Voices: the CMB Blog

When you think about St. Patrick’s Day, I bet food isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.  We reviewed online chatter over the past month and although the holiday isn’t until tomorrow, we were surprised to see about twice as much discussion about St. Patrick’s Day recipes and favorite dishes (66%) than about beverages (33%).  Mentions of green beer, Guinness, and overindulgence are there, but far less than one might expect. How wholesome!  Or more likely, we have captured planning for the festivities.  Stay tuned for some interesting tweets on the 17^th from holiday revelers! 

The most traditional dish, corned beef & cabbage, was most top of mind but there was a virtual feast of chatter about food comprised of almost every category imaginable.  Anything green (green pretzels, key lime pie, spinach quiche, hummus) is considered acceptable St. Patrick’s Day fare. General discussion about recipes was prevalent; some specifically mentioned having found ideas for interesting dishes on Pinterest boards.

 Aside from general mentions of drinking, the traditional Green Beer emerged as the most frequently mentioned St. Patrick’s Day beverage.  And just when you think you’ve seen it all, apparently some people color their wine green too…who knew?

All of us at CMB want to wish you a festive and safe St. Patrick’s Day.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’d like to share my father’s favorite Irish saying:

May those who love us, love us
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts,
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles
So we’ll know them by their limping

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Click here for more on our strategic approach to Social Media Research.

Posted by Cathy Harrison, Cathy is CMB’s social media research maven and would never drink green wine. Follow her on Twitter at @VirtualMR

The 2014 implementation of many of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) key provisions has sparked a great deal of speculation about the future of the healthcare market; there seems to be no end to the models predicting how the law will impact the insurance industry. There is no question that reform will shift the health insurance industry to a more retail based model, and in the process challenge traditional insurers to develop new consumer oriented capabilities.  A vital piece of planning for this shift will require understanding changes in consumer decision-making. The traditional approach of health insurers to segmenting the market is unlikely to provide the kind of insight necessary to win in an industry facing such fundamental regulatory, economic, and cultural change.

Traditional segmentation approaches cut the consumer market by demographics (e.g. age, gender) or funding source (e.g. who pays).  This approach was appropriate in years past when there was relatively little competition, differentiation, and when choice was limited. However, the insurance industry’s move to a more complex and competitive model requires a more nuanced understanding of customer needs and differentiators. The newly minted college grad indeed has different needs from their parents moving toward retirement or the young professional starting a family. This is proven out in some recent research we conducted.

To get a better sense of insurance consumers and their preferences, CMB and the South Street Strategy Group analyzed the responses of nearly 1,500 Americans over the age of 18, surveyed as part of CMB’s Consumer Pulse Program.  We then segmented the market by plan features and found five distinct segments that illustrate the needs and goals people have for their insurance coverage.

The segments we found are defined not solely by age or insurance source but by the needs and goals people have for their insurance coverage, and provide far more insight than traditional methods. For example one large segment, who we’ve termed “e-Patients” are the most interested in managing their healthcare or “visiting” their doctor online.  They’re price sensitive, want out-of-network coverage and are willing to switch primary care providers to get the benefits they want. Knowing the attributes of this and other significant segments of the insured population is invaluable to insurance providers who are facing an increasingly customer-centric industry.

To learn more about our approach and see more detailed profiles of the other segments click here.

Posted by J. Mark Carr, Mark is co-founder and managing partner of South Street Strategy Group.

South Street Strategy Group, an independent sister company of Chadwick Martin Bailey, integrates the best of strategy consulting and marketing science to develop better growth and value delivery strategies. 

As an everyday user of the criminally addictive social networking site Facebook, I rolled my eyes when I saw the new “Timeline” design. Why fix something if it’s not broken? Didn’t I just get used to the most recent interface?  While I sat absorbing all the new features, Facebook was busy launching a revelatory tool for marketers.

Previously, the popularity of a business’ Facebook page was driven by the number of “likes” and “comments.” Businesses could hide behind the “like” button.  Now, marketers are forced to tell a story about their brand (and if you know anything about CMB, we LOVE to tell a story). Customer engagement is now driven by a personal connection developed through captivating storytelling as opposed to an unimpassioned click of a button. Users can follow their favorite brands from conception to the present through the Timeline layout.

With the new layout, fans and visitors now see the same landing page. Everyone is privy to the same content, and it must be appealing enough to convert the “lurkers” into “likers.” Marketers need to achieve this through good storytelling, and Facebook has developed several new tools on the Timeline that allow users to make their stories unique.

New features like pinning and starring posts allow developers to anchor their most important posts at the top of their page for seven days. This ensures that the best stories don’t get lost in daily posts. Videos and pictures are now amplified on the pages, helping drive deeper engagement by existing fans, and piquing interest in potential ones. Milestones can now be defined by the business and posted publicly when they are achieved; allowing companies to share their successes with the people who helped get them there.

The most controversial of the new additions, is the ability to privately message people. This tool is being viewed as a way to individually engage with fans, and allow for quicker and more personal responses. However, companies should proceed with caution in using this feature. Bombarding their fans with an abundance of messages is a surefire way to turn off their support base. This tool should be used to help foster, and not strain, the relationships between businesses and their consumers.

A common driver of the old Facebook interface was quantity of content. The new Facebook Timeline pushes the focus to quality. Developers are encouraged to optimize the content they have in order to engage fans by telling their story during their fans’ “peak” usage periods and pinning popular posts. 

As professional story-tellers, we are excited here at CMB to launch our Timeline here

Posted by Keri Ibbitson. Keri is an Associate Researcher with the Travel and Entertainment team. When not writing about the complexities of Facebook, you can find her watching the Bruins, wrapped up in an Intervention marathon, or dreaming of going back to London.  

Last year we partnered with Constant Contact to learn how consumers use Facebook to connect with brands. Take a look at this cool infographic from Intuit and Column Five featuring some of our findings and how small businesses are using social media:

Download the full report here.

A career in market research can make you pretty sensitive to advertising. An ineffective commercial can make me throw up my hands wondering how it got on air; a great one makes me appreciate all the work that went into making it. Recently, I got to see a behind the scenes example of what goes into a memorable ad campaign in CMB’s work with Aflac.

I expect you’re familiar with Aflac’s Duck, the be-feathered icon has appeared in the brand’s commercials since 1999 and his signature quack is instantly recognizable.  But Aflac faced a challenge, people knew The Duck, but they weren’t sure what he wanted them to do, or much about the company he represented.  To address this branding challenge Aflac needed to educate the market about their products, differentiate themselves from the competition, all while keeping The Duck in the picture.

CMB worked with Aflac, to conduct an innovative brand positioning study using discrete choice. The study allowed the team to:

• Identify the unique needs of  three target audiences: consumers, employers, and brokers

• Identify how specific changes to elements of brand positioning affected each group’s desire to learn more about Aflac, leading to the development of  a user friendly simulator for the brand and their agency

• Deliver optimized brand positioning specifying value statements, how to address audience goals, emotional and functional benefits, and the most compelling proof points.

The results helped guide Aflac and their agency to create ads that let customers get to know the company behind The Duck. Take a look at one of the ads that has gotten nearly 350,000 views on YouTube.

Want to learn more? Join us for a Webinar on March 7^th to hear CMB’s Rich Schreuer and Aflac’s Missy Wood share how CMB helped Aflac use the power of discrete choice to reposition their brand. Register here

Posted by Megan McManaman, Megan is the Content Marketing Manager at CMB. She enjoys watching and  parsing ads but draws the line at the ones with talking babies. Follow her on Twitter at @Megz79.