Brand Surveys and Testing
Nov
The Children of Millenials: Getting Your Brand Ready For Gen Alpha
jerry9789 0 comments Brand Surveys and Testing, Brandview World, Burning Questions
You’ve done your high-quality segmentation study and persona development, considered single-segment focus and/or multi-segment strategies, crafted buyers’ journeys with psychographic segmentation. Your marketing plans form a playbook catering to a multi-generational audience of baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y (Millenials) or Gen Z, but have you made room for Gen Alpha?
Who Are Gen Alpha?
Gen Alpha refers to the generation born between 2010 and 2025. Between 2.5 million and 2.8 million of this demographic cohort are being born each week around the world. Once 2024 is up, the first generation born and raised in the twenty-first century would’ve exceeded 2 billion worldwide, and they’re expected to outnumber baby boomers by 2025. Also known as “millenials’ children,” Gen Alpha is projected to be the largest and most diverse generation yet.
True digital natives, Gen Alpha grew up accustomed to smart devices and social media. This was reinforced further when the pandemic caused the whole world to stay indoors and turn to digital devices to connect, find entertainment and for virtual learning. It’s no surprise then that they exhibit comfort and quick adaptability with new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Now while the digital world is a constant in their lives, Gen Alpha actually takes time offline and away from tech go outside and engage with friends or physical activities in tandem with caring for their mental health, a practice that became increasingly noticeable after the pandemic.
And it’s not only their mental well-being that Gen Alpha are concerned for. They’re also socially and environmentally conscious, growing up hearing and learning about inclusivity and climate change. They thus have a higher preference for products, brands and practices that promote equality, social responsibility, eco-friendliness, and sustainability when compared to previous generations. They’re also more appreciative of diversity due to globalization and digital connectivity exposing them to different cultures and perspectives.
Video-centric YouTube and TikTok are their favorite digital platforms. They’re also inclined to thrive in the safe and niche confines of gaming over contributing to the noisy and oftentimes chaotic discourse found in most social media. More than just the satisfaction of playing a video game, they express themselves in the customizable virtual space offered by worldbuilding games like Minecraft and Roblux. They are empowered by technology instead of dependent on it. And while they follow and take cues from influencers, they appreciate authenticity, personalization, and uniqueness, proving to be generally wary of and resistant to traditional marketing practices.
Why Market To Gen Alpha?
Gen Alpha is estimated to have an economic footprint of $5.4 billion by 2029. While that’s still a few years off, Gen Alpha has already and indirectly flexed their spending power by influencing their parents’ purchasing decisions while demonstrating at the same time a higher degree of brand awareness than older generations. They are confident with their choice of brands as it is a reflection of themselves and the values they appreciate.
The “adolescent demographic” is also challenging conventional marketing and advertising tactics, having already reshaped older or adult brand marketing. Where once there was space for “tween retail” with brands dedicated specifically for this age group and some adult clothing brands introducing specific clothing lines for tweens, mature brands for example simply expanded their size range to include their younger consumers. You’ll find Gen Alpha sharing the same brand choices or favorites with their millennial parents and Gen Z, the generation that preceded them.
With their digital affinity and offline exigencies set to shape the future of work, learning, and culture, brands would need to rework their marketing approach if they would like to attract Gen Alpha as early as now. While their older members are just entering their teens at this time, understanding how Gen Alpha thinks and behaves can help a brand adapt and lay the groundwork for their marketing endeavors as part of efforts to remain relevant and evolve with the times, especially with a generation this willful but informed when it comes to exercising choice.
How Should You Market To Gen Alpha?
Your marketing cornerstone can start with leveraging existing and emerging technology to understand and engage Gen Alpha. For starters, traditional demographics are already challenged by how diverse Gen Alpha is along with their preferences for personalization and uniqueness. Adopting AI and machine learning into your marketing strategy to analyze consumer behavior data and foresee trends can therefore help you craft a personalized and dynamic buyer experience for Gen Alpha. You can also employ AI-powered virtual assistants for personalized assistance during the shopping journey. AI can also grant your brand the flexibility to adapt to trends and feedback quickly in keeping in line with Gen Alpha’s needs for instant gratification.
Use gamification, polls or promos to enhance engagement and interactivity instead of conventional ads that Gen Alpha more often than not ignore or scroll past by. Add another layer to the shopping experience with AR and VR where virtual spaces allow them to visualize, explore and engage with products before even purchasing.
Gen Alpha is immersed in the digital world but they also seek engagement in the physical world. Offer in-store pick up options for online purchases to allow their shopping experience to extend to physical locations. Use geolocation and location-based services for sending relevant and personalized promotions and notifications, such as in-store only discounts and offers. Develop apps that not only incorporates these points but also enhances your omnichannel presence with seamless transition between online and physical shopping experiences. Don’t forget to promote and collect user-generated content as testimonials to the engaging and immersive experience your brand offers.
Some of the aforementioned technologies are still relatively new to the mainstream but learning and leveraging them as early as now allows your brand and marketing to evolve alongside them while growing and staying relevant with Gen Alpha.
Your brand would also need to increase focus on data protection and privacy, as Gen Alpha is particularly mindful of how valuable their personal information is in this era of data breaches and leaks. Brands need to be able to communicate clearly their privacy policies and demonstrate responsible data handling in addition to offering consumers control over how their personal information are use.
As mentioned before, Gen Alpha are acutely aware of social and economic issues aside from being the most diverse cohort yet. With this comes the rise of purpose-driven marketing where your brand needs to strongly communicate, commit and exemplify your mission and values, lest you be called out for virtue signaling. Gen Alpha are expecting brands these days to support and feature diversity and representation, calling out those that they perceive lack this value. Your brand would need to highlight and be transparent with your sustainable and ethical practices, including sourcing, production, packaging, and labor, while continually seeking areas for improvement and better, more modern methods to adopt.
While influencers are one of the top sources from where Gen Alpha learns and considers products to purchase, there is a shift nowadays on which personalities to follow thanks to this generation’s penchant for authenticity and shared values. Instead of considerably bigger names and one-time sponsorship, brands can consider long-term partnerships with micro-influencers and nano-influencers. Their niche following might be smaller but they are highly engaged and more connected, allowing for more organic integration of your brand messaging through collaborative content creation. As what we’ve already learned with high-quality segmentation study and persona development, your marketing goals can sometimes be better served by identifying, focusing and tailoring your campaign towards that consumer instead of a “blanket” approach with demographic data for reach with an influencer with a large following.
While this generation is still a year shy of rounding out all of its members, understanding and engaging with Gen Alpha as early as now would benefit brands looking to find a foothold into future markets. As technologies evolve and attitudes change, there might be no better time than now for brands and their messaging to organically connect, resonate and grow alongside Gen Alpha.
For further reading:
https://www.tokinomo.com/blog/gen-alpha-consumers
https://medium.com/@daisygarciathomas/marketing-and-consumer-behavior-of-generation-alpha-9492ceaf63ee
https://therobinreport.com/get-ready-for-gen-alpha-consumer-behavior-shifts/
https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/journey/TheBusinessCaseForUnderstandingGenerationAlpha.pdf
Featured Image Copyright: joedavis2
Top Image Copyright: alanajordan
Nov
“Humanizing” Market Research with AI
jerry9789 0 comments artificial intelligence, Brand Surveys and Testing, Burning Questions
The Boon and Bane of AI
The increasing and widespread utilization and demand for Artificial Intelligence have been met with both excitement and reservation. Excitement for the possibilities AI’s implementation unlocks, oftentimes steps ahead of the curve or beyond expectations; reservations not only stemming from the risks over its unethical and unchecked use, but also the ramifications for human involvement now that intelligent machines represent an optimized and economical choice for completing tasks and processes. But can there be a middle ground somewhere where AI and human engagement coexist and collaborate?
The “Humanization” of Market Research
“Capturing the Human Element in an Artificial World” by Eric Tayce (Quirk’s Marketing Research Review, Sep-Oct 2024) posits that such a midground is possible, especially in market research. An industry that’s all aware of its excessive dependence on technology to necessitate a push to “humanize” research data, it saw a dramatic shift from “data-intense tomes and clinical-sounding slide titles” to “streamlined, narrative-style reporting” focused on “the unique motivations and experiences that drive customer behaviors.” The latter “humanized” approach is able to communicate business goals while connecting and engaging on an emotional level. However, generative large language models (LLMs) cast a shadow on this “humanized” approach by offering synthetic outputs and progressive algorithms.
But combining both AI and efforts to “humanize” research can result in the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The article shared that AI can help collect more unstructured data from survey research by employing conversational chatbots to create a natural, richer experience for the respondent. That unstructured data in turn can potentially provide more organic, more human insights with AI-powered algorithms, an undertaking that was once considered too complex or time-consuming. AI can also build multifaceted perspectives through context by linking survey records with a broad range of data sources. And in lieu of traditional static deliverables, data and insights can be presented in a vibrant and interactive narrative by an AI-powered persona.
The “Human” Element
All these interesting prospects can only be achieved when AI is tempered by high-quality human input and thoughtful implementation considerate of ethical and moral implications. Aside from AI mistakes and hallucinations existing, AI has been observed to be too helpful and excitable. Human oversight and input remain key in ensuring AI models are trained, fine-tuned and grounded with quality and relevant datasets while having enough flexibility to engage appropriately in open-ended interactions.
There’s no denying just how transformative AI is in reshaping industries today, including market research. Despite concerns of machines taking over jobs, one can look at it with the perspective of roles changing and adapting. AI with its generative and synthetic capabilities can elevate the “humanization” of market research, but to get to that point we simply can’t forget that humans are indispensable to the whole process.
Featured Image Copyright: GrumpyBeere
Top Image Copyright: Darlene Anderson
Sep
So Why Use AI For Your Small Business?
jerry9789 0 comments artificial intelligence, Brand Surveys and Testing, Burning Questions
Artificial Intelligence has actually been around for decades already but it grew past being a buzzword and into the mainstream in 2022 with the surprise popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Nowadays, it might be challenging to find someone who doesn’t have an iota of an idea of what AI is and what it does. In fact, its widespread cultural adoption belies its real impact behind the scenes where it steadily transforms and shapes businesses and industries towards a more automated and optimized direction.
Now as a small business owner, you might think that last statement doesn’t apply to you and is targeted mostly towards larger scale companies, but that is far from the truth. That last statement is just as relevant to your smaller, local-based trade as it is to any regional or global firm. In fact, 75% of small businesses have taken advantage of AI, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Additionally, 93% of small businesses agree that they save money and improve profitability utilizing AI solutions. We learned about these two interesting points when we attended a webinar hosted by CallRail, “Q&A: Demystifying AI for Small Businesses.”
You might have heard too that AI actually places everybody on the same playing field, and this was underscored at the webinar when they shared that small businesses have access to the same AI technology that big companies employ. At the same time, small businesses are granted a chance to achieve the same impact as their larger counterparts. Small businesses however enjoy being able to adapt or incorporate new technology and processes easier than their larger counterparts.
So how do you join the small businesses using AI to make money and grow? What are examples of AI being utilized by small businesses? Where do you start in understanding and applying AI solutions for your small business?
Copyright: Shafin_Protic
Artificial Intelligence and Its Subsets
Perhaps it’s best to follow suit with the webinar and include a quick look but fundamental understanding of AI and its subset. As you might know, AI technology enables machines like computer systems to simulate or emulate human intelligence and behavior by learning from training data, pattern recognition, decision-making, and problem-solving.
When that pattern recognition is taken one step further by involving huge data sets and advanced algorithms, a subset of AI called Machine Learning is developed. Aside from simulating or emulating human intelligence, Machine Learning allows computer systems to learn and adapt. However, a misstep in ML is the oversight of certain variables affecting the accuracy of the intended output.
A subset of ML called Deep Learning builds upon this limitation of overlooking variables by actually learning from these variables with historical data to generate accurate and high level outputs. DL achieves this by leveraging multiple layers of artificial neural networks for in-depth data processing and analytical tasks.
And when that high level data set is transformed into generated yet fine-tuned content like text, images, or code, we now arrive in the territory of Generative AI. This subset of DL models include the popular ChatGPT.
Copyright: geralt
How Are Small Businesses Using AI?
Like any other company or industry, small businesses have started to use AI to save time by streamlining, automating and optimizing whichever aspect of their processes that they could. One example is speech-to-text where instead of listening to every call, you convert a recorded phone call into summarized text with relevant and possibly actionable information or insight. By filtering calls in this manner, you’re also able to identify which types require the utmost attention and immediate follow-up, an especially valuable feature for qualifying leads.
As they say time is gold and so in the same vein where you free time by outsourcing time-consuming and repeatable tasks to another person or agency, automating processes through AI allow you to devote the time you free up to other more advanced functions or find more opportunities that can help further improve productivity and profitability, growing your business along the way.
Copyright: sohag_hawlader
Will AI Replace Small Businesses?
Now adapting and utilizing AI in your small business isn’t the end-all and be-all; it won’t even be replacing you wholesale anytime since it is, after all, just another tool at one’s disposal. Embracing the hot new tech keeps you at pace with the rest of the pack, but how you stand out will still fall on your business savvy and the intrinsic, unique value you bring to the table. Whether it be for your marketing or improving processes or customer relations, AI will help you glean as many insights as possible from your business transactions, interactions, and communications, but how effective that knowledge becomes will still depend on how well you leverage it.
Mar
How Can Software Development Companies Do a Better Job of Targeting New Customers?
jerry9789 0 comments Brand Surveys and Testing, Burning Questions
Software Marketing Today
If you look all over the Internet, you’ll find a multitude of articles talking about the most effective strategies for marketing your software development company. Ranging from seven to fifteen different strategies, these articles feature proven techniques like email marketing, social media or content marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or paid ads, and the like. For our part, we boiled it down to five key strategies here.
But with how tough competition is in the software development industry, it won’t be any surprise if the thought of doing more regarding targeting new customers has crossed your mind. Most likely, software companies are using the same marketing strategies you’ll find online, so employing a different tactic would help your company stand out from the rest or dominate a particular niche. But how do you come up with a different game plan when the field of software marketing has apparently been mapped out with all that strategic information available out there?
Most software marketing strategies focus on targeting and resonating with the ideal customer, from identifying the most profit-optimal client to tailoring your messaging to appeal to that buyer persona. They talk about the variety of approaches you can take to capture the attention and engage with your target consumer. But what if aside from thinking about who your ideal customer is, you take your marketing one step further by coming up with the best possible user experience, from the time your target persona first hears about your company to the point that they’re not only your regular customer but also your company’s best advocate?
Copyright Karolina Grabowska
Focusing On the Customer Experience
Now you might be thinking that this either sounds like the same thing or even antithetical to the concept of optimizing your marketing efforts by recognizing your ideal customer. You will still be doing the same things you’ve done in identifying and reaching out to your target client, such as demographics, psychographics, even SEO, but with this approach you are not just looking outwards from the lens of company marketing but rather from the perspective of a customer looking for a solution to their problem.
With that thought, you start off with the question of “exactly what problem was my software meant to solve and how does it solve it?” Are you able to deliver that idea in words that are easily understood by your ideal customer? Are you targeting the end-user or is there a decision-maker involved? If there are other similar companies offering the same product, how do you set yourself apart with what you can do differently from the vantage point of a prospective client? Can you encapsulate all that if all you have is one tagline or even one image to catch consumer attention? If it does catch attention, what would hook your best prospect into learning more about the software? As you can tell, some if not most of these questions also serve as a good foundation for the branding of your software product.
Copyright Fauxels (Pexels)
Local Presence Focus
You can also consider looking locally to see if the solution your software is offering is relevant to your community. If everything falls into place, not only will you enjoy the benefit of a consumer base right at home but more often than not, local communities have proven to strongly appreciate and support homegrown talent. This in turn could lead to an optimized and visible Google Business profile in search results and Google Maps. Just imagine how a local consumer feels discovering that a company offering a solution to their problem is found right in their own neighborhood.
Digital marketing is all the rage nowadays but exploring your local market also opens up the opportunity to try traditional marketing such as flyers and mailers. You can also even try hosting events or partnering with local companies, which would be a good way to practice and gain experience especially if you have plans to expand further not long after and would consider similar marketing activities and collaborations like influencer marketing and guest blogging.
Focusing locally is also a good place to start with SEO. Backed by keyword tools and planners to generate long-tail keywords, approaching SEO with the mindset of a local consumer with a specific objective in mind allows you to experiment more efficiently with a narrowed set of key phrases compared to what you had to work with had you jumped into a larger market base. Once you figure out the keywords that work best from your localized set, you can then riff off from these examples as you start expanding beyond your community.
Copyright MR-PANDA
Website Optimization and Multimedia Content
You can then optimize your website and its content with those keywords. Design your website with the added perspective of a customer visiting for the first time: navigating it should be intuitive with an engaging interface and interesting content. Make sure it’s mobile-friendly as well. If you don’t know it yet, search engines favor fast loading websites so regularly test your site speed especially whenever you make any changes or updates. Your Google Business profile might capture would-be clients’ attention, but it’s at your website where most of the action should take place, so be sure you have plenty of quality backlinks to it.
Whether your website is found through search results or a backlink, your first-time visitor would be expecting to find content elaborating on why your software is the right product for them. Aside from a blog section and other written elements, make sure to devote some space for informative multimedia materials like video tutorials or walkthroughs. Your written content can have all the information you would like to relay about your software and your company, but your visitor might not have all the time in the world to go through all those. Instead, they might stick around for a short but engaging and entertaining video.
Incorporate short animated infographics or explainers too into your website, thus sharing information about your software and your company. Vary your videos and animated graphics between informative and technical to fun and entertaining. This is also an opportunity to make your software stand out from other similar products or for your branding to express its uniqueness. You may also use the same multimedia content for your video or email marketing so there’s a sense of familiarity when your customer lands on your website for the first time.
Speaking of familiarity, you might also engage with your customer even more by providing free trial/limited time offers and Freemium subscriptions right from your website. These allow your customer to enjoy the basic features of your software and truly get a feel for what your product offers, perhaps leading them to opt for a Premium or higher-tier subscription for additional or complete access. If possible, you can offer a certain feature of your software to be available on your website; for example, a photo editor whose output could be downloadable either in a reduced but acceptable quality or with a watermark.
Making free trial/limited time offers and Freemium subscriptions available on your website also helps better position the pricing information of your software. Sure, you can include a pricing comparison chart between your software and its competitors, but firsthand experience of your product could prove to be the more convincing or deciding factor for your customer. Nevertheless, ensure that you are clear and transparent with the pricing for your software.
Copyright Andrea Piacquadio
Testimonials and Case Studies
A tutorial or explainer video would give your customer the information they need to understand how to use your software, but it might resonate better with them to use a video to tell the story behind the origins of your product. Sure, your technical videos would spell out what problem your software is solving, but they won’t be able to tap into connections of relatability that might be achieved by a video with a compelling story on how you came up with your product. Trust and loyalty can be earned by a product and company that consistently deliver what they promised, but you can add another layer to that connection by becoming relatable and personal to your customer.
That brings us to client testimonials. Depending on their length or how they are delivered, testimonials can be a once-over or your customer will be able to find one or two with similar experiences advocating the effectiveness of your software. Written testimonials are fine and the norm, but you might consider having a few published in video format. Depending on your research, you might even be able to use your video testimonials in your outbound marketing.
And they don’t all have to be too straight or technical; an effervescent and witty one-liner from a supporter that drew a chuckle from you might have the same effect on visitors to your website and lighten things up.
If applicable, case studies can be employed for the combined effect of walkthroughs and testimonials. While it’s usually delivered from the technical perspective of the company, it would pander to a tech-savvy customer who is looking for a more in-depth or niche look at how your software can be applied. Bonus points too if the client using the software in the case study is well-known and well-respected. But don’t let all that technical stuff limit you to jargon and technobabble; consider using language that’s less robotic or monotone and more conversational and organic, taking the opportunity whenever possible to explain or simplify certain techspeak terms or to translate highly specialized situations into simple, relatable language.
Client success stories can also function as a case study or be as concise as a testimonial. In addition, you can also utilize or embed webinar recordings in your website. The goal of these elements in your website is to demonstrate to your would-be customers that their trust and confidence would be well-placed in both your software and your company.
Copyright Fauxels (Pexels)
Online and Offline Community Marketing
Don’t just limit that trust and confidence to the confines of your website, but expand it to the greater community out there. You’ve developed your blogs, guides/tutorials, multimedia, case studies and other materials on your website with the mindset of not only being informative and instructional, but also engaging at the same time, so the same content should work just as well on social media and the like.
Yes, you are promoting your software and company on social media but instead of being overly promotional, provide value to your target audience by directing your content toward addressing common pain points and questions. This way, you establish yourself as a thought leader while connecting with your audience at the same time.
Don’t overload your posts with information, though; you can use the “breadcrumb” approach where you open with a particular pain point and lightly touch on what your software can do to solve it and then add a backlink to your website if they would like to learn more. Aside from sharing a whole video or webinar, you can also lift a particularly interesting section from it to share on social media along with a link where they can watch the full content. Break the monotony every now and then by sharing funny or witty content that’s either relevant to your software or industry as well as a particular occasion or holiday.
Be mindful of the audience and the platform you’re sharing your content with as well; your entertaining and engaging videos would connect well with the Facebook or Twitter crowd, but the more technical stuff such as case studies and webinars might be better received by industry experts, potential professional connections and decision-makers on LinkedIn.
Just as you would engage with your audience, potential and existing customers and their questions and concerns on your social media accounts, you might as well do the same at the forum threads of Quora, Reddit, and other online communities to help build brand awareness and your industry expert reputation.
Knowing or understanding your target audience and the platform would also help lead to tapping into influencer marketing, as you observe the most relevant online personalities drawing the most engagement with likes, reactions, shares, retweets, shoutouts, and more. The same can be applied for other companies you can consider partnering with or guest blogging for, as well as other products you can integrate with, allowing you to connect to new customer bases you wouldn’t have otherwise reached. Of course, you would still need to carefully evaluate the pros and any cons of partnering with a particular influencer, company or product.
In addition to a strong online presence, there’s a larger offline community that you shouldn’t forget to connect with as well. Make your presence felt in the real-world by customers, decision-makers, and other field professionals by attending industry events, hosting live demos, participating in local community events or if possible, sponsorship programs.
And what could also be more real to a would-be customer than someone they know who not only uses your product but has good things to say about it? Most marketing strategies focus on new customer acquisition, but it’s been proven time and time again that it’s much more cost-effective to retain an existing client versus acquiring a new one. A key point to keep in mind is to treat an existing client like a new customer by also extending to them special offers from time to time like free trials, limited time promotions, or exclusive first access to new or upcoming features. This sense of exclusivity can help counter feelings and thoughts that only the new customers are getting the better deals. The current customers have, in fact, rightfully earned the privileges of loyalty. Imagine how much more powerful and transformative it is to have positive word-of-mouth generated by a long-time customer advocating in your behalf, thanks to this sense of exclusivity and belonging they feel.
Copyright geralt (Pixabay)
Like we’ve noted earlier, optimizing the user experience from prospect to advocate based on the perspective of your customer goes hand-in-hand with the conventional software marketing approach of identifying and targeting your ideal consumer. It might be a novel approach to you, or you already have a lot on your plate with the myriad of software marketing strategies available, but you just couldn’t dare leave any stone unturned; worry not, as you can rely on one market research company who has been performing highly innovative and consistent marketing research work for thirty years and counting.
With a variety of services, Cascade Strategies has been conducting, adapting, and innovating market research studies for over three decades for an honor roll of respected clients. In addition to incorporating ground-breaking methodologies, Cascade Strategies also takes full advantage of the high level of professional research experience and imagination our staff brings to the table to uncover breakthroughs leading to the best marketing solutions for your company. Contact Cascade Strategies today to learn how we can help your software development company do a better job of targeting new customers.
Mar
Can Psychographic Segmentation Help Financial Services Companies?
jerry9789 0 comments Brand Surveys and Testing, Burning Questions
Why Is Market Segmentation Effective?
By now you’ve most likely come across the idea that instead of using the “blanket” approach for marketing by using demographic or geographic data, you and your marketing goals can be better served by identifying your ideal customer and then focusing and tailoring your marketing campaign towards that consumer. This is achieved through a high-quality segmentation study and persona development, as was the case with the “Strivers” and “Empath” personas in our Banner Bank and Capital One case studies, respectively.
To sum it up, when we developed a brand model identifying “Strivers” as the primary segment Banner Bank should focus on, they were able to not only meet but also exceed all key Striver product targets system-wide after two years of implementing the program. Also, we recommended Capital One focus their brand campaign efforts for a personal investment mobile app on the pragmatic thinking type “Empath,” resulting in a highly successful new product introduction. You can learn more about these two case studies and how great research can help financial services companies here.
By recognizing your profit-optimal customer through market segmentation, a financial services company can effectively focus its marketing efforts and resources, optimizing or helping drive down costs, while at the same time engaging more efficiently with the consumer, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty.
But what if we tell you that you can also segment your financial services market so you target not one but different groups of customers?
Copyright geralt (Pixabay)
Single-segment Focus vs. Multi-segment Strategies
“Now hold on a minute,” you might say in your mind as you read that last line. “Didn’t you just say at the beginning of this that identifying your best customer is better than the ‘blanket’ approach?”
Yes, we did say that but no, this is no “blanket” approach. The main reason a financial services company wants to complete market segmentation research is so they can gain actionable insights into how to sell more of their products or services. With high-quality segmentation studies, breaking down your financial services market into different groups uncovers a variety of insights allowing you to craft and leverage different marketing strategies toward these segments. With this data-driven approach, customer segmentation helps financial services companies decide how to offer a customized journey to different kinds of consumers. It also provides the opportunity to tap into niche segments, which are usually smaller groups with considerable potential.
Think of it this way: instead of a blanket, what you have is a different set of marketing playbooks for your various customer segments. The blanket covers primarily the “who” of your market; each of your playbooks identifies not only “who” they are for but also deep dive into answering questions like “what” type of buyer behavior they have, “why” they behave this way, and “how” best to approach and engage them.
Copyright Gerd Altmann
Why Use Psychographic Segmentation?
Generally, four types of market segmentations can provide a financial services company with actionable segments: Geographic Segmentation, Demographic Segmentation, Behavioral Segmentation, and Attitudinal or Psychographic Segmentation. Out of these four, we’ll be focusing on Attitudinal or Psychographic Segmentation, as it is often considered the most useful way to segment an audience.
Attitudinal or Psychographic Segmentation separates customers by how they think and feel, their attitudes and values. Essentially, it aims to become a window into a buyer’s thought process. It is often considered the most useful segmentation approach because it provides the clearest actionable steps for a company to take as they try to target each segment.
Not only do you gain a deeper understanding of who your customer is, but your financial institution can map out the customer journey more effectively and efficiently with Psychographic Segmentation. It also allows the financial services company to recognize opportunities to offer different or new products/services in response to changes in consumer behavior. In addition to improved customer satisfaction and retention resulting from a client feeling valued, a financial institution that effectively engages with its consumers can also enjoy increased brand perception, helping with word-of-mouth and referrals as well as stand out from the competition.
Segmentation study data can come from several sources including survey data, observational data, public panel data, customer relationship management (CRM) databases, and even large-scale public databases such as Data Axle (previously InfoUSA), Experian, LiveRamp (previously Acxiom), and the like. It’s also possible to append demographic and behavioral data to your company’s house list. A financial services company is already sitting on a large pool of customer data; while it’s easy to go down the route of Geographic or Demographic Segmentation when analyzing all that information, converting those data into actionable insights with Psychographic Segmentation would lead to more personalized and meaningful buyer experiences.
Whether it’s for single or multiple segments, Psychographic Segmentation studies can tell you why a particular marketing or messaging approach to a particular segment is likely to be profitable. They can also tell you how to make adjustments toward more effective approaches when the standard approaches are not working. There are many financial services companies that tried demographic targeting and were disappointed with the results, then switched to psychographic targeting and found that their messaging strategies produced much higher rates of response and conversion.
Copyright Andrea Piacquadio
Cascade Strategies combines the most advanced AI and machine learning tools with market research expertise from over three decades of experience. Let us help your financial services firm convert your customer data into valuable, real, and actionable business insights. Don’t settle for a simple breakdown of your customer data; our experienced team strives for genuine breakthroughs by imaginatively interpreting all that complex quantitative segmentation data. We can also develop creative briefs that can be used for your advertising and website strategy based on the segments we discover, as well as tackle practical tasks, such as predicting the likely revenue to flow from campaigns directed toward specific consumer segments and measuring the actual monetary effectiveness of such campaigns. Contact Cascade Strategies today to see how our approach to segmentation studies can give you real business insights.
Aug
Nursing Homes Close as Need for Care Grows
jerry9789 0 comments Brand Surveys and Testing, Brandview World
Nursing Home Challenges
According to a report by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) in April 2022, more than 1,000 nursing homes have closed since 2015. This breaks down to 776 closures before the COVID-19 pandemic and 327 closures during the pandemic.
The same report also projected 400 nursing homes to close in 2022 based on financials at the time. While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported 135 nursing homes closing in 2022, it is believed the number could be higher. This is due to possible discrepancies between the time a closure plan is submitted by a facility and its full execution to be listed in the federal database.
Staffing shortages and low reimbursement have long been recognized as factors for nursing home closures even before the pandemic. Rising wages and increased operation and maintenance costs in recent years exacerbated the situation, especially in rural areas.
The Impact of Nursing Home Closings
These closures resulted in former residents transferring to another facility, which in most cases, was farther from home. Some even must move twice after the first nursing home they transferred to subsequently closed. The process could also take weeks as social workers look for placements so a patient might find themself staying in a hospital in the meantime. Conversely, some nursing care facilities are keeping beds vacant because they don’t have enough workers.
Amidst these challenges, the need for long-term care grows with baby boomers joining this group.
Copyright Kampus Production
Nursing Home Alternatives
While the pandemic put a spotlight on the difficulties faced by the nursing care industry, it also opens opportunities for reforming and improving nursing homes. It also paves the way for exploring nursing home alternatives, such as in-home care for seniors. However, home care may prove to be the more expensive option and while it offers more personal and tailored assistance, you might have a senior who prefers or thrives more in a group setting like the one offered by assisted living communities.
Then there are group homes and family-style nursing homes, which are both small-scale options for assisted living. While a typical nursing home holds over 100 resident beds on average, a group home can house between five to 10 people (or 20, depending on the state) while family-style homes host 10 to 20 beds. These setups allow for more personalized care and a higher staff-to-client ratio in a sociable, homelike setting with home-cooked meals.
Due to being smaller in scale and not as advertised as regular nursing facilities, most group homes might slip past the radar of older adults or their loved ones seeking assisted living. With well-developed branding, however, smaller-scale assisted living communities can stand out even from the shadows of larger facilities and get their message across better to the seniors most suited for the living arrangements they offer.
Cascade Strategies can help you develop your branding, thanks to an array of services such as Brand Development Research and Segmentation Studies backed by over three decades of experience. Whether you are a smaller residential care home trying to get the word out or a larger assisted living community looking to reach the ideal senior or even the skilled nurses you need, we can help you find the right market research solution for your branding needs.
Jul
How to Market Your Software Company in 5 Steps
jerry9789 0 comments Brand Surveys and Testing, Brandview World, Burning Questions
According to Investopedia, only 80% of startups survived after one year, with reasons for failure ranging from money running out, being in the wrong market, lack of research, bad partnerships, ineffective marketing, and not being an expert in the industry. As a counterpoint, they cite activities such as setting goals, accurate research, loving the work, and not quitting as ways a small business can avoid failing.
Is it really that simple? Maybe not, but here at Cascade Strategies we believe it’s at least reducible to a clear step-by-step process. Here are our ideas — 5 steps on how to market your software company effectively.
1. Identify brand, goals and what makes your company unique
The first step in marketing a software (or company in general) is to determine your strategy by identifying and building around your goals. In addition to generating revenue, are you planning to establish a niche in your market? Is it also in your plans to continually develop your software through organic user feedback? You will also need to come up with a brand that not only aligns with the goals you come up with, but also helps you stand out from the competition. With thousands of software companies in the market, you’ll need to highlight what makes your software unique and what new or different property you bring to the table. A clear identity not only makes your brand more recognizable, but also makes it more strongly connected to the values you represent, leading to the formation and promotion of your reputation.
2. Identify target audience, especially the decision maker
Part of a marketing strategy is recognizing not only who you should be selling to but also who will most likely convert to a loyal customer. Through demographics, psychographics and segmentation, you’ll be able to form or identify your ideal customer and thus focus your marketing efforts on this particular client type. However, it works a little differently with Software as a Service (SaaS), since you will often need to appeal to a specific decision maker at a company (i.e., a specific title) who will have the strongest hand in choosing your particular software over competitors. You can confront this problem by not only flaunting what your software does best but also extolling the benefits it brings to the workplace in terms of productivity and efficiency.
3. Create a strong online presence (website, social media, SEO, email marketing, influencer marketing, video marketing)
As a software company, it’s vital that online marketing be part of your strategy. You can utilize traditional marketing, but online marketing offers more advantages when it comes to product promotion and customer engagement. For starters, it’s more cost effective and gets faster results. Webfx.com goes into detail regarding the advantages online or digital marketing possesses over traditional channels here.
Your website will need to be optimized for both SEO (so you rank in search pages) and function (so you effectively represent the quality of your brand). A slow or glitchy software company website won’t bode well for the performance of the product you’re selling. Keep your websites and social media pages up-to-date and active as much as possible to make them welcoming and inviting for customer interaction and feedback. Try to maintain your online presence on more than one social media page. Teamdeck said it best on the importance of social media: If a company doesn’t exist on social media, it looks suspicious.
Collaborate with influencers with similar values who have a following matching your intended audience. Reputable influencers can greatly help boost product sales and trust by lending their credibility to your offering. And don’t forget coming up with relevant and appealing videos: the essential message of lengthy prose literature can be delivered just as effectively and in lesser time with a well-made video.
4. Personalize or be relatable (origin story, client success stories, face-to-face meetings, events or interactions, what common problem you want to solve and how your product solves it)
Software companies can run the risk of employing too much technical jargon in their marketing, so why not try the more personable, relatable approach? Develop a simple but well-written account of how your company started or an entertaining retelling of the original question or dilemma that you sought to resolve through the development of your software. Even better if this question or dilemma can be framed in a common or everyday situation that most people can relate to.
Client success stories are just as effective as direct customer testimonials might be in similar situations. Potential customers might be encouraged to use or continue to use your product knowing it can be instrumental in the resolution of the problems they’re facing. But these are not the only places where you can be relatable. Face-to-face meetings or events to promote your product or engage with your customers can bring your company out of any cold, impersonal impression they might otherwise have.
5. Let prospective clients experience your product (demos, Freemium, free trial/limited time offers)
And to tie into the last point, personal events also present the opportunity for demos. Just imagine all those prospects you can convert by giving them firsthand experience with your product while offering them real-time assistance with any questions or problems they might have. Live demos are one of the best ways to show off what your software does best while forming a connection to a prospective client. Of course, you’re not only limited to demos, as you can also let customers experience your product with free trial/limited time offers and Freemium subscriptions. The latter allows prospects to enjoy some basic features of your software without the time pressure of the former. This way, they’re able to get a good feel for how they can benefit from your software and perhaps edge closer to a Premium subscription to unlock more features.
Copyright Mohamed_hassan (Pixabay)
These 5 steps should help get you out the door in creating a good marketing strategy for your software company. But as pointed out by feedough.com, once people start using your software, you need to keep them engaged so they renew their subscription and recommend it to others. Maintain the relationships you form with your customers by continually following these outlined steps, making reasonable adjustments every now and then as the market and trends shift.
Some further reading:
https://www.webfx.com/industries/tech/software/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-effective-marketing-strategies-software-companies-shahmeer-khan
https://teamdeck.io/toolbox/marketing-strategy-for-a-software-house-what-should-it-include/
https://www.feedough.com/software-marketing-strategy/
https://blog.tmetric.com/7-marketing-strategies-for-software-development-companies/
Jun
Great Research Can Help Assisted Living Facilities Attract the Right Clients
jerry9789 0 comments Brand Surveys and Testing, Brandview World, Burning Questions
Is your loved one’s home not as clean and tidy as before? Do they have an empty refrigerator or is it filled with spoiled food? Frequent bruises? Same clothes every day? Do they appear to become forgetful, depressed or exhibiting strange or inappropriate behaviors?
These are just some questions that HelpGuide.org has gathered when looking for signs that an older adult might need assisted living. And when these questions start crossing the minds of their loved ones, they are likely at the point they’ll begin discussing and considering this option with them.
How to properly brand your ALF
As a healthcare professional specializing in assisted living, how do you ensure that you clearly brand yourself, the services you offer and the demographic that you’re serving? How do you differentiate yourself from retirement communities designed for seniors who can generally care for themselves or nursing homes with round-the-clock medical care and supervision? How do you reach out to the right audience, the active and social older adults needing help with daily living?
The first step towards attracting the attention of the right people is making a distinction from the other types of senior living. According to Forbes.com, assisted living facilities can be freestanding communities but also part of a retirement community, nursing homes or hospitals, so it’s certainly understandable why some would be confused and lump these services together. Hence the importance of highlighting that you cater to older adults who — while independent — need assistance doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, going to the bathroom, managing medicines, or even traveling to appointments.
As noted by HelpGuide.org, assisted living offers the safety and security of 24-hour supervision. However, you will need to point out that help requires a phone call since assisted living encourages privacy and independence. In fact, some good assisted living facilities can develop a personalized plan that keeps in mind the needs, challenges and disabilities of an older adult, while still allowing enough freedom for them to do as they please with their time.
You’ll also need to be clear about the type of assisted living facility that’ll be hosting the client. Will they be moving into a residential type that’s either a converted home, apartment complex or even a renovated school? Or do you offer apartment-style living with scaled down kitchens? And if you just provide bedrooms, do they need to share a room or have the option to pay for their own at a higher cost? Does your facility host a group dining area and common areas for socialization and recreation?
How market research can help you attract the right clientele
These are critical questions that can be answered by well-designed and executed market research. And there are even more questions that you’ll discover as you develop your brand and identify how to best reach out to your ideal clients.
Copyright Marcus Aurelius (Pexels)
You’ll need to be ready to answer questions about staffing, or proactively make information like this readily available for anyone looking into their options for assisted living. How many staff do you employ that are responsible for residents’ care? How many of them are working at any given time? Do you have enough members to cover one that goes on leave? Is staffing different at night? What are their duties? Do they interact with residents? Do you have registered nurses on site? Are they able to handle or trained for emergencies?
The same goes for questions about the facility. What is the housekeeping schedule? How do you ensure the safety and security of residents? Are the bathrooms easy to access and do they have grab bars? In case of an emergency, how do residents contact the staff? How good and nutritious is the food? Can you provide information on menu options? Can a resident eat at their room? What hobbies or activities are offered onsite? Is there transportation available? What amenities are included?
More importantly, people looking into assisted living facilities are most likely going to value an environment that seems friendly, safe, and comfortable. The facility is also expected to be clean and well-maintained. And while what feels like home is subjective, being able to answer as many questions or provide pertinent information as you can puts you closer to the ideal resident.
Copyright Cottonbro Studio
Otherwise, you can help those that weren’t a good fit at the very least to understand better what they are looking for or what they need to help them in their search to find the best facility for them. They might even realize that another type of senior living might be better for them.
How Cascade Strategies can help
Cascade Strategies has been helping healthcare companies sort out issues like these for over 30 years. Thanks to an array of services such as Brand Development Research and Segmentation Studies, we are able to help healthcare companies make their brand stand out and become more profitable in addition to enlightening them on their customer types and how to best address their needs. Please see our website and case histories.
Here are some suggestions for further reading:
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/senior-housing/assisted-living-facilities.htm
https://www.seniorliving.org/assisted-living/
https://www.forbes.com/health/senior-living/how-to-find-the-best-assisted-living-facility/
Jun
Appropriate Use of AI
jerry9789 0 comments artificial intelligence, Brand Surveys and Testing, Brandview World, Burning Questions
The Rise Of AI
Believe it or not, Artificial Intelligence has existed for more than 50 years. But as the European Parliament pointed out, it wasn’t until recent advances in computing power, algorithm and data availability accelerated breakthroughs in AI technologies in modern times. 2022 alone made AI relatively mainstream with the sudden popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
But that’s not to say that AI hasn’t already been incorporated in our daily lives- from web searches to online shopping and advertising, from digital assistants on your smartphones to self-driving vehicles, from cybersecurity to the fight against disinformation on social media, AI-powered applications have been employed to enable automation and increase productivity.
The Woes Of AI
However, the rise of AI also brings concerns and worries over its expanding use across industries and day-to-day activities. Perceived negative socio-political effects, the threat of AI-powered processes taking over human employment, the advent of intelligent machines capable of evolving past their programming and human supervision- that last one is mostly inspired by the realm of science fiction but a plausible possibility nonetheless. A more grounded and present-day concern, however, is the overreliance and misuse of Artificial Intelligence.
Copyright geralt (Pixabay)
Sure, AI is able to perform a variety of simple and complex tasks by simulating human intelligence, efficiently and quickly producing objective and accurate results. However, there are some activities requiring discernment, abstraction and creativity, where AI’s approximation of human thinking falls short. Cognitive exercises like these not only need high-level thinking but also involve value judgments honed and subjected by human experience.
The Expedia Group Case Study
This brings us to our case study for the Expedia Group, whose brand has around a million hospitality partners. Their goal is to increase engagement with their partners. For five years, Expedia grouped their lodging partners, which at the time were mostly chain hotels, with a segmentation model that helped guide their partner sales teams on how they should prioritize spending their time. This “advice” Expedia provides comes through marketing, in-product or through the partner’s account manager. When a partner takes advantage of Expedia’s advice, they usually receive the booking over their competitor.
Copyright geralt (Pixabay)
Now you can imagine that Expedia has thousands of advices or recommendations to give their partners. So how does Expedia determine which recommendation will most likely push their partner to act accordingly and produce optimal revenue?
If you answered “Use AI,” you’re on the right track. With thousands of possible decisions, Expedia just wants AI to filter the bad choices and boil it down to a few but good recommendations optimizing revenue. Expedia wants to use AI to help with decisions, but it doesn’t want AI to make that decision for them or their partners.
Copyright Seanbatty (Pixabay)
But now things are different- Expedia’s partners have grown to also include independent hotels and vacation rentals. So what if Expedia adds additional dimensions to the model allowing them to target partners with recommendations that would be best for their way of thinking and feeling, as well as appeal to their primary motivations as a property?
So that’s exactly where Cascade Strategies stepped in. We followed a disciplined process where — just to name a few things we’ve performed — we interviewed 1200 partners and prospects across 10 countries in 4 regions, converted emotional factors into numeric values and used advanced forms of Machine Learning to arrive at optimal segmentation solutions. Through this five-step disciplined process, we built them a psychographic segmentation formed into subgroups based on patterns of thinking, feeling and perceiving to explain and predict behavior.
Copyright Pavel Danilyuk
It “conceived the game anew” for Expedia Group (in a way suggested by Eric Schmidt and company in their book The Age of AI: And Our Human Future). Now seeing their partners in a different light, they needed to evolve their communications to reflect the new way they view them with the end goal of targeting which segment with which offer. The messages they would deploy should be very action-oriented based on what compels each segment.
Cascade Strategies then created an application called Scenario Analyzer to make this easy for people at Expedia. Its users could just ask the Scenario Analyzer what’s the optimal decision for certain input conditions. Basically, a marketer selects a target group and a region then the Scenario Analyzer answers by saying “You could do any of these six things and you’d make some money. It’s your call.”
If the partner does nothing, Expedia still makes about $1.5 million from these partners during a 90-day period, which is part of their regular business momentum. However, if the partner acts on the top-ranked recommendation which carries the message “Maximize your revenue potential by driving more groups or corporate business to your property,” it would result in about $140,000 more during the same period, which is about a 1% gain. While we couldn’t reach all partners with the same message, causing us to lower our expectations a little, we did slightly better than we expected to do in the end.
The “Appropriate Use” of AI
So what did we did do? We made “Appropriate Use” of AI. It neither made the decision nor guaranteed the money. It warded off the worst ideas and told us which recommendation was best in comparative terms.
Many people in marketing are treating AI as the next cool thing, so they want to jam it in wherever they can, whether it’s helpful or not. “Appropriate Use” stands against that, saying the best way to apply AI to marketing is for Decision Support to remain under human discretion and judgment, instead of letting AI actually make choices.
We think AI can at times be a very poor decision maker but a very good advisor. And we’re not alone as many others share our concern; to illustrate, 61% of Europeans look favorably at AI and robots while 88% say these technologies require careful management.
Another example to consider when thinking about just how important human intervention is when it comes to the “Appropriate Use” of AI is the topic of health care. As noted by frontiersin.org, the legal and regulatory framework may not be well-developed for the practice of medicine and public health in some parts of the world. Throwing artificial intelligence into the mix without careful and thoughtful planning might underscore or aggravate existing health disparities among different demographic groups.
And this is part of the reason why we believe in shaping AI with human values, including the dignity and moral agency of humans. The “defining future technology” that is AI is already proving to be a powerful tool for providing solutions and achieving goals, but it can only unlock levels of excellence, innovation and integrity when guided appropriately by human values and experience.
Other interesting reads:
https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-ai-technology-how-used2003.html#close
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/artificial-intelligence-ai.asp
Jun
How Great Research Produces Great Campaigns
jerry9789 0 comments artificial intelligence, Brand Surveys and Testing, Brandview World, Burning Questions
Can AI Produce Your Marketing Campaign?
If you were given the task of developing a global communications campaign for a technical products company, would you let ChatGPT do it?
You might, especially if you noted that ChatGPT could churn out dozens of ads like the one above without paying art directors, copywriters, media professionals, or users of a Demand Side Platform.
But we wouldn’t. This is because it’s hard for AI to produce at the level of excellence, and excellence is what should be sought.
Seeking Excellence in Marketing Campaigns
The ad below is part of an award-winning and profitable “Mentor” campaign for HP. To arrive at this level, HP had to commission very perceptive researchers to spend time with worldwide HP engineers as well as engineers from other companies.
The researchers stretched the intuitive, interpretive, and synthesis-building capacities of their right brains to arrive at a subtle insight that AI would have great difficulty seeing: that HP engineers showed greater qualities of “mentorship” than other engineers. They thought it was important not only to conduct their own technical work, but to impart to others (typically younger people) what they were doing and why what they were doing was important.
It would be very hard indeed to stretch an AI chatbot (or other AI engine) to that deeper level of understanding about what a truly extraordinary ad should do to express the true meaning of a brand to people.
An example from the world of sunglasses
If you were given the job of developing a campaign for a line of sunglasses, you could probably get ChatGPT to produce a large number of ads like the following at little or no cost (with the exception of the cost of the talent).
But AI-produced ads fall short of excellence. AI simply cannot do the incisive interpretive work that humans can do to produce something better.
Researchers working for the Gargoyles brand of sunglasses spent time with those who preferred this brand and made a discovery about them that AI engines would have great difficulty seeing: that many Gargoyles wearers were upward strivers who were at first destined to fail, then turned things around with drive, verve, and strenuous effort.
They had a “storyline of life” worth admiring. To gain this insight, the researchers had to stretch the intuitive and interpretive powers of their brains. They could not simply rely on a summarization of prior human experience in producing ads about sunglasses.
Higher powers AI cannot reach
AI cannot stretch to this level of excellence. It cannot see broader levels of human experience that may be required to produce excellence, such as “how could sunglasses have anything to do with striving?” or “how could a life story of struggling ever be associated with sunglasses?” Hell, generative AI wouldn’t even think to inquire about a storyline of life. But humans can do that when their right brains are performing at a very high level.
The researchers in this case had to sweat the details a little more, spend quality time pondering the higher thematic levels, and drive their brains well beyond summarization to a more sublime expression of the true meaning of a brand to people.
This is the kind of work Cascade Strategies does on a daily basis. Please have a look at some other examples of higher thinking for clients at https://cascadestrategies.com.
People are catching on and speaking out
More people are seeing the chasm between the summarization of human experience that AI can provide and the excellence provided by the greater intuitive powers of the human brain, and they are speaking out about it. One example is Po-Shen Loh, a charismatic math coach who directly confronts AI, challenging his students to attack complex math problems at higher levels of understanding and interpretation than AI could ever provide.
But there are even more people who are discovering this excellence gap, and their voices will grow stronger.
info@cascadestrategies.com
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Issaquah, WA 98027
(425) 677-7430