Missed the SXSW? No big deal!
As most of us had no chance to attend the SXSW, here is a nice selection of presentations that have been held.
http://www.slideshare.net/sxsw2010/tagged/sxsw2010
SXSW 2010 Presentations
Social Media Strategy (Spur Interactive)
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY | Spur Interactive
View more presentations from Steve Latham.
Trying to reach Samsung customer service….
For quite some time I have been trying to get in touch with Samsung Deutschland in order to return our compact digital camera which seems to have some technical problems (I just decided not to do its job anymore). Samsung offers a special contact form which is separated into the different product segments and thus alllows to filter for the specific product. I gave it three times and have not received anything back so far, I even included images of the brand new looking camera to show that there is no exterior damage at all. But somehow there is no one on the other line….
From the start:
1) First Attempt
I went to Samsung’s website to check for the ideal way to get in contact for returning our at that time 0,75 yrs old camera. I even found the contact form and then had to find my way to the somewhat confusing manual when it comes to compact digital camera. Walking the path that seems intuitively right did not bring me to my model. Instead I had to try severyl menu combinations to finally get to my model. I then fillled in all the contact details into the form, explained the problem with the cam and then sent it off.
2) Over and Over
Having sent away the message I did not get a confirmation via email. So I simply had to assume the message reached its recipient and Samsung would soon answer to tell me the nearest service company I have to send the camera to. But no response. So I filled out the form again thinking that maybe theres was some important box not checked, etc. Again, all worked fine, all was filled out – no response. I did all that three times:
After several weeks of simply postponing the issue I checked the Samsung website again. Relauched! It looks pretty good: big visuals, a feeling of proximity, nice menus, features, new form promiosing „one day response“ Sounds really good.
New Samsung.de
Well, I also tried to use this new way to contact Samsung customer service and the result as of 27 March 2010 is „nada.“ No response aside from the automatically generated confirmation email.
What is going wrong? Is there a database issue, do they lack the necessary personnel to really respond within a day? I would also be happy with a 2 day response, just any response at all…
to be continued..
Update 09 April 2010: Samsung did answers. Unfortunately I received no email notification about Samsung’s reply. Also, when logging in at samsung.de I can check the status of my inquiry. Again unfortunately, Samung’s response is shown directly UNDER my message just like in an answered email. Thus even when you login and check the status of your customer inquiry you do not at once see that there is an answer at all. Only when you scroll down you all of a sudden realized that there IS a response. However, I must admit that they indeed answered within one day! Promise kept!
So please Samsung, try to give this form some update and make it more user-friendly. I am quite experienced in the web. But like so many other customers I am notoriously short of time and thus it took me 2 weeks to realize Samsung responded. Give it some more work and you will have a really good online service tool.
The US behind Europe in Social Media Usage – or is it the other way round?
US behind Europe in Social Media?
This post refers to a blog post by We are Social, a digital marketing and social media agency based in London.
The reason this post caught my attention (I actually found it via Twitter), was a statement in the very beginning of the post which I am citing here:
„Europe is ahead of the US in terms of the consumer usage of social media, and yet little attention is often given to the nuances of what is on one hand is the world’s largest economy and on the other a collection of 48 countries with very different cultures.
Find out why the blogging scene in Paris is 2 years ahead of the US, the Brits are all a Twitter, the Dutch prefer Hyves to Facebook and the Germans will take any chance to give brands a hostile reception in social media.“
This statement by Robin Grant came as a surprise to me. Usually the latest marketing trends do come from the US, not good old Europe. And please not that I am saying marketing and not social media. The latter ist a branch of marketing, not a separate phenomenon. Anyways, I was fairly surprised to see that obviously something may have changed. But has it really? I do have some doubts that this is really true and that it can be stated that easily. German Facebook users may be the most active, England may be in the hand of Twitter but still the companies behind it are from the US. Also, can you name a Head of Social Media in the home of cars, Germany? We do not have a Scott Monty at BMW or Daimler or Audi. And even if we have someone in a similar position, he or she is not yet living up to his US counterparts. Now je ne connais the French blogosphere but I can hardly imagine les Francais are so much more active than the Americans.
I don’t want to take a definite position on this issue and I will leave you with some very nice presentations covering the European face of Socia Media. Please decide for yourself who is ahead in Social Media. Or if maybe it is not about being ahead but perhaps about employing Social Media more profitable…
European Social Media
View more presentations from We Are Social .
Iab Social Media Research October 22nd 2010
View more presentations from Tom Smith.
Oh and please make sure you drop by We Are Social for an impression on how others responded to Robin Grant’s post
What We Expect from Brands
Strong brands offer us a lot. We in return pay a premium price. But aside from hard facts such as superior product quality, better service and warranty they also provide us with orientation, reduction of uncertainty, trust, the feeling of belonging to a certain group and other much more subtle things. This is what we pay for and what we deserve.
In return for the high price we expect certain values a brand has come to represent: sportiness with BMW, innovativeness and design with Apple, tradition, expertise and superior quality with a Glashütte watch. I expect you at this point to say „Stop! That’s all premium brands you’re talking!” Well, not necessarily. Volkswagen is traditionally not a premium brand and still there are certain values such as reliability or quality that are associated with it. Mc Donald’s is also no premium brand but would also well fit the list.
In the following paragraphs I picked out three things we expect from strong brands: consistency, service, and change when needed.
Consistency
What most brands have in common is consistency.
We do not want them to fundamentally change their business model, their target group or elementary core values. This would confuse us. A Bmw panel van? McDonald’s selling local food? Chateauneuf du Pape sold at discounters? These things are inconsistent with what we have learned about brands and the image we have in our minds. And thus they confuse us and they cause damage to the carefully grown brand identity.
Service
Another important thing we expect from strong brands is excellent service.
Personal service, listening to our problems, understanding what troubles us and working hard to satisfy our wishes and desires. We want to feel the assurance that we or rather every single one of us matters. In total, we expect a degree of service that trade brands cannot provide (financially). The markup we are willing to pay does include this extra service -when we need it.
Change when needed
The final of the three expectations towards a brand which I am dealing with today is the ability to change when needed.
This might at first sound contrary to the consistency point. Time changes and so brands have to respond to changing market situation and technological developments. One example would be the increasing time we spend online. Brands (not necessarily all of them) need to follow their customers just like predators follow their prey. The key challenge is to adapt while still being consistent. That is also why I argue that whatever viral or social media marketing actions a brand takes – it always has to be in line with the overall marketing and brand strategy.
Case
I just recently had trouble with a brand new pair of really nice Timberland Splitrock boots. After only 1,5 months both laces were close to tearing which might have been caused by a too sharp eylet. I emailed Timberland USA and informed them about my troubles. It took only one day and I had a friendly email in which they provided me with the contact details to Timberland Deutschland. In the meantime I had also twittered about the issue, wondering if my tweets maybe would be heard (Social Media Monitoring). After two days I received an email from Munich, in which a customer service agent excused for the quality issue and promised to send me a pair of similar hopefully more durable laces. That was two days ago. Today I received a small package by mail with two pairs of laces similar in color to the original ones. Great work, Timberland! Checking through my personal Twitter account I saw that Timberland Customer Service is now also one of my followers. I do not know about their internal processes, but from what I experienced, I can say that they are obviously doing things right. They created a strong global brand, with loyal customers all over the world. They listen to their customers’ troubles and do their best to maintain our loyalty. The result: I feel important, taken care of, appreciated. I pay a premium price for the product, but also get a lot more than just a simple pair of shoes…
Timberland Splitrock
Update: Timberland Customer Service responded via Twitter:
Timberland twittering
Status Quo of Social Media Usage among the Fortune 100
Global Social Media Checkup
View more presentations from Burson-Marsteller.
SOM zu: Online Ads Help Shoppers Save
Artikel: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007524
Ein sehr interessanter Artikel, der mal wieder Zeit, dass uns Nordamerika doch immer wieder einen Tick voraus ist. Während man in Deutschland bei Coupons vornehmlich an Payback denkt, sind Coupons in den USA schon seit vielen Jahren fest etabliert und fixer Bestandteil vieler Kaufprozesse.
Mein Tipp: Es wird auch bei uns bald viel mehr Online Ads geben die einen Mehrwert in Form von Coupons bieten. Eventuell sogar auf die persönlichen Bedürfnisse zugeschnitten.
Anderer Meinung? Her damit!
Mercedes-Benz Goes Green With its Vans
Mercedes-Benz is unveiling the prototype of a battery-powered van based on the Mercedes-Benz Vito at the informal EU Competitiveness Council meeting in San Sebastián, Spain from 7 to 9 February.
Based on the Mercedes-Benz Vito, the experimental vehicle being presented marks the start of a new era in local, zero emission mobility in the van sector. The Vito is the first van in the world to incorporate this technology ex factory, showing Daimler’s commitment to sustainable mobility.
During 2010, more than 100 Mercedes-Benz Vito vans will be delivered to 20 customers, primarily fleet operators and public institutions wishing to transport items in environmentally sensitive zones with zero emissions, including no CO2 emissions, and low noise.
The drive configuration is designed solely to run on battery power and thus dispenses with the powertrain intended for combustion engines
The electric motor delivers a peak output of 90 kW. Performance is oriented around customer requirements: an electronically limited top speed of 80 km/h is designed to meet our customers’ transportation needs in and around urban areas.
SOURCE: http://www.myvan.com/2010/02/15/battery-powered-vito/
SOM on "5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online" by Dan Schwabel
5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online
Posted using ShareThis
Presented above is the link to Mashable.com where this article has been published by Dan Schwabel.
Personal branding is without a doubt becoming more important in these days. Back in the days, when people could not easily connect with each other – especially not over thousands of miles – this may have been less important.
But todays networks allow to find out almost anything about anybody at barely any cost and at any time.
Ad 1) This includes good things as well as bad things, as this article also stresses in the very first point. Thus you should do the same and from time to time check what is being said about you on the web. Google, Yahoo, Bing, Google Alerts and SocialMention certainly are good tools for that.
Ad 2) Surely, it does not hurt to reserve your brand or company’s name on as many platforms as possible. But I agree with Dan in as far as you should consider well where you join. Not every platform is adequate for every business, brand or person. In fact you can often tell which social networks a person belongs to. Xing and LinkedIn clearly are for the educated business people, while facebook used to be a US college and university student only platform. This of course has changed in the meantime. Today users come from all age groups, social classes and continents. WKW users in Germany used to be less international and less well educated than those on facebook. But this needs close monitoring as the user groups do change over time. It may well be that LinkedIn will grow stronger in Europe now that they offer country-specific pages. Facebook on the other side could definately give StudiVZ and SchuelerVZ a hard time. Users definately have to choose between networks as -just as Dan pointed out- you cannot play all games at a time. Sooner or later you will have to choose as keeping several networks or communities up to date consumes too much of your precious (online) time. The characteristics and tendencies of your peers will determine the direction.
As to reservation: you surely can reserve your name ahead of time without using it. Maybe add a link to your primary profiles so that people find you. But there is no need to maintain say 30 profiles on 30 communities. It’s wasted time.
Ad 3) Know your audience. I’ve had several discussions with friends, colleagues and clients about whether it makes sense to have special profiles for each target group / audience. But in the end, what it leads to is again additional work and thus time. My advice is: do make a difference between people you term „friends“ and those who are colleagues on a solely professional level and clients. But by this I do not mean you need to create a fb profile for friends, one for colleagues and probably an additional one for clients. Facebook at the moment is still more of a private sphere, not a place to do business (brand/company profiles such as by Jaegermeister or BMW are brands we invite into our private sphere). Thus use fb for friends, good colleagues and family and use professional communities such as Xing or LinkedIn for business contacts. If a colleague becomes a friend add him on fb as well. In general: Keep it simple.
Ad 4) Be honest and be real. If what you put on the web differs greatly from your real personality, this will come back to you in a negative way. And if you are really present on all communities your clients may wonder what you be doing all day long. Surely not working for their benefit but rather on how you want to be seen on the web.
Ad 5) This point refers to all points mentioned before. If you want to be seen as a respectful, honest and trustworthy business person, you have to be authentic. The different profiles should speak one voice, arise no questions and in total provide a nicely rounded impression of who you are and what you do. And I would like to add: No need to be too formal. This may be interpreted as artificial, false, unrealisitic and not trustworthy. Be yourself. We like to do business with people we simply like.
This also goes for SOM Marketingberatung. The best clients are those that share similar values, are honest towards their customers just fun to work with.
So, mind your Digital Brand!
Yours,
SOM Marketingberatung
