Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

Increasing Customer Status

Johnnie and I are doing a few Open Sauce workshops in the US this week.  One of the ideas that we've been exploring is 'increasing customer status'.  This is quite a helpful notion when working out how to make co-creative programmes tick.  The marketing industry has been guilty of treating customers like targets - not people.  But these days, modern marketeers know that such heavy-handed approaches don't cut the mustard.  When customers have access to their own media bringing them into the marketing process is one way to go.  However, brands that do this need to be clear about their intentions.  If the idea is to use customer community to create another branded vehicle, it's unlikely to work.  Only programmes that increase the status of customers are going to hit the mark.  And that means letting people talk to each other, listening to what they are saying, acknowledging their concerns, taking on board their suggestions, and even giving them some say over the development of products and services.  Not difficult ideas to understand - but tricky for mega-corps to handle.

Social Value First, Brand Value Second

Networks work best when they put social value first and brand value second. When brands come to address networks they sometimes start with the idea, 'what's in this for us', which can then lead to quite unfulfilling trains of thought (and development).   An example of this was Nike's mega, Google-powered community Joga, which whilst on the surface seemed to be doing everything right, quickly revealed itself to be high on brand value and low on social value.  For example, one of the main P2P dynamics within Joga was choosing and contrasting your own world cup team.  But the choice was restricted to Nike players, which seriously dented its appeal.  So, along with lots of others, I invested in Joga but Joga didn't invest in me, and I stopped.  (Incredibly, despite Nike+Google level resources, Joga's traffic now ranks alongside the splendid one man blog show, Arseblog).  A better way for brands to approach this tricky business is to ask, 'what's in it for them'.  Which sounds easy - but can be difficult for brands to actually do, not least because it's a question that the network is going to want a hand in answering.  At a workshop that Johnnie and I ran last week one of the participants, a marketeer within a publishing house, mentioned that their own forums hadn't worked that well under the management of the company (and agency) so the budgets were moved elsewhere and the forum was handed over to the fans of the book in question.  It immediately flourished.   But (aside from the fact that the operating cost had reduced) its value remained unclear.  It's a tricky area and for brands there are subtle mental gymnastics involved - not least measurement.  But that's another story.

Radicals, Revolutionaries, Challenges, Opportunities

Whilst the ever-articulate Richard says revolutionaries get shot and radicals get on, the ever-provocative Umair thinks that Lenin's communist experiment is the perfect analogy for what is happening these days, because the current changes are, "redefining the institutions, the raw economics engines, which define...a society, and an industry".  It's extremely hard to assess how great the changes taking place in the marketing world are.  After all change is pretty constant, and 'technology changes industry' isn't exactly a new story.  And yes, networked media driven by individuals is creating lots of challenges for corporations and brands but the motivations behind them - reputation, identity, expression, socialising, community, play - are central parts of the human make-up and as old as the hills.  So what to do?  Watch carefully, stay open-minded, remain flexible, challenge assumptions in constructive ways and build knowledge.   Easier said than done if you are a massive brand with a huge media legacy.  But day-to-day it's just challenges and opportunities, challenges and opportunities.

Magic Powder

"Social networking is not a magic powder you buy and sprinkle on your company to make it ready for the next millenium. It requires a commitment to have a real relationship with your users and let them talk to each other freely -- an appropriate goal for for Google, and probably for other portals, but a tough change to make at media companies like Disney that value control." Forrester.

Edelman's P2P Employees

Richard Edelman did a Q&A on FT.com yesterday.  I asked him this question: "If a company started blogging in October 2006, what would be the number one benefit it noticed by October 2009?"  His answer was: "The key benefit must be with employees, who will be empowered to speak peer to peer on behalf of the company. Note that Microsoft has also encouraged its employees to blog—over 5000 are doing so at present, with tremendous benefit to the company."  Quite an interesting answer I thought - focusing on the benefits to employees.

Talk Ain't Cheap

The most interesting figure from the 'Two Kings' deal is 67 - the number of people who work at YouTube.  When I started working in the online business professionally (circa '98) companies were discovering that keeping a website interesting requires a lot of content - and that content doesn't come cheap.  But at the time budgets were flowing freely and huge teams of engineers, designers, coders, writers, web-architects, sound technicians, producers, strategists and all the requisite account folk sprung up around London.  Client dollars poured in which fuelled a steaming upwards trajectory...that hit the rails sometime in Spring of 2000.  But today with the rise of the DIY web, we are seeing that huge teams of professionals aren't the only way to create major websites.  Just look at the size of YouTube compared to the mega-BBC site.  How many people are involved in the creation and management of the beeb site?  A few more than 67 I'd guess.  So, rather than take your content to the world, bring the world to your content - and let them do the rest.  Simple right?  Wrong.  Creating the toys that draw mega-traffic like YouTube or MySpace before that is anything but easy.  But when it works, the resulting chitter-chatter can build mighty powerful web properties.  However,  the big question - and the one that is creating all the tension around the Two Kings deal - is who then owns that property?  If the people are treated like serfs the kings might have to watch their backs.

"Get Over It"

This was the advice given by Russ Klein, president for global marketing, strategy and innovation at Burger King, to, "brand management control freaks", who are concerned about customers taking control.  Speaking at the Association of National Advertisers, Klein went onto advise that, "turning your brand over to the consumer is  taking control  — and in fact, if you do, they’ll return it to you in better shape.”  And he wasn't alone.  Other corporate executives were lining up to emphasise the seismic changes sweeping through the marketing industry.  A.G Lafley, CEO of P&G, the world's biggest advertiser said, “Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation. We need to learn to begin to let go.”  “We can’t manage what happens out there,” said Lawrence Flanagan, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at MasterCard Worldwide. “It has taken on a life of its own.”  We call it open source marketing or co-creation, but whatever you call it, it's the new landscape - and it's not going away. (Via John Winsor).

The Broadcast Bubble

Customer profiling create all sorts of problems in networked environments.   If brands stare into the blogopshere, or other user-driven spaces, looking for someone who ticks all the boxes on their psychographic models, they will be disappointed.  Worse still, some brands start looking over the shoulders of people who are talking about their products hoping their real customers are bringing up the rear.  You know, the eloquent ones who get the brand's aspirations and share its values.   This can lead to comments such as those made by David Hepworth in today's Guardian: "The best community tends to be driven by people who are essentially intemperate, possibly not the kind of people you want near your carefully burnished brand."  This mis-match can become quite surreal with brands becoming quite scornful of the people who really love their products - even dismissing them as a sort of lunatic fringe.  This appears to be a hangover from the broadcast bubble where people were orderly, submissive - but also Stepford shiny.  (Of course, they never were.) Today's networks are extremely sophisticated in their knowledge, opinions and viewpoints but they are also very messy.  Next time you venture into networked media, best to leave those 'bubble' profiles behind.  You'll get further without them.

Who Is Hallam Foe?

Along with about twenty or so UK blog-folk I went along to the screening of an early cut of the film Hallam Foe last night - courtesy of Hugh, the film's director David Mackenzie and Sigma Films.  The intention of the evening was to get a little feedback and to socialise the film - aka spreading the word.  (And, natch, the latest Stormhoek).  The film was a very entertaining mixture of themes - some really quite traumatic, some very funny - which I'd imagine is an extremely difficult thing to pull off.  There were some excellent performances - particularly the central characters played by Jamie "Billy Elliot" Bell and Sophia Myles.  It stays with you too.  David did a little...

Earn The Right

As the user generated world spreads beyond the written word of blog and into distributed video discussions that pop up around memes and spring up around toys, it's clear for everyone to see that networked media is where individuals have all the fun.  Brands, corps, big media and online content players should stick to their own yard.  HOWEVER....if they really, really want to try - brands can earn the right.  They just need to watch themselves and not get too pushy.  For most brands the idea of standing outside the door or hanging around and observing what's happening - before offering to help - is just weird.  Kicking down the doors, chucking dollars around, barging into the VIP area singing Come Do It Our Way.  That's what makes brands feel good.  Well, tough. 'Cos this ain't your party and no one cares if you feel good.  But IF you can handle the change in the rules, you'll find...