Social Media Killed The Branding Rock Star

CONFIDENTIAL | 1Back to Menu April 8, 2023

Introduction

CONFIDENTIAL | 2Back to Menu

Social Media Killed the Branding Rock Star5 Ways Your Brand Relationships Must Evolve in 2009

Eric Anderson

VP of Emerging Media


Instant Poll Question

What role does social media play in either building your brand or measuring it?

A. Major role

B. Minor, but growing role

C. Minor, and likely to stay that way

D. No role at all


Where does a brand live these days?

Here? Or here?


Where does a brand live these days?

Or here?Here?


The truth is, branding was always supposed to be about how the customer feels and interprets the brand…

A brand is more than a name or a logoit is a promise and a contract with every customer with whom you are dealing.

Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group


…but now with social media, brand managers are getting way more “interpretation” than they ever bargained for.

User-created concepts for the iPhone prior to its launch


Branding has always been a two-way street. But until social media came along, it was mainly a one-way conversation.


It represents a shift in the brand power dynamicaway from the marketer and toward the consumer.


Are digital marketers the barbarians at the gate of traditional brand marketing, ready to lay siege through social media?

Fear not, brand marketers. Digital marketers just want to help. We can help with:

1.Brand positioning through UGC

2.Brand equity through SM measurement

3.Brand attitude through ethnography

4.Brand behavior through outlets for action

5.Brand impressions through pass-along


1. Brand positioning through user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) promotions usually start from the traditional premise of “translating” an offline brand online.


1. Brand positioning through user-generated content (cont.)

But they shouldn’t stop there. Embracing UGC means allowing what your customers tell you about your brand to evolve your brand.


1. Brand positioning through user-generated content (cont.)

UGC promotions can be a form of crowdsourcing, in which you put your audience to work on things you might have otherwise paid for.

You get the dual benefits of brand engagement and, when it’s done right, usable brand assets.


2. Brand equity through social media measurement

Brand equitythe image, awareness, and associations your brand holds within your target audienceis a primary source of competitive advantage.

It can be notoriously tough to measure offline.


2. Brand equity through social media measurement (cont.)

The online space, on the other hand, offers plenty of places to look for your brand.



Not surprisingly, the social media space is awash with firms claiming to be able to mine it for brand equity (full disclosure: we’re one of those firms).



No doubt, there are many legit paths to measuring trends in brand equity; just make sure that yours accounts for qualitative differences.

VS.


3. Brand attitude through ethnography

Ethnography is an expensive-sounding term borrowed from anthropology. It involves field observation of the way a given community lives a brand.

Again, tough to do offline. Easy-peasy online


3. Brand attitude through ethnography (cont.)

Ethnography involves observing a community over a period of time. It can be time-consuming, and the results are almost never quantitative.

So why do it? It can uncover:•The full spectrum of attitudes about your brandnot just the squeaky wheels•Richer data on how a product/service fits into consumers’ daily lives•Hidden negatives (because it’s not dependent on asking the right questions)



Nope, it doesn’t count to do ethnographic research on your own blogs or forums. The environment is artificial and heavily influenced by you.

You’re going for this. Not this.



We express the results of ethnographic (as well as other) research in the marketing persona, which reflects the attitudes, needs, and behaviors of real consumer segments.


Instant Poll Question

Have you spent any time observing online communities that are relevant to your brand?

A. Yes

B. No

C. Not Applicable


4. Brand behavior through outlets for action

Brand evangelists are often out there just waiting to be called into action. Social media makes it easier to find, connect with, and motivate them.


4. Brand behavior through outlets for action (cont.)

Example: we found that Celestial Seasonings had a real groundswell of interest in bringing back their high-caffeine Fast Lane tea1083 petition signatures!



The obvious solution: Bring the tea back! But we did so by activating the base that had signed the petition and giving them an incentive to tell others.

The result: within a month, Fast Lane was outselling the next–most-popular online tea by 10x.



At the risk of stating the obvious: finding and activating existing brand affinity is much more efficient than generating it from scratch.

This is the logic behind tools like mash-ups, which simply let people play in the brand sandboxes they enjoy anyway.


5. Brand impressions through pass-along

In the old days, we had to pay for our brand impressions. We believed in word-of-mouth, but couldn’t measure it directly.

Social media changed all that.

Source: Fox Interactive Media, Never-Ending Friending, 2007


5. Brand impressions through pass-along (cont.)

For many marketers, it feels easier just to pay for impressions. They’re still anxious over whether their brands will get passed along in social media venues.

The answer: Maybe.


5. Brand impressions through pass-along (cont.)

We’ve found that the trick is to focus on behaviors users were already engaged in, then facilitate those behaviors.

As an example, Facebook’s new ad formats do exactly that.


Instant Poll Results


The bottom line: digital marketers and brand marketers need to talk to each other. Let’s start that dialogue now.

Thank you!

Eric Anderson, VP of Emerging Media

[email protected]

www.whitehorse.com

CONFIDENTIAL | 32Back to Menu April 8, 2023

Introduction

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Social Media Killed The Branding Rock Star