Communities Dominate Brands

Communities Dominate Brands
Business and marketing challenges for the 21st century
Tomi T Ahonen and Alan Moore
(about 250 pages, hardcover, Futuretext Ltd, March 2005)
Communities Dominate Brands: Business and marketing challenges for the 21st century is a book about how the new phenomenon of digitally connected communities are emerging as a force to counterbalance the power of the big brands and advertising.
The book explores the problems faced by branding, marketing and advertising facing multiple radical changes in this decade. Communities Dominate Brands discusses how disruptive effects of digitalisation and connectedness introduce threats and opportunities. The authors compellingly illustrate how modern consumers are forming communities and peer-groups to pool their power resulting in a dramatic revolution of how businesses interact with their customers. The book provides practical guidance of how to move from obsolete interruptive advertising to interactive engagement marketing and community based communications, with dozens of real business examples from around the world.
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Posted in: 7th Mass Media, Advertising, Books, Broadcast, Citizen journalism, Convergence, Culture, Darwin, Distribution, Economics, Engagement Marketing, Engagement Mobile, Engagement Organisations, Engagement Research, Ethics, Events, Gaming, Generation C, iPTV, Law, Marketing, Media, Messaging, Mobile, Music, Networks, News, Newspapers, Participation, Philosophy, Quotes, Retail, Social Networks, Society, Sociology, Strategy, Travel, Trends, Virtual Worlds, Web/Tech, Weblogs

Corporate America on the rack

Reported in the Financial Times February 7 2005
Verizon is taken to court in a civil class action – which signals to large corporations – that the customer is clearly in the driving seat. The FT reports

the lawsuit against Verizon Wireless – and the way it came about – highlights the challenges that weblogs pose to corporations.

Verzion advertised the Motorola V710 with Bluetooth this made it possible for file sharing between the mobile device and a computer. Verizon However turned the bluetooth functionality off.
This case has been identified as being possible purely through the power of the blogosphere and the millions that provide such overwhelming force via "word of mouth"
The FT quote Robert Scoble a very popular blogger

If companies don't understand that and don't learn how to track what people are saying, they are going to be hit violently with PR problems that they don't understand or know where they are coming from

Other cases recently which demonstrate community power is the the case kryptonite – As Robert Scoble says just type in the words Kryptonite and bic pen and see what you get.
Of course, in the UK there is a danger we will pooh pooh such fripperies as blogging merely as the blatherings of some techno geeks. But as any strategist will tell you, the worse thing that can happen to you is irrelevance which is always the precursor to obsolescence. And that is a one way street.

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Posted in: Convergence, Culture, Darwin, Engagement Marketing, Generation C, Marketing, Media, Networks, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends, Weblogs

The vanishing mass market

Definitely worth a read, if you have not read it already.
The vanishing mass market

New technology. Product proliferation. Fragmented media. Get ready: It's a whole new world. 

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Posted in: Advertising, Convergence, Darwin, Engagement Marketing, Engagement Research, Marketing, Media, Strategy, Trends

TV advertising the silent movies of the 21st Century?

Simon Walden provides some interesting statistics on TV advertising, in his post
If there's no ads they'll make you pay another way
Quoting an article from the LA Times

studies have shown that at least 70% of today's estimated 6.5 million DVRs are routinely used for what's known as commercial avoidance.
With DVR use expected to grow tenfold over the next five years, the devices are threatening to bring the $60-billion-a-year TV advertising business to its knees.
By 2010, half the U.S. households with TV sets are expected also to have digital recorders, according to a recent Smith Barney report. The tipping point could come as early as 2007, the report said, when the television industry may lose as much as $7.6 billion or about 10% of its annual ad revenue as advertisers seek other ways of reaching consumers.

Walden points out that research with consumers that they would be open to and would prefer paying on demand for most content, a similar model to Apple iTunes he suggests.
These findings are all debatable, and TV advertising will never disappear completely. but I think that its worth thinking about.
Hypothetically ask yourself, if I was going to try to persuade people to change their minds about my product or service how would I do it, if I did not do it by TV spot advertising?
How does one deploy the creative thinking that has been remorselessly poured into TV advertising over the last 30 years? What combination of skills do we need from communication specialist companies. Will advertising agencies exist in 5 years time in the form they are today?
How will the model of broadcast change – and where will there future revenues come from?

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Posted in: Advertising, Broadcast, Convergence, Darwin, Economics, Engagement Marketing, Engagement Research, Media, Philosophy, Statistics, Strategy, Trends, Web/Tech

Web browser Firefox grows via socially networked media

Mediapost talks about the increasing use and spread of the web browser Firefox.
Developed by a non-for-profit organisation Mozilla.
The browser has been downloaded for use 19 million times so far. And according to the Firefox website has happened in 10 weeks.
The interesting thing about it is its capability for personalisation according to Mediapost. Plus its ability to block ads. Again this signals to brands that are going to have to start thinking in ways where they think about 'non interruptive models' of marketing communication.
Firefox is looking contagious, and has spread virally and also a community has sprung up around the project. The Mozilla foundation raised a staggering $250,000 via 10,000 donors to place an ad in the New York Times, this is being repeated in Holland. This is a community/customer advocacy driven initiative. Most companies are starting to realise that customer advocacy is the key to growth.
There is a great deal of interest in if and when Firefox will reach critical mass.
As Cory Treffiletti says

It's a great time to be in advertising, and a scary one if you don't think about the future.

Such initiatives represent the fact that we live in the connected and networked society. The term network society is jointly attributed to two researchers – Manuel Castells  and Jan van Dijk  .  Manuel Castells believes that networks have become a basic unit of modern society.  Jan van Dijk  differs slightly from Castells in that he believes that modern society still consists of individuals, groups and organizations, though increasingly they are being  organized and linked in social and media networks

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Posted in: Advertising, Convergence, Culture, Darwin, Engagement Marketing, Generation C, Marketing, Media, Networks, Participation, Social Networks, Society, Trends, Web/Tech

Changing behaviour

From the big blog company – a smart bit of thinking

Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand

Big Blog company is talking about blogging, though I think that this quote shows why we could, should, and will move from what we do today to what we do tomorrow as businesses and how we talk to and engage with our audiences.

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Posted in: Advertising, Engagement Marketing, Participation, Philosophy, Quotes, Strategy, Trends

No more interruptions, please

Whether it be making TV programmes, holding arts festivals or even launching a radio station, advertisers are funding new vehicles to promote their brands. The Guardian writes.

Forays into this area have mostly been limited to branded vignettes on digital channels. But each year sees advertisers increase their spend on content. In 2003, the market for branded content on TV grew from £5m to £22m, according to the BCMA, and some believe it won't be long before a primetime TV show is fully funded by advertising.

In the research paper The Revolution will not be televised? 

The term Mass-Media threatens to become an oxymoron. Audiences are diminishing as they are given choices, more distractions than ever before. Against this scenario, we find conventional advertising agencies and marketing service companies in denial. It is not that interruptive advertising does not work, its more that with an over proliferation of interruptive communications combined with a fragmenting media environment, only the very best interruptive marketing can only work when combined with huge spending on media

So its out of the ad break and into the fabric of people's lives in varied and different ways. But it is also beyond that – it is about creating value+ and putting the customer first.

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Posted in: 7th Mass Media, Advertising, Convergence, Culture, Darwin, Distribution, Economics, Engagement Marketing, Engagement Mobile, Engagement Research, Generation C, Marketing, Media, Participation, Trends

P&G sees the Light, the rest of the world now has to follow

Late in 1999, I began my research into the changing landscape of media, marketing and communications. The blogs of many people, the surveys; Yankelvich, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, Deutsch Bank – they all say the same. That conventional marketing is seen increasingly as an intrusion, and is no longer effective as Jim Stengel CMO at P&G said

Television spot advertising stopped working circa 1987

It is like watching the transition from the silent to the talking movies.
The FT reported on January 14 2005 than P&G has gone through a dramatic process of re-engineering – going right back to product innovation. This is what all companies should be doing, and what we describe as creating marketspace.
Chairman and Chief Executive AF Laffley has put together a 5 point plan,

1). Put the customer first - this is as we know is not really the modus operandi of conventional marketing

2). Know your customer – define "unarticulated needs" Ford's Hybrid car springs to mind both in terms of the vehicle itself and how it has been marketed.

3). Make design part of the process - a very interesting point this as common sense dictates, that design is so much part of the user experience, it can make differentiation so much easier, and more enduring.

This I believe is still part of the marketing process which leads us nicely onto

4). Create a work environment where ideas flow - Ideas, the leap of the human imagination is where it is at. Not marketing by numbers. Ideas do not flow in siloes, ideas are not subservient to corporate process. Its worth thinking about. Cross discipliine teams – sharing their thinking.

5). Be prepared to look outside for ideas – even to rivals 

Alan Mitchell argues that today we should be identifying the "value gaps", that exist in business. This means that co-operation between businesses can also deliver significant business results. Sharing can sometimes far more rewarding financially than Mutually Assured Destruction. P&G cite the the joint venture with Clorox which has been hugely successful.
P&G notoriously have been protectionist, a mind set from the industrial age, Us vs. Them. The company has realiised that it was not leveraging its technology, its staff, in fact all its assets. What was required was a different approach and the knowledge that nobody is as clever as everybody. Start with the customer insight and business context, and deliver a compelling experience – this is beyond branding as we conventionally understand it.
Additional reading: Reorganizing to Innovate
At P&G, It's "360-Degree Innovation

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Posted in: Advertising, Darwin, Engagement Marketing, Marketing, Media, Participation, Retail, Strategy, Trends

PVR’s: The End of A Beautiful Relationship?

A very good friend of mine Mike Smallwood – who sits on the SMLXL consulting board has done some thinking on the impact of PVR's in the UK. Much has already been written about the PVR, and much will continue as "Tivo to go" has been launched, which enables your Tivo to send download data to other devices, as Microsofts Media Centre (MMC) makes a bold claim to the living room and the battle for our shelves.
Once again Mike thanks for the thinking:

The Non-compliant Viewer: The commercial television industry has evolved around the principle that viewers are compliant recipients of programme content created, selected and scheduled by the channel provider.
In return for "free" access to this content viewers have been required to accept the embedded presence of increasing levels of advertising and cross promotional messages today it is not uncommon for non-programme content to account for 17 minutes of every clock hour.
In the days of limited choice and free-to- air services the pact between broadcaster and viewer held firm. However with the advent of multi-channel, pay TV this tacit agreement began to break down.
Faced with an expansion in choice from 4 channels to 200+ channels the viewer began to move away from their role as passive recipient towards self-selection and personal control. With the aid of the remote control they "learned" to surf the channels and zap the commercials.
While total time devoted to viewing television has remained remarkably constant the individual share of viewing to any single channel has declined dramatically. Today a typical viewer will have a repertoire of between 11-15 favourite services and whereas only 10 years ago prime time network drama could often expect an audience of in excess of 20m viewers today they struggle to secure 10m – still impressive but, a significant fall!
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Posted in: Advertising, Broadcast, Convergence, Distribution, Economics, iPTV, Marketing, Media, Statistics, Strategy, Trends

Bob Lutz Blogs

Don't know who Bob Lutz is?
The vice chairman of General Motors.
Fast Company ran a post that Lutz is now blogging.
And the good the bad and the ugly are responding as Fast Company points out.

Remarkably, the marketing mavens in Detroit haven't yet pulled down the comments, despite the harsh, honest musings spawned by the post. Indeed, they've thanked readers for them. In the process, they've created an instant, cheap, and much more authentic focus group than anything corporate marketing could artificially manufacture. It will be fascinating to watch what they do with it.

I would agree, that real life testing, discussions etc are far better than focus groups. As Malcolm Gladwell said in a Fast Company interview

It would be better for everybody if focus groups did not exist

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Posted in: Engagement Marketing, Marketing, Media, Participation, Social Networks, Trends, Weblogs