Adaptive Marketing. How not to go the Dodo way, Part 2.
Dezember 9th, 2009 • Business, Intelligence, Reports, Social Business, Strategy
I did write about the concept of Adaptation Marketing two weeks ago. I admit, it’s another buzz word in the digital/social realm. But it’s a meaningful idea for what brand management might be like in the near future. A model which enables brands to deal with the social sphere without necessarily focusing too much on Facebook, Twitter & Co. A thoughtstarter for rather traditional as well as new marketers alike.
Adaptation is a term from Darwin’s evolution theory. Wikipedia knows that “when the habitat changes, three main things may happen to a resident population: habitat tracking, genetic change or extinction. In fact, all three things may occur in sequence. Of these three effects, only genetic change brings about adaptation.”
The life of the last Dodo ended in the 17th century. His habitat changed drastically when men appeared. An unwelcome surprise for Dodos as for brands who also struggle with real people who behave different than what they are used to. They talk and they walk and they don’t necessarily care for Dodos and brands. We, marketers or advertisers may like it or not – but things in our habitat change. Quickly. And two key aspects of it are feedback and real time.
How social will we have to be?
The Dodo formula is simple: Humans arrive = Problem. Brands know this problem since the social web startet going mainstream. Some of them adapt quickly. But most of them behave like rabbits in the headlight. Caught between a rock and hard place, the challenges seem to leave no other way than to use it or lose it, Facebook Fan Page or nothing at all.
I think there is a third way.
Basically this dilemma comes from the traditional marketer/advertiser dilemma. We always want to talk. Our first reaction as a brand or as an agency is to sketch something which is more or less visual. A microsite, a Facebook Fan Page…whatever. But starting some kind of (social) initiative (just to get it done, be first, win a Cyber Lion) without listening and learning is the opposite of the idea of being a social brand. It’s advertising in the most classic way…with a very high fail potential.
Forrester’s Adaptive Marketing Model added one more aspect to my belief that twitter and Facebook alone cannot be the answer to the challenges of nowaday’s brand management. The short report offers a set of inspirations, usable also for traditional communication agencies and their clients to succeed in today’s fast moving marketing. Simply because a conversation on a Fan page may be relevant for a brand. But listening to and learning from your customers and to react quickly in accordance to your role as a brand is more important.
Talk is silver. Silence is golden.
One of the most underrated disciplines in today’s brand management (at least in Germany) is Social Influence Monitoring. Yes, you can create a Facebook Fan Page, yes you may be able to seed a ‘viral movie’. But it won’t necessarily affect your brand beyond your comfort zone. Listening and monitoring (check out this great Wiki of listening platforms) gives brands the unique ability to conduct research and gather new insights at a place where they have never been before: inside the customers reality. And they may use it for whatever supports their goals: Recruiting, product design, communication…you name it. A great chance for brands to think beyond digital communication alone.
Let’s check out a couple of examples.
OMGAmandaaaa
In April 2009 Miramax Films made a simple smart move. By listening and setting up a reaction system. Twitter user ‘OMGAmandaa’ from NYC was looking for a good old download torrent on twitter to find her (at that time) favourite movie ‘Adventureland’ for free. The answer came from the strangest of all dialogue partners, Miramax Films itself. The dialogue went a little bit something like this (thx to the Playlist)
omgamandaa: “Ugh WHY IS ADVENTURELAND NOT ON TORRENTS YET.”
MiramaxFilms: “@omgamandaa Cmon Amanda, don’t do it. #adventureland #fbi.”
omgamandaa: “@MiramaxFilms okay i won’t, JUST FOR YOU.”
MiramaxFilms: “@omgamandaa Thanks Amanda. In return, I have a free Fandango card for 2 tix if you’re interested in Adventureland. Just DM us for the code.”
April 1st with the Simpsons
Duke Razorfish, the French sister agency of my employer Neue Digitale / Razorfish, conducted a research for French Nation Railways SNCF. They found out, 140K Facebook members in France asked for Homer Simpson to announce trains. That was the insight. What they did next was to ask France’s Simpson’s speakers to signailize incoming or leaving trains in dozens of French stations. A major PR success for small money.
Miracle Whip
A pretty fresh example of a rather ATLesque brand going adaptive was Miracle Whip. The story so far: Miracle Whip launched a set of rather cheesy TV ads revolving around U.S. teenagers partying with the salad sauce. TV host Stephen Colbert mucked Miracle Whip about their spots, which, vice versa, made Miracle Whip react on Stephen Colbert. First via print ads declaring war on Stephen Colbert, next by staging revised Miracle Whip ads and booking every ad space available on his show. Read the full story here.
Adaptive. Not social.
According to adage less than 15% of all companies have customer intelligence operations in place. That’s indeed a much more interesting fact than figures showing that too few brands are really acting in the social space. Customers don’t want brands to be their personal best friends. They want to get understood and want to meet brands that react according to a customer’s business goals.
Razorfish’s FEED report highlighted once more that customers come with rather functional objectives when they friend a brand. They don’t primarily interact with a brand simply because they love it so much (some of them do). They become followers because they want special content, news, coupons or whatever. Believing that every brand needs a huge Facebook presence to be up-to-date is plain and simple wrong.
Brands need to listen. Brands need to react. The concept of adaptive marketing highlights this essential hierarchy in how brands might act. In order to not go the Dodo way, brands first need to be able to
- understand the dynamic environment they are in
- set up meaningful monitoring systems and KPIs
- gather insights and speed up their existing static assets to act real time
The result may be entertainment. It may be a product, a Facebook page or something completely else. But it most solve a customer’s personal business objective. For a brand, the choice of platform is the secondary question. Adaptation is the magic word. Being fast and reacting on the social world. However you do it, listening is the key. Forrester sketched this concept in Groundswell already, but modified parts of it in this great article which is relevant for digital and non digital marketing alike. And if there is one thing I would like to recommend in this article then it is: Read both texts and use it as an idea kick off to play around with real time.
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