Managing Your Brand in a Digital Environment (Part 1)
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The document discusses the evolution of media from traditional to digital forms and the importance of adapting brand strategies for the digital environment. It outlines some key differences between old "push" media like billboards versus new "pull" media like search engine optimization that allows for more targeted and engaging communication. Specifically, it notes that the digital space allows for real-time feedback, sharing of information, and targeted messaging to audiences in a more dynamic way than traditional static media. The document promises that the next publication will provide more strategies for leveraging digital media characteristics and ensuring organizational relevance.
Managing Your Brand in a Digital Environment (Part 1)
- 1. http://www.kinconsult.com Managing Your Brand in a Digital Environment (Part 1) Behavior Change Behavioral change, although silent, is necessary and evident in an environment that is rapidly incorporating digital technology in all aspects. With the deployment of mobile and internet communication, how information is disseminated has changed drastically in terms of reach and speed. A revolution occurs when society adopts new behaviors and it is imperative that companies and organization come up with strategies in line with the new modes of communication for their brands. Otherwise they will be caught flat footed using outdated media and consequently, their brand messaging will not resonate with their audience. The launching of broadband internet access comes with anticipation for a more affordable internet access that is fast and reliable for the Kenyan community at large. Anyone who is managing a brand needs to anticipate and react to the tectonic shift in the digital arena. What is in a Brand? A brand is collectively what people say, feel and think about your product, service or organization. In this new era of digital media communication, your brand will increasingly be about what is searched for digitally. If a brand is an asset, then a great brand translates into a great story that end-users can identify with. Individual and national brands were enhanced in the recently completed world athletic championship. Usain Bolt of Jamaica was an individual brand that propelled his value and that of Jamaica as a country that not only produces fiery jerk chicken but also exceptional sprinters. Kenya was not left out because if you talk to anyone outside Kenya, the brand Kenya is synonymous with long distance running, as was confirmed in the mentioned world athletic championship. Digital Environment Media communication is now moving away from push marketing to pull marketing. Push marketing refers to messaging that is disseminated outwardly in the hope that the audience will decipher your messaging, case in point a television broadcast. Pull marketing has more to do with inbound marketing where you are pulling your audience to come to your repository of information. A case in point is sending out e-mail messaging that encourages your audience to visit your website to get more information about your products and services. The core characteristic of any digital environment is that it is electronic. This is probably the most exciting time to be marketing and selling your products. There is a shift from push to pull marketing which is creating both challenges for marketers and opportunities to engage consumers in new ways that start lasting, profitable relationships with them. Battle of the 3 screens: This battle in the digital arena has been taken to the 3 screens in developed countries. The 3 screens are television, computer and mobile phone. The television is a vestige of the old media whereby communication is in monologue. A message is set up and broadcasted to the masses without an interactive process. The dawn of a new era comes with new media that is in the form of a dialogue with the intended audience, thereby eliciting direct feedback. In the context of Kenya, new media is lead by cell phone usage. Broadband technology will hopefully expose more people to computers and laptops and thereby take a more interactive process.
- 2. http://www.kinconsult.com Evolutions of brand building In terms of old media, think of a bill board advertising Kenya as a tourist destination for Marlin fishing in Watamu placed in the middle of New York Time Square, the busiest street in the world. This is all very well and good as there will be traffic that will pass by, and, depending on their level of interest, they will read and act on the message and perhaps book a trip sometime in the future. The characteristic of the billboard message is that it is static. The message will not change during the time the bill board is out there. The messaging is not targeted and will only be broadcast to whoever passes by the billboard. Conversely, with new digital media, think of John Smith, an American in Ohio who is on his computer and is doing a search on “Marlin Fishing” on his search engine of choice such as Google. Let us suppose an ad- copy on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) pops up showing Watamu in Kenya as a destination for Marlin fishing. He clicks on the caption and he is taken to a wonderful web page where he is given more information on fishing for marlin in Kenya. This process of ensuring your information is relevant when people search for information related to your core business is helpful in terms of sales and branding. If more companies and institutions in Kenya embraced new media to disseminate their information about their core business, they stand to gain by improving their sales and branding. To examine the evolution of media, let us look at a Daily Nation article that is published both in print and on their website. The article in print will represent old media whereas the web article will represent new media. The article on the nation print media has the characteristic of being a static monologue. It is static in the sense that you cannot change the write up or recall the article in case of errors. Instead you will have to correct the errors in the following publication. However the same article published online can be corrected quickly since it is in digital format. The article on the internet also has a forum that creates a dialogue in that people can give their feedback and comments directly to the editors and those reading the article can see the various feedback and comments. If they like the article so much they can even forward the article to their friends using various forms of digital media. They can e-mail it, publish it on their facebook profile, or even use twitter to disseminate the information. From that one article, a dialogue is created where the reader of the article can give immediate feedback to the article, share it with friends and discuss the article with their peers, thus creating a viral component of communication. This example shows that new media has various touch points and is fluid and dynamic in engagement. That begs the question: if you had an advertisement or message in this day and age, wouldn’t it be better to craft a message and leverage the reach of digital media? Think of old media as the shot gun approach where you shoot out the message and hope it reaches as many people as you want without knowing the exact metrics of your target audience. New media is more like a laser gun where you pick out your target and you are able to target your messaging to your intended audience. Next publication I will tackle the characteristics of digital media and strategies you can leverage to ensure your organization remains relevant in this new environment. The writer can be reached by e-mail at kinoti@kinconsult.com or on twitter @kinconsult for any feedback or comments.