Promoting BLANK in the Social Media Era

A friend sent me a link to this YouTube video recently:



The goal of every marketeer is to convince customers to buy his or her goods or services whatever they may be. There have always been many ways to communicate with customers – advertising, media, word of mouth, endorsements, direct marketing, etc. Now, there is another medium customers are trusting more and more – social media.

In this video is a consumer decides he wants a BLANK. He learns about BLANK though social media and word of mouth. He researches BLANK through blogs, online peer recommendations and endorsements, and conversations with with people he trusts. At no point does he see an advertisement or commercial for BLANK – he instead relies on the social web and the advice of friends and family to gather the information.

The consumer then decides that he must have a BLANK and which BLANK he wants to buy. Again he uses the web and social media as information sources for these decisions.

So, given this knowledge how does a marketeer go about increasing the odds that this consumer will buy the BLANK his or her company is selling?

This video made me think about this question. What is changing in about the ways we gather information and make purchase decisions and what is staying the same? And how can I, as a marketeer and communicator, use these changes to my advantage?

Social media has created new communications channels, but it has also created new challenges. As I have previously discussed on this blog, authenticity is extremely important on the social web. So, is transparency. There is also an element of unpredictability on the social web that does not exist in traditional advertising and marketing communications channels.

Traditional advertising is like a window through which the consumer is shown the most desirable aspects of a given BLANK. When using the social web to promote a BLANK the window is gone and all the aspects of the BLANK are exposed. Now, a marketeer can still focus his or her marketing and advertising communications on the BLANK's positive points of differentiation, but he or she must be ready to respond to community discussions and reactions to the BLANK's weaknesses. Therefore, I think it is important that a marketeer must focus less on message control and more on discussion participation.

The social web is a particisipatory place, by standers get left behind. Brands are must participate or risk becoming only memories. A recent New York Times article discussed how Burberry recently launched one of the first interactive marketing websites for a luxury brand. The site – http://artofthetrench.com/ – is a collage of photographs of people wearing the brands coats. Consumers can browse the images, comment on the photos, share images with friends, and submit their own images. The site links to Facebook. This is a not new marketing technique – several other brands have created interactive, social media marketing campaigns – but it is new for a luxury brand and indicates that this type of communication is becoming more mainstream. And luxury brands do not want to get left behind.

So, what is the answer? What is the magic key? I do not think there is one answer. I think working with social media it is more of a learning process. A journey. The space is evolving and will continue to evolve. How we utilize social media and the social web – as individuals, as professionals, as brands, as companies, as organizations, and as nations – must also evolve.

The Right Words and Pictures

Recently I was asked what I consider the most important aspect of a good marketing campaign. A simple enough question at face value – but really a very complex debate beneath the surface. I wanted to give a clean, precise answer but one does not really exist. It could be argued that the most complete answer to this question is my favorite answer – “It depends”. However, in this situation I wanted to be more specific than that. So, after a few minutes of thought I said that I thought the most important thing in any marketing (whether it be a complete marketing campaign, a single advertisement, or a direct marketing message) is good messaging.

Why do I consider good messaging the most important aspect in marketing?

Marketing is about persuasion. And it is about communication. The goal of every marketer is to convince the audience to either change – or continue – a certain behavior.

Buy this product. Eat at this restaurant. Shop here again. Read this newspaper. Watch this television channel. Drive this kind of car. Wear that brand. Go to this salon. Take this drug. Aspire to look like this. Vacation in this country. Visit this museum. Drink this brand of bottled water. Register to vote. Get this credit card. Save your money at this bank. Look more beautiful. Attend this school. Report crimes to the police. Serve your country. Go to this church. Read this book. Believe this philosophy. Want this object. Shop at this store. Spend your money here.

People all over the world receive many different – and often conflicting marketing messages every day. The goal of the marketer is to create a message (or advertisement) that will cause his or her audience to do what he or she wants (change – or maintain – a certain behavior). In other words, the marketer's goal is to create a message that is memorable and stands out in the noise. So, he or she must create a good message, one that resinates with the audience. That brings us to this question –

What makes a marketing message (or advertisement) good?

Answer? The right words and / or pictures. Sounds so simple, but in practice is extremely difficult. The right words form a unique message and communicate the idea clearly without any confusion or possible misinterpretation. Finding the right words and tying them together to create the right phrase is challenging – but it is essential for excellence in marketing. The right pictures create a spark in the mind of the viewer. Together good words and pictures create lasting memories.