HaveYouHeard presented at Marketing Mix’s Township conference, focused on the Western Cape. We had a lot of focus on the Cape Flats and wanted to share some of the Video Segments with you. There are some really great insights and we would encourage you all to watch.
An Introduction to the Cape Flats:
Aspirational Brands and Products:
If you would lile to access the full presentation and video’s, e-mail me on jason@haveyouheard.co.za or set up a time for us to take you through it all.
Reutors recently published a post on Virtuous Brands (Brands being Good) and the effect that has on the consumer. We have also been picking this up (more than I expected) of consumers wanting to know what impact the company behind the brand is having on society. These Stats are an indication of why it is important to start getting your house in order, before your customers start asking questions.
Many consumers want to make the world a better place and are willing to reward those companies and brands that help them do so with increased trust, loyalty and word-of-mouth, reports a new study titled “Brand Virtue as a Competitive Asset.” It reports on research recently conducted by Context Marketing and Noesis Research.
According to the study, three out of four consumers report they are willing to pay more for brands they see as behaving responsibly. Of those willing to pay more, around 40 percent said they would pay as much as 10 percent more, and another 30 percent say they are willing to pay a premium higher than 10 percent.
Click on the image to go the post.
There is a great post by a guy called Mikolaj Jan Piskorski from Harvard who has been studying how and what people use Social Networks.
He has a host of very interesting insights based on actual behaviours that you will find startling. He starts off by saying that the usefullness of on-line Social Networks is due to the shortcomings of real life, and providng solutions such as being able to connect with old friends and that 70% of all activity is related to looking at pics and profiles. After further insighs, he finished with these words of wisdom:
“People don’t click through on advertising on social networks…To be successful, you need to shift your mindset from social media to social strategy,” he continues. A good social strategy essentially uses the same principles that made online social networks attractive in the first place—by solving social failures in the offline world. Firms should begin to do the same and help people fulfill their social needs online.
To continue the earlier analogy, “You should come to the table and say, ‘Here is a product that I have designed for you that is going to make you all better friends.’ To execute on this, firms will need to start making changes to the products themselves to make them more social, and leverage group dynamics, using technologies such as Facebook Connect. But I don’t see a lot of that yet. I see (businesses) saying, ‘Let’s talk to people on Twitter or let’s have a Facebook page or let’s advertise.’ And these are good first steps but they are nowhere close to a social strategy.”
There we go – now you have a strong directive to create your Social Media Strategy. Click on the image to view the full post.
And social Media has the least influence! Mike Sachoff has just written a post that shows “among gamers, 41 percent report that they rely on word of mouth to get information on video games, according to a new report from the NPD Group. “
He goes on to say, “While this varies from one platform to another, all current platforms, including portables, rely on word of mouth above all other information sources. Followed by hands on play at friends or relatives friends homes at 31 percent. Magazines and online ads, along with incentives/coupons and social networking sites have the least influence on gamers at five percent.”
If you want to find out more, click on the image to read Mikes full post.
Trendwatching.com have reveled that on-line reviews are more trusted than traditional advertising adn subsequently have more sway in influencing purchas behaviour. Reinier Evers, founder, Trendwatching.com, said: “Advertising is one-way, and it always per default claims something is the best, so there’s no trust whatsoever, let alone an interesting take from people who live and think like you.
“Real world, and especially the digital word of mouth, is more important than advertising, as advertising has no trust factor, and trust is all consumers are looking for. The reason digital word of mouth is so popular is that it satisfies an existing need in a new, previously impossible, way. It also helps that people looking for information can increasingly get this from people who live and think like them [you can find profiles of reviewers online], which makes the information even more relevant.”
The Lesson: Make sure you know what people are saying about your brand and product. And importantly, where they are saying it. Product Reviews are so powerful that you shoudl focus on stimulating postive reviews, and the best way to do that is providing a platform for your consumers to speak.
Click on the logo to go the article.
We should have seen this one coming!
Hasbro and Google have teamed up to create the biggest game of Monopoly ever, with the board being the entire world in Google Maps and they are calling it Monopol City Streets. The basic premise is that you start out with $US3 million. Then you can roam Google Maps and buy any street in the world to build property on and collect rent. The end goal being to “beat your friends and the world to become the richest property magnate in existence”.
Most of the top property in South Africa already seems to be bought up and is being developed. We will keep you updated on how the games progresses and impacts society. Click on the logo to go to the site.
Watch the video to see what Jeremy asks HaveYouHeard, and how we respond to his probing questions on the need and application of Word-of-Mouth Marketing in South Africa.
(Please excuse the disheveled hair – I have no idea how they let me on looking like that!)
Episode 6 and 7 of 7: A Double whammy. Two videos focusing on how you should connect with the Township and the relationship that Word-of-Mouth and Advertising has with building your brand. Enjoy the Insights.
And…
Facebook Lite was introduced in India and the US last week and the response was overwhelmingly positive. It was first developed for countries with slow Internet connections, but when it was beta tested in the US, it became clear that Lite would be a smash anywhere. This may surprise many social media aficionados because of Facebook’s reputation as a leader in functionality and aesthetics. One only has to look at Lite to see the advantages. In addition to loading quicker because of the stripped down design, the ads are smaller and fewer. The apps are gone. There aren’t any chatting abilities, profile pics or status updates. Essentially, the clutter was cut. It’s simple and streamlined. Your brain has less to analyze and can relax more. We will have to wait and see whether Facebook Lite will be successful enough to actually trim down the full version. Click on the logo to read an opinion of the site.
Article supplied thanks to WOMMA.
Sean Carton, from Clickz, has provided us with a checklist for developing a brands Social Media Strategy. It is a really straight forward and helpful list that will get you asking the right questions, but wont provide you with all the answers. We would recommend that you check it out anyway, to ensure you have all the basis covered. Here are a few teasers from his list.
Click on the logo to see the full list and his explanations for each point.
