Articles

Forget Facebook, Everyone is Meeting in the Yard

Forget Myspace and Facebook. That’s old news. Now, there is Sprite’s exclusive network called the Sprite Yard.

As a new way of connecting with customers, Coca-Cola expects the Sprite Yard to set new benchmarks for consumer brand engagement through the use of a mobile platform. Within the Sprite Yard, users can create a tag name, a profile, send “shouts” to friends and even post “scribbles” to a discussion board.Measurement metrics have been built in so Coca-Cola can track, in real-time, which features consumers are using most to the direct impact on beverage sales. It enables Coca-Cola to react very quickly to what their market wants.

What made them "go mobile" with the Sprite Yard? They saw the opportunity to leverage mobile's potential for viral distribution and to react to the consumers' desire for constant connectivity.

With so many people actively online, organizations want to create their own groups and communities to ask their customers directly what they think, feel and want so that companies can make better corporate decisions.

Vision Critical has helped hundreds of leading brands to build their own custom online panel or community similar to companies like Sprite. If you would like to learn how to create a social network with your customers, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on May 28, 2007
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Sears Drives Customer Loyalty through Engaged Employees

Sears Canada recognizes that engaged sales associates drive customer loyalty and increased revenues. The question is, with 37,000 employees, how do you keep them motivated?

Stores Magazine reports on how Sears Canada relies on an employee survey to find out about specific issues. On an annual basis, Sears conducts a company-wide survey to measure perceptions of store culture, leadership and managerial practices, education, training and development."Our associates are the face of the company to our customers, so it is important that we all be aligned to the company's goals [and] understand what is expected of us to succeed." Adrienne Campbell, national manager of associate relations for Toronto-based Sears Canada.

One such expectation was in the communication coming from human resources. Employees found it unclear and confusing, so HR started using more concise and straightforward language to explain policies and programs.

If you are interested in learning how to improve the experience of your employees to improve customer engagement, consider developing an online advisory panel with Vision Critical. Designed for your customers, potential customers or employees, an online panel can be a quick and easy way to learn how to make corporate improvements.

Posted on May 14, 2007
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Fast Company’s Readers Panel Breaks New Ground in Publishing

By getting readers’ feedback before going to press, Fast Company is doing something no other publication has ever done.

Typically, publications will print an article and wait for the next issue before showing reader opinions. In the May issue of the Fast Company magazine, they published an article on JetBlue airlines along with readers’ comments on the article.How did they do that? The magazine has a custom online panel of readers called the "Fast Company Connection" that gives them immediate feedback from their readers. Custom online panels give the media an important balance between user-generated content and maintaining editorial quality that advertisers want associated with their brand.

"It's a very fitting illustration of how the media can leverage the speed of a panel before going to press," said Kris Hartvigsen, Director of Media + Entertainment at Vision Critical. "It adds a whole new dimension to the Fast Company story that builds a strong relationship with their readers by listening to what they have to say and incorporating it in the article."

Click here to read the article that appeared in Fast Company.

Posted on May 10, 2007
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Consumer-In-Control Marketing Movement

In addition to letting consumers create ads for you, why not let them do more? Advertising Age reported on the consumer-in-control marketing movement and how some of the most successful brands are giving their customers more say in company decision-making.

Frito-Lay, Starwood Hotels and Resorts and Hewlett-Packard interact with their customers in online communities. It has given them all a deeper understanding of how to introduce a new product or service or how to improve current ones.Having a strong relationship with consumers can improve your bottom line. Companies like Caterpillar, Christian Dior, Apple and Google have increased their spending on research and development and by leveraging feedback from their customers they are spending less on than their competitors and outperforming them too.

If that wasn't enough, customers want to be heard. They want to do more than create ads. Customers want to provide advice to companies to create a better. If you would like to become more consumer-centric, consider developing a customer advisory panel with Vision Critical. If you would like to learn more, contact Julie Romas at julie.romas@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on April 29, 2007
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60,000 Customers Define the Latest Fashion

Rather than relying on the intuition of a charismatic designer or a savvy executive, Coach Inc. rewrote the rules of anticipating the latest in fashion. The company, a successful New York maker of women's handbags, consulted more than 60,000 customers to predict what will be hot on the market. And it worked.

Coach Inc. saw sales increase by 29% by spotting trends through their customer feedback. It also gained them the recognition of being named number two in BusinessWeek's top 50 "best in class", the best-performing companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.Every year, they interview more than 60,000 customers through Internet questionnaires, phone surveys, and face-to-face meetings. This thorough market research told executives what was missing from their product line. Customers expressed the desire for decent carry-on luggage for weekend getaways, so Coach introduced its "Signature Stripe" travel bags. Within the first month the new bag made up for a significant 15% of its full-priced merchandise sales. The market research has also helped Coach extend beyond its trademark bags into watches, accessories and clothing.

"This research gives us a real competitive advantage," acknowledges Coach Chief Executive consumers evolved." Trend spotting has huge pay offs. Sales grew an average of 29% over each of the past three years and resulted in 63% return on financial investments within the same time period.

To conduct this type of thorough and fast research with customers, many organizations are using customer advisory panels. Organizations can create an advisory panel to engage with and learn from on an ongoing basis through surveys, forums and interactive environments to learn more about customers. Vision Critical is considered the world leader in customer over 1 million panelists.

Posted on April 15, 2007
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