Branding | Customers | Contests | Fame | Web 2.0 | Brand

Can Consumers Sell Brands to Themselves?

There is no harm intended and no harm foreseen.Involving consumers can only create more excitement for the brand and give all the opportunity to imbue the brand with their own ideas and likes.To get into the head and hearts of consumers,brand owners spend billions of dollars annually on consumer research and product tests.Who better to lead you into his heart and wallet than the consumer himself,who can temporarily assume the position of orchestra conductor with all the attention and plaudits that go with it.
Brands really need to listen to consumers and have more than a feel of what they desire.Giving them the chance to also use their creative talents to unravel what they want and how they want it,equally shows that brands are recognising the fact that consumers are not brainless manipulable gluttons who just seat there and consume whatever is thrown at them,no matter how its packaged or presented.It is a recognition that brands must seek ways to unobstrusively know

Ray Atelly, MD/CEO, PatcosGino - October 1, 2007

Since consumer freely participate, contests cannot "exploit" consumers. Of course, it's important brands be honest and clear--burying the rights the consumer gives up in the 20th paragraph of a legal release is a poor practice.

The bigger issue is whether consumer-generated media (CGM) contests make sense for the brands. Sure, it's great to involve consumers so deeply within the brand, but consumers seem prone to creating things they find funny (or purposefully challenging or offensive) rather than communications that are "on brand." What consumers cannot create is media targeted and tested to advance your brand to a specific target audience.

So, I believe contests have value provided the guardrails are set and the brand is willing to accept the risk of letting anyone create and post media associated their their brand.

The only doubt I have is if the CGM trend is endless. Might consumers get tired of this tactic eventually? The onus will be on marketers to keep it fresh.

August Ray, Managing Director - Experiential Marketing, Fullhouse - October 1, 2007

Many consumers feel disenfrachised by the companies that produce products they buy, including medications (beware of the big bad pharmaceutical companies), pet food that kills their pets, contaminated toothpaste and toys that contain lead paint (even Thomas the Train). In reality, many companies have a credibility crisis.

Allowing consumers to participate in branding enables them to be part of the decision making process, which gives them a sense of ownership and power. It is the best way for companies to regain credibility in the consumers' minds and will result in many of the consumers becoming loyal clients. And that's the bottom line of branding - engaging consumers so they become loyal clients.

Frank Settineri, President, Veracorp LLC - October 2, 2007

Absolutely Fantastic...and thats what I would call as "Marketing - by the customer, for the customer, of the customer."

Companies like Nestle have taken marketing activity to next level, from marketing to the customers, TO marketing by the customers. Such a marketing is most effective in terms of results (sales and brand awareness), and least expensive (in monetary terms). Involving customers in brand marketing, helps in high brand recall, increasing mind share, and huge amount of customer loyalty, simply because customer feels that he/she is a part of brand. This sense of ownership, itself, defines brand success. Its like what most marketing gurus call as "Creating Buzz Around the Brand".

However, this sort of involvement of the customers might not be possible in every type of industry. For example. pharmaceutical industry might not be able to reap full benefit of such customer involvement, since customers (physicinas) are a different set than consumers (patients).

Mohit Bahri, Sr. Consultant, PharmARC Analytic Solutions - October 3, 2007

Marketers have finally triumphed the classical yearning of sex and money to tap into the powerful desire of lasting legacy and success.

Levon Guiragossian, Director, Place Marketing Group - October 10, 2007

I think one important thing for companies to remember in order to make such efforts valuable is that by handing over their brand to a consumer, they (the company) also has to accept that the consumer might poke fun at said brand. Just as you would with a friend, allowing a little friendly ribbing can reflect very well on a brand by showing that it has a sense of humor about itself.

Abe Sauer - October 11, 2007

This debate reminds me of the book "Brand hijack" by Alex Wipperfurth. He promotes the idea of core consumers taking up the marketing direction of the brand as the next big leap in marketing.Point is, if you can create much consumer interest in your brand through this route, then its worth it!

Meera Iyer - October 12, 2007

These activities are best viewed as market research activities. What better way to learn what is on the minds of your best brand advocates? This is a great way to understand the mind of the consumer and understand how consumers view your brand ...and how they subsequently express their feelings and attitudes toward the brand.

The Guy, TheMarketingGuyWhoDrivesSales.com - October 15, 2007

This is a good way of branding. New age branding requires the customers to be in control of communication. The best example is the Chevy Tahoe web 2 commercial launched by GM last year. Here the viewers were given to create a TV commercial in web where some clips of a movie along with the sound were embedded.Now the user has to drag some of the clips and music and can put copy on it. This helped GM to engage the audience by giving them the power to control and be a part of an exercise which builds a brand. Usually some people believe that advertising is creating too much noise and to break the clutter is a challenging task. But to involve the target audience in a brand building exercise will have advantage as in this case customers feel empowered.
But I dont think that this type of brand building exercises increases the loyalty factor. It increases the brand awareness as well as creates word of mouth publicity.

Pratap Kumar Pattanayak(pratapk21@gmail.com), Asst Manager-Brands, Eastman Global - October 15, 2007

The truth of the matter is cosumers love to be involved, the reason for this is simple...consumers love their brands and want to be associated with them! What better way to market your product than from the mouth of the person using it and loving every minute of it! Get your consumer involved!! Word of mouth and the viral effects this kind of marketing brings is often overlooked by strategists.

Gina McMorran, Mobiclicks South Africa ~ your mobile web agency - October 19, 2007

Agree with the Guy from TheMarketingGuyWhoDrivesSales.com

be3delnick, Survey supervisor, MA "MoreInfo" - October 19, 2007

Brand which have best utility values for its consumers have always been vouched by the consumers. It has given the marketers the power of publicity which is more influential than advertizing as it brings in the element of trust. But involving consumers in the organized way of brand communication is no gaurantee for a successfull branding campaign. Infusing trust in the product or service is the key to a successfull brand communication. All the marketers adapting to this type of communication will lead to a depleted level of trust. It would become indifferent as the consumers will be willing to vouch for any brand for short term gains. Thus the campaing will fail to register in the minds of target audience. Marketers will have to be unique in their communications every time to make sure a better brand recall.

Asad Humayoon, Brand Manager, Khimji Ramdas - Muscat Oman - October 21, 2007

You tell me why you think consumers can't sell brands to themselves!? If given the job , a professional will conduct market surveys anyway seeking consumers view. Consumers views are always relevant in the sales process, and this makes the product more 'personal' and draws consumers attention to those particular brands.

Nii Kpakpo Sylvester, PR/Mkt. Consultant, C cubed (Consumer Centered Communication) - October 21, 2007

Brands are all in the minds of consumers, they are not born products but occupy the position to become what they represent to the market. Consumers have to bear lot of content from the marketer and the more thy are exposed, the more they tend to move away. The better way to bring them closer to a brand is by involving them to the greatest extent. And it is been done in various formats. In India Kurkure a snack by Pepsi foods has done a very similar act. The only worry is, how long will a cluster stick to these concepts?

Mathew Thankachan - October 22, 2007

It is my view that old age innovation in labs, brainstorm sessions in large firms and ad agencies are dying....why?

Because AD agencies get used to speaking in one direction and tend to see everything as a nail were they have the hammer.

(This was all too evident when i attended a creativity festival in Italy were kids turned out to be the most creative audience.)

A consumer on the other hand looks at every new situation in a blog or reality tv contest as ...fun, exciting and unbiased unharnessed creativity...

To revive creative thinking, the metrics for its creation should be unleashed to anyone. Consumer or marketer or brand...

andrew ekpenyong, student, University of birmingham - October 22, 2007

As per the topic, What do we actually mean by making the customer sell the brand? It is the same old stuff again. WE are trying to make sure that we can attract the highest share of attention from the consumer. In all the clutter that now surrounds the consumer asking him/her to buy something, such a campaign is more towards enabling him/her tell the company what would make him/her buy?
After all the novelty of such a campaign dires off, the question remains whether any longterm benefits accrue from such activities?

Dr. JAved. Sipai, Asst. Manager (Marketing), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals - October 24, 2007

the entire decision is based on two parameter; one the stage of the prodcut life cycle the product is in and the other how well is the product emotionally connected to the target audience to get them talk for, stand for and refer it to peers, etc and not otherwise ..... if in the growth and maturity ofcourse the idea may work if strategicaaly thought through and if in the introduction stage then need to make a emotional bond and then try connect the same by this startegy
Overall, yes it works but needs to have a twist as it is now becoming a heard mentality

Gautam Parekh, Senior Manager - Business Development, 360 Degrees, TIML, Times of India Group - October 24, 2007

Consumers can absolutely sell brands to themselves and do. The way people use brands today has changed. People are now looking to brands to self-identify. The brands they advocate say something about who they are as individuals, giving them a sense of belonging, or culture. Brands that have a strong culture attract both employees and customers that share the common values that culture embodies. These people then become brand evangelists not because they are actively seeking to promote a brand, but because they want to say something about themselves and share experiences with like-minded individuals.

Mike Mirkil, Director of Business Development, ID Branding - October 24, 2007

Consumers own the brand. Without the consumer lies a flat, lifeless, uninspiring brand without a market. It is genious to invite the consumer to feedback their experience and their joy with the product. This uber-engagement just continues to build the consumer/product relationship by asking them to commit, not just money, but their precious time and ideas as well.

Michelle Tucker, Marketing and Communications Manager, AIC - October 24, 2007

This is not cutting corners and it is not brilliant. Can consumers sell brands to themselves? YES, by participating in the contest. How old is contest selling?Presenting customers with an opportunity to participate in whatever, sells. If Ford wants to sell more cars to women, have a nail polish contest where women send pictures of their hands for the car company to pick paint colors for the 2009 range. The winner(s) gets their hand photo as swatches for print campaigns, whatever. It will not stray too far from colors Ford all ready has planned anyway, right?

CHris Hill, CD, consultant to the lion - October 27, 2007

No, No, No, No, NO!!

Every consumer out there belongs to their own segment, with their own beliefs and ideals. All these competitions are doing is encouraging one set of consumer to create an interaction suitable to only ONE set of people.

The reason marketers study and work so hard is because they try to understand and work hard to access all markets and target the most effective segment correctly.

This would work great as a promotion campaign for a product when it launches, however is a very very very silly move to base your brand on one persons view.

Mohammed Ali, Brand Assistant - October 29, 2007

Well, can be done. Its a good way to get some innovative ideas. Not to mention that the entire concept creates a buzz and they effects of this buzz stay for a while even after the ad is released.
But it has to be tweked in such a manner that it does not go hap-hazzard.
Overall, it leads to 1) brand awarness at lttle cost, 2) innovative ideas, 3) brand being spoken about even before launch, 4) low cost, 5) understanding consumer mindset, 6) and gives the consmer a sence of ownership.

Ekta Misra, Media, Group M - October 30, 2007

I am a bit surprised this is even a debate. The idea of getting people to make their own films, write scripts, lyric songs, design posters, packaging, store displays for a brand with the promise that "if they are best their's will be made into the real thing" is as old as .. well at least my 21 years in the business. People have alsways loved to "share" their ideas of how "their" brands should be presented. You could argue it's about saving costs. You could argue it's about lack of creativity at the marketer or their agency or both. You would be wrong. name a successful brand i will bet thre are dozens of unprompted tributes to the brand appearing at their offices every year any way. For all our talk in this decade of the "consumer now owns the brand" ( a greater piece of marketing nonsense than any ever presented for a particular brand ) people have always either been excited by a brand and in some cases ecited enough to put pen to paper or to switch on the video player.

Dave McCaughan, Director of Strategic Planning, McCann WorldGroup Asia-Pacific - October 31, 2007

No Matter how old this concept maybey... if it still clicks then I see no harm.

Ekta Misra, Media Planner, Group M - October 31, 2007

The two worst reasons to do this sort of thing are as a form of market research; and to save money by getting consumers to make your ads for free.

If you want to do market research, get a proper researcher; if you want to save money, get your agency to work harder and not write scripts that open on a beach in the Bahamas.

You also do not do this to get consumers emotionally involved with your brand: it can work only if they are already. Are you likely to respond to something like this for an unheard-of make of toilet paper, for example? Not unless there is a very big prize, in which case it is the prize and not the brand that is the pull.

Not only is this sort of thing as old as Dave's 21 years in the business and more, it is just another promo, with a limited, short-term objective, albeit with an element of bonding: not to be mistaken for strategic brand communication.

Chintamani Rao, CEO, India TV - October 31, 2007

I would like to echo Dave McCaughan's comment: Why is this a debate? This is old news.

Michele Champagne, Designer, Interbrand - October 31, 2007

The only logical reason to use this would be for free market research or as an engagement model. I don't see a customer thinking like a planner, analyzing the TG and key messages. However, it's a great idea for some good viral marketing. People have started to love the idea of seeing their name pop-up on sites and when they google it. This is a great opportunity for them to do it.

Mayank Bidawatka, Head-Marketing, www.redBus.in - November 1, 2007

The idea of having consumers create marketing content is not new, but the mechanisms to submit and proliferate these ideas have been revolutionized in recent years. Many old marketing ideas are finding new life and new perspective in the widespread adoption of new community-based technology. That said, I agree with the contention that consumers have always owned the brand and sold (or un-sold) things to themselves and each other at the individual word-of-mouth level at least as effectively as brand marketers do at the mass level. The new emphasis is on engaging brand loyal consumers to do this work more efficiently and widely, while still somehow retaining that level of unsolicited credibility - a balancing act no less tricky for marketers than creating any good brand campaign.

Josh Kelly, Principal, FINE Design Group - November 2, 2007

back to debate

RSS

| Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | FAQ