Extending your reach through employees

I’m fascinated by the idea of ‘Employee Activism,’ and it has been a talking point in the business media in recent times. 

I read about an interesting study by the PR and Marketing Communications agency Weber Shandwick. They surveyed 2,300 employees over 15 global markets, finding that 1 in 5 workers are ‘employee activists’; people who will publicly defend and advocate for their employer. They also found a further 33% were on their way to adapting to these pro-employer traits.

Weber Shandwick Workforce Activism Spectrum™

The other day, another graduate student joked with me proudly that they had been ‘institutionalised’ by their company. I could strongly relate to this notion, as I also share a positive sentiment and a long tenure within my own ‘institution’!

In the last couple of years I’ve witnessed my own organisation prioritise and subsequently embed some new values and culture throughout the business. This is a successful paradigm shift from 5 years or so ago when organisational culture was defined by a dusty ‘commitments’ poster pinned to the office wall. The workforce has actually been mobilised to live out the values. It’s been successful because the culture was put at the top of the company agenda; made real by an innovative and engaging ‘internal brand’ platform.

So what do a highly engaged staff of activists look like? Well, it’s mainly expressed through social media. They may, of their own freewill, post pictures and videos about their company on Facebook. Or perhaps they generate favourable online discussion about their employer. Of the companies surveyed, one third encourages their employees to do this – especially in relation to sharing company news, campaigns and information.

This of course poses a great threat to organisations dabbling in employee generated social media. By placing part of your brand communications messaging in the hands of employees, there is a gamble with co-destruction. 16% of the survey sample indicated they had shared negative and critical comments about their employer, and 14% posted comment about their employer that they regret.

Sometimes the risk isn’t just an employee who has had a bad day at the office. The activists themselves can do harm to your brand. For instance, employees leaving favourable reviews on user-generated content websites can also be damaging by harming brand credibility.

Travel site, TripAdvisor has been put under scrutiny in relation to the authenticity of reviews on the site. They have previously been criticised for posting unconfirmed and anonymous reviews about restaurants, hotels and attractions that could have potentially been posted by ‘employee activists’. But is it unethical for an employee of a restaurant to favourably review a meal they enjoyed when dining at work? This is a grey area, but there is certainly some degree of fake reviews on these types of websites that originate from employees.

Organisations need to get on the front foot and educate their people on how to use social media whilst protecting the brand. Tools like PeopleLinx are popping up to help employees become skilled social marketers. Training and granting your employees access to social media tools will attract an army of brand advocates. "People don't buy from brands; they buy from people they know and trust," comments PeopleLinx CMO Michael Idinopulos.

www.peoplelinx.com

The scary part is that the study also revealed less than half of those surveyed could adequately describe the company’s business activities, and even fewer could articulate the company’s goals.

So, if you are going to encourage the team to engage in company-related social chit-chat, you would want to make sure they are on message and you would also want to ensure there is no unrest within the ranks.

This is an interesting strategic marketing issue of the moment. It represents tremendous opportunities on one hand; and catastrophic threats on the other. If you’d like to get a snapshot of the study without reading the report, check out the infographic. 

Aaron Rowden
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

How co-creation is defining a new direction for Airbnb

If you’re not familiar with Airbnb, then to put it simply, you’re not travelling the right way.

Sure, we could all simply check into a hotel when we get to a foreign city, but in many ways this distances us from the sense of place and marginalises us to the category of a tourist. In the search for something more authentic, an experience with purpose, Airbnb connects property owners with short term renters through an online collaborative consumption marketplace. The result is the potential for a traveller, or guests as they are known to Airbnb, to stay in 34,000 cities around the world in accommodation ranging from soho lofts, to igloos; houses to lake side log cabins. The value for owners, which they refer to as hosts, is that they can unlock value in their idle assets and contribute to a global community movement.

An example of one of the many destinations available through the Airbnb marketplace - www.airbnb.com.com

So how do you grow an online marketplace with a customer centric approach when many of the touch points for the consumer are beyond your control? Airbnb continues to increase their interactions with hosts and guests by co-creating new tools and systems which allow greater trust between stakeholders, captures more value through augmented product features and enhances the unique experience while working to increasing consistency.

By building a Hospitality Innovation Lab in Dublin to train hosts and observe guests, Airbnb has been able to capture their interactions, developing new features in direct response such as instant bookings and friction reducing moments for exchanging keys. This process of co-creation increases the value of the experience for each of the engaging actors as well as the brand of Airbnb.

In augmenting the core product of a lodging marketplace, Airbnb storyboarded the entire experience for a typical traveller to identify new customer touch points, which could be captured in the move to reposition the company as a hospitality provider. From this, new ideas such as airport transfers, dry cleaning services and restaurant recommendations have been identified with the potential to integrate with the Airbnb marketplace to augment their offering.

Finally, Airbnb’s value proposition of a unique travel experience has been let down in the past by the inconsistent and even negative experiences of a minority of its guests. To increase consistency while maintaining uniqueness, they will soon be offering cleaning services to their hosts, including the provision of towels and linen. Additionally, a graded system of hosts will help increase quality and manage guest expectations. These paid services help guests select premium services, hosts to differentiate themselves through increased quality, and Airbnb a revenue generating augmented product feature.

In short, these customer centric features are bringing Airbnb more inline with the expectation of a traditional traveller, while staying true to the value proposition of unique holiday locations with which it differentiated itself and disrupted the industry.

The Airbnb headquarters reflect the diversity of experience offered by their hosts to guests.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3021556/fast-feed/airbnb-made-a-lot-of-announcements-today

The search for a new meaning for Airbnb beyond the online platform has led them toward becoming an integrated hospitality provider, seeking to co-create new value for their guests and hosts through a more rigorous understanding of the customer value chain.

As they enter this new era, it’s clear the innovation that created this disruptive platform is far from petering out.

Duncan Alexander Bell
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Inspired by TEDx: What's your greatest lesson to share?

As marketing students, we may still have a lot to learn in the field, but what we’re already known for is effectively sharing and spreading the knowledge and skills we currently possess. With such a special organisation like TEDx arriving in Sydney in such a short time, what better way to spread experience than to get involved! For those who are not familiar with TEDx, it’s an organisation based around "ideas worth spreading".

The University of Sydney is currently sponsoring a TEDx ticket giveaway to win select seats in the opera house on the evening of 26 April, along with other prizes such as vouchers to study at the Centre for Continuing Education. To enter, students must upload a photo to Instagram, and tag @sydney_uni, #passitonsydney and #student, with an answer to the question, “what is your greatest lesson to share?” Below are pictures of Master of Marketing students taking part in the competition with hopes of spreading their lessons and potentially getting to hear some of the inspirational TEDx talks to come in person.

Christine Drpich (@cdrpich) – “Nothing is ever too far away, you can always find SOME way to get there.”

Lisa Grobien – “Cultivate your passion, don’t just follow it.”

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

A Marketer’s Guide to the Business of the Blog

Blogging as a full-time job, in this day and age, is no new concept. There are countless blogger success stories out there for you to discover; whether it be 'Beauty Guru', Michelle Phan (who not only has her own makeup line, but also regularly collaborates with big name brands such as American Vogue, Lancome, Dr Pepper etc), to fashion blogger 'Tavi' (who started her blog at tender age of 12, and now curates her own digital magazine for teenage girls).

Michelle Phan on Sunrise – Credit: OscarOscarSalons

Although there is an aspirational value in these stories, from a Marketing perspective, they provide an insight into the current market for self-promotion, and development of a personal brand (without the support of academic or professional experience). Understanding how these, previously 'ordinary' people, have managed to capture a loyal audience, maintain it, and convert it into a commercially viable business, is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of their stories, but not the most important. As Marketers, the real value in exploring these stories is understanding the business model that these individuals have adopted, and discovering our place in it.

YouTube Marketing Ambassadors – Credit: Google Blog

For the average video-blogger (vlogger) on YouTube, the framework for financial success really stems from the opportunity for the monetisation of their original video content. Once a video has been uploaded, there is an option for placing overlay in-video ads, or in-stream video ads that either appear before the video begins, during, or perhaps after it has been viewed. The revenue generated by a YouTube partner really depends on a range of different variables that determine the CPM (cost per mille, or opportunities to see) of an ad being placed on their content; including, but not limited to, the number of subscribers they have. Although the option for monetisation is automatically offered to all content creators on YouTube, there is an emerging market of specialised companies who offer their partnerships to YouTube content creators, and provide personalised, and in most cases, elevated, revenue structures for them to work with. These companies will often offer to promote their partner's content on their own networks, and place content-specific ads on partner videos. The benefit in these tailored partnership structures (as opposed to a straightforward partnership with YouTube), is that it enables businesses wanting to advertise on YouTube to have their ads placed on videos that either mention, or are closely related to, the content being discussed or presented in a video. So companies that are able to match their business clients to their YouTube partners provide a direct link to the targeted customer of the ad, and in doing so, are able to offer a higher CPM, or revenue share, to their partners.

The only potential down-sides to such an arrangement for a Vlogger is regarding ownership and content creation issues; in that some companies may have stricter guidelines surrounding what the partner is allowed to mention, or show in a video (i.e. restrictions on product placement). These companies may also expect the endorsement of their own brand on partner channels (and often all their related social media outlets), and will essentially own the right to exclusively sell and place all advertising revenue on some of these platforms.

Putting monetisation to the side for a moment, other variables for success in this domain really come down to the content that's being pushed by a vlogger, and the tags that each video are being attached with. Content creators really need to understand why people watch them, what key words viewers search to come across their channel, and what content their followers want them to produce. Taking a recent interview of Phan by Fashionista.com, she mentions that the success of her videos doesn't come down to purely aesthetic qualities - "I don't want people to think they need a perfect amazing-lighting video. If it's authentic and has a great message, people will watch." And people do watch, considering her 5.9 million followers on YouTube, and her most popular video boosting over 52 million views. In considering the success of her channel, and many others, what it comes down to is developing a positioning strategy, and working to maintain this. For Phan, her target viewer could possibly be described as a make-up enthusiast interested in re-creating over-the-top make-up looks. Given her top videos include how to look like 'Barbie', 'Lady Gaga', a 'Vampire', or 'Sailor Moon', it could be easily agreed upon that she has stuck to this niche, and really pushed herself to the forefront of it.

Michelle Phan K-Pop Tutorial – Credit: Michelle Phan YouTube

Understanding one's viewer has never been easier thanks to the wide range of analytical tools YouTube has made available to its content creators. You can not only see rankings of the top geographies that view your videos, but also the gender, age, time, and playback locations of the people viewing your content. So for vloggers like Phan, tailoring her content to these characteristics is a walk in the park, considering this information is free, and is constantly being updated by the Google databases.

But as easy as it is to breakdown other factors of the YouTube vlogger business model, for our learning purposes as Marketers, the above discussion is probably enough to get a taste of how this business model works, and perhaps understand our place in the model. The opportunity for our involvement is quite clear; in that these individuals are essentially fostering a community of consumers with similar characteristics as the target markets of many brands out there. So for a business looking to advertise to the same market as Phans', or any other YouTuber for instance, having their product advertised on these videos, could not be a better way for them to reach out to their consumer, and achieve the kind of exposure that any brand is looking for amongst its market. 

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Fake meats, finally, taste like chicken

‘Beyond Meat’ is a company that produces plant protein substitutes for chicken and beef. A recent production error, discussed in an article in the New York Times by Stephanie Strom (published on 2 April 2014), proved that the ‘fake meat’ has come extremely far from the flavourless veggie burgers that used to be the only option for non-carnivores. It tastes so real that meat consumers did not notice the mistaken label switch.

 

Beyond Meat’s products. Ann Johansson for The New York Times

Demand for meat alternatives has been growing over the past years, and trends show that vegetarianism is increasing. Celebrities such as Bill Gates see high potential in this movement and are investing in meat alternative producing companies. According to the founder of ‘Beyond Meats’, Ethan Brown, investors see the development as a sustainable issue, which explains why one big agricultural commodity business that trades in meats have stake in his company.

Randy Komisar, who is a partner at a venture capital that has backed Google and Facebook, states that they never said they are interested in foods, however, they are interested in a company that co-creates products with stakeholders that represent big potential markets and strong opportunities for building great returns. Taking the global supply chains and world’s growing population into account, he believes that this is a venture-scale problem with venture-sale returns.

Co-designing essential products, such as eggs and meats, to the taste of consumers satisfies a great demand and provides opportunities for a more sustainable environment. Younger consumers are demanding less fat, cholesterol and calories, which often translates into a desire to eat less meat, according to Andrew Loucks, President of the US frozen foods business at the Kellogg Company. The product design needs to fulfil an overall lifestyle, be it for health or ethical reasons. Interviewees and marketers refer the ‘fake meat’ to electrical car times. Many critics originally did not see potential in the product. However, today more than one million Prius cars are sold annually. These products were developed through co-creation involving customer, influence and referral markets.

The insight of this study is that through co-creation, products are designed that reshape an entire market by involving all stakeholder’s interests. ‘Beyond Meats’ is experiencing a category growth of 75 percent year over year by making a common vegetarian product more meat-like. Mr Brown wants to continue to create products that are just as good, just as convenient, and maybe even cheaper than ground beef or chicken. His overall aim is to offer something better than meat that satisfies consumers and the environment.

Lisa Katharina Grobien
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Is QANTAS using internal marketing to strengthen its brand in the tough aviation market?

Having recently had the pleasure (and I don't use this term lightly) of travelling to Singapore and returning from Hong Kong with Qantas, I am pleased to say I was both shocked and delighted by my experience.

I checked in feeling sorry for their employees, 5000 of which are to be sacked; none of them knowing who would lose their job, or when. But they did know that they were going to go, because Alan Joyce had already announced it to the media. For this reason, I wondered about flying Qantas, about how beleaguered the staff would be and how much of this, we, the customers would bear throughout the flight via their overall demeanor and attitude. I had to check in myself electronically, and thought it was an indicator of what was to come; i.e. self service and no frills.

However, the staff were smiling and laughing as I entered the cabin, the flight left on time and the male flight attendants were efficient and friendly. The captain also made us all feel at ease (given that we all had missing Malaysian flight MH370 in the back of our minds), and he continued to keep us up to date on what we could expect to enjoy on the flight. In typical Aussie fashion he told us to enjoy a nice glass of beer, or wine, and to sit back and enjoy the flight. He joked that he had skipped breakfast too, so we'd all be getting what he decided to call 'brunch' not long after takeoff. It felt like we were at his house having a BBQ, rather than customers who were potentially nervous about flying and doing the long haul. The flight went swiftly and was not at all painful; in fact, I actually enjoyed it.

On the homeward leg, I received an email the night before flying that I had been upgraded; I felt like I'd won Lotto! The flight attendant on the way back personally introduced herself, and there was no surliness. Both flights landed and left on time, and the staff could not have been more cheerful. Qantas had actually managed to tick all my boxes; I slept the whole way home, woke up to a light and fresh cafe style breakfast and I was even given a mattress for my seat which was a first.

A few days after I returned, I received a very thorough marketing email, asking me to rate all aspects of my flight and whether I would recommend Qantas (which I would, and highly). Was this a case of Qantas's internal marketing actually combating its external marketing? It felt a lot like it. It was one of the best Qantas experiences I've had, which, given the circumstances, is pretty amazing. The employees seemed to sense that by combating the poor external perception of the brand, they were doing their bit to save Qantas. How they could feel so loyal, and committed to the company and its customers (in light of the external environment), could only come down to the internal marketing, and the importance (now more than ever) of a great customer experience.

Melissa Downes
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More

With the co-founding team of One Big Switch, Paul Hunyor and Lachlan Harris, to the rescue, there’s now nothing Australian citizens can’t achieve together. From banking, to electricity, to health insurance: if you help make the switch, the more you can save. The ‘switching’ objectives of this innovative company have their roots in a concept known as co-creation. Co-creation describes the ability of multiple actors or contributors to create value together. And when large groups of people change from one bank to another, together, they force mortgage rates down, as seen in the 'One Big Bank Switch' of 2011, the company’s first campaign.

After having successfully implemented group switching in Ireland in 2013, Paul Hunyor, offered a personal reflection on the history and future of consumer empowerment to our Master of Marketing class in Internal Marking on Saturday 22 March. Some examples he gave included the ability for consumers to review travel experiences, or even track produce information at local supermarkets. Both activities reflect co-experience, which includes the experience of the provider and the consumer over a period of time, such as a vacation, or a trip to the store. The accessibility of information leading consumers to make informed decisions seems to only be the beginning of the current consumer empowerment movement. Unfortunately, the “path to consumer empowerment could be quite messy” (Personal Communication, Paul Hu-nyor, 22 March, 2014).

Despite potential obstacles, One Big Switch is inspiring with their views on togetherness and their passion for innovation and networking. The concept of 'consumer empowerment' in conjunction with co-creation are both really starting to dictate the direction of big businesses and marketing. So make the smart choice, join the team effort and lower those bills! 

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Dare to be “back”

Driven by the revolutionary development of technology, digital marketing, and particularly social media, has risen drastically over the last decade. The digital age has made such a large and lasting impact that we tend to expect to see all creative marketing for large brands done in this space.
However, last September, a famous European chocolate brand, Milka, launched a campaign in France and Germany which took the brand’s message directly to customers. It was quite a creative campaign and, in my view, worthy of studying.

The campaign,  “Last Square”, involved the production of 13 million chocolate bars with one square intentionally missing.

Why? The campaign echoed the brand slogan, “Dare To Be Tend” - the last square of chocolate is always the sweetest and it should be saved for someone special.

How? Buy one Milka chocolate with the package slogan, “Où est passé le dernier carré?” (Where has the last square gone?). You then get the opportunity to send this “last square” to the person you care about most. By logging on to the website, you have the opportunity to enter the code on the package, along with the name and address of that lucky someone. More importantly, you can add in a personalised greeting. The “last square” is then sent to the person you selected, with your lovely message, free of charge.

You can imagine the touching picture when your most special someone receives the unexpected surprise! “Dare to be tender?”

Does the promotion use any hi-tech digital tool? Not really! Does the execution require extra human resources (such as a sales team or promoters in stores)? No. Does the brand use specific media or digital channels to deliver the message, “dare to be tender”? No.

Nevertheless, the message is clear. The campaign sends the brand message directly to audiences in a straightforward way with low cost. It also enhances its branding among loyal consumers and easily offers new customers a trial of the product

The most glamorous part of the campaign is its innovative big idea - “daring to be back” – everything is going “back” – going back to the very original one – the product itself!  The novel idea lets the product (with one removed square) tell the story: on the shelf, with a distinctive package (or outstanding defect), rising consumers’ curiosity (interest), encouraging their desire to buy the product because the story has reached a soft spot in their hearts. All of the brand resonance elements of awareness, association, attitude and attachment are packed into the product. Smart and effective!

Amy Lei
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at The University of Sydney Business School