subject: Brand Consultancy: Art or Science? [print this page] Brand Consultancy: Art or Science? Brand Consultancy: Art or Science?
The evolution of online marketing is taking place at a rapid rate. It seems the field changes almost overnight at times. Just in recent years, the pace of life and business on the internet has sped up at a nearly mind-numbing speed. Marketers and those making spending decisions for public relations budgets have struggled to keep up with the changes. There have been some unexpected twists and turns along the way in the form of some unforeseen new companies and methods. Among these would be Facebook, Flickr and Twitter--ideas that were turned into sucessful companies quite rapidly.
These methods make it easy for those with some natural charisma and personality to spread their sphere of influence over a larger audience even more quickly. These methods of social influence make it easy to gauge who is doing what to influence the audience. Now, some companies who have been able to get somewhat ahead of this curve are joining forces with the personalities to determine what exactly makes them so successful. The cold hard numbers and facts on the printout are no longer enough to base decisions upon. The question now becomes "why" people consume the way they do.
As the general populace grows more familiar with social media, its use spills into more aspects of their lives, including their buying and selling habits. Previous generations may have spoken with a salesman or two. Today's generation talks to dozens of people online before wielding their purchasing power. As more people are tuned into the pros and cons of a specific product via social media interactions, once again, good (products/businesses/etc.) are rewarded with good reviews and interactions while bad are rewarded with dwindling sales, reviews, etc.
The ability to measure this social influence is more than just crunching numbers. It is a combining of all the data via targeting intelligence and brand consultancyin order to get the most return for the investment (ie., the "mini-max" system.....minimum input for maximum output). Companies who can successfully do this will remain successful. Customer service retains its rightful place of importance. Those who treat customers as a valuable asset by providing quality product AND service are rewarded incrementally.
