We’re rightly fascinated by Advocacy.
Not only because positive word of mouth has long been recognised for its power and relative impact.
But also because, in a media context where access and permissions become constantly tougher to achieve, and when online media and digital tools have created a whole new layer of consumer connectedness and influence over brand equity …
… the opportunity to go beyond mere “occasional serendipitous buzz”, to repeatably recognise, deliver, tribalise and measure networked consumer intimacy seems now within reach.
So what – really – drives the Advocacy that will drive our brands deeper Behind The Line?
The roots of truly credible, sustainable brand advocacy lie in smart, observant, consumer-led brand innovation. This “true advocacy” can’t be bought in the same way that we have historically bought media: the best brand advocacy is earned.
Despite a logical connection and superficial resemblance, advocacy is not the same as loyalty: the dynamic’s utterly different; furthermore, while any loyal customer is a powerful asset to a brand, our advocates need many specific extra attributes in order to be of positive value;
But first – and most - of all, what’s in it for the consumer?
When consumers act as brand advocates, they’re rarely promoting the brand, but that aspect of themselves that the brand helps them feel good about: in other words, a facet of their own identity, not the brand’s – identifying with the brand, and then speaking about themselves, using the brand as a conduit.
When we’re dealing with this phenomenon, traditional planning and measurement are less central, and personal media and tribal models of engagement become important.
This consumer – strongly influenced by tribal opinions and trends – controls the game of attention and media value, saying “Never mind about your brand. Tell me about … myself!”
So … advertising used to be just about distribution of content and messaging … here it’s consumers themselves who are distributed: their “personal brand messages”, pushed out via ringtone, via carefully-monitored brand purchases, and of course via their media selections.
This we can call “The Distributed Me”.
We know all about brand equity.
This new “Consumer Equity” is the extra value a brand creates in the experience of today’s in-control consumer, no longer just promising, but repeatably delivering enhanced Consumer Identity and Consumer Expression;
This is the new currency of premium brand communications: it’s this with this that we “pay the consumer” for the Intimacy – the warmth, trust and receptiveness and accessibility – that we need.
What do we buy when we buy a premium brand?
Most of all, we buy access to a story of which we can take some personal ownership.
It’s the new, bigger, richer story of Me, and I need help to live in it.
This means I seek to accessorise myself with the tools of Social Display, because it’s not enough to succeed …
… others must see it happening and share it with me;
Today, the trappings of the premium brand are almost all social: it’s a new language spoken by the connoisseurs, the (very small) club of aficionados, the inner circle, the “people who know”.
Many of the most important communication opportunities and brand experiences in premium are delivered via or in the context of the tribe;
In fact, these days it’s also the tribe that defines many of those attributes.
Premium brand communications need to support and enable me to enact two ideas about my Consumer Identity.
I am both unique, and I am part of an exclusive tribe.
These are interlocking, mutually reinforcing elements to be managed in parallel by the brand.
While personal concierge-type services and experiences are often used to build the sense of my special uniqueness, the complementary tribal affiliations are built with, for example, exclusive contract publishing magazines and restricted brand-sponsored events.
Tribal belonging is also powerfully built – not always by brands but certainly by luxury elites (art, wines, yachting, haute couture and so on) using private Knowledge and Codes.
These enable the all-important Social Display which commonly forms the Expression opportunity for the premium consumer.
How on earth can we engage with and manage this troublesome new dynamic? Don’t worry, we can do it.
Comments