The Blurring of Boundaries and the Importance of Brand Image

Everyday it seems that the distinctions between the different types of media and the ways in which marketeers engage with them are becoming more blurred everyday.

The first type of media I suppose was by voice and "word of mouth". Back in "days of old" people would try and attract" consumers by shouting "a dozen apples for a groat" from their market stall. The natural progression of this was getting people to talk about your stall because you had the best apples in town.

About the 16th Century the printing press came about and overtime people started putting adverts in them and then PR was born.

Then at the start of the century the radio was invented and eventually people started placing messages in broadcasts too. PR people found another medium to promote their clients' services.

This naturally progressed onto TV in the middle of the last century. Again PR agencies got their teeth into television too.

The next big thing was the internet. Despite media agencies getting to grips with branding clients' with nasty 468's and then interstitials, they moved onto viral marketing but it has only taken the social networking-type sites and web 2.0 for them to generally move into the 21st century and understand the importance of managing client's reputation online.

It still amazes me that so many big brands don't utilise blogs or monitor their brand image online. Companies such as Nielsen Buzzmetrics and Cymfony (amongst others) offer great solutions for monitoring your brand reputation. Even Google Alerts offers a simple way to monitor companies' online reputation.

It's the surge in blogging and social networking sites like Facebook which has brought about a massive explosion in unfettered free speech. Previously ordinary folk found it difficult to maintain sites, blogs gave everyone who could type a voice. Now companies are being rated and reviewed like never before. Companies such as Dell and Wal-Mart are being blogged about every single second of the day. And people use other people's opinions greatly when they're in the buying cycle. It is essential that companies can respond quickly to negative online press. In my mind, every merchant, at least should sign up to a Google Alert for their brand. This would show when they're mentioned in the news and on blogs. If they could afford it, they should be hiring a PR agency that knows the online game (this isn't a cheap plug - but it should be!).

Sites like Facebook have product groups, just like the Pleo Dinosaur one I've created. Within these groups we can sway demand from one merchant to another, consumers will give feedback and even set-up anti-groups. Any marketeer in any company should be searching on Digg.com, Facebook and elsewhere for instances of their brand.

When you consider the demise of traditional media where people are "consuming" TV, radio and print in fewer numbers, it is essential that any marketing function is fully up-to-speed with the online-PR environment.

So if you're not, then start now. Use Google Alerts for a starting point. Subscribe to the various social networking sites, actively search for your brand online and keep it under control as ordinary folk can make or break your company with a few choice words in the right/wrong place!

Further reading:
Online Reputation Monitoring & Management Beginners Guide
Brand Reputation: What is it and why it matters a lot
Social Media Optimization