Every sign that we have seen so far indicates the current recession will forever change American’s spending habits.  A defined line is being drawn between necessities and wants.  “Tradeoff” is a word that many Americans are defining individually.  They are acknowledging what is important to them and their families.  

Because American consumers are spending more time within the decision making process, they are dissecting every attribute about a product and/or service, and evaluating how that product/ service can impact their life specifically.  Consumers are becoming attached to their everyday purchases. 

It is kind of like the saying, “You don’t know what you have until you have nothing at all”. Many consumers are in a place that they have never been financially, so now it is specific products and services that are being recognized and being depended on.

In the long term, consumers will want to prevent any hardships that they currently face financially; therefore, more money will be kept in the pocket and less in the hands of companies.  Americans will remember these times and learn from their mistakes, but they will want to move on and leave the gloom behind. 

However, what they will carry with them is the product/service brands that satisfied their individual needs during those difficult times; and in addition, they will become advocates for those brands. 

So, the best way to position your brand for a successful future among the new “American consumerism” is to develop ways to interact with each and every consumer’s needs.  The individual customer will then rally around your brand and find ways to tell everyone they know as well.

This growing interest comes with good reason. The Booz Allen consulting firm reports that eight of ten Americans are online and they spend just as much time there as they do with television.

 However, with all the hype around the digital arena, many companies report that they only spend 5-10% of their marketing budgets on digital media and marketing.

The nominal amount spent on digital marketing is staggering considering the competitive landscape that many companies live within.  Hundreds of brands are placed in front of consumer’s everyday through television, billboards, radio, collateral, print, and several other traditional media. However, few of these medias can specifically reach a consumer on a personal level.

Traditional media does a great job building brand awareness to the masses with relatively low cost.  However, consumers have caught on to their power of choice, and have stepped back to evaluate which brands suit their personal and emotional needs. Consumers are not buying a soda beverage because it was the first billboard they saw on their way to work – rather they are buying the soda beverage that makes them feel a part of something bigger – a cause, an idea, a movement, an overlying personality. 

Digital marketing allows companies to communicate their brand proposition with consumers individually with little noise in the background.  With digital strategies, brands can reach consumers at the right time with the right message and actually evaluate concrete data on how consumers interacted with those messages.  The old metrics such as impressions are losing their value.  

So, why continue to talk about this if everyone knows about it? Because few are doing digital marketing to the extent that it can be done.  Companies are getting on facebook, twitter, myspace, youtube, and hundreds of other social sites only because their competitors are doing it – they did it but they don’t know why they did!

Online advertisements are blowing up at you in the strangest of times on the web, but notice how many of those advertisements are from the same companies.  Notice how many of the advertisements don’t identify with your personal needs at all.

Companies that want to have a presence online must understand that it takes research and strategic planning to have success online.  Companies must understand who they are as well as understand their customers.

Once companies understand the personality of their brand, they can evaluate effective way to utilize digital space, but the underlining point is to make it a priority to get there.  The opportunities are endless.

However, I think it is important we sometimes look back at smart traditional communication strategies that, believe it or not, still happen, so we can evaluate how they too can initiate a conversation and then provide others the opportunity to do the work by spreading the word.

Recently, our agency did a campaign for the Missouri Department of Health and Safety that encouraged sexually active young adults to get tested for HIV and STDs.

Yes, we used digital space to communicate our message to our intended audience – to many that is what started the conversation – but we did not overlook the power of traditional word- of- mouth strategies. 

Through research, we discovered that when young adults have issues dealing with their sex life, they turned to their close friends for advice and support.  Therefore, our objective was to place those that had already taken control of their health by getting tested at the center of our strategies.  We wanted them to spread the word to friends that were uneasy about visiting a local testing center, so we had to give them a conversation starter.

That conversation starter was business cards that provided contact information to local testing centers.  These business cards broke the ice on a very sensitive topic and enabled others to do the work for the brand.  Smart idea…

The content that falls between the chapters is what is differentiating successful brands and non – successful brands on Twitter.  Some of the most successful brands are building their brand by tuning into and then adding input to what others are saying about products, services, industries, companies, etc, related to their brand.  However, the most successful brands are the ones starting the conversation.  By starting the conversation, brands are engaged, they show initiative, and gather more exposure.  By starting the conversation, the brand is more in control which translates into more relevant information for the company.

One valuable insight that companies are obtaining through starting the conversation is what perceptions consumers have about the brand.  Yes this is very obvious, but what is not obvious is the unconventional strategies companies are developing to uncover this information. 

Best Buy’s Approach

For example, Best Buy’s Twitter feed has recently posted that they are creating an “Emerging Media Marketing Director” position, and starting July 14^th you can log onto Best Buy’s customer service site and submit your opinion on what the job description and qualifications for the new position should be. 

Best Buy’s CMO on his blog tells viewers that they are doing this as a way to create the best job description and find the best person for the job. He claims that others know way more about social media than anyone at Best Buy, so others input is the best way to develop the director’s role.

This way, Best Buy has initiated the conversation on Twitter, and I am sure they will develop a great job description and the necessary qualification for the role. 

However, I argue there is more to the story.  Best Buy is smart.  When you tell others what information you want, you usually get more.  This “Emerging Media Marketing Director” strategy is no different. 

Best Buy will no doubt get feedback on ways to write the job description and what qualification the Emerging Media Marketing Directors position should have, but they will more importantly receive just as many messages from individuals using this initiative to express how they perceive the brand. 

To suggest that they will not get a message that says, “the person should never respond to a tweet, just like when I am at a Best Buy store and all employees ignore me” is unrealistic.  Those responses always occur, and Best Buy is hoping they will happen, so they can then act on those comments.  People might not even know their comments are of value, but they go along way. (positive comments are valuable too)

If Best Buy really wanted to create a stellar job description for this position, there are plenty of great consultants out there that would help them along the way.  However, by starting the conversation with consumers- they will uncover deeper insight and use the information to build their brand. 

This is an interesting approach, and more and more companies are creating ways to gain this insight using Twitter.  What strategies can your company develop using Twitter to uncover valuable information that will help build your brand?

So what happens when an agency does the Cha-Cha Slide?  No, I am not talking about 3 o’clock dance sessions at the office, but rather figuratively – what happens when an agency has to adjust their business positioning in aspiration to clap their hands and celebrate success.  Such adjustments require slides, crisscrosses, and hops to enable an agency to reach their business goals. 

Sliding to the Right        

Sliding to the right might be the most challenging move there is when an agency does the Cha Cha Slide.  It requires honesty and self actualization.  Agency executives must acknowledge what their agency does best. 

Is it what functions are the strongest/weakest – creative, account management, research, media, etc?  What companies/industries does your agency work best with? The worst?

Agencies that do the Cha Cha Slide must step out and then look back in to focus on what areas will drive their business and what areas have weighted their business down.   It is difficult thinking, but it is thinking that must be done.

Sliding to the Left

Sliding to the left means returning to the same spot as before, but with a different identity.  Sliding to the left requires agencies to acknowledge a need in the pre existing market place, and how their identified strengths can cater to those needs. 

Hopping Around and Crisscrossing

These two steps are grouped together because they represent ways around obstacles for agencies doing the Cha Cha Slide.    Undoubtedly, agencies will be confronted with situations that influence old tendencies and business practices.  Agencies must hop and leap over such past tendencies and business practice temptations that fell off during their slides, and drive business through their new established identity.  Just like the first time you do a dance move, it might feel strange at first, but it will quickly become normality and lead to a successful accomplishment.

Crisscrossing is the only move that you should notdo as your agency does the Cha Cha Slide.  Crisscrossing is bad because it means that people from your agency team are not sending the same message to others.  Crisscrossing messages are bad for business because it tell others that there is a lack of communication within the agency and/or that everyone is not on board with the agency’s new identity.  Everyone must believe in the ways the company represents itself.  If everyone doesn’t, the agency is sliding to the right again while trying to catch back up with others. 

“Now Everybody Clap Their Hands”

Being honest about your agency’s strengths and weaknesses, finding ways to excel in the market place with those identified strengths, and everyone’s involvement in staying true to those strengths for the future are all necessary moves an agency must do to complete a successful Cha Cha Slide.  As mentioned before, it will feel different at first, but with patience and smart execution, your Cha Cha Slide Agency’s transition will be successful. That is reason to clap your hands – Happy dancing!