Shift Happens
"Love lasts when the relationship comes first."
Not long ago many a marketing expert would be quick to point out that the most effective way to advertise is to facilitate a conversation among “friends” in which the main subject was about or related to a specific brand—the very essence of social media.
This, of course, was in a time when study after study showed that people trust their friends more than any other source when it comes to collecting information regarding which things to purchase and which things not to purchase. Which was…um…last year.
Now reports are spilling in that consumers trust “friends” half as much as they used to (25% versus 45%) putting peers behind radio and newspaper but just ahead of TV as a credible source of information. (Edelman 2010)
A recent article on Advertising Age (adage.com) cites the Edelman study and goes into detail about the implications of some of its findings and, along the way, points to the inevitable, stating that the consumer mindset has shifted from, “I can trust it because it’s somebody’s opinion” to “I can trust that specific opinion because it’s someone I know.”
So it would seem that finding influencers and using tricks of the trade to get them to bark or “tweet” about your brand may soon become a defunct strategy, since more and more consumers are getting hip to the fact that behind that influential status update, blog post or tweet are marketers pulling strings and leveraging their own personal networks to drive a message into the social media sphere.
It’s probably worth mentioning, then (and again) that at the center of any good marketing effort is a strong relationship. One built on trust and the consistent delivery of a good product or service.
It’s also worth pointing out that if, indeed, the playing field on which traditional media channels (TV, radio and print) play with what many still like to call “new media” is level, then one is no more potent than the other. They are all simply tools one can use to communicate with customers in a personal, meaningful and relevant way.
One thing’s for sure. The world of marketing continues to change at breakneck speeds. What’s hot one day will most assuredly become cold the next. Kind of like the weather.
But in a world that changes every second, we can be sure one thing will surely change less often and less drastically than the media landscape—the human desire to believe that the choices we make are sound. And we choose brands that help us do just that.
And then we suggest that our closest friends do the same.
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