Time to Walk: Bernice A. King
Where traditional companies push out messages and products, today’s most successful brands pull customers in.
Going beyond social media campaigns and hopes that ads will "go viral", exponential brands weave together the social exchanges and inherent value that already exist for their customers, generating brand gravity and giving people a reason to stay in the loop.
The network effects that make viral content marketing so attractive to companies can be achieved in a more sustainable and authentic way by tending your brand orbit, making spaces and touchpoints that people not only want to spend time in, but will share with their friends. And the exponential growth a strong and reciprocal brand community can generate isn't just the result of customers inviting their friends. A network—or in this case a community—increases in value for everyone with each new member and interaction.
Social exchanges, influence and brand orbit are exponential strategies to drive growth—since they have the potential to bring exponential results that advertising budgets literally cannot buy.
Before the Internet, all media—books, radio, television, film, magazines, and newspapers—were based on a 'one-to-many' communication model.
Messages were designed for wide audiences and went in one direction only: out.
The publishers and reporters didn’t know when or if you were reading the morning newspaper. When you talked back at the TV news, the broadcaster couldn’t hear you.
In the one-to-many model, everyone is viewed as a potential consumer—of information, entertainment, products, and services.
When the Internet came along, everyone got the ability to broadcast. Brands discovered that their 'audiences' were no longer only on the receiving end of information and content. Suddenly, anyone could comment on a news story—or publish their own—in public or widely-accessible channels.
Social media changed the game again. One-to-many became many-to-many.
Now, people can talk to each other in the same channels that brands are using to push their messages. Audiences have become communities, and the Internet is full of people making connections and exchanging value with each other.
Mass communication has become mass collaboration. Consumers have become co-creators.
Digital communication has brought about the proliferation of channels, the fragmentation of audiences, and the rising importance of influencers, peer reviews, and word of mouth.
We've also seen the devaluation of brands and increased commodification of products through online platforms like Amazon, where people will choose a brand they’ve never heard of with 1,000 five-star reviews over a known brand with none.
All of this makes it harder and harder for brands with a traditional marketing mindset to cut through the noise of the marketplace. The result? Declining loyalty and a lack of differentiation.
Efforts to improve customer experience don't necessarily generate the kind of loyalty and differentiation companies are looking for anymore. That's because they’re still focused on transactions rather than relationships.
Widely used models for customer journeys and sales are all about leading up to and repeating the moment of purchase. But to the customer, buying something is not the focus of the experience. At the very least, a purchase is just a step towards the customer's end goal of using the product or service.
The reality is that relationships between people and brands take place in a much larger social and relational context than many companies realize. Given comparable options, customers will choose a brand they feel a connection with. Often this connection is related to a sense of Shared Purpose or values.
In the evolution of its brand message, beauty and personal care retailer Sephora shows a progression in thinking from transaction to relationship, and from purchase to purpose.
In its early years, Sephora positioned itself as “The Beauty Authority,” focusing on its expertise in helping customers purchase and use beauty products.
This message evolved into "Transforming Beauty” and “Beauty Together,” which brought Sephora and its customers together in a conversation about beauty itself. This also connected Sephora to a larger social movement to question and re-invent beauty standards to be more inclusive and accessible to everyone.
Most recently, Sephora's message is “Be Fearless,” which expands the Shared Purpose beyond beauty to invoke a courageous way of being in the world.
Most companies focus on communicating to persuade customers and promote products. This is the mindset behind push marketing.
Some companies have also begun to listen and learn from the market, or from customers directly.
But today, the most powerful influence is what people say to each other—how your customers connect and collaborate with each other.
To create engagement in a many-to-many world, find ways to enable and empower connections between customers.
We often talk about a customer’s relationship with a brand. Instead, think of the brand itself as a relationship.
The default brand relationship is Producer:Consumer or Buyer:Seller. These relationships are one-directional and asymmetrical. The company produces the product or service, and the customer consumes it.
Today’s brand innovators are creating relationships beyond Buyer:Seller—ones that are more collaborative and reciprocal.
EXAMPLE
All these relationships are more reciprocal, symmetrical and personal than Producer:Consumer.
Brand gravity forms around Shared Purpose, which is the larger intention that you and all your stakeholders are working toward together.
People don’t just want to be passive members of an audience. They want to be a part of something, to belong, influence, and engage.
Feeling good about your company's purpose is also not enough to create an authentic connection. Customers want to be in a relationship with brands whose purpose is theirs too. Shared Purpose is what your company does with other players—including customers—not just what it sells to or does for them.
Shared Purpose can shift the relationship between you and your customers from Producer:Consumer to Co-Creators.
If you want to learn more about Shared Purpose, you can read about it in our guidebook on narrative.
Rural communities in the United States have a tradition of communal building called a "barn raising". When someone needs a new barn or house, they just gather as a community with their skills and tools and make a building together.
People have a natural tendency to look to each other for advice and help. Digital technology has given people the tools to build their own “barns" online, from shared resources to communities of mutual interest.
Wherever your stakeholders are coming together as a community is an opportunity for you to strengthen relationships with and among them.
How do you ‘market’ to a barn raising? By serving the community. Making lunch. Sharpening tools. Lending a hand.
List your company’s key marketing strategies and initiatives. For each, place it on the spectrum from push to pull. Most companies tend to rely more on either push or pull strategies. Where do your company’s strategies fall on that spectrum?
