Nov
16th

Catching the Buzz About Your Brand

Posted by admin on November 16, 2009 at 6:02 pm

Snickers, Nike, Coke, Pepsi. Those names all have one big thing in common—brand recognition. Everyone knows the nougat, caramel, peanut deliciousness they are going to experience when biting into a Snickers, or the amped up athleticism they are going to supposedly get when slipping into a pair of Nikes. Having an established brand presence on and offline can help your business in more ways than one.

But what happens when negative press and/or bad reviews surface, and you find yourself struggling at the bottom of the brand barrel—potential customers drawn away from your brand because a few bad comments crept up into your online space? I’m sure you’re all well aware of how quickly a brand can go sour thanks to the recent Domino’s scandal that involved employees placing some (literally) distasteful videos online.

Or what if, simply, nobody knows about your brand. With hundreds, thousands, and sometimes millions of companies competing within the same space, it can be difficult to push your brand up above the rest. That’s where having an effective brand strategy can help.

Today, with the economy in the state that it is, and the roll out of Google’s Vince update in February 2009 (a “minor change” to their algorithms that put more emphasis on bigger brand names), getting your brand recognized and/or back in a better light is important. Especially with the holiday season nipping at our heels.

When starting any marketing campaign it is imperative to consider the current state of your brand, no matter how well known, to ensure that it doesn’t slip through the cracks. By developing a successful online reputation management campaign, you can do just that.

There are certain steps that you can take in order to build, maintain or resurface your brand from the dead. These include bolstering and building brand awareness through different online and social media channels, providing useful, relevant content to your customers and optimizing releases and articles to amplify the “buzz” around your brand name.

Not only should you be actively promoting your brand correctly and efficiently, you should also be monitoring it. Be aware of what people are saying, explore different channels and learn to leverage the chatter about your brand, good or bad.

Whether you’re a big brand trying to recover, or a small business just looking to get noticed, be aware of your brand, how it’s promoted, where it’s promoted and start taking an active part in your conversational marketplace.

GD Star Rating
loading...

Socialize This Post

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you leave a comment.

Jun
9th

Paid Search & Social Media – Your Voice in Crisis Situations

Posted by Teal on June 9, 2009 at 3:12 pm

In a world where information can spread in seconds, managing your organization’s online reputation is something that should be on the front-burner. Daily management is important and interactions with disgruntled customers should be a priority — whatever the medium.

But what if disaster strikes? What if your customers become sick, injured, or God forbid, die from using/consuming your product? What if a faulty shipment of product makes its way to shelves and you have to make a massive recall? What if you change suppliers and overall product functionality/quality changes? Any of these scenarios can seriously affect your business, and it’s extremely important to speak with your customers, communicating with them when things go awry.

Let me just say this: people ARE looking for information online, and they’re finding it. The problem is, it’s not necessarily from company representatives. It’s from other cautious or enraged customers. So the wildfire spreads. News websites, blogs, forums, and now social media outlets are bubbling over with non-authoritative information about your organization’s problem. And that wildife, it continues to spread.

In this stomach-ache inducing situation, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Upset customers have access to online channels to spread the information — but so do you. The key here is strategically integrating multiple channels so that you can speak to the crowds. They are looking for answers — be there to tell them.

As the web continues to change, the strategy for crisis management will, too. However, one thing has remained consistent for many years: search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN are still a primary resource for people looking for information. Step one in crisis management should be setting up a PPC campaign around crisis-related keywords.

For example, Taco Bell got it right in December of 2006 when the customers of multiple locations became ill from an E. Coli outbreak. Instead of letting bloggers and news sources tell the story, Taco Bell told their own story by being visible for related searches and linking those paid ads to a video message from the company’s president. A colleague of mine wrote a great blog on this. Check it out: Search & Brand Management: The Taco Bell E. Coli Crisis.

The point is, they knew people would be looking for information, and they made themselves a primary resource. Also, because of the control PPC offers, Taco Bell was able to choose which keywords their ads were served for, and what ad copy was displayed for those keywords.

In 2009 (vs. 2006), it’s even more important to act quickly and smartly when crisis hits. The key isn’t to be reactive — it’s to be proactive. Social media enables the transfer of information in mere seconds, so it’s imperative you’re there to respond. Set up social profiles beforehand. By having an active social following, you’ll reach more people more quickly with the “real” message before existing and future customers hear the diluted and possibly, inaccurate version. By pairing this emerging media with traditional online channels, like paid search marketing, your company will not only have the best opportunity for telling the real story and responding to customer concerns, but also will also appear to be taking responsibility for the problem and facing it head on.

To talk about the importance of building an online presence for business growth and crisis management, contact Oneupweb. We’re here to talk. Or, for some quick information, check out our whitepaper: Principles of Crisis Management in a Viral Age.

Image: Election night crowd, Wellington, 1931 by National Library NZ on The Commons

GD Star Rating
loading...

Socialize This Post

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you leave a comment.

Jan
22nd

Searching for Peanut Butter Recall Answers

Posted by Lawrence on January 22, 2009 at 9:28 am

With the ongoing and ever growing list of products on the Peanut Butter Recall list, I had to check our Oneupweb office vending machine to ensure that none of our snack products were involved.

With all of the timely product recalls from the store shelves and warehouses, I was thinking that there could be a possible delay in recalling vending machine inventories. With a few currently ill people in our office, I had to make sure that the candy wasn’t the culprit.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have linked the salmonella contamination to one of Peanut Corporation of America’s (PCA) facilities in Blakely, Georgia. The FDA is also currently investigating a peanut grower, concerned that the salmonella contamination might have occurred before the peanuts reached the plant to be processed. The latest statistics report that six deaths have been reported, and 475 people in 43 states have been sickened, due to the salmonella bacteria since the outbreak.

The FDA is recommending that if consumers can’t find their items on the recall list, that they should call the toll-free number on the package, or visit the manufacturer’s web site. And if you cannot determine whether a product is safe, the FDA recommends that it not be eaten.

Reputation and crisis management are increasingly important due to the instantaneous results of our online technologies. While investigating our candy products I was also searching to see how the corporations involved are handling the crisis.

Oneupweb Office Vending Machine Inventory (Peanut or Peanut Butter products):

Snickers & Twix candy bars (Mars)
Butterfinger candy bar (Nestle)
Reese’s Whips and Payday candy bars (Hersheys)
Nutty Bars (Little Debbie / McKee Foods and Kellogg Company)

Although there are many food companies using peanut butter in their ingredients that have not been placed on the recall list, many have acted in advance to stand behind their brands and company names.

I found the following information concerning our Snickers and Twix candy bars on the Mars website in the news & events section. It took a little digging as I couldn’t find any information in their “Search site” option, or on a simple Google search for “Mars Peanut Butter Recall”, “Snickers recall”, or “Twix recall”

mars news screenshot