A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the distinction between building a brand and leveraging it. In short, building is what you do up to the time the consumer is ready to buy, while leveraging it is what you do when you are pulling all the pieces together to close the sale. The point was / is, that building or leveraging the brand is not about the media, marketers, brand managers or agencies. It is about the consumer and where are they in the shopping process.

This discussion most often comes into play around search and the branded keywords. Too often, marketers focus in the medium, or in this case, the branded keyword. I believe this media-centric dialogue misses the point and mentioned that broadening the perspective goes beyond search:

"While this conversation regularly comes up in search, the same discussion needs to happen around display. Geo-targeting, behavioral targeting and other user profiling capabilities allow us to learn about consumer intent. As they visit sites, they may indicate that it is no longer time to tell them about Honda's great quality, but instead focus on the great gas mileage of the Civic, or even the service and quality of a specific dealer. We have to be more open to the intent in order to provide the consumer with the right information."

A piece in Media Post's Behavioral Insider by Steve Smith discusses how Teracent is helping HP target the message based on consumer's online, and off-site behavior.  Chip Hall, Sr VP at Teracent, discusses the changes in messaging base on real-time data and the progression of message targeting from the very broad when data is scarce, to very targeted when there is more data upon which to base the targeting decisions. It is all consumer, not media, centric.

At no time does this suggest that we ignore brand. It is always part of the equation. But this is how it plays into the message evolution as we learn about the consumer. BT is still rather young. But, its premiss is focussed on what the consumer wants to hear and see given their place in the buying process and not on a binary decision of "this is a branding vehicle and this one is not". Two consumers can get two different messages from the same display space (or anywhere) from the same advertiser. The focus of the message, pure brand or focussed on attributes, will depend on what you know about the consumer at that moment.

Mike Masnick presentation at mesh. Thought provoking perspective on the new business model. It is about creating scarcity and providing a reason to buy. This model is one that we need to take to heart, especially as the web has changed the way we interact with prospective customers. 

In addition to the content, his presentation style is one of the best I have seen.

SEO Insight from Randfish

As always, randfish has great SEO insights into the components and relative importance with regards to organic page rankings for Google. 

You will read many responses to his post. My caution when I see these conversations start is, don't focus on one or two things only. As you will see from his historical graph, a component's importance changes over time. The best practice has always been to focus on good, holistic site / page development with a great deal of attention paid to the user. Don't chase the shinny object of today; keep it in mind along with all the others. 

When you talk to folks at Google, or listen to them present, the common theme is a quality user experience. Combine this with good technical practices in site development, link partnerships (intent on good user experience) and you are most of the way there. 

Social is growing up... a little

Marketers have been approaching social with one of two lenses: 1) this is too risky, the content is too much on the edge, or 2) this is a group we cannot reach anywhere else, and it gives us a chance to speak to a new audience in a different way. Both set the Social media (primarily networks) among the fringe to either be avoided or chased.

Well, thats changing rapidly. Social networks are not just for the young people any more. Older folks, driven primarily by Facebook's growth, are a growing part of the social network community according to Hitwise. 

The way we viewed social networks over the past few years needs to be broadened. A 40 year old mother of three is not going to respond the same as a 20 year old college student, and now they are both participating. When looking at content, creating content, engaging the people, we were focused on a segment that was rather well separated from other segments; they were actively on the social networks while the older segments were avoiding them. Now, with the fluidity of information and the adoption of social networks by a broader array of people, anything we do in one segment will quickly become visible to the others. The chances of alienating your base while trying to go after the new segments just increased.

This situation is reminiscent of an Oldsmobile move in the 90's; that was a conscious effort to cater to a new demographic. If you remember Oldsmobile, you may also remember there last major campaign "Not your father's Oldsmobile." A big, national campaign. It failed to gain traction with the younger buyers, and simultaneously alienated the then current (but aging) customer base. That was an overt decision to go after one market while knowingly pushing away another. It failed.

In social, this same thing is very possible, but may be the result of unintended consequences rather than a strategic shift.

So, what is the best way to approach social? Actually, the same as it always was. Be true to yourself, your brand and your core customer base. It is not about Social media. It is about your customer. Social is another, and much more involved, way to interact with them.

The right perspective

"...just because we beat the competition yesterday doesn't mean that the competition isn't going to come back and crush us tomorrow."


Steve Baldwin MediaPost 4/6/2009

Social Media Embraced for years

Social media has taken a seat at the CMO table.
BrandWeek's article, recounts that some companies have been stepping up social. I have heard their stories in the past. But recently, with all the hype, we seem to have lost site of the fact that social media has been actively engaged by companies like Wells Fargo for years. They were ahead of the curve in 2005. But the reasons for going into social are not alway clear, nor the same for different companies.

There is a lot new with Social. But, there is also a lot old. Unfortunately, with the net being all about tracking, the mainstream has (until recently) discounted social media as an important driver. They are now learning from the "old hands." In the case of Dell, it was about containing the bad. In others, like Coke, it is about brand engagement. In others, it is about connecting the activity to a sale. The key to a good social marketing effort is to decide, before you dive in, what it is you are shooting for - setting your objectives. This isn't new... it's good old fashion marketing. Old principles still apply to new media.

Large, stable companies (even in this economy), have shown that social engagement on the net works. These are traditional marketers (I'd even throw Dell in there, though many would disagree), that demonstrated the value of good planning while leveraging the opportunities of new media.





http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/digital/e3ie2a94edbc5b0a7c1150d6cbf4741dede?pn=1