December 16th, 2008
Branding Yourself for the Marketing Revolution
Is it any wonder that the article “The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World” in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal topped their list of the most emailed articles?
Full disclosure: one of the authors, Bentley Professor Bruce Weinberg, is a pal of mine. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the online consumer experience and, as you might imagine, has a great deal to say about how marketers must now approach marketing in the age of wikis, wifi, twitter, facebook and the rest of the growing online community pack.
“Web 2.0 tools can be used to do what traditional advertising does: persuade consumers to buy a company’s products or services. An executive can write a blog, for instance, that regularly talks up the company’s goods. But that kind of approach misses the point of 2.0. Instead, companies should use these tools to get the consumers involved, inviting them to participate in marketing-related activities from product development to feedback to customer service. ”
“How can you do that? A leading greeting-card and gift company that we spoke with is one of many that have set up an online community — a site where it can talk to consumers and the consumers can talk to each other. The company solicits opinions on various aspects of greeting-card design and on ideas for gifts and their pricing. It also asks the consumers to talk about their lifestyles and even upload photos of themselves, so that it can better understand its market.”
Click here for a video of Bruce talking with WSJ reporter Erin White about what to do when your website gets negative customer feedback.
