PowerReviews Granted Patent for Pioneering Product Review Technology and more

By Andy Chen, Founder and VP, Strategic Partnerships

Today we announced that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office just issued a key patent to PowerReviews related to our tag-based review technology – specifically, the ability to present at-a-glance review summaries that make reviews more informative and easier to use. This is the first of seven patents we have filed around next-generation product reviews.

We believe that these innovations have enabled three major advances in social commerce:

• More informative, easier-to-use product reviews
• Social recommendations, based on a person’s lifestyle and intended uses
• Structured analytics, driving more actionable product and marketing insights

We look forward to bringing you further innovation that drives confidence and engagement for your customers and greater sales and customer loyalty for you.

For more information on our patent and the full press release, click here.

We’re both proud and honored to be able to share this news with you and look forward to bringing you further innovation in the years to come.

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By Darby, Williams, VP of Marketing

You may have visited the new PowerReviews website in the last month.  Or come to our booth at Shop.org.  Or downloaded one of our Case Studies.  If so, I would venture to guess that your eyes widened, and your mind started to ask questions.

Yes, we just completed a soup-to-nuts re-branding and re-design of EVERYTHING PowerReviews.  We called this massive project “PowerReviews 2.0”, and it was truly transformational.  We realized that so much of what we do has expanded beyond our name, and our brand.  So we wanted to state clearly what PowerReviews means now, and why we are so excited about our growing footprint in the social commerce and social media arenas.

We decided to tell this story in video.  First, a video of me discussing the underlying positioning and design goals of PowerReviews 2.0.  Then, a video of our amazing design team – Project6 – discussing the creation of our new look and feel, logo, website and collateral materials.  The Project 6 team did an amazing job of tapping into the core essence of our company personality and effectively communicated PowerReviews in a visually impactful way, throughout every touch-point to our customers.

Enjoy!

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by Darby Williams, VP Marketing

A study by Sirius Decisions revealed that 32% of marketers online are creating customer communities around their products or services—and it’s paying off. One particularly notable use of customer communities to build significant business value is the development and recent launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7. Having been involved in the Windows 95 launch at Microsoft, I know that Microsoft has enlisted its customers and developers in the beta testing and bug reporting for decades. Windows 7 marks a significant broadening in the way it values the feedback of customers in the development of its flagship Windows product. With Windows 7, Microsoft actually involved customers at the very beginning of the product definition and development cycle – engaging them by soliciting their feedback and suggestions up front.

How did the Microsoft Team engage their customer community? A simple, but effective solution: they asked for their help.

The Microsoft team started with a blog, penned by the lead Windows 7 engineers. This community-focused approach to the development of Windows 7 was deemed by engineers as “systematic learning from customers of all types,” opening up the discussion of bugs, complaints, and praise to “PC makers, hardware developers, enterprise customers, developers, and more.”

The dedicated blog to the engineering of Windows 7 stated as its mission: “We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way discussion about how we balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows. We promise and will deliver such a dialog with this blog.”

According to Wikipedia, The Windows 7 Beta was released on January 7, 2009 to TechNet and MSDN subscribers.  And, on January 10, due to overwhelming demand, both 32 and 64-bit versions of the Beta were made available to the public until the 10th of February.

Here’s a snapshot of Windows 7 Beta testing by the numbers:

• 8 million = the number of participants in Customer Experience Improvement Program
• 4,000 = the number of business customers from developing and emerging markets who participated in testing
• 2,600 = the number of customers involved in usability studies and user research
• 600 = the number of new features tested
• 200 = number of countries in which product instrumentation and usage data was compiled

Source: Ars Technica

Another essential component of the community-centric approach to product development entailed the implementation of a community engagement tool, which allowed Microsoft to identify 250 influential subject matter experts in 29 countries, scaled their community engagements from dozens to hundreds each week, and helped them to garner positive feedback from within the IT professional community. (Source: Visible Technologies)

This example from Microsoft may feel a bit unattainable because of their size, but we’re seeing examples of Brands enlisting their customers in product “co-creation” through customer reviews and communities that directly impact their product design and result in extremely positive gains from doing so.  This further reinforces the well known fact: when customers are excited about you, they’re also game to co-create with you by sharing their feedback candidly. And, if you listen, you can reap the benefits of higher conversion, more word-of-mouth and higher overall sales. (Just ask our client Wine Enthusiast – who built a hugely successful product line [read: sold out] guided and inspired by customer reviews. But look for more on that next week.)

The result? A sea of praise and glowing testimonials by techies the world over: “Faster” proclaims the New York Times. “Ready” according to Computerworld. “Don’t wait” from Gartner. And candidly, CNET declares, “Strong design and Microsoft don’t always go together, but they do in Windows 7.”

And even more numbers: CNET reports that Microsoft sold 234 percent more boxed editions of Windows 7 than it did Vista in the initial releases of both products.

Extending community to all aspects of its Windows® 7 launch, Microsoft proactively brought customers into its core marketing campaign. Take the television ad campaign for Windows® 7 known as “Windows 7 Was My Idea,”  in which an entertaining exchange depicting the jovial dialogue between Microsoft enthusiasts and engineers takes place:

We’d love to hear about your experience with Windows® 7.

Was part of it, any, or all of it your idea?

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by Darby Williams, VP Marketing

A New York surprise.  I’m in New York visiting PowerReviews clients and partners.  A great trip on its own.  It also happens to be the wrap-up of the World Series, and I find myself in Time Square, a half block from Virgil’s BBQ where I had just eaten (a whole other story).  To my surprise, I find a long line of people (naturally) waiting to sign a 50 foot “graffiti” wall and have their picture taken in front of it.  Besides a huge World Series emblem, there’s a State Farm logo on it… which explained most of what was happening.  Being a big Yankees fan, and an even bigger Social Media marketing fan, I promptly jumped in line (or as New Yorkers call it “on line”).  As I was waiting for my turn “at bat”, I mentally listed the marketing levers that State Farm might be using… a photo to share with friends, an easy posting to my Facebook home page, a posting to State Farm’s fan page, talking about my experiences as a State Farm customer (if I was one), or my frustrations with my existing insurance provider. 

Reaching the front of the line, the social coordinator handed me a red card with some numbers on it to retrieve the picture online, pointed me to the wall and booted me over to the wall for my NY photo opp. 

I actually did strike an “at bat” pose (surprising the crowd for some reason), then picked up a World Series/State Farm towel, and went about my way.  A fun, and definitely engaging experience.  I thought about State Farm for the first time in years, appreciated all the time and money they spent to do something nice for people, and enjoyed connecting with the people in line and the promotion coordinators.

When I went to retrieve my photo, the experience wasn’t quite as rewarding.  The questions they asked me were fine – good research for State Farm and it made me feel “involved” with State Farm (they asked for my opinion).

The one big flaw in the experience for me – the consumer – was that the picture I retrieved was of the woman just ahead of me in line (and she wasn’t striking an “at bat” pose).  And I’m not a woman.  Details.

But after an email to Eshots.com, the company that hosted the pictures, mentioning the pose (and that I’m writing a blog about it), they quickly found the right photo and sent it to me.

Altogether, it was a good experience, and it caused me (and probably hundreds more) to blog and tweet about it.  They didn’t ask for my experiences, or ask for my permission to post on their fan page, but they did get me involved.  They even asked me  if I’d like to speak with an agent and get an insurance quote. I don’t know what the cost of the program was, but I do think it’s a clever use of social media and social commerce.  One which I’m sure will get better with all the social feedback they’re probably getting right now.

Congratulations, State Farm.  And congratulations YANKEES!!

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by Yvonne Gando, Social Commerce Analyst

With online retailers gearing up for the holidays, there is no shortage of tips and tactics out there to tap into social to supercharge sales.  We decided to poke around the social web and take a look at how a couple of big name retailers (who also happen to be our clients) are doing interesting things to power social forward this holiday season.

Electronics retailer RadioShack® uses one of several hero banners on their homepage to promote a particular product that will help shoppers connect via social networks:

Notice the prominent use of the Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace icons, as well as the headline “The SHACK leaves no social network behind…” This caught our attention as a great way to use the momentum of social to stand out.  And while the retailer could have picked any product to spotlight, RadioShack® chose one that explicitly serves the function of connecting its users to the “social universe” of Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.  Extending the social circle across multiple touchpoints, RadioShack retail partner T-Mobile airs a TV commercial plugging this product as the “first phone with social skills.”  RadioShack® gets props for effective multi-channel marketing the social way.

We also took a look at how REI is taking social cues seriously this holiday season. Much like the famed Threadless  folks, REI gives crowdsourcing an edge by opening up a contest calling for artwork submissions  to be featured on an Arbor snowboard. The invitation comes complete with a catchy, user-centric tagline: “Ready to Ride Your Art?”  Winners also have a chance to win a $500 or $1000 gift card. Talk about viral potential – the participatory nature of this contest will likely fuel word of mouth and share of mind, engage shoppers and artists, and get them involved with the brand.  It’s also worth mentioning that this type of promotion is likely to drive repeat purchase.  We tip our beanies to REI for this smart use of social to build community around a seasonal theme and top-rated product. 

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