A Brand Managers Guide to Losing Control
A Brand Manager’s Guide to Losing Control
Social media platforms have taken some of the marketing power away from companies and given it to consumers. Jill Avery discusses the landscape of "open source branding," wherein consumers not only discuss and disseminate branded content, they also create it. by Carmen Nobel (19 Mar 2014 Research & Ideas)
Thanks (or no thanks) to social media, brand managers have lost the power to control the perception of their products through carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns.
These days, consumers are in command. With an angry Tweet, a happy Facebook post, or a parody video on YouTube, they can take charge of public discussions about the brands they use. And while marketers have tried to take part, they've had to face the fact that social media platforms are primarily meant for conversations among consumers, not for one-way brand messages that feel like advertising.
“Your best defense is to have a connected group of very passionate supporters”
"The way brands came in to social media wasn't sensitive to the medium," says Jill Avery, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, who spent a decade managing brands for Gillette, Braun, Samuel Adams, and AT&T before pursuing her doctoral studies.
Brand managers entered the social media landscape with the same approach they used for television and radio advertising, she says. "With both of those media, we have an understood contract with consumers: In order for you to get free programming, you agree to be interrupted by commercial messages. Social media did not have that contract, so that when customers were interrupted by brands in social media, it felt abrupt, inappropriate, and out of place."
The power shift from marketers to consumers has created a landscape of what Avery calls "open source branding," wherein consumers not only discuss and disseminate branded content, they also create it. In the paper The Uninvited Brand, published in the journal Business Horizons in
Social media platforms have taken some of the marketing power away from companies and given it to consumers. Jill Avery discusses the landscape of "open source branding," wherein consumers not only discuss and disseminate branded content, they also create it. by Carmen Nobel (19 Mar 2014 Research & Ideas)
Thanks (or no thanks) to social media, brand managers have lost the power to control the perception of their products through carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns.
These days, consumers are in command. With an angry Tweet, a happy Facebook post, or a parody video on YouTube, they can take charge of public discussions about the brands they use. And while marketers have tried to take part, they've had to face the fact that social media platforms are primarily meant for conversations among consumers, not for one-way brand messages that feel like advertising.
“Your best defense is to have a connected group of very passionate supporters”
"The way brands came in to social media wasn't sensitive to the medium," says Jill Avery, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, who spent a decade managing brands for Gillette, Braun, Samuel Adams, and AT&T before pursuing her doctoral studies.
Brand managers entered the social media landscape with the same approach they used for television and radio advertising, she says. "With both of those media, we have an understood contract with consumers: In order for you to get free programming, you agree to be interrupted by commercial messages. Social media did not have that contract, so that when customers were interrupted by brands in social media, it felt abrupt, inappropriate, and out of place."
The power shift from marketers to consumers has created a landscape of what Avery calls "open source branding," wherein consumers not only discuss and disseminate branded content, they also create it. In the paper The Uninvited Brand, published in the journal Business Horizons in