Simon
Sinek, an ex-advertising executive and author, is perhaps best known
for his concept of the Golden Circle. The concept revolves around the
thought leadership and messaging approach utilized by some of the
world’s most exciting leaders and brands — the Wright Brothers, Apple,
and Martin Luther King Jr. — who, as Sinek puts it, “start with the
why.”
According to Sinek, most people communicate by starting with the
“what” they do aspect and eventually work their way back to talk about
“how” and “why” they do what they do.
However, companies that are universally identified as unique and
successful communicate with an “inside-out” type of thinking, observes
Sinek. They start with the why and only then do they move on to talk about the how and what portions of what they do.
The Science of It All
So, why does the order in which we communicate matter? It has to do
with the parts of our brain that are engaged when we communicate
different types of information.
When we’re talking about what we do, we’re speaking to a rational and analytical part of the brain that’s tied to language. But when we talk about the why and how, we’re communicating with feelings and dealing with human behavior – gut decisions – that have no capacity for language.
Dell vs. Apple
Think about Apple under the leadership of Steve Jobs. Apple is really
just a computer company, but people have never seen Apple as “just a
computer company.” In fact, Apple and Dell sell pretty similar products,
but it’s safe to say that the two companies are held in very different
esteems in the public eye. We happily buy more TVs, music players, and
all sorts of other devices from Apple because we’re inspired by the
story it tells.
Let’s compare the way Dell and Apple communicate with customers:
Dell starts with the WHAT
When you land on the Dell website
it says, “Welcome to Dell!” From there, you choose from the “For Home”
or “At Work” sections that tout “products designed specifically for home
use” or “business and public sector products, services, and solutions.”
Apple starts with the WHY
"Everything we do,
we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking
differently. We challenge the status quo by making beautifully designed
products that are simple to use."
Now which company do you want to buy from? With Dell, you’re being
sold a computer – end of story. But with Apple, simply by reversing the
expected order of communication, the company is able to inspire us – to
tap into a more emotional part of our brain where we make decisions
based on feelings. And let’s be honest, Apple just feels better than Dell.
It’s All About How You Frame It
This Golden Circle approach to messaging can be applied to content
marketing and marketing automation plans as well. Marketing automation
tools rely on workflows – populated with emails, triggers, and various
types of content – created for the purpose of moving consumers through a
natural buying process.
These workflows are designed by marketers who, in theory, have taken
the time to understand buyer personas and pair appropriate content to
the different stages in the buying cycle.
The next time you’re planning content – email copy, e-book titles, calls to action, blog posts, etc. – anything for a marketing automation flow, take time to think through the way you’re choosing to tell your story.
Connect with your customers first by expressing the why of
your story. Tap into the emotional side of things – your mission
statement, or reason for being – and begin to educate or build awareness
from there. Let them know why you do what you do. Then, and only then,
let them know the how and the what you do.
Remember, people engage with inspiring and entertaining content and inspiring brands communicate from the inside out.
The premise of the internet of things (IoT)—that everything can and will be connected—is by turns enticing and intimidating. Who wouldn't want the ability to cool a room before returning home or have the oven start to cook the evening meal remotely? What business wouldn't want to keep closer, more up-to-the-minute tabs on inventory thanks to stock items that can communicate levels and whereabouts?
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On the other hand, the prospect of having to, in effect, “reboot” an entire home or warehouse when a virus strikes or the internet glitches is an unwelcome extension of the challenges consumers and enterprises already face daily with their various computing devices, according to a new eMarketer report, “Key Digital Trends for Midyear 2014: The Internet of Things, Net Neutrality, and Why Marketers Need to Care.”
A completely connected future, while increasingly within reach from a technological perspective, remains cloudy from the consumer standpoint. General awareness of the IoT is still low.
Consider the results of a May 2014 survey from SOASTA, a platform for performance testing websites and mobile apps. The survey found 73% of US adults were unfamiliar with the IoT, while only 6% of respondents described themselves as “very familiar” with it. However, when prompted with more details, 67% said they were excited about the promise of greater connectedness.
Enthusiasm about the prospective benefits of a more technology-driven future is a long-running theme that dates to the Industrial Revolution. Emblematic are the results of a March 2014 survey by Pew Research Center's Internet Project in conjunction with Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. Some 1,606 technology experts and highly engaged US internet users were polled about whether they thought the IoT would have “widespread and beneficial effects on the everyday lives of the public by 2025.” A significant majority—83%—said yes.
But the road to that technology-centered future will be long. Thinking of just one small niche within the broader IoT landscape—the smart home—most US internet users (85.0%) did not own a single smart home device, according to a May 2014 AYTM Market Research survey. And of that group, over half expressed little interest in owning one.
“Consumers have pretty limited awareness of the internet of things as a concept, but there is enthusiasm for a future punctuated by a range of new, internet-connected devices and applications,” said Noah Elkin, executive editor at eMarketer. “As more name brands get into the game, from Apple and Google to big-box retailers like The Home Depot, Best Buy and Staples, just to name a few, expect consumer awareness to grow. Just don't assume uptake will happen overnight.” There is no standard definition for the “internet of things” (IoT). The term generally denotes an advanced level of networked connectivity between objects, platforms, systems and services that enables the exchange of data without human intervention. The premise behind the IoT is that any object, whether natural or manufactured, can gain the ability to transmit data over a network.
Five Shocking Facts That Will Change Your Entire Approach to Social Media
Social media is fraught with legend, hysteria, and mass confusion.
Because of its intensely personal nature, we tend to approach social
media with a lot of strong feelings about its effectiveness, lack
thereof, best practices, and how things should be done.
Since most of us use Facebook, we think we know how effective it will
be, or what kind of posts garner the most attention and interaction.
Since we have a Twitter account, we have a sense of knowledge about how
it works, and what a business should do (or not do) on Twitter.
All that is great, but how much of our social media behavior is
founded upon fact? I decided to dig into the data and do some research.
What I’ve extracted below are five surprising data points that will have
a profound effect on how you approach social media.
1. Email marketing has an ROI of 4,300%.
Source: Direct Marketing Association
What? A statistic about email? You thought this was about social media, right?
My title is “Five Shocking Facts That Will Change Your Entire
Approach to Social Media.” This statistic qualifies as shocking, and it
impacts the way we approach on social media.
The basic fact is this: Email marketing has a huge ROI — way better
than any social media marketing ROI can ever dream of achieving. Compare
4,300% that with the ROI of social media, which is crawling around on
the floor. Is there even a comparison?
Take a look at this chart, released by Custora in 2013. They surveyed the owners of ecommerce sites to find out where these sites got their customers. Here are the top six sources:
Paid and organic search have the highest customer acquisition
percentages. The next biggest contender is email. Based on its ROI —
higher than paid and organic search — it’s a no brainer. Email marketing
is awesome.
According to the chart above, the fascinating thing about email
marketing is that its acquisition rates are rising dramatically. It has
quadrupled over the past four years. Email marketing’s effectiveness far
outranks any social media platform, and its growth outstrips them.
Even the customer lifetime value (CLV) of social media is hardly
worth a second glance. Again, email marketing crushes social media by a
huge margin:
Simply put, email marketing is way more effective than social media
marketing. It has greater effectiveness, better ROI, and higher CLV. Learn this lesson: Spend more time and money on email marketing than on social media marketing.
2. YouTube has the highest engagement and lowest bounce rate.
Source: Shareaholic
Whenever we think of “social media,” we automatically think of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
What about YouTube? Check out these engagement stats!
Average time on site: 227 seconds
Average pages per visit: 2.99
Average bounce rate: 43.19%
How does this stack up against the rest of the social media landscape? Decide for yourself:
The Shareaholic analysis is based on post-click behavior, which refers to clicking on a link that a friend shares socially. As the Shareaholic analysis stated, “YouTube is the undisputed champion. YT drives the most engaged traffic.”
YouTube deserves more of your social media time and effort. You can’t afford not to put more work into creating and adding videos. The more YouTube content, the more you’ll engage your potential customers. Learn this lesson: If you want engaged traffic, spend time optimizing YouTube.
3. Facebook drives more referrals than any other social platform.
Source: Shareaholic
Want to know which social media site sends you the most amount of traffic? It’s Facebook — by far. Shareaholic analyzed
metrics taken over four months, measuring the effectiveness of social
media platforms. There was no contest. Facebook crushed the competition,
asserting itself as the most powerful social media referral engine on
the planet.
Companies gripe and complain over the way that Pages have been squashed in the Facebook algorithm. I get that. Facebook wants more ad revenue.
But even though page interaction is shrinking, there’s nothing
shrinking about the number of referrals that Facebook continues to
drive. Simply stated, Facebook still drives more traffic than any other
social media site, soaring way above its nearest referral competition,
Pinterest.
The reason why I’ve included this in my list of facts is because many marketers have become disillusioned with Facebook. Kevan Lee of Buffer writes: Nowadays, when I endeavor to check my Facebook
statistics, I do so with the window open, birds singing, a pint of ice
cream at my desk, and party jams playing on my jambox….Checking Facebook
statistics has been bad news for a lot of us lately as we wrestle with
declining numbers and shrinking reach.
While Kevan is staving off Facebook depression with ice cream
parties and fresh air, Eat24 just decided to end the relationship with a
“How dare you!”
The super long breakup letter
that went into overtime with a P.P.P.S.S.S. was full of foodie talk and
hurt feelings. But they were gone from Facebook for good.
If you have a fan base below 10,000 (that’s most of us), and only 28
interactions per post, please don’t be discouraged, don’t binge eat, and
don’t write a breakup letter. You’re right where you ought to be, as
ranked by Social Baker’s average interaction chart.
And if you’re in an unsexy industry like finance or telecom, you can
expect your average post interaction to be lower, than say, an alcohol
or fashion site.
In spite of the apparent downward spiral of Facebook metrics, I suggest not giving
up on Facebook. Though it is fickle, and though your page isn’t
featured at the top of everyone’s news feed, and though you may have to
turn up your party music while you check your stats, Facebook is still
giving you referrals.
As Kevan’s brilliant article concluded — “A counterintuitive way to combat Facebook reach: Stop caring about it.” Learn this lesson: Stick it out with Facebook.
4. Pinterest pins are worth 78 cents each.
Source: Piquora
First off, a Pinterest disclaimer (or two), and then a Pinterest happy dance.
The first disclaimer is this — Pinterest has high bounce rate (53%)
and low engagement. Disclaimer number two: Pinterest doesn’t work for
everyone. If you are into food, crafts, photography, weddings, design,
fitness, humor, travel, fashion, and inspirational quotes, then
Pinterest is killer. It holds promise for some, but not for all.
The happy dance is this — Pinterest is the second biggest social
media referral platform. Though it trails Facebook distantly, it still
beats out Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn by a sizeable margin.
Now, let’s talk about ROI. Pinterest, as it turns out, does have one.
But it’s a delayed reaction. When a pinner curates his or her pinboard,
it takes a while for there to be social buildup, let alone revenue.
Unlike Twitter, which has a short half-life, Pinterest visits increase
as time goes on. It’s like wine. The older, the better.
As it turns out, the revenue doesn’t start happening until more than
two months after pinning. Pinners spend more time exploring other
people’s pinboards then they do searching for stuff offsite to pin. The
average Pinterest pin gets 10 repins, but it takes time for those
pinners to start repinning pins. This leads to a corresponding delay in
revenue.
Pinterest is money, but it’s slow money. It’s like investing in a CD or a bond. The egg just takes a little while to hatch. Learn this lesson: Use Pinterest. And be patient.
5. 65% of Twitter users expect a response in under two hours.
Source: Lithium
Customers use Twitter like a company hotline. If you don’t respond
within minutes, you’re toast. Here are the lofty chronological
expectations of Twitter users, in all their statistical glory: Image from Hubspot. The Lithium study
that produced this statistic had the headline, “Consumers Will Punish
Brands that Fail to Respond on Twitter Quickly.” The flip side,
“consumers will reward brands that harness Twitter’s power to meet their
rising expectations.”
What kind of punishment are we talking about?
“38% feel more negative about the brand.” As a result, they may no longer purchase from the company.
“60% will take unpleasant actions to express their
dissatisfaction…publicly shaming the brand on social media” In other
words, they may spread their grief further on Twitter. It’s easy to
tweet off a 140-character-or-less gripe about the company. “74 percent
of customers who take to social media to shame brands believe it leads
to better service.”
34 percent are likely to buy more from that company;
43 percent are likely to encourage friends and family to buy their products;
38 percent are more receptive to their advertisements;
42 percent are willing to praise or recommend the brand through social media.
There’s a lot to gain by a quick response, and a lot to lose if you
don’t. So if you get that Twitter notification on lunch break, don’t
wait. Step on it, respond right away, and please your customers’ socks
off. Learn this lesson: If you’re going to use Twitter, stay on top of it.
Conclusion
Here are the five lessons we need to learn
For right now, spend more time and money on email marketing than on social media marketing.
If you want engaged traffic, spend time optimizing YouTube.
Stick with Facebook.
Use Pinterest. And be patient.
If you’re going to use Twitter, stay on top of it.
Facts are indisputable, and the action points are obvious. Let’s not
get lost in the romance and novelty of social media. Let’s stay clear
headed, smart, and engaged. There’s power in social media, and we need
to handle it in the right way
"The mistake every new medium makes is trying to take what the old
medium was. They read books on the radio at the beginning of radio; in
the beginning of cinema, they shot plays. There's a completely new form
of storytelling that has to evolve for this new [VR] canvas," said Chris
Milk, a filmmaker and music-video director. Last year he shot a short
film of a Beck performance for automaker Lincoln's rebranding campaign.
He also created a rendering of it in 360 degrees with six GoPro cameras.
Consider Coca-Cola's approach. Last month it staged a VR experience
at the World Cup, where participants entered a replica of the locker
room at Brazil's Maracana Stadium; then, after putting on VR Oculus Rift
goggles, they moved from the locker room to the pitch and played on the
field, all without getting up from their seat.
Matt Wolf, Coca-Cola's head of global gaming, said there's branding
within the experience, but the more valuable aspect is that viewers are
getting access to something that wouldn't otherwise be possible. "It's
about the authenticity of being inside that stadium," he said. "Yes,
thanks to Coke."
Coke put people on World Cup playing field.
Then there are business-to-business applications. Already one
marketer, insurer Travelers, is using VR to train employees in worker
safety by virtually showing the consequences of not following the rules.
But on a broader scale, market forces are at work to bring VR to the
masses. Oculus is probably the most recognizable brand name in VR, due
to Facebook's deal in March to acquire the maker of the eponymous VR
goggles for $2 billion. The Oculus Equation
The details of Facebook's plans for an integration are still unknown,
but CEO Mark Zuckerberg has conveyed in no uncertain terms that his
vision is to use Oculus's tech for social networking—and that his
company is making a bet on the next emergent computing platform after
mobile. (Which would you prefer: hanging out with your faraway friend in
a virtual environment or keeping tabs on her via her occasional status
updates?)
"Oculus has the potential to be the most-social platform ever," Mr.
Zuckerberg said when announcing the deal in March. "Today social
networks are about sharing moments, but tomorrow it will be about
sharing experiences."
Facebook isn't the only tech giant in the race. Sony is working toward a commercial release of its VR headset, "Project Morpheus," and Samsung is also reportedly developing VR goggles that connect to its phones and tablets.
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Assuming that VR headsets become less bulky and more available to
consumers at an affordable price point in 2015, the zeal among
advertisers to test the technology could grow intense.
Virtual reality goggles Credit: Sony
Currently, higher-end headsets used by academic researchers and
institutional laboratories can go for as much as $50,000. But the Oculus
Rift development kit—aimed at developers, not consumers—costs $350 for
pre-order, and Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe told PC enthusiast site Ars
Technica that Mr. Zuckerberg wants to sell the consumer version for the
"lowest cost possible."
"The ones that are currently on the market haven't hit that sweet
spot between functionality and price yet, but Oculus is getting pretty
close," said Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, an assistant professor at the
University of Georgia who researches VR.
The most likely suspects to take the lead on developing VR
experiences are brands like General Electric and Audi, which have
cultivated reputations as early adopters of technology. However, the
usefulness will be limited for other brands, said David Berkowitz, chief
marketing officer of Publicis Groupe's MRY. JC Penney,
for example, can successfully sell products online via jcpenney.com and
Pinterest without setting up a virtual store, which, realistically,
consumers may not want to spend their time browsing.
When
you tweet at a company that has over 16,000 employees, how quickly do
you expect them to respond to you? How helpful do you think their answer
will be? And, would you expect the person who reads the tweet to follow
up on the issue in person?
You may not have very high expectations for most large companies, but JetBlue has done a great job differentiating themselves on Twitter by finding clever ways to exceed our expectations.
"We call ourselves a customer service company that happens to fly planes," Laurie Meacham says.
(While this phrase isn't original to JetBlue, it's been in common use
within the company since their first flight in 2000 -- before it became
popularized by Zappos COo/CFO Alfred Lin.)
Laurie's been at JetBlue for over eight years now and has spent the
last two as Manager of Customer Commitment. I had the pleasure of
sitting down with her last week to chat about JetBlue's uniquely
dedicated approach to Twitter as a customer service outlet, rather than
simply a social media marketing tool. "We're all about people," she explained, "and being on social
media is just a natural extension of that. It's no different than any
other part of the airline."
Let me give you a taste of what I'm talking about here. In January of
this year, a man named Alex tweeted at JetBlue asking about their
standby policy -- namely, why he would be charged $50 for getting on an
earlier flight than the one he was ticketed for. Within three minutes,
JetBlue had replied.
JetBlue answered Alex's question -- and he wasn't even mad about it. At this point, most companies would pat themselves on the back and call it a job well done.
... But not JetBlue. The JetBlue employee in Salt Lake City who
responded to his tweet sent it to the JetBlue folks at Logan Airport in
Boston. The folks at Logan Airport studied Alex's Twitter profile
picture, and then walked around the terminal until they found him so
they could follow up with him in person.
Half an hour later, Alex tweeted again -- this time about how amazed
he was at the steps JetBlue had taken to provide him with an
unexpectedly exceptional customer service experience.
Laurie told me this story with a smile on her face, naming it
as one of the small wins that has stuck with her this year. Those small
wins and acts of goodwill add up, she explained.
How JetBlue Uses Twitter for Customer Service
The employees behind JetBlue's Twitter handle aren't just social media marketers. There are three teams that tweet from the @JetBlue
account: the marketing team, the corporate communications team, and
Laurie's team -- Customer Commitment. Her team is made up of seasoned
customer service professionals who answer customer service tweets on
Twitter instead of on the phone.
Moving customer service to Twitter was a natural move for JetBlue,
Laurie explained. That's where a lot of their customers were talking
about them -- from thanking them for the ample legroom to asking about
flight status updates.
But JetBlue doesn't just respond to everything blindly. They
prioritize responding to tweets where they'd be contributing value. "We
recognize how important it is to measure the ROI of our social media
efforts, but we actually make a point of not measuring response rate on Twitter," says Laurie.
In other words, employees don't feel pressured to hit a response goal
by sending quick responses to every single tweet that comes in. "We want our employees to engage smartly, and
for the conversations to be organic and natural. We look for
opportunities to add value and connect with our customers, not just
respond to every single mention that comes our way."
And with 2,500-2,600 Twitter mentions every day, you can bet
JetBlue has people working hard to cover their social media accounts
24/7 and read every single tweet that comes in. And, impressively, they
average a 10-minute response time. I tested this out myself before
boarding my JetBlue flight last weekend. Sure enough, the Saturday night
team responded in 10 minutes on the dot.
Even though I didn't have a question or complaint for them, the response added a little sunshine to my day -- and that is a form of value in and of itself.
Building the Customer Commitment Team
Believe it or not, JetBlue didn't always have a big support team
behind their tweets. It wasn't until 2009 that JetBlue customers started
asking too many customer support questions on Twitter for the small
team to handle without help. At that time, JetBlue was nine years old
and there were only four people fielding @JetBlue mentions.
But between May and August of 2009, something kind of crazy happened:
@JetBlue's Twitter follower count doubled from 500,000 to over a
million in just a three-month period. The customer support questions
were pouring in, and to keep up, the customer commitment team knew
they'd need to scale the team.
Almost immediately, the team requested headcount to help field
questions and monitor the social media accounts around the clock. They
looped in the JetBlue leadership team and educated them on what
customers were saying and asking on Twitter -- and the value of
JetBlue's Twitter responses back to their customers. It helped that
responding to these tweets probably deflected some calls to the
1-800-JETBLUE contact center.
Once they were approved for hiring, the question became: How do you
hire a relatively large group of people who care as much as the current
team does? Where do you find high quality customer service people who
are familiar with the airline industry and can learn to emulate your
smart-and-witty voice?
For JetBlue, the answer was hiring from within. They sent out an internal call for job openings and hired only people who were already trained customer service agents with JetBlue. Five years later, the team is 25 people large.
Communicating and Collaborating From Great Distances
These 25 employees are all based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and they
represent every single JetBlue flight on Twitter. To mitigate
communication challenges, JetBlue set up a robust internal network to
keep all social media teams informed and get information to and from
every airport efficiently.
To keep everyone in the loop, one JetBlue team member is responsible
for preparing and sending out an internal newsletter to the social media
teams at about 5:00 A.M. every morning, which outlines current
promotions and news they might get questions or comments about on social
media.
Employees also share an ongoing thread where they can ask questions,
share stories, and tag other people in the organization so issues can be
fixed as quickly as possible. "Yesterday, a customer tweeted at us
about an event JetBlue was sponsoring that the social media team wasn't
aware of," Laurie told me. "In less than a minute, he confirmed with one
of our PR people that we were sponsoring it, and he could tweet back to
the customer a few minutes later." They also use phone, email, and
instant messaging to communicate with one another.
If a specific airport gets mentioned, members of Laurie's team send
an email to customer service representatives at the corresponding
airport. Once the Salt Lake City team responds to the tweets, it's up to
the teams at each airport to take it further if they choose to.
"The biggest wins this year are stories coming out of Boston," Laurie
told me. JetBlue has the most flights out of Boston than any other
airline. "Our Boston team is our most engaged team. Really, it's the people who work there that make it so special."
Take JetBlue customer Alexa, for example. She jokingly tweeted that
she expected a welcome parade at the gate when she returned home to
Boston. Laurie's team in Salt Lake City responded:
But when the JetBlue folks in Boston saw that tweet, they took it to
another level -- and ten of them greeted her at the gate with signs,
smiles, and marching band music.
Because hey, why not?
Laurie told me about another time this year, when a customer tweeted
at JetBlue that he was about to board his 100th JetBlue flight that
year. He didn't mention where he was flying to or from, but Laurie's
team grabbed his name from Twitter and looked up where he was flying out
of. It turned out to be Boston, and the Boston team greeted him at the
gate with cupcakes and a banner.
It's magical gestures like these that set JetBlue apart from many
other big brands, let alone other airlines. Sure, other brands answer
customers' questions on Twitter, but how many of them have dedicated
customer service professionals behind their Twitter handles? And how
many of them use these Twitter conversations to delight in the real
world, too?
Responding to Negativity
But as you can imagine, it's not always rainbows and
butterflies in the airline industry. Not only are airlines heavily
regulated, but there are a lot of moving pieces involved in giving
customers great experiences. Plus, let's face it ... air travel isn't
exactly fun and sexy.
I asked Laurie about a big challenge her team has faced this
year and how they responded to it. She told me a story from earlier this
year when JetBlue -- and all airlines -- had major disruptions to their
schedules because of winter storms in early January. Flight delays and
cancellations seriously impacted thousands of people, including those
who were traveling home from vacations.
Customers were displaced, plans changed, and many travelers
couldn't get home for days -- and when that happens, they often take to
Twitter. "Our volume of Twitter mentions went way up," said Laurie. "We
couldn't change the weather, we couldn't make conditions safe to fly,
and we couldn't get them where they needed to go. But what we could do
-- and did do -- was keep people updated on what to expect."
And sometimes, the team just has to accept the hits. And during
large-scale events like those winter storms, there can be many hits.
But Laurie's team empathized with their customers on Twitter, informed
them, and tried to help whenever they could.
"But we also don't apologize to everyone," she said. "We’re
definitely sorry they’re having to deal with this, but ultimately, there
are reasons that flights get cancelled and if we ignore those reasons,
we’re putting everyone at risk. Also, apologizing to everyone just makes
us look apologetically sad and like we may not have a handle on things,
when the truth is, we’re doing all we can to get people where they want
to go."
JetBlue has had their fair share of crises like any other airline,
and it's something Laurie talks about with the team frequently. "Social
media is powerful and things can go south so quickly, so we talk to the
team all the time about how to respond appropriately, when to blow the
whistle, when to contact Corporate Communications."
Despite these challenges, JetBlue maintains a 79.1% on-time arrival rate, and a customer complaint rate of just 0.79 out of every 1,000 passengers. They're right at the top of the industry.
Looking at the Future
I asked Laurie about branding initiatives from here on out. "We're
doing more with social media content, especially on Instagram and
Facebook," she told me. She and her team will be experimenting with what
resonates with customers on those platforms, so keep an eye on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.
In the meantime, her team of 25 will continue working around the
clock to reply to customer tweets with the same dedication their
customer support teams respond to customers on the phone. They've
certainly set the bar high in the airline industry -- they now have 10 consecutive
J.D. Power & Associates awards for "Highest in Customer
Satisfaction Among Low-Cost Carriers in North America" -- and we hope to
see other brands take the hint from JetBlue's Twitter successes and
make similar customer service efforts going forward.
Could Beacons Push People off the Couch and to the Store?
Retailers look to beacons to improve in-store experience, gather consumer data
Jul 25, 2014
While Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology isn’t exactly new, when Apple introduced iBeacon as part of the iOS 7 update in September 2013, the move was viewed as a seal of approval. Marketers across industries noticed, and app developers scrambled to take advantage of the capabilities, according to a new eMarketer report, “How Beacons Are Changing Mobile Marketing: An Overview.”
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There are a variety of factors accounting for the recent buzz surrounding beacons. One is the desire to improve the in-store shopping experience.
No one is seriously declaring the death of the retail store, but improving the in-store experience is top of mind for many—and mobile can be a catalyst. “Brick-and-mortar businesses need to come up with much more compelling reasons for consumers to get off the couch and actually show up to the store,” said Schuyler Brown, vice president of marketing at beacon provider Nomi. “And mobile apps powered by microlocation marketing, I think, is a key component to make that a compelling argument.”
Rachel Pasqua, senior partner and mobile practice lead at MEC Global, said clients are open to beacon’s capabilities: “I can’t think of a single client that isn’t very interested in the potential with beacons. ... Anything that will make shopping easier and more frictionless for people is going to win.”
There may be a lot of interest in beacons, but US retailers surveyed by the e-tailing group in Q1 2014 ranked iBeacons and BLE last among technologies they were employing this year to enhance the in-store experience. This is not completely surprising since tablets, inventory access and digital receipts are more proven tactics for omnichannel retailers.
Beacons also help retailers collect consumer data once consumers are in-store. Beacons can track shoppers and see how long they spend in certain departments, the paths they took and how offers affect their purchases—and also allow more in-store measurability. “The biggest opportunity is going to be when people can see the attribution of an in-store visit against all of their digital advertising,” said Scott Dunlap, head of product at Branding Brand, a mobile commerce vendor. “It’s going to put a lot of clarity on that and really help them get smart.”
WhoSay, a startup that helps famous people post to social media and then curates their feeds for fans, is enlisting celebrities like Kevin Bacon, Eva Longoria and Mario Batali to serve as content marketers for a campaign with Canon.
Now in its fourth week, the Canon campaign -- called "Bring It" -- is the largest brand ad campaign yet for WhoSay, which was co-founded in 2010 by talent agency CAAand entrepreneur Steve Ellis. It comes less than a year after former Newsweek Daily Beast President Rob Gregory became chief revenue officer.
"We're turning celebrities into publishers -- building an entertainment media company," said Mr. Gregory, who earlier was also publisher of Maxim, Rolling Stone and Men's Health.
The effort comes as Canon is trying to turn around its camera business, where sales plunged 22% in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2013 as consumers increasingly opt for smartphones and their high-quality cameras. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Tokyo-based Canon spent $251.7 million on U.S. advertising in 2013, a 10.6% decline from the prior year, according to the Ad Age Data Center. The bulk of it, $172.3 million, went to non-measured media, which includes digital video and product placement.
Canon and its agency Grey declined to comment on the campaign. Mr. Gregory declined to say how much Canon spent on it with WhoSay or to discuss WhoSay revenue.
WhoSay consists of two apps and a website. One app is invite-only and allows famous people to post messages across multiple social media accounts, track engagement on their posts and monitor the number of people following and mentioning them.
The app also includes a private message center where brands can offer gifts to WhoSay users. Bose, for instance, used the feature recently to give headphones to about 100 WhoSay users, according to Mr. Gregory, who said no money changed hands between Bose and WhoSay. No strings were attached, he added, though some who took the product posted selfies with the headphones.
"We think there's an opportunity to monetize it down the road, maybe as part of a larger campaign," he said.
Celebrities that CAA represents comprise just 17% of the 1,600 celebrities signed up for WhoSay, Mr. Gregory said.
The other app and its companion website are for regular consumers, who can scroll through a stream of celebrity posts or follow specific stars.
A spokeswoman for WhoSay declined to say how many people had downloaded the app. She said 2.5 million people have registered with WhoSay either through the app or on the website and have set preferences for celebrities they want to follow. The company is compiling first-party data on those users to use in ad campaigns, Mr. Gregory said.
In June, WhoSay's unique visitors in the U.S. across desktop and mobile reached nearly 2.6 million, a 7% increase over the month a year earlier, according to ComScore.
WhoSay runs ads on its website, most prominently right now in the form of headline-recommendation modules from Disqus, but the Canon campaign marks a broader effort to tap WhoSay's network of celebrities to create branded content campaigns for brands who want their products seen in stars' hands.
Web publishers as a whole have struggled with downward pressure on display ad rates online, fueled by automated auctions for an ocean of ad inventory, and sometimes responded by pushing into so-called native advertising, which tries to draw readers' attention by mimicking the look and tone of the site.
"We figured out pretty quickly that if we were in that shrinking middle between programmatic and native content, then it's a race to the bottom," said Mr. Gregory.
For "Bring It," Canon and Grey worked with WhoSay to identify a dozen celebrities they would enlist to capture videos and still images using a Canon camera. A team at WhoSay edited the raw footage into short video clips, which the celebrities share on their social media accounts.
"It helps the brand because they're getting these videos out to millions of people," said Carlos PenaVega, star of Nickelodeon's "Big Time Rush" and one of the 12 celebrities working on "Bring It."
"We worked with Canon on a media plan and a target for impressions for the campaign," Mr. Gregory said. Celebrities were paid a "small fee" to be part of the campaign, he added -- and they got to keep the cameras.
July 30, 2014 at 11:00 AM
Simon
Sinek, an ex-advertising executive and author, is perhaps best known
for his concept of the Golden Circle. The concept revolves around the
thought leadership and messaging approach utilized by some of the
world’s most exciting leaders and brands — the Wright Brothers, Apple,
and Martin Luther King Jr. — who, as Sinek puts it, “start with the
why.”
July 28, 2014 at 8:00 AM
When
you tweet at a company that has over 16,000 employees, how quickly do
you expect them to respond to you? How helpful do you think their answer
will be? And, would you expect the person who reads the tweet to follow
up on the issue in person?
