Facebook Picture Brightens with Instagram

April 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Android users are more likely to use the picture feature

Android users are younger and more likely to use the picture function - a huge growth potential for Instagram and now Facebook.

The Facebook acquisition of Instagram is amazing on so many levels.  A billion dollars certainly gets a lot of attention, particularly when you are talking about a company that employs only about a dozen people.  But as a defensive move it is brilliant. The launch of the Android Instagram app has phenomenal growth potential for Instagram – and thus is a critical strategic acquisition for Facebook as they launch their IPO.

First, consider the amazing growth of Instagram – even when it served less than half the mobile OS platforms; Apple only, up to just recently with the roll out to the Android platform.

Now look at the Apple user versus the Android user.  There in this Nielsen report the significant differences that jump out include use of the picture feature.  Clearly the Android user is much more likely to picture message and picture download.  The opening of the younger Android market  has the opportunity to launch another Instagram growth spurt.  One that could truly threaten Facebook as it addresses a huge Android population that is similar in size to the Apple user numbers.

So at a billion dollars the acquisition is a cheap way to stop the user flow to another application and a great way to insure a continued strong IPO outlook: another savvy move by Facebook.

Filed under Mobile, SocialMedia Tagged with , , ,

Bottoms up – Facebook forces the necessary

March 20, 2012 Leave a comment

The social marketing revolution has forced the obvious; a bottom up consumer focus that has oft been preached but rarely implemented.  Why?  Because until social media we never had the physical capability of tapping the consumer psyche 24/7 without spending gobs and gobs of research dollars. And because it threatens the predominant top down structure of most marketing organizations.Social media dictates a bottoms up marketing organization

Facebook recently hosted marketers for an event designed around their recommendations for organizational restructuring of marketing around Facebook.  In reporting this, Ad Age first calls this move “Audacious” and then within the same sentence gives a nod to the scale and engagement power of Facebook.  Even the brief “audacious” is a response that speaks more to the resistance of the industry to change.  First it was cable, then it was the internet and now it’s social media.  In each instance consumer use continues to outpaced media dollars spent.  In each instance the marketing business resists and lags.

A Technorati blogger recently observed that each new digital evolution changes the organizational structural needs and quoted  “A recent study and report conducted by SODA [Society of Digital Agencies] & Econsultancy, published for Q1 2012, reveals that 73% of brands are restructuring their marketing organizations in response to demands posed by digital media.”

While it may be that future nuances of the trend of marketing reorganization will be dictated by technology, the one dominant power leading the trend is the consumer.  Bottom up marketing that truly listens to the consumer has to focus on the conduit that allows engagement and listening.  That puts Facebook and the other social networks securely in the lead of marketing organization.

Overdue indeed.  It seems that marketers are the last to figure out that top down marketing is passé.

Filed under Marketing Tagged with

Youth and utility power Google mobile growth

December 20, 2011 Leave a comment

“2011 – The Year of Mobile” end of year articles abound with the rest of the year-end round-up features.  But the mobile landscape is still in major flex as both the operating systems and apps are powered less by cool and more by utility. Android youth and utility dominates

In a mobile buzz world dominated by Apple’s Iphone, Android would appear to be second-rate.  Not so – in a very big way – as Android (53%) is almost double the Apple (29%) operating system market share.  More importantly the Android share growth appears to be powered by the young user… a sign of stronger future potential growth.

How did Android do it? An open culture of licensing coupled with affordable price points are oft attributed to putting Android’s smartphone utility in the hands of iPhone wannabees.  Backed up by good performance Google’s Android continues robust growth.   Apple, apparently content with it’s unmatched profitability, is happy to lead in  price point and allow the Android penetration strategy to run it’s course.  Interesting since a penetration strategy had great profitability growth potential.

The top apps in Androids show how smart Google continues to be in plotting their growth.  Although Facebook easily defends the number one spot across all ages,  Google maintains the following four top apps positions with Google search, Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube.  Note that these apps are all utility based and as such are true to the Android platform in general.

Android has grown from just 9% of the market to 53% in just three years – and the mobile landscape is still fluid and capable of dramatic change.  The strategy of utility and affordability looks to be a formula for Android success in a device that is now considered a consumer necessity.

Filed under Mobile Tagged with , , , , ,

Little Monsters = Target Market?

June 20, 2011 1 Comment

What is a Little Monster?  Hard to describe in traditional target speak. Yet Lady GaGa’s little monsters have turned into a juggernaut with undeniable force. Lady GaGa's Target Market Little Monsters “In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.,”  touts a Mashable case study.

Again, what’s a Little Monster?  Is it a particular age?  Sex? Income level?  Does it fall in a VALS  category or a Prizm or Mosaic cluster?  Yes, all of the above. And yet none of the above by itself captures the little monster.

Marketers continue to be challenged with understanding and defining their target consumer.  Lady Gaga is a great case for seeing how this is done today, with the social media consumer.  Social media marketing is less about who you are targeting than who chooses to connect with you.  Marketing looks a little more like self selection.  And in order to be successful you need to be definable.  You need to mean something.  And you need to be genuine. Lady GaGa clearly is a champion for everyone who feels like they live outside the mainstream.  A little different:  A little monster.  Brilliant!  Who can’t identify with that?!  Lady GaGa’s success can easily be seen through the traditional lens of the 4ps as each is uniquely crafted to the Little Monster.

Is social media the right viewpoint for target market definition?  Given it’s enormity, growth and , transparent nature the answer “Yes!”.  Social media is a requirement for target market definition.  Pay attention to who self selects and hone your positioning to that Little Monster!

Filed under Branding, Music, SocialMedia Tagged with , , , , ,

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