Social media is the current buzz, of course. All the kids have Facebook accounts, in fact Facebook has just passed 500 million users. Which is a staggering number. If we could tap into that it would be absolutely brilliant. Ben & Jerry's has gone for it. And to be honest I really don't blame them.
Don Tapscott, futurist and author of Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital, cites an interview he did with some senior school students in the States. One girl was asked how she uses email. "Gee," she said, "I might send an email to the parents of someone I stayed over with to say thank you." His argument is that there's an irreversible push towards social channels like Facebook , YouTube and microblogs like Twitter, and away from email.
But here's the thing: unless your audience is exclusively made up of American teenagers, you can't afford to drop marketing channels wholesale. It's a bit like dropping advertising. Or PoS promotions.
At the other end of the scale are the brands that have embraced the established, universal digital channels (email, websites) to create a robust brand consideration funnel leading to measurable incremental sales. Here it's less about what's trendy or cool, and much more about what works.
A little further down the frozen food aisle is McCain Foods. It has taken segmented email marketing and created a highly structured eCRM programme based on observed behaviour of customers, matched to motivations that drive increased brand consideration over time. By keeping their communications tightly controlled and planned in advance (unlike Facebook which requires commitment to conversation, presumably with tens of thousand of customers), McCain creates relationships with hundreds of thousands. It's led to an increase in sales revenue of 38% within the core customer database.
Ben & Jerry's is a cool brand. But it still needs to sell. And its use of social media, although progressive and fun, can't be proven to do that just yet. And its decision to cleave to Facebook and drop email seems to me to be shortsighted, not longsighted. McCain uses social media, and its use will grow, but it has not been so dogmatic as to drop what it can prove works.
Felix Velarde is Managing Director of the UK’s leading eCRM (Electronic Customer Relationship Marketing) agency, Underwired Amaze
To read another take on this To see another take on this issue, read a piece by Paul Bates of Strongmail, here.
Read our piece on how social media can be used to promote food brands, here.
Don Tapscott, futurist and author of Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital, cites an interview he did with some senior school students in the States. One girl was asked how she uses email. "Gee," she said, "I might send an email to the parents of someone I stayed over with to say thank you." His argument is that there's an irreversible push towards social channels like Facebook , YouTube and microblogs like Twitter, and away from email.
But here's the thing: unless your audience is exclusively made up of American teenagers, you can't afford to drop marketing channels wholesale. It's a bit like dropping advertising. Or PoS promotions.
At the other end of the scale are the brands that have embraced the established, universal digital channels (email, websites) to create a robust brand consideration funnel leading to measurable incremental sales. Here it's less about what's trendy or cool, and much more about what works.
A little further down the frozen food aisle is McCain Foods. It has taken segmented email marketing and created a highly structured eCRM programme based on observed behaviour of customers, matched to motivations that drive increased brand consideration over time. By keeping their communications tightly controlled and planned in advance (unlike Facebook which requires commitment to conversation, presumably with tens of thousand of customers), McCain creates relationships with hundreds of thousands. It's led to an increase in sales revenue of 38% within the core customer database.
Ben & Jerry's is a cool brand. But it still needs to sell. And its use of social media, although progressive and fun, can't be proven to do that just yet. And its decision to cleave to Facebook and drop email seems to me to be shortsighted, not longsighted. McCain uses social media, and its use will grow, but it has not been so dogmatic as to drop what it can prove works.
Felix Velarde is Managing Director of the UK’s leading eCRM (Electronic Customer Relationship Marketing) agency, Underwired Amaze
To read another take on this To see another take on this issue, read a piece by Paul Bates of Strongmail, here.
Read our piece on how social media can be used to promote food brands, here.
