September 20th, 2009
While it may be your brand you do not actually own it. Your public owns it. Your customers decide what your brand means to them. Once you put your company out there it is now in the hands of the public.
The fact that your audience has final say in whether your product thrives or dies doesn’t change the fact that you still have the last say in the decisions implemented. If a majority of people purchasing your product decide decide they don’t like something either you must change it, change their opinion or become a victim of change.
Changing your brand based on feedback alone is shortsighted. Although there is wisdom in the crowd you ultimately are the professional. Your years of experience coupled with thorough knowledge of the category definitely weights your opinion. Just remember, you don’t pay your bills; they do.
So what do you do?
• Survey your customers with key questions
• List all potential pros and cons at hand
• Compare with competitors and other businesses who may have had the same issue
• Create a mindmap of your business / product / situation landscape
• Map out the best possibility to completion
• Implement your plan in timely phases
• Gauge for feedback
• Adjust accordingly
Not all situations are created equal and neither are your customers. By being aware of your capabilities, your customer’s savviness and the clarity of mind to know the difference between the two, you should be positioned to dominate in any situation you encounter.
Tags: advice, attributes, audience, benefit, brand, branding, business, business product, capabilities, clarity of mind, communicating, communication, communications, consumer, consumers, conversation, core values, corporate message, cradle to grave, cross country race, crowd, customer relationships, decisions, endurance, feelings, foster innovation, gauge, goals, interaction, interactions, landscape, life, lifeblood, lists, long term relationship, map, marketing, mindmap, network, networking, passion, person smile, productivity, pros and cons, purchase decisions, retention rate, savviness, selling, social, sprint, term rewards, Value, wisdom
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September 13th, 2009
A great successful brand has a plan for various uses of their identity. No possibility is too small or too out there to be considered. Implementation of branding at every level is key to closing the sale when you can’t be there for the hard sale. The sale is in the details and if you’re not there too then you’re losing out.
In today’s increasingly cluttered landscape consumers are vigilantly filtering out their attention. In order to grab a hold of their subconscious and conciousness minds your brand needs to be subtly placed. All the better if you do it a self-referential ironic or unforeseen way. Bonus points for collaboration.
I’m on the train. I’m listening to music. I’m reading a book. I’m playing with my multimedia phone. I’m writing something. I’m doing ALL of this at once. I’m doing all this to block out outside influences on my way to wherever I’m going in my one last area of zen in the outside world. Your advertising and constant bombardment has forced me to put up my defenses. So how do you as a successful brand break through that barrier?
Any type of countermeasure must be done with the most delicate of hands. I’m already guarding against the big in-your-face branded gestures. By the time a sneak attack is realized it’s already too late. My defenses are down and I’m thinking about your brand in a different light.
By taking the time to invest in the details I realize that you’ve taken the time and money to invest in me. As a savvy consumer I know that every little bit of branding costs money. I appreciate it especially when you do so with a fine brush rather than a spraygun.
Even when I’m not conscious of these small details, on some level I’m registering it. That’s the most important part of this whole journey- the soft sell, the long tail, buying a customer’s mindshare. If your brand is interesting enough in a way that I can’t get you out of my head long after your ingenious piece of branding is gone then ultimately you’ve won.
It could be something as simple as having your brand colors be represented on something as trivial as a straw. Regardless of what it is for you just realize that there IS something there for you. If you don’t do it be sure that someone will do it and is probably already doing it.
Tags: advertisers, advice, benefit, bombardment, bonus points, collaboration, communicating, communication, communications, consumers, core values, costs money, different light, feelings, gestures, goals, ingenious piece, interaction, interactions, journey, knowledge, landscape, life, little bit, mindshare, network, networked, networking, personalities, personality, productivity, savvy consumer, sneak attack, social, taking the time, time and money, Value, zen
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May 29th, 2009
Follow Friday is a plague on Twitter and social media. It’s a Trojan Horse. It’s a seemingly harmless interaction wrapped in niceties. Even giving in to it one bit is fueling the fire even more. You’re a part of the problem if you’re not a part of the solution. Here’s why those who participate in follow friday don’t get social media and never will.
Social media isn’t about sharing at all costs. It’s about sharing at the best cost. It’s about pull NOT push.
Let’s relate follow friday into offline terms. You’re at a party (I know, because social media is one big party) and someone walks in saying that everyone there MUST know Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane. Now that’s not exactly social is it? The person literally just disrupted the party to tell everyone who they SHOULD know. It doesn’t matter if you know the disrupter or not. What matters is that the disrupter decided that their opinion was worth more than yours. They didn’t think of you first.
Social media is about pull. Social media is about personalization. Social media is about those two things plus connections. Take out pull and personalization and you just have the old way of doing things- a connection based on me telling you what to do. When you act without thinking of others first you come up with a bunch of unintended consequences.
To those of you who are moving Follow Friday off of Twitter to other areas I have one word of advice to you: don’t. You are the worst type of person, the enabler. SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T ABOUT YOU. Social media is about everyone else. Start thinking of them first, not yourself. Blanket recommendations are akin to stereotypes- you’re covering a large landscape and inadvertently encompassing those who shouldn’t be involved in the first place.
The only way to break the cycle of me me ME is to think about you you YOU. If you care about the person you are promoting enough then TRULY care about them. Shouting to the world why they’re great is a step in the right direction but it doesn’t go far enough or stay true to social media. Personalize it.
Others and I have resorted to avoiding Twitter altogether on Fridays. The noise is so loud it drowns out the actual useful signal. I schedule blog posts around Friday now. If I’m writing about someone else they tell me to post it any day BUT Friday. This is the law of unintended consequences. It won’t be long until Friday is a day without any substance- the social media equivalent to junk food. It tastes good but you get sick of too much of it.
Remember, this is a party. What’s more meaningful- Having someone you may or may not know well proceed to tell the whole party exactly why Zoe is amazing OR having someone you know well introduce you two to each other because they feel the both of you would be a great fit? See the difference?
Social networking is a whole different ball game. Wait, no it isn’t. If you wouldn’t dream of doing what you do online in an offline setting then don’t do it. If you still think it’s okay to shout how awesome people are at other people (no matter how in-depth you get) then maybe you shouldn’t be in social media. Social media is about them not you. It’s not your time to shine it’s their time to shine. Be useful and thoughtful in all your interactions by micro-personalizing them.
THINK how your actions will affect another person before you do them. When you think of the other person first then it leaves little room for misinterpretation. Don’t be ‘that guy’ at the party and ruin it for everyone. Be the AMAZING party host that introduces two guests to one another. I GUARANTEE people will be talking about YOU before long.
Tags: advice, benefit, brand, communicating, communication, communications, conversation, disrupter, feelings, follower, friends, interaction, interactions, knowledge, landscape, life, media, network, networked, networking, niceties, personalities, personality, plague, promotions, social, social media, step in the right direction, stereotypes, thoughtfulness, trojan horse, twitter, unintended consequences, Value, walks, word of advice, words, zoe duncan jack and jane
Posted in featured, social media | 4 Comments »
