2009 December | Liri Andersson

Archive for December, 2009

There are consumers, customers and then there are people…

Jonathan MacDonald (my business partner in this fluid world) and I received an interesting piece of feedback from a client just before Xmas.

“In your report you sometimes refer to customers as people, and sometimes as consumers, if you don’t mind can we always call them customers for consistency”.

Well, and in this instance I feel particularly confident speaking for Jonathan, we do mind.

Exchanging customers for consumers, consumers for people, or customers for people is not a question of looking up different words in the thesaurus to avoid repeating oneself in a report, it’s a very conscious decision.

What I’m about to say will be hard for some people in advertising to understand…

…but the truth is that when you wake up in the morning, before you quickly reach for your phone dying to read a marketing text message, or an e-mail from someone wanting you to buy something based on a previous purchase, before you reach for the cereal box you bought only because you saw the ad, before you drink your espresso (inspired by Mr Clooney), and before rushing out for your daily fix of billions of advertising messages on which you will immediately act…

…before all that, and for considerable chunks of the remainder of the day, you will be… we will all be, just that people. Customers and consumers is what we are in-between being people.

We are people when we go about our everyday lives (human centric view).
We are customers when we buy (retail centric view).
And we are consumers when we consume, or use something (marketing centric view).

I think you will agree that they are simply not the same thing. Any marketer who does not undersand this distinction will do so at his peril.

You will not see the same advertising in the retail environment for Lynx (Axe to my European friends) as you see on TV, why? Simple, the people responsible for the brand understand that the consumer is a 16-year-old boy, but that the customer is his mother.

Amazon should not try to sell me a digital camera when they know I’ve just bought one, as I’m unlikely to be a customer of something I’m in the middle of consuming – and still they keep trying. (I know Amazon is my pet peeve at the moment).

So by the same rational, traditional style advertising should not be aimed at people when they are being people. This does not mean that at that moment we can’t be inspired to become a customer or consumer, it just means we are unlikely to be inspired to make that shift because someone ‘talks’ at us and interrupts our everyday lives (we are busy…being people – remember).

Consumer insights and customer research (yes the words mean something) have their place, but it should fall under a much broader banner, the one of understanding people. This not seen from the perspective of what they read, or what they buy, or use, but simply by understanding how they live their lives and the psychology behind their feelings and the drivers of their choices.

Simples, as Mr Aleksandr Orlov (from meerkat.com) would say…not so much I say, if we are still asked to change the words in the name of consistency.

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2009: 12/28
CATEGORY: Advertising/Media
Marketing
Thoughts
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Big brother is watching, not so much!!! The Amazon saga continues…

In my last post Big brother is watching, not so much!!! I brought to your attention some less successful targeting attempts by Amazon (yes the one and only targeting guru).

Well, the saga continues as there is apparently no end to how far Amazon can stretch a digital camera purchase! Reading through all their e-mails I thought – if I have to suffer through this, I want to do it in good company.

So here it is, phase two of the ‘I once bought a digital camera at Amazon’ saga.

After having suggested I may be interested in a memory card, and later a camera case, (both of which I had already bought from Amazon) Amazon sent me the following mail.

Yes, a couple of camera cases, which 1) we have already established I own, and 2) they have already proposed to me in a previous e-mail. The mail also suggests I may be interested in a few batteries which 1) makes me question the relevance and 2) makes me want to call Amazon and educate them on what a perfect stocking filler looks like!

It’s also quite obvious they don’t know if I bought the camera for myself, or for someone else (why would they, they never asked), as they suggest, in the same phrase, that I may enjoy the accessories…or I may want to put them in someone’s Xmas stocking.

A few days later, here we go again.

This time I’m almost as surprised as when I was asked to buy a camera case and a memory card I already bought. Why? Because I have never, not once, browsed for photo frames. Would you Mr Amazon by any chance have made that assumption because I recently – yes say it after me, bought a digital camera? If that is the case, not good! No one appreciates someone pretending they know them when they don’t!

And then yesterday.

Yes back to the accessories, camera cases and photo frames – I’m thinking this is starting to look like the old above the line reach and frequency approach – if we show it to her enough times she will end up caving in (and to be honest if I thought buying another camera case would make the emails stop I would – I’d even put it in my Xmas stocking!).

I’m also registered at Amazon France from the time I lived there. I think the databases are connected since I’m forced to choose if I want the country I live in to be specified in French (Angleterre) or English (England). This makes me think my data resides in one place, which you would think is cool since it should improve targeting.

And yet….

This e-mail is to help me out with some Xmas present ideas. What jumps out at you? Yes can you see it? The famous digital camera Canon IXUS I just bought (but in gold)! Maybe they think asking me in French will make me want to do it all over again?

They also seem to be a little confused as to who I am, and what to call me, as they keep jumping from ‘Dear customer’ when they refer to something I have bought, and L. Andersson for random why not buy e-mails. Neither of which i feel is particularly warm, targeted or human.

In summary, if you are a company looking to target then:
•   Make sure you track all behaviour, and cross analyse (cross order, purchase and country) – there is no excuse for not knowing what someone has already bought.
•   If you want to track behaviour, and make people feel you ‘know them’, then maybe L Andersson is not the way forward.
•   Don’t make assumptions about what lies behind a purchase when you communicate– and if you need to know then ask people when they place their order.
•   If you suggest to someone they have done something, or like something – then make sure you have your facts right!
•   If you want to cross sell – then make sure it makes sense…
•   …and make sure you don’t over do it…there are only so many ‘we hope you enjoyed the digital camera you just purchased’ e-mails people can take.
•   Consider cutting down on other promotional e-mail while you send targeted communication, no-one wants to get more e-mails from a company than a best friend.
•   And finally, if someone does not respond, give up…you are probably barking up the wrong tree!

As for Amazon, the shining example in targeting…it all seems like a bit of a mess. Although one thing is crystal clear to me, whatever you do, never buy a digital camera from Amazon, it will just confuse them, and nothing good will come out of that!

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2009: 12/12
CATEGORY: Advertising/Media
Customer Experience
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Big brother is watching, not so much!!!

We go from conference to conference where we are told that data is the future of marketing, and that in the near future we will be able to, not only analyse individual behaviour, but also predict it.

We read articles describing a tomorrow that feels a little bit like a Sting song (for you out there who are not Sting fans let me clarify by quoting the lyrics, “every breath you take and every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you”).

As a marketer, and a general lover of data, I get very exited every time I think of the prospect of a world where I don’t only achieve perfect targeting, but where I anticipate individual’s needs, with the aim of being the first marketer in queue to satisfy Bethan’s from Mumbles craving for ice cream (before she’s even felt it)!

But as a citizen I have at times felt slightly uneasy at the idea of big brother watching my every move! This discomfort however, was recently put to rest by the one and only on-line retail Guru, Amazon!

A few weeks ago I decided to buy a new digital camera. Experience has taught me that there is no point in shopping around for hours; good old Amazon always manages to be price competitive and reliable. I placed my order for a camera and a case, and a few days later; there it was my lovely little Canon IXUS 100 IS.

I was a little surprised that it came without any memory, but I patiently went through the process of ordering a memory card from Amazon (which arrived a few days later).

So you can imagine my surprise when on Tuesday I receive the following e-mail.

But I have already bought a memory card from you Mr Amazon…surely your database should have told you that!

If the argument is that this happened because the memory card was not in the same order as the camera, then I have to say, not good enough. Especially coming from the company that everyone quotes as the number one in on-line retail and targeting.

But separate orders is clearly not the argument as the next day I received the following e-mail.

I mean really Mr Amazon, I bought a case from you at the same time as the camera…there is no doubt that your database should have told you that?!!!!

The marketer in me is appalled, what a missed opportunity!!! Two useless e-mails, one potentially annoyed customer, and a massive missed opportunity at cross-selling something the customer has not already bought (not to mention that I should have been told when placing the order for a camera that it does not come with a memory card).

However, Liri the human being feels slightly relieved. We are clearly years away from someone stalking me on-line, knowing about, or anticipating my every move!

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