Customer Experience Marketing Resources Resource Center 

Capessa is an example of how a big brand (in this case P&G) created a community that it can listen to, with the presumed goal of engaging their target market and delivering more relevant products. We looked at many big brands that are creating communities with the same goal, but in most cases the membership is by invitation only and the information is not shared publicly.

P&G's move has a certain amount of self confidence, because not only does P&G view what's going on, but the rest of the world can as well.

Here, as the site's tagline "Real Women, Real Stories" suggests, you will find real women sharing stories in the form of threaded conversations. You will also find blogs under the categories of relationships, work and money, health and fitness and the like. There's also a feature called "Chatterbox," which posts comments on the fly. The site is managed by a third party, but the P&G affiliation is very clearly outlined.

A feature of special interest at this site was (at the time of writing) the Second Annual Customer Engagement report, which is based upon survey responses from more than 1000 companies. It analyzes why companies interact with customers in the digital environment, as well as engagement strategies and ideas on how to measure success.

While the report is fee-based, there is an extensive gratis extract for your exploration. Highlights include the fact that more than three quarters of respondents said they are paying beaucoup attention to customer engagement practices for the reasons of improved customer loyalty and increased revenues. More than half of the respondents said they are using or planning to use widgets to interact with their visitors. Two thirds said the mobile channel is growing in importance.

There are many other reports available at the site. This firm is a UK-based consultancy that provides training and seminars on best practices in marketing and e-commerce.

Jack Morton is an agency that specializes in experiential marketing in the form of live events, branded environments and interactive media campaigns. All of these efforts have the goal of making sure that your brand experience lives up to your brand's promise.

To begin our Jack Morton experience, (at the time of writing) we chose to download their current Marketers' Survey. It detailed the marketing trends and spends at leading companies as well as their ideas of the major benefits of experiential strategies. The report arrived as promised and was quite informative, so our first Jack Morton experience was a good one.

There's also a blog where, at the time of writing, posts included:

1. how B2B companies are embracing sponsored Facebook applications, blogging, influencer networks and YouTubing to save money instead of holding expensive external events; and
2. how Reebok engages their site visitors with extensive suggestions of running routes. To find a route, you put in your zip code and you discover Google Maps of the favorite routes of other site visitors who live (or run) in your area. You can also download iMixes from other runners that feature their favorite tunes to run to (iMixes are created on iTunes).

Overall, the site is an engaging experience that lives up to the brand's promise, so they do walk the talk.

This very interesting agency specializes in analyzing how real-world brands and companies are perceived in the virtual world. Here you will find fascinating news and case studies. At the time of writing, they included:

1. a presentation on how L'Oréal Paris created a campaign in Second Life that offers makeup suggestions for the avatars based upon real-world beauty trends (we're not kidding);
2. an article about how Ikea is incorporating their furniture into the game The Sims, in which participants can actually purchase featured products directly from Ikea; and
3. a study exploring the rationale for luxury brands to enter virtual worlds, including examples of brands already "inside," such as DKNY, Costa Cruises and Rolex.

What's great about the site is that it clearly outlines the marketing opportunities and benefits for companies to go "virtual."

Think of the tools this company offers as interactive surveys with pictures instead of text. For example, you can present a grid of pictures of various products (called a "choice box"), and if the respondent hovers over or clicks on a larger view of certain photos, the technology records those products as being of more interest than others.

Another example is the ability for a respondent to "turn the pages" of an online presentation, such as a catalog, and zoom in on the copy blocks of text that they feel are most important to quickly understand the product.

What's interesting is that the results of the research are not limited to online Web pages, for example, but would apply to direct mail pieces as well. They even offer the ability to present a printed piece (such as a movie poster) online. Respondents are asked to click on the parts of the poster that most engage them. Visit the site for additional examples of engagement research technology.