Get off Facebook and pay attention to your website: report
July 06, 2011 | Chris Powell | Comments
A new report from KubasPrimedia suggests that marketers investing in social media to drive brand loyalty and sales are investing in the wrong area.
The Toronto consultancy’s new Major Market Retail Report (MMRR) is based on interviews with 1,520 consumers about their retail shopping habits and store preferences, and is considered statistically accurate to within plus or minus 2.5%.
The company – which has been conducting retail analysis for more than 15 years – examined shopping behaviour in 33 product categories at 147 retailers to determine so-called “competitive retail metrics,” including market coverage, shopping levels, drawing power, loyalty and retailer performance scores.
According to the MMRR, 77% of Canadians consumers “often” or “sometimes” visit retailer websites to obtain information about a specific product, while 71% visit manufacturer websites. Only 27% use social media to gather information, while 23% use blogs.
Ed Strapagiel, executive vice-president of KubasPrimedia, said the findings undercut the prevailing notion that social media tools – primarily Facebook and Twitter – are a crucial marketing element and underscore the importance of creating a robust website. In order to ensure a healthy return on investment, he said, retailers must focus their efforts on where customers are actually turning for their information.
“Social media is a loop, and things go back and forth,” he said. “Like anything online, if you don’t have a good end point [the web site] and are spending a lot of effort driving traffic to it, it sort of puts the cart before the horse.”
Strapagiel said social media activity might nudge online purchases, but doesn’t drive them. He cited a recent U.S. report from Forrester Research and GSI Commerce which found that less than 2% of online orders during the 2010 holiday shopping period were the result of shoppers arriving via social networks.
“There’s a lot of emphasis on social media [tools] and how good they are, but a lot of this in my view is coming from people who are vendors in this space,” said Strapagiel. “The thing that’s been absent is any kind of objective, hard number evidence of what this actually does [for brands].”
Strapagiel said marketing is evolving to the point where “a whole lot” of marketing channels will be considered supplementary, meaning that marketers must ensure they’ve invested in core assets like their website.
“There are so many different things you could be doing, and you really have to have your priorities straight to pull this off without spending a lot of time and money on the wrong thing,” he said.
The MMRR also found that 63% of consumers “often” or “sometimes” search for online coupons and promotions, and 45% use “daily deal” sites like Groupon.
Strapagiel urged retailers to “tread carefully” if pondering such services, however, noting that the majority of the advertisers are services like restaurants and spas that can afford to offer discounts of 50% or more. Yet, most goods retailers are unable to sustain such deep discounts because the business model is radically different, he said.
Paul Rosa
There is no clear cut answer to this online phenomenon. It is all part of a major purchase path for any shopper. As some previous respondents noted, Facebook or other mediums contribute to the dialogue people now want to have with brands. Why do you think more and more companies are adding communities to their web site. Facebook acts as a community as people are sharing information, but it is becoming slightly too “general” or mass market. A few years back, experts were saying TV advertising was becoming just part of the noise consumers see about products, all blurring together. Is Facebook is far behind? The new generation of marketers will engage their loyal consumers and have them contribute to the strength of the brand through Facebook, Google + and through their exclusive communities. But at the end of all this, if you’re shopper hits the store shelf and buys something else, what have you really done? We have to keep our shopper engaged the whole way through, from the beginning when they search on a company’s website, visits Facebook, checks Twitter, hears comments from others and then finally at retail. Lots of places to reach shoppers!
Tuesday, July 12 @ 6:16 pm |
Rory Kelly
I think this article deserves merit in that it addresses a very important and relevant question: what if you just don’t use facebook or twitter? What then? The issue I see here is that of the great divide between social media users and non social media users. I think that divide will remain in place for quite some time. As facebook users are increasing in number (now at around 500 million worldwide), web users continue to increase as well (now at over 2 billion worldwide). That’s 2 billion potential website visitors against 500 million potential facebook visitors. The decision as to whether marketers should invest their efforts in social media or a company/brand website is still likely a tricky one. The sharp increase in online shopping over the past few years is also likely make that decision more difficult. To put facebook’s growth in perspective to other areas the web, it might be important to note that there were 480 million new email users over the last year – that’s a whole facebook’s worth. It’s obvious there’s lots of activity happening on facebook, but enough to say it’ll quickly become one of the most important places to manage your brand? There’s a chance that still remains to be seen.
Tuesday, July 12 @ 12:20 pm |
Scott Hartley
What is misleading here is the opening sentence of the article that lumps brand building into the conversation when the context of the discussion seems to be limited to that of social mediums’ effectiveness in impacting sales at the very specific product research phase of the purchase decision cycle.This phase is usually about features, time of delivery, availability, price promotions, etc. All things that impact brand health, but do not define it.
I would suggest that the earlier and later phases of the purchase decision that are impacted by brand health ARE very much impacted by good/bad social media execution and condemning the medium as a poor marketing investment is simply wrong and too broad a statement. As a greater percentage of our population adopts social media into their daily routines, it will quickly become one of the most important places to manage your brand.
Being absent is never a good strategy for improving brand health.
Wednesday, July 06 @ 1:23 pm |
Kinga Potrzebowski
Excellent points Scott, am in complete agreement.
Thursday, July 07 @ 2:39 pm
jon nelson
I give no merit to this study. 1,520 consumers? Pishposh. I do agree that the end point (website) you’re leading traffic to has to be above par, but what if you’re not leading them to a website? Facebook can and does work as an end point with users actively looking for and engaging with content. If Facebook appears at the top of a search, why wouldn’t the consumer go there for information? Online purchasing aside, Facebook has what a user needs and the ability to share content with like-minded friends (consumers too) is a benefit even the best websites have yet to master.
Wednesday, July 06 @ 11:54 am |