This article from MediaPost based on a survey by Razorfish is just the latest example of ‘old’ (read pre-Web 2.0) wisdom resurfacing. The gist of the story is this; more than conversation, what seems to be driving interactions between brands and people in social media is discounts and deals.
Is anyone surprised? Really?
To quote the article: “What we’re finding is that with Facebook and Twitter, marketers are assuming some deeper dialogue, but what’s really going on is — people want deals.”
Marketing 101
Not to belittle the findings – sometimes the most useful insights are the ones that should’ve seemed obvious in hindsight – but a basic precept of Marketing 101 is to always, ALWAYS answer the customer question ‘What’s in it for me?’ Where businesses are tempted to talk about their features and benefits, good marketing people will retort that any discussion of product benefits must be expressed in terms of customer benefits based on their needs.
Let’s not forget, just because a brand is using social media does not mean they’re not still marketing. And there are some basic marketing premises that aren’t going to change, regardless of the medium one is marketing through.
As if to substantiate this epiphany that people are interested in deals from brands, not conversations, is the Dell Outlet story. Said case study, often held up as proof positive this social media stuff is a money-maker, did indeed result in revenue it just didn’t use conversation to do so. It used, you guessed it, offers and deals.
(Brand) History 101
As my friend Alan Wolk has said and written at some length about: Your brand is not my friend. People associate with brands, sure. We have since brands were invented. But its important to remember what exactly the role of a brand is.
Historically the emergence of brands came at around the same time that the local storekeeper’s role as purchase advisor began to wane. Until that time, you’d ask the store owner to recommend a hair tonic and he’d reach up, grab one, and explain to you why you wanted to buy that one.
With the industrial revolution product distribution expanded. Suddenly Acme Hair Tonic wasn’t just a regional elixir, it could be found in stores coast to coast. However, Joe Acme, the inventor and chief salesman, couldn’t go to every store and convince every store owner why he should stock and recommend Acme Hair Tonic. In its place, we invented advertising and brands.
The job of advertising and brands from the manufacturer’s standpoint is to sell product. From the customers standpoint, however, it is to simplify decisions. Brands are a promise and if I like the promise of a brand, I buy it. Good brands make purchasing something a simple decision. (Conversely, in absence of good brands price tends to drive decisions). In a world where supermarkets with tens of thousands of items have replaced my local corner store, that simplifying process plays an important role to both the manufacturer and the customer. Especially since your average supermarket manager is not going to be able to know enough about all the products he’s carrying to make recommendations.
Fast forward to today. Advertising and brands aren’t going away. If anything, they’re more important than ever. But the carrier of those messages is changing. Today it’s less and less the industrial-era mass media (print, TV, radio) and more and more the Internet-era social media. Digital infrastructure has enabled average citizens like us to make more recommendations to more people than ever before. In a sense, we are all each other’s shopkeepers. Like the shopkeeper we recommend products because we’ve used them or we know someone who has. For the shopkeeper it was a customer he knew. For us its a member of our social grid.
But before we’re willing to tell a friend why a modern day Acme Hair Tonic is a good buy, we have to be convinced ourself. That remains, as always, a brand’s job.
So ultimately I’m not interested in a friendship or even a conversation with your brand beyond discovering what’s in it for me. That may be something as nebulous as status or prestige or bragging rights or as tangible as durability, 20% more in the package or a discount or deal. Either way, its still all about me. If it isn’t, then your brand and I have nothing to talk about.
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