If you’re attending next week’s shopper insights in action conference, don’t forget to join us for a great session on the “new consumer” (see below for details) and stop by our booth to say hello. If you want to go and haven’t yet registered, you can get a 25% discount by registering here.
Reset! Engaging Consumers and Growing Market Share in the “New Normal”
With all of the talk about the “new consumer” mindset and shifting media behaviors, marketers are left asking what it all means. Slow category growth and heightened competition put an even greater premium on leveraging consumer insight to inform growth strategies. CMB’s Jon Giegengack and Steven P. Dennis of Sageberry Consulting (formerly SVP of Marketing for Neiman Marcus) will use recent research data and emerging consumer trends to provide marketers with a roadmap to reaching the consumer of tomorrow and what brands need to do to engage their customer and prospects.
Some advance reading:
My name is Josh. I am 34 years old and a pretty smart guy. I know almost nothing about insurance. And I am not alone.
For much of my life I was on my parents' insurance plans. When I moved out on my own I adopted their auto insurance carrier as my own and took the recommendation of my employer for my health insurance carrier and plan. And as I move into the next phase of my life with my wife, dog, and baby boy, I know I need Life Insurance but am paralyzed by the process. In February we conducted market research with over 1500 consumers about their knowledge of their insurance coverage and how they educate themselves about their coverage, finding that many young people are like me, admitting they don't have a good understanding of their insurance coverage in general, wishing they knew more.
Of course, this presents a great opportunity for insurance carriers who target Gen Y and even moreso for those targeting Milennials, 30% of which admitted they don't have a good understanding of their insurance coverage in general, with 57% of them wishing they had a better understanding. Sure, everyone knows the duck and the cavemen and all of the other insurance mascots and icons, but which carriers are taking it further to actually help young consumers make smart decisions about their insurance options.
One company that seems to be moving in the right direction is State Farm. Marketing Daily reported today that State Farm is releasing new TV spots this fall and have launched a new micro site, WhyAgent.com featuring comedian Ben Posner with all the reasons (some pretty funny) why you need an agent. This is an aggressive push for this segment of the market, and our recent consumer pulse data indicates that's probably a smart move for State Farm.
So how will State Farm reach this younger generation? Online seems to be the most likely channel. According to the research mentioned earlier, over half (56%) of 18-24 year olds do their insurance research online, while 28% will call the company directly, 34% will speak with an agent and 37% will ask their friends for recommendations. State Farm's big online push with YouTube videos and the new micro site is a great approach, but with 37% asking their friends for recommendations it seems as though more robust social media strategies would have to be on the radar as well. (See what Allstate is doing.)
Buying insurance can be confusing and daunting regardless of age, but even more so for the younger crowd. Like ING Direct did so well in the financial services space, there is a great opportunity for carriers to engage with Gen Y and Millenials through new messaging and media in an educational way. And with brand awareness extremely high for all of the major carriers it seems time for many to move towards helping people buy with trust and confidence, even if the message is sent through Youtube.
Posted by Josh Mendelsohn. Josh is our VP of Marketing and loves live music, tv, great food, market research, New Orleans, marketing, his family, Boston and sports. You can follow him on Twitter @mendelj2.
Despite the media focus on new, cool technological devices, content seems to be what is really on consumers' minds these days. In today's CMB press release: Consumers Are More Excited About Content Than Devices we shared some very interesting insights collected earlier this year about which of the recently hyped technologies consumers are most excited about. I expected to see the iPad or Droid phones at the top of the list, but content was king with movie rentals via the internet topping the list and internet via TV also ranking relatively high.
Even many of the new features and enhancements for the iPhone 4 seemed to be all about content. From video conferencing and editing to streaming movies via the new Netflix app, it's no wonder AT&T stopped offering unlimited data plans. This could be a slippery slope for consumers as they now need to become more educated on their data consumption, but that's a whole other discussion.
In a recent Ad Age article Michael Learmonth talked about the new Netflix iPhone app which streams movies either over the AT&T network($$$) or Wifi. I have to say Netflix always seems to be one step ahead of consumers, from DVD's by mail to delivery to the Wii and now streaming movies on the iPhone, they are in a great position to take advantage of this segment of the market. The presentation below shows that they have staked their claim and are clear and deliberate about their focus and their slice of the content pie.
In 2010 Netflix is expecting their subscriber base to grow to over 17 million. Although DVD-by-mail movie rentals are expected to continue to grow over the next few years, Netflix expects it to peak in 2013 and then steadily decline, eventually being replaced by online streaming. Hey why walk to the mailbox when you don't need to leave your couch!
Are you clear about how your key target audiences are evolving and what their technology needs are?
Better Understand the Needs of Your Segments: Segmentation Best Practices webinar
Watch Brant Cruz and Jeff McKenna's recent presentation best practices of market segmentation. Brant and Jeff shared tips and case studies based on their years of experience working with clients like eBay, Electronic Arts, GE Healthcare, Plantronics, and Avis-Budget. Watch here
Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's Director of Communications, a mother of two, and is seriously debating making the switch to AT&T for the new iPhone 4
There's no question social media is impacting how companies communicate with their customers, but it is also giving customers a platform to communicate with each other and share their experiences. As part of our Q1 2010 Consumer Pulse we asked 1504 US adults about their social media use and attitudes as it relates to travel. Last month we talked about the impact of
guest reviews on hotel bookings. We are also seeing similar trends in the cruise industry.
We asked several questions on cruising and found 7% had taken a cruise in the last year; two-thirds (n=70) on a Mainstream cruise line (e.g., Carnival, Disney or Royal), and about one-third with a Premium (Celebrity, Holland etc.) or Luxury (Crystal, Cunard, etc.) brand (n=30 for recent Premium cruisers). I wanted to share three findings I found very interesting.
One in five Mainstream cruisers chose Online Guest Reviews as the most important source of information on the cruise.
While most cruisers use the cruise company's website to gather cruise information, the next most frequently used source for Mainstream cruisers is Online Guest Reviews and Ratings. While many Premium cruisers seek referrals from family and travel agents and peruse brochures, one-in-three consult online guest reviews.
Most recommendations are still happening in person
Since the cruise, 85% of Mainstream and 71% of Premium cruisers have recommended the cruise to friends and family. The vast majority of recommendations occur in person (90%+); one-in-five made a recommendation by email or phone. Since the cruise, only 10% have posted a review online at a site like Cruise Critic.
Negative ratings impact bookings
Regardless of cruise type, a poor rating on a review site negatively impacts booking likelihood. Six-in-ten told us they were less likely to book a cruise that received only one star. Conversely, over nine-in-ten are more likely to book a highly rated cruise.
This research highlights that: (1) communications outside the control of marketing drive bookings, (2) online guest review sites have become one of the most common and important sources for information seekers and (3) highly negative reviews decrease booking likelihood. There is no question social media has given consumers a new platform and companies a new opportunity to connect and engage with their customers. The real questions are:
How well are you monitoring customer reviews?
How can you encourage customers to share their positive experiences?
How can you use guest reviews to improve service?
(An interesting read: USA Today article Hotel Managers Monitor Online Critiques to Improve Service)
Read more about social media
by downloading our report:
"Why Social Media Matters for Your Business."
Posted by Judy Melanson. Judy leads the Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty. She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC
It's about more than socio-economics and life-stage events!
I'd venture to say most consumers and, perhaps, even life insurance agents would tell you those who own life insurance are older than those who do not. Plus, they'd go on to say a person with life insurance is more likely to be married, have children, be highly educated, be employed, and make more money than someone who's not insured.
And, they'd be right. In an online study Chadwick Martin Bailey conducted among 1,500 consumers this past February, we found those with life insurance tend to be older than those without it, with the "transition period", i.e., when a person moves to being insured from not being insured, seemingly occurring in the 35-44 age range. Additionally, those with life insurance are far more likely to be currently married, have kids 18 years-of-age or younger in their household, have a graduate or professional degree, be employed on a full-time basis, and have an annual '09 household income of at least $50,000 - all of which conjures up visions right out of some 1950's/1960's TV show - older, married with kids, working and appearing to be economically stable. Only then, it was the male - can anyone say Robert Young? - who was the "bread-winner", and the CMB study shows that today, women are as likely to have life insurance as are men.
Still, age is a big determinant in when a person will consider insuring their life with the prevailing thought being that most people don't think about life insurance because it forces them to acknowledge their own mortality and, speaking for myself, and no doubt others, when we're relatively young our own mortality isn't even on our radar screens, or per Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?"
This reality led CNN Money to feel that life insurance is sold and not bought, and that people had to be motivated to buy life insurance by getting them to consider the needs of loved ones, appealing to their sense of wanting to take care of their family.
However, as per the #1 Billboard hit in 1963 by The Essex, this is "easier said than done" because, as was found in CMB's research, it's a case of values and goals, the importance of which varies among people. And, those who currently have life insurance place higher levels of importance on values and goals related to "protection", "family" and, especially, "tradition" than do those without life insurance - with "tradition" surfacing in many ways including having a greater propensity to speak with an agent or directly call an insurance company when researching coverage options.
On the other hand, relative to those with life insurance, people without this coverage place greater importance on "indulgence", which links back to the "bliplessness" of mortality among some people. Further, this greater importance of "indulgence" coupled with the fact that those without life insurance are more likely to live in the Pacific states makes me think a likely candidate for life insurance isn't wearing a wet suit and yelling "surf's up"!
Segmentation Best Practices webinar
April 29th at Noon: Chadwick Martin Bailey's Brant Cruz will present best practices of market segmentation based on his years of experience he has as CMB's segmentation guru working with clients like eBay, Electronic Arts, Plantronics, and Microsoft.
Register here.
Posted by Dan Gersten, an Account Director/Consultant in CMB's Financial Services, Healthcare, and Insurance Practice. Dan is a published author and former reality TV contestant on American Inventor. You never know what Dan will come up with next!
Last week we released some powerful findings on the opportunity for marketers to impact their business via social media, especially with Facebook and their 400 million+ users worldwide. Thinking about the fact that according to Facebook's statistics page the average Facebook user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month, and that according to our research among over 1500 US consumers 51% of people are more likely to buy from a brand after becoming a fan and 60% are more likely to recommend...and the opportunity is enormous to impact businesses of all sizes.
So, why do people become fans?
Personally I am a "fan" of more than the normal number of brands (only 11% follow 10 or more brands), TV shows, and musicians on Facebook and find myself more informed than ever before. I know when Dogfishead beer releases a new flavor, when Emma's Pizza has specials, when The Derek Trucks Band has a new tour date, when Dunkin Donuts is running a contest, and when the Office has released deleted scenes.
With all of the media clutter online and offline, I end up tuning out much of it because I know I will get much of the information I want through social media. And I hope marketers know that I feel this way.
Read more of the findings
by downloading our report:
"Why Social Media Matters for Your Business."
Posted by Josh Mendelsohn. Josh is our VP of Marketing and loves live music, tv, great food, market research, New Orleans, social media marketing, Boston and sports. You can follow him on Twitter @mendelj2.
Through the years and two kids later we certainly have accumulated a lot of "stuff" around our house. Apparently I'm not alone! We recently worked with Kijiji.com,
eBay's free online classifieds to conduct research with an online sample of over 1000 US consumers. We asked these consumers what happens to all the duplicate items when couples move in together. After all you don't need two toasters! For many the basement or attic starts to fill.
Some of what we learned:
- 54% of Americans admit to having up to 10 duplicate items when they moved in with a significant other
- The most common unused household items include electronics (42%), kitchen appliances (36%), cookware (29%) and furniture (23%)
Each time we have moved through the years I make a concerted effort (often unbeknownst to my husband and kids) to reduce our "clutter footprint," but I never thought of profiting from my "junk." As the old adage goes "one person's trash is another's treasure!"
I'm a big fan of sites like Kijiji.com for both buying and selling, and not just because they are a client. Online classifieds are a great way to sell those bigger items that can't be shipped easily and I need out of the house. Not too long ago I posted my double jogger stroller to an online classifieds site in the morning and a mom from the next town over was at my house by 3:45 with $100 cash!
As a consumer, are you thinking about non-traditional places to sell the stuff you don't need and save some money buying what you do want? As a business, are you thinking about ALL of the potential sales channels for your product?
For more informaiton on this research check out the Kijiji.com press release.
Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's Director of Communications, a mother of two, and is looking forward to making spring cleaning profitable!
The Winter Olympics opened on Friday, and viewership is higher than recent history (High Ratings for Opening Ceremonies and Strong Second Night for Olympic Viewing). This is positive news for GE's NBC Universal, which has been looking at a substantial loss due to covering the games (NBC Will Lose $250M on Winter Games). But, GE is not the only company to have laid a substantial bet on the games. Many companies have invested big money (upwards of $100 million) to be "official sponsors" of the games, and viewership and interest are keys to getting a return on the investment.
Over the weekend, we conducted our own market research to measure interest and the games and perception of companies who are official sponsors. At the start of the games, a majority of American adults expect to follow the games, and of the 68 percent who are planning to watch, nearly all (90%) will watch the games on television.
A sizable share of people planned to watch some portion of the games online, whether highlights (29%) or live games (12%). More noteworthy in our results, a larger share of people will read stories online (45%) than in the newspaper (38%).
For sponsors, the results highlight companies that are getting a rather decent bang for their buck among the American general population - and companies that appear to be getting a nice "halo effect" in terms of assumed sponsorship. Among the official sponsors, Coca-Cola was correctly identified by 60% of likely followers, and VISA also broke into the majority of awareness (51%).
It's not surprising that these consumer brands would top the list among the American general population, especially since these companies have a long history of sponsoring the Olympic Games.
We also included a select list of competitors to sponsor companies and were not surprised to find that official sponsors had higher awareness of sponsorship over the non-sponsoring competitors. More interestingly, we found a few brands garnering rather high assumed sponsorship: Subway (16%), American Express (14%), and Pepsi (10%) all had at least one-in-ten of adults assume they are sponsors.
For those companies who were known as sponsors, we asked consumers how sponsorship changed their opinion of these companies? A substantial portion of people following the Olympics say they will give stronger support for these companies - 23 percent of viewers say they are far more likely to support the companies (and an additional 19 percent say they are somewhat more likely to support). And, some of the key themes that attract people to support the sponsoring companies are images of community support, global support, and supporting important traditions.
Read more of the findings
by downloading our report:
"Why Social Media Matters for Your Business.
"Posted by Jeff McKenna. Jeff is a senior consultant at CMB and a lover of the Winter Olympics. His favorite sport is the biathlon.
With Valentine's Day around the corner 
the ads and jingles are everywhere, from "Every kiss begins with Kay" to "He went to Jared." I'm sure you've seen them all. Yet even with millions spent on these ad campaigns the truth is that most women don't seem to care about brand when it comes to jewelry. We recently conducted a market research project asking women how meaningful the "brand" is in a number of categories including electronics, clothing, jewelry, products for the home and cosmetics/skin care. Jewelry ranked the lowest with only 18% of woman saying the brand is "meaningful" to them when they receive (or give) jewelry as a gift.
The reality is more than twice as many women (38%) care about the brand of electronic gifts. So even with ads like the ones from Jared, it turns out brand matters more to Dave's GPS than it does to most women.
I think for me when it comes to jewelry brand isn't very important to me because I can't tell the difference between a Hearts on Fire diamond or a Hearts of Desire diamond. They both look beautiful to my amateur eye. But then again maybe I'm not their target market because I'd be happier with iPhone!
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Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's Director of Communications, a mother of two, and is stil hoping to get jewelry for Valentine's Day.
When I was younger I used to make the case to my mother that playing video games was good for me. Turns out people are starting to agree!
We recently conducted market research with 1500 consumers and found that 59% of Americans were contemplating making resolution to lose weight. The difference this year is their approach.
While the majority of consumers (41%) still plan to lace up their running shoes and pound the pavement, there is a growing trend of people turning to interactive fitness products to shed those extra pounds, all without leaving the comfort of their home. In fact, more Americans said they plan to use an interactive fitness solution like EA SPORTS ActiveTM or Wii FitTM (13%) than purchasing traditional fitness equipment (6%) or joining a traditional diet program like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig or NutriSystem (5%). Read more here...
To me this isn't shocking at all. As time crunches increase and the complexity of the fitness games increases, this is becoming a ver viable option. Wii Fit was fun, but EA Sports Active is a workout I have to admit makes me sore. It may have taken years, but I can finally tell my mom that video games are good for me!
(originally posted on The Better Research Blog)
Posted by Josh Mendelsohn. Josh is our VP of Marketing and loves live music, pugs, tv, great food, market research, New Orleans, marketing, Boston and sports. You can follow him on twitter @mendelj2.