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Will Private Label Retailers Finally Get Public Online?

If you ask any smart e-commerce leader what site feature they've implemented in the last 2-3 years has been the most effective in driving sales and customer insights, most would likely answer that it's customer ratings and reviews.  While Amazon was early to the party with their book reviews, it is now commonplace to see reviews, usually powered by Baazarvoice or PowerReviews on most leading websites.  The statistics are hard to argue with. Customers love them, and have come to rely on them as the "real" source of helpful information when they shop online. Most retailers love them just as much, as they are a proven driver in search ranking, conversion, and customer satisfaction. The Baazarvoice website is loaded with great stats (in case you need to do an internal sales job to implement this feature), but here are a few highlights:

• 74% of online shoppers say they choose companies and brands based on what say about their customer service experience (2008, Society for New Communications Research)
• Over 58% of shoppers said they used product reviews to make decisions (2007, Shop.org)
• People who read a review are 30% more likely to purchase a product that those who do not (2007, Coremetrics)

Now, as an alumni of private label apparel, I have often wondered how long it would take for those selling their own goods to adapt to this level of public exposure.

Sure, it's one thing to be a brand aggregator (Wal Mart, Zappos, Petco, Office Depot, Amazon and the like). Customer reviews are about somebody else's product.  "Dell made that computer, not us, so go ahead customers, have at it, rip it apart. It only makes us look better for being so open and transparent.  Those reviews help us know which suppliers to covet or drop, and they provide valuable insights into brand preference."

So, now let's say you're a private label merchant.  You've poured your heart and soul into the Fall season line.  Everything looks beautiful together - the colors, the fabrics, the styling. It's a brand story that comes to life beautifully on the landing pages you've built, in the outfitting tools, in email... its YOURS. And then some crazy person on the e-commerce team has the audacity to suggest that you let customers make comments about YOUR product, right there on the website.  Are they crazy? Someone could say something bad and influence other people. Someone might mention a competitive brand in the review.  And for what? This is seasonal product, it's only on the site for about 8 weeks - by the time there are enough reviews to be meaningful, the product will be gone....why should one person's opinion spoil a whole season's worth of sales?

Now, I have no idea if this is really what happens in private label organizations.....but if I do a quick inventory of who has reviews on their sites, JCrew, Eddie Bauer, Gap (including Banana Republic & Old Navy), Land's End, Gymboree and a host of others in the private label game don't offer them. While these players were quick to adopt rich product imagery, outfitting tools and other "one way" forms of merchandising, they have been remarkably slow to move into the world of online interactive customer input. 

While I do understand the likely internal politics and fear, I would argue that the private label retailers have the most to gain from taking the bold move to let their customers talk.  Here's why:

• First, they have passionate followers. Brand loyalists will jump at the chance to say something good about you when you invite them to do so and thank them for their input.
• Second, a majority of the reviews you get will probably be positive. Statistics (thanks again, Bazaarvoice) show that 88% of people who posted or planned to post reviews said they would be positive reviews (2007, Neilsen)
• Third, if a review or two is negative, (get this) it can actually help conversion. Too many positive reviews can leave some people skeptical, and a constructive negative review can actually fuel shopping confidence.
• Fourth, if a bunch of reviews are bad, don't you really want to know so you can take care of the problem?  Why wait weeks/months until the returns flood in? You could catch a manufacturing defect or a fit problem and avoid an even bigger customer satisfaction issue.
• Fifth, what if you could harness those reviews and use the customer feedback to build better products for the next season?

And as for mentioning competitors, if your customer really likes your competitor better than you, again, don't you want to know?  And don't worry, you can screen out abusive, obscene or other reviews that are truly and unfairly damaging.

At the Shop.org Summit last week, I raised my glass to LL Bean, one of the first of the large private label apparel retailers to implement customer ratings and reviews.  While I am sure the internal battle might have been big, the company is already seeing  merchants embrace this powerful new source of customer insight, and thousands of reviews have been posted on the site.  So much for the worry about critical mass.

If you shop private label websites, I suspect there is good news ahead.  These retailers do tend to copy one another, and I would imagine the other private label sheep will follow LL Bean into the greener pasture of public exposure.

E-commerce Merchandising: Re-defined, Re-energized and A Lot More Fun

What a difference a year makes.  When I first started this blog back in the early Summer of '07, I wrote a post on why online merchants and marketers tend to fight, and how the lines between these critical functions were becoming blurrier as marketers with rich customer data were driving and influencing product strategy(read the post here).  I also speculated that the growing need for robust product content was rapidly becoming a runaway train in many organizations, and this was the place where merchants needed to take the reigns, view content as a strategic asset and apply merchandising know-how to the equation (read the post here).

In July of this year, the annual Shop.org Merchandising Workshop was held (always a great event, well worth attending) and I was thrilled to see that the e-commerce merchant role is evolving and gaining in importance.   And, it looks like some of my earlier predictions are coming true.  So, if the online merchandising role is evolving, are retailers keeping up?

First, what is an online merchant, and what does she/he do?  Online merchants are the product specialists on the e-commerce team.  It's their job to know the product they sell inside and out, and, using customer insights and e-commerce technologies, make that product discoverable, considerable, and purchase-able on the website or through other online distribution channels.

The devil, as we know, is in the details.  E-commerce technologies and best practices have advanced significantly over the last few years.  Merchants have more data and tools than ever, and their customers are demanding more product information than ever.  But customers are also participating more than ever, and leaving behind valuable insights into how they shop and what information they expect to find.  The difference between an "old world" online merchant and one in the "new world" is how well they have incorporated these robust customer insights into their online merchandising practices and how well they are using them to optimize the site experience.

When I listen to "old world" online merchants talk about what they do, they usually list out tasks like this:

• Decide what products to feature on the home & landing pages
• Decide what navigational categories and sub-categories products belong in
• Sequence thumbnail & search results pages so that new or best selling items appear first
• Assign coordinate or up-sell products to display on product and shopping cart pages
• Coordinate photography needs
• Determine feature products for affiliate partners and email campaigns

If you're an online merchant doing the above, you're probably a bit bored by now, and you're probably starting to sense that there's a whole new world out there.  There's an additional level of horsepower that you can be adding to optimize the effectiveness of the e-commerce channel by harnessing customer insights.  The job in the "new world" looks something like this:

• Mining product reviews and customer generated content to determine what product features and language to use in product descriptions, search meta data and comparison tool criteria.
• Creating new navigational paths beyond standard categories by mining search records and user generated content.
• Forging new ways for customers to discover product that can be automated on the back end, like "best sellers", "top rated", or "new additions" sections that are continually updated based on business rules - not manual merchant population.
• Determining automated solutions to cross selling and up-selling based on product attributes and purchase history.
• Diving deep into the way that people shop for key product categories both online and in store.  See my previous post about buying swimwear at Land's End.  They've made a deliberate decision to own the category, and their selling process is right in synch with how customers want to buy the product.  Can you say the same about your online selling experience?
• Determining the visual product presentation needs at the category and product level. Zoom, larger views and alternate views have become ubiquitous. Video is on the rise.   Smart online merchants take an in-depth view of presentation needs by category and product vs. a cookie cutter approach to display.
• Partnering with stores to make the web an integral part of the in-store selling process. What do customers want to know? What information do store sales associates need at their fingertips when they work with a customer?

We’re well into the back half of the year, and in addition to readying your site for the upcoming holiday season, you’re probably starting to think about '09 priorities and budgets. If you're an online merchant and you're feeling a bit stuck in the "old world", consider giving yourself a new job description as a holiday gift.  The "new world" might be a bit more work, but it's bound to be a lot more fun and effective.

Summer Reading for E-Commerce Marketers

While you'd never know it from Seattle's grey skies, Summer is here.  If, like me, you're the type that likes to better your career while you kick back with a book, here's one that will fit the bill.

This past weekend, I was doing some work for a client on social media strategies. I had purchased Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies a while back but had not found time to read it, so this work gave me the long overdue excuse.  Not only did I read it, but I dog-eared just about every page.

While more than enough books and articles been written about social media and social technologies lately, little of it, in my view, has yielded in practical advice and real world case studies. Finally, Li and Bernoff have given us a real resource for navigating this new world.

While I've criticized Forrester in the past for being too "academic", this is an area where a little schooling makes sense.  Far too many companies are leaping into this sandpit without a strategy. The book does a great job of breaking down and distinguishing the types of consumer behavior that drive social media, the types of  social media objectives that companies can develop based on business goals, and the current appropriate social technologies and applications based on those objectives.

While the technologies that enable people to connect and get what they need from one another will continue to evolve and change, the discipline of developing a clear strategy based on who your customers are and what you are trying to accomplish should stand for all time.  As a follower and proponent of social media, I confess I've been frequently confused by how to best use it and measure effectiveness.  I'm sure I'm not alone.  E-commerce companies busy with running their day to day businesses will greatly benefit from the clarity Groundswell will provide.

While Li and Bernoff don't provide all the answers (and who would expect them to at this stage of the evolution?), they do get us all to start asking the right questions and considering the consequences of the potential answers.  What Summer romance novel can do that?

If you still want more after reading the book, you can participate in the Groundswell conversation at www.forrester.com/Groundswell

Now, if Seattle, could just get some sun!

Newsflash from the Hive: Old Habits are Hard to Break, Even in Nature

Many times, the best information about marketing comes not from industry trade publications or business books. It comes from the Science Times section of the New York Times.  This week, a short piece appeared about one of my favorite subjects, the honey bee waggle dance (see my previous post, "Want to Create Buzz?..."), which has sparked books and a myriad of fascinating articles about swarm theory and social interaction. 

The more we watch the bees, the more we learn about our own behavior, and yes, marketing.  The article, "Efforts of Dancing Bees Are Often Wasted on Distracted Audience"  explains that often, when a bee dances to alert his hive mates of a hot new food source,  some of the bees ignore the information. Instead of going to the new location for food, they go back to their favorite restaurant (or flower patch, in this case).  These bees rely on their own memory of where to find food, though other bees that are new to the hive do respond to the waggle dance and seek out the new food source.   

To bring this to human terms, it works like this: Let's assume I go to a new Chinese restaurant and it's fantastic. The best I've ever had. As I leave the restaurant, I run into two of my friends on the street.  One of them is new in town, the other has lived here for a while. I start raving about the restaurant. I point to it. I let them smell the leftovers in my doggie back. I jump up and down and tell them that they have to try it.   The friend who's new in town thanks me and head's straight to the restaurant.  The other friend who's lived here for a while remarks that Chinese food sounds good,  and then heads to her favorite Chinese place that she always goes to, not the new one I'm recommending.

In other words, old habits are hard to break.  If a new, fantastic search engine came out tomorrow, most of us would still use Google.  I know there are some great new restaurants in town, but I still go to my familiar favorites. 

Despite the power of word of mouth recommendations, those receiving information about new products and services have to be receptive to the information. In other words, they have to be "in the market" to be persuaded. 

The lesson for marketers: While you're worrying about how to create buzz and get new customers, it's equally important to worry about how to become habit forming to those customers you already have.  If you do it right, buzz about your competitors will drive them straight back to you.

   

Want To Create "Buzz"? Try The Wisdom of Crowds vs. The Influence of Individuals

Last week, I attended the Shop.org Strategy and Innovation Forum and listened to Andy Sernovitz's keynote address on word of mouth marketing.  His book "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking" is full of practical advice.   The rise of online social shopping has marketers everywhere studying up on how to create "buzz"; in other words, how to get people talking about and flocking to their products. In bee speak,  that means getting customers to do the "waggle dance",  a bee's method of using body movements and sound to alert others that they've found something good.

If you are a student of word of mouth marketing, you'd be wise to also become a student of nature and science.  In the last couple of months, I've read a number of articles on "swarm theory";  in other words, how ants, bees, birds and other "leaderless" species in large groups manage to find the right place to live, stake out the best place to eat, solve complex problems and guide one another to into forming a thriving society.  The behaviors are, no surprise, remarkably similar to humans traversing the internet in a quest to find the right product.  And, some would argue that the popularity of certain sites and certain products has more to do with randomness than smart marketing (sorry to deliver the bad news).  Despite the time and money spent trying to find those elusive highly influential people,  much of this writing suggests that more successful results will come from making your product available via mass marketing, then letting regular old non-influential people get the message out in the "random" way that ants and bees do it. 

If this topic is of interest, here's the reading list. 

1) First, read what National Geographic has to say about Swarm Behavior, and how observing bees and ants is proving to have real business value by helping companies find the most efficient means to solve complex scheduling and routing problems and save energy.  Nature's way of decision making is making it's way into the boardroom.

2) Next, read the Knowledge@Wharton article We Are Smarter Than Me: How the Wisdom of Crowds Can Help Businesses Succeed (registration is required, but the content is free) to get an excerpt of Barry Libert and Jon Spector's book We Are Smarter Than Me: How to Unleash The Power of Crowds in Your Business.  There are some terrific examples of how smart companies are bringing "swarm theory" or community decision making into their product development process, creating loyal fans before the product even exists.

3) If you're still not a believer, read an MSNBC article Scientists Abuzz Over More Efficient Web Servers: Honeybee Waggle Dance Inspires System For Internet Hosting Company and you'll see how imitating bees can improve business performance.

4) And finally, this month's Fast Company magazine ties it all together with a story for marketers involving real, HUMAN research.  This one is a must-read.  Is The Tipping Point Toast? challenges the long standing belief (brought to center by Malcolm Gladwell's popular book, The Tipping Point) that trends are driven by a small number of highly influential people. According to The Tipping Point, marketers must seek out and target these influencers to be successful.  Not so fast.  Duncan Watts, a network theory scientist, argues that despite marketer's desire to believe that they can find and target these elusive influencers, the way trends happen is, in fact, much more random, and dependent upon a variety of circumstances that all have to come together.  Take the analogy of forest fires - there are thousands of them every year, but only a few are big, serious fires. The ones that do become big are less about the spark that started them, and more about the conditions that existed around the spark: the landscape, the lack of rain, the remote location, etc.

In other words, the leaderless crowd makes the trend happen by responding to its needs and the environment...and that bee doing the waggle dance because he found nectar is just as likely to be your average Joe bee than some BMOC bee.

Time for lunch. I think I'll try that new restaurant down the street that everyone's flocking to.

Think Marketing on Second Life Sounds Promising? You Might Already Be Doing It.

It's hard to open up a newspaper or a business magazine without stumbling upon an article about Second Life, the Linden Labs virtual world which has a thriving virtual economy,  a real estate market, a crime rate, and a host of other pleasures and pains you'd think were only available in the real world.

Retailers, including big names like 1-800 Flowers, have launched virtual storefronts on Second Life (see article), I assume in hopes of attracting virtual customers that might someday turn into real customers that spend real dollars instead of Linden dollars. IBM has an avatar-run customer service center on Second Life (see article), and Sears, in their own version of virtual re-creation, launched an avatar shopping site for teens and tweens this back to school season(see article), along with already having a Second Life 3-D home showroom. Maybe that Land's End Virtual Model really was just ahead of its time.

Now, if you're an e-commerce marketer who's tapped out real world marketing media like email, search, TV and print,  this might sound like an interesting opportunity.

But a few things I've read recently might make you think twice - or they might make you even more curious.

The WSJ recently published a story called "Is This Man Cheating On His Wife", about an addicted Second Life user who has all but abandoned his real world life and wife, opting instead to (get this) spend over 14 hours a day in his virtual life, where he has a job, a wife, a sex life and a large circle of friends.  When I finished the article I concluded: a) this man needs serious help and b) he and others like him are never likely to become an attractive target for real world retailers, given that they are never in the real world, unless it's to sleep, eat and go to the bathroom (the only three things you don't do on Second Life).   

Then, an article in the NY Times called "Even in a Virtual World, 'Stuff' Matters", made me think again.  Materialism definitely exists on Second Life, with avatars buying up better hairstyles, clothes and shoes, and even taking on second jobs to be able to look good and keep up with their avatar Joneses.  But here's the catch: a lot of real world brands have flopped on Second Life, with names like Calvin Klein virtually ignored (no pun intended), American Apparel closing up shop and Wells Fargo abandoning its presence.  So the rebellion against mainstream brands is alive and well, with independent designers and entrepreneurs succeeding at a faster rate. Lesson learned: retailers setting up shop will face a new economy of discriminating avatar consumers.

But, I've saved the best for last. Here's the real kicker: we might all actually be living in someone else's Second Life right now.  Another NY Times article, this time in the science section, not the business section,  will really make you think.  It's called " Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy's Couch".  We've all seen The Matrix and wondered if we might all just be part of one big video game.  But now there's actually (according to an Oxford University philosopher) a very real mathematical chance that this is indeed the case.  He says "my gut feeling ....is that there's a 20 percent chance that we're living in a computer simulation."  So, if that's true, all of the work you're doing to run a successful business, have a fantastic web site  and market effectively to your customers is actually someone else's doing.  Note, this would probably not be a good thing to bring up the next time your CEO asks why your business is not growing as fast as he'd like to see.

Now, for me, the thought of not being in charge of my own business and my own life seems preposterous. But in the off chance that the Oxford philosopher is right, I've decided to take matters into my own hands (as much as is possible, given that I might be controlled by someone else).  Since so many retailers seem to be floundering to establish themselves on Second Life, I'll be setting up an e-commerce consulting practice there. Who knows, with a couple of good engagements, maybe I can buy a new outfit and look as good as the other avatars. 

Ecommerce Merchandising 3.0 - Editing The Wisdom Of Crowds

If web 2.0 is all about the adoption of social applications, surely web 3.o is the result of what happens when ecommerce companies start reinventing their business models based on all of that customer interaction.

A short article in the New York Times Magazine recently appeared highlighting Threadless.com  - a company whose customers are both the designers and merchants for the t-shirts it sells.  Designers submit designs, customers vote on them, and the top scoring items get produced (in small quantities) and sold.  The winning designers get a cash prize, and Threadless gets the benefit of producing merchandise that is as close to a guaranteed sell out as a retailer will ever see.  Smart designers can look through the site to see what's selling and read customer comments, thus tailoring their submissions to consumer taste. Threadless.com has been around since 2000, so this is probably not the first time you've heard of them.   

Now, if you're a merchant, you're probably wondering  just how all of this works in real life and if you might be out of a job anytime soon.

Despite all of the obvious benefits of community and the wisdom of crowds,  good merchants still play a vital role in the retail equation. They are editors. And while the shape of that editorial role is changing, it's as important as ever.

On Threadless.com, just like in more traditional retail, merchants make order out of the chaos.  Not every design that gets submitted makes it on to the site. Someone has to weed out duplications, obscenities, trademark violations and, yes, in some cases, ugliness.  Customers rule, but there's a check and balance.  Designs that are highly controversial are given a chance, even if the voting score averages on the low side.  Top designers get to play in the editorial sandbox too, selecting a few of their favorites to be produced regardless of the score.

Retailers in the web 3.0 world will need to figure out how to open some of their business decisions to consumers while still maintaining enough expert editorial control to add value, maintain identity and keep the store interesting. Otherwise, all stores become an EBay experience (no knocks to EBay, but there are as many reasons I don't shop there as there are reasons I do, depending on the circumstances).

Do I really want "the masses" designing my clothes and do I trust them to keep raising the bar on quality?  Maybe, as long as there's a good merchant in the mix.

Personalization 2.0: Capturing The Customer "In The Moment"

I shudder at the personalization attempts I encounter while shopping on the web.  How many times do I have to see an email or homepage pushing products based on what I bought 6 months ago?  I've moved on.  How about what I want to buy now?

Over time, I've found that I'm usually more impressed by sites that can help me "in the moment" than by sites that know my life story.  Apparently, I'm not alone.  Two very good articles by Jack Jia, one in the E-commerce Times and the other in DM News ran recently.  They indicate that targeting offers based on the shopper's current context gets it right 62% of the time, while targeting based on historical behavior gets it right only 18% of the time.

I recently came across a few new site concepts that appear to be the seeds of a new world of personalized shopping; one which I will welcome with open arms, both as a retailer and as a customer.

Vertical Search:  Check out Zafu.com.  They use the vertical search/affiliate model to create personalized shopping help for a specific product - in this case, to help me find the right jeans (and who doesn't need help finding jeans?).  By answering a few questions about my body type, I can see a range of jeans from a variety of retailers that are likely to fit me.  At last, an affiliate site that truly adds consumer value (not to mention that it delivers me to the retailer's site as a highly qualified lead).

Social Apps As Personal Shopper: This is a bit out there, especially for those of us over 25.  A recent article in the New York Times introduced me to Zebo.com.  On Zebo, you post pictures of your stuff.  Your clothes, your furniture, your electronics, etc.  Friends (and ultimately retailers, I assume) can comment on your stuff, ask you where you got it, and tell you where you can find shoes to go with that dress or a chair to go with that couch.  For those that don't mind the self exposure, there may be something here.  It can't be too long before you can go to your favorite handbag site, post a picture of your new shoes, then let site editors and other customers suggest handbags to go with them.

Live Help From an Expert:  Check out LivePersonalShoppers.com, an offshoot of LivePerson, which provides live chat customer support to online retailers.  On LivePersonalShoppers, you can choose from a number or live agents to help you find what you're looking for anywhere on the web, either via live chat or email.  It's early stage, and so far there's no revenue model, but I think we can all see where this might go if it catches on.

Clearly, extensive product data, aggregated customer shopping data and robust technology are required to pull any of the above off at scale.  But so far, I like all of them a whole lot better than the "you bought this bag last year, so now we think you'll like another one almost like it" approach.

And just in case you're depressed about how far we have to go to make web shopping truly personalized, read an article that appeared in WSJ : "Prowling the Racks With Personal Help". It's the story of the writer's quest to get highly personalized attention via "personal shopping" services at various brick & mortar stores, most of which fell short of expectations.  Getting it right in person appears to be just as difficult as getting it right online.

E-Commerce Leaders: The One Job That Should Be On Your "Must Hire" List

In my previous post  "Are Your Merchants and Marketers Fighting? The Real Reasons Why",  I touched on the concept of product content as a strategic asset vs. a production expense.

It's a big deal that deserves more airtime.

Do you think about product content as a production expense?  Sure, it's a topic of conversation in every annual budget discussion - all of those images, chunks of copy, video clips.  Someone has to produce those and they cost money.  But all that content is probably worthy of a more interesting conversation.

Is there someone in your company who is:

• Building and valuing the content as a strategic asset?
• Developing  a cohesive content strategy to drive specific business results?
• Analyzing visitors' content consumption and its'  impact on customer engagement and sales?
• Collecting and monitoring user generated content as  a source of valuable insight about product strategy?
• Developing, managing and leveraging the content efficiently across channels, international sites and other initiatives?
• Monetizing the content through sponsorships, advertorial, licensing and viral opportunities?
• Thinking about what it will take to scale the content tsunami operationally as Web 2.0 becomes even more pervasive?

When you look at the critical team members you need to hire in the coming year, is there someone on the list that will be responsible for this stuff?  Call them a Content Strategist, a Product Media Specialist, a Director of Content Development, whatever title gets people to raise an eyebrow and listen.  But you probably need one. Really fast.

I was a merchant in the hot seat in the early days of e-commerce ('96-'97).  We were giddy just to get a product image to look decent online and cut and paste a sentence of copy from the catalog. Color swatches were squished to the size of fruit flies  - which was actually good, since customers couldn't possibly expect it to be a realistic representation.  If everything happened to go live on the right date with no errors, we bought beer.

Inside of the last couple of years, guess what? All of the sudden we're all "media companies" in addition to being retailers. That sounds sexy, but we have no idea what that means.

Look at what's happened: customer reviews have moved from a novelty to "what do you mean you don't have them???"  (Thanks to Bazaarvoice, they're easy to implement)

Product images can turn, flip, change color and magnify without a second thought (thanks to Scene 7) and even appear personalized with the customer's name in an email or personalized site page.

Product demos and video are no longer just an annual event.

Tagging product attributes has become so ubiquitous that we're letting customers do it for us and justifying it as a full time job to optimize on site search, SEO and targeting.  We're importing  product content from vendors, and our customers are writing about our products better than we are.

And we're not just doing all of this because our competition's doing it. We're doing it because customers are demanding it and in many cases doing it for us.

All of this is a champagne party (we've moved on from beer) compared to 10 years ago.  But do we have our act together in terms of the production, management, and monetization opportunities associated with our exploding content asset?

Might be a good time to nail down what you're trying to achieve with all of this content (or better yet, what your customers are trying to achieve), how you're going to measure the effectiveness of it  and who's going to be accountable.  And I would bet that there are plenty of ace players itching to be the one accountable.

For some great related reading on the topic of content's impact on the future of your e-commerce business, here are a couple of places to start:

A Bazaarvoice interview with Kelly Mooney from Resource Interactive 

Mack Collier's blog post on how marketers haven't really mastered how to make the most of user generated content