Brand Control? Hah! Hah!| Revealed by Social Media Club
Artist: Brian Ulrich http://www.notifbutwhen.com/NIBW/
Various posts of this blog deal with the fall of marketing in this era. This post creates further insights in the rise and fall of brand control; even better the fall and – as i hope – the rise!
http://www.socialmediaclub.org/2009/04/30/smcq7-answers-brand-control-hah onApril 30, 2009 by Deborah Crooks
Last week, Social Media Club asked readers SMCQ7 In the era of social media, what do you do to control your brand?”
The answer: You don’t.
This revelation can be a blow to the best laid of plans.
To whit, notice the current push by the pork industry to rebrand the swine flu epidemic. Talk about a nightmare for an industry. But whatever your product, service, or situation, a surrender of complete control in no ways means you don’t have the ability to influence and craft messages that are most accurate to what you offer. The good news is, Social Media is perfect for this task:
“It’s not so much about brand control as it is about brand management and appropriate representation,” wrote Pete Codella who also offered some tips for going forward in his “PR & Social Media” blog post: “…once you’ve had your come to Jesus moment — realizing you’re not really in control of your brand — what do you do about it? You become a master at using new social media tools to publish your own content which then competes in the marketplace of ideas for mindshare. The more creative, authentic and entertaining your content, the greater your chances of popularity.”
Justan Kownaki concurred: “No one controls their brand, but social media allows you better manage your brand’s perception in real time. More importantly, it helps you understand what others are saying about you (and why), so you can identify any disconnect between what YOU think your brand stands for and what OTHERS think your brand stands for.”
@mattceni: You can control your product, your service Then your customers will carry your message
Of course, social media will reveal other truths as Joellyn Detjen reminded us:
@JoellynDetjen: Social media rewards integrity, exposes moral faults. Control of brand is then a result of a company’s inner values.
The sum? Give up control, welcome creativity, and collaboration …and be prepared to revise!
On Friday, the SMC Editorial Board will reconvene on BlogTalk Radio 8am PST to talk further about the results. Tune in, & give us a call. We’d love to hear your opinion.
Artist: Brian Ulrich http://www.notifbutwhen.com/NIBW/
Posted on 2009/04/30, in CRM, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Web 2.0 and Information Technology,, Vision, visionaries, vision things, trends and tagged Blown to Bits, Change, CRM and Web 2.0, Leadership, Transition, Trends, Vision, Ways of Seeing. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Hey fredzimny, this is certainly interesting and the view of “No one controls their brand” can certainly be an emotional adjustment for a lot of Brand Managers today.
I sit in many brand and strategic meetings about controlling every aspect of brand that it can in “some cases” become purely a platform for failure. Whilst we can control the message we send out, we certainly cant control the message coming back to us from the consumer.
The best method in creating the element of control is delivering on the promise that the brand represents… people buy brands based on emotion and hope… the hope that it will provide and deliver on there emotional expectations and when it does… and only then do we have control over the perception and expectations.
Social Media can fast track that process making it easier, and faster for us to communicate what our brand represents across various markets in as you state “real time”.
Thanks for the article… nice work.
Excellent point, fredzimmy. Companies often come to us (Synthesio) wanting to wish away bad buzz that has been posted about them on the Internet, but the key is to stay on top of what is being said, not to control it. We measure and analyze conversations in order to facilitate business intelligence decisions in the PR, marketing, and communications realms, but ultimately the “control” is in the hands of the consumers when we are talking about user generated content. The first step is to listen and then to engage the community, but in a participative rather than authoritative way. Companies really have to be creative, flexible, and proactive now with the prominence of the Internet in consumers’ lives, as it presents opportunities both for failure and for success.
Best,
Michelle
Synthesio
@Synthesio