Category Trend Tracker
If you’re wondering where your buyers went – Americans’ credit scores at new lows
From the GoTo, “just get me more eyeballs” day’s, until the fall of 2007, the web was awash with home equity money and easy credit. Not to mention that every year new shoppers were jumping on to the web. Those were the days. Some companies, aware of the ephemeral nature of that boom, used that money to improve their businesses. Others were blinded by greed.
Lending standards are more stringent and that means fewer people with credit. Many have been pummeled by material excesses propelled by a desire to keep up with “the Jones”. The problem was that “the Jones used to be next door neighbors. Somewhere along the line “the Jones” became the rich and famous. Idealized people we could never keep up with.
We’re reminded of a line written by the English mystic, William Blake: “The greatest danger a man (or woman) faces as they walk the path through life, is the seduction of the material world”.
Here’s an article about how an increasing number of Americans are considered poor risk, the consequences they’ll face, and the price we’re all paying as a result.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Customer Centric, Trend Tracker on July 13th, 2010
April showers didn’t bring May flowers but it’s not all bad news for marketing followers
The June Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker Index measuring financial difficulties faced by consumers in the past 30 days, worsened, rising to 63.5 from 53.0 in May. The most troubling increase is in missed mortgage payments, which reached 3.9%, its highest level since tracking began in April 2009. The latest numbers show consumers have taken a step back facing increases in financial difficulties and a soured employment picture, says the report.
Some of the key findings include:
In June, more consumers reported difficulty in affording medical bills or medications versus the prior month,and faced lost or reduced healthcare coverage
* The Employment Index has dropped, pointing to an increase in the ranks of the unemployed, at least temporarily. The decline was led by the proportion of Americans that lost their jobs in the past 30 days
* Despite the high job losses posted in June, 7.4% of Americans reported starting a job in the past 30 days, well above May, and achieved its highest level recorded since April 2009.
* Consumers have scaled back their interest in shopping as well. The past 30-Day Retail Index for June, reflective of May activity, is 10.8, unchanged from the prior month
* May’s next 30-Day Retail Index, reflective of planned purchases for June, is down slightly from the prior month. Per capita spending for the index categories in the past 30 days was $234, down slightly fromay ($248)
The Consumer Reports Index report comprises five key indices: Sentiment, Trouble Tracker, Stress, Retail and Employment. Here are the key findings:
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in The Economy, Trend Tracker on June 29th, 2010
Does court ruling against “Net Neutrality” open the door for Comcast censorship?
The FCC argued that Comcast, and other internet providers, could weight bandwidth for or against certain type of content, services and traffic. In effect giving those corporate entities control over what end-users could do online.
“The case centers on Comcast’s actions in 2007 when it interfered with an online file-sharing service called BitTorrent, which allows users to swap big files such as movies over the Internet. But public interest groups stressed that the ramifications of Tuesday’s ruling are much broader. That’s because it undercuts the FCC’s ability to prevent broadband providers from becoming gatekeepers for many kinds of online services, potentially including Internet phone programs and software that runs in a Web browser.”
And we thought we had to worry about the Government. In the 1976 movie “Network“, written by Paddy Chayevsky; Howard Beale, portrayed by Peter Finch, passionately points out that corporations run everything and that governments are an old-fashion notion, a comforting illusion.
To learn more about the ruling read here.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Trend Tracker on April 6th, 2010
Unvarnished, a new website where people rate people; advancement or trollfest?
Unvarnished is a site that allows people to review people anonymously. We think this is an extremely negative event with dangerous ramifications. The web allows engenders a type of sociopathy in some people which has led to an increase, and maybe a pride in, trolling. (Are there paid trolls?) Reality TV provides tutorials on how to be mean spirited delivered by “troll” role models. In addition, any savvy web user knows that people will take time to write bad reviews more often that people will make the time to write good reviews. In addition our experience is that most negative reviews are a result of some disappointment with a product or service rather than the product or service failing in some disastrous way.
That’s not the least of it. If sites that allow people to post reviews of other people take off; how will that affect someone’s willingness to make controversial statements that may need to be said? What will it do to controversial people? For example, would you be less willing to tell the truth (after all you might the crowd) if you knew that negative reviews of you could be posted on social networks, and that you had no control over them?
Even further, could a person take you hostage or bend you to their will by threatening to post negative reviews about you?
Would we eventually be forced to become a moving mass, a cud chewing crowd of people living in fear of being different? (Don’t want to chance ruining my reputation)
Don’t tell us about how physically expressive society has become with tattoos, nose rings, and fixed gear. If a large group of people adopt a look it loses its power and is no longer an example of “freedom”. We’re reminded of the black and white pictures of Chinese Communists wearing the same “look” in their clothing choice(s) and on their faces.
Molly Wood at cnet wrote what we consider to be a “fair take” on the situation here.
Jessica Guynn with the LA Times give an overview of the feedback about the site here.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Social Media, Trend Tracker on April 1st, 2010
Attribution, Recursive, and Predictive Modeling – The Marketing Sciences of the New Frontier
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Every marketer in 2010 wants to understand where the end-users first “touch’ with a company’s advertising originated and to track or even predict how many “touches” it took, and where, to generate a conversion. Then budget can be allocated in a statistically sensible manner.
There are a number of reasons why I call these soft sciences, which I interpret to mean part science, part art, and part magic. First and foremost the cookie level technologies haven’t been developed, let alone making sure that they are collecting data in the same way. As an aside; web analytics software, typically Omniture or Coremetrics, each has a different approach to tracking. Marketers who have adopted this type of marketing modeling are often disappointed to find that they still have to explain allocating budgets based on “confidence” and probable “significance” levels.
Companies are expecting a little more accuracy than that.
And, of course, there’ll be conflicts within the organization between display (what to do with post impression attribution?), email, and search.
To me there a several reasons why mathematical modeling for interactive marketing is currently in vogue, and the way of the future:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Tom Polanski, Trend Tracker, eBrand Interactive, eBrand Media on March 14th, 2010