Archive for the ‘MobileVoice’ Category

MobileVoice, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews

Deborah de Freitas Sephora exec talks mobile, Facebook, and the “next generation” of UGC

March 4th, 2010 by Deborah de Freitas Director, Marketing Communications

SephoraLast week, NRF’s retail blog recognized Sephora as a brand that’s truly “getting” social media marketing. Sephora has long been a highly active Bazaarvoice client, and we were excited to see the brand recognized for their innovative efforts at engaging their customers in the social sphere.

NRF interviewed Julie Bornstein, Sephora Direct SVP, for the post. Some of Julie’s comments really struck a chord with us, and we’d like to share them here.

Julie discussed the brand’s use of MobileVoice, allowing shoppers to access Sephora’s thousands of customer reviews on their mobile devices. “Have you ever tried to decide which moisturizer to use while standing in front of a wall of options?” Julie asked. “Our customers love to talk about beauty and they love to hear what others have to say.” Mobile access to authentic customer opinions helps shoppers in offline channels – in your stores, browsing your catalogue – find the right product for them.

Julie Bornstein, Sephora Direct SVP

Julie Bornstein, Sephora Direct SVP

On Facebook, Sephora strives to make sure there is value in being a fan. “We make changes as a result of [fan feedback],” says Julie. “Given that the people who tend to interact with us are our more serious beauty mavens, they really know what’s going on. It makes us realize how in touch our consumer is!” Customer feedback offers brands a chance to interact with their most engaged customers, learning from their feedback to improve products and services and generate effective marketing campaigns. “Use this audience as a focus group to help drive business decisions,” Julie suggests.

Integrating social networks like Facebook into UGC efforts offers brands the opportunity to make this content especially relevant for shoppers. “If the first generation of ‘user-generated content’ was Ratings & Reviews, I think the next will be around filtering that input by your own network and friends,” Julie suggests. TurboTax is doing this with its “Friends Like You” feature, which not only allows shoppers to filter reviews by personal aspects like “bought a home” or “had a baby,” but also allows them to find reviews submitted by their connections on Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.

You can read NRF’s full interview with Julie here. To learn more about integrating your brand’s UGC with mobile and social networks, request a demo here.

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Community, Customer Centricity, Interviews, Marketing Strategy, MobileVoice, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth

Heather Brunner Bazaarvoice CEO stresses the importance of the customer’s voice

April 1st, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

These days, everyone’s on the move. From phone-accessible email to Starbucks on-the-go, our society has been conditioned to expect answers when we want them, where we want them.

Digital Nomads is a Web community powered by Dell that caters to individuals “who live a lifestyle where their laptop and other electronic devices create the center of their office and/or play-space.” The site offers a forum for mobile-oriented news, ideas, and best practices.

Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt recently spoke with Digital Nomad Bruce Eric Anderson about the power of word of mouth marketing specifically for mobile-device users. In the video interview, Brett discusses his personal experience as a digital nomad, and how Bazaarvoice services have evolved to target this demographic.

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Marketing Strategy, MobileVoice, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Greg Brown Putting Data to Work: Measuring the Impact of Merchandising Messaging on Your Web Site

March 17th, 2009 by Greg Brown Vice President of Retail and Travel, Americas

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking about the impact of merchandising messaging at the EzRez Thought Leadership Summit, held in the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. With budgets being scrutinized today more than ever, it’s important that you not only measure your programs (your hypothesis), but continuously analyze and broadcast your results to help defend your budget (you don’t want to be the manager in the room that cannot defend your projects).

The focus of my presentation was on user-generated content (UGC), and how to measure social initiatives. As you are aware, Bazaarvoice provides social commerce solutions to a variety of organizations across many different industries. The hypothesis for engaging in social commerce is to get more visitors to the site, have them convert at a higher rate, spend more money, increase brand engagement, and return their products less frequently. But don’t stop there. It’s important to look beyond your hypothesis to determine the total impact of your assumptions (allowing you to both secure and defend your budget).

So where are the other areas of impact for UGC? Customer satisfaction is one. During his keynote at eTail in Phoenix last week, Larry Freed, President and CEO of Foresee Results, discussed the importance of measuring customer satisfaction. His hypothesis was that satisfaction drives conversion. This makes sense. Happy customers are more likely to buy your products. So how do you create a happy customer? By providing them the information they want, when they want it, and where they want it. According to Neilson Online, shoppers are demanding UGC as part of their shopping experience; 81 percent of online shoppers read online customer reviews over the holidays. If you give them the chance to read peer reviews, you have met their expectations. They will be happy. And, as Larry points out, if they are happy, they will be more likely to buy your products.

Let’s expand the hypothesis further. Are consumers in the store just as hungry for UGC as online shoppers? The answer is yes. The Web is a great mechanism for research and has a direct impact on in-store sales. According to BIGresearch, 92.5 percent of adults said they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in the store. Furthermore, eMarketer reports that for every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 of store sales.

So how do you marry the ease of research online and the demand for peer reviews with the comfort of purchasing in the store? Through mobile applications. Though in its infancy (according to ForeSee, only 29 percent of consumers have used their mobile device as part of their shopping experience), consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile phones to research products online while shopping in the store. ForeSee reports that 15 percent of surveyed shoppers used their mobile devices to go online to check product reviews. This is not insignificant, seeing that the number of smart phones is growing exponentially, and demand for UGC is over 80 percent. This is why Bazaarvoice recently launched MobileVoice; a solution that allows consumers to read peer reviews through their mobile devices.

But MobileVoice isn’t solely for the benefit of the consumer. As Joyce Hrinya, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Customer Service at Helzberg shared with me, Helzberg is excited to have their associates use MobileVoice in the store. The associate can share their expertise of a product and inject UGC from their mobile device to drive more sales for a better shopping experience, without the infrastructure costs associated with many POS terminals.

Helzberg is a great example of the proper way to continuously collect, measure, and analyze visitor behavioral data for the purpose of optimizing their business and their brand.

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Customer Centricity, Marketing Strategy, MobileVoice, Ratings & Reviews, Research, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth, eCommerce

Sam Decker ForeSee Results: Customer Satisfaction is Crucial for Success

March 6th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

The results are back: ForeSee Results has summarized the influences behind consumer satisfaction and purchase behavior for Holiday 2008 customers. Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results, presented the company’s research at the eTail 2009 conference in Phoenix, AZ, this past week.

Although sales saw a sharp overall decline in 2008, traffic held. Right now, consumer spending is driving the economy, creating a hyper-competitive environment in which only the strong survive – an example of accelerated Darwinism.

“Cutting costs is kind of like a death march,” Freed said. “Price is important, but experience is just as important.” ForeSee asked customers an interactive question: How satisfied were they with holiday sales in 2008? The answers were mostly positive, rating between 7-9.

Measuring satisfaction is crucial because the consumer’s satisfaction drives conversion, as well as freedom of choice. ForeSee Results found that the old metrics are no longer relevant: Consumer satisfaction is everything when it comes to a company’s future success. Freed suggested an important equation:

Satisfaction = [What the customer expects] + [What the customer gets]

Highly satisfied customers were more likely to purchase online than offline.

Satisfaction is driven by a combination of content, functionality, merchandise, and price, according to ForeSee Results. eCommerce as a percentage of total retail sales has seen a significant uptrend, Freed said. According to a University of Michigan study, eRetail amongst buyers, at 82 percent, outperforms offline retail at 75.2 percent. During the holiday season, discounts improved customer satisfaction ratings. Some of the most successful companies in this area were Bazaarvoice clients QVC, Walmart, and L.L.Bean.

So how can businesses optimize customer satisfaction? “We will see more retail casualties,” Freed said. “Retailers are going to need [social media] in the future to stay competitive.” Online channels have more opportunities than offline: Ninety-two percent of consumers said that they had been influenced by user-generated product reviews, while 65 percent said their purchasing decisions were influenced by social media.

Mobile media usage in stores is low at 29 percent, but growing rapidly. While only 31 percent of consumers said they had used a mobile app for in-store shopping before, the results proved social media had a very high impact within the ranks of its users. Seventy-two percent used their mobile device to ask someone about a product, 40 percent to send a picture to someone, 24 percent to comparison shop, and 15 percent to look at product reviews

Most companies said that they did not have mobile apps for their retail companies, although 17 percent said “Yes” and 16 percent said they soon would.

“We are in the fight of our lives,” Freed said. “Now is the time to rise above the competition.” Satisfying customers is the key to victory. Will your company rank amongst the winners?

Points to Remember:

1. The consumer is in charge: Costs of switching vendors are low, the competition is high, and knowledge is power

2. Consumer expectations for the Web continue to rise when it comes to social media: Make sure your company doesn’t end up playing catch-up to its competition

3. Customers want free shipping, consumer reviews

4. Your most valuable acquisition sources: Consumer familiarity with your brand, campaign emails

5. Social media. Enough said.

6. Consumers will go where they’re satisfied

7. Satisfaction drives conversion, loyalty, and word of mouth

8. Measure what matters most – your customers. Satisfied consumers are an asset, while unsatisfied ones are a liability

9. You cannot manage what you can’t measure: “UGC is a must-have in today’s world”

10. Garbage in/garbage out: Measurements must be accurate, precise and reliable – Web analytics must be implemented properly

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Marketing Strategy, MobileVoice, Research, Social Commerce Summit, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth, eCommerce

Brett Hurt Our Economy’s Slow Climb to Recovery and Social Commerce

February 15th, 2009 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

BusinessWeek logoEvery week, I enjoy reading BusinessWeek and one of the highlights is James (Jim) Cooper’s weekly article on the economy.  When I initially started to read Jim’s article, many years ago, I had to struggle through it.  Even though I earned my MBA from Wharton, some of the concepts were difficult to understand and my “pattern recognition” took awhile to form.  I’m glad I stuck with it, as it has helped me understand business trends more quickly.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the consumer in this economy, given that consumers drive about 70% of our economy in the U.S. and a large share of the world’s economy (most notably China’s).  We are the world’s largest shopper.  This week’s article by Mr. Cooper really hit the nail on the head, leading me to believe that the recovery is going to take a lot longer than initially assumed.  This may be old news to some of you, but I have been consuming the data as it becomes available and seeing consumer saving increase so dramatically is a real turning point.

I believe that social commerce will shine in a gloomy time like this.  Consumers have always feared “buyer’s remorse“.  With U.S. unemployment at 7.6% and rising, in addition to the multi-trillion dollar decrease in consumer wealth, purchases will be scrutinized like never before.  And I believe customer ratings and reviews, as well as all forms of customer-generated content (and word of mouth), will be leveraged like never before.  From reducing returns to increasing sales, it is clear that social commerce reduces buyer’s remorse.  This isn’t just a U.S. trend, as the economic problems are global and buyer’s remorse is a common human behavior, and I believe this is the driver behind Sam’s recent post on UK consumers flocking to social commerce.

If you missed Sam’s post in November on Amazon, I recommend you read it.  They were one of the few retailers online that recently announced stellar results during such a challenging retail season.

Our clients have been stepping up their pace of innovation with social commerce.  You can see it reflected in our many blog posts in the last two months, especially the one from Heather about the unprecented number of holiday promotions we helped drive with our Community Managers.

This will be a huge year for social commerce.  Our company is signing clients at a faster pace than ever before.  Innovation is accelerating rapidly, and not just online.  The ROI is very proven.  And I’m proud of the way we are helping our clients in such a challenging time.

Come join us from April 27-29th in Austin at our Social Commerce Summit to discuss how the best are leveraging social commerce.  We sincerely look forward to seeing you there.

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Marketing Strategy, MobileVoice, Ratings & Reviews

Sam Decker TurboTax Reviews on Cell Phones and Banner Ads

February 1st, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

This blog post was guest written by Meghan Meehan, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

TurboTax is undoubtedly one of Bazaarvoice’s most innovative clients.  Not only do they do a fantastic job of acquiring user-generated content, they’re also constantly discovering new and creative ways to leverage the content they’ve collected.  They recently launched a national campaign promoting Ratings & Reviews in brick and mortar stores, using our new MobileVoice product.  This allows in-store shoppers to read reviews of TurboTax software on their cell phones.

Before the Super Bowl kicks off on Sunday, TurboTax is kicking off an amazing event of their own.  They’ve launched a groundbreaking interactive banner that uses review quotes and photos submitted by reviewers as part of a larger Super Bowl campaign.  This ad was front and center on Yahoo!’s home page until midnight last night, and you can see it archived here.  Take a look (be sure to click the “click here for full experience” link).  You have to see it to believe it!

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Customer Centricity, Marketing Strategy, MobileVoice, Multichannel, New at Bazaarvoice, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth

Mike Svatek The Year of Mobile

January 20th, 2009 by Mike Svatek Chief Product Officer

My first smart phone was a breath of fresh air! I stalled for years before buying my first smart phone because simply making calls and checking email on the go was not enough incentive to get rid of my trusty Motorola flip phone. I stuck with that flip phone for years while I saw BlackBerries sprouting up around me. Like you, I am as much a consumer as I am a professional. My email-enabled phone should also be able to run business apps, access the web like I was in my office, and play music so I can carry just one device, not two.

Last fall I bought an iPhone 3G and, despite a few Apple-esque quirks, it has exceeded my expectations, handily. Now I can rarely be separated from it. I’ve used its built-in GPS while traveling on business, streaming audio via Pandora to keep up on the news, and what impressed my wife (which in my case is the ultimate litmus test for technology) is that we were able to access shoppers’ ratings and reviews on products while we were standing in the aisles looking for gifts last Christmas. And I’m not alone. In October 2008, Apple announced they had sold 6.9M iPhones during the prior quarter, bringing the total to over 13M iPhones sold at that time. Those devices are in the hands of consumers, and they’re using it for research on products and services in real time. And those stats are just for the iPhone – nearly every phone sold now is a smart phone.

Since 2009 is undeniably the year of the mobile device, we are celebrating with our announcement of MobileVoice. Announced Monday in AdAge, MobileVoice is Bazaarvoice’s first mobile application that brings consumer word of mouth into stores to help customers make their purchase decisions. Simply put, when you’re standing in the store trying to decide which product to buy, MobileVoice is there to provide you user-generated ratings, reviews, and answers to your questions in real time.

If you’re a retailer, consider the power of giving shoppers in your stores access to product information, user reviews, and recommended accessories in the palm of their hands – on demand and tailored for their specific interest at the time. As a consumer, I can attest that it has helped me in several ways:

  • First, and most obviously, having word of mouth in the palm of my hand provides the much-needed perspective of people who have purchased the product, helping me to make a decision.
  • Secondly, it displays more manufacturer and retailer information products that what can possibly be displayed on a shelf or on the packaging. Access to specifications, warranties, features, and so on help me to make a more informed decision on the product.
  • Lastly, MobileVoice and mobile applications at large are beginning to solve the issue of in-store discovery. Who among us has not asked a Home Depot employee “do you know were _____ is?” It’s a common refrain in any store, anywhere. As for my holiday shopping, I needed to find a Dora The Explorer toy for my niece but I did not like any of the Dora toys I saw on the shelves in front of me. Using the integrated search capablity within MobileVoice, I was able to locate a Dora chair on the other side of the store with just one keyword. Luckily for that retailer, I bought that chair instead of going to another toy store.

MobileVoice is already being used by prominent retailers and suppliers nationwide. Sephora’s clientle can get access to nearly 100,000 reviews on cosmetic and beauty products while standing in the store. And taxpayers headed into Office Depot, Office Max, Wal-Mart, and Staples stores around the country access Intuit’s reviews to see what version of TurboTax and other software packages is right for them. Read the full MobileVoice press release for more details.

As a consumer I hope you enjoy getting ratings, reviews, answers and in-store discovery in the palm of your hands. This is just the beginning of the mobile commerce revolution.

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