Mediaboss Marketing

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

This quote, or part of it, has been circulating on social media this week.

It is attributed to South African Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu in the 1984 book Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes. So it dates from Tutus time as a leading opponent of the apartheid system in South Africa, in which only white people were afforded the full rights of citizens.

But in recent days Tutus quote has encapsulated many peoples feelings about whats going on in the United States today.

The killing by Minnesota police of George Floyd, arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, has become the latest ignition point for grievances about the systemic overpolicing and extrajudicial killing of African Americans.

Read more: The fury in US cities is rooted in a long history of racist policing, violence and inequality

But the protests involving millions of people across the US and outside of it are fuelled by more than that. These protests are also about the systemic inequities that have recently seen Americas poorest communities take the brunt of both health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So given the Black Lives Matter protests are in part about the failings of American capitalism, how the corporate world is responding is worth talking about.

A bevy of the worlds best-known brands have used their marketing channels to offer support.

To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter, said Netflix on Twitter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.

Similar tweets have come from Disney-owned Fox and Hulu. Apple Music joined the Black Out Tuesday campaign to raise awareness about issues of systemic ethnic inequity.

Nike has repurposed its famous slogan with its For once, Dont Do It advert:

Corporations taking a stand on social issues is a relatively new phenomenon.

As Australian academic-turned-popular TV presenter Waleed Aly noted on his program The Project:

Normally when theres something this divisive and controversial, you know, if you are running a big company, you stay out of it. You dont want to be involved.

What Im interested in here is, is this just an evolution in marketing and the way that companies do this, or does it signal is it a kind of leadership?

Even if these companies are just protecting their commercial base (as his co-host Steve Price suggested), Aly said: Thats still significant.

As a researcher in the field of corporate social responsibility, I agree.

Its easy to dismiss these statements as low-cost tokenism or politically correct wokism. It may be theres a hard-headed business decision behind each message, weighing the costs and benefits to the bottom line.

Read more: Where 'woke' came from and why marketers should think twice before jumping on the social activism bandwagon

But my research (and that of others) suggests theres a growing need for what business academics call political corporate social responsibility (or PCSR).

The challenge for those embracing it is both talk the talk and walk the walk.

The concept of PCSR arises out of a wider paradigm shift in thinking about the responsibilities private businesses owe society.

A traditional view famously advocated by Nobel prize winning US economist Milton Friedman is that a business, so long as it obeys the law, is only obliged to maximise profits for it shareholders. Nothing else.

Since the 1950s, however, a growing movement (both within business and without) has championed the cause of corporate social responsibility (CSR), arguing that its good business to do more than what is legally required to improve social and environmental impacts.

Read more: Small businesses get long-term financial boost from social responsibility: study

Political CSR (PCSR) goes one step further than the narrower focus of CSR on how companies engage with suppliers, customers and local communities.

Just last year 181 US corporations including Apple, Deloitte, Fox, and Walmart - signed the US Business Roundtables revised purpose of a corporation, which aims to promote an economy that serves all Americans.

Research published last month shows almost a third of consumers say they buy brands whose political and social values align with their own, and about a quarter of consumers boycott brands that dont.

Nike has been a forerunner in using its marketing to push social campaigns. The shoe maker has come a long way since the late 1980s, when it was the iconic corporate exploiter of both third-world labour, including children, and poor communities in rich countries. All the while spending millions on athlete endorsements to market its expensive sneakers.

Since then, however, Nike has sought to reinvent itself as an socially responsible organisation that champions equal playing fields for all.

It dived into PCSR into 2018 when it chose controversial American footballer Colin Kaepernick for the face of its 30th anniversary Just Do It campaign.

Kaepernick began the practice of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem before games in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. US president Donald Trump called the kneelers disgraceful.

Read more: Why US sports stars are taking a knee against Trump

So Nikes decision was not risk-free. On Kaepernicks advice it also withdrew a sneaker featuring an early American flag.

Internally Nike has worked to improve equality, with pay equity maintained for women and members of minority groups. It funds grassroots initiatives such as PeacePlayers, whose mission is to unite communities through sport.

The uptake of PCSR by so many other companies in support of Black Lives Matter is significant. But it is only the start of an evolution that corporate America must make to shake accusations of tokenism.

Read more: Woke washing: what happens when marketing communications don't match corporate practice

As Waleed Aly noted on the same episode of The Project, the focus on outbreaks of looting and violence at the expense of the much greater prevalence of peaceful protest, has helped obscure the main issue:

theres things state governments could be doing right now that theyre not.

This is the point of PCSR to address the regulatory gaps in social and environmental standards and norms.

Among the gaps in the US system contributing to overpolicing of black communities is the failure to provide equal access to public goods like education, health care and even clean air.

Those talking the talk of PCSR will need to walk the walk and get serious about addressing why Americas particular take on free enterprise has failed to deliver on its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by all.

Desmond Tutus quote rings out across the decades as a universal truth. But a well-known aphorism also bears repeating.

Actions speak louder than words.

Read the original post:
Brands backing Black Lives Matter: it might be a marketing ploy, but it also shows leadership - The Conversation AU

The Aquidneck Land Trust (ALT) has announced that six new board members have been appointed to its board of trustees. Four of the new trustees were appointed at the organizations annual meeting, held February 6 at the Atlantic Resort. Bill Corcoran, Steve McInnis, Mark Marosits and Lois Vaughan were voted onto the board at the event, which was attended by nearly 300 ALT members. Conley Zani and Bettie Beardon Pardee were voted onto the board in March and April, respectively.

We are very pleased to welcome these six Islanders to the ALT board, said Executive Director Chuck Allott in a statement. Their professional experience and strong volunteerism will be enormous assets for ourorganization. All are committed to Aquidneck Island and to our mission of conserving open space.

BillCorcoran and Bettie Bearden Pardee previously served on the board, and all of the new trustees have beeninvolved with the land trust for many years.

Bill Corcoran is General Manager/VP of Newport Tent Company; Steve McInnis is an attorney inNewport; Mark Marosits is co-founder and Senior Strategist at Worldways Social Marketing; Lois Vaughan isa professional pianist; Conley Zani is the founder of TeamOne Consulting and President of the Common FencePoint Improvement Association; and Bettie Bearden Pardee is an author and lecturer.

Aquidneck Land Trusts time-sensitive mission is to preserve and steward Aquidneck Islands open spaces for the lasting benefit of the community. The organization has conserved 2,605 acres on 81 properties across Aquidneck Island since its founding in 1990. ALT is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and the first land trust in Rhode Island to have received national accreditation. For more information, visit http://www.ailt.org.

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Originally posted here:
Aquidneck Land Trust adds six new members to its board of trustees - What'sUpNewp

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.

See the original post:
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.

Read this article:
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