The Brand & social media

The humble brand was once a literal stamp of ownership and control on the butt of your stock. It became a seal of quality and gradually evolved to become the narrative used to fill the physical gap that arose between the supplier and the demand once we stopped just buying all our goods from our neighbour. ‘Old Jack Daniels of Tennessee made this with love and care so you folk in Dulwich can have some fun’. ‘They’ve been doing it for a while now and know what they are doing’. It was a sign of trust that ensured a premium price, a price control that defied continents.

From these humble beginnings to today it has become something people were willing to sacrifice the quality of the actual thing it was branding just to be in its association. You only have to look at the billion dollar global counterfeit industry to see just how out of control the brand has become. A bag that looks like a Louis Vuitton but will fall apart in 3 weeks is desireable! So valuable is The Brand that when the controlling company is valued by the financial markets the share of value attributed to its brand or brands equity can be over 60% more than the actual revenue yield. Look around you right now. Companies that are bankrupt, not very good businesses, are being bought because of the legacy of The Brand alone.

 

Planning a brand

So what does The Brand mean in the changing cultural landscape brought about by social media? What does it mean in social media? I ‘ve being having an ongoing debate with my, other, significant other David Cushman and colleague at Brando Digital about these very such issues. Having spent some time at JWT, founders of the brand planning discipline and creators of supposed timeliness brands such as Mr Kipling cake, I have come to admire The Brand and its creations,  that little Andrex Puppy, and have always paid it a silent respect. David in true revolutionary style quite simply shat on that Andrex puppy. He told me in no uncertain terms The Brand quite simply is a tool of mass media to sell mass product to the mass consumer and well social media was going to do away with all that. What no brands! Erm gosh David I think you might be going to an extreme there.

 

I debated the fact for over a week and began thinking about this post. Firstly there are many different kinds of brands; Employer, Corporate, Consumer. Without doubt social media destroys or at least vastly restricts the old power of illusion The Brand could magic. You now have to really deliver on your promise or face the consequences. Just look at the effect on Kryptonite’s losses as a result of losing the illusion. It’s true there is even greater convergence between all three brand type as the employees that sit behind these brands start popping up for better or worse in social networks. You are represented by your employees who are out there participating in social media, talking freely without managerial supervision, telling it like it is. And lets not even talk about that dastardly consumer.

David’s point was, which he clearly communicates in his book, that mass media / The Brand filled the physical gap between supply and demand. Digital made that gap smaller as it made the world smaller. I am sat next to who I wish when I wish.

Engagement marketing means that through social media producer and consumer can connect on a one-to-one. There is no need for an illusion or narrative. But rather communication can be conversation, can be personal not mass, can be practical not mythical. This is the gradual ‘Mass Destruction’ of media and production. Mass Destruction that causes a fragmentation of all it touches; TV is ever more fragmented into what I want and when. Production of goods ever more so. I can tell the producer what I want if they will listen. Which improves the product. No longer is it ‘supply and demand’ but ‘demand and supply’. Already online sees an opportunity for people to customize their Nike trainer to be exactly what they want. This means they will almost certianly talk about it. Perhaps they should even allow people to sell their designs to their peers and take a cut. That’s right they will sell it for you without any marketing. It makes me wonder how long before David Beckman’s endorsement and brand equity is worth less revenue to a manufacturer than Kenneth, aged 36, from Stoke. Sure not everyone is going to be a creator. Just as not everyone, currently, uses social media. But they narrow the gap for the rest of the other folk still stuck in the world of Mass. Because by them improving the product to fit better the needs of their peers they decrease the need for the brand investment to have to lie. This should be a large relief to the manufacturer who has being paying billions to ad men since the 1930s.

What social media does is decrease its importance as a means to inspire purchase. Right now, this very minute, organizations who have grasped this concept and who have embraced engagement marketing / social media are reaping the benefits. I will, as would any social media professional, cite Dell here. They invited the consumer to improve the product, they listened, they sat down at the campfire (as David would say) and sold over $1million through Twitter alone. The benefits are felt by every Dell consumer even the ones who didn’t participate. The Dell brand isn’t dead because of social media it has been freed to go back to its humble origins as a genuine stamp of quality and importantly approval.

So in part David is right. The Brand is becoming the brand. However as long as mass media exists, until its very last breath, so The Brand will keep some of its old ways. But it will be truer. The brand planner, excluding any unforeseen upheavels that will almost definitely come along, continue with their processes but take into account how social media changes the Environment part of the planning diagram above.

So what to do now Mr Brand Manager? Well during most economic downturns the bulls say ‘invest more money in the brand seize a greater share of the market’. I have a better option for you and one that will be a huge relief to your no doubt  stressed finance director. Invest a fraction of that money in reducing the gap between you and your consumer. Start listening and where possible let your employees sit down at the consumer camp fire and join in the conversation. Let them co-create your product. Incentivize them to sell it.