By Robert Wheatley

According to a recent Marketing Daily article on holiday shopping trends, social media engagement will top search engines and shopper review sites this year for bargain hunting. “Social media is influencing search behavior and affecting the purchases a consumer makes,” reports Oneupweb, a Traverse-City, Michigan research firm who compiled the report.

The story goes on to reveal that in a recent Penn State study, one in five tweets now mention a specific brand or service. While the Luxury Institute found among high net worth households, nearly one in five social network users also belong to a social shopping site.

Apparently we like conversations in tandem with our shopping experiences…

Stop pushing and start engaging

Once more we see ample evidence of the changes brands and businesses must make to go to market and communicate successfully. Social media and commerce are colliding. And this is also a different world.

Even so remnants of the old theory of marketing still persist, especially the view that brands can imprint preference and interest in consumers’ minds by confronting them with “persuasive” messages. For a very long time the language of marketing was about Targeting, Disrupting, Surrounding and Converting. Push. Push. Push.

Now the lexicon of effective brand outreach moves to Conversation, Community, Trust and Engagement. On the surface it sounds a bit squishy. In fact at first blush all of this may feel somewhat less like the command and control conditions of yore. Well, yes, it is. Brands now have to earn permission for a relationship based on their ability to mine greater meaning, value and purpose in the consumer’s lifestyle.

Here’s the question you need to ask: what relevant lifestyle interests and passions do my consumer’s participate in, and how can I align my brand to help and enable them to realize, learn more, build on and experience these passions?

Where you invest is where you believe traction will come from…

Are you spending and planning to build your presence in social media channels, or is this simply bolted on to the marketing mix as a Facebook page or Twitter account? Guess what, social media users want and expect you to engage them. Yes, you’ve been invited to participate.

Cone Inc. has just released a study that reports 78 percent of new media users expect to interact with companies and brands on social platforms. Thirty-seven percent say they communicate with brands at least once a week in this channel. And by the way, they also see this as a two-way proposition: consumers now think they can influence brand decisions through voicing their opinions in new media.

Hey it’s the fourth quarter and a time when next year’s plans are in the making or at least haven’t been launched. Is it time to take a more serious look at social media strategy in the mix?

Absolutely. And now you know social sites are gaining momentum during the year’s most serious sales period, that time when many businesses make or break their numbers – the holidays.

What does this mean for your business? What do you think?

By Robert Wheatley

Probably to be expected that new Guidelines on disclosure policies released by the Federal Trade Commission would lead to a rash of articles about dos, don’ts and watch-outs. Some of it accurate and of course some not. This story continues to evolve and we will continue to report on it.

Like anything new as the information continues to travel down the funnel, we reach new levels of clarity along the path, so today we invite you to inch a bit closer to accurate understanding of what this all means.

In the end, we can say with much confidence that our original article on this subject published when the Guides were still in development rings true: Just apply the mom test. Here again is the simple litmus test for good judgment on disclosure: would mom feel differently about what she reads or hears in a blog post or interview if certain facts were disclosed, whether they be material data or the matter of payment to the author?

What we know today –

• The Guides are not intended to stop or prevent brands from working with bloggers on product reviews.

• The FTC has no plans to patrol the blogosphere.

• This is voluntary compliance.

• According to Mary Engle, associate director of advertising practices for the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, “They are guidelines – not rules and regulations – they do not have the force of law. Violating the guidelines would result in an FTC investigation into deceptive practices and perhaps a complaint or court order.”

• The compliance focus will be on marketers not bloggers, hence the need to have a clear, written disclosure policy provided to bloggers that advises them to disclose receipt of any form of consideration such as free samples or payment.

The FTC claims the guidelines are there simply to “offer more clarity for consumers and marketers as social media gains importance as a marketing tool,” reports Aaron Baar in his story at Marketing Daily. In Kayleen Schaefer’s treatment on the subject today in the New York Times, Britt Aboutaleb, a New York blogger who posts for Fashionista.com sums it up, “If we love a product enough to write about it in the first place, then we’ll happily disclose where it came from, and how, before moving on to more relevant, and interesting, information.”

Dawn of a new legitimate media channel…

Perhaps more important than the guidelines themselves is the sideways cachet and legitimacy it bestows on the rise of citizen journalists. The mere fact this effort has occurred immediately conveys a halo of “real media” on those who write blogs or tweet about products.

So alongside journalists who work in media organizations that report and write and produce, we also have individuals who on their own report and write and produce. Thus today’s media strategy should no longer treat digital media outreach as some sort of bolted-on component. This is real media, with real audiences and a voice that matters.

The FTC just said so…

Your thoughts?

Can you believe I love going to a trade show? At least when it comes to the H.H. Backer Annual Pet Industry Christmas Trade Show and Educational Conference in Chicago. It’s a trade show I look forward to every year, because as a pet parent I am passionate about my beagles, Frankie and Flora, and pretty weak when it comes to spoiling  them with toys and treats.

I’m apparently not the only one, since the pet industry is still growing and set to generate $51.6 billion in sales this year according to a recent report in Petage.

Just When You Think You’ve Seen it All

The show is also a bit of sensory overload, with booth after booth of everything and anything you can think of that could be made for pets: pet food, dog leashes, dog collars, pet beds, pet supplements, pet clothes and even pet shoes! With that also comes the issue of sameness. I kept thinking to myself, how can any pet product stand out among all of these exhibitors? But when it comes to pet accessories I suppose it’s all a matter of finding something that fits with your lifestyle like an eco-friendly dog collar, or cool performance gear for dogs on the go, or even the fashion forward options that are available too.

Paws Down, My Pick for ‘Best in Show’

There’s a new company that stands out to me as my favorite pick of the show, called Yep Yup. It’s a combination of home décor for pets and pet parents so your house doesn’t have to be filled with paw print covered pet beds and dog bowls. I think the founder, Sepi Banibashar, is brilliant for coming up with fun designs that stylishly incorporate your pet’s stuff into your home. I can’t say that I’ve seen something so beautifully designed, so her business really stood out at the show, which is not easy to do.

Photos courtesy of Yep Yup

Some of the pet food and pet treats companies also have a presence at the show too, and that’s where the sameness can make things pretty confusing. It’s one thing for pet leashes to be very similar, because then it’s just a difference in taste and style. When it comes to pet food, it gets more complicated. How are pet food brands supposed to be distinctive when everyone seems to be saying the same thing?

My Nutrition and Ingredients are Better Than Yours

In speaking with the pet food brands at the show, they even agreed that there’s quite a bit of sameness, from similar sounding ingredient stories, to packaging, it’s clear why there’s so much consumer confusion about pet food brands. Not to mention, pet food brands are letting the decision-making process on which food to buy happen at the retail shelf. So when pet parents stand in front of the rows of pet food, they see what seems like the exact same story about the best quality ingredients and countless glossy bags with images of real chicken and fresh vegetables displayed.

There’s a HUGE opportunity to reach consumers and gain their loyalty BEFORE they get to the shelf. I want the best for my beagles, like most pet parents. That means doing my research before I even walk out of my house to make a pet food purchase – that’s when you want the decision to be already made, before a consumer gets confused by the sameness at the shelf. For pet parents like me who are savvy about ingredients, it’s so much more than just the packaging. In fact, it’s long before a pet parent steps into a store that your brand can make a move to become the leader of the pack.

Let me know your thoughts or if you’re a pet food brand looking for some answers on how to break away from the pack, drop me an email at kerb@wheatleytimmons.com or twitter.com/KerriAErb.

By Robert Wheatley

From left to right — Andy Hopson, strategist and consultant to our firm and Noble, Bob Noble, CEO of his namesake agency and Rich Timmons, President of W&T standing in front of Noble’s 50-foot fork totem –an iconic nod to their firm’s heritage and expertise in food communications.

Our agency, like many these days, is in a constant state of reinvention as we work to align ourselves with the changing media landscape and resulting client communication needs. Chief among the requirements of effective communications and brand strategy guidance is the overwhelming need for up-to-the-minute insight into trends, consumer attitudes and behaviors.

We’re about to introduce you to CultureWaves…

Just a little background to start: We happen to believe in strategic partnerships, especially when a combination can change math so that 1 + 1 = 3 or more. And so it is that we are embarking on a partnership with Noble, a fascinating advertising, test kitchen, new product creation, Internet media and insight firm run by the visionary Bob Noble and his team of experts from, of all places, Springfield, MO. Yes they have a growing Chicago office, but the nerve center of Bob’s operations flows from his loft building environs on the business end of a shopping mall plaza in the Show Me state.

Bob’s unique take on the changing landscape is to re-think the agency business model. Voila, we had a simpatico going right out of the chute from our first meeting, as we share the same view that old agency business models and tactical capabilities simply won’t cut it in this increasingly social media-driven world.

So Noble has launched a unique, proprietary “human insights engine” called CultureWaves. Key to its functionality is the software underneath that Noble created called Neemee. So what’s it do, you ask? CultureWaves is fueled by hundreds of “farmers” – essentially a large group of intensely curious human observers who contribute articles and ideas to a searchable Thought Bank. So the magic isn’t in algorithms but in thoughts and perspective that flow from real people.

W&T now plugged into Neemee and CultureWaves…

Candidly we’re still in the training mode over here, so we have much to learn about extracting insights. What we can tell you is this — the entire process is much about discovery and the ability to aggregate information in one place in such a way that patterns and trends become noticeable. And that in turn can lead to new ideas and observations around emerging human needs and interests.

The end game is simple. We want to increase our value to clients by helping them see emerging trends and needs on the horizon that they can meet and fulfill. At the end of the day, brand relationships are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning. And how can you possibly expect to divine the elements of relevance without firm human understanding of what people are into these days.

Human behavior rules…

Often said that agencies exist to help brands better understand how to influence consumer attitudes and behaviors, and in doing so to earn permission for a relationship – one that hopefully drives brand preference and thus sales. So knowing more about human behavior serves to fulfill our primary mission.

So far the journey proves to be fascinating. In the coming weeks, we’ll reveal more details about the CultureWaves model and share our learning with you.

Stay tuned.

Robert Mondavi Blazes Consumer Engagement at Chicago Gourmet and Beyond

In the wine world, tasting events are the root of all marketing outreach efforts. The entry to participate alone weighs heavily on both time and cost investments. However, there are not many other ways to replace the experience of swirling, sipping and talking with your consumer one-on-one.

Understanding both the importance and the investment, many brands see just getting to the event as crossing the finish line of consumer engagement. But, if you are not activating your brand presence, someone else is stealing your share-of-voice and your next customer.

One brand that I admire for their successful event execution and consumer engagement is the Robert Mondavi brand of wines. Recently, I enjoyed experiencing their brand at the culinary, wine and spirits consumer event, Chicago Gourmet.

Here’s my run down of what Robert Mondavi did right and how you can take some pointers:

On-site Engagement: Education

Don’t just offer a wine sample. Add some value to the consumer experience and your impression will last beyond the event. Robert Mondavi has a beautifully designed traveling event that emulates their brand identity. Within their space they offer a sensory station to learn about the nuances of different varietals and throughout the event they host-cooking demonstrations and wine 101 classes led by their brand ambassadors.

Credibility Building: Spokesperson Sponsorship

What are the sources you trust for information on wine? Trade magazines, Robert Parker ratings, wine analysts, trend reports? Now, who does your consumer trust? You? Well, maybe your winemaker but sorry he/she needs someone else to give your wine a seal of approval. Robert Mondavi cleverly partnered with well-recognized and credited food and wine writer and culinary TV personality, Ted Allen, to elevate their Private Selection portfolio of wine. As their spokesperson, Ted helps spread the brand message leading up to events with local media appearances, integrates in event content as a seminar speaker and is available for giving consumers some very engaging one-on-one consumer time by attending the event.

Understanding Consumer Interests: Contest Engagement

Contests are a dime a dozen and many times miss hitting the core consumer when not honed in on the passions and interests of the consumer. Tapping into the star power of their relevant spokesperson, Ted Allen, Robert Mondavi asked consumers to submit a wine question to Ted for a chance to meet him for dinner at a high-end restaurant. The entry was simple for a wine enthusiast and it weeded out any professional contest applicants when asking a question relevant to the spokesperson and the brand.

(Full disclosure: I was one of the winners. The experience was memorable and you could not fit a more genuine and authentic group of folks in one room. Here again the experience and reach of the brand went beyond the event especially when contest winners like me blogged about the experience on our food and personal blogs.)

How else can you activate consumer engagement at events? How else should you extend the experience beyond an event space footprint?

My quick answer: applying a social media strategy.

Perhaps Robert Mondavi could employ live blogging or vlogging from the event or reward those who follow them on Facebook or Twitter by receiving an incentive when they visit the booth. This extra layer of engagement builds the conversation and strengthens the bond between consumer and brand.

But more on this for a later post.

If you are interested in some additional insight in how to better connect with your consumer at events and beyond, I’d love the opportunity to chat. I love chatting about wine, food and building consumer relationships. Email me: cbecker@wheatleytimmons.com or find me on Twitter: twitter.com/CarrieBecker7

By Robert Wheatley

Over the last few months we’ve been reporting on the FTC’s efforts to refine guidelines on use of celebrity/third party spokespeople and the emergence of bloggers as a new, legitimate channel of media. A channel, by the way, that comes without the built-in rules traditional media organizations observe regarding ethical separation between PR and reporter.

Let’s start with the FTC’s hard news: if outside spokespeople participate in communications activities outside of advertising, such as a talk show interview, they need to disclose the paid relationship if they are going to talk about a brand or business. Similarly, if Bloggers (or other word-of-mouth sources) receive consideration in the form of payment or freebies in return for promoting a product, that also must be disclosed.

The FTC is saying something that only makes sense: consumers have a right to know if the mouthpiece has received payment in return for endorsement. While there may be some tawdry exceptions to this, for the most part, PR people in previous eras have not been in the business of buying favorable editorial coverage. A story has to stand on its merits. But the spokesperson thing was always a grey area in terms of how a relationship between third party and brand is defined or explained.

Now clarity exists on all fronts, and to the benefit of the consuming public — full disclosure of who is working for whom. Celebrity’s must say in an interview, I’m here today on behalf of brand x. And when Bloggers are paid to write, the deal must include requirements for disclosure of the arrangement. The FTC’s goal is to make sure all information is upfront, should any of it have an impact on the consumer’s decision to purchase something based on what they’ve heard or read.

This is a good thing!!!

One of the hallmark’s of effective public relations strategy is building credibility, and that is best served when all aspects of a relationship with media and third parties is out in the open. Honesty supports integrity and trust reigns supreme in relationships between brands and their users.

• Agencies and clients from here on in must abide by these rules of disclosure or risk punitive action

We applaud the FTC and their decision because it supports what we’ve always believed that great products, services and businesses don’t need to employ fakery or illusion to win in the marketplace. This will foster greater need for PR people to choose wisely in selecting outside spokespeople, preferably those who have genuine interest and reasonable, tangible connections to the products they endorse. Scrutiny, as always, is present these days and authenticity will be apparent to all observers. Why? Because in the new media age anything that can be known will be known.

What do you think?

By Bob Wheatley

A recent post by Sonia Simone of Copyblogger posed a question the other day, is branding dead?. The comments that followed quickly descended down the trail to tactics and thus left the real conversation about brand value and moved on to communication.

• Many interpreted the decline in conventional media platforms as evidence that branding is indeed on the respirator in the marketing ER ward. That, I think, entirely misses the point of brands and branding.

Branding by the way is not about logos, Web sites, events, advertising or any other form of outreach. Just for fun let’s play with this a minute. If brand didn’t matter, what would? In marketing, if all products were essentially generic and stood solely on their features then lowest price would be the primary driver of commerce.

We would naturally gravitate to the cheapest car, toilet paper, jeans, beer and shop the cheapest channels, probably dollar stores. Evolution here would be 50-cent stores or perhaps the return of the old Five and Dime idea our prices are so low you have to stoop to pick them up. Segmentation would dry up as the high end falls away. Efficiency, cost effectiveness, frugality and economy would be the lexicon of product communication.

But that’s not going to happen, is it?

Last time I looked we were still human beings and thus are essentially emotional, social creatures. We love, we laugh, we cry and we care. We get mad and get even. Our lives gain greater meaning when we participate in something that’s larger than ourselves.

We have needs for recognition, esteem and personal pride. We feel good about successes and disappointed at times in failures. We want, we desire. We reach and dream. Some of us have aspirations and drive. Others are content to sit inside their comfort zone, hopeful that the status quo and familiar will remain in tact.

Do products and services play any role in our lifestyles, in our human-ness?

At times we literally wear brands because of the statement or cachet they imbue. Certain brands convey meaning that is at once obvious to others such as Mercedes as luxury auto. And might also suggest social and economic status messages, too.

There are brands that matter to us, that deliver meaning and therefore added benefits. Our experience with them ladders up to a form of joy. I can give you a new take, for example, on my iPhone. I love everything about it — the ease-of-use; it’s functionality and design. But when I started to add App-store games my six-year old daughter could play with glee, delight and a smile, suddenly I had a portable amusement center. What fun. Now it’s value to me has accelerated. Thus my attitude towards Apple grows thicker, closer. The extra investment cost is soooo worth it.

I will admit to a personal indulgence: I love Robert Graham shirts. They are unique, well made, stylish and fashionable. I probably have a dozen of them. They are not cheap. Oddly enough, however, when compared to designer name plain dress shirts, the Graham products are a bargain. I feel good when I wear them, sort of a signature thing. I get compliments, people notice the distinctive fabrics, even the little touches like different patterns inside the cuffs and collars

Probably all of us can tell similar stories about things we enjoy, that matter to us, that perform beyond the utility of their ability to provide warmth or sustenance. Organic Valley dairy products are more expensive. But I like their ethos of supporting family farms and the absence of hormones in the milk is something I prefer for my young daughters.

Brands are indeed conveyed by their names. Many of these ideas however require building, investing, communicating to help us fully embrace their worth and meaning. But the thing itself gains equity in our lives because of the emotions we associate with them. Mostly good feelings for the items we care about vs. the commodities we don’t and wish just to purchase cheaply.

Branding is not dead. Branding will never be dead. Unless of course we’re all replaced by robots. The intersection of commerce and humanity guarantees it. While communications techniques and media forms may indeed evolve, the role products and services play in our lives will endure. The emotional fabric that sits between us and the things we like will continue, too.

Our firm is all about brand building. (I love my work). And while what we do in PR communication is increasingly moving to social media platforms, our efforts to help clients better define brand value and positioning is as right as rain, the sun rising and the world turning.

Makes me happy. Especially because brands now grow on the basis of their ability to define, understand and mine consumer lifestyle associations. Said another way to become enablers and facilitators of their consumer’s interests and aspirations. To earn permission for a relationship. Hey, wait a minute. We just might be in the happiness business.

How about you???

By Robert Wheatley

It is an essentially American thing to be pre-occupied with improvement. It is culturally systemic with us to make things better, to constantly upgrade our technologies and processes. This is good. And fundamentally it is the driver that drives business growth, no matter the category or brand.

But better today is harder to achieve in material leaps. So for many businesses the battle is more about incremental-ism than leaping tall buildings at a single bound. Why? Because technology has so sufficiently improved in so many categories that products at the nuts and bolts level are quite similar. The points of difference become thinner when looked at from the engineering or formula vantage point.

So we make great hay in a shorter period of sunshine when we launch our Wizzywig, because of course our arch competitor will be fast at work to one-up the achievement with their Fizzybig. And so the cycle of marketing life continues.

Are we having the right conversation about business growth?

Isn’t design and engineering excellence table stakes now?

There are more products in more categories competing for consumer attention than at any other time in history. That’s a lot of sku’s my friends. And guess what? Much of what we see pound for pound is about the same.

The human response to over-choice and sameness is almost as predictable as the next new line extension of your most popular brand of _________________. The buying decision process has become more of an emotional calculation than it is a rational one.

• Our internal editing system winnows out the noise of specsmanship and settles on what we perceive to be relevant, useful and rewarding to our lifestyles.

Brands are now all about relationships and personal value

So what does your brand stand for that is relevant and distinctive? How do your best customers feel when they are in the presence of your brand? What meaning does your brand evoke?

• If Sharpie pens can identify a way to tap into the inner creative soul and bring to life the spiritual side of what we do personally to express ourselves, then there’s hope for everyone who is reading this right now and thinking bad thoughts, like “hey, I’m in a commodity business so who will care.” Pen is a pen is a pen, right? Wrong.

If in fact you buy the idea that relationships matter to brand growth, then how about working overtime to imbue your brand with greater meaning?

This may feel uncomfortable to those who are inspired by the latest ingredient from R&D that makes their product 15% more effective than brand X. This is still and forever will be a necessary and important and good thing.

• But the battle for preference and sales resides entirely, yes entirely in the six inches of grey matter between the two ears of those we wish to sell to. And their decision tree has now evolved.

Trust, peer-to-peer communication and the social era

Just as consumers turn the corner to react more emotionally and to separate brands that matter from those they only want to pay less for, the media world somehow works in its mysterious way to offer the most relationship-forward of media platforms ever devised.

• Social media is at once a conversational, relationship-building environment that provides brands with a path to forging connections that come across as more friendship focused than transactional.

From an article in today’s MarketingDaily on Ford Motor Company’s digital media guru, Scott Monty, we hear that 77% of Americans trust corporations less this year than last. Wow. Trust cannot be over-stated as fundamental to any successful brand relationship. Trust feels like a very human thing. And it is.

According to Monty, Ford’s social media strategy is to humanize the brand, to connect people with Ford. Awesome. If Ford can find a way to create greater distinctions for its brand so it owns an idea in the consumer’s head apart from being a dependable, well-built American car, then they have the best of both worlds: value and emotional fabric built on a foundation of human interaction and conversation thus the behemoth corporation becomes approachable, maybe like-able. Trustworthy even?

Now that’s a defensible, own-able brand proposition in a sea of technical sameness and periodic one-upmanship.

What do you think?

By Robert Wheatley

Yesterday I had the extraordinary opportunity to speak at the annual conference of the Pulp and Paper Manufacturers Association in Milwaukee. My deepest thanks to Dick Kendall for inviting me. This organization represents leading companies that make paper products and the components that go into them. The theme for the conference was “The Road to Recovery.” And part of the agenda was devoted to disaster and what to do when it strikes.

My part: to present the case for an entirely new approach to crisis communications strategy, emerging from the growth, influence and realities of social and digital media.

Here’s the deck I presented:

Just before I got up to talk, two gentlemen with Packaging Corporation of America, Ron Zimmerman and Bruce Kummerfeldt, led a heart-rending review of a recent plant disaster that claimed the lives of three of their colleagues following the explosion of a large storage tank. They chronologically described the unfolding events from the moment the ground suddenly shook like an earthquake through the days and weeks that followed. Media was on-site at the plant within 20 minutes of the explosion.

You could feel their pain as they described and maybe re-lived — the unnerving conditions and loss of life. Some of the activities in response to press and other agencies (OSHA) followed a well-worn path that those of us in crisis response have been down so many, many times before. But all of that is changing. Right now.

It’s Now Disaster at the Speed of Light

Early in my career I worked on the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster in India that claimed at least 10,000 lives. I got involved downstream (1984) with a team assembled by Ogilvy & Mather, agency for Union Carbide, to address mounting community relations challenges in areas where their domestic plants operated. In those days, we spent time in due diligence, research and planning, and our work with media followed this effort using the familiar tactical tools we had come to rely on in the TV generation of sound bites, fact sheets, third party expert interviews, etc. The materials and tools we developed became the grist for stories written or produced by trained journalists. We all understood the rules of engagement.

I love this quote from Rupert Murdoch that just nails the evolutionary moment we are in: Technology is shifting the power away from editors, publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are in control.

The traditional media world of rules of engagement has given way to information, images and video uploaded by anyone (not professional journalists) at anytime to platforms that are instantly global. And those pieces of communication may or may not convey the facts correctly. Perception indeed leads reality.

My message: you are not in control anymore. And events unfold at speeds approximating the nanoseconds of digital transmission. Social media can help create and help solve crisis events. But the time to get involved in social media is not at the moment of crisis, but now.

The crisis communications toolbox has forever changed. There are advantages to social media communication in our ability to listen more quickly, effectively and to distribute information directly to stakeholders and by-pass the once exclusive filter of traditional media. But that comes, too, with responsibilities founded on honesty, humility and transparency.

It’s a new world, requiring a new recipe. Are you ready? Says Jason Baer of Convince and Convert blog: If you can’t get a video of your CEO on YouTube within 3 hours, anytime of day or night, you are not ready.

It’s time to overhaul the crisis response protocols. You agree?