I use reviews every time I scan Amazon.com to buy a book, check out my next Netflix picks, make a reservation at a new restaurant, and even when I deciding which camera to buy for my daughter’s graduation.

Retail, B2B and restaurant clients can definitely benefit from this consumer insight. Reviews can be created by the corporation itself, but we recommend implementing user-generated ratings and comments to maximize your customer’s experience.

Reviews aren’t just useful for influencing your consumer’s buying decisions. Your company can integrate reviews into its product development and customer service functions. Reviews are a great way to learn about defects in a product, to understand when the consumer needs more information, and to build a community amongst your consumers to interact and influence each other. When monitored continuously, customer service representatives can react quickly to feedback and troubleshoot problems early on. This is a controlled forum for market research and a good way to identify your most loyal brand ambassadors that you could cultivate into social media influencers. If they are posting reviews, they are likely passionate about the product. Your company can contact these opinion leaders directly to offer promotions, new product trial, ask for more feedback, or tackle an issue head on.

What is holding you back from using consumer reviews as part of your web strategies?

Facebook is now essentially building “live” profiles on everyone, as opposed to the traditional static profiles that are stored in a database. Information will feed into these live profiles from across the web. For example, the music you listen to on Pandora, the articles you read on CNN, and the recipes you download on Food Network sites could all be visible to your friends on Facebook. With these new hyper-updated profiles, you will have a sense of what people’s preferences are in real time and ads will become much more targeted.

Zuckerberg also said that Facebook hopes the new tools will encourage publishers, brands and media businesses to use the products to directly incorporate their companies into social media.

The real immediate to-do for marketers is to add Open Graph protocol meta tags and the “like” button to their website content. When people visit their site, they can click these “like” buttons and instantly promote the fact that they found the site or content of value – to their entire Facebook network. This new “like” system can help influence users to take action because it will actually display profile pictures of their friends that “like” the content directly on the page.

This is being called the biggest development in social media in years. Microsoft, ESPN and Yelp are already “in” – operating “Open-Graph-enabled” websites. Countless other businesses will be onboard very soon. Within five hours of announcing this new feature over 75 of Facebook’s closest partners had over 1,000,000,000 interactions. The impact is “real” engagement between consumers and brands.

Check out this AdAge article about the Universal “Like” Button.

How do you think this platform will change your brand /client’s interactive marketing strategy?

Are you ready to take advantage?

In a new report issued this week, Forrester Research predicts that online retail sales will grow 10% per year for the next five years. Nothing earth shattering there. But get this, according to Forrester… “the web will influence 53% of U.S. retail sales by 2014”, meaning that products will either be directly purchased online or researched on the internet before being purchased at a brick-and-mortar location.

Forrester points out two categories that are primed for online sales growth: consumer electronics and apparel, accessories and footwear. Both experienced double-digit growth last year, but online sales are still less than 20% of sales so there is a lot of room for expansion.

So what does this mean for you? Your customers are online – researching your company, your products and your competitors. Are you prepared to compete in this new digital world?

Here are some critical questions to consider:

• Is your website organically optimized to achieve greater search engine exposure?
• What sorts of digital marketing campaigns are you running to drive people to your website?
• Is your website set up to build relationships with your prospects and customers?
• Do you have a social media plan where your customers can spread the word to your prospects and draw attention to your website?

These are just a few of the elements you should look at in evaluating your digital presence. If you’re looking for guidance or need help getting started, Adamson can help you with a digital assessment for your company.

Just give me a call at 314-727-9500 ext 1274 or email to aepstein@adamson-usa.com

Many business to business marketers think of their target audience as a job function or category.  We typically look at SIC codes or department functions.  It is a rare business to business marketer that looks at the emotions of the target audience. It is even more rare for a business marketer to look at the target audience both on an emotional level and as a Mom.  This is an opportunity for savvy business to business marketers.

If 72% of all Mothers ages 15-44 years old are in the workforce and women-owned businesses increased at twice the rate of all firms – 14% vs 7%, this is an untapped market.  53% of women-owned businesses are in the service category, 16% in the retail trade and 9% in insurance, financial or real estate.

Recognizing that Mom business owners are a growing target audience will set your business to business marketing plan apart. Networking events offline and online are an ideal way to reach this Mom target.  As many of you CMOs reading this can relate, whether you are a Mom or you are married to a Mom, she has very little time, she multi-tasks and she will always consider the emotional impact on people/colleagues. This is evident in products that are often perceived to be purchased only on price, like healthcare plans or financial plans. If the purchaser is a Mother, she will look beyond price and also look at the impact on her employees and their families.

Within Twitter Moms, there are many professional Moms’ groups, which if followed, will allow you to understand what is on Moms’ minds and what they are currently talking about.  This can even be followed by geographic area.  If you are a Mom – Marketer, you can even join the conversation but remember to be transparent and honest if you are conversing about your own brand.

There are many industry groups dedicated to the career advancement of women in a specific business category. Most marketers at these events will focus on women’s issues.  However, a way to differentiate your brand is to show an insight that she is not simply a woman but she is also a Mother. Sponsoring the group site, providing information to Moms with a relevant insight and/or benefit, or even sponsoring a coffee break at a conference with a “Time-saving” giveaway or a free wifi card with activation through your site is a way to connect with Moms who are at the conference.

Marketing to Moms in business will differentiate your brand in the competitive business to business category marketing.

Marketing to Moms – Why?

You might be asking yourself, why worry about marketing to Moms, we are marketing our brands to women, that should cover it.

This attitude is why, according to PMI Enterprises, 60% of Moms believe that marketers are ignoring them and 73% of Moms believe marketers do not understand what it is like to be a Mom.

I am a Mom and even though I am in the marketing industry, I have snickered more than once at a sappy, happy cleaning – product commercial or wondered why many car companies keep portraying women with children as soccer moms.

Moms have different attitudes, spend differently and behave differently than their counterparts without children. I know I have a different attitude than my sister-in-law, who has never had any children. She is able to zip away for a romantic weekend with her husband with only a moment’s notice. She has more black skirts than my total wardrobe of skirts. It is true that we both work, but how we spend our money and time outside of work is completely different.

According to the US Census Bureau, of Moms 15-44 years old with children over 1 year, 72 percent are in the labor force.  In addition, 55% of  those Moms have a child under 1 year and are also in the workforce.

Moms believe that marketers ignore them, marketers don’t understand them and they are treated differently than men when they are shopping.

It is not a surprise that these Moms are turning to the internet daily, to get their information about future purchases, to relax and to share their information. According to Great Minds in Marketing media study, (2004), Moms spent an average of 13.2 hours per week online and only 7.6 hours per week watching TV.

Moms may be in the challenging situation of not only taking care of children and working, but also taking care of their own parents and ultimately controlling the purchasing power of the seniors in their life, too. It is critical for marketers to begin studying and engaging Moms online. Rather than spending hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars on their TV spots and paying little attention to their online communications, it is time to re-prioritize. Building a relationship with Mom online is critical.

Marketing to Moms represents a huge opportunity for most marketers.

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According to the US Census Bureau, of the 108 million adult women the US, 82 million are Moms. 32 million of those women have children living in their homes. Mothers control 80% of the purchases in their families and spend $1.7 trillion dollars annually. Kim Boyer, Mother and a President of Adamson, a brand experience agency.

by Geoff Pickering

In late October of 2006, Adamson put a stake in the ground and decided our service offerings were not enough to sustain our company for long-term success. Put simply, we needed to change, or run the risk of perishing. Roughly one month later, on December 13, 2006, Time Magazine announced its Person of the Year: You. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year

Time Magazine has identified a Person of the Year for more than 100 years. The honor as based on the teachings of Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote, “the history of the world is but the biography of great men.” He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. (Over the years, the magazine’s Person of the Year criteria broadened to include those individuals who had the most profound impact on the world; examples: Adolf Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeini.)

So what caused Time to divert from their tradition of singling out one person? The World Wide Web. The Web created the most profound shift in the history of communication since the invention of the printing press, enabling the masses to increase their access to information, and hence, their knowledge.

The Internet reached a point of critical mass and, more importantly, a level of understanding by businesses that their brand could singly dictate and shape the consumer opinion alone. Previously, community and collaboration on a mass scale by consumers — loyal or otherwise — to a brand was not a reality. Today, it is.

No longer can corporations cut corners. Corporations must be transparent; they must be prepared to respond proactively; and they must understand that the level of complexity in the digital age is real and not comparable to any channel or solution previously available to marketers.

Areas necessary to succeed in the future are complex but can be addressed by focusing on two critical areas:

1. A deep understanding of consumers and how they engage with brands in a meaningful way.
2. The ability to manage engagement strategies throughout the life-cycle of the consumer.

The decision that Adamson made more than two years ago has positioned us to respond accordingly, and provide clear and measurable results for our clients.

Moving forward, our commitment to you is to use our Website and this blogging platform to provide a conversational dialogue of marketing solutions provided by us, which we are certain can be successful for you.

http://www.relevantengagement.com/

by Geoff Pickering

The pace of change and new concepts and TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms) is absolutely maddening. I try really hard not to adopt too many of the latest concepts until the marketplace pressure vets their stability. That being said, a few weeks ago I saw a term the other day from Leisa Reicheit that I feel passes the marketplace litmus test and should to be included in our standard marketing nomenclature moving forward.

The term, Ambient Intimacy. Defined, Ambient Intimacy is about being able to keep in contact with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it possible.

Basically none of us have time to be intimate with more than five or ten people. That’s just the way our society and culture is today. However, technology is creating new cultural norms that create behaviors that expand beyond what we as marketers are experiencing for the very first time, e.g, Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, etc.

At the heart of this is the customer and today, the customer is in charge. They always have been, but today, they have real teeth. Before, we as marketers had the ability to construct messages and influence perceptions and clients could control their products in addition they felt like they had control of the message around their Brand. That just isn’t the case anymore.

Yesterday: “You can have any color car you want, as long as it’s black”

Today: “You can have any color car you want.”

I realize you’ve heard, read and been exposed to the “customer rules” posit ad-nauseum and I apologize for stating it again but it is true and needs to continue to be repeated.

We live in a world of products/services that are commodities, everything is real-time, expectations of service are high and cost low.

The ability to contain the message is over. You must find solutions that engage people and build trust.

http://www.relevantengagement.com/

It’s nice to see myths get debunked occasionally. We tend to think of young consumers as hyper-brand-conscious. Of course, the Great Recession has sobered a lot of people.

- Mark DolliverNEW YORK Settling into adulthood amid the Great Recession, today’s 20somethings are a practical-minded bunch, according to a J.D. Power and Associates study.

Examining the online discussions of 22-29-year-olds, the research firm found them particularly focused (relative to other age groups) on “value brands,” which are “competing with trendy brands for share of mind.”

This phenomenon is reflected in a ranking of retailers and quick-serve restaurants that get the most favorable online mentions from the 22-29s (dubbed “early careerists” by the report). “For example, among retailers, value brand Old Navy closely follows trendy brands Anthropologie and Bath & Body Works in terms of positive discussion volumes among early careerists,” says the report. “Among quick-serve restaurants, fast-food chains Arby’s and Subway receive particularly high volumes of positive discussion, along with premium ice cream chain Cold Stone Creamery.”

The report notes “a strong degree of disillusionment” among the 22-29-year-olds, with the economy the obvious culprit in this. There’s also an element of resignation in their online chatter: “For many early careerists, the idea of moving back in with their parents after college graduation is accepted as a natural next step.”

With unemployment now especially steep among 20somethings, it stands to reason that they’ve developed fresh respect for the concept of job security. Thus, says the report, “although early careerists consider job-hopping a necessity for moving forward in a career, they strongly desire long-term stability and security within their chosen professions.”