To be clear, we’ve heard ‘it’
called 360˚, integrated, through-the-line (TTL) marketing and numerous other
terms. Whatever you call ‘it’ - it
builds and adopts cross-channel tactics based upon user behavior, context and
reaction to past content and consistently delivers the most compelling message
(and experience) to each customer at the perfect moment through the perfect
channel – across inbound and outbound, online and offline, or traditional or
emerging.
As tactics rise and fall,
a more sophisticated approach is emerging. Instead of thinking tactic by tactic, marketers are
beginning to think strategically across three major areas of social content: owned (what they create), earned (what
customers create), and paid (what marketers spend money for.)
OWNED
Media, content, and
channels that the company directly delivers, has control over, or owns. For example:
- Traditional – Direct Mail (DM), call center, branch/store, ATM, Kiosk/POS
- Digital – Email, website, microsites, blog, Facebook.
EARNED
Media, content, and
channels delivered through a 3rd Party without exchange of payment. While your control factor is low,
credibility is high. Examples
include:
- Traditional – Public Relations, generated new, analyst coverage.
- Digital – Twitter, Blogs, Product Reviews
PAID
The most familiar terrain
for most marketers; this is media, content, and channels that are delivered
through a 3rd party or intermediary in exchange for payment. For example:
- Traditional – TV, Radio, Print, Out-of-home (OOH)
- Digital – Display ads, PPC, Sponsored Content.
What emerges is a
non-linear, integrated, interactive, and immersive (platform-agnostic) approach
to marketing that is driven by real-time data and intelligence.
ACTION
Our chief task as
Marketers, both internally and externally, is therefore to get people to engage
with and be active participants (i.e. play, create, and share) in our brand
story. Interacting effectively
with customers in the digital era has implications beyond marketing products
and services. Customers can now find out where and how a company makes its
products; how it treats its employees, retired workers and suppliers; how much
it pays its top executives; how seriously it takes its environmental
responsibilities and the like. This knowledge can affect their buying
decisions. Each company has a corporate ‘character’ or ‘personae’ – the
differentiating attributes that make it a distinct enterprise. In other words,
what an organization stands for is as important as what it sells.
Savvy marketers therefore
need to focus on relationships, not just transactions. They need to become
change “agents”, drive innovation, push their companies to reboot, and teach our
peers how to listen and how to talk to customers.
SERVICES
To help CMO’s facilitate this
task, Goodbuzz
Inc. has partnered with (Toronto-based) Brand Strategy think-tank LEVEL 5 to capitalize on their world-class
proprietary Brand DNA Mapping. We
have additionally partnered with (New York City-based) Buyology Inc.
to utilize their MindLink™ measurement and analytics platform for understanding
brand relationships. From this mapping, Goodbuzz articulates a comprehensive
social brand ‘character’ or ‘personae’ that acts as a template for all partners
when engaging along participatory channels.
To further investigate
this mapping and articulation process, please contact us directly.
