Doing interviews

As part of the research for my master thesis I intend to do expert-interviews with advertising professionals to get their view on the subject. So far I managed to schedule interviews with account planners in major German advertising agencies such as TBWA, Media Arts Lab and Jung von Matt as well as with the author of “Brand Hijack?” Alex Wipperf?ºrth. I would very much appreciate anyone’s input on swarm intelligence, open systems, network theory and consumer communities applied to branding. If you are interested to arrange an interview, be it a personal one via skype/telephone or written answers in a word document, just drop me a line. The actual research and interviews will take place sometime in January.

Here you will find a brief overview about the key questions in my master thesis.

Needless to say that I will send a copy of the finished text to anyone participating by the end of march.

A brief & revised overview of my master thesis

The fact that human communication cannot be explained as a one-way-street is commonly agreed upon. It is always mutual and therefore does not correspond to the technical transmission of information from a sender to a receiver. However classical advertising still largely pursues that very same strategy, when sending out a message via mass-media expecting that consumers will understand and accept it with no divergence. Advertising therefore takes a top-down-approach in almost all ATL-Media, that consumers increasingly oppose to. The discussion ranges from the hybrid to the unmanageable consumer, from the decline of interruptive marketing to the dawn of participation or engagement marketing.

In my master thesis I act on the assumption, that brands a largely owned by the consumers themselves and not by the big corporations: They possess the power of interpretation concerning the brand’s meaning which is largely defined in their everyday consumption practices and mutual conversations about the brand. In other words, brand advertising is noticed by the consumer (How could they not regarding the media pressure of big budget campaigns!), but decoded and understood in his life context as well as negotiated with other consumers. This collaboration between consumers leeds to brand meanings which sometimes drastically differ from the intended definitions. There are countless cases like communities professed with Barbie, that certainly do not discuss the brand in the sense of the all-america-girl intended by Mattel.With the rising of interactive media consumers are more and more getting involved with the construction of brand meaning. Crowd-sourcing and mass-customization are fields that are inspired by the open-source-phenomenon of the business world. Even in offline-media such consumer-involvement is feasible: Alex Wipperfürth elaborates on the case of Red Bull, a brand that heavily relies on BTL-strategies and hardly uses any ATL-campaigns. In my opinion consumer involvement is a huge opportunity to get closer to customers and to regain brand relevance, as long as the collaboration is productively channeled and implies a real value for the consumers themselves.In the course of my master thesis I would like to develop a hands-on approach to collaborative branding that structures consumer-collaboration and that can be used as a tool-set for marketers. The following key-questions will be discussed:

  • How linking to the consumer’s life-world can replace or support the interruptive advertising approach. The techniques and mechanisms, that initiate and foster conversation between consumers themselves as well as consumers and companies.
  • The exploration of how networking phenomena bring about emergence and swarm intelligence and how those can be used by companies in branding strategies.
  • The difference between expert-knowledge (companies and agencies) about the brand and the individual fragmentary opinions of consumers. How is a handling of collaborative networks feasible, that productively channels network dynamics without pressurizing and destroying them.
  • How innovation and fresh ideas can be a result of collaboration when taking into account that those are commonly related to creative individuals.
  • (One last thing: The master thesis is explicitly not about user-generated-advertising. I regard this controversial subject as one facet of collaborative branding that has to be critically discussed.)

Forms of collaboration in branding

From what I can see, there are 3 forms of consumer-collaboration when it comes to branding resp. advertising. They are organized according to an increasing consumer-involvement.

  • Participation: The consumer participates within a clearly defined framework which is set and controlled by the company. Collaboration is initiated by the brand owner and channeled towards its goals. A subset of this category would be the idea of user-generated-advertising.
  • Commenting: The consumer reacts on the company’s branding and is actively involved in discussing the brand’s meaning.
  • Appropriation: In the sense of Alex Wipperfürth’s concept of a “brand hijack” the brand’s meaning is actively constructed by the consumer, mostly without the company’s knowledge and sometimes even without the comapny’s approval. As Bernard Cova and the academic discussion of postmodern marketing showed, this process can be observed within communities that are either constructed around the brand itself or a joint field of interest.

John Grant: “The Green Marketing Manifesto”

Ever felt a slightly uneasy with marketing claiming for sustainability? Well, there might be an answer: John Grant explores marketing strategies that not merely pretend to be responsible for economic reasons but that are based on a sincere belief to do good. His recently launched book “The Green Marketing Manifesto” seems to be a true source for inspiration on how companies might find an approach on CSR that actually affects business strategies. John Grant offers extensive case studies on companies such as Marks&Spencer or Toyota showing a corporate behaviour that not only positively supports public image but also drives economic growth.

A nice lesson on authenticity as well as on consistency in your strategies and a slap in the face for companies that still don’t get it by considering CSR a purely image-related marketing tool.

Brand sects

Just found this on some webpage.

Apple addiction

I always thought that any more Apple addiction than at UdK Berlin is hardly possible, but this proves me wrong. The Missouri School of Journalism is almost Windows-free territory, which they underline on their website:

Students are encouraged to acquire wireless laptop technology from Apple, which the School has designated as its preferred provider, but students also will have a choice of a Windows-based alternative. Last year, 99.5 percent of incoming students chose the Apple option.

Watch out Mr. Gates, the intellectuals are up to something.

Charles Leadbeater: “We think – Why mass creativity is the next big thing”

Charles Leadbeater just finished a user-edited book on collaboration. A comment on our increasingly participatory culture that presents a historical overview about co-innovation and shows countless examples. Leadbeater tries to develop underlying principles that foster user participation.

Have a look at the full draft on his website: PDF or read a short abstract from the Guardian: Welcome to We-Think or the Times: Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Rough master thesis sketch: “Collaborative Marketing”

Advertising and marketing is under fire: Targeting consumers has become increasingly difficult as an easily available over supply of media entertainment provokes avoidance of advertising content. Traditional advertising and thus traditional communication models focus on the transmission of a message to group of consumers ultimately addressing only the brand’s needs: an unbalance value exchange is occurring. Marketing communication only relying on push strategies meets customer defiance, as they are increasingly reluctant to spend valuable time and attention on dealing with marketing messages. Furthermore fragmented consumer groups are hard to pin down to some kind of common denominator which is badly needed to come up with a key message, to lay out a media plan and to develop consistent strategies.

In the course of my master thesis I will call the described status quo into question, arguing for a different stake at advertising communication. Considering that our society is increasingly linked and networking has become a common phenomenon one can conclude that collective intelligence and collaboration as illustrated by Wikipedia’s success are also applicable to brand building. Countless blogs and online communities professed with brands denote the consumer’s enthusiasm for participation. At the same time the consumer has become a powerful player in this whole new ball game. I would like to explore how companies can productively use the consume’s definitional power on brands. How can consumers and companies collaborate on brand meanings and how can advertising transform closed branding systems into open source networks? How is co-creation and co-innovation applicable to branding and advertising?

Anyone with interest and/or expertise gladly invited to join me on my quest. Just drop me a comment and I get back to you.