Author: Drew Neisser

Consumers around the world are taking charge, transforming their relationships with brands from buyer to reviewer, inventor, designer, ad creator, champion or critic. The insightful folk at trendwatching.com call this phenomenon “Customer-Made,” and believe, like I do, that this is not a fad. If anything, brand democratization is a global movement that will just get stronger as consumers thrive on their increased control. The challenge for marketers is to determine how to ride this wave without crashing into the rocks.

Like most tidal waves, this one was caused by seismic shifts, as the internet, new digital technologies and even Reality TV all converged to create a perfect storm of consumer power. The internet is by far the most significant force, shifting the balance of power from seller to buyer.

Savvy marketers have responded by enlisting the consumer to create their own entertainment (MySpace, Current TV), products (Peugeot, Lego), packaging (Jones Soda) and, of course, advertising (MasterCard, L’Oreal, Chevy, Converse, Firefox and Sony Pictures, to name a few). In fact, with so many riding this wave, one can’t help but wonder what a marketer needs to do to cut through. Here are five tips:

1. Renew focus on customer satisfaction
In this new realm, all client houses are made of glass and consumers can wield some pretty big stones. As such, the first order of business is to focus on customer satisfaction like never before. Satisfied customers won’t throw stones –in fact, they’ll do just the opposite, tossing praise to all who will listen.

In Fred Reichheld’s new book, The Ultimate Question, he describes the success enjoyed by a number of companies focused on customer satisfaction. One such company is Chick-fil-A, a quick-service restaurant chain that enjoys incredible customer and employee loyalty. Very curious about how a fast food place had gained such notoriety, I visited a Chick-fil-A restaurant on a recent business trip to Atlanta. Sure enough, my chicken sandwich was delicious and the lemonade was fresh. But the real surprise was the service –as I was sitting eating my sandwich, a women came up to ask me if everything was okay– I almost fell off my chair –this would never happen at McDonald’s.

A few moments later, I noticed they were selling a book by the founder called Eat Mor Chicken: Inspire More People. When I asked for a copy the manager brought it from the back and subsequently told me his story: he had been with Chick-fil-A since high school, and even though he got a college degree in engineering, he enjoyed the company too much to leave. This kind of loyalty is unheard of in the fast food industry but was completely understandable once I read the founder’s book –it all boils down to this simple notion– give more than you get and you’ll do just fine.

2. Keep it real
In the world of brand democratization, where everyone can know everything about your company, it is essential to keep it real. One of the ways to do this is to support blogs –allowing employees to state the truth as they see it, sharing the good and bad about your company and products. Companies like IBM and Microsoft have done a good job enabling employee blogs, making these companies appear more human and less bureaucratic.

Another approach to keeping it real is by employing a “blog monitor.” Starwood Hotels has the Starwood Lurker, an employee who spends 40 hours a week in the blogosphere responding to consumer comments. In the last four years, he has generated over 11,000 postings, engaging in conversations with Starwood’s most valued customers and undoubtedly calming some of the disgruntled. By being identified as the Starwood Lurker, not posing as an everyday consumer, Starwood is enhancing its credibility and showing its willingness to listen to customers.

3. Reward content generators
As more and more companies ask their customers to create ads or other content, consumers are going to wise up about giving away all this content for free. The smart marketer will find a way to reward content creators, especially those that are generating revenue as a result of consumer contributions. Consumers are motivated by a number of reasons –status, employment, fun, access, connection– find the one that makes most sense for your target and make sure you deliver.

Current TV is running a contest that pays $500 for the first ‘pod’ selected for airing and $1000 for the fourth selected submission. While this is unlikely to make any aspiring commercial designer rich, its certainly likely to keep students and other creative types engaged in the process.

4. Filter out the lame stuff
In an environment, where seemingly every marketer has a user generated ad program, marketers that become recognized for filtering out the weak content, will enjoy the most success. The Converse Gallery is a great example of a quality filtering system and their success is largely due to their ability to screen out duds. Because they have become a reliable filter, aspiring filmmakers and ad types consider a posting in the Converse Gallery to be a badge of honor, a critical portfolio piece.

Renegade recently launched a user generated film contest for Panasonic targeting action sports enthusiasts (www.sharetheair.net ) . We seeded the site with content created by professional skate videographers from Girl and Chocolate. We will continue the filtering process as submissions arrive, posting the best and trashing the rest.

5. Create brand experiences

Finally, in this new world order of customers in charge, marketers should seek to deliver a brand experience, not just a product. Apple Computer provides one of the best examples with their highly successful Apple retail stores that have become a haven for the Mac faithful. A few weeks ago, Apple launched a new retail store in heart of New York City on 5th Avenue. The glass cube above the store sets an expectation that this is a special place, that Apple thinks different like its ads promise.

As part of the launch, Apple had a web cam focused on the cube for Apple fans worldwide to see. One enterprising individual actually proposed marriage to his girlfriend via the web cam. Very few brands inspire the kind of devotion that would literally marry the consumer to their brand. Because Apple consistently focuses on customer satisfaction, keeps it fresh, keeps it real and continuously delivers a rich brand experience, they are riding the wave of brand democratization better than most.

Follow these five tips and you too will be able to ride this wave like a pro.

Aye, we approached the ship armed with two muskets, one saber and a long knife fully intent on seizing our share of the treasure aboard–one way or another. We strolled toward the waiting wenches, one of whom asked for our papers, a dance and finally our room number. The security team gave us suspicious looks and beseeched the captain to bar our entry. Instead he waved us through and chuckled after my pirate matey Trip Hunter boasted, “we’ll be seein’ ya later Cap’n!”

So began our adventure on the Marketing Forum, a three-day cruise to nowhere on the sparkling Norwegian Dawn. This was our third year on what one former passenger described as “the cruise from hell,” where clients can find no escape from the relentless assaults of a hundred or so rapacious vendors. Somewhat similar to a speed dating service, the folks at Richmond Events strive to match client needs with agency wants, pre-arranging breakfast, lunch and dinner “dates” with hundreds of half-hour meetings stacked in-between. Miraculously, it all works out and thus many return year after year, like the lemmings to cliffs.

Cutting through in this environment isn’t easy. Every vendor sends their best pitchmen and women; all seemingly capable of striking up instantaneous friendships with their prospects, all shamelessly determined to sell their services as “best of breed.” After the first four hours of pitches, many clients lose their will to live as they realize that they are stuck at sea for two more days. The only potential relief happens at night when cocktails, casino and comedians promise to drown most sorrow.

Yet even the evening isn’t pain free—everyone is supposed to dress up, men in black tie, women in fancy evening gowns, which is not on top of anyone’s list after an exhausting day of pitching or being pitched. With the casino fully inclined to take every last nickel, the ship’s comedian being as funny as mud and some vendors still circling prospects like sharks, the situation could be bleak for all but the most valiant of marketeers.

As veterans of this voyage, we knew there was indeed buried treasure on board; the trick would be to search in an entirely unexpected way, a way that not only engaged our prospects but also reinforced our position as renegade marketers. The question was did we have the guts to do something different, to take the kind of risks we often advise our clients to take. It was not without trepidation that we boarded the ship as pirates and then reappeared in the same costumes both black tie evenings.

On the first night of black tie, an unsuspecting client was already seated at our dinner table. Dinners are pre-arranged with the vendors having the same table every night and the clients moving from place to place. Wonderfully Midwestern, she really did not know what to say when the two pirates introduced themselves as her hosts. After catching her breath, she realized that this was not going to be a boring night of sales pitches, and she played along as waiters, busboys and fellow shipmates barraged the table with “ayes” and “arrrs”.

Despite the initial awkwardness of trying to have a serious conversation with two guys wearing silk bandanas on their heads, not to mention the rest of our brocaded buccaneer vestments, we actually enjoyed an inspired repartee with all of our dinner guests. Sure we covered their business needs but not before sauntering through their personal passions. One was a reader, another a mountain biker and so on. Somehow it just seemed right to tell the pirates whatever they wanted to know, personal or otherwise.

We left the dinner table both nights with promises in hand, mainly that they’d take our call when we followed up. On this ship, the gold is often found, not immediately, but down the river a bit, when the needs and timing align like a sail on a yardarm. For example, we just got a call from a prospect we had met two years earlier on the very same ship. The challenge, therefore, is to make sure your initial encounter is sufficiently memorable, a notion that any pirate could firmly grasp.

Practically bouncing into the casino, we were greeted with “yars” at every table. Turns out, we weren’t the only ones who’d spent time on the “International Talk Like A Pirate Day” website. There’s just something about being a pirate that inspires otherwise normal men to growl and otherwise stalwart women to swoon. And not just the dopes–we had a bonafide female rocket scientist join our merry band of pirate wannabees.

By the second day of meetings, about half the ship had either seen “the pirates” or heard about them. When visitors came to our little meeting space, which was sprinkled with gold doubloons, it didn’t take long before they exclaimed, “You guys were the pirates, weren’t you?” to which we responded “Avast ye matey, you’re smarter than a Gordian knot!” And though we expected some would question our sanity, most simply lauded our vivid demonstration of cutting through in a sea of sameness.

By the morning of our departure, we seemed to be friends with just about everyone on the slowly waking vessel. Wearing just our eye patches–anything more would have been too much for 8AM–we were hounded by choruses of “thar go the Renegade pirates”. The night before, we ran out of business cards greeting a flurry of prospects and parrying with competitors who nodded their heads to our daring (and undoubtedly contemplated their wardrobe options for the next voyage). As we threw our legs over the railhead, scaled the gangway and headed back to our offices, we knew without question that it’s good to a pirate.