Believe in the Golden Rule!
How does a brand separate themselves and rise above the messaging noise?
Photo by Pixabay
The answer is outlined in many marketing books, but as Scott notes, the most important thing to remember is to devote attention to the buyers of your products if you want to stay on track and reach your goals. (Scott, 2015, pg.161)
What are your goals?
• Keep in mind that marketing and PR goals need to align with the organizational goals of “profitable revenue growth” (Scott, 2015, pg.163).
Create Buyer Persona Profiles
• A buyer persona represents the target segments of consumers that have an interest in your product. By segmenting buyers in the various groups you can identify marketing efforts to best reach them. (Scott, 2015, pg.165)
Companies that Delight
I can think of no other company that exemplifies luxury accommodations than the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. They consistently exceed guest expectations and have a very robust social media presence. In an interview with the Pursuitist, Felicia Yukich, Social Media Marketing Manager for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts had great things to say about their approach. “We’ve always been a consumer-centric culture, so the shift to adopting the way guests and clients lead communications for Four Seasons has been rapid” (Parr, 2016). She went on to say “Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts continues to incorporate social media into its day-to-day business, the company sees real time interactions as a natural extension of its service model” (Parr, 2015). Having had the opportunity to travel and stay at Four Seasons, they truly practice service in person and online. Their social presence spans a multitude of platforms and they actively curate content for YouTube to attract the luxury traveler. (Parr, 2016)
What risks do brands face if they ignore the golden rule?
The golden rules notes that you should do unto others as you would have done unto you and
applies whether the brand is interacting in person or on social media. In social media we know
that you should not do the following.
1)"Don't ignore social media users
2) Stop duplicating posts across all channels
3) Shameless sales promotion rarely works
4) Mis-information provides social media ammunition 5) Generic responses are not welcome” (Cooper, 2015).
Social media is built on relationships and communicating with your customer with honest, authentic, and engaging content is key to the continued grown of your brand and brand equity. Remember - “social media is more successful when thought about as an experience and not a necessity" (Cooper, 2015).
Photo: Pixabay
Believe in the golden rule – and go for the likes!
References
Cooper, J. (2015, September 22). Brand social media annoyances that deserve the dislike | Strawberrysoup. Retrieved from https://www.strawberrysoup.co.uk/journal/brand-social-media- annoyances-that-deserve-the-dislike/
Parr, C. (2016). Luxury Hotels & Social Media: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts - Pursuitist. Retrieved from https://pursuitist.com/luxury-hotels-social-media-four-seasons-hotels-and- resorts/
Scott, D. (2015). The new rules of marketing & PR (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
1)"Don't ignore social media users
2) Stop duplicating posts across all channels
3) Shameless sales promotion rarely works
4) Mis-information provides social media ammunition 5) Generic responses are not welcome” (Cooper, 2015).
Social media is built on relationships and communicating with your customer with honest, authentic, and engaging content is key to the continued grown of your brand and brand equity. Remember - “social media is more successful when thought about as an experience and not a necessity" (Cooper, 2015).
Photo: Pixabay
Believe in the golden rule – and go for the likes!
References
Cooper, J. (2015, September 22). Brand social media annoyances that deserve the dislike | Strawberrysoup. Retrieved from https://www.strawberrysoup.co.uk/journal/brand-social-media- annoyances-that-deserve-the-dislike/
Parr, C. (2016). Luxury Hotels & Social Media: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts - Pursuitist. Retrieved from https://pursuitist.com/luxury-hotels-social-media-four-seasons-hotels-and- resorts/
Scott, D. (2015). The new rules of marketing & PR (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Hi Monica,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. I think your example of a brand that follows the golden rule—Four Seasons Hotels—is spot on. Good customer service is needed for every brands, but even more so, for hospitality focused companies. The article you shared summed it up perfectly in saying, “…the company sees real time interactions as a natural extension of its service model” (Parr, 2016).
The last interview last question asked of Felicia Yukich, “what has been the most effective content to engage users?” touched on the need to tie your target audiences with your planning. Knowing that their most effective channel is YouTube/multimedia content and placing an emphasis on this content type, shows they are accounting for the “evaluation” planning stage and from their customers (Parr, 2016).
I think the other insight you shared around how brand’s shouldn’t treat their customers is great as well. These key themes are ones I’ve seen not only in our text, but other marketing articles from our classmates and my own research! Can you dive a little more into the impacts of what could happen if a brand doesn’t follow some of the best practices you shared?
References
Parr, C. (2016). Luxury Hotels & Social Media: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts - Pursuitist. Retrieved from https://pursuitist.com/luxury-hotels-social-media-four-seasons-hotels-and-resorts/
Social media has lasting power and can have a powerful impact on a brand –pro or con with the content posted. Think about how quickly a tweet can go viral and quickly become a fiasco. An example of this is capitalizing on tragic events for your own self - promotion. “Gap Inc. learned this when they tweeted “All impacted by #Sandy, stay safe! We’ll be doing lots of Gap.com shopping today. How about you?” The public wasn’t impressed” (Sen, 2013). One of the rules of thumb I read was to sell products or services less than 10 percent of the time and keep your social media channels dedicated to engagement-not sales. (Huffington Post, 2016)
DeleteAs David Meerman Scott “don't underestimate the importance of social media and the new rules of marketing and PR” (Scott, 2015, pg. 190). According to Sen, Social Media Is Hard to Fool and this was displayed by one of Walmart’s campaigns.
“The company’s PR campaign secretly funded a couple who traveled across the U.S. in an R.V. The couple spent the nights in Walmart parking lots and interviewed employees to discover their secrets and feelings for their employer. Surprisingly, all of the employees loved Walmart! It didn’t take long for social media patrons to recognize a fraud and Walmart’s PR firm was forced to issue an apology” (Sen, 2013).
You can read more at https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-can-destroy/
Reference
Huffington Post. (2016, July 20). Nine Reasons Your Brand is Failing at Social Media | The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/global-yodel/nine-reasons-your-brand-i_b_11086840.html
Sen, U. (2013, August). 50 Ways Social Media Can Destroy Your Business. Retrieved from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-can-destroy/
Great insight Monica! The two examples you share goes to show just how polarizing brands can be on social media if they don't stop to think about how customers will perceive their messages.
DeleteHi Monica,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post this week. One point that stood out to me the most was when you spoke about how The Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts "have a robust social media presence" (Monica, 2017). Another company that is successful with this is JetBlue. Morgan Johnston, Social Media Strategist for JetBlue discussed during his lecture with our class how the brand focuses on engagement and transparency with their consumers portraying an authentic voice, specifically on Twitter. JetBlue understands that establishing trust, loyalty and relationships with their consumers and followers is just as important, if not more, than marketing to them.
You also spoke about how The Four Seasons "consistently exceeds guests expectations" (Monica, 2017). JetBlue also is successful when it comes to going above and beyond for their consumers. Johnston spoke about two specific instances in which the brand created shareable moments by surprising consumers (Johnston, 2017):
1. One day, consumer David Bags tweeted out to JetBlue "Visiting family in NY #272 on 8/30 return #377 on 9/3. Any chance I can get the @nyjets plane? Thanks!" Within a few hours JetBlue tweeted back "Done! - Enjoy your flight on JetGreen!" (Rovell, 2012).
2. Consumer, Paul Gordon Brown, took engagement and interaction with JetBlue to the next level creating a strong relationship just through tweets. Brown proved that "you don't need to meet someone to be connected to them" (Brown, 2016).
It's moments that brands create such as these that earn recognition in their fields. If brands take the time to understand their consumer and connect with them on a personal level the numbers will show. "At more than 1.6 million followers, JetBlue is not only the most-followed airline, it is also among the most-followed companies on Twitter" (Rovell, 2012).
References:
Botti, M. (2017, January 01). Believe in the "Golden Rule". Retrieved February 08, 2017, from https://bottipr.blogspot.com/2017/02/believe-in-golden-rule.html#comment-form
Brown, P. (2016, February 13). My Love Affair with @JetBlue in 6 Minutes and 40 Seconds. [VIDEO]. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from https://paulgordonbrown.com/2015/04/21/my-love-affair-with-jetblue-in-6-minutes-and-40-seconds/
Johnston, M. (2017, February 07). JetBlue Social Media . Lecture presented in Online.
Rovell, D. (2012, August 31). JetBlue fulfills fan's request for Jets plane. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from http://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/jets/post/_/id/14822/jetblue-fulfills-fans-request-for-jets-plane
Hi Kerstin,
DeleteThe parallels you’ve noted between Monica’s examples of Four Seasons and what we heard during the Jet Blue video chats and our text are great! These brands are finding creative ways to delight their customer.
Monica -
ReplyDeleteAs of late, Wendy's has been breaking all of the rules of using social media by roasting a good amount of the twitter users that have been sending terse tweets their way. How do you think this tactic will translate to their customers?
http://www.businessinsider.com/wendys-roasting-people-twitter-hilarious-mcdonalds-retail-2017-1
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI've never really followed Wendy's but after reading more it seems that Wendy's in known for their sassiness on Twitter. This tactic certainly seems to be entertaining to the group that follows them.
Check out the this YouTube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfrmSVZXfuE&feature=youtu.be