Well apparently it's Confucius's birthday today or so the new Google logo of the day tells me.

So, I thought how Confucius's teachings can be relevent today, 2,560 years after his birth. Not as tough as you may think.

As this is a blog centred around all things brand, I got thinking and found one of his famous quotes:

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Now how can we apply this thinking to everyday brands? If we think of customers they are bombarded with advertising, it may be on the radio (I hear) on the tv or via the outdoors ( I see).

The one thing that non of these mediums can do is interact with them, yes we they can hear your great radio jingle or watch your amazing tv advert but the one thing that engages people more than anything is being a part of something!

Let's take a recent example, t-mobile. They created effective communication by involving their audience and engaging them with the brand both offline and online. This proves more effective then simply giving your audience a one way piece of communication. Interaction is king. The more your audience can connect with you, engage with your brand the stronger your message will be. I'm pretty sure the people in the video below will remember this for a much longer time then any other piece branded communication.



Remember, it was written over 2,000 years ago but it's as relevent today as it has ever been!

|

Where ever you look these days a similar trend is seen:

- Mediocre products
- Undifferentiated benefits
- Poor media placements
- Little or no ROI


So, you have to ask the question: why are brands still creating short term campaigns that give no benefit to their brand in the long term? The simple answer is to make quick bucks. In an environment where customers are more savvy, media tolerant and after the best deal, outwards campaigns do little or nothing to gain their loyalty. Brands need to create movements not campaigns. Loyalty cannot simply be achieved by short term tactics, strategies need to be created and implemented focusing on the customers core needs.

The best approach to this is using a multi channel strategy. Find the idea and then apply it across the mix. The one thing to bear in mind is, the mix doesn’t simply mean paste your message everywhere you can! Find out where your customers “hang out”, if it’s YouTube create video content, if it’s facebook, create facebook applications. Simply bombarding customers with your message isn’t the solution. As you can see from these examples, interaction is king. Let your customers do the talking and by all means join in, word of mouth is still the strongest form of advertising and this will create momentum for your brand. Brand building doesn’t happen with one campaign, it’s a continued effort, connecting with your customers on many platforms and not pushing the hard sale.

|