Rethinking brand when "everything you do is the new media company"
Last week, we touched on the importance of . But let's back up and look at how social media has impacted what a brand actually is.
Speaking at the 2012 Local Online Advertising Conference, AdAge columnist and marketing guru, Bob Garfield laid out his theory that a brand is no longer just the personality of the products, but how the company itself behaves as employer, community citizen and sales person - all the activities that create conversations in their communities.
In the "Relationship Era" that has succeeded the Consumer Era, this creates unique challenges for local media companies. On one hand, what they sell, "one to many" advertising is rendered impotent - or at least much less efficient - for merchants trying to send out their message.
And then media have their own brands to worry about. Yesterday a taxi cab driver asked if I was going to the "dinosaur convention," referring to the annual meet-up of the largest newspaper association in North America.
Do local media companies have a problem with their brands? You bet. And it won't be solved by running a few house ads or changing up the slogan.
As Garfield pointed out, the whole idea of brand has changed.
“Your actual conduct in the world so defines you that customer service is the new media department. In a connected world where your ever move is record by Google in perpetuity, everything you do is the new media department.”
Advertising, not so much.
Consider, as Garfield, says, the results of conducting a Google search for the following:
I love Apple -.27 million
I love Starbuck - 2.7 million
I love Zappos – 1.9 million
I love Dow Chemical - Three
That’s right, Dow Chemical, “the folks who brought you napalm and the clingiest syran wrap" and which has "The Human Element" as its slogan, is less popular without really trying than Satan and the leaders of Iran.
Likewise, CityBank, ATT Wireless, Exxon and Mobile fail to get the love, in spite of a combined ad spend north of $2 billion. Their advertising is, he argues, falling on deaf ears, while millions announce affection for brands that barely advertise at all. In fact, “I hate Exxon” gets some 2.16 million hits. Who you are, apparently speaks so loudly that no one can hear what you are advertising.
“Your brand is entertwined with what people are thinking about you. They are not listening to ads, but that has not stopped them from thinking and talking about you. Marketers are being valuated in countless conversations that have nothing to do with advertising.”
“Marketers need to think about their essential selves. History has made that decision for us.”
Mass marketing itself is no longer efficient, but rather, represents a vast expense with “very little equity.”
So not only are local media brands - especially newspapers - being discussed as dinosaurs, they are also selling a product that is no longer considered financially efficient. In spite of having the best audience, content and feet on the street, local merchants percieve media as selling over-priced, only-half-of-it works advertising in a world where they increasingly have options of targeting and measureable results, and need to rethink their marketing in general.
More proof of brand decimation - if you need it - is the difficulty of recruiting sales people into a local news-based industry, even during record unemployment.
In fact, there are actually a number of exciting innovations in the local media space. In many ways, as an industry, we have "turned the corner." Broadcast sites are requiring all their personalities to have Facebook pages associated with the station. Newspapers are opening newsrooms to the community, incubating tech-start-ups, launching agency services or real estate brokerages in unused office space, partnering with community events as as the ticketing service, and offering highly targeted ads, or pay per click and pay per sale advertising. I spoke with one Hispanic weekly that is serving its consituency by opening an employment agency. Overtime, these efforts will help reshape how our communities think about us, because we are behaving differently.
However, its also time for most local media to create and think through statements of purpose that energize their companies, as well as taking on projects that make them exciting to work for and attract the best college graduates, tech savvy innovators, and marketers (no longer "sales" people).
You can find inspiration in the book Garfield sources, “Firms of Endearment.” It identifies a stock index of companies "driven by purpose," ie that build shareholder value ”by not obscessing on the shareholder value.”
The index of FOE, which includes The Container Store, Southwest Airlines, Trader Joes and Patatagonia, shows a growth rate 200% faster than the rest of the market. In fact 21% since 2009, compared to 3.3 % for companies in general.
Corporate heroes in the field include Patagonia, whose mission includes preservation of the wilderness. Not only does it donate 1% of it gross to wilderness preservation, but every aspect of production is geared toward sustainability. There are identical factory conditions in Vietman and California, and a goal of zerio carbons in the supply chian by 2015.
Sounds expensive. But results include not only a passionate following, but also an 9% annual growth.
As for companies having a mid-life crisis, there is KrispyCreme, the most nutritionally incorrect brand you can think of, and “a laughing stock” on wall street until two years ago, changed its fortunes when new managmenet vowed to stop over-expanding and vow never to disappoint their insanely devoted fans. The new mission, “Touching and enhancing people s lives through the joy that is Krispy Kremes “ includes how they engage with customers through social media.
“I suddenly want to go to my room and freebase on Lipitor” Garfield commented. A minisucle media budget also racked up 3.8 million Facebook followers.
Secret Deoderant is an extreme example of how a really, really unsexy company, taking on a new sexy mission.
The company took on the cause of helping women ski jumpers get their own event at the Olympics. The “Let her jump” campaign resulted in the Olympic Committee allowing a women's event 2012 – and sales went up by 20% .
Secret’s new ad “Mean Stinks” which discourages bullying among girls, motivated 75,00 kids to send apoligies to their peers and acquired a surge of 203,000 fans in one day.
There are enormous opportunities to attract promotional dollars from companies interested in differentiating themselves in the local market around values; being green, or fun, or supportive of local schools, etc. But the first step is for local media to lead by example; most media companies are more popular than influential, that is, better known than loved. There are huge opportunities to distill a brand of purpose – and, as Garfield says, "to instill it in all we do."
