Is Digital Age Changing Consumer Research Rules?

Be cautious about using traditional market research to guide a major consumer product change. That's the warning from the new book Absolute Value by Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen. The authors take a Universal McCann study of consumer interest in the first iPhone as an object lesson in why research can miss the mark in predicting consumer behavior today: That study found that an iPhone-type product would be a hit in countries like India and Mexico but not in the United States, Germany and Japan. What went wrong? Why are consumers unreliable predictors of their own behavior? The problem, note the authors, is that traditional market research looks at prior preferences, beliefs and experiences, while future consumer buying decisions about a new product (one that involves more than tweaking an existing product) are affected by a mass of noisy, ever-changing inputs in today's digital age -- such as online user reviews, friend and expert opinions, price comparison tools, and emerging technologies or sources. If consumers are bad at predicting their own preferences, market "experts" are no better, the authors add, pointing out that many experts failed to predict the success of the telephone, television and Internet. Should marketers abandon market research? No, they should change focus, advise the authors. Instead of trying to predict long-term consumer preferences, researchers can go with the digital flow and track consumer trends and decisions on review sites, user forums and other social media -- so businesses can respond with better solutions. Simonson is a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Rosen is author of The Anatomy of Buzz. For more on their book Absolute Value, see the news release: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/itamar-simonson-emanuel-rosen-how-digital-age-rewriting-rule-book-consumer-behavior

Survey Finds Most B2B Buyers Ignore Social Media

Social media doesn't really turn on business-to-business buyers, suggests a new survey. Only 6% of B2B buyers said social media has "a lot" of impact on their buying process, according to the recently published "B2B Website Usability Report." But before scaling back social media involvement, B2B marketers should note that the survey -- conducted by DH Communications and KoMarketing Associates -- was focused on B2B buyer expectations of vendor websites and had a very small pool of respondents, with only 175 surveys completed. Respondents also were not the most technically savvy, since 49% did not use a smartphone to look for B2B products or services, and 18% did not know what was meant by a "responsive" website. That said, it's interesting that only 24% said they look for social media icons on a vendor website home page, and even fewer – 22% of respondents – look for a blog. However, B2B marketers probably should keep blog posting: Some 85% of buyers polled also said that a blog helps establish a vendor’s credibility. For more details from the report, see http://marketingland.com/report-6-buyers-claim-social-media-impacts-b2b-buying-process-76396

Will Your Postcard Design Run Afoul of USPS Rules?

Your postcard campaign can have customer-winning copy, design, and offer and still flop because the U.S. Postal Service rejects it or makes it costly to reach target mailboxes. A recent Target Marketing magazine article reminded direct mailers of the sometimes complex postal regulations for postcard design. Some are pretty basic, such as size: To qualify for a postcard postage rate, dimensions can be 3.5 X 5 inches or 4.25 X 6 inches; that 6 X 9 postcard will stand out in the mail, but it will require the higher, letter rate. Paper stock must be at least .007 inch thick; anything flimsier will be devoured by postal machines. The aspect ratio, meaning mail panel length divided by height, must be between 1.3 and 2.5 to run through post office equipment. You also need to be careful with the placement, dimensions and treatment of the barcode addressing area, whether using an address block or a clear zone. For more details on this last point, and other tips for USPS automation and postal rate compliance, see the article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/why-cant-i-mail-it-usps-regulations-postcards#

Single, Focused E-mail Call-to-Action Can Hike Clicks

One e-mail creative rule of thumb is that adding call-to-action buttons adds click-throughs, but recent e-mail testing by Whirlpool found that focusing on a single call-to-action (CTA) improved response. MarketingSherpa featured the Whirlpool results in a recent case study article. Whirlpool's e-mail control package had three buttons labeled "Learn more" at the bottom of the e-mail, each directing consumers to three different pages for information on different products. A fourth CTA button was located in the middle of the page: a gold "See Details" button directing to the rebate that the campaign was designed to promote. The test package paralleled the control but used only the one CTA gold button in the middle of the page, driving consumers to the rebate download landing page. "The theory was if you highlighted one call-to-action button that was the primary focus, you'd get more people to go to that landing page than the other creative, which sent people into completely different products," Thomas Mender, Senior Manager at Whirlpool, explained to MarketingSherpa. And the theory worked: The single, focused CTA creative achieved a 42% increase in clicks for Whirlpool. For more details of Whirlpool's e-mail testing, including subject lines and segmentation, go to http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/whirlpool-lift-clickthrough-testing-culture

Overcautious CPL Targeting Can Sap Lead Volume

A recent Target Marketing magazine article addressed a common direct marketing challenge: A cost-per-lead (CPL) target in testing winnows acceptable lists or media and scales down roll-out for fewer potential leads. This occurs because conservative marketers prefer tested lists/media that outperform a target CPL to guard against any unexpected roll-out declines in response. That caution may actually undermine maximized results, however. Article author Chuck McLeester presents an alternative strategy of combining a test's "big winners" in terms of CPL with its "little losers" -- for a larger cumulative universe that will deliver more leads at an acceptable cumulative CPL. Of course, both winning and losing lists/media from a test should be re-tested at larger quantities to make sure response holds up before going to roll-out. Yet the end result of a cumulative-CPL strategy can be a big boost in cost-effective lead generation: McLeester provides an example that takes roll-out from a little over 4 million impressions, out of a potential 15 million, up to more than 12 million impressions, while keeping well within the target CPL. For his spreadsheet analysis example, see http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/how-maximize-your-lead-volume-within-your-allowable-cost-per-lead#

Mini Slim Offers Effective, Low-Cost Catalog Option

With postal rate hikes putting the squeeze on catalog mailers, some alternative print formats are worth a second look, suggests a recent Target Marketing magazine article. One option is the "mini slim" catalog. It uses USPS-approved spot tack closures with fugitive glue for easy opening without page tearing and avoids the expensive, hard-to-open wafer seals of "slim jim" catalogs. The mini slim is also less costly to produce because of reduced page count compared with full-size and even slim jim catalogs. Plus, mini slims offer significant postal savings. While a typical 10.5" x 8" catalog mails at standard "flat" rates, the mini slim catalogs are slim-jim size (10.5" x 5.875") and under 3 ounces with up to 10 pages, which qualifies for standard letter rates and reduces postage 10% to 20%. What about response and sales? The Target Marketing article quotes at least one catalog mailer as claiming to reap sales as good or better from a mini catalog as from a standard 84-page book, in addition to driving prospects to the website -- all for a cost close to that of producing and mailing a postcard. A caveat: The author is a direct mail printer, who acknowledges that mini catalogs are no replacement for a full-size effort. But his piece is a timely reminder that online isn't the only alternative to mail; there are cost-effective supplemental print ideas out there. For more, see the article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/a-catalog-strategy-offset-usps-rate-hike/1

Do You Follow the 3.33 Rule of Direct Mail?

Do you know the 3.33 rule for direct mail? Studies have shown that direct mailers have three minutes and 33 seconds to engage a potential customer: three seconds to catch a recipient's eye out of the stack in the mailbox, 30 seconds for the recipient to get the mail piece open, and then an additional three minutes for the potential customer to read and decide on response. We thank Pat Friesen of Direct Marketing IQ for reminding us of the challenge. The 3.33 rule applies more to solo pieces and self-mailers than catalogs, but the principles of making sure your message doesn't end up in the trash still apply. With the U.S. Postal Service requiring mail to be tabbed, wafer-sealed, spot or continuously glued for delivery, ease of opening is more than a printer, production and design issue;  effective marketers need to worry about those 30 critical seconds for openability. More important, marketing must focus on compelling creative and offer to make recipients want to spend even a few seconds of time and effort to engage with a piece before it's tossed. For Pat's apt comments, go to http://www.directmarketingiq.com/article/3-tips-deal-with-sticky-business-direct-mail/1