SOCICAL MEDIA AND BRANDING: WHY DO BRANDS NEED AN IDENTITY TO CREATE BRANDING

There is a four step formula in creating positioning.

There is a four step formula in creating positioning. Positioning is created by asking four questions. Who is the brand FOR…this defines the TARGET. You then say “Brand X is…(define the frame of reference and subjective category). If you asked this question about the two singers mentioned earlier you would say Brand X is an R&B dance singer. This would define for the market which brands are in play in this category.  You then would ask, “Which gives the most…(promise or consumer benefit). If you like videos, your selection for an R & B brand would be the singer that makes the best videos. The last question is “because of…”. “ I want an R&B brand that gives me a visual experience “.  Because I want a visual experience, I will chose the singer that makes the most stylish videos.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BRANDING: WHAT ARE THE 8 FUNCTIONS OF A BRAND

          IDENTIFICATION.  A brand  makes a product clearly seen. It helps a consumer make sense of an offer. Simply, the brand will identify a product for a consumer. A brand will act as a lighthouse for a consumer, shining a beacon in their eyes, in order that they will know what products to select in a flooded marketplace.

          PRACTICALITY.  To allow  savings of time and energy. People know that this is the product they want at this time.

          GUARANTEE.  To be sure of  buying  the best product in its category, the best performer for its category.

          BADGE. To create an image for the marketplace that clearly identifies this product in relation to others.

          CONTINUITY.  Brands create a sense  of satisfaction and trust. They create friendship with customers in the social media age. This creates a relationship. It is relationships that motivate a customer to buy.

          HEDONISTIC.  This relationship and friendship creates enchantment and attractiveness of the product that develops loyalty. To create this enchantment, logos, theme songs, and phrases are created that communicate the experiential rewards.

          ETHICAL. The satisfaction that the product brings is linked to responsible behavior. This responsibility solidifies the relationship between the product and consumer and creates the long term relationship that leads to brand. 

          Some brands have succeeded in proving with their slogans that they know and understand what their fundamental task is: to transform the product category.  A brand not only acts on the market. It organizes the market, drives a vision, creates a calling, and develops a clear idea of what the category is all about. Too many brands wish only to identify with the product category.   In social media, products and consumers create a two way friendship.

Dean Hambleton

dnhambleton@gmail.com

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING; WHAT ARE THE SIX STRATEGIES FOR CREATING A WORLD CLASS BRAND

• PRODUCT BRAND
• LINE BRAND
• RANGE BRAND
• UMBRELLA BRAND
• SOURCE BRAND  (or PARENT BRAND)
• ENDORSING BRAND

           PRODUCT BRAND.  A brand is a symbol, a word, object, or a concept---all at once and one at the same time. The purpose of a product-brand is to assign an exclusive name to a product.  This is the strategy that Proctor and Gamble employees.  Tide is P &G’s laundry detergent.  The product is so well marketed that when consumers hear the name, Tide,  the first thing they thing they think of is washing clothes.

            RANGE BRAND.   A group of products all under one name and one promise. This is how television networks brand their shows. During promotional breaks, a network will advertise several shows at once. The networks goal is for a consumer to think of several shows when they hear the name of the network  

           LINE BRAND. A group of products that have complementary products.  Cosmetic products are branded in this way.  In many lines there is a shampoo, a shaving cream, an after shave, and a deodorant, all under one roof. The advantages to this strategy is that it raises the selling power of the brand and creates a strong image of consistency. It creates an easy movement to line extensions and it reduces line costs.

            UMBRELLA--BRAND.  This method is used when a group of very different products are  marketed under one brand. A brand of motorcycles  also brands pianos and guitars. Yamaha brands like this.

            SOURCE BRAND.  This is like Umbrella except under source branding, the products are now directly named. A consumer brand might name its products Dairy Crunch, Nescafe, Nesquick.

            ENDORSING BRAND. . Car companies brand in the same way.  Pontiac,  Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet in the United States and  Opel and Vauxhall in Europe are endorsed by General Motors. The advantage to this type of branding is that it adds more touch points.  Each particular name evokes a forceful image of the product in one’s mind.  In the case of a car brand, there are many individual products. Using the endorsing mechanism allows a company to save a great deal of expense and it simplifies the branding in the consumer’s mind.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING: WHY AFRICA HAS AN EXPLODING MARKET FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

American markets have matured. Companies have to find new sources of revenue. Those sources are the emerging markets. Africa's demographics show that it is an expanding market for social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING: HOW HONESTY CREATES STRONG DIFFERENTATION

Differentiation is the defining your product in the mind of a consumer.

Differentiation is not tangible. Differentiation is something that is placed in the mind of the consumer.

Differentiation is a creative strategy. You differentiate with what is at your disposal. Two quotes express what a marketer must do in developing differentiation strategy. The quotes come from Texas football.  Don Meredith  once said, “You dance with the girl you come with”. Tom Landry once said, “You take what they give you”.

One of the great differentiation campaigns of all time was based on honesty. Hertz is the industry leader in the car rental space. Avis positioned itself against Hertz by emphasizing customer service. They differentiated themselves with this line, “Rent from Avis. This line at the counter is shorter”.  Avis’ differentiation strategy was brilliant. Avis took what Hertz gave them. They took Hertz’ strength and made it a weakness. How could Hertz refute this statement? Because Avis was no. 2 and had fewer customers, naturally there line was shorter.

            This placed in customer minds’ this idea. " If I rent from Avis, I can be dwelt with quicker".  For a business traveler this a key issue in the ultimate buying possession.  Through a deft differentiation strategy Avis was able to place this key issue in the minds of the business traveler customer.

SOCIAL MEDIA ST ST STRATEGY AND BRANDING: A SIMPLE WAY TO REMEMBER POSTIONING

In New Media, because there are so many products, positioning is critical. With so many products in the market place, a consumer must clearly have YOUR brand in the consumer’s mind when the consumer makes their purchasing decisions.

To keep positioning simple, brands are positioned in 6 ways.

·        Attribute

·        Price

·        Use

·        Product-User

·        Product-class

·        Competitor

Attribute.  Kelly Rowland sings dance music.   Toni Braxton sings love ballads. Crest  known as a cavity fighter. The BMW car is positioned as the quality car   “…the ultimate driving machine.

Price. Nordstrom positions itself as the quality leader by having the highest price. Burlington Coat Factory positions itself as having nice, stylish clothes, that are “affordable”. They don’t carry the most exclusive brands.

Use. Radio station WEEI in Boston, and all sports talk radio station, positions itself against National Public Radio, an all news station.

Product-User.   Nike designed a shoe just to be used for basketball, and signed Michael Jordan as its spokesperson to position against the sneaker walking and running sneakers.

Competitor. You position yourself directly against a competitor. Hertz had the top ranking.Avis decided to position themselves by service. Their tag line was, “…we’re no. 2, we try harder”.

            After this is done there is a second step in positioning. A marketer asks a second set of questions:

1.     Identify the competitors

2.     Understand how the competitors are perceived and evaluated

3.     Understand the competitors positioning against  you

4.     Analyze the customers

5.     Decide on how you will position yourself against your competitors. You decide what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses. A singer under stood that she couldn’t position herself against her competition, so she positioned herself by making very stylish videos.

6.     Monitor the analytics. This is a strength of social media platforms. You know who came to your sight. You know how long they stayed. You know if your campaign is working by knowing how many visitors came to your site. If someone wrote a comment to you. Another important metric are the likes and you’re dislikes.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POSITIONING AND DIFFERENTATION

Successful marketing in the social marketing era, demands traditional marketing skill. Positioning a product in the market place is a tangible thing. In comparison, the differentiation of a product is a perceptual concept.

Positioning and differentiating is a one-two punch. Positioning is an explanation of what the product does. Differentiation is when a product is defined in a consumer’s mind.

Tide is postioned as a the best whitner. It is differentiated with a neo orange bottle. Kelly Rowland postions herself in R &B music with dance music. She differentiates herself with dancers with well developed six pacs. 

CREATING A SOCIAL SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND: WHY POSITIONING AND DIFFERNTATION ARE CRITICAL

Social Media has created great scale and this is the reason why positioning and differentiation are critical to the creation of a brand in the social media era. In simple terms brand is the selection of your product and the rejection of all the others---and there many others.

Here are incredible numbers to think about.  Let’s take just the food space.  In an average supermarket there are 40,000 brands. An average consumer needs to only use 85. From this 85, there is only perhaps between10-15 that a consumer needs to sustain their lives. Again, this is only the food space.  What about all the brands in cars, clothes, electronics, music, etc. How does a marketer get a consumer to focus on the one brand that the marketer is managing.

He does by two things.

POSITIONING A PRODUCT.    This is  actual,  tangible , a frame of reference.  The Bank of California is "small and friendly" in comparasion to a large bank, the Bank of America
DIFFERENTATION .   This is a perceptual thing. It is taking this product, and doing something, anything, to define in the minds of customers your product, and how it is different than your competitors product. Again, it could be ANYTHING.  One of the finest differntation campaigns of all time was when UPS differentation revolved around the color of UPS' uniform, Brown.  "Call Brown" means to call UPS. "Brown" is different than Fed EX. UPS has done a masterful job of distinguishing themselves from anyone else

A position is actual.  Differentation is perceptual (but critical to the creation of a brand). 

Nike created a sneaker that was designed especially for basketball playing. This brand positioned itself against sneakers designed for walking or running.  The challenge for the marketers in creating a brand for this sneaker was how you define this sneaker, in the minds of consumers, in contrast to other sneakers.  How do you differentiate your brand after it is positioned?

The brand a young basketball player just starting his career from the Chicago  Bull  named Michael Jordan dunking a basketball during a championship game. This dunk became the logo for the sneaker. The slogan for the sneaker was “It has to be the shoes”. The brand and its spokesman became icons in American marketing history.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING: WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD HAVE TO BE ASKED TO CREATE A BRAND

Much of the thoughts from this post come from Phillip Kotler, in his book KOTLER ON MARKETTING: HOW TO CREATE AND DOMINATE MARKETS

1. What is your brand positioning?

                        A. By attribute? Is it less filling.
                         B. By benefit?  Tide cleans better
                         C.By use? Google has the best search algogrihtms
                         D. By competitor?  7- up is the uncola
                         E. By category?   Microsoft has the most users

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING: THE USE OF A VIDEO GAME CAN BE AN INCREDIBLE BRANDING TOOL

Powerful brands can be created through a creative video game. Some brands that have been doing this is the U. S. Army and BMW. The creation of brand in social media must be engaging, it must be fun, it must be visual.  In social media, customers want to involve themselves in your brand. They want to take content that is prepared or created by themselves and then share it with their friends

A powerful medium for creating brand is video. A video game is a powerful, interesting, engaging, immersive means by which customers interact with the brand. You cannot play a video game unless you engage with it.  In most games, collaboration is almost built in.  Video games are very popular and one reason they are so popular is the players have an intrinsic need to collaborate.

The creation of the video game can take on two methods.  Either the game can be created as a stand alone game----or the game can become a “mod”.  Your brand video game may actually become the modification of a commercialized game. Modifications are major part of the video game industry. A video game is created, and the players take the game and modify it to their interests.  Many video games are created with open source software for this very purpose. Game makers have discovered that mods are a great way to expand their brand.

A bench mark game might be “Civilization”.  In this game, players are encouraged to take a civilization and guide it from the Bronze Age right through the present age. A game like this could be created around a brand. Players could give their insights on how the brand should develop.  If done in this way, then customers would own the brand. This game would be a help to both the customers and the brand itself. There would be a large group involved in the game. There is wisdom in crowds. The crowd would figure out an infinite number of brand strategies. The marketers could watch this game unfold and adjust their brand strategies based on the information of the game.  Through the use of an interesting game, that truly engages customers, a marketer could brand in real time.

 

Social Media Strategy and Branding: How can Kelly Rowland Reposition Herself to Create Brand

Social Media is a great asset and a great drawback. The scale that Social Media creates is breathtaking. It also mean that great amounts of content and products are now on the market. How can your product be branded. Singer Kelly Rowland is a benchmark.

To brand in a social media era, a product must repositioned, branded, and positioned. Positioning and branding are about perception.  A marketer must create in the mind of thier customer that thier product is different than the other products. In a social media age, there is much content and products. How do you brand?

Kelly Rowland is a bench mark in branding strategy.  Kelly first repositioned herself. She went from a small segment of R & B, to the larger dance segment. She branded herself, and positioned herself as the the stylish brand

HOW DO YOU BRAND IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA ERA?  YOU BRAND BY

• REPOSITIONING YOURSELF
• BRANDING YOUR PRODUCT
• POSITIONING YOURSELF

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BRANDING; HOW KELLY ROWLAND CAN CREATE THE PRE-IMMIMINENT BRAND IN R&B MUSIC

Kelly Rowland is top brand in R &B music. To create a compelling brand she should stop positioning herself around music and start positioning herself in R & B Music

Social Media Strategy and Branding: Why Positioning Is Critical In Creating a Social Media Brand

There are so many products in the marketplace that the only way a product can be branded is if it is positioned.  Position is a marketing strategy that is perceptual. You use this strategy to define your product within your customers mind.

This is why positioning is critical to the creation of a brand, especially in social media era. “Positioning” is a term created by marketing experts Al Ries and Jack Trout. Positioning is a perception strategy. To create a brand, you must be able to define your product in comparison to other brands, in your customer’s mind. To position, a marketer must position their product in direct contrast to one other brand. To be successful, a product must have a function. It must also create a relationship with its customers. This relationship is a critical element to success in the social media era.  This is the purpose of a brand.

            A perfect example is Coke. Coke has a function---it cools you off on a hot, summer day. It is an iconic brand that has developed a relationship with its customers. This can be seen in the New Coke vs. Old Coke debacle in 1984. Coke had run some intensive tests. It found that a new Coke formula had overwhelming approval over old coke taste.  More importantly, they found that the New Coke had an overwhelming approval over Pepsi. Coke management felt it was a no brainer. New Coke was introduced and there was a firestorm of protest. One thing that Coke’s management hadn’t taken into account was old Coke’s brand and positioning. Old Coke had a significant brand with its customers that bordered on a human relationship. Our friends might not be as attractive, as smart, as cool, as other people. But our friends are our friends and we aren’t going to reject them. Our “friends” are “positioned” in our minds---we will never reject them. This is why Old Coke’s friends demanded that it be brought back. This is critical in a social media era. To brand in this era, a brand must create a “friendship” with its customers. This “friendship” can’t be created without a positioning strategy.

           

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY: CREATING A LONG-TERM BRAND WITH A FACEBOOK PAGE

Creating world-class brands are like creating world-class friendships. A relationship between a brand and customer has to be worked on. If you have a friendship, but you talk about the same things over and over again, this friendship will end.  People will start going to cooler people.  In the case of customers, they will start going to cooler brands.

To renew a friendship, people have newer and newer experiences each day.  Same way with a brand. The place of conversation is the Facebook Page, or its equivalent.  The conversation is renewed through posts, blogs, vblogs, videos. Rihanna is bench mark in renewing a brand through a  Facebook Page.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY; CREATING CONTENT

A marketer must constantly develop new content to continue the conversation with a customer.  It is analogous to a human relationship.  If two people are constantly talking about the same things over and over again, that relationship will become dull and stale, and it will end.  People constantly want to be renewed in their relationships.  Customers constantly want to become renewed in their relationship with their brands.

Rihanna is a perfect example.  She is constantly renewing the content on her Page.  She is constantly expanding her relationship with her fans. Rihanna uses her fans to help her brand.  Rihanna owns the brand, but her fans experience it. Here are some ways to create brand through your page:

·        Spend time with your audience. Know where their coming from. Know the issues they are facing. Rihanna knows that her fans are interested in her music and her fashion.  She loads up her page with things she knows that her fans are going to like.

·        Be in it for the long haul. The things you do on your Page shouldn’t done to get a quick sale.  Social media is about creating long term relationships. The Ford Fiesta campaign was not about getting people to sign up for a car.  It was to introduce the car through a series of fun experiences. It was a 6 month campaign. At the end of this fun campaign, the Fiesta had 38% awareness.

·        Engage your customers by asking questions. Find out how they perceive the product.  See how they interpret the brand---and construct the content on the page that deals with that perception.

·        Always remember that you are engaging real people with real lives and concerns.  Establishing trust requires creating reliable, nurturing, prospect-focused information that is committed to offering value, with no strings attached.

·        The page should capture the reader’s attention visually. The page should have commands for readers to perform. At Rihanna’s sight, you can download music from the Page, you can make a contribution for Japan relief. To create the brand, customers have to interact with it.

The strategy for a Page can take on many areas. In the Obama and Fiesta campaign, the Page was there to attract customers and create relationships. In the case of Rihanna, the Page does both.  It creates a relationship, but Rihanna also tries to monetize her sight. Both work. It does take a strategy for deciding just what do you want to do. Here are some more ideas about engaging customers to create brand through your Page:

·        Be bold. Catch the reader’s attention.

·        Be shameless. In the case of Rihanna, she knows that people want her music and she knows that people will pay for it. People understand that nothing is for free. On her Page, Rihanna clearly states what is free and what is to be paid for.

·        Be frequent.  If you are going to monetize your sight, a strategy is to have the offer at different spots on the Page.

·        Be exclusive. Have an offer that is something that is exclusive to her Page. In the case of Rihanna, if a concert is planned, she could offer free tickets and a chance to meet Rihanna personally. The tickets can only be had through the Page.

Dean Hambleton

deanhambletonsocialmediastrategy.com

dnhambleton@gmail.com  

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY; HOW DO YOU CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE

A page is the place where convesation that create band takes place. OKAY!!!!!! How do you create a page?

• OPEN PAGE. This is the equivalent to signing in for a personel account.  Opening the Page, explains who the company is, what it does.  Its the thing that gives a brand a presence in Facebook.
• CREATE A TAB: Once the Page is created, a welcoming tab must be next.  The purpose of the Page is to make customers comfortable. This is why a tab should be created that welcomes the customers and makes navigation around the page easy.
• CREATE CONTENT:  This is the reason why a brand creates a page---you want to converse with your customers and to create a relationship with them. An example would be if Pepsi developed a new drink. The page could offer a free coupon to try the drink and another one if they posted a comment.  This tells Pepsi if people like the soda.  This is how Pepsi creates a brand for the soda.
• TARGET YOUR AUDIENCE :  Facebook has tremendous scale. Facebook has analytics that tell Pepsi what is the target audience for this soda. The conversation was started through the free gift. The targeting allows Pepsi a more deeper conversation with customers.
• KEEP THE CONVERSATION ALIVE: Constant feedback with the target audience is critical. This is how the brand is created. To create a brand, constant "conversation" must be present.
• EXCITE AGAIN AND AGAIN:  Through the use of constant conversation, a marketer can constantly give away coupons, have contests, have the the engagment that is needed for constant coversation.  This is critical. New content---either from the brand or the customer---and, hopefully both, is constantly going on to page.  Remember, the Page is a CONVERSATION. This is why it exists. Conversations are ongoing. A conversation among people who talk about the same things is boring.  This kind of conversation will not lead to deep friendships in real life.  It won't lead to deep brands in business.
• UTILIZE FACEBOOK INSIGHTS:  The scale of Facebook (over 500 million users) allows a marketer to understand if his branding strategy is working.  Are people replying? What are thier comments? How are they reacting to your campaign? This information that is in real time allows a marketer to quickly adjust the "conversation" to create a brand that customers are comfortable with.
• PROMOTE YOUR PRESENCE: A brand's facebook page is the place where conversation takes place with your customers---so by all means, advertise it.  Let people know that its exists. Do this through your conventional advertising, your web page, your interactions with journalists and bloggers.

Here are some statistics that should tell a marketer that Facebook Page is a great thing to have conversations that create brand:

• More than 500 million active users
• at least 1/2 of these log on to Facebook each day
• The average user spends more than 55 minutes on Facebook each day
• There are more than 5 billion pieces of content (different touch points) are shared each week
• 20 million new people sign up each day
• pages have 5.3 billion fans
• More than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through thier mobile devices. This is a significant statistic. Ninety per cent of Americans are within 3 feet of thier phones 24 hours a day. People read more than 90% of thier text messages

THE FACEBOOK PAGE IS THE PLATFORM TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR FRIENDS THAT CREATE BRAND

SOCIAL MEDIA BRANDING; HOW TO HAVE A "CONVERSATION" THAT CREATES A BRAND

 The creation of a Facebook Page is the means by which "conversation" is created. To create a modern brand, a brand and its customer has to have a "conversation among friends". Fine. How does this happen.  The Brand creates a Facebook page (or its equivalent). The Brand creates compelling content to engage a customer with. The customer files a comment that the Brand replies to, and over time a relationship (a brand) is created.

The creation of a modern brand is equivalent to to people have a conversation in real life. To have a human conversation,  two people must meet (analogous to a Facebook platform, for instance), they have to have something to talk about (analogous to a customer going to a company Page and engaging in some content. Perhaps Pepsi offering a free soda with a coupon). The person tries the soda, a files a wall, a comment, a video, a post----some continued conversation.  Then Pepsi replies to the reply. The conversation is now ongoing---just like in real life. Two strangers meet---they begin a superficial conversation---that turns into a deeper conversation once trust has been established. From this trust, the two people decide to bond and develop a friendship. This friendship creates a brand among people.  There are many people, but we only want to bond with our friends. Friendship is a brand that separates special people from all other people. Pepsi customers write posts to thier friends talking about the new soda---now a huge network of users has been created. These people seek out the soda because a brand has been created in thier minds.Friendship and conversation has created a brand.

This is a simple example of how conversations among brands are created. There must be a meeting place (a page), a reason to talk (content), with the resulting ongoing conversation (a "reply", a comment, etc. that creates a relationship between the product the and customer.  A brand has been created.

A conversation takes place like this:

•  Page
• Content
• Conversation
• Brand

Social Media Strategy: How Barack Obama Used multiple touch points to create a brand

The social media strategy of Barak Obama is a case study in how to create a Social Media Brand.  We live in an exciting day.  Social Media platforms constitute 1/4 of the world's population. This creates a "Perfect Storm" for a marketer.  Now a marketer has a place to meet, communicate, and track large segments of the world's population.  A marketer, with the help of social media platforms, now can track customers as never before.  To succeed you must have a strategy. President Obama's strategy was a classic.

Creating a brand through social media is two friends---the brand and the customer---having a conversation. This conversation creates a recommendation.  The recommendation leads to the creation of a brand. In a New Media age, branding is created by engaging with customers through many touch points. 

Barack Obama is an expert at this.  He created engagement through blogs, video, telephone calls, posts, and personal conversation.  He used friends to talk to friends.  Two key points that every social media strategist should understand in studying the Obama campaign.

•  Have multiple touch points
• Scale your web site so that is a mini social media platform.  Your site has to be a place where your customers can come and communicate

Dean hambleton
dnhambleton@gmail
deanhambleton.blogspot.com

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY; USING MULTIPLE TOUCH POINTS TO CREATE WORLD CLASS BRANDS

• Social media has created a shift away from company driven marketing (old media) to consumer driven marketing (new media)
• Brand awareness is critical, as in old media, but this awareness is created by conversations with people you know on social media sights.  
• A buying decision, in social media,  is the culmination of a brand and a consumer interacting over a great many "touchpoints"   (texts, videos, podcasts, blogs, posts)---The campaign of Barack Obama 
• The more touchpoints, the greater the chance that a product is going to be sold and a brand created
• A touch point in old media was just simply advertising.  In new media a brand becomes like a human being.  In human relationships, the more experience we have with an individual in a wide variety of circumstances, the deeper the relationship.  A deep relationship creates trust and credibility.  If we trust someone we will believe what they have to say to us.  People no longer believe in advertising, but they do trust what their friends say.  If a brand is a "friend" we will believe what it says
• Examples are Barack Obama and the Ford Fiesta.  Social media created brands for these two situations overnight.  The Ford Fiesta had no paid advertising.  A six month social media campaign created 38% awareness in its target market, and 10,000 units were sold the first week it was on sale.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY: HOW BARACK OBAMA CREATED A BRAND IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

 This is a  continuation from the previous post. Social Media can create a strong effective brand for a company, but to do this a strategy is needed. What is that strategy?  President Obama's campaign of 2008 is a great case study in what that strategy should be and how to put it together.  Social Media is not snake oil.  It is only a tool, but it is an incredible tool. Social Media brings together enormous amounts of people to one spot---the scale of social media is incredible.  For social media to work, it  must be integrated with traditional marketing strategy.  The first thing to do in a social media branding campaign is to have a legitimate product---something there has to be there. That is given.  How do you create a brand for an unknown product? This is why the Obama campaign is a great case study. He had no name recognition---the American public did not know him. Barack tapped social media to brand himself.  If we study how he did it, it will give us insights in how marketers should create brands with this new medium.

Since my last blog I found two new sources which may shed more light on just Barack created a brand in 2008. In a column on 11/ 10/08, New York Times columnist David Carr tells us that Barack Obama observed two things about social media that are needed in creating a brand.  Social Media allows a candidate and a marketer tremendous communication, and database capabilities. These things were present in old media, but not on the scale that new media affords a brand, and not at the speed. Barack understood that social media could create for him a brand----overnight.  To do this, Barack also realized that a strategy had to be created.

Barack realized that to create a brand, he must create a clear objective, he had to have a goal from that objective, and the objective should give his team a plan of action.  As General Marshall said before the D-Day Invasion, generals create objectives, lieutenants make plans. Barack realized that his social media strategy had to begin with the selection of an OBJECTIVE.  Barack realized that social media can take you in many directions, a lot directions at once.  This is why it must be managed.  For social media to work there must be adult supervision.  This is important for a marketer to realize when they create social media campaigns.  YOU HAVE TO START OUT WITH A CLEAR OBJECTIVE for your campaign.

My next source that explains how to create a brand using social media is Blogging (all -in-one) for Dummies by Susan Gunelius.  Barack decided that his objective in his social media would be to create a brand---he had to stick out from the other candidates, and he had to get people to know him and be comfortable with him in a short amount of time. The objective allowed he and his staff to define their goals. The goals that his team decided upon, would be the same that a marketers would have in introducing a new product through social media:

• To build brand awareness
• To network with supporters, and in the case of a product, to network with customers
• To build relationships with voters and customers
• To get votes (to get people to buy the product that we're marketing)
• To communicate messages to our supporters and customers
• To manage the reputation of the candidate (and product), by debunking rumors and nudging conversations in the desired direction of our product-candidate
• To humanize and personalize ourselves in consumer's eyes rather than as an untouchable entity---to become a "friend"  Barack realized that people believe thier friends and not advertising. People believed Barack  in his campaign because he was their "friend". 

What this strategy did for Barack is the goal of a modern marketer in creating a brand through social media. The power of a relationship brand comes from creating branded experiences that allow consumers to self-select how they want to connect with the brand.  Brands are created when friends have conversations. In the case of Barack, his "friendship" with the American electorate allowed the electorate to self-select how they wanted to connect with the Obama brand.  This is analogous to how a marketer should create a modern brand using social media

CREATING AN EFFECTIVE BRAND: HOW PRESIDENT OBAMA USED SOCIAL MEDIA TO CREATE A BRAND

I. An effective brand is created when "friends" have "conversations"
II. O.K. How is this done?
III. President Obama is a classic case study---in 2006 he had no money, no name recognition, and no chance to defeat Hilary Clinton. HIS SOLUTION:  Use Social Media to create branding and to create relationships with the American Public
IV. HIS STRATEGY

• HAVE A GOAL---His goal was to become well known and to create personal relationships with the American people. His goal was to create a BRAND.  The brand was TRUST. When you get to know someone, and become "friends" this is how TRUST IS ACHIEVED. To vote for him, people would have to trust---simply trust him. He knew that people would have to trust him more than Hilary Clinton. The only way that the American people would trust him would be if he could meet them and become thier "friend". People believe what thier friends them---this is why they are FRIENDS.
• He created the scale on his web site to be able to meet his goal
• He integrated his Web site with social media platforms so that his "friends" would tell thier "friends" about thier friend Barack.  People told thier friends about Barack through posts, videos, blogs, and pictures.  Trust was no built with the American public.
• His website and the integration with social media platforms was easy to find, fun to use and to navigate
• Barack had a "method to his madness".  He had specific tasks that he wanted his "friends" to for him.  He wanted his friends to be enthusiastic, but he controlled the enthusiasm and channeled it into deeper relationships. He wanted friends talking to oher friends about why Barack should be President.  "Friends now had "conversation" and a recommendation was made about President.  Barack created trust, through the recommendations of his "friends". This is how a brand is created. A key state was Iowa. There are few black people in that state.  Building trust through "friends" won this battleground state.
• MOBILITY;     

                            A. Barack created many "touch points" with voters.  The key to good marketing is place yourself in a postion to influence your customer just at the point that a purchase decision is made. Barack understood 90% of Americans are only 3 feet away from thier phones 24 hours a day.  He also understood that people allow thier email boxes to overflow, but that 90% of all texts are answered. He created a method by which he could keep in touch with targeted followers.  This targeted made his "get-out-the-vote" efficient and cost effective.  He had to pay only $1.56 for each vote in 2008.  Conventional "get-out-vote" cost $20-$30.
                               B. Social Media allowed him to understand the financial metrics of his campaign. He understood what people were thinking and why.  this allowed him to whether problems, such as "Jeremiah Wright".  His "friendship" with the American public allowed him to understand just where they were coming from and he was able to communicate with them on very controversial issues.
                                C. Social Media allowed Barak to explain his brand in ways that the American public could understand---because now they were "friends"

HOW DO CUSTOMERS MAKE BUYING DECISIONS

• The process of buying a product with old and new media is the same.  There are brands for a customer to choose from. In old media, the roster is cut down, and a decision is made on what to buy. The decision is heavily influenced by advertising.
• In New Media, a consumer begins with a few brands, but many new brands, through social media,come to the consumers attention.  His awareness is created, not by advertising, but on the recommendations of people that he knows.
• A large part of marketing is done, post purchase.  Under new media, the consumer and the brand are continuing to be engaged.  It is this engagement that creates the brand loyalty that is needed for future purchases  (Harvard Business Review----the New Way to Brand   December, 2010 

THE FIESTA MOVEMENT: A CASE STUDY IN HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

• Ford Motor Company chose 100 millennials that were active on social media sights to use the car and create "friendships" on Ford's behalf.
• Through these agents, Ford was able to make "friends", create a "conversation", and create a brand for their new car, the FIESTA
• The agents used post, blogs, videos, pictures on social media sights that allowed people to see and experience the car
• 700 videos were produced, 6.5 views were place placed on YouTube, 3.4 million impression of the Fiesta appeared on Twitter
• When the car lauched it sold 12,000 units the first month, and it had a 38% awareness among millenials

BRANDING IN SOCIAL MEDIA: "FRIENDS" HAVING A "CONVERSATION"

• Effective branding is accomplished when a marketer engages a customer in "friendship".  Brands are created when "friends" have "conversations".
• Social media platforms create the place where "friends" meet to have "conversations" and create effective brands.
• examples are Rihanna, WEEI sports radio in Boston, Mass., P & G, and Ford Motor Company.
• Rihanna knows what songs to sing. WEEI knows what subjects to talk about and Ford knows how to adjust thier manufacturing lines to adjust to consumer taste, through the use of Social Media platforms.

HOW TO CREATE AN INSTANT BRAND: SOCIAL MEDIA CREATES A CONVERSATION

• People BELIEVE thier FRIENDS and DISBELIEVE large brands (The Economist)   
• Social media allows a brand to become "A Friend" to individual consumers. Friends create CREDIBILITY.
• An example is Rihanna, the singer. She is presently running a contest in which her fans will select the next song from her "LOUD" album for radio release.
• Rihanna has created a conversation with her friends. She has given them possession of her music selection. This ownership creates brand.  It distinguishes Rihanna from other artists. Rihanna's market has friended and she now has credibility and a brand for her music and album.

Social Media creates 'A PERFECT STORM' for a marketer

• Social media has created a common meeting place for 1/4 of the world's population. That number is increasing each day.
• Marketers, with permission, can now track each INDIVIDUAL. Social Media has the tools to know how each person feels abouth the marketers product.
• Marketers now have the ability to SEGMENT, TARGET, and have an INDIVIDUAL conversation with EACH MEMBER of the WORLD COMMUNITY!!!!!!!