TCC Insights

Apple Blew It

By Bob Travers, Principal

For the fourth year in a row Apple has been number one on FORTUNE Magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies.  Not surprised here.  Personally, I love Apple products and as a matter of fact, I own six Apple products including two iPhones (my wife’s and my own). And at the marketing communications company my partner and I own we have multiple Apple computers, products and accessories.

So I am what you would call a loyal purchaser of the Apple brand.  And why am I so loyal?  Because I know they will always deliver to or exceed my expectations, in what we in the marketing world call key moments of truth.  Whenever I interact with Apple, whether it’s through the features or benefits of the product I’ve purchased, or when I call their customer support or technical support services, I’m continuously satisfied, for the most part beyond my expectations.  As I counsel my clients, a great brand not only delivers what a customer is looking for, the overall experience is always a positive one.

However, in my opinion and I’m sure it’s shared by thousands of Apple customers across the country, Apple has blown it big time with the launch of the iPad 2. 

Oh Apple How You Disappoint Me

By Alyssa Mayer, Account Manager, Interactive Strategist

My love affair with Apple has been going for seven years now, dating back to my first iPod mini. My most recent purchase was the iPhone 4 through Verizon. Apple has always gone above and beyond with their service. When iPods broke, Apple provided new ones. When my MacBook Pro battery died, Apple had a new replacement battery waiting.  These are the characteristics that keep me coming back (oh, and the products are sweet!).

However I was extremely disappointed in Apple yesterday morning.  I arrived at the Galleria Mall in Buffalo, NY at 7am, to wait in line for the iPad 2. I had been told Sunday that they would be available at 9am Tuesday when the store opened.  I sat in line, chatted with a few customers about our love of Apple and our excitement to own an iPad 2.

The Starbucks Brand

 By Alyssa Mayer, Account Manager, Interactive Strategist

I am among an elite group of coffee drinkers – the Starbucks Gold club. This essentially means that I spend too much money on coffee.  But it is not just the delicious drinks that I love about Starbucks.  I am a very loyal customer at businesses that recognize my patronage and make every effort to make me feel special.  From a free drink on my birthday, to discounts on purchases, everything about Starbucks has me hooked.

I recently started reading The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary that outlines how Starbucks has created such a strong brand. In 1971, Howard Schultz had an idea to take a “quality coffee bean and merge it with the charm and romance of the European Coffeehouse.” That first coffee store in Seattle has grown to over 11,000 stores worldwide.

A Wikipedia Strategy

By Alyssa Mayer, Account Manager/Interactive Strategist

Wikipedia has become a valuable resource online, whether you are looking for the meaning of a word or searching for more information on a topic. While its accuracy and reliability are still being debated (my vote goes to accurate!), you cannot dispute the dominance of Wikipedia results in search engines.

To prove my point, I just asked for a little help from my co-workers to shout out any word. The responses I received were “Cracker Jacks,” “candy” and “banana” – clearly we have food on the brain. I typed these into Google and voila! The rankings for the Wikipedia page for each were:
Cracker Jacks = 5th result
Candy = 10th result
Banana = 2nd result

A New Way To Define ROI

By Alyssa Mayer, Account Coordinator

ROI =  (Gain from Investment - Cost of Investment)

                    Cost of Investment

This formula is often used to quantify the return of an investment and is popular to determine the success of a campaign. Companies that are using social media as a marketing tool are struggling to quantify ROI.  The goal of social media should be more about engagement and speaking with your audience, instead of focusing on the direct return on investment. So it’s time to jump in (with a strategy of course) and start participating in the conversation regardless of ROI.

If you are adamant about quantifying ROI think less monetary and more qualitative.  Then your ROI would be to see an increase in trust, interaction, word of mouth and loyalty. These are all qualities we want from our customers, so why have we come to expect ROI in dollars?  It’s just the way the business world is programmed, well it’s actually the way we are all programmed which is why I challenge you to think in qualitative terms.  Instead of asking how many phone calls will I get from this investment, think how will this investment allow the customer to trust me more and recommend me to their friends.  Keep in mind that social media is also like traditional media in that you are receiving eyeballs but with the added feature of receiving interaction as your return on investment.

For example, if you succeed in creating engaging conversation that evokes customer loyalty and trust, you will be able to sell more products.  The difficultly comes in separating this number from your other marketing tactics.  You also need to keep in mind the difference of a social media effort to inform vs marketing over social media platforms (@delloutlet uses Twitter for customer service)….this could be a blog in itself!

This interaction IS easy to measure, but not with traditional metrics.  Some metrics could include the number in influential people on Twitter who retweet you, influential bloggers who link to you, and even your increase in Pagerank on search engines.  You can also track how many potential leads come into your website from social media platforms.  Social media challenges you to create your own metrics for success based on your campaign. Our favorite example around Travers Collins is the “My Starbucks Idea” campaign (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ideaHome), which was developed to give their customers a voice on what they would like changed. Their goal was to increase satisfaction and loyalty to the brand by listening and then implementing. Their metrics: # of good suggestions and # implemented.

It is going to take some time before the old way of defining ROI as sales or revenue increase to fade when referring to social media ROI.  But pass this along and before we know it, Return on Investment will be linked to loyalty, interaction, trust and word of mouth.

Social Media Predictions

By Alyssa Mayer, Account Coordinator (or interactive anthropologist)

Last week I received an email from a friend from college, Chelsea, asking if I had any predictions on the future of our social media world.  She was putting together a presentation with predictions a year from now, 5 years and 10 plus years.  So I sat down and thought up these:

(These may be more my hopes than actual predictions, but hey, if I’m wrong then you can come yell at me one, five, or 10 years from now).

Celebrity Tweeting

By Alyssa Mayer, Account Coordinator

Another social media blog from me, but I can’t go wrong with this entry since it involves a popular rock band and marketing all in one.  

Two years ago I took a roadtrip to Columbus Ohio to check out a Collective Soul & Better Than Ezra concert.  The concert was amazing and since then I’ve been a big fan, which is why I was beyond thrilled when I  stumbled upon @Collective_soul on Twitter.

Last week while scrolling through my feeds I noticed @Collective_soul posted a Twitter/Blogging contest to their status.  The contest rules state to be creative and tell people about Collective Soul: how you feel them, their social media interaction, how their music effects you or anything else. You also have to add in several links back to their sites.  Essentially, what I am writing right now counts as a submission.  For contest and prize details check out: http://openpresswire.com/celebrity/a-celebrity-that-gets-social-media-i-know-shocking/.  I wanted to share this because I think it’s a great case study about the effectiveness of a social media contest.

Twitter is Here to Stay

By Alyssa Mayer, Account Coordinator

For the past few days I have been reading about Twitter here and a tweet there, and how this massive growth of Twitter has reached its peak. Internet Evolution weighs in with, “Talking TV heads will tire of Twitter talk, the growth will slow down, and activity will drop off further. What's left will probably be a niche network of self-promoters touting themselves in 140 characters or less. And we'll be onto the new site to take the world by storm.”

To that I say “HA!” Just last fall Facebook offered $500 million in a buyout; if you think that now Twitter is going to lie down and give up users without a fight, you are unfortunately mistaken.  I think this massive growth doesn’t mean Twitter has peaked but has rather crossed over into the mainstream and we will see more Twitter in the news...