Greenpeace have created Onslaught video in replay to Dove's one, which says that Unilever, that is behind Dove beauty products, are buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia’s rainforests.
The issue isn't just Dove, this the whole beauty industry and women, yeah like me and you who buy the beauty products chasing the vain beauty...
One brand bummers are advantage of other brand. Apple can feel it on their own skin. I must admit, I'm pretty surprised following the development of iPhone bummers. I was sure that Apple nailed it and had the passion and respect for consumers but the latest actions they've taken prove something different:
- kind of monopoly practice - making an exclusive deal with one mobile operator AT&T.
- price drop of the iPhone by $200 - it is great news but not after you got the ambassadors of your brand to stay in line for a few days and pay full price of $600 (I can almost hear Steve Jobs saying: "You Geek Suckers!" )
- war with hackers - unlocked iPhones become useless after software update ("He, he, suckers again")
- the new update removed also all 3rd party applications and ringtones ("You play only with toys I give you")
What about being open, what about collaboration and nourishing the most powerful of relationships a brand can get - it is ambassadors? It seems like a silly mistakes and makes me wonder whether Apple has some bigger plan. But I hardly believe it.
Some brands like Nokia are just turning Apple's bad publicity into their advantage. They've already placed posters all over New York. Clever.
Via B.L. Ochman
FirebrandTV has introduced today the multimedia platform with "commercials as content". The best ads will be chosen by a panel of Gen Y. You can not only watch the cool commercials but also within a click you get an access to promotions and you can buy the products. FirebrandTV will also have CJ (commercials jockeys - someone like VJ) "to contextualize commercials as art and guide viewers through the spots, contests and promotions.". It launches 22nd October on three platforms: TV (ION Television Network), web and mobile (through iTunes and MSN)
Investors behind the project are: Microsoft, NBC Universal and GE’s Peacock Equity Fund, ION Television, as well as Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek, among others, joined Firebrand at its announcement during Advertising Week at the Paley Center for Media.
This is a great idea of distributing advertising using "pull" methods and combining it with merchandise option. It will be interesting to watch as it sets the new standard for traditional TV advertising. The fact is that people don't hate commercials, people hate being forced to watch the bad and boring commercials. I am looking forward to hear people's reaction to it and see how is it working in real life. I think the sales aspect is very interesting, transferring ad liking into sales.
Crayon is handling the social media aspect of Firebrand - check out what they have already done: YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Flickr and Delicious Links.
Tags: firebrandtv, advertising, content, sales
They are bright, shiny. They attract us. We can't keep our eyes of them. Their glow is like magnet, it pulls us in their orbit and we crave. We just desperately want them. Bright Shiny Objects. B.O.B's own us, we are slaves of having. We are chasing B.O.B's, new colors, new shapes, new materials, 20 GB more...the newer, the shiner, the higher demand. B.O.B's aren't anything new, they have slightly changed the trajectory of attraction. In the modern times they've attracted with material value and material status one could achieve by owning them. It was all about having. Today, in liquid reality, they are armed with meanings, soft values. B.O.B's became even more powerful, because together with them we buy our personality. We tell who we are. We call it being.We are almost shiny as our B.O.B's. Bling bling can be heard on the streets, in offices, in shops, bling is ominous. And bling is voracious...You get it, you show it off, then you get tired of it and want something new.
Inspired by Jessica Hagy
Tags: bright shiny object, having vs. being, B.O.B
I've learned during my study a lot about statistics in combination with philosophy. My favorite professor who taught in methodology of sociological research always told us - numbers are what you say they are. It is true. Numbers are very flexible, they seem to be objective as they are perceived as hard facts. Numbers describe the reality which we can control. Numbers remove the randomness. What I've also learned was the inevitable need for observing the individual's experiences and ideas. Researchers should study reality as a social actors (subjectively - understanding people's motivations), not as an independent observers (objectively - understanding people as numbers). The truth is that you can never connect with a number. You hear lots of people in media and advertising business claiming that people comes first to add afterwards: we can reach 75% of target group. And so what? 75% can translate in many things depending on what we want to say. But it doesn't say anything constructive, it doesn't help us to lose any communication challenge or neither takes any closer to people (target group as some call them).
I have seen a couple of examples of the numbers tyranny in the pursue of explaining reality. For me it looked more like manipulation and completely lack of understanding of what's going on. This week, there were released to surveys about the use of digital and traditional media in Denmark. First of them, conducted by Explora, focused on the 15-24 years old and the conclusion was: This is a myth that you can't reach young people via TV advertising. Explora found out that young people spend 84 minutes on watching TV and only 11 minutes online. Here comes the best - they measured only 136 Danish websites!! How on earth can you draw any conclusions on youth Internet usage based on 136 websites? Numbers show only the part of reality.
Another research covered the new media usage compared to the traditional media amongst "the early adapters" and was conducted by Danish national TV station TV2 and ACNielsen. The conclusion was: the young people with high interest in technology has still high consumption of traditional media. Research responsible at TV2 believes that the increasing usage of the new media and internet don't decrease the time spent with traditional media, there is no cannibalization. So far so good. The early adapters spend in all 9 hours and 32 minutes daily consuming media (150 min. with TV, 233 min. in front of computer, 35 minutes with other media like game consoles and mp3). I read the article once, twice and I couldn't find anything interesting except some numbers. I didn't learn anything new about media usage.
I wonder why none of the research didn't cover multitasking issue that makes it possible for many to extend media time into 9 hours. None of research come up with the slightest attempt to understand HOW people use the media. Would it be to uncomfortable for the traditional media?
It is so ignorant and one sided picture of reality presented by those two research. I don't believe TV is dead. It is not, the way we use it changed and those numbers don't tell anything about it.
It almost cliche to say it over and over again: People are first, data are second. Still, it is hard to live up to this sentence, as we are attached to the old media world order. As long as we don't change the terminology and become more curious to see what lies behind the numbers, we will stand still in one place. The world will pass by.
(Read more on statistics here)
Tags: research, numbers, sociology, media consumption
Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board has done the global survey about luxury consumers.
For majority 'luxury is having enough time to do whatever you want and being able to afford it.' Time is followed by experiences, comfort, beauty and quality.
The survey results indicates that there is the shift in people's meaning on what luxury is. More people seem to think about luxury not in terms of materials things, but more in terms of experiences and state of mind. It is the natural result of changing world and distribution of means in the Western societies. Parallel with uber-luxury, fabulous lives ala Beckham or Paris Hilton, luxury became more mass than ever - more people can afford the luxury bags, clothes and cars. There are also more mass brands that are clever to add luxury touch to their products via clever marketing moves. The definition of luxury isn't the same as it used to be, it doesn't have the same role of being the dividing line between classes. Luxury products consumption used to be the way to achieve prestige and higher social status.
Today, more people discover the meaningless of consumption, its negative consequences for our society and planet and the decreasing value of luxury products - they guarantee no longer the desired position on the society ladder. Therefore we chose to move from being conspicuous consumers into conscious consumers. Conscious consumer who consumer less in the name of luxury. It doesn't mean we will spend less, we will buy less products, but those will be of very high quality and of course high price. It will be still material things we will use to find our identity and mark our position, but those things will be disguised in emotions, statements and opinions.
Tags: luxury, consumption, trends
This evening I went to do some shopping at local supermarket. While I was reaching for Innocent smoothie, my attention was caught by two lovely kids, girl and boy (around 3 - 5 years old) and their mum. (I couldn't help to follow them). The little girl was dragging a basket, it was packed with healthy and ecological food. It was mum's choice and children has different meaning on what they would like to eat. It was fascinating to observe the children's behavior and their brands awareness. They knew exactly what products they wanted, they screened shelves in search for the brands. Both boy and girl were placing diverse products in the basket and the mother with smile on her lips, kept on removing them and explaining to kids it's not for them. The girl was standing with Danonino yogurt, looked at her mother with big eyes and tried to convince her mum that this tastes very good and they have to buy it, while the boy tried to smuggle Cheerios in the basket. They didn't give up easily and all the way to checkout they tried to smuggle something in the basket.
The kids' brand awareness is very big, interesting enough all the products those kids wanted are advertised - primarily on TV. The advertising has a huge effect on kids as they aren't able to filter information they receive. We need to be careful when communicating to children as influence we can have on them can be tremendous and not everyone of them has such are unbreakable parent, who don't melt when seeing the little angel with big blue and honest eyes having a serious brand pitch.
***UPDATE***
and here is the link to the post about the power of branding amongst children.
Tags: advertising, children, brands
People aren't irrational only when buying on eBay. We are pretty far away from being rational even when thinking about prices.
A recent paper in the Journal of Consumer Research indicates that we tend to act as the lower digits were farther apart than higher ones.
"Students who saw ads showing a $233 skate marked down to $222 thought
they were getting a larger discount than did students who saw a $199
skate marked down to $188, even though the opposite was true. The first
group of students also rated themselves about 20 percent more likely to
buy the skates than did the others."
We aren't as clever as we tend to believe. Irrationality is very important when observing and analyzing human behavior. It also makes advertising kind of difficult as it is hard to predict, control and influence irrational behavior.
Via NYTimes
UPDATE #2
Second life is back in media. This time the attention they get is focused on negative aspects.
Time classified Second Life as on of the 5 worst websites.
Interesting article from Wired about Madison Avenue wasting millions on a deserted Second Life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE
For the last couple of weeks you couldn't hear too much about Second Life in media. Apparently, SL hasn't live up to its hype. I was skeptical from the beginning about companies investing money and opening their virtual offices in SL to earn money. And today I read in Danish newspaper (Politiken) that companies begin to leave SL.
I guess there are too major problems with SL
1) The lack of users - the numbers Second Life gives as the number of SL users are the number of profiles. The truth is most people never come back again.
2) Companies have no idea how to act and interact in virtual reality of SL. For most companies SL is just another advertising window.
I guess there is also the third problem with users itself. Virtual reality is very new concept for us and we have no idea how to behave and how we can use the new space we have available. Plus there are still technological obstacles.
I do still believe Second Life is good and important but we need to explore the virtual reality more in order to understand its nature and become wiser on how to use it. The mix of traditional opt-down models, traditional advertising techniques and Second Life isn't the best in the world and can't bring any spectacular results (Danish Red Cross raised only 10.000 DKK from February 2007 ... I bet they still haven't earned home investments they made to create their HQ in SL)
Stop measuring and calculating, just try to understand in the first place. Understanding delivers better ROI.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Second Life has become the media celebrity lately, everyone is talking about SL, so many companies throw $$$ to opening their virtual stores / offices there. SL become crowded, unfortunately not with people (3,6 million accounts opened but only 250.000 people revisited SL within 30 days since the last login and there are maximum 20.000 people at the same time) but with companies.
Nic Mitham has recently made a brand map of Second Life that gives the overview over the major companies existing in SL. I find it interesting the way companies are places on the outskirts of the SL and form the circle. Is it an attempt to try to separate itself from competitors?
(Click on the picture for bigger view)
While companies are rushing into virtual territory, the recent survey from Komjuniti revealed that 72% Second Life users (“avatars”) are disappointed with the activities of the companies in SL. Moreover "over a third of them were unaware of the branded presence and 42% said they thought it constituted nothing more than a short-term trend, lacking durable commitment from the companies. Just 7% consider that it has a positive influence on brand image and their future buying behavior."
The major problem for SL users is the insufficient customer care and opportunities for interaction with companies - the two most important factors and the basic reason for existence in place like SL.
It seems like companies feel the urge to be present in the SL but have no reason for being there, have no clue or plan how to act in SL. One should believe that the reason for company entering SL is to build a community around brands and interact with the consumers. Apparently it is not the way consumers feel.
I spent a lot of time in SL and I've always been skeptical abut the SL frenzy in business world. There is nothing wrong with SL itself, even though it seems to me as the ghost ship, the world with fantastic building but not too many people. SL is a wonderful world, the virtual scene that opens door to the new experiences and ways of communication. However many companies misunderstand that and see it mostly as the new area for the exposure of their ads and products. I guess we, both consumers and business need to understand first how the virtual worlds are relevant to us, what do they mean and give us, how we can use them before we fling into using them without having any goals or plans how to use it. I do believe in SL as the huge innovation and research space at the moment. This is the exciting place for gathering insights, observing and understanding humans interactions and testing products or ideas.
There is no need to get hasty and make the wrong decisions. It can affect companies negatively, as they don't live up to consumers expectations and needs. They way companies act in SL reminds me about the bad traditional marketing where ads are developed and broadcasted on TV without even spending a minute on understanding consumers, without even thinking about any kind of research.
It is better to take it slow and put resources into decent research. SL is great and important so better use it wisely.
You can read more about companies in SL here and here
Meanwhile get a ...third life :-)
Tags: Second Life, Advertising, Brands
Powered by Qumana
“The Science of advertising is so far advanced it is impossible to foresee further developments.”
- said Samuel Johnson 230 years ago.
I could say the same in 2007, in the era of the power consumers with free and unlimited flow of information.
We have moved from being the product delivered by TV to creators and producers.
But what's the future for the consumer who is everywhere, who is anybody, who knows everything. Will it be scary and "googlized"?
Or maybe there will be no advertising anywhere except...in our dreams....
Tags: future of advertising, consumer
Sometime ago, I have read an article in the IHT an article about 3G telephony. There were billions dollars spent on "third - generation" licenses, in the pursuit of the "technology oriented" consumer, who was suppose to use without limits many features 3G telephony has to offer: email, Internet, video calls, music, videos, just name it. 3G were suppose to become our mobile window to the world. But the truth is that most people use their cell phones just as they did in 2000 - to make calls and send text messages. They use their phones to communicate with their peers.
So much money has been invested in promotion of the 3G services but it didn't get the people to run to stores and book plane tickets and have a video chat with mother over phone. Why? I guess it can be a good example of lack of consumers insights and understanding the relation between humans and technology. Apparently the world isn't ready to put the everyday matters and connections into a small phone. The companies missed the important part of "user experience" . 
‘When we talk about the “user experience” the main emphasis is often on an individual’s experience with a particular technology. Even with a purported social technology, for example a social networking site, we still tend to create for the individual’s interaction with the site (how does someone find their friend, how do they access this site easily from a mobile device).
However, designing for sociability means thinking about how people experience each other through the technological medium, not just thinking about how they experience the technology. The emphasis is on the human-to-human relationship, not the human-to-technology relationship. This is a crucial difference in design focus. It means designing for an experience between people.
Of course designing for an experience between people doesn’t mean ignoring the interaction with the device, but it calls for taking something else into account. That “something else” is often another person or people. How do we, as developers of communication technologies, make the communications more interesting, more exciting and more stimulating for the receiver? How do we help our users meet the needs of the other people in their social network? How do we create a shared experience that is equally compelling for all participating parties? When we begin to think like this, we truly start to think of designing social software, social applications, social media.’
Crysta Metcalf of Motorola (Found at experientia)
Tags: 3G, Mobile Phones, Consumers
"In order to be able to connect to "uploaders", we need to recognize (or test the hypothesis), that most of them are narcissistic creatures searching online for fame. Therefore, any brand activity should appeal to this trait, vigorously massaging their egos and making them look good or famous in return for brand advocacy. Why do you think Mac users are such ardent advocates? Because they think that owning a Mac puts them somewhat above the rest, making life very easy for marketers..." Ozoda Muminova
Uploarders are the stars, having social media - YouTube, Flicks, blogging, etc. - as their stage. Their performances vary a lot, from shows at family garden parties through auditions to Idol to fully professional shows. Being uploader gives power and recognition amongst other memebers of the herd.
Read more about "Uploaders" here
Via David Armano
Tags: social media, uploaders, agency.com
We are not only belong to a herd, one of our biggest needs is to belong to a herd. The belonging need can be used in many different ways, for example in 'crowdgaming'. It may sound ridiculous but you can get a crowd of people sitting in cinema to act as joysticks.
Idea was created by SS+K in collaboration with Brand Experience Lab for msnbc.com. The idea is groundbreaking - there are motion sensors placed in movie theater that tracks people movements and control the game. It is fascinating to see the herd in action when all people join the fun and become 'crowdgamers'.
Talking about gaming, I've also find this video - from Japan TV. It is also some kind of crowdgaming, there are no technological gadgets, just people and some bricks. It is called 'human tetris'. It is pretty entertaining. There is something surreal in the Japanese TV shows.
The need of belonging is stronger that the fear of being / acting ridiculous.
Tags: crowdgaming, herd, belonging
YouTube is great. It is fantastic source of insights about the people and their lives. YouTube is kind of focus group on steroids. Instant insights into people lives. What always amazes me is the people's creativity and the endless need of exploration and creation. YouTube brings plenty of fascinating stories. This is the new source of information for me, it lets me to follow with what's hot, what's not trends. It is other dimension of visual sociology - YouTubelogy.
Today when I was catching up, I've found this video. It is great piece of job. Sound of skateboard, movement and good beat = great video. Something that has a potential to become a hit amongst skateboards and other free riders.
Tags: YouTube, visual sociology, skateboard
Seth Godin came with the statement that the reason behind the importance of price can be the lack of other values customers could care about.
"Maybe the reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is...
... that you haven't given them anything else to care about."
Yes, of course we would love to buy products with meaning. I shop therefore I am. We define our identities through products we buy. Still we are the hunters who will always be happy and proud to buy something cheaper. We love sales. There is some kind of sport in buying things cheaper than they normally are. I am always amazed seeing long lines to the discount shops or seeing people buying 5 packages of butter, so they can save 1$.
Another question that pops up in my head is about the people whose income is just about average? What about people who are so poor that their salary allows them to survive from 1st to 1st each month? Those people want the products that are affordable. That is what majority cares about. Many people can't simply afford to buy values.
So often people tend to perceive and describe the world through their own lives. I am sure Seth Godin buys products that has some special appeal and deeper meaning. But there are millions people in our world that can afford such a luxury.
Tags: price, values, shopping, Seth Godin
Dear marketers, agencies, dear all who tirelessly search for the consumers to hit them with your message. Here is the message for you - look closely.
It is hilarious. I've found it at Adverblog.
Tags: consumers, connection
You watch tasty commercial, the look of the juicy burger makes you drool. You get hungry. You can't wait, you have to eat it. You image biting the delicious beef. You put on your snickers and run to the "bigmac" place...and you get this
Disappointed? Hmm...kind of.
The project Fast Food: ads vs. reality shows the gap between the food we are presented to on the screens and the food we are served in reality. Hmm, I must say reality bites. It reminds me about the movie with M. Douglas "Fall Down", he pulled the gun out when he was served he floppy sandwich that had nothing to do with one the picture.
Via Chroma
eMarketer forecasts that the total number of mobile TV and video subscribers globally will rise from 40 million in 2006 to over 750 million in 2011...
A
..and worldwide paying subscribership will go up to nearly 200 million, and revenue will reach nearly $13 billion.
There is optimistic forecast I'd say and there are some money to earn.
But what interested me most in the eMarketer article was a 2006 Nokia survey that showed pretty significant differences in phone usage preferences amongst 18.35 years old. Not only the enormous gap between 46% Saudi Arabians and 3% Japanese in interest to watch Mobile TV. What caught my attention is generally very low percentage of Japanese who would like to use mobile phone to anything else but sending and receiving emails (76%).
I must admit I had a picture in my head of Japanese youth using mobile phone to everything, music, photography, TV, Internet...but to my surprise those features seams to be the way more interesting for Chinese people or Europeans.
The table below shows how important is finding the right business model for mobile services and platforms within every country / culture. Despite globalization and uniting power of Internet, the differences grow as fast as similarities.
The McKinsey Quarterly conducted 'How businesses are using Web 2.0' survey in January 2007 (2,847 executives worldwide, 44 percent of whom hold C-level positions). The respondents expressed satisfaction with their Internet investments so far, they see Web 2.0 technologies as strategic tools.
However, as the survey showed, companies don't follow the best-known Web 2.0 trends, such as blogs. They'd rather focus on and invest in technologies that enable automation and networking.
I seems like the companies are still very afraid of having the conversation with the consumers and opening the door for two-ways dialog. The fear of losing control is huge as top crisis manager Eric Dezehell puts it:
"The CEOs of the largest 50 companies in the world are practically hiding under their desks in terror about Internet rumors"
The companies still pretend they can avoid being the subject of discussion that is happening online between the millions of people who are enabled to say whatever they want, express their positive experiences, thoughts and feelings as well as the dissatisfaction, problems and frustrations. But the history and many bad examples showed that opposite you must fear "the venom of the crowds" as the most crushing power in the market at the moment. Today, in the world of mouse era, companies can be build and destroyed with the mouse click. The solution isn't to hide under your desk, consumers can find you there if they have to. The companies must accept the fact that even though they control their brands, there are others players in the market, who can influence the brands and change the course of the storytelling companies control.
Inspired by article in BusinessWeek "Web Attack" - it is a must read!
Tags: blogs, markets are conversation, mckinsey, controlPowered by Qumana
Web 2.0 is ominous, it is everywhere. It touches every aspect of our life. It is even in the local supermarket near you. It is hilarious.
Tags: supermarket 2.0, web 2.0Technology sneaks everywhere and allows us to do the wildest things. I have recently found out that you can create subliminal messages! All you have to do is to download the free software and begin that will brainwash yourself or your boyfriend into buying you flowers :-) by flashing "text messages, pictures, or both in the center of the display, on top of everything."
I wonder how long does it take before anyone gets an idea to make a virus out of it. If you read Gladwell's Blink, you know how powerful unconscious mind is. Scary, especially that "scientists at the University College London (UCL) have found the first physiological evidence that invisible subliminal images do attract the brain’s attention on a subconscious level. The findings challenge previous scientific assumptions that consciousness and attention go hand-in-hand. What’s interesting here is that your brain does log things that you aren’t even aware of and can’t ever become aware of,” Bahador Bahrami from the UCL said. “We show that there is a brain response in the primary visual cortex to subliminal images that attract our attention without us having the impression of having seen anything." (From Subliminal messages ‘impact on brain’)
Tags: subliminal, neuroscience
Piper Jaffray has published the report "User Revolution". They not only foresee the global online advertising revenue to reach $81,1 billion by 2011 and expect "a significant rise in prominence of the Internet as a major content consumption and marketing medium.". And it's believable when you look at the chart below.
via Influx
There are more people who would give up TV on behalf of Interet. The number increased with 54% within the last 5 years. Internet takes very important place in people's lives as it gives them the bigger versatality and more control.
You can read more about report here or order it here.
Tags: Piper Jaffray, User Revolution, Internet, TV
The latest research about DVR use from Nielsen shows the ad skipping amongst DVRs users can be urban myth. The data shows a lot of Americans with digital video recorders are not fast-forwarding and time-shifting as much as advertisers feared - they still watch an average of two-thirds of the ads. Interesting is the fact that DVRs owners often insist that they never watch commercials, as if skipping commercials is a badge of honor. (Read more here)
Regardless of hate or love for ads, the ad avoiding is the real behavior the questions is only how wide spread it is. There is still the way to go before it will become the sport of other than tech-savvy viewers. Ad 
skipping behavior will become more popular as technology behind becomes easier - "one click" solution can definitely change the rules of the game here.
Meanwhile there are more tools that allows viewers to block ads
Comskip is a free mpeg commercial detector.
Commercial Skip Addin - add on for you Media Center
Show Analyzer - the most advanced commercial detection program available to the public... plus a little extra
Tags: ad avoiders, ad skipping, DVR, commercial detector
I have a habit of eavesdropping. On the bus, in the shop. I can't help it. It's fascinating to see the people "live", and this is the very important and inevitable tool in the job as communication planner. The consumers understanding is the most important part of the communication strategy. The deep insights are the basis for placing the product in consumers life, defining its role, as well as for the market segmentation, recognition of the threats, identification the potential source of income and of course this the key information we need as media planners for the selection of the most effective and relevant communication channels.
Consumers analysis and its quality depends not only on what techniques are used, but who makes the analysis and how the person is prepared to put such a task across. Targeting can be limited to a couple of graphs, tables with affinity index and bone-dry description that is put into immortal power point slides. But it can also be more interesting and take the form of the movie showing the interviews with people representing our target group, showing the part of their real everyday life, not just the numbers based on declarations.
When we are curious and reach into the real life to gather the necessary information we have access to the plenty of data and besides the correct interpretation of data, the most important is the creative thinking and the ability to connect all available elements, information and data into the consistent picture of consumer.
We can never forget to ask ourselves about our objectivity and our ability to understand the consumers. So often we are tempted to take the shortcuts and define the target group through the distorted glasses of our existence. We tend to transfer our feelings, our experiences over to the people we are analyze. We ignore often the fact that people working in the media or advertising agency are part of the minority: urban profile, no kids, income over average, very social and outgoing, spending most of his/her free time at work. We are pretty different from the people we are interested in as the target group. During the process of understanding whom our consumers are we must be aware of the Znaniecki's humanist
principle (also called as "humanistic coefficient"), that means: "an observer of cultural life can understand the data observed only if taken with the” humanistic coefficient”, only if he does not limit his observation to his own direct experience of the data but reconstructs the experience and the data in the social context of the people involved"
When we approach the targeting process in the right way, we end up with the real person picture - the
typical exponent for the target group. We know what's her name, how old she is, what clothes she wears, what she reads, how she will react when we offer her to try our product. We know she was trying to lose weight three times this year and she will not take for ski trip this winter because she is going to have a baby. 
We, planners need to learn to be chameleons and change our skin while we are working with targeting otherwise we risk producing the wrong and subjective analyses that is based mostly on whom we and our significant others are -those analyses can't be reliable and can't lead to the successful communication strategies. Communication planners need to be curious and go outside to experience the real life of ordinary people with the huge dose of creativity and humanist principle.
Tags: consumers, planners, target group, Znaniecki
According to the "Mediascope Europe 2006 Study," Europeans are avid online buyers.
they spend an average of € 750
buy 10 items online over six months,
there is 11% increase in online buying year over year
online shoppers in the UK and Scandinavia spend and buy the most goods online
Germans are online bargain seekers, buying a higher number of items at a lower cost
62% German online shoppers and 49% online shoppers in UK visit auction sites at least once a month (European online average of 41%)
mobile phones top Europeans' online shopping list
mobile phones had the largest growth in conversion rates year over year, growing at 23%, followed by music downloads, car accessories and home furnishings
via eMarketer
Tags: online buying, shoppers, Europe, InternetI've found this chart at Brand Autopsy blog.
The chart shows the disproportion between the media spend and achieved market share amongst Top 10 restaurant chains. Starbucks has definitely exceptional position: the lowest media spend and 6th position on the chart. As John Moore points out, it is a good example that investing in better products and consumer expriences works better than millions spend on mass advertising. It is very enlightening chart, it shows where you should shift your focus and it proves user experience is not just another buzz word. It works. Sturbucks has proven it.
Mass media dollars power is decreasing. You have to be clever and have your eyes and ears wide open in order to understand the markets and get the most for your $$$. SOURCE: Ad Age (Jan. 1, 2007)
Another year has passed by, and the trends race's begun - everyone foresees trends and the upcoming future in 2007. Around 20.000 blog posts with "2007 predictions"
But the predicting future is impossible, as one of my favorite polish philosophers Kolakowski said - the future doesn't exist. When future "arrives", it's not the future any more and we can't talk about something that doesn't exist. All we can do is to try to guess what the world will look like and hope we've touched the truth.
As long as future doesn't exist and plenty of others did great job guessing how the 2007 come to look like, I've decided to write my own 2007 Manifesto that is my reflection over the modern world of communication and expresses my wishes how we - all sorts of planners and marketers - should embrace the communication in 2007.
1. It is all about people. You and You are those who matter. Human beings are key drivers, pushing not only the wheels of history but of you business too.
2. Ad agencies, media agencies, it is time to understand who is your real client? The company paying you the huge fee for doing and telling them what they want to see and hear? Or maybe you should rather turn your efforts towards the end user?!
3. No more planners and media people arrogance. You can't drive your business by neglecting consumers. In fact, you ignore consumers - your business doesn't exist, it is hard to earn the money when you spend all your effort on scaring off your customers.
4. Let's end the slavery of asking consumers what they think. Redefine insights, get under consumers skin and explore the subconscious levels of consumers' mind. Embrace the culture as the key to understanding markets and people.
5. Long-term thinking should be your focus point. Short-term strategies work ...hmm... for a very short time
6. Embrace the new metrics: engagement, share of attention, emotional quotient, push vs. pull response and attention, world of mouth "impressions". Awareness and loyalty moves in the second row - they are just something people say, but do they really believe in what they say or they say what they think you expect them to say?
7. Become a good story teller. Tell people simple and useful stories. Fulfil consumers needs. Don't be afraid to be personal.
8. Cooperate, collaborate - treat your consumers as consultants, engage them in your business, instead of taking them for naive and undemanding. Use the power of the social media wisely. It helps to leave your ego at home.
9. Communication planning is rather orchestrating than optimizing. Be Mozart, not Crazy Frog.
10. And the most important always respect consumers. They are people like you.
Tags: Consumers, 2007 Predictions, Communication, 2007 Manifesto, People Business
“Companies have been doing this for ages, getting customers to really internalise the brand and feel like they are involved in the 'brands vision'. All thats really happening though is we consumers become little puppets for the big brands. Ipods are a good example, consumers now think (largely because of other consumers) that buying an Ipod gives automatic entry into this super cool culture (when really it's just a portable music player), we have created a 'vision' for Ipods and now buy them because of the vision other consumers have created in combination with the marketing pumped out by Apple. To me, this signifies, not a step forward for consumers but a situation where we who want to feel like we are empowered to make our own decisions and not just be a product of marketing, have become our own worst enemy by advertising to ourselves. Now, not only can a corporation dream up a 'brand vision' and convince customers that this is true, we are so convinced we 'know' the company, we eagerly do their advertising for them. Unless consumers have the full details behind the brand (ie. that it is largely profit motivated, really wants to increase sales in a particular market segment etc etc) the 'brand vision' they create is based on marketing spin and we end up selling products we may not even like (if given the truth) to each other.” (Natalie)
This comment appeared as reaction to one of my earlier post and its critical approach made me happy. The above comment points out one important thing - the common belief that all consumers are thoughtless puppets in the hands of devil corporations. This and the overall perception of consumption open the broader discussion. The discussion is not about the international companies letting consumer to build brands visions, but this is the discussion about consumerism culture we are living in. And this culture is not nothing new.
Many centuries ago, Aristotle wrote in ‘Politics’:
“The avarice of mankind is insatiable”
Over two thousand years later Leo Tolstoy wrote in “My Religion”
"seek among men, from beggar to millionaire, one who is contented with his lot, and you will not find one such in a thousand....Today we must buy an overcoat and galoshes, tomorrow, a watch and a chain; the next day we must install ourselves in an apartment with a sofa and a bronze lamp; then we must have carpets and velvet gowns; then a house, horses and carriages, paintings and decorations."
In XIX there was also Marx who wasn’t happy with the consumption in the capitalistic society.
Capitalism fetishizes products and services; people refer to them as the object with magical power or prestige that can be transmitted to the people. Across centuries, many poets, writers, philosophers have deplored and disagreed with the desire to possess in the society.
Mankind has known and enjoyed consumption over centuries. Consumption is not just modern times phenomena, this is something that has always existed and has it is roots in the social structures; this is the part of Weber’s stratification process, where status is based on the economical status and the non economical qualities like honor and prestige.
Today’s world dominated by market, media, advertising and urgency makes everyone of us to be the consumer. We are all participating in the consumption, and the consumption brings negative associations; we tend to see the consumers as fettered, thoughtless mass that is looking only for entertainment and pleasure. We think everyone but me is the consumer. In the first place we must understand what the consumption is. According to Webster Online Dictionary , the word consumption has four meanings:
1. The process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating)
2. Involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body
3. (Economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing; "the consumption of energy has increased steadily"
4. The act of consuming something.
We consume everything every day – we consume the morning paper together with breakfast and our morning coffee, we consume TV shows, enjoying bottle of coke, we consume Mahler’s 5thSymphony and at the same time we consume wine. We consume the books, no matter if it is the latest Dan Brown’s book or James Joyce ‘Ulysses’. We consume all day long, we satisfy our needs all day long. The consumption has the central role in our lives. We work to afford consumption. We can’t avoid consumption, as the consumption is the way of fulfilling our needs. The development in the modern western societies shifted the focus up to higher needs (see Maslow needs hierarchy). We don’t need to worry about food and roof over the head, those things we just have and take them for granted, so we have a time and energy to focus on the esteem and being needs.
Every one of us has tried to have a few of those masks on. We play consumer roles, as others roles in our lives, in different disguises depending on situation, environment, ours and others expectations. We consume to tell the world who we are and where we belong. We consume to define our social position. We consume to achieve mental stimulation and to avoid boredom. Our consumption has not only the material character, nowadays the consumption of symbols and experiences is blooming.
One of the first sociologists who wrote about consumption was Thorstein Veblen, in his ‘The Theory of The Leisure Class’ he stated that we consume not to survive but to socially differentiate and achieve the higher social status and prestige. The aristocrats or higher class creates the consumption patterns and values which are copied by the lower classes. Those consumption patterns loose on their attractiveness as soon as they become available to everyone, so the higher classes have to create the new ones. The process repeats itself constantly. The same pattern we can observe nowadays, middle class members gets access to mass luxury and get the feel of participating in the high class consumption. But still the rich has to earn more to differentiate themselves from the rest of society and the poor has to earn more to catch up with the rich. As Bourdieu described it, the consumption is about establishing own preferences as superior in order to have the power. The consumption leads to social differentiation and self promotion.
So the consumption is not the problem of advertising or more precise and sophisticated methods of reaching and engaging consumers. The consumption is tightly bound in the society construction. We can’t say no to consumption. But we have a choice to choose different lifestyle or different consumption patterns. We don’t have to buy iPod or Louis Vuitton bag if we don’t want to or don’t need it, some people want to buy those products and it makes them happy, that’s their choice, not Apple’s or Vuitton’s. But we can't reverse the processes of social stratification.
Who is responsible for consumption? Everyone. Good example is the movie ‘Czech Dream’ from 2004. This is the documentary film about the hoax. The directors, Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak, created the deceitful advertising campaign for non-existent new supermarket called Czech Dream. They got plenty of people to arrive to the opening but the frantic hoard discovered that there was no supermarket, no promotion, just a cameraman filming their faces, faces filled with incredulity, anger, disappointment, auto irony and shame. Filip Remunda and Vit Klusák provoked people (consumers), revealed their primal instincts. The scene when people are running towards the supermarket shows the human's strong desire to possess. The film is the key to understanding the consumption culture: none is deceiving and none is deceived. The game rules are clear - one person wants to sell, another person wants to own, both know about it. We have to only know what we want and who we are.
That’s why I disagree with those who blame companies for misusing consumers and see around the conspiracy theory plotted by the big corporations. I guess that none grown-up has any doubts what drives Apple, Microsoft, Toyota, Snickers and others. It is obvious they want to earn the money, who doesn’t! And I think it is inspiring that consumers are being engaged to help them to earn that money, as that makes us into active and interactive consumers and it shows the companies don’t look at the consumers as puppets. It gives the hope for better visions, mores responsible visions, visions that appeal to us, visions that don’t treat us as puppets. Such a model is better than traditional model where consumer were only passive recipients of communication from corporations. The consumers has the voice now and it’s u to them how they are going to use it.
And I believe that we should worry more of other aspects of consumption – the use of resources, wastage and pollution we generate when satisfying our needs, the gap between the rich and the poor, ‘über-consumption’ we cultivate and the growing gap between Western and 3rd world countries.
We are all responsible for the society and the world we are living in. And I believe that with the new media, technologies and all opportunities they bring we do have a chance to make a difference. It is all about making the right choices and showing respect to others and to the surrounding world.
* Thorstein Veblen quote
Society and people have always fascinated me, this was also reason why I became sociologist. I wanted to explore and get deeper insights into society. Sociology helps us to understand the social rules and processes that bind and separate people In other words sociology concerns itself with the way we live, interact, adapt, and play our roles in every day life. It is a 
wonderful science, because it is so human.
One of fields that I became very involved with is the visual sociology, that is dealing with the visual description of the social world.
Visual sociology is the way of decoding the fragmented social reality. It documents the everyday social life. The pictures are the data used for the analysis and understanding the people and they can reveal a lot of aspects of people's life. Just look at the cave paintings from Lascaux that tell us a lot about the ancient culture.
There are three approaches to the visual sociology
- data collection with camera or other recording technology
- studying visual data produced by other cultures
- the use of visual media to communicate sociological understandings to audiences, and the use of visual media within sociological research itself.
Visual sociology gives very valuable insights into everyday life and allows us to better understand the surrounding world. This discipline is very important in the communication field, as it allows researchers to go beyond the verbal declarations. Why it is so important to look beyond the words, you may think. It is simple, as we, people generally don't think with words, but with pictures. In fact we can't rely purely on respondents declarations. Photography or video allows us to read the hidden emotions, needs, behavior, that we would never could access by using only spoken language.
We are living in the visual culture where linear thinking was replaced by the hyperlinks. The world has changed and is still changing but our methods for understanding people haven't. Most of thoughts and feelings that influence our behavior occur in the unconscious mind. 95% of thinking takes place in the unconscious mind, so in fact most of what we know we don't know we know. Moreover 80% of human communication is nonverbal. Apart from words, we use touch, vocal intonation, gesture, body posture, eye contact, pupil dilation, facial expression in our communication. We don't think in linear way as the speech is constructed. We employ the metaphors, which stimulate the working of the mind, help us perceive the world and are the engines of imaginations . We use ca. 6 metaphors per minute of spoken language. Metaphors are simple to use and understand. They are the "primal thought", when we communicate verbally, we simply describe the metaphors occurring in our mind. Metaphors are pictures.
Marketing and advertising are about people, not words or declarations. And here I can see a huge role for the visual sociology. You can collect the material by going outside of your office and photographing people in their everyday natural environment or you can simply equip your respondents with disposable cameras and ask them to photograph their everyday life and support the visual material with interviews. The opportunities are limitless, all you have to do is open your mind and be ready to try something new.
Myself, I am a passionate photographer as well, so I've decided to join two of my passions and have started the new project - the world seen through the camera eye. I will try to go beyond the verbal world and show the "unsaid" aspects of humans' life. I want to show how people live, interact and act in everyday life through the eye of my camera.
Remember: Picture is worth thousand words.
References: J. Zaltman, How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market
Pictures are taken by me, Daria :-)
Tags: Sociology, Photography, Visual Sociology, Society, Research
European population is getting older, people are living longer and older people are enjoying better health and better economy.
By 2030, there will be 24 million people aged 55 to 64 and 34.7 million citizens aged over 80 (compared to 18.8 million today) in EU. The number of people 80+ will grow by 180% by 2050!
It will definitely cause the problems to the future European society, but there is also another more positive side of the story - especially for companies and marketers. As the modern pensioners aren't just a grandparents. They have challenged and changed the way older people live and are. Stereotype is broken, the new consumption class has been born - seniors.
Do you remember Dove's campaign for the real beauty and one of their models - Irene Sinclair. At the age of 96, Irene 
Sinclair, a grandmother from north London, has joined Kate Moss, Scarlett Johansson, and other famous beauties, as the "face" of an international beauty campaign.
The campaign, objective was to challenge conventional notions of beauty and of course sell more products. The results were astonishing - the Dove cream sales increased with 700%.
Dove hit the right target group, people over 60-ties, who are the biggest, growing and the wealthiest consumer group in Europe. The average annual disposable income of person
