Simon reflects on a recent trip over the Easter break in Istanbul, and wonders how much we can learn from a simple Bazaar shopping experience…

If knowledge is power, no wonder consumers make error ridden judgements when purchasing goods and services.

One of the fascinating ideas from the Levitt & Dubner book ‘Freakonomics’ is the concept of Information Asymmetry. This occurs when one party is perceived to or actually holds more relevant information than the other party. The theory is that unless the party who is making the transaction feels that Information Asymmetry has been mitigated (as much as possible), they are unlikely to commit to the transaction (with another behavioural principle, Loss Aversion, kicking in).

The challenge for business is that Information Asymmetry is a factor of trade the world over.

I was recently in Istanbul with my wife, and while walking through one of the many fascinating Bazaars they have she stumbled across a necklace that she liked the look of. There was no price attached (as is the way in Bazaars!), so rather than enter in a discussion with the shop owner to identify the price she immediately felt unease, expecting to be overcharged and questioning the quality of the necklace as well. Her assumption was that by withholding critical information (i.e. price), the shop owner knew something she didn’t, so the transaction didn’t even start. The balance of information was clearly in favour of the trader before even entering the store, and her risk aversion emotions started to kick in.

One of Istanbul's many Bazaars

What happened afterwards was even more interesting. As my wife walked away, I enquired about the price (about £175) on her behalf. Sharing this information in its most basic form starts to add a whole number of cues about the product, for example the level of quality of materials, usage occasions, complimentary clothing etc. You’d also think it would start to balance out the perceived Information Asymmetry.

However, rather than joining in the conversation, my wife decided to go back to the hotel with her iPad and check the price vis-à-vis something similar (not the same) online. When she discovered that something similar (again, not the same) was available on Amazon for around £40 – £50 cheaper, this switched her perceptions of Information Asymmetry completely, where she thought she had the upper hand (by knowing something the trader didn’t). In this case, the internet was her ‘beacon of neutrality’ that helped make the decision, but it’s not always the case. Other verbal and non-verbal cues are also just as likely to help shift consumers perceptions of asymmetry.

The concept of Information Asymmetry is as baffling as it is clear. Armed with no information at all, my wife was able to make a decision that the odds were against her, rendering a potential transaction void. Armed with a tiny amount of information (price), my wife was able to draw all sorts of conclusions and find various reference points in order to justify her initial thoughts about not purchasing the necklace.

An example of Turkish jewellery

These sorts of experiences are happening daily for brands around the world. Consumers are avoiding conversations with brands where they feel Information Asymmetry is too heavily weighted in the brand’s favour. But how many of these consumer decisions are being made using hard factual evidence, and how many are being made through some irrational decision making process? And how many of these decisions are being made on hard, factual data versus unfair comparisons just to satisfy the desire to reinforce their original (and convenient) decision?

In order to help make the right decisions, consumers need to feel confident and that their choice is the best one they could possibly make. However, Information Asymmetry suggests that consumers are avoiding many decisions before even entering a dialogue with companies. To address this, more understanding of what is imbalanced and what is balanced is needed, and brands should be looking very carefully at the conversations they have, the language they use and the ‘shop floor’ in which they sell their goods and services. We need to explore the scenarios where consumers are avoiding conversations with brands, and understand more about how we can use verbal and non-verbal cues to help shift perceptions and encourage better dialogue and more opportunity to transact.

Ben takes a look at how footballers from his beloved Ipswich Town are using social media to interact with fans

There’s no doubt that football is changing. There’s more money involved in the professional game than ever before and whilst this is great news for the lucky few who make it to the top, the story is not so rosy for the humble fans who are increasingly squeezed out of more and more money just to follow their team. This trend hasn’t gone unnoticed in the football community, with the rise of organisations such as Stand Against Modern Football building a movement against the corporate culture that seems to have engulfed much of the game.

This infographic highlighting the rise in average ticket prices appeared in Stand Against Modern Football's magazine

Aside from money, technology – and particularly social media has also changed football. Whilst the average fan is now financially further away from football and footballers than ever before, we’ve never been closer in terms of our ability to engage with footballers. Anyone can read what a player gets up to in their spare time, send them a photo of their name on the back of your shirt or share in the ecstasy with them when they score a last minute winner.

I have been a fan of Ipswich Town FC (ITFC) for over 20 years. I could wax lyrical about all the factors that make ITFC such a special club and why I’m so proud to be a Tractor Boy. However, seeing as I do that at any opportunity I am afforded, I thought I’d take this chance to write about how twitter is changing the relationship between fans and footballers. I’m using ITFC as a basis for this blog not only because I know about the club and players, but also because they have provided some excellent examples of how to, and how not to use twitter as a way of engaging with fans.

To begin with, let’s start by adding some foreshadowing context to the issue. In 2011, during his reign as manager of Wolves, the current ITFC manager Mick McCarthy brought in a media law firm to advise his players of their conduct on social media sites. This move followed a Wolves player – Greg Halford tweeting about a potential signing, only for it to fall through in the ensuing days. McCarthy suggested that Halford’s tweet played a key role in the Black Country club missing out on signing the player. During an interview about the arrival of the media law firm at Wolves, McCarthy stated:

“Players are going to get themselves into trouble over Twitter, I can tell. I can’t ban it and I’m not going to try. But they have to be careful what they say on it about the club and its policies.”

Fast-forward 18 months to the present day and with McCarthy now presiding over the team at ITFC, his 2011 claims still remain pertinent following a series of high-profile incidents involving Ipswich players using the micro-blogging site. However, this time around perhaps McCarthy may be able to see that the impact of players using twitter can generate positive, as well as negative sentiments.

Let’s take a look at an example from both sides of the coin. With the desire to end this blog on a positive note, I’m going to start with a bad example. An example which will more than likely provide media law firms up and down the country with ample material on how footballers should not use twitter. Let’s look at the case of Michael Chopra.

Michael Chopra - welcoming tourists and commuters into Ipswich

Chopra has faced several off-field issues since arriving at ITFC, including a well-publicised gambling addiction, which culminated in the club loaning the striker £250,000 to pay his debts, as well as being found guilty of horse race fixing and banned from any involvement in the sport for 10 years. Not great PR for the town, the club or the player, whose image stands at the entrance to Ipswich railway station, with the words ‘This is Ipswich’ above his head.

Indeed, Chopra’s use of social media hasn’t done much to remedy his image as a poor role model. Following the above incidents, Chopra received numerous ‘trolling’ tweets, antagonising him for his off-field, financial problems. Instead of ignoring them and blocking the culprits (as many footballers who receive twitter abuse everyday do), Chopra decided to enter into a dialogue with the trolls, adding fuel to the fire that was his twitter account. Chopra’s final retaliatory tweet was directed at those who had been mocking his financial woes by tweeting a photo of a bag full of £20 notes, stating: ‘Keep tweeting me about me being in debt haha love it’

The tweet that caused controversy and led Chopra to quit twitter

Whilst I can fully appreciate the difficulty in ignoring venomous messages (some of which mentioned his family), Chopra undoubtedly over-stepped the mark by gloating about how much money he has lying around in plastic carrier bags. Not only did this anger Ipswich fans, whose club had loaned him money to help with his debts – reportedly to stave off loan-sharks who had turned up at the training ground; it also angered football fans in general who saw Chopra’s tweet as a sickening reminder of the divide between players and fans. It even drew attention from fellow players, with ITFC teammate Jay Emmanuel-Thomas responding to the photo with the tweet: ‘Michael Chopra your [sic] a clown!’

The subsequent days saw Chopra delete his twitter account (he has since reactivated it). However, spurred by his online behaviour, football fans around the country continued to talk about how footballers were using social media and the growing disconnect between the pedestalled players and the fans that ultimately pay their wages. Unsurprisingly, the next time Chopra played for ITFC, he was booed by a significant section of the crowd – including both home and away fans.

It is fair to say that Chopra’s ill-judged social media activity has significantly contributed to the unrest amongst Ipswich fans as they struggle to afford to follow their team. Interestingly, the BBC ran a survey last year which found that ITFC offered the most expensive match day tickets in the Championship. Against such a backdrop and in hindsight, I hope Chopra realises the errors of his ways and now that he’s back on twitter, can learn some lessons from other members of the squad about how to use the platform to engage with fans.

One such member of the squad Chopra could learn a thing or two from is Tyrone Mings. The 20 year old, who joined Ipswich from non-league Chippenham Town earlier this season hasn’t even played a game for the blues yet. However, last week, the defender found himself making the headlines for all the right reasons due to his engagement with a fan on twitter.

A few hours before ITFC’s home game against Bolton Wanderers on 16^th March (a game that Mings was named as a substitute) a fan tweeted to wish him and the team good luck. As a throwaway comment in the tweet, the fan also wrote that he wished he could be there to see his beloved team, highlighted with the hashtag #skint. Within an hour, Mings had replied to the fan, asking whether he could get to the ground in time for kick off. The fan confirmed he could, and this was followed by another message from Mings informing the fan that he had left two tickets at the ticket office for him, along with the comment ‘Shouldn’t miss a game cos you can’t afford it’.

Tyrone Mings offers a 'skint' fan complimentary tickets to an ITFC match

Being a twitter addict and one who follows the majority of ITFC players (even Michael Chopra!) I saw this exchange as it happened, just as I was about to go underground on the tube. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it other than it was a kind gesture to a cash-strapped fan. I’m aware that players get a certain allocation of match tickets for family and friends and it is almost certain that this gesture didn’t cost Mings a penny. However, whilst I made my way through the tunnels of the Central Line, I began to think more deeply about it – the power of the gesture wasn’t encased in the value of the tickets. Rather, it was the pleasantly surprising sense of parity and camaraderie that is so rarely seen between players and fans. Sure, players are generally more than happy to sign autographs for fans or pose for photos, but this was different. It was spontaneous, unrequested and refreshing.

When I surfaced out of the Underground and walked up the staircase at Liverpool Street station, I had another look at the tweet and saw that it had already been re-tweeted nearly a hundred times in the space of an hour. Not bad for Mings’ twitter credibility, who, prior to that exchange only had approximately 1,200 followers. At last count, ten days after the exchange between player and fan, Mings’ ‘left u 2 tickets under the name of Tris Monk. Shouldn’t miss a game cos u can’t afford it #ITFC’ message had been directly re-tweeted 5,239 times. This isn’t even taking into account the tens of thousands of re-tweets gained through other sources. In addition, Mings’ twitter followers grew from approx. 1,200 to 13,000 and now include famous footballers such as Ian Wright (@IanWright0) and Sky’s @SoccerAM account. Furthermore, as is the beauty of twitter, the tweet truly went viral, with global news agencies such as BBC News and The Huffington Post, amongst many others, picking up on the story and posting articles on it.

Newcastle United fans praise Mings on their fan site - toonforum.co.uk

Mings’ tweet has certainly put some faith back into football fans’ hearts about the relationship between fans and players – with comments praising Mings emerging on fan forums up and down the country. However, the ‘newsworthiness’ or ‘talk-ability’ factor of the story sadly comes from its abnormality. Hopefully, Tyrone Mings’ gesture will have set a precedent and it won’t be the last time that a player performs such a random act of kindness towards a fan.

One of the things I love about twitter is that it engenders a sense of parity and enables everyone to occupy a level playing field. It’s a public space where all sections of society have the ability to interact with one another in any way they choose. Where else would you get the opportunity to engage in conversation with society’s elite (however you may define that group!) from the comfort of your living room? Of course, there will always be those who abuse the technology and use it to antagonise. However, the majority of users draw upon it as a tool to share information and have conversations about mutually shared interests.

Regardless of how it is used, twitter certainly holds the power to bring players and fans together in a way not seen before. I only hope that as social media continues to be ingrained in our lives that it is treated with caution and a sense of consequence – particularly by those in privileged positions, such as football players. Who knows, in years to come, maybe media law firms will no longer need to ‘train’ people on how to use social media, or if they are, that they’ll be using Tyrone Mings as an exemplary benchmark for how footballers should engage with fans online.

Rebecca reflects on 2012 as she heads off on maternity leave…

The quallies have finally waved goodbye to their last round of focus group attendees and polished off the remaining stale turkey and cranberry sandwiches, while the quant team have neatly placed their calculators into their desk drawers. It can only mean one thing…school’s out for Christmas and what better time to reflect on the year gone by.

There are no two ways about it, 2012 has been a phenomenal year.  As well as toasting our queen and her 60 glorious years, cheering on our Great British sporting heroes and doing the Mobot, Relish has also has had a thing or two of its own to celebrate.

Business is booming

This year, we have seen unprecedented growth (a staggering increase of almost 40% turnover in 12 months).  ‘But where has this growth come from?’, I hear you cry.  What is the marvellous medicine that we’ve concocted to defy the tough economic climate and flourish while others have floundered?  The growth has come from 2 streams.  Firstly, the expansion of existing client accounts, achieved by continuing to surprise and delight, rather than rest of our laurels.  We’ve taken ‘new’ news, innovative approaches and  have applied relentless dedication to working with our top 5 clients to address their challenges. We’ve also spread our wings and our client base.  The successes we’ve reaped from both paths has fundamentally been underpinned by our use of fresh thinking to ensure we don’t become stale, and thus, neither do our clients.

Happy shiny faces

Naturally, having new clients and greater demands has meant the need for a little extra help.  Recruiting the best in class has been a full time commitment, almost an obsession.  We’ve seen droves of candidates but have cherry picked the best and over the course of the year, Relish has sprouted from a fledgling team of 11, to a steadfast work force of 21.  In January, we were joined by a Mary Berry in the making, Abbie Mears, who was taken on for her masterful field management skills but also happens to cook up a storm in the kitchen.  February saw the arrival of Heike Immich who was immediately whisked into the world of L’Oreal and now knows a great deal about hair swishing and the perfect pout.  The springtime brought the arrival not only of daffodils and sunshine but also our digital master of the universe, Ben Hewitson.  We experienced a double whammy of new starters in June when Tom O’Dwyer and Zoe Slade joined the qual crew.  But, this is only half the story… as we rolled into the second half of the year, we began expanding our Leeds office too. Carol Finlayson decided to venture away from client side, saying goodbye to her life at Nestle and hello to ASDA, Lyons and New Look – just some of the clients she’s working on.  Back down in London, more new faces continued to walk through the doors of Lamb House, including India Henderson, our super-switched on grad, and Nicole Fassahi, our video editing goddess.  Finally, as the summer days began to fade into grey skies and the heaviness of winter began to weigh us down, Laura Webster burst in to the Leeds office full of energy and enthusiasm, to join the quant team.

A room with a view

All these new people needed somewhere to sit and this sparked further change. The London office underwent an impressive refurbishment, Having moved into smart, new premises in April, just a handful of months later, the Leeds  team upped sticks and relocated to a larger, airier office within the Round Foundry building.

Celebrate good times, come on!

All this hard work has not passed by unnoticed.  The summer party was bigger and better than ever before and saw the Relish crew being wined and dined in style, in the Goodwood hotel in West Sussex.  The Xmas party was recently held at Battersea Park, where copious amount of alcohol were consumed and some serious shapes were thrown on the dance floor, causing Tony to split his trousers.

But it’s not just work that has provided cause for celebration; with 1 engagement, 2 marriages and a baby on the way, it’s fair to say the Relish family has been a busy bunch.

All this leads me to question one thing – what could possibly be in store for 2013?  Well, with a number of big projects kicking off in January, the search being on for another quallie and quantie to join the team, a baby due any day and 2 more weddings in the pipeline, I suspect 2013 may be even bigger and even better than this jubilant year.  I guess we’ll just have to watch this space to find out!