Brands

I recently created a slide pack intended to give you an overview of making social media pay. It is the biggest challenge today for social media, and according to Forrester’s 5 Eras of the Social Web, it is soon upon us. Read more about: Making social media pay

Does emotional attachment to a brand prevail over the online customer experience for Internet-based companies? Read more about: Emotional attachment vs customer experience

By Arthur Moan

By all accounts the first e-Commerce Expo in the North of England was a huge success. Visitor numbers topped 850 which was 40% more than anticipated by the organisers. Visitors were delighted with the convenience of attending a high quality conference programme, and meeting key e-commerce suppliers at the exhibition in Manchester. The organisers have stated that next year – yes there will be a next year; they will be significantly increasing seating capacities! This is good news as the Keynote room and both theatres were oversubscribed for most sessions including mine. The theatre I was in could seat 75, however; all seats were taken plus more than 10 people were standing at the back. I was on at the same time as the IMRG and Bazzarvoice, so was happy my room was packed with so many visitors willing to sacrifice listening to industry advocates and global e-Commerce suppliers to listen to the ShopDirect / Foviance case study. Read more about: ShopDirect case study, e-Commerce Expo presentation

Google’s Street View, which was launched a couple weeks ago, raised privacy concerns because some members of the public are identifiable (for instance, in compromising positions) despite images being processed using face-blurring software. Indeed, the day of its release, we quickly identified two Foviance members engaged in rather mundane activities outside our London office. However, the fact that Google responds quickly to privacy complaints by pulling off offending images reassures many, so I think the privacy concerns will not have much impact on Google’s strong brand perception. Read more about: Using Google Street View for good, not evil

Earlier this month we saw the second Facebook home page redesign in less than a year. Nearly 800,000 users voted in a Facebook poll on the new design, 94% saying they did not like it, while around 1.7 million users joined the “Petition Against the New Facebook” group. Admitedly this is a tiny proportion of the alleged 175 million Facebook users (~1%) and it is generally only the most agrieved users who offer feedback by these methods, so presumably the other 99% are either ok with the design, indifferent to it, or simply didn’t provide comments as they were doing somthing else with their time. Read more about: Talk to the Handbook, ‘cos the Facebook Ain’t Listening…

By David Bomphrey

The Times Online recently reported findings from a study that showed that millions of people are likely to cut spending on insurance this year as the recession bites into household budgets. In particular, it stated that consumers would reduce cover levels or cancel policies on home insurance despite the risks. Read more about: Time to call a spade a spade

Ok, so Slumdog Millionaire is a marvelous film and deserves its 8 Oscars, but I think that there was a message for brands embedded into the film that I would like to put our attention to.

In one scene the lead character, Jamal, is seen at work in a Mumbai Call Centre (ostensibly for a mobile phone company) and for those who have never been to see a call centre, it was a highly enlightening experience. The main character Jamal, is a Chai-boy (tea-boy) in the call centre, and is seen taking tea into a daily training session where the call centre staff are being instructed in the day’s plot in Eastenders, thus ensuring they are able to converse with average Brits! A rather crude and clichéd scene, but amusing nonetheless.

Then, Jamal is seen helping out a friend by taking over his seat and answering a call. The call as you can imagine does not go well, the customer asks where she has called as she is calling from Kingussie in Scotland and he replies “ah….I am just down the road (he looks around the room for inspiration and spies a poster of Big Ben and Parliament Square)…at Loch Big Ben!”

Well, it’s played for laughs in the film, but there is a very real lesson here that we need to take heed of, our customers can sniff out a lie, and brands should be measuring the impact of the channels on the customer experience. I bet the call that Jamal hangs up on would not have been recorded, in a typical call centre, or highlighted as a negative customer experience for the customer in Kingussie. This focus on customers across cross-channels is essential in difficult economic times, the more customer-focused brands may do better than others!

This is the subject of a fairly regular email sent around the office, as I expect it in other offices worldwide. Almost everyone has been in the situation where their mobile phone, which they have become to completely rely on, is just about to die because the battery is flat. This leads to frantic search for a compatible mobile phone charger.

This scenario however might become a thing of the past. Last week 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers (including Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG) announced that they are committed to introducing a single universal charger for all new mobiles by the beginning of 2012. Interesting however, Apple and its hugely popular iPhone (which sports a unique charging mechanism) is not currently involved in this movement.

This move will have both fairly immediate and longer-term user benefits. Firstly, it will provide the ability to use the same charger for multiple items (e.g. work and personal mobile). Secondly, the charger will be better for the environment, since it is going to be significantly more energy efficient than current chargers. I suspect manufacturers hope this will counter the environmentally unfriendly image of the mobile phone industry.

The coming together of different manufacturers/brands to ultimately benefit the consumer is brilliant news,  particularly since it will undoubtedly have an impact on the accessories market.

Wouldn’t it be great if other product manufacturers take their lead? For example it would be really handy to have a universal laptop charger.