How many times haver we heard the phrase ‘Know Your Customer”?  Probably enough times that it’s now in our hip pocket with most other clichés and buzz words that have come and gone.  We send out some surveys, take our “sample data” and call it a day.  And yes, this data can go a long way to make sure we’re on the right course and let us know when we’ve just gotten it wrong, but what real value is being added to our organizations because of it?

Facebook, Google and others know exactly what this customer knowledge is worth.  Wall Street is setting valuations based on it, investors are paying a pretty price to get a piece of it, and entrepreneurs all over the world are trying to figure out how to get consumers to become apart of what they’re doing so they can get more of it. 

The basic formula is pretty simple: Give consumers a reason to come back again and again, collect data along the way and deliver targeted offers based on the data.  Refining the formula is the trick however.  Figuring out how to collect data (or better yet, having your customer self elect to provide such data) that can be monetized, and then delivering offers so relevant that the customer sees the offers as a service rather than an intrusive advertisement - it’s the difference between a bucket full of metal and a bucket full of gold.

The ironic thing is, there are so many companies that are sitting on this knowledge right now, without a clue.  Like having an oil reserve beneath their property without ever looking beneath the surface.  If a company has created an allegiance around it’s brand, it has this power.  At Revbright, we’ve created our platform to help these companies, brands and affinity groups tap into this power and monetize it, while connecting with and serving their customers like never before. 

And if you’re saying to your self ‘it wouldn’t work with my company or brand’, just look at Coke Rewards.  Millions of people have joined, participated, given data and created community around a can of carbonated water and high fructose corn syrup. Who would have thunk it? 

When you give your customers what they want, and better yet, more than what they’ve asked for, you turn your customers into fans.  And in the long run, customers come and go, but fans come back again and again.

Facebook Deals launched today in selected markets, and has been the topic of much discussion since its launch was announced a few months ago.

The question most asked is, “Is Facebook Deals a Groupon Killer?” Michael Matthews of Forbes.com argues no, for a few reasons, and I tend to agree with him.

Matthews reports that consumers have not shown an inclination to give Facebook their credit card information, based on users’ privacy concerns, which makes the task of serving as a transactional environment very challenging. I’d add that people on Facebook aren’t naturally in a shopping mode, where this is Groupon’s only business and its users’ only reason for visiting the site.

Matthews also maintains that Facebook users may be hesitant to share some types of deals they grab (using the example of laser hair removal). While this may prove true, I would argue that Facebook users already share so much about themselves with the universe that this may not an issue.

At the outset of rich media in online advertising, one maxim sellers reminded marketers is that consumers react to media (and want to engage brands) in different ways. Some may want to buy immediately, while others may want more information about the brand.

For the same reason, Groupon and Facebook can certainly co-exist.  In a marketplace where consumers are motivated in different ways, Groupon’s consumer value proposition is deep discounts, and Facebook’s looks to be more about sharing the social experience of shopping.

In this case, more is definitely better for shoppers.

(Source: bit.ly)

There has been a lot of recent talk in the tech press about “F-Commerce” (using Facebook as a sales platform), and for good reason… marketers see an audience of 600 million consumers and are looking for ways to move beyond “likes” and “fans” to driving sales from users’ wall environments.

In the grand scheme of things, f-commerce is a relatively new space being explored, but it begs the question: what would you be willing to buy within the context of Facebook, as opposed to within a merchant’s site?

A few big brands have attempted to move product with widgets living on users’ wall pages, including Delta Airlines, who built a flight reservation app allowing consumers to book a flight without ever leaving Facebook. But a trusted source tells me the results were dismal. Consumers with the app on their wall page did not use it.

It’s not that consumers are just warming up to making travel purchases. Travel is arguably the most mature e-com category. And it’s not that online travel sales are flagging as they were last year - eMarketer reports online travel sales are trending upward, and will continue to rise over the next few years.

Which begs the question: Will consumers soon appreciate the convenience of transacting within Facebook’s site, where they spend so much of their time today? Will there be a tipping point for f-commerce like there was for e-commerce, when consumers finally became comfortable with keying their credit card number onto a merchant’s website a decade ago?   

Or will Facebook’s history as a pure social setting be an obstacle to building consumers’ willingness to buy within its (pardon the pun) walls? Is it better left as a tool for driving brand engagement and indirect sales?

Only time will tell. But with so many marketers wrestling with how to leverage Facebook’s massive audience as a direct sales platform, we’ll know soon enough if consumers put the “commerce” in “f-commerce”.

Doug Aamoth wrote a great article last week for Time Techland                (techland.time.com) that struck a chord with me about the emerging (actually, exploding) segment of e-commerce called “social shopping”. He argues that the valuations of several so-called social shopping sites might not be as large if the companies had not positioned themselves as social shopping/commerce shops to begin with.

While I’m not convinced that investors and the marketplace can be swayed by an entrepreneur’s positioning statements to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, I do agree that there are a few sites that have been labeled as “social” that are only mildy so. And there are still other sites that promote a high level of engagement, but afford consumers no opportunity to actually shop.

Others (including, in my not-so-humble opinion, my beloved company) have found a way to marry really great social features with a really enjoyable and entertaining shopping experience. After all, if a site is labeled as “social shopping”, shouldn’t the consumer be able to do both?

(Source: TIME)

I came across this article from last fall that made me do a double-take. While I’ve always assumed that those who love to use coupons are those who have to love them - families that are stretching their dollar to feed their kids until the next paycheck hits their account - I found I was wrong. Way wrong.

According to a Deals.com poll conducted by MyType, coupon lovers are anything but fans by necessity. In fact, they tend to be some of the more affluent members of society. For example:

• People with household incomes in excess of $100,000 per year are roughly two times more likely to be coupon lovers.  
• Women are 67% more likely than men to be coupon lovers.
• People who consider the environment of utmost importance are the most likely to be coupon lovers – 37% more likely than others.  
• College-educated people are 78% more likely than the non-college educated to be coupon lovers.

What’s the takeaway? As retailers gauge the consumer groups they want to acquire and nurture, these folks must be part of the strategy, and “deals marketing” should be on the top of their lists. 

(Source: prn.to)

Have you ever wondered what you’re worth on Facebook? While this may not be a question you have asked yourself recently, it is a topic that Fast Company’s Adam Penenberg found fascinating enough to write a book about. In Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves, Penenberg tells the stories behind many of the iconic companies of our time – including Netscape, eBay, PayPal, Skype, Facebook, and Twitter. According to Penenberg, these companies all have something in common – they have harnessed the power of viral loops to grow at incredible speed and achieve billion-dollar valuations in record time.

To demonstrate the power of viral loops, Penenberg has created apps that both Facebook and iPhone users can utilize to determine their worth. The concept is simple – the more active you (and your friends) are, the more you are worth to the. Check out Viral Loop here to see how much you’re worth.