How marketers can harness the Circle of Influence

By Robert Wheatley

In the most recent issue of ADWEEK we find an article about the iconic and revered media fashion bible Vogue magazine, and its new Influencer Network of 1,000 women bloggers who have some form of sway with fashionistas in the fashion world.

So a highly respected media property recognizes the power of self-appointed fashion experts and works to align itself with this incremental and important cog in the marketing wheel. The Influencer network of course is accessible to the magazine’s advertisers. And according to ADWEEK the panel members are not paid. Very important and thus credibility maintained. They are asked to provide “feedback” on everything from new product concepts to fashion collections and new campaign materials. And encouraged to talk about products in their networks.

Some time ago we developed a rough approximation of this phenomena and called it the Circle of Influence. Influence matters greatly – to traction of messaging, to credibility, to awareness, to driving word of mouth, to trial and ultimately to sales growth.

Here’s the nuance that matters: Collaboration with bloggers and experts…

Forging a deeper relationship that goes beyond treating the blogger media channel as simply that, another channel of media. Take Neiman Marcus for example. In their NM Daily maga-blog, they recently ran a post featuring photos and links to fashion bloggers they know and respect who wore the season’s new hot color pink – a trend condition thus verified through the involvement of bloggers on the topic.

So what does this mean to you? In a nutshell, it means working to create a closer-in connection and collegial relationship with the most respected bloggers and experts in your category. Not just reaching out to inform them of new products and other initiatives. We’re talking about investment and infrastructure.

Bloggers are media so access to news and information before it hits the mainstream is meaningful. Giving them the opportunity to try, sample and experience new products, new marketing platforms before they go live are important. Seeking out their opinions and views on new programs and campaigns helps make them insiders. Inviting them to your offices for visits, tours and meetings helps build the rapport.

How do you define who matters? Here are some tips to identify the best of the best:

1.    Cross platform engagement: the most savvy bloggers and experts (who usually are also bloggers) spread their work across multiple platforms including email, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

2.    Passion and strength of voice: you can tell by reading their work, the frequency of the posts, the due diligence done to unearth new information, whether you’re dealing with a poser or a passionate expert.

3.    Audience: numbers are useful as verification tools but should not be treated as the determining metric. Quality of the editorial product needs to be weighed with this. Look for linking with other leading experts and those who actively engage with commentary in other blogs.

4.    Quote-able source: bloggers who rate higher in the influence arena are also quote-able sources in mainstream channels and online editions of conventional media properties. It’s a measure of their value and power when traditional channels look to them for comment.

5.    Compatibility: you know your brand’s voice, it’s point of view in the marketplace. Does the blogger share your sensibilities? More likely the relationship will prosper if you find yourselves frequently on the same side of the opinion fence. Doesn’t mean you need to agree 100% of the time, just more often than not.

Relationships matter and our advice is this: treat these important constituents like your very best customers. Identify the top players and develop infrastructure to facilitate a close-in relationship. Consider embedding that relationship in our social media platforms, too.

What do you think?

Meet the Best Friend of America’s Best Friends

By Bob Wheatley

I love my two Newfoundland’s Goliath and Olympus. I care about them. I enjoy being with them, drool and all. But you know who loves them even more than me? Dr. Marty Becker, perhaps the most famous of all Veterinarians in America and certainly one of the most visible, knowledgeable pet care experts on the planet. He’s a regular contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America and the Dr. Oz Show.

Does he know my two black behemoths? No. But this man genuinely cares about animals and their health and welfare like a passionate preacher cares for his flock.

Dr. Becker’s book-tour-on-a-rock ‘n roll bus steered into Chicago recently for an appearance at the Bloomingdale PETCO store. The book signing sandwiched between various media interviews and a nice helping on the side of warm greetings and hugs with his many fans and acquaintances. He’s on a national tour to promote a his new book “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual” – perhaps the best book of its kind – to provide innovative, creative and practical guidance for pet parents in caring for their four-legged family members.

I ran out to Bloomingdale on a mission to chat with Marty about FOUND (I’m on the Board), the unique Chicago-based animal rescue organization that focuses on the most extreme cases of abuse and health problems – those animals who will be put down if not treated with the transformational care and therapies at FOUND. I arrived early but no matter, from the moment I set foot in the parking lot and walked up to Marty to say hello, admirers from near and far were at hand.

It’s great to be loved and clearly he is. His warmth and accessibility made for instant rapport and inclusion for all who approached. More importantly his affinity for the four-legged fans was obvious and apparent. And thus why his book will do well. It’s the authenticity and passion that drives this man and thus his ability to exude from every pore the innate sense of trust people gravitate to.

He’s also pretty good at creating handles for pet care ideas and short cuts such that the rest of us will remembers his suggestions on improved wellness, nutrition and training. (Watch the ABC7 interview link above).

I digress. This blog is about marketing and communications best practices and you can see it here in the seamless integration of experience (bus tour) combined with media appearances (earned media this credible awareness) and wrapped within an outstanding social media presence where conversation meets content brilliantly. Marty knows that helping people is how you build relationships and achieve success in the longer run.

Social media is not about a transactional mentality to strict adherence to product feature and benefit messaging. Rather its about being genuinely helpful and providing information that’s relevant to people and their lifestyles. Pet ownership by the way, is absolutely a lifestyle. So with passion and purpose Marty populates his book launch campaign with useful information, genuine caring, up-close conversation and a strong measure of media savvy. It takes hard work and obviously Marty is up for it. Then again why wouldn’t he when it’s obviously his life’s mission.

Bravo. By the way, Marty’s bus was previously rolling on the Lady GaGa tour. Lots of strategically placed mirrors. What fun…

Buy the book!!!

Pet Food Forum presentation challenges industry to consider new pet ownership paradigm

By Robert Wheatley

If anything our agency has a long-standing love affair with the pet care category. It’s a business we have a passion for. And that comes out routinely in our efforts to position ourselves as thought-leaders and public relations/social media experts in generating pet care brand growth.

This week I had the wonderful privilege of presenting at the Pet Food Forum convention here in Chicago. Delightfully, the folks at Watt Publishing (Debbie Phillips in particular) who produce Pet Food Industry magazine and this annual conference for pet food manufacturers, allowed me to collaborate on a unique presentation with David Lummis of Packaged Facts research.

Both David and I share a personal interest in emerging evidence that there is a tangible, demonstrable, documented connection between pet ownership and human health and wellness benefits. This is a transformative idea for pet ownership and may well be for the pet care business generally.  Bottom line: successful brand communication springs from relevance of the message to the consumer. And what could be more relevant than your pet supporting your own health?

Dr. Marty Becker, perhaps the nation’s most well-known celebrity vet and pet care advocate wrote a book called the “Healing Power of Pets” where we describes pet ownership as a “Human Life Support System.” Marty deserves credit and a big thank you for helping me gather data for this presentation.

Human health — virgin territory for pet brand building…

Right now the go-to-market platform for most pet care brands is focused on celebrating the emotional bond that resides at the center of the relationship between pets and their two-legged parents. More recently there’s been an avalanche of pet food brand communication centered on superior pet food ingredient story telling. A phenomenon we call “premiumization” has taken root and drives the entire industry. The massive 2007 pet food recall opened the doors to public discovery of what pet food ingredient terms mean and ushered in a new era of redefinition and re-staging of higher quality pet diets. That said, the focus on ingredients breeds too much similarity (we call this specsmanship) in brand conversations with consumers.

No one has really moved as yet to expand their brand voice to address the connection between pet ownership and improved health and wellness for the pet parent. Hence our goal at the conference to get this on the industry’s radar screen…

See it here…

Below is my Forum presentation.

“Human Life Support System”

What rich territory to mine for engagement when you consider the chance to expand the pet care value proposition to include protecting, elevating your own health. The pet and pet parent relationship is an amazing story of emotional bond in itself. The symbiotic nature of this – one protects the health and wellbeing of the other – is just exciting. Brands that get this right can redefine the conversation and drive a wedge of differentiation in how they go to market.

What’s your take on this??

YouTube functionality supports converting engagement to sale

By Robert Wheatley

Scanning the recent edition of Google’s recent self-published e-zine Think Quarterly, I ran across an article on functionality improvements at YouTube that permit viewers to buy items they like within the production via a point/click hotlink to another web platform.

Video is an engaging and entertaining medium. With high involvement categories that naturally attract an enthusiastic fan base, you can immediately see the business-generating opportunities when taking advantage of viewer interest and converting “in the moment” to a purchase opportunity.

The site above, You-Tique, is a great example of a fashion business aggregating a series of trend videos around everything from “What’s New for Spring” to occasion based ideas, such as what to wear for a hot date. The use of a Stylist expert helps set the credibility and value equation at the right level right out of the gate.

From there viewers can watch a model wearing the products and click to buy while viewing the video. It’s easy, pretty painless and, in my opinion, way more effective than looking at still photos of a product with narrative information alongside.

Zappos has figured out that online e-tailing gets compelling when you combine the right products with exemplary service. So who knows if the folks behind You-Tique have similar policies for returns and friendly live support. That said, the concept of watch and buy is just plain captivating.

You get richer story telling, context, validation and other benefits that outshine static web site galleries by adding the flavor of video production to the whole proposition. May not be right for every product category but this peek at the future is exciting none-the-less. Think Quarterly says the click through rates for You-Tique have been stellar…

What do you think?

How a strategic mission can fuel the next historic move in marketing and PR.

By Robert Wheatley

Most of us have experienced a point in our careers when the stars aligned as our PR campaigns and marketing programs achieved dramatic perhaps even monumental results. A moment in time when we almost can’t believe what we’ve just witnessed in business growth, consumer buzz, perhaps major media attention — or to leap-frog a much bigger competitor with a better idea the world says yes to.

Life’s achievements, career or otherwise, are to be savored — and we hope dearly, to be repeated. No one-hit-wonder here. Nope, not a one-trick pony, right? We always say this under our breath with a slight tinge of trepidation that maybe the big outcome will be hard to come by a second or third time. So we push ahead eager that some of the magic and creative lightening will strike twice and hit the results jackpot again. Dumb luck you think? No….

So what is the grist of this success made of these days?  Is there a consistent theme within these experiences and projects that metaphorically or mathematically blew the doors off? It is highly probable they were big bets representing a strategic swing for the fence. Some risk capital, personal and otherwise, was expended. Let’s explore some evolutions in the current path to remarkable marketing achievement….

Finding Your Mission…

Lately we’re seeing some organizations up the ante and scope of their marketing and outreach efforts by enveloping their brands in an initiative that draws from a more cinematic scope and mission.

Take ConAgra’s recent announcement of a multi-brand campaign entitled Child Hunger Ends Here. No small cause and one that resonates with moms everywhere who understand and appreciate the plight of less fortunate children. The project unites a portfolio of their packaged foods brands under a single banner.

Or Pepsico’s massive “Refresh Project” – an initiative that falls from the company’s efforts to emphasize social values while working to embed greater meaning into their brands and businesses. Refresh invites investment proposals from all comers at the local level for arts, music, community and education projects.

And the comprehensive, “Live Music Series” lifestyle program from Jim Beam bourbon that helps unlock the social connections inherent in their business category. Beam is sponsoring and presenting an array of music events, offers and experiences. What resonates here is the commitment to relevance with their core target audience’s lifestyle passions and aspirations.

By definition we’re wading into territory populated with larger-in-scope, transformative projects that carry with them the potential to impact brand and business behavior. And in doing so fulfill the definition of what we would call a “BIG” idea: bigger in agenda, bigger in reach, bigger in ambition and hopefully attached also to bigger outcomes and long-term benefits.

Efforts in this vein surely will work harder to break through the rust of rampant, epidemic indifference that exists virtually everywhere. Sounds good, but what’s the path look like? Let’s examine five key elements that together bring some magic to the table when working to elevate the brand’s mission and meaning to a higher level:

1.    A historic sense of gravitas, mattering and purpose – consumer behaviorists tell us that people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves (And so by the way do employees, too). Projects that spring from a foundation of greater meaning, value and symbolism in turn infuse the business with superior significance and worth. There’s just a richer conversation to be had than the year-to-year rework of product feature and benefit messaging

2.    Momentum to ante-up a clutter-busting focus of resources (not tonnage in spend but in cross-channel deployment) – more horsepower is secured when the concept also waves the flag of moral imperative or corporate calling. The aggregation of assets on a single platform creates potential homerun clout. Much needed in a marketing environment already riven with attention deficits and loss of grip in conventional media channels

3.    The concept is drenched with inherent merit, married to simplicity – and thus it immediately gains power and demands attention. Said another way the intellectual space a brand can expect to own exists in direct proportion to its meaning and value to the consumer. Projects of larger scope won’t work successfully if burdened by too many agendas or alternative messaging priorities all competing for brain time. Instead the simple thrust of hunger, community betterment and music are liberating in their ability to finally get somewhere with a human who invests very little mental territory with any one idea before moving on

4.    Relentless devotion to consumer insight – These platforms all spring from understanding consumer aspirations, values and passions. Hunger, what gives? It’s the common thread of value and importance moms place on their primary role as caretaker of their children’s welfare. This is an over-arching common trait and mission within moms’ understanding of what matters. Matching the brand agenda to this prevailing behavior embraces the emotional ties so important in building brand relationships

5.    Corporate reputation and brand reputation no longer separated – both are intertwined. Consumers watch and observe businesses to see if actions match words. Are an organization’s beliefs and values of equal priority with the demands of commerce and balance sheets? You are making a statement about what you believe in, what is important as a business and as a brand. A strategic mission creates an internal and external flagpole all stakeholders can rally around and salute. In doing so the faceless corporation gets an endearing face and the business results can benefit from this humanizing experience

Yes there’s a process required to correctly sync an organization’s DNA, values and understanding of the consumer’s lifestyle priorities with a mission that makes sense. But in equal measure it requires one other thing to make this “jackpot” moment recur. Fearlessness.

Go for it. Life is short and no great thing is accomplished by staying in the comfort zone.

What do you think?

We all want our brands to be loved, don’t we?

By Robert Wheatley

There’s been a fair amount of marketing media buzz of late about the recent promotion from Kellogg called Share Your Breakfast. It asks consumers to share a photo of their breakfast – and with each post a donation is triggered towards a morning meal for children who have trouble getting the right nutritional start on their day. Just brilliant. By all accounts to date it’s successful, too.

Sure it’s relevant to moms and their concerns plus the message is simple, therefore sticky and compelling. But what’s really going on here? Below is a statement we’ve included in a few client and new business presentations that sums it up:

“Science now proves what brand strategists have always sensed. We human beings have a need to believe in and act upon something that’s greater than ourselves… Let’s realize the significance of this discovery and impress upon ourselves that a brand is a belief system. Want greater rewards? Then impart your brand with greater meaning…”

One of the poster child examples of this might be TOMS Shoes, a business designed from the ground up to embody this idea. In their unique case, the company gives away a pair of shoes to needy children in foreign countries for every pair they sell. One-to-one is how it’s described. And the company recently announced plans to take this concept to the next level – which we’ll assume for now will be some expanded foray into new product categories with the same premise its core.

Have You Found Your Higher Purpose?

The concept of finding a brand’s higher purpose isn’t just an articulation of cause marketing strategies. It could be some other element of passion within a target consumer’s lifestyle that your brand can help enable.

Our point about this concept of higher purpose though, is not so much recommending an “add on” project to the annual marketing plan. We see it as fundamental to relationship creation between brand and user. If you are willing to consider it that way, then higher purpose is part of the fabric of successful brand building in the age of consumer control.

A Key to Powerful PR…

Moreover this kind of thinking delivers the grist for powerful public relations and social media programs. It can take a campaign to another level once you’ve discovered through insight research what your consumer’s truly care about. Imagine if you will the compelling voice a brand can secure as advisor and partner in helping consumers do what they love to do. Everyone has a passion for something. It’s in how you position the brand as a “friend” to be helpful and supportive that the magic can happen. That’s often in the form of transformational ideas that imbue your brand with greater meaning and in doing so greater value.

To be sure that value can be found in the dynamically different and laudable efforts of companies like TOMS Shoes — where helping others is baked into the business model. I for one look at that with deep respect and admiration. It’s unselfishness at its apex, and as it turns out a great business too.

What do you think?

The word “remarkable” now transformed for the digital age…

By Robert Wheatley

Yes, there was a time – way back when in the very early years of my career that I succumbed to an age old maneuver popularized by the likes of P.T.Barnum — and others way before me who discovered the media magic of a stunt.

I built the tallest cake in the world. At least it was the tallest then at 36-feet and weighing in at well over a 1,000 pounds. Why you ask? My client, a local independent TV station in the Seattle area had just completed a new broadcast tower that would be the highest man-made thing in the city. How to gin up some clutter busting awareness for something so benign as a massive pile of steel tubes? Sure it would radically improve the broadcast signal thus reception for this channel (stop laughing already — I know this sounds reminiscent of rabbit ears), but, yawn, it just didn’t feel like it would be rewarded with more than a mention here and there.

What to do? Wait I know, let’s build the tallest cake in the world in a popular shopping mall and sell pieces of it for charity! How cake got into the mix in my head I don’t quite remember but baked goods were always a favorite of mine. Perhaps the best move of all was the Associated Press photographer I had hired who got the perfect vertical moment-in-time photo: a large crowd gathered around TV news cameras pointed upwards to the ceiling just as the baker — standing on a giant lift – leaned over to place the last layer of cake that topped the world record. It was media magic around the globe – the remarkable photo and story ran everywhere…west coast, east coast and beyond.

Remarkable then not so remarkable now…

So this cake gambit brought added value in the era of push marketing communication when businesses were at the top of the heap in controlling the flow of news and information outward. Now we’ve seen it all, been there and done that. Shock and awe from around the world sits in our hands via smart phones. Thus the sheer novelty of really tall cakes seems quaint and underwhelming like the 4^th of July farm tractor parade in a rural town.

We’ve dialed out the noise, disconnected ourselves from irrelevant stuff, put a hold on what’s coming at us as we self-select only the media channels that most reflect our personal interests and passions. We’re in the era of “me.”

Today remarkable means a brand and business has found a way to connect with us directly – as if in a personal conversation that’s about our self-interests not their own. We are amazed when businesses seem to know us personally and understand our needs. And even more surprised when the effort includes tangible acts of unselfishness and dare we say “friendship” behaviors that transcend the traditional “sell-buy” dynamic that pervades the old transactional style of marketing.

No what’s remarkable now has evolved. Not about stunts, cakes, shotgun media hits and PR by the pound. Today best practices aren’t found solely through the lens of a TV news camera trained on a larger-then-life stunt. We gain more ground now through intimate connections and relationship building. It’s tougher, requires more patience, more strategy, more effort and more insight than a Guinness record-breaking cake will ever serve up.

What do you think?

(The cake tasted great and editors ate it up, literally – ok, I’ll stop here)

Mediums or channels we trust hold sway

By Robert Wheatley

Click to enlarge

Data recently published in a study conducted by digital agency Razorfish confirms that when it comes to engagement between brand and consumers, the popular channels of choice begin with the tried and true.

The top-two picks by consumers in order of importance not surprisingly are email and company web sites. Why? History, longevity, experience and therefore trust.

This doesn’t mean that other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter are unimportant. It just means that they are still emerging channels where the consumer experience is still in its “training wheels” phase.

The eminence of trust…

This information telecasts once again what is the preeminent insight about interacting with consumers in the age of consumer control: it’s trust. Trust in the channel. Trust in its use and value. Trust in how the interaction takes place. Trust that comes by way of our understanding and sense of control over the conditions in which we interact.

What’s important here perhaps is this over-arching issue and our ability to get focused on it. Thus how does one maximize trust?

Here are some trust-optimizing tips:

1.    Don’t push — sales messages, rather inform, educate and entertain

2.    Build an environment that invites conversation and feedback. We have more trust intrinsically with those we believe want to listen and understand our needs and concerns

3.    Borrow equity from outside influencers and experts. I’m not downplaying the value of celebrities for example. But I do believe we’ve entered the era of experts. And in doing so have come to understand that it is the outside third parties who have credibility in a subject area that we listen to the most. Outside experts can validate what we claim about our product, service or experience

4.    Adopt the style of reporters.  Editorial content creators in the old-media age acquired audiences by becoming a reliable source of useful, interesting and valuable ideas and information. The reporter’s style is to present information factually and with a nod towards validating what’s being said with respected sources. This rings with more value than blatant promotion, which often comes across as self-serving

5.    Look for trust-breakers. Within the platforms we know consumers prefer such as opt-in email and web sites, are there areas in your content or how consumers are invited to interact that impede trust? Are there policies, procedures and process that can be interpreted as either unfriendly or self-serving. Think about it and perform a “trust audit” to assess the consumer experience holistically

6.    And the king of all trust-makers: unselfishness. Imagine caring enough about your core consumer that you work hard to understand their passion and interests, and then actually work to help them enjoy and experience those very same things? What if you emphasized and invested in being helpful and supportive, before you look at the sales transaction side of the relationship?

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but trust really takes root when your audience believes you actually care about them and their welfare. And caring is made real by doing – through tangible demonstration.

Oh my, what have we done here? We’ve actually landed on the structural pillar of sound public relations strategy. What is PR supposed to do in helping you build your brand? Identify those avenues and mediums for you to demonstrate and prove what you assert to be true about your mission, values, product and expertise. To develop an environment of trust and belief.

We’ve come full circle. Trust gets you through the whole concept of successful brand engagement doesn’t it?

What do you think?

By Robert Wheatley

One of the greatest marketing evolutions in the Internet era: brands have acquired the ability to be content creators – publishers, producers of their own media. This fits perfectly with the other great strategic upheaval — brands can no longer simply imprint messages and attempt to exert “control” over consumer behavior by pushing messages at consumers.

As I write this, many brands still believe this will work.

The brand/consumer relationship is tougher to build now and demands a more selfless form of engagement. It requires singular devotion to understanding and mining relevance to the consumer’s lifestyle interests and passions. Brands-that-matter to their users can earn permission for a relationship by connecting tangibly, emotionally to activities and interests their consumer already cares about.

So doesn’t it stand to reason that working hard to become a source of valuable, interesting, engaging, entertaining information about these lifestyle passions could be important? For a fashion or jewelry brand it’s the opportunity to tap into that creative self-expression that is at the core of what drives a fashion-focused person. For the food brand it might be enabling the culinary creativity, learning and emotional payoff going on everyday in the kitchen (experimenting with new dishes, tastes and techniques).

In virtually every category insight research can help you unearth this unique emotional grist that drives the most devoted fans and followers. And from there is an enormously powerful opportunity to cement that relationship by casting the brand as an enabler and provider of stories and content that offers intrinsic value – How? Information, ideas and experiences that help the consumer enjoy, do what they do better and connect with others that share their interests.

Trust is the key to engagement…

But the word trust looms large in this. How does a brand successfully establish itself as a trusted and valued source? Here are five ways a brand can develop a respected and reliable channel of rich-content media:

1. The value of respected outside voices

In the news business, outside quote-able sources are employed to validate assertions made in a news story. Similarly, outside experts, influencers and knowledge-brokers can bring their own credibility and cachet to the story telling in brand-owned media. Bring in the experts as contributors and steer clear of putting them in a compromised position of endorsing or directly selling your product.

2. The type, tone and tenor of the content matters

Watch the overt selling. Your media mission is to be helpful, useful. Think like a magazine editor or TV producer working to build exciting, interesting stories that add value to the reader’s lifestyle. Operate like a traditional media organization focused on reader and viewer benefit. Take a reportorial approach to the content. If the communication comes off like reporting and informing rather than persuading, you’ll earn the attention of your best followers.

3. Identify the storytellers

Create an editorial board of editors and contributors. If you identify and position the writers and producers, you humanize the entire interaction for your audience. You also create an environment for trust to take root because the contributors are identified and thus “real people” are engaged in the communication.

Create an editorial board of editors and contributors. If you identify and position the writers and producers, you humanize the entire interaction for your audience. You also create an environment for trust to take root because the contributors are identified and thus “real people” are engaged in the communication.

4. Transparency

How do real friends speak with each other? Honest, straightforward, real, open communication is fundamental between true friends. Treat your audience with the same respect. When issues and complaints arise, don’t hide or spin. Be matter-of-fact. Admit mistakes – probably the hardest thing to do, but also the most refreshing and endearing behavior you can show. Nobody’s perfect. No one expects your organization or brand to be perfect.

5. Be entertaining

You can’t bore your customer’s into loving you and coming back for more. Valuable, useful information is a prerequisite. How that information is served up can vary from tedious to fun and interesting. Make them laugh and make them cry. Video may be the most powerful medium available and offers the magic of words, picture, sound, music, personalities and color. It’s a bite-size world we live in now so keep it short. But most of all keep it entertaining. Mainstream media is working overtime to achieve this and so should you.

What’s the end game? Once a respected source, you have an open channel of communication that’s direct. And with content that’s got their attention – a long way from the good old days of beating people over the head with repetition and self-serving messages you hope and pray will break through the noise. Ten years ago brands could only dream of creating such a relationship. Now it’s possible.

What do you think?

Great Moments in Trailblazing:

By Robert Wheatley

You know what’s great about powerful ideas? You can recognize the strengths almost instantly. And yesterday that happened at ragan.com’s review of Whirlpool’s web content strategy. So today we’re applauding and recognizing some terrific work in PR and brand building. As we’ve said before here at the Brand Trailblazer blog, if you look at your best consumers as walking wallets and view the relationship with them as transactional, you are risking failure in your ability to engage and communicate effectively.

On the other hand, treating consumer relationships the same way we regard our closest friends and family (we truly care about them) opens the door to an entirely new spectrum of programs and strategies — aimed at building relevance for your brand in the lives of those you hope to sell to. We call this finding and mining your brand’s “Higher Purpose”.

Whirlpool offers us a terrific example of this kind of thinking, well executed, that demonstrates a profound understanding of how brand relationships are built in the era of consumer control. Whirlpool has created the Institute for Fabric Science and Institute for Kitchen Science as platforms intended to help, advise and engage consumers on problems and needs they may have in their daily lives around cooking, cleaning (appliances) and laundry.

This works to establish Whirlpool as an expert knowledge broker and advisor on issues the consumer faces. Further real people are involved in the content creation and delivery, which helps humanize the brand. It takes about a second to see the vast array of potential extensions these platforms offer for earned media activity and additional multi-media content creation, so vital to aggregating and activating an audience at Facebook.

Monica Teague, Whirlpool’s Senior Manager for PR and Brand Experience had this to say in her Ragan.com interview: “And that’s the whole point of the Institute of Fabric Science and its sister, the Institute of Kitchen Science. Acting as a resource—versus promoting products—goes a long way in developing brand loyalty.” Amen to that. And we would go a step further to point out that now brands are obligated to earn permission for a relationship with consumers based on their ability to authentically connect with lifestyle needs and aspirations. It’s this kind of thinking that helps forge real bonds with people over time.

In the absence of strategies like the Whirpool effort, brands risk disengagement and commoditization – where finding a lower price becomes the only emotional value consumers experience with your business.

Bravo!!