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Social media is what many brands want a part of, but very few have made it.

On the surface, it seems simple, but dig a little deeper and you come across a myriad of complex political and structural issues that are standing in the way of success.

It seems there's probably a role for consulting companies to step into the vacuum and help companies navigate their way through this complexity. It appears Charline Li, formerly a superstar analyst at Forrester felt this way, because she now has her own consulting group- Altimeter.

Glancing through Alitimeter's Slideshare credentials deck, it appears they have a vibrant business model. There are very few consultants or agencies digital and otherwise who can help clients answer every single one of these questions the credentials deck suggests they answer.

Strategy

How do emerging technologies impact my strategy?
How can I align technology with my business goals?

Leadership

How do I lead my company in this new landscape?
How do I transform this organization with these technologies?

Tactics

What channels should I use to reach my audience?
How do I integrate technologies into existing systems?
When should I use which technologies?

Technology

How do I decide which technologies/service providers to use?
What's the future of emerging technologies?

How long before Altimeter gets an on offer from IPG, Publicis, WPP and the rest?



Posted by Ed Cotton Interesting to see The Atlantic write such a flattering article about The Economist and the current state of the newsweekly business. The discussion revolves around the recent changes and re-designs at Time and Newsweek, who are both hoping to drag their publications to new found success in an otherwise dying print market.
The Economist is the one shining ray of light that everyone now wants to emulate, but The Atlantic does not believe this is possible because The Economist possess one thing these other titles lack.

"The secret to The Economist’s success is not its brilliance, or its hauteur, or its typeface. The writing in Time and Newsweek may be every bit as smart, as assured, as the writing in The Economist. But neither one feels like the only magazine you need to read. You may like the new Time and Newsweek. But you must—or at least, brilliant marketing has convinced you that you must—subscribe to The Economist. "

In the end, it's all about the brand.


Posted by Ed Cotton Playing around on the All Facebook site you can quickly discover the most popular celebrities, brands and products based on the size of their fan bases. One thing that's especially striking is the number of duplicate sites that exist for certain brands. Converse could have the most fans on Facebook, if it could find a way to consolidate its fans sites.

Clearly there's a mix of brand and fan created sites here, but moving forward it's clear brands have a massive opportunity to connect with their loyal users. How they chose to do that is the billion dollar question.




Posted by Ed Cotton Jon Canter writing in The Guardian gives a knock out blow to the fairly recent trend of giving corporations individual and very human personalities..

"For some reason, we - and now I mean the human race, not just Bastable Advertising - want companies to be like individuals. We want them to have a personality. Over the years, these corporate personalities have become more extreme.

In front of me I have a packet of Marks & Spencer Cheese Tasters. On the back, in the top righthand corner, is M&S's version of "we believe": "We believe passionately in good food." Wow! Passion! It was all I could do, when I first read those words, not to snog the packet. M&S, it turns out, are the Mills & Boon of food. Or are they? Does everyone in the company believe passionately in good food, even if they, as it were, work in knickers? Or is it just the Cheese Tasters division? At the interview to be a Cheese Taster taster, are you required to cry?

This is not the M&S I grew up with and thought of as a nice person. (Oh yes, despite writing that brochure, I'm as prone to the corporate pathetic fallacy as everyone else.) M&S wasn't passionate. It was a balanced person with a firm handshake and a neat parting, a person I'd be happy for my daughter to bring home - unlike that vulgar and chaotic Woolworths, who I always suspected liked a drink."

He's suggesting that some brands are straying to far from what's reasonable and expected and the net result is a brand that's trying far too hard for its own good.

Obviously, this was fine when only a few companies were engaging in this type of behavior, but it becomes weaker with ubiquity.

It's clear that big corporations are now trying very hard to be appear small and friendly because they are worried about the success of the "others" column in the market share data, which shows the share of mass brands being eroded by dozens of tiny brands.

So what's a giant corporation to do?

1. Bring its employees to life and make the brand personally accountable
2. Hire personalities and give them autonomy
3. Create small internal divisions that have autonomy and a vested share in success and make this clear to people

How about the small company?

Obviously, the worry here is that the charm and personality of the small company is being eroded by all the other pretenders. Clearly, these players have only one choice; prove their passion. It's no longer about pack copy, but instead they need to be delivering actions and ideas that bring the folks behind the company to the fore and doing these things in ways the big corporations could never do. Think flaws and character.

Thanks to Simon Kendrick for the tip...




Posted by Ed Cotton Shared Egg is an interesting project that attempts to visualize the connection points between friends. It maps the common areas that bring people together using a combination of interests and brands. It illustrates that brands can be the connective tissue between people; people share a love of brands and an have affinity for them.

Here's the big map...




Here's an isolated look at the Nike relationships within the map....



It raises some interesting questions..

1. How do brands connect to bigger themes, interests, ideas and emotions?

2. How are brands leveraging those connections?

3. How do brands enhance those connections?

4. How do brands bring communities together?

While many have questioned the role of brands in social networks and communities, Shared Egg illustrates that people can be connected and linked by brands. It still remains to be seen how brands best leverage this opportunity to activate and build out these connections and these communities.


Posted by Ed Cotton The private label sales data from Nielsen shows an alarming trend if you happen to be work for a consumer packaged goods brand. The steep curve and rapid gain in share points illustrates just how prepared consumers are to trade away from brands for lower priced alternatives.



The scary thing for brands is that there's so much more room for growth. Nielsen reports that categories like skin care and household detergents have a relatively low penetration for private label products (4-6%), which must be something of a worry for the likes of P&G and Unilever.

In the food space, dairy is the one area under considerable threat which spells significant problems for brands like Horizon.

Lots more detail here....

Posted by Ed Cotton