Chris Haughey, The Amazing Marketing Machine, is testing and experimenting with our Market Intelligence Reporting to assess its methodology, accuracy and utility. He was very kind to let me publish his perspective on DVD/Blu-ray market segment.

DVD and Blu-ray devices analysis by Chris Haugley

This time we analyzed Blu-ray Disk Players. As of this date we monitor 56 products in this category and analyzed 6,482 reviews written by their customers. However some of these products have not accumulated enough reviews to produce statistically representative and accurate metrics, so we filtered them out of the competition. The second round disqualified any product that failed to meet Customer Expectations with its Functionality, Reliability or Support.

Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray disc player wins 2010 Piplzchoice Award

This week we analyzed Digital Picture Frames. As of this date we monitor 192 products in this category and analyzed 18,427 reviews written by their customers. However some of these products have not accumulated enough reviews to produce statistically representative and accurate metrics, so we filtered them out of the competition. The second round disqualified any product that failed to meet Customer Expectations with its Functionality, Reliability or Support.

Portable USA PU-10W
2010 Piplzchoice Award winner
26.8% above average Customer Satisfaction in its Category
The winners are chosen by their customers

Below is the list of the runner up products

2010 Piplzchoice Award for Digital Frames

and a sample of the Customer Satisfaction Index distribution from average for the best and the worst performers
Digital Frames Reputation – Deviation from average CSI

As any business seeks to better understand customer needs and behaviors, it’s no secret that Social Media has opened more doors to CRM opportunities than ever before.  Last week while reading a recent marketing blog, I was amazed to observe that the writer failed to suggest the current trend of social networking as a frontline method for creating a relationship with customers.

Like never before, Social Media is providing a colossal platform allowing us to hear what our customers are saying.   It is quickly becoming one of the best ways to engage a customer and gain valuable insight into their experience with our products as well as those of our competition.  Are you listening?

This explosive technology could permit any business to identify competitive threats or opportunities through information that might not otherwise be detected without listening to thousands of customers.  Historically, formal focus groups were utilized as the most common means of collecting this data in-person from the end user.  Perhaps one could imply that today social media is quickly becoming the new “focus group”.

Consider for a moment that while traditional focus groups draw in customers to discuss their experiences, so are Social Networks providing the same information.  Is there really a significant difference?  The value of a focus group depends largely on quality of questions posed to the participants with all the biases that are incorporated into a question. The main disparity is that social media presents a very public review of a product or company’s benefits and even shortcomings.  However, we must not ignore the exponential numbers of consumers who are vocalizing this valuable data.  It is often more candid than any focus group could provide.

Getting connected with them is just part of the solution.  Connecting & engaging within these social mediums is relatively easy part.  Nevertheless, just like any other ‘marketing” effort, its success is not realized without measurement.  Therefore, the opportunity exists in figuring out what to do with the unstructured data.

Fortunately there is technology available to “interpret” this valuable data. Utilizing a multi-dimensional analysis, we convert various forms of feedback into an actionable plan then we take it one step further.  We are examining customer ratings across the market of nearly 20,000 products.  Many of the companies who have attempted their own translations had to invest very significant amounts of money into text mining implementation projects that allow handling feedback about only their own products.  With more than 2 million reviews, our database can deliver satisfaction scores from real world consumers about your products as well as that of your competition.

Self help author and motivational speaker, Robert Kiyosaki,  was quoted last year as saying ‘I am a bit old to focus on social media now but I spend an average of two hundred thousand dollars monthly through hired employees or consultants on social media, online reputation etc’.  While the use of social media as a marketing tool is still in its early stages, let’s not ignore this novel opportunity to act on customer feedback.

This week we have introduced a new functionality to our site. Registered users can now compile, save and monitor their personalized lists products regardless of their categories association.

The following are examples of use:

1. A Product Manager, who is responsible for a ipod docking station and a computer speakers, can now assemble both products into one list for monitoring and reporting. In the past she would need to produce two reports from respective categories;

2. A Brand Marketing Manager, who researches competitive landscape of Tablet computing devices, can select and save a specific sub-set of this category that is pertinent for his analysis. In the past he would have to filter out the products outside of his desired data set every time he would want to export the report.

The management of personalized product list can be done from the PRMIR

or by clicking on Create New Product List link on MyAccount/MyList form as seen on the top screen shot. That action will open dialog offering a user to save the new list name and a form we you can search, and add products to the list.

Thank you for providing your ideas for improvements and keep them coming.

This week we analyzed Customer Reviews for External Hard Drives. As of this date we monitor 183 products in this category and analyzed 22,386 reviews written by their customers. However some of these products have not accumulated enough reviews to produce statistically representative and accurate metrics, so we filtered them out of the competition. The second round disqualified any product that failed to meet Customer Expectations with its Functionality, Reliability or Support.

Transcend StoreJet 25 Mobile Anti-Shock 500 GB
2010 Piplzchoice Award winner
55% above average Customer Satisfaction in its Category
The winners are chosen by their customers

For full list of products in this category and Customer Reviews used for this research, select “Computers & Accessories > Computer Add-Ons > Drives & Storage > Hard Drives” Category in Product Reputation Market Intelligence Report on this site.

Interesting finding of this study that we could find only three runner ups in this product category. Most external portable disk drives do not meet customer expectations for reliability and support.

2010 Piplzchoice Award for External Hard Drives goes to Transcend StoreJet 25

This week we analyzed Customer Reviews for Computer Speakers. As of this date we monitor 136 products in this category and analyzed 10,265 reviews written by their customers. However some of these products have not accumulated enough reviews to produce statistically representative and accurate metrics, so we filtered them out of the competition. The second round disqualified any product that failed to meet Customer Expectations with its Functionality, Reliability or Support.

Logitech Z-3 Wood Grained 2.1 Speakers
2010 Piplzchoice Award winner
20.3% above average Customer Satisfaction in its Category
The winners are chosen by their customers

Below is the list of the top runner up products:

Logitech Z-3 Wood Grained 2.1 Speakers wins 2010 Piplzchoice Award

For full list of products in this category and Customer Reviews used for this research, select “Computers & Accessories > Computer Speakers ” Category in Product Reputation Market Intelligence Report.

Like serving borscht, an Eastern and Central European beetroot soup, it is best to consume market research, especially about customer relations, with a healthy dollop of creamy common sense.  I recently had dinner with several close friends who happen to be marketing mavens and my business associates. I was quite surprised when what I had intended to be a lighthearted joke brought the four of us into passionate disagreement.  I had been discussing an article written by a market research service and summarized my feelings in a simple sentiment – just because you lead a horse to water doesn’t mean you can make him drink TWICE from the same trough; he has to like what he is drinking for him to take a second sip.

Two of my friends immediately pounced; they joined together in a spontaneous lecture that reiterated market data from panels and focus groups about customer acquisition; lead generation through pipeline to close. They had research data that a behavioral psychologist would admire! Both my other friend and I told them that they missed the point – good marketing is about big-picture perceptions rather than a funnel-shaped sales process transitioning from an initial contact to counting sales receipts. Our point was that especially in today’s marketplace you must continually win a customer’s approval, you don’t acquire and hold them like so many shares of stock in an investment portfolio labeled “goodwill”.

Valued concepts of price, product, place, and promotion have undergone a paradigm shift. The emergence of the Internet has helped to democratize business. Mom and Pop businesses can compete on equal ground with multinational conglomerates now. In fact, the sales funnels now have even wider openings to suck in prospects. But “old-timers” often have difficulty recognizing paradigm shifts. What has democratized the Internet storefronts has also democratized Joe and Jane Customer!  The sales process once defined by the Four P’s has been digitized and now, in virtual space, finds itself also democratized. In a medium that travels at the speed of light, digital word-of mouth and concepts, like online product or service reputation, rule. Market research points to growing amounts of consumer-generated media as determining customer choice, not to mention customer loyalty. Studies suggest consumers seek out this information before they make a purchase and consider it advice without bias or ulterior motive.  You don’t “herd” people into funnels anymore; the savvy shopper more than likely “surfed the web” prior to “selecting” your product or service rather than you “acquired” them through place or promotion!

Besides all that, I reminded my friends that our thirsty horse doesn’t really show its “approval” until it returns the third time!  The first sip was the test based on curiosity, the second was a test reaffirming the initial experience; but the third is not only reaffirmation but proof that the water reliably satisfies a need. Finicky horse? Not really. It’s an adaptive survival trait called “conditioned taste aversion” (also known as bait shyness or the Garcia effect).  This apparently “hard-wired” behavior protects most mammals from too much of a novel “offering” (for example, poisoned bait) without testing its “safety (or reputation)” value over a short period of time.   In truth, even though people do mimic a herd and sometimes even stampede, they are even smarter than horses!  Your products, services, or business hasn’t ever really acquired your customers; your customers have chosen you!  Reputation has always and will forever rule!

Product requirements development without true customer input is one of the most common reasons for a product failure to achieve its profitability expectations. The common practice of capturing this input is traditional market research methods of using customer panels and consumer focus groups. The results of these efforts are only as good as specific professionals conducting these studies that often lead to a very high costs, inconsistent results and unscalable processes. In my opinion, these techniques can be much more beneficial later in the Product Development process, at the Test and Customer Evaluation stage, when specific product assumptions can be validated.

Regardless of methodology you follow for development of a new product, at some point of the process you have to decide what segment of your market you are planning to compete in. That often involves a need to create and analyze a list of existing products your new product targets to displace, to identify target customers and what mechanisms to use for collection of their needs.

Careful analysis of experiences the customers had with the products you target to compete with, can provide invaluable insights into their original needs without any color commentary or interpretation. The critical, and often disregarded part, is that these people have actually spent their own money to satisfy their needs which make them uniquely qualified to provide you with very valuable information. Many of them, estimated 1%-2% total customers, have bothered to leave their comments and reviews on countless social media venues, such as retailer and manufacturer websites, user forums and customer communities.

“Traditionally, Marketing has had responsibility for defining customer needs and product requirements. This has tended to isolate Engineering and other development personnel from the customer and from gaining a firsthand understanding of customer needs. As a result, customer’s real needs can become somewhat abstract to other development personnel. Product development personnel need to be directly involved in understanding customer needs.”

Availability of customer generated product experience content allows all product development personnel to have direct and affordable access to understanding customer requirements.

The more intelligence you can find about your product segment of the market the higher is a certainty of your new product profitability forecast.

These days a huge gap has formed between listening to our customers and actually understanding what they are saying.  It’s now evident to most companies that Social Media has opened new doors for listening to customers.  Although it seems they are drowning in volumes of voices, without good tools and/or methods to extract clear and actionable signals.  In a sense they can’t see the forest for the all the trees.

While CRM has become the hottest way to connect with customers, it is often mistaken as a form of technology used to disclose customer feedback throughout a company.  CRM is much more than technology; it’s an ongoing process to improve relationships with your customers resulting in better customer service, improved customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty.

So what is Social CRM?  Simply defined, this new advancement is a way to manage social relationships.  Its function is collecting data found in social networks and disseminating among the areas within the company that can respond to it. In the words of Paul Greenberg:

“Social CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”

Typically, it has taken a drastic measure such as decreased revenues, customer churn or product issues to compel us to reach out to our patrons. On average, this knee-jerk reaction is short-lived and dropped once the next crisis appears.

Customer satisfaction surveys are also utilized by many companies as a way to ‘connect’ with consumers. Although well intentioned, satisfaction surveys are often self serving and primarily give management the impression they are accomplishing something.

A good place to start connecting with your customers is by way of:
- Buyer behavior – adopt a ‘buyer orientation’ vs. the typical ‘seller orientation’
- Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs – go beyond satisfaction.  Bruce Temkin, a principal analyst at Forrester, defines VOC as “a systematic approach for incorporating the needs of customers into the design of customer experiences.”
Empowerment – make sure your organization is focused and able to make changes based on customer feedback.  Lack of this key element is often why customer satisfaction surveys are typically a flop.

Another interesting fact is the correlation of customer satisfaction with a company’s market performance.  A study published in the Journal of Marketing found that companies at the top 20% of the American Customer Satisfaction Index greatly outperformed in the stock market, generating a 40% return.

There is also a strong correlation between customer satisfaction and financial performance.  A study by JD Power and Associates discovered that organizations with the highest levels of customer satisfaction experienced profit margins at three times the growth rate than those with medium levels of customer satisfaction and more than 21 times that for low customer satisfaction ratings.

Often an organization may possess various methods of obtaining customer feedback but they are not able to comprehend it, creating action plans while many do not have the resources to try.  As a veritable strategy, perhaps we should be focusing more than ever on CRM (& Social CRM) development to bridge the enormous gap between listening and understanding our customers.