A better social media strategy or website?

The question rings like the bell of the all-time favourite question, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? It’s almost impossible to imagine the marketplace now without the Internet or popular social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Both have grown to become crucial marketing elements. However, Ed Strapagiel of KubasPrimedia, reminds us that there is yet any “objective, hard number evidence of what this actually does [for brands].”

But really, I don’t think we need objective, hard evidence to prove that social media actually works. Tools such as Facebook and Twitter - whose reach surpasses 750 million people - connect companies and customers. They have improved communication, brand awareness, and program effectiveness. However, I agree that social media tools will always remain supplementary to a company website and furthermore, its necessity will increase as the physical marketing space becomes more cluttered. Social media is not so much “a loop”, as discussed in the article, but more of an information highway. It delivers high level information but it’s real destination is the company website to generate sales.

Without a road (social media network), it’s more difficult to get people to where you want them to go (your website). Without an impressionable destination, there’s no point in building a smooth road. Therefore, the coexistence of both tools seems necessary. However, I reckon that the website should be the primary objective as it is the space where consumers generally make, confirm, and/or execute their purchase decision.

There’s been little research to show that online usage behaviours between groups of the same demographic and geographic area of varying ethnicities and from personal recall, there aren’t any significant differences that come to mind. Thus, companies targeting ethnic minorities may have to tailor their messages to more effectively communicate but the road map to reaching them via the Internet seems to be the same.

So, what do you think? What’s more important – social media or company website in multicultural marketing?

References:

http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/get-off-facebook-and-pay-attention-to-your-website-report-31337

Company Update!!

Hi Everyone!!

Sincere apologies for our blog to be MIA since April, we have been busy putting all sorts of neat stuff together that we will share with all of you down the road! Speaking of which, we have some great news to tell! Sensu Communications has added another Cultural Expert to our roster!

Laurie Ho, who will joining our team as a Partner Consultant, brings a wealth of industry knowledge and cultural expertise of the Asian-Canadian audience. In her own words, she is "an ambitious and results-oriented individual who is driven by her passion to excel in the marketing industry."  Laurie has a diverse portfolio in marketing research, financial planning, and supply chain management, with working experience from organizations such as Research In Motion, Bell Canada, and Ted Rogers School of Management. She is proud to be a second generation Canadian with an ethnic background from Vietnam. 

Laurie will also be a contributor on this blog, so remember to check back for her postings on various multicultural marketing topics, especially in the areas of experiential marketing and brand activation. Welcome to the Sensu Communications, Laurie!


PS: The Sensu website is working hard in progress at the moment, so stay tuned for our official launch coming soon!

Will Your Brand Save The Day?

http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/marketers-get-consumers-over-the-paywall-but-at-what-cost-25499

So it has been reported that many online publishers (i.e. New York Times) will begin to charge users for digital content. On second thought, that makes sense - you pay for your Toronto Star, National Post, Canadian Business etc., so why would that all become free now just because the same (if not more) content is available online? 

THAT is the objective viewpoint spoken with clear rationality and logic.

Unfortunately, the average consumer typically "thinks" with their emotions prior to using rationale. As an Asian Canadian, my genuine first response to any news that involves me ditching out my wallet is - "What the !#$#%^%*&%?! Are you out of your mind? Since when did we pay for anything over the Internet except for the service itself?" 

So now, imagine thousands of your customers evoking such an emotion to the idea of a paywall for online content. Not good right? Now, further imagine an advertiser walk in and announce that they will "foot the bill" for user subscription fees because they want their consumers  to be able to enjoy this digital content for free. Of course - such offers typically replace the price tag with a call to action and branded tagline. 

Putting my marketing hat on:
As the article suggests, this return model is just merely a form of sponsorship. What is most effective about it is that it manages to grasp the emotion of these bitter online users and then playing on these emotions, solve their problems to position the brand as a hero. 


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I love sponsorships - because they are such an effective form of marketing amongst the ethnic markets. When executed as part of an integrated campaign, sponsorships can drive the emotions that you want in your consumers - they show that you care about the audience, know about the events that are important to them and is simply an act of involvement at a very grassroot level.


Perhaps, one of the more notable brands amongst the multicultural audience is TD. The company's branding efforts have been a seamless execution leveraging cross-media implementations and of course, sponsorships & PR. 


Quite truthfully, as an active member of the local Chinese community in Toronto msyelf - I can say that TD's brand has been really well-integrated into both my community as well as my "consumer mind". Whenever an important event occurs within the Chinese community, you typically see TD's brand name plastered everywhere as a title sponsor. Whenever I have a financial service/banking need, I think of TD first. 


As a matter of fact, I even switched all my personal banking from CIBC to TD quite recently (largely influenced by my immediate peers)... But hey! That proves another point: you cannot expect sponsorships to deliver a quantifiable result for your brand as it is a qualitative method after all. It does however, connect you with your consumers at the relevant touch points, generate brand equity and increase top-of-mind impressions; all to ensure that the next time a consumer has to make a purchase decision, they remember you and recall that emotion they experienced with your brand. 

Welcome to the official blog of SENSU Communications.

This is the place where conversion happens. 

Let's face the ugly truth (ugly for all diehard marketers and creatives)  Marketing has become a core business function due to its innate ability to drive revenue and improve bottomline figures. Most, if not all, businesses leverage marketing/advertising tactics to either (a) acquire new customers or (b) retain existing ones. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, realistically there is only one element that's key to their success - the customer. 

YES! the customer. Sounds simple and makes you give me a what-the-*beep* face right? The ironic part is that this concept, while utterly simple, seems to be hard to grasp and/or execute in a genuine fashion. The reason I say is this because many clients/marketers are still spending the majority of their time scrutinizing data points measured from the most recent campaign or trying to draw "insightful commentary" from customer analytics. 

While all that stuff is good - it's only useful if you get the starting point correct. And this heavenly starting point that promises eternal greatness and achievement of customer satisfaction can so easily be found just by looking a bit farther and a bit deeper at the cultural roots and origin of your customer. Yes, the answer to this is indeed multicultural marketing.

Ethnicity is perhaps the mother of all other elements that influence consumer behaviour. Clients who are wise will seek to better understand the ethnic origin of all their customers - especially if it is a growing "minority". However, within every ethnicity exists multiple layers of varying sub-cultures that govern the values, thoughts and behaviours of its participants. In other words, it is not merely enough to understand "Asians". Heck, as a matter of fact, it is not even enough to just understand "Chinese" or "South Asians" or "Koreans".

What I am trying to get at, is that the interconnectedness of our world today desperately calls for more genuine multicultural marketing practices that will show the audience that they are truly valued as a person and not just a mechanism to drive unique visits, score impressions or log page views.