Build your brand to protect your business

August 21, 2009 at 12:32 pm | Posted in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity, Ethical marketing, General, Interesting and occasionally random stuff that Francine does, Marketing strategy, Web marketing | 4 Comments
Tags: brand advocate, branding, buzz marketing, creative thinking, Ethical marketing, marketing, Marketing effectiveness, marketing mindset, small business marketing

At yesterday evening’s Web 2.0 Surgery (if you live/work in and around Nottingham, do get to the next one on 17th Sepember; it’s free and it’s great to have the chance to explore web issues for your business), an informal round-table discussion threw up a number of topics for consideration.

One of the businesses, a recent start-up, was interested to talk about the many ways that social media/Web 2.0 could help build the business and the brand.

A key aspect of the business idea is that it does not have any intellectual property that can be protected through patents and so could be copied – for the right existing set-up there would be low barriers to entry (obviously, I’m not going to be giving any details that could give the game away here).  So how can this business quickly create a market position that would discourage potential competitors?

In traditional terms, we would be talking about creating brand advocates, ‘raving fans’ and such – key enthusiasts for both the product and the emotional connection with the brand who would happily evangelise on its behalf.

The advent and growth of various social media has made it possible to harness this enthusiasm as a community: we see this on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Second Life and so on where the business can create its own presence and the space for its community to interact with the brand, with each other and with newcomers.  It’s an approach that means leaving behind the traditional monologue directed at customers and, instead, creates ongoing conversations – which means listening as well as talking.

Social media platforms and tools are perfect for promoting products that have a strong visual component and/or experiential element.  Both lend themselves to use the use of photographic, video and audio tools on the web to spread excitement about a product.

But no one is going to do that unless they are excited in the first place, which is where you need to consider how to use social media – and, indeed complementary ‘real world’ activities – to generate that brand engagement and ‘talkability’ that will prompt and sustain conversations amongst your community.  And, whilst getting ‘stuck in’ is a good way to develop your understanding of how these media work, you really do need to have a clear idea of:

• Where your market – your community - hang out online and how they behave there;
• What you them to talk about;
• What you want them to say and do;
• How you are going to create that ‘talkability’ – a stunt, a competition, something simply funny, what?

Ultimately, your goal should be to create such a buzz around your brand that customers wouldn’t think of going anywhere else for a similar product.  Your product is the product to buy.

To do so using social media requires planning to ensure that you create the most effective means to get that buzz started.  It also means being prepared to let go and give your plans a life of their own to grow throughout your community.

To many business people this still seems a risky strategy – lose control of your promotional plans?  Shock, horror! But the greater risk is in sticking with simply selling a product – rather than selling an emotional experience - and leaving yourself with no protection against more savvy competitors. A real shift in marketing mindset is called for.

Jamie Huskisson shed some light on this by flagging up Pants to Poverty who’d kick started their promotional campaign with a pants-wearing march in central London.  Just google ‘pantstopoverty’ to see how they are cutting across all kinds of media – from this week’s ‘You ask, we answer’ section in The Guardian to a YouTube endorsement from Miss Congo at her X-Factor audition – not to mention their own campaign against bad pants. Strewth!  It seems like a random selection and yet their key messages and brand values stay true throughout – serious and still fun.  Sure, anyone can make pants – but Pants to Poverty give you many good reasons to buy Pants to Poverty pants.

Francine Pickering
Clarity Marketing Ltd.