Brand Media Strategy (chapters 8 & 9) and Groundswell (chapters 7-9)
Jessy Hutchinson & Lilli Lopez
In chapter eight of Brand Media Strategy, Young (2010) examines receptivity tactics and the different platforms that allow for receptive messaging. Young gave a personal example where Saatchi & Saatchi New York came up with an effective media strategy for Tide laundry. The campaign placed ads in “points of dirt” to ensure their audience thought of Tide whenever they were faced with a dirty situation or environment (p. 128). Receptivity is achieved at the “moment of aperture” when consumers are in the right mind-set to think about the product category (p. 131).
As Young stated, “technology platforms are quickly bringing this (receptivity) planning into this decade” (p. 128). “Rather than simply advertise, we use media to build content that entertains and immerses those influencers. The experience has to be authentic and interesting” (p. 137). The experience is a huge factor in the receptivity of a message. Online platforms pose new opportunity for brands to use online and interactive media as a touch point in conjunction with events/POS Guerrilla (see fig. 9.4, p. 157).
Lilli: The first marketing strategy that comes to mind is through music festivals. I’ve been to several music festivals and, aside from the awesome live music, my favorite part of these events is all the free stuff. At every major music festival, big brands sponsor parts of the event. At Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2011, some of the sponsors on site were Honda and Google Plus. Honda had their latest Civic model on site where festival-goers could sit inside and get their pictures taken. In exchange for signing up for a mailing list, Honda representatives gave photo booth participants a bandana featuring their pictures screen printed on the giveaway. Honda paid to be there and though they can’t give out the actual product they’re promoting, they gave a tangible reminder to their consumers. Across the festival grounds, Google Plus paid to host a private lounge party for attendees to relax in an air-conditioned space on Google colored beanbags. While inside, Google Plus reps helped people create their personal Google+ accounts. Every time someone left that tent, they walked out wearing promotional Google Plus Wayfarer-style sunglasses and a new Google+ account. People started asking each other where they got their sunglasses or bandanas, which created a constant flow of visitors for these brands. This event marketing strategy deserves at +1! Here is an article that outlines paid, owned and earned media through event marketing: http://www.inc.com/guides/201102/new-rules-of-event-marketing.html
Advertising may be losing its effectiveness now, as consumers are targeted with more and more paid media messages. According to Li and Bernoff (2011), companies can increase the spread of positive word-of-mouth by locating their most enthusiastic customers encouraging them to speak about the company. Consumers are more interested in hearing about other people’s personal experiences, and trust these first-hand accounts more than a brand’s carefully crafted image. Podnar and Javernik (2012) refer to “word of mouse,” using the internet to spread word-of-mouth more quickly and across geographic boundaries (p. 147). They state that word-of-mouth can influence a range of consumer behaviors, from brand awareness to brand choice to purchase behavior. Although you cannot fake word-of-mouth, according to Li and Bernoff, you can encourage it. Citing Christiansen and Tax (2000), Podnar and Javernik believe that “companies should encourage consumers to talk about their positive experiences immediately if they want to maximize the effect of positive word of mouth” (p. 164). Although Apple recently received some negative word-of-mouth due to problems with the new iPhone maps app, sales of the new phone have not slowed down: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57525319-37/apple-maps-snafu-isnt-hurting-iphone-5-sales-say-analysts/
The website Kickstarter is built on the idea that positive word-of-mouth will inspire others and lead them to donate money to interesting projects. If someone wants to embark upon a creative project but do not have the required funding, they can create a profile on the Kickstarter website, listing their funding goal and a deadline. With the help of press, blogs, social media, and word-of-mouth, artists can spread the word about their project.
Jessy: Chapter seven of Groundswell discusses the possibility of building a community around a company’s groundswell. This community does not have to focus specifically on a product, and instead could form around a problem consumers experience. Li and Bernoff also mention the groundswell’s ability to support itself. They describe the groundswell as “a fantastic support system” (p. 157). This system enables people to connect and care for one another. Chapter eight provided the example of CarePages, a journaling website that allows people to update friends and family members on serious medical conditions. Several other websites also assist in the coordination of caring for loved ones during an injury or illness. My family used the website Caring Bridge after my brother was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. This site operates in a manner similar to CarePages. Caring Bridge allowed us to provide updates over the span of a year to many people regarding Matt’s multiple surgeries. Take Them a Meal is an online scheduling system that organizes meal donations for those that are unable to cook for themselves. My parents recently received a month of meals from close friends after my mother underwent a mastectomy. They received email reminders several times a week, letting them know who would be dropping off a meal and even what food they’d receive.
Companies may choose to create support forums, wikis, or Q&A forums for their customers. Other times, it may be smart for a company to join an existing site to promote their brand. Areas of the groundswell attract like-minded people. Music fans come together on sites like Grooveshark and Spotify to share albums and playlists. Brands can use Spotify to both express their personality and connect with consumers. Companies can share playlists that fit well with their brand. Spotify users can share these playlists with friends on social networking sites. In an article on the Forbes website, David Clarke provides a simple formula: “brand experiences + content that people want = happy and engaged consumers” (Clarke, 2012, para. 6). Clarke encourages brands to create experiences that consumers will value, will actively seek out, and incorporate into their daily lives. He contrasts intrusive audio ads with interesting branded playlists…which is more attractive to consumers?
Chapter nine of Groundswell focuses on gathering feedback from the groundswell. Embracing the groundswell allows companies to gain information from consumers, including their wants, ideas, complaints, and praise. But the book makes the distinction between having consumers create an ad for a company and truly inviting them to participate in product innovation. Ad contests are short-term projects that don’t deepen the relationship between consumers and companies. Brabham (2012) defines crowdsourcing as “an emerging problem-solving model that leverages the collective intelligence of online communities for specific purposes” (p. 307). Brabham examined the Federal Transit Administration’s use of crowdsourcing in 2009 to obtain new ideas from the public for transit planning, noting the power and value of collective intelligence. “That’s what accelerates innovation—starting a conversation with your customers and using your skills to understand and exploit their knowledge” (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 194).
Take a look at this crowdsourcing infographic: http://www.rigatuso.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Crowdsourcing-Umbrella-infographic.jpg
References
Brabham, D. C. (2012). Motivations for participation in a crowdsourcing application to improve public engagement in transit planning. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 40(3), 307-328. doi:10.1080/00909882.2012.693940
Christiansen, T., & Tax, S. T. (2000). Measuring word of mouth: The questions of who and when? Journal of Marketing Communications, 6, 185–199.
Clarke, D. (2012, June 12). Spotify is helping brand managers change their tune. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2012/06/12/spotify-is-helping-brand-managers-change-their-tune/
Lagorio, C. (2011, February 9). The new rules of event marketing. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/guides/201102/new-rules-of-event-marketing.html
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Podnar, K., & Javernik, P. (2012). The effect of word of mouth on consumers’ attitudes toward products and their purchase probability. Journal of Promotion Management, 18(2), 145-168. doi:10.1080/10496491.2012.668426
Young, A. (2010). Brand media strategy: Integrated communications planning in the digital era. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Joining the Groundswell 
In chapter eight of Brand Media Strategy Young explains, “The best communications planner knows how to exploit media that seeks out the most receptive consumer.” (p. 134) He goes on to list and explain five tactics companies can use to generate deeper impressions: contextual planning, situational advertising, leveraging of target passion points, branding inside content, and tapping into consumers’ relationship with media. In particular, the leveraging of target passion points tactic connects to consumers by tapping into their passions and interests.
In an article found on Forbes, Tourism Ireland, a company whose role is to grow overseas tourism, successfully connected to consumers’ passions leading up to 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The tragic sinking of the vessel already evokes emotion, but Tourism Ireland aimed to transform that passion into an intention to visit Belfast, the city in which the Titanic was built. Once the company saw that consumers googled the Titanic more than they googled Belfast, it created a website 18 months prior to the anniversary, dedicated to promoting Titanic stories. Tourism Ireland also encouraged numerous media outlets to publicize its take on the Titanic. These methods proved to be significantly profitable for the city of Belfast. The website received over 750,000 visitors within four months and 120,000 Facebook subscribers. In addition, there were 110,000 visitors to the city’s “Belfast Titanic” attraction within the first five weeks. The city generated over $50 million from positive publicity. Therefore, Tourism Ireland’s choice to focus on the Titanic, an already popular event in history, rather than the city of Belfast, effectively illustrates the leveraging of target passion tactic.
Forbes. (2012, May 16). Connecting with consumer passions delivers Titanic rewards. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gyro/2012/05/16/connecting-with-consumer-passions-delivers-titanic-rewards/
The readings this week focused on the interaction between the organization and the consumer. Brand Media Strategy states that once the ad or commercial is put into play, the company needs to determine how the consumer will receive the message (130). Receptivity is focused on shifting from the message delivery to the understanding of how the message is received. The authors outline five tactics in receptivity planning including: contextual planning, situational planning, leveraging of target passion points, branding inside content, and tapping into consumers’ relationship with media (131).
Receptivity is important for media planners to understand because media planners are responsible for investing in the media that will bring the most returns. This can be done through considering all the touch points that are involved with achieving maximum synergy with the message (146). Three inputs involved in determining touch point selection include: data, consumer insight and communication needs (151). All of these are mindful of the consumer and the relationship that the consumer has to the product.
In previous readings, the authors have suggested that listening to consumers to make decisions is extremely important. This is further expanded upon in the Groundswell reading. Listening to what the consumer is saying about the product can aid the marketers in helping to energize the groundswell. Energizing the groundswell refers to “tapping into the power of word of mouth by connecting with, and trusting on, your most committed customers” (131). One way to energize the groundswell is to create communities for those that are excited about the products. Chapter Seven of Groundswell begins with a consumer that is excited about his luggage purchase and can’t wait to talk about it. Other companies have created online communities in which consumers can share ideas and information about the product. Other sources of groundswell include blog posts. This is where the person that is blogging is excited about the product and is giving the audience information because it is a product they enjoy.
Another important aspect of energizing the groundswell is listening to the views of the consumer. Crowdsourcing is asking the groundswell to provide you with ideas. Credit Mutual went to customers about ideas to make the “bank of tomorrow” took the steps in asking and listening. Which was noticeable to the customers. In the case of loblaw, a Canadian grocery chain, they took to the air waves to find out information about their Presidents Choice products. Consumers are able to write reviews that the Loblaw team can take into consideration. The good reviews are used for packaging purposes and the bad reviews aid the company in analyzing, reformulating, and releasing (192).
Some business’ might not want to undergo this type of listening from their consumers because they are afraid of what they might say. But there are two important things to remember when embracing consumers. The first is it doesn’t matter what kind of business you are in, if you have consumers, they can help you. (193). The second is to remember that embracing your consumers takes a balance between skill and humility (194). The company cannot think that it is above the opinions of the consumers. This attitude might result in the loss of loyal consumers and a decrease in profits.
As the previous commenters have stated, chapter 8 of Brand Media Strategy talks about four main factors influencing marketing communications engagement. After reading all four of the factors I immediately thought of the commercial done by P & G “Best Job”, which played during the 2012 London Olympics. The commercial is primarily focused on all that a mother does and the way she is by their child’s side every step of the way.
One of the four factors is the appeal and impact of the message itself, and with the commercial, I believe it just encompasses perfectly both the watching of a child grow up and the role in which a mother plays in a child’s life. She’s the supporter, encourager, coach, a shoulder to cry on, and many more. This commercial really executed well with the creative and emotional aspect, which I believe really got people’s attention to the commercial. They didn’t even have to say what they products were, but as the commercial progressed, it is easy to identify through tasks done at home what they are advertising.
“Receptivity is about shifting from delivering messages to understanding how they are received. It is about focusing on context: finding the most relevant places to match the media with the message, the consumer with the brand,” (Young, pg. 130). Young writes how important receptivity is to the consumer. He focuses on the point that it’s never been about reaching everyone. “That approach is expensive and unreliable,” (Young, pg. 130). With this Procter & Gamble “Best Job” commercial, it is unrealistic that you are going to reach a target audience of everyone who watching the Olympics and happens to see this commercial. You’re targeting mothers and women. Us women are the ones who are going to see this commercial and have our emotions get all warm and fuzzy and possibly want to buy some products. It’s important when creating a campaign that you focus on who you’re trying to reach and not trying to reach every single person out there.
Here is the commercial! I’m sure many of you have all seen it. It’s one of my favorites!
In the reading for this week, organization to community interaction is once again heavily emphasized and observed. In Groundswell, the reading talks about how companies can create online communities and support groups for their products and services. These tactics are great ideas considering the available technology that exists today. Instead of companies outsourcing jobs to foreign countries and risking their company image and reputation, they can now, like Yahoo! create question and answer pages that are essentially created and evaluated by their customers. One key component of this specific strategy that I’ve found to be the most effective to it is the creation of a creation of a “reputation system,” (Li, Bernoff, p. 175).
Once again the text discusses engaging the consumer base. This is nothing new, but the importance doesn’t water down with repeated mentioning. Instead, it should only emphasize the fact that consumer engagement with company ideas can make for a powerful effect with embracing the groundswell. Gathering, listening to and reacting to feedback is an extremely important sequence for companies looking to change their reputation (Li, Bernoff, p. 193).
Advertising is rapidly changing from just sending a message to a relatively unknown audience to a more targeted experience for a specific group of people. One of the most visible instances I can think of is Dr. Pepper sponsoring the SEC fan experience at the SEC championship game. I’ve been to the past two SEC champ games and Dr. Pepper is everywhere, but they’re not driving the soda down your throat. Instead, they’re pushing activities and prizes for customers, and allowing customers to tell other fans why they love Dr. Pepper and what Dr. Pepper is doing that weekend. It makes for a great fan and consumer experience
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-06-01/building-customer-relations-by-listeningbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice
and this:
(1998, December 24). Study finds consumer relations directly affects consumer loyalty. New York Amsterdam News. p. 30.
Public relations, as well as the readings, is focused in part to the receptiveness of messages by the public. Last month, a fraternity member and student at the University of Tennessee was involved in a major scandal. To counter-act the news that was developed around him, his lawyer held a press conference. This press conference did not go over well. There has been media backlash nationwide. Today, there was a story published in the Knoxville News Sentinel. This story, Fraternity member’s lawyer needed P.R. pro’s help, gives an outside view of what went wrong with the messages and reception of the messages.
Pam Strickland who wrote the article is an opinion columnist for the newspaper. She said, “Or at the very least, he should have insisted they consult with a crisis management public relations expert. A good crisis management expert would have told him that it’s best to keep your client out of the news unless you have something positive to offer, which he clearly didn’t have on Tuesday.” (Strickland 2012) I completely agree, in this case it probably wasn’t a great idea for him to come out and say anything let alone the way that he did.
Strickland, Pam. (October 5, 2012) Fraternity member’s lawyer needed P.R. pro’s help. Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved from: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/oct/05/pam-strickland-fraternity-members-lawyer-needed/
In Li and Bernoff’s book Groundswell they define crowdsourcing as asking the groundswell to provide you with ideas (190). They note, however, that crowdsourcing by itself is not the same as embracing your customers (190). For example, if you crowdsource an advertising campaign you might save some money on production, but you won’t change the way that you interact with your customers (190-191). This can be seen with Frito-Lay’s contest to allow customers to create a Super Bowl Doritos Commercial where Frito-Lay as a result probably learned very little about its customers and did not energize them (190-191). At best, crowdsouced ads only tap the groundswell for a very brief moment (191).
Others, like chief technology officer and editor of Evolved Technologist Dan Woods, have actually been more critical of crowdsourcing and gone as far to call it a “myth”. Woods says that crowds do not create solutions for companies. Instead, it is “virtuosos, uniquely talented, highly trained people who have worked for decades in a field” (Woods). Woods says that what really happens is that “a problem is broadcast to a large number of people with varying forms of expertise”. Often individuals who are motivated by an obsession, competition, money, or all three will apply their individual talents to come up with a solution (Woods).
Woods says that one example of how crowdsourcing is a myth can be seen with how articles are created on Wikipedia. Often, Wikipedia is seen as being a prime example of crowdsourcing (Woods). However, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says that many times articles on the site are created by a motivated individual (Woods). After the articles are created they are then corrected, improved, and expanded by many different types of people (Woods).
Woods says that the reason that he takes such an issue with the whole concept of crowdsourcing is that “misplaced faith in a crowd” can be “a blow to the image of a heroic inventor”. He fears that putting so much faith in a crowd to come up with a solution will reduce the motivation for individuals to come up with solutions on their own (Woods). As Woods concludes, “let’s not call it crowdsourcing and pretend that 10,000 average Joes invent better products than Steve Jobs.”
While I can see that some might take issue with Woods point of view by seeing it as “elitist”, he nonetheless does provide a very good counter argument to crowdsourcing and the concept of tapping the groundswell as a whole.
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Woods, Dan. “The Myth of Crowdsourcing.” Forbes.com. Forbes, 29 Sept. 2009. Web. 7 Oct. 2012. http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/28/crowdsourcing-enterprise-innovation-technology-cio-network-jargonspy.html
In this weeks readings Young ( 2010), in particular, points out the importance of touch points within a communication strategy. “Different touch points can perform multiple potential roles in the brand media strategy. A medium can perform many tasks” ( p. 162). It is not a surprise that in today’s mediated world it is essential to activate and play off of all mediums available. That is why young suggests to use each touchpoint strategically to the companies benefit.
Young uses UPS as an example of how to use effectiveness of television to your advantage. They used television to visually appeal to their audiences. “They wanted to amplify the white board device, so they featured sportscasters using a whiteboard to explain complicated plays on television, and financial analyst using a whiteboard to analyze the market, and television networks creating animated whiteboard introductions and summaries of programs” (p. 163).
In Dean Hambleton’s article “Social Media Branding Strategy: Using ‘Touch Points’ to create strong brands,” he notes that the most important touch points in today’s market are those formed on social media. Hambleton argues that social media touch points encourage people to evaluate the brand, buy, advocate the brand to other people, bond with brand as you would with a friend. According to Hambleton, “the bonding stage is when the brand of a product is firmly placed in a consumer’s mind. This is the final result of having many touch points created by social media strategy.”
In Chapter 9 of Groundswell, Li and Bernoff (2011) talk about the importance of listening to your customers. This can be related to the above paragraph by actually understanding your customers and the means in which they come into contact with your brand. Without knowing this, it is hard to use your mediums effectively. Li and Bernoff (2011) recommend that companies utilize their humility to truly listen and make improvements where improvements need to be made. They also recommend using social technology to facilitate this as well as accomplishing the following goals: listening, talking, supporting, and embracing (p. 194).
Hambleton, Dean. http://ezinearticles.com/?Social-Media-Branding-Strategy:-Using-Touch-Points-to-Create-Strong-Brands&id=6127432
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Young, A. (2010). Brand media strategy: Integrated communications planning in the digital era. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Word of mouth definitely seems to be the best way to not only advertise a certain product but sometimes it is a great way to build brand loyalty. For example, when the iPhone came out I had seen commercials but I was still hesitant to buy it because I had heard there were problems with it. Then my friends started telling me what I heard wasn’t true, and those with iPhones told me how amazing they were. I started seeing posts on Facebook and before I knew it everyone had one. Then of course I had to get one. Word of mouth persuaded me to purchase the phone more so than any of the commercials did.
The blog post also describes the groundswell as “a support system.” I found a blog post that supports this. After hurricane Katrina, women at a university used social media as a support system. According to the blog, they called themselves “virtual volunteers,” and they would share resource information on social media sites. Even more, people who survived the hurricane found refuge within these communities. They used social media as a support system when they felt like they had no one else. Using social media in this way can definitely change the way we react to one another. Social media allows for a support system that might not otherwise have existed.
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/08/29/the-women-virtual-volunteers-of-hurricane-katrina/
In chapter 7 of Groundswell, Li and Bernoff note the importance of creating a community to energize your customers, as well as the importance of participating in and energizing online communities of brand enthusiasts. It’s become increasingly important to make sure you’re not just providing a forum for your publics, but to create a two way communication.
Additionally, chapter 9 of Groundswell stresses the embracing of the groundswell once you’ve cultivated the relationships with your customers. Li and Bernoff say that embracing the groundswell is “making customers an integral part of the way you innovate, with both products and process improvements” (151). The authors say that with your customers “in the loop,” innovation can happen more quickly because you can continually improve.
The Young reading focuses on consumer engagement and factors that influence engagement including: the brand offer, the appeal and impact of the message, the mindset of the consumer, and the context of the message (112). He stresses the importance of understanding how messages are received by consumers. A marketing week article “Brands Fail to Follow Rules of Engagement” details how marketers believe they are engaging their audiences, but consumers disagree. These brands have a receptivity problem with their consumers. Listed among the most important factors driving customer engagement is demonstrating an understanding of the customer. The detail companies like Apple and Tesco, whose brands are leading the way.
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/brands-fail-to-follow-rules-of-engagement/3010051.article
There’s nothing like an enthusiastic customer to sell your product or company for you. Word of mouth is like wildfire, and if your company is on the positive side of that word of mouth, it can pay dividends. An excellent example of the effectiveness of word of mouth in my little world is when I lived overseas. While living in Japan, I was limited to where I could shop. I could use the Base Exchange, but everyone would end up wearing the same things and it would just be awkward. I could shop off-base in the Japanese community, but since I’m about a foot taller than the average Japanese woman, everything was extremely short on me. Hopping on a plane to the US wasn’t exactly inexpensive, so my only alternative was to shop online. I recall the first time I had heard of Zappos. A new friend raved about them and their amazing return policy, a critical part of the online-shopping process. The fact that they were willing to ship overseas to an APO address was an added bonus, as many retailers were unwilling to do so at that time. Some online retailers such as Target have strict limitations on what they will ship overseas, so learning about Zappos from a friend early into my assignment in Japan was huge. In fact, I passed that information along to several people and I’m certain they did the same. Now, I may be back in the US, but I’m sold on Zappos, simply because I feel they made my life so much easier when I needed it most…all because of an enthusiastic shopper who mentioned them to me.
In Chapter 8 of Groundswell, I was amused and impressed with how fans of Jericho saved the show for a short while by sending CBS tons of nuts. It is a great example, however, of listening to the impassioned pleas of the masses. It didn’t necessarily save the show from its ultimate demise, but the creative way the fans saved the show for the time they did. (Le, 146) Similarly, the TiVo’s participation in a forum they don’t own to support, listen and talk speaks volumes. I think the fact that they don’t own the forum gives them more credibility when they do participate in the forum, plus any communications are more detailed, rather than boilerplate and generic. (Le, 154) I like that the two-way communication helps enhance customer loyalty.
One interesting facet of forums where people share information is near and dear to me…saving a buck! I drive an overpriced, overrated, gas-guzzling Land Rover which is ridiculously expensive to repair. It sat in storage for almost 3 years while I lived in Japan so when I returned to the US and picked it up, it needed repairs because it hadn’t been driven and some components in the undercarriage dry rotted. I took it to the Land Rover dealer and was given an estimate of over $3,500 for things that would cost a fraction of that if my car had been a normal one. After lifting my jaw off the floor and politely declining to pay that much for repairs, I took to the Internet and stumbled upon several Land Rover forums. I described the problems and other people had already posted and answered the same questions. Several folks even added photos with step-by-step instructions on repairing the problems and even offered their services. I printed the instructions I found on the forum and went to a local mechanic, who fixed everything for under $900. The forum participants who helped me enjoyed the “psychic income” of my undying gratefulness and I spent significantly less than Land Rover quoted me. Did that help Land Rover make money? Nope. Quite frankly, the fact that I was able to solve what they felt was a $3,500 problem by paying $900 made me more loyal to the forums than to Land Rover. I haven’t been back to the dealer since and I’m sure I won’t ever be again.
Finally, according to a MarketingProfs article, bad news about brands travels faster than good. Calling these folks “Madvocates”, they go on to say that folks are more likely to mention a bad experience with a product or service than a good one. (Bad News, 2011). While I believe giving feedback to the organization providing the good or bad service is extremely important, I can see why folks would want to share a bad experience. They simply want to prevent their friends from encountering the same issue they did. That’s probably not what companies want to hear because they do rely on the positive word of mouth, but sadly, negativity is what people will remember, especially if their experience was atrocious enough to discuss with others. That’s exactly why my Land Rover experience is still fresh in my mind and clearly, I’m still bitter about it….
“Bad News (About Brands) Travels Fast.” Marketing profs.com. http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2011/4669/bad-news-about-brands-travels-fast.
Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Young, A. (2010). Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan
Red Bull harnesses, supports and energizes the Groundswell by focusing its attention on nontraditional media marketing. They build their own audience through social media much like a forum. “Red Bull is also making the conscious decision to invest in online platforms that will give them a better marketing ROI in the long run.” (Smith) They even own their own media house giving access to all of its products to its licensing partners. (Swallow)
In Brand Media Strategy, Young cites Red Bull for their use of nontraditional media tactics. He encourages readers and communication planners to look at the use of nontraditional media when looking at key touch points for a campaign. He says, “Some brands have ignored media advertising altogether.” (161)
Red Bull, however, embraced the groundswell and undertook the task of correctly analyzing their social technographics and recognizing their target audience. Consumers of Red Bull could potentially be on the edgier side, so a nontraditional media marketing strategy was the way to go. In addition to social media tactics, Red Bull has used word of mouth techniques by “creating genuine relationships with individual athletes.” (Engaging consumers through word of mouth marketing)
Li and Bernoff, Groundswell, cite word of mouth marketing as: “believable,” “self-reinforcing” and “self-spreading.” (130) In the 1980s, Red Bull was at the forefront of nontraditional marketing by using word of mouth. The founder of Red Bull “hired a Red Bull Wings Team to go out and talk to people one-to-one about the product.” (Engaging consumers through word of mouth marketing)
Red Bull knows its audience and continues to live on the marketing edge with its advertising.
Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
“Engaging consumers through word of mouth marketing: A Red Bull case study.” The Times 100: Business Case Studies. Retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/red-bull/engaging-consumers-through-word-of-mouth-marketing/word-of-mouth-wom.html#ixzz28fuZGVop
Smith, B. (20 April 2012) “Why Red Bull Uses Social Media to Get New Customers (Instead of Only Advertising).” Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/fixcourse/492753/why-red-bull-uses-social-media-get-new-customers-instead-only-advertising
Swallow, E. (24 Jan 2012) “How Red Bull’s Content Strategy Got Its Wings.” Retrieved from http://contently.com/blog/2012/01/24/red-bull-media-house/
Young, A. (2010). Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan
This week’s readings discuss the importance of engaging and energizing consumers and audience receptivity. In Groundswell, Li and Bernoff talk specifically about energizing the groundswell. I specifically liked how they used the example comparing how political candidates get their supporters riled up and spreading the word (i.e. energizing the base) to what they mean by using the groundswell to boost business (p. 130).
I also like that Li and Bernoff address the importance of word of mouth communication as this type of communication is vital to organizations. They deem word of mouth communication successful because of its believable, self-reinforcing and self-spreading nature. Word of mouth communication is especially amplified in the digital sphere since consumers can now interact with organizations through websites and social media. Moreover, they can post reviews and stories regarding a particular organization. Successful organizations utilize social media to reach out to their customers, not only to advertise the brand, but to connect and form meaningful relationships with their consumers. By energizing and engaging with its audiences, organizations can amplify its’ positive word of mouth communication in the digital sphere. Figure 7-1 on page 132 in Groundswell reiterates this importance.
In chapter 8 of Brand Media Strategy, Young talks about the importance of receptivity planning. He outlines five receptivity tactics: contextual planning, situational advertising, leveraging of target passion points, branding insight content, and tapping into consumers’ relationship with media. On the Social Media Examiner blog, Phil Mershon provides some interesting graphs with regards to how to engage an audience. Similar to Young, he outlines five strategies: 1.) Know where your consumers spend their time 2.) Find content that will resonate with your audience 3.) Focus on Facebook–where consumers spend most of their online time 4.) Take video seriously 5.) Consider the role of mobile. I recommend checking out the graphs as they were rather interesting.
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Young, A. (2010). Brand media strategy: Integrated communications planning in the digital era. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-social-media-tips-for-finding-and-engaging-your-target-audience-new-research/
The readings assigned for this week focus mainly on companies and consumers working with one another to deliver the best products. Another subject that the readings mention are the tactics companies you to reach the right audience, with the right message, at the right time.
In chapter eight of Brand Media Strategy, Antony Young mentions some of the receptivity tactics that certain companies were using to reach their target audiences. He introduces receptivity planning- which is identifying moments or places consumers will be more receptive to the messaging; a relevant location with a relevant message (128). One of the guidelines laid out by receptivity planning in reaching fewer people more efficiently to sift through and decide who are actual consumers as opposed to those who are casual browsers.
Chapter nine focuses the differences between earned, owned and paid media and how important it is for businesses to not focus too much on one of these media channels when trying to right a large audience. Each comes with their own benefits and challenges. Owned media allows control of what is being put out, is cost efficient, has longevity and versatility, and reaches a niche audience. Paid media is in demand, is continually updated, and gives businesses control. Earned media is the most credible, very important in most sales and presents the most transparency. Although these media types give companies the opportunity to reach audience, they all present challenges. Consumers don’t truly trust company communication in owned media and it takes time to create, paid media creates clutter, has poor credibility with declining response rates and earned media gives is hard to measure and allows negativity to reach audiences without company control.
Chapters seven, eight and nine of Groundswell, focus on the way companies use consumers to sell, improve and market products. The chapters focus on the way companies use consumers like Jim Noble, who love a product so much he talks about it at every opportunity. Li details how companies can use enthusiastic buyer like Noble to promote to others. Chapter nine focuses on the way marketers embrace ideas about changing or improving products from their target audience. Technology companies, grocery store and even banks were able to take advice from their consumers and improve their products and services.
Two of the ideas presented throughout the readings that stuck out to me were the Touch Point selections and the differences in media types. An article in the “Bangkok Post: Touch Me, Reach Me, Sell to Me” details how touch points can be a powerful business tool for companies and products who have limited advertising and promoting opportunities. The article focuses on an advertising ban on products like alcohol in Bangkok and how these big companies could benefit from having a person be “up close and personal” with their potential buyers (3).
The other article focuses on the shift that is currently taking place with earned, owned and paid media types. In Lauren Drell’s article, “How Social Media Is Changing Paid , Earned & Owned Media” she focuses on how social media has not only affected how agencies themselves function on a day-to-day basis, but it also altered the definitions of paid , earned and owned media and blurred the lines between them (1). She details how a company can move from paid media, a super bowl ad, to owned media, a company’s Facebook profile, and then become earned media, consumers in turn discussing the benefits of a particular product with others.
Bangkok Post: Touch Me, Reach Me, Sell to Me
Bangkok Post (Thailand) – Wednesday, October 25, 2006
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=114FFEC8E0DF4880&p_docnum=7&p_queryname=3
How Social Media Is Changing Paid , Earned & Owned Media
Mashable.com – Thursday, June 23, 2011
Author: Lauren Drell
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=1380D26C81F09118&p_docnum=1&p_queryname=2
This week’s blog posts poses an interesting perspective on target marketing and word-of-mouth (WOM). WOM among consumer groups is important, and the blog also notes that online consumer discussions about the brand to receive feedback are crucial. This is true. While the product or brand may be using heavy advertising, it is up to the talking consumers to create the voice and opinion of the public and, ultimately, the future of the brand. Much like how Groundswell explains “crowdsourcing” should be used as an inquiry for ideas, the conversation still needs direction (Li & Bernoff, 2011, 190). Commenting on WOM, Jonah Berger, an assistant professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, believes in fueling the conversation. In fact, the conversation, like Berger says, is not necessarily all a brand should want; the key to the conversation’s success is being able to guide it (65). The article also describes the consumer conversation about products as being “detrimental” to its success (64).
A recent study focusing on the positive effects of consumer involvement and word-of-mouth (WOM) can have lasting effects on a brand (Cole, et al., 100). The newly created WOM would in turn lead to a higher preference for the product or brand itself. However, study also points out that without the proper creation of user-generated content, this type of WOM cannot occur (Cole, et. al, 93). And although all feedback may not always be positive, it is important, not only to the brand’s image but to the success of WOM and user-generated content, that all feedback be available for the public to see. Like Groundswell explains, allowing feedback to be visible also allows you to not only improve with the information but also build receptive habits and increase business (194).
I am particularly fond of this mentality. As consumers, we may not always have something negative to say, but we may offer an improvement. Or better yet, we may offer a free and simple forum for customers to discuss issues and solve problems efficiently. And what brand wouldn’t appreciate that?
Cole, M. D., Long, M. M., Chiagouris, L. G., & Gopalakrishna, P. (2011). Transitioning from Traditional to Digital Content: An Examination of Opinion Leadership and Word-of-Mouth Communication across Various Media Platforms. Journal Of Internet Commerce, 10(2), 91-105. doi:10.1080/15332861.2011.571990
Demystifying word-of-mouth marketing. (2012). Leader to Leader, 2012(64), 65-66. doi:10.1002/ltl.20026
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
This week’s reading focused on reaching the groundswell through traditional and nontraditional media, and being able to successfully interact with it. Energizing the base is a powerful way to use the groundswell to boost your business (Li, Bernoff, p. 130). Word of mouth is a good marketing strategy because free, saving the company money. It is also believable, self-reinforcing, and self-spreading, proving a product or services’ truthfulness. Companies need to not only know how to energize the base, but to embrace the customers thereof by “turning those customers into an integral part of the company’s products and processes” (Li, Bernoff, p. 151).
“Uncovering moments of receptivity is a key tactic for driving engagement” (Young, p. 143). Once companies know what reaches consumers, they can successfully focus on those vital routes. “An important element of the Brand Media Strategy is integrating the brand communications across the different touch points in a way that best exploits the target consumer’s relationship with each of the channels” (Young, p. 146). Rajkumar Jonnala writes about reaching consumers and interacting with them through social media in his article. “One should create an online identity by creating profiles and linking it to your own site or blog. There are options on many social media sites to have expandable profiles like Twitter, one can use these services in promotion of new product, offers, schemes blog posts, news and development plans. These are some of the best methods to build and gain popularity of your product and services” (Jonnala, p. 1).
Jonnala, R. How Building a Reputation with Social Media Use is so Important? Retrieved from http://www.business2community.com/social-media/how-building-a-reputation-with-social-media-use-is-so-important-0301050
This weeks readings highlighted the importance of building a community to act as another way to reach consumers as well as gain a two way communication in the groundswell. Organizations are using these communities to “energize their base,” (Li, Bernoff, p. 130) that is, their targeted customers and giving them a product extension that they can use in their own personal way. In doing this, organizations are reaching consumers on individual and personal levels instead of the traditional advertising methods that just shoot it out there for everyone to see.
Word of mouth was also touched on in the groundswell. Word of mouth can be just as important as traditional advertising because you are hearing it from your friends, family and personal acquaintances. When I hear negative feedback about a restaurant from one of my friends, I am more likely to not go there verses if I read a negative review online.
I’ve personally used ModelMayhem before and find it a good example of both an online community, and word of mouth. The website is an open forum for models, photographers, actors and makeup artists alike to join and essentially promote themselves. With models lookbooks and photographers picture samples online posted on their respective profiles, a model and photographer can choose to work with each other and both gain positive outcomes (models constantly need to update and add to their lookbook while photographers always need models to add to their portfolios). Like Facebook, a photographer can comment on a models profile after working with them and tell other photographers of their experience with. If given good references, this acts as word of mouth and other photographers will then want to shoot with that model. The more word of mouth a model receives, the more paid shoots they start to book and the higher they progress in the modeling world. Feverbee.com, a community consultancy, ranked Modelmayhem at number 6 of the top most 15 thriving online communities.
Millington, Richard. “15 Examples of Thriving Online Communities.” The Online Community Guide. Feverbee, n. d. Web. Web. 8 Oct. 2012.
Li and Bernoff summed-up the idea of harnessing the groundswell, “product development is hard. Why not let your customers help with it?” (181) Not only is product development hard, it’s also expensive. Crowd-sourcing offers a cheap and effective alternative.
Veering this conversation to subject matter I’m more familiar with, crowd-sourcing methods are being applied in newsgathering as well. Most broadcast stations also have Facebook pages. In the never-ending search for content, stations use Facebook to generate user interest in a particular story, or to measure if there is any interest at all.
In this way, consumers are helping stations develop products (in this case news stories) that have high interest. This helps to get more people watching the station, which can help stations get the most viewers. The more viewers you have means the more money stations can potentially charge for advertising commercials.
This method of crowd-sourcing was quickly adopted by savvy news organizations and continues to be practiced. Although some stations depend upon it more heavily than others.
Li, Charlene & Bernoff, Josh (2011). Groundswell.
In this week’s reading, both Groundswell and Brand Media Strategy discuss how to think like the consumer and also targeting the audience in the most effective way possible. In Brand Media Strategy, Young explains that receptivity is about “shifting from delivering messages to understanding how they are received.” (130). If companies take into consideration how consumers receive their ads, then companies can improve their tactics to meet their objectives. Thinking like the consumers benefits greatly for marketing research. Young uses an excellent example of Ambien CR when the agency researchers found that insomniacs watch late-night and early-morning television shows. Ambien CR used those time slots to air their commercials, and also sponsored a special “Healthwatch” feature on time change and sleep awareness during Daylight Savings Time weekend (Young 132-134).
In Groundwell, Li and Bernoff explain that energizing is a powerful tool to boost business (130). Word of mouth can greatly influence consumers to buy certain products. As Li and Bernoff states, “word of mouth succeeds because it’s believable, it’s self-reinforcing, and it’s self-spreading.” (130). Many businesses are switching to e-commerce sites so that the consumers can have easier access to their products. Customer reviews on the products help consumers decide whether or not to purchase the items. An energized consumer who shows incredible enthusiasm for a product can increase the likelihood of a sale. According to this blog, Garity quotes that “57% of shoppers trust customer reviews as a research source” from The 2010 Social Shopping Study. He also mentions that KMart began to display customer reviews on their store shelves, which may increase impulse buys after consumers have read them. I think this is a brilliant idea from KMart because it can sway an undecided customer towards buying the product.
Garity, J. (n.d.) “Crowd Sourcing Customer Reviews: Kmart’s Success and Angie’s List Fail.” Retrieved from
http://www.joshuagarity.com/business/crowd-sourcing-customer-reviews-kmarts-success-and-angies-list-fail/
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Young, A. (2010). Brand media strategy: Integrated communications planning in the digital era. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chapter seven of Groundswell addresses how to energize the groundswell. An energized customer is a viral marketer, spreading brand benefits to his contacts without any cost to the company. Individually, no consumer can achieve the reach of mass media. Word of mouth is a powerful amplifier of brand marketing. It achieves results no media campaign can achieve. Word of mouth succeeds because it believable, self reinforcing, and self spreading. Energizing the groundswell means tapping into the power of work of mouth by connecting with, and turning on your most committed customers (129 Li).
How you energize depends on how you want relationships to change. Three great ways to energize your customers include ratings and reviews, communities, and ambassador programs. Depending on your customer base, you can do much more though. Great examples of companies energizing the groundswell include Carnival Cruise Lines, Fiskars, and Legos. Carnival Connections is an online tool that Carnival Cruise goers can use to book trips with friends, invite them along, and coordinate activities.
These companies were very smart!!!
1)They considered the propensities of their customer bases
2)Then they designed strategies and chose technologies that matched the relationships they already had
3) Also they provided ways for their customers to extend those relationships.
Follow these steps and you can get customers to sell to each other
If you want to energize your customers, you must prepare for a new way of thinking. These are the five steps for applying the techniques of energizing your own organization:
1) figure out if you want to energize the groundswell
2) check the social technographics profile of your customers
3) ask yourself, “what is my customer’s problem?”
4) pick a strategy that fits your customers’ social technographics profile and problems
5) don’t start unless you can stick around for the long haul
One of my favorite companies that energizes the groundswell is Lego. The LEGO Ambassador Program is a LEGO community based volunteer program made up of representatives from LEGO User Groups globally. This group allows Lego enthusiasts to connect and in turn promote Legos. Here is the link to the Lego Ambassador page.
http://aboutus.lego.com/en-gb/lego-group/programs-and-visits/lego-ambassador/
Overall, companies should listen to what their customers have to say about their particular product or service. Taking into account the customers opinion will help the company improve their product as well as possibly encourage the customer to become an ambassador in promoting the product.
Lilli and Jessy touched on several fascinating aspects of the groundswell this week, specifically why concepts like “word of mouth” supplement advertising in building receptivity among consumers. Simply relaying information to consumers will not build the brand that is needed, rather information transmission must be done in a way that is interesting and entertaining to produce the desired result. If advertising does indeed lose it’s effectiveness, that same effectiveness can be rebuilt by utilizing effective word of mouth. Lilli’s example of Google Plus at the Austin Music festival was a great example of utilizing word of mouth techniques and crowdsourcing, having the consumers themselves push their product.
Ray showed us an article by Dan Woods which was critical of crowdsourcing, claiming that those who attempted to put the majority of their reliance on crowdsourcing would be in for a rude awakening. The Street’s Elizabeth Blackwell produced an article that is also critical of crowdsourcing, while not entirely dismissive of the concept like Woods. Blackwell believes that while crowdsourcing can be effective, the concept of a virtual crowd is a very “ever-changing” and “hard-to-pin-down concept.” (Blackwell, 2012) Calling crowdsourcing a “work in progress”, Blackwell suggests that crowdsourcing has “yet to revolutionize the ways most businesses operate” and that small businesses that use crowdsourcing applications for their tasks are simply “a new spin on traditional staffing companies: you go through a gatekeeper to access talent you could not find on your own.” (Blackwell, 2012) Blackwell notes the potential that crowdsourcing has but concludes by suggesting that, “A crowdsourcing site may help you reach many more potential workers than your local temp agency, but you still need procedures in place to protect the security of your business data and to provide some level of quality control.” (Blackwell, 2012)
While the potential for crowdsourcing must be recognized, it must be truly understood before it can be used to it’s full potential. Crowdsourcing done poorly negates the ideas and purpose behind the act of crowdsourcing and is no more effective than traditional means of marketing. Word of mouth can work for us or against us, and crowdsourcing ambition will not save us if our ideas fail. We must use crowdsourcing competently or not at all.
Blackwell, E. (2012, October 05). Crowdsourcing: Not yet a game-changer for small biz. Retrieved from http://www.thestreet.com/story/11727380/2/crowdsourcing-not-yet-a-game-changer-for-small-biz.html
The idea of harnessing word-of-mouth kept making me think of the website we learned about on the first day of class, Klout.com. The whole idea is to influence your friends, family, and semi-acquaintances through your social media posts. As your klout goes up, you are eligible for free merchandise, thus encouraging you to keep posting relevant messages. These perks are tangible reinforcements to help you continue using your influence to inform others about products you love or hate. While this type of word-of-mouth isn’t being encouraged by a single company, it is encouraged by a conglomerate of companies who come together to offer their products as incentives to post and influence. The Klout score also encourages users to be influential. Even though it’s just a little number next to your name, for whatever reason, humans are compelled to try to get that number as high as possible. Yes, the score is tied to potential perks, but even without that, there would be a desire to increase it. If you’ve ever used Reddit.com you know this is accurate. Every comment or link you submit is voted on by other users. An upvote gives you one “karma” point. A downvote takes one away. These points are utterly useless. They’re completely imaginary and genuinely pointless. That doesn’t seem to stop people from craving more karma. In a potentially offensive analogy (that’s a warning about offensive material coming up, in case you were wondering), karma is described as nothing more than a digital penis to show off in the locker room. In a less offensive analogy, getting lots of karma from a post is like the whole internet putting your drawing on the fridge. But I digress. For whatever reason, klout.com members want to make their score higher, thus encouraging brand influencers to get out there and influence.
The other thing I wanted to briefly discuss is the idea of listening to your consumers. When I was little, my parents opened a small business. In the days leading up to the opening, my parents frantically tried to find the right merchandise and arrange it in the right way. The night before, my dad was talking to me about owning a business. He said that tomorrow, they would be leading the customer. They picked out the merchandise and arranged it and priced it, all in hopes of leading the customer to buy things. They were leading the customer tomorrow. And then he said, but after tomorrow, the customer is leading us. That philosophy, letting the customer say what they want and then actually *listening* to what they say and acting upon it, has led to a very successful business for them. If they hadn’t listened, they’d still be selling button-covers (http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/button_covers.jpg) and luggage tag earrings (http://img2.etsystatic.com/001/0/7055534/il_fullxfull.356703210_82fo.jpg.