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Despite Criticism, Skittles.com=Successful
Those of you that are pretty well connected in the marketing world have undoubtedly heard that Mars Candy launched a new http://www.skittles.com site recently, igniting a massive onslaught of conversation about the new site and whether or not it was an effective redesign. As you can see the site itself is little more than a portal that overlays popular social media sites, allowing consumers to easily browse what the public is saying about the candy brand.
I’ve been pretty shocked that much of the chatter among marketing practitioners has been so negative. These negative comments have centered around two main criticisms: That the format of the site was a ripoff of ad agency Mondernista’s site and that it was a bad idea because a number of jokesters posted obscene messages with the Skittles hashtag, just to see them posted in the site’s Twitter stream.
I think these are both pretty inane arguments. For one, outside of ad folk, nobody cares who came up with the idea for the technological application first. Did the critics think Modernista would be the last company to utilize that new technology? That’s not how the world works these days…Skittles took an idea that broke ground last year and modified it to draw attention to the brand and its impact on our culture.
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Is Your Site Phone Phriendly?
I had an interesting conversation with a friend a couple of days ago how important my phone has become in my everyday life. I use it to text, Twitter, talk, take pictures and surf the Internet. I feel naked without it, and apparently I’m in good company. Research shows that the amount of people using their phones for things other than talking is growing at an astounding rate. And with 260,000,000 mobile phones in the United States alone (according to Wikipedia), I can only imagine that trend will pick up pace.
What really got me about our exchange was an observation we made about how often we’re using the mobile web to find information on-the-fly. My friend commented about how the other day he was looking for a restaurant’s website on his iPhone so he could give them a call to see how long the wait was. He went to Google, typed in the name of the restaurant, found the result and went to the restaurant’s website. What did he see when he landed there? NOTHING—the restaurant’s website was built entirely in Flash. He couldn’t find the number, the address…or anything for that matter. Frustrated, he went to another nearby restaurant.
Unfortunately, with the popularity of Flash-based websites there are tons of businesses just like this restaurant that have sites that are completely useless to mobile users. They fall into all sorts of categories – restaurants, retail, b2b, entertainment, news, blogs, destinations, etc. But it doesn’t have to be this way…
As part of our typical process when we’re laying out a digital strategy for a client, we consider the different types of users of the site—in most cases one of those types of users is a mobile user. These people have different motivations when browsing a site than typical folks. In the case of a restaurant for example, chances are that if a consumer goes to their website they’re looking for hours, directions, reviews or contact information. Creating a mobile site that functions properly for users accessing a site from a mobile device is a snap for a firm like ours that has these capabilities. If we can help you improve your site’s performance in this or any other aspect, give us a shout! We’d love to help you make sure to satisfy ALL your audiences, even the ones accessing your site from a handheld device.
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Add A Button, Make $300,000,000
I recently stumbled upon a pretty great article written by Jared Spool from User Interface Engineering and was compelled to pass it along because I think it’s a great read for anyone who owns, manages, uses or builds websites. If you qualify, then by all means read on!
The article was Jared’s recount of one specific situation in which a slight change in the design of a form made a noticeable difference in business. In the case of the site he wrote about, the change was a little bigger than noticeable—it was $300,000,000. Whoa.
The issue with the unnamed site was that in order to purchase the items that you had placed in your shopping cart, the site required you to register with the site. The thinking behind doing this was that it would make return purchases much easier because the site could remember all of your payment and shipping information, as well as your preferences. Pretty smart, huh?
As it turns out, the answer is an emphatic no. After conducting extensive usability testing, the interactive team realized that for many first-time shoppers, being forced to register (which involves picking a username/password) was a huge annoyance. As one respondent said, “I’m not here for a relationship – I just want to make a purchase.”
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Citroen, All Shiny And New
Citroen makes a distinctly beautiful vehicle, although most Americans don’t know much about them unless they’re into rally racing. That’s because Citroen, a French manufacturer, has never been officially imported into the US market.
They recently refreshed their global brand identity in order to modernize the brand and to ensure that it has appeal to style-conscious auto buyers. As you’ll see from the before/after image (graciously borrowed from Brand New), the French brand has ditched the hard lines and standard sans serif typeface for a new futuristic typeface and a rounder, softer, more 3-dimensional chevron shape (thanks Brand New for the image).
What I like so much about this brand identity update is that they took an existing identity that had remained unchanged since 1985 and redeveloped it entirely while still managing to preserve the brand equity by taking cues from the old one, including the trademark red, white and silver color scheme.
Here’s a video that Citroen produced to introduce the new brand. I don’t know French, but it’s interesting nonetheless. And I learned that vroom is the same in English and French:
Who Is Really Using Social Media?
To participate, or not to participate. That’s the question many CMOs and Marketing Directors are grappling with when it comes to whether or not to join the conversation by engaging consumers through social media. For those that target Generation Y and younger, the choice is an easy one.
But what about everyone else? If I had an extra dollar for every time I heard or read about a marketer downplaying the importance of social media to their customers because “they’re too old for that” I’d be looking into putting a down payment on a Fisker Karma or Ronn Motor Co’s Scorpion. Or maybe even a RUF eRUF Greenster - but that’s another story entirely.
Just the other day, a fellow industry colleague told me that she couldn’t get a Facebook account because her son told her she was too old and that it would be lame for her to sign up. I quickly reminded her that he might have his reasons for not wanting her on there (hello, spying parents) and sent her HERE. She quickly signed up.
A couple of days later, @wendyscherer on Twitter sent me this LINK that outlines in detail the demographic data for each social media outlet. The results? You need to be integrating social media into your marketing strategy—All of you.
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