Should Sears Go Social?

 

I’m a Sears girl from way back. My Dual Action Agitator copy, in tandem with the poetic “Save $40 off on this big Kenmore Refrigerator” was nothing short of Steinbeckian. My advertising Alma mater, Ogilvy Chicago, worshipped on the altar of Sears.

So of course I was intrigued by the giant’s latest move — launching a new social network called MySears.

Brandweek reports the chain has registered more than 200,000 MySears users since it rolled out the site in late March. The look-alike site for sister chain MyKmart just launched a week ago. Both are powered by Chicago-based technology company Viewpoints Network.

Retail chain passionistas visiting MySears can express themselves via these increasingly ubiquitous Social Media features: taking polls, connecting with your fellow Sears buddies, creating a social profile, uploading photos, tagging, blogging, and participating in (my favorite part) the Ideas section.

Lest your passion for Sears not be completely fulfilled, consumers can also follow MySears and MyKMart on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter.

According to the Brandweek report, Rob Harles, vp-community for Sears, said the chain’s goal is to glean new insights from customers and give the brand more of a human face. “Ultimately we’re going to try to use this to first and foremost learn about our customers and secondly use those lessons and use that to integrate that into the shopping experience,” Harles said.

Hmm. Translated from the marketing-ese, that sounds suspiciously one-sided. ‘First we’re going to study you and then we’re going to use what we’ve learned to figure out how to sell you more stuff.’  The headline for the site lays it out clearly, assuming you’re there to shop : “Get Advice Before You Buy.”

Obviously I’ve no quarrel with using Social Media to figure out how to better reach customers and improve sales. Profit rocks, especially these days. But it doesn’t take more than 30 seconds of rudimentary Social Media listening tools to tap into the existing conversation about Sears. Much of what’s being said isn’t pretty. Shouldn’t some of this chatter be answered first? (Kind of like cleaning the house before we invite a gaggle of guests over for a big party) Shouldn’t resolving negatives be the first priority of any customer-first company, much less the mission of a new participatory consumer site?

A sampling:

RITBeast: Reminder: Never have any dealings with #sears unless you feel like gouging your own eyes out and stepping on them while being nut-kicked.

legallush: Listening to Sear tech suck dryer lint from my hoses in laundry. Stupid dryer gets hot but doesn’t dry. #sears

glamorousamanda: Rant end. Do not buy products from #Sears. They will not honor their warrenty nor do they care if your home catches fire from products!

MySears Ideas: Listen Sears…….. people WANT to buy from you but you make it harder and harder.

Do we really need all the Social Media window dressing around what should be the main course — serving customers? Couldn’t we just have one colossal: CLICK HERE FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE button, with some seriously vetted reviews posted below it and an in-depth Peer 2 Peer Forum?

This road feels strangely familiar. Over the years, in Customer Experience projects for both Microsoft and Yahoo, we worked hard to ‘put a human face’ on these mammoth empires via an array of social media features. But whatever we tried, all anybody ever wanted to do with these pieces-of-corporate-humanity was find somebody to fix their email, browser, software, personals ad or just plain rant. This is why Yahoo Answers was such an instant hit. Human beings simply want their questions answered, especially when said questions revolve around things they paid for. They don’t necessarily need Friends or Polls or Pictures, unless it’s a photo of that broken microwave door they need replaced.

So what should this new MySpacian MySears do to avoid the fate of the late, not-great The Hub, built and quickly dismantled by Walmart back in 2006?

• Let MySears evolve organically. Let the community spell out over time what it wants and needs from the site and its satellites. Are users primarily interested in broadcast tweets about upcoming sales? Are they flocking to the discussion boards? Engaged communities vote with their attention.
• Manage site expectations. Research whyconsumers are visiting and where they came from. Did the majority find their way there because they think the site is devoted to customer service? Did someone post a Craftsman discount link on a couponing site, sending an avalanche of users in search of it? 
• Accept that consumers create their own uses for sites and social media features – including their own ideas of how products should be tagged –which may have little to do with your intentions for your brand. Just for fun, go visit Amazon’s Customer Communities and check out some of the Revenge-Tags, including some of the DefectiveByDesign tags.
• Find your Frank Eliasons (@Comcastcares) and empower your staff to participate as Tony Hsieh has done so successfully with @Zappos. Be careful of ‘ghost’ tweeters or posters. Don’t rely on your Viewpoints vendor to substitute for real Sears employees. Kudos to BlueCrewGuyinMA, who’s all over the site, answering questions and in general acting as the site’s Go To Guy.
• Encourage usage of the Discussion section, with its fledgling Peer to Peer type forum.  Many of your customer-service seeking users will be satisfied with this kind of help, as they frequently do yield real solutions to customer problems.
• Research potential Passionista segments a la the Craftsman Club and nurture them with ego-rewards as well as discounts and insider information.
• I like the potential of the Ideas section on MySears,which reminds me of Dell IdeaStorm. Like Dell, after the Dell Hell debacle, Sears needs to heal itself before it can roar back. So far, the “We Listened. See Ideas in Action” is empty. Let’s hope this changes soon.
• And finally, have some fun with the site.  The intrinsic beauty of social networking is that it’s supposed to be lighthearted. So have a Tweet-Up in the Craftsman aisle. Partner with Family Journaling site Plumkeeper and have a “Kids Say the Darndest Things (About their Dads)” Contest and invite your Facebook Community Moms to enter. Set up a Linkedin group for Retail Innovators.

So should Sears go social?

Guru’s Note: What I found oddly fascinating is @MySears use of Twitter — particularly its choice of who to follow. Smart Tweeters often check a Twitter ID’s first Follows as it can reveal either strategy or the threat of spam. In this case, @MySears has 923 Followers so far — and is Following 1995. But here’s the reveal: the first SIX of rows of Twitter IDs @MySears has chosen to follow are all variations on Mama: @CursingMama, @PsychoMama, @GeekMama, @Baby_Mama, @TheCreativeMama. So far, none of these Mom-tweeps appear to be tweeting like mad on behalf of @MySears like @ResourcefulMom does when promoting one of her many popular Site-Warming Parties. So one can only assume either all these Mamas are close personal friends of @MySears or that someone has advised them to cozy up to Influencer Moms on Twitter. Given the robust purchase power of the 80+ million Moms in the US who spend some 2 trillion every year, it’s no surprise @MySears would sagely search keyword: Mama.

Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry.

Looking at this beguiling face, you’d never guess this woman is responsible for turning my sweet, innocent daughter into a wild and crazy gypsy.

Yes, thanks to Lenore Skenazy, this hyper-hovering helicopter parent (moi) is about to (queasily) participate in my child’s Happy Birthday Nostril-Piercing Adventure.

Without Lenore Skenazy (did I mention she’s also known as ‘The Worst Mom in America?’) and her new book: “Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry”, I would have concocted a Top Ten Reasons Never To Go Near Your Nose with a Needle, starting with “It will explode” and ending with “It will fall off.”

Then, because this Worst Mom in America, is actually a pal of mine who kindly quotes me in her savvy Ad Age column, I was privileged to receive her new book well before all the Mom-buzz started. I actually got my Purelle-parched hands (Swine Flu) on it just as women’s clubs throughout the Bay Area were bubbling about Lenore’s common sense child raising stance.

Here’s what Lenore has to say:

When I wrote a column for The New York Sun on “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Take The Subway Alone,” I figured I’d get a few e-mails pro and con.

Two days later I was on the Today Show, MSNBC, FoxNews and all manner of talk radio with a new title under my smiling face: “America’s Worst Mom?”

Yes, that’s what it took for me to learn just what a hot-button this is — this issue of whether good parents ever let their kids out of their sight. But even as the anchors were having a field day with the story, many of the cameramen and make up people were pulling me aside to say that THEY had been allowed to get around by themselves as kids– and boy were they glad. They relished the memories!

Had the world really become so much more dangerous in just one generation?Yes — in most people’s estimation. But no — not according to the evidence.

In all her writing, Skenazy sees herself not as a pundit, but as a normal, curious, often amused but just as often fed-up, middle-aged mom out to get the facts. Her observations can be heard on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” she has written for Mad Magazine, and she edits the “What Next?” humor contest in the magazine The Week. She also spent several years as an on-air (younger, cuter) Andy Rooney, first at CNBC and then at the Food Channel.

A second book, “Who’s the Blonde That Married What’s-His-Name? The Ultimate Tip of the Tongue Test of Everything You Know You Know…But Can’t Remember Right Now”
( www.whostheblondebook.com ) is being published by Penguin in June.

Guru’s Note: I am already a whizkid at the Who’s the Blonde book — and I challenge anybody to try to top me. I’m thinking of playing it on Twitter. Wanna tweet with me?

Danger Ahead. Find the Red Flags in The Growing Green Momscape.

(In the wake of the recent MotrinGate Twitterstorm, it’s clear that marketers better dig deeper to understand emerging trends in the powerful Momscape.)

There are 82 million Moms in the U.S. opening their purses to spend some $2.1 trillion a year — about 15% of our country’s entire economy. From Baby Boomer ‘soccer Moms’ to the Gen X and Echo Boom ‘iMoms’, Mom is making 85% of all household purchase decisions, carefully weighing the choices of products and services for the whole family including Fido and Fluffy.

These statistics are hardly a surprise to the marketers reading this article. Since the Mad Men days of dishpan hands and Kid-tested, Mom-approved cereals, Moms have been considered a lucrative target. But as the Mommy Market grows, so do the risks in trying to reach her.

The reason? Many of those 82 million purses are rapidly turning into ‘big green purses’, as the percentage of Moms showing a passion for all things eco heats up along with our planet. Moms are mobilizing, speaking out and feeling their power as consumers and as citizens. 89% of household Moms are online at least twice a day, massively marching across the Internet via social media sites such as CaféMom, BlogHer and Babycenter. Moms of all shades of green connect, communicate and take action online and in their communities.

But with all this link-love and Mamalutionary agitation whipping the Mom category into mania, marketers and brand builders need to be alert. There are red flags hidden in the growing green Momscape.

 

1. Brand Early, Brand Often. Reach Her Before She’s Officially A Mom.

“There is an interesting transformation that takes place for many women when they become pregnant,” explains Hilary Zalon, President and Founder of popular lifestyle destination for pregnancy and parenthood, TheCradle.com, which features a heavily trafficked ‘Eco-Cradle’ area. “When they were only taking care of themselves, they might not have thought twice about exposing themselves to toxins in household cleansers, drinking caffeine, using artificial sweeteners, etc. But once they become pregnant, they are no longer making decisions solely for themselves. Now, everything that goes into their bodies – and the decisions they make about the environment around them – affects another person. And this shift in perspective is quite profound.”

Moms often refer to pregnancy as ‘joining the sacred club.’ It’s at this pivotal point that Moms are most open to spending and also most open to learning and discovery; 71% claim to actively research products online. Marketers who understand this urgent quest for information about the safety and eco-impact of products up their odds of purchase and brand evangelism.

Red Flag Pregnancy and early Momhood is not the time for hip and cool green ad campaigns. Instead, make sure the Triple AAA’s are part of your new Mom messaging: Acknowledge + Appreciate + Authenticity.

2. We are not your grandma’s granola: Sustainable is sexy.
Woe unto any marketer who thinks today’s green Moms are decked out in hippie hemp and scorn any beauty product but homemade beeswax and Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint.

“I’m not tromping around Berkeley in my Birkenstocks,” said a Gen Y respondent in a recent ethnographic study conducted for a natural products company. “I don’t want to look crunchy. I can still look girly and be green.”

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, Founder of eco-chic site, EcoStiletto.com, wholeheartedly agrees. Her uber-stylish site is devoted to the secrets of smart and sexy green living. The thriving site frequently features eco-celebrities like Darryl Hannah and Gwen Stefani plus reviews of green goodies from kids’ organic cotton to petro-chemical free Australian shampoos.

“Forget the granola and granny panties–the idea at EcoStiletto.com is to look and feel totally stylish and sexy with things that just happen to be green! So we’ll call out a pair of organic denim jeans that make your butt look fabulous–but don’t take two-thirds of a pound of pesticide to produce. Or a fantastic organic lipstick–you’ll know the ingredients are sustainably sourced in the Amazon, but all the world sees is an incredibly sexy red pout.”

Red Flag Make sure you continually refresh your research. Keep your visual clues relevant so they resonate with your audience. Social networking sites and blogs deliver a powerful stream of fresh psychographics on a daily basis. Facebook’s targeted mini ads are an inexpensive and easy way to quick-test new concepts and copy.

 

3. Please don’t call me green.
Green, Natural, Organics, Eco, Enviro. Each of these seemingly interchangeable words comes with its own (loaded) subliminal meaning. The word that may be nebulous to one Mom may turn another one into a social media spitfire.

This post from a CafeMom member says it all:
“The other day my husband and a friend were talking and I was referred to as being “green”. The word rubs me the wrong way. I am annoyed by the connotation of trendiness and bandwagon jumping that “being green” implies. I also resent that along with the label of “green” comes a whole host of other assumptions from political, to parenting to what kind of car I drive. I don’t fit into a neat box and to borrow from the old, wise, Kermit the Frog, “its not easy being “green”.” When I wash my cloth diapers or mix my own cleaning supplies at home I don’t feel cool or hip. Every major company has jumped on the bandwagon and they produce overpriced products in slick packaging designed to draw in those who are seeking this new thing…this new lifestyle…this new buzzword.

Red Flag Eco-Moms hate being labeled. Their individualism is precious to them. Even though they often move collectively, and are influenced by popular opinion, they would prefer that some corporate entity not point this out to them. (Unless you’re Apple.) If you’re not Steve Jobs or even fake Steve Jobs, then understand the implications linked to each of these words and test them with your target. Watch for wear-out as well. Consumers are awash in green messaging and green imagery fatigue is growing.

4. Greenwashing: Blogging Against Barbie
Don’t even let a whisper of greenwashing seep anywhere near your product. Aside from the obvious evils of trying to market dubious environmental claims, it’s a no brainer: you’ll get caught. Consider Mattel’s attempt to push a new line of green Barbie accessories. In a few quick clicks, the BarbieBCause line wound up on Eco Child’s Play, a blog written by concerned parents with tips and advice on safe, non-toxic toys and clothing for children.

Red Flag Be cautious about your claims. Better to lag behind than jump on the green bandwagon without real substance and support.

 

5. Be Transparent . But Prepare for the Blogstorm
Companies need to understand they can start the conversation but they can’t control it.
Have a Plan B in case the tribes start unexpectedly pounding on their tom-toms.

A recent example: Camp Baby. Johnson & Johnson invited 50+ mom bloggers to attend an all-expenses-paid, three-day summit designed as a kind of brand building plus market research event. Unfortunately, the world’s premiere baby company didn’t anticipate ways in which the Mom Blogger weekend might backfire. News of a tiny problem with the summit spread like head lice in July. The problem? Babies were banned at Camp Baby.

To date, there are 97 outraged comments on Mothergoose.com. “To expect a new mom to ditch her newborn for three days is crazy,” said one Mom. “That’s unfortunate that [J&J] can’t see what a mistake they are making.”

Red Flag Many marketers start their WOM campaigns with the best intentions. But lurking underneath is the expectation that these efforts will unfold in the same manner as paid advertising. Check your inner control freak at the door.

 

6. Mixing Marketing with the Spiritual and Political Side of Green
The passionate stance of many green Mom sites and companies stems from the fact that green is often viewed as a movement, a cause, a holistic choice or sacred path. Phrases like ‘we believe’, ‘we’re on a mission’ ‘kinder to the earth’ ‘tell companies you won’t’, ‘speak up and be heard’ are an integral part of the unique language of eco-moms. Outrage, anger and disruption are frequent themes. Share, not sell is the mantra behind sites such as Green Mom Finds, SafeMama, and CoolMomPicks, where the aim is to save busy moms time and energy by finding products and services that are better for children and families.

Sites like Moms Speak Up, is a collaborative blog: “We are women, parents, consumers, voters and much, much more and we’re fed up with the “business as usual” attitude of politicians & greedy corporations. It’s time for us to speak up and be heard!” The Mamalution is “a movement of passionate & dedicated mothers on high alert who are tapping into their instinctual wisdom to save the day!”

Red Flag Learn the language of green Moms and use it carefully. Or, rather than brand into the bloggy buzzsaw, Diane MacEachern’s Biggreenpurse.com is a savvy and refreshing blend of consumer activism, common sense and ideas for using the clout of a million women to effect change.

 

7. Confessing Your Eco-Sins

On Earth Day this year I gave a speech to a women’s group on the subject of Confessing Your Eco-Sins. I brought along a big poster of a prayerful Father Al Gore and one by one, women ‘fessed up to numerous guilty green sins: from craving a sizzling steak to long steamy showers and secretly hoarding paper towels.

From this experiment, I learned firsthand that green Moms are wracked with eco-anxiety. Their every choice is scrutinized; Mom is not only tasked with protecting the environment in general but keeping loved ones safe.

And now there’s additional pressure — or is it additional support? Instead of Cabi, Bliss or Tupperware parties, now there’s the Eco-Mom party, where the cocktail chatter revolves around CFLs, shopping locovore, and carbon-offsetting that trip to Disneyland. The brainchild of Kimberly Danek Pinkson, the California-based Eco-Mom Alliance sounds like one part “Hints from Heloise,” one part political self-help group and one part eco-Stepford Wives. The burgeoning nonprofit already has about 9,000 members around the globe, including not just the United States but also Australia, Hungary, England, France and Brazil. Springwise says the group may be training women to lead EcoMom events worldwide, as well as readying an official EcoMom seal of approval for commercial products.

Red Flag With Moms already scared out of their wits by SLS and #7 plastic bottles, marketing that makes them feel guiltier is likely not to work, especially in this equally scary economy. Solid information is the antidote to anxiety.

8. Points for Trying

The only red flag: Don’t ignore the opportunity to show that slow and steady corporate responsibility can make an impact. Moms notice and respect the baby steps companies take to improve their commitment to eco-responsibility, particularly when it involves encouraging and supporting green employee values. Adding a carbon-offsetting program like Terrapass for business travel is a small step but a worthwhile one.

Moms also notice and respect when brands resist creating buzzy advertising in favor of real facts and empathy. They also notice and respect companies who partner with non-profits and charitable organizations like the new kids’ game Emerald Island has done with its Trees for the Future donations.

The good news is that if you should happen to crash into a few of these Red Flags, the new field of Eco-Therapy is booming.

MotrinGate: Twitter Moms Abuzz Over Motrin Video.

At times like this, I am resoundingly thrilled with my decision to leave traditional advertising oh-so-many-moons ago at the dawn of the digital age.

Apparently, they still don’t ‘get it.’ At least whoever created Motrin’s ‘Wearing Your Baby’ video doesn’t get it. And this corporate cluelessness has now exploded into MotrinGate, thanks to legions of Twitter Moms who have been tweeting upthewazoo all weekend. Pity the poor Motrin exec who shows up to Monday morning’s firestorm. Of course, if they had they had the customer service smarts of Zappos, JetBlue, ComcastCares, etc. they would already know about this Mom-fueled fury and they would have apologized, explained or waved a white eco- diaper.

The video “Wearing Your Baby” is still up and running on the official Motrin website. The video claims that this supposed ‘fashion trend’ of carrying baby in a sling causes ‘extreme pain’ — and thus merits Motrin. Not only is the voice-over whiny, annoying and inauthentic but their ‘facts’ are dicey.

Considering how many zillions of Mom marketing firms there out clamoring to help corporate America, (I spent a chunk of this week’s hugely useful WOMMA conference with Mom-savvy Stacy DeBroff of MomCentral) it seems pretty clear that as one tweeter said: “There’s no way a Mom was involved, or if she was, she was ignored.”

Part of the copy: “If I look tired and crazy people will understand.”

If you’d like to follow MotrinGate on Twitter, simply use #MotrinMoms. Currently MotrinMoms is trending #1 on Twitter — and social media mavens are splashing across all media from new to traditional.

As a Springspotter, I’m pinging Liesbeth in Amsterdam with this trend that shows off the incredible power of mobilized Don’t-Mess-With-Me-Moms.

And here’s one of the videos created in response to Motrin’s original video.

Guru’s Take: The lesson here for corporate America? This didn’t have to happen. All you have to do is ask and Moms will help — with your creative, your research, your buzz. We’ve been having Twitter Product Parties – a nifty way to do Social Media Research — and this 21st century style focus group could easily have prevented this corporate boo-boo. Motrin apparently didn’t ask — and now they’re getting stung bigtime.

Guru’s Take #2: Okay, have been researching and from what I can tell, McNeil (maker of Motrin) is a division of Johnson and Johnson . . . and J&J owns the #1 parenting site on the web: Babycenter. So I am wondering why they couldn’t have tapped into that multi-million strong BabyCenter Mom-community?

Guru’s Take #3: Okay, finally a response from the VP at McNeil.  (Thank you, Katja, for the post and all your hard work.)  Amazing that this semi mea culpa took this long. Amazing that no one from McNeil or the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies appears to be tweeting on the weekend. Even for a complete Twitter newbie, it would have taken all of about a minute for the outraged Motrin tweets to have bubbled up; it was that fast and furious. This whole thing could have been prevented if:

• Someone, anyone, at McNeil (or its agencies) had a clue about social media
• Someone, anyone, at McNeil had a clue about the importance of respecting the VOM (Voice-of-Moms). I’m a veteran market researcher and I cannot imagine letting my clients go without either exploratory pre-production research or post-production eval — hopefully both. I always tell them that research is essentially insurance — it would have prevented McNeil’s 4-Motrin-Migraine.

In The Motherhood, MSN’s Mom-Generated Content, Jumps To ABC.