From The Rooftops

Action Marketing

Contemporary marketing is about relationships in motion. This observation might seem axiomatic, but it’s worth unpacking: if our goal is to foster relationships between an organization and the people (note: people, not consumers) with whom it interacts, we need to be sure we’re facilitating the dynamic in a fulfilling and authentic manner. It’s like any relationship: you learn about one another by virtue of what you share and what you do. If you like what you learn, you seek a closer connection. As you’re getting to know someone, where is your emotional sense of them derived? The stories they share, the way their eyes light up when they passionately discuss a topic, and so on. If you ask someone “what do you stand for?” They might say: ”flip-flops on Fridays, free coffee refills and the abolition of the Designated Hitter rule.” But there’s another question—an unasked one—that is also being answered: “what moves you?” This question is at least as important but, again, answered more subtly: the way a person gesticulates wildly when talking about their favorite things, the company they keep, the way their stories all seem to circle back to the same particular issues—this is sometimes received subconsciously, but it is certainly stored away, deep in a person’s mind and heart. Again, it’s not just what you stand for, but what you move for. Does this person (or brand) leap into action for things that I care about? As fundamentally social beings we notice these things and store them away as the building blocks of subsequent relationships and social constructs.

Who wants to hang out with boring people?

Let’s take the observation that relationships are cultivated through sharing—the rational and emotional process of exchanging values and actions—and return to my original statement: marketing is about relationships. It would seem, then, that a big part of marketing concerns sharing the same things: values and actions. What are your organizations biggest passions? What inspires your employees to get out and volunteer? What does your brand support, even when the cameras aren’t rolling? People want to know these things, and in a world of increasingly democratic and horizontal communications, they’re going to find out. It is my thesis, then, that good, authentic marketing is about sharing with people not just the things that your brand stands for but also the things that it moves for. “Standing” implies values that are immutable …but also stationary. In our live-tweeting, 24/7 news cycling world, you might need to have a dynamic means of expressing yourself, too: this is action marketing. To be perfectly clear, this certainly doesn’t mean that the things that move you ought to be transitory or orthogonal to your identity. Indeed, the things that you move for need to be the things that are so brand-aligned that your entire organization leaps into action. It is precisely this action-through-alignment that sets you apart from the pack and closer to the people you’re trying to reach.

Obviously, it’s important to make sure that you articulate what your brand stands for (hopefully it’s more than flip-flops and coffee refills). What I’m suggesting here is that smart brands in the 21st century will need to be in tune with the confluence of two additional elements: time and passion. You want people to become passionate about your brand—it’s contagious. To share what moves you is to demonstrate that your organization is capable of being moved: it has personality. Life. We look for these ‘action’ characteristics because we have always looked for them in social relationships. These are the qualities we keep close and, in turn, share.
Businesses need this contagiousness. As brands become increasingly shared socially—horizontally—among people and across networks they need to have an authentic reason for doing so. Happiness spreads easily (witness the VW “Fun” project). So does indignation (just ask Nestle). We share and connect with all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons, but they go nowhere if there are no actions with which people can resonate. Because of this, I encourage your brand strategizing (and expression) to reflect some thinking about what your brand moves for, because we know your customer is.

- Caleb

Giving your fans a voice

A compelling (and depressing) new video from Broken Social Scene, apparently created by one of the band’s many fans. Modern technology gives brands (and bands) the chance to create powerful values-based connections with their audience. Through music, of course, these connections have always been there, but this video is nevertheless a powerful demonstration of what can be created when you connect with and empower your fans to engage with you and your offerings.

-Scott

Social Media as a Factor of Branding

Everything new is old again.

Sometimes it seems that many social media “gurus” spend their time convincing companies that the web 2.0 world is entirely new and that the entire rulebook needs to be thrown out in favor of … well… more consultation from social media gurus. I don’t think this is necessarily so. To be sure, the internet and social media have forever changed the ways in which we interact with one another, brands and information itself. But I think it’s overstating the case to assert that nothing will ever be the same. Many things are the same, how we interact with them is different. People valuing an organization with integrity? The same. Customers appreciating a brand that goes out of its way to take care of them? The same. Individuals trying to find ways to share and learn more about the products they care about? The same.

For a great glimpse into the way the internet has changed things, I’d highly recommend reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson (editor of Wired) and Wikinomics by Don Tapscott—these books do a great job of discussing how things have changed, while demonstrating that much of the values and interests (saving money, connecting with people, sharing information, etc.) that have been revolutionized by the internet are not new in and of themselves. Existing business leaders need to learn about these changes, but they can rest assured that brand-based thinking and authenticity are at least as valuable in the digital age as they have ever been.

This was on display as I recently had the pleasure of leading a seminar for the Sustainable Business Network of Portland on marketing and social media. It was a refreshing opportunity to go beyond the usual “Social Media 101” and take a deeper dive into tools, implementation and a couple case studies. I wanted to further the level of discourse concerning the use of social media among local businesses, without making it seem overly complex or foreign. Many of the attendees have been successful business owners for longer than I’ve been able to drive a car; they have marketing savvy and, as SBNP members, are deeply committed to local commerce—they’ve been around for a long time and they have a great story of authenticity to share. None of those things need to change, their brand-thinking just needs to be adapted to a new model of social interaction and information flow.

So many business leaders feel threatened by the social web and it’s all for naught. Businesses have always had to be mindful of where they advertise their product and how—of what people think about them and why. You need to understand your brand, your customer and how and where they interact. My seminar attendees seemed to resonate with the message that these same considerations still apply, it’s just that some of the answers have changed. To put it another way, as long as you ‘let the brand drive’ your marketing considerations, you will still be fine navigating the modern business landscape; it’s just that some of the destinations and travel partners are more fast-paced, democratic and diverse. Instead of an in-person opportunity for a few friendly sentences with your favorite patrons you might be conversing with hashtags and blog comments, but the basics of branding and a concern for your customer still remain— some things never go out of fashion.

- Caleb