Bfranding in social media: "Friends" having a "conversation"

Branding In social media: "friends" having a "conversation"



People no longer have confidence in brands---they have confidence in the recommendations of their friends. This is how great brands are now created. To create a great brand a marketer must have a "conversation" with a "friend". In a modern Facebook world, a marketer must know create and develop "friendships".

Social media platforms create the meeting place for friends to meet and have a conversation and where friends recommend products to their friends. This is why it is essential that organizations adopt social media as a major part of their marketing strategies. Changes have taken place in the market place and marketers must be aware of these changes. Through the Internet and social media platforms todays consumers are inundated with both the number of products in any category and the amount of information that is available concerning this products. Through the Internet, consumers have excess to large volumes of information. The social media platforms allow consumers to post their opinions in great detail about their experiences and impressions of products. These are channels that are beyond the control of manufacturers and retailers, but they are places in which a consumer makes their buying decision. A company must join the conversation and become a "friend" to create the confidence and trust that is needed to create effective brands. The most important shift in the market that companies must be aware of is that the modern marketplace is now a "pull" situation in which consumers pull from the shelves the products that consumers want. They dictate to producers what products they desire. Products that they don’t want will be rejected. There are many alternatives available in each and every market category. It is no longer a "push" situation in which products are produced and consumers are forced to buy these products, take it or leave it. No longer is it a situation where you a consumer can have "any color that they want as long as it is black".

This is why social media is a godsend for a modern marketer and not a curse. Just look at the scale. If Facebook were a modern nation, it would be the third largest nation in the world. In the United States, ¼ of all Internet clicks are on Facebook. This is just one sight. Facebook is a community meeting place for the entire world. Facebook tracks where its users go on its sight. Within the area of legitimate privacy issues, a marketer now has the ability to target and segment their market as never before. Working with Facebook and Google, a marketer has the ability to focus on customers who legitimately want their product. Marketers also have the ability to know when, just when, each individual consumers wants their product. Facebook is just one sight. Most people in the world belong to a social media platform of some kind, where their presence is tracked, and where marketers can have a legitimate conversation with each individual in the world and have a legitimate friendship with each individual in the world. Marketers can now create a robust brand with each individual in the world. How is this done? I would like to cite 4 examples to explain how conversations are created among friends to create a brand. These example should give you insight on how branding can be accomplished in your own situation.

The first example is Rihanna, the R and B singer. At the present time Rihanna is hosting a contest in which her fans can vote on which next song will be selected for radio play from her new album "Loud". Rihanna understands social media in creating a brand for herself, her music, and her album. Rihanna is having a conversation with her "friends" (fans). Rihanna doesn’t have fans. Rihanna has friends. She is asking her friends what song she should sing next. Rihanna is building a relationships with her fans that are personal. It will be interesting what her marketing team does to expand on this one contest. This contest tells Rihanna who her fans are, who listens to her music. Through Facebook, Rihanna can do many things to brand herself and her music. Rihanna has created a brand herself and created an instanteous conversation that she can now have with thousands and thousands of fans. In some ways she has even insulated herself from corporate decision making in the music business. She has created a "pull" situation in a market that is traditionally dominated by "push".

Music is a competitive business. There are many talented singers, many wonderful songs, many genres of music. Music is a marketers nightmare. How does a marketer create a brand for a singer in a congested market place. For a singer to create a brand, their music must be played on the radio. Singers must get on the music shows on MTV and BET to sing their songs. How does a singer convince a network producer or a radio program manager that their song should be in play. In times past, music was a traditional "push" situation in which a music executive decided which artists and what songs would be made available to the public. Through the use of social media sights Rihanna can now produce numbers to prove that she should be the singer getting backing. She has also created a strong fan base that a label and communications company cannot ignore.

Radio station WEEI in Boston is great example of how a marketer should use instanteous conversation with friends to create a "pull" situation with their market. WEEI is a sports talk station in which the format is a combination commentary and talk. How do the program hosts know what to make commentary on? In times past, talk radio was traditionally a push situation. The host decided what was going to be talked about and you either listened or you turned them off. At WEEI, as the hosts do their show, they also have a texting technology that allows them to instaneously communicate with their audiences. The hosts know what stories their audiences want covered. In a real sense, WEEI truly does have "conversations" with their friends.

Two large corporations that use social media successfully in their marketing are Ford and Proctor and Gamble. These are interesting examples to look at because they are huge organizations and large organizations sometimes have a hard time to adapt, which is the reason that large corporations have a competitive disadvantage in a modern marketplace that demands flexibility, speed, and mobility. The former C.E.O., A.J. Lafley understood this. This is why he adopted a social media presence. Mr. Lafley understood that for P & G to continue they have to grow at 4% to 6% each year, which is the equivalent to building a $4 billion each year. Mr. Lafley realized this couldn’t be done with the conventional resources that he had at his disposal inside the walls of P & G. He created a website called Connect and Develop in 2000 that allowed scientists from around the world, to work closely with P and G labs and scientists to create new ideas. P and G have enlarged this operation. Connect and Develop was concerned about science and product development. The emergence of Facebook has allowed P and G to understand just what products their customers need and want. There is a water shortage in India. Tide was not a good product in India because it uses too much water to clean clothes.. Knowing the problem, Connect and Develop was able to come up with a product, designed especially for the Indian market. At P and G, social media allows managers to know what products have to be developed and it creates the means by which the science is there to produce these products quickly

Allan Mullally adopted social media soon after he became the C.E.O of Ford. Through Twitter and Facebook, Mr. Mullally knows instaneously if a product is attractive to auto customers. He knows what products are selling and which aren’t. He knows what ads are communicating and which aren’t. He has combined this with the manufacturing at Ford. As a Vice-President at Boeing, Mr. Mulcahey developed an expertise in manufacturing. At Ford, he has re-engineered Ford’s production lines, so that each line can be adjusted to produce up to 4 different makes of cars. Mr. Mullally can go on Facebook and quickly learn what products are selling. He then adjusts his production lines so that the most attractive models are being produced. In this way, Ford is able to adjust to sudden changes in the market place. It is for this reason that Ford was the only car company that didn’t have to TARP funds.



Dean Hambleton

dth165@students.jwu.edu

deanhambleton.blogspott.com