Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

Edelman has posted their annual report on public trust, the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer. As a marketer, I rely on it as an important benchmark that captures the specifics of undercurrents we mostly ‘feel’ during any given year.

As such, it’s a great tool to use to understand where, how many times, and what kind of information people long for, in order to trust a brand or organization.

From the executive summary:

“The data portray a savvy consumer who turns first to search engines to see what is available on the topic of interest, and who then seeks out traditional media to confirm or expand on what he or she has learned. Information ubiquity has changed the playbook for corporate communications, the data suggest, signaling to companies that they cannot simply be present with their messages, but rather must be omnipresent through an approach that encompasses mainstream, new, social, and owned media.”

In other words, brands need to be at the top of the search page; in the news (online is good); and elsewhere in social media. And frankly, people don’t need to be bombarded, even a few of authentic touches can engender trust.

There are more fantastic infographics, video presentations, etc. on the Edelman Trust Barometer page.

Mine it for your own organization’s nuggets. The information is, indeed, gold.

“Checking in” on Friday was good for me. I was one of the 10,000 folks who got a free pair of jeans at the Gap. No strings attached. I was just in the right place, at the right time, with the right tool - Facebook Places on my phone - to do so.

The resulting comments on my Facebook profile are typical of the sentiment around the promotion - that it was confusing, and that it was a counterpoint (nice or sarcastic, you choose) to the recent Gap logo debacle, fresh in consumers’ minds. (Regardless, it stirred up plenty of press - more than 1200 people have covered it in the past three days.)

What is the deal?

Checking in to stores and restaurants is probably a new phenomenon for most people. But it’s easy as finding the place you’re in, and clicking a button on your phone. Once you’ve checked in, you can see who else is there, leave tips for others, or simply share the fact that you’re out and about with your family and friends.

To do so, you either download a little application to your phone - like Foursquare or Gowalla - or you play around with Facebook’s new Places feature. Facebook’s Places was launched in mid-August, and will probably cause location-based programs (which is what these are called) to be adopted more quickly, by virtue of Facebook’s sheer scale, and in their ability to forge partnerships with marketers like the Gap.

Location-based social media programs are only being used by about 4% of all online users today, according to recent research from the Pew Research Center. But just because we’re in a minority today, don’t think our numbers won’t grow exponentially. The 4% who are playing around with location-based programs is about as the same percentage of folks were blogging six years ago. And early adopters of social media tend to be highly vocal and have lots of online connections.

What is the deal for brands?

Just like in the rest of the social media landscape, brands need to know people are broadcasting about them when they’re “in the moment” with the brand. This can be good or bad for consumers - sometimes you can win goods (thanks, Gap!), sometimes you can unlock coupons (Starbucks has been very actively offering special “coupon deals” for check ins for months), and sometimes you can find excellent information in tips left by others.

Like the guy who said to sit on the right side of the plane as you fly out of Reagan airport - or the left side as you fly in for the best view. I’m still grateful for his advice!

The History Channel has created a ton of tips for Foursquare users around the country, which always add to my check in experience. Thank you.

The brands who are actively participating today are doing so with a highly engaged and vocal audience.

Because when we “win/unlock/share tips” the applications themselves can help us communicate our observations to our Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIN communities without lifting another finger to do so.

I’m going to repeat that.

The applications can amplify our observations to (potentially) all of our social connections without lifting another finger. That’s word of mouth.

The sad thing is, most businesses have no clue that we’re doing so.

The brand problem is the brand opportunity

I had lunch on Friday at a chain restaurant (there are nine locations on the west coast) that is heavily used by business people. Because I had a little extra time to check out the tips that other Foursquare users had left, I took the time to do so. I was stunned at what I read:

Whoa. Did you see that? “The pork chops tastes like the grill has a propane leak.”

Imagine this kind of information about your brand hanging out there for anyone to see - for months. My bet is, the manager of this particular restaurant might like to know what a small, but vocal percentage of people is thinking - and passing along - about his / her establishment.

If you have a local business that people are frequenting: whether it be a restaurant, a bar, a dental practice, even a gate at an airport… you should know what your customers are saying about you when they’re “checking in.” You might be surprised. Positively, or negatively. And frankly, you need to know which it’s going to be so you can respond appropriately.

Now. Before adoption really blossoms.

When I was at Marqui, we transformed a technology-centric brand to a prospect-centric brand quite successfully. I inherited a technical software company look in Maestro CMS, a regional Canadian software company looking to reinvent itself.

The goal of the new executive team was to create the “salesforce.com” for marketers in Marqui. Our product would help marketers manage their web site, launch their own email campaigns; anything it took to help marketers communicate online with customers and prospects and measure the results.

We needed a different degree of brand engagement with our prospects as we broke into the United States. We were in an incredibly fractious market, and needed to quickly stand out from the rest of the software companies fighting for marketers’ attention. But first, we needed to figure out who we were, given our daunting objectives and the new team in place.

Marqui, Meet Your Brand Promise

First we went through a series of exercises to profile ourselves as an organization, and our promise to the world. Some interesting findings emerged. Our newly formed executive team’s attributes were largely dominated by the following:

• Independent-minded
• Self-sufficient
• Adventurous
• Restless
• Ambitious
• Curious
• Take a stand

These “Explorer” tendencies resolved into the following brand and (product or company) attributes:

• To help people feel free (Marqui freed marketers from relying on others)
• Marqui was rugged and sturdy (Had all the features marketers needed)
• To help people express their individuality (Marqui helped enforce a company’s brand, which is their individuality)
• Can be purchased for ‘on the go’ (Software as a Service – could access Marqui from anywhere)
• Wants to differentiate from a successful ‘regular guy’ brand (Our vision - develop a Center for Marketing Excellence to support that “salesforce.com for marketers” vision - which became the raison d’etre of our blog)
• Our explorer culture created a new and exciting product or experience (our company was distributed in three states; as such, it was important that our virtual teams worked well in creating the vision)

Examples of other “Explorer” brands are Starbucks, Virgin Airlines, Levis, and Patagonia. We felt we were in good company - that there was a good fit between our brand attributes, our vision and our team.

Marqui, Meet Rachel

Step two was to profile our prospect for the entire organization to understand. From a sales, marketing, engineering and support perspective, it was imperative to have a deep understanding of Rachel.

According to the AMA in 2004, Rachel:

• Was 42 years old
• Was a marketing communications director leading outbound marketing efforts for a mid-size organization
• Made approximately $80K
• Worked 50+ hours a week
• Was likely divorced, with no children
• Led a team of 4-6 marketing specialists

She enjoyed running a marketing organization, but was coming under increasing pressure. Rachel had lost her control of her marketing domain as it moved increasingly online. Dependent on her IT team (if she was lucky enough to have one) or outside resources, she longed for the simpler days when she felt the freedom of control of her own destiny.

Marqui, Meet your New Heart, Soul and Face to the World:

Marqui’s brand promise - quite literally - was to restore Rachel’s ability (that freedom and control) to manage her own domain. Once we had a good understanding of Rachel’s persona and her challenges, our brand needed to support our promise. We looked back to a simple time - the 50’s and early 60’s - when technology held the promise to simplify our lives.

First we came up with “Jack” - the delightfully simple logo that elegantly payed off the Marqui name. Jack was certainly capable of leading people to new places, in a friendly, safe manner, illuminating the way. He fit our explorer brand. Armed with Jack and our explorer brand attributes, Rachel’s needs for freedom and (at the same time) control, we were able to be very specific in guiding our creative agency in giving Marqui a heart, soul and face to the world.

Here are some of the files associated with the updated Marqui brand:

The 50’s road trip theme was complete with stamps (for our paper communications with prospects), postcards for direct marketing and brand awareness, and the tiny touches that made our brand completely engaging. We created little artifacts to play with our brand - we had a dog, “Buster;” a vintage airplane (which later found its place in Aviation Gin); and “Jimmy,” complete with his Ray Gun - to use in illustrating our brand’s promise, the ease of our products and the company itself.

Our prospects adored the brand. At trade shows, on the speaking tour and online, we were constantly complimented for our vibrant, fun, engaging brand. “You don’t look like other software companies…” The brand itself pulled people in.

This is probably the brand work that’s made me the most proud in my career in marketing. We had a ton of fun with the process, and - although it feels today as if the brand manifested itself exactly as it was meant to be - we did go through a deliberate internal reflection and a creative process that illuminated our final choices.

The brand lived on until the company, after two years of trying to hit the US market, retrenched in 2006 and remains a regional software company today.

Over on ZDNet, there’s a new story about the Nine Worst Social Media Fails of 2009… so far. Illustrating everything from companies trying to capitalize on current events (sorry FOX television) to trying to make a “viral” video (that’s just wrong, Quizno’s), the brand damage from each campaign is likely fairly short-lived. But the lessons are lasting.

Author Jennifer Leggio opined:

What is to be learned here? Well, don’t lead with tools. Don’t think that your brand is above the risks and backlash of social media. When plotting a social media campaign, truly think about what you want your end result to be, and fully examine everything that could possibly go wrong. Word-of-mouth marketing is a fantastic thing when you know how to leverage it. But if you lose control of your brand, the disasters are almost endless. Let these brands’ failures be a lesson.

I agree that you never, ever, ever lead with tools. Nor should you ever think your brand above risks in social media. I don’t agree with the “lose control” statement, only because if you’re “plotting a social media campaign” you must engage in your brand’s authentic manner. Any marketer letting an agency (or internal resources) stray away from the brand’s values and promise (I suppose the “lose control” statement applies here) is just begging for trouble, as illustrated by Quizno’s.

The bottom line is this: social media is a channel that requires more diligence than most, simply because of the reach. If you screw up, you can’t hide. So keep that in mind as you’re looking to get into social media.

No one loves the power of word of mouth more than I. But it can absolutely leave a bad taste if poorly contrived or executed.

As I mentioned in my last post, so called ’social media experts’ are crawling out of the woodwork. I have certainly noticed a proliferation of individuals and agencies who’ve positioned themselves as such, and have met with many ’social media experts’ in the course of doing business.

I have also supported many agencies in developing social media skills internally and delivering social media expertise to their clients.

With thousands swarming to social media, how do you tell who’s really a ’social media expert’ from one who’s not?

In BusinessWeek’s Debunking Six Social Media Myths, author B.L. Ochman reviewed Robert Scoble’s (a real social media pioneer and very very nice guy) Twitter followers using Tweepsearch and found:

• 4,273 Internet marketers
• 1,652 social media marketers
• 513 social media consultants
• 272 social media strategists
• 180 social media experts
• 8 social media gurus
• 58 Internet marketing gurus

Ochman asked: “How many of them have actually created a successful campaign for clients using social media tools? I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find half a dozen with real track records.”

I’ll bet you would fine a few more than half a dozen… but believe me when I tell you:

Comparatively few of us have had real social media experience - the kind that thickens your skin, gives you real-world perspective and toughens your resolve….

As you’re contemplating getting help in the social media realm, ask your ’social media expert’ for proof of their social media expertise.

Here are a few questions I’d throw out there:

1. Tell me about your experience when something went wrong for you or a client in the social media realm
2. What did you do about it?
3. What did you learn from it?
4. How have you seen social media marketing change over the past few years?
5. What is your methodology for social media readiness?

As you look at social media options, look hard at your internal and external resources. And do not trust an expert who can’t back up their claim with real-world experience. We’re too early in this game, and there are too many mistakes yet to be made.

Most brands still need real sherpas to help us all up the social media climb.