The Impact Of Social Networking On Brands
These days, it seems as if all anyone ever does is poke each other on Facebook. With that in mind, David Evans, director at Continental Research, decided to take a look at the world of social networking and what it might mean for advertisers and brands…
Earlier this week I heard a good example of how social networking has taken over our lives. A team from a TV channel went on a team-building exercise to a theme park.
On their return, their boss was amazed to see the whole team dash into the office and fire up their PCs rather than skip straight to the local (non-smoking) hostelry. After five minutes, she could see that everyone was logged onto Facebook and it was a fair bit longer before they were ready to continue the team bonding in the pub. When media folk turn down free drinks you know something strange is going on…
In what seems like a ridiculously short space of time, social networking has ‘crossed over’ and is no longer the preserve of teen tribes but part of many people’s everyday, working lives. The success of Facebook has been key to this new phenomenon.
MySpace has been the network of choice for teens for much longer and had an established user base, but it hasn’t reached out to the key demographic for any media; namely those that write or talk about media.
Since opening its doors to all and sundry at the back end of last year, Facebook has now grown to rival MySpace in terms of users. But, have we seen this all before? Just a few years ago, we were all signing up to Friends Reunited with similar gusto and verve. Is Facebook just Friends Reunited with knobs or is this part and parcel of the wider concept of Web 2.0?
Sites like Facebook and MySpace, alongside blogging, are part of the broader picture of how the web has changed not only people’s media consumption but also their lives. This will have a natural knock-on effect on how people consume and interact with advertising and brands.
At a recent conference regarding social networking, this bigger issue was touched upon. The general feeling of the panel (of which I was a bit-part!) was that in future it will become more difficult for brands to rely upon brand communications to help change perceptions and increase affinity.
The reason for this will be the growth of community sites and networks. The role of word-of-mouth and recommendation will become even more important than at present, for the simple fact is that consumers will have a wider footprint and a broader platform to communicate to.
For example, as a company, we have conducted almost 100 projects evaluating experiential marketing activity. From this we know that, on average, those recommending the brand as a result of the activity will pass this on to just over four people.
Compare that to someone changing their Facebook status to say “Aimee is loving the free sample of Johnson’s Orange Juice she received this morning” and being read by her network of 250 friends and it is easy to see how word can spread.
Alongside recommendations, bad brand experiences can also be communicated to a broad audience, which means that a positive customer experience of the brand will be vital to deliver brand health. Therefore in future, the brands who maintain a strong commitment to customer service and product quality will flourish and brands who attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the consumer will suffer.
It will be interesting to see how many of Britain’s favourite brands will be able to hold on to their positions at the top of the tree in this changing environment. The recent poll conducted by YouGov on behalf of Superbrands produced the top 10 list of UK consumer’s favourite brands shown below:
1. Microsoft 2. Coca-cola 3. Google 4. BBC 5. BP 6. British Airways 7. Lego 8. Guinness 9. Mercedes-Benz 10.Cadbury
Looking at that list, there are some (who will remain anonymous) who depend more upon style over substance and are a branding success rather than a product success. If the theory of ‘new’ consumer power is to be believed, then these brands will fall by the wayside as personal experiences become more communicated than brand messages. Don’t believe the hype.