An update to the Article: "Social" vs Socializing

In a recent post "Social" vs. Socializing I put out a few thoughts on how Social Marketing is at it's core - humans doing what humans do and that is both its strength and weakness.  The following article from CNN adds to this theory.  Enjoy.    The Fundamentals of Tribes

Stadium Branding. Really?

In this day and age of metric driven marketing, "ROI"'s, matrixes, quadrants and share of voice or mind pie charts, I am amazed that stadium and arena naming is still a sought after form of marketing. Is there really any value for the consumer in this type of activity?  Or does it simply come across as bragging, forcing the public to roll their eyes at your brand's hubris?   Is your brand providing value or providing noise?
Okay, I know that along with naming rights comes special hospitality features and perhaps guarantees that your soft drink will be the only one sold in the building.  But beyond that, does inflicting a brand name on a building really change the hearts of consumers and is it worth millions of marketing dollars?

Exhibit A:
Not to pick on anyone, but recently I was in Cleveland and came across the arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers play.

Yup, the Quicken Loans Arena.  Seriously?  That's just not a good name.  That's just not providing a good brand experience for anyone.  And most of all, it isn't even practical. To make it a name people could use it had to be shortened to "The Q".  Look at the top of the sign...the name on the name.  I rest my case.  This stadium/arena naming thing is out of control.  If you want more examples you can go to Silly Names to see more.
Did I say I rest my case?  Sorry, I'm not done.
Next door to the Quicken Loans Arena is the home of the Cleveland Indians baseball club.  The stadium use to have a great name.  Jacob's Field.  "The Jake".  I didn't know who Jacob was I didn't care.  It just felt right and it felt good to say I've been to The Jake.  You smile when you say it.  But I have since learned that it is now Progressive Field in honor of Progressive Insurance's marketing budget.  I don't know what role they play in the park experience but now everyone gets to say...with a sigh...I've been to Progressive Field.  And I don't think people smile when they say that. I don't know about you but I go to stadiums for fun.  Thanks Progressive for taking some of the fun away.
But that's not the end of it.  Every square inch of a stadium is for sale these days and somehow they find marketers willing to pay to slap a their brand name on to a board or post.

Exhibit B:

OMG!  Seriously?  How do you even tell what the score of the game is? Maybe there is an app for that.  Actually there is. Okay, I'm having a little fun here, but I'm also not making any of this stuff up.  Sometimes we marketers do some very silly things with our budgets.

Real Market Research: Love Thy Competition As Thyself

For the last 10 yrs I helped create and manage a major brand.  Now that I no longer have that responsibility I have been conducting a rather interesting market research experiment.  I've allowed myself to do what no self respecting corporate guy would ever do - devote myself to using the competitor's products.  (Well, no longer the competitor now, but old habits...etc.) 

I didn't run out and buy the "dark side's" products because I secretly lusted for them all these years and I wasn't being a s**t disturber even though that is core to my nature.  I wasn't just curious about where the buttons were and how much faster, slower or lighter the product was compared to what I helped market.

I wanted to get into the context of the brand and really understand what the product did for my life and what was core to the passion of the brand's followers.  

It only took me about two weeks for me to learn more about the competition than I learned in 10 yrs of following the rules.  I came to appreciate the context and nuance of brand, product and culture.  There were and are times when I love the product.  I now have full empathy for customers I once competed to acquire and as a result I know I could walk into my old company and help them compete so much more effectively because I understand the context of the competitor's experience.  It has nothing to do with the number of bolts, wires, colors or gigawhatevers.  It has to do with knowing what it feels like to love what the competitor does.  

I swear - in my future roles I will jump at the chance to send some people away to use the competitor's products.  I won't ask them to come back and tell me what's wrong with the product or simply what it does.  I will ask them to come back when they are in love the product and I will ask them to go into lush detail about their love affair.   

And that's when I'll learn how to compete and beat the competition.  

Disruptive Marketing With A Smile

Disruptive marketing usually comes from the fringe.  The odd time it comes from the market leader, but usually the leader is invested in maintaining the rules of the status quo.  In the auto industry, the status quo was once Detroit - then Japan.  The fringe seems to be Korea.
30 years ago, Hyundai  arrived in North America with the "Pony".  It was super cheap....and crap.  But the incredibly low cost was just disruptive enough to gain a place in the consumers' mind.   And, over the years they grew at the bottom end of the car market by adding the Kia brand
Recently Hyundai added the Genesis sedan which is beautiful, full of quality and about $20,000 cheaper than its BMW and Mercedes competitors.
 
Disruption!

Kia hired the designer of the Audi TT to head their design team.

Disruption!

All of a sudden you can have cool cars, stylish cars at a very reasonable cost

Big disruption!

The best part is all of this disruption is captured with a joyful wink and smile in the Kia Soul commercial "The Arrival".  It carries one clear message - something disruptive this way comes, so put on your seat belts and enjoy the ride!

The 2 Golden Rules Of Marketing To Humans

Edward Tufte, the graphic designer/statistician who made art out of charts and graphs once said that PowerPoint is used to guide and reassure the presenter rather than to enlighten the audience.  That comment stopped me dead in my tracks. It is such a perfect example of the many mistakes we all make when we try to communicate.  It is so easy to get caught up in our ideas and our own need to hear ourselves that we forget to think about, and listen, to our audience.  Ask yourself:

• How often do I catch myself not listening to someone who is talking to because I am too busy thinking about what I am planning on saying?  
• How often have I been pre occupied with what I just said and forgot to listen to the response?
• How often do I focus on listening for responses that support my ideas rather than all the responses being communicated?

Marketing and marketers can easily fall into the same traps. After all, marketing at its core is the act of communicating ideas.  I think two of the golden rules of marketing should be:  

1. Always remember, communicating with humans is hard and messy.  They filter what they see and hear based on hidden agendas...some of which they hide from themselves.
2. Always remember, you are a human too!

Here is an example, and I've seen it happen numerous times:

We read a report that says when people see our ads, FaceBook page, etc., they have increased purchase interest in our product.  That's what we want to hear so we stop digging and asking questions.  Customers seem to like what we have to say and gosh....so do we!  

However, messy human thinking doesn't fit into a chart very well.  Just because purchase interest increased in your product because of your marketing doesn't prevent people from also being interested in other products...and being influenced at a greater degree by your competition's marketing.
Good communicating begins and finishes with good listening. So, if you really want to know if you are changing purchase interest you need to ask more out of your market research and listen more too. Ask to look at the attributes that influence purchase interest.  Do you own them or does your competition?  That's what really matters.  That's a more meaningful measure.  That's the customer talking to you.  And if you listen you can craft a message that will become a true dialogue and not a boardroom lecture.  

Marketing Messages And Man's Search For Meaning.

One of the big battles we as marketers face is debating the balance of functional and emotional messages within a campaign or brand strategy.  More often than not, marketers have to champion the idea of having an emotional component to a campaign. More often than not, there is a non marketing person wanting to make the message 100% about features, rational benefits or price.
I've often wondered why this tug of war takes place and why it is so challenging to prove the need for an emotional benefit.  Sometimes I even start questioning the reason we think emotional benefits and messages are so important to good marketing.
I got a bolt of inspiration the other day as I was talking to someone about how Social media still needs to follow the basic fundamentals of how humans think and behave.  Somehow into that conversation, from the back pages of my mind, came this statement.  "We humans have certain constant driving behaviors and needs.  For example, humans need meaning in their lives.  (Read about it in Victor Frankel's Man's Search For Meaning.)  Our need for meaning sets us apart from other animals and is what constantly drives us...both good and bad."
Rooted in that need is one of the reasons why attaching an emotional benefit to a product or brand is so powerful...at least I think so.  We are always looking for something deeper than merely breathing.  It is why we have religion and it is also why new shoes make us happy and certain cars make us feel younger. The desire and need is ever present.  We look for it subconsciously like our lungs seek air.
Sometimes the need for meaning gets directed into more fleeting things such as joy, happiness or something as vague as smelling cut grass at Fenway Park in Boston.  But even then we capture and cherish those moments because down deep we are always looking for something more than what is on the surface.
So it comes down to this - if your marketing message does not have an emotional component, you pass up the opportunity to connect with one of our most deep, driving desires.  Maybe it is as simple as that.  It's what we do!

"Social" vs. Socializing

Before Social had a capital "S"...it was called "socializing". Back then it was acknowledged that certain types people were good at certain parts of socializing.  People who were great party hosts knew lots of people.  Then there were the entertainers who could keep a partly alive.  And, finally but not least there were the wall flowers who, if you took the time to talk to them, probably had lots of knowledge and interesting things to say.  Put them all together and you had an event where ideas took hold and spread to the next party.
Those of you who are clever...which of course is all of you, will pick up on the fact that I have created a metaphor to describe what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book "The Tipping Point".   Ideas spread when you have "connectors" (people who link us up with the world), "mavens" (information specialists), and "salesmen" (charismatic people who can persuade others).
Perhaps you may use a different model or metaphor but its hard to argue that you need these types of individuals to help create a trend, fad or movement.  Humans simply socialize in certain ways. It is part of our DNA and part of our cultural norms.  "Social", with a capital S, does not change that.  "Social", with a capital S is a tool that can magnify how humans interact.  But if "Social", with capital S does not acknowledge the sociological behaviors of humans it can lead to dead ends and circular discussions.

• Your brand can have 5 million Facebook fans all willing to connect, but if they don't have content and information making it worthy to act upon...well then not much happens. 
• Subject matter experts sometimes have the nasty habit of blogging to an audience of other subject matter experts.  They can copy and compete against each other.  But without a good salesman thrown into the mix, the wide world never hears or gets passionate about their ideas.  

In future, I'd like to see socializing get a capital "S".  Is that too much to ask?