A Modern-Day Brand Survival Guide

Today’s consumers lead very dimensional,  multi-channel lives.  The increasingly “always on” culture presents brands with previously unconsidered opportunities to reach prime audiences through  branded information made available at opportune times.  We’re talking “shifts in consumer information discovery, consumption and sharing,” more of which I can self-select, seek, or share nowadays.

Critical success factors in leveraging these opportunities include timing, format, message, tone, convenience and value.  Example:

• Timing ~ Did I find/get the information in advance, just-in-time, or after I needed it?
• Format ~ Was the information easily digestible and available in multiple formats? (SMS, email, direct mail, RSS, video, website, Facebook page update)
• User-centric ~ Was I (use cases) considered?  It’s one thing to be available, another to be useful.
• Message ~ Was it clear, easy to understand, and easily identifiable as a relevant interest to me?
• Tone ~ Did it sound real, purposeful not canned?  (conversational, uplifting, informative)
• Convenience ~ Was it easy to discover, experience, redeem, or try?  Did rigid stipulations block my way?
• Value ~ Was it worth my time?  Did the brand intuit my needs? Moreover, is it “share-worthy” in this Friendship Economy?

Each of these attributes play a role in building my overall brand perception (an aggregation of brand identity points, tallied in this consumer’s mind) which may lead to brand acceptance (heightened from awareness) if found consistently favorable.  Said another way:

Sow it and show it:  A brand has to lay down the groundwork for nurturing a consumer following.  Then it has to genuinely demonstrate a concerted effort to move toward a mutually satisfying relationship.  Posers will be noted and go unrewarded.

And again, this time with feeling:

1. The “old” ways of marketing no longer work.  You know it, I know it.  Now go sell up a radical cultural change, willya?  The same ‘ol, same ol will net an instant turn off, tune out, or delete. This is Not a desirable kind of Twitter shout-out.
2. Brands can’t just superficially claim plugged-in status in terms of format.  A toe dip in one outpost or medium is fine–do it honestly and with self-deprecating humor.  We’re all figuring things out here. But to shallowly claim a handle or a space and then let it languish (or project one-sided sales junk), well that’s just all-kinds-of-wrong layered on top of a poor experience.

There’s a little emotion wrapped up in this post, I’ll admit.  But I believe brand acceptance–which should be part of a conversion funnel–can’t happen without a positive emotional reaction(s).  No emotion, no connection.  I forget or minimalize things that don’t click (my “clearinghouse” theory).

But there’s good news!  Assuming rational product/service benefits are evident along with relevance factors, a brand has a real chance to break through.  Can you name a brand that’s succeeding?

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