Communication Paradigm? Are firms losing their voice?

Companies rely heavily on different promotional elements to provide a message. These elements consist of advertising, personal selling, public relations, direct marketing and sales promotion. The goal of integrated marketing communications is to use these elements to achieve a unified message.

Ok, so you knew that. Well according to W. Glynn Mangold and David J. Baulds, social media is creating a marketing communications paradigm. Traditional communications allowed the firm to dictate the content, frequency, timing and the mediums used for communicating. Beyond the communications of the firm, the consumer had minute reachability. In other words consumers could express could express very limitedly their views and opinions about product, firm or message.

The new communications paradigm has reversed the situation. Companies listen and engage while consumers share, express and discuss. The firm no longer has full control and the average consumer is now bestowed with great power. The statements are justified with information gathered from different studies. These studies tell the following.

1. Internet is the #1 source of media at work and #2 at home. More than 60% of US consumers use the internet for more than 100 minutes.
2. Consumers require more control over media consumption. Consumers want immediate access to media when they want.
3. Consumers use social media for information search to make buying decisions.
4. Social media is considered more trusted than other communications.

The studies require that businesses change their management attitudes and their integrated marketing communication strategies. Managers must learn to be part of the discussion and not try to lead the discussion.

Mangold and Baulds suggest some methods managers can use to influence and shape discussion.

1. Provide a platform. Consumers have interests and are willing to interact with others with similar interests. Heck, if you think about is, this is how our friend networks are formed. Organizations can provide platforms to bring these like-minded people together. Obviously the firm needs to think of consumers with interests that relate to the firm's products or services.
2. Use blogs and other SM tools. Consumers feel engaged when they can provide feedback. Allow this through blogs or social media tools.
3. Combine traditional and internet promotional tools. To engage consumers stimulate their engagement of the product or service. Contests where the consumers decide the winner can be used to engage consumers.  Think american idol.
4. Provide information. Consumers more likely engage when they are given the information to begin the act with.
5. Be Outrageous. This translates more to "don't be lame" like a paper company saying engage and we'll give you a sheet of paper. Social media involves interesting things. If you put out crap nobody will bother to waste their time on you. 
6. Provide exclusivity. Let people feel special. Offer coupons or product samples for their engagement.
7. Design you products with talking points in mind. I think this translates to be different and new. If your product is the old and stale make it more intriguing and visible. Consumers will engage to discuss the new aspects.
8. Support causes important to consumers. When something is important to the consumer, they care about it. For an organization to leverage this for their product or service it should tie the organization to a cause that has an emotional impact on the organizations consumers. Supporting can be providing a percentage of revenue to the cause, providing resources or information. 
9. Use stories. Stories are powerful because they can be remembered. Share your organizations story if it reflects the message. If not create a story and stick with it.

The media trends found in the article:

1. Consumers increasingly want on-demand media 
2. Consumers increasingly attain media through the internet
3. Social media is increasingly becoming the main source of information for purchasing decisions
4. Companies will be more involved in social media.

Power to the consumer!

TH

Businesses, Taking the Initiative in Social Media? Read this.

I read an interesting article the other day. The writers Kaplan Andreas and Haenlein Michael in Users of the world, unite!; introduced advice for businesses when considering involving the company in social media. The advice boils down to ten points.

5 points about using social media

1. Select target social media. Choose your social media platform carefully. Think who is your target group and in what social media can you reach that target group most effectively.
2. Pick or Create. Go with the most suitable existing social media or create your own. If an existing platform allows you to engage rather well in social media, why bother spending big bucks on a new platform. If no such platform exists, it might be wise to start studying and building you own social hub.
3. Trans-social-media. If you engage in social media using multiple platforms make sure that your message is aligned between them. A goal of social media that should be kept in mind is resolution of ambiguity in communication. 
4. Integrate social media with media plan. Your company may have plans for different medias (ex. TV commercials, magazines, radio). Add social media to the list and see how the message can be delivered on social media platforms.
5. Accessible. The social media platforms used by the business should be accessible to all even the employees.

5 points about being social

1. Active. Keep your content fresh! Social media is not a stale badly designed static webpage where you put your company name and address. Engage with your customers on discussions relating to your business. 
2. Be interesting. Provide content that is related and might interest your customers. First you need to find out what your customers want to hear, what they would like to talk about and what they are interested in. Then provide content that fits those requirements
3. Be Humble. Before entering a social media dig into the platform. Learn how to use it, learn the history and most importantly learn the rules. Don't barge into others' territory and shout out that "I own this place".
4. Unprofessional. Go into the space being normal. Share ideas, thoughts that customers can relate to. This means social media shouldn't be a place where you post last quarters earnings, unless the social media is specifically designed for financial freaks.
5. Be honest. Don't try to change what others have written. Forging information can have devastating impact on customers perception of the firm.

There you have it. 10 tips that the article provides. These tips are worthwhile for businesses. They should be applied to all social media initiatives.

MediaBizLab in Amsterdam

The MediaBizLab took a trip to Amsterdam last week. We left very early on wednesday with the flight leaving at 6:55. Arriving in Amsterdam the group checked into the hotel and people reviewed the ideas generated for the projects. Later that day we had a workshop with the MediaLab students in Hogeskool Von Amsterdam. Interesting discussions flourished as each group partnered with some local MediaLab students. 


Our group, "Closer", came up with interesting ideas to apply trans-media elements to the idea. Ian, the manager of the MediaLab in Hogeskool Von Amsterdam, directed us towards the right direction. The ideas produced:


1) Generate awareness through news articles and other mediums.
2) Allow people to discuss the problem being introduced through a forum or blog.
3) Offer the solution to the people having these problems.


Different mediums:
Keep the same message apparent in each medium through a character for example.
1) Video series with real long distance relationship couples.
2) Comic
3) Electronic magazine.

At the end of the joint session with the HVA, we decided our next strategy would be focus on defining the brand. From there we will work up.


Thursday the MediaBizLab group took a trip to Hilversum were we visited the Institute of Sound and Vision. The large building with over 2000 square-shaped windows and the shape of a cube contained archives of sound and video from a long time. After this we visited University of Utrecht, School of Art at Hilversum where we encountered the projects students had been working on for some time. The projects ranged from games to services to concepts. It was interesting to see local students with fantastic productions that they were pitching to visitors.


Friday we visited Sanoma Digital and OMD. At Sanoma Digital we received a tour of the place and an intriguing presentation. The presentation displayed business models that Sanoma uses to generate revenue. I won't be discussing them here though :). 

Innovative Consumer, What?

The wisdom of Consumer Crowds: Collective Innovation in the Age of Networked Marketing.  By Kozinets, R.V., Hemetsberger, A., Schau, H

The views and writings here are of the respected authors listed above. 

 

The current social environment contains collective consumer actions that are recognized by new online companies. Leisure activities of consumers are used as a resource for companies to develop their products. Online communities have been studied for product development for a decade already with only 10-40 % of users opposing that they develop products. Consumers are recognized in theoretical and practical views when considering the production of valuable products. Their creative input is directly monetized. The line between producers and consumers is breaking down.

Information and communication technologies has progressed and provided platforms of communication. The essence behind these technologies is connectivity in a networked context enabling widespread creation of online communities. Along with these communities comes collective production and innovation. Innovation is the basis for thriving societies and ultimately thriving companies. 

Studies show that consumer creativity is highly collaborative and “innovatively applied to real-world problems”. “Virtually all creation is based to some extent on the previous relations of others.” 

Individualized and Psychological conceptions of creativity

Curiosity and drive are the two components for creative work.

1. Curiosity: openness, external focus and playful urge
2.  Drive: perseverance, hard  work and inner focus.

Creativity consists of three types of thinking:

1. Synthetic : generating ideas, drawing connections between new, novel and interesting ideas
2. Analytical: critical thinking and appraisal in analyzing and evaluating thoughts, ideas and solutions
3. Practical: translate abstractions and theories into realistic applications

Collective Consumer Creativity

This type of creativity is different from the above. Consumer creativity occurs in social interactions prompting new discoveries and interpretations. These triggers occur from four activities:

1. Seeking help
2. Providing help
3. Reflective reframing
4. Reinforcing behavior

Consumer creativity comes from variation and selection meaning consumers having different backgrounds and different experiences provide a greater variety of ideas.  These consumer groups offer talents, networks and abilities to keep each other motivated which allow ideas to be brought to life, propagating and promoting them. In summary the group together is a driver of innovation.

Production and consumption are increasingly becoming one. Informationalism in a social context is turned to achieving higher levels of technology development. This is a revival of capitalism termed as “techno-capitalism”. Consumers comment, link, tag, review and share content. Consumers become involved based on feedback and self-identification which leads to social motivation and intellectual commitments. Some consumers become leaders and begin to critically evaluate and challenge ideas. They advise and mentor more inexperienced members, share similar thoughts of their own or others they find better. From these develop communities of expertise where ideas are shared.

Online communities provide an optimal environment for collective creativity providing the following atmosphere:

1. They are cultural 
2. Provide anonymous interactions
3. Members don’t have to commit
4. Experimental – members try different approaches
5. playful
6. educational
7. collaborative
8. visual
9. rich and diverse content
10. social and cultural depth
11. possibilities for belonging
12. possibilities to discover new things         

Innovation-oriented online communities (IOCC) are a result from contemporary consumer behavior online. There are four types of online consumer innovation:

1. Crowds: large organized groups who gather or are gathered together specifically to plan, manage and/or complete particular tractable and well defined projects. After the project the group disbands. This means crowds exist a certain timespan. Example Crash the Super Bowl.
1. crowdsourcing: act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined network of people in the form of an open call. example. Threadless.com
2. Hives:  online communities where members contribute much more to the community. Members also produce innovations for specific tasks or goals. example. group that produces a youtube series. Hives are centers of skills and excellence. Example: skibuilders.com: a community of expert ski builders who share knowledge.
3. Mobs: innovations oriented to a commune-lucid spirit of communal play and lifestyle exchange.  Based on contributions from specialists speaking to an interest group. Mobs are more individualistic in orientation. Example: blog Huffington report. Mobs are usually good sources for netnography as they provide targeted content.
4. Swarms: amassed collections of individual contribution that occur as a part of more natural cultural or communal practices. Example: rating or tagging or commenting. The aggregate value of swarms community is very high meaning all the comments, tags, ratings placed by swarms contribute greatly to innovation.  

Personal Response

The ideas presented in this paper are very true. Of course categorizing online activities is hard and saying one thing belongs to this group is not always possible, yet the arguments for these different types of communities are valid and represent thorough evaluation of the online empire. I think taking part in the different types of online communities are becoming part of consumers daily activities. Commenting, tagging and rating are actions performed by many. Writing personal blogs and gaining followers are emerging more and more. Taking part in on forums of interest is becoming a more “natural” activity. This is to say that the ideas presented are increasingly entering consumer’s daily lives and the continuation of this increase is likely to stay.

  

Are you a Postmodern consumer?

Marketing to Postmodern consumers: introducing the internet chameleon by Geoff Simmons

 

Consumers are a set of fragmented pieces that require a greater number of products to meet the needs of these different pieces. Consumers aren’t committed to any single lifestyle or belief system. They do not “present a united, centered self” but a jigsaw of different preferences and selves. In principal postmodern consumer is:

1.  avoids commitment
2.  construct self-image through consumption
3.  decentered
4.  switches self-images
5.  obsessed with appearance
6. style is substitute for identity
7.  meaning of products are individualistic meaning each product can mean different things to different consumers
8. right here, right now attitude – perpetual present
9. lack of depth

1)      

The postmodern consumer is a result of postmodern society where identity confusion and fragmentation of the self are principal characteristics. However, it may be a time when people move away from trying to be individualistic and begin forming more bonds. These bonds then become neo-tribes or people connected for interaction mostly for an area of consumption. This leads to postmodern consumers seeking both the above listed individualistic experience as well as communal experience.

Consumers need to be allowed to construct for themselves different styles, forms and types of the same product, to utilize in their representations of different self-images in different situations.” This leads to production and consumption becoming simultaneous. The internet allows the possibility for consumers to interact with companies to create individualistic product and service experiences.

Collaborative customization is the consumer and company colluding to design and produce products that interest the consumer. An example of this is the Mini car. On their website you can customize the car according to your needs and wants.

Although consumers develop individual identities, they do not like to it alone or too large communities. Studies suggest that consumers form brand communities. These online tribal communities have developed based on four elements: people, purposes, protocols and technology. Virtual networks are becoming a part of everyday conversations. For companies to enter this area their brand proposition has to be “highly compelling”.

Brands can develop consumer communities through their websites where consumers can discuss anything. This way the community has a direct connection with the brand. Another way to engage the community is by having a brand blog. Sharing insights and opinions on blogs is a powerful means to bringing forth messages. Consumers lead the way and some blogs have the power to virally spread a positive or negative message about the brand. Businesses need to bring their own blogs and spread their thoughts to stimulate consumer interests. That way they can regain some of the brand equity.

Personal Response

I think that the idea of individualism is a bit hazy simply because even people who say they are individualistic have most likely copied everything from someone else or copied large pieces from others. Yes, people are more individualistic but I would argue people have always even in our postmodern society conformed to some ways. Putting aside extreme cases my opinion remains that people use someone else as a model for self-representation.  I think that the internet is just an over-simplified way of interacting, which almost forces people to come together.

Social Media For Your Business?

Everyone's Social Already by Jessica Tsai

The following ideas and concepts have been taken from the article above.

The article discusses how social interactions are becoming critical to business operations. Social interactions are providing companies new ways to gain and distribute information. The problem the author brings forth is that social media marketing hasn’t gained momentum in social media services because of the lack of hard performance metrics.. The online channels are distributed and loosely connected, which causes difficulties in getting marketing across. 

The author discusses how social media is seen by companies as something for younger generations. However, the argument is that social media has an impact on companies which companies should begin embracing and developing methods of marketing.

Further discussion leads to social media strategy. The business needs a plan and purpose for social media. It needs to define how it “will affect brand building, product development, marketing communication and advertising.” Early adopters didn’t figure it out at first, however, after testing different methods, they’ve come closer to their social media needs. The article states that companies that adopt social media early are the ones more likely to succeed in marketing overall. To succeed the company needs to involve “operational, technological and customer service resources”.

Discussion shifts toward the consumer after this. Consumers are conscious of prices, brands and especially their money. “Many feel entitled to talk to the brand” suggests increasing consumer authority. “Social media has the power to pick up where traditional marketing drops off” suggests social media to be next level of marketing. 

Businesses should begin to allow consumers have a say in building the brand. The article argues that consumers want freedom but some sort of direction. To this the business should establish two things:

1. What the business is looking for
2. How the consumer can benefit

These two things are required for a sense of mutual interest. For this mutual purpose to play out the business requires direct engagement with the customers through some social channels.

Personal Response

The article brings forth some interesting discussions. I have to agree that social media is the next step in marketing and especially with the idea that it is the point where traditional marketing leaves off. Social media is direct contact with the consumer where the consumer has the upper hand. However, it provides the marketer with incredibly valuable information for making decisions. No longer do marketers have to pretend to know what the consumers want but rather just listen to them and execute on those ideas. It it’s what the consumer wants, then it is what the consumer buys. 

I also agree that companies that do not engage know or in the near future will start to see resistance. Social media is the trend which is leading to the trend that consumers decide for the brand. Coming too late to the game will bring significant consequences one of which is being overrun by a competitor. I think this is a time when business sizes are going to be reshuffled.