Digital brand experiences

Many organizations want to engage in the social web and yet are not truly ready.  They determine ideas, budgets, timelines all without considering critical social media dynamics.  This of course is often the reality because the organization has little if any deployment experience in the first place and doesn’t know where to turn.

Our work and experience suggests that many brands struggle with understanding the dynamics of how consumers might interact with them via social media ahead of time.  That lack of a social media calibrated plan then leaves them to find this out publicly while they put their brand at risk.  If crowd-sourcing was the plan from the start that’s one thing.  Evidence present within the project itself would demonstrate key elements had been considered prior to launch.  However, the truth is typically the brand is ends up with an unintended result and it’s not always positive.  Evidence that the brand was not properly prepared internally to address changes in consumer digital behaviours and left unchecked could continue to produce poor results.  Here are a couple of links of public social media failures many of which you may already be aware of.

Social media campaign failures:

- A list of well known failures on thoughtpick

- Another great one by Jeremiah Owyang.

It could be said, the social web is not about brands so much as it is about the “individual.”

That is simultaneously it’s power and also the pitfall for brands operating within it.  Has social media impacted how the consumer interacts with brands?  The short answer is yes!  In my continuing research to learn more about this issue I found a great study which I’d like to share with you…

2009 Digital Brand Experience Study by Razorfish is very interesting. Here is an excerpt:

- 65% of consumers report having a digital experience with a brand that either positively or negatively changed their opinion about a brand.  Of that group, a nearly unanimous 97% say that their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.

Razorfish concludes – Digital is not only a place to build a brand: it can also make it or break it.

This study suggests that consumers will hold a digital dialogue with a brand especially if there’s a deal at the end of it.  These interactions online should further be supported by the ability to personally interact when requested.  Your brand must have personality, a human side if you will.  Why is that important?  Because “connected consumers are now the new mainstream.”

I hope you found today’s post helpful and the study itself as interesting as I did.  If you have thoughts about this or would like to express something about your own digital brand experience I’d love to hear about it.