Tag

marketing

Your Brand is Often Your People

By Marketing

In a client meeting, we were working to identify what makes our client really stand out in its industry. They referenced their collective experience, the deep level of knowledge some team members possess and overall, that the individuals within the company are what make the company different from others that do the same thing in the same market.

Huh.

So what you’re saying is, your people define your brand?

Exactly.

dentalhealthpartners

The dentists of Charlottesville Dental Health Partners

What image do you think your customers have when they think of your business? A logo, or the person (or people) who represents that logo to them?

The team at Rebecca's Natural Food

The team at Rebecca’s Natural Food

Yeah, but we’re really a business-to-business organization. We don’t serve consumers, so …

So, the people who work here don’t have relationships with one another and with the people at the businesses with which they work?

The HemoShear team

The HemoShear team

Right.

 

Your brand is your people. Share your people with your community.

PHOTO CREDIT: the inimitable Sarah Cramer

How Social Media Has Actually Made Marketing Easier, Not Harder

By Communications, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Social Media

There are a LOT of articles and blog posts out there warning the business world that social marketing is the One True Way. CMOs that are not using Big Data acquired through myriad, massively integrated social platforms might be out of a job soon. Social has replaced advertising. Etc. Etc. Etc. It can be very intimidating if you’re used to marketing your products in more traditional ways. The ROI of a social program can be hard to calculate. There are many companies making a nice living just trying to help marketers compute it!

But I’d like to argue that the era of social marketing has actually made your job easier.

Social tools add complexity, it’s true. They can fragment the marketing budgets and team. Hooking all these social listening and sharing platforms up so you can make sense of your customers’ online habits and predilections can add a lot of work, both in the short and long term.

But the transparency of messaging that social marketing requires actually takes a lot off the table. Since spin and backpedaling are really not effective anymore, it’s actually easier to decide what to do. The kind of content you create, the strategy you develop, and the systems you use to communicate can all be much simpler because they are designed to do one thing–explain what you’re going to do and how. You’re not going to spend a lot of time trying to convince someone to buy something of questionable value anymore. Their peers are going to provide the validating information about you and your offering that they need, not you.

It all comes down to doing what you promise and then enabling the satisfied to amplify their satisfaction via social channels. No more lying, covering, shaping, hiding, reacting. All you have to do is explain, clarify, and deliver.

Isn’t that why you’re in business to begin with?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Three Ways The New MySpace Could Challenge Facebook

By Communications, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Social Media

Here is a demo of the new MySpace, which was tweeted about by Justin Timberlake a few days ago. It’s pretty compelling. According to Chris and Tim Vanderhook, who bought the company in July 2011, MySpace’s new design now focuses on emerging artists who hope to be discovered. The Vanderhooks bought MySpace from News Corp. for just $35 million, after News Corp. paid more than ten times that for it in 2005.

I think it has the potential to do an end-run around Facebook for a few big reasons:

It’s clear that the designers and developers have been paying very close attention to what social networks are good at and what people use them for–sharing their life in pictures, connections and music.

First thing you notice is the prominent role music plays in the site. The musician in me loves this. It’s like you can create a soundtrack of events that can be tied to the images and posts you create. Very cool. The timeline is horizontal and everything in is a visual mash that ties posts, video, audio, connections and photos together around those events. It’s loose, slick, and sexy, and seems to borrow a lot from Path and Pinterest. If nothing else, it mimics how we act as expressive people and provides a refreshing antidote to the stodgy Facebook vanilla. It even lets you log in using competing network profiles.

It Appears to Be Anti-Grownup.

This demo looks like my daughter acts. She will sit in her room with music going while she texts friends, adds photos, connects music to pages, teases her Facebook friends, and does homework. The new Myspace seems designed to be immersive for teens. Good call, since their parents (and grandparents) have taken over Facebook. According to Will Oremus over at Slate.com,  “it’s going to focus more narrowly on becoming a social home for musicians, artists, celebrities—and their fans.”

Privacy Will be Paramount

Myspace got in a lot of hot water for their privacy violations a few years back and as a result they are on a pretty tight leash. That actually plays to their advantage right now, as Facebook users start to rebel against the shameless exploitation of their data by Zuck’s public company needs. It also maps closely to teens’ desire to get away from their parents in the digital spaces they are forced to share.

I have yet to see any mobile demo or vision, which they absolutely MUST deliver to have a chance to really succeed. But they are presenting a pretty impressive alternative to a suddenly tired Facebook, especially for the younger and more artistic set.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Three Ways Social Media Really CAN Help.

By Communications, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Social Media

I just finished a really terrific interview with Ted Hissey, SVP and Director of Innovation, Consumer Planning and Global Marketing Services for Brown-Forman Co., marketer of brands such as Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort, Korbel, Chambord and Finlandia. Yum. Read it here.

In this interview Ted discusses how social media has really enhanced the way they both learn from and then re-target customers across a wide range of demographics. It’s really worth the read. I took three really good things from it that I think we can all agree are pretty excellent ways to justify and empower social media use in our own companies.

Social media brings some scale to word-of-mouth. If your brand is one that relies on recommendations and satisfied customers sharing your products with others, social tools can really help you empower those customers to do it. Hissey says “Word-of-mouth has always been critical in driving awareness of new and existing brands,” and social tools allow customers to reach many more influencers with a single post.

Most social media vehicles are very targetable. When marketing alcohol (like many other CPGs), marketers can encounter a broad range of customer demographics that respond to different marketing triggers. Social media platforms can allow messages to be targeted by location, age, interests, networks, job, anything. This makes each marketing effort that much more efficient.

You can’t be boring or typical. If you’re going to bother tapping into  a social network of consumers, you have to make your messages worth their effort.  As Hissey says, “if it’s just something boring that people can get anywhere, you’re wasting your time.” If you get someone’s attention and wow them, they will spread that word.

So what’s stopping you from realizing these benefits and addressing these opportunities?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Your Product IS Your Marketing; 3 Simple Ways to Enchant Your Customers

By Corporate Strategy, Marketing

I just finished reading a really great post on Gen Y Marketing by Patrick Evans I found at a site called YPulse. You can read it here, but the gist is this: “brands need to be clear about their offerings and find ways to entice consumers. After all, having a focused message and providing value, happiness, and good products are what matter most to Millennials.”

Um, DUH? Shouldn’t that be the premise behind ALL products, ALL the time, no matter the audience? Why do companies continue to try and find shortcuts? Why do they lie, obfuscate, cheat, sue, steal and hide rather than just do the one or two things they can actually control that will make the biggest difference in their long-term success?

What are those, you ask?

Make something really, really good. Strive to enchant your customer by exceeding their expectations in every area. Reward their loyalty and their trust with transparency and commitment. That’s it. If you do those simple things, none of the other crap will be necessary, and your customers will reward your with loyalty you cannot imagine. Apple and H&M have nailed it, says Evans. They understand that value and exceeded expectations are what works in a world where distractions abound and loyalty can be fleeting.

No, it’s not always easy. It takes commitment, focus on details, and courage to retain integrity when so many of your competitors don’t have the guts to stick it out and cave to the cheap, easy way to market. But if you want to still be around when these Millenials finally get some cash, you’d better starting planning for excellence. Because that’s what they expect.