The term is social media, not consumer media…
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Archive for the 'Branding' Category
David Chen over at Pronet Advertising has picked up on an Associate Press piece about how Google, the biggest advertising sucees story ever, does not advertise. Rather, as Chen notes:
Although you can see Yahoo’s ads on TV and in movie theaters, Google doesn’t follow suit, instead relying on word of mouth, buzz marketing, and media coverage to spread its gospel.
The advantages to pursuing this kind of organic branding, Chen believes, are threefold:
- Saving Money
- No Risk of Oversaturation
- Cultivating Your Brand
The first is straight forward, and the second has to with not having your brand associate with a disasterous campaign. The interesting one is the third, where Chen chalks it up to one of the most basic marketing tactics: mystery. Chen explains:
By not having a large presence in any of those common mediums, Google cultivates a certain mystique about them. In some ways, Google’s absence seem to imply that they are above those forms of advertising, that it doesn’t need advertising […]
What it really comes down to, however, is a question of power. When Yahoo! passed up their chance to snatch up a company with better technology, a revolution occurred in the marketplace. After all, revolutions cannot happen unless the balance of power has already been upset.
At the time, Yahoo! might have had a more powerful brand, but Google had a more powerful product. When supply is inexhaustible (as search is) in a marketplace as young as the internet was then (and may still arguably be), demand will shift overwhelmingly toward the superior supply. Without a demand, a supply is worthless, and the supplier is therefore powerless.
Retaining power, of course, is a lot easier than usurping it, and what Google has done since is implement some very straight forward measure to preserve its power base. Most of these can be found in Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power.
As far as its PR approach to branding goes, the Leviathan of Search has followed the Law 6: Court Attention at All Costs: Continue reading ‘Google: Power Based Branding’
Here’s a little thought piece for you all before I get some sleep. It’s about where the term branding came from and what are the implications of prominently featuring your logo on your merchandise. Before you pass it off for pinko-commie propaganda, however, consider how one of the fastest growing (and logo-less) brand names in America responded to the clip:
So we recently had a tour group here at the factory from Manual Arts High School. In the Q&A, one of students the asked me when American Apparel would start featuring logos. My answer was that it was unlikely. If someone wants to advertise on my ass, they better be paying rent.
[…]
We spend a lot of time around here thinking about how to get the word out about our stuff in a way that is natural and un-obtrusive, and personally, I like to be reminded from time to time about how much logos impact our lives.
The point seems to be that if you really know branding and marketing, then you don’t have to stamp your logo on everything you make. Rather, branding is about creating a personality to which your customers can relate — i.e. shared values and attitudes. Perhaps one of the few redeeming qualities of the social media marketing machine will be that it’ll be able to erode the consumer tradition of tacky logos. Then again, it may only digitize them…
For those of you who are interested in how marketers have moulded our consumer culture, I just wrote a pseudo-philosophical piece over on the SearchAnyway Blog. It’s called Entertainment Marketing: Not Boliao, and in it, I challenge some of the ideas that Mitch Joel has postulated. An excerpt:
What’s really happening, however, is that the MTV generations are coming of age. These are the first generations to have been exposed to fully multi-media marketing campaigns (radio, TV, billboard, and print) from day one. Like Mitch, we’re jaded and desensitized from over-exposure to marketing campaigns, but accept them as a natural part of our cultural landscape.
Consequently, anything that marketers do that is remotely original is something that we revel in. After all, marketing is part of our culture, so in our eyes, original campaigns gimmicks are virtually on par with great works of art. When we see them, then, we can’t help but want to share them — and help them spread virally.
Interestingly enough, anything that can get pass our disenchantment with a multi-media consumer culture is considered original. If you entertain us, though, you soften us up and put us in a good mood. When you do that, we’re less prone to feeling of bitterness and ennui. So when we find out that some little piece of entertainment was underwritten and produces by some brand, suddenly we feel enthusiastic about that brand.
What I’m doing, in effect, is applying the theory of entertainment marketing that I recently developed — and just articulated for SearchAnyway yesterday. Over all, the piece really breaks with what’s commonly know as blog-style writing, but sometimes, that’s just the way I roll.
Ever since I originally posted this image (below), something about hasn’t sit right with me. I mean, I think it’s a great visual aid, but I can’t shake the feeling that maybe it’s a bit off.
In any case, I’ve given it some thought, and here are what I think are the respective functions of marketing, pr, advertising, and branding. I think, if anything, this underscores how you can’t specialize in one without simultaneously dabbling in the others.
Marketing: Giving them something to talk about.
Public Relations: Getting them to talk about it.
Advertising: Talking about it yourself.
Branding: Influencing what’s been said.
Image via Ads of the World.
A little while ago, Eric Herbert was a guest blogger over at Marketing Pilgrim and he wrote about 5 Ways Jesus Would Promote Himself in the 21st Century. It was a great piece of linkbait that focused exclusively on online marketing techniques. One of the tactics that Eric foresees the Messiah employing is viral video.
Well this is a video on how a Modern Jesus would live his life. It’s from a young film maker who, himself, obviously has an intuitive grasp of online viral marketing. It won’t be long before the view on a video like this grows. When it does, even if it does not directly lead to a professional opportunity, being able to claim it as his own creation will definitely enhance the creator’s credibility when networking in the future.
This, here, is a just one example of the potential of social media and viral content. They are both extremely powerful tools when it comes to personal branding. If, indeed, it’s not what you know, but who you know, then it stands to reason that it’s also not what you know, but who knows you. Personal branding, then, is becoming an evermore important part of success if only because social media has made it that much more possible to accomplish. After all, if your reputation precedes you, then half of the introduction process to countless other people is already complete.
Video via American Apparel Blog.
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