Sears Trades Charitable...

A recent study showed that 84% of millennials rely on the opinions of others before making a purchase. That’s just one in dozens of reports that underscore the importance of good online reviews. Studies also tells us that cause-related shopping is on the rise . When quality and price are equal, 53% of shoppers said a a social purpose would sway them toward one company over another. Sears has brilliantly combined these two concepts in their new advertising campaign. They call it the “ Love/Hate: Share Your Thoughts, Send Some Love ” project. How it works is simple. A consumer posts a review (good or bad) about a product on the Sears website. Then they get to vote for one of the charities on a short list. Every other week, Sears donates money and eliminates the charity with the least number of votes. The charity left standing at the end of the campaign will receive $100,000. The charities that are in the running are American Cancer Society, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, World Vision and World Wildlife Fund. The entire process happens inside of Facebook. There’s a search box for items, which generates a list to choose from and finally this form: Below the fold is the list of charities to choose from. The whole concept is so simple and so smart. It’s an excellent way to generate reviews while doing something special for charity. And since the project doesn’t require you to leave a positive review, consumers can’t complain that Sears is buying good feedback. Well, they can complain, but it wouldn’t be true. Sears is giving away a total of $145,000, but any small business could run a similar program on a lot less. Donate what you can or gather together a group of small businesses for bigger impact. What do you think of the Sears Love / Hate campaign? Smart thinking or bound to get them in trouble some way?

Study Shows Social Medi...

IBM sat down to talk one-on-one with 1,700 CEO’s in 64 countries to discuss changes in how they do business. First, let’s marvel at the logistics behind that. All those busy people. All those languages. All that data. Seriously, I don’t think we appreciate the effort that goes into these things. Now, let’s move on to the results. To the right you see a chart with a surprising message. The CEO’s were asked how they engage with their customers. The top line represents where they are today, the bottom line where they expect to be in 3 to 5 years. Right now, social media came in dead last but it’s expected to climb to the second spot in the coming years. At a glance, I would say that these results relate to B2B companies, but the report doesn’t say one way or the other. I understand B2B being heavily face-to-face. I don’t see it in business to consumer. But again, the study doesn’t specify one or the other so I have to assume it’s a mix. Technology in general came up as the aspect most likely to impact business in the coming year. Their second choice was “People Skills.” It’s not well defined in the report, but I’m sure old school CEO’s are worried that technology is erasing our ability to connect one-on-one. Looking internally, the top CEO’s agreed that the old corporate structure doesn’t work anymore. They said they were working toward an open and honest environment where collaboration and new ideas are encouraged at every level. They also stressed the importance of values and making sure that everyone in the company is on board and working toward the same goal. But even with social media chipping away at face-to-face, the CEO’s said that personalization was still important. They believe that technology is giving us new ways to collect that data we need to listen and respond to our customers. IBM calls data a “critical new natural resource” that can be harnessed to propel a company to new heights. What do you think? Has technology made it easier to listen and respond to our customers? Or are we moving farther and farther away from personalized, customer service? Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

I agree that having bon...

I agree that having bonuses is way better that having a big base salary. It's so interesting to know that the reports based on the complete payroll solutions that this research has been based on showed that Brazil CEO's are getting more than those in New York.

Interest in Online Bank...

The internet is changing the way we do everything from shopping, to watching TV and reading the daily news. But as comfortable as we are giving our credit card to a retailer online, we’re still constantly hounded by those two monstrous words – Security and Privacy. Will my credit card number end up in the hands of thieves? Will I become a victim of identity theft? Will my employer find out things about me I don’t want them to know? These are legitimate issues and we have a reason to be concerned, but a new study by Rosetta shows that convenience is starting to trump worry. Rosetta conducted a study on banking and found that 52% of respondents do most of their banking online. Nearly half said that if they had the option, they’d do all their banking online. About the only thing keeping people tied to a bank branch is the need to withdraw and deposit cash. This may not be an issue much longer as more and more people make the move to plastic or digital dollars. As much as folks liked the convenience of online banking they had some concerns. 64% did say they would like to see stronger security measures and 57% asked for easier navigation. Why is all of this important to you, the marketer? I’ll tell you why. Because this survey shows that people are getting more comfortable with the concept of moving money around digitally. Think about it, next to medical records, there isn’t anything more sacred and scary than banking records. We’re constantly reminded to keep pin numbers in our head and to shred old checks and statements, watch our credit card statements and be wary at the ATM. But here we are (52% of us, anyway) willing to access our entire financial life through a wireless connection. And it’s not just home computers, we’re using our mobile phones to check our balances and transfer money before paying the bill at a restaurant. If people are willing to take the banking risk, they shouldn’t have any qualms buying your products and services online. All you need to do is promise them that their information is safe and will be kept private. Then keep those promises and you’ll have a plenty of happy and loyal customers.

IAB Reveals a Week in t...

Shopping via a mobile phone isn’t an everyday experience for most people, but already we can see patterns forming around the how, the why and the when. Last month, IAB asked a group of mobile shoppers to keep a diary of their activity in a two week period. Here are some of the things they found out: Home Usage Here we see that almost half of all e-commerce interactions happened at home. They found that purchasing peaked in the late afternoon, early evening. 49% said they shopped while watching TV. The dollar amounts aren’t too impressive, only 38% reported spending more than $21 a month. Most of the purchases were digital downloads with clothing and entertainment items coming in second. Out and About Only 29% used their mobile phone to shop while they were out, but 73% used their phones while they were shopping in a brick and mortar store. 34% used their phone to look up a price and 53% abandoned their purchase because of what they found. A few abandoned the purchase because they saw a bad review but most were lured away by a lower price – the downside of mobile commerce. The good news is that 70% said they saw mobile as as more of an “invitation” than an “invasion.” They do not want ads to take them straight to check-out. They want to be taken to a page with additional options. 30% said they’d like to pay with mobile then pick the item up at the store. Overall, the IAB Mobile Phone Shopping Diaries shows that consumers see mobile shopping as a way of getting the best price with the least amount of effort. They want information and options and in return they’ll allow you to use their geo-location to target them and their phone to contact them. Sounds like a good deal to me.