IT manager world: Beyond Marketing

Lego brand Renewal is the result of positive practice marketing new concept in the new communication environment, consumers of the brand more questioning, the brand of control to feel uneasy, how to regain their trust at this time? Author: Nicolas Indemaiken Schulz Not long ago, many brands were still in the limelight. They look full of power and the scenery is limitless. Any unpleasant truth is obscured by glamorous packaging and one-way, noisy marketing campaigns. Nowadays, as organizations become more transparent, people can see what is hidden beneath their appearance and begin to look at the marketing rhetoric suspiciously. Consumer confidence in the brand has diminished, questioning has increased, and the brand's desire to control will make them uncomfortable. This poses challenges for many brands, as they are not yet ready to deal with the challenges posed by greater openness.　　But the most innovative companies have become aware of how people's perceptions have changed and are adapting their branding strategies-some companies have completely redesigned their brand strategy. In the past, the marketing department dressed up the products of the company and made them attractive to consumers. But marketers are gradually abandoning traditional advertising, instead focusing on direct communication with consumers. Even many insightful organizations have given up their brand through communication, but by leveraging strategy, culture and broader stakeholder involvement. They realize that branding is a very important process and cannot be relied upon only by marketing or PR departments. Branding is a participatory process involving the entire organization, and each employee is responsible for the process. For example, Rabobank, a financial group based in the Netherlands, operates in 48 countries with nearly 60,000 employees and serves 9.5 million clients. It will use the traditional media to communicate with customers, but it also realizes that its advantage lies in close contact with customers, to build their own brand, relying mainly on staff and customers daily contact. It is through continuous dialogue between the customer and the employee (online and offline) that the company's brand is growing.　　Even the visitor system at the company's new headquarters building reflects the idea that anyone who is recognized can be free of the entire building. Similarly, Lego group, a Danish toy company, recognizes that the company's brand is not created by the marketing department, but is built on the interaction of the Organization with its customers and other stakeholders, who are part of the organization's community. Like many other organizations, Lego also needs to control its intellectual property. Companies through market research to understand the views of consumers, according to the information to develop innovative products, marketing communication activities to establish brand. However, with the popularity of computer games, Lego is also eager to adapt to this new market trends and opportunities. As a result, the brand has become more and more irrelevant, people do not understand what this brand represents, employees are also puzzled, can not provide consumers with a trusted eliminationFee experience. The revival of The Lego brand is not a masterpiece of the marketing department, but a 2004-year new CEO See Stoop (J?rgen Vig Knudstorp) in close dialogue with key stakeholders. He realized that consumers would use and change Lego's intellectual property, and sometimes even infringe on the company's intellectual property, but it would not pose a threat to the company's brand, but would bring new meaning to the brand. Lego company can attract all stakeholders to participate in the process of brand building, one of the secret is to use the brand building process some of the small opportunities: to consumers "the right to do hackers"; Invite a small group of enthusiastic consumers to the headquarters and designers to think of new ideas , the new CEO is also invited to the brand community to tell the meaning of the brand. Such small opening measures later brought important revelations to the company.　　The company provides enthusiastic consumers with the opportunity to participate actively, thus opening up a channel, access to a wealth of innovative ideas, but also to the Lego brand again full of vitality. The new role of brand building Lego Group is an interesting example of open innovation, but more than that. This example shows an important shift in the way we think about the brand, and pointing out a very different future--in this future world where all stakeholders are involved in branding, managers must abandon the idea of controlling brands, accept the vagaries of the world, and build brands through dialogue with others.　　And that requires openness and trust. Although we may say that the essence of the brand is trust. But in reality, trust is often absent. Organizations distrust neither consumers nor employees. As Mr Fukuyama points out in the book "Trust" (Francis Fukuyama, trust:the Social virtues and creation of Prosperity, 1995), "There is no trust in the system", which significantly increases some The operating costs of the industry and society. And if you want to generate trust, organizations will spend more time and effort to observe and monitor what people do.　　Organizations to staff a lot of restrictions, because not trusted, the staff's response is either to find ways to circumvent the rules and procedures, or only to say that managers love to listen, which will damage the spread of the brand. In the face of consumers, there is a similar situation. Many organizations do not allow consumers to participate freely, but assume that the people who buy their products and services are not trustworthy. Not surprisingly, this is mutual.　　Yanya Young & Rubicam, a market research firm, found that the proportion of branded brands that consumers believed to be trustworthy fell sharply from 52% in 1997 to 22% in 2008. But how can we build trust? It takes time to make the other person feel that you are keeping your promise. This means not spending too much energy telling people how great your brand is, but homiliesThere is something. This requires openness. Some companies are already doing so. Outdoor sportswear company Patagonia (Patagonia) trusts its employees and customers because it understands that all stakeholders are related to the brand's image. Furthermore, companies are encouraging these stakeholders to participate in open dialogue on the organization. Bondurant, vice president of marketing and public relations at Patagonia, says that Patagonia is based on loyalty in the eyes of its employees and customers. He says a culture of loyalty helps break down barriers within businesses and links brands to customers. Another example is the Dutch insurer Interpolis. The company decided not to ask the customer for a receipt, to question their claims, and to trust them directly. Interpolis's former executive chairman, Piet van Schijndel (who is now one of the executive directors of the Bank), said the company "must give up the old idea of ' distrust ' and ' rules '." Instead, we focus on trust between employees, trust with customers, and trust between management and employees.　　"As a result, not only are operational efficiencies increased, but also the number of customer claims has been reduced." Brand managers should not rely too much on rhetoric to convince, but should try to trust the people around, and actively participate in the process of brand dialogue, foster the brand community, and within the organization to share the knowledge gained from these conversations. Football team Barcelona Club, the practice of this rule. The club, which is shared by 170,000 members, is very encouraging to interact. "Who will manage the club and how the team will play is determined by the dialogue with the members," said Joan Oliver I Fontanet, chief executive. The club's slogan is "Not just the club" (més que un club), which has a strong sense of community and participation. Brand building here is not limited to marketing, but infiltration into the entire organization's body, reflected in the organization and the outside world contact.　　If you can reposition your brand to make it look real and trustworthy, it will help link the organization to consumers and other stakeholder groups.　　Five necessary measures to regain trust as branding is driven by marketing communication, gradually shifting to an organization-wide participatory approach, managers must be aware of certain new rules, and must be conscious of certain new dilemmas and challenges. 1. Content, not communication. If you want to build relationships with consumers, it is important what you produce and how you provide them. Advertising may be attractive, media hype may be in place, design may be exciting, but the most important thing is the nature of what you do.　　As the media becomes more fragmented and services become more important, the way companies interact with consumers and the way they provide products and services will have an increasing impact on consumers ' perceptions. 2. Pay attention to your language. The hyperbole that used to be used in marketing communication has become more and moreNo effect. With Facebook, YouTube and blogs, we can all be creators, so we're more aware of the language that's trying to convince us.　　We are increasingly able to see facts through the representation of organizations, so organizations must be more transparent. 3. Let go. Branding is not something that managers can control. Management of the brand depends on the staff, but also increasingly rely on consumers.　　For a long time, managers and planners have been obsessed with the idea that marketing plans can be developed and implemented in a vacuum, but the reality of our universal media world is that brands are created by a group of different people. 4. Open. It is an increasingly urgent need to allow brands to be influenced openly by others. In the future, listening, absorbing and sharing will become a necessary skill for a brand manager. In the past, corporate perceptions of the outside world came from market research, but now brands are the product of a common creation, so consumers can participate directly in identifying products and services, and in determining the way brands are disseminated.　　The most important change is that product users are no longer viewed as passive objects, but as sources of innovation and value creation. 5. Do it, though. As the famous Nike slogan says, things can be successful or fail, and accept that. Learn from a wide range of practices and then go for it. Although new branding approaches have emerged, organizations do not need to change their ways.　　It is important to try, to open the experiment, and to learn how to relate the culture and strategy of the Organization to the consumer. Opportunity and dilemma the world of brands changes very quickly. Past brand managers live in a structured, seemingly predictable world that now has to deal with new realities: Losing power, constantly adapting to new situations, and trusting others.　　Such a new world is full of freedom, but managers must face new challenges: greater transparency leads to more interaction with stakeholders, and new models of common creation add to creativity and resistance from conservative fans; more dialogue may weaken the consistency of the brand. There are no easy solutions to these challenges, but we should pay attention to Joan Oliver I Fontanet's point of view. Branding, he says, is as much an art as playing football, relying on intuition and willingness to adapt to changes in the environment. Things are much easier when you have a clear understanding of what your brand is and how you are doing it. This way, as brands move between uncertain situations, you can encourage experimentation and exploration within a relatively fixed framework.　　This new freedom can inject vitality into the brand, making the brand innovate and create real value. (author Nicholas Ind is an assistant professor at the Oslo School of Management.) Majken Schultz is a professor of management at the Copenhagen Business School. This article is selected from the "Strategy and Management" Quarterly, by the company authorized to publish. Lianxiaogong translation)