By MARY LEGRAND of the Bedford, New York Record-Review
It doesn’t take a corporate genius to figure out that the business world has changed – big time. It’s learning how to adapt to those changes that’s more than likely the problem.
Allen P. Adamson, who along with his wife and two children is a part-time Pound Ridger, has come to the rescue. His latest book, “BrandDigital,” published earlier this year by Palgrave Macmillan, provides in-depth advice on what he calls “simple ways top brands succeed in the digital world.”
“BrandDigital,” follow-up to Mr. Adamson’s “BrandSimple,” is based on more than 100 interviews with the “best and brightest brand professionals,” he said. “Every conversation expanded my understanding and grasp of the changes that digital technologies are having on the ways brands are built and supported.”
Mr. Adamson acknowledges that the branding and marketing worlds are confusing for people attempting to market anything, from pizza to jet engines. “There are so many new choices of ways to talk to consumers, more so in the last couple of years,” he said. “The changes have accelerated beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.”
The book is of use to businesspeople of all ages, in spite of the fact that it could, to some, seem more obvious that only older, less technologically savvy individuals would benefit. Yes, Mr. Adamson said, people of a certain age, those who “grew up only with ABC, NBC or CBS,” might not be up to speed when it comes to using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the like to further one’s brand. But, he said, oldsters often know more about brand building than some of the younger, techno-geek types, those who knew how their products worked but couldn’t explain why anyone needed them.
One basic principle of branding has not changed over time. Companies still need to know how customers are feeling. “New pieces of technology let you talk to your customers and consumers in new ways,” he said. Before, in a simpler and easier world, there were only a few ways firms communicated products and mission – via network television or print ads. The advent of cable television shook things up, followed by rise of the internet, which really shook things up.
Companies continue to communicate with consumers. The difference now is that consumers communicate back on a regular basis. “If I want to find out almost anything on any topic, what customers are thinking about how a product’s doing, the answer is usually just a click away,” Mr. Adamson said. He calls that phenomenon a “backyard fence of global proportions.”
Making brand decisions – from buying big-ticket items like BMWs to deciding which movie to see – is more often than not done online. Instead of hanging over the backyard fence and asking a neighbor what washing machine is best, customers go online and read reviews from hundreds of people who already own the particular model a potential purchaser might be interested in. The 1950s backyard fence world “went away when we began getting a lot of information from the television,” Mr. Adamson said. “Now it’s back to the fence, but in a different way.”
Managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a strategic brand consulting and design firm, Mr. Adamson has been involved with some of the world’s leading organizations, overseeing efforts for clients such as Diageo, GE, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Sephora and Verizon. He’s appeared on CNBC, Fox Business Network and NBC’s “Today” show, and is often quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, USA Today and Brandweek magazine.
He did not start his career as a branding professional, however. “I don’t think anyone grows up to get into the branding business,” Mr. Adamson said. “I did have an interest in advertising, and I started off my career at Ogilvy and Mather in New York.”
Companies meeting success in the digital world have a few traits in common, he said. First, they’re using the Internet to get closer to understanding what’s on their customers’ minds, primarily by listening to them better online. Also, “they’re jumping in and trying things,” he said. “It’s an evolving field. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Businesses must transform brands into relationships. “When I have a problem with a product, I expect somebody to be there in real time,” Mr. Adamson said, citing Hewlett-Packard as an example. “Business is becoming more conversational. Before, people didn’t expect to have a relationship. Now, if a person’s printer stops printing at 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning, someone will be there to work together to help him fix that printer. If a customer can get somebody competent who’s willing to get that printer unjammed, then the next printer will certainly be that brand.”
Mr. Adamson said he looks forward to coming to Pound Ridge most weekends, calling it the “anti-brand-name spot,” an antidote for an affliction he termed brand-name overdose. Pound Ridge “is so low key, the perfect place to clear your head and not be bombarded or distracted by over-branding.” Plus, he said, “It’s easier to work in Pound Ridge, and the internet always works.”