Branding Strategy Insider

Engaging Influentials: Twitter and Beyond

With the rapid adoption of social media, we have accelerated into a network economy.  In a network economy, connectivity enables value to be created and shared by network members.  The larger the network, the greater the potential benefits.   In the digital world, network activities take place on an open platform that enables participation and cloud computing (think Wikipedia and widgets).

In networks, some members are more connected and active, and therefore have more influence.  These influentials are important members because they add significantly more value to the network.  In the digital world, they blog, twitter, upload videos, experiment with new gadgets, and create widgets.  As early adopters, they tend to be trendsetters that are followed by their friends and sometimes the masses.  The book, the Whuffie Factor, talks about Social Capital, and how our society is increasingly motivated to become more useful and creative.  Today, more people want to be influencers, and they want to be enabled.

In 2009, Twitter has emerged as one of the most talked about platforms in the network economy.  Indeed, there is a simple network exchange on Twitter:  influencer creates bite-size content, and follower discovers new information.  Here are a few examples of the exchange:

•    Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco and California Governor Candidate, has over 500,000 followers.  He keeps his followers informed about upcoming events and fundraising, and enables them to interact with him directly.

•    Mike Massimino, a NASA astronaut, has over 400,000 followers.  He combines his human life story with a behind the scenes look at being an astronaut.

•    And of course there is Oprah, approaching 1.4 million followers.

Twitter makes it easy to share your voice and build your presence in the community. 

Building a Strong Brand in Turbulent Times

As the current economic crisis deepens, consumer trend experts say there has never been more urgency for corporations to ditch their quest for money and embrace generosity as challenging times see people seeking care, empathy, sympathy and generosity.

According to Trendwatching.com, in turbulent times like now generosity will find an extra-appreciative audience, and certainly will not be forgotten.

Generation G will be the umbrella trend that will dominate the year and businesses cannot afford to ignore it in this business climate when consumers will be tightfisted.

Reinier Evers, founder, Trendwatching.com, says: "There has never been a better time to show you truly care about your customers. They will definitely not forget any kind of generosity you show them in these challenging times."

According to Trendwatching.com, companies stand to gain from being generous as not only will customers be more appreciative, they will also return your favours by being more willing to spread the word about you.

"Just by making the first firm steps to a holistic approach to generosity, your brand will immediately stand out, if not become known for being a truly generous brand."

Being generous to customers does not always mean giving away everything you have, or forgetting about bottom lines and profitability. Generation G, is about being a bit kinder, a bit more caring towards your customers. Eight ways for corporations to join Generation G.

Opinionated Branding Proves Powerful

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were long-time friends and hippies when they established Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. True to the hippie-dom of which they were a part back in 1978, their brand continues to be driven by a well-informed social and ecological conscience. Some months ago, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream released its anti-nuclear ice cream. A fun novelty for some; a responsible message of the most serious type for others. The ice cream sold out in days. Visit Ben and Jerry's website and you’ll discover another expression of this corporate responsibility in action. “Help Lick Global Warming With Ben & Jerry’s New Flavour” is the invitation issued alongside the flavor sensation known as Fossil Fuel. The “sweet cream ice cream with a yummy chocolate fudge swirl and handfuls of chocolate cookie pieces” even comes complete “with four species of chocolatey dinosaurs to unearth”. Buying the flavor supports Ben & Jerry’s global ‘Lick Global Warming’ campaign which raises awareness and money for climate change research.

The Ben & Jerry brand is based on the founders’ opinions about business, society, the environment, and the way in which all three benefit each other. And, even though the brand has changed hands and is under the directorship of Unilever, Ben and Jerry’s forthrightness and its social mission remain driving forces.

Richard Branson painted “No Way BA” on his entire fleet of aircraft when he characteristically made a clear display of animosity towards his formidable adversary, British Airways. This was Branson’s answer to British Airways subterfuge, BA having been caught making free with a Virgin database by mailing false messages to Virgin customers to secure their business.

Social Responsibility: The Nike Story

An odd couple was featured in the 1992 edition of Harpers Magazine. One was a sports phenomenon called Michael Jordan. The other was a young Indonesian worker called Sadisah.

Sadisah, the article revealed, earned 14 cents an hour making Nike running shoes. After working six days a week, 10 hours a day for a month, he earned enough money to buy a single Nike shoe at its US retail price. The article also claimed that Sadisah would have to work for more than 44,000 years to earn as much as Jordan had recouped from his Nike endorsement deal.

The darkest chapter in Nike's history and a new era in brand management had begun. Over the next five years Nike experienced a remarkable public backlash. Critical reports appeared in publications as diverse as The Economist and Rolling Stone and charities such as Oxfam and Christian Aid joined in.

Around the world, the opening of NikeTown retail stores were turned into tense, often violent, standoffs between local police and protesters. On US university campuses, students protested against Nike's links with slave labour working conditions and forced their sports teams to sever lucrative sponsorship deals with the now infamous sportswear brand. The internet was ablaze with anti-Nike sites, many featuring cleverly altered versions of Nike's identity such as the 'Swooshtika' and slogans such as 'Nike: Just Don't'. As then-chief executive Phil Knight observed in 1998, the brand had become 'synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse'.

For decades, Nike had tendered almost all of its production to factories in developing markets, but so had almost every other big clothing company. Why was Nike so heavily criticised?

Great Moments in Social Responsibility: Newman's Own

When the idea came up, (Newman's Own) I said, "Are you crazy? Stick my face on the label of salad dressing?" And then, of course, we got the whole idea of exploitation and how circular it is. Why not, really, go to the fullest length, and the silliest length, in exploiting yourself and turn the proceeds back to the community?

                        - Paul Newman

Branding and Social Responsibility: Where do you stand?

This week in Kiev, Ukraine we (The Blake Project) will be delivering a presentation on Branding and Social Responsibility to a wide range of business leaders and marketers at the 2006 Brands Point Conference. While to many in western markets a link between branding and social responsibility has become an expectation, in emerging markets’ it’s a very new concept.

Where do you stand on this? Should companies have responsibility to anyone other than their shareholders? Is it right to trigger people’s deepest fears to sell them things? Is it a company’s role to sell people what is good for them rather than what they desire? Are people willing to pay a premium for socially responsible brands?