NEW YORK— In this heyday of social media, sometimes it is good to recall the importance and usefulness of offline communication when retailing is involved, suggested Ed Keller, chief executive officer of Engagement Labs.
Platform providers and other media send the message that consumer shopping choices are greatly influenced by digital communication, but Keller said that an analysis finds that out of 60 brands studied, conversations about retail brands still mostly happen offline in face-to-face conversations.
Keller and his Engagement Labs created TotalSocial rankings, based on proprietary data, which continuously measure the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and face-to-face conversations.
A white paper written by Keller and Brad Fay noted, “While many assume the rising power of word of mouth is linked to the rise of social media, only 10% of conversations about products, services and brands takes place online, while 90% still occurs offline— at home, work or when gathering in social settings of various sorts.”
One of the conclusions of that paper, entitled “Comparing Online and Offline Word of Mouth,” was that “offline conversations are more positive about brands, more credible and more likely to lead to purchase intention.”
Among the housewares-selling retailers ranked by TotalSocial, Keller said, “One that stands out is Ikea.” He said the difference between Ikea and Bed Bath & Beyond, for example, is that Ikea “does well both online and offline. Bed Bath & Beyond, on the other hand, does well offline, but online it’s below average.”
Among the factors that put Bed Bath & Beyond in the top ten brands in face-to-face conversations are the 20% discount coupons in fliers and sent through the mail by the retailer. “That’s how they generate conversation,” Keller said. Bed Bath & Beyond is “perpetually reminding you of its 20% off coupon and that generates high offline conversation. This really works well for Bed Bath & Beyond.”
There are four metrics that go into both offline and online measurements: volume, sentiment, brand sharing and how well a brand does among influencers. The last metric Keller described as: “Is your marketing making conversation happen?”
Face-to-face conversations draw two-to-three times as many sales as online, Keller noted. However, he quickly added, upscale brands and those involving more style or creativity generally get more attention on digital media.
“Social media is easier to measure; it leaves a digital footprint,” Keller said.
This may lead to an overemphasis on social media since brand managers can have a “war room” where the numbers are sliced and diced for marketing purposes, he suggested.
Keller cautioned that he is not finding fault with social media messages and how they are used. “I think social media is good, but I also think it is just as important to look at offline talk,” he said.
Online and offline conversations are not mutually exclusive nor are they necessarily adversarial, Keller insisted, since offline conversation can be driven by online content.
Keller, the author of a book on consumer behavior called “Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Eat and What to Buy,” maintained that TotalSocial scores are predictive of sales because the data is being collected continuously and they are “influencing business performance in a dynamic retail market,” he said.