The question brands need to ask today is will their target audience feel like having the brand as part of their team. The team can be their circle of friends, their family, their workplace, anywhere that they interact and build something of value. Importantly the team is part of their own identity, the sense of ‘tribe’. The last time I said these words to a colleague of mine, he shrieked deja vu, much to the amusement of others at my workplace. So yes this is an oft repeated theme in many of my blog posts – brands are tribes, brands are community, so on and so forth. However, there is life beyond just being part of a team, and that’s what we will discuss here.
In my opinion, as a brand you not only need to fit into this idea of tribal team well but also assume a leadership role. Successful brands of the future will be those with a niche but large fan following, and their brand equity the cumulative influence of their tribe members.
Say this and you suddenly are looking at a brand like a potential hire.
Capturing a Market
Let’s say you have to capture a certain market segment, and ensure that you stay on top of that segment. The way marketing is headed esepcially under the influence of new media, you as a brand will need pitch to your customers in a deeper way. You need to involve them in all aspects and so will they. And when your customers take a step to involve (or engage) with you, their peers notice the steps. They notice the brand behind it thus and depending on their association with your customer will enquire about your brand.
Now imagine your brand as a new recruit in a team and you only have one friendly colleague (brand evangelist). You will need to know what your boss wants (influential customers or community members), you will need to strike a rapport with other team mates (target group), and perform exceedingly well at your job. And the better job that you do the better conversations your friendly colleague can have, your bosses will discuss your work and your peers will look at you with renewed interest.
A brand basically has to build an appealing and talk worthy resume.
A Brand’s Resume
Much like our a brand’s resume online can and should rattle of reason why people should associate with it. And it should be for reasons more thant he core skill the resume holder has or in case of a brand more than it’s core product.
Now given the scope of WATBlog and the fact that much of this display of influence and brand equity is a result of new media, we will stick to online aspects of the resume. So how does the brand’s online resume look like? What does it include? To my mind there is no definite answer to this, but here are some stuff that I thought can be taken as an example:
Achievements
- ESPN was the first to move out of Tables and into CSS.
- Coke’s Social Media innovation with its Facebook fan page is folklore
- So is Dell’s rise from the ashes to become the poster boy of social media marketing
Character traits
Q. How accessible are you. Do you work well in a team?
A. Search marekting, advertising, social profiles.
Q. What do you besides work? Hobbies and interests
A. How well do you use social media. Thinking beyond yourself and being part of the community
Recommendations
Idea of influencing influencers. Who is your evangelist and how influential are they?
That’s that.
Now which brand to your mind has the best online resume? How exactly does a good online resume translate to good business for a brand?
