Social Media Embraces Advertising

Briefly, I'm sharing a blog here from Julia Boorstin, a CNBC writer that covers media issues affecting Wall Street, because it touches on some recent (but predictable) evolutions within 'mainstream' social media – namely, the need to make a buck.

“MySpace Music Signs On Advertisers”



http://www.cnbc.com/id/26735667

If you’re on Facebook, no doubt you’ve experienced the recent format change. I have, and like many others, I have complained about it. There are several reasons behind the format change, but it does also appear to clear more space for – advertising (and marketing-oriented tools) – within each member profile. As a result, there is less display space, less ‘billboard’ effect for each profile, and more need to navigate through links and tabs to access each member’s content.

Again, this is only meant as a brief post, but the issue continues to confirm that in context of this explosion of social media, ‘advertising’ is NOT going away. Unequivocally, the collective social media conversation with, and among, consumers is game-changing. But advertising will continue to play a core role in that process – the Brand Ecosystem – and that, is an important consideration for marketers. No doubt, that advertising role/purpose will change and evolve to reconcile with social media and its role, but advertising isn’t going away just yet.

...How the role of advertising is changing, and needs to futher change, is a subject worthy of another post.

Digital Merchandising

What are consumers searching for?
How to bring people in?
What items or areas should be emphasized?
How to design to build so as to optimize traffic flow?
How to drive conversion?

I am being a little coy here – to make a point. The above list may sound like a clumsy and vague dialogue geared toward SEM digital media and website design. But what if it doesn’t apply to that at all? What if I am merely talking about ‘merchandising’ at your local neighborhood retailer??? ...Some interesting similarities.

None of this constitutes branding – just as none of this even scratches the surface to define and position brands such as Best Buy, Costco, Gap, Target and Wal-Mart apart from one another. Merchandising is vital – it’s the daily operating life blood of any consumer-facing selling effort – but alone – it is not branding. Those retailers go far beyond featured sales, arrangement of merchandise and in-store display strategies to build their core brand franchises with consumers.

I know I'm still a bit obscure here, as 'digital merchandising' also has a more literal interpretation in the context of strategy and design for an e-commerce website. But I am actually driving at a broader context - that of consumers navigating the overall digital universe.

Let me digress for a moment.

In this digital DM response rate world of today, a lot of media tactics and ‘digital merchandising’ are being adopted by many professionals as new (and complete) marketing strategies. CFOs like response rates. They are predictable. When compared to investing in the consumer experience or fuzzy advertising or events and a host of other brand-building activities, a proven direct marketing response rate of 2% or 5% is sexy to a CFO. Good old-fashioned coupons have always carried such sex appeal in the marketing world. And lest you not forget, we’re not taking spam here. No way, spam is so yesterday, this is CRM. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist – I’m actually as big of an ambassador for CRM as you may find – when it is correctly comprehensive, true to the consumer’s lifestyle, and embodies the underlying fundamental positioning of a brand – but you must have brand positioning first.)

The fundamental point here is that any merchandising is a part, a valued part – but not the whole, of any consumer brand-building strategy. This is true in every context of the digital world, as it is and has been in the off-line world. Stating the more obvious: an X% response or conversion rate does not constitute brand strategy.

So the next time you address your online media and marketing efforts, ask yourself whether you are truly investing time against brand-building or digital merchandising?

On a somewhat related note, here’s a heads-up for a new book that advocates recognition of fundamental brand-building principals, even in a digital world. This is refreshing as so much that passes for ‘brand strategy’ these days is too often really limited to just digital merchandising …even social media, the heralded strategic meat for true consumer-brand connection in an otherwise SEM world, is sometimes misused, but I’ll save that for a later post.

The book, appropriately named: Brand Digital.




http://www.branddigital.com/#