Brown Delivers Through Social Media But Forgets to Ship Directions

Over the years, UPS transformed itself from a shipping service provider to a business solutions provider that offers shipping — adding value for customers. The transformation began with the “What can brown do for you?” commercials followed by the famous Whiteboard campaign. UPS continues to deliver value in its online engagement strategy—something many companies forget to do.

UPS’s strategy is to provide content that is relevant and useful to its B2B customers. At the center is a branded Popurls site. Here UPS is serving as a content curator for business news and tips. UPS also created a Populr Brown Edition YouTube channel. The channel features a series of short informational videos on business topics such as social networking and communication. Industry notables from Mashable, TechDirt, Small Business Trends, and VentureBeat provide the video lessons. Additionally, consumers can receive news stories by following @popurlsbrown on Twitter.

So, what’s the problem? Well, have you watched one of the videos, heard about the brown Popurl site, or followed @popurlsbrown? UPS is an international brand, yet the YouTube channel has just over 600 views and @popurlsbrown has 69 followers. While UPS is running banner ads on sites like VentureBeat, neither UPS.com nor the Whiteboard microsite have links to the popurl site, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Additionally, the YouTube channel doesn’t link to the Twitter account or UPS.com. UPS is delivering value for its B2B customers by providing useful information in an accessible and easily digestible format. However, the full potential will not be realized unless UPS offers directions to and from these sites and does a better job integrating these elements into its overall marketing efforts.

-- Marina Molenda

5 Costs of Social Media to Consider

Are you a marketer considering trying social media to connect with customers and stretch your marketing budget? Are you intrigued by the low entry and exit costs and the potential to become a viral sensation or social media darling? Before you take the social media plunge there are 5 costs you should be aware of:

Design Costs. From your blog to Facebook to Twitter, your social media presence should be consistent with your brand. You can save money by repurposing current assets. However, you’ll still need resources for reformatting and/or creating new artwork, uploading art, and programming and designing pages.

Paid Model. Just because something is free today doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow. In March of 2009, Twitter co-founders announced they will probably move to a paid model and just need to figure out when. So if you’ve gained a big following on a free service, what is your plan if the service moves to a paid model? Find some room in the budget and pay up? Dump your customers? Try to migrate them to another free service? If you’re investing in a tool, be sure to consider what you’d do if it moves to a pay model.

Maintenance Costs. So you’ve got your account set up, your page is looking fabulous, and you’ve added some content. Great! Now you need to continuously engage with customers by posting content, replying to comments and questions, and monitoring chatter about your brand. The setup costs for social media are relatively low compared to other forms of advertising, but the high commitment level is unique to the medium. Do you have a budget for the hours needed to maintain your social media presence? Do you have someone in your organization with the time and skills to handle this responsibility or do you need to hire someone? Will you monitor chatter yourself, or pay for a service such as Sysomos or Radian6.

Costs of Doing it Wrong. Diving into social media and then abandoning it is a waste of time and money. But even worse is making a social media blunder that could damage your brand.

Costs of Not Doing it at All. You’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it twice, but in case you forgot: Your customers are out there talking about you already. They are in control and are increasingly expecting engagement and quick responses from companies they do business with. Consider some the consequences of not engaging with customers and listening to what they are saying: missed selling opportunities, lost consumer insights, angry or disengaged customers, misinformation spread about your brand, and fleeing customers. Recently Delta Airlines learned the hard way by not having a good strategy in place.

--Marina Molenda

New CEO To Transform Yahoo! With IMC Strategy

This week Carol Bartz, the new CEO of Yahoo!, announced major changes at the ailing company. While most reports of the restructuring noted Bartz’s shift to a more “top-down” managerial approach and paring down excessive layers of management, we here at Medill IMC think some aspects of the restructuring signal a promising shift toward a more customer-focused organization.

They certainly need it. Aside from narrowly escaping a takeover bid from Microsoft last year, Yahoo! has been losing market share in search to Google for years. Its diverse products– from Flickr to Delicious to Yahoo! Finance - lack consistency. And what’s with the name, anyway? Something about yodeling?

It helps that they’re creating a CMO position, which they’ve apparently never had. But the changes go deeper. In Bartz’s words from the Yahoo! blog:

“We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer.”

Clearly, integration is a core goal at the new Yahoo!, along with a renewed focus on the customer with the creation of a new Customer Advocacy group:

“After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you. Our Customer Care team does an incredible job with the amazing number of people who come to them, but they need better resources. So we’re investing in that. After all, you deserve the very best.

We’re also leaning on this team to make sure we’re all hearing the voice of our customers (consumers and advertisers). I’m singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period. The kind that get you so excited, you have to tell someone about them. Whether on your desktop, your mobile device, or even your TV.

And that takes a real understanding of what you want/need/love/hate, how you’re using our products, and what you find simple, intuitive, easy and fun. Who wants innovation for innovation’s sake if it doesn’t make your life easier, more efficient, more productive? So expect us to hear you better and take better care of you.”

Time will tell if Yahoo! can channel these noble intentions of integration into actually being able to serve its customers' needs. But they've taken the first step in realizing that not being customer focused is, for them, no longer an option. For us who live and breathe IMC every day, this will be a company to watch.

Or, as Bartz says, “Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again.”

-- Colleen Maley

VitaminIMC - What Marketing Doctors Are Now Prescribing

A new year brings reflection on industry trends. 2008 saw a rise in social media use and also a shift in the marketing world. In 2009 we will see the effects of this shift. Traditional views of marketing are being challenged so it is important now more than ever to grasp the idea of customer centricity. This idea lies at the core of integrated marketing communications (IMC). By focusing on understanding customers, marketers can create strategies that will increase ROI and continue to build strong brands. Marketers also need to adapt to changes that Web 2.0 has brought about. When properly implemented, social media use can be of great value to marketers and a key route to building relationships with your consumers.

Already in 2009 we've seen companies putting IMC into practice:

On New Year's Eve, Nivea launched the "Kiss and Be Kissed" campaign to create an emotional, rather than functional, connection with its consumers. From product sampling in Times Square, to pamphlets on the art of kissing, to an interactive Web site urging viewers to submit their own photos of affection, the campaign seeks to build a relationship between Nivea and their consumers in a category where this is not commonly done.

Kellogg's revamped its Special K Challenge to better reflect the needs of its consumers. The "Wake-Up Call" campaign highlights the importance of using consumer insights to drive brand strategy and innovation. To better meet the needs of their consumers, Kellogg's expanded the Special K product line to offer more variety for meals and snacks. They also changed their advertising messaging to target the trigger points of consumers ready to begin a weight management program.

Pepsi is harnessing the power of social media to make the final decision on which spots it will run during the Super Bowl. Brandweek reports that Pepsi execs are waiting to see which brands get the most buzz on the internet and are closely tracking the blogosphere to decide which brands to highlight in Sunday's big game.

How successful marketers will be in 2009 will depend on how well they can incorporate IMC strategies and philosophies to build relationships with their consumers. The use of social media and the internet will be an extremely useful tool, but other outlets need to be used as well in order to truly understand your customers. The best way to ensure marketing success is to remember to take your vitamins, especially the essential nutrient of vitamin IMC!

-- Stacy Cohen