Why Copying Poster Child Campaign Like Old Spice Will Hurt Your Social Media Strategy?

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The Old Spice campaign became the poster child for social media and selling to The Mobile Consumer. Yet, after the initial word of mouth marketing explosion, when you look at the Old Spice engagement after the campaign there is a huge let down.

I went and looked at Old Spice after some conversations I had regarding South African brands that have bought into the Social / Mobile idea. They initially embraced the idea, hoping for some word of mouth marketing and then got quite badly burnt.

Burning Money On Poor Social Media

Many have spent a lot of money on building FaceBook pages, twitter profiles and so and got marginal returns on from these mobile / social strategies. And if there is one thing that marketers want to see is a return on the investment, or else they wind up in the dog box.

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Introducing The BuzzVine Network. Try and Tell for Word of Mouth Marketing.

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Most marketers’ job is to control the communication, influence customers and drive sales. Well, at least it used to be. And unless you have had your head under a rock for the last 7 odd years you will know that marketing has changed.

I know; it is starting to sound like an old drumbeat that is getting quite tired. Truthfully though, many marketers are adapting to this process and getting the importance of word of mouth marketing. Of course that is if you can call it a process.

One of the big changes is that you cannot control what your customer thinks about you. For many marketers this idea really is quite a scary thought and raises questions like:

  • How do we quickly boost sales?
  • What and how do I tell the board / my boss / exco that things have changed?
  • If I tell them, how do I get evaluated for my year-end bonus?
  • If this medium is no longer as effective, what do I use?
  • Surely this social stuff is the same as TV. It should work, shouldn’t it?
  • How do I know that I am getting a return on my money?
  • How do I make sure some dumb customer will not screw up my message?
  • How do I develop a word of mouth marketing strategy?

Getting Into the BuzzVine

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Brand Archetypes: Cosmic Lala or Serious Stuff?

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Your logo can elicit specific behaviours through the use of archetypal symbols that ALL human beings intuitively recognise and understand. These symbols form part of the “collective unconscious” – an enormous untapped resource and a definitive element of human motivation.

Get this right and you are able to direct human perception and behaviour in non-linear, extra-ordinary ways. This is the premise of brand archetypes and the use of symbols in your branding process.

Some Fact, Some Fiction

To explore the validility of brand archetypes lets look at some brands and do away with the whole cosmic lala thing.

It may not have been deliberate but MacDonald’s and Apple both possess brand symbols that project powerfully emotive archetypal meanings which influence the unfathomable depths of the human mind. [Read more...]

The Five Different Types of Word of Mouth Marketing and How to leverage Them

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In my last word of mouth post I look at the five different reasons why we talk about brands. And there is a good reason why we all get very excited about word of mouth when you look at the numbers:

  • Up to 80% of your customers will see Word of Mouth as the most credible form of marketing.
  • Word of Mouth has the most effective cost per conversion.
  • Any customer who arrives via the word of mouth channel is more likely to buy than any other.

But Don’t get To Excited About Word of Mouth Just Yet …

As not all word of mouth is equal.

These figures and points above are a generalization, and there is no doubt of their value, but we must keep word of mouth in context.

To do this we must explore the five different sources of word of mouth: [Read more...]

Why You Are Only Getting 1,5 % On Your Advertising – And How To Fix It

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Ouch! As a marketer I am sure this figure does sit well with you. Truth be told it is really hard to quantify what our advertising ROI is. It is a hard figure to measure and I am sure most marketers are not sure what their marketing return is.

There is the old saying that 50% of advertising work? We seem to be happy to go with this and every day we see marketers dedicating their budgets to the advertising gods.

So What’s The Real Cost Of Advertising?

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Dare To Be Different, Create A Customer Experience

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Those that are different stand out, attract attention and if the customer experience is authentic - trust.

This is what creates brand leaders. Yet many fail to get this right and the reason is a very simple:

  • It is our nature to copy things. It’s what makes us human. As business leaders and marketing experts we look at what has worked for others and believe it will work for us and we get the same results. Sadly this is the downhill fight for mediocrity. Each customer experience has to be totally unique and different.
  • We are educated to do the same thing, to follow best practice and what is main stream. We go to school, wear the same uniform and conform. We go to university and strive to pass cum laude with other peoples thoughts. This is an argument for obeying the rules and doing the tried and tested. Each customer experience has to be totally unique and different.

It’s sad but we are taught to comply rather than dare.

Living In A World Of Technical Marketers

Your customer is not asking you for what they can get from someone else or for conformity. They are looking for something different, a customer experience that blows their socks off – all you need to do is dare.

This is why most marketers are no longer marketers. They lost the dream a long time ago and become highly adept marketing technicians. They have assimilated and perfected the traditional marketing models as their own.

They have become adept at buying media space, creating TV commercials, and worrying about the bleed on the front page of the magazine commercial.

It’s Not Too Late To Dare To Be Different

It is the marketers who have dared that are great today. They are the rebels of our society and have created brands that are – well – mind-blowing to say the least. The customer experience really rocks. And to get this right they did one of two things really well:

  • Created mind blowing service
  • Created mind blowing products
  • (or both)

And then they created RaveTopia  - a community which they are a member of. These are brands like:

There’s nothing like them in the world. They stand apart. They dared to be different do something that wasn’t taught in business school. Our challenge to you is to create a brand that stands alone because it dared to be different. It fought to overcome mediocrity. To be part a community where your customers are your source of inspiration.

A Call To Action – Create RaveTopia

You just need to focus on three things

  • Focus on your customer ask yourself two questions;
    • how can I do this differently,
    • and why should I do it different (We said dare to be different – not be stupid)
  • Do things for your community that are relevant and positive
  • Focus on the power of the Butterfly Effect – like changing how you spend your marketing budget.

Go and create a mindblowing customer experience

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