Social Marketers: Lacking Brand Personality is a Recipe for Disaster

While the general need for social media presence has become widely accepted, do you, as a social marketer, realize the importance of your brand’s personality shining through? Providing personality through social marketing reinforces brand essence and increases interaction with and engagement of consumers. As a graduate student at Northwestern University Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications Masters Program, I have researched two informative articles on the value of personality in social marketing and have three recommendations to quickly inject your brand’s social media presence with character.

A boring social media footprint will not only fail to differentiate your brand, but it will also turn off customers. Social accounts are an opportunity to reinforce brand essence, generate buzz and go beyond the facts and figures presented in more formal corporate communications. According to Scott Martin at the Daily Egg, there are a variety of ways to infuse personality into a brand’s social media presence, but the focus should be on authenticity and personality that aligns with your branding efforts. Options range from developing a character like Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World or hiring a celebrity spokesperson to humanizing your CEO or publishing consumer testimonials.

One of the key components to the Social Marketing Compass is emotion/sentiment that brands’ social accounts elicit from customers one of the easiest ways to bring forth those elements is through a social-driven conversation using the brand’s distinct voice. (Graphic Source: Tier 10 Lab: Social Marketing Compass)

Simply utilizing social media as a way to recycle existing content is not doing anyone any favors. The content posted on social media should have a slightly different angle, appeal to a different audience and create a voice for the brand. Rather than simply posting links to existing website content, social media is an opportunity to integrate more creativity and humanize the brand. Jessica Doudrick from PA Media Group cites audience familiarity and quality content as key factors for integrating personality. Understanding who you are targeting, what they want to see and how they want to consume it are all crucial. Another tip Doudrick offers for audience engagement is to post content with questions to encourage conversation with consumers.

After reviewing Martin and Doudrick’s perspective, here are three actionable items that can be implemented quickly for effective social marketing, filled with personality and voice.

1.      Interact Regularly: Frequent interaction with consumers is key, as social media is a dialogue, not a monologue. Consider social presence to be instant and honest feedback from customers about what you’re doing well and where you have opportunities for improvement.

2.      Create Social-Specific Content:  Recycling and linking to existing content is nothing new and gives consumers no reason to follow your social accounts. Provide consumers with information they can’t get elsewhere on your platforms to grab their interest.

3.      Inject Humor and Creativity: No matter the product or services you’re selling, consumers appreciate creative content that makes them laugh, think, or scratch their heads. Don’t underestimate how smart your audience is; they’ll appreciate you keeping them on their toes.

As a social marketer, brand personality is crucial to set your brand apart. It reinforces the brand essence you strive for, gives consumers a reason to keep coming back and can help “create awesome.” In this media landscape, it is undoubtedly important to have a social media presence, but taking that one step further shows that having a distinct personality within that social media space is even more important.

Elizabeth Paige Fierman is a Master of Science Candidate in the Medill School’s Integrated Marketing & Communications program at Northwestern University. A New England native, Elizabeth has experience in collegiate and professional athletics, as well as sports media. She loves hockey, avocados and bright nail polish and can be found on Twitter (@EPFonIMC) and LinkedIn.

Brand Success = Customer Focus + Brand Essence

With consumers becoming less brand loyal, it is more important now that brands understand their consumers and what the consumers believe those brands mean to them. Sadly, the day when a brand was able to determine its meaning has passed, making it important to understand why consumers use a given brand. In these examples, Hershey an Absolut, they demonstrate what happens when a brand understands how it fits into its consumer’s world and what consumers relate to and continue to buy said brand. These examples provide lessons for other brands to follow not by trying to be everything for everyone, but rather understanding what they are for those who want them and where they started.

“How Hershey Brand Got Its Start in China –But Don’t Call It an Import” by E.J. Schultz, shows how for the first time, Hershey launched a new product, a new type of caramel candies, first in China before the United States. The composition of these candies show the research and understanding that went into the creation of these candies while demonstrating that Hershey understands the important differences between the United States candies and the China candies, along with the different consumers. By creating these products concurrently, Hershey focused on gaining efficiencies through selling these products. Additionally, these products exist in different categories in each country; in China they fall into the “milk candy” category, whereas in the United States they are more traditionally caramels.

 “Absolut’s Iconic Bottle Is Its Ticket toYounger Consumers: Staying competitive in a market flooded with new spirits” by Joan Voight: since 1986, the Absolut bottle shape has remained consistent and been a place for artists to test out their art. While there are certain aspects about Absolut that keep it from being a craft vodka, by maintaining its deep connection to the artistic community and the care with which it fills every bottle, Absolut knows how to keep its loyal consumers returning time and time again.

Based on my work at the Medill program and analysis of these articles, these are three things that you need to do:

1.  Understand what your brand means to others – this is different from understanding what the brand meaning/promise is, rather it is looking at the brand through the lens of the consumer. Ask your consumer what your brands meant to them and why they bought it. (Look at how Hershey understood what different markets wanted from seemingly similar products).
2. Conduct market research – use this to determine who your consumers are and how your brand connects to them. (Look at how Absolut connects with its artist community)
3. Find a path to follow and stay with it – do not be afraid to stick with what made you famous (i.e. Absolut and its iconic bottle along with its connection to the artistic community) or pick a new path and fully embrace it (Hershey's dual product launch).     

In a time when competition within the food and alcohol industry is fierce, the brands are showing how they can continue to innovate based on their understanding of their product, brand and consumer. These examples show brand managers and marketers what they need to best understand about their product, especially in the food and alcohol/spirits industries, to maximize acceptance and maintain a position in its consumer circle. To say relevant and front of mind with consumers, it is necessary to follow these steps as these are examples of how Hershey and Absolut have remained connected to their consumers and strong contenders in their markets.

·      Marti Lauer is a graduate Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) student at Northwestern University’s Medill School. Her interests lie in the food and beverage industry and CPG along with understanding how consumer experiences and insights shape attitudes and actions. She can be reached at @MartiLauer on Twitter

Image: http://georgeteiosanu.ro/tag/studiu-de-caz/