One example: the major Gap debacle. After years of promoting the classic Gap logo, corporate management underwent a re-branding effort complete with new logo. As a soft launch, the logo on their e-commerce site was nonchalantly replaced. Backlash ensued! Via Gap’s Facebook Fan Page, every comment from housewives to Creative Directors bashed the logo. Apparently, Gap didn’t know that their logo was so iconic! As a result, Gap tried to defend this move, but fans would have nothing of it. They wanted the classic logo back. Gap has now decided to stick with old faithful and save themselves millions in replacing name tags and other collateral—not to mention further public humiliation.

Another example can be found within Proctor & Gamble. In a New York Times article, Marc Pritchard, global marketing and chief branding officer states,”we are at the start of one of the most exciting eras in brand-building history.” P&G, which is the world’s largest marketer by spending and known for extensive product research with branding processes envied the world-over, is taking branding and marketing cues from regular people via social media. For example, commercials that “were almost pulled” by higher-ups, were saved solely by positive comments about the spot in their social media outlets!

Social media is a great way to get your message in front of millions of consumers, but it also is a great way for consumers to get their message across to the brand. In this day and age, even after research, marketers still run the risk of alienating their consumers (Tropicana!). The value of immediate and substantial feedback from your most vocal brand advocates is almost priceless. Social media, though still very  much a buzz word, is beginning to prove that it has a place in legitimate marketing strategy—most of all among premium brands.

I am not alone in my observation. According to Andrew Hampp, writing in a recent edition of Advertising Age, “brands and ad agencies are rediscovering the power of original tunes in advertising campaigns. Over the last decade the trend was to license famous pop songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, instead of creating an original branded melody. Now marketers want original music for their messages.”

This makes perfect sense to me, as I’m a custom jingle lover from way back. With a custom jingle crafted solely to sing the praises of a brand, you have the opportunity to ingrain your brand attributes and identity into the minds’ of the masses–in a way that can be both pleasing and entertaining.

Think about it. Who can forget the undeniable charm and sing-along-fun of such jingle gems as Oscar Meyer’s “My Bologna Has a First Name,” or Alka Seltzer’s “Plop Plop Fizz Fizz,” or Folgers “The Best Part of Waking Up?”  These pleasant little ditties are now a part of our collective conscience, instantly remembered and still fun to sing out loud.

Talk about brand recall!

That type of brand-centric popularity is far more of a premium for a brand than simply an association with a well-known song or recording artist.  When you allow the right melody and lyrics to showcase your brand, something very special can happen.

Just ask Oscar Meyer.

For decades, Toyota has basked in the glow of one of the true gold standards in brand image. Say the name “Toyota,” and it immediately conjures thoughts of superb quality, legendary reliability, high resale value, and rabid, cult-like customer satisfaction. Most brands would kill for just one of these superlatives. Toyota owned them all.

So when rumors, and then actual facts, began to swirl around this platinum brand, observers were sure there’d be a swift and confident response.
Instead, there was a relatively tepid reaction from the brand, as if they simply couldn’t believe the situation themselves. Hours turned into days as accusations mounted, and still the brand’s reaction was anything but premium. We heard vague, half-hearted excuses and conjecture designed to deflect blame, rather than accept it.

Only now, weeks later, is the President of Toyota finally (albeit begrudgingly) admitting fault and promising to correct the myriad of problems the brand is now facing. The lesson to be learned here? A premium brand’s response in times of crisis must also be premium. Quickly assess the situation, weigh your options and then step up and claim ownership of the problem. Take full and complete responsibility. But most importantly, state a clear and concise plan for correction. Your current customers will appreciate this approach and be reassured. And prospective customers will admire and respect your honesty and integrity.

Then, in the end, the result will simply be a minor fender-bender on your brand – quickly fixed and forgotten. Versus a long, protracted ordeal that could leave your once-proud premium brand a total loss.

The other day, Mr. Bossy Boss told me a tale about this Facebook friend calling him and reiterating an interesting conversation he had with “Mr. Boss Man” on Facebook chat. Evidently, “Mr. Boss” had told this friend that he needed money for his cousin but he had been mugged while in the UK. FBfriend replies, “Are you a Nigerian Prince?” The profile hijacker immediately shuts down the chat and unfriends the witty little guy.

Needless to say, Bossy changes his password, and his status to tell everyone about the potential scammer on the loose. Later that night, his wife goes to check his Fbook, and lo and behold … he is not there.

No friends. No profile. No Farmville Animals. Mr. Bossy Boss was Facebook murdered.

Shocking tales like these are occurring more and more within the Facebook realm. Due to its international popularity, Fbook has become the #1 target for spreading viruses, hijacking information and all-around chaotic malarkey! It is an alarming powerhouse in our world today—it has the ability to connect you to anything, but also disconnect you from the world, your fans, and even worse, your consumers—all in the blink of an eye.

Premium brands that don’t engage with newer types of interactive media are like Mr. Bossy Boss and his imposter—someone out there is representing their brand, whether they like or not, and they are taking control. However, if you play the game right, those imposters won’t matter, because, like real-life friends, once you build your relationships, brand advocates will know that you’re not a “Nigerian Prince.” They’ll recognize your brand’s true voice and learn to trust it.

The bottom line to consider is this: Life is scary. And social media is just life happening online. So, learn how to interact effectively with the real world, and you’ll see that being a “victim” online isn’t as easy as it first sounded. Your brand will be able to handle it. Your brand will be better for it.

Last Saturday, Pepsi sponsored a concert in Uganda featuring controversial murder performer Beenie Man. An account of just some of the contention was detailed by Daily Monitor reporter Rafsanjan Abbey Tatya:

“The King of Dancehall stuck a sword of words into gay people through singing and talking.

‘In my family, we don’t have any gay person but if you’re gay, my brother that’s not my fault,’ he said as he performed his song Mi Nah Wallah, in which he says he would like to cut the throats of all gay men.

George Bush and Bin Laden were also at the receiving end of the Jamaican’s wrath calling on the audience to say ‘murderer’ as he sang about the pair’s warfare.”

Pepsi has responded with this statement:

“We are appalled by the performer’s lyrics and find them repugnant. Our bottling partner in Uganda was not aware of the performer’s views and never would have sponsored the concert with this knowledge.  Moving forward, we will work closely with our bottling partners to be more vigilant about the events associated with our brands.”

Pepsi’s statements seem to be rather void, considering Uganda is currently debating a bill in parliament, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would institute the death penalty for many members of Uganda’s LGBT population, and that Beenie Man has had runs-ins for years regarding his public beliefs. So, consumers are left with only two conclusions: either Pepsi is run by women-hating, murder-supporting lunatics, or by people too busy and uninformed to make sound choices about their brand. Neither option is really appealing to any consumer … or spectator.

Truth is, Pepsi is a world-wide brand, so these blunders may cause them a slight dip in sales, but probably not kill them. Lucky for them. But what about your brand?

Let this be a lesson to us all about what it means to be engaged and aware not only of what’s going on within our organization, but also within the best interests of our consumer base as a whole. While it seems that the Ugandan Pepsi representatives were well aware of what the Ugandan people wanted to hear, they were willing to risk the loyalty of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other consumers to reach this group. So, while a tactic like an iPhone App or sponsored event sounds like an effective tool, don’t forget they all impact the overall goal—which in Pepsi’s case, it seems, may be to destroy themselves.

As I culled through my morning emails, I noticed that of the many emails in my Inbox, 45 were from retailers! And what surprises me the most is there were repeat offenders—3 from Gap, 2 from Overstock.com, 2 from Godiva, etc. How in the world does Gap have enough relevant material to contact me three times in one 24-hour period? And why would I care three different times? Needless to say, I didn’t even open them. And others feel the same way apparently. According to a new poll from the Chief Marketing Officer Council, 64% of consumers say promotional offers dominate both the email and traditional mail they receive, and only 41% view these as must-read communications.

Knowing your customers, especially those who have enough positive disposition towards your brand to give you permission to contact them directly, is essential in building a premium brand. If you can’t be relevant, then why bother? The numbers don’t lie.

Liz Miller, Vice President, Programs and Operations, CMO Council, said “Irrelevant, impersonal communications… (do) not engage a receptive recipient… customers will disconnect and stop doing business with brands who continue to send messages that demonstrate a lack of intimacy, customer insight and individual understanding.”

In the end, there has to be some sort of strategic plan and knowledge of the individual consumer in place. If the powerhouse of social marketing hasn’t proven this already, each consumer wants to have a unique voice, and needs to be marketed to independently.

So, the question a premium brand manager should ask themselves is this: do you manage your information to keep things personal for your consumers? Or, are you just creating opportunities for them to opt-out of engaging with your brand?

The most important restrictions are the prohibition of:

• Photo contests which require profile photo manipulation
• Status update contests which require posting status updates for entry
• Contest entries once a user has become a fan
• Promotions appearing anywhere but in an application on a tab within the respective Fan Page

Even worse, every promotion must be approved by Facebook through an account representative and have a listed disclaimer!

So, with these new limitations, what is a brand to do? At the risk of seeming arrogant, I have to point out that premium brands must now stop the insistence that they can handle their own Fan Pages and social media. They must turn it over to someone who can develop apps, has a standing relationship with account reps, as well as have the strategic thinking behind how in the world to get users to care about a Widget Deluxe Fan Page when they get nothing free from it. In plain English, they need a marketing agency.

Not to toot my own horn or do the sales pitch, but in past posts, we’ve pointed out how it is virtually impossible for a one-man-band to handle a full social media strategy—emphasis on strategy. So, throw in creative web application development on top of legalese, and it’s way over what Jimmy the 18-year-old intern can handle on his own. And while this may seem discouraging to brands that have relied on this “cheap” form of social media connection, I must remind us all that in marketing, we get what we pay for.

So, Facebook has, in essence, secured the need for a well-thought-out plan of attack and I applaud them for taking such measures to keep their product premium and free of spam-inducing promotions popping up on their highly-successful product. Though it might be hard at first for premium brands to part with their dollars to produce a new way of reaching Fans on their Page, it really is long overdue if they want any chance of retaining their premium status on Facebook.

Just from reviewing and trying to get the social search features activated on my personal Google and Bing searches, it seems to be a lot more complicated than most are letting on. Not only do you have to have an account for each respective engine, but on Google, you also have to submit profile information, links to your social networks, and then be logged in at the time of search. After doing all that, even searching a familiar term like “facebook” yielded no results from my networks. And before you ask, yes, the account was signed up in the Google Lab, the testing section for the feature.

As explained above, these searches only pull up information from the user’s “circle of friends.” So, the doom and gloom of getting any and every negative comment about a brand seems highly unlikely. And although it can be said that a negative comment made within a customer’s social network may be more damaging than one outside, the likelihood of its occurrence diminishes quite a bit when all the filters are in place.

So, brand managers, take heart. The only thing this social search means for your brand is you had better pay attention to what’s being said about your brand online. And I know you’ve heard that one before.

Recently, an Apple fan responded to the ad with the following video. Already it has had over 100K hits and growing as it is proliferated through the net via neat little blogs.

And in more recent and tragic news, Microsoft’s never-ceasing quest to be as “cool” as Apple has failed again. Though surely Windows 7 does have its fine points, all anyone is really talking about is its embarrassment on that Japanese TV show. They really can’t catch a break.

It’s true. Apple has it made.They are the golden child. They have loyal fans that defend them in quirky and catching ways and other companies just keep feeding the critics fodder to trash them.

Note to these corporate entities: You aren’t an Apple product. You never will be. Stop trying to convince us all you are.

Instead, why don’t you act like the grownup premium brand you are and distinguish yourselves from the pack? You’ve lost yourself and your worth inside a race to steal a group of consumers that can’t be stolen. You’ve lost the battle, and now it’s just getting sad.

So, this raises a very important question for you, the masses: why do you think these companies are so intent on comparing themselves and repeatedly coming up short, instead of marketing their brands as something with worth?