The Emerging Times

Shift in 'Ink'

Getting press coverage (aka 'ink') has always been a powerful thing for a brand. In the past it's been the job of a reporter or pr person to 'get-it-out there'. And for a long time this approach was effective.

But today we have a shift, where the most effective 'ink' today comes from people, blogs, tweets and Facebook posts.

Don't 'get-it-out there'. Give them something to 'put-out' there.

Creating Brands vs. Products (v1)

Creating Brands vs. Products (v1)

What does it really mean to build a brand? A recent Amazon Kindle commercial hit me with five key selling features. The features were clearly articulated and calibrated specifically towards convincing me that their new product is in fact better than Apple's iPad. They were trying to sell me on a logical purchase.

After I saw the ad I was left thinking, "Does this brand or device even have a soul?". The product in the ad is (very expensively) projected to be for almost everyone and as a result it doesn't transfer any value to me (personally).

Have most tech products lost their soul? As competition increases and quarterly profits drive decisions, follow-the-leader brands will be at risk. At risk of losing at the long game by slipping into a position where they forget the importance of building a brand entirely. Motorola, Samsung, Gateway, Comcast, and Time Warner immediately pop up as my familiar examples. Over time, these standard-value mass consumer technology and electronics companies become more and more vulnerable to being crushed by new and emerging breeds of cheaper machine and part-makers like: Vizio, HTC, even Google.

FACT: A cheaper, faster version of your technology will inevitably show up one day.

Can your product always be the logical purchase? Can you really expect to compete long-term on this level? What if the competition came out tomorrow with the same features? Then what? You quickly become replaceable. (Or even worse, you'll waste a lot of marketing dollars reacting to the competition.)

Believe in the power of a well-defined brand. Brand value is about the transfer of an experience that's filled with emotions of non-monetary value. This 'emotional value' increases consumer consideration and builds a positive brand feeling—creating the perception of value.

Intel is doing a brilliant job buying-back the perception of technological awesomeness. So is GE and IBM. Instead of succumbing to the 'Me Too' game, each of them are acting and positioning themselves as 'thought leaders.' And that's a big difference.

The only actual product difference in this category (and almost every other) is in fact that very overused word or intangable value i've been talking about. You guessed it—the brand. In the long game, the brand will enable your entire organization to stay on track and react less to what the competition is doing.

Perhaps you can 'pull-from' some of the differences i've mentioned in this article the next time you speak to your boss, your client, or that hot start-up entrepreneur. And if they ever question why it's important to have a 'well-defined' brand, tell them this, "without a brand you'll just be chasing after the tail of the industry instead of creating your own opportunities."

{To be continued...}

 

Lay it down on Like

Lay it down on Like
If you're trying to build a brand relationship, stop putting your dollars into driving click-throughs. Instead, I'd put all my money on driving Likes. In the long run you'll have more fans—people who actually want to hear what you have to say.

 

Your Mom Isn't on FourSquare

 
 Your Mom Isn't on FourSquare

FourSquare has added a few new features to their localized check-ins. Whoppie! Do you even care?

Almost 1 million users do.

FS now allows iPhone users to comment on their friend's locations. What makes this great is that it enables us to have smaller local social network that allows us to have conversations at a sub-level from the mainstream. 

Here's why I think FourSquare works the best (right now)
For most of us our Facebook status updates reach a few too many people, so we rely on TXT Messaging still as out most personal and private form of communication.(I wish I had the link to credit this. But I don't). 

Facebook places and things like Google Buzz are all broadcasting to a larger, non local audience. FourSquare is almost entirely local and far less mass. Right now it's like private writing on the wall.
It works at the sub-network level. Your friends, people and brands near you. You actively allow them to add (virtually speaking) their own commentary on top of your physical position in the real world.

Who knows what to call it. There are a lot of names floating around on what to call this Foursquare related hoopla. Do we call this a social location network? Mobile-Social Media? I'll let you decide.

But of course the main reason it's getting mentioned is because it was simply FIRST. Either way, your Mom doesn't know about it, and doesn't care about it. 

It's just a thought.

I thought you might want to also check out other mobile social networks I've played with. More stuff your mom doesn't know about, And if she did, it would give her a small heart attack.

FourSquare
GoWalla
Layar
SVNGR
Yelp

 

Starbucks : Why This Rocks

STARBUCKS : Why this rocks

Scan and pay-the Starbucks new mobile app allows coffee hounds to scan their mobile phone at the register and get on with the day. "We love finding ways to serve you better."

Why this idea rocks:
The simple summary is that it builds brand culture. Here are five reasons how:

1. It's efficient and it saves time.
2. It saves plastic (and the world)
4. It promotes frequency/usage with awards built in. Remember that old retailer punch-card ?
4. It enhances the product at the mobile/digital level of service-adds the extra layer.
5. It's an idea created by a brand that understands their fans-their fans will applaud.

This mobile application is what builds brand culture today. It's hard to stay great at it. So how does Starbucks stay great at it? Perhaps it's because they listen so well to their consumers. Hmm.

Either way, I'm personally more likely to opt. for my favorite local shop.

See the demo here: http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/mobile-apps

The Game Changer—Apple & Mobile Facetime

The Game Changer—Apple & Mobile Facetime

I'm not going to make this long. Apple has introduced (as the leak suggested) 2-way video calling—they call it Facetime. Let me tell you—It's amazing.

See the video here

I can't tell you how excited I am about such a feature and how much mobile in general has booming throughout our industry more than ever. Some of us access the internet more via mobile than we do our computers. Think about it. There's a tipping going on here.

Our mobile joysticks have become keys to our social interaction. They connect us more to each other than anything ever before. I obviously believe in this or else I wouldn't be saying it. But do you? The World Park concept my agency created put this idea to practice by allowing visitors to Central Park to access amazing content and history-right through their mobile device. Take a peek here (you need flash to view the video)

With thought leaders like Apple, the competitive, worldwide mobile community is practically forced to re-adjust their plans, cancel projects and prepare to follow the leader. In this case we definitely know who that is. If I was Windows right now, I would be scared. For as much as I want to bash Apple—this feature is as forward thinking as it can possibly get.

Until the next big thing-let's remember this one.





PS. Sorry for the agency plug-I know it's lame.

Digital Real Estate

In order to build a brand that reaches younger consumers today, it's good to be in a lot of different places-digitally speaking. Here's a few things to remember:

    1. Buy ideas that create online real estate.
    2. Try different things.

Ask yourself: What value does my brand bring to people's lives? After you figure that out, the next step is translating that into a digital space, a source, and a two-sided relationship with your consumers.

More and more brands and companies will only ever exist online, and will only get to interact with consumers in the digital world. Zappos.com and smaller brands like Scarlet and Crimson are some quick examples. So, when encounter one of these brands think about how the brand's value, culture or personality can be delivered through an app, their blog, or their CEO's twitter feed. All of this real estate today gets pulled together by young people to become the brand, and creates the marketplace or 'space' for the brands of tomorrow.

If your still a brand that's running from the digital space, here's an interesting factoid I recently gathered: It's projected that Gen Y consumers will outspend the boomer consumer market by 2017, so stop running and get building.

2010—The Year of the Social Media Microphone

2010-The Year of the Social Media Microphone
-Why we react more on the internet

Once there was a suggestion box where people could anonymously make a suggestion, comment, or submit a review of their experience. The usage of the suggestion box (in my estimation) was mildly successful. However, it did in fact make a few angry customers happy, and made the store owner look like he was trying. But all together the suggestion box always felt as if the suggestion could somehow go 'missed', or even tossed away. You just never knew if the owner really ever saw those suggestions. Then, many years later another store owner decided to put a chalk-board sign in our store and invited anyone to make a public suggestion. The turn out around that chalk board was much greater and far more constant than the old suggestion box, and it too made him look good. However, this store owner had to deal with the occasional yet very public and sometimes even nasty reviews of his own product-written inside of his very own store. Good or bad, that public feedback motivated him to: make the coffee hotter, serve soy milk, and offer student discounts.

Now let's skip ahead to 2010. In the age of Yelp, Twitter, and social networking we're in a time where that anonymous suggestion box meets that public chalk board. Sure consumer forums have been around for over 10 years, but today information is instant and it swells through our own personal media channels-social networks. People talk, Google and Yelp index it, and the feedback shows up right next to your product on searches.

Be Aware: Search results are the new face of your company

Today, people have a huge 'scale of voice'. Imaging allowing them to now also be able to take that chalk board outside, place it on a billboard, and publicize it to everyone driving by? That's how feedback happens in consumer culture today. You can't hide negative reviews, poor service, or even crappy product—you just can't. Today, the game has in fact changed-our opinions have 100x the impact they did 10 years ago. The good news for marketers is we're going to have to stick to making better products, running better companies, and making better contracts.

2010 was the Year of the Social Media Microphone
Consumers today react on the internet not just because there is that somewhat anonymous wall between them and the store owner, but also because they know their actions will be publicly displayed on Yelp, Twitter or whatever social microphone they decide to speak through. They know it will be indexed/documented, and possibly might even stick together with other similar feedback-making it 'bigger' feedback. Conan O'Brien fans know about 'swell', the bubble-up, the movement, the word on the street, and how to affect the way your brand is perceived. (and so does NBC)

Consumer have that power today. So the big question is your network, brand, or even yourself going to listen? And then are you prepared to do something to replace those negative reviews with some fresh positive ones?

I certainly hope so.

Opportunity in Mobility: Personal Wireless Hot Spots

Opportunity in Mobility: Personal Wireless Hot Spots

Here's what I think the coolest new thing in mobility is—Personal Wireless Hot Spots.

Imagine a time when consumers are able to offer each other personal wifi connections or access hubs. An opportunity for you and your buddies to share a strong wireless signal anywhere you and your friends go. Innovations like this just might be the fuel you need for your next break-through campaign idea.

 It makes mobility fun and personal by creating small digital circles or localized groups.

Apple's 3G won't get us there. But 4G just might do the trick.

The idea is huge, and a lot of you have told me that you have never heard of this. Well, now you have. There is a strong movement and even more support towards cloud based computing—where all your personal accessible data is stored on a virtual server or hard drive. Citrix is making great strides at making this a reality.

With this idea, you'll never be far away from your: music collection, videos, data files, or that latest version of your client presentation you forgot on the company server. Or even imagine a password protected network that moves and can even work as a pirate radio station at your next trade show owners event. That's just an idea...that's very possible. Just a little bit a creative application for you.



Now take the opportunity that the iPad has brought us, and mix it with a more powerful and even more reliable network such as Sprint's 4G, and you have the real iPad and experience and the mobility of the year 2011.

I hope you enjoy the link that immediately forced me to discuss this topic with you. 



Let's do great things today.

Apple's 'Art of The Leak'

Apple's 'Art of The Leak'

There is an old saying in advertising and marketing: "If you cant outspend them then out-think them."

Apple is a perfect case study for this. In the world of Mac vs. Windows Apple's approaches their buzz from a grassroots, buzz marketing perspective. Instead of releasing a viral website to generate pre-release buzz, Apple opts to embed their idea or product into the media "by accident". Or so they say.

Take a peek at this video from Gizmodo. It claims that a next-generation iPhone was found in the general vicinity of Apple's headquarters. Suuuure.

When you have a cult of consumers that support your brand it makes ideas like this possible and even more successful. Executions like this makes news. I'm sure there is a Microsoft exec out there thinking one thing, "How can I outspend them, and make all this buzz go away." Usually the one with the most money wins, but in this simple example, we learn how exactly Apple wins—by owning the share of mind.

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