Image by Beverly & Pack

If I had a nickel for every time someone brought up “brand voice” in a marketing meeting over the past year, I honestly think I’d be a millionaire. “Brand voice” is one of those concepts that’s easy to say, but hard to correctly put into practice. Over the past few months, however, it has occurred to me that a discussion about “brand voice” isn’t even the right discussion to have. We need to be talking about “brand voices”

Oh…that’s right…plural!

There has been (and still is) entirely too much emphasis on creating a massive, omnipresent Voice with which a brand communicates to all consumers at all times; as if consumers would rebel and lose faith in the absence of this Arch-Voice to guide them along the dark paths of the modern world. This is absurd, and its silliness has become even more apparent as conversational mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, Quora, YouTube, and blogs increase in importance in a brand’s communication plan.

I’ll start this post with complete honesty: I do not have an answer to this question. Indeed, I hope to elicit some good discussion in the comments because this question has been on my mind for some months now.

The background to the question is simple. We all know that the social media landscape is changing faster than most can keep up with. For the most part, early-adopting consumers tend to be the first to jump cannon-ball style into any new technological pool. Once the waters are proven safe and comfortable, other consumers join in, all eventually followed by large, lumbering brands that want to join the party. We’ve seen this with Facebook, Twitter, mobile applications, etc.

The sheer size and labyrinthine organizational structure of most large brands has pretty much prevented them from being the first to splash into any new pool. Lately, however, I have noticed a distinct increase in the speed with which many brands are jumping on various new media bandwagons.

First, I’d like to extend many thanks to the organizers of PodCamp Philly.  The Pandemic Labs contingent, including myself, Matt, and Kristin had a great time meeting everyone and learning from the exceptional assemblage of minds at the event.  I’d also like to thank those that came to my session The Cool Kids: Why Brand Personality Matters.  I was flattered that so many came out to hear what I had to say.  For those of you who requested a copy of the deck, I hate to disappoint, but my presentation was just a series of photos that mean nothing whatsoever unless accompanied by narration.  Alternatively, I distilled the presentation into this blog post.  Thanks again!

The Cool Kids: Why Brand Personality Matters (An Overview)

The presentation was designed to:

• Explain the history of “identity marketing”
• Offer an equation to understand the importance of brand personality and how it equates to revenue
• Define brand personality
• Give advice for the creation of brand personality optimized for social media and revenue generation

If you can’t answer the question that is the title of this post, then you have a problem. Companies have had decades to form very nice little fences around their various departments of marketing, PR, and the like. Even e-commerce (as a department) has had over a decade of time in some companies to establish itself and its boundaries.

Like all social organizations, companies are full of members (departments) that take great care in marking their territory and making sure everyone knows what is their (and sometimes more importantly, not their) responsibility.

• PR departments handle the PR agency
• Marketing departments handle the Ad Agency
• E-commerce departments handle SEO/SEM

A few years ago, it was (relatively) nice and peaceful in the jungle. Then, along came this disruptive thing called social media. Social media didn’t neatly fall into anyone’s preconceived buckets, and whats more, no one had any idea whose responsibility it was to figure out if these new tools could be used for marketing.

I know firsthand that some very large companies grabbed the youngest person in their marketing department and said, “Get us on Facebook.” Think that is a tenable position in the ever-increasing field of the social web?

Now that social media marketing has settled in a little bit, a lot of the stories are coming to the surface about how social media was (and in many case still is) handled within companies. I have seen two distinct approaches:

1. New thing = scary: This approach has been the more common among larger companies. No one wants to even figure out what social media is, much less be burdened with responsibility to figure out how to make it work for marketing. Responsibility gets tossed around like a hand grenade. A few people do one thing over here, then some other people do something else over there. There is no plan, cohesion or vision of any kind. Then the company whines about how social media marketing is a bunch of fluff because they tried it and it failed.
2. Ooooooo shiny….It’s mine: In some companies, the exact opposite is true. Every department fights over who gets to “claim” social media. Everyone wants to this powerful new tool to be theirs so they can take credit for it when it works. Since no department will hand it over, a few people do one thing over here, then some other people do something else over there. There is no plan, cohesion or vision of any kind. Then the company whines about how social media marketing is a bunch of fluff because they tried it and it failed.

Did you notice that the ends of both situations were EXACTLY the same?

The fact of the matter is this. Social Media Marketing is an increasingly important component of any marketing strategy, and, just like all your other marketing elements, it needs to have a vision and strategy behind it for it to work.

Someone in your company needs to be responsible, and more likely than not, you need to hire an agency to develop the strategy that’s right for you and execute on that strategy based on trackable goals.

Without that, how can you expect to succeed?

You’ve seen their Cavemen. You’ve seen their Gecko. But have you seen the Geico GloveBox?

Currently available for the iPhone, the Geico GloveBox allows customers to access a multi-functional, extremely useful application. Equipped with a handful of tools, this product is single-handedly transforming smartphone apps for the entire insurance industry. Before going any further, allow me to share just why this application is built to succeed.

Once it’s loaded, individuals have access to a wealth of useful and handy tools. First, is an accident helper that allows someone to quickly contact emergency services. It also gives you a place to organize photos from an accident, to help you prove that it was the other guy’s fault.

Next, it has a “Roadside Service” tool that allows you to find gas stations and tow services if you are ever misfortunate enough to need either one. There’s also a taxi/rental car function that utilizes the phone’s GPS, to help you find other ways to get home. Lastly, the application is equipped with do-it-yourself and how-to videos, covering everything from jump starting a car, to changing a flat tire.

Aside from these excellent services, what makes this app so groundbreaking is just how much stock Geico has invested in a product that doesn’t actively recruit new customers. While there are portions of this app that are dedicated to Geico customers – such as retrieving your insurance ID – no elements of this app are superfluous. Each service has a dedicated need, with a few videos along the way of the Geico Gecko to provide comic relief.

Furthermore, the GloveBox proves that Geico has resisted the current fad to bring something – regardless of usability – to the smartphone market.  You can also tell that this app wasn’t thought up in a back room by devious marketing executives attempting to use all of their allotted spend. Instead, this is a well planned, well thought out application, with the sole purpose of creating a positive brand experience.

It may be tough for Geico to measure the influence of this app on gross sales, but thus is the Catch-22 of social media.  However, if you look at this app through a different lens, it transforms traditional marketing. While you may not remember a whole lot about the next fender bender you’re in, you will remember using the GloveBox app, and the fact that Geico was there to help.