Tom Krazit of CNET News reports on Apple’s iPhone buzz marketing developments.  He states that someday students will look back to 2007 to see how it was done.

We the launch date approaching quickly the iPhone has received unprecedented reporting from media outlets.

And how did they achieve this?  Very simply in fact.  Steve Jobs introduced it in January and with minimal advertising (much of it appearing in the last few weeks) things really took of via word-of-mouth.  As the article states “Apple has perfected the art of buzz during the Internet’s second act, Web 2.0.”  also “a passionate, almost evangelical base of supporters makes any marketing campaign easier. Apple’s reliance on a horde of loyal fans thirsty for information is the catalyst for its marketing.”

However the true success of the campaign will not be visible until the product is launched and reviews come pouring in.  And if the product fails to reach expectations then the case study for future marketers may not have a happy ending!

Pepsi’s website turns away visitors rather than embracing them.  This is branding with a difference, branding with attitude!  Will branding with attitude and personality be the way forward for marketers or will they carry on with their pursuits of blandness?

The  article Brand Building: Resisting ‘Sameness’ explores the topic of blandness V’s personality.

Here is a discussion on online branding for nonprofit organizations.  The key is to portray the message about your nonprofit that you want to have noticed and have consistency in your approach.  The discussion comes from Frogloop a site dedicated to catalyzing expertise in nonprofit online communications.

A nice piece on the creation of buzz for your organization can be found in The Messaging Times.

It provides three tips for creating buzz:

1. Create real value
2. Create that value as a team
3. Celebrate the value you have created

The goal is to create real enthusiasm throughout your organization - about projects, products and services and then share this ‘buzz’ with customers, family, friends and other acquaintances.  The article is called ‘3 Tips to Get Your Hive Buzzing.’

People often come to me and ask whether a blog would be right for their business.  While they are certainly not right for every online enterprise they are certainly transforming the way that many people are doing business. They have changed the ways that both internal and external communications are handled in corporations. They help to give your audience an insight into the true nature of your business by opening a window through which they can interact. It builds relationships and communicates your corporate values. If done with passion and creativity this can enhance all aspects of your business.

What does this growth in blogging mean for your business? It means that you should give serious consideration to adding a blog to your business. You should also consider whether a blog would fit in with your business objectives. Because of the different tactics that blogs can be used for, you may want to weigh up the options as to what benefits it can offer you and your business.

Increase your Web Presence
If you have an established online business you can add another vehicle to communicate your message and pass information on to your clients. Because blogs continually have new content they are indexed regularly by the search engines. It is another way to get your name and your products out into the search engine space.

Interact with Customers
Your blog can be used to build stronger ties with your customer base. The opportunity to exchange information and expertise is one of the main reasons that explain why corporate blogs have grown in popularity in recent years. Corporations have recognized their customers are using blogs to self publish their opinions about products and services. This has led to customers getting actively involved in business situations such as product development.

Branding Tool
Use your blog as a branding tool for your business. It’s an effective way to get your brand message out there. Your brand represents an exchange of ideas between you and your audience. It is a relationship. Brands exist in the mind of your customer therefore brands that aren’t in touch with their customers miss out on innovation opportunities.

Corporate Communications
You can use your blog to speak directly with the media. There has been an ongoing debate as to whether blogs should replace the press release as the main corporate communications vehicle.

Business Marketing
Blogs are being utilized more and more as a business marketing tool. And this is creeping into more and more business areas. Word of mouth advertising and independent testimonials are two major benefits of running a marketing focused blog. This is a great alternative to advertising. Blogs can also attract and develop a regular audience for your message and foster an atmosphere of trust.

A blog does require a commitment from you. Remember that writing and maintaining a blog takes time. You should really have an interest in writing and communicating with your readers. A blog also requires an injection of personality and passion.

Are blogs useful for online branding?  Is your marketing message getting altered by bloggers.  This nice piece from Branding Strategy Insider explores the topic.

There is a post about the online branding of whisky from the WhiskyGrotto blog. It talks about the new BalBlair scotch whisky website. and how whisky sites are all created to look just like the others. According to the post:

“Whisky-brands all over the world probably have the worst internet presence of all global consumer brands.”

Who would have thought? It seems like it is time for one of the companies to listen to this feedback, separate themselves from the pack and do something remarkable with their web presence.

The growth of consumer generated influence means that power has moved from away from marketers to consumers.   Marketers can now reach their audience easier than ever before but they also have never has so little control in this process.

Because we live in a connected world the influence of consumers on other consumers is great.  The power of social networking, buzz marketing, blogs and online communities are all things that we as marketers should be aware of and be involved with.  Marketers can leverage these platforms by listening to and participating in the conversation with the ultimate goal of developing brand advocacy.

To do this you will need to monitor and listen to what is being said about your brand.  Look for trends and try to keep in contact with engaged consumers who are interested in your brand. 

As well as listening you need to participate in the conversation.  You can create a blog or be active in other industry blogs and forums.   This participation leads to credibility - and credibility to trust.

The ultimate consumer relationship is the brand advocate.  Brand advocates are happy consumers spreading the word.  These types of relationships are a major marketing asset and they can attract and influence a great many people.  The brand advocate relationship should be nurtured.  They should be given access to the latest news, to product samples and to new products.  Consumers will turn to the brand advocates for their reviews and recommendations.

Scottish people are known to be thrifty.  Before buying they tend to shop around looking for the best bargains.  According to the Scotsman newspaper they are now using consumer generated media to shop for hotels.

It puts forward that prospective hotel visitors are more likely to choose a hotel based on informal reviews on blogs rather than the established star rating method.  Read the full article.

The USA Today has an online reputation management article posted today entitled ‘Your Internet Image is Everything.’

The article concludes:

The bottom line: Businesses and individuals need to be proactive when it comes to their reputations. And it’s more important the smaller the business. It doesn’t take much more than a dissatisfied customer with some Web savvy to wreck a company online — and it doesn’t take much negative material online to wreck a brick and mortar operation.

I believe that any business, regardless of size, should have as a core activity online reputation management.

All-Blogs.net directory

Online reputation management helps you to develop and protect your online brand.  It also gives you the opportunity to influence consumer perception of the brand.

Visibility and high rankings of favorable brand related information is the ultimate goal.  This is what the vast majority of consumers come across while undertaking searches for your brand. The byproduct of getting favorable information ranked is that any negative information is pushed down or removed from the top end of search engine listings.  This is the type of information that may be damaging to the reputation of your brand.

Organizations produce a large amount of content on many different platforms and websites. It is often the case that this information is not promoted for the web or is not indexed by the search engines.

The goal is to analyze your current situation and build a plan aimed at developing brand related information that can be indexed and ranked by the search engines. Your organization should also be geared to participate in the online conversation relating to your brand.

Here are three steps to build your online reputation management strategy around:

1. Monitoring what is being said online
2. Analyzing how the visible information affects your brand and your reputation
3. Influencing the results by promoting company controlled information

Your online brand reputation is the result of years of hard work; therefore you should have total control over how it is presented in the search results. Your reputation means everything in the real world, and that is no different in the cyber world.

Google is a major fixture in the $250 million Australian search market. They have just announced that they plan to compete with traditional media companies for a share of the $10 billion local brand advertising market.   Their goal is to replace traditional television, radio and print advertising and attract brand advertising using a range of new formats.  This is an extension of what is currently being tested in the US.   Read article.

There is a lot of hoo-ha about the logo design for the 2012 Olympic Games in London including reports that it is causing epileptic fits. The Independent newspaper have reacted to this with an article on ‘The Story of Unpopular Branding.’

The graffiti-like logo for the 2012 London Olympics appeared yesterday to have seen off all competitors and claimed a medal for being the most unpopular logo in British marketing history.

All the early signs were that the year-long research and consumer testing behind the stark, jagged image was wasted. Less than two days after the logo was unveiled, more than 26,000 people had signed an online petition for it to be scrapped. Petitions defending it found only a handful of supporters. Read more

Also check out Seth Godin riffing on logos.

More than 60% of Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) feel their websites don’t reflect their company brand, according to a new survey.

Content management solution provider Mediasurface conducted the survey at Internet World to investigate the views of small and medium sized businesses on the relevance of the web.

The survey asked 179 attendees, from businesses with a turnover of less than £5m, some key questions about how they are using their websites.   Read more