How Can You Maintain Brand in a Distributed Content World?
Earlier this week I spoke at the Sarasota International Design Summit. In a room full of the best and brightest design minds, the question I asked was "Does Design Matter?" Sounds like a rather controversial question for a design conference, but it is a key issue to the future of design and marketing.
Here's the gist of the problem: Increasingly consumers are interacting with organizations via text-based systems like RSS or third party sites like Facebook or Twitter where the brand has very little design control.
To use the cliche, content is king. Brands can no longer expect consumers to come to their sites or discussion groups to participate...the brands need to go to where the consumers are. Organizations are realizing that interaction and engagement with customers and evangelists is producing ROI. They just have to step outside their comfort zone.
That said, how does a brand maintain a consistent experience across all these external platforms? In the case of Twitter, you can tweak your page design slightly, but ultimately your 'brand' is represented by a 48x48 avatar and the quality of your content/conversation.
There is no easy answer to the question, but it's something I'm asking almost every designer I'm talking to. The topic touches on many of the key issues that will be discussed at Mplanet this year:
Leverage new computing and communication platforms to drive online marketing efforts: These platforms and networks all have their own design constraints, can you work within them?
Fragmented array of media and channels: Which channels make sense for your brand and once again, can you maintain some sort of brand identity within them?
Greater diversity of customers and emergence of new customer segments: With so many choices, perhaps that small amount of brand identity you can maintain will help you stand out.
Empowered customers with more information, more choices, more control: In order to reach customers in a variety of locations/platforms are you willing to syndicate out (and to some degree lose all control) of your content?
The rise of influential social networks, user-generated content and endorsement: Are you able/willing to relinquish some control of brand identity to evangelists?
More resistance to many traditional marketing techniques: When should the brand identity step out of the way?
Josh Hallett is an internationally recognized thought leader in the convergence of social media and corporate public relations & marketing. Currently a New Media Strategist at Voce Communications, Josh provides social media consulting and development work with brands like Yahoo, Sony Computer Entertainment America, eBay and a number of B2B/B2C firms. He writes daily at his blog, Hyku.
Josh Hallett is an internationally recognized thought leader in the convergence of social media and corporate public relations & marketing. Currently a New Media Strategist at Voce Communications, Josh provides social media consulting and development work with brands like Yahoo, Sony Computer Entertainment America, eBay and a number of B2B/B2C firms. He writes daily at his blog, Hyku.
Posted by Josh Hallett on October 30, 2008 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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