Marketing Methods and Trends - What's New for 2011?

We are one year into a new decade and we have all seen the shift in how we market and reach consumers. In order to be efficient in marketing, it's important to realize what will work and what marketing methods are being left by the wayside. Now, with that being said please understand that my statement of trends is broad and may not reach your specific demographic. For example, if you serve a senior market a yellow page may very well still bring in customers for you, but if your customer is under the age of 60 it's best to put those dollar elsewhere.
This year there are five marketing methods and trends that I'll be watching with a close eye. We've seen many changes over the last few years and this year will be no different. Trends and methods that I'll be watching closely this year include:
Mobile Marketing
In a report done by CTIA Wireless Association it was reported that 250+ million Americans carry mobile phones - that's over 80% of the nations population. Mobile applications will continue to be developed and smartphones and tablet PCs will remain a part of our daily lives. It's no longer just about mobile access to email, messaging, calendars and websites. We will see more location based services, mobile gaming, applications, and event-based mobile marketing. We've been inundated with new technology from Apple's iPhone, iPad and Google's Android integration. I guarantee it won't stop there, we will continue to see mobile marketing innovations throughout 2011 and beyond. We will see new devices, faster speeds, and location based technologies integrated with one another. If you are a marketer and you've not explored the avenue of mobile marketing, this is your year. Get on the bus or get left behind.
Social Marketing Integration
In 2010 companies began to take social media marketing seriously and because of that we saw social media explode as a marketing tool. This year we will begin to see companies integrate social media into their overall marketing plan, which is how it should have been done in the first place, but better late than never. We will see social media expand from a tool used primarily for customer service and brand management to being used to collect customer data and enable better target marketing of products and services that those customer are interested.
Traditional Marketing Continues to Diminishes
This is always a touchy subject, because there are so many that don't want to say goodbye to the traditional marketing. Interactive or real-time marketing is easy to measure, engage and gain real time statistics that allows us to change a marketing message quickly. Customers are continuing to go online to search for information and in return making their purchases online. It's important that marketers move their marketing dollars to where the consumers are and right now that's making a gigantic shift to online. Internet marketing enables us to reach targeted audiences online, advertising costs are lower and they are easier to measure. What's not to love about interactive marketing? Overall marketing budgets will continue to shift to a higher spend online and the traditional marketing spend will continue to diminish.
Consumers Will Determine Value
In today's economy consumers are watching their pennies and because of this they will only spend on purchases that they consider to be of value. They will continue to seek value in every dollar spent and they will determine whether it's value, not you. Consumers no longer purchase just because an item is on sale, rather they will justify every dollar spent. This means you must marketing the value of your product or service in order to get consumers to open their wallets - if there is no value, they simply will not purchase.
Regulations Abound
This is a trend that makes many of us as marketers anxious. It's been apparent in the last six months that the FTC is looking at regulating the online industry. We started a few years ago with disclosures for blog reviews and paid endorsements. As recent as last week we saw rules passed regarding Net Neutrality and the FTC exploring a "Do Not Track" mechanism that would regulate the tracking of consumer behavior online and the calculation of data. I'm not sure how this will play out in the next year and beyond, but I do believe we will see regulations implemented when it comes to the internet industry and many of those regulations will affect us as marketers.
Relationships will Drive Loyalty and Sales
I listed this last year, but I believe it will still hold true in 2011. Customers want to know they matter to you and your staff. They evaluate now more than ever how they are treated, whether or not your business cares about their satisfaction. Gone are the days that they just purchase out of convenience. If you can give the best customer care, you will find that you will create consumers that are loyal to you, regardless of whether or not you have the least expensive price. They realize that in tough economic times their loyalty to you could be the life or death of your business and that's often why they will go out of their way to spend their hard-earned dollars in your place of business - if you have helped in creating loyalty by giving them extraordinary care.

http://marketing.about.com/od/marketingmethods/a/Marketing-Methods-And-Trends-Whats-New-For-2011.htm

How to Evolve Your B2B Customer Experience Using Images

In this article, you'll learn...

• The value of using images to gain customer insight
• How to uncover the hidden Voice of the Customer

People tend to have difficulty explaining exactly why they like a product or experience, yet Voice of the Customer (VoC) is most B2B companies' method of choice for driving customer input.
But just try to answer these questions: What does your favorite brand mean to you? Why did you purchase the last gift you bought for someone else? Can you describe your ideal customer experience?
Questions like those make my head spin, because my behaviors, opinions, and decisions are driven as much by emotion as they are by logic.
Businesses that measure customer input solely via surveys and focus groups run the risk of deriving insights that miss the real drivers of customer behavior. My future actions with a company may be unintentionally different from what I can verbalize. When's the last time you bought a candy bar because "you needed a pick-me-up," when you really just had a craving for chocolate?
Fortunately, uncovering customer insights has evolved in amazing ways. Robert Zaltman, a Harvard Business School professor, has developed an innovative technique for unearthing the hidden drivers of customer behavior. The ZMET (Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique) asks customers to capture images that illustrate their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about a brand, product, or experience. Conversations with the customers then reveal what's behind those images, which lead to some really interesting insights.
Here's an example. A ZMET participant described the image that for her illustrated the brand of a large university in the Midwest the following way: "A red barn stands alone in the middle of a field. It's weathered, and the paint is chipping, but the foundation of the barn is structurally strong. The barn performs its duty without complaint, and the man who owns the barn takes great care of the functionality it provides. The barn also has a basketball hoop, but unlike the paint job, the hoop has a brand new net."

Those images drove a set of qualities— reliability, good work ethic, honesty, loyalty, strength, tradition, pride, and toughness—that helped define the brand experience for the university.
The ZMET has been a mainstay of the consumer packaged goods industry for years. Brand managers are always interested in shaping marketing campaigns that resonate deeply with their consumer base.
Today, B2B companies are taking a second look at using the technique for everything from product innovation to customer experience evolution. Here are five reasons for doing so:

1. Experience complexity. The number and diversity of interactions in a B2B relationship can make it difficult for companies to describe the quality of the customer experience. A customer survey response that states "you guys are just too difficult to work with," can refer to anything from too many servicing interactions to a problematic negotiating relationship. Images can help clarify the experience via metaphors, which can lead to actionable improvements in the B2B customer experience.
2. Relationship complexity. The number of people and functions that interact in a B2B relationship heighten the importance of providing the right experience. Images can provide insight into what it's like for those who experience the purchase, use, and support of a company's products or services.
3. Ubiquity of technology. Ten years ago, subjects were given disposable cameras to capture their images. Cameras were cumbersome to provide, inconvenient for participants to use, and even more problematic to retrieve. Today, more than half of US adults have a digital camera on their person (in the form of mobile phones), and images can be sent electronically with the push of a button. Furthermore, the technique can be expanded to include video on top of static images. The administration of the technique couldn't be easier or more convenient for all involved.
4. Uniqueness of approach. Think about how many times you're asked to participate in "one more survey" (my email inbox is filled with unopened invitations). B2B companies are always struggling with poor participation rates and results that are clearly not as thorough as desired. The ZMET provides customers with a unique, enjoyable, and thought-provoking exercise. It breaks through the clutter and provides a halo of innovation over the companies that use it.
5. My company gets it! Customer survey results are great, but nothing gets people's attention like an image or a video. Images resonate with those providing that customer experience long after a passing survey. Images help ensure that organizations make evolving and improving the customer experience a priority.

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, but a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures. Here's to unlocking your customers' hidden behaviors via image-borne metaphors.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2011/5435/how-to-evolve-your-b2b-customer-experience-using-images#ixzz1SUKR03Ut

Want to Create Email Marketing Value? Check Out the Direct Mail in Your Mailbox

In this article, you'll learn how to...

• Apply successful direct mail practices to your email campaigns
• Craft subject lines, offer valuable content, and nurture your recipients

Though direct mail  certainly isn't as popular or as effective as it once was, email marketers can apply many of the theories used for direct mail campaigns to increase the value of their email marketing campaigns.
First impressions are important
Picture what you do when you get home after a long day of work. You grab the mail and shuffle through it; "bill, bill, circular, overdue bill, credit card offer...." It takes a special type of mail to excite someone these days.
Now picture your inbox when you get to work in the morning; "SPAM, SPAM, email newsletter, SPAM...." The difference is you're not sifting through five pieces of mail, you're sifting through 25. (Some of you might be thinking, "Only 25? More like 225!")
Let's face it... in the midst of all that "junk," a white envelope with a simple return address doesn't cut it. The same goes for an email. Keep in mind the first few things a recipient sees:

• Subject line. Does the subject line accurately describe what the message is? Is there some value in the subject line that will make the recipient want to open the email? (e.g., "Special 20% Off Coupon Inside!")
• "From" address. Is the sender someone the recipient knows and is familiar with (company or person), or is it a random or generic email address that the recipient has no connection with? (e.g., marketing@mycompany.com)
• Graphics/layout. If you looked at your email for only two seconds, would it catch your eye? Does it have a good mix of graphics and text? Is the text separated into chunks that are easy to read?

Give me something of value
Every once in a while, I get an unsolicited mailer in my mailbox promoting a new real estate agent in town. I'm a new homeowner, so the odds of me needing a real estate agent any time soon are slim. However, one of the real estate agents sends me a well-designed mailer that has home-maintenance tips, mortgage-rate trends, and information about the area we live in. Now that's useful!
When crafting the content of your email, focus on sharing information that provides value to the recipient. Consider using the following:

• Monetary value. Sharing valuable coupons, discounts, or offers with your audience gives intrinsic value to your message.
• Informational value. Rather than sending me a press release about a new hammer you're selling, tell me how I could use it. Show me how to build a bird house with it. I could be discovering a product that I never even knew I needed!
• Opportunity value. Give me something that not everyone can get: a pre-screening of a movie, a sneak peek of a cool new product, an event that's not open to the public. I want to be an insider, and I want to feel special.

Be considerate
If you're like many people, and if you saved your mail for a while, you could probably build a small home out of "20% off" coupon postcards from Bed Bath & Beyond. But like many people, you likely drop those postcards promptly into the trash. Most mass direct mail follows that same path in millions of homes.
If you're an email marketer, however, you have the upper hand in deliverability and conversion.
Here are a few ways to nurture and engage your email subscribers:

• Always use opt-in and stay CAN-SPAM compliant. Doing so will ensure that you're reaching people who want to be reached and you're not doing harm to your brand or your sending reputation.
• Always segment. Sending relevant messages to relevant segments is one of the keys to email success. Segment your list by demographics, recipient preferences, engagement, or other useful criteria.
• Never stop testing. Compare subject lines, use different layouts, and test with different audiences and segments. You'll be able to continually improve your campaigns by making analytics-driven choices.
• Always let them leave. What if you were in a store and the salespeople wanted you to buy something so badly that they locked the doors and wouldn't let you leave? Sounds horrible, right? Don't lock the doors on your email recipients... allow them to easily change their email preferences or opt out.

Email marketers can learn a lot from direct mail practices. Applying just a few direct mail principles will drastically increase the value of your email marketing campaigns.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2011/5432/want-to-create-email-marketing-value-check-out-the-direct-mail-in-your-mailbox#ixzz1STyVijdP

Mundial Sub 20- CocaCola

Carulla 3000, la frescura como base de mercado

La redefinición de la marca Carulla pasa por el ofrecimiento, a estratos de poder adquisitivo medio alto y alto, de una línea de productos basada en la frescura y en novedosos conceptos estructurales de retail. De ahí que el concepto de valor superior cobre nuevamente importancia para la compañía.

El pasado año fue definitivo para Carulla en el reposicionamiento de la marca, una reformulación del concepto que implica un retorno a sus raíces. Así lo define Laurent Cadillat, gerente corporativo de la organización. «Por ello, pensamos en la necesidad que teníamos de considerar de nuevo al cliente de valor, de gran poder adquisitivo, de estratos medio alto y alto, ofreciéndole a este tipo de consumidor una experiencia de compra diferente, acorde con él».

A finales de 2009 comenzó el desarrollo de la redefinición de la propuesta de valor de la marca con una estrategia, denominada «Carulla 3.000», que incluye un reformulación del espacio físico, plasmado actualmente en 18 almacenes en todo el país.

Y es que este tema de reconsiderar o reposicionar la marca adquiere sentido para la organización sólo si tiene un impacto a nivel nacional.

El último almacén en sumarse a este concepto fue el de Cartagena, una unidad de 1.200 metros cuadrados en la que los compradores pueden encontrar las tendencias más recientes de superficies de compras, tanto en lo estructural como en el surtido.

«“Carulla 3.000” responde a la tendencia mundial de retail que se basa en una mayor área en la que, en nuestro caso, los protagonistas son los productos frescos. Hacemos especial énfasis en una diferenciación con las demás líneas de consumo de la organización, que se sustenta en tres atributos: ambientación, calidad en el surtido y atención y servicio superiores. Lo que hicimos fue redefinir la experiencia del momento en que el cliente se encuentra con el almacén y el producto, y repensar la experiencia de compra, es decir, ese momento de vida que tiene el cliente con nosotros», explica Cadillat.

Por eso, Carulla es sinónimo de experiencia de compra y de producto fresco, que se ha convertido en patrimonio de una marca aspiracional, emocional en su historia y con fuertes conexiones con todo el mundo de la frescura.

«Lo primordial para nosotros es entregar productos frescos. Tenemos una herramienta dedicada a la especialización de surtidos frescos, una industria en Bogotá, la costa atlántica y Medellín, que permite la entrega de productos exclusivos con altos niveles de calidad y que apuntan a clientes exigentes».

Experiencia con sentido

La organización Carulla Vivero S.A. ha desarrollado por categorías, y de acuerdo con el consumidor principal, una estrategia multimarca sobre la plataforma de una serie de establecimientos comerciales en negocios retail.

La marca Carulla está orientada a estratos 4, 5 y 6; Vivero opera principalmente en niveles socioeconómicos 3 y 4; Merquefácil atiende sectores populares en estratos 2 y 3, y un formato especial, Surtimax, tiene precios para mayoristas que se traducen en beneficios a los consumidores finales. Cada formato actúa según un concepto de negocio particular.

«Carulla 3.000» es exclusiva para la marca Carulla, identificada desde sus orígenes como de consumo para segmentos poblacionales de altos ingresos económicos. Esta es la razón por la que el público objetivo de la estrategia son personas de estratos 4, 5 y 6, exigentes, viajeros, al tanto de las últimas tendencias en materia de bienestar y vida sana, a las que se quiere entregar un entorno de compra de buen gusto, ya que su comportamiento frente a los espacios y los productos es muy diferente del de los demás estratos socioeconómicos.
Por eso, cuando el cliente ingresa a cualquier almacén que se enmarque en esta estrategia, va a encontrar productos frescos (sí, de nuevo la frescura) y espacios iluminados, distribuidos armónicamente y que llevan a las personas por un recorrido que está concebido para impactar los sentidos. En estos lugares «todo tiene que ver con los ritmos, las ambientaciones, las diferencias entre las categorías para entregar al cliente un ambiente fresco. Es una estrategia de seducción», dice Cadillat.

En cuanto a los costos que el consumidor final va a encontrar con este reposicionamiento de la marca, el gerente corporativo de la compañía explica que Carulla siempre ha sido catalogada como una empresa que ofrece productos exclusivos, lo que le imprime un aspecto gourmet, con una canasta básica de cerca de 200 productos ofrecidos a precios competitivos.

«Carulla tiene todo el carácter aspiracional de marca y le asegura al cliente una compra competitiva, complementada con una gama de productos exclusivos». A esto hay que sumar el programa Supercliente Carulla, que brinda distintos beneficios a los clientes y ofrece días especiales para la adquisición de productos del almacén. Así se ofrece todo un paquete de beneficios y de soluciones de consumo, pagando a precio justo una línea de productos de alta calidad.

En relación con los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento por la estrategia «Carulla 3.000», Cadillat explica que los nuevos conceptos están reportando ganancias de dos dígitos, lo que se convierte en un hecho importante de crecimiento con respecto a almacenes donde no se ha implementado todavía.

«Del otro lado está la calificación de los clientes, porque estamos midiendo su percepción con respecto al nuevo concepto. En este tipo de evaluaciones hemos recibido muy buenas calificaciones en elementos tangibles para el consumidor, como la ambientación. Las personas lo catalogaron como un cambio visual muy importante».

El concepto no sólo se basa en productos frescos sino que abarca un esquema de iluminación y de mobiliario que le da todo el protagonismo al producto.

«Además, agregamos a la nueva distribución ambiental varios conceptos especializados, 16 en total, como “Vida sana”, donde la gente puede hallar todos los productos relacionados con una alimentación sana y equilibrada. Pero también hemos diseñado otro tipo de espacios, como “Placeres del mundo”, un rincón en el que se encuentran todos los productos importados o gourmet de la marca Casino. Esto ha generado una nueva experiencia entre nuestros compradores, que es en últimas uno de los objetivos de «Carulla 3.000». Tenemos un feedback muy positivo de parte de nuestros clientes».

El objetivo para 2011 es fortalecer este concepto y ampliarlo a un mayor número de almacenes de la marca Carulla en todo el país.

Así las cosas, el espacio para el consumo exclusivo de clientes de poder adquisitivo alto cobra relevancia para una organización que busca darle un giro a su marca Carulla, reposicionándola como exclusiva y con características que satisfacen el estilo de vida y consumo de su público objetivo, sin olvidar los demás estratos socioeconómicos pero dándole un mayor sentido aspiracional y de experiencia de los sentidos.

Tomado de Marketing News

Ikea, Danone, Nivea y Dove, las marcas más ecológicas según los europeos, cada vez más eco concienciados

El estudio “Green Brands 2011”, realizado por la agencia de comunicación Cohn & Wolfe, concluye que para los europeos las marcas más respetuosas con el medio ambiente son Ikea, Danone, Nivea y Dove. El estudio, realizado a más de 9.000 personas en ocho países, asegura además que los consumidores tienen ahora un mayor interés por adquirir automóviles y tecnología más ecológica que en ediciones anteriores.

En esta línea, aunque se trate de productos más caros que los convencionales, los consumidores están dispuestos a pagar más por ellos. Por ejemplo, el 30% de los alemanes asegura que durante este año han comprado más productos ecológicos que en años anteriores, frente al 21% que respondió lo mismo a esta pregunta en 2010.

A nivel mundial, más del 60% prefiere consumir artículos de compañías responsables con el medio ambiente. Este dato choca con el de un mercado desarrollado como Reino Unido, con un 40% de los encuestados que no está dispuesto a pagar más sólo porque un producto sea verde. En cambio, en economías en pleno desarrollo como Brasil o India, el 90% si acepta gastar más para adquirir productos ecológicos.

Por sectores y nacionalidades, el 18% de los americanos y el 20% de los australianos consideran que la industria energética es la que mejor cuida el medio ambiente. Para Alemania (19%), India (22%), China (33%) y Brasil (22%) el sector tecnológico es el que ocupa este lugar. En cambio, el 21% de los consumidores de Reino Unido opina que la industria alimentaria protege más que ninguna otra el medio ambiente.

Según Almudena Alonso, directora general de Cohn & Wolfe, “las empresas que son responsables con el medio ambiente y hacen una labor para cuidarlo, tienen un lógico retorno positivo en su imagen y reputación ante los consumidores frente al resto de compañías”.

Packaging

El packaging y el material con el que se ha elaborado es el atributo que más influye en la decisión de compra en los países desarrollados. Por su parte, los consumidores de los países en vías de desarrollo se fijan más en los anuncios difundidos por televisión.

Alemania es el único país que está satisfecho con la gestión de su gobierno en cuanto a la regulación de medidas ecológicas para las empresas. Es importante recalcar el dato de Reino Unido, en el que un 91% piensa que las empresas utilizan demasiado material para sus envases y el 73% asegura que su gobierno debería endurecer su postura ante esta realidad.

Tomado de Marketing News España