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Archive for the ‘Brand Image’ Category

AdYapper.com: Furthering the Shift to Inbound Marketing

Posted in Brand Image, Innovative Ideas, Marketing, Social Media Marketing, tagged , on November 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

Traditionally companies communicated with customers through outbound marketing channels, blasting advertising messages at their potential customers. In recent years the rise of social media has enabled companies to have more of a conversation with their customers. New start-up AdYapper continues the inbound marketing trend by providing a channel for companies to get feedback on their television advertising campaigns. As a one-way communication medium, television-advertising feedback is typically limited to focus groups and sales analysis, but this could change.

So What is AdYapper.com?

AdYapper offers a platform to enable advertisers to gain opinions on their commercials. Brands can verify their accounts and obtain consumer feedback on their commercials. The site offers the opportunity for marketers to gain greater insights to avoid wasting money on campaigns that don’t engage the public. AdYapper aims to empower consumers to hold advertisers accountable by sharing their thoughts. Consumers can view commercials and click if they loved it, hated it or were indifferent to it and give their opinions. Consumers can also upload ads from YouTube, and give their opinions even if the brands have not joined the site. Current commercials on AdYapper include campaigns from Coca Cola, eBay, Adobe, and Nike.

The Challenge

I love the concept of providing a forum for brands to get consumer feedback on their commercials, but the challenge will be getting consumers to want to “yap”. AdYapper may need a compensation type program similar to e-rewards.com, where consumers could receive points towards gift cards or monetary compensation for viewing sponsored commercials. Another challenge for AdYapper will be how they can make money from the site. The start-up may need to keep some of their data private in order for it to be of enough value to sell to marketers. They may also need to start collecting demographic data from consumers, as currently the site only requires Facebook or Twitter log on and an e-mail address.

AdYapper offers an innovative way to transform television marketing in to an inbound marketing opportunity. Some refining will be needed to entice consumers to participate to gain enough feedback to be truly valuable to marketers. Time will tell if AdYapper could become like Yelp for TV commercials, but what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

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Digital Innovation at Burberry

Posted in Brand Image, Digital Strategy, Social Enterprise, Social Media Marketing, Video Blog, tagged , on June 23, 2012| 1 Comment »

The title of this blog post may at first glance confuse you, as Burberry is a luxury fashion brand, which you wouldn’t necessarily expect to have a digital innovation focus. Indeed, traditionally many luxury businesses have put technology on the back burner out of fears of diluting their brand exclusivity. But Burberry is different.

When Angela Ahrendts became CEO of Burberry in 2006 she began reinventing the company’s brand image and operations. She also redefined the company’s target audience and identified an opportunity existed to increase sales among high-net-worth global younger consumers.

Ahrendt’s vision is to:

“Create a company where anyone who wanted to touch the brand could have access to it.”

In order to make this vision a reality and to reach younger consumers many of whom are digital citizens, a digital platform was needed.

By using social media platforms such as Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook, accompanied with SAP application technology and with help from salesforce.com; Ahrendts has begun to transform Burberry into a social enterprise.

Here are some of the components of Burberry’s digital strategy:

An interactive website: Burberry have created an interactive website that entices its visitors to return. On the Burberry website you can watch fashion shows and see artistic creative videos displaying the latest collections. Customers can even order many of the fashions displayed in the videos. There is also an acoustic section on the site that exhibits music videos from previously unknown British singers and groups all wearing Burberry clothing, further promoting the brand.

Salesforce.com: Burberry has incorporated the Salesforce.com Chatter platform to use internally as a portal to enhance communications throughout their operations. When Burberry’s sales teams noticed larger male customers were unhappy with the fit of one of the suit styles, the Chatter enabled them to immediately bring this information to the design team to make adjustments. The company also uses the Salesforce.com Radian6 product to track and analyze what people are saying about them on social media.

Twitter: Burberry holds “Tweet-Walks” bringing images of models wearing their new collection minutes before their models hit the runway.

Facebook: Burberry did an exclusive Facebook fan only sample giveaway during the pre-launch of the Burberry Body perfume.

SAP: Burberry partnered with SAP to develop an application to provide greater customer service. The application will enable sales associates globally to pull up a customer’s information including their transaction history of all past Burberry purchases made anywhere in the world and their Burberry social media activity.

I think Burberry’s digital innovation strategy will continue to be successful for the company as its focuses on creating a wow experience to greater engage their consumers that goes beyond using digital strategy to increase sales. What do you think of Burberry’s digital innovation? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

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5 Reasons Why Organizations Should Consider Sustainability Initiatives

Posted in Brand Image, Business Success, Sustainability on February 16, 2012| 2 Comments »

In recent years sustainability has been covered in the business press as an issue that should merit serious business consideration. However, in spite of its extensive media support many business leaders continue to dismiss sustainability as too expensive and under interpret it’s meaning as ‘going green’.

The more I read about sustainability the more apparent it becomes to me what an opportunity this could be for smart businesses if leveraged strategically. Wirtenberg, Harmon and Fairfield (2010) describe sustainability as a company’s ability to achieve its goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental and social opportunities into its business strategies to ensure the continued success and strength of the organization for future generations.

Sustainability is much more than going green. In actuality many businesses are already inadvertently adhering to sustainable approaches through their community involvement, recycling and flexible work practices. What a sustainability initiative does is to tie together all these disparate activities into a strategic objective.

Here are five reasons why organizations should consider sustainability initiatives:

1. Enhance brand image
Organizations that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability can leverage this strategic objective to enhance their image with their customers, suppliers, employees, the media and other stakeholders. Sustainability can also be incorporated into marketing efforts as Patagonia has demonstrated through their commitment to sustainability throughout their supply chain.

2. Improve talent acquisition
Many people, particularly my generation (y) aspire to work for organizations that are socially responsible and that they can be proud to represent. A SHRM report demonstrated that a sustainable corporate image could help organizations to attract the best applicants and greater engage current employees.

3. Maintain a competitive edge
Depending upon your organization’s competitive environment sustainability can help prevent losing sustainable focused customers to competitors and or differentiate your organization from the competition. In industries where sustainability initiatives have barely been embraced, opportunities exist for organizations to achieve short-term competitive advantage from being the first mover.

4. Stay ahead of regulations
It is expected that the future will bring increased regulations in regards to sustainability. By getting started now your business can move up the learning curve, becoming better prepared for future legislative changes.

5. Save money
In addition to potential energy cost savings, sustainability initiatives can enable organizations to become eligible for government financial incentives, including subsidies, tax credits, tax exemptions and low-interest loan programs. The federally funded extensive DSIRE database details federal, state and local government incentive programs for organizations of all sizes pursuing sustainable initiatives.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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