Social Media: Online Community Portals

In my previous internships I had the opportunity to work closely with the social media department at National Instruments. This department worked closely with tools like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, online communities, and YouTube.  Each of these different tools served a different purpose for the company, and many were so new that they were in the experimental stages. The idea was, let’s try something once and see what happens; if it ends up doing good, we’ll keep it up, if it ends up doing poorly, let’s try something else.

            

One of the projects I completed was launched at our national sales conference in August. Essentially at this conference thousands of engineers (who were typically customers) from across the globe would come to hear about the latest NI releases, and as a marketer we wanted to gather as much information about these people as possible. By gathering this information we hoped to gain insight into their specific needs, perceptions, and concerns. Through this information we would be able to tailor our marketing campaigns in such a way as to most appeal to them. This could be done on a global level, but the goal was to possibly shift to a one-to-one marketing campaign for each customer in attendance.

            

In order to do this, the company felt a fun, interactive way to get customers involved with National Instruments, while still getting access to their basic information would be through social media. A few ideas were tossed around before finally a two-step approach was selected. At the conference we set up a “booth” that had a large flat-screen television that was displaying a National Instruments Google Map.  Customers would come to the booth and take a picture, put in a goofy message, and pinpoint where they were originally from on Google Maps.  The picture would then be projected onto the television at the specific geographic location they plugged in, and the Google Map would bounce around on a continuous loop.  The catch was, when the customers did this, they had to agree to join a National Instruments community portal, and to do that they had to create a National Instruments profile (if they didn’t already have one).

            

Our goal was to get about 250 customers to participate in the booth. The social media intern and I managed to get close to 350 customers to enter into the community.  The next step was focused upon this community portal. This community was a website that allowed the customers to network together through discussion boards, email the group, create events, upload pictures, ask questions, and essentially work much like a LinkedIn website.  While my internship ended before I could see the full effects of the community’s success, I had seen how other National Instruments communities worked.

            

Our marketing teams would monitor these sites daily to see what types of questions were being asked, if suggestions were being made, or if any of the customers seemed dissatisfied. Sometimes, the marketers would even post a question themselves to see the types of responses they could get from customers. By collecting these insights, the marketers were able to put together different plans that incorporated the types of marketing best accepted by these people. In addition, by joining the community, the customers opted in to getting emails from the community page. Therefore, the marketers could send out emails about upcoming product launches, events, tradeshows, awards we received, etc. Essentially it was an excellent way to keep our customers up to date on everything the company was doing. At the same time, it served as a tool for the marketers to gather data and insights from some of our most active customers, and use this to modify the marketing campaigns.

            

One of the most remarkable uses of a community portal I saw at National Instruments was done through a company-wide community. Anybody could join this online community who was interested in National Instruments (i.e. they didn’t have to necessarily be a customer). On this community, an R&D engineer got approval to run a contest online. The contest basically posed the question, what would you do to improve LabVIEW (our graphical user interface product). The entrants with the best ideas would have their features incorporated into the new release as well as be featured at the National Instruments sales conference.  Hundreds of submissions were made, and 10-12 ideas were finally incorporated. The insights these customers gave not only helped the R&D department to improve our product features; they sparked more online communication outside the realm of the contest. Therefore, not only did the community prove successful with R&D in this case, the marketers monitoring the site gather insights that helped them determine everything from future marketing tactics to the best way to acknowledge these contest winners. 

Creativity and Innovation: A Mind Dump

So for this week's blog I am exploring the topics of creativity and innovation. To do this, we were asked to complete a creativity exercise that had us consider two inanimate objects and then come up with possible innovative solutions that combined the two in some way, shape, or form. The results of my exercise are included below:

First Word: LAMP

Mind Dump: Fluorescent lights, bright lights, low lights, colorful lights, lamp shades, lamps with cords, lamps with batteries, reading lamps, floor lamps, desk lamps, different colored light bulbs.

In my room alone I have three lamps. I used to have touch lamp by my bedside, which was so convenient because it had three settings of brightness and only needed a soft touch to turn on and off. This made it so much easier to read a book and not have to reach all the way out to twist a knob.

I really like the lamps with unique shades. Whether they're made out of cloth and have patterns or are brightly colored plastics, I think lamps can be a really neat form of art. I've even seen some lamps that use mosaic tiles.

Uses for lamps are pretty obvious: to add light to the surroundings. But I think that if the lamp is decorative, it can also add aesthetic appeal to a room

Second Word: BASKETBALL

Mind Dump: NBA, UT Basketball, AJ Abrams, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, David Robinson, Spurs, Lakers, Final Four, March Madness, Orange and Black, tiny bumps on skin of ball, leather, bouncy, basketball court, rim, tall, jumping, blocking, point guard, center, forward, charge, pick and roll, 3 points, dunk, air ball, swish, Michael Jordan, Space Jam, Hoosiers

I don't typically follow professional sports, but I do like the San Antonio Spurs. I really like David Robinson, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, and Tim Duncan.  I’ve only been to one of their games, and we lost by four points to the Lakers.

You can use a basketball to play games other than a traditional game like Pig, Horse, and Around the World. It takes practice to be good at basketball. Maybe this is why I am not good at it. You also need the write attire when playing basketball: basketball shoes, shorts, t-shirt, (sports bra if you’re a girl), socks, and sometimes even a sweatband.

Basketball is the name of the sport as well as the name as the ball used in the sport.  A basketball goes flat after awhile and needs to be pumped up again. It is pretty bouncy for a ball and is bigger than the human head.

Combination Ideas of the Two Objects:

1. A lamp made out of basketball leather

2. A basketball with a light inside of it

3. Basketball light bulbs for the lamp

4. Basketball print on the lampshade

5. The base of a lamp being a basketball

6. A basketball book lamp

7. The chain to turn on the lamp having a basketball at the bottom of it to pull on

8. Lamps with basketball wheels to roll around on

9. Lamps that project beams shaped like basketballs on the ceiling

10. Lamp that re-energizes when it bounces in the shell of a basketball (battery operated instead of needing electricity)

11. Using a really flat basketball as a holder for the base of a lamp

12. Having one basketball on either side of the light bulb (probably a fluorescent bulb and the shape would look like a dumbbell) That way it could roll around and if it were ever dropped it would just bounce

Many of these ideas seem like they could be viable products. In fact, some already exist. A lamp that has basketballs on the shade, has a basketball base, basketball leather used on the base, and a basketball lamp with a chain that has a basketball at the bottom of it all seem to be pretty viable, and are probably already in the marketplace. 

Others that may be viable would be a floor lamp with basketball wheels (if they were miniaturized), a lamp that projects basketballs onto the ceiling, and a basketball that has a light inside of it. The last of these seems the most interesting to me because it could be challenging to make, but successful if completed.

           

A basketball that has a light inside of it could be useful for players who enjoy playing at night. The ball could use the technology in many flashlights these days that only require you to shake it (or bounce it) to re-energize the light. The light inside the ball would make it easier to see in darker environments and would be aesthetically cool to look at as well.

Event Planning and Customer Insights

For years, my friends and family have compared me to Martha Stewart (pre-jail time, of course). They’ve always said I’m the decorator, the creative one, and the event planner. While I am studying Marketing and can’t wait to begin a career in this field, I feel that someday when I retire, a good side job would be event planning. Whether that involves professional, sporting, or charity events or more personal events like birthdays and weddings, I hope to someday be able to use my creative ideas to plan beautiful, memorable events.

Before I could take on this endeavor, however, I think it would be exceptionally beneficial to have a better grasp on the customer insights and behaviors related to events. Therefore, I hope to use the research project for my Customer Insights class to my advantage by leveraging the different resources made available to me through UT, to research the differences in customer behavior regarding specific types of events. I hold particular interest in events surrounding charities and professional organizations because I may be able to leverage this information into my actual career someday if I am a project manager or get into event marketing professionally.

Within event marketing, I hope to take a closer look not only at how to organize events in such a way that will maximize the ROI, but also at how different tactics appeal to different types of event attendees.  I want to take a closer look at trends in events, customer perceptions of events, and how to evaluate the success of events in the eyes of customers.  I hope to use some of the following questions to form a basic foundation for my research:

•        What have been some recent trends in event planning?
•        What are some trends that have remained stable over the years?
•        How does professional event planning compare to sporting events? Charity events? Birthdays? Weddings? Socials?
•    What are some best practices for event marketing? What are these practices founded upon?
•        What are customers saying after “successful” events versus “unsuccessful events?
•      Does a more expensive event guarantee better approval from the attendees?           

As aforementioned, I hold particular interest in this area of study because I hope to someday be involved in event planning throughout retirement. However, I feel that understanding this topic will be extremely beneficial in the community service work I do as well. I hope through this research I will be able to find ways to understand customer behavior in regards to their participation in charity events.  It will be especially interesting to see why consumers are willing to pay thousands of dollars to charities in return for a plate at an event, and yet not willing to pay $20 to attend a marketing luncheon downtown. If I can figure out what motivates people to do this, I may be able to increase the number attendees my company’s marketing luncheons.

Another reason I hope to look into this topic comes from my perspectives as a customer, not a marketer. While throwing an event can be stressful and overwhelming, attending one can be fun and exciting – if it’s been put together well. However, I have on occasion found myself at an event thinking, “wow this is so tacky,” or “why won’t the keynote shut up already?” I’ve left these events tired, grumpy, and not at all impressed by the company/person throwing the event. It will be interesting to reflect on my own negative (and positive) experiences regarding events when compiling my research. Using these reflections may possibly lead me to discern ways to have made those events better.

Overall, by gathering these customer perceptions and insights, I will be able to someday create a valuable customer experience through event planning. Ultimately, by creating a valuable experience, the company, charity, or person I am planning the event for will be thoroughly happy with the results of my event, but even more importantly, their guests will be happy as well.  Happy guests means more donations for charities, more sales for companies, and more invites to other social gatherings from friends.

As the first step to this research, I have found a very interesting paper called: “Events Beyond 2000: Setting the Agenda.” While the paper is very long and I have not yet read the entire thing, it is broken down into several topics that I feel will be extremely beneficial to this project. The most important of these sections include the keynotes, event evaluations, event marketing, and the case studies related to this topic. While the main focus of this paper is about sporting events like the Summer Olympics in 2000, the insights the authors have documented seem relevant to many fields of event planning.  The link to this article is: http://linkbc.ca/torc/downs1/Events2000.pdf#page=192

By and large, I feel that this research paper will be very beneficial for future projects I someday hope to take on. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the “Events Beyond 2000” article and begin diving into other articles related to this topic.

An Experience to Last a Lifetime

There is only so much you can give a customer. While you would like to give them the world, it seems as though your product and service can only hold so much, before the functionality is eroded or the value plateaus. Take for instance the iPhone, it can handle music, videos, applications; it can make calls, read emails, log onto the Internet; it can access directions, store contacts, be a calculator etc. The list seems to go on and on, but does it? Would we really want an iPhone that could brush our teeth, and tie our shoelaces? Maybe some people would, but at what cost to the user? It obviously wouldn’t be small and compact anymore, and the cost would skyrocket to accommodate these new functions. So where does this leave us as a company?

Marketing. No really! The truth is, marketing can turn a business around. In this particular situation, instead of tacking on more functionality, marketers could increase the value of the iPhone through experiences.

Experiences are considered to be personal to a customer and sometimes even complex. They connect a customer to some product or service in a way that only they can understand and value. But it is through these experiences that a customer begins to form a positive perception of our product and leads them to make repeat purchases. Therefore, as a marketer, we should do everything in our power to enhance these experiences thereby increasing the lifetime values of our customers.

I recently had a sensory experience that was unlike any other I have ever felt, seen, smelled, heard, or touched. It is this experience that epitomizes for me the “Sense” aspect of the Strategic Experiential Model, and is what I would most like to share for this week’s blog.

 

Let me start by saying, I have never bought art before. While I am mesmerized by art, it has always been a luxury that does not quite fit into my college budget. However, earlier this summer I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Europe. Throughout this trip I had the fortune of stopping in several of the world’s most renowned art museums (the Louvre, Musee de Orsay, Musei Vaticani, etc.) and I believe it is because of this that my mind was especially in tune with art as I woke up on the morning we went to Montmartre, France.

Montmarte is probably best known for housing the stunning Sacre Coeur Cathedral. So as we approached this historic church, I was unprepared for the scene that was about to unfold. All of a sudden, a local musician sat down next to a harp outside the cathedral and began to play the most beautiful music I’d ever heard. (It’s not very often you get to hear a harp in Austin, Texas) Not only was the music heavenly, but as you turn to look out from the top of this hill, you see the skyline of Paris in a way that cannot be described in words. Breathtaking, absolutely breathtaking. But it only got better. As my two girlfriends and I walked past the cathedral and down a nearby street, we realized that the local farmers were setting up stands everywhere for a Nature Festival. We stopped along the way and picked up crepes, coffee, and fresh strawberries with cream. I don’t know if it was because it was free, because it was fresh and organic, or if it was because of the moment itself, but I have to say, that food was blissful! So as we continue walking we pass local artisans who are selling other organic products, some of which are candles. Aromas from these candles filled the air as we passed the Parisians’ stands. Rose petals, Jasmine, cherry blossoms, and vanilla were just a few of my favorites. Finally we came to the end of the street where local artists were painting EVERYWHERE. The rich colors they were using were astounding. All different styles of paintings were being made using oils, watercolors, charcoal, etc. I could not believe my eyes.

As I sat there trying to take everything in, a local artist name Jacques pulled me aside. He had been working on a landscaping piece that was filled with warm reds and oranges. The painting was beautiful. He sat me down and let me touch his art. The bumps and dips of his dried oils created a 3-D image of the Paris skyline. I was captivated. I asked him if he could make me one, and he agreed. As I sat there watching him paint, my friends found his “Box of Art” beside his easel and started going through his collection. These paintings depicted specific sites throughout Paris in much brighter colors. Maybe it was the music, or the candles’ mesmerizing fragrances, maybe it was the way the paint felt under my fingers, or the taste of sweet strawberries still lingering on my tongue, or maybe it was because Jacques had been so charming, but between the three of us, we purchased his entire collection.

Looking back on this moment, I do not regret a single thing. While my bank account was significantly less full, to me, this experience was priceless. And while Jacques would probably call himself an artist by trade, I think he would also make a great marketer. He could have been painting on a street corner, in the park beneath the Eiffel Tower, or outside one of the museums, but instead, Jacques was painting in an environment that touched on peoples’ five senses.  People may say I paid too much or that he was exploiting the fact that I was a tourist, but I will cherish this experience for the rest of my life. I only hope that someday I can create an experience so powerful as this for the customers I someday market to.

Meet Katie!

This week in Customer Insights we talked about building personas to help companies enhance their segmentation practices. This method can help analyze a target audience’s motivations, perceptions, and behaviors, so that the company can optimize its overall brand design. So what is a persona? I have to cheat a bit; my professor mentioned that there was a good definition of personas on Wikipedia:

“Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way.”

So this week I have been asked to develop a persona for myself that market researchers may be interested to delve into. Ideally, the information from this persona would provide them insights valuable to their brand development. Therefore, without further ado…

Meet Katie!!!

On the broadest level Katie can be described as a single woman who is 21 years old with no children. She also does not own any pets, although she has always wanted puppies. She is currently attending the University of Texas and is a marketing major with an MIS minor. She is one of the few native Austinites at the university, and is ready to break away from her hometown even though she loves the Austin atmosphere.

She is entering into her final year of college and does not have to worry about financing her schooling because her parents are generously paying the bills. However, she is money conscious having worked since she was 16, and has money saved up for her post-graduation plans. While she did not grow up in a rewards-based household, every now and then Katie will splurge and treat herself to a new outfit or nice dinner if she’s accomplished an objective. She is goal oriented and a high achiever in all aspects of her life. Well, except for athleticism. While Katie enjoys being active and works out regularly, she is a bit of a klutz. Never excelling in sports growing up, Katie still enjoys playing sand volleyball and tennis each week with friends.

Katie is a good student but is currently more apt to dedicating her time to friends than keeping up with homework. This may be because she is currently going through a “why not?” phase when it comes to doing things. She figures that because this is the last time she can live with virtually no responsibility, she should make the most of it. If her friends want to get together on a Monday night for movie and a glass of wine, she thinks, “why not?” She wants to experience as many new things in her college town as possible before she moves away for her career.

Speaking of careers, did I mention she’s stressed? While at first she thinks the exhaustion is due to the staying out late with friends, she begins to realize that stress is taking a physical toll on her body. She frequently gets less than 5 hours of sleep each night either because her mind won’t stop racing when she is trying to fall asleep, or she is awoken from a nightmare about jobs. She is, however, doing her due diligence in prepping for the next stage of her life. She has many interviews lined up with a wide variety of companies, but is beginning to find it hard to keep everything straight. Her planner is her true best friend right now, which details every hour of her day. Whether she is searching through online career services, reading case interview prep books, or researching a company she’s interested in, her life is consumed by work “stuff.” In fact, she finds that she can’t go a single day without bringing up recruiting and post-graduation plans in conversations.

When Katie isn’t around friends, searching for a job, or studying for a class, you could find her watching a movie at home. She loves movies, especially comedies, action films, and horror movies. Katie also loves to read, but has started 3 new books in the past two months and hasn’t finished a single one yet. Katie is borderline obsessive about food. She loves to cook and bake and would someday like to learn how to grill, too. Her favorite foods are the worst kinds because she has a major sweet tooth. She also loves cheeses, especially when paired with fresh fruit and a glass of wine. She likes to try new foods and the only kind she hasn’t liked thus far is Jell-O. She tries new recipes a lot, and will typically modify them to either fit the ingredients in her kitchen or the mood she’s in. She’s also very health-conscious, so she enjoys cooking recipes that are good for her. In fact, most weeks, a third of her meals will be salads. Katie also enjoys going out to new restaurants to try different styles of food or different cultural flavors.

Finally, Katie is very family-oriented. While she left for college worried her mother would be the type to call her multiple times a day, it’s Katie who finds herself calling home. She enjoys keeping her parents and brother updated with her life and loves to hear about what is going on theirs. In her mind, nothing can beat her mom’s home cooked meals when she comes back every few weekends. However, her brother did just leave for college for the first time, and Katie is now finding it harder to keep in touch with him.

A Design Philosophy

Monday I had the fortunate opportunity to hear a presentation from Upstream strategist Jeff Mulhausen about the impact of a design philosophy in marketing practice. Mulhausen shared a brief history of the evolution of design philosophy over the past two centuries and concluded with five key takeaways for a successful marketing strategy:

1. Design the System

2. Design for the Majority

3. Design to Empower

4. Universal Design

5. Design for Simplicity

What struck me as odd about Mulhausen’s insights was that they seemed simplistic and easily incorporated into a marketing strategy. However, this is what I believe made his presentation so intriguing. The fact is many entrepreneurs and companies fail each year because they deviate their marketing plans from these critical design methods.

For instance, the final point of designing a product for simplicity has become an ever-present problem in today’s society. Consumers want as much functionality as possible in every product they purchase. At what point, however, does giving a consumer everything in one device become overwhelming? These days cell phones are no longer simple telecommunication devices; they are mini-computers, cameras, video cameras, etc. all in one. Several of these cell phone designs have proven more successful than others for the key reason that with so much functionality in one device, they are simple to use.

One such example of a thriving cell phone design has been the iPhone. What is unique about Apple iPhones (and all other Apple products) is that none of them come with a user’s manual. This is because Apple feels it is pertinent that their designs be simple enough to pick up immediately by any consumer. Now given, the iPhone has become successful for many reasons besides its simple design, but it is noteworthy to realize that the functionality of iPhones have become almost exponential, and yet by incorporating all of Mulhausen’s design philosophies, they have not overwhelmed customers.

Following Mulhausen’s presentation I read a toolkit called “Human-Centered Design.” The document provides step-by-step guidance through the design process to help marketers develop products and services that best address the needs/wants of their consumers. To do this, the toolkit stresses three main issues when designing a new product/service:

1. Desirability

2. Feasibility

3. Viability

To be sure that all three of these issues are addressed throughout the design process, the marketers must hear from consumers to gain insight into current problems and desires, create frameworks, opportunities, solutions, and prototypes based off of this customer insight, and finally, deliver their solutions to the world.

I found it particularly interesting that this toolkit was not only an exceptional resource for “Big Idea” people, but also for any designers looking to simply modify or upgrade their existing products. It seems that many times, companies simply release an upgraded version of a product without really incorporating the needs and wants from the consumers. Their motivation? Profits. In fact, many times an upgraded version is just a previous version of a product, but without the glitches and viruses that came with the first line.

To carefully deconstruct the design process into the three stages highlighted in the HCD Toolkit, companies could effectively optimize the functionality of their products. This streamlined process would not only make the companies more efficient in generating products/services in a tailored timeframe, but would lead to greater profits. This can be assumed because the likelihood that a poor product would make it all the way down the assembly line would be very slim with such a thorough process in place.

I think a great example of how blowing off certain aspects of this design process can be harmful was seen when Microsoft released Windows Vista. Microsoft was so accustomed to releasing an upgraded operating system every few years that they did not take the time to focus on what a good upgrade meant to consumers. Instead, Vista was released and consumers were forced to by into this system that was filled with viruses and glitches. We, the consumers, were outraged. In fact, I personally was so dissatisfied with my Vista experience that just this past year I packed up my PC and switched to a Mac. Now whether the Mac is better than a PC can be fiercely debated, but this is not the point I am trying to make. My point is, Microsoft realized the error of their ways and discovered that by taking the time to implement a powerful design philosophy they could satisfy customers with a new product design: Windows 7.

So where does this leave us for customer insight? Well let me just start by saying it is extremely frustrating when people ask me why I’m majoring in marketing since it is all just “common sense.” Honestly, it is hard to refute these statements at times when Mulhausen’s insights and the HCD Toolkit’s process seem so incredibly simple. However, I then ask these people, if marketing is just “common sense” then why do 95% of new products fail each year? I think that if inventors, entrepreneurs, marketers, and decision makers took the time to create an airtight design philosophy, we could see a dramatic drop in this statistic.

Blog Introduction

Hey Everybody!


I created this blog to post about customer insights in the wonderful world of marketing. While it is designed for the purpose of my current marketing class, I hope to continue this blog even after graduation.


See you soon!
-Katie