Brands

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!

By Katie Buchanan

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.

For any of you doubting the power of the interweb as a media channel, since the story of Facebook changing their terms of use was first reported by the Consumerist blog on Feb 15, it has been one of the most talked about issues across the world: “Facebook Privacy Fallout Goes Nuclear” The key thing I take from all this, is that it represents tangible proof that at least one person in the world reads the terms and conditions. Pretty much all of us suspect EULAs (electronic user licence agreements) or ‘click wrap’ as they’re otherwise known, are chock-a-block with weird and wonderful legal weasel words but that doesn’t mean we read them before clicking or ticking the “I have read the terms and conditions…” box, so clearly we’re not that bothered by it.

In a nutshell, the big change to the Facebook terms of use grants them the right to hang on to (and potentially “use”) archived copies of your stuff if you cancel your membership on the site. This “use” is defined in numerous ways in the fine print but one of the terms that seem to have the world’s collective panties in a bunch is “sublicence”: effectively Facebook can sell your content to a third party.

So what’s all the fuss about suddenly? Facebook can already sell your stuff right now if they want to…you gave them permission to do so when you signed up. The word “sublicence” appears in the old terms of use (hands up how many of you read it); the only real difference in the new version is that right exists after you leave. What I think annoys people is the idea that someone is able to make money off something they “own” which possesses no obvious commercial value, or which they lack the ability to monetize themselves. Frankly, the majority of us have little to worry about. The bulk of user content on Facebook is photos, and bad ones at that. I don’t want to see pictures of a hairy Irish guy in a PVC nurse outfit let alone PAY for the privelage (I’ll mention no names so their dignity remains intact).

Perhaps it comes down to a definition of ownership. Facebook have stated that they have never claimed ownership of their members’ content, but when you put your “property” into a big communal bucket you’re pretty much giving it away to the world and are clearly not seeking to make any money out of it, so why does that change if you’re no longer a member of the site? Once it’s out there it’s out there. In the words of Joe Garrelli from NewsRadio: “Getting something off the internet is like getting pee out of a pool.”

Other social networking sites have found ways to make money from user content, such as Flickr (where users’ photos can be sold to third parties and the user receives a royalty), and Threadless (essentially an enormous t-shirt design competition where artitsts submit their designs for the community to vote for and, ultimately, buy). Neither of these sites actually create anything, they merely provide the mechanism for users to submit and interact, and cream a percentage off the top. They have tapped into an enormous global market which effictively comes to them with little or no effort on their behalf. Both potentially make a lot of money, sure, but they are fostering and rewarding the creativity of people who ordinarily would have no means to commercialise their work.

Update: Facebook have reverted back to their old terms of use while they “resolve the issues that people have raised.” Facebook backtracks.

By David Bomphrey

Recently many people had a day or two off due to the snow. Lots of people took the chance to let their hair down, have fun and play with their families. For some brands this is exactly what they want people to do all the time. Extreme Group, who operate businesses centred around “adrenaline living”, extreme sports to you and me, were hard at work branding the snow to show how their lifestyle is a comfortable fit with city living. They called it “snow tagging”, graffiting the snow. Read more about: Brand building in the snow

By Marty Carroll

Amazon is set to unveil the Kindle 2 today – Feb 9. E-books have enjoyed a few false dawns, but when one of the world’s most customer oriented brands gets in on the act things are a little different.

Quick quiz question? The most successful consumer electronics device in the last 10 years?
No prizes there….the ubiquitous iPod of course. The iPod launched in 2001 and in its first full year (2002) sold 378,000 units. But according to a leading analyst, Amazon sold 500,000 Kindles in its first full year of trading.
(Refer to image above)

What could be better than the planets two most customer-centric brands (Apple and Amazon) fighting it out for a share of the customer’s wallet?

By Marty Carroll

In my blog posting on January 26, 2009, I discussed the advantage Nokia had over other mobile phone manufacturers because most people were first introduced to the mobile phone by the Finnish firm.

Now it seems that Leapfrog, the educational toy company, have done the makers of the Blackberry (Research In Motion) a huge favour by introducing little people to the nuances of the Blackberry early in life