Branding- Without Cows..

“Branding- without cows- sorry beef lovers”

As times change, so must the way we approach marketing schemes in today’s competitive world of business. The article published by the Harvard Business Review, The One Thing You Must Get Right When Building a Brand, sets presidents regarding the fundamental of social media and how this ever-changing aspect can lead a company to a greater well-being. The article touches on many interesting new ideas regarding the new wave of interaction, motivation, and persuasion found in modern day customer –to – client networking. Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan, the authors, lay great magnitude in the basic “treat your customer right” fundamentals of networking.

            Knowing what the customer wants, how the customer wants it, and when and where the customer wants it is a task that market researchers have spent many hours trying to achieve. To a company, this kind of information is worth millions, sometimes billions of dollars. Getting the customer involved and making him or her feel as though they are part of a consumer family is a key factor in this accomplishment. The article sites such companies as American Express, Procter and Gamble, and Cisco as using customer involvement. These companies all set up message devoted websites in order to interact with their target audience base; this kind of interaction, according to the article, “Boost brand awareness, trial, and ultimately sales.” I have personally been involved with trying to accomplish exclusivity in order to build brand awareness. In a few of my previous jobs, I have been involved with helping to come up with new, technology driven idea using social sites such as twitter and face book.

            Building a brand is no simple task. Today’s cyber connected world makes it is easy to get your name out, but also makes it incredibly difficult to keep it pure. Also, Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan  have found, through research, that there are four basic qualities that build a company’s brand, “They offer and communicate a clear, relevant customer promise”, “They build trust by delivering on that promise”, “They drive the market by continually improving the promise”, and “They seek further advantage by innovation beyond the familiar” .

            The customer promise is such an important part of brand building and awareness. With a track record of corrupt or unfilled promises, a company may as well, in some cases, stop trying. Companies such as Virgin Atlantic Airways not only try their hardest to keep their customer promises, but they continually monitor social networking sites to make sure customers feel as though the airlines efforts are meaningful.

      Adventuring beyond the familiar can be scary at first, but usually pays off in the end. Virgin Atlantic Airlines offers their customers something more than just a flight, they offer them an experience. VAA has set up a website that gives their customers that ability to make personal scrapbooks and receive none promotional advice about certain trips and adventures. Even though they don’t make a lot of money upfront from some of their endeavors, benefits come from brand reinforcement.

Many advantages can come from the newly intertwined and connected world. Companies should use these tools to benefit their objectives but they must also remember that the tools they take advantage of can also destroy them. According to the article, in order for companies to truly take advantage of all things the newly founded network system has to offer, organizations must keep their eye on the ball, don’t throw out their playbooks, use social media primarily for insight, strive to go viral, but protect the band, and engage, but follow the social rules . Together, with the right tools and attitudes, the new way to market and brand will cannonbolt many companies that never had a chance into a bright future.