the Web Chef's e-Bytes

Brands that Probably Won't Transfer....BARF Ad Clip

WPP in the Know and on the Grow, MSFT not too Slow

Today's news brings interesting information on the WPP Group's growing interest in the Internet.  Two items of interest demonstrating their strategy were reviewed in the mainstream media today.  The first and larger of the two is that WPP has agreed to purchase Internet Ad distributor 24/7 Real Media (TFSM) for $637 million in cash according to the Financial Times and interesting $649 million according to the New York Times.  I wonder where that extra $12 million came from and why the discrepancy in reporting from these two media powerhouses?  (Note: It was explained by the WPP website press release announcement on the acquisition explaining the purchase price as being $649 million based on $637 million to shareholders and "Unvested stock and options are valued at US$49 million and net cash is expected be approximately US$37 million to value TFSM at US$649 million.")

24/7 Real Media will continue to be run as an independent entity within WPP to allow for it to service a broad range of competing ad agencies and clients according to the reports.  The New York-based company had sales of around $200 million and provides services in 12 countries according to the press release.

In other WPP news today, The Wall Street Journal reports on the WPP Group's agency Kansas City-based VML and their brand monitoring software SEER that is "Monitoring thousands of web sites for key phrases, SEER tracks how criticism or praise of a company spreads from one blog site to another."  The brand monitoring technology is reportedly similar to that of Nielsen's Buzz Metrics* and NameProtect a Madison-based company acquired earlier this Spring by Corporation Services Company that I discussed in my article on Brand Protection in the Age of Digital Engagement that was published a couple of months ago on Wisconsin Technology Network.

Meanwhile in an even bigger deal showing the projected growth and belief in the advertising market, Microsoft (MSFT) announced the $6 billion purchase of aQuantive (AQNT) a leading Internet Advertising player.  It was interesting to see that while the deal was announced on the Microsoft website, I didn't see it on the aQuantive home page. The only indication of the action was in the significant increase in the share price on their investor relations page.

These purchases follow Google's acquisition of DoubleClick earlier this spring.

*(Aside - Interesting to see Nielsen Buzz Metrics branding strategy of an endorsed brand, while VML is kept in WPP's portfolio as part of a house of brands.)

Brand Building and Destruction in the Web 2.0 Era

As a follow-up to my two most recent articles on Wisconsin Technology Network - "Brand protection in the age of customer engagement" and "On the case: web lessons for connecting with customers" you might find that the following two articles provide supplementary insights.  The first from Knowledge @ Wharton is titled "Brand Building in the Digital Age: A Dizzying Array of Choices" and the other from Business Week is titled "Web Attack".  An interesting contrast of stories looking at building and destroying brands online. 

The Knowledge @ Wharton article reviews suggestions generated from a panel discussion framed around a central premise that in Web 2.0 era "any media offering has to be true to the established brand name -- taking that brand's strengths and then figuring out which technology platforms are most compatible with its core mission".   

The Business Week article has a listing of 5 Best Practice Ideas for managing your brand given the potential nastiness online.  Among the five steps they suggest that you follow are the following:

1. Engage critics
2. Be vigilant - (See tips in my article on Brand Protection on the importance of brand monitoring.  Although they don't mention NameProtect, they do reference BuzzLogic and ReputationDefender.com in the article.)
3. Jump in and Open Up
4. Don't Overreact
5. Stay Professional

Is your brand protected?

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Did you enjoy my article on branding? 

If you haven't read it yet, the article - "Brand Protection in a Content-Rich Web 2.0 Era" was just published by Wisconsin Technology Network.

I'd be happy to talk to you about my services auditing brands or presenting on "whole brands".  I look at a brand from every single touchpoint in the consumer relationship. 

Among the items I review include:

·       Web site and e-marketing communications

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New Colum in Wisconsin Technology Network - Brand Protection in the Content-Rich Web 2.0 Era

Brands of all sorts are under attack!  This attack has led for the requirement that Marketing and Corporate Communications Managers be on top of strategies and techniques to maximize their brand's protection. 

To help you gain insights on this topic, I've written a new article Brand Protection in the Content Rich Web 2.0 Era for Wisconsin Technology Network. 

You might also be interested in looking at BrandChannel for additional insights on brand management.

Bad to Best Brand Blogging

Brand Channel author Adam Sauer has an interesting review of how brand managers/customer evangelists should handle negative and positive blog commentary. 

The first step is to be sure that you are monitoring your brand's temperature online either through free tools like Technorati, Google Alerts  He fails to mention, but I'd add hiring brand monitoring companies like Nielsen Buzzmetrics or NameProtect or independent consultancies like mine, CONNECTINGDOTS, to monitor and keep you apprised of your brand's status.  For example if you were on the marketing team at Starbucks, you'd probably want to monitor Starbucks Gossip or if you were at IKEA, you'd want to track OHIKEA, from a brand evanglist in Ohio..

As the review states the next steps in dealing with brand attacks are to:

1. Determine if the attack is against a campaign or your core brand
2. Don't immediately reply
3. Determine if it is a customer facing a single issue of disgruntlement and if so consider directly contacting them to solve the problem

There are various other suggestions in the article including these items he calls No-No's:

1. No black ops
2. No assumed name postings
3. No shady offers for good blog postings

Usability and Brand Loyalty

Frank Spillers at Demystifying Usability, has an excellent post about the Usability Poster, a visual representation of key factors in building a positive user experience.  The poster references the elements in the user experience that have a significant impact on your brand.  The article provides links to resources and research associated with each element of the user experience. 

The poster is based on research supporting the factors that he defines as "elements that contribute to a positive user experience - Loyalty, Trust,  Perceived Credibility, Profitability, Intent to Return, Intent to Purchase, User Satisfaction and Word of Mouth". 

Among the links to research studies provided that I found particularly interesting, was one to work compiled by Stanford University's B.J. Fogg - "Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility." A Research Summary from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab.  This resource provides a list of 10 guidelines for boosting web credibility that is similar to points that I make during many of my presentations on enhancing your brand through your web site strategy..

All of the information in this posting ties in nicely with a quote that I like to reference and elaborate on about the user experience -

"Whether their web site visit results in a brand building or brand eroding opportunity depends on your visitor's experience on your site"

Winning on the Web: The Executive Pocket Guide to Smarter Marketing

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Looking for help with making sure your brand and web site connects with prospects and customers?

Why not hire Paul Gibler, the Web Chef, for a third party strategic review or audit of your site.

Paul evaluates sites based on a methodology of looking at the 7 C's - content, commerce, community, creative, collaboration, customer service, connectivity.

Informative on Conversational Marketing

Informative has an interesting posting about Consumer Generated Brands or what they refer to as conversational marketing.  In this era of engagment marketing, marketers need to create a conversation with their customers and as Informative says recognize that "consumers get a chance to not merely be the brand judge, but the brand designer, the brand marketer, the brand manager". 

This ceding of control from the marketer to the consumer is creating discomfort among marketers and communicators used to the traditional marketing rules and dogma.  Astute marketers are expanding their conversations and connecting with customers in defining and refining their brands.