It’s all the rage. Everyone wants to dive head first into social media…and many do, without so much as a glance into the water before they jump. The backlash is coming. It shouldn’t be a surprise, really. It happens when a new idea excites the market. Everybody does it, and does it wrong, then everybody gets disillusioned, and then some percentage of “everybody” figures out how to do it right. And life goes on, sans hype. The social web is in the early stages of a massive dry-heave that will eventually purge the idiots and leave the rest of us to do our jobs in a far-less-muddy environment.

The recession-fueled advertising downturn underlines the urgency of using the Web to glean data and target consumers directly, rather than blasting them with a barrage of TV-style ads, media executives say. As advertising dollars grow ever more scarce, companies have been forced to rethink how they reach consumers and have moved away from the traditional 30-second spot to the kinds of targeted, Internet-driven marketing campaigns that have been talked about for years.

I am a firm believer that everything can be branded/differentiated. I have never encountered a product or service that I could not brand/differentiate. So if it is possible, what are some of the tactics for doing so? In emotional branding, the brand stands for something important to the target customer. It projects and reinforces his or her intended self-image. Being associated with that brand says something about who he or she is. For brands in which there is no product or service differentiation, the role of the marketer becomes critical. The brand itself, and what it stands for, may become the primary or only point of difference.

Sometimes you just have to pony up and pay for some good PR…like when you haven’t done anything to earn it for free. Good luck with that.

What’s in a name? Is a rose by any other name just as sweet? In the business of naming businesses, EVERYTHING is in a name. But the core values and behaviors of the business must support the name. If they do, then yes, “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” If they don’t, then the name itself becomes just another sticking point to ridicule the brand. For instance, the name “Paypal” implies that the brand is a friend, is casual, is easy…that’s the story they want you to believe. But the recent experience of one of our clients tells a different story.

Take a look at this table, outlining total advertising spend by category, projected out from 2006 through 2010. New marketing is definitely on the rise…

You’d think that, with the emergence of newer, better ways to engage the market, that marketers would have learned that the medium is no longer the message. Particularly with social media…social media is not a marketing medium, it’s a communications medium. The difference might seem minimal, but it is vital in understanding the value of the medium and in how to craft your message. The consumer-centric mentality is and always has been the driving force behind the emergence of social media as a dominant category.

15 years ago, when the medium was the message, then the message could (and should) be brand-centric. However, when the medium is no longer the message, then the message becomes crucial…and very much consumer-centric. Social media promotion always presents an interesting dynamic…how to be true to the brand, while maintaining a consumer-centric approach?

So it appears that swine around the world are very upset to have the latest media-craze-slash-virus named after their genus. It’s a guilt by association thing, I suppose. Sort of like when Snapple was upset when the media uncovered that their own lemon tea beverage was the preferred favorite of Osama Bin Laden. Have there even been any actual, confirmed, reported cases of swine actually having this virus? No. And yet we have Egypt culling pigs across their country. Not to mention that Swine Flu is a fraction of a percent as common and/or deadly as the plain, ole, boring, everyday flu-that-we’re-used-to. Nevertheless, here in the US of A, the pork industry is raising cain about the bad press their cuddly pigs are receiving. And even the President of the United States is now calling Swine Flu “H1N1”…to preserve the pride of the persnickety porkers. People…seriously…

I continue to be surprised at the thick-headedness of the newspaper industry. Why, when their business model has been broken several times over, do they continue to fight vehemently to keep it? It’s puzzling, really. But the bigger issue is: why didn’t these newspaper suits see this coming in the first place? You’d think they would. If they had, they might’ve been able to grow and evolve with their market, rather than be left behind. But then, category leaders rarely perceive when a sea change is occurring until it’s too late. That’s why it’s the laughable upstart that grabs the market and leaves the leader in the dust. This is a consumer-centric society. Successful brands give the consumer what they want, how they want it, and when & where they want it. Brands that cling to an outdated model and expect the consumer to bend and bow simply because they’re an “established market leader” are losing ground.

Ok, so the libertarian in me cringes at the thought of the federal government regulating- or even attempting to regulate- what private citizens can and can’t say about products they try. Even more ridiculous is the prospect of the federal government suing a company for the testimony of a consumer.

Let’s lay all of that aside, however…this really comes down to the difference between a brand-centric approach and a consumer-centric approach. The old model, which tends to be brand-centric, believes that the consumer will follow, in a quasi-pied-piper-esque view of the market, if only the brand speaks loud enough, clear enough, or with the right words. The new model, which tends to be consumer-centric, believes that Mr. and Mrs. Consumer and their Consumerlings are smart and cynical and that they can only be truly engaged through a positive, authentic, and relevant experience.

I do not agree with the FTC’s solution to the issue. I do, however, agree that the issue is real and should be addressed.