The Online Brand Value Chain Explained
Here’s a question for you. Whose word are you going to trust more? A TV ad’s or a friend’s?
Say you watch four ads for Bud Light beer over the course of a football game, though I’m guessing it’s more than that. Each ad promises the “drinkability” that you so obviously desire from your beer. You’ve just received about 2:00 of brand pitch. Do you believe the message? Are you now more likely to buy said beer? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a gamble for the brand to buy that ad time.
So now, ask yourself this. If a good friend suggested — completely unsolicited — that you try Bud Light because he or she really likes it, how likely are you to try it then?
The latter situation is, of course, an example of word-of-mouth marketing, the holy grail of brand power in the marketplace. Savvy marketers know this, and many books have been written about how to execute a solid word-of-mouth marketing strategy.
Let’s make it really simple
I’ll save you some trouble. It’s all about Trust. That’s it.
You’ll buy the Bud Light based on a friend’s recommendation because you trust their word; they’ve earned your trust. You already know they can be believed. A TV has no relationship with you. It didn’t see you cry on prom night.
So now the question becomes, how do I get consumers to trust my brand?
Give the right stuff to the right people
To address the question, Tippingpoint Labs developed this simple chart to demonstrate the way a brand can build trust with a consumer. The Online Brand Value Chain demonstrates how brands can harness the power of online content marketing to build the trust necessary at the consumer level to influence buying decisions.
In our model, valuable content is created to reach Amateur Influencers. These are the bloggers and web pundits who are already trusted personal brands with broad platforms but are not affiliated with a brand. They aren’t necessarily making money on their insight, but they offer a great deal of value to their audience on whatever topic they’ve chosen.
The Amateur Influencer’s most valuable audience is a group we’ve identified as Prosumers. These are the people who actively engage the Amateur Influencers and write online reviews about the products and services they use.
The last stop on the chain is the Consumers. This is the biggest and most valued audience because they are, hopefully, consuming all of your content as distributed to them via trusted Amateur Influencers and Prosumers to help steer their buying decisions. If your brand is identified with the people they trust, you are in a better position to convert.
The paradigm shift
That is a first-class lever ... literally.
This isn’t a revolutionary idea. In fact, it’s not even new. It’s the way it’s always been, with one small change: the lever to make it all happen. Before the digital world evolved, the best way to spur discussion down the chain was to interject advertising. To reach the kind of volumes necessary for a brand to get an ROI, advertising was the best way to reach the people and spread the message.
However, the lever is now Trust. Barriers to communication have been knocked down. The only way a message can carry any influence is to offer value to the consumer. This builds trust.
Takeaway
Provide valuable content to Amateur Influencers that your customers trust. Engage with them openly and honestly. Give the influencers something that they value to, in turn, earn their trust. The result will be that your message will filter down from them to the people you’re hoping to reach in a more effective way.
A message delivered from a trusted source is exponentially more powerful than one from an unknown source.
Andrew Davis explains the Online Value Chain at the Smart Board:
Photo Credit: SeenyaRita
About the author
Brad Schwarzenbach -
As an analyst on the Tippingpoint Strategy team, Brad explores new opportunities for clients to build relationships with their customers. He’s always testing new social media channels, poring over analytic data, and identifying emerging trends. He also speaks at conferences & events about uncovering powerful messages hidden within brands' unique values.
Brad’s research has contributed to the development of content & contributor strategies for such clients as Breville, Rodale, Long’s Jewelers, and Fusionapps, as well as being a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint blog. He’s been “listening” to the way we communicate online since the old AOL People Connection days and watched the way that digital communication has evolved.
An English and Creative Writing major at the University of Connecticut, Brad’s spent most of his career creating web content and becoming intimately familiar with web theory for Bayard, Inc. and TomTom Inc., giving Brad keen ears and eyes to what, exactly, makes web content valuable.
Outside the office, Brad feels most at home with his beautiful wife-to-be Kristina, or on the golf course. “There’s a distinct pace and rhythm to the way people communicate online. Understanding and taking part in them yields amazing opportunities for my clients to not only grow but to improve their business. I’m constantly looking for those opportunities.”Popular Posts
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Cool model. Congrats on the structure. That said, I think you forgot media professionals. In the Chocolate example, their could be a journalist for Vogue magazine that keeps up on the latest trends in chocolate and publishes a story about it every so often. These people should not be ignored and brands can provide value to them as well. That said, a brand must understand all the influentials in their passion area and engage them all, media professionals as well as amateur influencers.
Greg,
You’re right. We’ve tried to stay out of the traditional media guys, but they are a huge influencer and they act very differently than amateur influencers. I’m working on how they “look” in this model. It’s very similar to the Amateur influencer and it’s tough to work out.
Anyway, thanks for noticing. You’re right on!
- drew
Yeah I agree with Greg Wood the impact of journalists shouldn’t be ignored.
I guess research is needed to discover the “Amateur Influencers” in each field.
Amelia and Greg,
Thanks so much for the valuable and correct insight. Bottom line is an effective marketing campaign targets ALL relevant influencers, online and off. Traditional journalists, or, what we might call “Professional Influencers” in our model, are most definitely influential and shouldn’t be ignored.
However, their role in the online value chain is somewhat undefined as engaging them has been the realm of traditional PR agencies, pushing corporate communication, not necessarily directly repurposable online content.
And, as David Meerman Scott would posit, traditional PR is looking at a completely new set of rules these days anyway.
Thanks again!
Brad
Brad – agree. Some of the better PR agencies have figured this out and have moved beyond professional influencers into the broader category of all influencers. Shift Communications and Edeleman come to mind. That said, most are still lacking either the understanding of social media or they do not have the ability or the model to it pull off. I’ve attached a link to a presentation I co-developed with Steve Wight, the CMO of Jay Peak Resort. The goal was to educate PR pros in that industry on the importance of social media and how it changes the traditional PR approach. http://www.slideshare.net/WoodhouseSM/social-media-a-presentation-for-public-relation-professionals-in-the-ski-resort-industry-although-it-could-be-for-any-industry
Greg,
Thanks so much for the link. I’ll check it out.
Brad
Hey Brad,
On the topic of engaging influencers, have you checked out Traackr.com? Traackr has a marketing, pr, and research solution and they find and give their clients weekly reports on the top influences their clients are engaging with.
Jason
Jason,
Not familiar with them. I will check ‘em out.
Incidentally, have you seen postrank.com? I like what they’re doing too.
Thanks for the recommendation. Keep them coming!
Brad
Jason / Brad – went through the online demo of the Trackur A-list tool on Monday. It’s a $2,000 set up fee and then $100 per influencer identified (you set the cap). Does a great job on profiling each influencer and provides all their contact and blog info. Can be done with free tools like Technorati, IceRocket or SocialMention but that requires more manual work. My take is that its a good tool for PR pros who can charge a client $5,000 for a list of 100 influencers
That’s a good demonstration; I prefer the new model than the old one. Although, there were lots of things that have been said about how trust matters, I guess this topic will not wear off. I like how the model goes; it highlighted how trust influences and links each level to form a chain. This is more than effective than ads that have no personal impact with consumer unlike words coming from trustful mediums.
Alex,
You’re right on. This model is much more efficient and targeted and therefore, tends to be more effective.
Thanks for stopping by!
Brad
Good stuff Brad. I think it can also go the other way when a brand pisses off it’s core fans (amateur influencers) with bad information. It happens all of the time, but take Sigg water bottles as an example. I bought four of them about three years ago to keep in my fridge and replace purchasing 24 packs of bottled water to be all green and crunchy but also because I heard that BPE was unhealthy and in plastic water bottles. In September we found out that Sigg bottles manufactured before August of 2008 contain BPE. To their credit they offered to replace them if you mailed them back and they issued a credit to their on-line store (which sucks). So I jumped through all of the hoops and am waiting on my 6 replacement bottles – but I would not recommend Sigg and have tried to tell folks I recommended them to about the exchange program. Less than optimal for the Sigg brand I would suppose.
True and true. What’s great about this new paradigm (did you have that on your buzzword bingo card?) is that the consumer benefits.
In world where regular consumers have so much influence in the market, shoddy products are immediately called out as such. It puts more onus on the manufacturers to ensure that their products work right and are of the highest quality.
This also goes for ineffective customer support. Everyone can have influence now. There’s no place for a company to hide.
This is really a fantastic brand platform, which could be implemented on many brands! It could be enriched further if it combines the financial implications as well …
Thanks,
E Ha$$an