Brands that made consumers love them forever

Special thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this piece first!

Building a brand romance

In Italy, there's a principle called la bella figura. It essentially boils down to the idea that you ensure that your public persona always "looks" good -- that you consciously work to control other people's impressions of you. La bella figura has been the driving principle behind brand marketing for decades. We put gorgeous people in ads using hero packages in gorgeous settings, telling our stories in the most flattering ways.

But today we have nuova figuras -- consumers anxious to be a part of brands but also unwilling to simply accept an impression we package and deliver to them. They want to help, but they want their brands to be real. They want to know about the experiences of other real people, and they want to participate in defining and portraying the brand.

As a boomer, I find all this pretty remarkable. When I was little, brand identification was rarer and more subtle. You were proud to wear Levi's or whatever, but buying a T-shirt emblazoned with a gigantic Levi's logo -- that would have been a bit over the top.

Sometime in my formative years -- I think it began when Brooke Shields started talking seductively about her Calvins -- all that changed. Today, kids will engrave logos in their crew cuts. Brands can sell logo shirts for $20-plus, rather than having to give away the shirts to get people to wear them. And Flickr is chock full of photos of people proudly sharing the limelight with their favorite products -- from Marmite to Tide.

This all poses a remarkable opportunity -- but one that requires careful "strategery."

How do we cultivate relationships with consumers that create lifelong loyalty? I think there are lessons in human relationship building -- in dating and marriage. The way we attract, impress, and partner with consumers have strong parallels to the ways in which we find mates. It's a progression, from dating, to marriage, to having babies, to starting to look, sound, and act alike. People don't marry us just because it's what we want. Relationships are joint decisions, and brand relationships are no different.

With this piece I want to take you through four stages of relationship building:

• How brands get consumers to "date" them
• How they get that marital level of commitment
• How we work with consumers to develop new products (our babies)
• And how ultimately we enable our brands to define us, and, to some extent, vice versa

Around the world brands are tackling this concept of brand marriage in unique and intriguing ways. Remarkable brands are jumping headfirst into the relationship pool, finding themselves at different stages on this four-stage continuum. Just as with human relationships, there's no cookie-cutter formula for making a relationship work. The paths to sharing a life together are as different as the brands themselves. Let's take a look at some of these brand romances and see what we can learn.

Dating: Brand meets user

When we're out to meet someone, we try to look the way that they will find appealing. Some brands manage that on their own, albeit with real consumer insights. The Dove campaign is a powerful example from a brand that used substantive consumer analysis to land on an idea with universal female appeal.

But many brands -- and people -- are presentation challenged. In dating, a new book pointing out the fashion and appearance mistakes of men is selling well. Entitled "Undateable," it also has an important metaphorical lesson for many brands. If you want her to be truly happy with your appearance, it's best to just let her dress you.

Hundreds of brands are using digital to do just that. In its simplest incarnation, car banners that allow viewers to try different colors are built around this concept.

More complex examples can be found across the globe. DHTML banners and ads powered by technologies like Linkstorm enable users to drill down and customize their ad experiences. Still more extensive examples of user-customized marketing experiences come in many forms. An Australian supplement company called Blackmores http://www.blackmores.com.au/ has transformed its website into a peer-to-peer community revolving around users' goals and questions.

Rather than hawking jars of supplements, the brand allows users to discuss needs and benefits on their own. Products arise organically in conversations. Perhaps most remarkable is that this community has more than 300,000 members, in a country with about 22 million inhabitants. To give American readers an idea of what that means, if Australia's population matched that of the U.S., the site would have 4.3 million members.If it were in the UK, we're talking about more than a million members. RE-MARKABLE!

Retailers are getting in on the game with virtual mirrors that allow users to customize brands entirely on their terms. Meanwhile, websites like Ray-Ban's have long made it possible for users to try on eyewear virtually, another incarnation of this same concept.

In another example from Down Under, the Australian Defence Force uses multiplayer games -- as does the U.S. Army -- to enable users to virtually sample military experiences of their own choosing.

Since they began using the games as recruiting tools, more than 1.5 million people have registered and played, and thousands have made inquiries from the games.

In short, different brands can find unique ways of enabling consumer customization -- and a program can be devised for virtually any budget.

Getting hitched: Sharing the stage with the consumer

This stage is about becoming a "we" -- about collaborating with consumers to develop marketing messages. The best U.S. example I can think of is the Pepsi Refresh Everything campaign. As we all know, Pepsi spent decades winning sales by juxtaposing stars of the instant with young messaging and a flavor profile best suited to under 18s.

Pepsi entered the new millennium doing what it had for years -- pairing the white-hot celeb with a youthful message. This 2002 ad, starring Britney, pretty much encapsulates the entire campaign -- a bajillion dollar ad with everything that always worked until we entered the social age: celebs, singin' and dancin', massive casts, beautiful settings, and catchy tunes.



The social era made the brand head in a decidedly different direction. The Refresh Everything charity overlay lets consumers determine how Pepsi marketing dollars get spent. Pepsi sales are up, and the web traffic to the Refresh Everything website eclipses that garnered by Pepsi.com.

That's only natural seeing as how there's a decidedly real reason to want to visit.

An English meat brand has launched a multimedia campaign starring its users, who demonstrate that special brand of crazy at which Brits excel. The "Proper Food" rebranding effort for Walls began with ads that show people with deep passions -- for hobbies and Walls products.



The next phase of the effort was a social media program pitting Briton against Briton in a contest to win £5,000 and a role in a Walls ad that showcases their eccentricity. And what sorts of response are they getting? Some examples:

• Chess boxers (a simultaneous fight and chess game)
• Extreme ironers (who iron in unusual venues like on the hood of moving cigarette boats)
• OAPoleDancers (OAP is the abbreviation for old age pensioners)
• Snack pimpers (makers of enormous versions of U.K. junk food)

(Check out these and others here. http://bringitonbrits.wordpress.com/)

Unmistakably British flavors of nuts, from a quirky proud British food company.

Bun in the oven: Making products together

The next logical step is co-creation, the co-defining and sometimes the co-designing of new products. Obviously this takes a higher level of commitment from both the brand and the consumer.

Pizza Hut is using social media globally to devise new flavors to meet local tastes. A recent effort in Brazil unearthed 80 different distinct recipes, thousands of votes, and a hot-selling new item.

In Korea, Pizza Hut did the same on the Korean social net Cyworld.

A mindboggling U.K. start-up called Ucodo http://www.ucodo.com/ actually enables consumers to co-design consumer products online, which are then produced. Within broad parameters the consumer can push, pull, stretch, and twist the virtual design and have their co-designed item delivered to them.

I have never said "Will wonders never cease?" with greater sincerity.

Starting to look alike: Becoming the consumer (and vice versa)

There's a centuries-old meme about couples converging on similar appearance over the years. This is perhaps the strongest evidence of a symbiotic relationship, and a number of brave brands are taking the plunge with great results.

Back Down Under for the first example. Tourism Australia created an amazing effort that asked Australians to upload photos and descriptions of their favorite places across the country to give tourists ideas on things to do. More than 29,000 responded, and the happy would-be traveler can explore this user-generated content in a wonderful visual interface.

This is just one of Australia's social tourism efforts -- a participatory strategy that has garnered it more than half a million likes on Facebook. Compare that to the number of likes for the U.S. on Facebook.

Although spouses might grow to look alike, one of the best things about having a partner is that often one person finds it easier to say things that the other can't. One can speak up while the other might simply endure to avoid a scene.

Consider this effort by U.K.'s Labour Party during the last election. While Labour lost, it's easy to see the power of its social effort that asked Labourites to make parody ads for the super-slick "I am a just a bloke too" efforts of conservative David Cameron. Lefties delighted in mocking Cameron's protestations of folksiness. First, everyman David as Ali G.



And a biting attack on the Tory's defense of fox hunting:


Now, the party couldn't officially print things like this. But its consumer spouse? Why not?

Conclusion: Are you ready for a consumer LTR?

You sort of have to be. With the latest figures from Forrester showing tens of millions of consumers anxious to connect and create content for brands, it's incumbent on you to harness this enthusiasm in light of declining marketing effectiveness for traditional media. These five points offer a starting point for brands hoping to tie the knot with consumers:

1. Just like dating, it's important not to get ahead of yourself. Pick a level of commitment that works for both of you now. Not every brand or every consumer is ready for serious commitment yet.

2. Don't say things you don't mean. Don't promise things you won't go through with. Remember that Chevy Tahoe campaign? Think your program through.

3. In a relationship, the idea is to share decisions -- not be a doormat. It's your responsibility to enhance the brand through participation, not abdicate your role.

4. Marriage is work, and not everything turns out as you expect. Some programs will succeed, and some will fail. You need to be ready for that.

5. Dating the young has a special challenge. Young people expect more of a role. If your target is under 25, be prepared to give consumers a pretty big role.

Finally, whatever stage you are ready for, make sure your campaign reflects your brand as vividly as a TV ad might.