Brands : Beyond the Five Eras of the Social Web

By Thierry de Baillon

About a month ago, Jeremiah Owyang posted his views, as a Forrester analyst, on the evolution on the Web, providing us with an insightful vision of how brands and customers will expect from each other in the near future.

From a branding point of view, I think that Jeremiah missed a point: brands, the most successful and noticeable ones at least, aren’t just products and customers; they support and express a vision. The spreading of this vision itself in the Web will have a tremendous impact on the interaction between consumers and companies. Let’s call this evolution the Era of Social Responsibility.

We are not consumers, we are people

The relationship between brands and customers did change a lot for a few years. Environmental concerns, corporate social responsibility and other ethical subjects are now involved in day-to-day consumer choice. A recent survey from French agency Ethicity shows that only 37% of consumers trust companies, and 69% of them changed their consumption habits toward Sustainable Development during the last twelve months. To restore trust, companies not only will have to engage more with customers, but to directly address these concerns.

Brands dissolution?

In the fifth Era depicted by Jeremiah, the Era of Social Commerce, products and services will be defined and designed by communities, and some early examples of this attitude already exist (have a look to Crowdsourcing blog for some). In such a world, brands will need to share and emphasize on other parts of their DNA than products to avoid dissolution. They will have to share and herald a vision, their vision, and set the interaction at a higher level.

Social responsibility

Companies have now an important role to play around societal concerns, as more and more people are asking for that. In the social media space, brands cannot afford to be evasive about these subjects anymore. While enticing them to keep some valuable influence among consumers and to recover trust, engaging with communities in a responsible and active approach will also enable them to positively shape the future, the way people already want them to. Not to disappear in the evolution of the Web, brands are bound to succeed.

EtoB: businesses in the era of social web – part 1

By Thierry de Baillon

As the web evolves into « the social web », it is clear that companies have no other choice than changing the way they consider and interact with their clients and customers, which will have a tremendous impact on their inner structure and, gradually, in how they do business. Last week, I was lucky enough to meet Jeremiah Owyang at Paris Tweetup and assist his presentation of the 5 eras of the social web, which may serve us as a guidebook to understand the deep evolution in the way people will interact, create, and buy in the next years.

Whether B2B or B2C, businesses are facing a new challenge, and we soon will see the raise of E2B (employees to business) as a dominant paradigm. In the next few posts, I will try to focus on the changes that need to take place inside the enterprise, and the pitfalls to avoid.

B2C isn’t Business to Customers anymore, but Brands to Customers

Since branding isn’t a recent discipline, the last decade has seen the very end of the anonymous or generic product, and every consumer goods sold or exchanged through the world is now supported (or supporting) a brand. To be short, it now has a personality, lies into a more or less global strategy, is associated to definite behaviors. Product selling is now all story telling. But the whole branding and marketing process is now open to the public. The brand itself no more is a global voice talking to the customer, engaging with him through social media means that packaged brands are connected individuals who all add up to the customer experience as well as to the brand’s perception.

Choose the right spokespersons

It is up to the company behind the brand to carefully choose who will interface with customers. Customer service is no more a service; it is becoming a strategic front end to the brand, and people twittering or blogging in its name must convey and propagate the very values of the brand. Is the brand perceived as young and active? Its social media actors must deliver the same message to avoid affecting the brand’s identity. Choosing the right spokespersons is mandatory, and isn’t an easy task.

Don’t over impersonate your brand

Another danger is to concentrate your whole social media efforts into a single individual. Not only must your speakers deliver a message coherent with the brand, but they must add value to it at least as much as the opposite. In a world where people are valued over brands, achieving the right balance between both might become overwhelming. Think about what would happen if your social media manager leaves the company. Who will suffer most? If the answer is “the brand”, you have a lot to care about.

It is all about people

Besides your spokespersons, everybody in your company is now a stakeholder.  Same as your customers’ voices have to be heard and listened to, every employee is now on-board in your brand’s identity and behaviors, and has the power to influence its personality and perception. Yesterday’s brands could often be embodied by the founder or the CEO of a company, who imprinted his/her personal value and vision into the brand DNA. These times are now over, and E2B is the business model we all have to deal with. B2B companies are somehow less concerned about brands than consumers goods are, but are facing similar challenges.

To be followed…

Forget about global conversation, it’s all local now (again)

By Thierry de Baillon

Once upon a time, there was a Brand. It earned its reputation on behalf of great products and conquered a lot of markets. Marketing helped it to build its personality, and communication broadcasted and reflected this personality, encountering customers’ satisfaction everywhere. The Brand bacame a global brand.

Of course, the Brand had to take into account cultural differences between countries where it was now firmly established, which was acheived through local alternatives of its marketing mix (advertising, packaging, incentives,…) while fastening its global personality.

The Brand developped its online presence. Website, e-commerce… It carefully began to experiment with social media, listening consumers, joining the conversation. But how could it now keep on satisfactorily answering local aspirations, as the conversation is getting global? Very soon, a customer’s question texted from Konakri may have as much impact on the Brand as one posted on a blog in Los Angeles, albeit conveying totally different cultures and social environment. How will the Brand give anyone an individual answer, since everybody may listen and understand this answer differntly? How can the Brand make a distinction between global and local without partitioning its personality, sailing into dangerous waters?

Brands are nowadays facing a really big challenge, for which we have no answer yet. They learn about listening, they now have to understand, and to answer accordingly. We are just scratching out the surface of social media impact on branding.

A (personal) brand is a brand is a… Really ?

By Thierry de Baillon

Of the numerous oxymorons flourishing on the web today, one is particularly disturbing for me: the Personal Brand. First coined in 2003 in a book from David McNally and Karl Speak, “Be Your Own Brand: A Breakthrough Formula for Standing out from the Crowd”, the term is today omnipresent in marketers and social media guys mouth. But, as branding is not a game and reflect a complicated reality, assimilating yourself to a brand can lead to serious disillusion or misconception.

Not all brands are created equal
Not all brands are created to sit at top of the pyramid. Initiation brands, for instance, shine at being dumped after some time, and prosper quite happily with that. Despite Fabergé being a long-term luxury brand, Brut 33, one of its best-sellers, is clearly aimed to young people who abandon it for more sophisticated fragrances. Very few people want to excel at initiating others, while being forsaken for larger expertise, despite there would be an important need to fulfill.

Sell or tell ?
Brands have one, and only one, ultimate goal: selling. And each and every move they make, every story they tell, is aimed at this single commercial reality: selling more, selling better. Brands must listen to customers, engage with them, build a whole experience for them, but it won’t change what they arre created for. On the other hand, even if you have to earn your life, to find a fantastic job, even if your ultimate dream is to become a multi-millionaire mogul, you are free to learn, interact, enjoy other people’s company, make some mistakes, for free. Men and women are social animals, not commercial artifacts.

Context or content
Brands have to position theirselves. Competition is harsh, and they have to find and maintain the right context to promote their products and services. Top-of-mind notoriety and maximal exposure are great brands values. But what makes big brands do not necesary makes happy people. Of course, you will benefit from self-promotion, notoriety and influence will increase your pride. Valuably. But content is what makes drive people, not context. And as you gain popularity, you will trigger jealousy, resentment and over-reaction from people with as valuable content as yours. Increasing wisdom and influence is not a commercial competition, and mustn’t be considered so.

If Siva was a brand
He would be able to handle as many services or products a brand has to manage. For range of products, services line and brand extensions are intrisic part of a brand’s life. But you aren’t Siva, and you can only handle a very small range of things at a time. You have to concentrate on what you do best, and stick with it. Nothing bad at it, but if you were a brand, you would slowly die of not being able to expand your grasp of the market you adresss.

So, stop about being a brand. Be bold, be trustful, insightful, useful. Be yourself.