Smartphones, Hypercompetition and Integrated Marketing Communication

Executive Summary: You are a second ranked player in a hypercompetitive market. You learn, from an independent research house, that your customers are more likely to buy your products than your competitors customers are likely to repurchase theirs. What do you do? Do you utilize this in your marketing communication? From the Desk of A-Kick-in-the-Shins-Does-Not-Always-Save-Nine. :-)

The Statistics

While looking at statistics toward structuring a perspective on industry trends, I came across an interesting study on customer loyalty for smartphones, where, even though the iPhone outperformed Android phones in NPS (Net Promoter Score- a Bain methodology) metrics, (marginally) more Android users are likely to buy a similar device, compared to the number of iPhone users' likely to repurchase an iPhone.

 

Waiddaminute? Did you read that right?

 

The Communication Opportunity

 

Given the hypercompetitive smartphone market, you would think the Android marketer has hit the jackpot. You can imagine Google Android folks rushing to their agency with a new brief to launch the next multichannel campaign (broadcast, web, etc.) in no time.

 

You can even imagine a few briefs ("Android users keep coming back for more") and a few advertisements:
1. Android user sees a store sign, "New Android Phone" and buys one, while iPhone users are shown getting their grip right for the iPhone, or,
2. Android user gets another Android phone as a birthday or a Valentine's Day gift, "I always wanted another Android", or,
3. Voice over wraps up with "Even when independent researchers praise the iPhone, they can't help but admit that more Android users are likely to buy another Android phone, than there are iPhone users willing to buy another iPhone."

... and many more!

Some Structure and Strategic Thought

 

The standard approach may be pretty simple in the abstract: Corporate Strategy -> Market Strategy -> Communications Strategy -> Portfolio of Communications Tactics. However, things aren't as straightforward in the "real world", are they?

If you were an Android marketer who finds this statistic, you would consider a few things, not necessarily in a top down, structured manner:

 

1. Source and quality of information:
Is the source and quality of information firmly in your corner? Well, you'll take a firmly independent corner too, wouldn't you? It’s more than just checking if your competitor can throw a more effective/ damaging response with the same source of information.

 

2. Timeframe: Does this lead to a "multi-period game" over advertising where you do not win, or you have no first mover advantage, or both parties end up in an expensive stalemate with a negative outcome for you? Coke vs. Pepsi advertising is an example. Also, think about Pepsi stepping back from Superbowl advertising in 2010.

 

3. Communication Themes: What is Android's driving theme for the season or for the year? What is Android's multi-year communication and branding strategy? Does this drop in the ocean create ripples that turn in tsunamis, or should this drop be assimilated quietly using different tactics?

 

4. Portfolio of Tactics: Does the Android team have a portfolio of tactics aligned with its communication and branding strategy? Does the portfolio explicitly accept or reject this opportunity?

Digging into the Details
Let’s dig into a couple of the items listed above.

Timeframe:

Lets take one question- Do you think there are season spanning advantages to pushing the message? Here are some hypothetical situations that elaborate upon this. Say, it's the holiday season, and Android launches the campaign based on this research. Does Android have time to make an impact on sales? Does Apple have time to respond right away and nullify the advantage? Can Apple hit back harder around the same theme at the next key sales period?

The Source and Quality of Information:

The study, using the Net Promoter Score methodology, declares that the iPhone outperforms others in user loyalty:

http://www.zokem.com/2011/01/in-the-us-market-iphone-outperforms-other-mobile-platforms-in-user-loyalty-by-a-wide-margin-android-is-second-blackberry-fourth/

Given the number of iPhone users that have stuck through a lot of thin (network, antenna, cracked case, etc.) this should not be surprising. However, as you scroll past the Net Promoter Score based results of Mobile Platform Loyalty Ranking graph, and down to Repurchase Behavior graph, you would note an interesting result.

89% of Google Android customers would buy a similar device in the future. Compare this to 85% of iPhone customers being willing to by an iPhone in the future.

Huh?

Now, there are various perspectives to this:

1. The iPhone has set very high expectations and is doing a fantastic job keeping its user engaged.
2. Android targets a different customer segment than the iPhone and phone’s pricing could be a factor. (Perhaps not for long-http://www.pcworld.com/article/219712/cheaper_iphones_why_apple_might_risk_its_brand_identity.html)
3. Also, iPhone’s AT&T exclusivity (for this study period) could be a factor in Android's stats.

We can come up with a few more as we think through this. However, what do you think?

Innovation and Tactics Series: Putting Cool to Use- the iPhone at work.

This is an old link and an old post, and I have it here because its an apt start to a theme I would like to pursue.

The iPhone is cool. The iPad is cool. All that cool- what does it do for you? :-)

Here's an example of putting cool to use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAllFWSl998

Resonates more than Angry Birds? I bet Angry Birds wins too when more of stuff like this happens. How has technology made your life better?

Next stop: iPhones and iPads for the working life?

What do you think?

Data, Privacy and Social Media: Impact on Analytics and Tools

Executive Summary: How does data, along with the constraints on it, impact web analytics tools and the industry? How do you start structuring your thoughts about data's role in this industry?
Note: This came about after some rumination on the way the web and social media are being used by businesses, and this post has been updated with some of those thoughts to help continuity.

My last couple posts have been threatening to run down this alley for a while, but I realized that Data, Privacy and Social Media need to be addressed together in a separate post. I shared these thoughts with Alan Chapell, Chapell & Associates, after a chance meeting with him at an event before the Affiliate Marketing Summit.

Do Privacy Issues Impact Data Access for Analysis?
Yes, especially when you are not the primary service provider.

When you think about Data, Privacy and Social Media in the same breath, issues like those that Facebook has recently faced come to mind:
1> The criticism:
http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever
2> The response:
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=54434097130

It is important to note that this recent case is part of a continuum of controversies over access to and sharing of online customer information during the past decade.

Data privacy is just one of the factors impacting the web analytics industry. Hence, to assess the impact of data related privacy issues on web analytics for social media, you need to drill down for insights in the following manner:

Drill Down Level 1: Analytics, Market Structure and Client Trends
1> State of the Art in Analytics.
2> Client Requirements.
3> Market Structure.

Drill Down level 2: Client Needs and Impact of Data
Insights from areas 1, 2 and 3 above will help you create a picture of:
1> Industry Objectives: Met and Unmet
These are objectives that the web analytics industry can currently help its clients meet. E.g. What metrics can be measured, and how do they translate into impact for the client?

2> Data Access and Usage: Reality, Needs, Gaps
This is role data currently plays, and can play, in the industry. E.g. What data, out of the available data sources, is currently utilized, how is it utilized, and how can it be utilized?

Drill Down Level 3: Data Privacy Constraints
Once we have this level of analysis, we can gain an insight into the impact of current privacy constraints on the industry. Importantly, we also can overlay various combinations of data privacy constraints to get an insight into the role data privacy can play in the industry.

Drill Down Level 1: Below are some questions that help us get insights:
1. State of the Analytics Art: What is the level of skill and tool maturity of social media companies in terms of tracking social networks, and allowing ad targeting around them? Some additional evaluative questions can be found at my previous post below:
http://randomjunkyramblings.blogspot.com/2009/08/ads-applying-web-analytics-tools.html

2. Comparing Traditional and Social Media Analytics:
An alternative to consumer targeting via social network analysis is targeting via demographic and psychographic analysis. Here companies like Nielsen have developed a set of consumer personality profiles. Are social media sites developing such profiles?

3. Third Party Analytics:
How do third party analytics compare with the State of the Analytics Art? Specifically, (in terms of providing social network access to third party providers for analytics) are social media companies taking an API and metrics sharing or a raw data sharing approach? This impacts the competitive environment in the analytics industry.

4. Client Needs:
What are clients doing in the web and social media space? What are the client objectives in this space? Are they looking at demand generation or demand fulfilment? What would they like to/ need to measure?

5. Market Structure (and Opportunity!): Who are the major players? Is the market fragmented? Are there alliances in this market? How strong are service provider- client relationships? Do analysis, metrics, or data clearinghouses exist?

The opportunity!: Is there a market for "clearinghouses" for analytics that would provide media buyers access to social media consumer data across platforms? In reality, a "clearinghouse" is not easy to achieve- E.g. In the brick-and-mortar retail world, Walmart does not share its scanner data.

The Background
How did I arrive at this post? My last couple of posts have been pointing toward looking at Data, Analytics and Social Networks through the privacy lens:
1. Data, Privacy and Customized Brand Metrics:
http://randomjunkyramblings.blogspot.com/2009/08/sustaining-brand-conversation-behavior.html
How do you deal with a profusion of metrics which often have an unclear context? We need metrics with clear semantics. Some of these metrics may be custom created for a specific brand, consumer profile, activity and social media context.
Future Shock
While generic, industry standard metrics are important, there is a huge *future* potential for metrics customized to the brand. These will hinge on the data collection capabilities of social media platforms, and their ability to share it in a cheap, safe, anonymized manner with third parties for further analysis. Additional factors that come into play- quality of data, privacy concerns and analytics capabilities.

2. Data, Privacy and Web Analytics Tools:
http://randomjunkyramblings.blogspot.com/2009/08/ads-applying-web-analytics-tools.html
3. Can you utilize the social network based targeting tools in conjunction with non social network based predictive analysis tools to minimize errors or optimize marketing spend?
Don't Forget Data: The Root of All Analytics
While it is easy to get lost in the tools and their trade-offs, don't forget the data. Your data- what attributes are available, access, usability and quality- may dictate the choice of tools.

What do you think?


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