Bandwidth shot through the roof

The speed with which we access the Internet is one reason behind such a sudden and huge proliferation of videos on the Internet. But, it is not just the increased bandwidth that led to this development. There are many more things. One such thing is laziness on our part.

We are lazier than ever

Video marketers are getting hotter because consumers are getting lazier. Lack of work has taken good of us. Now are lazier than we ever were. Reading is too much time consuming. It requires active attention from our side, but we can consume video lying on our back munching “junk”.

We became multitasking

This is paradoxical. We have grown lazy, but at the same time we have given in for multitasking. When we read, we just read. We cannot do anything else, but when we watch, we do quite a number of things — play with ball, cook food, babysit kids, do other less-involving works. Video gives us space to multitask.

It connects well

Video also sells on the Internet because it connects well. By sending audio and visual stimuli, video connects with us on an emotional level, which articles fail to do that — yes, it does not hold true for stories and well-written articles, of course.

Because video fools our mind

Through sights and sounds, video gives us an illusion that the person who is delivering the message is present here and now when we are consuming it, which any article cannot replicate. A video fools our mind in believing that the communicator is present in the room, which is not so.

I hope, you now know why video is becoming “the new article” (as in the new black) for the online world. What do you think? What else video does to us? Fire up your writing genius and post your comments below this.

Even the brands loyal have claimed to have stayed away from purchasing their favorite brands. In March 2010, more than 50% said that due to the recession, they did not buy the brand they wanted to.

The categories that were already on the fall, before recession, did not see much of a change, but categories in which brand loyalty was paramount got hit by the recession. Apparels, OTC, and Health and beauty products saw the major decline. These are the categories that had most brand loyalty. See image above for detail.

Shifted to cheaper brands

While answering a question about what the consumers buy if not their preferred brand then they revealed their trading down behavior as well. Coupons, discounts, and freebies were said to be on the decisive factors in preference setting. See image for detail.

The US consumers’ perception of the financial services providers was quite low in 2009, which seem to have got back to its 2008 state in April. Even AIG, whose reputation touch the bottom in 2009 during the financial crisis, has also gone up in 2010.

Visa got the highest brand equity score of 65.76, followed by MasterCard whose brand equity score is 60.66. The Hartford with the score 53.40 and Fidelity Investments Financial Services with 53.29 score on brand equity make the bottom two of the report that studies top 10 highest ranked financial services company. See image for detail.

Not only the perception (brand equity) is on the way up, but the trust is also going up on the scale. Although it has not touched even 2008 level, the hope of its speedy recovery can be felt in the report released by Harris Interactive.

In the trust ranking, TIAA-CREF Financial Services ranked at number one with a trust score of 6.64, and at number two is Vanguard Group with a trust score of 6.55. Visa is at number 3 with the total score of 6.6. The Hartford which was at number 9th position in terms of brand equity has fared relatively well on the trust quotient. It is on number 5 with a trust score of 6.39. See image for detail.

Nielsen BuzzMetrics has done a thorough study to gauge the mood of the consumers, and for that the company sieve through 45,000 Usenet forums, 8,000 discussion forums, and 135 million blogs. According to the Nielsen Company, the main focus was on finding the following:

• How are consumers reacting?
• How are card companies communicating changes?
• What actions do consumers plan to take?
• Who is to blame?
• Which companies are being implicated?

The study revealed that buzz related to Credit Card Act tipped off big time in May 2009, and it continued making round until it petered out n February 2010, when the law was put into effect. (See image for trend).

People who went gaga on the announcement of Credit Card Act 2009 started to oppose it when Obama signed the bill to make it a law. People have many complains ranging from having not enough protection to fear of misuse by the company, etc. Only time will tell how justified this fear is, meanwhile see the image below to get the complete data.

Previous year, the four biggest wireless service providers in the United States — Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, and — Sprint have rolled out their Facebook fan pages. The data released by Compete suggests that many US consumers are using these fan pages to stay in touch with their preferred Wireless service provider.

Facebook fan page work as company profile page where companies publish details about themselves, and also use it to network with the users. These profiles are seeing increase in the usage, though in absolute term, time spent is not too high.

In February 2010, users have spent typically 95 seconds in each session on Sprint’s fan page, but ever since it is on the rise and same hold true for other major wireless carriers. Users are using these pages to keep themselves abreast with the recent development, and the growth trend suggests that people love to connect with their wireless carriers. See image for detail.

Better Business Bureau (BBB) has recently revealed that in 2009, the industry that drew most consumer complaints was cell phone industry. In the year in question, BBB received 1 million consumer complains, which is a 9.7% increase over the complaint volume of 2008.

BBB is a symbol of trust for business on the Internet, and many consumers use this service to research business in 2009. In total, users used the service of BBB 65 million times in 2009 to ensure that the business they are dealing with is trustworthy.

Leading the number of complaints against, the cell phone industry received 37, 477 complaints in 2009, which is an increase of 2.1% over the volume of complaints received in 2008 against this industry. At number two was cable and satellite TV industry with 32,616 complaints and number 3 slot was taken by banks with 29,920 complaints.

In terms of percentage change in number of complaints banking industry rule the roost with 42.3% more complaints over the last year.

There are industries like collection agencies, auto dealers- new cars, and furniture-retail that saw decline in the number of complaints. See the picture for more detail.

]]> http://itlist.com/which-industry-has-the-most-disgruntled-customers/feed/ 0 http://itlist.com/social-media-got-small-business-acceptance/ http://itlist.com/social-media-got-small-business-acceptance/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:11:54 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/?p=2331 Social media is increasingly being used by Small businesses as found in a Small Business Success Index study. It was found that the low cost of attracting and retaining the target audience using social media was the impetus behind the doubling down of the adoption rate. Social media adoption grew by 24% in compared to 2008 when it was 12%.

Key findings

Positive Indicators

• 45% hope to reap rewards (profit) from social media spending in next 12 months
• 57% have built online network using LinkedIn or similar websites.
• 61% uses social media to identify and attract new customers.
• 75% small businesses surveyed had a company profile page on any social networking sites.

Things that make them scowl

• 6% of survey participants said that use of social media has hurt them
• 17% of them said using social media left the companies vulnerable to consumers’ criticism.
• 50% thinks it takes more time than expected.

These findings (See image for complete detail) indicate that to be successful in the new socially-connected economy, the company has to be caring. “Meet deadline and bottom line” oriented company will have a hard time persuading its customers. The concerns that small business owners that participated in the survey talked about had more to do with their business and its operation and less to do with the nature of social media. They will grow and get accepted, if only they accept this fact and make required changes in their businesses.

2009 recorded a negative growth of 2%, which is unprecedented, to touch $209.6 billion mark. The travel sector saw a drop of 5% to $79.8 billion, while, growth rate of e-commerce retail (non-travel) remained flat to $129.8 billion. For retail e-commerce, the no-growth year of 2009 has been preceded by a year of single digit growth (6% in 2008), which was the lowest growth rate for the segment on record. On an average this sector had an annual growth of around 20%.

But the good news is that the US consumer has shown some confidence in e-commerce in last two months (November and December) of 2009, which gave the segment a respective year-on-year growth of 3% to $12 billion and 5% to $17 billion.

Then why they are not plunging in?

Because we are not living in the era where capital matters. What matters today to make a business successful is idea. A business requires a killer idea to become successful. In the paragraphs below, I will tell you how to find a killer business idea.

Find killer business idea in 3 easy steps

• Step 1: Based on the ability you have, look for the industry that you can work. Alternatively, you can also look for a sector in which you will be more comfortable working. Find an industry in which you would love to work.
• Step 2: Divide the industry in various sector and list major players in each sector. Also analyze, perceive, and observe the need gap. Ask consumers and retailers about what benefit they are seeking from their existing consumption which are not yet fulfilled. I am asking you to find a need gap.
• Step 3: Find the alternative routes to fill the need gap. See how you can fulfill industry’s demand efficiently. You need to find a way to keep the price of the solution you are offering within industry’s expected price range.

Once you are through with this, make a business plan and execute it. The business plan should cover every aspect of a business. You need to ascertain the challenges as well as opportunity. Do a SWOT as well as PESTLE analysis. Do not forget to make a list of things you need to run the business.

Definition of Marketing

“Meeting needs profitably” is the core on which the gigantic frame of marketing is standing. And when I say, marketing meets everyone’s needs profitably then I mean it for every stake holder. For consumer it is to buy solution at the best possible price, for organization it is to grow at rapid pace, for investor it means to maximize the return on Investment, and for marketer it means meeting their goals.

How can we achieve this goal

All these needs are not mutually exclusive; they can be met all at once. But for this one need to broaden one’s horizon to include other’s point of view as well. To achieve this we need to consider the following:

• Marketers need to be honest when assessing consumer’s need and/or when selling their products to meet their monthly, quarterly, or yearly target.
• Investor needs to empathize with the consumer, and marketer who are interacting in the market. They should not just focus on more and more and even more return. Being too greedy is not the answer to their problem.
• A business should understand that the number of consumers will always be limited, so they should avoid getting trapped in “perennial growth” cycle. Growth in market share, sales volume, profit, etc., should be chased but not as fiercely as companies are doing. Too much greed is not good.
• Consumers should learn to trust the marketers, and should tell them about their needs, desires, ambitions, values, etc.
• Consumers need to understand that they need marketing and marketer to search for the solutions to their problems. Marketers are not some crooked wizard.
• Consumers need to understand that for them marketer is a time-saving device, a need analyzer, and a search engine that help them find what they need.
• Regulator should see if everything is going all right. Regulator should be honest in analyzing the market condition, and if everyone is doing what he or she is required to do.
• Businesses, marketers, and investor need to be more socially responsible. They need to care for the well-being of consumers. They should think of how they can make a world a better place.

Do not think that I am someone else. I, myself is a marketer, but like most of my fellow, I do not take people for a ride.

Traditionalists may argue that the internet has removed a lot of practices that we thought we’d have forever – like having just a landline and the post office to stay communicated. These days, we can call and send mails through the internet, at a lower cost and with much less effort. Consumers are enjoying the perks of a convenient internet lifestyle. This is why businesses should adjust to the changing times and make their products and services available on the internet by establishing informative and appealing websites. The first thought that probably comes to a businessman’s mind is the cost. How much does it cost to build and maintain a website? Surprisingly, it doesn’t cost as much as you think it does. There are website hosts which offer sites at a reasonable cost. The cost usually includes protection from the sophisticated hands of hackers who might harm your information and that of your clients’ by offering free anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-phishing software. The packages can also include an interface where the business owner can communicate directly with the clients through chatting. The best thing about this feature is that there is no limit to the number of hours or the number of clients you can speak with.

At this point you might have already realized that building websites is not as expensive as you originally thought it would be. Website hosting costs include other perks so you are actually getting so much more that what you pay for. One of the primary concerns also includes the aesthetic side of having websites. What do you do when you do not have the technical skills to build a website from scratch? Website hosts also take this into consideration and efficient website hosts usually include hundreds of templates which you can choose from. With the numerous templates available, I’m sure you will find something which suits your business and your own personal style.

We are now at a stage where we have so much to do in so little time. Searching through the internet is such a convenient way of getting things done. Businesses should recognize this and build websites to promote and retain clients. It is cost-efficient and it is definitely a business strategy every businessman should try.

With the economic crisis right here, right now, many businesses are diverting their funds from payroll (very unfortunately) to marketing and advertising with the idea that that is the best investment for their immediate and future growth.

The past:
Newspapers (print ads): Great eye catching graphics and slogans. But aren’t we all now trying to “go green”? How many of us still get the paper delivered to our door? Isn’t it easier and quicker to “go online”? Why bother thumbing through all those pages when we can just type in a keyword and click search.
Television advertisements (commercials) range from a few seconds to several minutes (also program-length infomercials). Advertisements like this have been used to sell every product imaginable over the years. And can cost millions! But so many of us would rather use our favorite tool, the REMOTE, to channel surf, or at least mute those dreaded minutes of commercial time.

Food for thought:
We are in crisis mode, and that is when people turn to brands they know and trust, which translates to value. So, companies will be looking for more cost-effective ways to reach their target audiences. And that is online marketing, with almost instant feedback as to what is working and what isn’t, via the web pages you search, the newsletters you sign up for, the ads you click on, etc…

Many companies now have forums or blogs which create feedback from consumers so the new buyer can get that very important recommendation from the end user, much like a recommendation from a friend or family member.

The future (NOW):
Many experts predict that internet advertising in the USA will continue to rapidly increase within this economic downturn forcing a reduction in overall advertising spending. Many companies will be transferring much of their marketing budget from traditional (TV and print) to the new online media, which will most likely become the major avenue of advertisement over the next few years at a very high rate.
The snowball effect:
Online audiences watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch, and where they want to watch. It’s not just your grandmother’s PC anymore! Cell phones, Blackberrys, Iphones, MP3’s, etc… This audience is sure to increase as technologies progress and becomes more and more available.
There’s no turning back now…online advertising IS the future.