Branding, Social Media, and Advertising Overload

Social Media and Branding: Readings and Experience on this Constantly Evolving Relationship   

          Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan are correct in their guiding assertions of the role of social media in branding and marketing efforts in "The One Thing You Must Get Right When Building a Brand". In summary, a company must first get the basics of their marketing efforts in order (identifying their audience, differentiating their product, pricing, etc.). Marketing teams must place consistently delivering on brand promises (and communicating these successes) above developing social media efforts; social media efforts should compliment their existing, thoughtful efforts. Since I currently work at a marketing research and branding firm I can affirm many marketing departments across a wide span of industries are mortified of being left behind in the social media frenzy. The race-like pace to marketing development gave the rapid emergence of social media a sense of unprecedented urgency: god forbid consumers can't Tweet about the new Tide laundry detergent pods. What if there's no YouTube channel to post the commercials on? What if our users can't share their wonderful experience with Tide Pods on Facebook? *Tide isn't one of our clients but their recent branding struggle with their new line of detergents has drawn the attention of many members of the marketing community*

          Joking aside, keeping pace with social media is important as it amplifies rewards but also expedites knowledge of failures. An angry user is more likely to report his or her frustrating experience and now these users have many more means of doing so. Companies want to ensure they are keeping up with their product's online identities and managing their brands strategically online. The danger is that these efforts (both creating original channels and content online as well as overseeing independent channels) could ultimately end up posing as a distraction from the primary focus of the institution or organization: the brand promise. Many of the projects undertaken by the company I work for involve making small changes to their overall approach to integrate social media effectively. This is obviously more important for some firms than others from a demographic perspective (some brands don't want or need to concern themselves with a substantial online presence.) As news broadcasts integrate Twitter feeds and companies create create Facebook pages fort their products I can't help but feel we are now throwing advertising overload into the fray of information overload. As Professor Zak mentioned last week, Google plans to launch a line of augmented reality glasses. Does this mean now I'm going to be subjected to ads via my Twitter or Facebook feeds inches from my eyes when I simply wanted information on a product I see? Who knows, but hopefully marketing companies will continue to be aware that just because they can, doesn't mean they should.