Before websites, branding included all activities that are now viewed as traditional public relations activities. You had your word of mouth, advertising through print, radio, and television, and of course marketing collateral. Trade shows were well attended, and get this conferences were more than just grabbing tchotchke’s and getting to a free luncheon!
Then the website came, and the new marketing standards were set: now you had to make sure you were able to be found in common searches, and when people wanted to find out more information about your company specifically, you were able to capture those visitors somehow, in order to follow up with them and eventually grab their business. These activities are now also becoming pretty traditional, and very similar to physical branding, in that online collateral and advertising is a large part of what companies view as valuable activities for their brand and marketing.
Now, well past web 2.0, possibly closer to web 3.0, we have introduced social media AND device proliferation. This has not just changed the marketing landscape for branding but completely transformed it. I like to think of this as a re-evolution of the human interaction. We are not becoming less social, but even more social than before, constantly connected to the people and the topics we like and are interested in. Branding today includes all of the traditional activities, web presence activities, and layers on top of it a new type of interaction that up until now companies never got a chance to be included in: people-to-people word of mouth. Most companies are beginning to embrace it, while others still seemed to be paralyzed by hope.
Therefore, today a holistic brand strategy must include all three presences: physical, online, and social. Each has it’s own activities, campaigns, and best practices; and with the increasingly savvy consumer market, it is critical to make sure all are being managed correctly, effectively, and as one voice.
So what can you do to make sure that your company or organization’s brand is ever-present? Here are 3 tips:
- Grab Attention Quickly and Often: Attention spans are dwindling, grab and hold their attention. Did you know you have to make at least 6 impressions on a viewer before they will be compelled to take action!
- Open up your company. Allow your brand’s promise to the consumer drive expectations and conversations. Holding your company close to you like a hand of cards in poker is no longer the way to market a business. People are being empowered to provide reviews, suggestions, and opinions on everything. Make sure that every aspect of your brand is ready to yield to these opinions, reflect on them, and if necessary make changes to what the company can be.
- Identify audience members with Influence, Trust, & Authority. Bring them into conversations across all presences. Industry key influencers can catapult your brand from obscurity to mainstream with the flick of a wrist. If you get in touch with them through social media, make sure to direct them to your online presence, or provide them with a couple magazines containing an important write-up about your business. These gestures of deference and goodwill always come back in this new reciprocally-driven world.
Have questions or comments about branding in this brave new world? We are all ears!
