Letting Go Of The Reins

User Generated Content can be be scary but with risk comes a lot of potential reward. One of the things covered in Chapter 5: "Want control? Give it away," are some of the ways that companies have tried to control user generated content from simply being prepared for the negative along with the good to tailoring contest and campaigns to make them more appealing to the real targeted audience instead of the semi professional videographer. There are contests where people are post straight to online communities and ones where the organization is acting as a middleman sifting through all the submissions in-house. So the question remains: As marketers how much can you control user generated content? And how much should you?

Rule #3, Post 4--Lesson #7 Don't just talk, listen

Read through this blog about the Old Spice Man commercials.

Old Spice capitalized on listening to customers through YouTube. Do you agree with the blog author that this can no longer be done now that Old Spice paved the way with this method? What are some other ways we can spark conversation through listening to customers? And, by listening to them, are we actually sparking conversation or just joining conversation that's already there?

Rule #3, Post 3--Lessons #5&6 Make social apps useful and mobile

Are you a user of Fourthsquare? If yes, tell us what you think? Does it work for you? If not, what are the limitations of 'going mobile', and are there still ways to spark conversation in this field? Are there other apps you can't live without?

Rule #3, Post 2--Lesson 4 Keep it Real

One point Mathieson tries to make clear is that we should be authentic in our attempts at sparking conversation. Do you agree or disagree? Also in light of this, what do you think about the notion that many celebrities are paid upwards of $10,000 per tweet by Ad.ly? Do you think this will be an effective marketing platform in the future? Do you have examples that worked or did not work?

Rule #3, Post 1--Lesson #3 Keep it simple

Hello everyone! One of the lesson learned from this chapter says "keep it simple, social--and preferably events-based." A good example from the chapter was how CSI conducted a murder mystery within the world of Second Life in which fans could actively participate with their avatars. Can you think of another event-based campaign that a company has launched that was either successful or a failure and why? Please feel free to add any links to web-sites or videos.

Genwow.com companion to The On-Demand Brand

In the introduction, Mathieson (p. xvi) states that the On-Demand Brand is an extension of his blog, GENERATION WOW. (www.genwow.com). In the spirit of the theme of the book, being "on-demand" is accomplished by reliance on the strengths of the media. As Jeff Bezos states, a book is a great piece of technology. Of course he outlines each aspect and then compares them with Kindle (see a recent interview with Charlie Rose at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAo0IfOCevA). and of course Kindle offers books on-demand, which is a strength it offers over its predecessor medium (which of course I still love since I still assign a hardcover book to my class).
But the blog takes the interviews that are summarized in the book, and provides them in the context of video, where the personality of the communicator is allowed to give additional meaning to the words which are static on the printed page.
So, the blog-book connection adds a lot of value both directions. The book provides a concise summary of what is most important (at least up to a point of time) in the blog, and the blog offers life to the book. Synergy.
e-commerce prof

Rule #1 Insight Comes Before Inspiration

I would like to say that this rule lends itself toward common sense, but we all know common sense is not that common!

Anywhere I go, I find that there is always someone that is asking questions pertaining to what I want or am trying to find. If I walk into a store, a greeting is usually followed by questions, starting with "Is there something I can help you find?".

When I buy a gift for someone, I need to know something about that person. They say gift cards are impersonal, and they are right; they can be impersonal. Keep in mind - gift cards are only impersonal if they don't benefit the person receiving them.

Food For Thought: As a Second grade teacher, my sister sometimes receives gives cards from parents at Christmas and the end of the year. It is a wonderful gesture. She especially appreciates gift cards that can be used for her classroom. Parents that know anything about her would never buy her a giftcard from Starbucks...she doesn't drink coffee. Chocolate milk is more her style. Unfortunately, every year she receives multiple gift cards from Starbucks...which is great for me anyway!

Marketing is very similar. In order to reach an audience, a company must understand their customer at a level that in prior times would have been impossible. The availability of information today is impressive. All I need to complete some research today is a smart phone with apps or a computer with access to the internet.

When I was in high school, computers were still a fairly rare find, and they were definitely not found in every home....and I am really not that old! I was one of the lucky few students who had the opportunity to complete my research paper on a computer instead of a typewriter. Adding footnotes and bibliographies with today’s technology is very simple (as long as you know how to use the software). Before then, it was challenging to make sure the footnotes and references ended up on the same page with the correct formatting!

There is a wide gap between technology available today and the audiences that utilize each of the marketing channels. It is more important now than ever to understand your target audience and the channels that reach them. Older populations are reached more readily by the use of television, radio, and print, whereas younger generations are better accessed via technology and social media.

This rule is simple and straight forward: Know your market.

I would like you to consider this Super Bowl ad from 2002:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9030249634811859116#

Do you remember this ad running? Why did Budweiser do it? Why did it run only once, but become a viral phenomenon? What do you think?

Quotes and Phrases of Interest from the Introduction

1. "unbound content" (p. X): I like the way Mathieson takes the idea of "content" from only the receiver standpoint, and even beyond simple interactivity, but making it your own. This takes us beyond Rayport and Sviokla's 1994 HBR article, "Managing in the Marketspace," where they show how content can be separated from its context and infrastructure.
2. "original form of microblogging--text messaging" (p. xiii): Never thought of texting as microblogging. Not sure I do now. Will need to think some more about it.
3. "texting is the lingua franca of teen lifestyles" (p. xiii): Definitely agree.
4. "instant social gratification" (p. xiv): I never saw social as a modifier for gratification before, but I think it makes sense.
5. "Building brands in the digital age comes down to a single word, and that word is 'experience'." (p. xv, quoting John Butler--not of the trio, I assume): I have to think about this one, but I bet Butler's clients agree, but they probably thought it sounded so good that they didn't need to think about it. That's the beauty of clients.
6. "They lack the tools--the philosophical framework--to create the kind of experiences consumers want and demand in the digital era." (p. xvi): Whoever "they" are, I agree. At least that is what every business owner that I talk with says. So "they" must at least include those guys.
7. The On-Demand Lexicon (pp. xx-xxii): Getting tired of roman numerals. Props for putting the glossary up front.
8. This doesn't have anything to do with my blog post, but my daughter would like some feedback on this dress. She is 15 and also agrees about the texting point above (#3).

The Promise of the Book

The introduction of the book suggests the "marketers" (whoever "they" are), are unable to keep up with the consumer and technological changes that brands face today.

I agree.

What's worse is that as an academic that has taught e-commerce for what is now the 10th year, I have to admit that for the most part "we" (i.e. academics) are further behind.

It's not that I don't try to keep up. I tweet, facebook, blog, text YouTube (is it OK to use these nouns in a verb tense?), and so on. But I still have a hard time even keeping my website updated. It's simply too much.

So, I don't blame "marketers" for being behind (and I don't think it's just Madison Ave (p. xiv), since almost everybody else is too.

Perhaps the way to keep up is a new form of organization. I rely on my TAs to bail me out, students who have deep knowledge of a technique that eludes me, a host of really smart guest speakers to talk about the topics that I simply cannot know everything about, and books like The On-Demand Brand to try to bring some sense to it all. The need to find some organization is somewhat akin to Bedecarre's quote (p. xv), "...you need to have software engineers and technology people as part of the creative team...." Yeah, we do need to think broader if we are going to operate in this world that is now networked via the internet as much as it is networked through personal connections.

So, 10 rules provide an approach to make a brand be "on-demand." It's a pretty steep promise given that Mathieson is building his foundation on the same shifting sand that has created the chaos that he presumes to provide directions to navigate. But all the same, in my first reading of the book, it makes sense--or at least it seems to do what it portends: link marketing and technology change in a way that is useful to marketers.

What is the purpose of this blog?

Welcome to DemandingBrands where we explore in depth the book, The On-Demand Brand written by Rick Mathieson.

Each year I select one popular press book that I think somehow grasps the true intersection of marketing and e-commerce. In previous years we have read Paul Gillen's "The New Influencers," and John Battelle's "Search." This year, the honor goes to Mathieson.

During the Fall Semester 2010, my MBA e-commerce class will be reading, dissecting, and reviewing each chapter of this book. Most of the activity will take place between September 16 and November 18, but we can continue the conversation beyond that.

There are 22 students enrolled in the class, and each are authors of the blog. If you are a student in the class you are free to post! If you are simply interested in this book but not in the class, I invite you to join the conversation by commenting on the students' posts.