Reflecting and connecting with your audience.pdf

Reflecting and connecting with your audience.pdf

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  Changing the Worldfrom the Inside Out: Engaging employees via Corporate Citizenship Interbrand | Pg. a I’ll Be Your Mirror Reflecting and connecting with your audience
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  Interbrand | Pg.1 I’ll Be Your Mirror Reflecting and connecting with your audience by Nora Geiss People like to see themselves reflected in the “I use this channel to...” world around them. It’s why we choose friends who share our sense of fun. It’s why we seek careers that feed our interests, and align ourselves with causes that represent our values. We want Keep up with friends See, try & buy to feel connected to the world. and family This desire for connection is no less powerful when it comes to brands. The brands we choose – especially those we Engage special keep coming back to, that we talk about in interests Give expert advice professional circles, and that we recommend to our friends and family – resonate in an important way with who we are and what we hold dear. Scope out Get on-the-spot tips Brand personality ... is arguably becoming the most important Navigate the brand element Build a public shopping experience persona From “I want” to “I am” Of course this need to make an internal Linked in Connect to opportunities association with the values of your audience is a fundamental tenet of branding. But Search local businesses in recent years, in large part due to the expansion of the internet, the explosion of Catalogue creativity mobile apps, and the broad impact social media has had on the relationship between brands and their audiences, the value of developing internal association with the audience has grown. As opportunities for dynamic dialogue between business and consumer have multiplied exponentially,
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  I’ll Be YourMirror: Reflecting and connecting with your audience Interbrand | Pg. 2 The organizations that are reaching people are responding to a subtle but powerful shift in people’s decision making: from “I want” to “I am.” organizations are pushing to find ways individual channels, but about in what way And yet, while the creation of a successful to engage and elevate their associative they intersect, and the relative value each brand personality is a huge challenge for value. Brands that get it right go beyond channel adds to the overarching experience any brand, it is arguably becoming the appealing to material needs; they transcend we want to craft for our audience. most important brand element. It is what the superficial back-and-forth to engage unifies expression, enables cross-channel with audiences not just around what To understand the greater engagement, and ultimately sparks the people seek in a material sense, but on a narrative of your target association of “I am.” deeper and more personal level. Simply audience, context is the key So how do you ensure you are making put, individuals are now more empowered Building a connection to the “I am” mentality the most of your investment, and seizing in the marketplace. And the organizations is necessary to keep brands relevant, the opportunities? that are reaching people are responding to a subtle but powerful shift in people’s decision valuable, and alive in an age of dynamic Finding the right narrative thread in making: from “I want” to “I am.” The “I am” media. It opens up significant opportunities the noise of the net mentality means that decision making isn’t to align closely with passionate people who “To be successful,” Alex Bogusky and just about purchase anymore. It’s also about will engage, co-create for greater value, John Winsor write in their book Baked In, the choices individuals make to incorporate and spread your brand message with the “a brand’s story must connect with a larger a brand into their online profiles, as a way to influence of peer-to-peer authenticity. conversation that’s happening in the bring more personal depth and dimension But building that connection also culture.” They rightly point out that people to their public personas. It’s about the fact demands – more than ever – that branding connect best with brands that communicate that which brands you follow on Twitter professionals know “who” their brand is, so through storytelling – people relate to a says as much about you as who follows you. they can more credibly flex its personality story that specifically resonates with the It’s about the decision individuals make to across multiple touchpoints. This represents human experience, and is relevant to the include certain brands in happy-hour small a significant investment and requires a way people touch the brand. The trick is talk – to drive home a point, or to show off a willingness to embrace complexity. tapping into the cultural narrative of the particular sense of personal style. It’s about Developing and expressing brand audience you want to reach in order to tell the choice individuals make to drive the personality is undeniably an art form, and the right story. The complexity of the media extra three miles from one store to another, can be the most difficult part of brand landscape can make this difficult for brand because the first “doesn’t have my brand.” development, for a variety of reasons. First, managers and communicators. It raises it can be challenging to demonstrate its questions like “What behaviors should I look Clearly, the rise of the “I am” mentality value to corporate leadership, yet it can’t be at?” “What conversations should I listen to?” complicates the media landscape that executed without understanding, buy-in, “What metrics should I measure?” brands navigate today. It requires branding professionals to know a lot more about how and allocation of resources. Second, the In truth, it takes a holistic view to connect their audience makes associations, where development of a brand personality requires the dots between a back-and-forth they are making these associations, and strong internal engagement, but internal Twitter conversation, a spike in traffic to why. It requires that we think not just about culture is the hardest thing to change.
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  I’ll Be YourMirror: Reflecting and connecting with your audience Interbrand | Pg. 3 Reflecting the needs and desires of the audience does not mean falsely inhabiting their lingo and shrugging into their trendy dress code. your website, and someone cashing in a Unlike just another analytics tool, Brand The focus is on quality, not just quantity, Foursquare deal on-site. To understand the Playback is a holistic solution – a way of here. While it’s important to know how greater narrative of your target audience, looking at and understanding the profound much volume of functional conversation context is the key: grasping not only what conversations and behaviors of a brand’s you might have to balance with emotional people are talking about, but why; knowing audience, and using a consultative analysis messaging, don’t assume that you can only not only where people are coming from, but to shape how the brand can respond to tap into the functional to be successful – a where they’re going; seeing the contrast deliver greater value. mistake many brands make. Conversation between what people like, and what around the Quaker brand may be relatively Brand Playback helps you to... they dislike. low in comparison to competitors, but the Listen conversation almost always circles around In other words, seeing the forest and Conversation tells us what topics have quality-driven attributes such as “delicious,” the trees. momentum – what captures attention, “healthy,” and “life-saving convenience.” That’s Interbrand’s approach to this conundrum is what captures the imagination; what powerful stuff. Quantity can be addressed, called Brand Playback. Brand Playback offers we want to share and what we want our but quality is much harder to achieve and a way to find out what interests and engages community to react to. To find the true deserves more attention. your audience, and enables brands to craft thread of conversation, you have to look Look messages and platforms that “play it back” to at what people are saying across channels, Behavior shows us how key themes of them, putting your audience at the center of wherever genuine, candid conversation conversations take root to motivate the experience you create. More specifically, can be had: social networks like Facebook, engagement, and how the narrative plays it allows brands to: social microblogs like Twitter, across the out in our everyday actions. This is where blogosphere, in forums, and chat rooms. • Listen to the high-level themes of the spark of association can be seen, conversation to find out what an When it comes to these channels, context indicating potential for building a long-term- audience connects to emotionally is the key to finding the right themes. value relationship. and functionally. For example, listening for conversation For brands, this means it is important to about “breakfast” reveals a strong theme • Look at the behaviors that show what reward associative behaviors to show that around the emotional value of “quality motivates people to engage and you are paying attention and willing to time.” A search for “General Mills” and build association. engage. One brand that does this well is “breakfast” reveals lots of talk among moms VitaminWater, which makes a tremendous • Take action to seize the right sharing cereal coupons and money-saving effort to engage its audience in the creation opportunities – and consistently strategies. By listening for how people talk of every part of its products, as evidenced by measure your actions against audience about your brand in the context of how your its co-creation of the Connect flavor with its reactions, so you can optimize your product actually fits within their lives, you Facebook fans. The flavor, the name, and the connection to them over time. can learn what people really care about, design were all up for grabs – and the design and find the right balance of emotional and functional messages to deliver at which key points along the customer journey.
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  I’ll Be YourMirror: Reflecting and connecting with your audience Interbrand | Pg. 4 was rewarded with a US $5,000 prize. This your audience spends time? Are you there indicates a significant amount of trust and to help them when it comes to making commitment between brand and audience, decisions related to your product category? and builds a quality experience that goes Keep in mind that it’s not always all about beyond just a product. you. IBM made a smart move by taking Think about the associative behaviors you “Smarter Planet” to Tumblr and using want to encourage when it comes to your the community blog platform to curate brand – is it a Facebook “Like” that grants conversations about the people, technology, your brand badge status on an individual’s processes, and policies that make for a page? Is it a Foursquare check-in that Smarter Planet. It recognized that its broadcasts an individual’s association with current audience, such as engineers, already your brand to their personal network? Is it had a strong reason to spend time with IBM a comment on your blog that builds value in its forums, but reaching new thought- for your community through collective leaders on the subject required it to branch thought leadership? How do these behaviors out beyond its own website. resonate with the core idea of your brand? Mom said it best By creating meaningful ways to reward “Always be yourself.” Go ahead: Indulge in these behaviors, you begin to participate in a that eye-roll. But it can’t be said enough natural dialogue with shared value. that knowing what it means to “be yourself ” Take Action as a brand is critical to success in the age of Opportunities become clear when we see dynamic dialogue. Going through a robust alignment between genuine conversations process like this can be an uncomfortable and behaviors happening among the people process of self-discovery – it’s extremely we want to reach and the core values and revealing of a brand’s strengths and attributes we want to stand for. When you weaknesses; it shows us where we meet know what your audience cares about, expectations, but it also calls out where we where they spend their time, and how they fail. It can inspire a very real temptation to demonstrate association, you can step back try to address the most immediate noise, or and examine what defines your brand at its to conform to the demands of our loudest core. You can also figure out how to bridge audience. However, reflecting the needs the gap between what your audience talks and desires of the audience does not mean about and where you naturally intersect falsely inhabiting their lingo and shrugging with that conversation. into their trendy dress code. It means that we hear and understand what people Look at your brand messages. Do they want – and find the most authentic way to speak to the interests your audience voices connect with them through our own way in their online conversation? Listen to your of being. brand voice. Does it use the language that fits with how your audience speaks? Do you So listen, observe, and find the sound like one of them? Review your brand opportunities to build a deeper connection touchpoints. Do you have a presence where with your audience – in the ways that truly reflect the essence of your brand. ■
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  Starbucks: Reconnecting withits core audience to regain its footing Starbucks, despite the difficult self rediscovery work it has undertaken over the past couple of years, is a shining example of getting it right. The very fact that it recognized the need to do this shows that it was listening; and the actions it took to correct for what it heard has paid off in a customer base even more fiercely loyal, more engaged, and more personally connected to the brand than ever before. Its success hits on every point of the key steps outlined above. Listening to conversation around Starbucks today shows that its increased focus on customization and personalization is paying off in genuine positive traction for the brand. And by listening, observing, and taking action to transform the brand around the needs and desires of its audience, Starbucks has rebounded from a disconnect with its core audience —compounded by a difficult recession — to regain its footing and maintain its premium price point. Most importantly, individual association to The platforms Starbucks created engage Starbucks is among the highest a brand can people where they want to be heard achieve, holding strong as the brand with and deliver on that engagement with a the most Facebook fans in the world. meaningful response. Overall, by listening, That goes to show what you can achieve – observing, and taking action to transform and overcome – when you focus on building the brand around the needs and desires of your brand with the people you serve at the its audience, Starbucks has rebounded...it center of the experience. created engage people where they want to be heard and deliver on that engagement with a meaningful response.
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  Nora Geiss Nora Geissis a creative strategist, digital specialist, innovator, and super nerd. She was born with a passion for logic and language, and leverages a background in public relations, marketing and creative writing to develop distinct verbal assets for brands across a variety of categories. She is a certified ideation facilitator, and develops creative techniques that make the most of both client and internal brainstorming sessions. As an associate director for Interbrand's Verbal Identity department, she has created brand strategies, names, messaging, brand voice, and engagement strategies for great brands across a broad range of industries, including AT&T, Feeding America, NCR, Frito-Lay, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She is the co-founder and head of the Brand Playback practice, helping brands close the gap between what their audience wants and what they deliver. Creating and managing interbrand.com brand value TM