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Affinity brands surpass all others in their category because they possess a rare combination of three key attributes where the brand is integrated into the lifestyle and identity of devoted believers. (e.g. Apple, Salvation Army, John Deere)

There is a distinct correlation to success when you recognize how the brand believer (consumer) embraces these attributes as personal;

• Quality - “I do not require the highest quality, but will never accept the lowest”
• Community - “I am not alone in my quest; my passion is shared by others”
• Timeless - “It’s not about brand sustainability, it’s about the sustainability of my interest”

Unfortunately, not every brand is an Affinity Brand, but fortunately every consumer is a Believer (in something).  Remember, everyone on the planet shares one characteristic; to be accepted.

The Brand can’t fake affinity or artificially manufacture it.  It must be as honest, complete and as sustainable as the need of the believer.   The brand only exists to fulfill that felt need.

Focus less on your Brand Affinity - focus more on Believer Affinity.

The requirement for brands to participate in social networking is increasingly higher and higher.

As a brand, the ability to do so effectively is essential for any level of success.

Your audience(s) will forgive you for a few mistakes; but not for long.

————————————————

Keep in mind the following:

1. Don’t contribute to “data-litter”.  Generating massive amounts of social media data for the sake of awareness is annoying at best.  Do fewer things better; this includes prospective communications.
2. Share the microphone.  Social is bidirectional; a conversation.  Be ready to listen to others.  Think about ways for your brand-presence to be perceived in a listening posture.  (Remember? 2 ears, 1 mouth = we should listen twice as much as we speak.)
3. Speak authentically.  Using pacifying language can be demeaning. Respect those you engage no matter their level expertise. The platform isn’t exclusive. Be prepared to engage with all levels of expertise.
4. It’s not Show & Tell.  Unfortunately for many, social media is “all-about-me”.  This might work for the first two minutes, but then you better move on to more interesting topics.
5. Follow (join) others.  In social media there are leaders and followers. Most brands enter social media to lead.  The balance is to follow.  Do both.  Join others, Fan others. Follow others.
6. Personalize the brand.  Social media is first person.   Brands are seldom a person.  Create one. Assign one. Develop stars within your organization to join the conversations on the brand’s behalf.

Recognize the vocal minority is still a minority; even though the volume appears to have increased.  It only seems louder due to their accessibility.  It doesn’t mean they have any more or less influence than before.  Remember volume is always relevant to something.  Instead, focus on the something.

The vocal minority is in-vogue, easy to access, entitled, and can be incredibly effective when they posses two attributes; believability & credibility.  Believability is important.  Credibility is required.  Neither are negotiable.  If they do not posses these attributes, they are also easily ignored.

Remember this when (not if) you are encounter a vocal minority.

Bypass the influencers and reach out directly to the easily-influenced.

Why?

Because they are reachable and they are now just as eager to join the conversation.

PS. It’s also required.

Mainstream brands have spent countless dollars attempting to manage public opinion and up until recently, effectively so.

Brand maneuvering, once exclusive to the use of newspapers, prime-time networks, and a handful of cable news agencies is now being imitated at a personal level; meaning those individuals managing personal-brands via ever-expanding social media channels.

(How many friends are you now following?   Can a brand really be a friend?  Facebook certainly doesn’t know the answer; first we were friends, and then they said we were fans, and now we just ‘like’…?)

The complexity of daily brand-management will continue to increase due to the emerging volume of personal-brands competing in an already overcrowded social media space.

Midstream brands (those hoping to be mainstream) are clamoring to access social media networks. Unfortunately, this requires fiercely competing for available airtime.  Today, more user-generated commentary will be posted on Facebook and Twitter than all traditional media outlets combined.  This equates to roughly 110 million posts - every 24 hours.  (And every single post is important to someone.)

Midstream brands are better off to pretend they are going-through-the-motions while actually focusing valuable limited resources solely on those efforts producing results.

The secret of successful midstream brands is that they know how to quit that which isn’t working and move on to the next thing.

The desire for brand-exposure in the marketplace accepts the assumption that “there is no such thing as bad publicity” - yet this can be frightening at times.

The opportunities for brand-exposure are mostly self-serve.  They are numerous, sometimes a dead-end, and often risky.

Potential public opinion fuels within us a readiness to react for fear of it being negative, which sometimes results in a retreat to safety. For some brand managers this fear can be paralyzing; an unfortunate thing considering the number of channels currently available.  (and not all equal)

Three things to remember when putting your message out there:

1. Target by audience.  Brands messages should always be unique to the specific audience they intend to reach. While your brand positioning and/or tag-line is sacred, how you say it should adapt to the targeted audience.
2. Be specific.  Content accumulates (meaning; content attracts more content).  This requires the message you develop to be specific to a task or call-to-action.  What are you expecting the response to be? Be specific enough to narrow the possibilities for responses. It is also easier to measure.
3. Check back often.  The brilliance of social media is that people will react.  This requires that you check back often to see what is being said and how people are reacting to your message.  If they engage you, be available to respond and answer as best you can.

No longer are we a society divided by content generators and content consumers; the true meaning of convergence might have little to do with digital technology after all, and everything to do with individual empowerment to both generate and consume enormous amounts of information simultaneously.  We are each a balance of content consumers and content generators; consumerators.

Yin and Yang?

The capacity of the digital space is larger than all available information; but not for long. This year, 1.2 Zettabytes of digital information will be created (according to the recent Digital Universe study from IDC). By the year 2020 stored data is expected to increase 40-fold. This growth expectation consists mostly of  user-generated content like YouTube videos, mobile photos, Twitter feeds, and Facebook postings.

This fast-growing economy of information is vast, whereby we ’share’, ‘recommend’, ‘like’, and ‘friend’ our way to market (or to death).

Feeling it is impossible to go it alone, social media relieves the pressure for personal connectivity whereby information can be generated and consumed by all participants; all at once, in real-time, and at any time.

The requirement to monitor and react can be overwhelming and even addictive for some.

But remember, social media is a playground of people.

Brands are best represented by people. Who are your people?

Twisting the famous quote of Oliver Perry, Walt Kelly wrote in his comic strip in 1970, “We have seen the enemy and they are us!”

Just as true a century ago, everyone can now participate in the flow of information.  As we enjoy access to a multitude of channels, the ratio of content creators to available channels has significantly broadened.  There’s simply not enough content to fill all available channels.

Yet interestingly, over 20% of professional journalist found themselves unemployed last year. And what of reliable sources? A Harris poll conducted this past January reported 3 out of 4 adults as unwilling to pay anything to read news online.

For many years now traditional media has suffered from a serious case of over-supply.  If you visit the scene of any national news event you would agree the number of cameras and journalists are unreasonable and demonstrate a lack of efficiency.  And now, even journalists are difficult to identify due to the enormous number of lookie-lou’s leveraging smart devices to push information online as news events occur.  Enter social media.

Just a century ago news traveled by word of mouth; village to village and farm to farm.  Everyone was a valued voice for accessing information.  People were willing to listen to anyone with news.  Sound familiar?

And as expected, reliable sources for information were very hard to come by, and thus traditional newspapers exploded at the dawn of the 19th century as the demand for accurate information grew and the public was increasingly willing to pay for it.   Yet ultimately, the United States would have fewer newspapers by the birth of the Internet than in 1940 (267 fewer to be exact). This decline was mostly due to the emergence of alternative sources of information; namely broadcast television and radio.

Aggregating content and information will certainly take on new forms for the purpose of validating information.  The public will be willing to pay for aggregated and validated content.

(A great example of this is AOL’s new push to reinvent itself as a content provider.)

I love my iPad, but I find myself easily distracted with access to everything imaginable.  Is there an app for that?

In the future, the demand for the printed page just might be in its inability to provide distraction.  Could print actually be the ultimate “airplane mode” for life?

In the 1985 book “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, Neil Postman argues the medium is the metaphor.  He describes how oral, literate, and televisual cultures radically differ in the processing and prioritization of information; he argues that each medium is appropriate for a different kind of knowledge.

We must recognize the distinction of mediums lest sometime in the future, somewhere on the planet, someone will say “digital is dead”.

We live in a world where below-average quality is considered acceptable quality.

In exchange for (mostly free) access to content, people now accept lower quality, and in many cases outright mistakes.  After all, you are reading a blog.  :-)  And what about Wikipedia? Facebook?  Who checks spelling anymore on Twitter (or sources for that matter)?  As long as we are “in-the-know” we can forgive a few errors here and there.

So what is the requirment for quality anymore, and will anyone be willing to pay for it if we continue lowering the threshold of acceptable - for the sake of accessibility?

What if your doctor only gets the diagnosis close?  Would that be acceptable?  Maybe so, if you have no access to health care anyway.

What is it that sets our precedents for quality?  Money? Technology? Resources?  Do we loose our way with much?  Too much money?  Too much access?  Too much informaton?

We make better choices when we practice and live restraint.

 (…yes the spelling errors are intentional)

While playing the game Forza 3 on XBox 360 with my son recently I experienced a next-gen reality of how far-reaching brand impression can now be.

I grew up in a Chevy/GM community.  Honestly, I know very little about cars but was influenced enough to believe Chevy beats Ford every time.  As a kid, we loved to make up demeaning acronyms (e.g. F.O.R.D. = Found On Road Dead and Fixed Or Repaired Daily)  I must confess a bent toward GM products; and you can tell by looking in my garage (e.g. 2 Camaros, a Corvette, an Escalade, and a Suburban).

While playing the game I selected a Chevy Corvette as my vehicle of choice; I was shocked to hear my son’s reply, “Dad, Corvette is a dog“.  I almost dropped the game controller.  I asked him why he would say such a thing; I thought he loved my Corvette; even getting to drive it occasionally. His response, “because there are so many better cars to choose from“.

Forza 3 is an amazing game teaching players about performance; allowing you to tweak the performance of your vehicle by adjusting parameters of each car.  And if you damage your car on the track, just like in real life, the performance adjusts accordingly. It is stunningly realistic.

The bad thing about Forza 3 is that is serves up all vehicles on the screen as available options, at the same time.  This leaves the game player comparing all brands in every class of vehicle.  Yes, brand impression, and brand confusion, all at the same time.  Chevy doesn’t stand a chance (and neither does Ford).

I select the Corvette (50k); he selects the Bugatti Veyron (1.8 million).  Can’t wait to look in his garage one of these days.  A tradition broken.

Here are three essentials for effective communications; Content, Channels, & Audience.  The formula for success is simple and applies equally to each essential.

Strategy(Data/Time)+Expertise

Many great organizations with clear mission statements continually fail to realize their full potential for the lack of an effective communications strategy.  Recognizing these three essentials are as equally important as a defined mission. 

1. Content – Represents the brand as a mission-driven message that is either developed or procured for communicating the mission, characteristics, and objectives that define the organization.  This may include content that is developed as subject-matter-expertise, thought-leadership, educational & training, editorial, storytelling, news, etc.
2. Channels – Represents the touch-points, locations, materials, and technologies where audiences come in contact with the brand content (message). Channels ensure the flow of mission-centric contact and require on-going management and updates.  These channels may include Internet, Print, Video, Newsletters, Magazines, Blogs, Social Media, Press, Product Collateral, Cyber and/or Live Events, etc.  Channels are typically categorized as online (digital) or offline (analog) mediums.
3. Audience – Represents identifiable groups or segments of individuals who share characteristics of affinity, likeness, or similarities.  Audiences are typically identified by demographic, geographic, sociographic or psychographic characteristics.

The arrival of the Internet undeniably created a dynamic shift in the distribution of information.  Information is more accessible, at lower (to no) cost than ever before.  But as is the case in any space, new forces emerge to create a cycle of actions and reactions that must balance themselves out over time.

This is increasingly apparent in today’s Internet space.  New web properties are developing faster than the business models they require for support.  Cases in point are Twitter and Hulu.  Both wildly popular, but neither having figured out a sustainable financial model… yet.  Combine this with the rapid development of new mobile technologies such as iPad and Kindle and you get an unexpected merger of  content and technology, creating new channels that redefine the way media is consumed.

Certainly these new developments will create a wake of change.  We are already seeing the pendulum swing back towards a pay for content or access model.  The corrections we are seeing are reactionary, holding true in form to Newton’s Laws of Motion.

With effective marketing becoming more about providing consumer utility, marketers will be required to innovate (see Gerald’s post below for more on innovations).  And innovations won’t be limited to HOW we reach audiences, but will extend to helping define successful business models to sustain them.

Supposedly, we should attribute the original ”Innovate or Die” quote to: Damon Darlin in a 1997 article. Everything he was addressing is now completely irrelevant, except for this one single phrase of brilliant wisdom. It was bold and relevant for 1997 - and even more so today. It is relevant because destroying an industry is now in-vogue.  I call it innovation.

Take for example; Health Care REFORM. Whether you agree or disagree, it is an act of pure innovation.  The problem is ‘innovation’ infers improvement, yet an act of innovation will seldom be aligned with any guaranteed outcome for success. Therein lies the argument. Everyone can agree innovation (reform) is necessary for most industries. The necessity for innovation is what matters more; being aware that you must innovate or die has always been essential for sustaining an organization, brand, or person for that matter.

What I know is marketers MUST innovate!  All marketers; including those brand managers working deep within the annals of big-brand corporate as well as agency service providers who can no longer  survive in the role of order-taker. Innovation requires taking ownership for outcome. We need marketers who are brave - risk takers.

Innovation requires a sea-change for how the brands we service now reach audiences, but also a change in how we as agencies see ourselves, our services, and the expertise we offer. 

 

When an audience comes in contact with your brand, do you strive to simply meet approval or meet expectations?

Meeting approval is limited to that which is acceptable to the average; like vanilla ice cream.  It is seldom the preference, but most people will eat it.  The result is something that is safe, and usually boring.

On the other hand, meeting expectations first seeks to define the attributes of the desired audience.  Designing for audience interaction with your brand, whether it be attending a live event or test driving a new product, requires a few considerations;

1. Recognize that each individual shows up with a unique story made up of personal experiences that you cannot change, and should not want to change.  Success depends on your ability to align the brand story with their story.
2. Resist the temptation to design an experience that is intended to be interpreted the same by everyone. It’s an impossible task.  Interpretation is as unique as each individual, because of the perspective they arrived with.  This is not negotiable.  Experiences can be shared but are never the same for unique individuals.  Intentionally design for interpretation.
3. Seek to accentuate those elements that stimulate innate human characteristics. (e.g. curiosity, relevance, survival, acceptance, etc.).  This ensures you will have their attention.  Keeping it requires building on top of these elements, whether simple or complex; do so for dynamics.  (i.e. Experiencing the smell of a brand new sports car can accomplished while going 80 miles an hour listening to your favorite music, and/or parked under a shade tree with the window rolled down; listening to crickets.  The leather smells the same, and both experiences provide the same available horsepower.)

Simply attempting to meet approval screams of “conformity” while meeting expectations celebrates the individual and encourages innovative application for each individual that comes in contact with your brand.  When you ‘kick the tires and go for a test drive’ you tend to imagine yourself driving through YOUR neighborhood and on YOUR way to work.  You ask yourself, “how will this change or better my condition”?  If the brand story and the individual’s story align… SOLD.

So, design to that end.

Remember, unless you ARE God, your audience is not the whole world!  Disappointed?  You might sincerely believe that everyone needs your product or service, and while it might even seem feasible, it’s just unrealistic to design with a global objective in mind. It is unattainable; too comprehensive, there is too much competition, and you do not have the resources to cross the chasm required for success.

Your time is better spent attracting an audience that already recognizes the need for your brand.  They are better prospects anyway.   Every defined audience has an identifiable affinity.  Speak to this and celebrate the edges.

Big ideas usually flow freely in strategy meetings, however articulating clearly defined, expected, outcomes many times remain elusive.  You can recognize early on in these meetings that you probably won’t leave the meeting with a single objective that will later measure success.

Be assured you will leave the meeting with a long to-do list mostly related to how to better brand positioning and identify audience segments. While this is all good stuff, it doesn’t leave you with a feeling of urgency to accomplish something that generates measurable results.  Just another feel-good meeting where we generate more to-do lists without clearly articulating how we could measure the success of our efforts.  If we could have only decided a couple of measurable objectives; 1) how do we grow the email list, 2) add more fans to their FaceBook page, 3) increase revenue by an additional 3% by end of next quarter.  These are all specific objectives whereby you apply your expertise toward immediate results that are measurable.

The fact is, we are all paid for results.  Although much time should be spent on strategy and generating big ideas, we need to be reminded that our worth and value is really based on generating results for the brands we represent.  That is what makes the cash register ding.  Interestingly, we feel the best about our work when we are not just accomplishing a to- do lists but rather working toward measurable results that affect change.

Remember, the urgent always trumps the important. Resist that urge!

Unfortunately, with your head above water it’s too easy to hear the conversations about the economy and what potentially went wrong.

I am wondering what role the advertising and marketing world played in all of this?  All too frequently we hear the excuse, “I was just doing my job”.  This excuse is no longer reserved for those who will now be held accountable.

Your “job” in fact might have contributed to this mess. Marketers are ranked near attorneys, and not too far off from Members of Congress, when it comes to those professions least respected.  Ask most marketers and they will be quick  to tell you they only represent the client and are just an agent; a lowly messenger.  It’s time to quit blaming the client and walk away from those clients who contribute to the confusion and insensitivity, or with no concern for the greater good.

And don’t bother blaming the market either. The market is too short sighted. It moves and changes and reinvents itself and will ultimately leave you with nothing to point your finger at.  How ridiculous will you look when you stand alone?

Take responsibility for your clients and your actions! Only then will you have a greater impact on the market.

Organizations that drift aimlessly on the sea of narrow margins are distracted and obsessed by the fact they have no direction.  It is the overwhelming realization of narrow margins that have paralyzed leadership and now fear has set in. Most leaders are parked at status quo. Every effort is given to simply maintain or attain that which was once status quo (a.k.a  a perceived stability).

You might expect that those who sail these waters feel isolated and alone.   However, the opposite is true, these leaders actually see themselves as very busy and are scurrying about the boat examining every opportunity for what they perceive as any potential for change.  Truth is - they are now highly vulnerable as they find themselves over-committed to finding their way back to status quo.  And yet they are blind-sided when mutiny occurs and they are forced to walk the plank.

“You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.”  Abraham Maslow.

The solution is found by sailing vigorously and passionately directly through the narrow margins.  Do whatever is necessary to increase the margin and only then will you find stability along with the space and time for true insight and innovation.  Have you been sucked in?  Are you, or those around you, unwilling to right-size, down-size, up-size, trial-size…?  The solution rarely is found in identifying ways to increase revenue.  Instead, focus first on increasing your margins.  As a result, increased revenues will follow.  We are taught to view the bottom-line as simply “the result of our efforts”.  It is actually the beginning.  And by which all things will ultimately be measured.

PS.  By the way, for-profits and non-profits are no different when it comes to margin, they only differ by what they do as a result of their margin.

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