PJA Blog: The Complex Brand

This is probably a prescient question for the last post of 2007, since the online world will dominate marketing next year in ways it just hasn’t before.

In what ways? PJA is asking some of our top clients and prospects precisely that question (well, 20 questions is more like it) at a series of informal lunches and dinners. As you might imagine, the first question back to us is typically: “What are my competitors doing?” That being said, here are some of the over-arching questions we’re setting out to answer:

• How are you thinking about interactive and marketing?
• If you feel that your rate of online adoption is slower than the norm, why is that?
• What should your agency’s role be as interactive guide and mentor?

From here, we generally move into 20 questions that more specific to the customer: (more…)

In partnership with ITToolbox, We just released the second wave of our social media survey. I won’t bury the lead: the most interesting finding was that online networks were rated as the most important influence on the later stages of the technology purchase decision. And the related point that IT decision-makers are beginning to view online communities as credible extensions of their personal networks.

The first wave revealed the overall importance of social media as a technology purchase influence. We suspected going in that social media would serve an important role (after all, we were talking to members of an online community), but we were surprised at just how influential social media had become. Not only did respondents spend more time with social media than traditional editorial brands, they also trusted them more when it came to important purchase decisions.

In the second Wave, we saw a similar engagement level with social media vis a vis traditional media. Though for full disclosure, traditional media as represented by brands such as CNN and CIO fared better this time. More reinforcement, perhaps, for my colleague’s comment about the relative value of print advertising these days. The real purpose of Wave 2 was to take a deeper dive into the distinct stages of the purchase process.

Search, as is true in any purchase process research I’ve ever seen, is most important for early stage awareness. Topic based communities (such as discussion groups and blogs) were rated as the most important information sources during consideration and final evaluation. Personal networks (such as LinkedIn and ITToolbox Professional Networking) were also rated as influential. Next to topic based communities, they were the most important source during final evaluation.

In a way, these findings are not surprising at all. People have always turned to trust colleagues when they want a gut check on an important purchase. What is interesting is the implication that the notion of peer has become more elastic in the read/write world.

You’ll find the press release, access to data tables, and a highlights deck here. Let us know your thoughts.

Thanks to DJ Howatt, I have my nose in the Harvard Business Review for the first time in too long. (When did it go up to $18 an issue?)

The piece he blogged about is called “The Four Truths of the Storyteller,” by Peter Guber. I’ve been seeing Guber’s name in the press for years and know that he’s on the respected side of the feared/respected line in Hollywood (did I mention he’s from Newton, MA?). I can’t say I’m a huge fan of all his films (he did executive produce Midnight Express), but like a pharmaceutical scientist, the fact that he actually got 50 films ‘into the clinic’ (that is, produced) says a lot about his tenacity.

His piece on narrative and its role in effective communications is a winner. And the thesis is simple: to tell a powerful story, you must show truth to yourself, to the audience, to the moment, and to the mission at hand. What interested me was the way the word ‘brand’ can be swapped out for ’story’ or ’storyteller’ in some of the piece’s signature quotes. Brands, after all, are stories.

Here are a few favorites (call it a miniature linguistic mashup):
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No getting around the fact that the Chief Marketing Officer has been on the endangered species list almost since its creation. Recent data from Spencer Stuart points out that the average CMO now lasts only 26 months in their position before deciding to spend more time with family. That’s compared to 44 months for the average CEO and 39 months for the average CFO.

A recent piece from BusinessWeek captures the new challenges any CMO faces. In fact, the best part of the article lays out what one CMO, from Geico, faced in just 72 hours: (more…)