humanizing brands
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Jeff StierTRANSCRIPT
The Humanization of Brands
Jeffrey Stier June 8, 2011
Every brand. Every industry.
Change is scary, but…
Don’t Hide from Change: Understand and Embrace it
Fundamentally social media is about expressing choice:
“What I believe” “What are others thinking” “Give voice to my preferences”
Since influencing choice and creating preferences is the fundamental business of marketing, social media is important to brands---even if they haven’t really figured it out yet
It isn’t about media.
It’s about communications and connecting.
It’s not about social media.
It’s about social connecting
Don’t Hide from Change: Understand and Embrace it, cont.
To Social Connect must understand:
1. How social platforms are changing the relationships between customers and brands
2. What customers and targets are doing now
3. What they’ll be doing in the future
1. How Social Platforms Are Changing the relationship
People Are Talking
Are You Listening?
A plucky Millennial said:
“…it’s not B2B or B2C, I think it’s going to be C2B.”
From her perspective, it’s customer to business; a consumer demand driven economy.
For those born in the Golden Age of marketing, who had no choice but to be “marketed to”, it’s still a profound paradigm shift. To her, it’s natural and obvious. Something brands must take to heart.
What does this mean for the future?
No going back to controlled streams of carefully crafted communication
Listen to customers, respond to their input, improve their experience, make it easy for them to promote your brand
Brands that heed their customer’s voice and take immediate action will exponentially gain share from those who don’t. Those that don’t…
This begins when a
brand respects
each customer
as a human
being
What does heeding the voice mean?
The Humanization of Brands
Two things consistently in my reading over the last week are:
1. Digital info/content overload
2. Consumers are craving realness. They’re suffering from a lack of human touch in the digital world.
Marian Salzman "futurist and PR maven,” Dec 2011
Saya Weissman Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 New York Times
New online social service Grubwithus isn’t about collecting online connections and contacts; it’s about getting strangers together around a dinner table so they can enjoy food
and good conversation. The service’s aim is to help people use a social media site to actually be social in real life---who would have thought.?
The More Things Change…
The More They Stay the Same
• Technology is an enabler, not an end state
• Can’t take humanity out of people.
• Can’t take the ME out of SoMe
What Does It All Mean? Take Aways:
• People socially connect peer-2-peer
• Peoples relationships with brands is peer-to-peer
• Brands MUST connect peer-2-peer: emotions, empathy, authenticity, AND…
• Storytelling. It’s fundamental to human DNA---been that was for past 10,000 years and will be that way for next 10,000
Jeffrey Stier [email protected]
917.561.6403
Contact Contact
A micro-voice publishing utility for infusing the passion, nuance and
authenticity of the spoken word into the social conversation
Image and content credits: Marian Salzman, Euro RSCG, Ann Mack, JWT, Jeffrey Pulver, Francois Gossieaux, Human 1, Kellye Crane, Crane Communications