Don’t get your wires crossed in your social channels. #marketingflaw

Understand your customer.

This is the beginning and end of marketing in my books. Ultimately any idea, product or service is useless without a market to tap into. The greatest idea in the world is useless without someone that needs it or wants it.

A definition of marketing I like is this: 

The management process responsible for identifying , anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably

It is so much more than coordinating promotions. One thing that it should always be about is clearly identifying your target market, the needs of that market and the role of the organisation in offering up a solution. In the wheels of a big corporation things can get overlooked, skipped or simply the priorities can be controlled by the wrong part of the entity.

In the early days of web development, the role of web sites was left in the hands of IT departments, which explains many early web sites (a topic for another day).

I recently wrote a post about the rollout of Event Cinemas new(ish) site. That was an infrastructure and capacity planning post. I alluded to the fact I had more to say, this is part two.

After the initial launch I followed up their social media presence to see how they were handling a) marketing in general and b) complaints about the service.

What I found wasn’t inspiring.

They have invested a lot more since launch in resources to fix capacity of handling issues, but this post isn’t about that. It concerns the simple planning and strategy behind how they are using severalSocial Media Applications. Event Cinemas seem to have weighted their marketing vehicles in Social Media heavily to their staff recruitment programmes and much less to their paying customers. Is this a case of HR running the show?

I totally get the importance of staff in a business, particularly a customer service business. I have run an agency for nearly 13 years, and without good staff it wouldn’t be here (I simply am not that clever). However while reviewing how Event Cinemas have chosen to set up their accounts and strategy it still appears more an oversight than a well thought out strategy. Their Social strategy is being executed poorly in my opinion.

For reference:

Event Cinemas have two Twitter accounts:

1. @event_cinemas this is the main account for movie patrons
2. @eventcinemas : this is a recruiting account

On Facebook things are even worse.

1. The Event Cinemas page is exclusively about their Bigger than Life Events Careers.
2. The only link to the main business fan page is a favourite page link, attached to this, still named Greater Union and Birch Carrol & Coyle.

Remember this national corporation chose to re-brand, so they needed to and should have addressed all re-branding issues, not just the offline and physical ones.

So who matters most to Event Cinemas?

Shouldn’t you and I the paying public be their highest priority? Shouldn’t they be delivering their key messages to us? This is not a complex issue to handle, but their approach has created a confusing and mixed message for consumers. The people who want information on movies, who want to be across this brand, are forced to dig deep to find information relevant to them.

There is a simple strategy to employ here.

For the main brand retain all version of accounts, for that single purpose – talking to customers. Use the easiest account to type and tweet for customers. @eventcinemas should be the primary and only account for customers.
Facebook should also ensure that all messages relating to Event cinemas go through this account.

When the re-brand was launched a strategy to convert users from one page or group to the new one should have been considered. Incentives could have easily been done with Cinebuzz points or other rewards which consumers would have jumped at. A time period to move before closing the page could have been effectively handled to help the business and the consumer.

Separate identities should have been created for their employment business. This recruitment strategy has a name, use it and build it, in it’s own right. ‘Bigger than Life’ should have a clearly distinguishable presence which could still reflect the main business.

Does it matter? Yes it does. At a time when consumers are taking more and more control over their choices, seeking out solutions that make their life easier, and operating on referrals at light speed, sending confusing messages is fraught with danger.

Several points to consider to avoid mixing your messages:

• Make sure each touch point for your business is logical, easy to access and available.
• Don’t mix up your messages. It is okay to have multiple messages, just ensure they get to the right audience.
• Maintain a marketing asset register, i.e. be aware of all the marketing and advertising assets you have control over, so that when you need to make changes they all get covered.
• Remember who pays the bills, and make sure you focus on them first.
• If you don’t understand the medium you are playing in, seek professional help and advice.
• Make sure your digital moves or refurbishments are as well planned and executed as your physical changes. No one forgets to move the phones in their office.
• Remember who pays the bills and make sure you focus on them first (and last)

Well that’s what ireckon anyway.

[let me know what you reckon]