Building a Participatory Brand that transcends Commerce

The Client Ask

At the beginning of (almost) every client engagement (for the past fifteen years) when we ask clients (high-level) what they’re hoping to accomplish—the response is always akin to wanting something “breakthrough”, “compelling”, and “game-changing”.   We’ve also heard “Cool”, “Apple-esque” and a slew of other descriptors.

We get it.  Everyone wants to be the next big thing.  Brands like Apple have established deep, lasting bonds with their customers and are archetypal emotional brands.  It's not just intimate with its customers; it is loved.  Who doesn’t want this?  It’s important to note that it wasn’t always like this for Apple.  Apple took a financial tailspin during the mid-1990s.   Its products were lackluster, it’s branding a mess, and the company looked in danger of going out of business.

What did Apple do?  They decided to rebrand.  Apple abandoned the old rainbow-hued Apple logo in favor of a minimalist monochrome one, gave its sleek computers a funky, colorful look, and streamlined the messages in its advertising.  They architected a brand that transcends commerce and evokes an emotional response.

Building an iconic brand

How did they do this?  A few ways.  Apple has a simple and unique visual (and verbal) vocabulary, expressed consistently across all product design and advertising.  Apple also projects a humanistic corporate culture (and a strong corporate ethic), characterized by support of good causes (and involvement in the community). Its founding mission was “power to the people through technology”, and has also established an emotional connection with its cult-like customers.

Apple's brand is one big tribe, and purchasing an Apple product makes you a member. Building this tribe takes several forms, from building trust to establishing a community around a product or service. Apple capitalizes upon the fact that people want and cherish a "human touch" and to feel like they're a part of something bigger (as it gives a sense of security and grounding).

BUT, all that aside—the one single thing that has allowed Apple (and some notable others like Nike and Harley-Davidson) to achieve what they have from a brand-equity standpoint is that they are no longer selling products. They are selling brands, which evoke a subtle mix of people's hopes, dreams and aspirations. Benetton used images of racial harmony to sell clothes, while Apple used great leaders -- Cesar Chavez, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama -- to persuade people that a Macintosh might also allow them to "Think Different."  People are drawn to these brands simply because they are selling their own ideas back to them, they are selling the most powerful ideas that we have in our culture such as transcendence and community -- even democracy itself.  Apple today is an ideology, a value set, and a symbol of counterculture -- rebellious, free thinking and creative.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE brand

What we have learned from all of this is simply that brands are more important than products. Products have limited life cycles, but brands -- if managed well -- last forever.  Ryan Bigge, writing in Adbusters, said: "Our dreams and desires for a better world are no longer articulated by JFK’s, nor generated through personal epiphanies -- they are now the intellectual currency of Pepsi, American Apparel, and Diesel. We used to have movements for change -- now we have products. Brands befriend us, console us and inspire us”.

Apple’s Secret Sauce

So, you want brand equity like Apple has?  Here’s the secret.  Make the purchasing of your product and/or service the equivalent of belonging to an elite club. Hip, righteous “outsiderism” with an ample dose of rebellion against injustice. 

If you’re looking for additional information on building an emotional, transcendent brand like Apple, read http://mygoodbuzz.blogspot.com/2009/10/branding-taking-page-from-organized.html

A Brave New World: Social Media and the Economy of Trust

If Facebook were a country, it would have the sixth largest population in the world.  It's hard to imagine, but what's clear is that the Internet (and Social media communications specifically) are changing the way we do business, primarily by extending a platform for real dialogue with our consumers. Traditional “Push” marketing is also being replaced with collaborative, conversational and content-driven communications that effectively put consumers back in the driver’s seat---effectively making “trust” the most valuable online currency.

Social media has changed the marketing game forever. Online word of mouth and the powerful influence of peer groups have already made many traditional business strategies obsolete.  Why? Simply because advertising is less effective at influencing consumers than are the opinions of their peers, making direct-to-consumer marketing messages less valuable each day.  The bottom line is that you must stop pushing your message out and start pulling your customers in. 

Traditional "outbound" marketing methods like cold-calling, email blasts, advertising, and direct mail are increasingly less effective because people are getting better at blocking these interruptions out using Caller ID, spam protection, TiVo, etc. People are now increasingly turning to Google, social media, and blogs to find products, services, and direction. If you're a marketer or business owner, the big question is whether you'll keep up with those changes?   

Need some help navigating this Brave New World?  We’re here to help.  Visit www.Goodbuzz.ca.

Social Media | Q&A

What are the most common mistakes brands make when it comes to social media?

Many Marketers suffer from the "me too" syndrome. If a competitor is doing something special, they feel the pressure to do the same -- even if it is out of sync with their brand or their customers. This pressure comes from the marketer's bosses, the social media specialists, the analysts, the advertising agencies and the media.  It is therefore extremely important to recognize that as a brand, you can only participate successfully when you have permission to do so with your customers (or have a way to create that permission). Along those lines, it's important to start with strategy and do something that makes sense for your brand, is in alignment with your business objectives and resonates with your customers.

What's the key difference between Social Media marketing online and via mobile?

Social media marketing can take place on any digital platform or device.   Digital is digital.  However, mobile as a specific platform has the added benefit of increasingly being location-aware.  This allows information to be served to the user with more relevance and context.  On the flip side, mobile platforms don't allow for experiences as rich as others, but it doesn't mean they still can't be immersive and incredibly social avenues.

 Bottom line is that you’ll need to start with a social strategy and then examine how it translates to different platforms and devices -- whether that be your company Web site, a platform like Facebook, or a device like an iPhone or Blackberry. 

Are Facebook and Twitter the only properties that really matter for social media marketing?

Absolutely not! Facebook and Twitter are both certainly the tip of the spear, but I've seen many companies have significant success with the other social platforms, their own community sites and even mobile-specific social solutions. It all depends on your specific business objectives, what your competitors are doing, where your customers are spending their time and how you want to differentiate yourself with what ideas. The blogosphere, for example, cannot be ignored. Bottom line though is that you’ll need to evaluate the various social platforms and select based upon those best positioned to help you achieve your business and marketing objectives.

Is "earned" media more important than paid media in the social realm?

Building authentic relationships that provide meaningful value exchanges with customers, (and especially those customers that influence others), is most important. That can happen in a variety of ways, whether through paid or earned media, or with those efforts working collaboratively. In the social realm, there's nothing better than true engagement between customers and brands.  That said, earned media is more important, although it is hard to always earn the attention, (and that's where paid and even owned media help jump start any engagement.)

Goodbuzz™ encourages you to submit all of your questions.

WHAT YOUR AD AGENCY WON’T TELL YOU: CORPORATE MONOLOGUES ARE DEAD

In our experience, we’ve found that Brands adverse to Social Media are typically also adverse to the democratizing nature of the Internet in general.    They just can’t get used to the fact that the world is no longer their soapbox!  For the past fifty years getting consumers attention was based on a simple formula; “he who shouts loudest wins.”  However, a convergence of forces has rendered this simple formula for success completely obsolete.  We just wanted to be the one to tell you in case you didn’t know.

Today’s time-starved consumers are increasingly seeking individual attention and they no longer value simple goods and/ or services.  Instead, they value experiences through which they are directly engaged, and this directly affects the way you communicate with your customers.  

The hard and simple truth is that the days of corporate monologues are dead.   We live in a world today where brands cannot simply push messages anymore. Today, brands must do. They must engage with their customers (and across every platform, channel and device). In this new online world — actions speak louder than advertising— and a ‘one-size fits-all’ message or offer only alienates today’s savvy consumers.  The bottom line is that we all like to feel ‘special’ and want to engage (and be engaged) individually and on our own terms (based upon our unique interests and characteristics.)  

This is the beauty of brands leveraging Social Media tools as they extend an opportunity for earnest two-way brand dialogue (where the actual conversations are taking place.) 

Social Media allows brands to actively engage consumers directly on there terms in real-time.  By so doing, brands can affect the entire (associated/extended) community (and every search result thereafter.)  This is because of a number of reasons, primarily the power of group psychology.  Psychologically, ‘sense of community’ is one of the major tenants of self-definition. To be part of the group gives meaning and association with a larger group provides emotional safety and a sense of belonging and identification. The influence is also bi-directional. This sense of belonging to a larger group or community can involve many things ranging from language, to dress, and/or rituals.   Why is this so powerful? Simply because we enjoy watching and empathizing with, people just like ourselves. 

Brands therefore need to socialize online today in ways that increase their relevance and value in the eyes of their consumers.  Brands must ensure a credible social voice is extended and consumers sense a symmetrical (two-way) relationship.  This is where we come in.  What can we help your brand accomplish online?  

For more information, please contact Andrew Giles (andrew.giles@goodbuzz.ca)

SOCIAL RELEVANCE MEETS SOCIAL NETWORKING | FINDING THE INFLUENCER

When most of us think “social media marketing” we initially jump to notables like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace. This stems to reason given their mass appeal and broad user-bases.  However, deciding where to invest your time and energy depends entirely on your objectives.  As demonstrated by the Hitwise data, there are a number of other communities that you may be overlooking. 

A recent article with Scott Monty (who runs social media efforts for the Ford Motor Company,) identified that they (Ford) use social media essentially because a.) That’s where discussions are taking place that are relevant to them, and b.) Ford need to be a part of these conversations “in a way that humanizes the company at every turn.”  To ensure they remain relevant, the Ford Motor Company uses Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Scribd, and Delicious (amongst other social properties), and constantly monitors new emerging platforms and user-communities to see where people are going and the latest trends online. 

Have you considered sites like Tagged or Yahoo Profiles/Groups to find your influencers? Are you considering forums (and other segmented groups) that specifically pertain to your niche? Forums and focused communities can in some cases prove to be more valuable tools than much larger user-groups like Facebook or Twitter.  This is because you’re extending the right message to the right person at the right time.  Over and over again it's been proven - - in this new media landscape one needs to be thinking more sniper-rifle and less shotgun. ;)

NOTE: This [September 2009] Hitwise data from which MarketingCharts compiled the above graph is based on US market share of visits - -as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from Hitwise's sample of 10 million US Internet users. 

Our Blogs Mission and Intent

Social Media sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook have changed the way content providers and web publishers distribute content. The traffic that social media sites send to web publishers has now become one of their most significant and indispensable sources of traffic. Increasingly, publishers are thinking of every page as a potential entry point for users and adapting the user experience on article pages accordingly.

This blog will explore some of the best practices employed by publishers who have been successful in gearing their brands, user experiences, and content toward increasing traffic from social media sites and providing a relevant experience to help engage those users and more importantly monetize the traffic. 

CREATING SYNERGIES ACROSS MULTIPLE SOCIAL PLATFORMS

Almost daily we get asked for advice about Social Media and creating synergies across multiple social platforms.   That said, our strategist has decided to extend some helpful “Tips and Tricks” every once in a while and here’s the first pass.

1.  You are not omnipotent and cannot be everywhere online. Social media is too broad  - - and just when you think you’ve got a broad swath of your target covered, a new ‘Tween’ community will pop up in Eastern Europe with seven million users.  Look at it like the soft drink market; every country may have there own Cola, but there’s only one Coke.   Start with the social ‘notables’ for your demographic and psychographic target and recognize that you have to be in fewer places, but need do more with those places you commit to – hence the need for cross-media synergies.
2. Activate and energize your followers (or “fans”), as they are not simply to be collected like Hockey cards.  Engage them to generate content (comments, reviews, etc.) and always strive to ensure the relationship is symmetrical and participatory, with a clear value-exchange.
3. Acknowledge the world is changing and the future of the Web is distributed.  It’s a push world now, not a pull world and the days of corporate monologues are dead.  Take the best 2-5% of your existing (most active and participatory) website content and extend it into the social places where your fans and prospects are spending their time (i.e. Fish where the fish are.)
4.  The most successful social media initiatives today marry offline activities with online.  Why? Simply because virtual is still virtual.  The highest levels of activity and engagement are achieved when online activities are used collaboratively (synergistically) with offline activities to promote, amplify, and energize the base.
5. Social media is not meant to replace or offset your ongoing online marketing activities.  It’s supposed to be complementary.   The real secret is to combine the two by using social forwarding tools to extend and evolve the conversation.  Extend social media as another brand touch-point to grow email distribution and segmented ‘opt-in’ lists.
6.  Use the right bait.  Extend the right social media and message based upon your target demographic and psychographic profile.  Forrester™ has an online tool that can assist at http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/ladder.html

Announcing the Goodbuzz™ Newswire Service

Optimized for social-media enabled distribution platforms, the Goodbuzz™ e-PR Newswire Service enables press releases to be a key part of a company’s marketing, visibility, public relations and search engine optimization strategies.

Goodbuzz™ sends press releases directly to the media and premium online locations all over the Internet where interested readers can easily find it.  In addition, a direct-to-consumer distribution platform provides the tools to optimize your releases to make them easy to find by interested people and to rank higher in search engine results.

Goodbuzz™ helps brands socialize in ways that increase their relevance and value in the eyes of their consumers. We ensure a credible social voice is extended online and consumers sense a symmetrical relationship. In this new online world — actions speak louder than advertising— and the relationship between influencers and brand affinity become paramount.  This is where we come in. ;)

For more information on Goodbuzz™ e-PR, please contact: andrew.giles@goodbuzz.ca 

SOCIAL INFLUENCE MARKETING (SIM) DICTIONARY

Common types of word of mouth (social influence marketing) are listed below.  Note: This is not a complete list -- we’re publishing it as a means to begin a dialog toward standardization, and we welcome your comments.

Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.

Viral Marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.

Community Marketing: Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share interests about the brand (such as user groups, fan clubs, and discussion forums); providing tools, content, and information to support those communities.

Grassroots Marketing: Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.

Evangelist Marketing: Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.

Product Seeding: Placing the right product into the right hands at the right time, providing information or samples to influential individuals.

Influencer Marketing: Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.

Cause Marketing: Supporting social causes to earn respect and support from people who feel strongly about the cause.

Conversation Creation: Interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions designed to start word of mouth activity.

Brand Blogging: Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere, in the spirit of open, transparent communications; sharing information of value that the blog community may talk about.

Referral Programs: Creating tools that enable satisfied customers to refer their friends.

Energizing Advocacy: Why use Social Influence Marketing (SIM)?

Most traditional marketing tools and techniques are increasingly becoming ineffective:

+ Companies are paying $5 to $250 (or more) per lead, yet less than 1% of leads are qualified (source: Forrester)

+ Conversion rates have plummeted to 2% or less (source: Forrester)

About 75% of consumers abandon shopping carts (source: Shop.org)

+ Consumer receptivity to paid media and marketing is at an all-time low. Only 16% trust company blogs and 14% of consumers trust advertising (source: Forrester)

+ 69% of marketers say marketing has "no discernible effect on consumers" (source: World Advertising Research Council)

Social Influence Marketing however provides marketers with a compelling, cost-effective solution:

+ 94% of consumers trust Word of Mouth via Social Influence Marketing (source: Forrester)

+ 84% of business buyers say Word of Mouth via Social Influence Marketing is the #1 influencer of purchase decisions (source: Forrester)

+ Word of Mouth via Social Influence Marketing marketing delivers a 15X ROI, notably three times higher than traditional marketing (source: Harvard Business Review)

+ Word of Mouth via Social Influence Marketing is the fastest-growing form of marketing and 77% of marketers plan to increase their investment in Word of Mouth & Social Media marketing (source: eMarketer)