Customer Centric

You could find out of these 2 presentations some insights and tips about Social Media marketing. It is a good complement of articles I have recently published on this topic: Social Media Marketing analysis amongst 8 brands (Part 1 & Part 2).

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In the first post last month, we have seen that activities of 8 brands (luxury, fashion, services, sports and drinks) on Facebook could be consolidated into 8 main categories.
Top 3 in terms of number of post are: Events announcement/reviews, interview & multimedia content and product related topics.

The main question remains whether the level of engagement of fans is aligned with the objective of each brands…and we have some surprises

The engagement of fans is measured by comparing the breakdown of likes/comments vs the breakdown of number of posts initiated by the brand for each category of topics.
I assume that more a topic generates likes/comments from fans higher is the level of engagement.

Key findings:

• Each brand has a different profile of engagement with its fans.
• The level of engagement of fans of Louis Vuitton, Jaeger-Lecoultre and Innocent Smoothies is not aligned with the type of topic mostly pushed by these brands.
• Salomon, Sephora, Starbucks and Kielh’s show an alignment between their main topic published on Facebook and the level of engagement of their fans.
• Most engaging topics across brands are: Events announcement/reviews, activities related to retail traffic and products related posts
• Topics generating the lower level of engagement across brands are: Interviews/multimedia content, regular brand activities, on-line sales and sweepstake.

3 key learning’s

• Define a clear role of the branded Facebook page within the overall communication channels
• Keep the nature of promoted topics (e.g. Events) in line with the core business of the brand
• Monitor, track and adapt the content published by the brand with the actual level of engagement from fans
  Even if your CEO has decided to push his favorite sponsored event while being of low interest for your community

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Very interesting insights from Altimeter and PSFK leading to ONE conclusion: Customer Centric experience has overtaken Thinking On & Off line

This post is the first one from a serie of 3 articles which will be published during the months of June and July.

Once an Official Facebook Page is up and running, the most important work starts! What the brand is going to talk about?
Even if it is better to ask ourselves the question before.

I went through 8 different brands and sectors in order to find some common practices and potentially useful learnings. The Official Facebook Page of the following brands have been studied over a period of 3 months (1st Quarter 2010): Louis Vuitton, Jaeger-Lecoultre, Innocent Smoothies, Salomon, Etam, Sephora (US), Starbucks (US) and Kiehl’s.
These brands offer the common characteristic to engage emotionally their clients while operating in different retail environments, a wide frequency of store visits and consumption pattern.

Key Learnings

• Frequency of publishing is usually less than 1 post per day across brands and categories whatever  the size of the Fan’s community
• 3 main categories of activities account for 58% of total posts published by brands: Event announcements/Reviews, Interviews & publishing of multimedia content, Product related topics
• Luxury brands (Louis Vuitton, Jaeger-Lecoultre) focus on generating content around sponsored events and promoting regular activity (Travel Guide LV). Jaeger-Lecoultre tried to create buzz on a special auction.
• Specialist brands (Sephora, Starbucks, Kiehl’s, Etam) put the emphasis on product related topics (new launches) and promoting on-line sales. Starbucks concentrated a large part of their activity on their CSR programs.
• Salomon Official Page was dedicated to their Freeride events (results, interviews of team members, comments from insiders)

RANKING OF BRANDS BY TYPE OF MARKETING ACTIVITIES - 1st Quarter 2010

The next article will analyze the actual engagement and feedback of fans vis-à-vis these activities. Some interesting insights should pop-up as the focus of brands doesn’t match each time the level of interest of fans

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Major B2C companies should increase their marketing investments in On-Line activities in 2010 according to a recent survey completed by Forrester Research. Social Media should be the Big Winner.

(*) Forrester Research - Global Marketing Leadership Online Survey (multiple answers)

However, the main question remains the optimal allocation of resources in Social Media Marketing: recruitment of a Community Manager, selection of specialized agencies, production of specific content?
One way to look at it could be to monitor actual behaviors of Social Media users in order to define priorities.

I have recently performed an in-depth analysis amongst 28 brands (see on page 2 of this post) in the Luxury, Jewelery and Watchmaking industry based on Customer Centric Matrix^TM methodology (using the monitoring tool Radian 6).

Social Media and Luxury industry: Blogs and Forums are still ahead.

• “Traditional” Social Media Channels (Blogs and Forums) represent almost 80% of the content published on Luxury and Watchmaking brands
• The second largest Social Media Channel (Twitter 19%) is the one where brands are the less present and active
• 34% of brand related content is not supported by a Luxury Brand environment (Twitter and Forums)

3 major profiles of Social Media usage amongst the 28 Luxury brands analyzed

• Active engagement (7 brands)
  Social Media content related to these brands reflects a very active involvement of brands and their communities of “Fans”. A regular and frequent follow-up of brands takes place mainly via Blogs and Twitter. Brands are usually present with an active presence through their Official Facebook page.
  Louis Vuitton communities  are a good example of this profile.
• Passionate and Sharing (4 brands)
  Committed communities of passionate clients and fans are interacting regularly with their brand(s ). Moreover, they use all Social Media channels to discuss and share points of views.
  Breitling Fans illustrate well this profile.
• Personal Involvement (17 brands)
  Posts related to these brands are mainly channeled by Blogs. It corresponds usually to individuals sharing their interest via Blogs dedicated to a sector (e.g. watchmaking) or a brand.
  Jaeger Lecoultre can illustrate this profile.

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The main conclusions of this analysis indicate some practical tips: “Story Telling”, Frequent publishing, Specific content initiated by the brand, synergies between Social Media channels are some of the critical success factors.
Do not hesitate to contact me for a more detailed presentation of the results.

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