Everyone should go read this super-insightful HBR article on how the very kernel and substance of branding and marketing have changed due to social media.
The thesis of the article is that human cultural innovation - long shaped by group differences since time immemorial (e.g., national borders, languages, religions) - has evolved to form "crowdcultures" that transcend these differences and and are now formed by global similarities instead, thanks to social media:
In other words, businesses can no longer rely upon the oligopolies of mass media like television and newspapers to shape cultural consciousness and their brands -for example, like Coca-Cola once did with the incredibly popular campaign "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke", most recently featured in the Mad Men series finale:
Instead, brands need to compete to participate in subcultures like the once-oddball video-gaming-as-entertainment subculture of South Korea, which has now gone global with YouTube celebrities like PewDiePie. Compare PewDiePie, who cranks out inexpensive videos in his house, to McDonald’s, one of the world’s biggest spenders on social media. The McDonald’s channel (#9,414) has 204,000 YouTube subscribers. PewDiePie is 200 times as popular, for a minuscule fraction of the cost.
So, HBR's advice can be summed up thusly: compete for crowdcultures and innovate constantly.
The thesis of the article is that human cultural innovation - long shaped by group differences since time immemorial (e.g., national borders, languages, religions) - has evolved to form "crowdcultures" that transcend these differences and and are now formed by global similarities instead, thanks to social media:
Historically, cultural innovation flowed from the margins of society—from fringe groups, social movements, and artistic circles that challenged mainstream norms and conventions. Companies and the mass media acted as intermediaries, diffusing these new ideas into the mass market. But social media has changed everything.
Social media binds together communities that once were geographically isolated, greatly increasing the pace and intensity of collaboration. Now that these once-remote communities are densely networked, their cultural influence has become direct and substantial. These new crowdcultures come in two flavors: subcultures, which incubate new ideologies and practices, and art worlds, which break new ground in entertainment.
In other words, businesses can no longer rely upon the oligopolies of mass media like television and newspapers to shape cultural consciousness and their brands -for example, like Coca-Cola once did with the incredibly popular campaign "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke", most recently featured in the Mad Men series finale:
Instead, brands need to compete to participate in subcultures like the once-oddball video-gaming-as-entertainment subculture of South Korea, which has now gone global with YouTube celebrities like PewDiePie. Compare PewDiePie, who cranks out inexpensive videos in his house, to McDonald’s, one of the world’s biggest spenders on social media. The McDonald’s channel (#9,414) has 204,000 YouTube subscribers. PewDiePie is 200 times as popular, for a minuscule fraction of the cost.
So, HBR's advice can be summed up thusly: compete for crowdcultures and innovate constantly.
To brand effectively with social media, companies should target crowdcultures. Today, in pursuit of relevance, most brands chase after trends. But this is a commodity approach to branding: Hundreds of companies are doing exactly the same thing with the same generic list of trends. It’s no wonder consumers don’t pay attention. By targeting novel ideologies flowing out of crowdcultures, brands can assert a point of view that stands out in the overstuffed media environment.
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