“What we really need is a mind-set shift…that will make us relevant for today’s consumers.  From ‘telling and selling’ to building relationships.” – Jim Stengel, Former P&G CMO at 2007 AAAA Conference

One of the most glamorous parts of a Brand Manager’s job has always been creating television advertising.  In fact, it ranks up there as one of the top reasons many became marketers in the first part.  After all, creating a television advertising campaign was something you could be proud of.  It was something that others would see and congratulate you about.  It was the part of your job that your mother would actually understand.  And arguably most importantly, creating a breakthrough advertising campaign was the single best way to grow your business.  If you could orchestrate an effective advertising campaign in the hearts and minds of your consumers, you could guarantee your brand success for years to come.

Recognizing the power of advertising campaigns, Bob Garfield and the folks at Advertising Age published a list of the Top 100 Advertising Campaigns of the 20^th Century.  In doing so, they used criteria that included:

1. If it was a watershed, discernibly changing the culture of advertising or the popular culture as a whole.
2. If it itself was credited with creating a category, or if by its efforts a brand became entrenched in its category as No. 1.
3. If it was simply unforgettable.

The list included such memorable campaigns as Nike “Just Do It” (#4), DeBeers “A Diamond is Forever (#6) and Burger King “Have It Your Way” (#24).  Interestingly though, only three of the campaigns in the Top 100 were created after 1990 (Got Milk, This is SportsCenter and Coca-Cola’s Always).

Even in 1999, this should have been a sign that times were changing.

Consumers were growing tired of fancy TV advertising campaigns and were beginning to tune them out even years before DVR’s started to penetrate households.  So while the leading advertising publication was celebrating the past, consumers were starting to look towards the future.  The glitz and glamour of orchestrating traditional advertising campaigns was starting to tarnish.

“Though consumers may be adept at tuning out traditional, top-down marketing messages, they’re proactively using technology to conduct their own brand research to decide whether or not to pursue a relationship…In addition, whether spurred by a user review, a Google search, a brand site or a mobile application, technology has created multiple entry points to engage with a brand. And although it may be hard for marketers to predict that entry point, it’s a safe bet the interaction will be digital. In fact, consumers’ first interactions with brands are commonly through digital technology.” – Bob Greenberg, AdWeek

If the time of orchestrating carefully managed advertising campaigns is coming to an end, what will fill the void?  As I’ve written before, the answer of course is digital and the ability it creates to facilitate conversations and community.  In the new world, Brand Managers will play the role of a moderator in the brand’s community.  These communities will help us co-create our brands while we incorporate their voices into brand-building activities to communicate a balance of performance and emotional attributes.

“Brands have to look at themselves as offering a service to consumers. What you do as a brand is going to be more important than what you say. In the world of Mad Men, the brands were the ones that told the stories about themselves. In this world, the best brands let the consumers tell the stories—and they talk back.” Nigel Morris, CEO, Isobar

A change in who tells the story

For the past 65 years, brands controlled the storytelling.  It was easy to push messages to people because we had a captive audience sitting in front of the TV.  And people put up with our commercial interruptions because in return they received entertainment.  But now, thanks to technology, consumers have taken back control and they are the ones telling the stories about our brands.  A new breed of Brand Managers recognize this fundamental shift and instead of fighting it, they embrace it.  They are joining in the conversations and using those conversations as the foundation for a community around their brand.

This requires a different skill set for today’s Brand Manager.  In the old world, we were trained on managing our agencies, writing creative briefs and evaluating communication ideas (ie TV spots & print ads).  In other words, we were really good at telling other people what to do.  But thanks to the power shift driven by digital, we need to stop talking and start listening.  And once we have learned how to listen, we need to strike up a conversation.  The shift is going to be in how we have that conversation.  We can’t show up at the party and just talk about ourselves and why we are special.  Instead, we need to let consumers talk about what they like and express their feelings.  Even better, we need to let consumers tell each other what they think without us interrupting (take a look at how Zappos uses Get Satisfaction for a good example).

The story they tell each other will be more credible and more believable than any story we could ever hope to tell them through advertising.

Take for instance the case of Innocent, makers of what they call “little tasty drinks.”  This is a company that is built upon the concept of facilitating conversations and community with their consumers.  As they tell the story of their founding:

“In the summer of 1998 when we had developed our first smoothie recipes but were still nervous about giving up our proper jobs, we bought £500 worth of fruit, turned it into smoothies and sold them from a stall at a little music festival in London. We put up a big sign saying ‘Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?‘ and put out a bin saying ‘YES’ and a bin saying ‘NO’ and asked people to put the empty bottle in the right bin. At the end of the weekend the ‘YES’ bin was full so we went in the next day and resigned.”

Since that fateful weekend in 1998, Innocent has continued to make their consumers feel as if they have a vested interest in the company.  In fact, Innocent does everything they can to make people feel like employees of the company rather than just consumers of the products.  Take for instance these examples of Innocent facilitating conversation and communition:

• Every year Innocent hosts an AGM (known as an Annual General Meeting to big companies…or A Grown-Up Meeting to Innocent fans).  At the AGM’s, hundreds of passionate Innocent fans have the chance to learn more about life at the company headquarters.  They spend the day talking about the business, letting the attendees vote on recipes to launch and even answering tough questions about carbon footprint.  At the end, the AGM is a celebration of the Innocent community.
• In December 2008 the company enrolled the “wisdom of the crowds” in their traditional” advertising when they reached out to their fans through the Innocent News e-mail newsletter.  In the newsletter, Innocent asked fans to look at rough versions of ads and “Vote for your favourite, or tell us that you think they’re all rubbish and that we should do something with a dog dressed up as a sailor on a trapeze.”

But have these efforts to build community translated into a successful company?  Well in 2008, the company was selling over 2 million smoothies a week and had a 72 percent market share (according to IRI in August 2008).  Sounds like a brand can succeed without orchestrating expensive advertising campaigns.

Innocent is just one of many companies leading the change in how Brand Managers need to think about building brands.  The fact is that all of us need to understand that building a successful brand in today’s world means playing by a different set of rules.  It requires us to embrace facilitating conversations and community like never before.  It is a change that won’t be easy for many, but will be necessary for all.

When Piers Fawkes at PSFK writes a post entitled “How Long Can P&G Last“, you know it is going to catch my attention. Piers drives a very interesting question when he writes:

More and more consumers appear to be attracted to ‘real’ brands – brands with soul, history and substance – brands like Innocent Drinks or Method soap. These brands live because they reflect the values of the management and staff and the transparency generated by the web helps fuel the love of them.

Meanwhile over at P&G and Unilever brands appear to still be run from brand books by an army of brand managers who aren’t connected with the values each brand is supposed to contain. They sell faux brands that were created in an age of control – control of media and message.

Pretty bold statements to challenge the company that built the concept of Branding and Brand Management over 75 years ago. But you know what,

I agree with his stance completely

As I write about “Brands I Love“, I am actually writing about many of the concepts that Piers references. Brands like Method, Innocent Drinks and Help Remedies are real brands that mean something more because they have a story behind them. The love consumers have for theses brands is the same love the company employees have for the brands. They were able to do this because they started small and they started from scratch. They were able to build the brands up from the ground up.

But will they be able to hold this special feeling as they grow?

What I question is if these real brands will be able to stay real as they grow. Brands like Snapple had this feeling over a decade ago but they grew too big. They sacrificed their story for growth and greed. Will Method or Innocent suffer the same fate? Will the next generation of managers be able to carry the same ideals as the company founders? After all, look at the stumbles of Apple and Starbucks when they grew too big and the founders had to step aside for more “experienced” management to take the reins. That’s the great business/branding question of the ages and not one with an easy answer.

But back to the point of P&G and Unilever. Can these branding “houses” continue to grow in the face of “real brands”. Of course, they can but it will take a change. …and a big one at that.

Brand Managers and Big Brands have to start thinking differently

The age of control is over for Brand Managers. Our job for tomorrow is to be a Brand Steward. We need to guide our brand but the control needs to be in the hands of our consumers. We need to open the doors of our marketing to be about engaging these fans in a dialogue. We need to create products that make their experiences better. We need to invite them into designing our future product innovations. We need to stop interrupting them and help them start living.

But unfortunately it isn’t that easy

Making this change isn’t simple. Method and Innocent have a strong advantage as private companies. They don’t have shareholders to please and their people usually have skin in the game as part owners of the company. This lets them take more risks…it enables them to think a little differently. But that isnt an excuse…its merely a fact we have to overcome.

And we will overcome it. Maybe the future is in using our logistical power like Piers suggests. Maybe the P&G’s of the world should become Brand Venture Capitalists. We start making an investment in new brands, giving the access to resources (money, intellectual capital, retailer access) that will help them to grow. But we dont take a direct management control and instead let them operate independently. It would be a very different way of doing things but it might just work.

Consumers will vote with their wallet

In the end, this challenge of branding is what makes it so exciting to be in marketing right now (and for the future). We don’t have the luxury of living in a control world where we can just make a :30 second spot and watch sales grow as a result. We are challenged (both at big CPG’s and little start-ups) to build brands that consumers will vote for with their wallet. Branding is an election season that doesnt just come once every 4 years.

NOTE: I wouldnt question the passion of P&G Brand Managers, even if we are just working for a big company and old brands. When I started at P&G, I actually met a fellow marketer who had a tattoo of the brand he worked on…and it just happened to be a fabric softener brand. Tell me that isn’t passion for your brand!

Is it a sign that you have a problem when you love a brand, but have never actually tried the product? Because if so, I should probably be committed for the respect I have for innocent drinks, a line of fruit smoothies/juices d that you can only get in Europe (for now). In my eyes, innocent is a stellar example of creating a Lovemark and examplifies why I love to be in marketing.

So what are the lessons of innocent that have made me such a believer? (more…)