It takes a lot today to differentiate yourself, your company, your brand from the competition. It takes courage to stand out from the crowd and take risks. It means having vision and the ability to see the larger picture. It’s having passion and the innate drive to be the absolute best. It’s laser focus that is unwilling to give up. It’s confidence in yourself, your organization, in your people. And, it’s the committment to walk the walk and deliver on your brand, every time.
Well, what if you sell beds? In the sea of retail, the only dry land tends to be commiditization. Come and get ‘em for the lowest price. Prices slashed. Two-for one. We’ll even throw in free delivery! Sometimes there’s good will and a donation or two. All that noise sounds like a car dealership. But, there’s a company in the U.K. called Benson for Beds. They aren’t selling beds – they are selling sleep. Something everyone wants but not everyone gets. Their focus isn’t on showing hundreds of beds on sale in a warehouse with giant-sized price tags (okay, yes they had some ads like that in the past). They focus on what you can do if you get your sleep. Sleep to Live. Check out their very cool intro spot on their site. http://bit.ly/i1p8f
Their brand screams “have all the fun in the world and at the end of the day you’ll get the best night’s sleep” or in other words, Sleep to Live. Brilliant brand position. They embraced their Sleep to Live mantra by shooting for the Guiness Book of World Records in mattress dominoes. Gimmicky? Perhaps. But, it does go to show that when you think outside the box, you can turn a simple idea into something that helps differentiate who you are and what you offer. It can help an organization rally around a common goal and ultimately help everyone deliver on the promise made to consumers. It can help you grow. And, in the end…might just help you sleep.
As if it weren’t already difficult to select the perfect donut at the shop, Dunkin Donuts launched an online campaign, engaging customers to create the next, best donut. Sweet. While the concept isn’t necessarily original (taken from many a marketing playbook like developing the next M&M color, the next HaagenDaz flavor, etc.), it is engaging and like a single donut, makes you want more. With the dangle of $12K for the winning donut, it’s all but assured that Dunkin will get many a creation.
This type of effort helps highlight why engaging your brand with both your internal and external audiences is so vital. Engaging both employees and customers energizes and invigorates both the brand and the people around you. It gets people excited. It helps build evangelists who continue to support your brand. Dunkin Donuts has more than 460,000 fans on its Facebook page and more than 11,000 followers on Twitter. They also have YouTube channel. And minus a few downfalls with this effort – website isn’t mobile friendly – it is fun. This promotional effort is part of a $100 million national campaign developed by Hill, Holliday in Boston, American Runs on Dunkin. Time will tell how many donut creations they receive but the endearment and trust they build with customers is worth much more than the next donut creation. Unless of course it’s filled with chocolate kreme.
Social Media Club PDX is holding their second meeting tomorrow, Tuesday March 24th at WebTrends. Kelly Feller, Social Media Strategiest for Intel’s Social Media Center for Excellence will be speaking about Careers in Social Media. Below is a summary of the event.
Getting It: Careers in Social Media
Are there really jobs in social media and if so, how do I get one? With all the self-proclaimed social media pundits, experts and gurus out there, it’s easy to wonder if the only jobs in social media are for consultants or agencies trying to help big corporations “get it.” Well Kelly is living proof that some big companies do “get it” and are willing to put their money where their online mouths are by hiring specialists with expertise in “being social online.”
Join Kelly Feller for the second official Social Media Club Portland meeting where she’ll summarize various corporate social media jobs (hers included) and what they actually entail. She will also explore ways to stand out in this increasingly crowded space and give some hints to agencies and consultants who are helping companies make sense of the growing social media marketing movement.
Date: Tuesday, March 24rd, 2009 Location: WebTrends
851 SW 6th Ave. Suite 1600
Portland, OR 97204
Time: Networking 6-6:30, Presentation: 6:30-8pm Cost: Free. Seating is limited. Supported by Widmer Brothers. RSVP
For those of you who may not have heard, Skittles has recently launched a new website. Instead of bringing you a taste of the rainbow through a flashy site that offers product giveaways, colorful contests, and a branded interactive experience, they have chosen to leverage what YOU the consumer are saying about them by utilizing existing social media outlets, such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc…
To Skittles credit, in the past few years they have been very brave with their ad campaigns and branding. Some of their commercials rank among my favorites with their off-the-wall concepts. But I have to wonder what is this new risky venture into social media saying about their brand? Already I have seen attempts from saboteurs twittering racist rants coupled with the #skittles hashtag. Are they really going to hand over the reigns to us?
Their strategy so far has just been to point us to the conversations that are occurring at the moment about Skittles. That’s it. And to that, I say BIG DEAL…but what benefit does the consumer get from seeing your Wiki page, or becoming a Skittles facebook friend? Is there really a brand culture that exists for Skittles, where taking this type of approach is going to help foster their brand? They are certainly getting plenty of PR buzz by taking a page from Modernista’s playbook. But is that sustainable? How quickly will this schtick become tiresome?
This approach is still new. What I hope to see is that they will carry forth that edginess that was in their campaigns and engage us! What off-the-wall innovation is Skittles going to bring to these conversations? How will they wow us? And what are they going to do with their products to BACK IT ALL UP!
I know you are watching, Skittles, but are you listening?
The more I dive into social media, the more I start to realize there is an endless amount of information, articles, technologies, case studies, do’s, don’ts… and the list goes on… it starts to become exhausting. I tend to get easily distracted where there are too many sites to visit. I find myself hopping from one place to the next until I can’t remember what I was even searching for. Here are some basic tips for sorting through the clutter and finding the info you need (and still be able to get some work done).
Read Groundswell- This book does an excellent job of setting you strait on how to approach social media from a business perspective. It walks you though valuable information on not only the technology but the strategy behind it. It also has some really powerful case studies that provide real life examples.
SmartBrief on Social Media- This daily email has been a quick way to reference the most popular topics in social media of the day. I find that I can easily skim the email to find the most relevant information.
Follow key people on Twitter- Depending on how your using twitter (or if you’re using it at all) it can be a great way to keep up on the recent buzz in social media marketing. Find some interesting people to follow (that also provide valuable information) and check in daily. (for example, @mashable is a good one) Also, if you are tweeting on behalf of multiple accounts use tools like Splitweet into consolidate your tweeting to one interface.
Create a dashboard- If you look at my iGoogle homepage, it somewhat resembles a command central, filled with widgets to keep me posted on all of my social networking sites, mail, blog & twitter feeds, news, docs, etc. This helps me find the information I need w/out visiting multiple sites.
Don’t focus too much on the technologies- There will always be another widget, social networking site, etc. It can be really overwhelming. If you put to much emphasis on keeping up with each new technology, you can begin to lose sight of what the purpose for the technology is and how it can help your brand connect with its audiences.
