Mediaboss Marketing

On a budget of just 230,000, KFC used social media, as well as print and outdoor, to get people trying its new fries and shift perceptions of the fast food brand.

At KFC, its fries were its most complained about product a problem when they come with almost everything on the menu.

A third of all complaints were about the chips, describing them as soggy or bland. This was having a knock-on effect on perceptions of the KFC brand, especially because these people were vocal about their dislike on Twitter.

Realising the problem, the fast food chain changed the recipe for its chips in the UK and Ireland to a tastier, chunkier fry. But while the new chip was scoring well in research, it was under-performing in test restaurants. This was in part because people were used to the old chips and many loyal customers were resistant to change, despite the complaints of the vocal minority.

KFC also needed to shift perceptions among new or lighter users in order to grow the brand, meaning it couldnt rely on existing customers accepting the old fries. It had to change the chips.

The challenge was to manage the transition to the new chips recipe so that loyal fans who didnt want change didnt feel they were losing out, while boosting perceptions of the new chips among new customers and creating a halo effect for the brand.

KFC tried creating messaging that talked about how much better the new chips were than the old. But verbatim feedback from test restaurants was that this wasnt working.

And so KFC and its creative agency Mother took a new approach. Using behavioural economics, the brand realised it had a loss aversion problem that people didnt dislike the new chips, but were afraid of losing the old ones. That meant talking up the benefits of the new fries would not cut through.

Instead, KFC needed to acknowledge the problems with the old fries in order for the new chips to be seen as their saviour.

The campaign Aint No Small Fry launched on Twitter with KFC paying to promote criticism of its old chips to existing KFC fans, and those who had tried and criticised its chips. This was backed up in traditional media, where KFC paid to amplify the abuse in outdoor and national press. This was then followed up with ads about the new chips.

While there was a risk to this approach, it paid off. Suddenly KFCs new chips were top of the news agenda and the most read story on the BBC. And on a budget of just 230,000.

The initial Twitter campaign had 3 million impressions, while the overall campaign had a share of voice in the quick-serving restaurant category of 25% and 13.9 million impressions across social media.

The approach also led to KFC UK and Ireland and Mother winning the Social Media award at the Marketing Week Masters.

The campaign also had a clear impact on the business. Prompted awareness of the new fries hit 62%, well above the target of 50% and a 38 percentage point increase on the pre-campaign test. Among those aware of the campaign, taste scores improved across every measure, while KFCs scores for relevance were up 3%, generosity 4%, trust worthiness 4% and quality food 1%.

Penetration also improved, with KFC UK and Ireland gaining 669,100 more buyers through the campaign.

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How KFC used social media to turn 'haters' of its fries into fans - Marketing Week

Unless youve been living under a rock, youll know that hashtags are sort of a big deal. You know you need to include them in your social posts to boost your discoverability, and you know all about how people search using hashtags.

But do you know how to maximise their effectiveness in your marketing?

Heres an example of hashtags in action on our Twitter page:

These types of hashtags can be leveraged by brands, ensuring they get maximum exposure. They can also be used to drive long-term traffic and encourage backlinks. But thats not all they can do.

Here are three types of hashtags you can use for your marketing:

Making the most of these hashtags requires keeping a close eye on the conversations happening on social media and acting fast when a trend begins to emerge.

When correctly timed, the brand exposure and payoff for participating in trending conversations can be astronomical, and the biggest trending conversations often make headlines in the news.

However, a poorly-timed attempt at engaging with a trending hashtag can make your brand look far worse than by not engaging at all. Plus, using a trending hashtag without knowing the full story behind it and the reasons its trending can land you in hot water and make your brand look tone deaf.

Engaging in trending conversations is the quickest way to make your brand look contemporary and in the know But, if this is a space you want to play in on a regular basis, youve got your work cut out for you! One wrong move can be disastrous (and remember Twitter keeps receipts!).

You can use your company name, tagline or a phrase that relates to you or your campaign for this hashtag. Branded hashtags are usually short, memorable and include the brand name in some form.

Do your research to ensure that your chosen hashtag hasnt been used by another company as you dont want users to get confused and accidentally associate other content with your brand.

Your brand or campaign hashtags need to be utilised as your main hashtags on an on-going basis. It should apply to any content you post and act as your fallback hashtag to include in a post when you are unsure of which tags to use.

It is vital to use this hashtag regularly, as the goal is to increase brand awareness through the hashtag and encouraging consumers to use it too.

Unlike your branded hashtags, these wont be the same ones used in every post they have to specifically relate to each particular social post.

By adding these hashtags to your content, you allow people to find your posts while searching the topics related to their interests.

While some people use any hashtags to increase the discoverability of their posts, this can actually have a negative effect on business. For example, if you put out a tweet that was about your incredible new SEO offerings, and you included hashtags like #happiness, #love and #summer, your brand will immediately be seen as garnering for traffic without offering any real value.

However, if you were to use content-specific hashtags, such as #SEO, #BrandGrowth and #MarketingTools, you are far more likely to have your content seen by the right kind of people ones looking for content about those exact topics. Youll also gain a reputation for offering useful content and have your consumer target on point!

Do you think hashtags are an effective means of marketing on social media? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Three types of hashtags to make your marketing more effective - Media Update

Take a look at thesocial mediafeeds of your favorite store or restaurant. For B2C brands, social media is, undoubtedly, a where-its-at customer service platform as much for networking or advertising as for engaging consumers with a personality and story that captures new customers and builds affinity. Now, imagine this same social care experience from your healthcare payer or provider. Why is this such an unlikely scenario?

Undoubtedly, healthcare has room to grow in providing a B2C-type social experience. And these organizations could use the help. Take, for example, the fact that there is a gap in perception between providers and consumers on the quality of experience currently beingprovided. In fact, anewreportfrom the American Customer Satisfaction Index states that satisfaction in hospitals saw a major drop, making it one of the worst sectors measured.

Is it possible that healthcares slow move to B2C social care is at the heart of this dissatisfaction? Two market pivots show even greater urgency to a sharpened social media focus:

Digital nativesMillennials and Generation Zexpect and typically prefer digital customer experience (CX) channels, from chat and text to social care.The seamless integration of these features transforms traditional CXs into new, lasting, and meaningful connections with current and prospective customers.Recent research cites growing evidence thatFacebook and online review sites such asYelp are swiftly becoming healthcare consumers preferred sources for researching doctors, hospitals, medical laboratories, and other medical service providers. Simply put, the data indicates that a majority of Americans share their healthcare experiences publicly online following visits with providers. And they use this information to choose a provider as well.In fact, 80% of adults in the U.S. look for health information online, according to the Pew Research Center.Social media provides these customersthe answers they need, providing a service while also establishing credibility in a public setting.

In 20172018, there were more than 200 mergers and acquisitions in healthcare, making it more challenging for independent health systems to acquire patients and increase the share of voice in their market. Faced with the heightened prioritization of customer needs, experience, and value-stream impact, these merging health organizations are increasingly seeking strategic insights, optimization, and efficiencies to achieve a new volume-to-value operational focus.

According to the2019 State of Digital Marketing in Healthcare Report, by Greystone and Klein & Partners, only 22% of healthcare digital marketers are confident in using the web and digital tools to attract new patients (down from 25% in 2015).Business process outsourcers (BPOs) and consultants can bring the latest process and technology innovation as well as customer care expertise required to meet the demands of todays members/patients. These experts can also address duplication of effort resulting from consolidation and bring cost reduction and innovation while helping the payer/provider achieve their financial goals.

As you consider your social media strategy, healthcare stakeholders might consider this:

Social media changes fast. Stakeholders might feel that they are all over social because they have presence on Facebook and Twitter. Dont put all your eggs in one network and be prepared to change direction if social trends change.

Social interactions are transparent. This CX tool is the opposite of a voice call, where only the customer and agent can hear the call. Interactions on social channels are generally transparent and visible to every other user, which provides great opportunities for people to share examples of great service. On the flip side, if you make a mistake, then that negative experience will also be shared.

Todays members and patients drive todays CX channels. It used to be that brands defined the phone number and email address. Now customers are deciding where and how they want to interact with brands and all you can do it monitor whats going on and then be there.

Omnichannel is not multichannel. You might offer support across chat, social networks, and voice, but thats really just multichannel support. If you want to offer a real omnichannel level of support, then you need to be comfortable connecting these channels together. With this support, a chat customer can hop to voice and an agent picking up a call will see that the customer recently emailed or sent a message on another channel.

Todays brand experience transcends mere customer service. You are designing the customer experience for members/patients, not just a customer service channel. Social interactions can be focused on sales or marketing or service interactions to the customer they are all the same thing. A customer commenting on your social post doesnt care which of your internal departments responds, just so long as there is a response and it is meaningful.

About Rik Silva

RikSilvais theClientServicesDirectoratHGSDigital, thedigitalconsultingservicesbranch ofHGS, a global business process outsourcing company.HGSDigitalhelps businesses across industries improve theirdigitalcustomer experiences, data-driven marketing, and cloud-enabledservices.

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Picking Up the Pace: Healthcare's Evolution to Social Media - - HIT Consultant

The world has witnessed waves of unrest following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, whose unjust killings have spurred countless people to actively join the fight to end racism, the murder of unarmed black people, and the criminalisation of black skin. Corporations and brands are also being called upon to actively participate in the dismantling of systemic racism, and a number of big names in beauty have stepped up to the plate, through substantial donations to anti-racist organisations, efforts to raise awareness of the killings, and commitments to self-education.

Beauty brands owe a great deal of their success to black creators and influencers, as well as black consumers, who, despite having historically been left out of the beauty conversation, have in the past been found to spend as much as 80 per cent more on cosmetics, and twice as much on skincare, as their non-black counterparts in the US. Given that research carried out by social marketing agency Vamp found that 83 per cent of black women use Instagram to access beauty content, its only right that the beauty brands black women continue to invest their money and time in use their platforms and followings to spread the anti-racism message.

Beyond mere Instagram posts, prominent black figures in beauty, such as YouTuber Jackie Aina, are calling on brands to increase the numbers of black employees at all levels of their business, to hold themselves accountable for having turned a blind eye to racism in the past, to further diversify their campaigns, to safeguard the health and welfare of their existing black staff, and to commit to being non-optical allies from now on.

Below, eight beauty brands that have shown solidarity.

We are joining in the fight against systemic racism, and we encourage those who are not familiar with the Black Lives Matter movement to educate themselves and take action. Thats one of several messages of solidarity and support shared by Huda Kattan and her Huda Beauty team in recent days. But words aside, Huda Beauty a brand that is loved and has been popularised by many black beauty influencers pledged $500,000 (395,000) to the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). The organisation, founded in 1909, is Americas first and largest grassroots civil rights association dedicated to fighting for the constitutional rights of African-Americans, and against systemic racism.

Kristyn Potter, head of content at cruelty-free beauty brand Allies of Skin, has spoken frankly of her fears for her brother as a young black man living in America. Every day I worry about the safety of my little brother, a black man in America, she shared. When he was younger, I worried that he would experience racism in school. When he went to college in a rural town, I worried that he would get pulled over and shot by the police. Every single day. Now that hes out of college, I worry that he will be one of the many black people targeted for a crime and killed ruthlessly, like George Floyd. I worry for his safety more than I worry for mine. But that isnt to say it doesnt happen to black women as well (see the recent killing of Breonna Taylor) and black trans people (Tony McDade).

Allies of Skin has since donated to Black Lives Matter; ACLU Nationwide (the American Civil Liberties Union) which works to protect voting rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and vulnerable people in prisons, jails and immigration detention centres; and the Minnesota-based Black Visions Collective, which is committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence.

Taking a stand against racism and police brutality, natural beauty brand Herbivore Botanicals has donated its profits from the past weekend to the cause. The $46,000 (36,300) fund will benefit ACLU Nationwide, Black Lives Matter and the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which seeks to end discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive jailing, and also funds criminal bail and immigration bonds for low-income individuals. Herbivore has long advocated for marginalised communities, including the LGBTQ+ community 1 from every sale of its Prism Exfoliating Glow Lotion benefits LGBTQIA+ charities.

Disciple London committed itself in 2019 to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, donating 1 from every sale of its CBD oil, Miracle Drops, to the cause. In a racially unjust prison system, black and minority people are disproportionately jailed for cannabis-related crimes in the US, where cannabis is now not only legal in a number of states, but has provided profitable businesses for many. The number of black and minority ethnic people behind bars as a result of the same thing cannabis businesses were making money from did not sit well with Disciple founder Charlotte Ferguson. She has since backed the fight for social justice through raising awareness, and financially supporting, those affected.

People-powered millennial brand Glossier has joined the fight against white supremacy. It has pledged a total of $1,000,000, (800,000) to organisations that fight racial injustice, as well as supporting black-owned beauty businesses. $500,000 (400,000) will be spread across Black Lives Matter; the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; the Equal Justice Initiative; the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, which protects and defends the human rights of black transgender people; and We Are The Protestors, headed up by activist and educator DeRay, activist, data scientist and policy analyst Samuel Sinyangwe, and activist, writer and educator Brittany Packnett Cunningham. Together, they have built a database that allows users to track how US legislation impacts every state, giving civilians the information they need to hold representatives accountable for police brutality and violence. Glossier has also pledged to donate another $500,000 (400,000) in grants to support black-owned beauty businesses, and promised to provide further details on this initiative in June.

The British brand Nails Inc. shared its appreciation for the black talent it works with, and is donating all of its June profits to Black Lives Matter. It has continued to share resources and details of other organisations focused on combating racial injustice, including the George Floyd Memorial Fund, Brooklyn Community Bail Fund and Women For Political Change.

Anastasia Beverly Hills has pledged $1 million (800,000), with $100,000 (79,000) going to Black Lives Matter, the Innocence Project, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Black Visions Collective and the Marshall Project. It is also set to release details of new initiatives that will provide financial support to black-owned businesses and artists in the beauty industry. The brand has vowed to use its platform and privilege to amplify the voices of the marginalised from now on.

In Honest Beautys declaration of support, the brand pledged $100,000 (79,000) to organisations fighting racial injustice, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Equal Justice Initiative. The Equal Justice Initiative, founded by Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson, works to challenge and advance reform within the criminal justice system through litigation, policy reform and education. The non-profit law firm provides legal representation for prisoners wrongly accused, or who have been denied a fair trial. Once it has succeeded in winning an appeal or having a wrongful conviction overturned, it helps wrongfully incarcerated individuals to reintegrate into society. Honest Beauty has also promised to match all employee donations made to civil rights organisations.

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Originally posted here:
The Beauty Brands Stepping Up In The Fight To Dismantle Systemic Racism - British Vogue

The internet may put unlimited information right at our fingertips, but for those with auditory and/or visual impairments, accessing this wealth of knowledge can be challenging. Whether youre a content creator or content marketing leader, you can play a leading role in ensuring content on the web is more accessible to the widest audience possible.

Accessible content is designed and developed so that anyone with a disability (auditory, cognitive, neurological, speech, and visual) can easily interact with it. From a business standpoint, accessible content is great for your brand.

Google awards better rankings to more accessible webpages, explains marketing guru Neil Patel, which means accessible content automatically has a better shot at reaching your target audience. And as your content reaches more users, its also more poised to drive conversions. In the United States alone, brands could miss out on a $130 billion market by producing content thats inaccessible, according to data from a 2018 American Institutes for Research report.

Accessible content also makes for better user experiences because its clearer, easier to understand, and better organized. How you format and code content can affect its accessibility, as can the language you use within itmore to come on that later.

Content needs to be accessible in order to work with screen readers. These apps, which can be used on computers and phones, read website content and convert the text they see to speech or braille for users. Screen readers can also scan documents, spreadsheets, and other sources of information.

Not only do screen readers make content more accessible, but they also allow users to customize their consumption experience. With a screen reader, users can easily:

Ideally, every piece of content you create and publish should be accessible to everyone. But where do you begin? Follow these best practices to begin making your written, visual, audio, and social content more accessible.

Featured image attribution: Pixabay on Pexels.

If your written content is optimized for SEO, chances are its already pretty accessible. However, its worth taking another look at these areas before hitting publish:

Anchor text: Screen reader users often read anchor text out of context, as they can tab through links on pages or pull up a list of all its links. As such, your anchor text should be descriptive and unambiguous. Avoid using anchor text that says, Read more, or, Click here. Instead, say something like, Learn more with this resource on dog agility training, placing your link on the phrase resource on dog agility training. Theres technically no word limit for anchor text, but its generally best to keep it short so its not too interruptive when read aloud by screen readers.

HTML header tags: Use these whenever possible to organize your content. Header tags, such as H2 and H3, serve as commands for a screen reader. They also make your content more discoverable on Google, according to Search Engine Journal. Assistive technologies wont identify bolded copy as header text. As such, youll need to format phrases accordingly as header text so theyre scannable by devices and so users can easily skim your content.

Subheads and titles: Clear headings make it easier for readers to process your contentand theyre even more important for screen reader users. Those with visual impairments cant visually scan your pages, but they can load a list of headings and subheadings on a screen reader. They see these out of context though, so its crucial for your headings to accurately represent the article sections they belong to.

Bulleted and numbered lists: Lists shouldnt be created manually, such as by simply inserting numbers or dashes before list items. Lists must be created using HTML (