Conversatiated: Mr. Personality Gets Engaged

In our regular installment of Conversatiated, two Media Logicians share an ongoing dialogue about marketing issues and challenges in a conversation-centric world.  This week, Josh and Fred discuss how an effective conversation-centric marketing strategy requires more than just great personality to garner engagement and loyalty.

FRED:

So Josh, I read an article recapping the 2010 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement. The gist: Consumers will continue to be frugal in 2010, but they are more likely to spend their money on relevant, functional items coming from brands that differentiate and show “meaning” and “authenticity.” Hmm, I wrote that sentence and I’m not sure what it means.

My read of this is that consumers are more and more aware of the “personality” of a brand and are more willing to engage with brands that they can relate to. Now, every marketer who’s done a “brand personality” exercise knows that we try and ascribe human traits to them by asking questions like “If Apple were at a party, what would he be doing?” And consumers are exposed to this as well, just look at the Mac/PC ads.

But what’s different now is that we can actually connect with the brands that we like and directly interact with them. Every time we go on Twitter or Facebook, the voice of a brand sits right next to posts from our friends. And we can talk to them, and they talk back to us. Of course, we know that a real person is writing the words of the brand, but that person represents (or should represent) the personality and voice of the brand. This study is telling us that it is more important than ever for companies to have an authentic presence that allows them to converse with their customers and prospects. Suddenly consumers want to connect with us, so we’d better be there.

JOSH:

I agree with your sentiment. I think customers are quickly demanding even more. Instead of a simple connection, customers want access to brands; and, more and more, they are beginning to demand access. In return, they are willing to promote their affiliation with, sometimes even advocate on behalf of, advertisers. However, customers are only willing to grant this exchange when the access they receive from advertisers rewards them with exclusive information, price points or recognition.

Yes, a brand’s personality is often the hook that allows companies to begin building this engagement. And social media platforms allow companies to demonstrate this personality like never before. But Facebook and Twitter are littered with companies who’ve focused too heavily on brand personality and too little on delivering value and providing customers with exclusivity. Take a look at Aflac on Twitter. Alfac was one of the first big brands to take the plunge and commit to Twitter. The problem, though, is that Aflac hasn’t been able to evolve their Twitter stream from a brand personality bullhorn to a demonstrable reason to buy. The duck might be a great hook, but brand personality is overrated if not coupled with meaningful value.