Guerrilla Customer Research Made Easy

It only takes 4.5 minutes out of your day to watch Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen, demonstrate what he calls "disruptive innovation".

He and his team wanted to know why customers were buying milkshakes for breakfast, and were able to uncover and understand this odd behavior.

The method they used is highly replicable and easy as 1, 2, 3...

1. Before you interview, observe. 

• The team spent an entire day watching and taking notes on the milkshake buyers. Observing was essential for they gathered that half of the milkshakes were sold before 8 A.M to people who were alone and took it to go. 

2. Ask the big-picture question.

• The next step was to ask the customers, "What job are you hiring the milkshake to do?" The team learned that customers weren't necessarily wanting an actual milkshake for breakfast, but it was something that was easier to eat and kept them occupied on their long drive to work. 

3. Conduct research face-to-face.

• Asking such a deceptively complex question in person allowed for the team to further explain what they meant by "job", ask follow up questions, etc. This was an effective approach for they were able to get more out of the consumer, revealing surprising preferences when it came to the early morning commute. 

Check out the video and let us know what you think! Would you consider a milkshake over your typical bagel in the morning? 

Marketing Predictions for 2013

In 2012, there were increased developments for marketers. Social media sites, such as Facebook, created a massive mobile advertising business. Now the question is, what does 2013 have to offer? Advertising experts got together to show marketing predictions for the year to come.

The first strategy experts explored was “Mobile-First Strategy.” Facebook and Google are two sites responsible for the mobile ad spending tripling to $4 billion in 2012. According to eMarketer, “we expect mobile ads to increasingly become the top priority for advertisers on digital, rather than desktop.” This is the result of consumers spending more time and money on mobile devices.

Next experts explored the revision of “Banner Ads.” Banner ads do not work well on mobile devices, which has lead companies to reconsider using them. However, the ads will not be going away for good, instead businesses are working on a more creative way to post them and become user friendly.

How Online Shopping Effects Dealership Traffic

According to AutoTrader.com, online shopping leads buyers to visit fewer dealerships than in the past. Whereas people used to visit multiple dealerships and look at any number of cars, car buyers have been given the opportunity to browse inventories online, find and compare prices all without leaving the comfort of home. AutoTrader explained that current buyers spend an average of 11 hours shopping online and just 7 hours offline and in dealerships when searching for their next vehicle.  

On a positive note, online shoppers who do head out to purchase new vehicles are willing to travel further to dealerships they would not have ordinarily considered. The pull of dealerships from further distances seems to have increased with the influx of online shoppers in their searches for the best deal. The convenience of the internet leads to a need for an interactive dealership website which can offer pricing, tools for comparison and an accurate inventory with an emphasis on directions to the physical address. This is just another example of how the age of technology is changing how consumers shop.  

5 Ways to Monitor Your Brand’s Effectiveness

In today’s world, branding isn’t entirely about numbers anymore. Now we have to take generating a fan base into account. Here are 5 ways to measure how well your brand is doing online:

            1.   Are you engaging your fans?

Effective marketing is about building relationships with fans and customers, not about yelling out information in a busy marketplace. Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter allow us to see how responsive and active we are with our customers.

A French telecommunications company named Orange asked their followers to tweet summer plans with hashtag #thissummer. The company was able to record the responses and generate traffic which allowed the followers to identify with the company’s branding.

2. Are you adding value to the conversation?

It’s a great idea to post content that other people will want to see and share with others. Healthy Choice posted a 75 cent coupon on Facebook which would increase in value as the site grew more followers. The company gained 10,000 fans in just a few weeks. This is a good example of how a company can bring value to its customers by increasing engagement.

3. Are you practicing the 20-to-1 rule?

The 20-to-1 rule means that you have to make 20 relational posts for every 1 marketing posts. In order to be successful, you need to be a giver instead of a taker. Companies need to be generous with their fans, so when you do need something, your fans respond.

4. Are you monitoring feedback?

If you want to be effective, you have to know what works and what doesn’t. A blogger with a large amount of followers tweeted about a negative experience he had with U-Haul. In no time, U-Haul lost thousands of dollars and long-term damage to their brand, solely because the company didn’t understand how much power the consumer has in today’s world. Creating an outpost where you can monitor what people are saying will allow you to address the consumer’s concerns, receive immediate market feedback, and show your customer’s you’re listening.

5. Are you engaging through your blog or website?

Most people believe you need a website with flashy graphics and a fancy design in order to generate higher traffic. However, this is not the case. Customers mainly want to feel like someone cares and is listening, not so much about how appealing the site looks. Try ending your blog with a question so readers feel like they can engage.

Yahoo's fourth-quarter net earnings decline 5 percent

Yahoo's fourth-quarter earnings fell 5 percent as newly minted CEO Scott Thompson acknowledged the company needed to do better, but was short on details about his plans.

The company’s fourth-quarter net earnings declined 5 percent year-over-year to $296 million, with revenue off 3 percent to $1.17 billion. And search advertising revenue dipped 3 percent year-over-year to $388 million.

Yahoo’s full-year revenue hit $5 billion, a far cry from the $6.3 billion it recorded in 2010. During the company’s earnings call Tuesday, Thompson said he's spent “a lot of [his] time and attention”understanding the problems facing Yahoo’s display advertising business. Referring to the company's results, Yahoo CFO TimMorse said during the earnings call, “we expected better.”

Thompson repeatedly said that it was too early to discuss how he plans to improve Yahoo’s performance. But he isolated the consumer data Yahoo holds as “the key component for driving innovation.”

“Our data may be Yahoo’s most underrated, underappreciated and underused asset,” he said.

Thompson said he aims to mine the data collected from Yahoo’s 702 million monthly unique visitors to improve the site experience for consumers, which he said would lead to more time spent on site and better results for advertisers.

Thompson and Morse downplayed the uncertainty that has dogged Yahoo throughout the fourth quarter and continues to follow the company. Morse—who took over as interim CEO after Carol Bartz’s ouster in September—termed the period “challenging” with “numerous distractions,” and Thompson said there was a lot of “commotion” surrounding the company.

Thompson’s appointment earlier this month may have settled the CEO question. ButYahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the company’s board last week, and questions persist over whether Yahoo will be sold.

As to the latter, all Thompson would say was that Yahoo “remains open to anything that’s good for our shareholders.”