Social Media – To be, or not to be? A case study.

By Angus Nicholls

The reports that were published last week regarding a social media attack by anti-Halal groups on the Fleurieu Milk and Yoghurt Company (FMYC) started me thinking. Do all companies need a social media presence? The next thought was what other actions, rather than dropping Halal certification (and, as a consequence, a $50,000 contract with Emirates), could have been pursued?

With regard to a social media presence, my opinion is that not every company needs to be there. I accept that this is probably an unpopular stance amongst most communication practitioners on the basis of being “left-behind.” However, my position is informed by the simple proposition of whether social media is tangibly contributing to your business, rather than just following the herd.

Given that forward planning is an essential element of business, the key questions that I would use to assess whether to establish and/or maintain a presence on social media are:

  • Does the business require social media to engage and interact with our customer base (understanding your customer demographics is essential to accurately answering this question)?
  • Is our presence generating and/or underpinning sales?
  • Is social media contributing to the development of our brand?
  • Do we have the resources to keep our presence up-to-date, monitored, and interactive?

In short: Is social media directly relevant to our activities?

I would further argue that unless there is a specific strategy in place for the use of social media that there are two particular categories that it does not sit comfortably with: Small businesses with a tight resource base (human and financial), and perishable products. That is not to say that businesses in these spheres should not have an online presence.

From my reading of the reporting on FMYC it looks as if they suffered the perfect storm: Some unreasonable online zealots attacking their business pursuing an unrelated agenda; the company adopting a course of action to placate their detractors (it would seem as a symptom of not having the resources available to comfortably manage the issue); losing a contract for a product that generally does not require Halal certification by most Muslims; and suffering yet more opprobrium for backing down in the face of the attack that the business had endured.

In line with our philosophical position that if you are going to commentate, it is always important to make practical and constructive contributions in parallel. So what would have we recommended to a client in this situation.

  1. Do not panic.
  2. Decide a course of action. We would have recommended holding the business’ position, and explaining why that was the right thing to do based on facts and the values of the business.
  3. Develop a standard online response (for use across all online platforms).
  4. Establish a set of talking points for telephone enquiries, importantly including a polite way to exit the conversation so as not to waste excessive time.
  5. Alerting key customers (i.e. Emirates) to the situation and explaining the course of action that had been decided upon, and seeking their support and third party endorsement.
  6. Develop and release a statement to the media outlining the issue and FMYC response, as well as the rationale justifying the response.
  7. Establishing a monitoring regime, escalation/de-escalation triggers, as well as defined escalation/de-escalation actions.

I am the first to admit that it is always much easier to have an opinion in retrospect, however the core element to any form of great communication is exceptional planning. That is what we here at ICG/RMA do.

Furthermore, I hope that other Australian businesses either do not have to endure the online thuggery that FMYC have recently had to (sadly I suspect that this is a forlorn hope given how courageous anonymous online operators seem to be); or that they are at least prepared to protect their values and operations in the face of any unreasonable attack that may be launched against them.

Food for Asia initiative

Australia is ideally placed to supply a hungry market emerging to our north

By Angus Nicholls

Read this article at news.com.au

Australia is ideally placed to supply a hungry market emerging to our northIt is hard to believe that the consumer class emerging from Mumbai to Shanghai will reach 3 billion people by 2030. That is a lot of mouths to feed!

Australian governments across the board have identified primary producers as being exceptionally well placed to capitalise on this dynamic in the markets to our north. But what is the most valuable role that government can play from here on out?

It is our view the macro policy settings are either right, or heading in the right direction. For example, we have, or are working on:

  • Free Trade Agreements;
  • Targeted Grants Programs;
  • International Business Offices;
  • Export Strategies; and
  • Industry Roundtables

More specifically, Victoria has Food and Fibre Marketing Co-operatives Grants ($5M over 4 years), the Growing Food and Fibre Initiative ($124M over 8 years), an International Engagement Strategy ($50M over 4 years), and the Food to Asia Action Plan.

What we know on the ground is that it is extremely time consuming and expensive for Australian food and fibre producers to establish a sustainable foothold in new offshore markets. Especially where there are substantial cultural differences to be negotiated.

It is here that there is an apparent disconnect between policy settings and achieving aspirational goals for our farmers.

About the only Australian entities that can tough it out establishing new markets are the big players who are doing it anyway.

The challenge therefore is to focus on action that pulls our mid-tier and smaller primary producers into the exporting mix.

These are the businesses that are unlikely to have the resources, or the inclination to dig deep into their pockets and spend considerable time away from their enterprises to make the most of this evolving landscape and government encouragement. They also produce some of the nation’s most sought after products.

So what should be done?

We are of the view that there are plenty of activities that could be undertaken to make it worthwhile for our more boutique and niche suppliers to join this potential gold rush; such as national/state/sectoral branding, educational and cultural exchange, international office and secretarial support, and an event schedule that includes regional showcases of what Australian farmers have to offer the world.

A lot of the big picture work has already been carried out. It is now time to create an environment that sees our primary producers making the most of government policy and international infrastructure to truly incentivise them to take their products to the world.

We see taking this action as translating the bigger picture into stronger regional communities, more employment, and more profitable and innovative businesses. This makes both economic and political sense.

As Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest recently observed, we need a “Team Australia” and access to expertise can help deliver on these aspirations.

In a Victorian context we think that the simplest place to start would be to develop a “road map” for our primary producers that illuminates the path to market. Such a tool could, and should, be taken to our regions to highlight the opportunities and support that exist; as well as demystify the exporting process for those who are not doing it. By increasing the number and diversity of Victorian enterprises exporting, we will see these excellent policies deliver maximum benefit to the State.

Of course this is only the first play in what will be a long and beneficial game. There is plenty more work to be done with one of the major challenges on the government side being to translate theory into practice.

AN

Angus Nicholls has a depth of experience in both the political and commercial worlds.

Over a 15-year career, Angus has been a senior government policy advisor at Federal level, a Councillor at Local government level and the General Manager of one of Australia’s largest seafood businesses.

He has developed a detailed understanding of primary produce, agricultural and industry policy at all levels of government and a deep understanding of local government planning, environmental and community amenity issues.

He is now a Senior Associate and the strategic communications firm Robert Masters & Associates.

ICG Auto - Insight

Market Data – Harnessing The Power of Attraction

ICG Auto Insight works with leading consumer behaviour academics to develop market data analytics that will identify the relative attraction of your brand and help guide strategy by pinpointing your brand’s growth potential against the competition.

Many measures have been tried with collation of market data to quantify the value of an automotive brand in a competitive market place.

The core objective is to understand where your brand stands relative to your competitors and what drives customers to you versus the competition.

CSI scores only really tell you what has happened – the hope is that if the results are good there will be peer group brand promotion.

Another measure is known as the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This measure seeks to quantify the level of advocacy of your brand by those who have had contact with it. Once more it is a historical measure that assumes higher brand advocacy translates into greater future engagement.

What is much harder to measure, but critical to future sales, particularly where conquest growth is required, is a robust measure of your brand’s relative attraction within your key competitive set.

This is where ICG has partnered with leading academics to devise a robust measure of relative attraction.

Relative attraction is made up of key elements such as overall brand strength, brand loyalty, areas where your brand position and customer base can be threatened and areas where you can grow, either through conquest or growing the market.

A relative attraction measure can rate the view of both customers and prospects. It can help you devise strategies that reduce attrition and increase attraction within your competitor customer groups.

ICG Auto Insight can help you develop a clear view of how your brand is seen by customers and non-customers and can be key to developing your next successful growth strategy.

Talk to us on 03 9036 6300 about how ICG Auto can deliver that clear view.

Male thumbs down unhappy

Too expensive or too slack?

 

Is Australian retail too expensive or too slack to compete in the 21st Century?

If you have any suspicion that the answer could be yes the critical question becomes,  what do your customers experience as a result?

Warning: here comes a grumpy old man story.

Recently we attended a parent group dinner at one of those “Local Taverns”, which is to say a thinly disguised pokies hole.

Having resigned myself to a substandard meal, accompanied by excessive noise, I really didn’t expect much. What I got was even less.

Having ordered a veal schnitzel at the counter (no chips, extra salad), announced on delivery was a “chicken schnitzel no chips?” When advised of the error the young plate-deliverer firmly retorted:  “Well what’s the difference between a chicken schnitzel and schnitzel anyway?” One presumes she meant apart from one previously mooing while the other clucked.

When I insisted on receiving what was ordered the response was : “There’s no need to be rude, why can’t you just have what I brought?”

Mentioning legendary Soviet Union service levels came to mind but, given her infant years, I doubt she had ever heard of the place.  One wonders at her reaction should the local Apple store deliver her a Chinese knock-off eyePhone.

You may well ask what do you expect of a place where the large screens are filled with a constant series of Keno numbers?

I understand it is hard, in this country, to get good hospitality staff. No one wants to do it, and many of those who do ably convey a commensurate level of enthusiasm. A recent trip to the United States brought the differences in service levels into sharp relief.

We don’t necessarily want the USA $7.25 per our minimum wage with up to 20% tip scenario here.  However, one can’t help thinking that a greater focus on some sort of performance incentives would help create better customer experiences.

For the “tavern” in question there would seem little point to put in place any sort of customer service measures and incentives. Staff seldom stay longer than a few months and the whole place is focussed on just keeping gamblers in the building.

Is that the situation in your business? Can you afford to ignore customer experience?

Recent ICG mystery shopping exercises, across a number of industries, have exposed concerning service issues.

In a world of easy Internet shopping physical retail needs to exploit every opportunity and must offer an experience not possible online.

Obviously that is easier in the retail of large purchases that benefit from the customer physically trying the product, say, automotive. But even in such retail the opportunity for customers to cross-shop and undertake detailed research online creates challenges in maintaining both service and profit levels.

During such exercises the range of experience delivered to ICG researchers covers everything from walk-in customers being totally ignored, to poor standard-form email responses to internet enquires, to the classic never calling the customer back on a telephone enquiry.

Good operators (and they tend to be individuals not entire organisations) know their product, engage with the customer and follow up quickly. They get the sales. The others appear to aggressively (or even passively) staff their station or desk.

The only way to improve group performance is good old-fashioned training, incentives, measurement and accountability. ICG’s mystery shopping exercises are often accompanied by the development of management plans covering all these actions.

To extract the maximum value from your investment in people you need to know what level of customer experience your retail staff are delivering and to plan for continual measurement and improvement.

The alternative to providing positive customer experiences is the complete commoditisation of whatever you are selling. Today that means the lowest Internet price sets the market and the profit (or loss) level. There will always be price shoppers and there will always be shoppers who appreciate proper service. Which group is likely to deliver better margins?

The next time you read of some mega-retailer complaining that the Internet is stealing their business think of the level of service delivered at their barn (let alone any interest shown in the customer).

Finally, an example of how not to compete with online.

Recently a high-end clothing store in one of the fashionable (and dying) strips introduced a policy of charging browsers $5 (refundable on purchase) for “just looking”. They claim this is their counter strategy to “shopfronting”, the practice of trying something at retail outlet then buying it online at a lower price. What a wasted opportunity!

Perhaps if they focussed a little more on providing a customer experience that justified their premium they could convert more of the “shopfronters”, who are actually in the shop, into buyers. Another “For Lease” sign will not be far away.

John Kananghinis