Insights Blog

A few months ago, Forrester released a report regarding the impact of what they call the Facebook Factor. Unsurprisingly, they found that fans of a brand are more likely to purchase that brand than non-fans. More importantly, Forrester noted that the real value of fans is brand advocacy—fans are more likely to recommend a purchase or give a positive review.

Next, I read yet another study saying that up to 85% of people surveyed had changed a purchase decision based upon a positive or negative review. This review might be from a friend, but it could also be a complete stranger promoting or trashing a product. Clearly the more people you have saying positive things about your brand, the better off you are. Last night, for example, I know I wasn’t the only diner in town choosing my restaurant based on reviews from Yelp. Finally, a recent CMO Council survey found that while brand advocates are interested in social content, their loyalty to the brand is far more important. In other words, brand advocates are advocates because they believe in the brand.

Throughout 2009, EMM Group released free marketing resources around several organic growth themes, including Segmentation, “Spend Less, Get More,” and “Winning Share”. Take a look at our Best of 2009 post.

Here's a look back at the most popular Organic Growth Blog articles of 2009.

We wanted to call your attention to a poll being run by Adweek on the best marketing of the decade. They have many categories, but the one that caught our attention is the best marketer of the decade . I think the #1 slot is a foregone conclusion with Steve Jobs getting the well-deserved spot at the top of the list. The rest of the line-up for the top 5 places is still hotly contested.

In addition to the many blessings of family, friends, and health I’ll give thanks for this year, I’m excited to be welcoming back an old friend—marketing with a capital M. Only a year ago, the dark clouds of the economic storm had assembled to drown out the annual family trip to the west coast along with the plans and budgets of many a marketer—including those of my former company, a large financial services firm. The usual banter and debate about the role of marketing, the drudgery of annual planning, hot approaches to consumer insights, the latest social media trends, new ideas for building brand equity, dreams of driving growth, etc. was replaced by far more dire conversations about downsizing, reorganization, recession marketing, even survival. And, of course, the usual industry chorus about the importance of “spending into the recession” was largely ignored. Those were dark days indeed and it was difficult to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Demand is hard to stimulate while marketing budgets stay depressed. How do you deliver demand generation performance while making every buck count? We have just launched a new growth idea on our website to help spark a discussion on this very timely subject. View our new growth idea.

I recently came across a report through RetailWire called "Generating Uplift With the Downturn Generation". It is published by IRI and is based on consumer research conducted by them in March 2009. The research strongly supports the trend of post-materialism that we have been discussing on this blog for the last couple of months. However I do, with all due respect, differ with the author on the conclusions drawn from the research.

One of the central tenets of modern economic theory is that open competition is good for consumers and creates greater overall value. Our feature for this week, LG, has embraced this concept and as if competition in the cellphone market was not fierce enough, it has created and channeled forces of internal competition within its own walls. The article in the WSJ on July 21st, Korea's LG Dials Up Cellphone Growth, Gaining Market Share on Rivals, explains how LG appoints a Product Business Leader (PBL) who is responsible for every cellphone product from the moment it leaves the labs. Given that there are 50 product releases a year from LG, of which only a few succeed, the competition for success is intense. Fostering the individual responsibility and pride in bringing great products to market, has allowed LG to post impressive growth numbers with predicted growth of 10 to 12% in a market declining by about 10% and a gain in share while larger competitors such as Nokia and Samsung are either losing share or barely able to keep volume steady.

With so many stories about cutting back, laying off, hunkering down, riding out the storm and in general working to defend and preserve what they have vs. taking new ground, it was great to read an article about going on offense for a change.

Everyone agrees... we live in interesting times. But as we deal with a world gone topsy-turvy there are also opportunities. To capitalize on new trends, to gain share from weak competitors, to try something new.