The days of Corporate speak and the royal “WE” are gone. Modern brands are intriguing entities.
The Kelsey Group stated that total global online advertising expenditures are projected to grow from $45 billion (2007) to $147 billion in 2012.
If this prediction holds ground remains to be seen. But at the end of the day people are past the levels of threat and are at the levels of control. Every brand is trying to form a relationship with the consumer as quickly and deeply as possible.
The potential for interactivity on the Internet is unconceivable as it differentiates much from traditional media:
Interactivity enables consumers to participate in the persuasion process by controlling advertising messages (Song and Zinkhan 2008).
It also gives users control in a mediated environment by allowing them to select the content, timing, and communication act (Li, Daugherty, and Biocca 2002).
When users have active control over their Internet experience, they expect to engage in two-way communication (Cho and Leckenby 1999; McMillan 2000).
In 2002 Liu and Shrum propose a three-dimensional construct of interactivity:
1. User-Machine; Computers, tools & devices, games, applications, interfaces – For service and entertainment purposes.
2. User-User; Learning, teaching, informing, blogging, instant messaging, conversations – Networks of shared views, interests and talents. Focus from user practices to social practices. Expectations of future interactivity. Community commitment, not company commitment.
3. User-Message; Online advertising, marketing, pr, communication – A shift of transactions becoming ongoing communication.
With all 3 interactivities combined we juggle our daily lives in the fast lane, but a potential barrier to the effectiveness is the volume to which people are exposed.
People use to limit their exposure by engaging in selective perceptions, by which they processed a limited number of (commercial) signals and ignore others.
But ‘ignoring others’ has not proven to be the internet’s most strongest point. These days, customers CAN get satisfaction: if not from you, than from your China competitor.
So, the real question is: customer behavior has evolved. Have you?
The days of Corporate speak and the royal “WE” are gone. Modern brands are intriguing entities.
Give your customers a reason to come back even when they’re not buying. They talk more cravingly on the internet about things they still desire than things already acquired – As in more people dreaming of success than having it.
Social media will help you interact with your existing and most interested customers – they’ll spread the word to for you.
- 75-to-80% don’t trust ‘mainstream’ advertising – If the majority of potential customers call you pathological a liar, you need to ask them; Why? Interactivity provides an opportunity.
- 81% trust word of mouth advocacy – Not every Ipod or Iphone buyer is a brand prophet for Apple, but be sure they intrigue those who ‘The mass’ talks to for information. – If not, ‘The mass’ Googles, a search engine that prefers news related subjects and blogging. As that’s the content most frequently refreshed and viewed, and therefore most relevant to their users. – Apple understands this and went from computer distributor (Imac), to content distributor (Ipod/Itunes), to media distributor (Iphone).
- 56% trust editorial media – A while ago Nike was being accused of financing sweatshops. Chaining young children to a life at an assembly line. Rumor spread and after appropriate actions were taken media trumpeted the glory of social consumerism. Few months later journalist went back, only to discover many of the ‘liberated’ souls had ended up in prostitution. – Objectivity can have its facts wrong. As people live in the moral now. Interactivity opens all channels to those emotions not to the causes – Be ready to deliver transparency. As in nothing to fear. Not because your closet is clean, but your coporate conscience.
Social media is a way of thinking about relationships, not just a marketing campaign. But, remember this is not an experiment. It’s for all the marbles..
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