Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The Starbucks Coffee marketing research department is kept busy providing oodles and oodles of insights into the Starbucks brand through yearly brand audits. And take it from this former long-time Starbucks marketer: The company learns a lot from these studies.

However, when it comes to measuring and managing the Starbucks brand on a daily basis, the Starbucks marketing department generally relies on a much simpler method—a brand checkbook.

Just as your personal checkbook has credits and debits, a brand checkbook has credits and debits in the form of brand credits and brand debits. "Brand credits" are business activities that enhance the reputation and perception people have of a brand, and "brand debits" are those that detract from the reputation and perception of the brand....

Brands that succeed draw the consumer with a compelling narrative: Gatorade's replay series was a first-class example...

 

The winning formula for consumer engagement is storytelling. It sounds simple, but we only need to look back through history to see the impact that stories have had on shaping our lives: how we live them, why we live them and what it means to be human.

 

Narratives as powerful as the Bible, to ancient myths and Shakespeare's prose, speak to the heart, teaching us how to relate to one another and guiding us into action. Let's not forget that stories are easier on the ear than detached advertising taglines. Studies of human psychology have found that if we are told something through narrative, we are more likely to relate to the message, absorbing it further and remaining engaged from start to finish.

 

For a brand to appeal to consumers and replicate this empowering engagement, its content must tell a story, one that draws us in, broadens our horizons and delivers added value to our lives....

 

[Nice ROI on content marketing ~ Jeff]

Here are some top analytics to avoid when measuring marketing ROI and proving revenue.

I recently wrote about how to build a data-driven marketing team. But what metrics should that team track? There are literally hundreds if not thousands of possible marketing management metrics to choose from, and almost all of them measure something of some kind of value. The problem is that most of them relate very little to the revenue and profitability metrics that concern the CEO, CFO and the board....

Here are the top categories of metrics to avoid....

Is your company offering customers a fast track through social media? Can customers who complain via Twitter or other online channels get better, faster service than those who wait in the phone queue?

 

Stop it.

 

Shouldn’t you treat all your customers the same way?

 

Listening to Social Feedback
Business in general does a terrible job of listening to social feedback. According to Satmatrix, 55% of companies ignore customers who provide feedback via social media. In fact, that’s why I challenge companies to take the “Twitter Test” to see how they are performing in this area.

 

Some companies get it and are working hard to integrate social channels into their support systems. Suzanne Kapner wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal article about Citibank’s efforts to improve response to customer issues raised through social media....

 

[Here's a thoughtful reflection on customer service and social media. ~ Jeff]