Today your brand will be shared by customers making videos, starting Facebook groups and sending a multitude of tweets. Devote 3 minutes to watching Unilever SVP of Marketing Marc Mathieu talk about how the digital age has shifted marketing from creating myths to finding and sharing truth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udl_4HAyFPM
A marketer has to think fundamentally different in our digital world. Branding is not what it used to be, mainly because it’s not all being done by purchased advertising in traditional media. How you go about branding has to adapt to a world where consumers have a say and let the world know what they think.
What’s role does today’s marketer play in shaping a brand?
Marketing used to be about telling a myth and spreading it. Today it’s about telling the truth and sharing it, according to Marc Mathieu. Or rather finding the truth that appeals to people and make them share it. Consequently it’s crucial to build a brand that appeals to people’s values and favour the environment. They have to want to engage with it, participate in it and share it with their friends. Needless to say this fundamentally change the ways brands are built.
Marketing needs to tap into people’s imagination
Marketing needs to enable people instead of telling a finished story. We need more magic and less logic without forgetting that both aspects are important in order to appeal to both to the right and left sides of our brains. It’s also important to use marketing to help people tap into new behaviours that are good for the environment and society. By doing so marketing, like never before, has the ability to play a really positive role in society.
Bottom line – not only you are in charge of your brand
What you are now watching and reading is an example of how I am playing a part in branding Unilever, Marc Mathieu and CNN Money. If my contribution is positive or negative will make a small, but still, contribution to how those brands are perceived.
When searching for Catarina’s World and Catarina Alexon on Google, I have several times come across blog’s written by people I have never even heard about that mention my name and refer to an article I have written with a link to it. They then proceed with writing a post based on my article. So far, it’s only been positive and the same goes for the numerous tweets about me and my blog.
It’s also important to remember that everything you write on social media will brand you. So be nice, respectful and polite. Search engines record everything and forget nothing. Getting into an argument with a bully may come back to haunt you in the future. The same applies to what your employees write on social media.
The way to try to control your brand is to stick to the truth, deliver what you promise, appeal positively to people’s imagination and treat others the way you want to be treated. If negative content about you and your product and services are being spread online it’s time to start creating positive content to push down the negative information on search engines. You can read more about that in my article What’s your online reputation worth? that outlines what you can do if someone has a go at you online.
Do you agree that branding today is fundamentally different due to all of us contributing to branding products and services? Is Marc Mathieu right when he says that it’s essential to tap into people’s values and inspire them to share brands with their friends? Can we through how we brand products and services enable people to adapt behaviours that are good for the environment and society? Have you had positive or negative experiences of how your brand has been shared online? Do you believe it’s possible to 100% control your brand in today’s world?
Video: CNNMoney – YouTube
