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.