My colleagues at Landor and I had the fortunate opportunity to work with Ed Faruolo, a leading brand and marketing executive, during the time he worked directly with clients at Vitalincs, the company he founded to help brands understand their role in assuring the on-going vitality of the markets they serve. Prior to this, Ed was the Vice President of Brand Strategy and Integration for CIGNA where he developed and led a program that established the company as a leader in the health category. Given his tenure in the branding world and the wide variety of organizations with which he has worked, I wanted to get his reaction to the premise that the Internet and other digital forms of communication haven’t changed the long-standing rules of building a powerful brand but, rather, have magnified their importance, specifically the importance of gaining and utilizing consumer insight to develop branding strategies.
AA: A number of the people to whom I’ve spoken about building brands in the digital age have talked about the exponential change in branding dynamics in the relatively short time period between what is referred to as Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Can you comment on this?
EF: I remember being scolded by a major research firm in the Web 1.0 years for over-rating the value of the Internet as a tool for building brands. It was considered, for all intents and purposes, a device for sharing information, building awareness. Today this same research firm would admit that the dynamics of Web 2.0 enable marketers to go from building awareness to building desire to closing sales in a nanosecond.
AA: Do you believe that a majority of marketers today are taking advantage of digital tools and tactics to the extent that they can be used to build brands?
EF: What I’m seeing is an increased quota of positive fear. Companies know using digital technology is right, they know it’s a requirement in a digital economy, but they are not quite sure how to use it to get things done. As companies experiment, they either shoot over consumers’ heads, or they take on initiatives that demonstrate they don’t quite understand the online dynamics between brands and consumers.
AA: Tell me what you mean by “shooting over consumers’ heads.”
EF: They continue to behave like it’s still a Web 1.0 world. A company will use the Internet to put out a whole lot of information, facts, figures, terminology, but it hasn’t figured out exactly what consumers are looking for and how they can meet the need. As you say in your book, the Internet is a window into peoples’ lives. As marketers, we have the ability to look through this window get more insight about what our customers want than ever before.
AA: Digital technology has magnified that the fact that to edge out the competition a brand organization must get meaningful insight about its target market - something it can use to relevantly differentiate itself. The good news is that digital technology has also magnified, amplified, if you will, the conversations consumers are having about products and services, not just on a feature or benefit level, but on a deeper, more experiential level.
EF: Exactly. The Internet gives marketers incredibly powerful new ways to get at consumer insights. The key, however, is to be able to listen to the online conversations, the word-of-mouth, the blogs with greater effort and discipline. You have to establish what you’re listening for. It’s not as simple as it sounds.
AA: This is not something that can be done on your lunch hour. Most of the major brand organizations I’ve spoken to have a staff dedicated to following online behavior relative to their products and services.
EF: It’s very easy to get information overload. In order to make this a productive process you have to establish an objective. Start out by asking what it is you’re trying to achieve. What are you trying to learn as you watch and listen to interactions online? You need to be able to pull three or four bullet points from the copious amount of stuff available to serve as the foundation for your brand strategy. In essence, it’s about knowing how to utilize the power of the people, the positive and negative things they’re talking about, for the benefit of your brand and, ultimately for the ultimate benefit of the consumer.
AA: It seems that some companies don’t make a direct connection between the Internet and their business until they’re in trouble.
EF: It’s true. Companies have to be proactive in order to take advantage of what’s being said about them and about their category. It can have an effect on any or all aspects of their business, including their brand equity. A lot of organizations are still not grasping the power of the outside world to work on their behalf.
AA: To that point, talk to me about integration between business units and departments. Has digital technology made integration more challenging?
EF: Well we both know that integration across departments, agencies, business units has always been challenging. Given the maturity of the Web and the fact that it’s not just an awareness builder anymore, I actually think digital technology can help make integration easier, not least because it enables people across departments to see how one hand must work with the other. It’s a transparent society. Digital technology forces companies to address issues head on because everything is visible to everyone. Brand people, sales people, marketing people, and service people can all see for themselves how the whole brand experience needs to be woven together in order for the organization to stand up as credible. There’s no hiding. The whole transparency thing scares some companies. It shouldn’t, if they know how to use it their brand’s advantage.
AA: The last question I generally ask those I interview on this topic is how they stay up with changes in the digital economy. Is there anything special that you do to stay ahead?
EF:I read a lot, experiment with sites and interactive media I hear about from friends and colleagues, and just try to immerse myself in anything I find interesting or innovative. It’s what sparks new ideas and thinking. If you don’t keep playing in the space you’ll never be able to keep up with what consumers are doing.
» Vivek Shah - Group President, Digital, Time Inc. News Group (Jan. 27, 2009)
» David Kirkpatrick - Senior Editor, Internet and Technology at Fortune Magazine (Jan. 21, 2009)
» Bob Pearson - Vice President of communities and conversations for Dell (#2) (Nov. 18, 2008)
» Tim Mapes - Senior Vice President of Marketing at Delta Air Lines (Nov. 4, 2008)
» Barbara Basney - Director of global advertising for Xerox (Oct. 30, 2008)
» Bob Pearson - Vice President of communities and conversations for Dell (#1) (Oct. 13, 2008)
» Robert Greenberg - Vice President of Corporate Brand Marketing for Panasonic (Sept. 26, 2008)
» Jason Dowdell - Founder of MarketingShift (Sept. 23, 2008)
» Roy Bostock - Chairman of the Board of Yahoo, Inc. (Aug. 13, 2008)
» Gary Briggs - former SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, eBay North America (July 17, 2008)