Facilitating Change

Facilitating change was a wonderful class, as it talked about companies identifying and embracing change in the digital era. The change could be a minor or major and can be done in three ways; structural, rational and emotional. It is no secret that a lot of companies avoid change because it is said to be expensive, especially that of structural change but these may be due to other factors such as culture, pricing, P& L and ROI.

Companies that remained in their comfort zones have experienced a toll on their sales and operations. For example, companies such as Nokia and Blackberry were caught in this mess and seen presumably trying to catch up with its competitors and other companies that embraced the change.  Organisations therefore need to identify their hurdles and make systematic changes in the organisation in little or big ways.

With the rise of disruption, companies now rearrange things differently and this makes them want to hustle more. Companies need to stay curious and apply research and development to their businesses. On the other hand, companies need to avoid toxic or heuristic actions, for instance, sponsoring a music band that the MD personally likes. Companies need to assess, the use of sponsorship or social media to the overall company strategy and its goals.

As a whole, we are encouraged to facilitate and embrace changes that will set companies apart from others or revolutionize the industry and little changes that start with our organisation, maybe a great business idea or client proposal that will connect companies with their consumers in an impactful way.

Think Optimized

Optimization is very important to a brand and is used to attain the organizations goals in line with its objectives. Optimization gives data, insights and digital direction, using tools such as Google analytics brands can find out how to use data and insights to direct its digital actions.  In other words optimization will aid an organisations digital presence in a constructive and data driven way. Data will help analyse and identify marketing gaps and opportunities to inform effective strategy development. It creates brand awareness by increasing visibility in relevant areas, content structure, marketing, etc. Digital marketing is an ongoing revolution, that has led to vast data on the world wide web, marketing, research, display advertising, real-time data, key word searches and so on.  Brands compete with the information they have gathered from consumers through different forms of research or testing on the web.

In addition, digital marketing inventions such as search engine optimization, Adwords, keyword campaigns, display advertising, banner ads, pay per click, pay per month, real-time discussions, live chats, google analytics and others have helped to target and re target a brands target audience and generate new leads. Brands can now leverage on the online ad agencies and google display network to reach their target audience globally.  To illustrate, key word searches are created and used to narrow down searches and target the relevant audience, live chats are used by businesses in customer service and real-time discussions are used to interact with consumers online to create a bond with the brand. For instance, Dove soap started a discussion on what beauty means to customers, asking them to send in photos and videos on the mentioned topic. This got people talking and they were able to interact. 

Optimization allows brands to utilize their data on location, traffic sources, mobile reporting, adwords, multi- channel analytics, landing pages, referrals, page visits and bounce rate for content and high impact marketing purposes,  thereby identifying marketing gaps and opportunities that will inform on future types of campaigns, where to improve on and successful measuring metrics . 

As a whole, optimization allows brands to test and keep testing landing sites or pages; high traffic sources,  give recommendations and strategic directions/ improvements for the brand in line with the objectives.

DATA

Consumers give out different data on a daily basis, data such as, consumer name, age, email and address.  Data is essential to all transactions and can be gathered through various sources, for instance SEO, Websites, email, display, CRM, PPC, social media, affiliates, mobile devices and apps.

In recent times companies will agreed that Data is more manageable especially in the digital era that gives instant and real time data. Data aids adequate planning and executions of campaigns and projects. From data one can tell which part of a campaign is working, where to improve and the relevant content to provide.  Content, personal identity and behaviour are valuable data because they provide the what, when, where and device; Demographics and Psychographics; actions and preferences.

Data can be gotten using a number of tools such as, online surveys, competitor analysis, user testing, monitoring, optimization, marketing attribution, marketing attribution, page heatmaps, mobile analytics, and tag management to mention but few. Data provides relevant insights such as brand audience data, traffic sources, user journeys, real-time insights and context.  Data may also identify gaps or present new opportunities for the brand. This will ultimately influence product use or purchase and gain insights that make the brand more engaging and identify the various multi- channel touch points. Touch points such as TV, microsites, documentaries, blogs, digital, experiential, print or social media platforms.

With data insights new ideas can be generated. For instance, Olay gathered lots of information from social media, such as its Share of voice at 2.4%, type of coverage; appearance on blogs and twitter; and sentiments like good product reviews for moisturising and anti-aging. This gave Olay valuable insights that sparked content on two topics and Olay was able to utilize these insights by creating discussions around age defying and anti-aging skincare. These discussions were influenced by blogs such as Technorati and wefollow. Olay also had two brand ambassadors to influence consumers and promote the brand, these were- Jessica Ennis for prevention and Thandi Newton for reduction.

As a whole, brands have to turn data into action, to keep consumers on their brands, create interaction and engage consumers to ultimately make a sale.