Apple iPhone
Home Phone Provider of the Year: iiNet
Home Internet Service Provider of the Year: Internode
Mobile Phone Service Provider of the Year: Virgin Mobile
Domestic Airline of the Year: Virgin Australia
Hotel And Resort of the Year: Crowne Plaza
International Airline of the Year: Singapore Airlines
Electricity of the Year: actewAGL
Gas of the Year: actewAGL

Roy Morgan Research collected satisfaction ratings through its 2012 ‘Consumer Single Source’ survey of over 50,000 Australians and its ‘Business Single Source’ survey of 22,000 decision makers.

Desktop cannibalised: 40% of shopping searches now come from mobile

by Marketing ON 1 February 2013

Around 40% of shopping-related Google searches now come from smartphones or tablets, a study by the search giant has found.

Looking into the habits of smartphone users, Google found that mobile and tablet search queries have grown by 138% since last year, reinforcing the shift from desktop to mobile being witnessed.

To illustrate how ingrained smartphones have become into users’ lives, Google looked at how the devices are used across the weekend in Australia, finding they’re in the average users hands as soon as they open their eyes, and one of the last things to leave them before the weekend ends.

On Saturday mornings, the devices are commonly used to check the weather (sometimes before getting out of bed), banking and booking travel. The afternoon and evening is the most common times for people to check sport scores, shopping and searching for food.

Australians check in on social networks throughout the weekend, but activity spikes at 10pm Saturday and 8pm Sunday. The impact of consumers having search in their pockets everywhere they go flows into face-to-face social settings also, with the phone often used to settle arguments on the spot, look up the definitions of new words, or cheat at the pub quiz.

Travel research is a favourite pastime for tablet owners, with 63% researching travel on their device.

Head of mobile ads at Google Australia, Jason Pellegrino, says mobile isn’t just a box to tick off. “It affects the way you plan your whole campaign,” he says. “This is what advertisers and marketers need to get right this year. They have to prioritise multi-screen and build digital-led content and campaigns that work across all screens.”

B2B marketers: help us benchmark Australia’s B2B marketing sector

by Marketing ON 29 January 2013

Update 29 January 2013: Only four days left to participate, if you haven’t already. Green Hat has been kind enough to pull some preliminary results for us:

Social is gaining traction, with participants describing their organisation as a ‘creator and publisher’ up 50% on last year’s study,
measuring ROI is still the biggest challenge, however, significantly more respondents know their cost per lead this year and, overall, cost per lead appears to be dropping, and
in 2013, Australian B2B marketers intend doing more (or start doing) e-nurture marketing (68%), mobile enablement of websites, emails, etc (63%) and online videos (60%).

Original article posted 4 December 2012 – Back in June last year we were able to bring you the results of what was probably the most comprehensive B2B marketing survey conducted in the Australian market, in this feature: The state of B2B marketing in Australia.

Now, Green Hat is partnering with ADMA and Marketing mag to run the survey again. In its second year, the results of the study will additionally be able to provide year-on-year trends and even more insight.

We invite you to participate in the Green Hat/ADMA 2013 ‘B2B Marketing Outlook Study’ – the most comprehensive annual Australian research into B2B practices, trends and directions.

By participating, you will be able to benchmark your own organisation against businesses in similar segments. By taking part you will get:

Insights into trends and directions in our rapidly-changing B2B marketing landscape,
a pre-release complimentary copy of the research report (purchase price for non-participants is $350), and
an invitation to a 2013 event discussing the findings of the study.

The questionnaire will take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Responses will remain completely confidential and only reported in an aggregated format. Your details will not be provided to any third party. You can see the privacy policy here.

The survey is open until 5pm Friday 1 February 2013, and the report is scheduled for release in early March.

More specifically, the research aims to probe:

Challenges and insights from 2012,
objectives and plans for 2013,
benchmark metrics for leads, conversion and engagement, and
2013 B2B marketing budgets mix.

And year-on-year trends:

Digital versus traditional marketing tactics,
social media usage and adoption,
content marketing investment, and
lead nurturing and automated marketing.

If you’re a B2B marketer, join in.

If the quest for great local data on B2B marketing trends isn’t enough (it should be), the saving of $350 makes it a no-brainer.

New brands face uphill battle: two-thirds prefer familiarity

by Marketing ON 24 January 2013

Almost two-thirds of consumers prefer to buy products from familiar brands rather than switch to new brands, a global study has found, quantifying a common factor in the ‘new brand versus new brand extension’ decision process.

Nielsen’s ‘New Product Purchase Sentiment’ survey, which polled 29,000 internet users in 58 countries, found 60% of consumers prefer buying new lines from a known brand instead of an untested equivalent, supporting the argument for brand extensions.

Innovating on established brands that are already trusted by consumers can be a powerful strategy, says Rob Wengel, senior vice president of Nielsen Innovation Analytics.

“Companies spend millions of dollars on new product innovation, yet two out of every three new products will not be on the market within three years,” Wengel says. “Consumers are enthusiastic about adopting new product innovations but somewhat apprehensive about embracing new brands.”

Exactly half of online consumers globally are open to switching to new products, with people in North America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa more receptive to switching than those in Latin America.

Proof of concept and value make a difference when considering change with more than two-thirds (64%) saying they would consider value or store-brand options, while three in five (60%) prefer to wait until a new innovation has proven itself before trialling.

For some, economic factors play a role in trial decisions, with 45% reporting that challenging economic conditions make them less likely to try a new product. However, for others, innovation can command a price premium, with 39% indicating a willingness to pay more for a new product.

“In order for consumers to adopt new brands, marketers need to launch very strong awareness and trial-building campaigns, supported by a positive product experience,” Wengel adds.

A mix of word-of-mouth communication, traditional advertising, and internet activity is the most persuasive way to drive awareness of new products, according to the research, highlighting the importance of a mixed media approach.

While 77% of global respondents say word-of-mouth advice from family and friends is the most persuasive source of new product information, active internet searching (67%) and traditional television advertising (59%) also remain influential.

Globally, respondents say the internet is very or somewhat important when making a new product purchase decision for food and beverages (62%), personal hygiene categories (62%), personal health/ over-the-counter medicines (61%), and hair care categories (60%).

“Ensuring consumers are aware of the product and can find it on store shelves is just as critical as coming up with that winning new product idea,” Wengel concludes.