Marketing Advisor Blog

Facebook more popular than email or SMS and nearly as popular as phone to connect with friends and family

Digital PR, marketing and social media communications agency Prompt Communications, which has offices in the US and the UK, last week released the results of a survey it conducted regarding the use of social media and modern communication trends.

The survey was only organized in the US but delivers some interesting insights in how people these days communicate. It will not come as a surprise that digital communication channels become increasingly important, with social media leading the pack.

However, according to the survey the most common method of communication with family and friends is still the telephone. We guess that includes the mobile phone too. 99% of the respondents regularly the phone to keep in touch with family and friends. 

And then comes a staggering finding. We all know that social media are hot but, still, the number is impressive: with 96% (!) Facebook is the next most popular communication tool, according to the survey.

Do you listen to your ‘super-consumers’?

Earlier this week Eddie Yoon, a Principal with The Cambridge Group, posted an interesting article on the Harvard Business blog.

Yoon wrote that “in any product category, roughly 10% of the consumers account for more than 50% of the profits”.

His company calls them the ‘super-consumers’. The consumers that clearly know what they need and want, buy a lot of what they need and don’t mind paying more to get it.

Furthermore these ‘super-consumers’ are “passionate and engaged, sometimes even a little obsessive” as Yoon describes them. We guess you also have ‘super-consumers’ and are very glad to have them. We also guess (or at least hope) that you do everything you can to serve these ‘super-consumers’ who might be your best brand advocates. Or do we hope in vain?

90% of blue-chip companies are not making the most of their market-research efforts

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has just releases a new report, titled “The Consumer’s Voice—Can Your Company Hear It?”.

The report offers evidence that even large blue-chip companies lack basic knowledge about their customers.

In a survey of more than 800 executives based at 40 global companies with sales of $1.5 billion or more, only 35% said that they have good time-series data on how consumer needs and behavior change over time.

Just 47% said they know what drives market share, who is buying, and why. And less than 45% said that their market research—or “consumer insight,” as many companies now call it—is a source of competitive advantage or provides a high return on investment.