Why Consumers Don’t Trust Car Dealers
I got the official looking envelope (below) in the mail the other day. Since I own an Acura, and the words “Please do not Discard” were printed prominently on the envelope, I quickly opened it – figuring it was either an update to our owner’s manual (something I had just gotten from Volkswagen for our other car), or it was an important recall notice.
Nope, it was a really bad direct mail piece directly from the desk of Cline Davis, General Manager of Acura of Seattle to me, “our loyal customer.” Â According to the letter, his dealership is “just inches away” from meeting their goal of being one of the top performing Acura dealerships in the region. Â Wow! Â Click here to see the actual letter.
In these days of transparancy, Social Media, Blogs, Twitter etc, no advertiser can afford to send out crap like this to anyone – prospective or “loyal” customers.
I was turned off the second I opened the email and saw that it was nothing important. Â It felt to me like when the TV weatherman says it’s going to rain all day Saturday when he knows darned well it’s going to be sunny and warm, just so HE can easily get a tee-time at his favorite golf course.
Hey, if you want to create misleading advertising assume that your audience is intelligent – and make it so misleading that we smile with glee when we see your piece.
Like this great ad from Ocean City Maryland which implores us to Visit the Ocean, before it’s too late!
I’m not going to comment on the politics of this ad. But I am excited to see a political advertisement with substance in this year of unprecedented political mudslinging.
This ad ran in today’s Seattle Times (October 24, 2010; Section A Page 15.
Click to Enlarge
What do I like about it? Â It says something. Â It answers questions directly. Â And it offers a pledge to rectify any of its opponents’ concerns should they prove to be true.
AND it clearly states who paid for the ad to run. Thank you Mr. Pope for standing up publicly to voice your opinion.
Effective TV ads this political season?
I haven’t found many messages that I could approve.
This is one of the lone exceptions. Â What do I like about it?
It’s delivered by our State Insurance Commissioner, the person in charge of making sure insurance companies are doing what they are supposed to do. Â It’s not emotional, it’s not over the top. Â As Sgt. Friday often said on Dragnet, “Just the facts, mam.”
Star Wars for Fashionistas. You probably know it as Sex and the City. I’ve been a fan of this smart, witty franchise since stumbling on it on HBO in its second season.
But last Friday night was the first time I’ve watched Sex and the City with a crowd. A stylin’, overtly perfumed, very vocal full house at Bellevue’s Lincoln Square Cinemas.
While I enjoyed the movie, I enjoyed the audience even more. They were a lively bunch, who commented and laughed and whooped it all up.
The biggest cheer of the night came early.
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw character was getting into a cab – and the screen froze on a tight tight shot of a blue pair of shoes. Manolos maybe?? Did I spell it right?
If I had closed my eyes at that moment, I could have been in the Kingdome when Griffey scored that come-from-behind touchdown to win Seattle’s first ever Super Bowl. You get the picture. This was BIG.
That’s what raving fans do. They connect with the brands they love. And Sex and the City is a well loved brand, something I never would have known had I not seen it with my very own eyes.
And while the audience certainly identifies with Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda, they seem to revel even more in their fashion.
Your company has raving fans as well. Are you giving them an opportunity to cheer for you at the top of their lungs with others who share their passion ?
While I’m not proposing that you show a close up of your shoes in a theatre, or even in your store or on your website, I am suggesting that you enable our raving fans go shout about you online. On your Facebook page, through FourSquare or by allowing comments on your blog.
I can’t wait for Sex and the City 3 . . .
These statistics are probably already out of date. Four months is an eternity in the world of social media.
If you’re under 25 there’s a 5% better chance that you wouldn’t mind being interrupted by an electronic message while you’re having sex than those over 25.
This and more great tidbits about social media use were uncovered in an independent study commissioned by Retrevo, which surveyed 1,000 social media users about when, where, and how much time they spend on sites and services like FaceBook and Twitter.
The study also found that 56% of social media users check Facebook once a day, 32% don’t mind being interrupted by an electronic message while eating and 24% of respondents under the age of the 25 have no problem with digital communication while sitting on the toilet.
Here are a few other nuggets:
– 12% of respondents check/use Facebook every couple of hours
– 23% of iPhone owners primarily get their morning news from Twitter and Facebook
On the Retrevo blog post dated 3/16/2010Â Andrew Eisner, Retrevo’s Director of Community & Content concluded:
“We’re not qualified to declare a societal, social media crisis but when almost half of social media users say they check FaceBook or Twitter sometime during the night or when they first wake up, you have to wonder if these people aren’t suffering from some sort of addiction to social media. From this study, it also appears that social media may have begun to replace more conventional sources for news with many social media users saying tweets trump TVs for that morning cup of news.”
97% is a big number! Â So big a number that if you are a local merchant and you don’t have a Social Media presence, it’s gonna hurt.
According to BIA/Kelsey‘s (www.bia.com and www.kelseygroup.com) User View Wave VII, an ongoing consumer tracking study conducted with research partner ConStat, nearly every consumer (97%) uses online media when researching local products and services.
Let me repeat. Â NEARLY EVERY CUSTOMER!
And their search isn’t limited to just one site. Â While consumers aren’t as apt as they were in the past to let their fingers do the walking, consumers are using 7.9 different media sources when shopping for products or services in their local area. Â 90 percent use search engines, 48 percent use Internet Yellow Pages, 24 percent use vertical sites, and 42 percent use comparison shopping sites.
Here are a few more statistics to ponder:
According to the study, 58 percent of respondents report using an online coupon when shopping for products or services in their local area in the past year, and 19 percent of respondents report making an appointment online in the past six months for a service other than a restaurant reservation (e.g., business appointment, health-care appointment, auto service or personal service such as a beauty shop).
What does this mean for local businesses and local media?
According to Peter Krasilovsky, VP and former program director of Marketplaces, BIA/Kelsey,
The increase in audience fragmentation presents challenges for advertisers looking to connect with local consumers. Â These challenges may be outweighed by the targeting opportunities available with tools like walgreens coupons promotions and appointment scheduling, the latter being among the best lead sources possible, since you know where people are actually going.
But let’s not neglect other important sites like Facebook and Twitter where consumers are talking about you and your product whether you participate in those discussions or not. Â And peer review sites like Yelp, Foursquare, Angie’s List, and a very long list of other websites make it easy for consumers to share information. Â Real information about service, company ethics, product quality etc. Â In fact, you can even find reviews of the review sites, like this gem “Why Angie’s List Sucks!”
Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t advertise on traditional media. Â Local radio, TV and Newspapers may be hurting, but they are far from dead. Â And they can help your business move forward. Â What I am saying is that if your Social Media plan continues to be not having a Social Media plan, then prepare to have your lunch eaten by your competitors, some of whom aren’t even currently on your radar.
Monitor the Social Media space. Â Listen to the conversations. Â Engage with those who sing your praises online and those who are very publicly talking dirt about you and your products & services.
Re-tool your website to make it more than a static brochure. Â Your website isn’t about you, it’s about your customers needs and how you can help them achieve their desired results. Â Focus your efforts on creating great content that will answer consumers’ questions when they search online. Â Engage with customers where they already congregate.
97% is a huge number. Â But on the other hand, if after reading this post you still aren’t interested in Social Media, no worries. Â You’ll have ample access to the remaining 3%.
How do you attract a mob of over 150 people to your restaurant?  AJ Bombers, a  Milwaukee restaurant did it by offering it’s fans the possibility of a Foursquare Swarm Badge.
What’s Foursquare? Â It’s an online community that allows its members to meet up with friends and discover new places. It’s also a great platform for retail businesses to reward their customers for letting their friends know about them.
What’s a Swarm Badge?
It’s something you can only get when 50 or more Foursquare users check in to the same place at the same time. Â To hard core Foursquare users, this badge is elusive and extremely desirable.
Joe Sorge, owner of AJ Bombers decided to try Foursquare to entice a mob at his restaurant after noticing that many of his restaurant’s Twitter followers were becoming regular users of the Foursquare App. Â He emailed Foursquare and told them what he wanted to do and they supported him in implementing this promotion, even tweeting about it. Â He promoted the event primarily using Twitter, but also used his Facebook fan page to help spread the word.
Video From The AJ Bombers Foursquare Swarm Badge Party
Blogger Steffan Antonass did a great job of covering this event and his post is definitely worth checking out. Â His interview with Joe Sorge is enlightening.
Bottom line? Â 160 Foursquare Users converged on his restaurant and for 56 of those Foursquare users, it was their first visit to AJ Bombers. Â And Sorge reported a sales increase of 110% that day. Â Can you say, “ca-ching?”
But wait, there’s more! Â Those who frequented the restaurant that night generated a ton of buzz about the meetup via their social networks. Â And Joe created a You Tube Video and page on Flicker – all pointing back to his restaurant, greatly improving the chances of him being found through search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Flickr Photos from the AJ Bombers Foursquare Swarm Badge Promotion
flickr Screen Shot courtesy of Steffan Antonass
Twitter Feed during promotion
All in all, an amazing promotion that will continue to deliver customers to AJ Bombers for a long time to come. Â Check them out next time you’re in Milwaukee.
It looks like the Washington State Democratic Party has forwarded the url http://www.robmckennaforgovernor.com to http://www.robmckenna.org.
So clicking on the links in my last blog post won’t be helpful any longer.
Good thing, then, that I captured screen shots of most of the pages.
Just click on the pictures below to see the full sized images.
Screen Shot of Home Page - Captured 03/03/10
Rob McKenna
Rob McKenna
Rob McKenna
Whois Search - Rob McKenna for Governor 03-03-10
IT’S OFFICIAL* Rob McKenna is Running for Governor!
*according to Washington State Democrats
One of the things we do as social media consultants is track online chatter about or affecting our clients by using analytics to follow keywords. Much to my surprise, the website robmckennaforgovernor.com came up in my search, as the website included some keywords that I track daily. I had to take a look. While I figured that Rob had aspirations of being governor, I didn’t realize that he had thrown his name into the hat.Â
He hasn’t.
This site was put online by the Washington State Democrats using WordPress blogging software.  The site is a work in progress and apparently focuses on  the strategies the Democrats will use to attack McKenna when and if he decides to run. It outlines Rob’s stance on light rail, A woman’s right to choose, the fact that he has sent out a lot of press releases, and more.
Actually, the press release tab scared the hell out of me because the page contains “fill in the blanks” along with a suggestion that a “running clock” be added like the US DEBT CLOCK to show just how often the AG’s office does send out a press release.  It’s not the number of press releases that scared me, it’s the debt clock itself.   Holy crap that thing goes fast!!!
While I applaud the Dems for resorting to tactics I would normally expect from Dick Chaney and the “Attack-Attack-Attack” Republicans, I also have to chide them for prematurely publishing a website that’s obviously still under construction.
And while you may think that by applauding them I support their tactics, think again. It’s a cute trick snatching up a URL that you know a competitor will want, but marketers who play by the rules call that type of activity “brand poaching”. It’s not a good idea. It’s an activity that typically lends itself to lots of cease and desist letters, lawsuits and legal fees.Â
But political parties rarely play by the rules; even the rules they have enacted on others. Like their obnoxious and toxic use of RoboCalls during campaigns. Oh, wait. I’ve already blogged about that!
In my last post, I talked about the challenges facing local TV Stations. Shrinking audiences, new fees from the networks that used to pay them, competition from nearly everything electronic.
Yesterday news broke that ABC is about to cut 300 – 400 jobs. It’s not a surprising cut. Network news audiences are shrinking. There are too many other places to get news, in some cases, the same place the networks are getting theirs.
So why is that good news?
Even the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, one of the most powerful corporations in the world is being greatly affected by the Internets unrelenting reorganization of their successful media business models. It’s affected their music business, their TV business and their film business.
But in all of this negativity about job losses, and “the end of an era” talk, I was heartened by the memo released by ABC News President David Westin. In his email to staff he wrote:Â
“All of us are good reporters. We can see that our entire society is in the middle of a revolution — a revolution in the ways that people get their news and information. The digital age makes our business more competitive than ever before. It also presents us with opportunities we couldn’t have imagined to gather, produce, and distribute the news. We can have great success in the new world – but only if we embrace what is new, rather than being overwhelmed by it.
The time has come to anticipate change, rather than respond to it. We have a rare opportunity to get in front of what’s coming, to ensure that ABC News has a sound journalistic and financial footing for many years to come, and to serve our audiences even better. But we must move boldly and promptly. In the past, we’ve sought out less expensive ways to replicate what we’ve always done. The time has come to re-think how we do what we are doing.”
I tip my hat to Mr. Westin, for keeping his eyes open to reality and for having the guts to make this change, this radical change in how ABC News will aggregate and disseminate news.Â
How is your company coping with this revolution? Are you doing the same old thing and praying for different results? Are you anticipating change and being proactive? Or are you reacting again, and again, and again?
Mr. Westin hit it right on the head when he said,
In the past, we’ve sought out less expensive ways to replicate what we’ve always done. The time has come to re-think how we do what we are doing.
Instead of offering a You Tube video to supplement this post, I’m offering this excerpt from today’s NPR Broadcast, All Things Considered.
To hear the story on the offical NPR website, just click this link.
Â
