Marketing Communications: How Are They Changing Corporate Marketing?

http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_marketing/marketing-communications/Cluetrainmarketing-approach-better-than-corporate-fa%C3%A7ade-2 7 ! 3.htm

Marketing Communications: While the Internet keep growing at a frantic pace, "2.0" becomes a commodity word, active blogs are tens of millions, and U ! "#ser$ generated content% is being adopted with enth#siasm by advertising agencies, a growing discrepancy grows everyday more evident between many a company corporate image, the &sparkling' brand marketed on media and in interviews, and the act#al company face and behavior in the cold reality, as for when anyone m#st interact with it to simply ask for a ref#nd, a piece of information or for a s#bstit#tion. (ften s#ch discrepancies e)ceeds by far the most creative imagination.

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On television, in the press, inside magazine reviews and ads yo#r company appears like a priceless chocolate candy, coveted and wished from all those high #ps. In all of yo#r company official statements, inside ads and press releases, yo#r company transpires a professional, sleek and competent look from all pores. In fact, yo#r whole comm#nication strategy is based #pon the creation of a glamoro#s sparkling fa+ade which p#shes and reinforces the idea that yo#r company and prod#cts are really the best. ,#t in the real world, the &faade', the pop#lar, high$profile brand yo# have b#ilt so far, is starting to collapse. Increasingly with -okes and f#nny stories told by yo#r employees, then on blog posts and on the faces of yo#r colleag#es and c#stomers, the people yo# know have been attempting to comm#nicate to yo# that something ma-or has changed, and that yo# have not reali.ed it yet. /nd yo#r brand, from an invincible fortress has come to look like a castle cards ready to cr#mble at the first g#st of wind. Why0 The answers are all around you!

a) Consumers Are Not a Passive Audience Anymore

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Once upon a time, when mass media where the tr#e and only owners of the marketplace and television was the main channel to promote and market new prod#cts and services, cons#mers were treated like half$intelligent kids to whom to provide advices and #sef#l tips. 1oday, those same kids, have grown #p. 1hey talk among themselves on 2kype and tell each other which and where to b#y the latest gi.mo. These guys uncover products defects and idiosyncrasies before the very companies that make them and they can often create complementary prod#cts, tools and services that make yo#r own prod#ct more #sef#l and reliable.

1oday, those very same d#mb kids talk and comm#nicate non$stop on channels and thro#gh networks that no corporation can monitor, while sharing with no censorship what really appeals to them and what not. 1hey are the one doing real marketing, the one based on word of mo#th and on the val#e and credibility of a tr#sted friend3s opinion. 1hey do it second by second via email, chat and tho#gh all of the ma-or online social networks.

b) rom Consumer to Marketing Agents

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Those people we once called consumers are nowadays active individ#als, who are #p$to$date with the news, keep themselves well informed and are very aware of the choices they make. 1hese former cons#mers are also able to compare prod#cts and different brands, and to eval#ate different services witho#t #sing cost as the only comparison criteria. 6rom passive receivers of the marketing and propaganda messages yo# have been sending down to them via traditional television and the press, these cons#mers have rapidly become ind#stry commenters, reviewers, recommenders and tr#sted eval#ators. It is thanks to them that some of yo#r prod#cts are a splashing s#ccess while some others have been rapidly called back even after yo# having spent a m#lti$million advertising campaign on them. It is these very people who more and more fre7#ently let their key choices be g#ided by ecological, social and comm#nity interests and not only by their own private interests. Remember: 1hey are the ones that create new trends and who determine the s#ccess or oblivion of yo#r prod#cts.

c) Media Have Changed

The age in which you utilized top$down mass$media comm#nication approaches, while leveraging the lowest common denominator to reach the largest si.ed a#dience possible, is over. Today new media come from below... from the roots. 1hese new media are calledblogs, wikis, 822, podcasting tools, web radio and live video streaming... they can do most anything the ma-or networks can do witho#t the h#ge costs and the compromises that these carried with them. Unless yo#r target a#dience is e)cl#sively made #p of people that follow only mainstream media, yo# will have soon to face these g#ys too.

d) Marketing: P!"H #s $ead% &ong &i'e to P!&&

The age of interruptive, hammering and distracting advertising, the age of 9U2:, which often creates artificial needs to be satisfied with new commercial prod#cts and spends millions of massive marketing campaigns has already passed its point of ma)im#m profitability. 1he new approach to effective marketing today is called 9U;;, and it is characteri.ed by a marketplace in which are the individ#als themselves who chose and select the prod#cts and services that best match their needs and re7#irements. It is them, the former cons#mers, who now do not hesitate to independently seek information and references abo#t the prod#cts they want before b#ying them.

Today, notwithstanding how #nreal this may appear to be, there are already tho#sands of companies, which by responding to their c#stomers in a timely and friendly way, sell and make a profit online witho#t doing any traditional advertising at all. When yo# have a 7#ality prod#ct, keeping a marketing "fa+ade" between yo# and yo#r c#stomers is completely #seless. /nd if it is tr#e that the new !l#etrain marketing paradigm is so deeply different and alien to o#r present$day marketing comm#nication approaches, it is reasonable to think that also within yo#r company the re7#ired transformation and changes to get on the right comm#nication track for the f#t#re is not an easy or painless one. If yo# are a marketing manager, here is my ten$step form#la on how yo# can start taking down that damn corporate fa+ade to b#ild a new company identity in which employees and c#stomers identify themselves.

e) (ive a ace to )our Company

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how us your face! 2top hiding behind instit#tional profiles that do not show yo#r real face nor what yo#r real responsibilities are. 2how #s the faces of the people that are working with yo#. 2how #s why these people have chosen to work with yo# and what they love to do in their eight$ho#r day shifts.

') (ive a *oice to )our Team+mates

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Make them speak, honor their contribution! In yo#r advertising campaigns yo# talk so pro#dly abo#t giving voice to #s small g#ys, why do yo# then treat yo#r employees like slaves. :ow do yo# think they can marry yo#r corporate mission #nless yo# first marry their ca#ses too0 (pen a blog to each one of them and let them share their fr#strations and victories. ;et them share and p#blic their needs and tasks, as to allow yo#r network of c#stomers, s#ppliers and partners to provide val#able s#ggestions and assistance when possible.

g) &isten to )our C,ients

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"everage your customers# comments and ideas to contin#ally improve and refine yo#r prod#cts. Use blogs, wikis and for#ms to comm#nicate and interact with them. ;imit restrictions and increase the spaces for p#blic interaction. 9#t yo#r staff in the condition to have a conversation with yo#r c#stomers and to be able to reply p#blicly to the 7#estions they s#bmit. The more shared and open conversations. between yo#r company and yo#r c#stomers, the smaller the needs for c#stomer assistance staff.

h) Ta,k in irst Person

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tart to communicate #sing the first sing#lar person. 2top being vag#e and stop #sing the &we' when needing to mention anything relevant. (pen a blog, b#t do not hire someone to write on it in yo#r place. It is yo# who we want to listen to.

i) Participate

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"et your voice be heard on the main corporate blog of yo#r company. 9lace comments on articles that do talk abo#t important iss#es and respond back on posts that call or reference yo#. Write sometimes things that yo# feel strongly and passionately abo#t.

,) "hare -e'ore Asking

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Make sure that the web sites, blogs and the other o#tlets that yo#r company #tili.es to comm#nicate are tr#ly information rich and #sef#l. If they are only static broch#reware, it is time to change as people will not tr#st companies that have no ability to comm#nicate witho#t p#tting #p another fake broch#re. Walk the e)tra mile and offer val#able contents and services for free? gain the respect and tr#stworthiness of yo#r potential f#t#re c#stomers.

m) -ui,d a Community

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!reate an online space where all of yo#r c#stomers can freely meet and share their e)periences with yo#r prod#cts and services. ;everage yo#r e)isting services to create meeting points, sharing ven#es and creative brainstorming ro#ndtables that wo#ld otherwise remain #ndergro#nd.

n) Acknow,edge )our Mistakes

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Immediately acknowledge yo#r mistakes. 9#blicly. >o always something tangible to repair or compensate the damage created. ,y doing that and by making honesty and transparency yo#r key assets yo# are actively comm#nicating to yo#r potential c#stomers that yo# and yo#r company have abandoned the fake fa+ade in favo#r of a direct, two$way open conversation.

o) -e indab,e% Traceab,e

Make yourself and your company findable online while mastering the ability to provide hype$free and #sef#l information on all yo#r prod#cts and services. 1raditionally identified as 2A= or &search engine marketing', this area of knowledge foc#ses on optimi.ing yo#r site architect#re, layo#t and contents to make yo#r company prod#cts easily fo#nd on ma-or search engines. /s s#ch, 2A= and 2A( represent a critical and vital know$how for any company desiring to reach the once$ d#mb kids we enco#ntered early on.

p) "uck% $on.t "/uee0e

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Change gear! 2tart to know better yo#r c#stomersBtake interest in themB create spaces and opport#nities for those who want to s#pport yo#B hono#r yo#r c#stomers, celebrate yo#r collaborators, and if yo# are smart, let them have f#n together. Invite periodically yo#r largest c#stomers and make them participate in defining yo#r company f#t#re opport#nities. In the age of blogs, of bottom$#p marketing and social networks yo#r c#stomers have become a #ni7#e asset to leverage, not another opport#nity to &s7#ee.e'C

Additiona, 1esources
If yo# want to know more abo#t effective comm#nication, get a look at the following links:

!orporate !omm#nications: !ompany Websites /s !onversational =arketplace =eeting ro#nds =arketing !omm#nications 6#t#re: 1he 1wilight (f Interr#ption, 1he >awn (f Angagement =arketing 1he =yth (f ,randed !ontent ,rands /re Inside$(#t, User A)perience Is (#tside$In =arketing ,#.. Is / !onversation /nd ,logs /re Its 4oices: 1he !onversation Is (n User A)perience >esign: 1he Importance (f / reat Anding lobal

2ocial @etwork =arketing =ay :elp 1#rn !#stomers Into ,rand /dvocates: 9opstick (#tb#rst