Earlier, I blogged about the launch of Metrotwin, and how I did not quite understand the value proposition.  To recap, my biggest issues were:

• I am not quite sure who they are targeting.  Will the membership base consist of (note: as of their Sept 13th blog post, they were planning on sending 4,000 invites out):
  • People who travel the NY-London route frequently?
  • Residents of NY/London who don’t fly often but know their restaurants and bars well?
  • Business travellers?  Tourists?
• What is the connecting thread between the people who will form this community?
  • The love of travel?
  • The love of good food?
  • A sense of adventure to try new things?
• How much better is this site than other sources with the same information?
  • Network of friends
  • Restaurant guides
  • City guides
  • Other social networking sites

Well, about 9 months later, I think some of the issues I had raised earlier are affecting Metrotwin.  I went on to alexa.com to see the changes in the site’s usage statistics (over 3 month period).  The 3 areas of concern for British Airways are:

• Pageviews/User - Down 11%
• Bounce % (ppl who leave after viewing 1 page) -  Up 8%
• Time on Site -  Down 10%

I went to the Yes We Did! An inside look at how social media built the Obama brand book launch yesterday at Rotman.  Rahaf Harfoush did an excellent job chronicling her time working on the Obama campaign and pulled out key insights which the audience could apply to their organization and brands.

One of the things that resonated with me was how she strongly believes in building the right strategy before jumping into social media.  I couldn’t agree more, the strategy needs to come first.

I look forward to reading the book.

Feel free to use this post to add your comments to the book.

PRWeb

Understanding Tribal Marketing A new Model for Marketers in a World of Consumer Relationships and Marketing-as-Dialog

Marketers today face two major challenges: 1) keeping up with trends & technologies to provide the best ways to reach consumers, and 2) showing accountability for measurable results. Today’s marketing problems will be solved by people with diverse skill sets. Marketing must strike a balance between customizing messages and generating ROI. Purely demographic approaches are losing effectiveness, while exclusively pursuing profitable 1-to-1 may not build enough sales volume. Tribal Marketing may be the best approach. June 3, 2009 — Marketers today face two major challenges: 1) keeping up with trends & technologies to provide the best ways to reach consumers, and 2) showing accountability for measurable results. Today’s marketing problems will be solved by people with diverse skill sets. Accelteon Partners Inc. of Toronto, Ontario teamed up with Torque Ltd. of Chicago, Illinois to demonstrate a measurably better way for marketers to connect with consumers - Tribal Marketing

Tribal Waters: Ebracing Consumer Tribes

Marketing must strike a balance between customizing messages and generating ROI. Purely demographic approaches are losing effectiveness, while exclusively pursuing profitable 1-to-1 may not build enough sales volume.

 

“Viewing consumers as tribes allows brands to be a means of supporting tribal connections. It is a way of conversing with consumers rather than shouting at them,” said Malcolm Jussawalla, Partner at Accelteon Partners Inc. “In our eBook we present a new way of thinking about brands and consumers, and how the two interrelate.”

The eBook project details the market transformation of a bottled water company, from a me-too player to a tribe-focused brand. Insights are drawn from Accelteon’s expertise in strategy & analytics and Torque’s expertise in market execution.

“By putting the tribe at the center of the marketing conversation, a brand can expand relationships with loyal consumers and also foster relationships with new consumers,” says Kevin Masi, President & Co-Founder of Torque Ltd. “For example, many people are concerned about the environmental impact of bottled water. We pro-actively addressed this in our recommendations.”

The eBook, written in case format, guides the reader through developing a tribal strategy and presents samples of strategic execution throughout the engagement.

“Tribal Waters: Embracing Consumer Tribes” Is available to download at www.accelteon.com/TribalWaters.html

Accelteon Partners Inc. (www.accelteon.com)
Accelteon’s mission is to enable your organization to strategically unleash the potential of consumer tribes.

Torque Ltd. (www.torquelaunch.com)
Torque provides creative brand marketing to mid market businesses, with brand strategies and full services marketing programs.