Real people - real recommendations

Jonathan Bowers, July 11th 2007, 3:24PM

It is amazing what the internet has done for customer recommendation. With a record number of people saying that they search online for reviews of a product before purchasing, we're now finding that the general public are becoming very savvy about what is and what is not genuine independent praise.

The idea that we can trust real people to give good honest opinions is stronger than ever. So much so that it reflects very badly indeed when this trust is betrayed by a product or service. Earlier this week, the Manchester Evening News revealed that the GMPTA's (local transport organisation) new publicity drive promoting a congestion charge across the city is in fact falsely portraying members of the public as pro charging.

The people who appear on the site and in direct marketing campaigns are actually models and the images were bought from an American photostock supplier. The case studies that they accompany are fictional and no interviews with the public were done during the production of the promotional literature.

If you read the many comments on the MEN website, it's obvious that by misleading the public, the GMPTA has alienated a lot of people they were originally trying to impress their views upon. It was also crisis management at its worst when both the PR company involved and the GMPTA denied fabricating any element of the information when they were first challenged.

Trust is the most important element involved in customer relations and the Internet is instilling this ever more deeply. Manchester's congestion charge has now set itself an even harder task.

Tags: consumer_confidence, trust, word_of_mouth
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The road to web transparency

Jonathan Bowers, January 31st 2007, 12:05PM

When I visit a website and there are no contact details that place the company in a geographical area or names of company members I am always immediately suspicious of the legitimacy of the business. Transparency is something that has always split the web between those who are open and those who seem guarded.

There are two articles in today's news that support the shift towards transparency. Studies by both Booz Allen Hamilton and Nielsen//NetRatings are warning us that businesses are not people friendly enough for the online environment.

Another step in the right direction are the new rules on disclosure of company details, which were extended to cover websites and emails at the start of this year. This means that businesses have to display their corporate name place of registration, registered number and the address of its registered office in legible characters.

E-commerce sites have additional rules to comply to as well, which all serve to help us as consumers feel safer about spending money or building relationships with the businesses that we find online.

Tags: internetlaw, trust
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Trust is down but ad spends up online

Jonathan Bowers, January 24th 2007, 11:11AM

I got an email this morning from eBay's Head of Trust and Safety. It's a job title that you don't often come across. The role might seem odd to some but it doesn't surprise me at all.

Just today a new report is published about UK Internet user concerns, which says that four in ten of us worry about online fraud. Worry might be to light a word as the report places fear of online fraud above fear of gun crime and contracting MRSA in hospital. It's a genuine concern.

The big online companies recognise this and many are working hard to come across as transparent, genuine and user friendly. eBay's Head of Trust and Safety is on the case to reassure customers today. Garreth Griffith says "we've seen an increase in the bad experiences members face due to two factors: increased fraud across the internet and a very small proportion of sellers who fail to deliver a positive buyer experience." His email then continues by listing all the positive actions eBay are taking in the fight against fraud.

At the other end of the Net, we have advertisers recognising where consumers are going and building online awareness of offline products. Cadbury, untouched by online fraud is using outlets like YouTube this year as it ramps up it's online spend into the millions.

However, they shouldn't forget though that the other escalating fear online is that of the safety of social networking sites, who are also having to put in place measures to reassure users that they are logging on to a safe environment.

Tags: online fraud, trust
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Will PR need journalists in 5 years time?

Jonathan Bowers, July 11th 2006, 4:53PM

An interesting question came up last week at the CIPR Northern Conference in Leeds.

Julia Hobsbawn had just been talking about how new media has changed the landscape in terms of reporting news and the rise of the columnist within newspapers.

The question was 'We know journalists can't do without PR, but can PR now do without journalists?'

I agree with Julia's answer, which was that we will need journalists as they are still a quality gauge and as such consumers have built a level of trust with them that the Internet is still some way off reaching.

Even when a business press release appears almost unchanged in a paper, it is much more credible for the public, because it has been chosen to appear on the pages of the publication than if it were on the company's website.

Trust is still the most important commodity in terms of reaching an audience, but I wonder how long will it be before the Internet and globalisation make this less important and if they do, what might the world's most important commodities become for reaching consumers in our global marketplace?

Tags: pr, trust
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