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Social Media Strategies: When Customer Service is Done Right

#McDStories was a great example of how McDonald’s failed to leverage social media to their advantage: a #hashtag had an unexpected transformation into a #bashtag.

However, when used correctly, social media can reinforce brand equity, especially if something goes wrong. I distinctly remember in July 2012, when one of the most popular telephone service providers, O2, suffered a network outage for 24 hours, leaving a large chunk of the United Kingdom sans cell service.

Affected customers took to Twitter to complain about their inability to make or receive calls and text messages, or to use their data, flooding O2′s social network. 

O2 did not immediately respond, and were criticised for having a simple status message on their website apologising for the outage. The second day, however, as the tweets kept coming in, the O2 social media team started to respond to each and every tweet. Instead of simply ignoring posts containing foul language, O2 responded with witty messages that made their other customers giggle, and lightened the overall mood of the whole disaster. The tweets being sent to O2 completely shifted from being mostly complaints about the company, to mostly praise for the people working on the social customer service team for their funny Twitter responses. For what could have been a huge crisis for the company, O2 used Twitter to deliver fast, professional customer service, and still maintained their brand image by adding humor and personality to their tweets.

As is always the case, O2 found it impossible to completely satisfy everyone. In fact, some customers tweeted to O2 that their cheerful and breezy approach to the situation had made them feel like the company wasn’t taking the problem seriously. O2 tried their best to assure their customers that they were working to deliver useful customer service. Situations like this are tough, as there’s no way to please everyone, but how do you get as close as possible?

[the-mrmeowgi-blog]

For the first time in 50 years, Sports Illustrated, one of the most highly anticipated magazines featured a plus size model on their cover in February 2016. This marked a turning point for all women - one of the earliest signs in the industry to show acceptance for women with bodies of all shapes and sizes.

Ashley Graham catapulted to stardom since her feature on the SI Swimsuit cover in 2016, and since then, has used her platform to continue her mission to promote the notion of ‘beauty beyond size’, and shut down body shamers. She recently released a book that focuses on highlighting a way toward a more inclusive definition of beauty, and has spoken out at numerous events, including TedX, for her cause.

Sports Illustrated followed their historic 2016 issue with a 2018 issue featuring US Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman and Simon Biles - again highlighting the importance and acceptance of body diversity.

As a woman, I am proud to say that since then, I have genuinely witnessed first hand how average-sized women have been increasingly not only been noticed but been pushed to the forefront of the fashion industry.

A childhood friend, Mia Kang, has struggled with body dysmorphia her whole life until she embraced who she was. “I was discovered at 13. I grew up as an obese kid and teenager. I was heavily bullied in school. When I was 13, I cut my weight in half, I stopped eating, and then as soon as I became skinny, deathly skinny, I got scouted as a model.”

Because of her modelling abilities, she landed a spot in the Sports Illustrated 2016 issue, as a rookie model:

I’ve known Mia since the day she was still in college studying for her finance degree, with 0 instagram followers. Over the last few years, I have watched her go from success to success, land her SI swimsuit cover, and go from a miserable, self-conscious, size 0 model to a healthy, confident, size 6 model who practises Muay Thai boxing. I have watched her use her new-found celebrity status (and 200k instagram following) to promote body diversity, and her hard work is paying off.

Now, brands that also increasingly want to be associated with body inclusiveness are knocking down her door. She has been featured for Clarks, Nike, Cotton On, Amazon Lingerie... and the list goes on.

My takeaway? If you’re a brand, find a celebrity that lives, breathes, sleeps what your brand wants to communicate, and from there, getting to your audience with the right message should be as easy as 1-2-3.

[the-mrmeowgi-blog]

The Estée Lauder Companies: A True House of Brands

Few people know that when people say they work at Estée Lauder, they actually mean The Estée Lauder Companies (or ELC). That is because ELC is a classic example of a house of brands - something of which I certainly was not aware until I applied there for my first job out of college (and subsequently went on to work). ELC only focuses on the ‘prestige’ segment of the beauty market, with a portfolio of over 25 brands. 

According to Fabrizio Freda, President and CEO:

“Our portfolio strategy includes growing existing brands and discovering new high-potential acquisitions that align with our values and offer a long-term outlook for success. To maintain our leadership position, we nurture and preserve each brand’s distinctive identity and purpose. At the same time, we leverage our global distribution, creative resources and operational expertise across all our brands.”

Here’s a snapshot of their main ones:

As many would agree, a pure house of brands is rare, and ELC is no exception, where the team has created an umbrella portfolio where each subbrand and brand serves a purpose and does not diminish or cannibalise value from the others.

One interesting case study within the ELC portfolio is their designer fragrances division - the one that I belonged to. Totally separate from Jo Malone (a brand and division in itself), the designer fragrances division was a house of brands within itself: it owned the fragrance licences to a wide range of designer fashion houses. It is common for a fashion house, such as Dior, to outsource their fragrance category to a beauty supplier such as ELC, L’oréal, Coty, or P&G. From the beauty supplier’s perspective, it is crucial to select a portfolio of brands that are complementary. Our division consisted of:

Ermenegildo Zegna: ultra prestige, men

Aramis: prestige, men

Donna Karan: ultra prestige, women

Sub-brand DKNY (the green apples): mass prestige, women

Michael Kors: mass prestige, women

Tommy Hilfiger + Sub-brand Tommy Girl: mass

Although each brand had its own marketing and channel strategy, our sales team could leverage complementary brands for better negotiation deals with retailers. For example, we would get better in-store visibility in Harrods (the most expensive department store in the UK) for more mass brands such as the DKNY apples, by providing them with channel exclusivity of our most premium fragrances, Donna Karan and Ermenegildo Zegna. Alongside the actual Donna Karan or Zegna clothing stores, Harrods would be the only place in the UK to stock the fragrances.

Or, we would cut better deals off a more ‘prestigious’ brand such as Aramis, so that the mass market Tommy Hilfiger fragrances could be negotiated up from the bottom of the shelf in Boots (think CVS or Walgreens) to a better position.

Each of our retailer accounts would have some kind of channel or time exclusivity over a fragrance in our portfolio (so that their buyers would leave satisfied), and it was a case of balancing them and ensuring that the strategy matched with the image of the brand itself.

My time in sales at ELC was a great learning in how to take a set of complementary brands and pull different levers in order to both maximise firm value from our retail partners and to leave them feeling happy.

Oh, and the best thing about working for a house of brands? The annual goody bag you get every year. ;)

[the-mrmeowgi-blog]

The question of the week is, “How does a company create and sustain customer-centric value?”

In my view, an effective customer-centric experience stems from the company’s culture and internal training, in the same way that you can always blame the parents for a child’s poor behaviour. Singapore Airlines hit the nail on the head in this sense: by putting potential employees through an intensive and selective hiring process, and subsequently training programme, in order to select those that were capable of fully embodying the company’s core values of service and perfection. Below are a few thoughts on how SIA successfully built a customer-centric organisation:

1. Customer Experience

SIA is not just a transportation company but a unique travel experience. From the designer uniforms that the stewardesses donned to the array of amenities offered to even economy passengers, SIA generates unanimously positive customer experiences that results in high loyalty metrics and a reputation that almost verges on national pride.

2. Loyalty

Its Krisflyer frequent flyer programme consistently rewards and recognises customers, creating incentives for repeat bookings.

3. Internal and External Communications

Internally, SIA has a succinct, memorable set of core values that are reemphasised and reinforced throughout an employee’s tenure. Externally, its company tagline, “A great way to fly”, is short and memorable and also aligns with SIA’s emphasis on quality of service. This is a customer’s first touchpoint, and is crucial in branding.

4. Assortment and Price

SIA got their assortment across the three classes right, and importantly, the high level of service and amenities offered created the perception of value for money in the customer’s eyes.

5. Feedback

SIA functions on a continuous feedback loop, where customer satisfaction KPIs are continuously monitored. Crucially, the business understands their customer: according to the Senior VP, “Singaporeans are the most demanding.” As a result, employees operate on a ‘two-level-up’ decision making mechanism and are trained to handle customer complaints in a more personal way. Customers thus feel heard, reinforcing their emotional connection with the SIA brand.

In conclusion…

SIA did not just rely on slogans and catchy phrases: the business truly understood its customers’ behaviours and attitudes, and had the internal processes in place to create a customer-centric organisation.

[the-mrmeowgi-blog]

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet

William Shakespeare

The above is one of my favourite quotes from Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet. The quote implies that the names, or perception of things do not affect what they really are. Having this week read an article on how pleasure derived from wine consumption is often based off perception rather than actual quality, I have come to realise how far from the truth this statement can be, in the world of consumer products.

The topic reminded me of another industry that I have always thought as one of the biggest marketing scams of the last century: the bottled water industry. Breaking news: water tastes like water. Studies have shown time and time again that people just can’t distinguish between bottled and tap water. To me, this is the pinnacle example of how perceptions drive consumer behaviour, and how clever branding and storytelling can single-handedly create a market out of something utterly unsubstantial.

Product managers of bottled water brands ultimately take advantage of several purchase drivers to drive sales: health, image, and convenience.

Health: touting the water’s pure origins (Fiji Water, Evian, etc.). This can sometimes be misleading: Aquafina’s bottle sports white-tipped mountains, when in actual fact the water is merely treated tap water.

Image: whether they would admit to it or not, luxury hotels and airport lounges stock fancy glass Voss bottles to send signals of luxury and status. I wager that consumers willing to spend the $7 for 800ml likely subconsciously want to feel the same way.

Convenience: free public water supply is not easily found nowadays, and bottled water companies play on the fact that it is frankly easier to march into a store, pay a few dollars for a bottle of water, than to go off in search of a tap.

How far is too far, when whole industries use clever marketing to take advantage of unconscious consumer biases or perceptions?

Bye bye for meow.

[the-mrmeowgi-blog]

It’s all about creating stories...

So I went out to sushi dinner with my meownions tonight. Instead of ordering sake like we normally do, they decided to go for Coronas. (I mean, why? We are Japanese, not Mexican, for meow’s sake.)

I went home and looked up the Corona adverts on the internet. I found this:

I don’t really know much about Corona except apparently they want me to find my beach (do we even have beaches in Japan?). But thinking about this further reminded me of another drinks brand, Jack Daniel’s. I remember their amazing campaign in the UK, the last time I was there visiting the Queen’s cat, Eggwin. These adverts, that served as mini stories about the heritage and tradition of the brand, were plastered all over the London Tube. I took a picture on my meowphone below:

Whatever Jack Daniel’s did, it really made it the front-of-mind drinks brand for me. My meowstinct tells me that they were successful because they used vivid storytelling to create stories. Us cats can get really bored waiting for those pesky rats to emerge on the Underground, so we end up spending more time looking at adverts than we really want to be. But by golly, how addictive are those posters! They’re mini stories about how the whiskey and crafted and where it originated, and are spread out almost like mini chapters in a book.

I’m going to have to visit Eggwin again just so I can track down all the different Jack Daniel’s posters on the tube. Perhaps they’ll have a new series by then...

Bye bye for meow.

[the-mrmeowgi-blog]

Hi. My name is Mr. Meowgi.

I love:

1) chūtoro 

2) my samurai pillow

3) branding.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be posting my meowsings on branding. Truth be told, I’ve been meowsing over this subject since the day I sauntered into central Tokyo and procured my pink samurai pillow that you will never see me without. It looks really squishy, but actually when you look closer, it’s got these weird red splotches (toro stains??) and sometimes bits of feathers that poke at me through the fabric. But then the adverts and the sales kitties were so darn purr-suasive so I didn’t think twice.

I know I don’t have to justify my purchase but my two uncles, Chairman Meow (of China) and Señor Don Gato (from Mexico) bought the same pillow when they came to visit and couldn’t stop raving about it, so it must be good, right?

Bye bye for meow.