Page 9 - SM Aug-Sep-2014

Inshort Trends, markets, happenings and musings – in the spotlight and under scrutiny coolest youth Twitter in strategic local push brands lauded TwiTTer is growing across africa. activity, then with their frst paid campaigns – according to research by international and then immediately coming back for more THe cOOleST brand amOng media company portland communications, when they see the results,” he said. South africa’s youth is vehicle South Africa has some fve million Twitter A recent example of the growing importance manufacturer bmW, according to users (2012 fgures) with Kenya recording of a platform like Twitter to drive communication the Sunday Times newspaper’s 2,4-million, nigeria 1,6-million and egypt and interaction comes out of india, where generation next Youth brand 1,2-million. Twitter marketing Director Rishi Jaitly told the Survey for 2014. As a result of this growth the online Times of India newspaper that the social media Following bmW in the coolest social networking and microblogging platform had made a “massive contribution” What consumers defne brand Overall category were service – which has around 255-million during the country’s recent elections. coca-cola and nike. The luxury users worldwide – is focusing its as good customer service car brand toppled beleaguered advertising efforts on the key South African google takes a bite out of apple cellphone company blackberry market. Recently it was announced that the from the top spot it occupied last platform had appointed sa-based digital While iT’S Common CAuSe ThAT agent via phone, rather than using an year – showing that, among the advertising company Ad Dynamo as its google has overtaken apple to become the world’s most valuable global consumers expect increasingly high automated interactive voice response youth, a year can make a huge sales partner on the continent. brand in the 2014 brandZ Top 100 most Valuable global brand ranking. It is levels of customer service – and that (iVR) system. difference in ‘coolness’. Speaking at the time of the now said to be worth US$159-billion, an increase of 40% on last year. a key way for brands to create a point Most people feel the acceptable This time, the coolest cellphone announcement, Twitter’s vice president This is according to the annual brand ranking study conducted by millward of differentiation is to deliver customer telephone waiting time before a award went to apple iPhone, with of direct sales for eMea, ali Jafari, said: brown, an international research company that also operates in various service excellence – what is less certain service representative becomes Samsung and blackberry taking “Companies have been on Twitter since parts of africa. The end of the global recession pushed up the values of the is what customers anticipate from a available is less than three minutes. second and third spots respectively. day one. people come to the platform to established worldwide brands, with apparel companies such as adidas and ‘perfect’ interaction. consumers also feel that not needing The coolest cellphone application connect with what they’re interested in, nike showing the greatest increases on average. A global research survey published to repeat information if transferred is placed Whatsapp at the top of whether that is a sports team, musician or The Top 10 most Valuable global brands listed in the report are: by uS-based interactive intelligence the most valuable service a company the pile, followed by blackberry brand. By targeting Twitter conversations Group, a global provider of software can provide during an interaction. messenger and then social media and engagements based on these rank brand category brand Value brand Value rank change 2013 2014 ($m) 2014 and services designed to improve when contacting businesses or site Facebook. interests, brands have the opportunity to the customer experience, attempted service providers regularly, consumers grow their communities, tell their story, 1 google Technology 158,843 40% 2 to fnd the answers by interviewing fnd agents who have access to their increase loyalty and ultimately increase 2 apple Technology 147,880 -20% 1 more than 1 400 consumers and 460 previous service interactions to be referrals and sales. The south african 3 Ibm Technology 107,541 -4% 3 iT professionals in eight countries, extremely valuable. Consumers found market is an especially good ft for Twitter 4 microsoft Technology 90,185 29% 7 including south africa. an agent who is condescending or given the high percentage of mobile 5 mcdonald’s Fast Food 85,706 -5% 4 The company says that, while not demeaning to be frustrating. usage, and we are excited to bring Twitter an explicit guideline, the overall nearly half of consumers believe that, ads to local advertisers.” 6 coca-cola Soft drinks 80,683 3% 5 fndings do provide a framework for when using a social media outlet according to ad dynamo ceo sean riley, 7 Visa credit cards 79,197 41% 9 what consumers believe a superior such as Facebook or Twitter to submit brands that are fnding it challenging to 8 aT&T Telecoms 77,883 3% 6 customer experience should entail. a question or request, a response cut through the clutter and connect with 9 marlboro Tobacco 67,341 -3% 8 Key fndings include: should arrive within 10 minutes and their customers are using Twitter to create 10 amazon retail 64,255 41% 14 Consumers most value a timely 24 hours. a little more than half of the meaningful, targeted and measurable response to a question or request, total respondents (53%) have used, or interactions with the right people at the african telecoms giant mTn was placed 93rd in this year’s survey, one behind followed by a knowledgeable agent. would use, Facebook to interact with daily marketing right moment in time. “We’re seeing brands red bull and ahead of brands such as Prada and bank of america. in the 2013 survey, these two service a company for customer service. news updates putting a toe in the water, frst with organic criteria were reversed. By industry, respondents reported the Consumers used the phone (51%) sectors providing the best customer For daily news updates covering august–September strategicmarketing 7 most frequently to interact with service experiences in 2014 were topics of relevance to South customer service or support hotels, online retail stores and banks. african and african marketers, agents, followed by email (18%), The worst customer service experiences visit the Imm Institute website: PHOTOS: supplied then Web chat (11%). Respondents come from government agencies and www.imminstitute.co.za preferred interacting with a live utility providers. Changing Customer Behaviour, by Design Design can be so much more than beautiful. It can be a powerful strategic tool to change customer behaviour. Join Yellowwood for a strategic discussion on semiotics and the launch of new research into effective design. Contact Al Mackay for more info: 021 425 0344 or alm@ywood.co.za 6 6 strategicmarketing august–September 2014 strategicmarketing august–September 2014