The Kmiec Ramblings

Tag Archive: Engagement

What Happens When Consumers Are In Control

Written on March 23, 2009 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising

I love the Simpsons. It’s one of the longest running shows on TV because it somehow remains relevant, funny, timely, and simple. Lately it seems you can’t open up a link without hearing, “consumers are in control” and “let the consumer decide.” I’m finding it tougher and tougher to swallow these statements. It’s almost gotten as bad as “stimulus package” messaging advertisers are flocking to. This isn’t the time or place to get into a lengthy debate on whether consumers are in control and if we should simply let them decide what products are launched, in addition to controlling the messaging/marketing used to support the product. I’ll make time in a future post to discuss this in detail.

Coming back to the Simpsons…there’s an episode called “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” The Wikipedia entry does a great job of providing details of the episode. In short here’s what happens:

Homer learns about his half brother Herb
Herb owns a car company, called Powell Motors
Herb and his team are working on a new car
Herb decides to let Homer, the average consumer, have full control over the development of the new car
Homer leads the development and names the car, The Homer
The Homer is unveiled and is a complete failure – not only is it ugly, but it’s insanely expensive
Herb’s company goes bankrupt

Here’s a video showing what The Homer looked like:

Consumer input is one thing. Marketers have been doing that for years through product testing, ethnographic studies, focus groups, and more. The methods for how we engage these consumers for feedback has changed; it’s evolved. That’s a good thing. But, to think that we can blindly shirk our responsibilities and simply do whatever the consumer wants is potential recipe for business suicide.

Herb, learned this the hard way. Let him be a lesson.

Tags: Control, Engagement, Simpsons, Video, Web 2.0, YouTube

Why Engagement Is An Irrelevant Objective

Written on January 1, 2009 by Adam Kmiec in Marketing & Advertising

2 Comments - Leave a comment!

Engagement, remains a big buzzword. Brand managers, agencies, pundits, columnists, and the rest of the marketing community want people/consumers to engage with their brand, site, or product. I’ve even used the term. Heck, I’ve put it into creative briefs and dammit if I don’t feel guilty for doing it right now. The problem is that engagement doesn’t really mean anything. It’s nebulous, lacks definition, and rarely can be tied back to sales. To be fair, this is not the case for every brand or situation. There are specific instances where engagement is the goal. It’s rare, but it does happen.

If you’ve been to a shopping mall in the United States, you’re probably familiar with Brookstone and The Sharper Image. If not, let me jog your memory with a photo of a Brookstone:

Brookstone

I’d show you a photo of The Sharper Image too, but seeing as they filed for bankruptcy and are now a mail order business only, I didn’t think it made a lot sense. Although, oddly enough their business failure will help substantiate by belief that engagement is an irrelevant objective.

The image you see above is what every Brookstone in America looks like. There are a bunch of people standing just outside the store debating if they should walk in. Inside are people trying out the vibrating massage chairs, 100s of iPod/Music devices, and playing with other strange “cutting edge” devices.

I’ve been going to malls for over 20 years. Let’s say in a given year, I go to a mall once a month. That’s 12 times a year for 20 years, for a total of 240 visits. I’m sure I’ve been in them way more than 240 times, but these round numbers work. Also, let’s assume each visit runs 5 minutes. That means I’ve spent 1200 minutes or 20 hours with the Brookstone brand in the last 20 years. Do you know how many things I’ve bought from Brookstone and The Sharper Image in those ears? 0. Yes, that zero. Nothing. Nadda. They haven’t gotten 1 penny from me.

Think about that? Forget about me, rarely in my 5 minutes visits have I seen anyone actually purchase anything. Sure, I see a lot of engagement happening. People are walking into the store, trying out products, and spending a lot of time immersed in the Brookstone brand experience. So, they’re engaging, but not buying. Kinda takes the wind out of the sales of engagement. If engagement can’t be tied to a specific desired interaction (usually a sale), it’s an irrelevant objective.

Stop focusing on engagement. Start focusing on conversions. You’re clients will thank you and you’ll be a hell of a lot happier.

Tags: Best Of, Brookstone, Engagement