Branding: An Intimate Experience

With the popularity of social media – viral marketing campaigns, blogs, twitter, etc – large corporations have the opportunity to listen to their customers and engage on a more personal level. This can lead to more transparency from the company as it communicates with its customers in real language and not through marketing speak.

Can we, as consumers, trust these big brands more because of a switch in tone? Do we assume that what they write on their blogs, what they tweet every hour, or what they tell you in a viral video is genuine rather than thoughtfully constructed and highly produced?

I believe that the even when the tone or the medium of the message adapts to the available technologies, the original positioning is what still shines through. So that positioning needs to be honest and socially aware. If a company enters the social space without knowing what consumers want, and thereby not fully asserting its position in the space, then it needs to be forthright and clear that it is searching to re-establish a vision that can make a difference. Auto companies might be in this position, while they try to gauge how drivers want to see the industry change (or be rebuilt after it’s burned to the ground).

Some of the major brands that are more socially aware have accomplished this by listening to consumers and positioning the brand in a way that will reach their target audience. The Brand Channel noted that, “socially aware brands such as Dove received praise because their marketing campaign “talks to real women and not skinny models.” In the early stages of Dove’s campaign, Brand Channel remarked that, “Dove’s refusal to bow to aesthetic convention is a clever piece of branding, unifying its products around a compelling idea and setting Dove apart from rivals Johnson & Johnson and Nivea.”

With these goals in mind, Dove can easily enter any conversation with a clear statement while still listening to women and adapting to what they need.