2 Modern Roles of Brands in the World of Social Media
The best definition of brand I’ve ever come across with comes from Marty Neumeier, president of Neutron LLC. In his book entitled “The Brand Gap,” Neumeier defines a brand as “a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization.” This statement pretty much sums up what brands are all about. A brand is basically a product, person, service, organization or even a cause’s identity. There are, however, certain cases wherein a company’s product is their brand. A good example of this would be search engine giants like Google and Yahoo!. Before very recently, both of these companies rarely employed marketing strategies to promote their products. They mostly relied on the combination of consumer interactions and emotions to promote their products (which again, is their brand).
In today’s world, where consumer voices are very much heard and valued, it’s very easy to get lost between the roles of brands and products and other entities. With the emergence of the dynamic “social media,” modern consumer democracy allows manufacturers to bombard end users with a plethora of brands and products. During times like these, some of us find the need to remind ourselves that most brands still act as spreaders of information, contents and products and services. It can’t be helped that in several cases, consumers help brands continue to practice this model, especially when people produce things like “branded entertainment”- content modules that get forced to audiences in various mediums. Although the model has become a less effective approach, as viewers have become more empowered, the reality remains that it won’t be going away anytime soon.
There are also brands that have chosen to innovate themselves and deviate from this orthodox medium. Choosing to be “catalysts,” these brands remove themselves from having to do promotion and let others do the talking for them. However, these products must learn to master the art and science behind the act. Brands who succeed in this direction must know how to actively listen, create environments which promote fruitful interactions and add incredible value despite the fact that they may come across as the least important in the group. Through the use of traditional and social media, brands now have the ability to empower dominant voices who reach others and leverage “brand ambassadors” who are likely already out there.
It is important that we see that these two modern roles of brands are making a very important change in the face of marketing. Although not thoroughly proven, it is more likely that we’ll be seeing more of the latter in the coming days.
Written by Best Brands Blog on July 20, 2010 under Social Media.
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