So how do you move to a user-centric approach for marketing? Simple. Make understanding the customer’s goals and needs your top priority. Drive hard to mine the user insight needed to create great experiences.

Time, priority and money are the roadblocks. User research is the intangible marketing spend that is seemingly unnecessary to the end deliverable. But not spending time on user research and analysis is a critical mistake. It is like trying to design a chair without understanding who will be sitting in it, or creating software without considering on what kind of computer it will be installed. Innovation occurs when users’ challenges are understood, new solutions are explored, and the selected solutions become successful and critical for the end audience’s achievement of their goal. And any user research is better than none. In many cases, focusing on key audiences will inherently take care of the secondary audience’s needs.

Brands must create two-way experiences that are useful, usable and desirable in the achievement of a user’s goals. Where those user goals align with a brand’s business objective is the marketing sweet spot.

by Mike Tittel
Executive Creative Director – Cincinnati

Follow Mike on Twitter @tittel.

Cross-posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

It’s a culture of relevance.

It’s an idea.

And it is so ingrained in the DNA of APPL that only a deliberate deviation from that idea can screw it up.

It was clear in the mid-1970s that individual computing machines were the future. Everybody knew it, but only Apple did something about it. What Jobs and Steve Wozniak did more than 30 years ago had never been contemplated before and is too seldom considered now: They made technology humanly relevant.

Mike Tittel is the executive creative director of our Cincinnati office. He loves to say, “Everything I’ve ever wanted to do with a computer, I can do with a Mac.”

Want is an important word.

While other technology companies focused on spreadsheets and processing speeds, while IBM and Burroughs built systems for tasks people had to do, Apple made very personal devices to help people do what they wanted to do.

And to achieve what they wanted to achieve.

Those of us who work in marketing and other communications disciplines today almost take this innovation for granted. We know why the Macintosh, the iPhone, the iPad and even the iPod make sense. They have become an essential part of our business and personal lives. If you told someone to go without something for a day—be it a car, food, housing or iPhone—it’s almost certain that person would give up everything else before the beloved smartphone.

It’s hard to imagine life without these technologies, and it’s equally hard to imagine the man who brought them to us is gone.

Many eulogies will be written for Steve Jobs as the cofounder and (some say) savior of Apple. What he accomplished in product development in his too-short life, of course, cannot be denied. But more important is his impact beyond the walls of his Cupertino empire.

He changed the way the world thinks about tools and technology. Some would say he changed the world.

by Adryanna Sutherland
President, gyro Cincinnati

Follow Adryanna on Twitter @Adry99.

Cross-posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

·     Interactive marketing has established legitimacy within the marketing mix. Watch for digital programs to become a more strategic outlet for integrated communications.

·     Search will lose share among digital marketing tactics, but will still grow into a $33 billion/year channel.

·     Display, mobile and social will all enjoy healthy gains. Social will lag behind the growth of the other channels, but only because social executions tend to be less costly.

Clearly, the digital marketing industry is booming. Beyond the obvious growth trend, Forrester’s projection that an age of multichannel digital communications is before us is most intriguing. Search is slated to retain its position as the most dominant channel, but tomorrow’s search will require an understanding of its role within a larger, more integrated context.

One could point to several factors that lead to these projections:

1.  Online consumers are smarter and empowered with more research tools today than ever before. Even the simplest of online transactions is becoming more considered and scrutinized.

2.  The evolution of the Web itself has facilitated an environment of research and self-discovery. Consumers are relying on social networks, online reviews, video demonstrations, mobile applications, and other technologies to inform a purchase decision.

3.  Smarter data analytics allow for a truer valuation of each online touch point.

It’s that last point that holds so much promise for Web marketers. With digital marketing becoming more diversified, it’s fair to say that the days of launching a single-tactic campaign and watching conversions roll in are gone. A multi-touch presence is required to engage and convert today’s sophisticated online consumer.

The challenge then is how to best optimize across channels.

Google Analytics’ Multichannel Funnels

Perhaps it was coincidence that Forrester’s research was introduced the same week that Google announced the public availability of its new Multichannel Funnels feature within Google Analytics. Multichannel funnels are intended to empower users of Google Analytics to understand the full range of influences that lead to conversion.

According to Google:

“When a customer buys or converts on your site, most conversion tracking tools credit the most recent link or ad clicked. In reality though, customers research, compare and make purchase decisions via multiple touch points across multiple channels. So marketers that measure return solely on the last channel that a customer touches before conversion are getting an incomplete picture, and potentially missing out on important opportunities to reach their customers.”

This form of conversion analysis is referred to as multichannel attribution, and is certainly not a new concept. Early pioneers in multichannel analytics include ClearSaleing, Atlas Solutions, DoubleClick, and Omniture. But these tools have been geared towards the advanced web analyst, and come with premium pricing. Now, Google has introduced similar insights to its users….for free.

Given the latest Forrester data, it seems as if Google has timed this market perfectly, but let’s look a bit deeper into the ramifications of these “enhancements.”

Google Analytics has somewhat notoriously facilitated the rise of the novice (and often uninformed) Web analyst. Prior to Google (and still to this day for some), organizations shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to understand how website visitors came to them and what they did upon arrival. That type of investment isn’t insignificant.

Companies that my agency works with who have made similar investments universally have in-house web analytics specialists to make sense of the data, create and share dashboards and reports. Most of our clients who have opted to go the Google route lack a dedicated specialist overseeing data. If anyone is responsible, it’s usually a generalist web marketer, or worse, an IT staffer.

I fear that by introducing Multichannel Funnels to these types of users, Google may have just opened up a Pandora’s box. Without expert oversight, this data can lead to faulty conclusions and “optimization” efforts that can hurt a company’s bottom line.

The Digital Marketer’s Role

For the modern digital marketer to flourish in this new multichannel reality, a fluency in data is required. Investigate some of the more popular attribution models online and commit to ongoing experimentation. Modern digital marketers will learn to identify unique marketplace dynamics.

Even if someone else does the number crunching, appreciating the fact that multi-touch scenarios are complex will serve your programs well.

by Ryan DeShazer
Vice President, Global Practice Leader – Search

Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanDeShazer

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD

Imagine how intimidating a hospital visit or stay can be for a child. Sterile, cold, institutional, and with unfamiliar faces that inevitably bring pain. Most hospitals are not a kid’s favorite place to hang out.

Yet, Children’s Hospital Colorado has created a brand experience that not only helps kids better cope with emotional stress and heal faster but has also built a brand advocate of one mother and a loyal customer of a small boy.

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD’S EXPERIENCE

The first time my son Russell entered the Children’s Hospital Colorado, he thought it was a play center. The grand entrance is open, airy, filled with natural light and designed with cheerful colors. Any anxiety Russell had about being poked and prodded vanished as he (and I) soaked in the colorful environment.

Russell had so many wonderful distractions on the way to his appointment: a ball maze, a life-size purple cow, wall collages that look like snowflakes from a distance. (But get closer and you notice the snowflakes are baseball players or greyhounds chasing rabbits.)

CHC uses color therapy and art to provide a welcome distraction and engage kids, which helps them heal faster and, in Russell’s case, ease anxieties. As research shows that natural light and views of nature help kids heal physically and mentally, CHC recovery areas and patient rooms include floor-to-ceiling windows and views of Colorado’s landscape.

THAT WASN’T SO BAD

We enter the brightly lit and welcoming exam room, which includes toys and child-sized chairs. The nurses and doctors are friendly and upbeat, and they quickly befriend Russell. The doctor logs into CHC’s central database, which captures every visit, diagnosis, surgery and prescription. No paperwork getting misplaced. No deciphering physicians’ notoriously poor handwriting. No pressure on me to keep a log of every single detail. As a mother, I was thrilled. As a direct marketer, I was impressed. The doctor explains to Russell the test he will perform in a manner that a four-year-old can understand, and Russell leaves willingly with the nurse.

As I await his return, I don’t hear much—literally. CHC employs sound-reducing materials because studies show noisy hospitals lengthen recovery times. Medical machines have silencers, and specially designed acoustic ceiling panels keep voices from carrying. The neonatal ICU even has rubberized floor tiles to deafen the sound of footsteps.

PARENTS NEED SUPPORT TOO

CHC recognizes that hospital visits and stays can be emotionally stressful for parents, especially those of children with serious illnesses. CHC provides free valet parking and red wagons to easily transport children and gear through the hospital.

Private patient rooms include sofa beds so parents can stay close to their children, and a concierge service helps with everyday tasks such as laundry and travel arrangements.

As Russell and I leave the hospital, he asks if we can arrive a little earlier next time so he can explore the rest of the hospital.

THREE LESSONS FOR MARKETERS

Use research to help define the experience your target needs or wants: CHC incorporates scientifically proven methods and factors in its facility design and approach to patient care to advance patient healing.

Understand what other factors affect your target’s experience:CHC recognizes that when parents are less stressed, their children are less stressed, which, in turn, helps speed up a child’s recovery. CHC services that help ease parents’ stress levels ultimately help patients.

Evolve your brand experience over time: CHC has added a lemonade cart that strolls through the hospital, and the hospital offers KidStreet, a garden that is wheelchair accessible and built with materials that are dust-free and do not attract bees.

What great brand experience have you had recently?

by Daphne Fink-Taber
General Manager – gyro Denver

Cross posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Useful, usable and desirable. Those are the buzz words of utility. And they are amazingly relevant. If your company’s product or service doesn’t fulfill those three tenets, you are in jeopardy of becoming, well, quite frankly, irrelevant, not used and not needed.

As marketing and advertising change gears from a model of disruption and intrusion to a model of audiences choosing the who, what, where and when to engage a brand, the agencies that are versed in user-centric design strategies are the ones that feel at home in this landscape. These three basic principles are no secret to digital agencies and have worked over the last decade. To us, it has always been about user-centric design. Our products have always been subject to precise scrutiny, usability tests, human factors and user analysis. In many ways, digital designers share several commonalities with architects, designers of cars, furniture, products and software. Our products are built to enable people to experience something meaningful and help them achieve their tasks and goals.

So how do you start moving to a user-centric approach for marketing, product and services development? Simple. Make understanding your user’s/customer’s goals and their needs a top priority. Drive hard to mine the user insight needed to create great experiences.

Time, priority and money are the roadblocks. User research is the intangible marketing spend that is seemingly unnecessary to the end deliverable. Companies will say, “We know our customers … we did research years ago, but our audience is simple and hasn’t changed in years. Our customers are complex. There is no way we could understand them entirely. There are too many audiences and we’d never get through the research.”

But not spending time on user research and analysis is a critical mistake. It is like trying to design a chair without understanding who will be sitting in it, or creating software without considering whose computer it will be installed on. Innovation occurs when users’ challenges are understood, new solutions are explored, and the selected solutions become successful and critical for the end audience’s achievement of their goal. And any user research is better than none. In many cases, focusing on key audiences will inherently take care of the secondary audience’s needs. Additionally, there are many ways to get at user needs and goals that are agile and still provide relevance and meaning to a project.

Advertising is obviously changing. It is no longer satisfying for consumers to merely receive brand messages to inform their decisions. Brands must now create two-way experiences that are useful, usable and desirable in the achievement of a user’s goals. Where those user goals align with a brand’s business objective is the marketing sweet spot.

You want innovation? Start with the understanding of your customers’ needs, goals and desires. And then unleash a creative agency on ways to excite, delight and solve those customer challenges and passions.

Mike Tittel
Senior Vice President-
Global Practice Leader-Digital

This has also been posted on Mike Tittel’s blog at: http://artistinthefield.blogspot.com/