An Advertisers Nightmare

I read with great interest and amusement the article from Yvonne Johnston (http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/12/50582.html). From the outset I would like to declare that I have a great deal of respect for Yvonne and I am also one of her fans. She was in her time a great media mind and now an absolutely fabulously great marketer. Her credentials at Brand SA are proof of this.

I am still a news junkie. My day starts with News24, Iafrica, Businessday and Sky news online. It helps keep me in perspective on what’s happening in the world. I don’t own an Ipad, Kindle or iphone. I do own a Blackberry which helps me keep track of all my e-mails. I don’t he use it for surfing the net as the screen is too small so I use my laptop for that. I am proud of my simple technology use; it helps me stay in check. I am happy to pick up my novel and read it as it is and occasionally put in a donkey ear in case I can’t find a bookmark. Does that make me Technophobic don’t think so. In fact I consider myself very techno savvy. I just don’t own many gadgets and I am not an early adopter. I believe that both the online and offline media have a place and marketers can use them both to reach me.

I am also an art collector. Once every quarter I go to an auction at my son’s Montessori school and buy a few pieces. They may not have the same monetary value as a Picasso But the emotional value by far exceeds any Picasso.

I shop at Edgars and Mr. Price. I enjoy the Spar and also go to the Pick n Pay. I get my medicines from Dischem and refuse to go to Clicks because I find them to be very un friendly.

I don’t own a PVR. I seem to like my TV Live and NOT recorded. What’s the point of watching Steven Gerrard scoring against Man Utd on a recording? Sure the PVR has a place. There are some awesome programmes that one would want to keep for watching over and over again. The best part of watching TV is waiting for the ads. Its entertainment value is in some instances better then the programming. How else would I have been suckered into believing that one bottle of Sunlight Liquid will wash 1000 dishes (I do the dishes sometimes) or the Mr. Muscle ad telling me of its Multi purpose use or the Dygon helping me clear the bugs? I am a convert on these products. I moved my bank account to FNB as they said “How can we help you” and they gave me that limited edition VISA Electron card with the World Cup trophy embedded on it a real collector’s item and worth moving my bank account.

I go to the movies and I am always the first in the popcorn Queue because I don’t want to miss the start of the ads.

The 2010 world cup gave many advertisers the platform to showcase their products and talent. Who in their right mind would fast forward the MTN Ayoba ad or the Waving the flag ad of Coke? They gave me goose bumps throughout the world cup. And I still want to watch them. They were absolutely mind blowingly patriotic.

My current favourite is the Boxer ad series from Toyota. They just talk to me. It is like the advertiser has taken the trouble to know me. I like TV and TV advertising. Did I mention it helped pay my salary for the last 20 odd years and also helped buy those art pieces at the Auction? 

So how would an advertiser reach me well he will have to fork out R100 000 for a 7de laan spot on S2, an English Premier league package on S3 for about R500 000 and R2000 for Jhansi Ki Rani on Zee TV. I love soaps some of them are great.  Let’s not forget the news channels, eNews, NDTV, CNN, Sky and BBC.  My favourite media habit is 702 in the morning and Afternoon and also the Redi Dereko and Chris Gibbons shows.

I am an Advertisers Nightmare. It would cost them Gazillions to reach me whereas MS. Johnston well it seems R40 000 per month (before discount) on the Daily Maverick will do the trick a bargain I’d say for such a quality audience. And I am unashamedly proud to say it Mr. Advertiser I am a media junkie and it’s going to cost you money to reach me.

The Big Consumer Rip Off

On Thursday I took my wife and son to the airport. They were travelling to Durban to attend a family wedding. While waiting for them to board I decided to go for some breakfast. I chose a famous bakery that I often used to frequent in Fourways. They make the most amazing bread and croissants. Anyway I sat at a table and ordered some tea and a toasted sandwich. In front of me was the take away section. There was a lot of people bussing around and buying stuff inside the bakery. Above the coffee station I noticed a sign which read “NO TILL SLIP” “NO COFFEE”. I looked at this quite surprised and could not believe that in this day of customer service someone could be so arrogant as to have such a sign. Surely there are other ways of telling customers to please present a till slip before asking for coffee. The sign was big and bold. I wonder what the foreign tourists during the World Cup thought of it or did they just brush it off and say we seen it in other countries as well. The point is we need to show customers we care and present ourselves with some humility. Whether the bakery takes the sign off or not I sure they will continue to flourish. My appeal would be to do it properly.

Which now brings me to the big Consumer rip off? As indicated my wife and son are in Durban so I used the opportunity to go and watch a movie. The movie I wanted to see was “I Hate Luv Stories” A Bollywood movie which was showing only at the Zone in Rosebank. I paid my R49 for the ticket. I stood in the refreshment queue and ordered a Medium Popcorn and Medium Coke Zero, it cost R35. The same size coke instore at a supermarket would cost no more than R10 and popcorn at best another R10. Doing the sums that would mean I just paid R15 more than normal price or 57% more. How do they justify this? Wait it gets worse. I happen to glance at the top of the menu selection of stuff you could buy at a kiosk. Bottle water that I could buy at the Pick n Pay for R6 I now had to fork out R14 for the privilege of drinking it inside a cinema. As with most Bollywood movies there is an interval. So at the interval I was feeling low on Sugar and bought a Chocolate and a Coke Zero which cost a further R40. So my little night out at the movies cost me R124 just to watch one movie. I have not added in the R45 for the dinner after the movie or the petrol getting there. The movie was great and worth the ticket price but the TreatZ that went with it was a bit expensive and I felt that I was ripped off. With the volume of Water that they sell at the cinema I have no doubt that they get a good deal on price. If we assume that they buy it for R5 they sell it for R14 that would make a profit of 280%. A tad much I would say. Even popcorn one could argue that the unit cost is much lower than the selling price. The cinema does not allow me as a consumer to bring my own food beverage inside so I am forced to buy at the cinema at these ridiculous prices. It would be interesting to see how the new consumer act can tackle this issue. I have no issues with the cinema charging whatever it wants for its food and beverage that is their right but then it must allow me as a consumer to choose whether I buy from them or not. I can’t watch a movie without Water and Popcorn. However I would like to buy it at a price I am willing to pay.

Behavioural Targeting - Should it Be Common Practise

The accelerated adoption of the World Wide Web has seen advertising investment migrating from traditional media to online media. Planning online campaigns can be as simple or complex as the media planner, strategist, or marketer chooses.


A simple, but inelegant, solution may be to purchase 100 000 impressions on a site and hope for the best. What constitutes ‘best’ in this scenario? ‘Best’ hopes your impressions are served to your ideal audience – which requires that the “right” audience is clicking on your ad and being directed to your own website. The best, also being that at the end of the campaign you get a report saying that instead of the 100 000 impressions as contracted, the site drew an additional 25 000 click-throughs resulting in more exposure. However, the click-through rate from your online advertisement to your own website is only 0.25. The standard response from the online advertising website owner is that this is within the norm for websites. Anything above 0.25 is excellent. In traditional media planning this represents a typical ‘hope for the best’, shotgun approach.

How to refine the wild discharge from the barrels of a shotgun into a tightly-niched, pin-pointed telescopic rifle, high return on investment, campaign is the burning question.

Online advertising has advanced to the point where an astute advertiser may apply his mind in selecting the media he purchases. More and more websites and search engines charge advertisers only for ads a customer clicks on. The ad is served without charge, unless the customer physically clicks on it. Seemingly initiated, certainly perfected, by GOOGLE, it is the preferred method – saying “we have confidence in our site and our quality audience”.

The how? How do we find quality audiences?

Not all online advertising opportunities offer Cost per Click or Behavioural Targeting. One may assume they are concerned about the numbers of impressions given away and most likely do not have the ability to track consumer behaviour on their site. So what is Behavioural Targeting and why is it important that South Africa moves into a concentrated digital marketing communication era?

Behavioural Targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behaviour, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made. This assists in delivering online advertisements and content to those users most likely to be interested.

In addition, the owner of the site can recommend on issues such as ‘most’ other users viewing the particular product also looked at … and list accessories, services aligned to the product thus reassuring the viewer and positioning him directly into a collective of probable buyers.

It can be used on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting based on factors such as geography, demographics or the surrounding content.

Behavioural Targeting allows site owners to display content more relevant to the interests of the individual viewing the page. My pet hate is still being served impressions for “1st Insurance for Women” Both the site and the advertiser got it wrong in this case.

In essence, Behavioural Targeting allows media buyers, marketers, and online stores to selectively target the most desired consumer and to offer a range of product and accessories attractive to the consumer, but retaining behind the scenes, and readily available on the Mouse Button, the full range of offerings. Coupled with Cost Per Click we not only get the customer we want but only pay for customers choosing to browse our website. An immensely powerful combination that virtually eliminates wastage!

Google, Facebook, Yahoo are some of the major sites offering Behavioural Targeting. All also offer Cost Per Click campaigns. Despite that many online networks offer the facility across a number of different sites, however there are still too few to undertake major campaigns and advantage ourselves fully.

South Africa lags its American and European counterparts on Behavioural Targeting as we do not have the critical mass available. Major online groups such as 24.com and Primedia are well-positioned to champion Behavioural Targeting in South Africa. Their audience base includes general, business, women, teenagers, and men. It should be noted though that Sales Houses Apurimac and Habari do offer this service for some of the global sites that they manage.

From an advertiser’s perspective, Behavioural Targeting is a logical progression to pin point the target market for their products. The consumer perspective includes the imperative issue of privacy, a debate currently raging in the USA as Behavioural Targeting is in reality, a form of permission based marketing. Consumers accessing sites need to be informed that their behaviour on the site is tracked and content relevant to that behaviour offered to them.

Still Behavioural Targeting is a powerful media planning tool targeting the “right” customer and only paying for the media when the customer clicks on your ad thus minimizing wastage.

Your Greatest Advocates

YOUR GREATEST ADVOCATES


Many would remember that fateful night in Istanbul May 2005. Half time AC Milan 3 - Liverpool 0. It is probably the night that most Liverpool fans will never forget. In fact world football will never forget. The greatest comeback in football ever. While the players went off the pitch to the dressing room the fans in the stadium and also around the world me included wondered what will happen. Many thought Rafa Benitez inspirational speech in the dressing room did the trick. And some credit should go to him. But let's not forget the greatest inspiration of all the fans in the stadium singing You will Never Walk Alone. I was reminded of this again this morning by football legend Johan Cryuff

Liverpool might be England’s most successful football club but we’re nothing without our supporters. Dutch legend Johan Cruyff knows a thing or two about football and he probably summed up what sets Liverpool and its fans apart better than anyone when, after witnessing the greatest comeback ever in Istanbul, he enthused: “There's not one club in Europe with an anthem like ‘You'll Never Walk Alone’. There's not one club in the world so united with the fans. I sat there watching the Liverpool fans and they sent shivers down my spine. A mass of 40,000 people became one force behind their team. That's something not many teams have. For that I admire Liverpool more than anything." http://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolFC?v=box_3

Relating this back to brand leadership signify that your consumers are by far the best leaders and advocates for your brands. The idea is to provide the environment for them to succeed. While Rafa Benitez may have inspired the players off the pitch, it was those 40 000 fans with the singing that could be heard in the dressing room that made every player proud of wearing the Liverpool shirt. It was the ultimate motivation to succeed.

Very often marketers do not provide the environment for consumers to take the leadership on their brands. They place a brand on the market, provide the advertising to make it succeed and ensure they tick all the boxes on the 4P's (Product, Place, Production, Promotion). The fifth P = People is often forgotten. They fail to provide a platform for consumers to interact with them and ensure that their greatest advocates talk about their brands. In most cases consumers start interacting with their brands through www.hellopeter.com and then apologies and PR management starts to come into place. This is very re-actionary in terms of marketing. I am reminded of a campaign I have seen recently for MiWay where they are providing a service for their consumers to give feedback positive or negative in regards to service or product. A brave move indeed from a short term insurer. But nevertheless the right move.

Marketers think they are in control of the brands they put out on the market. In fact consumers have long since taken over. Marketers have just failed to recognize it. We are in an age of User Generated Content. All those issues on Hellopeter are easily searchable on Google. Recently I had an issue with Nashua Mobile which went on for months. The issue could have been easily resolved by the company but they chose to keep it going for months. I registered a complaint on Hellopeter and within a day received an apology from customer service promising to look into the matter and get back to me. Six weeks later they are still to get back to me. The point is that the information is in the public domain and searchable. Just Google "Hellopeter Nashua Mobile" and a complaints section on the company pops up. If they have chosen to give me a platform to interact with them, provide them with feedback ensure that my billing was done on time. I would have been singing their praises like those 40,000 in Istanbul.

With the opening up of bandwith in South Africa through Seacom, more consumers will have digital access meaning the Hellopeter.com site could get bigger.

The Message is simple, Provide Consumers the opportunity to be the Greatest Advocates for your Brand.

Virgin Losing The Plot

I am an ardent fan of Virgin. Like many global Citizens I have not only admired the company but also its owner Richard Branson. I have read some of his books and even attended some of his talks in South Africa. My first experience directly with the brand was in 1998 when I flew Virgin from Johannesburg to London. It was an incredible experience and was certainly sold on everything Virgin. Richard Branson is the ultimate entrepreneur.

Recently, I have been receiving regular calls from Virgin Mobile call centre agents. They offering me a special on a phone that I don’t need or want. They have not taken the time to do their home work on me as person to understand what I look for in a phone. They just assume because it is on special I may be interested. The call agents sometimes even get annoyed at me when I say call back after you know what I am looking for. I have a contract with Nashua Mobile on my Blackberry which runs for two years at a time. Virgin should be proactive and ensure that they call me six months prior to my contract expiring to enable them to understand my needs, the phone I require and the contract I need. It is not difficult for anyone to provide a better service than Nashua Mobile (they have become big and clumsy). In that way I would be in a position to offer them a chance at my business. Just too merely call me and offer me a phone is by no means enticing me to join Virgin Mobile. In fact it is highly irritating.

The first lesson of customer service is to understand their needs. Give them a product that they want not what you want to give them. Put the customer in control of the event and you will be successful. The call centre agent route may work for some but if you are truly looking for brand advocates then please understand who they are and what they do and what they require.

Sorry Virgin you have lost the plot on this one.

Clinton, Me and Pages 8-12

Short term insurance companies are those that we love to hate or at least I do. They offer the world and deliver actually very little. It is not necessarily their fault. When you do claim for an incident that occurs they tell you that on pages 8-12 of your contract there are exclusions to the policy that you need to be aware of. Well that is what has happened to me. On the 20th August I put a claim through to Stansure for what I thought was a burst geyser but as it turns out it was only the safety valve that was leaking. I was informed very kindly by Clinton my Claims manager that it is not covered and I would have to repair it at my own cost of which I did R1447 later. What about the resultant damage I added well he said that was not covered and referred me to pages 8-12 of my contract. He further added that he will send my case through to management for “special” consideration. Two weeks later still no Stansure or Clinton. I have in the interim called a few times to enquire the progress. It is still with management was the response. In digging further into my contract I discovered that If my geyser did in fact burst I was only covered for R3500 of which R500 would be for my own account. I have a 200 litre Kwikot geyser which cost R4500. This simply means I would have to fund R500 for the access and an additional R1000 for the geyser. I am beginning to think that I was sold a lemon of a policy. The moral of the story I should have read the fine print. Stansure are completely within their right to exercise the contents of the contract because that is what I signed up for.

This begs the bigger question of whether insurance companies should change the contents of their contracts and ensure that if a geyser did indeed burst they would fund the entire cost and not just a portion thereof. I just feel as if this is cheating. But again I should have read my contract. I was sold a policy being told that it was comprehensive cover and that to my mind means that If ANYTHING goes wrong even the safety valve on my geyser it is covered. It seems my idea of Comprehensive is not same as the insurance companies as it comes with four pages of exclusions (please refer to pages 8-12). I am still waiting for Clinton and his management to tell me whether they will indeed come and repair the resultant damage in the bathroom.

Following this incident and pages 8-12 of my contract I was wondering if I should change my household policy to another company. I remembered seeing some awesome claims and marketing from ABSA. So, I went on online to the ABSA website and filled in a form for someone to contact regarding insuring my home. A few hours later I received a call from one of the agents who duly started to take down my details and asking me lots of questions on the status of my house (type etc). She then asked me if I had burglar bars on my house to which I replied NO, she then asked me if I had an alarm system to which I replied NO. I went on to justify that I live in a well controlled estate with Electric fencing armed guards and even swat teams if we would need them. She then indicated to me that because I had no alarm they are unable to insure me and put the phone down. She did not even take the trouble to understand where I was from and what type of security I live under. Well ABSA is not getting my business, I am sure they don’t need it anyway. Well for now it’s Clinton, me and Pages 8-12 of my contract.

It seems that as consumers we often take the obvious for granted. We tend not to read the fine print or the contents of a contract carefully prior to committing to it. Stansure are fully within their rights to reject my claim and I would have no basis to fight them on it. Remember pages 8-12 of my contract. What is certain though is that I am in the market for another policy and will certainly scrutinize every point on the contract before signing it off. Also as a consumer I have being sucked into this web of call centre agents who to no fault of their own donot understand consumer behavior and proper needs of a customer. I will certainly be looking at the services of a broker. Someone I can speak to face to face and will understand my needs, where I live and ensure that the exclusions to my contract are limited to page 8 only and not pages 8-12.

I offten go to the Gallo Manor Pick n Pay simply because it is close to work and you have a variety of products (except for pasta). Service levels some days are good and other days quite bad. But today I believe I recieved particulary indifferent and bad service. I was in the store to stock up for the week and spent around R200. Since I had a quite bit of stuff I asked for three packets of which I recieved. I then I asked the cashier if someone would please help me pack. She indicated their was no packers and it is not her job to pack. I look around and saw packers at other cashiers standing idle. I enquired from another lady as she walked past the till to please help me pack or call the manager and she said she was not the manager and continued walking without offering any further assistance. I then proceeded to pack my stuff and left the cashier to look for the manager. I found Mpho who was very apologetic and promised to sort it out. I left the store with a very uncomf! ortable feeling of Pick N Pay. Whilst I believe Mpho would ensure that this does not happen to other customers, I believe it it is important to inform you of the poor attitude of some of your staff. (I also do realise that you may see this as an insignificant occurrence and choose to ignore it). This is not first time that I have been privy to poor service and attitude from the Gallo Manor Pick N Pay. I enjoy Pick N Pay simply because of what it stands for and also the Raymond Ackerman pledge is important to me. But I donot believe that the staff are living up to the quality service as per the pledge. At the end of the day my requirements are quite basic a smile and be helpful.