FBlog

In 2010, the year of austerity for most consumers in North America and Europe, companies took note of a shift in what and how branding is perceived and managed as part of marketing and business strategy.

First of all, Corporate Reputation Management was front of mind as BP tried to salvage its reputation on the back of their Deepwater Horizon disaster and truly live up to ‘beyond petroleum’ as their mantra. The brand will recover, and the PR agency should be rebuked for their inability to control or limit the brand reputation damage – however, a cautionary tale emerges as the 21^st century asks new questions of corporate vision, strategy and transparency. Look out for 2011 to be a year for Energy companies to re-define their longer-term strategies (especially in CSR) and community relations. In a fossil fuel dependent world, innovation should now be rightly focussed on clean energy and zero impact technology.  Which, nicely segues onto Toyota – no doubt 2009’s winner for their development of Hybrid fuel technology only to suffer a basic product quality control as some of their car brake systems proved faulty and deadly. The result, a product recall and embarrassing PR disaster in the US which saw their reputation put on the line. Like BP, the failure to implement a disaster ‘control’ plan proved that Branding and PR/image management go hand-in-hand. Again, the brand will recover but a return to some of the core values of safety and consumer advocacy and service would be well advised.

Second of all, Consumer advocacy and Brand service failure response is the second issue for us to keep in mind as we leave 2010 behind. Think Icelandic Volcanic Ash in May and end of year winter storms in Europe and the US and the Brands which failed to deliver come to mind. In Europe it was governments and their respective Air Safety and Transport Authorities who ‘closed’ the skies combined with the Airport authorities of cities in the UK, France, Germany and Benelux. Not to mention, airlines who in various ways either complicated traveller’s lives or failed to deliver basic legal requirements for customer service. BA and EasyJet were two of the ‘poster children’ of the year on this account, with BA locked in a bitter union dispute as well. Coming out on top, many of the Middle Eastern carriers, Asian carriers and package holiday firms who seemed to grasp the meaning of service far quicker and more comprehensively than those who were more ‘bottom line’ and short term focussed. Also, the real winners – brands that emerged using social media and technology to help stranded travellers find transport, accommodation, share information and/or contact loved ones. If the old system breaks down, the new system emerges far stronger – a system based on real-time conversation, information, arm-chair advocates, twitterers and Facebook ‘friends’. Kudos to those companies who were proactive and responsive (Thomson, Thomas Cook, American Express, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Skype, hotels.com, and other .com sites that managed to work efficiently and digitally to help travellers). Shame on you BA, BAA, Air France, Eurostar, Easyjet – from my personal experience – I hope you have learned a lesson or two.

Third, despite the banking crisis of confidence, a lesson from 2010 and for 2011 is the ability for brands to be ‘in tune’ with consumers and offer better ‘value’ in the form of pricing, bundling of goods and services and or good old fashioned discounting. As the end of the ‘luxury’ and ‘upscaling’ of consumer tastes approaches, one sees a newfound consumer confidence emerging to do  less outsourcing of services and/or products and more ‘in home’ DIY multi-tasking. This means it is a more competitive marketplace for goods and services and just like restaurants that fail to make the grade, many brands may disappear if they are unable to meet changing consumer demand, tastes and affordability. Combined with on-line consumer advocacy, the ‘winners’ will be those that are able to translate consumer transactional data into meaningful activation and relationship marketing. Shopper insight research says that on-line marketing is alive and well with the increasing popularity of Smart Phone and iPhone apps which make it easier to find, compare, negotiate and actually buy goods and services. If your brand doesn’t have an ‘app’ in 2011 consumers will be less able to connect and consume – and, with social media abuzz with either crowd sourced ideas, competitions or consumer advocacy posts, no amount of old fashioned advertising or marketing will save the brand.

So, goodbye 2010 and hello MMXI (2011) – when the watch words will be Corporate Reputation Management, Consumer Advocacy and Involvement, Foresight that links to Innovation and ‘Apps’ that connect real people and data to brand decision-making.