The Identiti Chronicles

The Evolution of Your Brand’s Identity

Archive for Social Connectivity

The Diminishing Value of Your Brand

In John Gerzema’s and Ed Lebar’s recent book, “The Brand Bubble,”  a detailed account is give to how many of todays brands are experiencing a rapid decline in perceived value.  Simply stated, they are overvalued and consumers are falling out of love with them.  Based on Y&R’s BrandAsset Valuator study, the book cites that there is a growing divergence between brand valuation and brand speculation.  For the complete modern day Marketer, that means the campaign-based push marketing is dead.  Call it the customer conversation era, the day social connectivity, or which ever term de jour you prefer, the previous paradigm is over.  As the two authors state: “You can’t just go after them. You must attract them.” No longer is it about measuring reach and frequency or even marketing mix modeling for that matter. Success will be measured by motivating the right consumer behaviors that drive engagement and connection.

The Most Advanced Direct Marketing Strategy

Viral Expansion LoopsDefined the success of Hotmail, Google, Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon.com, Paypal, LinkedIn, Flickr, the list goes on.  They all incorporate “virality” into the functionality of their core existence.  Viral Expansion Loops are consided the type of engineering alchemy that with executed properly, they are self replicating.  No wonder Web 2.0 seems to be the formula for success.  The likes of Myspace and Facebook were designed specifically to exploit the notion of viral loops; driven by user generated activity that drove consumer adoption into the stratosphere.  Viral expansion loops have long existed offline too…think Tupperware parties, multilevel marketing, chain letters, and even pyramid schemes.  The newest app to catch the viral loop craze – Widgets.  Now we are moving beyond viral loops to viral networks and double viral loops.  Is your brand capitalizing on viral expansion loops?