Nick: What's in it for them?

I have a great aversion to gimmicks Chantelle in any form of promotion and advertising - Facebook included. I worry that many of the engagement or "what is in it for me?" initiatives we see are bordering on being gimmicky. I don't see an initiative as brand building if people are essentially being bribed to become a 'friend' to engage with a product. If the initiative also says something meaningful about the product and company and what it stands for such as your Valentines day examples (although this too could verge on gimmicky if it is a company's cynical attempt to improve triple bottom line reporting) then I can certainly see the merits. However, this is something that is not done well in most advertising and I worry that Facebook will be another medium for the most part delivering exactly the same advertising and promotional tripe as any other.

I think Rebecca's example of the friend with the company who shares the profits with her jewelery-makers is a good example of an brand initiative not a gimmicky initiative but it is fundamental to, and embedded in, the company's business model - sadly, most initiatives are simply attempts devised only to draw the consumer in and, as you suggest, the question becomes whether there is any substance behind it and therefore a reason to go back until the next gimmick comes along.

Bryan and I were just on the phone discussing the flip-side of the argument of "what is in it for me?" when you blogged. The question is 'what is in it for the marketer/company' in the relationship as well? I have been reading a bit about 'Brand Relationships' - a relatively hot buzz term in branding - and obviously 'friendship' and 'relationship' goes together hand in hand. However Schultz, Barnes, Schultz and Azzaro in their book Building Customer - Brand Relationships spend a lot of time discussing not only whether the brand is right for the customer but questioning if the customer is right for the brand before they look to develop a relationship.

This is a pretty healthy way to think about developing brand through social media and WOM because it makes you as the marketer think of the flip-side in a scenario such as the person who brands themselves in effect by trying to establish associations with Coco Chanel on their personal web page, which is, they may not be the type of person Coco Chanel wants as a WOM brand champion. How do you restrict that from happening? You could un-friend the unwanted champion but that could create a media firestorm that might work out in your favour or it could seriously backfire.... So we get back to the risk question I mentioned in my previous blog and ask how far are marketers and PR companies prepared to go.

Looking at the 'what's in it for the company?' is also healthy for the marketer because it suggests a longer term view of brand in 'initiative' (to borrow your term Chantelle) planning. So if a gimmick will attract people to the Facebook page as the marketer you would then ask, ok, if I am to spend X dollars is it likely to deliver a Y return on investment in terms of sales either through direct consumer action (actual purchasing) or through the development of brand equity over time (brownie points stored in a consumers mind to improve likelihood of a purchase at some later date)?

These are the sorts of questions marketers are not asking themselves when they push the button on the next latest idea (gimmick) just to jump on the bandwagon and make sure they don't miss out on that next big thing.

One way I can see Facebook really helping brand relationship marketers is through information gathering - if people are free and easy with their privacy then researchers can tap into detailed information that could help them to decide who they want to form brand relationships.However you would have to question whether this is in the spirit of the medium. As Bryan suggested in his last blog Mark Zuckerberg would probably say it is (with the dollar signs flashing before his eyes) but would the Facebook users?

Would love to get your thoughts guys...