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It is not uncommon for Marketers to stare blankly at white boards while holding onto bucket sized coffee cups... just hoping for some inspiration and wondering if they can find in themselves the next big tag line. I know because most weeks I find myself doing the same....
However, when I read a short quote from Twitter's Adam Bain saying that the three best ways to monetize a product are "humor, huge deals and humanity"I was given a jolt (small) of inspiration.
This was something to reflect on and help drive a focus to my pondering... sure I had thought about humor (although having a genetic trait for maths seems to make me a little less likely to find humor easily) and huge deals were way over done... humanity, now that was an interesting angle and one that just might fly.
Previously, I would have thought of 'humanity' marketing in the same bucket as 'cause marketing' or maybe I being unhelpful by burring these two ideas... and this is not consistent to Mr Bain's notion of 'humanity'. But assuming we embrace a humanity with our our campaigns, this would certainly appeal to a particular audience and brand position.
The question of what channel to promote this 'humanity' idea on in my mind was clear - social media. Social media has an inherent connection with customers (people) so surely would accommodate my 'humanity messages. But here’s lyes the problem: while brands want to use social media because it does a lot of their outreach for them, it also requires something more from them other than a catchy tagline and cool imagery - companies that enter the social space need to embrace authenticity and trust.
Used correctly, social media can provide companies with valuable levels of consumer insights, a real sense of their customers ideas, thoughts and motivations... But it’s a two-way street — if brands aren't authentic and hold values of trust in their communications then brand goodwill can easily be eroded.
So, after much pondering (and large coffee's) I am coming to the conclusion that my client should take a 'cause' driven approach developed through a number of social media communities. The tag line excapes me... but I want to ensure that our camapign is raw and not to clinical in 'feeling' and that we connect to people using social media to enage and communicate the ideas of "just wanting to participate in this world"
If any of you marketers reading this get inspired and can offer a campaign tagline then please drop a note in the comments below.
Written on Thursday, 07 April 2011 07:47 by Matt McDougall
