Monday, November 15, 2010

Social Media and Corporate Communications: The Genie is out of the Bottle

For all of those companies large and small that now embrace the use of social media apps to extend their brand image and brand message, you're no doubt employing dedicated marketing teams composed of 20-somethings to tweet away (and respond to twits that are bad-tweeting you), as well as manage facebook/your-company-name pages, and other social media messaging.

For those of you that are encouraging your employees to use these same tools via their personal facebook pages, or their personal tweets, well, the genie is out of the bottle. You've now abrogated control of the message and the mood, and you're hoping that your employees are savvy enough to insert the appropriate messages on behalf of your company (without having been subjected to a training program specific to "how to position us via social media platforms).

Lets not forget about  employees that might be using social media apps to vent their frustrations, or perhaps leak certain bits of corporate intelligence that's not intended for distribution outside the company's four walls.

There are a growing number of third-party applications that can deliver social media messages via a single dashboard, and can therefore log who is saying what from inside your company. More common: applications (very inexpensive) that sniff across the internet and locate any/all messages that pertain to your brand. "Engage121" is one good example...

Obviously, consumer brands should view these monitoring apps as a must have. For financial service companies, or any other enterprise that's regulated by government entities, the ability to keep your finger on the pulse of who is chattering (or tweeting) about your brand, what they're saying, and why they're saying it is integral to maintaining your competitive edge.

In the old days, they called it Business Intelligence. In today's world, its simply Smart Business.

Nextpoint's "Cloud Preservation" app and "SocialLogix" are just two software companies that purportedly provide these types of tools.

Neuromarketing 101-Making Ads That Whisper to the Brain

Three weeks ago, (via LinkedIn update) we spotlighted an interesting text book "The Buying Brain," authored by A.K. Pradeep, the founder/ceo of NeuroFocus, and detailing the science of neuromarketing within the world of advertising and brand strategy.

Lo and behold, this Sunday's NY Times afforded writer Natasha Singer a half-page in the Business Section ("Slipstream") to report on this exact same burgeoning science. OK, we're not saying that we're prescient per se, merely that we're pretty good on keeping our finger on the pulse of techniques that might be game changers.

What is neuromarketing? At its most basic, engineers are utilizing brainwave responses to certain stimuli, and these responses purportedly mitigate the need to conduct traditional [and arguably unreliable] focus studies with respect to the success (or lack of) specific advertising creative developed by ad agencies. 

For example, scientific brainwave studies have determined that print ads (and consumer package labels) trigger the most important responses when they include photo elements, and when said images are placed to the left, and syntax (copy) are placed to the right.

Another finding: "novelty" within ad design is a winning approach. JetBlue is a brand that wins awards for novelty...messages that inspire thought, humor, ambiguity, and even those that intentionally incorporate "error" are, according to "marketing neurologists", considerably more effective than plain vanilla mainstream ads that might have been conceived by Don Draper's uncreative counterparts.

"Buying Brain" dedicates several chapters to what works and what doesn't when marketing to the most sought after demographic: Moms.  To my friends at MomsTown.com; this book should be required reading for you and your mayors!
 

Monday, November 01, 2010

#Negative PR is a Positive? Yes. No. Maybe.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity — better that people are talking about your brand than not, period..

An old cliche, for sure. And, its topic that's inspired great spirited debate (often over late afternoon spirits) for generations of Madmen. Its even one that this blogger subscribes to most days of the week.

A must read article on the age-old question “Can negative publicity actually have a positive effect?” can be found by Rob Walker in this past Sunday's NYT Magazine section.

Walker's article--which references a recent scientific study on the topic, strikes to the heart when reflecting on a recent GAP Inc. PR episode; one in which the icon clothier took steps to make a dramatic change to their corporate logo, and encountered big blow back from fans. Taking two steps back, GAP then announced they would not in fact change the logo (despite having spent only how much cash on a brand re-burnishing initiative.

Walker posits:  "What’s the real impact of such a P.R. misstep? Marketing and business experts constantly warn about the dangers of ending up on the wrong side of public opinion, particularly in the age of social media, when gripes and mockery seem to explode overnight.."

You don't have to be Lloyd Blankfein to click on the title link to read the full article..(Hats off to Rob Walker!