The "F" Factor

THE F-FACTOR | Consumers are increasingly tapping into their networks of friends, fans, and followers to discover, discuss and purchase goods and services, in ever-more sophisticated ways. As a result, it's never been more important for brands to make sure they too have the F-FACTOR.


Why is the F-FACTOR important to consumers? It offers the promise of a consumption arena* that is more efficient, more relevant, and more interesting than before, where consumers either had to spend endless time and effort on trying to discover the best of the best, or had to rely on sources that were distant, unknown or untrusted (read: brand-driven), and therefore potentially unreliable or irrelevant.

Just a few recent stats demonstrating the reach and power of the F-FACTOR:

The F-FACTOR is currently dominated by Facebook, as over 500 million active users spend over 700 billion minutes a month on the site. (Source: Facebook, April 2011)

And its impact isn’t just on Facebook itself. Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook across more than 2.5 million external websites. (Source: Facebook, April 2011)

The average user clicks the ‘Like’ button 9 times each month. (Source: Facebook, 2010)

And a couple of brand-related, F-FACTOR stats:

Three quarters of Facebook users have 'Liked' a brand. (Source: AdAge/ Ipsos, February 2011)

Over 50m users 'like' brands every day (Source: BrandRepublic, May 2011) 

Juicy Couture found that their product purchase conversion rate increased by 160% after installing social sharing features (Source: CreateTheGroup, February 2011)

Incipio Technologies, a gadget accessory retailer, found that referrals from Facebook had a conversion rate double the average (Source: Business Insider, March 2011)

But it’s not just about Facebook. Take for example the explosive rise of the daily deal site Groupon, which used referrals from friends and colleagues to drive sales of over 40 million deals in the two and a half years since it launched in November 2008, via email .

So, here are just five of the ways that the F-FACTOR influences consumption behavior:

1. F-DISCOVERY: How consumers discover new products and services by relying on their social networks.
2. F-RATED: How consumers will increasingly (and automatically) receive targeted ratings, recommendations and reviews from their social networks.
3. F-FEEDBACK: How consumers can ask their friends and followers to improve and validate their buying decisions.
4. F-TOGETHER: How shopping is becoming increasingly social, even when consumers and their peers are not physically together.
5. F-ME: How consumers’ social networks are literally turned into products and services

POINT & KNOW

2012 will see a mix of the known (Apps! Augmented Reality!) and the very known (QR codes!) bringing information about the objects (and even people) that consumers encounter in the real world instantly. And like some other trends, it’s the rise of the (always-in-my-pocket) smartphone that will fuel full-blown POINT & KNOW in the next 12 months. After all, the need and expectation for instant information and instant access to everything one wants to know, is already deeply ingrained in the SEE-HEAR-BUY consumer. Use POINT & KNOW in a practical fashion: adding depth of knowledge, communicating stories, origins, price comparisons, reviews, ecommerce and so on, or by all means, just have some fun with it!
Examples:

• Google Goggles is a free image recognition app which enables users to search based on photographs taken with a handheld device. By taking pictures of objects, places or product barcodes, users can find out further information.

• Released in November 2011, the Amazon Flow app enables users to access information about products– and purchase them– using image recognition. In addition to books, music and film, many household products can also be recognized.

• WeBIRD allows anyone with a smartphone to record a bird’s call, submit it wirelessly to a server and (after a few seconds) receive a positive ID on the species of bird. WeBIRD hopes to be available to the public in time for the spring migration in 2012.

• Created by Carnegie Mellon University, PittPatt is a facial recognition tool that enables users to find individuals from photographs or videos. The face detection software can locate human faces and match them up with photographs from Facebook and Google Images, identifying individuals in under 60 seconds. PittPatt, still in development, was acquired by Google in July 2011. Scary? Perhaps. Interesting? Definitely



5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy

Coca Cola has been part of popular culture for over 100 years and has been called a “Vision Brand“.

Its mission is not about selling products but to create significant positive change in the world that makes the world a better place.

Coca Cola’s mission statement

• To refresh the world
• To inspire moments of optimism and happiness
• To create value and make a difference

Recently they have realised that their marketing strategy that has worked well for them for decades needed to evolve and as such they are moving from “Creative Excellence” to “Content  Excellence”

Creative excellence has always been at the heart of Coca Cola’s advertising and they have decided that content is now the key to marketing in the 21st century on a social web.
Content for Coca Cola is is now the “Matter” and “Substance” of “Brand Engagement.

So what can we learn from Coca Cola’s new marketing strategy?

Lesson 1: Create Liquid Content

The purpose of content excellence is to create “Ideas” so contagious that they cannot be controlled this is what is called “liquid content”.

On a social web people can easily share ideas, videos and photos on social networks such Facebook.

So create content that begs to be shared whether that be an image, a video or an article.

Lesson 2: Ensure your Content is Linked

The next part of the equation is to ensure that these ideas create content that is innately relevant to

• The business objectives of your company
• The brand
• Your customer interests

This is “Linked” content…. Content that is relevant and connected to the companies goals and brand.

Ensure that the content communicates your message that is congruent with your mission and values.

Lesson 3: Create Conversations

Coca Cola has realised that the consumer creates more stories and ideas than they do so the goal is provoke conversations and then “Act” and “React” to those conversations 365 days of the year.

The new “Distribution Technologies” of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook provide greater connectivity and consumer empowerment than ever before.

Don’t just publish but interact with your audience and tribe.

Lesson 4. Move onto Dynamic Story Telling

On traditional media in the past, story telling was static and a one way street. Television and newspapers shouted at you with no means of interaction.

Coca Cola has come the realisation that to grow their business on the social web they need to move on from “One Way Story Telling” to “Dynamic Story Telling”

This means you need to allow the story to evolve as you interact and converse with your customers. You need to converse with your customers in many media formats and social networks.

Storytelling has moved on from static and synchronous to multifaceted, engaged and spreadable.

Lesson 5: Be Brave and Creative with Your Content Creation

Part of the new Coca Cola content strategy is applying a 70/20/10 Investment principle to creating “Liquid content“.

• 70% of your content should be low risk. It pays the rent and is your bread and butter marketing (should be easy to do and only consumes 50% of your time)
• 20% of your content creation should innovate off what works.
• 10% of your content marketing is high risk ideas that will be tomorrows 70% or 20%…. be prepared to fail

This provides a blueprint regarding moving on from just developing white papers, to trying some content that is more visual, courageous and engaging in web world that has embraced multimedia and interactive content.

The 30 Second TV Ad is no Longer King

Coca Cola has come to the conclusion that the world has moved on from the 30 second TV ad. So has the the Old Spice brand and many other businesses who are embracing social media as part of their marketing strategy.

We need to move towards a genuine consumer collaboration model that builds buzz and adopts a more iterative approach to content creation.

Learning how to fuel the conversations, act and interact has never been more important.

Consumers ideas, creativity and conversations have been set free with the evolution of social networks, learning to leverage and wrangle those conversations to increase your brand visibility is now a vital part of your marketing.

What About You?

Do you create conversations with your marketing? How many people are talking about your stories on Facebook?

Is your content liquid, linked and multi-faceted?

Daily Comic

Top Ten Tips For a successful and sustainable web presence

Summary

A good website takes time and investment. Whether that investment is time or money depends on your level of in-house skills. Start small, be flexible and grow with your success.

Purpose

Websites are sales tools and need to offer value to your business. A good website offers a route to market for your information (and products) directly and quickly.

So, with that in mind, your website needs to be built for the user, but, with your clearly defined business goal in mind.

Usability

A website needs to be usable, not by you, but by your customer and every visitor to your website will be different.

If you pick up a book you start at page one. But you can not guarantee the entry page or the path through your website that a visitor will take, especially if the navigation is not logical and your purpose, is not clear for the user.

Design (goes hand-in-hand with function and content)

Not only design as in branding, but also design of your web interface. Your website needs to look good and be compelling.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) enable us to have more control in the design of a website and help us apply styles and branding across every web page. This makes it consistent and leaves the visitor in no doubt which website they are on.

Web standards

Web standards allow for choice. Your can visit your website using different platforms (PC, Linux, Mac, mobile phones, Hand-Held Organisers, etc.).

Mix into that the different browsers available and you have thousands of combinations. This will only increase over time.

By sticking to web standards you can translate your message to more people, including disabled users.

Content is king

The Internet has billions of web pages of content, how can you compete for attention?

For a start, you must have a message worth reading. Not just what YOU think is great, but what an audience would regard as worth reading. Your page content needs to be compelling, offer value and it needs to offer a consistent message.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation isn't a dark art. Stick to the basics. Start with quality content that is already compelling for your audience. Does it send a message? What is that message? More importantly, is the message consistent and specific?

What words are you using? Do they match up with what people may type into a search engine?

Search engines are getting cleverer and the rules keep changing so, just stick to creating clear content and make sure they understand what your page is about. SEO is just part of the story, it is not the "be-all-and-end-all" of your website.

Measurement

You could argue that a website has one statistic that matters - return. Is it making money, getting leads, etc.?

If not there may be a bottleneck, one page that restricts the next step in your process. That's why you need to measure your website traffic.

The better you become at measuring the right things, the more successful your website can be. You can measure traffic into your website but you also need to measure what happens when it gets there.

Online marketing

Marketing your business using the Internet is one of the most cost-effective ways of getting your message to your audience. Niche markets are becoming more effective because they are so specific. Your potential market could be fragmented but by applying all the other rules here you have a website that is findable and worth reading with specific content.

If you can truly engage your audience they will come back. Better still, they will tell other people about you. Blogs, Social Networking and Article Marketing can get you attention, but you have to work hard to keep that attention.

Flexibility

Your website, and your attitude towards it, needs to be flexible.

A good website needs to be updated regularly to attract attention so it needs to be easy for you to manage.

Return on investment

Running a website, even for a small business, can be a full-time job. Does your website merit that?

Does it drive enough business to pay for the investment as a marketing tool? It's actually a hard one to quantify but why spend more than you make, unless you have a longer-term plan?

Also, why put all your eggs in one basket? Experiment. What is your competition doing and why can't you do the opposite? It's a case of smarter spending of less money. But, if it works in a positive way, don't scrimp, run with it and invest; but be prepared to be flexible and switch if you need to.

Ten Points of Marketing

1. Pick up the phone. There is yet to be a better way of "marketing oneself" then speaking with a prospect on the phone -- it's way better than direct mailings and cheaper too.

2. Referrals. The best marketing plan is this: Friends telling friends of your services and products.

3. Identify your target customers. Create a three-tier or dartboard approach to profiling sales prospects. The top tier or bull's-eye of the dartboard represents the prime target audience. Spend the most time with the tier in the bull's-eye and the least amount of time with the third tier. The marketing strategy should focus on a message to address the needs of each group

4. Networking. Much of what we accomplish is by marketing and networking and these organizations offer great opportunities for us as financial professionals to meet more people and promote our services.

5. Speak the language. Poor communication leads to poor sales.

6. Use daily newspapers. Ask the publisher what day of the week most seniors read the paper. That's the day you want to advertise.

7. Find a niche and position yourself within it. If you know a lot about one thing compared to a little about a lot of things, you will be more focused and most likely, more successful.

8. Be creative! Your senior clients will remember the little things that you do if they are original and creative.

9. Review your sales call ... both good and bad. Too many times we play the "ones that got away" over and over in our minds. But what about the sales calls that go right? We can learn as much from them as from those unsuccessful calls.

10. Practice, practice, practice. After years in this business, it is easy to become complacent. Prepare your presentation, prepare your close and prepare your follow-up.

Great marketing Ideas 101