ColoradoBiz
Brett Johnson, Senior Strategist, Red Door Interactive

Most companies that are taking even the most basic steps in market research have formulated some sort of segments.  From rudimentary demographic profiles based on ages, incomes and geographic location to complex representative classifications based on algorithms that also include product use and life outlook, segmentation gives sales and marketing teams a blueprint of the customer and helps them identify key targets.

While this quantitative research is very valuable and commonly used, personas are also very important because they focus more on qualitative and differ from the former in many ways:

Character
Personas take on a different character.  Though they may be coined with catchy names like segments, ‘Savvy Saver’ or ‘Meticulous Mavens,’ personas also have specific names such as Carlos Ramon or Marnie Cogswell. When implemented properly, they are referenced as real people in meetings, particularly brainstorm or planning session.  Personas have defined needs, problems and behaviors that work for or against them. They can tell you in an intimate way how they feel and approach certain situations.  In addition, personas also communicate on specific channels about specific topics.  They each use the web and their mobile phone in a unique manner, and are capable of sharing – or not sharing – the things they discover; sometimes with an OMG and a few extra exclamation points “!!!!”.   

Methodology
Personas possess such strong personalities because of the ways in which they are created.  Segmentation is typically a more clinical approach; draft a survey and/or comb a database to get responses to specific questions about age, location, income, who is in the family, what products they use or buy, how they are used, etc.  While there are great segmentation studies that can be conducted, they are simplistic question and answer responses, or even a rear view mirror look at the audience. It does not entail a conversation with individual people.  

If done correctly, personas should answer the “why” behind behaviors and attitudes.  During a recent persona project for the California Avocado Commission, the lion’s share of segments sought healthy, nutritious foods.  But it was during in-depth, one-hour interviews using a discussion guide that the answers the marketing team didn’t have questions for began to reveal themselves.  It became clear that dietary restrictions were a primary motivator driving choices.  Ultimately, those inclinations led to the formulation of a complete persona, Carol Morrow, who has clear needs, budgetary parameters, shopping habits and product expectations. 

Channels
During persona questions, marketers can talk about the channels people use to communicate for different types of information.  Are they using Facebook?  If so, for what?  Do they check status updates on their smart phone?  Who do they follow on Twitter and why?  What do they tweet?  Interviewees can freely tell you the sources they use for gathering information or entertainment.  Not that this isn’t done with segments, but spontaneous questions and insights can’t be explored in the same way.  Now take this into a marketer’s approach.  If you’re not aware that your target is a vegetarian, your advertising could go horribly wrong.  Clarifying your message across specific channels and discovering new ways to improve your products and services are the two best reasons to do personas. 

Connection
So how can segments line up with personas?  They probably won’t.  When you’re working on discovering the habits, attitudes and behaviors as they pertain to specific communication channels, the ingredients are often left out of segmentation, so answers may not always align.  You may find you have a 65-year old female that uses her cell phone like a 15-year old, or two 30-year old males with similar incomes from the same city that are drastically at odds when it comes to using social media.   However, having recently experienced an almost direct correlation between segments and personas, it really depends on the depth of your segments.  If they have life outlook, behaviors and attitudes, there may be a match.  If your segments are primarily based on demographic profiles, you’ll probably need to rethink your approach at the end of the study.

In most cases, personas make the perfect supplement to a segmentation study.  If you know the demographics of your audience, you can screen the persona interviewees making sure you have a balanced quota.  The more you know about your audience, the more likely it is that you’ll uncover key trends across age groups and financial ranges.  Segmentation is a necessity for any company trying to better understand their audience because they provide a very clinical look at the fabric of an audience.  However, personas take on a human approach and are more personalized, animated and allow your audience to share their needs and problems.  All you have to do is be there to provide the solution.  No sweat.

Read article on cobizmag.com>>>

iMedia
Mikael Greenlief, Online Media Planner, Red Door Interactive

Having been entrenched in some aspect of online and digital marketing since the start of my career, I have heard countless times from clients and colleagues, “show us the numbers,” “show us the analytics,” “show us the stats”.  These requests are valid and quite important.  The data often help us glean insights upon which we can develop strategies and execute them. However, there is another reference point that is of equal importance; unscripted, observable research.

Most traditional forms of research are typically conducted with a few premises that present some gaps in understanding human intention and behavior, including:

1. Asking a select group of people to provide their true opinions about a brand or product.
2. Surveying a large sample size of randomly-selected people a large volume of questions, hoping to get a “true” understanding of their behavior.
3. Posing real-time questions about their experience post interaction or purchase (in-banner surveys in web forms).

Looking at some of the principles of psychology and sociology, people often don’t know why they do what they do, or say what they say and find it difficult to answer such questions in a group setting. Most times they act on feeling, impulse or habit.  It’s the way they’ve always done it or what they’ve always thought. To provide some context, think about the last time you brushed your teeth. Did you think through the process of getting your toothbrush, rinsing it off, grabbing the paste, opening the lid, putting it on your brush, closing the lid and then start brushing your teeth? It’s safe to say that you probably did not. It was habit, instinctual. Another good example might be the last time you went to a restaurant, had a wonderful (or awful) experience and wanted to share it with your friends on Facebook. Did you put a lot of thought into what you said then wrote and rewrote it while fine tuning your position throughout? Most likely you wrote what came into thought, shared your true and honest opinion as a result.

The unaided, unbiased, qualitative information provided from watching consumers in action in their own environment can be extremely useful – sometimes more so than web analytics – in driving both online and offline marketing strategy. Brushing your teeth may seem like a mundane, habitual act, but for companies that are able to watch, it can offer numerous insights that can drive product design (how do they hold their brush), packaging (is the tube easy to open) and product type (is there too much foam in the paste, do we need to alter the ingredient mix) just to name a few.

All forms of research are valid and can provide brilliant ideas. That means organizations can’t become narrow-minded in their approach and not see the bigger picture that comes from getting too mired in digital numbers and prompted questions. In order to fully understand the consumer, marketers must also observe actual behaviors, listen to their unaided opinions and understand the context of the situation. Taking this into account along with the more popular forms of research (survey, focus groups, statistics) will help companies understand the complete picture of human behavior in order to develop the most effective plan.

Read article on iMedia here>>> 

iMedia
John Faris, Online Acquisition Director, Red Door Interactive

Digital marketing is influencing offline purchase behavior more than ever. These online strategies will enable you to maximize your brand’s role in the decision-making process.

It’s clear that digital marketing is influencing offline purchase behavior more than ever. In fact, 89 percent of consumers who buy in key retail categories in-store have conducted online research prior to purchase (Google, 2010), and offline sales influenced by online research are expected to top 1 trillion dollars in 2012 (Jupiter Research, 2007). To capitalize on consumers’ new inclination to research online before purchasing offline, marketers need to go beyond awareness and direct response campaigns, and start influencing the purchase decision-making process.

Identify brand promoters
Customer relationship marketing is a critical component to every company’s digital marketing mix. Loyal customers who act as brand evangelists can increase sales and drive word of mouth. Identifying your brand evangelists is a crucial first step. If you have a customer database with emails or phone numbers, you can easily pinpoint brand evangelists with a net promoter score (NPS) survey. The survey need only ask one simple question — “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point scale, and those who rate you highly (9 or 10) are your “promoters.” If you deploy the survey in-store or on your website or blog, make sure you capture emails or phone numbers so you have the ability to tie the response back to the individual.

Full Story>>>

John’s Google Profile

July 15th, 2011 – Welcome to another RDI Click! post. Click! is a weekly collection of digital news highlights from Red Door’s most inquiring minds.

Click, enjoy and learn.

We’ve done the hard work for you.

Custom Landing Pages for Your App - ReadWrite Mobile
“App.net lets you make customizable landing pages for your mobile application. Using simple templates, your landing page can feature a description, a mockup of a mobile phone with a rotating carousel of the app’s screens, links to download the app on various app stores, social sharing buttons and links to your company’s online presence on sites like Facebook and Twitter.”
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Facebook Commerce: A Brief History - Ad Age
“Brands have been hawking product on their Facebook fan pages for no more than two years now and yet the promise of F-commerce has the retail world buzzing. One prediction says social commerce will top $30 billion globally by 2015, with Facebook-generated sales one of the primary drivers.”
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Privacy Options Come to Online Video Ads   - Ad Age
“Beginning this September, online video ad network Tremor Video will feature the privacy icon on virtually all of the ads that appear on its network, mostly 15- and 30-second commercial spots common to TV. Tremor is the largest video ad network, serving more than 700 million ads to more than 20% of the internet audience in May, according to ComScore.”
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5 Chrome Extensions That Improve Google+ - Mashable
“While Google works on adding more features, some available Chrome extensions can fill the functionality gap. Whether you want to get better notifications, enjoy improved sharing options, or scroll through your stream more quickly, there’s an extension available — for free — to help.”
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Twitter gears up auto-ads for big clients - Reuters
“The company will soon provide a so-called application programming interface, or API, that will help advertising agencies and corporations deliver large volumes of ads on Twitter. Access to the API, which Twitter plans to begin in the fourth quarter, will initially be rolled out as a test involving a limited number of partners.” 
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A comprehensive list of noteworthy news can be found at http://bit.ly/nuUyKP . Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter if you’d like up to the minute updates on our latest posts @reddoor.

Creative Risk Taking: When thinking outside the box just isn’t enough

The Old Spice twitter campaign. Subservient Chicken. Apple’s 1984. Great advertising has always been about taking risks. But it’s not just the creatives that push the envelope with their ideas. It’s also about the marketing leaders that are willing to approve work that makes them just a teensy bit nervous. Or the account director that provides proof points for why the risky idea is worth pushing through. Creative risk is a part of the process from start to finish and we all have the opportunity to take that leap of faith. Our panel of experts will discuss the importance of creative risk-taking and what it’s like to be the person who pulls the trigger.

Topics Include:

• What does “creative risk” mean to you?
• How do you and your team come up with that risky idea in the first place?
• What are some tools or exercises your team uses to break out of the creative norm?
• What categorizes something as a creative risk?
• How do you measure the pros and cons of taking a creative risk?
• What makes a risk worthwhile?
• What do you do if the risk doesn’t pay off?
• Once a risky idea is on the table, how can you convince the client, your team or yourself to say GO?

SAVE THE DATE
The Denver event date will be announced soon; and the San Diego event will be Wednesday,  August 24^th.

• 8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration, Breakfast & Networking
• 9:00 – 10:00 AM Presentation & Questions
• 10:00 – 10:30 AM Networking

Who Should Attend:
Creative Directors, Marketing execs, CMOs, Marketing Managers, Social Media Managers, Product Managers & Brand Managers for national consumer brands, retailers & anyone else interested in the topic.

June 24th, 2011 – Welcome to another RDI Click! post. Click! is a weekly collection of digital news highlights from Red Door’s most inquiring minds.

Click, enjoy and learn.

We’ve done the hard work for you.

Get Satisfaction Gives Customer Service on Facebook an Upgrade - Mashable  
“Facebook is increasingly becoming a front-facing interaction point for customer service. Users expect to be able to ask questions, send suggestions or get help from a company Facebook page. The problem is, the Facebook Wall was never designed to really manage that type of interaction. Get Satisfaction is addressing that problem by making it possible for administrators and customer service agents to take data from the wall and funnel it into their existing CRM system, be it Salesforce.com, Oracle or even a separate Get Satisfaction community page.”
Read More

AmEx Expands Foursquare Pilot - MediaPost
“American Express members who link their foursquare profiles to their cards can “load” and redeem merchant specials without the need for coupons, special codes, or showing their mobile devices to cashiers. The functionality is powered by the American Express Smart Offer APIs.
The national launch kicks off with Specials from H&M, Sports Authority, and Union Square Hospitality Group, and is expected to expand rapidly to include additional national and local merchant offers in the coming weeks and months.”
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Study: Within Four Years, 70 Percent Of All Mobile Ads Will Be Local  - PaidContent.org
“U.S. mobile ad spend is expected to balloon to $4 billion in 2015, up from just $790 million last year, according to the latest projections by forecaster BIA/Kelsey. One of the key drivers of the growth will be targeted local ads, which will account for $2.8 billion, or 70 percent of total spend, compared to $404 million, or 51 percent, this year.”
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Google Rolls Out Behavioral Targeting - Search Engine Land  
“Google is finally rolling out the ability to target ads to users by interest — based on their previous browsing activity, or behavior — to all of its advertisers. The company first announced a beta test of this capability more than two years ago, back in 2009, and it has slowly been introducing it to larger groups over time. The company says the capabilities are available today. The announcement marks Google’s full entrance into the world of behavioral targeting in AdWords.”
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Twitter Moves Toward Promotional Tweets - AdWeek
“Twitter may be one step closer to introducing advertisements on the main feature of the site, the streaming tweet timeline. The plan to place promotions in the tweet stream has been in the works for more than a year and now it looks as if the idea is gaining traction on the sidelines of the Cannes Lions event.” 
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A comprehensive list of noteworthy news can be found at http://www.delicious.com/reddoorinteractive. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter if you’d like up to the minute updates on our latest posts http://www.twitter.com/reddoor

iMedia
Charles Wiedenhoft, Director of User Experience, Red Door Interactive

User experience research uncovers how people think and make decisions. It’s key to improving website usability and increasing conversions. Design teams frequently skip user research due to high costs or time constraints. This leaves marketers and consumers at a disadvantage.

Prohibitive costs are no longer an excuse to forego research because a variety of web-based solutions is now available. When combined with on-demand recruiting panels, these solutions provide a means to generate instant user feedback in a cost-effective manner. This research can be the quickest way to optimize your website and improve the user experience for site visitors. The following tips and resources will show you how to get started.

Design to make a good first impression
The first impression that a website has on its visitors can mean the difference between converting new customers and losing sales. With so many websites competing for the same dollars, it’s critical for users to understand at a glance the purpose of a company and its competitive differentiation. This requires communicating a clear and succinct value proposition in as few as five seconds.

How does a website owner know that key landing pages are communicating messages that resonate and engage audiences? New services like FiveSecondTest are now available just for that purpose. With a quick set-up, it’s easy to begin seeing how visitors respond to your website’s content and visual design elements.

A FiveSecondTest involves participants who view design concepts and then respond to questions about what they remember. Typical tests include questions such as “Is the site’s purpose clear?” and “Who do you think this site is for?” It’s a great way to validate that a site is sending the right message and coming across as a trusted and valued resource with its target audiences.

Full Article>>>

August 13th, 2010 – Welcome to another RDI Click! post. Click! is a weekly collection of digital news highlights from Red Door’s most inquiring minds.

Click, enjoy and learn.

We’ve done the hard work for you.

The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM, The New Rules of Relationship Management - The Altimeter Group
“Over the last six months, I’ve been working closely with Ray Wang who is well known in the CRM space as an expert. Coupled with my focus on social technologies we did a deep dive on how our worlds are colliding into the trend to Social CRM. In our opening webinar when we announced our joining of the firm, we made it clear we’re looking at the holistic business, across multiple business departments –not silos or roles.” ~Jeremiah Owyang
Read More

How UX Can Drive Sales in Mobile Apps – UX Magazine
“This is an interview with Jeff Powers and Vikas Reddy, the founders of Occipital and creators of the popular iPhone app, RedLaser. We became interested in their story when we learned the differentiating factor between a somewhat unsuccessful first version and a wildly popular second version was due to their attentition to UX.”
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What Has The Recession Done to Consumers and Us? – Advertising Age
“If we are to get this economy rolling again, start creating jobs, moving products off shelves at fair prices, and buy products and services from other companies such as ad agencies based on their unique offerings versus their discounted fees, then we must do a few things:

* Shift strategies to emphasize differentiated offerings. It’s back to basics folks.
* Spend more time innovating and not figuring out how low you can go.
* Drive efficiencies in your products/services, so the value is better than ever, but don’t lead with price in your marketing strategy, unless you can sustain that strategy. It works for Kia and select discounters — so think hard about the path you are taking you/your clients’ brand.
* Maintain a long-term vision for your brand. Short-term price strategies can quickly erode brand value.”
Read More

Something Different for Click! and for Music – MusicCovery
“Select your music based on mood. An interesting alternative interface to Pandora. Listen off the site or plug it into your iTunes. “On top of the usual features, you will find now optimized ergonomics, a wall of favorite artists, a radio of new releases, more ways to share on Facebook and Twitter.”
Read More

Designing for the Mind - Design Informer
“Is it merely an opinion, or is there something more to it? Breaking design down seems like such an abstract thing. Even the designers who are able to create thought-provoking work seem purely talented and have natural abilities that can’t really be nailed down to a process. But what if there were principles that captured why design and art worked the way that they do?”
Read More 

A comprehensive list of noteworthy news can be found at http://delicous.com/RedDoorInteractive.  Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter if you’d like up to the minute updates on our latest posts http://twitter.com/reddoor.

One of the best things about working at Red Door is that we get to serve extraordinary clients. The Maritime Museum of San Diego is a perfect example. Red Door Interactive was recently chosen to create their new Web site. The museum is great local organization and has been an asset to the community for decades.

The Maritime Museum’s research credentials and educational programs are second to none. Nautical books, seafaring music, and fine maritime art can be found in the Museum Store. Local residents and international tourists alike find visiting the museum to be an engaging day of discovery and learning. But the old Web site wasn’t communicating the experience well. This is a place where history and technology still live – not some manufactured presentation asking us to imagine how things once were. We wanted the new site to let visitors feel wind and salt spray. It needed to give a sense of the motion and power inherent in these ships that helped build California and the West.

Our discovery interviews revealed a diverse and growing organization with a broad range of needs. The old site was at least flexible, and was updated frequently by museum staff. There was a huge array of valuable content, but the museum was not being shown to its fullest potential. It was difficult for potential visitors to easily discover the variety of unique experiences available, from classes in celestial navigation to multi-day sailing adventures aboard tall ships. The new site retains the flexibility, while showing the excitement of directly experiencing a variety of historic vessels.

The site has more audiences than just museum visitors. Hundreds of dedicated volunteers and supporters keep the museum afloat. Literally. There are no buildings. The entire museum, even the offices, is aboard its collection of ships. The new Web site had to enable museum staff to communicate with their crews, the media, donors, other maritime museums, and historians. Now it can vividly convey the sense of pride and belonging these volunteers and supporters feel for their museum.

We’re very proud and happy to have been entrusted with this opportunity to help the Maritime Museum of San Diego communicate its world-class status, and we look forward to watching the museum’s continued development and success, supported by the new www.sdmaritime.org site.

Learn how to develop a Twitter-specific social media strategy from concept, to execution to measurement with Red Door social media strategist, Crosby Noricks.

Do you crack jokes that include the words “fail whale?” Find yourself spending Sunday nights tweeting away about the latest episode of #trueblood? It might be a bit embarrassing to admit it to your significant other, or explain it to your CEO, but used correctly, Twitter has some pretty serious benefits for businesses and individuals alike.

Twitter is a powerful communications tool that every business can leverage and is becoming a core component of many brand’s overall promotional strategy. Businesses are successfully using twitter to build community, better connect with customers, and participate in brand conversations online. These insights help a smart business glean valuable information to inform future strategy.

We invite you to join us and the San Diego Ad Club on Friday September 25! Our social media strategist Crosby Noricks will teach you how to develop a Twitter-specific social media strategy from concept, to execution to measurement. Learn how companies, including several here in San Diego, are successfully using Twitter to meet their online business objectives.

You will learn:
• Key questions to ask when developing a Twitter strategy
• The different between a Twitter strategy and a Twitter campaign strategy – and why you need both
• Recommended management, monitoring and measurement tools
• How to integrate Twitter into an overall social media or online promotional strategy

When: Friday, September 25, 2009 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Where:
Courtyard by Marriott
595 Hotel Circle South
San Diego, California 92108