Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Many people believe 2010 is the year of the mobile app. A recent report from analyst firm, Gartner states consumers will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores. The increasing penetration of smartphones, coupled with the recent release of the Apple iPad is fueling additional buzz around mobile apps.
It is interesting to note that, according to Gartner, free downloads will account for 82 percent of all downloads in 2010. Clearly, for most companies, they are not necessarily deploying mobile apps to generate revenue, some are instead using free apps to engage with mobile consumers and drive sales of other products or services.
eMarketer recently reported 64.8 percent of marketers and publishers said they’re planning to invest in mobile apps this year, according to a December 2009 survey conducted by DM2PRO and Quattro Wireless. Given consumers’ increased dependence and interaction via their smartphones, companies are finding the handset is an important part of their marketing and engagement strategy.
For a large company with excellent brand recognition such as Starbucks, developing a mobile application may be a profitable way to secure a presence on consumers’ handset while offering them timely and valued information such as promotions and coupons. But what about the small to mid-size business, does it make sense to develop a mobile app in an effort to secure prize placement on your customer’s handset?
As Wall Street Journal’s Riva Richmond highlighted in her December 2009 article, it really depends on the business and its objectives. For instance, a company needs to be clear on whether the goal is to attract new customers or engage with existing ones. “In general, businesses that rely on repeat customers, like restaurants and retailers, or have intense interaction with clients for some period of time, like real-estate brokers and car dealers, are the most likely to benefit from an app, said Greg Sterling, a senior analyst at Opus Research Inc.”
If you believe a mobile app is right for increasing loyalty and driving engagement for your business, here are some things to consider:
Understand Your Objective – Develop a plan outlining the business goals you are looking to accomplish and how a mobile application helps achieve those objectives. How will you measure or track success? How does the mobile app add value to your customers? How does your mobile app strategy integrate with other activities and initiatives you are executing?
Identify Available Resources – Understand what resources are available to create the mobile application. For most small businesses this involves securing budget to either hire a mobile app development firm or use one of the new DIY mobile app creation services, such as BuildAnApp (Disclosure: This is a solution developed by MobileOn, a Communiqué PR client).
Consider Going Cross-Platform – Know what platforms your customers are using and be sure to provide the application on those devices (e.g. Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile). You do not want to isolate customers or create a second class of customers by providing an app for only one smartphone platform.
Keep Content Fresh – Give your customers a reason to use the mobile app on a regular basis. This may mean new coupons, compelling promotions or updated tips and tricks. Similar to a Facebook fan page, keeping content fresh will drive engagement and encourage your customers to spread the word about your app and your business.
As small and medium businesses weigh the pros and cons of deploying a mobile app to meaningfully engage with customers, keeping the above criteria in mind will help ensure any mobile app you build is a successful tool to help increase customer loyalty.
With the ascent of online news sources and the advent of social media, news is becoming portable, personalized and participatory. Now more than ever, people are accessing multiple media platforms to get their news.
Recent findings from the Pew Research Center prove that “The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get news on a typical day, including national TV, local TV, the Internet, local newspapers, radio and national newspapers.”
The Internet is now the second most popular medium to get the news, behind local and national TV. In addition to turning to the Internet, studies show that “One quarter (26%) of all Americans say they get some form of news via cell phone,” and this news is coming in a variety of forms consisting of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, blogs and e-mails.
For some, staying current on the news has provided a way to be socially active. The Pew study found that “Some 72 percent of American news consumers say they follow the news because they enjoy talking with others about what is happening in the world and 69 percent say keeping up with the news is a social or civic obligation.”
Lastly, the Internet allows people to access the news in a much more personal format than other news platforms. Readers can customize their homepage to contain articles from favorite sites or about favorite topics. According to the Pew Research findings 40 percent of Internet users said “an important feature of a news Web site to them is the ability to customize the news they get from the site.”
Furthermore, the ability to communicate to large social networks from smartphones and laptops is creating a citizen journalist culture where anyone can capture, share and report on events and news in real time. Just think back to when US Airways flight 1549 made an emergency landing on the Hudson River. The first reports of this accident came in from Twitter.
For more information and status around the consumption of news, I would encourage you to read the full study. As PR professionals, we found the findings to be quite interesting and informative as we continue to think about the most effective ways to reach consumers and business decision makers alike.
Finally, we’d love to hear from you on the number of ways you access news today. Do you get your news from four to six different platforms? If so, which ones?
The other morning I had the opportunity to catch up with my former manager and mentor Brad Stevens. At the end of 2009, Brad left Starbucks after seven years with the company where he served as vice president of U.S. Marketing and their first head of Customer Relationship Management, to join Mud Bay, a provider of healthy food, supplements, and supplies for dogs and cats.
I was excited to talk with Brad about his role as Executive Vice President of Stores and Sales for Mud Bay and to learn more about Mud Bay’s marketing activities. As EVP of Stores and Sales, Brad oversees four areas: store operations, marketing, category education and research.
Brad explained one of the reasons he is excited about joining Mud Bay, which operates 17 stores in the greater Puget Sound area, surrounds the powerful emotional connections people have with their pets and the specialty store’s commitment to helping dogs and cats lead long healthy lives.
“There is a growing awareness and appreciation for the importance of a healthy and nutritious diet for dogs and cats,” says Brad. “Oftentimes, common issues like hair balls in cats or itchy skin patches on dogs can be linked back to what they are eating. We have many examples of a customer consulting with our in-store specialists and altering a pet’s diet, and within a week or two, the animal is feeling better.”
According to Brad, experts’ understanding of the dietary needs of animals has really progressed over the years. “As a result, there is now an amazing array of nutritional formulas available for specific breeds. This is good because the nutritional needs of a tiny Chihuahua versus a Great Dane are significantly different.”
In terms of marketing, Mud Bay relies heavily on word of mouth. The retailer has a loyal group of customers who often refer friends and family to the store. One such customer is Jackie Barry, who has a 9-year-old Lynx Point cat, named Sushe, and has been shopping at Mud Bay for about 15 years.
Barry started out buying just cat toys and luxury pet items, but now purchases all of Sushe’s food and cat litter at Mud Bay. “Sushe was a very picky eater,” explains Barry. “I went to Mud Bay because the store provides descriptions of the different brands of cat food along with information about why some breeds of cats respond better to different ingredients.”
The people at Mud Bay gave Barry five or six little samples of food to try on Sushe. Barry continues, “I was able to find one that he loves. I trust the products I buy at Mud Bay. Finally, I have to say the people who work at Mud Bay also seem more engaged in serving their customers than people who work in the big box stores.”
In addition to relying on word-of-mouth marketing to drive business, the retailer also has a fan page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/mudbay/) and has strong relationships with veterinarians and other experts to generate awareness and drive demand for its products.
Brad’s new position sounds like a lot of fun. Clearly, the company is poised for continued success because it offers high-quality products, it employs informed and passionate people in their stores (and on the management team), and the category is growing as consumers become more aware of the link between healthy food and their pet’s health. It will be fun to watch the evolution of this business.
If you have a perspective on Mud Bay, I would love to hear from you!
We recently did some research to identify companies with more than 250,000 Facebook fans. The results were interesting. Some brand name companies (or organizations) fell significantly short of our expectations – while others have significantly more than 250,000 fans.
While we know fans will come and go, we thought it would be fun to compile a list of some of the top brand name companies, including some Seattle-based organizations, to create a snapshot of their Facebook fan numbers.
In addition to gathering data on current fan base numbers, we also reached out to a couple of these organizations to learn more about how they grew their Facebook fan bases.
Mariesa Stokes, account executive at Mckee Foods, the parent company for Little Debbie, explains the Little Debbie Facebook page went from 5,414 fans to 269,994 fans between October 3 and 10, 2009. “To drive this growth, the company took an integrated approach to marketing. It worked to drive Little Debbie lovers to the Facebook fan page though national advertising, PR, couponing, social media and consumer giveaways all at the same time – and it was overwhelmingly successful.”
Erica Berkovich, a communications coordinator with the National Hockey League, adds “Within the last six months we grew from zero to more than 260,000 fans after launching our Facebook page in Sept. 2009. To fuel this growth, we cross-promoted our page with all of our NHL Media Platforms, including NHL.com, NHL Radio, NHL Team Websites, NHL mobile as well as other social platforms.” She adds they are now considering what resources can be brought to increase the audience farther and faster.
We at Communiqué PR recently completed a campaign for a company where we helped it grow its Fan base by 219.2 percent in just 14 days.
As you consider the growth and management of your Facebook fan page, we hope you find this information to be helpful. Clearly, there is no silver bullet for growth; but it appears as if the key to success is pursuing an integrated approach and leveraging a variety of mediums to raise awareness of your page.
To highlight the looming concerns surrounding the growth in mobile data traffic and showcase the solutions available to operators to address this issue, Communiqué PR recently placed three contributed articles in prominent mobile wireless industry publications for Mobidia.
These articles enabled Chris Hill, vice president of marketing with Mobidia, to share his perspective on network congestion and provide a point of view on different solutions operators can deploy. The articles also position Mobidia as a thought leader in the mobile wireless space.
The three contributed articles include:
- RCR Wireless – published on March 22, 2010
- Wireless Business & Technology – published on March 31, 2010
- Wireless Week – published on April 4, 2010
As you can imagine, network congestion is placing tremendous strain on mobile operators and the pressure is not letting up. In fact, according to research firm Informa, mobile data traffic in 2010 is predicted to increase by 50 percent.
Why this staggering growth? The use of wireless laptops, netbooks and smartphones – such as iPhones, Android-based phones and BlackBerrys – are creating unparalleled levels of wireless data flow. And as congestion continues to increase, subscribers will feel the backlash with more dropped calls and slower connection speeds.
These articles provides insight on how mobile network operators can deploy technologies such as transport layer optimization (TCP) to increase the efficiency of a network, enable operators to maximize revenue opportunities and provide their subscribers with the best user experience possible.
For tips on writing bylined articles, read our past blog titled, “Tips for Writing a Byline Article.”
Chas Edwards, publisher and chief revenue officer at Digg, believes “we are living in the golden age of op-eds, thanks to Twitter, Word Press and Facebook.” I agree with Chas that social media gives everyone a platform to share a point view, but what about traditional op-ed articles in newspapers? Are they dead or alive?
This was a question a colleague and I pondered over lunch the other day. As the newspapers industry continues to struggle, what is the future of op-eds in these news outlets?
When I posed the question to Public Affairs Officer 1LT Darryl G. Frost in the Texas Army National Guard, I learned that op-eds in newspapers (along with other mediums) are working very well for his client – the commander of the 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team. “We use op-eds all the time to get our message out to Texans about how our mission is going over here in Iraq. So for it’s been working well.”
According to Frost, “Not only do we get a lot of feedback from the print paper, but our message is search engine-optimized online too. As newspapers post the links to their pages, our brigade gets fresh coverage online, which is where folks are getting their news these days too.”
By using op-eds, Frost is also able to leverage print, online blogs and social media to reach people on whatever news medium they’re relying on for information.
Craig Stevens, a public relations professional with the DCI Group concurs. On behalf of his clients he has placed a number of op-eds and uses each to broaden his clients’ messages even further.
“From each printed op-ed, we were able to drive additional earned media (TV and radio interviews),” says Stevens. “It helped build the clients’ brands. Also, with more online tools (blogs, Twitter, Facebook) we were able to push each piece and top line messages, even broader.
We found these examples to be quite powerful and they certainly support our experience when we worked to place an opinion piece by Dr. Thomas Hansen, CEO with Seattle Children’s Hospital in the Feb. 8, 2009 edition of the Seattle PI as well as op-ed articles about the future of the Washington Poison Center and how to save Mr. Yuk.
Given this, we’d encourage you to consider sharing your perspective in an op-ed piece as you look to achieve your communication objectives. Frost sums it up nicely, “Op-eds are definitely alive and well in my public affairs communications plan.”