Digital Marketing

Marketing with Social media and consumer insights

Humanize Brand You Social media marketing with consumer insights Ananth V

Branding has since ages been an integral part of every corporate strategy and over the decades, organizations have invested heavily to make the best of the available branding tools for communicating news and information about their products and services with consumers and prospects.

Recently, with the advent of social media marketing as a powerful tool, brands have embraced social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, etc as not merely a medium to communicate, but as a core strategy and process to engage consumers and increase brand reach.

Even as I am writing this blog post, I am referring to the case studies of our digital marketing agency (Techdivine Creative Services) to understand better and learn from them about which tool or process worked the best for majority of our clients as a branding, sales, lead generation, SEO tool for varied corporate brands across different industries. As I kept reading each case study repeatedly, it finally struck me that irrespective of the final customization of social media marketing that our company has provided for different brands, one thing was common in “our ROADMAP strategy approach” under our in-house marketing process of “Your SMQ ~ Social media quotient“, i.e. for more than 90% of the said case studies, we approached each social media marketing campaign with a core single idea of “Humanizing the BRAND“.

So even though each client’s campaigns were designed and implemented from our company based on their requirements of their specific “Organizational goals”and at the same time were thoroughly customized, we kept the idea to connect users and prospects with the respective brands at a humanized level at all times.

This is what gave us the edge to have real-time brand conversations, loyalty of consumers were stronger since they felt and realized that they have “known about the brand” way prior to making a decision to purchase from the brand.

This in turn brings us to a very important aspect of the term “BRANDING”.

It is never merely BRANDING that really appeals to users, but the process within, that helps them actually converse with the brand on a personal level.

Also, our case studies and daily experiences told us that every time an end user or a prospect has really connected with the brand, they end up not only purchasing from the said product, but also recommending the brand to others.

We then did a small research with a group of 100 of our readers with following Demographics: We got feedback from 63 readers on the same:

DETAILS of the research:

• Cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Kanpur, Chennai, Bangalore, USA (Chicago, New York), UAE (Sharjah & Dubai), Singapore & UK: London, Birmingham
• Age groups: 15 – 50
• Male to Female: 1.17:1
• Education: High school students, College Graduates, Undergrads, Professionals & Doctrate professionals
• Industries we analyzed using these consumer insights: Fashion & Retail, IT, Automobile, Hospitality Restaurants, MLM Business, Industrial products, Banking, Investment and Finance, NGO, Event management, Infrastructure, Personal Branding and or Celebrity Branding, Publishing (Print and Digital) and Sports.

From our research, we were further able to understand the “WHY” behind “WHY some messages have a powerful impact to readers or prospects” and to what type of “Communication, Images and Incentives” do users have a higher probability to respond to a call of action etc.

Most importantly, it also gave us a powerful insight into “WHAT type of messages, or ideas or incentives can backfire too when shared with a certain demographic of users” which helps us to understand core behind making BRAND monitoring an important aspect of any social media marketing campaign. At the end of the day, it is this ‘connect’ that helps your brand engage in real-time and have a relationship with your prospect or end user.

For eg. If we are using consumer insights and real-statistical data that helps us by understanding the target consumer better in the sense that, knowing in advance that a message for an Automobile advertisement that talks about “the vehicle’s functionality” will connect with them quicker and more sincerely than suggesting to them about the “Economic affordability” or “Design uniqueness” of the said product in discussion, this will then make the communication process so much more simpler. Plus, it then stays in their mind a lot longer as they automatically feel a ‘connect‘ with their need from the said products appeal.

This is what we derived: (For complete detailed analysis of this research (Premium / Paid feature) – Write to our socialmedia team – socialmedia@techdivine.com with a brief message of your interest). What we have given below are highlights from our research:

Who will find this data and analysis useful: BRAND CEO’s, CFO’s Data Analysts, Marketing Professionals, Brand consultants, Social media marketing professionals / agencies / teams.

– Incentives: The incentives offered by your product or service features finally determine how a particular message will be perceived by your audience. For eg. What appeals to a consumer buying a Television set, the same incentive will be ineffective to help you sell him a complete set of Book series or a two nights and three days stay at a premium resort. So the incentive and the tone in which your incentive is designed makes all the difference in making a prospect end up being a consumer of your said brand or product.

– Appeal: What appeals to users more. Many a times, we feel a style, design or the aesthetics appeal to users, but more often than not, the said messages are met with absolutely no impact whatsoever. Why does that happen? Our readers responses told us that many a times, certain types of product, even though rich in design and appeal, “appeals” to them more when their functionality is matched with “real-world usability of the said product” or “impact it derives in the minds of OTHERS while being associated with it”.

– Instant gratification: It’s often seen that offering discount or a freebie etc on the second purchase of a product or for referral etc works. But more often than not, an instant gratification appeals the best to a certain group of audiences. For eg. Offering an immediate Freebie with a “Fast food meal” is always an incentive to be a repeat customer at such places. Similarly, at times offering an instant freebie but with a condition that the same can be redeemed not immediately but only during the next visit mostly turns out to be a waste of time and efforts unless you offer that audience an option to do so within the comforts of their home.

– LISTEN to their opinions sincerely and respond: Many a times, users respond well, when they realize that their ideas and opinions are being listened to. It might not have been put into practice by the said brand, but showcasing that their opinions have been sincerely given due importance, engages the users with the brand with a massively higher degree of brand loyalty and appeal. In other words, be sincere.

– Educate them and make a real value-add: Branding a financial services product or services across major social networking sites or using the broadcast medium does not always do the trick each time. Sometimes, it has been found that massive amounts of investment towards branding activities have gone completely fruitless. WHY? Well for starters, the moment you say “financial product or service” it’s asking someone to TRUST you with their life savings or hard earned money. To make someone commit to such a trust requires tremendous appeal and a sincere message that says, “Yes, we are listening to you. We understand that your financial needs are very different from your neighbour next door or even your close friend and we can really add value to your future.” Such messages when coupled with content that showcases real value-add for readers even when shared for free as an educating platform or blog etc that helps them with planning their investments, goals makes a long term impact in the minds of users.

– Humanize the brand: Move over the idea of merely branding and planning to “sell” your brand concepts. End readers and prospects connect with messages when they feel that they are engaging with “real people” and not just a company. At the end of the day, websites don’t help you sell your brand products. People buy from people they trust. So it’s extremely essential to humanize your brand. So let them talk to you, understand you better. remember, its not merely a sale, its a RELATIONSHIP. Express grief as a human would over a tragic loss, show happy emotions about a beautiful discovery or a sports win, these are the things that really appeal.

– Time: Some people are very patient with tasks and some like things done quickly. Who are your end target customers? Make sure you understand very clearly who they are and what is their response to “Time usage”. For those who are patient enough, give them time to communicate and relate to your product and they will love it and for those who always feel that the clock is ticking, get their process as simplified as you can and you would have won their trust in your brand for ages.

– Branding or planning a CONTEST for your BRAND: Contests have been popular for quite some time now, especially online and off-late with the advent of power packed social sites like facebook and twitter, they are running every single day offering tons of freebies. But strangely enough though, most of these brands always end up complaining that neither did they see a surge in “purchases” during such contests, nor did their temporary “likes” or “follows” stay consistent even merely a week after the contest ended. So while integrating your campaign strategy with your brand, make sure, your contest would really appeal to your actual end prospects. For eg. Do you really believe that an individual hunting for an Armani suit would be busy browsing through social profiles for a discount offer or a freebie from the brand. No, most likely he would be more in connect with the brand if they offer more customization, comfort and a real essence of elegance to their products. Why? Because Armani today is more than just fashion, it’s practically a way of life. And their end users know it.

With our past experiences across industries and countries and power packed case studies  (READ Our CASE STUDIES: CASE STUDY links: ROI on actual sales using Social media – Direct PDF Download link, Case study Link 2, Case Study Link 3, LIVE Google Mumbai event presentation: ROI on social media for Brands by Ananth V link) coupled with in-depth recent consumer research, insights and analysis, the core is for sure about the following message:

Don’t merely create a branding process or a branding strategy. Move beyond the term ‘Branding’ and let your end customers have a real relationship with your brand.

Have a wonderful connect ahead, for when you really connect with your consumers, you get long term brand ambassadors, friends and evangelists and the trust they build is sincere and truly priceless.

Interested to know more about our case study, research and process or in case you wish to plan a campaign strategy for your brand, feel free to reach us: Click here for quick form link. You can also email us at: socialmedia@techdivine.com for customized campaigns with proven strategies to help us assist in adding value to BRAND YOU!

Connect with us across our social profiles online: Techdivine Creative Services:Digital marketing agency on – Facebook – Twitter – Slideshare – YouTube – Pinterest – Google Plus – LinkedIn Your SMQ Social media quotient group – LinkedIn Corporate Techdivine page

Regards,

Ananth V

Founder & CEO
Techdivine Creative Services

Connect with me on – Facebook – Twitter – LinkedIn