"Buy the Way…" Insights on Integrated Marketing Communication

Customer loyalty, the metric many believe to be the holy grail of marketing, can be oh so hard to pin down. In a world with overwhelming numbers of options in every arena and rapidly decreasing consumer attention spans, it can be hard enough to get people to notice your brand, much less choose to keep paying attention (and buying) day after day, year after year.

So, how do the most successful brands gain customer loyalty? If you are to believe Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines, the trick to making customers very happy is to start with employees. The company’s approach to employee engagement includes profit sharing, healthy retirement benefits, and the nurturing of individual personalities. Even more incredible, the company has never laid off a single person. In this light, it’s no wonder employees are happy. But does this really translate to happier customers?

It may do just that. A 2012 organizational psychology study suggests that increased employee engagement and positive job attitudes can lead to greater organizational commitment – which, in turn, boosts company performance. Or, as Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins explains, “We hire rock stars, ask them to be themselves, and then support them in everything they do to take care of our customers. This leaves customers wanting to come back for more. Then our customer loyalty grows the business and rewards our stakeholders.” This strategy does seem bolstered by the numbers: Southwest is now the 3rd most popular airline in the world, following only American and Delta.

As many of us have learned through our consumer research efforts earlier this semester, as well as last week’s Dove case study, consumers are drawn to authentic brands – those with stories they believe and perspectives they trust. And what could be more authentic and believable than a genuinely happy employee?

What do you think? Is employee happiness the key to building happy, engaged, and loyal customers? Have any of you experienced this connection in your own jobs and companies? I’d love to hear what you think.

As we continue to create effective integrated marketing plans, many of us will strive to help our clients deepen loyalty and generate customers advocates and ambassadors for our brands. Perhaps incorporating strategies to address employee engagement truly is the best starting point.

References

Dahl, D. (2017, July 28). Why do Southwest Airlines employees always seem so happy? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrendahl/2017/07/28/why-do-southwest-airlines-employees-always-seem-so-happy/#62b926f359b0

Mankowska, A. (2016, September 12). The holy grail of marketing: Customer loyalty. Forbes.  Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2016/09/12/the-holy-grail-of-marketing-customer-loyalty/2/#46a7e8a114d8

Meltzer, M. (2018, March 8). Why people are weirdly obsessed with Southwest Airlines. Thrillist. Retrieved from https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/southwest-airlines-customer-loyalty

Saxon, J. (2017). Why your customers’ attention is the scarcest resource in 2017. American Marketing Association. Retrieved from https://www.ama.org/partners/content/Pages/why-customers-attention-scarcest-resources-2017.aspx

Winkler, S., Konig, C., & Kleinmann, M. (2012). New insights into an old debate: Investigating the temporal sequence of commitment and performance at the business unit level. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2012.02054.x

Snapchat recently found itself in hot water after it allowed an ad slip through the cracks that asked users if they’d rather “Slap Rihanna” or “Punch Chris Brown”.

Aside from this being an ad that is offensive due to the carefree attitude towards assault, this was equally offensive because Rihanna was abused by her then-boyfriend, Chris Brown, back in 2009. Clearly, this isn’t something that Snapchat users should have to see nor is it something that should be made into a joke.

This was an ad purchased by the game Would You Rather? and according to Snapchat, this ad was able to find its way through a review process which checks for content that is against its policies. Snapchat shared that the advertisements are purchased through an automated process and then some ads are filtered through an automated review while others are approved by a human. In this case, the ad was approved by a Snapchat representative which makes this a whole lot more mind boggling.

Aside from Would You Rather? clearly not having policies in place to prevent tasteless ads, this then made its way through Snapchat’s processes. At the very least two pairs of eyes (one from Would You Rather? and one from Snapchat) saw this ad before it was released. Snapchat is the one being held accountable in the public eye, however.

The media have questioned Snap’s processes and how this could have happened. There have also been calls for a thorough examination of the ad reviewal process to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again. The backlash felt by Snapchat was immense as it subsequently lost $800 million in market value after Rihanna chastised the company. Some users even committed to deleting the app in solidarity with Rihanna, domestic abusive survivors, and to remain inline with their morals.

Clearly a celebrity statement can have impact on the success of a company. But more than that, a company’s disregard for its stated policies and procedures that impact its stakeholders which then leads to a mistake like this can cause so much more damage.

So this is where I question all of you. Feel free to answer one, none, or all!

Do you think that Snapchat should have an ad review process completed solely by a human? If so, should it be just one person or more determining what passes through?

What else would you recommend Snapchat do to make sure its ad review process does not allow something like this happen again?

Do all companies with ads produced by a third party have an obligation to have a review process to filter out certain advertisements?

Is the public outrage misguided in its focus on Snapchat? Should it be focused on Would You Rather? for creating the content?

Recently I read an article about how researchers from tech firms CereProc and ROTHCO and the Times of London collaborated to recreate a speech by John F. Kennedy that he never made.  The speech was the speech he would have given at the Dallas Trade Mart on the day that he was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and entirely created using artificial intelligence.  

55 years after he was killed, JFK gives his final speech https://t.co/zjKYu2rKaT pic.twitter.com/9k4TFVE00z

— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) March 16, 2018

(note: to watch the full video you will need to make an account on the Timesoflondon.co.uk)

According to the article, ROTHCO and CereProc used old recordings from JFK’s speeches to build a database of the best quality sound bites cross-referenced with written speeches which an algorithm then stitched together words in away that was reminiscent of his oratorical style.  Over two months, the algorithm “learned” JFK’s verbal tics and quirks and was able to successfully replicate the 21 minute speech in full.

As holograms, face-mapping and machine learning increasingly become more popular as a method of bringing back the deceased, this raises ethical implications around the rights of publicity.  In the weeks leading up to the 2018 Super Bowl, there were rumors that Justin Timberlake planned to use a hologram of Prince in his tribute to the late artist. While the rumors proved to be untrue, it sparked a backlash since Prince himself referred to the technology as “demonic” and his ex-fiancee claimed he would have never agreed.  In this same vein, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg performed with a hologram of the late Tupac at Coachella in 2012 which more or less “broke the internet”:

But, the question remains: is it ethical to use these recreations for marketing purposes? Legally speaking, only some states have laws around rights of publicity (i.e. owning the rights to your likeness) and even fewer states have laws that extend posthumously.  California does but in order to benefit from those rights you have to be a legal resident there at the time of death. Marilyn Monroe’s estate tried to claim she was a CA resident when she died but a court ruled she lived in New York and thus her image is now unprotected and widely used.  Relatedly, Carrie Fisher will be edited into the next Star Wars movie following her sudden death in December 2016 (however this one is with her permission).

Of course, as the recreation technology gets better, marketers are starting to take notice.  Paul Muratore, CEO of Talent Partners, a talent and production support services firm, estimates that the marketing, licensing and commercial around the use of dead celebrities is already a $3 billion enterprise.  It’s not as easy as it sounds, though. The agency has to track down the person authorized to negotiate, several layers of rights have to be cleared, licensing fees get very expensive very quickly and if you go wrong somewhere in the process, you could open yourself up to a lawsuit or even worse: Internet scorn.  We have already seen the backlash that resulted when Dodge used a Martin Luther King Jr. speech in their Super Bowl commercial this year. If fans don’t believe the artist would have endorsed the product or agreed to be a part of the brand when alive, they may feel the ad is offensive.

As marketers, it is incumbent on us to proceed with caution when looking to use dead celebrities in our ads.  There are times when it makes sense and is appropriate and times where it definitely is not.

References

Ehrenkramz, M. (2018, March 16). When You Can Make ‘JFK’ Say Anything, What’s Stopping Him From Selling Doritos?. Gizmodo.  Retrieved from www.gizmodo.com

Muratore, P. (2014, April 2). Ad People, Don’t Get Stiffed by Dead Celebrities. AdAge. Retrieved from www.adage.com

Rogan, A. (2018, March 15). JFK video: Hear Kennedy’s ‘lost’ Dallas speech in his own voice. The Times. Retrieved from www.thetimes.co.uk

I assume that most of us reading this are currently working on big integrated marketing campaigns for big companies in our 541 sections. These campaigns might involve television ads, billboards, a social media presence, the whole enchilada — but they’re all theoretical, a class assignment with pretend money on the line. However, I recently witnessed an extremely successful and extremely small-scale integrated marketing campaign that any of us could pull off in our real lives, and I think it makes an interesting case study.

I live in Davis, CA, and work at the University of California, Davis. It’s a smallish town, about 60,000 people, a large percent of which are students. About a month and a half ago, I was downtown getting some coffee, and I noticed a flier posted on every street corner. In large, bold font, it read at the top: “PLEASE HELP!“, with a photo of a smiling young girl and her dog below.

Beneath the photo was a short bit of text explaining that the girl is a college student with limited funds but her dog needed surgery soon or might lose the ability to walk, followed by a call to action to please contribute to the girl’s Gofundme campaign.

Because my own dog had a similar problem a few years ago, I knew how expensive that surgery can be and I went home and looked up the Gofundme. The weird thing about the flier was that it didn’t include a URL, it just directed people to search on Gofundme for “Mayhem’s Surgery.” Once I found the page, I understood why — the girl had made a typo and the actual URL was gofundme.com/mayhams-surgery, spelling the dog’s name wrong. I ended up contributing a small amount and promptly forgetting about it.

Within a week or two, though, I started seeing the fliers everywhere. Everywhere there was a flat surface on campus, there was a flier for Mayhem’s surgery. Any street corner within half a mile of campus had a flier posted somewhere. I didn’t count them all, and the girl running the campaign didn’t reply to my email request for an interview, but I estimate she must have put up at least a couple hundred fliers. The example above is one of six I spotted just on my bike ride home a couple days ago, and it’s managed to stay up through several weeks of heavy rain.

I did some math, and students at UCD get 200 free sheets of printing every quarter, but even if she’d already used her 200, it probably only cost her about $20 at $0.10 a page. It took her maybe a full day of wandering around to put all the fliers up, and even if we value her time at a generous $20/hr, that brings the total cost to about $180. Let’s just round it to $200 total (she probably needed to buy tape).

Well, she had a goal of raising $4,000 for the surgery, and with 80 donations in less than two months, she closed the Gofundme after reaching the full amount. That’s about a 2000% return on her investment.

Fliers asking for help have been around for forever, and I’ve seen lots of Gofundme campaigns posted on social media, but I was surprised that this girl was able to raise so much money in so short a time with some pretty basic advertising concepts and online/offline integration. The top donation was $500 and the next four were around $100, with the vast majority smaller donations of $10 or $20, showing that her strategy of blanketing the town in fliers paid off by reaching dozens of people like me who were just going about their days when they saw a photo of a dog and “PLEASE HELP!“.

And for those wondering, Mayhem is currently out of surgery and doing well.

In recent weeks, Snapchat has found itself in hot water with a few celebrities. While this may not seem like a huge issue to most companies, the growing tech app has seen massive losses due to comments made by some of today’s biggest celebrities. Two recent incidents have caused Snap Inc. to lose over $1 billion dollars.

The first incident occurred in mid-Feburary when Kylie Jenner made comments that she did not like the new Snapchat update (Yurieff, 2018). Her simple tweet on the issue is seen here:

This may seem like harmless tweet to some, but this tweet alone caused Snap stock to drop over 6% in one day, bringing the company down $1.3 billion (Yurieff, 2018). Additionally, a petition on change.org was started and garnered over 1.2 million signatures to have the app’s updates reversed (Yurieff, 2018).

While Snapchat has been recovering from this issue, another hotly contested incident occurred this week. See below ad ran on Snapchat’s platform this week:

Many users, including Rihanna, found this post to be wildly offensive considering her violent history with domestic violence and former partner Chris Brown (Valinsky, 2018). The singer was quick to send out a message to her followers explaining the situation and her discontent with the app’s approval of the message. See her below response:

Snapchat did respond to the ad and made two formal apologies to Rihanna and victims of domestic violence (Valinsky, 2018). Many people, including Rihanna however, do not feel that this apology is sufficient as this ad did need to go through a long approval process, yet somehow still made it on the app (Valinsky, 2018). Since this incident and Rihanna’s comments, the company’s stock has dropped nearly $800 million (Valinksky, 2018). Additionally, it is estimated that Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel’s net worth has dropped almost $150 million in just two days (Berg, 2018).

Snapchat is not the only company to face severe financial declines due to celebrity comments, however they are a great example of just how much influence celebrities can have on companies. Our society is one that largely revolves around those in the pop culture spotlight, and this can be seen even in the companies they choose to associate with. Snapchat is learning this the hard way, but other companies should take notes on this in order to avoid the same losses.

References:

Berg, M. (2018, March 17). The Rihanna Effect: Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel’s Net Worth Drops Nearly $150 Million In Two Days. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2018/03/17/the-rihanna-effect-snapchat-ceo-evan-spiegels-net-worth-drops-nearly-150-million-in-two-days/#87dd122ca091

Valinsky, J. (2018, March 16). Snapchat loses $800 million after Rihanna responds to offensive ad. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/16/technology/snapchat-stock-rihanna/index.html

Yurieff, K. (2018, February 23). Snapchat stock loses $1.3 billion after Kylie Jenner tweet. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/22/technology/snapchat-update-kylie-jenner/index.html

Fashion week season, which lasted all over the world, has just concluded. The four major fashion weeks were held in the four fashion capitals: London, Milan, Paris, and New York. New York fashion week was the most crowded one despite that in Paris being the earliest and most coveted event of the year. I love the fashion and passion that fashion insiders and media outlets bring to our living rooms. While most people are always looking forward to seeing fashion celebrity attendees and new brands of clothes, I am most intrigued by the marketing communication concepts and strategies that the brands come up with to make the shows memorable.

Traditionally, the fashion shows have taken a catwalk formation in which tall quintessential girls are strutting back and forward to represent the designs ranging from dresses, bags, shoes, and accessories. Milan and New York fashion weeks were the most memorable since their organizers have learned the art of alluding to their consumers base. Just last year, Alibaba the Chinese E-commerce collaborated with New York fashion week to connect international brands with Chinese consumers (Marketing Staff Writers, 2017). The brands have taken personal responsibility to ensure that they remain at the fore in producing over the top shows.

Brands continue to use traditional marketing and advertising forms such as billboards, television adverts, and print advertisements. However, as the technology continues to become more digital, more and more brands are coming up with smart alternatives to ensure the tech-savvy millennial consumers get their hands on their merchandise. Mobile marketing has been at the forefront in efficiently activating digital marketing in
Fashion Week. Marketers of AccuWeather have extended their reach to New York Fashion week to help the attendees to be on the lookout what weather to expect on the days of the show. Steve Smith, the CEO of AccuWeather, says that this initiative was as a result of increasing their mobile platform to draw designers, editors, and general consumers to their digital platform as a way to reap from mobile-centric activations (Bohannon, n.d.).

Digital marketing has changed the value bestowed on Fashion week and how fashion brands reach their audience. More brands have moved from the traditional fashion week calendar and marketing strategies geared towards selling season apparel. Digital marketing and the use of technology has seen most of the big names in the fashion industry collaborate with other firms to produce noteworthy performances for their attendees (Goldston, 2018). The fusion of tech and fashion has encouraged the growth of smaller brands, giving them a chance to be part of the big boys club. With a low budget, a new entrant can use a digital presentation to increase its global footprint. A digital display gives the designer a chance to work with their limited budget and resources to introduce Fashion week attendees to a glimpse into their growing brand (Ozuem & Azemi, 2017). Bloggers and vloggers share and post the content to social media, giving other consumers back at home a chance to buy into the brands marketing efforts.

                Unlike before where fashion weeks were reserved for the elite, brands have discovered the power of digital marketing through media influencers. In shows, the long-established media outlets are let into the magic, but nowadays, bloggers, vloggers, and other media influences have been given a front seat for the action as well. Social media has brought down the walls of fashion week, and it is only imperative for brands to come up with sustainable marketing tools to ensure that they get value for money.

The new digital marketing has aided brands to come up with collections that are on season immediately. Although digital marketing marks an evolving market structure, it has also been said to create a lot of challenges for major fashion brands such as Vera Wang, a major Player in NYFW (Goldston, 2018). Digital marketing has increased face to face marketing allowing designers of fashion weeks to communicate directly with the press and buyers.

Although the use of technology has improved the marketing strategies and goals of the fashion brands, it has also caused an uproar. The New York Times recently carried the headline “How Smartphones are killing off the fashion show” (Friedman, 2016). Social media and digital marketing strategies have exposed the fashion week to a wild crowd that cannot wait to discover and replicate the designs. As we debate over the importance of the trickling effect of digital marketing in the fashion world, it is important to note that digital marketing holds a lot of power right now. The revolution started with online marketing, and with time, more and more concepts will revolutionize how we consume goods and services. Fashion is one of the industries that have gone through a 360-degree change, and as we go through marketing communication, it is not beyond us to understand that it is here to stay. What do digital marketing tools you think are going to transform our economy? Will they improve or disrupt the industry?

References:

Bohannon, C. (N.d.). Mobile marketing struts through New York Fashion Week. Mobilemarketer.com. Retrieved from https://www.mobilemarketer.com/ex/mobilemarketer/cms/news/strategy/18640.html

Friedman, V. (2016, February 2016). How smartphones are killing off the fashion show. Nytimes.com. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/fashion/new-york-fashion-week-smartphones-killing-off-runway-show.html?_r=0

Goldston, N. (2018). New York fashion week is changing, and this is why it matters in The marketing landscape. Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/njgoldston/2018/02/22/new-york-fashion-week-is-changing-and-this-is-why-it-matters-in-the-marketing-landscape/#11400e2a41ec

Marketing Staff Writers. (2017). Alibaba partners with New York Fashion Week. Marketing Interactive. Retrieved from http://www.marketing-interactive.com/alibaba-partners-with-new-york-fashion-week/

Ozuem, W., & Azemi, Y. (Eds.). (2017). Digital marketing strategies for fashion and luxury brands (1st ed.). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

What does Justin Beiber, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, and Miley Cyrus all have in common besides being current pop music stars? The answer: They all have fan-brands who were nominated in iHeart Radios March 11th/2018 Music Awards for being the loudest, most supportive, and most enthusiastic fans in existence. Wouldn’t you and your company want fans like these? No matter if you are a music band, a record company, or a product brand— from motorcycles to movies to novels to sports teams—you too can create a fan-brand in these seven steps. Read on!  

iHeart Radio held its 2018 Music Awards ceremony this past March 11, 2018 to honor the best songs and artists of 2017 . In addition to recognizing a variety of different artists, iHeart Radio is keeping with the tradition of honoring the most passionate fan-brands in the world today. Some of the top nominees include Justin Beiber fans (called Beliebers), Taylor Swift fans (called Swifties) and Ariana Grande fans (called Arianators).  But what are fan-brands, why they are important, and how can you too create and exploit your very own fan-brand as part of your integrated marketing communication strategy? Read on!

What Are Fan-brands?

According to an article by E-commerce Consulting , a fan-brand is a group of fans who have been affectionately given an identity by the brands they follow. This is not at all a new concept. The Grateful Dead, a jam rock band that formed in 1965, had a fanbase known as “Dead Heads” and Barry Manilow, who released his first record in 1973, called his fanbase “Fanilows.” Today, “Maggots” represent the metal band Slipknot and “Little Monsters” represent pop star Lady Gaga. Even outside of the music business one can find fan-brands. For instance, Star Trek, the science fiction media franchise, has “Trekkies,” Harry Potter, a series of novels, has “Potterheads,”and the Raiders, an NFL sports team, has the “Raider Nation.”

Why Are Fan-brands Important?

John Michael Morgan in his book Brand Against the Machine says that fan-brands are a way to build loyalty and create evangelists who are going to spread the word of mouth about your brand. People have a natural desire to be part of something bigger than themselves, and to feel as though they are part of an elite and exclusive club. Fan-brands allow customers entrance into such a club and an opportunity to socialize with other like-minded club or tribe members as well. When you refer to a fan-brand by name, each member feels as though you are not only communicating to “us” (the tribe as a whole), but to each individual. This builds brand equity. The stronger the bond a customer has with your company, the greater the possibility that fan will be a repeat and ongoing customer for a very long time.

Don’t Confuse Fan-brands with Paid Sponsors

Be clear that fan-brands, though associated with a brand or even named by the brand, are not paid by a brand as sponsors to be fans or to act in a certain way, and thus fan-brands take on somewhat of a separate entity from the brand. So while there may appear to be potential risks involved with creating a fan-brand, such as when they act in a way that does not fit the values of your brand, people will usually understand that the fan-brand is a separate entity. Take for instance, the fans of the Philadelphia Eagles football team. After the Eagles won the 2018 Super Bowl championship, these fans (called “Birds”) went insane and wrecked the city. The Eagles were never blamed for this destruction as it is understood that the fans are a separate entity who have always acted on their free will.

How To Create, Cultivate, and Exploit Your Own Fan-brand

So how do you go about creating your own fan-brand? Well, besides having a quality product that fills an important need in the marketplace and is positioned uniquely from the competition, there are essentially five simple tips to creating and exploiting your very own fan-brand according to both a blog posting by Jackie Huba  and Commerce Consulting. Here’s seven tips offered:

1) Research your fans: Understand what makes your fans tick. What are their demographics (age, gender, ethnicity), psychographics (activities, interests, and opinions), and behavioral characteristics (the attributes they seek in your brand as well as the rate in which they consume your brand)? Note that the greater you understand your fans and communicate with them in a language they understand, and the better you listen to them and show them that you care, the better the chance they will trust you and passionately follow your company for years to come.

2) Name your fans: Find a name that both represents your brand and your fans and that shows affection for them. Take the rock band Kiss for example. Given its heavy metal sound and its rowdy fans who were rumored to have threatened to “attack” any radio station who did not play Kiss’s records, the rock band Kiss named its fans “Kiss Army.” Pop star Lady Gaga is another example. Given her far-out stage antics and her allegiance to those who do not follow the stereo-typical path in life, Lady Gaga called her fans “Little Monsters”

3) Create a language or a symbolic shared meaning. Lady Gaga uses a monster claw hand symbol that specifically is her way (and the fan’s way) of identifying that they are one of the same tribe. Jimmy Buffet fans, called “Parrot Heads,” identify themselves by wearing crazy looking parrot hats. And the jam rock band Phish actually communicates with its “Phans” live in concert by using a musical language they created specifically for the fans. When the band place certain notes and riffs, Phish “Phans” respond in a certain way. By creating shared meaning through symbols, a company essentially gives its fans a secret insider code or language that says, “This is our club.”

4) Create a website dedicated to the fan-brand. Start an official fan-brand website (e.g.,www.kissonline.com/) as well as social media pages on different platforms that allow the fans to interact with each other and engage. Provide special perks on these mediums for the fans that other non-members are not entitled to. By making fans feel special, you’ll create a feeling of exclusivity that can lead to building stronger bonds and greater brand loyalty.

5) Create or sponsor offline fan-brand events: Create exclusive offline events specifically to give fans a way to mingle with you, interact with the brand and to interact with each other. Harley-Davidson Motor Company is the title sponsor of Daytona’s Bike Week held in Daytona, Florida during March of 2018. Star Trek conventions around the country have been drawing devoted Trekkies for years. And Slipknot is known for holding  gatherings where dedicated fans share ideas and information with each other. Typically, thousands of people show up to these events and flood the Internet with pictures and stories of how they engage  the brand. This creates tremendous word of mouth and is a great way to build community around your brand.

6) Utilize the fan brand hashtag in all of your social media posts. When communicating with your fans on social media sites, utilize a uniform hashtag where all of the tribe members can easily search, find, and share content from one and another. By getting fans to interact with other fans online, the family bond has the potential of growing on a global scale. Again, the stronger the bond, the greater the loyalty you’ll get over the long-term.

7. Be Consistent. Finally, when branding your fans, as with all branding, be sure to be consistent and go the long haul. It is important to refer to your fans in all of your communications and engage them in the same way over a significant period of time.

So that’s pretty much it. Whether you are a band, solo artist, manager, record label and really any type of branded product from motorcycles to cars to novels, you too can work at creating a fan-brand by following the above seven  steps. Even if you are just starting out and you don’t have a lot of fans, the attention and exclusivity your customers feel could lead to more and more fans joining the pack. Sure, fan branding will take a lot of time and effort, but as Bieber, Kiss, Swift, Harley Davidson, the Raiders, and many other artists and companies will surely express, the return on investment is worth it!

Bobby Borg is the author of Five Books about the Music Industry: He writes for a variety of blogs including Music Connection Magazine, Sonicbids, and Disc Makers. His Website is www.bobbyborg.com.

Women’s History Month kicked off on Thursday with International Women’s Day on March 8th — a day dedicated to gender equality, parity and women’s rights. To honor and celebrate women all over the world, brands such as Nike, Facebook, McDonald’s, Apple and many more released women empowerment campaigns and products.

Women’s history month originated in 1981 to highlight the contributions of women and events in history and contemporary society. For decades brands have leveraged this celebration to show their commitment to gender equality and to promote themselves by contributing to this celebration. However, this year some brands have been condemned for advertising in a way that’s considered “reductive” and people have turned to social media to express their concerns.

From inspiring to concerning, here’s a look at how some household brands are celebrating #InternationalWomensDay and #WomensHistoryMonth.

Mattel’s Barbie released a new line of dolls called “Inspiring Women” featuring female icons who have moved society by their bravery, activism, and accomplishments. Icons featured include Frida Kahlo, Amelia Earhart, Katherine Johnson and 11 other inspiring women.

Apple created a female empowerment section called “Bold Women”  on iTunes and Apple Music stores making it easy for women to find inspiring content for women by women, including music, movies, TV shows, books, podcasts and more.

Nike aired a new commercial featuring Serena Williams where she speaks about her experience of being criticized for not being “the right kind of woman,” throughout her career. She also shares how she overcame that criticism and how she believes “there’s no wrong way to be a woman.”

https://youtu.be/Ripg_LfJIeM

BrewDog, a craft beer company, released a “beer for girls” called Pink IPA. The company is donating 20 percent of profits to organizations fighting gender inequality.

Facebook released its “Credit Her” campaign which highlights women from past to present who should be credited for their contributions. In addition, Facebook designed and released mobile-friendly women empowerment cards, photo frames, and backgrounds for users to upload and share.

For International Women’s Day, McDonald’s turned its golden arches and logo upside down across its digital and social media channels, supplied 100 restaurants and workers in the U.S. with specially branded garments and flipped its sign from M to W at one franchise in California.

With the national conversation turned movement of #MeToo, there seems to be an even larger focus this year on advocating for gender equality and parity. But is it appropriate for all brands to join in on this conversation and movement? And do you feel brands are doing their due diligence in assessing these campaigns for any disparities?

References

Cohen, D. (2018, March 8). Facebook’s Credit Her Campaign will debut on International
Women’s Day. Retrieved from:
http://www.adweek.com/digital/credit-her-campaign-will-debut-on-international-womens-day/

Detrick, A. (2018, March 5). ‘There’s No Wrong Way to Be a Woman:’ Serena Williams Stars in
Powerful Nike Ad for International Women’s Day. Retrieved from:
http://fortune.com/2018/03/05/serena-williams-nike-oscars/

Johnson, A. (2018, March 7). BRANDS EMBRACE WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH.
Retrieved from: http://www.earnshaws.com/2018/03/blog/brands-embrace-womens-history-month/

Taylor, K. (2018, March 8). McDonald’s is flipping its iconic arches upside down in an
unprecedented statement. Retrieved from:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/310136

Wiener-Bronner, D. (2018, March 8).Why companies are embracing International Women’s Day.
Retrieved from:
http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/08/news/companies/international-womens-day-brands/index.html

Zilman, C. (2018, March 8). For brands celebrating International Women’s Day 2018,
inspirational messages aren’t enough anymore. Retrieved from:
http://fortune.com/2018/03/08/international-womens-day-2018-brands/

Let’s face it, we’ve been completely immersed in the marketing and advertising world the past couple of months. If you’re anything like me, you probably also can’t help but analyze and scrutinize every commercial and advertising you now stumble upon. We are better at identifying the brands’ strategies and whether they are actually successful in implementing them. We’re also very perceptive and attentive to new marketing trends and ideas.

It’s clear that today’s marketing is different than what it used to be ten or twenty years ago. Consumers are drowning in information being thrown at them from all directions and become increasingly numb to everything they see and hear through traditional channels. In paraphrasing the words of Roman Emperor Augustus, I would say, they don’t just want “circuses” any longer, they also want “bread”. And, thus, companies have to deliver that if they want to remain relevant and continue selling their products.

Marketing companies are now concentrating on properly identifying and narrowing their primary target audiences and attempt to reach them through channels hand-picked specifically for these audiences. Obviously, the digital world has taken over and is not going anywhere anytime soon. With that comes the term digital marketing that businesses worldwide have to acknowledge, get comfortable with, and learn how to take advantage of. The reality is that today people spend about twice as much time online as they used to a decade ago. The way consumers shop has also changed drastically. Many of them shop mostly or exclusively online.

The term “digital marketing” is not new and has existing since the invention of pop-up advertising back in the era of AOL and dial-up internet providers. As everything else, digital marketing is evolving. It is evolving even faster today because of how much time we spend browsing the world wide web today. New trends are emerging constantly offering companies technological advancements that guarantee a more integrated experience for consumers and, thus, a promise of a higher visibility for the companies.   

So, the question is, which digital marketing trends will be popular in 2018?

1. More Targeted Ads With a More Specific Purpose.

As already mentioned, today consumers have little patience for annoying ads because of how much advertising they are being bombarded with on a daily basis. Many people are consciously avoiding products and companies that seem to have no respect for their online privacy. Most companies are starting to realize that they have to create a more targeted marketing experience and tailor adverts for specific consumers and audiences that are interested in certain products and services. Today’s marketing is all about personalized connections.

2. Videos On Demand Are In Demand (Live Included!).

In case you haven’t paid attention, video content is taking over the internet. If that doesn’t convince you, here is some statistics:

• YouTube viewers watch a billion hours of videos every day
• Facebook users consume over 8 billion of videos each day
• Over 80% of Twitter’s users watch video content on the website

What’s even more important is the fact that video campaigns can offer huge flexibility to marketers and advertisers because there are many formats available, such as live streaming or 360-degree videos that the audiences seem to be fascinated with.

3. AI and Chatbots.

There is no escaping artificial intelligence in the present era. Without even realizing it we are surrounded by it and have access to it on an everyday basis. Have you used Siri lately? Even if it wasn’t intentional and only because you pushed that one button for too long and she popped up on your screen accidentally? Well, Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s Assistant are clearly showing that chatbots and virtual assistants popularity will continue to rise and that means marketing world will have to adjust to this trend and learn how to use it.

Conversation is natural to humans.Conversation via chatbots can offer brands an ability to interact with consumers that seek information, products, and services, or just want to be entertained.

4. Say it with me, GDPR.

In 2018, the European Union is cracking down on all businesses in the way they are collecting personal data about consumers online. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP) is going into effect on May 25, 2018. In general, the GDRP will give European citizens more control over their personal information because businesses will have to clearly and expressly say when and what data they are trying to collect from consumers. How does that affect us in the United States, you ask? Well, the regulation is applicable to any company located anywhere in the world that is collecting data on European citizens, thus it includes a vast number of American companies. In fact, it appears that American business world is more prepared for this rule to take effect than their European friends. As of today, 84% of American companies are GDPR compliant vs less than 75% of European businesses.

If the business doesn’t comply with the new regulations it will be facing fines up to 4% of global annual turnover or 23 million USD, whichever is greater.

5. SII: Storytelling, Interaction, and Integration.

Marketing has to evolve beyond blog writing, listicles, and random images or videos. With new formats and platforms being developed on an almost daily basis, these methods are becoming outdated and boring. People want to see more personalized and individualized marketing and advertising that caters directly to them and, moreover, is amusing and entertaining enough to capture their attention. People want to see and hear stories. The wide range of technological and digital options available today offers advertisers just that – an opportunity to create interactive, hyper-targeted advertising campaigns that are integrated seamlessly across various digital channels. Advertisers will also have to learn how to deliver what today’s consumers want to see. That is creative content that carries a strong storyline and an inspiring message.    

References:

Brucker, N. (2018, March 06). Four Emerging Digital Marketing Trends To Keep On Your Radar. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/03/06/four-emerging-digital-marketing-trends-to-keep-on-your-radar/3/#2d9f1381c930

Chaffey, D. (2018, January 03). 10 Marketing Trends to act on in 2018. Retrieved from https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/10-marketing-trends/

Kiely, T. (2018, January 12). 5 digital marketing trends that will shape your 2018. Retrieved from http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2018/01/12/5-digital-marketing-trends-will-shape-your-2018

Oldford, S. (2018, March 05). 6 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Explode Your Brand Awareness in 2018. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/309056