8 c words successful online brands know
TRANSCRIPT
the 8 c-words successful online brands know
Online marketing is popular, but not well understood. Thousands of brands have dived in, but few have achieved signi;icant gains in brand value. Some have ac-‐tually devalued their brands in the eyes of existing customers.
The companies and marketers who do understand the nature and nuances of building brands via online marketing channels know 8 “C-‐words” you don’t.
1. ConsumersIn the race to colonize social networks and press users’ friends into service, many brand managers and marketers seem to have forgotten the point of it all—to sell stuff to people. To sell stuff to people, your brand, and the online market-‐ing channels you employ, must be relevant to those people. Facebook and Twit-‐ter are media darlings experiencing exponential growth. Facebook has 300 mil-‐lion users. Twitter is expected to grow to 18 million users by the end of 2009. So it’s not surprising that brand pages are popping up like tract homes. While it’ s a good idea to leverage Facebook and Twitter’s popularity, your efforts will bear little fruit if your target consumer doesn’t use these channels. It seems ob-‐vious, but hundreds of fan-‐poor Facebook pages, and Twitter’s 60% abandon-‐ment rate are testimony to the fact that dozens of brands sign on only to dis-‐cover an embarrassing lack of interest.
Start with the consumer—4 words that will save your online brand-building efforts.
2. CampaignsWhile good marketing campaigns garner attention, they generally don’t increase brand equity. Sure, there have been inspired and effective campaigns. President Obama’s “Yes We Can” (2008) campaign and Dove’s “Evolution” campaign (2004) leap to mind. But, by and large, campaigns provide only a temporary lift in awareness, traf;ic or sales, and the brand-‐building effects quickly dissipate once the campaign ends or grows stale.
Remember Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” (2004)? Did that actually sell any chicken sandwiches? Doubtful, since Burger King and its ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky offered only anecdotes when asked about the campaign’s im-‐pact on sales, and BK franchisees reported no obvious causal relationship be-‐tween the campaign and restaurant traf;ic or sales.
Use campaigns to drive achievement of business goals, not just impressions.
3. ContentCampaigns are bait, but content is key to lasting, lucrative relationships. Here, content is de;ined broadly to include not only the copy and images in ads or on websites, but also the information and features found there—news, catalogs, sharable content, games, mash-‐ups, customer support resources, and communi-‐ties.
If your website, blog, page, or other channel is simply a coupon dispenser or a dusty thing to which you pay attention once every blue moon, it will not build brand value.
To build brands online, you must develop a content strategy in addition to their brand strategy. Online marketing channels, particularly social media channels, are hungry beasts that must be fed often. They crave variety. Blogs, for instance, require articles, images, videos, comments, blogrolls, polls, badges, links, and ads. The central feature of a Facebook page is the Wall, a lively space that’s fre-‐quently updated with quips, quotes, complaints, conversations, invites, social games, photos, videos, links, news, coupons and product information. And that’s just the ;irst of six above-‐the-‐fold tabs!
Even if your strategy does not involve use of social media, content is still impor-‐tant. Web addresses, banners, text ads, and search links all lead somewhere. What will consumers ;ind when they arrive? How often will they return if there’s nothing new or perennially useful?
Do you want your site to be a frequently referenced resource or a limited-‐time-‐only landing page? Whatever your intentions, the content on your site will make up the consumer’s mind.
Apple have amassed a storehouse of information on its website, including devel-‐oper tools, apps, how-‐to videos, product demos, an e-‐store, announcements, and corporate information. But, lest you forget to visit Apple.com, tantalizing bits of information “leak” onto the Web via tech and gadget blogs—just in time for Macworld, the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), or the holidays.
Surround your brand with high-quality content of varied shelf life—(1) evergreen, (2) current, and (3) new, urgent content that is released or updated at intervals.
4. Customer ExperienceBrands are built through the customer experience—the better and more reliable the experience, the more valuable the brand. Exhibit #1: Zappos.com. Without argument, and with no traditional advertising, Zappos has become one of the most successful and admired businesses of the last decade. In just 10 short years, Zappos built a brand worth nearly a billion dollars (it was acquired for $928 million in July 2009).
But, more important than the revenues and accolades are the rave reviews Zap-‐pos has garnered from customers. Zappos is a company wholly de;ined by its customer service experience. It’s CEO, Tony Hsieh, is obsessed with it; its happy staff is devoted to it; and, its technology enables, even supercharges, it.
Hsieh has created an organization that lives up to its brand promise, “Powered by Service”. Zappos remarkable customer experience begins with its website. Its interface is intuitive; its catalog is extensive; and its customer support con-‐tacts (800 number and “Live Help”) are prominently featured on every page of Zappos’ website. There are reviews to help customers make better decisions; social shopping features to make shopping more fun; and a simple checkout process to close the deal. Zappos promises free shipping (both ways) and deliv-‐ery within 4-‐5 business days, though most orders arrive sooner (under-‐promise, over-‐deliver). And, if that’s not enough, Zappos has a hassle-‐free, 365-‐day return policy.
Zappos’ customers recognize that it is a customer service company that sells shoes, and that adds up to enormous brand equity.
Build organizations and operations that can deliver on the promises you make.
5. ConnectionNot to keep piling the love on Zappos, but they have mastered the art of connect-‐ing with customers. Nearly 500 Zappos employees tweet; hundreds write for the company’s 14 blogs; and a dedicated 5-‐person team records employee vid-‐eos for Zappos.tv and YouTube.
What are they tweeting, blogging and producing videos about? Life at Zappos.
A quick review of videos on Zappos.tv reveals employee-‐produced product demos, Starbucks runs, baby showers, happy hours, ice cream parties, and Kanye West VMA parodies. Following employees’ Twitter feeds reveals a similar pot-‐luck of shoe-‐related, and purely personal, wackiness. How does this build brand equity for a customer service company that sells shoes?
This choreographed craziness reminds customers that Zappos is not a cold, face-‐less e-‐commerce site but a big group of fun, engaged people devoted to making their Zappos experience a good one. This “human face”, coupled with great cus-‐tomer service, has allowed Zappos to forge visceral connections with its custom-‐ers.
Another brand that has discovered the magic formula for connecting with con-‐sumers across a crowded Internet is brand “Imogen Heap”. Heap is a British singer-‐songwriter who enthralled an audience of nearly 1 million people for two years. Heap is not your average celebrity tweeter. She used videos, a blog, Face-‐book, MySpace, and Bebo pages, and a YouTube channel to rope an audience of millions into a journey ;illed with writing, studio sessions, world travels, ro-‐mance, and the purchase of her childhood home.
Heap invited fans to help her ;inish a song, design her album art, write her press kit bio, decorate her home, and advise her on life’s little decisions. Fans became so invested in Heap’s success that a month prior to the of;icial release of her Eclipse album, they drove the album to #39 on iTunes. Heap’s fans even fought off a rogue attempt to auction off a pre-‐release promo copy of her album.
Hire a professional community manager to be the face of your brand online.
6. CreatorsContent creators are a small but mighty contingent among Internet users. They represent only 1%-‐10% of Internet users, but when they buy into a campaign, or fall in love with a bit of content, they can put a brand on the map and keep it there. Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” campaign (2009) was a low-‐budget, high-‐impact success due, in great part, to content creators who cre-‐ated 35,000 videos, which attracted 475,000 critiques, and 54 million page views. The campaign is over, but the content lives on providing a trove of inter-‐esting information for would-‐be tourists. Additionally, the winner of the “Best Job in the World”, continues to generate videos, blog posts, tweets, and photos that draw new visitors, maintain the interest of existing community members, and help Tourism Queensland reach its business and brand goals—increasing tourism revenues and making Hamilton Island a vacation destination.
Another classic example of the value of content creators in creating brand equity is New Line’s “Snakes on a Plane” campaign (2006). While New Line bene;itted from the campaign, the credit for its genius and success goes to a fantastically fanatical creator named Brian Finkelstein. Finkelstein fell in love with the movie’s title, and started his own blog, snakesonablog.com, to “document his quest to attend the Hollywood premiere”.
The blog attracted as many as 50,000 visitors per week, many of who created their own games (Snakes on Sudoku, anyone?), videos, posters, poems, t-‐shirts, ringtones and theme songs. Thanks to Brian, New Line saved $28 million on marketing, and the movie earned 41% of its domestic gross in its opening week-‐
end. Brian’s blog continues to draw unique visitors, and Snakes on a Plane has grossed $62 million since its release.
Your brand is only as good as it is loved. Leverage the love. Em-power the lovers.
7. ConsistencySo much of the focus in online marketing is on “the new”—new media, new apps, and new memes. The importance of consistency in branding and messag-‐ing has been obscured by the mad dash to be part of “the new”. And why not? There are rich rewards for being new—prime real estate on Yahoo’s homepage, top spots on Twitter’s trending topics and Google Trends, millions of impres-‐sions, awards from peers, and, of course, “cool points”.
The lure is so great that companies like McNeil-‐PPC, maker of Motrin, risked of-‐fending its core customers in a desperate attempt to go viral with an off-‐brand video about “baby wearing”.
Angry moms swiftly launched a blistering campaign that employed emails, blog posts, video responses, and tweets (#motrinmoms). The campaign resulted in a short-‐order removal of the ad, letters of apology from the VP, Marketing, and shutdown of the Motrin homepage. The site still features an apology from Mo-‐trin’s Product Directors.
McNeil is a Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) company, and J& J is a brand that consum-‐ers trust to take care of their babies, and of themselves when they’re sick. Who there believed the “baby wearing” video was in keeping with J&J’s credo value, “We are responsible to mothers”?
Keep the #motrinmoms campaign top of mind as you weigh strapping your brand to the next new thing. Ask yourself whether your new video, latest tweets, or sexy social game, is in
keeping with the brand values you espouse in your ofPline mar-keting efforts.
8. CommitmentIn online marketing, so much of the focus is on the new—new media, new apps, new posts, new rankings, and new memes. It’s easy to lose sight of the commit-‐ment required to build brands online. A few campaigns or brands will “go viral”, but you can’t just create a viral campaign. Even companies that invest signi;i-‐cantly in online marketing may be frustrated with the results in the short term. The problem is that many believe the Internet is a cheap, magic bean that will become a giant beanstalk via which they can amass Facebook fans, Twitter fol-‐lowers, traditional media impressions, and sales—all they have to do is sprinkle on a fraction of the resources they devote to traditional media and wait impa-‐tiently.
Unfortunately, building brands online is more like wearing a groove in a granite ;loor. It requires time and determination, or expensive tools. Ads, viral videos, and promotions will scratch the surface; but building brand equity requires me-‐ticulous planning, creative execution, exceptional customer experiences, and continuous measurement and optimization.
Set realistic expectations, and invest for the long-term.
A Final WordOnline marketing channels will continue to multiply and evolve. There will cer-‐tainly be a new Twitter, a better Facebook, something we haven’t yet imagined. But, the need to be relevant to your target consumer; to communicate messages that are consistent with your brand’s values; to develop compelling content; to forge emotional connections with customers via inspiring experiences; to lever-‐age the passion of customers; and to commit to long-‐term relationships, will not change.
Contact: D.D. Johnice, social media marketing/content strategistSP4 publishing x San Francisco x New Orleans
www.spring4thpublishing.com