It’s offical, social media is taking over the world. I had blogged about this back in the fall on my company blog when this article came out in the Harvard Review and caused me to really grasp what is happening to marketing this today. It’s still one of my favorite topics so I thought I should repost it here.
Social media has opened new marketing and advertising avenues that have companies everywhere scrambling to either become a part of it or figure out how to restructure in order to accommodate it. If that isn’t enough, it is now destroying our clear marketing understanding completely. But this is not a negative thing, in fact if understood, may lead us into an entirely new way of thinking which could be exactly what some of our brands need.
Traditionally, the process of customer product consideration to product purchasing has been often diagrammed in the shape of a funnel. For example, when buying a new computer, a customer would normally start out by thinking of many different kinds and brands of computers they could buy in the awareness stage. That ring then narrows as the customer picks out the ones they like in the interest stage. That is further narrowed as a customer finds the one or two they really want in the desire stage and will then lead to a purchase in the action stage.
But then social media showed up and squashed that diagram completely according to David C. Edelman in “Branding in the Digital Age – “You’re spending your money in all the wrong places” –Harvard Business Review.
Now when a customer considers a brand, they already have ideas and opinions about certain ones based off of what they have heard or read reviews about online. So the traditional funnel becomes oddly misshapen to look a little more like and egg than a funnel…
But the key component is not the shape of the diagram here, but the importance of what happens after a customer buys your product. It is now more than ever EXTREMELY important that your customer has not only bought your product but that you have done everything you can to make sure they are enjoying it, feel a bond to it, and address any areas where there may be discontent.
So normally, marketers will spend their budgets on the top portion of the funnel: i.e. fancy banner ads, window displays, and mailings when they more important piece of the diagram is what happens with the customer relationship once the product is bought. Social media now allows customers to complain about that product if they are not happy or write a bad review. It also lets customers “like” their product and TELL THEIR FRIENDS TO GET ONE. That is the word of mouth that is most important and more than we ever realized it could be.
“In many categories the single most powerful impetus to buy is someone else’s advocacy. Yet marketers focus on media spend (principally advertising) rather than driving on advocacy.” – David C. Edelman
We market and push our brands out to our lists and audiences spending on marketing the concept only. This is 100% important don’t get me wrong, but when it comes to getting new customers I believe it is much more successful to wait on your existing audience’s experience hand and foot so that they (with the direct contacts to the industry) can go back to the office and their colleagues and say “hey, this is a great product, you should try it.” Or refer the product/brand to other acquaintances in the industry.
Setting up your social media accounts to make sure your customers are happy everywhere they are is more than necessary now. Make sure you are tailoring to your customers because they are your biggest advertisers. SO squash your funnel thinking and start socializing! (And read that Harvard Business Review article, its great: http://hbr.org/2010/12/branding-in-the-digital-age/ar/1)
-MB
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