Telling your Brand Story through the Lens of the Customers

author: Rob date: March 23, 2012

Online social networks have changed the nature of the relationship between a consumer and a brand. The traditional consumer/brand relationship was developed through repeated push marketing by the brand where an individual identified with some aspect of the brand’s product, image or message. The problem for many companies is that the very things that make push marketing effective—tight, relatively centralized operational control over a well-defined set of channels and touch points—hold it back in the era of engagement.

Social media has turned this channel dynamic upside down. Brands who are successful on social have learned that it’s not about blasting out their message, but engaging and connecting with people on an individual and emotional level. (You can find some basic resources on best practices for publishing on the social web at Buddy Media’s White Papers resource center)

One example of this comes from the Edelman Digital 8095 report, where Michael Penman, senior director of global marketing at Levis Strauss recognized this new genre of customer influence:

“We have to let go a lot. As a brand, I think we were a company, among others, who felt that tight control of the brand and saying what our voice is was crucial up until probably a couple of years ago. We’re essentially a brand now that is based on co-creation, self-expression, and originality”

Another way to look at co-creation, self-expression and originality is telling the brand story through the lens of the customers. This approach humanizes a brand by adding an authentic voice that individuals connect with. Paul Adams, a thought leader on the social web, inventor of google circles and a currently working with Brands on Facebook wrote a book called “Grouped: How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web. ” He describes fundamentally how proliferation of content works on the social web.

“When we think about how information spreads, we need to understand that the only way it can pass between these independent groups of friends is through the unique individual who connects them. In other words, the only way information can spread through a large population is through many regular people just like you.”

Co-created, user generated or brand generated content from the lens of customers, bloggers, musicians, photographers, stylists and other participants foster the connection between the individual and a brand. Taking this sort of approach will produce naturally engaging content that will be will be well received by your audience as well as gain prominence via Facebook’s Edgeranker. Here are a few examples of content from Levi’s* that help tell the brand story through the lens of a customer.