Branding 2.0
By: Michael Raisanen
There are as many theories on brands as there are branding experts. But perhaps we can all agree on one thing: the brand as we know it is changing.
Or at least how we marketers think of it.
Traditionally, brands have been thought of as informational carriers of attributes describing a product, service or organization. A sort of esoteric amalgam of emotional, practical and aesthetic qualities that marketers, advertisers and brand consultants have dreamed up. Brands have been left alone to mature and are usually freshened up every ten years or so. Their success has been measured in consumers relationships to them - how do you feel about ACME? Focus groups and surveys have been used to gauge people’s attitudes; concepts such as top of mind have been of outmost importance to CMOs. Nowadays, top of mind is being replaced by top of rank - where does your brand name show up in Google results when your keyword is typed in?
Individual consumers are now pro-actively seeking out your brand and interacting with it. Each of these consumers is in turn a potential firebrand that can make or break brands through their actions as netizens: using blogs, social media and a myriad of communication tools available to consumers online. A radical shift has thus occurred: branding is no longer only about how consumers relate to the brand but how the brand in turn relates to consumers, how it interacts with its consumers.
So what does all this mean to us?
At Attention PR we believe that this radical shift presents great opportunities to companies willing to embrace a new consumer culture. By listening carefully to consumers and engaging with them on mutual terms through authentic dialogue, we are creating meaningful bonds between brand and consumer. We are going beyond enforcing tired catch phrases such as aspirational and instead aiming at closing the gap between customer acquisition and customer relationship. We have had to come to grips that as marketers, we no longer own our brands - the consumer does.
We are no longer in control of the message; once it is transmitted it is beyond our reach. Information travels at breathtaking speeds through multiple channels, traditional as well as user generated media. If implemented correctly our approach is an extremely powerful and cost-effective way of engaging consumers and creating customers. However, we have seen all too many companies get burnt by trying to force their old-school brand mentality on a radically new media landscape. Using clichéd marketing jargon and generic messaging might have worked in TV spots ten years ago, but is more likely to be mocked by armies of bloggers who build their own credibility by tearing down the brands.
Branding is no longer an exercise of mass-culture - it is a function of individual communications.
Michael can be reached at michael@attentionpr.com