NewsLine Column: The Power Of Brand Conversation
Social and cultural changes are rapidly forcing brand advertising to move towards a more media neutral model, where the consumer is put at the heart of the communications process. With this in mind, Lynne Springett, marketplace manager at the RAB, explains how radio can help brands make that all important connection with consumers.
George Bernard Shaw once said “The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.” Could the same be true of brands today?
The fickleness of consumers has long since been a headache for marketers – attracting them to your brand is one thing, keeping them is quite another. The relationship then between brand and consumer is a long-term one which must be nurtured and relies heavily on trust.
Trust in traditional institutions is falling and this cynical attitude is also being applied to brands. At the same time, as consumers we’re also much better informed than ever before when it comes to making brand decisions. Personal recommendation from a friend is growing in importance and fares far higher than advertising in influencing purchasing decisions.
How then can brands make that all important connection and encourage consumers to engage with them? In his book ‘The New Marketing Manifesto’, John Grant claims that brand communication must be intimate and relevant, participative and consensual, with new brand-customer processes characterised as “dialogue” or “conversations”.
Every time a brand communicates something to us, we each have an opportunity to respond, be it physically or mentally – we might think something, good or bad, about the brand, we might seek out some more information or we might actually buy the product, for example. This kind of “brand conversation” helps to reinforce brand ideas and develop stronger relationships between brand and consumer.
Radio, of course, is intrinsically “conversational”. It is a spontaneous, highly personal medium which invites response – indeed, I’m sure many of us have some form of “conversation” with radio presenters, or certainly offer comment (polite or otherwise) to those listeners calling in.
The unique nature of radio listening clearly affects the way people feel and interact with the medium. The relationship between listener and station tends to be very intimate and responsive, with conversational undertones. Radio then offers brands an exceptional opportunity to engage their customers in conversations.
But what does this all mean really? Well, from a media perspective it means that brands can develop more engaging conversations by speaking to consumers when they are in the most relevant frame of mind. Reasons for tuning in differ by time of day or day of week, for example, and different station formats can be used to reinforce conversational tone.
From a creative perspective, its important to remember that the really engaging ads are those which sound genuine and put the needs and feelings of the listener first.
Brand conversation is perceived to be one of the most useful themes for planning, creating and understanding radio advertising (including sponsorship & promotions). So lets see if the art of conversation can once again flourish.
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