Social Sampling Makes You Feel Special

We all know everyone loves to feel special, and getting early or exclusive access to a brand makes people feel important. Sampling can be used both as a sign of high status and as a reward for brand loyalty; for example, Burberry launched its “Burberry Body” fragrance in September by providing free samples to 7.6 million facebook fans before it hit stores. When consumers feel that a brand elevates their “status” they may develop positive associations with that brand. After all, doesn’t Burberry perfume smell better when you are one of the select few chosen to wear it?

Social sampling, on the other hand, involves providing consumers with products to share with others. Kleenex recently unleashed a wildly successful campaign, “Softness Worth Sharing,” that allowed consumers to send free tissues to friends. One million packs of tissues were sent out.

Although social sampling campaigns focus less on exclusivity, the act of sharing also makes people feel important.  As this blog post discusses, a recent study from the Haas School of Business determined that “rise in status seems to be strongly correlated primarily by actions that enhance a person’s value in the eyes of fellow group members—that is, by acting in ways that signal task competence, generosity and commitment to the group.” Generosity is yet another way to increase your status.

How to Use Social Sampling in Your Marketing Plan:

For the most powerful impact, tap into both exclusivity and sharing. Don’t just provide free samples or coupons to “influencers”—bloggers, active tweeters, etc.—but provide a mechanism for them to share with their friends too.

To build the maximum positive association, remember that the root of social media’s success is Word of Mouth.  That one-to-one personal recommendation still has a 70% influence on brand preference.  When you give people a way to share with friends, you are the agent of a positive association for them, and the likability extends to your brand.

When it comes to social sampling, be exclusive but not stingy.  What goes around will come back around to your brand.

Check out our list below of Social Media trends heading our way, and make sure your brand is up to speed!  We’ll even give you a cheat translation of what each trend really means for you…

1. “Social TV Integration” - Translation: Take the last presidential election for example… the best way to keep TV viewers engaged is to incorporate Social Media into programming. 

2. “TV Is Going Online in a Big Way” - Translation: The increasing amount of consumers live streaming is putting an enormous emphasis on the digital and social media integration for TV advertising.

3. “Facebook Credits Take Center stage” – Translation: Facebook Credits is a virtual currency that enables people to purchase items within applications on the Facebook platform. (One US dollar = 10 FB credits).  Eventually, it’s expected Facebook will expand these credits into a micropayment system which will be open to any FB application.

4. “Big Business Has Woken Up” – Translation: It is more important than ever for brands to treat social platforms as a way to communicate with consumers rather than just a way to advertise to them.  Brands are having conversations with their fans instead of the traditional one-way message or ad.

5. “ROI Is Still Huge” - The new change involving ROI is that social media engagement is being more accepted as a legitimate metric.

Want more? Read this quick article.

It’s so important to see how your consumers are finding you, what they are looking for, who your target audience really is and where they are coming from.   Check out this Emarketer article to see how your online shopping cart can influence your customer’s real life shopping carts.

Here are a couple main points from the study:

- “During the year-long study, nonbranded search terms averaged about 73% of all queries referring shoppers to retail sites.”

- “In-store buyers who searched using nonbranded terms clicked on organic links 2.6 times more than the average shopper.”

- “More than 5% of clicks—one of the leading activities—went to store locator pages, indicating a propensity for cross-channel shopping.”

- “Nearly three-fourths of these cross-channel shoppers expected to be able to check product availability before heading into a store.”

1. Online sales are growing faster than offline sales

2. The web influences almost half of offline purchases

3. Holiday shoppers research more online in a shaky economy

4. Online is a major source of inspiration for gift shoppers

5. Consumers planning to spend more on holiday shopping have an affinity for digital channels

Want more?  Read on…

If all these options are making you nostalgic for good old mass marketing, here’s a bit of good news – a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that the freqency belongs to Facebook.

You can check out the charges in full, but what stood out to us was that 48% of 18 to 34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up…that’s no small factoid. Good to know that, Google + notwithstanding, you can look to power numbers like Facebook’s to aggregate your audience.

Want more? Read this article to learn more about studies like  and ROI Research have showed us how offline habits are effected by social network participation.

Online consumer studies have proven that Twitter followers are more likely to buy and recommend products, as covered in this great Mashable article.  They explain, “84% of followers read tweets posted by the brands they follow, only 23% claim to tweet about the brands they follow.”   We certainly all want as much consumer conversation about our brands as possible, but in the meantime we feel good about the 84% who are listening to us.  Keep Tweetin’!

Top 5 reasons Twitter users follow brands:

• 64%: I am a customer of the company
• 61%: To be the first to know information about the brand
• 48%: To receive discounts and promotions
• 36%: To gain access to exclusive content
• 28%: To receive content/information to retweet and share with others

Our favorite product of the event was a delicious chocolate-toffee-matzah brand called “Matzel Toff!” They offer several different varieties, but we instantly took a liking to the Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt.  The concept is similar to a chocolate covered pretzel with the sweet & salty combo, but Matzel Toff is even better with the twist on the most traditional Kosher treat.  As Phillip and his team (pictured with us to the left) explain, “Matzah needed a gourmet makeover, and our toffee-chocolate is the perfect fit!”

Next stop… New York City’s Chocolate Show!  Needless to say, this is one of the difficult parts of our jobs– working hard, walking from chocolate booth to chocolate booth, tiring our taste buds… just to find the city’s best tasting chocolate products!  Luckily, Salt of the Earth Bakery made it pretty easy on us… their chocolate chip cookies with Maldon Sea Salt were hands-down the best we’ve ever had (and we know our cookies).  They also have scrumptious brownies that boast the unique flare of cinnamon and hints hot pepper.  Go ahead, here’s a list of places you can buy their products… you can thank us later.

In general, it was amazing to see all the new chocolate products that companies have come up with.  We saw (and by saw, we mean ate) it all… spicy hot chocolate, goat cheese chocolate truffles, ginger root chocolate, energy chocolate bars!  For our sake, we’re going to stick with the theory that chocolate is actually good for you…

1) Mobilize your site.

Everything is going mobile, so take a look at the most visited pages on your site, strip the rest of it out and get it programmed for mobile. (Questions? Read this: http://bit.ly/mQrOIk)  Drupal and other mobile-friendly sites can detect the type of device the site is being read on and adapt to fit.  What you have to do is think about what the ‘on-the-go’ user wants. Hint: it’s not all those SEO pages.

2) Facebook Commerce.

Gee if only you could put POP right next to fan feedback…um ta-da! You can. Facebook Commerce may not replace your ecommerce site (yet) but is a great place to beta test your star products in 2012.  Walk before you run…but definitely walk this way. http://bit.ly/l6WcJF (page 15)

3) QR tags on your Packages, Boxes, and Bags

QR (Quick Response) codes are those squiggly squares you’ve seen on everything and wondered if anyone used.  Well, they are getting used – increasingly.  What they could help you do? Close the communication gap at the shelf – the Zero Moment of Truth Google sang about.  (Read here: http://bit.ly/lnvicj)  What would you say on your package if you only had the space?  Now you have it – sell away, promote away. The QR tags can be generated free, so all you have to do is provide the content they link to.

Happy?

Now, about those mojitos: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/the-real-mojito/detail.aspx

Trouble is, that was easier in the door-to-door days than online.  What’s the need online?  You can boil your audience down to a few key personas, but with a potential of millions of visitors, you can’t reasonably address every need.  You have to focus on the actions you need visitors to your site to take.

To review, take a look at this short article written by Bryan Eisenberg about the importance of commercial websites correctly informing and persuading their customers.  This marketing optimization expert is also Chief Persuasion Officer of Future Now and author of GrokDotCom Newsletter.

He explains that the customer decision is a process, not an event, and goes on to say that AIDA(S) is what pushes website visitors all the way to the confirmation page.

Awareness
Interest
Desire
Action
(Satisfaction)

Since the success of a persuasive system depends heavily on the ability to focus on the varying levels of needs users bring to the online experience, it is imperative to address these needs through each point of the process. Eisenberg breaks it down by saying:

“Most people measure conversion by the complete macroaction (the ultimate objective) they want users to take (e.g., how many people bought, subscribed, registered, etc.). Each of these actions comprises a series of smaller actions. Each microaction or omission of one is a step closer or further away from your ultimate objective. The devil is in the details. Microactions are the measures of “almost success.” In a persuasively designed site, the reject rate of a page that qualifies interest is a clear signal of what needs to be adjusted. It’s during the wireframe and storyboard phase we ask three critical questions of every page a visitor will see:

1. What action needs to be taken?

2. Who needs to take that action?

3. How do we persuade that person to take the action we desire? “

The bottom line is, if you’re trying to reach customers through your website, the most important thing is to focus on their needs. Ask yourself… How will this particular person evaluate my product after looking at my site?

If you want more details on how you make that work in detail, take a look at ”No unsupervised thinking,” a webinar by the brains at MarketingExperiments.

René Rezepi, interviewed by Dana Cowin of Food & Wine

Denmark may be known for its cold weather climate, but Danish cuisine could not be hotter. At the forefront of “New Nordic Cuisine” is Chef René Redzepi, whose restaurant Noma was named the 2011 Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant Magazine. Fortunately for New Yorkers, Redzepi visited the “New Nordic Cookout” at the Union Square Greenmarket last Saturday to speak about his cooking philosophy.

In the past, Danish cuisine focused on exploring other cultures, and substituting Danish ingredients into French recipes. Yet in the last decade, there has been a shift to exploring Denmark’s own culinary history and natural resources.

In addition to sourcing local produce, Redzepi advocates something called “trash cooking”–using what we might normally throw away. Fish eyes can be salted and added to broth for umami flavor, Christmas tree spruce can be used as a spice. When asked what New Yorkers might be overlooking in their cooking vocabulary, Redzepi responded, “Why don’t you eat the grey squirrels?” It’s a fair question.

Yet his philosophy is about more than pushing culinary boundaries—it is about a more sustainable and healthier way of eating. More vegetables, less meat, less waste—this is a way of eating we will need to embrace in the future. Redzepi explains that we shouldn’t only try to cook expensive ingredients perfectly. We should do the same with humble vegetables, taking the time to bring out their flavor and using them as more than just garnishes.

Out of everything he saw at the Greenmarket last Saturday, Redzepi said that what he most wished he had in Denmark was the market itself. He reminded New Yorkers how lucky they are to be able to buy fresh produce and be in direct contact with the people who grow the food they eat.

At GrowNYC’s New Nordic Cookout, Danish cuisine and this local New York produce came together. Thousands of New Yorkers lined up at the pavilion for samples such as savory ebelskivers with vinegar powder and pork terrine with hazelnuts, aquavite, green kale and apples. The Danish Prince and Crown Princess also attended the celebration, wandering the market and stopping by for samples.

For those still hungry for Nordic cuisine, New York’s first Danish restaurant, Aamanns, will open in Tribeca in December.

It remains to be seen if New York squirrel will be on the menu.