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How Engaged Are You With Your Facebook Followers? January 26, 2012

Posted by Michael Carney in : Facebook, social , add a comment

More and more travel and tourism operators have bowed to social pressure and set up a page on Facebook. Unfortunately, in too many cases those operators don’t know how to actually engage with their followers — they treat the medium as being just like an advertising vehicle, not a two-way forum.

We’ve been collecting data on thousands of Facebook pages and here’s what we’ve found so far (our research project is still in progress), based on an evaluation of some 675 Facebook pages about New Zealand travel and tourism organisations:

In other words, on average 94% of those who say they “like” your Facebook page just aren’t talking about you, and even a cursory glance at a typical page shows why: most of the content on a typical Facebook page is about product and price, and very little about being helpful, inspirational or even interesting.

Does it matter?

Yes, it does: Facebook uses an engagement measure called EdgeRank to identify the engagement levels of Facebook pages. If you fail the EdgeRank engagement test, your posts won’t even show up on your followers’ newsfeeds. If your posts aren’t even being seen, you can’t exactly call that marketing.

On the positive side, of course, engaging Facebook pages get you seen and noticed by your followers — and shared with their friends. Word of mouth lives!

So what can you do to engage more effectively on your Facebook page?

Here are four ideas:

1. If you have a concierge (or the equivalent), ask him/her about the questions most frequently asked by visitors. Then take the answer to each question and use it as the theme of a post to your Facebook page. [If you don't have a concierge, ask the people at your local information centre the same question].

2. Search YouTube for up-to-date videos of your local area and its attractions and post those videos on your page: showcase the area, not just you.

3. Interview departing guests on video and post the resulting clips to your page (upload them to YouTube first).

4. Take our Facebook Accelerator course (details here, take advantage of our Early Bird booking offer to save $100 – book before next Wednesday) so you can really improve your Facebook engagement!

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We’re Number 3! January 14, 2011

Posted by Michael Carney in : Travel, brands , add a comment

We note with just a pardonable dash of pride (not that we were in any way responsible!) that New Zealand now rates as the third best country brand in the world, according to the FutureBrand 2010 Country Brand Index (presented in partnership with BBC World News). Top slot went to Canada, Australia filled the number two position and then there we are (just ahead of the USA, which dropped from first in 2009 to fourth place last year).

This was the sixth annual Country Brand Index, in this instance based around a global quantitative research study with 3,400 international business and leisure travellers from 13 countries on all five continents, qualified by in-depth expert focus groups that took place in 14 major metropolitan areas around the world.

So what does a Country Brand Index measure, and why does it matter? Here’s what the FutureBrand researchers had to say:

After five years of research, we know that country brand strength is driven by perceptions of five key dimensions: Tourism, Heritage and Culture, Good for Business, Quality of Life and Value System.

In addition, the strength of a country brand is determined in the same way as any other brand. We measure levels of awareness, familiarity, preference, consideration, advocacy and active decisions to visit.

But the most important factors, the aspects that truly differentiate a country brand, are its associations and attributes – the things that people think of when they hear a place name, or look at a photograph or plan a trip. But above all, a strong country brand is more than the sum of its attributes: it makes people’s lives better.

Country brand strength is a nation’s ultimate intangible asset and goes beyond its geographic size, financial performance or levels of awareness. Managed properly across every measure, it can be a lasting vehicle for goodwill, encouraging forgiveness in difficult times and disproportionately boosting the value of exports, from people to products to entire corporations.

Not to mention making the country a desirable tourist destination.

For the record, here’s the Top 10 for 2010 (last year’s position in brackets):

  1. Canada (2)
  2. Australia (3)
  3. New Zealand (4)
  4. United States (1)
  5. Switzerland (new entry)
  6. Japan (7)
  7. France (5)
  8. Finland (new entry)
  9. United Kingdom (8)
  10. Sweden (new entry)

For an overview of the study and to download an Executive Summary of the results, head to http://www.futurebrand.com/think/reports-studies/cbi/2010/overview/

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Trade Me adds Travel September 12, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Travel , add a comment

Last Monday Trade Me launched a new ‘Travel, events & activities’ category that allows members to auction off pretty much anything related to travel and tourism in New Zealand.

The new category covers

Trade Me has been involved in accommodation offerings for the last three years, via its Travelbug website — but now the facility has been expanded and incorporated into the main Trade Me site.

There will be an overlap — Travelbug will be listing deals from its existing travel operators on the Trade Me site — but any Trade Me member (and indeed any travel or tourism operator) can list travel offers within the new category.

Why does it matter? Aren’t there more than enough travel-specific websites out there already?

Trade Me’s introduction of the ‘Travel, events & activities’ category is significant in five ways:

  1. The sheer amount of traffic thundering through the Trade Me site means an awful lot of eyeballs potentially available for travel & tourism offerings. More than 650,000 people visit Trade Me each day. In comparison, daily visitors to NZ’s top five travel sites (those measured by Nielsen/Netratings Market Intelligence in August 2010) were 15,898 (wises.co.nz), 12,435 (nzherald.co.nz/travel), 10,529 (stuff.co.nz/travel), 9,346 (tourism.net.nz) and 7,473 (holidayhouses.co.nz) respectively.
  2. Serendipitous sales opportunities: visitors to Trade Me aren’t necessarily looking for travel information — but they just might be swayed by your offering if it shows up in their search results while they’re looking for related items. For example, they might be searching under “skiing” for boots or clothes — and then see the listing for your ski resort, catching their eye and turning them into your newest customer.
  3. Trade Me’s auction facility provides the opportunity for short-term or ongoing revenue management. Have spare capacity next weekend? List some rooms on Trade Me at a deep discount (or even a $1 reserve). It’s not quite GrabASeat, but it’s the next best thing for capturing additional revenue for capacity that would otherwise be wasted.
  4. Trade Me provides plenty of promotional oppoortunities over and above simply selling plain vanilla rooms or attraction tickets. You could partner with a charity, package up your offering with other sellers or tie into topical or seasonal events.
  5. Trade Me can be a great customer acquisition tool. Encourage potential visitors to save your Trade Me user identity as a favourite seller. Then they’ll be emailed your latest listings on an ongoing basis, keeping you regularly in front of prospective customers.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

Travel & Tourism is an area that’s going to grow rapidly on Trade Me. Now is the ideal time to set yourself up as a seller on the site, before the Travel category gets too overcrowded.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW TRADE ME?

Are you already a serious seller on Trade Me or are you just (as is true of 90% of Trade Me members) an occasional buyer with little experience of selling on the site?

If the latter is the case, may we recommend our new course, which we’ve fast-tracked so that course participants can bring themselves up to speed in time to get ready for the new Summer season.

Course TM-2: Selling Travel & Tourism On Trade Me
This is a five-week eCourse providing a full guide to selling Travel & Tourism products on Trade Me.

This is an ONLINE-ONLY course — you can take part from anywhere, in your own time.

This eCourse is conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular eCourse provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows, flash-based presentations and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course lessons are released weekly, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables. Interaction with the course tutor is enabled through the platform software tools (with telephone backup if required).

TIMING
We’ve pulled out all the stops and this eCourse starts in just over a week, on Monday September 20, with the delivery to participants of Lesson One. New lessons are delivered weekly on Mondays.

See below for our special Earlybird pricing if you SIGN UP NOW.

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING
This course has been created and will be tutored by Michael Carney, author of the best-selling book about buying and selling effectively on Trade Me, TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS (now in its second edition).


TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS is available from leading bookstores or on Trade Me

WHO SHOULD TAKE PART
Any Travel or Tourism marketer who wants to sell their destination or attraction as effectively and profitably as possible on Trade Me.

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COURSE CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
In which we take a look at Trade Me’s incredible numbers and discuss what makes the site work so well. Then (for those not already active on the site) we take you through the steps required to set yourself up on Trade Me; and give you an overview of the process of selling effectively on Trade Me.

LESSON ONE: ABOUT THE BUYERS
We talk about the people who buy stuff on Trade Me, discuss what makes them buy (or not), review current economic conditions and explore their motivations. We also look at what times of the day and times of the week they’re most likely to visit Trade Me, what times of year they’re most likely to be looking for Trade Me deals — and how you can keep watch on their current interests. Your homework will focus on identifying the most likely buyers you think would be interested in your offering — or choosing desirable buyers and then identifying their particular needs and wants.

LESSON TWO: SELLING THE STORY (AND SELLING YOU)
We look at what makes a successful auction on Trade Me (hint: it’s all about the story) and identify how you can trigger prospects’ urge to buy. We take a close look at what you should feature in your Trade Me profile, both for reassurance and to continue selling on every page. And we look at Trade Me’s Feedback system and review its importance on Trade Me (and what you can do to influence a positive result).

LESSON THREE: OFFERS & OFFERINGS
How do you differentiate your destination or attraction from everything else out there? We share many of the tried and proven offers that convert into sales; and encourage you to look at how you can make your offerings truly unique. And we delve into the most effective pricing strategies on Trade Me (there’s more to it than just sticking a $1 pricetag on everything) and discuss your best options.

LESSON FOUR: GETTING NOTICED
Sometimes, it’s easy to see why an auction goes viral and picks up hundreds of thousands of pageviews. When Tana Umaga picked up that handbag in 2006 and whacked his Hurricanes team-mate in the Jolly Poacher bar, the cybersphere went wild. But what happened to turn last year’s Scary Washing Machine into a phenomenon? We talk to those involved and identify some of the strategies that make auctions sizzle. And we look at the increasing importance of Twitter and Facebook to get the word out.

LESSON FIVE: CREATING LISTINGS THAT SELL
Words matter on Trade Me. If you don’t have a compelling headline, your listing won’t even get read. If you don’t have a sizzling description, you won’t get added to anybody’s waitlist. And if the accompanying pictures don’t make your destination a must-see addition to anyone’s itinerary, fugeddabahtit. We take you through the processes and then turn you loose on your own listings.

CONCLUSION
Time to turn all that learning into a sizzling sales programme.

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INVESTMENT

This five-part eCourse is available for $247 +GST. However we offer a special highly-reduced rate:

INTRODUCTORY EARLYBIRD SPECIAL
$197 +GST if you book and pay before 5pm THIS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by cheque, bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

If you’d like to pay by Visa or Mastercard, here’s the link to sign up (via international credit card processor PayMate): CLICK HERE TO PAY.

If you would prefer to pay by American Express or by bank deposit, or require an invoice before making payment, please send an email to editor@eTourism.org.nz with your contact details.

(The service provider will be shown as Netmarketing Services Limited in your transaction and on your credit card statement)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

PS ACT NOW! We’d hate you to miss our EARLBIRD SPECIAL — or miss this opportunity to hit the ground running with Trade Me’s new Travel category

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The Cult of the iPad September 12, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Tourism, Travel , add a comment

Although it’s only five minutes old, the iPad is already proving an irresistable attraction for any business that relies on visual impact.

For example, a growing number of wedding photographers offshore are already starting to offer couples mementoes of the happy day via iPad rather than wedding album.

Photographers have begun to supply these new new digital wedding albums pre-loaded with hundreds of photos and video of the couple’s engagement, wedding and reception — some with lavish digital layouts and multi-media presentations.

The Tampa Tribune reports on the most compelling appeal of the new phenomenon:

Couples are buying these iPad packages, fast, partly because guys love them.

“If I’m presenting photo packages to a bride and groom, I can tell you when the guy sees that iPad, he sits up, and gets excited for the first time in the whole wedding-planning process,” said Stephen Yanni, a photographer who does weddings across Florida. Since starting to offer iPad albums just two months ago, about half his clients are buying them.

“You may not lug out that 40-page, 30-pound album, except to force the relatives to flip through it on the couch,” Yanni said, “but brides will carry around that iPad wherever they go, and show it to every single person they meet.”

Photographers like Yanni see that as a major marketing opportunity and represent a rapid shift in wedding photography, catering to a thoroughly digital generation of couples who want their pictures on digital photo frames, as their computer wallpaper, on videogame consoles, on cell phone screens — and most importantly, on the bride’s Facebook page.

iPads are an easy sell to couples, Yanni and other photographers say, because the iPad displays and shares photos so well — and couples can hardly turn them down once they hold the pad in their hands.

“They’re just so smooth and vibrant with photos — you can zoom in and pan around,” Yanni said. “How do you zoom in on a bound wedding album? Hold it closer to your nose?”

These digital doodads also serve another purpose — keeping a groom interested.

By the time guys reach the photographer, Yanni said they’ve already endured meetings and debates over china patterns, brides-maid colors, groomsmen gifts, limo bookings, cake flavor choices and tickets for the honeymoon.

“He just thought it was awesome,” said Jessica Vieira, speaking of how her fiancé Christopher Steele reacted upon seeing example wedding shots on a digital display. They plan on having all their shots put on their own personal iPads when they get married in June next year, and they’ve already had their engagement photos resized so they display well on Facebook and cell phones.

The iPad (which sold more than a million devices in its first month of release in the US and is expected to sell more than 13 million by the end of 2010) tends to transform the consumption habits of its new owners. Promising research data has begun to emerge from offshore, even though though the iPad is still in its infancy.

Digital publishing services provider Texterity asked their 31,000 survey respondents how many owned an iPad, just weeks after the product’s launch. 3 percent said they owned one already, while 12 percent of digital consumer magazine subscribers and 16 percent of business magazine subscribers said they plan to purchase an iPad over the next 12 months.

When asked how they use their mobile devices, iPad users were three to five times more likely to read news, magazine or book content or watch video from their mobile device than the full sample of respondents. The numbers:

Implications for New Zealand Travel Marketers

It’s here, it’s flashy and there are a few local media (the Herald, TVNZ, North & South and Wilderness magazine come to mind) already strutting their stuff on Steve Job’s latest baby. But what does the iPad mean for Kiwi travel marketers?

Some food for thought:

If you can’t find marketing opportunities in that fancy new device, you’re just not trying hard enough. Perhaps you should sign up for our forthcoming 60-minute online seminar about the implications of the iPad for travel and tourism marketers. Pre-register your interest by dropping us an email.

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Show Us The Money September 11, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Tourism, Travel, social , add a comment

84% of communications professionals worldwide simply haven’t been measuring the ROI of their Social Media programs. That’s what they confessed when asked in August 2009 by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, for their study “Social Software In Business”. And we’re not just talking about chilling on Facebook — the study’s definition of Social Media included “blogs, chat, discussion boards, microblogs, podcasts, ratings sites, social networks, video-sharing, wikis and the like”.

It was a gloriously giddy time, but now reality is biting. Marketers (or, perhaps worse, their CEOs and CFOs) are starting to demand social metrics.

SmartBrief on Social Media‘s mid-August 2009 newsletter posed the question to its readership of social media marketers: What is the most important metric to track in social media?

The results:

It’s a conversation that’s beginning to happen in Australia and New Zealand as well, according to Nielsen Online. The market research organisation, whose metrics are “the currency” for traditional media measurement in New Zealand, already provides Word of Mouth listening tools in this region, and is likely to be getting into social media metrics in due course.

How Ready Are You for Social Media?

In the 2010 Digital Outlook from the Society of Digital Agencies, Steve Slivka, Co-Founder, Creative Director, and Patrick Berry, Co-Founder, Director of Tools and Methods, Colossal Squid, gave us The Top Ten Reasons Your Company Is Not Ready for Social Media. They’re too good not to repeat here.

10. You want to know everything about your consumer. Now.
Answer this – would you like to know everything possible about the 15 people that presently visit your site, or a little bit less about a lot more people discussing your brand? Social media is like dog food. Bite-sized chunks over time. Also, if you are going to create your own community, be prepared to drive to it (more on this later).
POV: Investing in social media requires a leap of faith. It’s about making your brand relevant within the space versus shoving traffic down through the purchase funnel. It can be about that, but not until you’ve shown some value and built some trust. Key performance indicators lie not in Google Analytics but in social media monitoring tools. Much can be learned by listening to organic conversations.

9. Facebook isn’t big enough.
You want to build and own your own branded proprietary social media network. Congratulations. Starting your own business is an exciting and challenging gambit.
POV: Be prepared to provide wares for this value exchange proposition including compelling content, moderation, tips and other helpful stuff. Car dealers advertise for people to visit their lot. So will you. Online media drivers, including rich media advertising, Facebook apps, and other promotions will make your new business a success.

8. You are not staffed for social media.
If social media is your brand interacting with consumers at a micro level, you better be ready to participate. It goes beyond Tweeting about spectacular holiday sales. Social community demands moderation to stimulate discussions, respond to comments and create an open, genuine dialog with your consumers. Yes, dialogue means talking back. A LOT. More harm than good can be done by hosting a party, then slipping out the back door to catch a movie once the guests have arrived. Content creation within branded networks or mainstream avenues, including Facebook, requires production time and dollars.
POV: Account for dedicated and motivated additional staffing who can speak in the appropriate brand voice.

7. Social Media cuts across verticals in your organization.
Can your company draw from resources across the entire company to respond to customer or PR needs? In real-time? Everyday? That’s a lot of silos to work across. Don’t count on Bob from accounting or Jean from legal to help out on conversing to your 18-24 demo.
POV: For real-time social initiatives to succeed, you need an advocate within your organization who is a key decision maker, and has a Batphone to key stakeholders. They are the champion for your content. And you’ll need to pick up that Batphone from time to time.

6. Real-time means like – NOW.
Social media requires real-time responses that cannot be forecasted. If you have a smashing success on your hands then congratulations; you now have an even worse “predicament.” More people, more hardware, more analysis, more internal meetings, more funds requirements. Well – can’t get any worse, right. Guess again. You’ll now need to do battle with … (#5 below).
POV: You need trained moderators who can speak in a genuine voice on the brand. “For real” genuinely. It’s okay to post, “I don’t know.” Be for real. Have a conversation with the customer.

5. Procurement will freak.
“You need extra funds approved for what project by when?” “Aren’t Facebook and Twitter free?” Chances are if you must expand scope to build on timely conversations your procurement department (tag teaming with legal) might not accelerate this process. Plan accordingly, whatever that means.
POV: Pick up the Batphone for this one.

4. Click to Purchase.
Retailers are happiest when they are selling things. You’ll have a hard time justifying all that social media cash without an omnipresent click-through to purchase.
POV: There’s no need to divert traffic to your site if they can purchase within the social media space.

3. You can’t own the Internet®.
We just knew legal would make another appearance. You’re so excited about owning the ideas that come from your community that you need to let it foster and grow. Let go of your perceived intellectual property rights in favor of participation and trust. Consider tangible and intangible incentives for compensating community contributors for their ideas.
POV: Conversation comes from the exchange of ideas. Ideas come from people. You cannot own the Internet. Sorry.

2. “Advertising Honesty” is not honesty.
We’re talking “honesty honesty.”
POV: Don’t be afraid of negative dialogue. It’s an opportunity to be responsive and be a good listener. Score points and reinforce brand values with your customers. It’s about people.

1. Be worth it.
Be useful. Be engaging. Be worth their time. You may end up even being helpful.
POV: With all the chatter across the digital spectrum your customers will come back to you if you’re truly helpful. Value exchange.

Not ready for Social Media yet? Perhaps you should consider our popular seven-week online course:

Social Media eCourse for Travel & Tourism Marketers

The next series of that eCourse, one of the last for 2010, starts on Monday September 27 (SAVE $100 by signing up before our 20 September Earlybird booking deadline, just a few days away) — for more information, please visit http://eTourism.org.nz/ecourses

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Claiming your place F-R-E-E on Google Maps September 11, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Tourism, Travel , add a comment

Have you claimed your free Place Page on Google Maps yet?

For the last year, Google has been working to enrich the content of Google Maps — through the simplest of mechanisms, encouraging local businesses to enter their own data linked to a specific spot on the map that’s uniquely, geographically theirs.

The intention is to provide users with detailed information about any place in the world with an unique, individual page within Google Maps. The detailed information includes any place such as businesses, attractions, cities, neighborhoods, and much more.

To access these place pages in Google Maps simply click on the ‘more info’ link on the listing. This will bring up any related place page for that business, attraction, city, etc. with information like: street address, pictures, reviews, business info, accreditations, videos, related web pages and even user content.

To claim your spot (free, at least for now), head to http://www.google.com/local/add and work your way through the forms you’ll encounter there. You’ll be encourage to supply your street address, phone number, hours of operation, a description about your business, business categories, photos, YouTube videos etc.

Once you have your own Place Page you can encourage customers to go and write reviews. It’s a great way for anyone to access more information about a ‘place’, see pictures, read reviews and see other user content.

Oh yeah — and there’s speculation that Google Buzz now makes having a Place Pages listing essential, because it’ll be easier for people searching Google Maps via their mobiles to (a) find you; (b) read customer reviews; (c) add their own; and (d) tell their friends about you.

Go and get listed. Did we mention the price?

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Kicking the Bucket List September 11, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Tourism, Travel , add a comment

Those of you of a certain age may recall a NZ Government tourism campaign, a long time ago and far away, that urged Kiwis “Don’t leave home till you’ve seen the country” — a drive for domestic tourism at a time when foreign tourism was still relatively limited. Frankly, at the time New Zealand didn’t have a lot to offer any tourists, domestic or otherwise — our tourism facilities were not yet 100% purist, they were 99% desperately underdeveloped.

We’ve moved on somewhat since then (all thanks to ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Xena Warrior Princess’, of course) and international tourists now pour into the country, eager to sample the many extreme and exotic offerings that Aotearoa delivers. But what of our own people? When we travel domestically, do we view God’s Own Country through the rose-coloured Oakley sunshades of the international traveller or are our lenses more of a yellow-jaundiced tint?

What We Say We’d Like To Do

If you knew you only had a year to live (but couldn’t leave New Zealand), what would you do? What would be on your bucket list?

That was the question posed by The Nielsen Company on behalf of locally-owned life insurance and investment company Fidelity Life.

The survey found young adults would want to experience adrenalin attacks through hard adventure: Kiwis aged 15 to 24 are significantly more likely to want to bungy jump, skydive, paraglide or parapent.

People aged 40 or older are more likely to want to go fishing or swimming with dolphins.

What We Actually Did

Earlier this year, the then Ministry of Tourism released its latest Domestic Travel Survey, which checks up on Kiwi travellers in their journeys through our land. According to this new data series, in 2009 we Kiwis took 31.4 million daytrips and 16.7 million overnight trips within New Zealand.

And what did we do on these glorious New Zealand adventures?

Not a lot.

For the overnight trips, we were away an average of 2.9 nights each. We spent $98 per day trip and $121 per night on overnight trips, making us the last of the big spenders.

The most popular activities we undertook on our travels were Dining (29%), Visiting Friends and Relatives (28%), Shopping (22%) or Doing Nothing (13%). Talk about boring, Trev.

And what about those activities we said we absolutely positively would do (if life was terminally short)?

Snow Sports accounted for just 1%; a similar percentage represented Hunting/Shooting; and just 0.52% of domestic travellers’ activities was for Canoeing, Kayaking or Rafting.

And those truly iconic Kiwi attractions such as Dolphin Watching? 0.1%. Bungy jumping? About the same, one in a thousand of us. Whale-watching? Less than half that, 0.042% Paraponting? Just a tenth of the whale-watching total, 0.004%.

Looks like the time is right for an update of that classic domestic tourism message: “don’t leave home or kick the bucket until you’ve actually sampled some of the unique offerings our country has to offer”. Okay, not quite as catchy as the original, but its heart is in the right place ….

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Ten Ways To Improve Loyalty Programmes September 3, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Tourism, Travel , add a comment

As noted by TheWiseMarketer.com: the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research recently  issued a report highlighting ten principles that make it more likely that loyalty programmes will actually develop loyal customers. The report is specifically tailored to the hospitality industry but the principles involved are relevant to almost any business planning or already operating a loyalty scheme.

According to the report, entitled ‘Building Customer Loyalty: Ten Guiding Principles for Designing an Effective Customer Reward programme’, stronger loyalty programmes can be developed by paying attention to customer psychology and desires.

The research shows that the ten most successful methods of improving loyalty programmes are to:

1. Foster Customer Engagement
Loyalty is more than repeat purchases, and programmes must evolve to foster a deeper emotional connection between the customer and firms. That’s easier to say than to do, of course: this type of connection only comes from repeated positive interactions and experiences with a brand.

The researchers suggest that programmes that are designed to reward a broad set of “loyal behaviours” like engagement activities should see stronger involvement in the programme and an increase in both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty among its members.

For example, at the basic level, customers could be provided rewards for simply updating and confirming their contact information as part of annual programme maintenance.

A simple effort like this one ensures accurate data and creates a reason for customers to visit programme websites, receiving a direct membership benefit for doing so and thus reinforcing their positive relationship with the brand.

2. Establish a Win-Win Value Proposition
Design your programme so that it offers rewards that provide high value to the customer yet carry low internal costs.

For example, in place of a monetary discount on an existing or future hotel stay (low customer value, high cost), the hotel might instead offer that customer free use of a service for which the hotel usually charges (e.g., fitness facilities, wifi). This can provide high customer value at relatively low cost.

The challenge with this principle lies in implementation, because it requires knowledge of customers’ preferences. Not all customers will place equal value on all activities.
3. Capitalise on Customer Data
Think of loyalty programmes as irreplaceable market research: marketers can capture data on their consumers that can be used to better meet those customers’ needs. Loyalty and research initiatives should be integrated to use customer insights not just for marketers’ loyalty programmes, but for the broader business operations as well.
4. Properly Segment Across and Within Tiers
The tier structure of loyalty programmes must work for your customers. Most reward programme tiers are copied from those of long-standing programmes, and often represent out-of-date or inappropriate segmentation strategies.

For instance, one well-known hotel chain offers their first reward tier after customers stay a minimum of 10 nights. While this reward is relatively easy to earn, the next upgrade occurs when the traveller reaches 50 nights in 12 months.

Do these tiers sufficiently differentiate the chain’s customers according to their potential value to the organisation?

Chances are that the customer who stays 10 nights or less is fairly similar to the customer who stays around 11 nights. However, those who stay up to 49 nights are likely to have distinctively different needs and desires, yet are earning the same rewards as much less committed customers.

In addition, the gulf from one reward status to the next is so great that when a customer achieves the first status level she will likely conclude that the next level (40 additional nights) is not attainable. That customer is likely to shift her spending to the competition for the balance of the reward period in an effort to manage her “portfolio of rewards” for her lodging patronage. Thus, this tier structure provides an unintentional incentive for customers to shift to another hotel brand so that the customer can then earn rewards from multiple brands.

Businesses should consider the opportunities for segmenting programmes based on factors other than spending. For example, US pharmacy chain CVS recently launched a spin-off from its standard ExtraCare programme exclusively for diabetes patients. By making subtle changes to the rewards that are offered and to its supplemental services, the pharmacy may have discovered a simple way to differentiate its programme among diabetes patients by simply recognizing their needs and offering rewards that better align with those needs.
5. Develop Strategic Partnerships
Loyalty programme partnerships involve one firm providing their customers with the option of exchanging their rewards for offerings from firms in other industries. Administration of such arrangements are typically outsourced to a third party or are structured as one-way agreements, where one provider simply compensates other providers for their inclusion in the rewards offerings.

The partnerships should strike a balance between offering a broad set of rewards and overwhelming customers with too many options.
6. Develop Surprise Rewards
As noted under Principle No 4 above, once customers achieve a tier reward, if they conclude that they will not be reasonably able to reach the next hurdle, they can shift their business to the competition to solidify their rewards from that competitor’s loyalty programme.

One effective alternative strategy to offer relatively small rewards (possibly undocumented and apparently random) between the major tier milestones to encourage continued customer loyalty and deter switching.

These strategies are based on the basic tenets of reinforcement schedules, where providing a mix of continuous rewards in conjunction with each transaction in combination with seemingly spontaneous, higher value rewards may have the biggest impact on behaviour.
7. Cater to Customers’ Desires for Choice and Fairness
Customers love choice and control, so effective loyalty programmes provide customers with flexibility in their redemption intervals and choices.

Such flexibility may build engagement from customers when they feel that they have control over the benefits they receive in the program.

A simple example of this strategy is US electronics retailer Best Buy‘s Premier Silver program. Among other features, programme members can choose when they receive rewards as well as the medium by which the rewards are delivered (i.e., via the programme website, via email, or via snail mail), rather than simply mailing rewards at pre-established set intervals.

Best Buy also offers customers the opportunity to “bank” their rewards, which provides customers control over their programme benefits and may even assist customers in setting upgraded purchase goals.

Customers also crave a feeling of fairness in their exchanges. Put simply, customers want to feel that they have earned their rewards, in part because achieving a reward tier is a matter of some distinction. When rewards appear “too easy” to earn, the prestige associated with programme and tier membership diminish, along with the allure of the programme itself. As a result, managers must carefully develop a rewards mix that aligns with the effort required to earn them.

8. Avoid Commoditisation by Differentiating
Programme differentiation may be the single biggest challenge currently facing loyalty programme managers. There are only so many ways to differentiate a programme when all the details of programme structure and tiers are completely transparent.

Some successful programmes are differentiated by experiences or service benefits that complement the standard “monetary” rewards. These supplements could be as simple as prioritized service, exclusive events, direct access to and consultation with employees, and flexible programme management. Supplementing a programme with value-added offerings not only helps with differenting the program, but it also encourages more interaction between the customer and firm, creating an opportunity to foster deeper feelings of loyalty.

9. Avoid the ‘Price Sensitivity Trap’
Another reason to differentiate your programme with non-monetary rewards is that it’s important not to focus your programme too heavily on price concessions. Many reward programmes are still based on a simple design that provides customers with future discounts as a reward for current spending. While these programmes have demonstrated some value to firms, they carry a substantial risk of converting traditionally loyal customers to price sensitive ones.
10. Embrace New Technologies
Loyalty programmes should take advantage of technology advances. The days of the punch card or even plastic loyalty cards are quickly vanishing. Products like FourSquare and other PDA-enabled programmes offer the potential to reward customers in real time.

Having the ability to know what your customers are doing at any time can allow managers to anticipate customer needs and preferences thereby increasing customer satisfaction and differentiating their product from that of their competitors.

Finally, above all else, the most important strategic investment in any programme is customer research. By understanding your customer base and loyalty programme members, managers can make informed decisions on how to advance their programmes.

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What’s A Fan Worth? September 2, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Travel, social , add a comment

Whether you’re Justin Bieber or Just You, it’s nice to have fans. But for those of us of an analytical bent, “nice” isn’t enough, especially if we’re going to spend time and effort trying to attract fans and followers. We’d like a bit of ROI with that schmaltzy feeling, thanks.

As it happens, US consultancy Syncapse has done some crunching of the numerical variety, attempting to establish the value of fandom. They recently conducted a survey of 4,000 members of Facebook in an effort to understand the “long-term business value” that companies can derive from the social network.

The metrics on which they based their findings were:

1. Product Spending:
The relationship between “liking” a product and spending more money on it.

2. Loyalty:
The value of influence and promoting brand loyalty within a target audience.

3. Propensity to Recommend:
Probability and propensity for word-of-mouth recommendations leading to sales.

4. Brand Affinity:
The impact on brand perception and recall.

Brands used in this study were twenty of the top brands on Facebook at the time of conducting the research. In order to ensure that the survey questions were applicable to each product type, research was focused only on consumer brands. Celebrity and un-official pages where not analyzed.

Findings were then analyzed contrasting fans and non-fans for these top brands: Nokia, BlackBerry, Motorola, Secret, Gillette, Axe, Dove, Victoria’s Secret, Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola, Oreo, Skittles, Nutella, Red Bull, Pringles, Playstation, Xbox, Starbucks, and McDonald’s.

None of those measured were travel marketers — but the lessons learned do provide valuable indicators for all of us, in every product sector.

Here’s what Syncapse found:

Across the twenty brands that were evaluated in this study, the average value of a Facebook fan was US$136.38 factoring in all areas measured within the Syncapse model.

Not all fans are created equal. Some are extremely active with a brand while others sign up and never participate again. This results in the monetary value of fans varying dramatically.

The most valuable fan in the survey was that of McDonald’s who presented an annual value to the organization of US$508.16. This would be a frequent visitor to their establishments, highly loyal, frequently referring, and participating actively in their Facebook community. An average McDonald’s fan netted the organization a value of US$259.82.

For a copy of the executive summary (which shows the performances of each of the twenty brands against the four metrics), send us an email.

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Online Video Rocks September 1, 2010

Posted by Michael Carney in : Travel , add a comment

Once a slow, stuttering experience, online video has turned into an almost essential means of showcasing your content to the world. When you’re selling experiences (and the unique flavour of New Zealand) to those offshore, nothing does it quite like video.

According to US online retailer Zappos, products which include videos sell between 6% and 30% more than products without videos!

A new online video index and quarterly research report (from video serving platform Brightcove and online video analysts TubeMogul), reveals some interesting trends and growth patterns for the online video industry. It’s not relevant for everyone, but it’s useful benchmarking for anyone interested in working with video online.

Amongst the Key Findings from the Q1 2010 Report (with our additional observations in italics):

Engagement

Discovery

Formats & Strategy

With online video you can potentially:

It’s worth considering.

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