The End of the (Media) World

I love the movie Independence Day, the story of when an evil alien race arrives to the strains of REM’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

There’s a new book that chronicles a different end of our media-driven world. No aliens this time, but the life altering changes in civilization are real.

AdAge editor Bob Garfield’s The Chaos Scenario looks at how the shift to a digital world spells doom for the symbiotic relationship between mass media and mass marketing. Garfield makes the case that the 400 year old practice of dictating to audiences is being replaced by consumer control that requires organizations to listen to people.

The core message – of which I am a true believer – can be found in this passage:
"(Consumers) aren't necessarily listening to you. They're listening to each other talk about you. And they're using your products, your brand names, your iconography, your slogans, your trademarks, your designs, your goodwill, all of it as if it belonged to them -- which, in a way, it all does, because, after all, haven't you spent decades, and trillions, to convince them of just that?"
You’ve heard it before from me and others: the days of companies being able to practice top-down communications with their stakeholders (employees, customers, shareholders and community leaders) are numbered.

The Independence Day aliens were set on destroying the human race. Media & marketing will survive the digital Apocalypse, but in very different forms.

Those businesses that are prepared to take transparency and consumer control to heart will also survive. And thrive. They're the people who will be singing the REM song...”it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.”

For more information about how you can prepare for the new digital world, visit C2M2 Associates. To buy Garfield’s book (and you should), visit thechaosscenario.net.

When Good Brands Go Bad

Anyone who’s ever checked a bag when flying, spent hours waiting for the cable installer, or celebrated a birthday on hold with customer (no) service, wishes they wrote the latest YouTube hit “United Breaks Guitars.”

Poor service is always a risk to your brand and reputation. Thousands of successful transactions get lost when the one screw-up makes it into the social media. That’s not news and not particularly surprising.

Now comes a survey that explains, in part, why well known brands at seemingly marketing savvy companies continue to be caught off-guard by completely predictable and preventable events – like baggage handlers destroying a musician’s guitar.

According to findings from UberCEO.com:

• Not a single CEO has a blog. Zero. Zip. Nada.
• Only two CEOs have Twitter accounts.
• 13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, but only three have more than 10 connections.
• Fewer than 20 CEOs have a personal Facebook page.
• Three quarters of the CEOs have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those have limited or outdated information.

I know several CEOs and have worked directly for two who led multi-billion dollar public companies. CEOs and other execs are busy people.

However, irrespective of the reasons why – busy schedules, fear of technology, fear of liability – the survey reveals a shocking lack of respect for customers. It reflects executives out of touch with the people who pay the bills now and in the future.

It’s no wonder, then, that superstar brands keep getting caught with their shorts down by the folks who create YouTube videos and post Tweets about their bad customer experiences.

Until CEOs join the conversation on social networks in a meaningful way, we’ll continue to watch episodes of When Good Reputations Go Bad. And the rest of us will blog about it, even if the CEO won’t.

For more on branding, reputation and social media marketing, visit C2M2 Associates.