Get the facts – Companies trying to be honest

On the back of Dell’s success with IdeaStorm (see recent design update below) and the current economic climate, a lot more brands and companies are trying to be honest with consumers about what is happening within their company and how they are handling the economic changes.

Dell IdeaStorm - design refresh

After Dell’s trial, an example I found was Tesco. About two years ago, when Tesco and the other UK supermarkets were being investigated by the government body around pricing (Competition Commission), they created a site that provided insights into how Tesco worked. Their example was a site called Talking Tesco. It included perspective of all levels of employees from within Tesco, gave people the opportunity to have a say and tried to demonstrate that Tesco were listening to their consumers. It’s a good example, but hasn’t been updated for a long time which is a wasted opportunity with the current cliamte.

Talking Tesco Homepage

Talking Tesco - Have your say

Talking Tesco - Listening to the Community

On the back of this example, Woolworths Facts was created. The content was initially produced for Woolworths employees, but because it was so relevant to the ACCC enquiry, it was created into a website. The only way consumers can find this website is via a promotional spot on the Woolworths home page. A little unfortunate becuase there is so much great information.

Woolworths The Facts - Homepage

Woolworths The Facts - Beef Origins

The opportunity for this site is to turn it into a blog or start collecting consumer insights or questions that they have of Woolworths. Obviously, it’s a big investment, but something that would show Woolworths are commited to honest communications with their consumers.

Obama’s campaign included a negative spin on getting the facts. It was focused on John McCain and understanding who ‘The Real John McCain‘ was. Interesting spin, but not something I would recommend.

The Real John McCain - Homepage

Today I came across something that GM have created to provide justification about why they are requesting more money from the US government to bail them out, GM Facts & Fiction. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mention anything about the private jet or CEO pay cut. Not sure if it really is as honest as it could be…….

GM Facts & Fiction - Homepage

LEARNINGS

• Total transparency – A company must be honest with everything and not just the parts it wants the public to know about.
• Two way dialogue – There needs to be an opportunity for consumers to share their thoughts and ask questions that they want answered. It also helps a company shape what content they should be creating and what press releases they should be considering.
• Positive rather than negative – There needs to be a focus on what your company is doing to change, rather than competitors. Negativity breeds negativity and if people find out, it is never a positive outcome.

FINAL THOUGHT

I wonder how this approach would go for an advertising agency. An agency website (or blog) that is totally transparent and honest about everything that is going on within the agency. There is so much information leaked to the press (particularly trade press) around the hirings, firings, client wins and client losses that it might be one way of controlling (or influencing) the information flow out of an agency.

Does anyone know any agencies that are trialling this? It must be more than just a marketing blog.

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What & when retailers send emails? Tesco, Coles & Aldi

After looking through my blog stats, I found that two of the most popular posts have been about the Tesco and Coles emails. So I thought I would look at the other retailers emails I receive and see if there is anything else of interest.

When looking at my archive of retailers emails (Aldi, Coles, Tesco), it was interesting looking at the summary of the emails and when they had been sent, the collective subject lines and the file size.

ALDI LEARNINGS

1. Subject lines: ALDI have only recently updated their subject lines to be more meaningful – rather than being ‘upcoming ALDI special buys’ they include the email focus and the date they were sent.
2. Timings: ALDI always send their emails on a Friday. They are not sent at a consistent hour, but they are sent between 12 – 5pm.
3. Email size: The file size of the emails are between 41 – 52Kb, which is a reasonable file size.

ALDI Email Overview (AU)

It seems that ALDI are starting to pay more attention to the emails they send out to consumer (opted-in base). The focus is more on the subject lines than the creative. Unfortunately the emails are still extremely long, don’t have any personalisation, include too many different categorise and no segmentation (see example below).

ALDI Email - 18 September 2008

COLES LEARNINGS

1. Subject lines: Coles don’t have any consistency with their subject lines. They don’t include Coles or a common theme between them.
2. Timings: Coles doesn’t have a strategy around their email send times.  There is no consistent day or time that their emails are sent meaning that they are a surprise when they arrive in consumers inbox.
3. Email size: The file size of the emails are between 25 – 50Kb, which is a huge variation. The latest emails are reducing in file size (high 20s), which is great because it means they are quick to download (not including images).

Coles Email Overview (AU)

Coles have two different email databases. One for promoting their weekly specials and the other for promoting their special feature newsletters and sections: Pets and seasonality (spring).

Coles eNews Overview - Special Interest Newsletters

TESCO LEARNINGS

1. Subject lines: Very consistent and always include Tesco in the subject line.  Most subject lines are quite short (under 50 characters), no matter what the email is.
2. Timings: Tesco doesn’t have a strategy around their email send times. Tesco have so many different emails they send out. There may be some thought around each email, but it doesn’t look that way.
3. Email size: The file size of the emails vary between 19 – 62Kb, which is a huge variation. The ‘Top Offers of the Week from Tesco.com’ are the biggest emails.

Tesco Email Overview (UK)

LEARNING SUMMARY

There are a few things that need to be considered before you send out emails/newsletters on random days and at random times.

• Think about the subject line. Anything with less than 50 characters gets a higher click through rate than those with long subject lines.
• Think about when the emails are sent. Is the key to be focused on a time, day or date? Whatever is decided it must be maintained and enforced no matter what.