Advertising and marketing are
changing and more than ever, and it's the customers who are pulling the
strings. The Internet has given customers ever-increasing powers to research,
compare, and review brands, enabling both good and bad customer experiences to
be broadcast to the world. This is proving challenging for many companies,
who've always exercised so much control over their brand messages.
But many brands are harnessing
the power of the Internet and "social proof" by optimizing
user-generated content (UGC). These are the brands that understand the power of
co-creating their brand together with consumers and tapping into the creativity
of their biggest fans. For most companies,
this also means encouraging—and actively participating in—reviews of their
products/services and conversations around them, either on their own, or on
third party websites.
Brand communication has evolved
from one-to-many and one-to-one-to-many - what’s been dubbed a ‘trialogue’, with
consumers accessing and sharing brand information, using a multitude of online
platforms to engage brands and each other in community forums
What’s more, consumption is no
longer limited to simply purchasing a product or service, but has become a way to
interrogate and comment about the purchase itself. Society is more outspoken
about how brands can add value to them, and as a result, many companies are
opening themselves up to collaborating and co-creating solutions with their
consumers in order to deliver a better value.
We are all familiar with the term
‘collaboration’. Simply put, it’s about working together, especially in a joint
intellectual effort. And ‘co-creation’? Doing the above in creative manner –
what is also known as ‘collaborative creation’. It therefore demands we open
ourselves up to new ideas, accept new norms, embrace new ways of seeing the
world and, sometimes quite courageously, take comfort in the road less
traveled.
Consumers want to feel part of
something bigger, and brands give them a way to do that. Powerful global brands
can enable young consumers in frontier markets to feel plugged-in to a
world-class experience. Companies can
reinforce that perception by connecting communities of consumers across new and
existing markets. Mingling with existing fans can initiate new consumers into
the folklore of the brand and provide added social reinforcement for them to
become enthusiasts and evangelists themselves, among the communities where
their voices are most credible. Luxury brands are especially good at creating
these kinds of communities through messages of exclusivity. In the era of global Wikibranding, those
strategies are available to a much wider range of businesses with a broader set
of target customers.
Megabrands and smaller companies
alike are harnessing the power of user-generated content by mobilizing their
audiences in social sharing, both on- and off-line. Instead of looking at
online review sites and other social sharing tools as enemies of your business,
why not find ways to engage customers in creating your marketing content for
you. For this, based in Delhi with branches in Bangalore and Mumbai, Flags
Communications can let you march ahead through its innovative ideas!
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