Global PR Blog Week Day 3: PR To Be Put In Control of the New Blog Brand Threat
The Speed of Disruptive Messaging via RSS and Blog Pings are Changing the Rules of Engagement in the World of Micro Communications
Customers are actually starting to talk back to company brands through blogs (just as Cluetrain Manifesto authors, Doc Searls, Chris Locke, and David Weinberger predicted they would). One way of looking at the threat and why marketing techniques like “Brand Journalism” are arising is, as Elizabeth Albrycht of Corporate PR agreed, through the lens of political economy or power. "In the past, the company controlled communications. PR departments and employee relations (all backed by brand messaging) existed to spread the company vision. And, at the same time, these messages would assert the power of the corporation and its brands." Today, new technologies (such as blogging and RSS feeds) interrupt that power structure and its brand messages. Rather than being a technology of control (the press release, the corporate meeting, the annual report), blogging is a technology of un-control. On her blog, Albrycht said, agreeing with Cluetrain Manifesto, "Blogging is one of those new technologies that makes the negotiations about power visible, vs. hiding them in a black box. Power needs secrecy and control to survive." It's thus clear that blogging threatens the power of brands and their message control because blogs facilitate open dialogues with customers. Or, as the Amazon review of Cluetrain Manifesto said, "In their view, the lowly customer service rep wields far more power and influence in today's marketplace than the well-oiled front office PR machine."
Brand Threat: Customers Talking Back
It’s obvious through McDonald’s corporate announcement that big marketing is turning to new media channels as print and web collateral, solely based on one-way branding, is not going to meet the new brand threat.
The universal message with its catchy ads, glitzy events and the "build it and they will come" attitude towards marketing is being turned away from.
The exact threat? Meta-sites, blogs, wikis, and the proliferation of RSS and related site syndication technologies, have all rapidly given a voice to people who previously had no way of expressing their opinions. The Internet is no longer a closed-medium where knowledge does not affect or crossover into the offline, "real" world. Today’s viral marketing campaign can often alter opinions, change views, and sometimes lead to unforeseen consequences (the effect of the movie Super Size Me on McDonald’s being one of them).
But what exactly is it about a blog, you might be asking yourself that makes it so entirely different from the personal and corporate websites we all built extensively before the downturn in the economy back in 2001? Answer: blogs and RSS feeds are threats to brands. Because of their instantaneous and global publishing capabilities, blogs and RSS feeds (effectively customer brand touch points) can quickly catch brand managers and their strategies entirely off guard (making their current often static online website collateral seem non-responsive and old in comparison to the new global conversations now starting to take place). Disruptive messages that campaigns like Super Size Me and Fahrenheit 9/11 send out to audiences threaten brands (be it McDonalds or the Republican Party). But don’t think that for a second that the “old” but effective approach to online marketing (sending out out branded emails and canvassing highly-branded web sites with mindshare banner ads) will work effectively to handle the new brand threat of blogging and talkback interactivity. Massive mindshare capture campaigns, while effective elsewhere, won’t help facilitate the conversation that corporate brands need to develop for themselves in the blogosphere. The previous approach, which ushered in the premise of our entire new online economy, was progressive and new at the time, but is seen as too "one-way" in the blogosphere. Monolithic marketing, atleast online, looks broken.
Blogger Brand Cocktail Party
“Brand Journalism” has been developed by a Fortune 100 company to meet the new brand threat. Even Seth Godin, the marketing guru behind several new economy books about e-marketing, praised McDonald’s for realizing that monolithic marketing is broken. But Godin pointed out though that the marketer doesn't get to run the conversation that Light is inviting. As Godin said, “It's not really ‘Brand Journalism’ that's happening, you see, it's ‘Brand Cocktail Party!’ You get to set the table and invite the first batch of guests, but after that the conversation is going to happen with or without you.”
Summary
McDonald's and Seth Godin acknowledging that marketers are losing control of their brand marketing programs online? Who to put in charge to help marketers regain their online voices and direct their online conversations with customers? PR. PR should now play the role of integrating the voice of the customer between IT and marketing. Any Fortune 1000 company that has a threat (blogs) also therefore has a need to meet the threat. PR can fill that need with reactive and proactive blogging.
Wednesday, July 14
PR To Be Put In Control of New Blog Brand Threat
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2 comments:
It's interesting reading through the gist of your blogs about maintaining control of the customer message.
A few contradictions are apparent.
"PR to be put in control of new blog brand threat." The title reminds me of mainstream media's concern over 'quality' issues when internet websites started pre-empting their exclusive domain of news coverage.
"Rules are bing changed" Um, the ones who complain the most about the unfairness of rules being changed and the threat of 'anarchy' are usually the ones who've benefited the most from the rules being maintained.
"Customer are talking back to corporate brands ....one way of looking at the threat.."
Um, when did companies start to feel threatened by [GASP] customers daring to 'talk back' to them. I mean talk about your parental tone. How dare those ungrateful customers talk back to us? Don't they appreciate all that we sacrifice to give them a good [fill in the name of our favorite service or product].
Most companies would LOVE to have their customers talk back to them. Why? Because the customers are talking TO them, telling them what they want and need. Funnily enough, most companies make money by giving customers what they want.
You know what? Customers were talking about companies way before the internet and buzz campaigns and viral marketing began. So, why not use this 'word-of-mouth'? Give them something positive to talk about when they talk about your company.
THAT'S WHAT PR DEPARTMENTS OUGHT TO DO.
Ironically, companies pay big bucks to Market Research companies to find out what blogs tell them for (almost) free.
As for slipping brand control... there are those in the branding world who consider a brand only successful when the consumers of said brand get their hands on it, and contribute. After all, consumers ultimately 'own the brand'; Coke switching back to Coke Classic after trying to launch New Coke is pointed to as an example.
It may be those who fear Blog impact may not yet understand how they can take advantage. Consider the .com boom-- traditional companies didn't know how to leverage it until the new companies showed them how (requiring a new way of thinking about the Internet). Blogging may mean a paradigm shift is coming, for 'marketers'. However, 'brands' may benefit from a shift putting more of a stake in the consumer's hands.
But then... maybe not, we shall see. The spice of life.
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