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I mean when you think of it, it’s kind of creepy. Facebook is the 21st century diner or malt shop. It’s where teens and young adults go to hang out.
And the last thing they want is some salesperson coming up in their face and trying to have a “conversation” with them while they’re figuring out when they’re going to the movies. They don’t want to talk to you. They want to talk to their friends.
There’s a prominent real estate family here in New York City called the Lefraks. About 10 years ago, they decided to change the family name to LeFrak. And I remember thinking to myself at the time “Who do they think they’re fooling? I mean do they really think that all these society types are going to see the new name, slap their foreheads and say “Oh, so they’re French! All this time I thought they were Jewish, but they’re really French! Muffy, quick, now we can invite the LeFraks over to the club.”
Well I get the same feeling about advertising agencies these days. We’re sales people. We sell our clients products. But suddenly nobody wants to be a salesperson anymore. They’re into “conversation.” And consumers, I’ve now learned, aren’t consumers anymore. They’re "friends.”
But really people, who are you fooling? Your Brand Is Not My Friend™.
Look. When I was 23, a site like Facebook would have been my second home. Keeping track of the daily comings and goings of my 100 closest friends? Check. Comparing our tastes in music, movies, books, photos, and travel destinations? Check. And when I wasn’t on Facebook, I’d have been Twittering everyone I knew that I was going to the store. And then leaving it. With a middle Twitter to let them know that the cashier was being way too slow.
And while I was busy Facebooking and Twittering, the absolute last person I’d have wanted to hear from is an advertiser. I mean when you think of it, it’s kind of creepy. Facebook is the 21st century diner or malt shop. It’s where teens and young adults go to hang out. And the last thing they want is some salesperson coming up in their face and trying to have a “conversation” with them while they’re figuring out when they’re going to the movies. They don’t want to talk to you. They want to talk to their friends.
The whole appeal of social media sites is their independence from corporate advertisers. People like the fact that they can say whatever they want to their friends without any interference from anyone or anything that seems “official” or “corporate.”Yes, they’ll tolerate banner ads or search ads on the page, the same way that in the diner they tolerated placemats with ads on them or a Coke sign on the soda machine: that sort of advertising is innocuous and quickly becomes part of the scenery.
So I’m not sure where we’ve developed this conceit that people want to hear from brands. Because they truly don’t. At least not in settings where the primary objective is to talk to and interact with your actual friends. (And your brands, people, are not our friends.)
On a blog or message board dedicated to a particular subject, they might listen to someone from a company, especially if that person is someone whose name they all recognize. (In other words, if Steve Jobs himself were to post on a computer message board, people would be thrilled. But a generic post from Apple or from some unknown VP at Apple would be at most, unwelcome.)
Now there are some brands—I call them Prom King Brands—that people don’t mind “conversing” with, so long as they can do it in the brands own space (as opposed to MySpace.) These are the brands that have somehow managed to build a better mousetrap, but there are no more than a dozen of them and you here on DailyFix can probably name them all by heart (I’ll start: Nike, Apple, Starbucks, Virgin, Whole Foods… ) Sports teams, TV shows, rock bands and movies fall into this category as well.
The rest of you are out of luck. You’re not a Prom King and people aren’t lining up to hang with you. So while Starbucks could probably start a Frappuccino Lovers Group on Facebook (for all I know, they already have), no one’s going to be joining a Maxwell House Lovers group anytime soon.
So if Your Brand Is Not My Friend™, does that mean you should run screaming from Web 2.0 and Social Media?
Absolutely not.
All it means is that if you’re not a Prom King brand, you need to be smarter about how you use the space. Not to mention more authentic.
Let’s take the Maxwell House example. The one thing we know about Maxwell House (other than that it’s “good to the last drop”) is that it’s cheap. Very cheap, actually, in comparison to Starbucks. So you go on Facebook and find the Cheapskate Lovers group. And approach them as a salesperson. Not as a friend. Your script goes something like this: “Hey Cheapskates. Maxwell House knows how much you guys love saving money. And while our coffee is cheap enough as it is, if you go to this special Facebook Cheapskates site, we’ve got a dollar off coupon waiting for you.”
There’s a critical difference here: if you’re a Prom King, you define the interaction. People come to you to talk about and be around Starbucks, to get some of the halo effect of a brand they consider very cool. And even though you’re selling them big time, you can pretend it’s all just a fun little “conversation.”
But if you’re a regular brand, you need to find a situation that fits your strengths. So if your strength is you don’t cost a whole lot, you need to find a bunch of Cheapskates and then adapt yourself to their needs. And you absolutely have to do it as a salesperson. Because you can’t ever pretend you’re doing anything but selling them.
And if you do all that, they may actually start to like you for it. To let you hang around more often and maybe, just maybe, they’ll start talking about you. Not to you, but about you.
Which at the end of the day, is a lot more valuable than having them talk about your TV commercial.
Hence the value of social media.
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Comments
Thanks Toad. Good post. You are right in my opinion, most of the time (Apple and Starbucks being exceptions and actually more cultish) a brand is not a friend. However, the people who work for the brand can be. There is an old adage in the sales game “All things being equal or unequal, people buy from people they like”.
All these “new fangled” social networking tools are devices that allow brands to make the introductions on a mass scale. How you act after the introduction determines your brand personality.
Posted by: Harry hallman | 10.01.07
Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride, Toad.
Social media sites are not the place for in-your-face (intrusive) advertising. In fact, I am hard pressed to think of anyplace that is the right place, unless the advertising is fun and a great experience. I like your suggestion that a group works best as a way to start a conversation on Facebook. Not so much as a means to sell but as a way to begin building relationships.
Harry is right: We buy from those we know and trust, which is the foundation making up both the Nike and the Starbucks brand. Neither want to be our friend; both want us to know and to trust them.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 10.01.07
"So I’m not sure where we’ve developed this conceit that people want to hear from brands. Because they truly don’t."
One of my professors in grad school--who was NOT a marketing professor--hit this point home when he told the class the following: "You are NOT the hero of their play."
Sage words, indeed.
What I'm telling clients, colleagues...whomever will listen...is that in this "conversation," the place for companies is to listen. Not lead. Sure, there are times when brands are invited, but these tools enable us to really sit back and zip up so that we can really get to know our various audiences. What they're really like (outside of a focus group setting), what really matters to them (not our brands "reason for being") and how they really interact with one another and products/services.
And what's best about new media is that brands only succeed through a very OLD principle--if we do our jobs, to create value through exemplary products, services and experiences--then people will want to talk about us.
We might not be their friends but we might find that we play an important enough role in their lives that they give us their loyalty and money. Sure, some brands are cult brands and they draw a crowd and conversation (Krispy Kreme, Harley Davidson) but even those that aren't cult favorites can draw a following. Take WaWa convenience stores that has thousands of devoted MySpace and FBook "friends"--just by delighting customers. How'd they do that? By consistently delivering a needed service and likable environment (the lesson being that a place where customers can depend upon getting coffee, doughnuts, soda and a smile during their daily commutes can make a difference).
You can't make them talk about you (or befriend them) but you can certainly increase the odds if you let them lead and continue to create great stuff ;-). Then maybe you'll even make Prom Queen (which is even better than Prom King, trust me).
Posted by: CK | 10.01.07
This is true, but value is relative and trends are constantly shifting. The key to staying on top of what your customers are thinking and what they want is to listen to conversations that happen every day. In the context of MySpace or Facebook, this can be difficult because there is so much irrelevant content to sift through and it limits a company to creating a profile/group for their brand. Online spaces that are directly linked to a brand or theme are more populated with relevant conversations and thus provide richer information for a company to use.
Posted by: Dan Neely | 10.01.07
Thanks. Great comments so far.
I think we need to be careful- there's a strong distinction between how people see "Chris from the deli counter" and "A&P Supermarkets." They may like Chris but will regard the chain with a degree of suspicion. Making the chain likable is the marketer's challenge.
To CK's point the only way to do that is to provide an excellent product/customer service experience.
And ITA that listening in the social media space is the most important thing a company can do. Knowing how to listen-- who to take seriously and when-- is a skill many companies need to acquire. There's a tendency to hear every comment at the same volume.
Posted by: Tangerine Toad | 10.01.07
What is interesting is how corporate marketers are struggling to realise they can't control what people say or think about them simply through promotion. This has always been the reality only it has never been so visible (in-your-facebook?). The honesty and openness of social media is a very healthy balancer.
Posted by: Tony Eyles | 10.01.07
Excellent post!
I would like to hear some further thoughts of yours on the differentiation between "Chris at the deli" and "A&P supermarkets" if I may.
When looking at that example, a question comes to mind.
Chris is a part of A&P, and therefore it is my thought that the relationship that someone has with Chris is at least to some degree projected onto A&P. Would you agree with this?
A number of other thoughts come to mind as well. I would assume that it's easier for someone to identify with Chris, who is a part of A&P than to identify with A&P itself. This is primarily because Chris, well, is a person and A&P is an 'entity' (and it probably very much feels this way). What if a company were to become more transparent and "human"? By allowing the people who its composed of come more to the forefront, would it not make that brand more relate-able? (The first thing that comes to mind is that this is in part what lead to Starbucks success, as well as Jet Blue's initial growth from Neeleman). Or would you say that people don't even really want to relate to a brand? (As if it were as black and white as that).
Also, Companies should definitely stay in the background, listening for the right opportunities to join a conversation being had about them (and as you noted, /to/ someone else).
Posted by: Nathan Snell | 10.02.07
@Nathan: Thanks for the feedback.
I think you're initial reaction is correct: Chris from the deli counter is a person, someone I know and I might not mind hearing about specials or sales from him (e.g. "You know Mr Toad, the turkey is just $3.99/lb. today") versus the corporate A&P who I know has no idea who I am.
You are also correct in that giving a face to a corporation is a tried and true method, one that's been around for a long time. Neeleman and JetBlue are but the latest examples. Even a spokesperson like Subway's Jared gives the brand a face.
Now I am not saying this is the right solution for most companies or that every CEO should be online talking to customers. But something that also creates an emotional connection with consumers is going to be more effective than something that just creates a rational one. And people have emotional connections to other people. Not to corporate entities.
@Tony: One solution to the fear of people saying bad things about you online is to have a product that people don't view badly. Easier said than done, but if you've got a lousy product or lousy customer service, then changing that should be your primary mission.
Posted by: Tangerine Toad | 10.03.07
What if Chris from the deli is a fantastic employee when he is at A&P. Never misses a shift, provides the best service to the customers, and is the most cleanly etc. But on the weekends Chris participates in activities which may be less than desireable in the eyes of his customers. Chris posts pictures, leaves "politically incorrect" and rude messages on the walls of his friends, etc. All the while maintaining his relationship with A&P in his personal information.
How do companies deal with a less than desirable image that an employee may create in their "personal time" and "personal space" that may have a negative impact on the corporate image?
Posted by: Sonia | 10.03.07
@TT Thanks for responding :)
An interesting question from Sonia.
I would also interject a comment to Tony, if I may, that I think "viewing badly" should be differentiated sometimes. Viewed badly in the sense of Mini-Cooper or Mac vs. PC I think is a good position to be in. It builds fans. Viewed badly because you just fired 200 employees by e-mail is not a good position to be in. Or maybe there is never a good time to be "viewed badly"?
Posted by: Nathan Snell | 10.03.07
@Sonia:
That sounds more like a question for HR than for marketing. All sorts of legal issues involved.
Should the HR people ask marketing's advice, however, I'd look at this in a pre-internet spotlight. If, in 1988, it became widely known that Chris at the A&P was a Wiccan, then you'd want to see the overall effect on that particular community and your overall customer base. You may win points with the braoder community for going with an argument that says what he does with his own time is his business so long as he's a great deli manager, because we're a live-and-let-live company and he's not hurting anyone, etc. and so forth.
But that's only if they asked ;)
Posted by: Tangerine Toad | 10.03.07
Great dialog everyone.
I actually like being friends with a toasted sandwich, and that fact is the power of social media. If we can get consumers engaged with our brands, we can get them to buy our products. It is a core emotional response that is uniquely possible in social media because consumers' brains are active when they are receiving our messaging. This is why social media marketing spend with continue to steal large amounts of ad budgets in the years to come. Check out http://dkthebusinessguru.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-am-friends-with-toasted-sandwich.html
Posted by: Darren Kelly | 10.30.07
Hey Toad!
You're right about the Prom King brand - I think we are talking about the same thing. Some brands have managed to create a mystique about them that makes people seek them out and desire association with them.
The famous Tangerine Toad! Joseph has spoken of you several times in his podcasts. It's an honour to have a Web 2.0 celebrity comment on my blog - thanks!
Posted by: 604grant | 04.19.08