Bigger Marketing Bites

More trouble at Tesco

2005-11-22T09:58:00.000Z

I recently posted about Tesco on my marketing blog, regarding my frustrating attempt to get a straight-forward answer from a Tesco call centre employee. Well, plus ca change. More recently I tried to sign up for a Tesco credit card. The Scottish woman I spoke to told me I could sign up online. Fine, says I, but can’t I also sign up over the phone, since this was advertised as such and indeed one of the options I was given by the automated call routing system was: “To sign up for a Tesco credit card press 1”, which I duly did.

“No,” she said. “You cannot sign up over the phone.” I repeated the above a couple more times, and she repeated her terse statement a couple more times, impervious to my assertion that this response defied logic. I asked to speak to a manager. Another Scottish accent came on the line, this time male. He said he couldn’t comment because he hadn’t been privy to our conversation. I said that was a ridiculous thing to say: either take my word for what happened or record all phone calls, but don’t come over as if you are some kind of neutral judge, above the fray. But all he added was that the woman I’d spoken to was a longstanding employee and knew her job.

But then he said: “We can mail you an application form if you wish”. I said, that is all she needed to tell me, that was the obvious answer to my question: “Why would Tesco advertise a telephone number to call if you cannot actually make any meaningful use of that number?!”

But still the manager failed to acknowledge my point or to utter anything remotely resembling an apology.

Am I contributing to this Tesco arrogance and idiocy by joining their loyalty scheme and thus doing my bit to make them even more of a monopoly? Probably. But my Tesco shoddy customer service file is now well and truly open, and I’ll be keeping a firm eye on this one.

The minefield Of mobile marketing

2005-11-18T12:42:00.000Z

By Jonathan Bass, Managing Director of Incentivated

Mobile is one of the most effective channels for marketing your business and communicating directly with your customers. It’s instant, targeted and gets results. More businesses are turning to mobile, and not just to target the youth market. The sector is growing and there are many areas where we’ve only just scratched the surface. The female market for example has massive potential and is a definite growth area and one to watch in 2006.

Choosing The Agency

Many agencies specialise in mobile marketing, providing the tools and techniques to “roll out a really successful campaign.” Some focus on one technology, such as barcodes, and others offer complete mobile data services (since a campaign often involves many elements)

There are agencies that are restricted to UK reach while others have the experience to go Pan-European. Many agencies specialise in providing “content” such as mobile TV and some provide the tools and technology for a DIY campaign – where marketing departments can use the agency’s platform to set everything up and check results during a campaign. This is an extremely popular option for many of Incentivated’s clients.

So, with all this choice and all this expertise, which do you choose and how do you begin your campaign? What are the golden rules?

This is a question I have been asked many times, and my answer is always the same.

A Mobile Marketing agency should be prepared to make speculative pitches, in other words the company should supply the materials for an advertising agency to present to their client as part of a marketing campaign. Including live demos of the concept or similar. Choose an agency that has read and digested the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations (2003) as well as the Data Protection Act.

The soft opt-in needs to be understood carefully and opt-outs handled right. The agency should also confirm that consumer data does not leave the EU (for DPA reasons) and that messaging is direct to UK networks (if a UK campaign) for practical reasons (delivery receipts, instantaneous messaging and guaranteed delivery).

I worked with a client that ran a ‘fastest finger’ campaign only to have it blow up in their face as they used an ‘economy’ product; messages were delayed and lost, leading to complaints and a cancelled campaign.

Use an agency that has all the mobile data services under one roof (SMS, PSMS, short-codes, WAP Push, Mobile Internet sites, Location Based Services) or has a proven track record in project managing suppliers if bringing in other patented technologies/hardware such as 2D barcodes and bluetooth broadcasting.

If you are using existing customer lists your agency should be able to clean the database before the campaign. It should be able to recognises the type of mobile a consumer is using and serve content that will work on the handset/network combination. A good agency should know when to charge and when not (including how much) and be prepared to estimate response rates for the campaign and corresponding return on investment (ROI).

Campaign Roll-out

So, now you’ve selected your agency and you’re ready to communicate with your market, what do you do next? Follow this advice and you can’t go far wrong:

Keep your text messages simple and use plain English

Include a call to action in the message by way of a telephone number, website or WAP site link

Avoid over zealous use of exclamation marks and capitalisation

Do not put spaces in telephones numbers but include them as a single number so they can be dialled easily from within the message

Always reply instantaneously when someone sends your organisation a text

Mine your data to ensure messages are relevant and thereby avoid excessive messaging

Plan your communications in advance and keep a record of what you have offered to whom

Offer a mobile option alongside other response methods advertised in traditional media – let the consumer choose

Promote the mobile option on all marketing communications to reinforce the option

Consider an incentive for choosing the mobile channel, especially if your operational (acquisition/service) costs are reduced through this medium

Allow opt-outs via text, web and through your ‘front desk’ and highlight these clearly

Train all customer-facing staff in your permission/privacy policy including how to manually record opt-outs

Clean your database after three broadcasts (using delivery receipts) or if a large campaign then in advance (using our network look-up product)

If you want a better response rate buy opt-in lists of mobile numbers from the professional data companies not ringtone vendors

So, don’t be put off by the minefield of mobile marketing agencies. Remember, mobile marketing is highly effective, direct and immediate – and offers superb ROI. Follow the rules before engaging in any campaign and reap the rewards.

Jonathan Bass is the managing Director of Incentivated, the mobile marketing agency that provides software for simple integrated marketing activities and campaign management services. Incentivated’s solutions are used by leading brands to improve the effectiveness of communication between organisations and consumers and to increase ROI through the mobile medium. www.incentivated.com

IMRG investigates dual pricing

2005-11-17T00:50:00.000Z

Following yesterday's IMRG Senate meeting, the IMRG has issued the following statement on ‘dual pricing’, a mechanism recently introduced by electrical consumer goods manufacturers whereby their dealers pay more for goods if sold online.

“IMRG recognises that dual pricing is an important issue for its membership to consider. The IMRG membership is comprised of multi-channel retailers, pure play online merchants, and facilitators, whose common interest is efficient e-retailing.

“IMRG recognises the complexity of the arguments for and against dual pricing practices, but IMRG, on behalf of its membership intends to ensure that any such practices, should they persist, are lawful and not unduly prejudicial to smaller reputable online retailers.

“IMRG will, in cooperation with the Office of Fair Trading and European Commission, establish a process whereby the implications of dual pricing can be fully assessed, with a view to establishing principles and trading guidelines, in order to optimise e-retailing's sustainable commercial development. All relevant parties, including manufacturers, will be invited to participate in and contribute to the IMRG input to this process.” See also.

IMRG to investigate dual pricing

2005-11-17T00:49:00.000Z

Following yesterday's IMRG Senate meeting, the IMRG has issued the following

statement on ‘dual pricing’, a mechanism recently introduced by electrical

consumer goods manufacturers whereby their dealers pay more for goods if

sold online.

“IMRG recognises that dual pricing is an important issue for its membership

to consider. The IMRG membership is comprised of multi-channel retailers,

pure play online merchants, and facilitators, whose common interest is

efficient e-retailing.

“IMRG recognises the complexity of the arguments for and against dual

pricing practices, but IMRG, on behalf of its membership intends to ensure

that any such practices, should they persist, are lawful and not unduly

prejudicial to smaller reputable online retailers.

“IMRG will, in cooperation with the Office of Fair Trading and European

Commission, establish a process whereby the implications of dual pricing

can be fully assessed, with a view to establishing principles and trading

guidelines, in order to optimise e-retailing's sustainable commercial

development. All relevant parties, including manufacturers, will be

invited to participate in and contribute to the IMRG input to this process.”

Buddy, Can You Spare a Click (continued ...)

2005-11-13T23:00:00.000Z

One small request: Assuming the content here does have value to you, could you click on an ad every now and then? After all, it is these very same ads which sit at the heart of the online marketing revolution - doing away with sales teams, transforming every man and his blog into publishing powerhouses, and catapulting Google into the top tier of global businesses in the process.

(Phew! I knew I could transform a begging bowl story into a valuable piece of content if I tried hard enough!)

Thanks! Now back to the real content ...

PS: Yes, I'm aware that in theory you're supposed to want to click on the ads! If most clicks are being driven by websites begging their readers to do so, we're heading for one almighty collapse of this brave new market!

Six Degrees of Separation

2005-11-10T17:01:00.000Z

A reader of the blog on which it is written emailed me to say he'd read a recommendation of my blog on it - which in fact was an endorsement of the recommendation mentioned below -and wanted to let me know that, having subsequently read my blog, he liked it!

Got that?!

But the serious point here is that this is exactly why blogs are such a force of nature, creating instant connections between people and making the six-degrees-of-separation parlour game into an everyday reality. Many thanks to Johnnie Moore, owner of the other blog - which I'll now keep an eye on - and to Marc E. Babej for alerting me to it.

PS - Just to hammer home the six degrees point, I have now discovered yet another fascinating marketing-for-thinkers blog, referred to in the article that began this entry. But I'll let you find it for yourself - after all, too much spoon-feeding takes the fun out of life. Online marketers, take note!

What the Fax! Ryanair's Reckless Approach to Brand Reputation

2005-11-08T13:01:00.000Z

The airline is currently running one of its regular “free flights” offers to a host of cities across Europe. I took the bait and booked a couple of trips. But I then noticed that I had been charged the “credit card supplement” of £7, even though I paid with a debit card! Of course, the payment part of the website design is carefully constructed to catch out the unwary consumer – setting this scandalous credit card “processing” fee as the default option.

It was with weary expectation, therefore, that I called Ryanair’s 25 pence-per-minute customer service “helpline”, only to be told that the payment was irreversible and that it had been entirely my responsibility to change the option to “debit card”. The fact that I had actually paid with a debit card meant nothing.

How convenient.

Even more convenient for Ryanair is that should I wish to dispute this further, there will be a “management fee” for the pleasure, and the only way I can contact head office is by sending a … fax! Of course it is. This Internet-only company can only accept faxes when dealing with customer complaints. Sure. Makes perfect sense.

Yes, it’s back to the future: using the latest technology – the Internet – to deliver Neanderthal customer service. Caveat Emptor. But Ryanair had better beware too. Because one day this company will suffer an almighty backlash. It’s all very well to say you get what you pay for, but equally, a company which treats its customers with this much contempt will eventually get its comeuppance. There’ll be no second chances, no love lost.

UPDATE: I have just spent more time and 25p's calling those helpful folk at Ryanair, asking for a contact number for the press office (since of course there isn't one anywhere to be found on the website). The first woman gave me a number that turned out to be for MBNA Bank; the second woman gave me a number, 01279-666-214, which was supposed to be for the UK Sales & Marketing department. I rang it twice, each time there was ringing and no answer and finally an automatic cut off. Very professional Ryanair, I'm becoming more impressed by the minute!

UPDATE 2: OK, this time I got through and spoke to a Russian woman in marketing. She gave me her email address and I've sent a link to this blog asking Ryanair if it cares to respond. The time of emailing was 14.07, November 8. Start the clock!

UPDATE 3: Just checked that my Russian friend had received my email but she said she couldn't access my blog because it was blocked by her company Internet. My reputation obviously precedes me. She also said that if it was "just a blog" then they wouldn't respond to my comment. Wonderful stuff!

I tried to give her a lightning education in blogging and why these strange new outlets might, just might, be worth responding to. But sorry to say I had to fall back on my status as a print journalist before she would agree to ask the IT people to try to unblock my blog "when they next come round".

However, she did give me the press office number, 00-353-1812-1228. I called it and spoke to an Irish woman who claimed "99.9%" of people booking don't make the mistake I did. Isn't it funny how that 99.9% figure comes up so often in situations like this. It's never 99.8% or 97.834%. The clear implication is that I'm an idiot, the class dunce.

The PR woman also said there is an administration fee for rectifying this error. I'm aware that Ryanair makes its money - and it's just posted yet more mega-profits - by cutting costs to the bone. But puh-lease! Have a bit more respect for your customers. Look beyond the end of your nose and you just might see why this makes good business sense, as well as being - whisper it! - the right thing to do.

UPDATE 4: Gillian Hynes (hynesg@ryanair.com), whom I spoke to just now (see above), has just emailed the following statement:

"In response to your query:
'Our booking process clearly states the different methods of payment available to our passengers and the charges which apply to these different methods of payment (please see attachment). In this case, the visa payment option was chosen - and not the visa debit option - and thus the visa credit card fee applied. Clearly this was the passengers decision and not a mistake by Ryanair. Furthermore once the visa credit card selection was made, the passenger then approved the final amount for which a full breakdown is provided.'"

Like I said, welcome to Ryanair's distinctive brand of marketing. Motto: The Customer is Clown!

UPDATE 5: These blog SiteMeters are amazing things! You get to see who's looking at your blog - well, their country, at least. With a modicum of detective work you can get a pretty good idea of who your (very welcome!) visitor might be. So it was with a frisson of excitement that I noted, after two viewings from Dublin - Hi Gillian! - something unprecedented in this blog's short life (or indeed in the life of any other blog I've ever had): a reader from somewhere called "? Satellite Provider"!

Now, being an overexcitable journalistic type, my mind immediately alighted on the image of Ryanair's Mr Big, Scourge of All Troublesome Customers, none other than Michael O’Leary himself - faxing and blinding as he perused this meddling little blog from aboard his luxurious, Mediterranean-moored private yacht!

So, top o' the mornin' to ya Michael! I just hope that if you paid for your floating gin palace with a debit card, you made sure to let them know first so they didn't whack on the extra £7 processing fee.

UPDATE 6: Acting on Ian’s advice (see comments), I called my bank - Nationwide - and told them about the problem. They thought it was very wrong of Ryanair to charge me £7 for no good reason, but said they were unable to get involved. They suggested I call my local trading standards office. They, in turn, gave me a number for the new Consumer Direct organisation (0845-404-0506).

The person I spoke to there was unequivocal in stating I had the right to claim the money back from Ryanair. She said this is a clear breach of contract since I have proof that the card used was a debit rather than a credit card. I had paid for a service I had not received, which constitutes a breach of contract under Common Law. This breach of contract overrides any contract that Ryanair claim I signed with them.

Furthermore, my Consumer Direct contact said she would be notifying the Trading Standards Office in Ryanair’s home town to see if they wish to investigate further and examine if this is a widespread problem among Ryanair’s customers.

I have sent a copy of this posting to Gillian Hynes at Ryanair’s press office, requesting details of whom I should contact at Ryanair.

UPDATE 6: I have now faxed a letter requesting reimbursement of the £7 plus another £50 for my time and expenses to Ryanair's Customer Standards Department (sent at 12.35pm).

Tesco Club-Me-Over-The-Head-Card!

2005-11-07T18:19:00.000Z

Just tried to sign up for a Tesco Clubcard. Not the most challenging of tasks, you might think. Wrong!

It turns out I cannot do so online, nor can I even do so over the phone. The functionary at the other end of the line told me I needed to go to a Tesco store and get a “temporary card” with a temporary number, which I can then read out to her to begin the joining process. How quaint.

I tried, in vain, to communicate my valuable feedback on why this was a little Stone-Age in the Internet era. She did not seem to hear my valuable feedback but simply kept repeating the unbending bureaucratic procedure. I suggested that a manager might be interested to hear my feedback. She said she was a manager. I gave up.

Perhaps someone from Tesco would like to come on here and tell me why the UK’s biggest loyalty card scheme has such a problem with technology (not to mention consumer feedback!)

UPDATE: Further inquiries to Tesco inform me that you can sign up for a Clubcard online, but only if you register with the Tesco.com website. OK, that's more like it. But why couldn't the first person I spoke to have told me that? Once again, as all too often, we see very poor initiative from front line staff. After years of reading from a computer screen, too many of them have lost the ability to think for themselves - let alone "out of the box"!

Website Goals From Top to Bottom

2005-11-07T16:31:00.000Z

By Jim Sterne

Measuring the success of anything is impossible without a clear goal. A simple enough dictum. But measuring the success of a website - and using a web analytics system to do it - is impossible without a rather well considered series of goals. Not quite so simple.

Identifying the “Big Goal” is the easy part. The Big Goal is based on the area of the website under consideration at the moment. The portion of our website that sells low cost items and takes credit cards measures its success in income. The area on the site dedicated to considered purchases measures qualified sales leads. The customer service area is after cost avoidance and increased customer satisfaction. The human resources bit hopes to attract more experienced potential employees. These are fairly straightforward objectives to quantify. Optimizing these site areas requires a little digging.

I’ve been asked to address these issues at the Knexus Community round table in London on 16^th November. See http://www.knexusgroup.com/. Senior executives from the UK’s major corporations, are getting wise to the business of optimizing areas of their site and want to know how it can help their business.

A web analytics tool becomes much more effective when each Big Goal is parsed into its various components. Given the goal of bringing in more and better sales leads, we slice the process into discrete milestones:

- Attract Attention

- Build Desire

- Engender Contact

- Evaluate Quality

A web analytics tool can help determine which method of getting the word out is bringing in the most potential customers. But merely investing more in the technique that generates the most traffic will be harmful to the bottom line unless that traffic is properly evaluated.

The end goal is qualified sales leads. Offering a chance to win a Jaguar XJ will certainly bring more traffic to our website. But we must be sure that somebody who desires a "truly sensuous driving experience" is also a likely buyer of what we have on offer. Our first milestone must be matched with the last to determine the value of the first.

A web analytics system will help identify which promotions bring in which prospects. Once the sales team identifies the best prospects, it's time for the web analytics tool to do the work it does best: the bits in between. Having identified which campaign brought in the most qualified prospects - the ones we want our sales people to spend the most time with - the ones who are most likely to buy - the focus can shift to the persuasion process.

From a given banner ad or link, how well are we moving prospects from click to consideration? How well do we move them from curious to interested to desirous? A web analytics system can monitor a series of tests to optimize the words, the layout, the calls to action, etc., which lead the best qualified to our sales representatives' desks.

One test-landing page might focus on the low cost of our offerings, another on the high quality, while a third one describes the successes other customers have enjoyed. Which of these encourages the best-qualified visitor to click deeper, learn more and, eventually, fill out the form asking to speak to a representative?

Is it better to publish a large number of benefits and let the prospect ask the sales team for clarification? Or is it better to publish detailed information online and answer those questions in advance of the call? Which produces the most sales calls with the most qualified prospects?

Web analytics shines a light on the sales cycle and allows us to quantify the steps. The ability to run multiple, continuous, side-by-side tests gives us the chance to try a multitude of messages highlighting different features and benefits, different offers, and different interest generating approaches. Imagine the time and cost of doing that across multiple trade shows or magazine advertisements.

And yes, there are technologies that can automate the whole procedure. Firms such as Touch Clarity take it a step further, matching offers to website behaviour. Rather than simply measuring which landing page layouts and features encourage the most qualified prospects to contact the sales team, this system builds a profile of each visitor in real-time and learns which offer will spark the greatest interest from that visitor.

The World Wide Web is starting to get more interesting.

About Jim Sterne

Jim Sterne will be hosting the first round table on web analytics for the

Knexus community, Europe's leading corporate business club and network. http://www.knexusgroup.com/.

London 16 November 2005.

Jim Sterne is an internationally known speaker on electronic marketing and customer interaction. A strategy consultant to multinational companies and online companies, Sterne focuses his twenty years in sales and marketing on measuring the value of a web site as a medium for creating and strengthening customer relationships. Jim is the Founder and Director of Target Marketing http://www.targeting.com/

Online Marketing and Offline Media Fragmentation

2005-11-04T21:19:00.000Z

"Advertise your company's logo on my baby's onesie/hat."

This recent eBay auction, in which a mother auctioned off advertising space on her baby's clothes, has now been followed by an ongoing auction for the same on his brother's clothing.

Sure, it can be written off as just another nutty, bad taste publicity stunt online.

But someone paid $1050 for the privilege of branding the "cute as a button" toddler. This kind of "prosumer" behaviour - where consumers are acting more like professionals - shows how fundamentally society is changing.

Moreover, this kind of 24/7 marketing mentality demonstrates the pincer movement affecting traditional media: new communication channels such as eBay are increasingly used to advertise new ways to ... advertise!

Meanwhile, offline media continues to splinter and fragment: you are almost as likely to see an ad on a baby's hat as you walk down the street, or on the nozzle of a petrol pump as you are to see it on "prime-time" TV. That is because you are much less likely to be watching prime-time TV, since you're probably busy on the Internet or watching a niche TV channel.

Or you might indeed be watching prime-time TV but on a (video recorder) TiVo without the commercials or on one of the new-generation mpeg4 video players / recorders such as the Archos AV400 or Apple's latest iPod - again, sans ads.

PR industry risks being left behind in the rush online

2005-11-02T13:43:00.000Z

Public Relations Online launches as first-ever organisation to share information and exchange new ideas, methodologies and best practice in online PR

Launching today, Public Relations Online (PRO) is a new forum designed to educate the PR industry about the technologies and techniques needed to respond to the challenges of online communications.

Consumers behaviour and influence is changing fast and PR practitioners need quickly to understand the influence of the web, or risk being left behind. With no one organisation currently leading the way in online PR, the launch of PRO will spearhead online communications and provide leadership, generate discussion and ultimately develop best working practices that will educate the PR industry.

Mark Rogers of Market Sentinel, one of the founders of PRO, believes that internet PR can no longer be ignored.

He says: “When Google ads bring in more revenue than Madison Avenue, and when an angry blogger can spark a product recall it is clear that a massive shift has occurred in the way people interact with corporations. Companies now have to understand a bewildering array of technologies: search, news syndication and blogging, if they want to manage customer relationships – and our aim is that PRO will facilitate this change”.

PRO is being launched by Market Sentinel and immediate future (digital PR specialists). They are joined by contributors from Abakus Internet Marketing,

Blogging Planet, Brand Energy Research, Creative Virtual, Custom Communications, Internet Reputation Services, Onalytica, Sitelynx and Tiddlywiki.

“Online marketing is entering a new era and PR can and should take the lead,” says Katy Howell of immediate future.

She explains: “Online is moving away from its roots in technology and content and context are driving search rankings, customer influence, and word of mouth. PR practitioners’ expertise is at the heart of managing a company’s reputation and it should be the same online. It is time for the PR industry to engage with the online community and develop new communications models. If it doesn’t, there are plenty of other marketing disciplines waiting in the wings to take a slice!”

PRO is actively sourcing online PR experts and thought leaders across the UK and Europe for its invitation only membership of contributors. Debate and discussions is open to all at http://www.publicrelationsonline.com/ and there is a schedule of workshops and white papers that aim to educate the industry and develop best practice.

Editor’s notes

About Public Relations Online

Public relations online (PRO) is a non-profit organisation established for individuals and companies who are passionate about the extraordinary opportunity presented by Online PR. It is a place to share information, debate issues and exchange new ideas, methodologies and theories.

The aim is to increase knowledge and explore best practice in online public relations: Creating an online and offline resource in which members and contributors can discuss, challenge and establish online PR strategies and practices.

PRO is also a hub. Connecting the ideas, knowledge and influencers of online PR. Linking blogs, events and information, the PRO blog, http://www.publicrelationsonline.com/, will provide a single online PR resource collecting information from across the web.

Designed to stimulate creativity, PRO is the brainchild of Mark Rogers, CEO at Market Sentinel (an internet monitoring and response company) and Katy Howell, MD at immediate future Ltd (a PR agency with a strong focus on digital PR). Contributors and partners come from a wide range of backgrounds from communications to technology. Participating by invitation only, members are visionaries, entrepreneurs, leaders and above all enthusiastic, passionate experts.

http://www.publicrelationsonline.com/

Launch members include:

Abakus Internet Marketing (http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de)

Blogging Planet (http://www.bloggingplanet.com)

Brand Energy Research (http://www.brandenergyresearch.co.uk)

Creative Virtual (http://www.creativevirtual.co.uk)

Custom communications (http://customcom.typepad.com/ )

Immediate Future (http://www.immediatefuture.co.uk)

Internet Reputation Services ( http://leverwealth.blogspot.com/)

Market Sentinel (http://www.marketsentinel.com)

Onalytica (http://www.onalytica.com)

Sitelynx (http://www.sitelynx.com)

Tiddlywiki (http://www.tiddlywiki.com/)

For further information, please contact:

Katy Howell

Tel: 0845 408 2031
Mob: 07803 898 511

Katy.howell@immediatefuture.co.uk

True personalisation means following the customer's lead

2005-11-01T16:24:00.000Z

… says Jim Sterne

It's a wonderful concept. You record every click, every search phrase, every website visit and every email ever received. You use client-side surveillance to capture the tiniest twitch of the mouse and the most subtle hover behaviour. You use this information to serve up just the right offer at just the right time. The result? More sales, less marketing spend and happier customers. What could be better?

It might be better if you could raise revenue while lowering costs and improving customer satisfaction on a regular basis.

Can you build a giant datawarehouse and arithmetically deduce the one best offer to make to each and every website visitor? Sure. But be prepared for a lightening of the wallet. There are many other ways to make more sales at significantly less cost and keep your customers happier in the bargain.

I’ve been asked to address these issues at the Knexus Community round table in London on 16^th November, see www.knexusgroup.com. Senior executives from the UK’s major corporations are getting wise to the business of customer personalisation and want to know how it can help their business.

Well, consider this:

Amazon knows every book I have purchased online since 1996. They can certainly turn that into persuasive content to email or display on their site when I show up. And they do - if I reach for it. I have to click to check my recommendations rather than get them via email or simply see a home page plastered with them. Why? Because Amazon is very good about ROI. They like to go after low-hanging fruit.

Amazon knows that customers who bought "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" also bought "Ark Angel: Bk. 6" by Anthony Horowitz. Anybody interested in the former might well be interested in the latter. Does this increase sales? Oh yes. And a quick peek at my credit card bills will testify to that fact.

Amazon also knows unequivocally what I like because I told them. I said I wanted to know whenever John Grisham or Neal Stephenson publish a new book. What's the technical difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10? About 1.5. The ROI? Amazon won't tell. But they will get that certain gleam in their eyes.

How does the customer feel about this? Fulfilled. I like reading. I like being in the know. I like being ahead of the curve. Satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10? 11.

But how would I feel if Amazon offered me nothing but Grisham stories and Stephenson books? Bored. So Amazon came up with something they once called the serendipity dial. The serendipity dial ensures that your trip across the English Channel includes the smells of the sea, the diversity of the open sky, the sound of the birds and the spray of the salt water on your face, rather than the quick, but blinkered Chunnel ride.

In an effort to move customers away from the tried and true, they developed the personalized Gold Box. What a disappointment! This was a dancing, gold treasure chest in the upper right corner of the home page that offered 10 deep discounted items per day, tailored to the individual. It was labeled, "Jim's Gold Box" in my case.

I have purchased countless books, a goodly number of CD's and DVD's, and a handful of electronics. What was in my personal Gold Box? Jewellery, kitchen gadgets, gardening tools, and electric toothbrushes. Nothing I would consider buying from Amazon.

The opportunity to protest presented itself at a web analytics conference. "Our intent was to show you items you wouldn't consider buying from us," explained Ronny Kohavi, Director of Data Mining and Personalisation for Amazon.com. "Maybe now you will." Low hanging fruit.

"Hello, Jim Sterne. We have recommendations for you." Yes, those recommendations are based on previous purchases, purchases made by others and my own wish list. But nothing sells books, music, toys and tools faster and at less marketing cost than emailing notification of availability to those who hungrily await the next Harry Potter book and will be only too happy to pay for it well in advance.

You want to get the most out of online personalisation? Let your customers do the work- then you can reap the rewards.

This is a major step forward for UK commerce and one that should keep the shareholders happy, so watch this space…

About Jim Sterne

Jim Sterne will be hosting the first round table on web analytics for the Knexus community, Europe's leading corporate business club and network. www.knexusgroup.com. London 16 November 2005.

The Debatable Power of Branding

2005-10-31T19:18:00.000Z

My final Marketing Week column included a rant about Amazon UK and it’s shoddy treatment of myself as a recent customer. You will notice, however, that I have just pasted an Amazon affiliate link onto this blog!

I did so with a degree of excitement, reminiscent of the frisson I felt when the first Starbucks arrived in my neighbourhood. Soon after there were at least six Starbucks within a square mile! Today I look at Starbucks almost in the same light as McDonald’s – ie a no-go-zone for the non-zombie.

I mention this to show how, despite the power of brands, we consumers can and do have the power to fight back. For the moment, Amazon still holds sway over me. I am letting its pros weigh more heavily than its cons. I feel somewhat schizophrenic about this, which I think is a common feeling we have with brands.

If I’m honest, the part of me that enthusiastically signed up with Amazon as an affiliate did not even consult the side of me that is still simmering from its recent lack of consideration – I would go do far as to say rudeness - to me as a longstanding customer. So, branding has bought Amazon a degree of time. The question is, how much?

Watch this space.

UPDATE, 1.11.05: Things move rapidly on this blog! Blink and you missed it but my love affair with the "free delivery over £19 in the UK" Amazon ad is already over. Like Starbucks, it soon became a blot on the landscape.

UPDATE, 7.11.06: OK, it's back up there, but not so prominent. Let's see how long it lasts this time!

Google's Announcement On Restructuring Marketing Commissions

2005-10-31T17:49:00.000Z

Comment by Matt Trimmer, Managing Director of ivantage.co.uk

Google has advised that from 1st January 2006 there will be no agency commission. Instead the company is introducing its best practice funding system - a criteria-based scheme which aims to provide investment for third parties from Google in order to drive their search marketing capabilities forward and grow the industry. In other words all advertisers will be on a level playing field.

So, what does this mean to the search marketing industry?

Basically, Google only tends to deal with IPA agencies but historically there are also many small agencies that still get various levels of commission. Obtaining commission from Google isn’t easy, and when they pay it's done on an account basis. So, they may decide if one of your clients is believed to be Fortune 1000 and are spending £6,000 per month they may pay an IPA agency commission. Google has been gradually removing commissions from some smaller agencies (NON-IPA) for a couple of years.

Commission causes three issues:

The first is the main reason Google has done this: If everybody is paying for keywords on an auction based system, it is unfair that those clients using agencies effectively are bidding at 15% less, forcing non agency clients to bid at 15% higher.

The second issue is that it is common practice for the larger agencies not to charge a management fee (for pay for position –PfP- campaigns) to clients if their spend is big enough because agencies survive on the 15%. Even worse, some agencies are forced by competitive pressures or by their clients to refund a part of this commission. Some agencies manage PfP for 5-7.5% margin! Small agencies and those that don't get commission really can’t compete with the big boys.

The third issue is that by doing a bad job as I indicated spends more of your client's money but gets you more commission – Doesn’t make sense does it?I think the decision by Google to remove commissions is a very good thing for the search marketing industry and another thoughtful move by Google. It's always bothered me that agencies can earn money for doing a poor job. The truth is that if you target the wrong keywords, or neglect to link keywords to relevant landing pages, clicks and click charges escalate without a corresponding increase in conversions.

The agency is of course rewarded for this spend, normally at the rate of 15%. By removing commissions, I think Google is not only "levelling the playing field" for those companies that do not use agencies, but paving the way for a new era of professional search marketing where the quality of service is more important than the Dollar.

Although much of the detail still seems to be being worked out, Google's Best Practice Funding" seems to be open to all agencies that have invested in Google Certification and rebates are calculated across the client set as opposed to an individual high spending account. This, I think, motivates agencies to charge for managing Pay-for-Position campaigns rather than rely on commissions and further motivates agencies to work harder for their fees.

My only concern is that I hope the "Best Practice Funding" doesn't just become commission with a new name rather than a positive and proactive sign of the industry growing up!

By removing commission - all agencies have to charge and hopefully clients will begin to see that there is more to managing a search campaign then money.

Of course, it is possible with the "Best Practice Funding" that it just becomes another healthy commission scheme for the really very big. However, the emphasis is for companies to have qualified professionals and, I hope, high standards.

About Matt Trimmer

Matt is Principal Consultant and Managing Director of ivantage Limited and has over fifteen years experience in the IT industry working for a number of venture capital backed start-ups and corporate companies including Kerridge, ICL and Network Computing Devices. Matt has been involved with the Internet since early 1996 when his then employer (NCD) boldly entered the browser wars with Mariner.
A Chartered Marketer possessing a technical background, Matt is also an accomplished Internet marketing practitioner with hands-on experience of traffic generation, traffic analysis and conversion improvement. He has managed Internet marketing campaigns for Argos, Dixons, IBM, Lindy, Movie Market, Mothercare, Reed Business Information and Sony

About ivantage
ivantage helps clients improve their online profitability through traffic generation, traffic analysis, traffic conversion and traffic protection. ivantage specialises in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, PfP campaign management, PfI Trusted Feed management as well as Web Analytics, website conversion improvement and online brand protection.
ivantage fuse the complex world of the Internet with sound marketing experience to produce powerful results for its clients, which include Argos, Argos Ireland, Homebase, Interflora and Confetti.

www.ivantage.co.uk

It's time companies put the web at the centre of their marketing strategy

2005-10-31T13:57:00.000Z

… says Andy Atkins-Krüger

The great question of the age is what percentage of your marketing budget do you spend online? The Internet Advertising Bureau’s survey said last month that online marketing spend now represents 5.8 per cent of total marketing budgets. I question this method of considering marketing budgets because I’m concerned about what this really means? And what comes AFTER the movement online? Is there life beyond “online”?

How much of your budget do you spend online?

Let me pose you a different question for which there is no statistic just yet: How much of your budget is “Inside Out”? I apologise for the unwieldy term which I will define right away: “Inside Out marketing” takes place when you’ve moved your budgets significantly online and gone beyond the critical turning point where suddenly it becomes clear that you will always need offline. Let me explain…

Just as the aerospace pioneers discovered when breaking through the sound barrier, where the rules of aerodynamics were different, I believe the rules change for marketers once they have moved their marketing centre of gravity online.

• Firstly, they discover that they actually need offline and that online can’t achieve their goals all on its own.

• Secondly, they learn that they need to reinvent offline.

• And finally “Inside Out marketers” rediscover integrated marketing which you may have heard of before!

Now they’re fully fledged members of the “Inside Out marketing” club.

So how much of your budget is “Inside Out”?

As someone dedicated to promoting search marketing, you may think it odd that I should be asking marketers not to throw out the offline bathwater with the online baby. The essence is that both online and offline are linked and vital ingredients of this new marketing world BUT – the centre of gravity has shifted.

Rule number one of “Inside Out” is that the marketer’s web presence (the organisation’s complete website network) has moved to the centre and become the marketing fulcrum around which all else revolves. This then enables the whole marketing plan to be re-evaluated in a cohesive and measureable way.

Here are the central rules of “Inside Out”:

1. Define your marketing objectives.
2. Place your web site presence at the centre of everything.
3. Use your website as your marketing measurement tool whether online or offline. If you’re using CRM – integrate CRM and website.
4. Speed your development of customer insight and marketing communication tool testing by using online as the development medium
5. Once you know what works best – move back offline to drive your whole activity both online and offline.

Answer: “Inside Out” consumes your whole marketing budget 100 per cent

Your website is capable of doing certain things very effectively:
• It can capture and evaluate all of your results data on the fly.
• It can run A/B spits to test different marketing concepts hundreds of times quicker than is possible in print. Beyond A/B splits you can use multivariate testing of concepts that can inform on literally millions of different approaches in just a few short weeks that you will be able to roll-out in print.
• It can conduct market research – without having to resort to tiresome questionnaires – all you need do is present different information, to different customer groups and assess the results. Your customers won’t even know you’re asking them.
• It can capture latent need through the results of search engine marketing activities or through your own on-site search box.

Online is very powerful, but it does have some weaknesses – such as how can everyone be number one for “cheap flights” on Google?

In “Inside out”, you take the information provided by your web presence and drive them through offline knowing that the customer will respond – and in many cases go searching online. Just as Norwich Union did – when they picked up the search engine responses to their slogan “Quote me happy” – a phrase they owned.

So I contend that the switched on marketers will soon no longer think online or offline but “Inside Out”. Namely, that my web presence is at the centre and I therefore know my customer which means I am able to drive my customer to me, through offline communications such as direct mail, radio or TV and pick up and walk the customer through to my website through search.comonline. Now that to me is the true holy grail of marketing.

Andy Atkins-Krüger was elected President of the SMA-UK by its members in June. He is managing director of webcertain.com

My Final Marketing Week "Online" Column

2005-10-27T19:06:00.000+01:00

Just before sitting down to write this, my final column, I checked the US business headlines on Yahoo, my “newspaper” for the past seven years or more. The top headline was a classic: “Google's 3Q Profit Seven Times Higher”. An almost $100bn company, created from scratch just seven years ago, and built entirely on something as unsexy as a few words and a click!

That such vast riches can accrue from this humble offering rather than the all-singing, all-dancing kind of advertising we have become used to on TV, is testament to the new hunger for information that defines twenty-first century consumers. They are no longer the passive, captive audience so beloved of twentieth century marketers. Instead they are “lean-forward” activists, using a networked world to hunt down the best deals, the most stimulating entertainment and the most useful information.

Google’s continued mega-success comes during another period of anxiety and uncertainty in the wider economy – thanks to high petrol prices, hurricanes, earthquakes and wars. But it serves to show, five and a half years after the bursting of the dot-com bubble, that the Internet is indeed having a profound effect on where and how money is being spent. The “virtual world” economy does not stand apart from the “real world”, as was once foolishly promoted and believed. But it is certainly responsible for one of the greatest redistributions of wealth ever seen.

I could spend the rest of this column waxing lyrical about the impending wireless “clouds” which are about to envelope our towns and cities, making always-on, always-at-hand Internet access a reality that will take our use of the Net to ever greater heights. I could return to my borderline obsession with blogs and confess that my binge-blogging (reading other peoples and writing my own) has forced me to go cold turkey for a while and reconsider the downside of such an impossibly vast flow of information. I could return to the subject which I noted emerging as a huge phenomenon at the start of 2004 – ultra-cheap telephone calls over the Internet – and ask: where next now that two-year-old Skype has been bought by Ebay for a paltry $4bn (£2.3bn)?

But fascinating as these “big” subjects are, I prefer to wrap this column up by focusing on the little things, the so easily overlooked details wherein, as well know, the Big Guy in the sky resides.

So let me then, in the honourable tradition of constructive criticism, refer you to Amazon, which has done so many good things when it comes to customer focus and customer service. I would hate to think it is slipping, that it is becoming too big and anonymous for anyone within it to really care anymore.

Does it matter that Amazon failed to deliver two virtual gift vouchers until 48 hours after they were ordered – and about 36 hours after the two birthdays for which they were intended? I would hate to think that the “Sorry-we-had-a-glitch-end-of-story” type email I received in response to my urgent inquiries was the best Amazon could come up with.

Was I really being so unreasonable to ask why, in the absence of the timely gift certificates (timeliness being the Internet’s most prized quality), someone – yes, a real live person rather than a machine – could not have typed a few words to the intended recipients, apologising for the delay but assuring them that the gift certificates were on their way?

Is today’s Amazon a bigger version of yesteryear’s cuddly Amazon? Or has it, as is so often the way, morphed into Big Anonymous Couldn’t Care Less Amazon? I’d ask Amazon’s PR person, if only he’d bother to return my calls and emails.

And talking of cuddly brings me on to Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic and its cheerful website – a good, user-friendly website that I have enjoyed on more than one occasion. On the most recent, having booked a return flight from London to New York, I tried to use its online DIY check-in service, both on the way out and coming back. The aim of this is to save you time at the airport. Sounds great.

So why didn’t it work on either leg of the journey? I wasted time following the instructions only to be told at the end that the service was not available for these flights. Seems like it’s a mystery to Virgin as well, judging from the letter they sent me. It was a very cuddly, very Virgin sort of letter, so no complaints there. But I’m not convinced that anything will have been done to check, double-check and triple check that this functionality will work the next time I – and thousands of others - need it.

Websites are living, breathing entities that should be shaped as much by their users as by the companies they represent. They require constant attention. It’s not like the old world where the consumer was wrong until proven innocent and where companies could just assume everything worked because they had once - long, long ago - checked it.

Every time a consumer gives you feedback on your website you should A) thank him for his free consultation, B) involve him in the process of fixing the problem and C} reward him for his time and effort.

Well, I can dream can’t I?

Thanks for listening. Over and out.

Standard internet terms and conditions for e-tailers receive industry approval

2005-10-27T17:19:00.000+01:00

27 October 2005

International law firm Pinsent Masons and Rutherfords Solicitors have jointly created standard Terms and Conditions of sale for use by internet retailers and other e-commerce websites. The Terms have been approved today by SafeBuy, the UK's leading accreditation body for web retailers.

This release results from the UK legal community’s experience of web retailers often failing to adequately explain consumers’ legal rights, despite the law’s strict rules which apply to both mail order and web retailing operations.

Richard Jones of the SafeBuy Assurance Scheme said, "In the world of the Internet, many people are deterred from buying online by concerns about who they are dealing with and whether they are reputable. It is our mission is to allay their fears.”

He continues: "Consumers are often confused by the legal jargon they read, which can be inadequate or inaccurate. We welcome the terms and conditions produced by Rutherfords and Pinsent Masons. They provide all e-tailers access to a tailor-made, accurate and comprehensive set of Terms and Conditions of sale. Through them the consumer can see exactly what his or her rights are and will know how to return unwanted or faulty goods and receive the appropriate refund.”

Jon Fell, a partner at Pinsent Masons commented, “Consumers need greater protection in an e-commerce environment, and the development of approved standard terms is a great leap forward. Consumer confidence in the internet will rise when clear, accessible and comprehensive terms and conditions are offered. In the longer term, this will mean it will be easier to recognise genuine retailers which will minimise fraud and increase consumer confidence.”

Peter Wiseman, Senior Partner at Rutherfords Solicitors said, "This is an important breakthrough. The benefits of trading over the net can be outweighed sometimes by the absence of face to face contact. It is all about confidence. If purchasers and sellers know and understand the ground rules and they are clearly laid out in an approved form, there is no reason why those who transact their business in this way should have any greater worries than if they were popping into town to do their shopping. Consumers should look out for the SafeBuy Assured logo and check that the Terms shown carry the SafeBuy copyright notice. Then they will know their rights.”

Web retailers are being invited to visit www.safebuy.org.uk/services/terms.html to order the Terms and Conditions with free updates as the law develops.

- ends -

Notes to Editors

For further information, please contact:

Ruth Stone, Orchid PR on 01483 538710

Peter Wiseman, Rutherfords on 01827 311411,

Vincent Gray, Pinsent Masons on 0141 249 5414

Richard Jones, SafeBuy on 01491 411 111.

About Safebuy

The SafeBuy Assurance Scheme for web-based retailers is operated by Software Research Ltd. It is endorsed by TrustUK, the industry self-regulatory body set up by Which? and the Alliance for Electronic Business, supported by the UK Government.

Supporters include Carphone Warehouse, the Institute of Directors and the Institute of Direct Marketing.

The Scheme, amongst other things, requires web retailers to:

§ Adhere to the terms of the Sale of Goods Act, the EU Distance Selling Regulations and the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications;

§ Conform to the Data Protection Act 1998;

§ Provide security for the processing of credit card transactions;

§ Include physical location and contact details for themselves on their website;

§ Display the total price consumers must pay for goods including delivery costs and provide a clear explanation of the delivery procedures;

§ Advise the consumer if 'cookies' are required for the processing of data;

§ Not use 'spam' for marketing purposes;

§ Avoid exploitation of children.

Headshot

2005-10-01T22:29:00.000+01:00