Click on the advert above to visit the company web site

Product category: Web measurement, analytics
News Release from: WebTrends | Subject: consumer engagement
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial Team on 11 April 2008

Embrace consumer participation with your
brand

Colette Wade, Marketing Director at WebTrends, argues that in online virtual world Second Life you can be whoever you want to be - it's why most avatars are young, slim and attractive.

It's perhaps surprising to see that in this virtual world where people have complete freedom of self-expression, many continue to embrace conventions and brands from the real world so readily, whether it's wearing iPod headphones or drinking a can of Coke The irony is that there's no real need for these branded goods and services in Second Life; it's not like avatars get thirsty or hungry

But people want to be seen walking around with their beverage as a way of showing their affiliation with the brand and identifying with its values.

It's not just in Second Life that people demonstrate their affinity with certain brands.

It's also on social networking sites - such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo - that consumers are making clear their passion for certain brands and featuring them as part of their consumer profile.

Some members even use brand terms as verbs - such as 'I'm a Mac person' - in their profile to describe their personality.

These people see their favourite brands as part of their identity.

Like so many other aspects of today's society, what's driving this trend is the internet - specifically the ability to meet like-minded people, share opinions and create communities around particular subjects.

People have been sharing information about brands and their products or services for years and years.

Indeed, word of mouth marketing is nothing new; but what has changed is the way people spread the word.

The internet has let the genie out of the bottle in providing a worldwide publishing platform for people to broadcast their views on anything they want.

The nature of viral marketing on the web also means that people's views spread far faster than they would do in the offline world.

It's not all good news for brands - take the example of poor customer service.

In the pre-internet days, if someone received bad customer service they might only tell a few people about their experience.

Now they can tell the world - as contributors to sites such as btopenwoe and dellhell did - whether by emailing everyone in their address book or posting their criticisms on a blog, which might be picked up by the major search networks, making it visible to even more online readers.

Viral marketing, blogging and user-generated content (from customer reviews to online videos and 'mashups') have given the consumer a much bigger pedestal from which to air their views - Time magazine went so far as to name its readers as 'person of the year' last year - and it's a trend that shows no sign of abating.

We have reached a defining point where consumers are actively looking to engage and interact with brands.

Consumers feel ownership over brands more than they ever have in the past; some would go so far as to call themselves co-authors or brand sponsors.

Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe of Eepybird.com, a video entertainment site, created one of the most popular downloaded online videos last year, when they recreated the fountain display outside the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas using 'Mentos and Diet Coke geysers' (so called because the two substances react together to create an eruption).

Neither Mentos nor Coke were involved with the first experiment, but have since given their support to other demonstrations.

Marketers from both companies could have seen it as a brand extension too far, but by choosing to endorse the pair, they created an association with an internet-savvy generation and actually reinforced their brand messaging to this demographic.

In an interview with online marketing publication, iMedia Connection, one of Eepybird's founders, Voltz, explained why they used Coke for the experiment over other soft drink brands: "Coke is such a strong brand that nothing said "this is soda and nothing else" more powerfully than using that iconic Diet Coke branded soda".

Clearly the boundary between company and consumer is increasingly blurring, as users start to interact more with their favourite brands.

Forward-thinking brands have tried to capitalise on this by embedding themselves deep in certain cultures - take the example of Joga, a website created by Google and Nike to foster an online community for football enthusiasts.

This strategy is not without its risks.

Adverts such as Sony Bravia's bouncing balls campaign last year were lovingly mimicked by consumers around the world, but other spoof ads have taken brands into dangerous territory - such as the suicide bomber in the VW Polo - and forced brand owners to publicly disengage themselves from the ads.

So does the emergence of user-generated content and this age of consumer participation mean that brand owners have lost control of brand ownership? Or does greater consumer ownership in fact bring brands closer to their target audience? More importantly, how should brands respond to these new rules of engagement? Most forward-thinking marketers are no longer shocked if their customers create some advertising or content around their brand - and in many ways it's a compliment that consumers are taking time out of their day to do that.

In fact, I'd be worried if I was a brand owner and people felt so dispassionately about my brand that they choose not to engage with it.

But what's important is using this era of two-way engagement and interactivity to connect with consumers in powerful and relevant ways.

When this happens, losing control of the brand can actually be quite positive.

This focus on participation is why we are hearing so many marketers in the industry talking about engagement: people want a very personalised, relevant, connected and emotional experience with a brand nowadays.

One brand that has successfully engaged with consumers both on and offline is Doritos.

To entice consumers to buy a new flavour of crisp it had developed, the food manufacturer released a new mystery flavour into stores called X13D and packaged it in a silver bag.

Each bag had a code name on the packaging and consumers were invited to log onto the website and submit their suggestions, with 100 winners receiving the prize of becoming a Doritos 'flavour master' (a job that involves testing out new flavours over the course of a year and receiving free Doritos during that time).

One lesson some brands have learnt to their detriment is the need to be open and transparent in dealing with consumers online.

Reckitt Benckiser, which owns household cleaning product Cillit Bang, came under fire from the blogsphere after one of its agencies started using its fictitious marketing character, Barry Scott, to post comments to blogs.

The internet is forcing brands to listen and learn from their consumers - not just to talk at them, as they might have done offline.

They need to offer a joined-up customer experience and learn what consumers are saying at every touch point - be it through an email, search on the website or call to the contact centre.

It's then important to take action on that information and drill down to find out more about your customers.

Customers have come to expect greater personalisation and targeted communications - when they tell brands something, they expect them to listen and remember what they said.

Technology today enables brand owners to track unique visitors to their site, build a profile of that person and aggregate online and offline data around that visitor to find ways of better connecting with them.

If you can put a profile to a person - and know they are a 32-year-old female interested in travel and food, rather than an anonymous visitor - you can start to interact with them in more powerful ways.

The focus on user participation, viral marketing and other online forms of advertising doesn't mean the need for traditional above-the-line marketing will disappear.

There is still a role for 30-second TV spots, but importantly there is also a place for more interactive, engaging and two-way forms of marketing, as the last few years has shown.

The internet isn't just for direct response marketing - as some (wrongly) initially thought - but also has a valuable role in building brands.

Brand owners need to be aware that consumers have more control than ever before, so whether you engage with them or not, they'll probably interact with your brand.

If there's one lesson marketers should not forget, it's this: embrace the new rules of engagement or consumers will do it for you - and, remember, they won't always be kind.

• WebTrends: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Marketingservicestalk email newsletter
• Marketingservicestalk Home Page

Search the Pro-Talk network of sites

Put your news on Marketingservicestalk  |   Advertise  |   Get the free Marketingservicestalk newsletter
  Marketingservicestalk Home  | About Marketingservicestalk  |   Copyright © 2000-2008 Pro-Talk Ltd, UK