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Are you ready to open?
If so, we've put together a strategic framework that capitalizes on both the social web's traits and technologies and the icitizenry's power to be both medium and message.
(article continued below ...)
Two trends in particular anchor the open brand framework:
- The first is the emergence of consumer notoriety through the increased
visibility of individuals -- as data, as consumer profiles, as artists or
entrepreneurs no longer reliant upon paid third parties to be "known" to the
world. This is in contrast to what historically has been relative consumer
anonymity with regard to brands and the world.
- The second is the emergence
of creative production, the opposite of simple, uncritical consumption. This
is evidenced by the dazzling array of engaging online activities that few
twentieth century consumers enjoyed.
These two trends are on their way to
becoming macrotrends whose impact will be felt beyond the digital universe.
When we cast them as x- and y-axes on a grid, they frame four types of
essential and interconnected consumer experiences -- on-demand, personal,
engaging and networked. Optimizing these consumer experiences in alignment
with a brand's business objectives constitutes the way to open up to a
web-made world.
Mapping this quartet of consumer experiences across the landscape of the
social web also helps brands move away from the single,
all-things-to-all-consumers "consumer experience" that makes brands seem
closed and boxed in by their own rigid, often analog standards.
The On-Demand Experience
is inspired by the digital competence-seeking icitizen -- that time-starved consumer who views the internet as a life
management tool and prefers relative anonymity as she seeks speed to
information and task completion. This experience is characterized by
efficiency, ease, control, findability and instantaneousness.
The Personal Experience
takes its inspiration from the more
celebrity-minded icitizen, who would expect a brand to foster a relationship
with her. Within this experience, the brand enables individualized
interaction, caters to her preferences and boosts her ability to influence
others -- and be recognized for doing so. This experience is characterized
by acknowledgement, dialogue, customization, privilege and popularity.
The Engaging Experience
takes its cues from the collectively-motivated icitizens who want to be diverted and engrossed, and who develop an
emotional attachment to brands that provide the means and occasions to shore
up their social identities. An engaging experience satisfies consumers'
desires to do more than acquire or observe. This experience is characterized
by participation, belonging, immersion, entertainment and inspiration.
The Networked Experience
is inspired by icitizens driven to effect
cultural change, and who would expect a brand to do the same, primarily by
engaging the social web's nodes of sharing and its seemingly limitless,
unencumbered and portable paths to opportunity and innovation. The networked
experience is valuable to those seeking creative and influential
interactions, and would appeal to both the individual icitizen and icitizen
communities. It also recognizes those icitizens' sense of entitlement about
cocreating the brand's messages and offerings. The earmarks of the networked
experience are self-expression, ego gratification, portability, community
and meaningful change.
While the networked and personal experiences are shaped by the
motivations of the elite icitizens, who are in fact a small portion of the
icitizenry, the influence of these individuals is relatively greater because
they're the new tastemakers -- opinionated, passionate and iconoclastic.
They shape improved experiences for everyday icitizens and even the rest of
the online population because they're the de facto standard-bearers for open
branding.
Copyright © 2009 by Resource Interactive
Authors Kelly Mooney has been a consumer-centric marketing innovator for
20 years, and is President of Resource Interactive. She co-authored The Ten
Demandments: Rules to Live by in the Age of the Demanding Consumer (McGrawHill,
2002) -- one of the first marketing books to showcase the consumer's
perspective. A popular blogger, frequent keynote speaker and expert
commentator, her perspectives have been covered by media outlets including
The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune, Inc., Fast Company, USA
Today, Time Digital, People, CNN, CNBC, CNET, CBS's "The Early Show," Nikkei
Business (Japan), Vente à Distance (France), and Capital (Dubai).
Dr. Nita Rollins is a multidisciplinary thinker and Innovation Consultant
in the Resource Interactive R&D Lab. She is the author of Cinaesthetics: The
Beautiful, the Ugly, the Sublime and the Kitsch in Post-Metaphysical Film
(2008), and of articles for Design Management Journal, New Design (UK),
Innovation: The IDSA Quarterly, Internet Retailer, Cinema Journal and Wide
Angle. She earned her Ph.D. in Critical Studies from UCLA's Department of
Theater, Film & TV, and has served as Research Fellow at the University of
California Humanities Research Institute and the University of Paris III.
March 20088
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