Brand planning in the community?

I recently had lunch with the CEO and Founder of Promise a brand building agency firmly based on the principle that intense consultation and collaboration (or co-creation) with customers is the route to more appealing brands, propositions and ultimately business results. Surprisingly, this commitment to co-creation still differentiates the company from the vast majority of brand and innovation consultancies. (See: www.promisecorp.com).

The establishment and consultation of an on-line customer community is a core ‘tool’ employed to support co-creation (or more mundanely for ongoing research). Customers and prospects will typically make-up these communities but they can be designed to include staff, stakeholders and experts . Kraft, for example, focused exclusively on internal stakeholders conducting a ‘Big Talk Online’ in which thousands of employees were involved in designing, debating and filtering the future mission, vision and values of the company.

The merits of establishing a community, have perhaps, been challenged by the activities of Starbucks (www.mystarbucksidea.com) or First Direct who are now attracting ideas and opinions directly from their on-line consuming public. Certainly, setting up a website (or a fan page) and then asking questions sounds cheaper and quite possibly a quicker route to new ideas. So, is establishing (and talking to) a bespoke on-line community still a compelling approach?

Well my conclusion is yes!

In fact, I would argue that a community informed approach to planning has increasing merit for many consumer brands.

So, why?

At the heart of my argument is a recognition that businesses need to work harder at brand planning given the growth in social media networks and associated expectations.  They will need their brands to ‘socially engage’ and will want to ensure they:

1. benefit from the reach and advocacy opportunity of a growing social network audience,
2. can quickly assimilate ideas and improvements identified by customers,
3. are able to swiftly and effectively respond to reputation challenging issues,
4. have a sizeable share of voice/influence across social media networks,
5. are consistently and positively championed by staff within their organisation, and
6. identify and stay in-touch with influential network members.

These new challenges and opportunities do not change the brand planning basics, but I believe should motivate a more precise definition and comprehension of your brand. The opportunity exists, for example, to arm your staff with the pride, purpose (and protocols) to spread your word across networks. Clarity on your brand’s stance on key consumer issues could also help establish cause related campaigns that foster greater engagement.

Above all, experience and performance need to credibly (or authentically) reflect a brand promise.  Shortfalls or breakdowns will be quickly and loudly seized upon.  Consider Toyota’s plight – the recent recall is smaller than those conducted by Ford or General Motors, but I would suggest in our increasingly well-connected world has become a bigger, more widely discussed event.

Auditing your brand performance requires more work and measures too. Social media adoption means that perceptions and behaviours are increasingly being shaped outside of traditional media warranting an understanding of sentiment, share of voice and advocacy across these networks.

So, brand development requires a bit more work and precision – but given there are plenty of ways to consult customers, what is the argument for a community to be embraced as a core part of your brand planning process?

For me, the answer lies in the ability of an on-line community to simulate the engagement challenges of a socially connected world AND to allow for greater experimentation ahead of public consumption. I see a number of significant benefits that justify the consultation of a managed on-line community – quite possibly, in addition to wider, ongoing public engagement of on-line customers. These include:

1. the opportunity for a deep, open and honest exchange of views between the business and customers,
2. the chance to trial developments without fear of rejection,
3. the scope to recruit expertise and outlooks that support radical solutions and ideas,
4. the ability for diverse staff members to interact with customers,
5. the potential to build a base of advocates who may retain a role as initiatives go to market, and
6. the opportunity to find product/service range developments ahead of competitors.

In conclusion, brand owners now, more than ever, need to ensure their brands are ‘socially engaging’ and that benefit delivery at least matches promises. There is clearly merit (and more work) in ensuring customer engagement across growing social networks and beyond. So ensuring your brand plans benefit from an extremely honest, open and comprehensive dialogue with your customer community that involves many across your organisation really has to make sense.