Being Social

Many brands and companies have attempted to enter the Internet’s multiple social spaces, but few have enjoyed anything approaching resounding success—at least, not if measured against past campaigns in traditional, mass media. The social factor that trips up people is that they persist in thinking of online social venues as “media”—something they can manage and control, in which they can continue to dictate the outcome of their efforts.

But social venues were created to enable social interactions, not brand transactions. Until companies understand this and adapt their own interactions to fit the venue, they will continue to find only haphazard success, and a reluctant welcome in social networks and other social “media.”

Companies tend to launch into social conversations with their old sales-oriented lingo: “Hi there, I’m Joe Smith of ABC Products, and I have a product you’ll love.” That’s an intro that will garner digital rotten tomatoes and an invitation to show yourself to the door. Instead, marketers must learn to enter the conversation as participants, speaking only when they have something valuable to say, and conversing rather than selling. This is a change that company personnel often find difficult. Many companies are now developing staffers who are personally well versed in social media into spokespeople who can guide the company into social venues by “talking the social talk.”

Another impediment to brand success in social venues is that people who flock to social networks tend to deeply distrust brand-managed pages. The most successful brand fan pages are those created by individual users, not brand parent companies. Coca-Cola now sponsors the most popular fan-created Coke page in Facebook; Pringle’s consolidated their three most popular fan-created pages under one umbrella page to merge the voices of 2.8 million fans; Nutella, the hazelnut-flavored spread, has a huge user-generated fan page, with 3.1 million fans.

Even Budweiser’s Bud Light fan page, “Drinkability,” garnered only 1,743 after 6 months online despite promotional efforts including cross-channel ad promotion and NCAA March Madness tie-ins. Smaller companies may find Facebook even less effective because their brands may not generate user fan pages, and attracting users to a company-managed fan page may be difficult.

B2B companies are finding it more effective to: join conversations where their customers and prospects already “live”; monitor those conversations to learn more about their brand’s strongest advocates; and listen to conversations as part of the larger pattern of online “buzz.” Companies that participate rather than manage are growing in authority and brand acceptance in the social media space. Becoming strong listeners rather than trying to dominate the conversation is the new goal for companies exploring social networking as a business tactic.

Social networking can be a portal into many areas of corporate interest, including recruiting, improved customer feedback, one-to-one CRM, and lead development. But social is not the right place for selling… unless the fans are doing the selling for you.

It is time for companies to stop thinking of social networks as channels or tactics, and simply become “fans” themselves. Be a member of the community, rather than trying to be its dictator. Develop the “common touch.”

Slow Down When Building Your Brand

The process of acquiring the brand positioning statement is intensive and purifying. You gather all the details about your business, its products, people, customers, industry and challenges, sift them until the chaff falls away, then pick out the best, most substantial kernels and use them to define the brand.

The process of definition is a step that too many companies skip. All too often, eager to “get to launch,” companies skip straight to the communications without properly defining and testing the brand position.  This results in brand statements that are inaccurate, and frequently unsupportable. Defining the brand is important because:

·         

      First, it helps desired audiences understand the brand, and helps to establish the same perceptions across all audiences.

·         - It ensures delivery of consistent brand messages across markets and geographical areas.

·         -It serves as the basis for orienting new hires, new customers and new business partners.

·         -It moves the brand from abstract to “real.”

As you review possible positioning statements, consider what it that your company is trying to build.  Break down the brand into its key elements—those factors that contribute to the brand essence.  These include:

1.   Product Essence – What does your brand promise—and deliver—to the customer?

2.   Function – What does your brand do or provide?

3.   Values – What values or qualities do customers associate with your brand?

4.   Personality – What characteristics or “personality traits” are associated with your brand?

5.   Perception – Finally, how does your customer or “brand advocate” perceive your brand essence?

The brand positioning must align with these factors to ensure the positioning will “fit” the brand in the minds and emotions of brand advocates and customers.

What Goes Down Must Come Up

Ariana waiting to ride the slide
during a previous visit to
Chestnut Mountain. Yes she
is wearing flip-flops.

So a few weekends ago I took my family up to Chestnut Mountain Resort to ride the slide, enjoy the view, and have some great food at Sunset Grille. My kids – Ariana (10) & Maya (6) – absolutely love to ride the slide at Chestnut and we are frequent visitors every summer.

I guess I wasn't thinking because I let Maya wear flip-flops. Not a good idea when you plan to ride the slide. For those of you not familiar with Chestnut's Alpine Slide it is a fiberglass (I believe) slide that twists and turns its way down the mountain and you use a sled to ride from the top of the slide to the bottom. Once you reach the bottom you take the chair lift back to the top.

Well it was bound to happen - Maya lost a flip flop when riding the chair lift back to the top. By the time she reached the top and got off the chair lift she was an emotional mess. For some reason she had decided she couldn't live without her FAVORITE flip flop.  So I agreed to climb down the mountain with her & Ariana to fetch the missing flip flop – despite the wise council from the other adults in our party. They, like any other rational adult, thought I was insane to climb down the mountain (475 foot vertical drop after all) to retrieve half of a $5 set of flip flops.

Well I had a plan – those of you who know me know that I always have a plan! I knew the going down wouldn’t be too bad and thought that I could just retrieve the missing flip-flop make my way down the rest of the mountain and ride the chair lift back to the top. After all it would be good exercise to climb down.

Maya & Vicki before their
excursion on the Alpine Slide.

The girls and I had a pleasant trip down – chatting and picking wild flowers along the way. It was good bonding time after all. We retrieved the flip-flop and I started to continue down the hill when I heard one of them – I think it was Maya – who yelled “Where are you going?”. Sure enough, I turn around and the girls are climbing their way back up the mountain roughly following the same path we took down.

I tried everything I could think of to convince them to turn around – truly I did, but they wouldn’t do it. And for some reason I wasn’t comfortable letting them proceed on their own.  I’m not sure what my rationale was at the time after all it wasn’t like there was anyone else climbing around on the mountain and the rest of our party was waiting for us at the top.

So I did the unthinkable – I climbed up after them. Both Ariana and Maya are very active children and therefore both are in excellent physical shape. I, on the other hand, have made every excuse not to exercise and therefore am not in any kind of shape to speak of.

A portion of the Alpine Slide
at Chestnut Mountain Resort

The girls proceeded flitting back and forth across the mountain continuing to pick wildflowers as they went. I kept my head down – I refused to look up to see how far I had to go yet – and plodded along as straight as I possibly could up the mountain. I figured we were about ½ of the way down so roughly 200 feet to climb back up.

100 feet to go….. I flopped on the ground gasping for air & desperately craving water. The girls began to get concerned for me and started cheering me on and offering encouraging statements to keep me moving.

50 feet to go….. Ariana ran to Rick, my husband, and told him I was dying.

25 feet to go…..Rick met me with a bottle of water and let me lean on him as he walked me to a shaded table to recover.

30 minutes later I recovered enough to slowly start walking back to the vehicle – still leaning heavily on Rick. 60 minutes after scaling the mountain (following a short nap during the drive home and another bottle of water) I felt like myself again.

In summary, the lessons I learned from this whole experience are:

§  Stick with what you know will work to avoid scaling a mountain when you are not prepared.
§  Always bring water with you when hiking – particularly if out of shape.
§  Exercise is not a waste of time but will ensure your body is ready when you want to challenge it.
§  Listen to the advice of your peers – particularly if they all think something is a bad idea.
§  And finally your child will get over losing a FAVORITE flip-flop!

Maya's infamous FAVORITE flip-flops!

Target Markets

"Target marketing, know your audience, identify the primary customer," yadda yadda, yadda!  These lines have been drilled into every marketing person's brain since their first marketing 101 class.
The fact is, you have to do it. And what makes it more difficult is that as the Internet continues to open the world to everyone; people in a demographic group no longer follow each other around like geese.

There was a day when the majority of women over 55 years of age wore polyester, drove a 4-door sedan, more likely to not have a pet in her household than have one and she lived to serve her grandchildren. She was probably married and was mental mush if she was divorced.

These ladies still exist, but not as the majority. Now you have the "polyester" minority and many others, including, the metro, senior female, who if divorced will more than likely choose not remarry, prefers to live alone, probably has a dog and is just as likely to drive a Jeep as a sedan.

Add to her, the ever exciting psychographic makeup of the Cougar (yes, she is a recognized co-hort in marketing today) This flashy lady, likes younger men,  may or may not be financially well off, travels alone and she may very well still be top in her career field. She is not wearing rubber soled shoes, she is in 3" heels. Want to sell her something....get to the point. Don't load her with droning details. Tell her the benefits of doing business with you, upfront.

And these are just three very small micro groups of women over 55! Whew!

So, why do it? Why go to all this trouble? Because it can dramatically increase your sales and just as dramatically lower your marketing expenses. Stop talking to everyone and start talking to the few that care about what you sell and have a want or need for your products/services. Are you sending out 1 direct mail piece to everyone in your database? Waste of postage, waste of paper,WASTE of money. Develop 3 or more messages, send less and target the right message to the right group. No call to action? (gasp!) Don't you dare! :P

What encourages a buying decision out of a 30 something, married, female is her family. "Does this make my kid's life better or my life easier?" (Sorry hubby's, you don't weigh in much to her daily purchase decisions, except for food.) She also is swayed by her budget and whether or not her friends are talking about/aware of the product or business she is considering and what experience they had with you.  She will hunt your reputation down on line like a bloodhound. These reviews are gospel to her. If you haven't monitored your brand on social media, take time to audit this!

What encourages the same buying decision from a woman over 50? "Do I know/trust the brand, does this make MY life better, does this purchase reflect how I see myself? (younger, vibrant, sexy, informed and so on) She cares MUCH less about what her friends are buying or who they buy insurance from, bank with, or where they shop at online. You have to reach her directly.  Don't lie to her or offer her untrue value statements about your company. If she catches you, she will never use you again.  Tell her the truth and talk to her as you would a male customer. Talk down to her or try to charm her and she is gone.

This process can seem overwhelming, but you can see how in the end, it simplifies everything. By trying to market to everyone, you are literally, targeting thousands of unique categories of consumers. Drill it down to 3 or more groups that offer you the most ROI and go get them!

Have Great Creative, Will Travel

Work is often perceived as a necessary evil. "I have to go to work to get paid." It's true, some days it is just true in all companies. But, if you have been following Plaid Swan, you know we are an agency of a different feather. --Pun intened.:O

At Plaid Swan, we made the decision to raise "free range designers."  Yep, just like free range chickens, they are free to run, work, concept, brainstorm anywhere in the world. We don't care if they work in a suit or a Speedo. They are on their own.

Operating under the philosphy that great design comes from inspired designers, we have located what we feel are the best of the best in the country and tied them together only by Skype. And these meetings are only on key perspective client teams when needed. Otherwise, we have no idea where they are.

To date it has worked great. They are 100% accountable for producing heart-stopping design and MUST be on deadline, no exceptions, to remain with PS. In exchange, they roam free. Free to ski (Peter); go back to school (Adam) raise kids; (Craig); own a gallery in Boston (Bonnie) and on down the line.

No cages. No time cards, no desk that you have to sit at, no office politics, and no 8A-5P. Do your best work at 3:00A? Great! Have at it.

The challenge with the traditional ad agency model is that all work looks similar. When designers sit in a group, the work all starts to look the same. One idea inspires another, and eventually, an entire community or industry is blanketed in one font and one color scheme. It's no-one's fault, but if the same people do the work, the work starts to look the same.

The same goes for copywriters. We retain the best non-profit writer in the country and the best tourism writer on the face of the planet. They could NOT, however, write for each other. A truly great writer has a style and that style can rarely cross drastic lines say, from extreme sport copy to banking. One is going to sound odd. Most traditional firms employ a group of copywriters who just try to write everything. The grammer may be correct, but they can rarely speak to an audience in all segments.

People often come in and say, "where is everyone?!" Well, Peter is in Colorado....we think.  After a little explanation, and review of the bios we have hand selected for their team, 100% of new clients say, "Wow, that's cool."

 We think so.

Your Brand is Your Best Sales Tool 24/7. Is It Doing A Good Job For You?

Is it time for a brand assessment? Your brand is your #1 sales tool 24/7. Is it working for you?

Does your annual ad spend keep increasing? If your brand is working properly your advertising budget should only increase year over year if you are launching a new product or service, if you are targeting a new demographic/market or you need to respond to new /changing competition. If it's increasing just to keep the bottom line where it has been, then it is time to re-evaluate your media mix. BUT don't stop there. Audit your brand. It may be time for a refresh.

Brand Audits

Ideally, a brand audit will be scheduled annually and receive as much attention as the marketing plan. But if not, it should be reviewed when any of the following situations occur:

• When contemplating a decision to enter a new market or product category in which you have not as yet established a position.
• When assessing the pros and cons of extending a brand into a new product category or developing a new brand for that category.
• When determining whether to sub-brand or utilize a corporate brand – and to assess the balance between the two.
• When a brand's market share is slipping or is not meeting realistic expectations because of competitive activity.
• When considering the establishment of a new product category in which your brand will be the first participant.
• When you are not certain of your brands position, strength or effectiveness in relation to competitive offerings.