A case study of how wrong social media can go is when a Guardian reporter recently set up a Twitter account in the name of Shippam’s Paste. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/04/shippams-paste-ben-twitter-shippamspaste Purporting to be a new marketing intern, “Ben’s” naïve tweets displayed his company master’s voice telling him what to do rather than listening to and engaging with his audience. Whilst this has, and will continue to become, an iconic case study, it is true of so many brands and companies up and down the country who “do” social media because they’ve been told to (by someone looking to sell a ‘how to’ course), because they perceive it as free (whoever said ‘time is money’) and/or because they (or their kids) want them to be seen as ‘cool’!

Social media in business is no different to any other marketing communication channel in that it has to be used as part of an overall strategy. You wouldn’t put up a 48 sheet poster on the A4 on a whim or take out a double page spread in the Daily Mail so why on earth do you put you and your company’s message out into the world via social media without first going through the marketing fundamentals:

• Who am I?
• What do I / my brand stand for?
• Who do I want to talk to?
• Where can I find them?

If the answer is that the right place for your brand to engage with its audience is via social media (and defining which branch of social media as they do NOT all do the same job) then fine. Set a strategy, walk your walk and talk your talk and you should win through. But if you sell technical products or services to multinational conglomerates across the other side of the world, posting a status update on Facebook might not do it for you!

Engaging in social media takes resource commitment. There’s nothing worse than a brand that puts itself out there and says it wants to engage with people… and then doesn’t. If people don’t like what you do, don’t take the comment down or cover it up (unless it’s defamatory), admit your mistake and show how you resolved the problem. A customer who has a complaint properly dealt with is still likely to continue to be a customer and others will be impressed by your honesty. If someone poses a question it must be answered quickly – within an hour, not a week. When suggestions are offered, don’t just dismiss them out of hand, engage with the person as to what you can and can’t do with the idea, always giving reasons. Remember, whatever you say id there for all to see and will remain accessible for a long time so it needs to always be in keeping with your brand strategy and what you stand for.

I looked up an online dictionary definition of ‘social media’ and it said, “forms of electronic communication (as web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” NO IT ISN’T! They are using “sharing” in much the same way as traditional media is about “broadcasting”. The clue is in the name. Social media is …social! You don’t meet a friend and talk at them for five minutes and then walk away not letting them get a word in edgeways (OK, you might all know someone who does – but how does that make you feel on the receiving end?) Most social interaction is about engagement and that is not token engagement but real, genuine, two-way communication.

Social media may well be the right answer for you – but make sure you ask the right questions first. If you need help setting a strategy, give the Marketing Mentor a call.

So, given marketing’s importance to overall business achievement, when did you last give your marketing a health check with these top 10 questions to keep your brand in shape.

1. What market are you in?

No, it’s not a rhetorical question. You’d be amazed at how many brand owners, even large corporates, that can’t succinctly (or consistently) answer this question. That’s because it’s often not the most obvious answer. And the answer does change with time and market conditions. One of the first things to learn in marketing is it’s not all about you; it’s about your customers – UCB (Unique Customer Benefit) rather than USP (Unique Selling Point). What do customers want and how can you meet that need? The more precise your market definition is, the more focussed your targeting and the more cost effective you can make your communications.

2. Where do you think you sit in your market?

Have you identified the key differentiators in your market and plotted where you believe you sit versus your competitors? For example, are you taking a value or a premium position? Are you a niche specialist provider or a generalist? (Generalists may feel that they have spread their risk and widened their potential market but, in many cases, they can suffer at the hands of specialists in each area in which they operate.) Are you a market leader or a market follower? Are you an innovator or a me-too brand? (Innovators in markets may get the glory but it is often the second to market brands that benefit from that innovation and are the more financially successful.)

3. How does that compare with other people’s perceptions of you?

It’s all very well you thinking you’re one thing, but do those around you agree? There’s no point honing your communications to reflect your view of what you offer if the marketplace sees you as something completely different. Not only will your communication be a mismatch with their expectations; it could also possibly have negative repercussions on their image of you for the future. So it’s important to check that your perceptions of yourself (image, values, essence) match the market’s perception of you. If they don’t, one of you needs to change – and that may well have to be you!

4. What’s your true brand essence?

What makes your brand or business special? What are those intangible aspects of your brand that connect with customers and form a true dialogue? Now you know what market you’re in, where you sit (perceptually and actually) in that market and who your target audience are, you can really hone down your true brand essence. Start by writing it down in a couple of paragraphs. Then reduce it to a couple of sentences. And then reduce it to no more than half a dozen words. Think of it as The Sun headline for your business. Keep challenging it with the “so what?” question (a powerful tool in many areas of marketing) until you have it polished. And then, challenge everything you do against it.

5. How much do you know about your consumers?

No, I’m not talking socio-economic or acorn groupings. The days of putting groups of consumers into neat “market segmentation” boxes is over. The questions for brand owners now are about: Where do your consumers go? What do they do? How do they buy? Who do they talk to? Who do they listen to? Yes, it is more difficult to learn about them individually but, done properly, you can engage with your current and prospective customers in a way that builds the brand experience… for both of you.

6. How do you engage with your customers?

Brand marketing used to be about influencing consumer behaviour through persuasive brand messages. But is anyone listening any more? Today’s consumers are more powerful than ever before and information hungry. They are influenced by their peer group, over which the brand owner has little or no power. Don’t look to try and control all messaging. Modern consumers will comment on their experience with your brand or business; respond to negative, as well as positive, criticism. Brand owners need to engage with their consumers and treat them all as individuals. Being seen to be human and honest is a strong start to being seen as a brand for the 21^st century.

7. How does your brand make people feel?

But today’s marketing challenge is not only about what your brand stands for; it’s also about how you want to leave people feeling as a result of coming into contact with your brand. It’s all about meaningful contact – known technically as “emotive branding”. It means knowing – and living – your brand’s reason for being, it’s true essence. By having a meaningful dialogue with its customers, a brand can encourage a more emotional bond with them. In turn, you will create brand advocates who will care more, think more, talk more and do more for your brand.

8. Does your marketing strategy include all aspects of communication?

One thing that I find amazing is how all brands, large and small, old and new, are jumping on the social media bandwagon with gay abandon. Yes, social media offers brands a wonderful opportunity to engage with consumers but, like any other form of marketing communication, it needs to be managed as part of an overall marketing strategy. Being on Twitter or Facebook is not an end in itself; it is just another option in the marketing mix.

The same applies to websites. Before rushing down the SEO or Google Ads route, you need to decide whether your customers are even looking for you, or your type of business, online and, if so, what will make you stand out?

9. When did you last challenge your marketing agencies?

In the same way that you know it makes sense to have professionals like an accountant or HR professional to bring their specialist skills to your business, a marketing professional can add value too. But with the plethora of PR, experiential, design and brand agencies out there, how do you know who to use? And, if you already have marketing agencies on board, when did you last check that they are still as keen for your business as they should be, have a clear strategy to meet your objectives and are measurable and accountable for that? If not recently, then perhaps you should!

10. Is your marketing strategy aligned with company financial objectives?

And, at the end of the day, all of the above is only relevant in as much as it feeds into your overall company financial objectives. Your marketing strategy needs to be an intrinsic part of your business strategy and should be measured accordingly. There is no such thing as “nice to do” in marketing; everything has to have a stated purpose and the outcome needs to be measurable, both qualitatively and quantitatively (in terms of ROI). If you’ve been on sales training courses, you’ll have heard of SMART goals – well, your marketing needs to be smart too!

All tips are ©Barbara Stopher, The Marketing Mentor. This is just the tip of a full marketing health check. If you are interested and need help to take an objective view of your business, please visit my website and get in touch

I’m in no way a SEO expert but I do take the time to fill in the boxes on my database website so that I list all the relevant key words based on the manufacturer, a description of the item, the official title and catalogue number if it has one, the condition etc. Yes it’s a chore, given the number of items on my site, but it works. Lilliput World is found on the first page of Google for many of the relevant searches like vintage lead, Britains lead farm and Timpo lead.

For those of you who think I’m talking another language, these are all vintage miniature (mainly 1:32 scale) lead figures that were children’s toys in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s – until the use of lead for children’s toys was banned as they realised it was a unhealthy if children sucked their toys! But that means that they are now desirable collectables for adults who want to remember childhood past.

Anyway, having sent out my monthly newsletter (you can sign up here if I’ve made you interested) and had an article published in GiddyLimits this month about “Barbara Stopher’s big strides in a small world”, I thought I’d do a detailed key word check amongst my competitors and see if I was missing any SEO tricks.

And that’s when I found all the totally non-relevant words that some people add to their listings to try to get them up the rankings; for example, since when have Rolex watches, Christmas presents and holidays had anything to do with a small lead figure? I know Goggle is trying to expose and penalize these abusers; it is a very shoddy practice.

Given marketing is all about putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and answering their needs and wants, how do they expect a customer to feel who is looking to buy a quality watch and ends up on a page of little lead people? Disappointed, annoyed, frustrated; so that makes two of us! Describe your items properly and then the right people will find them. In the words of a famous meerkat, “simples”.

Read more at:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletin/brandrepublicnewsbulletin/article/1042666/location-location-location-new-wave-social-networking/

Just some of the marketing ploys that I have become increasingly aware of are:

• Pet friendly hotels; now some of the most prestigious boutique hotels actively encourage us to go on a short break with our four legged friends http://www.petfriendlyhotels.com/
• Pet insurance has been with us for a long time but it is now becoming increasingly segmented with different tiers of cover to make the caring owner guilty of just opting for ‘basic’ cover. My dog is ten years old and his insurance renewal came in today – they wanted over a 200 per cent increase! So, I turned to those friendly meerkats and found a much better deal http://www.comparethemarket.com/more-products/pet-insurance/
• Dog food has gone from being a choice of mass produced wet or dry to mirror the human food development into niche diet, premium and gourmet options. But even that doesn’t compare to the latest K99 ‘puppy sundae’ (ice cream to you and me) van catering to over heated pooches with ‘dog eat hog world’ and ‘canine cookie crunch’ flavours http://www.trendhunter.com/photos/82037
• Dogs can now have as many toiletries, vitamins and supplements as their preened and paranoid owners, to treat anything from dry skin to stress, as well as undergo a range of alternative and natural therapies
• Building on our desires to make our pet a member of the family, pet photography is becoming fashionable with people even dedicating themselves to this area of work
• And don’t get me started on the vast array of dog clothing; animals should be animals at the end of the day, not design accessories

But, as in other areas of our society, there is a marked division appearing in pet ownership between those that care for and (can afford to) indulge their pets and those that either can’t or won’t. With the Christmas season soon to be upon us (doesn’t the build-up start as soon as the children go back to school?!) please remember the now infamous Dogs Trust adage ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas.’ http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/az/a/adogisforlife/default.aspx

It was back in January 2008 that Kerry Katona was finally dropped from Iceland’s advertising campaigns after reports of her alleged drug taking became too much for the frozen food chain. Chosen because of her status as one-time ‘mother of the year’, Katona seemed to epitomise the brand’s slogan ‘That’s why mums go to Iceland’, but the reality was somewhat different.

More recently, the golden boy Tiger Woods’ tarnished private life lost him the brand ambassador roles with both Gillette (lending a whole new meaning to ‘the best a man can get’) and AT&T (when ‘scoring birdies’ in the US PGA Tour had nothing to do with golf clubs!).

But brand owners don’t always drop celebrities going through a rough time. When Kate Moss’s alleged cocaine use was on the front of all the newspapers she suffered the blow of having her contracts with Chanel, Burberry and H&M cancelled. Conversely, Rimmel kept Moss on and rode the storm. Whilst possibly not back to her peak of popularity, Moss has since rebuilt her reputation and now has a clothing line in Top Shop and her own perfume.

A new celebrity tie up announced this week leaves me rather perplexed; Victoria Beckham was appointed the creative design director at Range Rover with her first project being the new interior of the Special Edition Range Rover Evoque. The brand owners say that this is a smaller, sleeker vehicle so can only assume Victoria is doing her own version of ‘Pimp My Ride’ for size zero fashionista WAGs?!

A great article that includes this and another 11 celebrity endorsements that went wrong is on T3 http://tinyurl.com/34vvbmm and includes the classic of Bill Wyman endorsing a metal detector (not very rock and roll but perhaps because of The Rolling Stones ‘Money, that’s what I want’?).

Back to the everyday, Morrison’s is another supermarket that has used celebrities to raise their presence, particularly in the south. Who can forget Denise van Outen and Top Gear’s Richard Hammond wheeling their trolleys across open countryside to get to the fresh food in a Morrison’s supermarket. In a change of strategy, their new ad, which breaks mid July 210, uses children instead of celebrities. So is the power of the celeb fading or are there still sufficient numbers of us gullible enough to believe that Sharon Osbourne shopped at Asda to keep this phenomenon alive?

• Women are eking out regular salon hair and beauty treatments by another couple of weeks – so good news for off-the-shelf brands – with premium health & beauty brands continuing to hold up (the little ‘lipstick treat’ effect) with only a very small percentage of women trading down to cheaper options, preferring to be more thrifty with their preferred brand. For more on health & beauty in the credit crunch, go to http://tinyurl.com/2w7fkhb
• 1 in 8 fashion shops have closed and new clothing has taken a big hit apart from the cost-conscious that have rushed to Primark and the stronger fashion labels, such as Burberry. But us women are nothing if not inventive and the recession has caused both a revival of knitting and sewing and a trend for personal looks created from charity shop bargains as well as a strong second hand trade through swishing. One brand busting the trend with record sales is Agent Provocateur, apparently driven by more cosy nights in?! For more on fashion in the credit crunch, go to http://tinyurl.com/39yy9nq
• The onset of the credit crunch had a marked impact in food retailing with Marks & Spencer and Waitrose customers reputedly trading down to Sainsbury and Tesco and their customers deserting for Aldi and Lidl. What had been a growing demand for quality and healthier foods stopped almost immediately as did sales of the relatively expensive ready meal. Instead the country enjoyed a return to home cooking and the adult packed lunch became a common sight – great news for Thermos. For more on food in the credit crunch, go to http://tinyurl.com/2eg34cl

But a really interesting learning from the recession is that the period of austerity seems to have instilled a return to old-fashioned values with consumers now starting to look for trusted value over cheap and disposable, which is a trend that brands in all areas should respond to.

Drawing on these resources, Business link have provided updated guidance for businesses about ‘hiring a freelancer or outside contractor’ at http://tinyurl.com/3ykszoa

Business Link suggest that it is appropriate to hire a freelancer when:

• You need to employ someone straight away
• You need the worker to use their professional judgment about the work
• You know the type of expertise you need but you don’t have time to research and specify the job role
• The length of time needed for the particular expertise is limited or may be subject to change

This is all undoubtedly true but their reasons seem very safe and risk averse. In my experience, a freelancer can be both a breath of fresh air and a powerful boost to a business owner looking to make a step change to their business. If selected wisely, your chosen freelancer will come into the business with a new pair of eyes and a raft of relevant experience. Outsourcing is a key way for SME owners to stick to what they are good at and contract in specialists in the disciplines where they are not.

But how does it work from the freelancer’s perspective?

Yes, some professionals are forced into freelancing through redundancy or employment change but freelancing is actually a positive career and lifestyle choice, giving business specialists a variety of benefits including:

• Flexibility – the opportunity to take control, the freedom to choose when, where and how you work
• Variety – the chance to work for a wide range of clients, building on and developing existing knowledge
• Higher return – the opportunity to achieve an improved remuneration per hour, based on the perception of your added value
• Work-Life Balance – the freedom to plan your on time, improving your quality of life

As technology speeds up sourcing, and frees up new ways of working using online platforms, it is now possible to find someone to take on almost any business challenge; in fact, some companies operate as entirely virtual organisations. And the same technology empowers professional freelancers to achieve their business and personal aspirations in this brave new world. So, what are you waiting for?

Even with top class on the job training and continuing professional development, these are challenging times for brand marketers who were trained to believe that their job is to influence consumer behaviour through persuasive brand messages. But is anyone listening any more? The consumer is more powerful than ever before and has access to more information than our predecessors could have dreamed of.

And, where information used to only normally be available from the brand owner, and therefore controlled, the voices that prospective consumers listen to when making a purchase is their peer group, over which the brand owner has no control. The Internet and Google allow me to search for anything and interrogate the information without any recourse to a brand owner.

Then think of the success of comparison information sites such as Trip Advisor; I would never book a hotel abroad now without checking it out here first. I can choose to ignore what other reviewers say, but their comments will form part of my purchasing decision. Then, having made a choice, there are a number of ways that I can exercise that purchase either directly with the brand owner or via a third party, using the internet to compare cost and other parameters of my purchasing decision.

So is it a lost cause for tomorrow’s brand owners? Definitely not! There are still things that the smart brand owner can do to compete in this new emerging marketplace. The first is to embrace the change. Acknowledge that consumers want information and that they will comment on their experience of your brand. Don’t look to try and control all messaging; brand owners that take down negative comments from social media platforms or reviews from websites are just seen by consumers to be out of touch and their actions will further alienate their brand. Instead, engage with your consumers. Respond to negative, as well as positive, criticism. Being seen to be human and honest is a strong start to being seen as a brand for the 21^st century.

One brand that chooses to adopt a group message is Heinz with its ‘It has to be Heinz’ umbrella campaign that has been responsible for noticeable sales growth since first being run in October 2009. And, if we are to believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Premier Foods has launched a brand campaign called ‘Great Little Ideas’, which aims to give mums hints, tips and twists on how to use ‘some of Britain’s best loved food brands’ such as Ambrosia Devon Custard, Hartley’s Jelly, Cadbury’s Mini Rolls, Mr Kipling, Batchelors, Bisto, OXO, Branston, Sharwood’s and Loyd Grossman. Here the individual brands will focus in recipes such as Ambrosia Devon Custard and bananas to make a Banana Brulee.

Another reason for a brand to adopt an umbrella strategy is that, with consumers becoming more and more individual and wanting interactive relationships with the brands they trust, there is a business reason for brands to develop a strong personality that can engage with their consumers and build brand loyalty.

In a move to build relevance for their brand and engage with its consumers, Beiersdorf has recently decided to group the marketing of all products bearing the Nivea brand under a new positioning strategy that encourages women to feel good in their own skin and carries the ‘Feel Closer’ strapline.

But an umbrella strategy does not mean that all parts of the brand have to be communicated together but rather that there is a synergy between the communications so that everything borrows from, and builds back to, the umbrella positioning.

An example of this approach, where the umbrella brand is the corporate identity, is Unilever who continue to run separate brand identity advertising but, since 2009, have included ‘signature’ corporate branding on its product brand advertising for the likes of Flora, Persil, PG Tips, Magnum, Sure, and Dove.

So, if you don’t want the stresses of finance, competition or consumer loyalty to rain on your brand, get an umbrella!