Disney and Digital - a CMO Perspective

Having undertaken some eCRM work with Disney EMEA last year, I was interested in this interview with Federico Gonzalez, SVP Marketing & Sales EMEA Disney

I particularly liked his moment of truth with digital where he found his choice of hotel being influenced by someone he didn't know



More CMO videos can be seen at http://www.cmoworldtour.com

CRM to Social CRM Infographic

Courtesy of Salesforce.com

A Marketer's Guide to Pinterest - The Video

Courtesy of MDG Advertising

The Most Opened Email

According to most commentators, the Welcome email stands out as being the one most likely to be opened. One recent statistic I saw was a figure of 60% via PFS Web

This is a real opportunity to not only thank the consumer for signing up but also lay a marker down for the brand experience and drive immediate engagement.

Where an e-commerce platform is involved this often results in slightly conflicting signals being sent out from the brand.

Look at the first emails I got as I registered on the Paul Smith site

The one on the left is obviously the one generated by the e-commerce platform, while the one on the right arrived slightly later and is obviously the email created by the email platform

Is it just me, or does the second email make much more of the brand, re-iterating the benefits of registration and drive engagement?

Transactional emails are just as important as the brand emails. Yes, sometimes there are more restrictions in place but that means you have to give them more thought.

Surely the Ultimate in Triggered Behavioural Messaging

Although there is no guarantee that the audience will be 100% segmented - After all, even tea-totallers use the bathroom!

Beautiful But Irrelevant Emails

This is me

But if you only ask for my email address

I am going to receive beautiful but totally irrelevant emails

But if you want to keep it simple AND useful

Showrooming

How Online Marketing Drives Offline Success - Infographic

Email Benchmark Infographic

Infographic Courtesy of E-Village

Location, Location..Fined!

Did you know that earlier this year car rental group Europcar was fined for tracking customer rentals via GPS without their consent?

Allegedly to ensure that customers did not breach the rental agreement in terms of location it does highlight the need to be transparent with customers about how we use the technology and data at our disposal

10 (or so) Interesting Facts to Set You on Your Mobile Path

Worldwide mobile payment users surpassed 141m in 2011, a 38% increase on 2010

(Gartner)

Approximately 70% of smart device users are prepared to opt in for comms with their favoured brands

(MIG Research)

50-60% of Twitter usage is via a smartphone and Facebook claim that half it 800m users log in via a mobile device

(CNET)

Mobile users of Facebook spent an average of 5.6 hours on the site in Dec 2010. 11 minutes a day

(ComScore)

3m consumers scan QR codes every month

(Mediacom)

In 2011 worldwide mobile payment volume revenues reached $86bn up over 75% year on year

(Gartner)

50% of the UK population will have a smart device and 94% of smartphone owners will use the internet by the end of 2012

(Neilsen)

29% of smartphone owners use their devices while they shop

38% of shoppers use their smartphone for price comparison and also shop on their phones

 32% read online product reviews and 24% look for online coupons

(Neilsen)

88% of people check their emails via a mobile device every day

(ReturnPath)

I use my phone for any of this stuff and the battery is dead by lunchtime!!!!

(Me)

Please feel free to share this...

Not So Clever Use of My Email Address - INRS

So...these guys work together as partners...

What a shame they didn't work together with their Email Service Provider or Database?

Perhaps some very simple hierarchy logic.

Have I ever bought anything from either of these Brands?

HQhair - No
Mankind - Yes

Who should get first crack at me? Mankind of course.

(In all fairness, I did get theirs first by 1 whole minute)

INRS - It's Not Rocket Science

Are you Left Brain or Right Brain Marketer? (Infographic)

What I'm Really Like

Volvo Goes Phygital with V40 Launch

The launch of the new V40 includes an outdoor component that allows consumers to create a personalised V40 while they are waiting for their bus or train. Their choice of colours and alloys etc, will then be translated into an interpretation of their personality in line with Volvo's positioning as being made for individuals

I'm not sure if the following is part of the campaign, but the real positive in this type of activity is where the interactive display allowed some form of data capture, perhaps to send you your personalised car or personality indicator ( and of course in return the brand have some data in return)

Very similar to the Best Buy in store screens.

This 'Phygital' experience developed for Best Buy shows how the retail experience can be used to cover the continued need for product information in store as well providing peer ratings and reviews by employing a Digital Blue Shirt - Blue Shirts obviously referring to the in store advisors who provide the service that Best Buy are famous for in the US.  .

This is all then capped with the opportunity to capture customer information when they leave the store allowing follow up at a later stage through email for example.


Digital Blue Shirt from Modern Climate on Vimeo.

Favourite Subject Line of the Week

I'm assuming that because I haven't bought any 'Y-fronts' from figleaves for a while, they've assumed I've had a sex change

QR RIP

Sorry if you thought I might be writing about the demise of the QR Code.

The actual reverse. It seems that death could be the making of the QR Code with QR Code Memories.

A company in Dorset are using QR codes cut into the tombstone to give mourners, or passers by, the opportunity to link to the deceased's obituary of just a short piece of prose or memory

As can be seen from the description lifted from their website, 
it is a really easy process, as the Tuttiett family discovered when they lost Tim

Tim’s wife, Gill explains; “Tim was a wonderful man, and had a huge character which impacted on a lot of people. When we chose to have his ashes buried and a memorial placed onto the grave, we were given the opportunity to have a QR code fitted. This has given us a chance to bring what Tim meant to us to many other people by way of the website, and helps us keep his memory alive.”

The story did remind me of Spike Milligan's famous epitaph

'I told you I was ill'

which was recently voted the UK's favourite epitaph

Other favourites included

Oscar Wilde’s ‘Either those curtains go or I do’ 

Frank Sinatra’s ‘The best is yet to come’, 

Comic Frank Carson, ‘What a way to lose weight’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146080/Spike-Milligan-epitaph-Gravestone-quip-nations-favourite.html#ixzz25lJO6rxO

Ralph Lauren's Beautiful Cart Abandon Email

I was doing a piece of cart abandon research and left an item in my cart on the Ralph Lauren site.

About 4 hours later this beautiful email arrived in my inbox.

I think when brands hesitate about 'chasing the sale' - and rightly so - then this is a timely reminder of how it can be pulled off with a certain grace. It's a nudge rather than a full push in the direction of the basket

Brand Trust

'that's what we're after...why?
if we trust the motive, we trust the brand
then we trust it's content'


and my apologies to John Le Carre for abusing one of his lines The Russia House

'that's what we're after...why?
if we trust the motive, we trust the man
then we trust his material'

M&S And Paths to Purchase

Although M&S sells about one in three dresses and one in five of its suits online, school-wear has become one of the company’s most popular smartphone products with families looking to avoid the stressful “back to school” shopping trip.

Question is..was this smartphone helping with a customer pain point by design or just a lucky coincidence?

Understanding the salescycle or as we often refer to it these days Path to Purchase is key to understanding how we can help customers overcome those barriers to purchase.

There are many ways of depicting these journeys or paths, here is one I have come across. Figure 1 taken from an ATG webinar shows the path from Search to Purchase

Figure 1 Search to Purchase

This search to purchase journey depicts a customer journey that involves both the digital aspects of searching and researching a product as well as purchasing . Of course, in reality there is often, as depicted here, a physical element where customers want to view , touch and perhaps get more information by visiting the physical store before buying on-line. I've previously talked about combating this 'showrooming' by possibly encouraging in store purchase with an amazing experience or encouraging on going engagement once out of the store. ( See 'Combating Showrooming ,  Personalisation In-store )

M&S is trying to achieve both of these with some key projects.

Their stores are getting wi-fi that will be free for customers possibly as a way of allowing them to find out more about products as well purchasing from their wider range on line. to aid this QR codes are being used in-store

Figure 2 M&S App Screenshot

And of course their App will aid in this ( see Figure 2)

Also, some store assistants ill be getting iPads to help customers in the same way.

Figure 3 - Contactless Payment

Not forgeting the quick, small purchase ( the M&S .....), they are also adopting faster ways to pay with contactless options - Figure 3








You may have even seen the oversized smartphones in their stores

The one in figure 4 is actually in their store in Paris where customers are again able to purchase from the extended range on line - or even buy while on day trip to Paris and get it delivered back in the UK?

Figure 4 - Oversized Smartphones in Paris

And of course they are addressing the delivery element by allowing customers to have items delivered to their home or most convenient store. This option incorporating that crucial free delivery tag so many consumers want ( see Amazon Set to Deliver Via Newsagents )



Sources

Marks and Spencer data sourced from their 2012 Corporate Report

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/marks-spencer-installs-wi-fi-163808550.html

Print Still Has Its Place ( Funny)

Favourite Subject Line of the Week

To be honest I'd actually forgotten that I had a review on there, so I was intrigued by how many people had seen my review.

So of course it came as a surprise when I saw that over 40 people had read my review of this pub out n the middle of nowhere.

Funnily enough this email then came up in conversation with my wife on our way back from eating some pretty average food at Hotel du Vin.

Even she admitted that these days news of the poor food was sure to be spread quickly with Social Media - and this from someone who believes Facebook, Twitter etc are tools of Satan.

Mobile Consumers Want Local Information and Fast!

Figure 1

Mobile Consumers wanting Local Information and Fast are some of the key take outs from the Keynote Systems 2012 Mobile User Survey

The report is interesting in that it highlights the top activities that smartphone users undertake on their phones.

The Top 5 include ( see Figure 1)

1. Access local information
2. Search for information
3. Participate in social media/networking sites
4. Read news and entertainment
5. Find local services

 Surprisingly according to this survey, playing games and checking emails is down in the other section.

The main difference between Smartphone users and Tablet users was that the former were more likely to want to access local information ( probably as they carry their phones out and about more often), while Tablet users were more likely to use it for entertainment ,eg watching videos.

Whatever information they are trying to access, one key factor is load time for the website. Slow response time is a key frustration. This is the case for both users who are mobile or who are sat at their desks using a PC.

After all, there is nothing worse when having a conversation than waiting and age for a response!

The report pdf is available here

Elements of Relevancy

What kind of reaction do you want when you send an email or other message to your customers?

The reactions are likely to fall into 1 of 3 categories in the customer's mind

Delete - Why?...because based on the last few messages you've sent me I have no time now nor later to open it. ..even to un-subscribe

Later - Why?..because you generally send me good content that I like, but I haven't got time right now to give you my full attention while perhaps I'm mobile

Now - Why..because it's Timely, has the right content, recognises the device I'm using and as a result is  Relevant and hence is of Value to me