I bought a pdf version of a book recently because it was about 50% cheaper than the print version only to find that I specifically had to use Adobe Digital Editions to read it. Furthermore, I couldn’t print any of the pages, copy any of the text or even make highlights for that matter. The interface sucked as well and it basically made reading extremely hard. I had to eventually go out and purchase the print version.
Just like the music industry, the publishing industry just doesn’t get it! Just the fact that I chose to pay to download the book (yes, the pirate version was available as well) must mean that I value the book and would like to reward the author and publisher for all the effort that went into producing it. But all the restrictions just left a bad taste in my mouth. As a consumer, I’m sick and tired of being treated like a thief and a criminal.
We need to understand that if these new monetary models are to work, we need to start by first addressing consumers’ needs and look to provide exceptional value.
Piracy has taught us all that if corporations are unwilling to listen to changing needs, someone else will. As a marketer, I myself would like to take charge and out-pirate the pirates!
You should as well.
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Lets look at some key events that have changed our world over the past couple years -
1. The United States has faced continued backlash over its war in Iraq and Afghanistan – especially over issues pertaining to the violation of human rights and excessive military expenditure.
2. The credit crisis has left the world in a state of despair, leaving angry consumers and dying industries.
3. The first black president of the united states (and the leader of the free world) was elected.
4. The web 2.0 sphere has exploded, sparking tremendous innovation and taking the DIY revolution a step further.
These represent only a fraction of the drastic social, economic and political changes that our world has witnessed over the past couple years. The net result is that consumers have changed their habits, the way they interact with their surroundings, with each other and the way they interpret symbols around them.
In this environment, you (as a marketer) are probably more inclined to get attention if you emphasize on utilitarian rather than hedonic characteristics of products (anyone from the music biz listening?). For example, many entrepreneurs have found a way to use social media to drive social change (sites such as socialactions.com, bettertheworld.com etc) and people are listening.
In essence, consumers’ cultural condition has shifted and entrepreneurs and marketers need to take notice.
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Ever since I started using Twitter, this question has been bothering me – how social is social media today? Where is this platform going to go over the next couple years? After hearing Mitch Joel talk about this issue in his podcast last week, I decided to blog about it.
I did a little experiment a few weeks ago – I asked a question on my facebook as well as Twitter feeds. I got over a dozen replies on facebook (with about 300 friends as far as I can remember) and 2 replies on Twitter (with over 1,800 followers). This experiment really sums up “the game” for me today – platforms like twitter are really encouraging mass broadcasting/publishing. Its really not encouraging social interaction. Having said that, many blogs still do and I hope mine will as well. I therefore strongly urge you (as a reader, consumer, blogger, twitterer etc) to look at creating communities within each of these platforms. Sharing through broadcasting is okay, but its sharing through personal interaction that really helps me sleep at night.
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Starbucks is one of my favourite places to go hangout, hold meetings, read or just chill. However, of late the company seems to be losing sight of this very “value” that it provides to its customers.
The worst thing that Starbucks could do at this point is compete on price (especially with McDonald’s posing a huge threat). We all know how that will turn out! As hard as it may be in these tough times, the company needs to find a way to improve on its Unique Value Proposition (think in-store experience not price) if it wants to continue to lure people in to its stores. Lowering prices will have 2 very significant impacts on the Starbucks brand equity:
1. Consumers tend to correlate quality with price. A change in price could reduce perception of quality and overall value.
2. Lower prices would attract consumers who are not traditionally Starbucks consumers. As nice as that may sound, it significantly affects starbucks’ “exclusive”, “upscale” image.
Another point to consider is that during a recession, loyal Starbucks consumers might actually continue to buy coffee from Starbucks and make cutbacks elsewhere (as they might perceive Starbucks as that little bit of pampering they need to get through these tough times).
In the end however, it boils down to the company’s ability to stick to its guns and innovate – so as to provide a truly unique experience. During this recession, we are going to witness the death of many brands. I sincerely hope that Starbucks is not one of them.
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Virgin has always been a brand that I have admired. Being an ardent Formula 1 fan, here I am feeling compelled to blog about them. In March this year, Virgin decided to enter Formula 1 by sponsoring the Brawn F1 team. Not only was it a great decision to enter Formula 1, but Virgin couldn’t have picked a better team to sponsor.
Ross Brawn had just saved the Honda F1 team from dissolution. More so, he had been successful in creating a car that even though lacked certain newer features (such as the KERS system) was still performing better than other leading teams such as Ferrari and Mclaren. Brawn GP subsequently went on to getting a dream 1-2 finish at the Australian Grand Prix and the rest is becoming history. Now all this has done some amazing things to the Virgin brand and I have a sneaky suspicious that its not a coincidence.
By joining forces with Brawn and helping resurrect the Honda F1 team early in the game Branson is perceived as a saviour, taking on mythical meaning (along with Ross) within Formula 1 – think of it like the phoenix rising from the ashes. Now, I may not be out of line here to mention that all this “resurrection” happened around Easter! (coincidence? I’m not quite sure…these are brilliant Marketing minds we’re talking about)
Through the process, Brawn and Branson have managed to create a brand that is now mythical and even sacralized. Branson has once again showed us that he and Virgin remain true to their beliefs – to be underdogs, edgy, willing to take on risks and continue to topple giants!
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In its verdict yesterday, the Swedish court has jailed 4 people linked to the popular file sharing site Pirate Bay. Further, Pirate Bay has been asked to pay $3.6 million to various entertainment companies for damages. This verdict marks the beginning of the end!
Pirate culture has been responsible for a lot of the modern day innovations that we see around us today, be it the invention of commercial radio or the web 2.0 sphere (which is allowing me to do this!). Pirates have transformed the media industry, given birth to the remix culture and consequently to Hip Hop and even made available, cheaper anti-HIV drugs in the developing world. Yet we continue to fight this culture.
Today its Pirate Bay’s prosecution, tomorrow it could be the end of “net neutrality” as we know it. I am not saying that piracy is right. All I am saying is that pirate culture has had a remarkable impact on innovation in our society and instead of fighting it through prosecution, we must look to compete with it, on a level playing field (Apple, Apple, Apple…). We must look to provide outstanding value to consumers every step of the way (Look at what Hulu.com has done). In his book ‘The pirate’s Dilemma’, Matt Mason says “Pirates highlight areas where choice doesn’t exist and demand that it does. And this mentality transcends media formats, technological changes, and business models. It is a powerful tool that once understood, can be applied everywhere.”
We need to understand that piracy is a business model in itself and in the words of Steve Jobs, “If you want to stop piracy, the way to stop it is by competing with it”.
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I blogged on ethics in Buzz Marketing a while back and some recent events on Chris Brogen’s site has prompted me to blog on the subject matter again. Of late, people have been giving Chris Brogen a hard time because he wrote a few blog posts praising some companies simply because he had genuinely had a great experience with them.
I just want to clarify here that whether or not these companies gave Chris something (free product/experience etc) is immaterial. What matters is that he will praise a company / product only if he feels that the experience he has had truly warrants praise. In his recent blog, Chris did a great job of summing this up…
“Giving someone something doesn’t elicit praise. Praise comes from an experience that causes positive emotions, and that’s a tricky thing that matters. It’s hard to do the right things to elicit praise, but then again, that’s the deal.”
…and this is the premise that Buzz Marketing is and must be based on! Creating a truly unique customer experience and exceeding expectations will ultimately prove to be the best way to generate buzz.
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So I’m guessing you’re not going to be surprised if I told you that social networking is really about 2 WAY INTERACTION. I am not just referring to the interaction between consumers themselves but the interaction between consumers and content producers – be it musicians, writers, bloggers etc.
The great thing about sites like Twitter is that it has put everyone on an even playing field. In a way, it has humanized these so called celebrities and given them an easy way to stay in touch with their audiences. Now the problem with this incredible boom in social networking is that in order to stay in touch with audiences, content producers are having to take their scalability to new heights. However, all of us are unfortunately constrained by the 15 or so working hours that a day usually provides us with. As a result, content producers are beginning to use ’dummies’ or ghost writers to maintain their presence online.
Unfortunately, I have a problem with that! All of a sudden the level playing field is not so level anymore. Now I wasn’t too sure if I was making too much of a big deal out of this so I decided to talk to other marketers, also studying at Schulich, to understand their perspective. One of my colleagues, Gal Corfas, told me he had recently stopped following Guy Kawasaki on Twitter for a similar reason. Here’s what he had to say…
“The strength of twitter, in fact the reason for its meteorically rising popularity, is due to twitter currently being perceived as the “honest voice of the people”. When popular tweeters use bots or writing teams to produce content for them, they undermine this honest image and are in fact pulling the carpet from under their own feet. ”
Personally, I don’t think the issue is the usage of ghost writers…the issue is more about authenticity. If you’re going to have a team to maintain your presence online, say so! Lets not dupe consumers, because sooner or later they’ll find out.
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Buzz marketing can be done in 2 basic ways.
The first type involves recruiting volunteers (the so-called ‘influencers’) to act as agents for a product. In this form of buzz marketing an agent acts as an independent entity and has the freedom to express his/her views openly with no obligation to the company. Such techniques not only empower consumers but also ensure that corporations produce products that deliver a truly unique value proposition. Basically, a company has to be extremely confident in its offering to allow its consumers to talk freely about its product, even if it is critical at times.
The second type involves hiring agents (posers) who are paid to enter into public domain and behave or act in the desired way with the intention of grabbing consumers’ attention and creating buzz. For example, in order to promote one of its camera phones, Sony Ericsson hired actors to pose as average Joes walking around the city asking people to take pictures of them – the idea being that when people took the camera to take pictures, they would realise that it was actually a phone as well.
The problem however with the latter technique is that these agents aren’t expressing their opinions but those of the corporation itself. Therefore, since the message being sent is not authentic, it cannot be trusted. At the end of the day, consumers hate being duped and that is exactly what this technique achieves!
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May 09
24
Product Placement – a thing of the past!
How many of you have started buying groceries from Whole Foods after watching Top Chef ?
Further, given the shift we’re witnessing in popular culture today, producers of shows must be careful of how much they bury themselves in endorsements. The more ‘corporatized’ a show appears, the lesser its appeal.
Posted in Marketing Commentary by Ujwal Arkalgud. No Comments