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Brand fanatics have always been around. "You've always been able to find customers who love a brand so much they want to tell others and recruit," explains Jackie Huba, a business advisor and co-author (with Ben McConnell) of Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message. "In the past few years these evangelists have become more powerful and measurable. There has been a democratization of technology, the availability of broadband, and the development of social media. Ordinary people will now create content about brands—videos, websites, blogs—for all the world to see. The Internet is the new vehicle for word-of-mouth marketing."
The blogosphere and "tubosphere" are full of these citizen marketers. Type just about any major brand into YouTube's search box and you'll find that someone, somewhere has made a personal commercial or video about it.
Citizen marketers don't just love big brands, either. Coca-Cola's Barq's root beer had its own unofficial—and highly popular—blog, written by an adoring customer. (The blog recently concluded its run.) The decline of Surge led to the SaveSURGE campaign, launched in 2002. SaveSURGE.org unites fans of this caffeinated citrus drink. The site is full of Surge stories, photos, and even a "Surge sightings" page of locations where fans could get the drink (before it was finally ditched by Coca-Cola). "We feel that SURGE is a truly original and amazing drink," the site's FAQ states. "We also feel it was under advertised and supported [sic] by Coke. So we are here to show everybody that SURGE still has fans and to provide other fans with a chance to hear what's going on in the world of SURGE."
In a fascinating twist to this particular story, when Coke launched Surge's replacement brand—Vault—in 2005, the Surge fans liked it. They formed a new community: VaultKicks.
Lunatics Running the Brand Asylum?
But do such sites really make a difference, or are they just a safe place for people to go and meet other fanatics? "I would say they are the best form of marketing," Huba argues. "When it comes to buying decisions, word of mouth is the best form of media. People are saturated with marketing—they don't believe it anymore. Customers are much more influential."
"We've lost trust in companies," agrees John Moore, a marketing consultant, "but we still trust our friends—they are good people with good character. If they say they love something, we listen to them."
Online personalities can quickly become virtual friends. "People say they don't know bloggers, but it is a question of authority and authenticity," Huba says. "Bloggers gain a reputation, they build up relationships. You realize these are real people and take their opinion highly. In the past it was your friend [whom you trusted], but these folks start to become friends too.
"Word-of-mouth marketing is more effective and leads to higher revenue growth," she continues. "It is a driver of business. However, it also means you have to think differently. Traditionally marketing has been all about controlling the message. Now you don't have control—you can't just go and make an ad, you have to embrace these folks."
Let the public create the ads? That sounds pretty scary when the first law of marketing says "stay on brand." Consumers haven't read the brand's guidelines—and how do they know what the message is?
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The Diet Coke and Mentos "eruption" craze reveals different ways that companies react to citizen marketers. "We are tickled pink by it," a spokesperson for Mentos said. Coke, meanwhile, turned sour. Its defensiveness and superior tone—a spokesperson said, "We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try experiments with it"—suggest that, for a while at least, Coke had lost control of the brand. The message had momentarily moved, but Coke would not budge.
"Companies are realizing they are not all-powerful," says Paul Williams. "They realize people talk to [other] people and [brands] need to acknowledge word of mouth—[and that] customers are not dumb users—and engage with the consumer marketers. Give them tools, let them behind the scenes, and let them talk."
Coca-Cola certainly achieved this with Vault, and did not ignore the SaveSurge fans. Indeed, the launch of a new product, Vault Red Blitz, was first announced on the VaultKicks fansite.
Huba points to several brands that have developed relationships, building communities and providing tools and resources for their fans. Fiskars, for example, has its Fisk-A-Teers, while Maker's Mark bourbon has an army of ambassadors.
"People who love the product are usually on brand. When you try to craft a brand and the brand is not lived and is not reality, then consumers catch on," says Huba. "[Users] live their brand; there's no need to control it, they just live it.
"Control is out of control," she continues. "The notion of control is over. Your brand has to be out in the open."
Sometimes, though, consumers "stay on brand"—but not in a way that the brand would prefer. The "make your own commercial" website for the Chevy Tahoe was hijacked by the anti-SUV lobby and populated by some fairly derogatory clips.
It is mistakes like this that make Andrew Benett, chief strategy officer at Euro RSCG Worldwide, think twice. "There is lots of talk about consumers owning the brand—give control to consumers and you'll create loyalty," he says. "This is not our belief. Yes, engage consumers, but you cannot yield control. There is no conclusive evidence for or against consumers having control—social networking is too young. We visualize two overlapping circles. One circle is what consumers want to talk about, the other is what the brand wants to talk about. Where they overlap is where consumer evangelism takes off.
"What brands must do is generate conversational currency, make things interesting. They must navigate the new order and understand where consumers want them to play."
Huba agrees that the worst thing to do is ignore this new order—it is too powerful a force and needs to be turned to good. She recommends companies embrace these people, give them the tools to connect with each other and—most of all—let them talk, talk, talk.
[18-Jun-2007]
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Edwin Colyer is a science and technology writer based in Manchester, UK.
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Regarding Bennet's comment: "We visualize two overlapping circles. One circle is what consumers want to talk about, the other is what the brand wants to talk about. Where they overlap is where consumer evangelism takes off. "
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