Attitude has a lot to do with social media. If you want to change the way the world sees your organization, you first have to change the way your organization sees the world.
Gaping Void once wisely scribbled;
Ask yourself:
If a consumer decided to take a swing back at you for saying something stupid, would you win the fight? And even if you did manage to win the fight, was it worth it?
How much would it sting if the customer was right? Does it sting less if the blogsphere was wrong?
Is this really about picking sides?
How will you ever fill the needs of your consumers if all you do is tell them what they want by saying what you want to hear.
The consumer has a medium now. They don’t call themselves “consumers”, and they don’t label their medium “commercial”. They are “contributors”, and they call it – Social Media.
If you want to play in their space, you better be ready to listen.
The more I deep-dive in social media, the more I realize that it isn’t about replacing traditional media, nor is it an accompanying strategy to a traditional campaign. In fact, it’s about meshing social media concepts into the fiber of what you are already doing.
It may not be a slick, but it can be. It may not be what you are accustomed to, but it will be. It may not sustain the big agencies of Madison Ave, but at least it’s sustainable.
The fight is over, but you can still decide if you win or lose.
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7 Responses to “Are you sure you want to fight your consumers?”
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February 2nd, 2008 at 11:46 am
Great piece Collin. Got here from both your and Eden’s tweets! Terrific encapsulation of how an adversarial approach is never the way to go.
One point I’d like to provide my perspective on though is the notion that:
I absolutely agree that it isn’t replacing traditional media, but I have to wonder how it isn’t an accompanying strategy for a couple of reasons…
Companies are talking about their products and as such they are inherently talking about what the designed positioning is; it’s just part of the essence of the brand. For example, your own client, Ford. The tone, images and videos chosen for the F-150 SMR was designed to appeal to the F-150 enthusiasts, who share common demographic traits. Each image that Ford chose was carefully set-up and locations chosen to capture the voice of the brand. The marketing positioning of the copy (even if not as overt as an ad – “built Ford tough”, etc.) still spoke to the brand positioning and essence of Ford trucks. The information that was relayed and the attributes that were focused on complemented the traditional marketing/ ad campaigns that Ford is doing. It’s very similar to The Truck Owner’s Network that we developed for GM Canada and how the branding plays a natural role in facilitating the enthusiast participation imo. This in contrast to the environmentally focused SMR which had a different positioning.
So… I think that your last point – meshing social media concepts in to your fabric – won’t occur without also meshing the branding concepts in to the fabric of the social media concepts.
Cheers,
tamera
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
You are so right Tamara.
I find that branding does play a role in social media, and branding can happen in social media.
I have a “Tapscott” mantra;
“if you are going to be naked, you better be buff”.
This lens is placed on everything we do with our clients, so that at the end of the day, if we can’t live up to the promise that we are delivering in the product itself, then maybe we shouldn’t position it that way.
This is a fundamental shift that the good folks in the Ad world are not used to yet. And it is routed in honesty.
When they are honest, they can confidently enter the social media space knowing that they can promise something like…
F-150 is “Built Ford Tough”.
After having visited the Rouge Plant, smelled the smelt of the steel in production, met with the head engineers and lead designers, and seeing the capabilities of the truck, and matching it to the competition… it is!
There is no kool-aide here… that truck is buff…
We can hold our chin high, and we need to get that content to the digital influencers asap. After a hundred years of advertising, these people are hungary for the truth.
Advertisers try to prove the product with a line.
Social Media proves the line with the product.
That ‘s the difference. Maybe this is routed in branding in some book some where, maybe it is the line philosophy of an agency here and there. But this is not the practice of the advertising industry today, and another reason why ad folk are so at odds with social media.
February 5th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
[...] seen on the RadicalTrust’s blog. I like [...]
February 11th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Interesting discussion. Strikes me that this social media thing is much closer to the research side of marketing, than the ad/messaging side. And it’s not just a reversal of the loop. It’s a bypass. That ad folk will never ‘get it’ becomes a fairly obvious point. Ad folk – still children of mass psychology and mass media – may never shut up and listen. Much unlearning to be had there. Where that leaves branding is…behind. Folk may for a generation or two still attach themselves to brands/lines/images/archetypes…who knows…but really the honesty of which you speak will be borne out in the information and the dialogue, and an informed/educated purchaser of your goods will need that more than any emotional pull and manufacturers or corporations will need them: the symbiosis thing. And as it went or i going with ads and their increasing irrelevancy, the marketing/branding types are next up i.e demographics go out the window, and mass customization enters the fray.
Good stuff.
February 11th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Bmo…
Wow
thanks for the thoughtful contribution…
Agreed on all counts
cheers
collin
February 27th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Great post Collin!
February 29th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Hi Collin,
Fantastic post! Love the images!
Although the sayings ‘the customer always comes first’ or ‘the customer is always right’ have been around for decades, it’s only now that these mantras are becoming realities. Of course there’s some great companies who’ve had it right all along, but social media is making it mainstream!
Thanks,
Kelly