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Lois Kelly, author of Beyond Buzz and principal of Foghound, recently posted something rather profound on her blog. In a recent meeting, Mike Lundgren, Creative Technology Director for interactive agency VML, made a comment that made me sit up in my chair when I first read it....
“It's not about how good you look talking about your own brand. It's about how you make other people look good talking about your brand.”
Like George Martin once said about the Beatles, this maxim is “terribly simple, yet terribly effective.” These simple words sum up perfectly the marketing universe today. As marketers and PR people, we must come to the understanding that it really is not about you (and truthfully, it never really was).
I believe that people are flocking to social media tools like Facebook, MySpace, blogs, YouTube, Twitter, and the like because they make it easier to find other like-minded individuals who share similar beliefs, values, and sensibilities. So an important marketing goal should be helping people talk about your brand in ways they find easy, interesting, and natural.
That is much more important than how YOU the company talk about your brand. After all, people will pay more attention to people like them rather than your company’s key messaging.
As Lois summed up, “It’s no longer messaging as usual.” Amen to that.
Learn more:
http://blog.foghound.com/162/
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Comments
Michael,
Yes, it's a simple but big idea. The challenge is re-educating marketers (and the branding and "messaging" consultants) to do just this. It's a Eureka moment when people like to talk about a company. And I see it as the simple but terribly effective way to bridge the gap (Grand Canyon?) between marketing and sales and customers.
Lois
Posted by: Lois Kelly | 09.28.07
Lois,
I believe people intrinsically "get" this already. It's the practical application -- how do you get it done and make it happen -- that glazes people's over. But it's also what makes this business so gosh darn fun!
Thanks for taking the time to post, and thanks for the inspiration. I appreciate it!
Cheers,
Michael
Posted by: Michael Rubin, Arment Dietrich | 09.28.07
Agreed!
Dale Carnegie made this point more than 70 years ago: it is not about you, it is about the other person. Good advice then: good advice now.
The truth is, and we must never forget it, people care about themselves and their concerns, well before they care about yours.
Posted by: Neil Anuskiewicz | 10.03.07