Speaker :

Bert Dumars (@Bwdumars) Newell Rubbermaid

9:30: Bert Dumars is making his way to the stage.

9:32: A true believer in social media, he will share some case studies on how it can go wrong but will start with some insights on what NewellRubbermaid does for their many brands.

9:35: Sharing information on their diverse brands that range from pure consumer to pure industrial, from Calphalon to Graco to Rubbermaid, and Sharpie to Expo and uni-ball, and Irwin Industrial Tools to Lenox tools.

9:36: Companies need to be careful on how and when they jump into social media. Get your brand position and brand strategy set first, because done in a silo they won’t work as well. Integrate with a systematic approach for good results.

9:37: Citing statistics about FB users (500 million), Twitter Tweets (21 billion), so we know there’s hype but also opportunity. But, are we rushing toward a bright, shiny object, he asks? Not if you are strategic and avoid the pitfalls.

9:38: Pitfall #1 – Alienating the Core Consumer. Case study of Motrin who targeted moms about back pain caused by accessories such as baby carriers. Angry moms tweeted, asked readers to boycott product.  But Motrin used social media feedback to gauge early reaction and were able to pull ad campaign.

9:39: Pitfall #2 – Scaling Without A Community. Einstein Bagels pressured to scale social media fans and followers, so replicated mass coupon redemption. Grew fan base at high velocity from 4,700 to 614,000 in six months. The community was built only on freebies and fans trained to expect that.

9:41: Pitfall #3 – Online Hype Does Not Equal Business Results. Dell has been a pioneer online and in social media, and created a Twitter account. Grew followers and positive ROI but not scalable to sales.

9:42: Pitfall #4 – Lack of Integration. In 2009, Hollywood celeb Ashton Kutcher vowed to beat CNN and become first Twitter user with 1 million followers. CNN received publicity for “contest” but did it fit in their brand strategy? Is it what they wanted to be known for, or is their brand instead to be a trusted news source? Don’t get off target and lose that integration with your brand strategy.

9:44: Commentary on Old Spice and Cisco brands and avoiding copycat ad campaigns.

9:45: Says brands fail because they lack a sound business strategy. Cites Coca-Cola exec’s insight that supports this and offers tips to define what brand stands for (target consumer, promise) and what the strategy is  (promise, fulfillment, monetization).

9:48: Your business/brand strategy may or may not include social media in your integrated marketing plan and often depends on budget and bodies. Define your priorities from POP, ads, WOM, sampling, as touchpoints. Rubbermaid adopted a Procter & Gamble Brand Positioning Grid to help do this.

9:50: Rubbermaid Case Study is multi-step focusing on target, brand strategy and touchpoint down to brand consideration and trial and brand shopping purchase. Found that for Rubbermaid, there was a huge messaging strategy in the lid of their containers. Result: developed social media tactics aligned with strategy and extend from marketing plan objectives and this strategy. “Spur conversation about the trials and tribulations of getting organized.”

9:52: Tracked consumer feedback and with more negative comments (negative WOM) online than positive, they dug in through 1-to-1 contact to see why and found instructions were not being used. Able to correct consumer misunderstanding and help consumers to use product correctly and ultimately help retail sales. Without this contact, Rubbermaid wouldn’t have known product wasn’t working until their retail partners stopped ordering.  Now, great business results including 1.9 points household penetration and cites social media as key role to this.

9:56: Sharpie Case Study: Defined target as creative, artistic young adult, and established brand’s positioning as advocate for self expression. A change from past focus, which was celebrity (Hollywood, NASCAR, Disney), and made it all about ‘you.’  Determined key consumer touchpoints that would be most impactful — providing outlets for self expression and show there is a Sharpie for everything. The marketing plan was established on priorities, which included TV ads, social media and the brand’s first community - SharpieUncapped.com.

9:59:  Showing new campaign, which is posted on YouTube. In the ad, all examples of consumer creativity (on cars, on helmets, on skateboards) were real. Showed these on social media platform — for example, one teen couple decorated their clothes for prom. Now, taking it to a Doodle campaign. Can read this on Sharpie’s blog – http://blog.sharpie.com — and consumers can submit their doodles.

10:01: Doodle campaign engages consumer, but from a business perspective drives usage and provides “research” for how consumers are using their Sharpies (e.g. women use them to color in the scraped leather on shoes).

10:03: Important to remember this all fits in their brand strategy — stays consistent and integrated. Says they are “writing success” with more than 1.2 points market share and the biggest writing brand in the U.S.

10:05: But! When we crossed 1 million fans, the workload went up dramatically.

10:06: Bigger numbers mean more spam. Found that when they killed the spam on their page, the fan base grew more.

10:07: Biggest advice if you are starting off: don’t go too fast! Go slow, know your community – that can’t happen if you’re growing fast. Rubbermaid’s Graco has had instances when their community came to their rescue and that wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t know their fans so well.

10:08: Floor open for questions.

10:10: QT: How do you measure? Use SkyWeb, Google, TweetDeck, Facebook Analytics, others to look at not just trends but also opportunities. Through this recently learned of Secret Wars, an underground battle of artwork with monetary prizes that started in Europe and UK and now coming to NY, so presents opportunity.

10:11: QT: Outside of FB and Twitter, what else works? Great results with Flickr for many Rubbermaid brands.

10:12: QT: Does social media work best for B2C vs B2B? For B2C, it’s a great customer service tool. Commercial, it becomes very targeted and you need to know where it works and where it’s a waste of time and where your numbers might be lower but know those numbers are fine because they are so targeted. Cites Intel as an example.

10:15: QT: Tell us more about SharpieUncapped, how it works. We wanted it to be a home where people can display their work and where we can showcase their work. From there, we will need to drive them to the next step and integrate properties – blog, website — and drive participants to buy. It is important to know when the right time is to monetize without alienating your community.

10:20: QT: How many people does it take to do your social media? Rubbermaid has a matrix organization with eMarketing Managers and Communications Managers who all work together on social media with some having support from an agency (depending on the brand).

10:21: QT: What is agency role? They supplement in many ways, to wrap around our team. Help find opportunities. Help guide consumers to customer service. Help manage ambassador program. Help with metrics and measurements, which is extremely time consuming.

That’s it!

Filed under: Social Media

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