What if Homer had a Twitter account?

Today's marketing channel fragmentation can be overwhelming. The difference in brand communication via television commercials and Facebook posts is a stretch for anyone in marketing and brand management. And not only brands are struggling with it, also agencies are trying to answer the all important question: how do I respond to the broadening demand from the client side? What is the glue that holds everything together? So the question is; what if Homer would have had a Twitter account?


The most successful brands tell the most interesting stories. Story-telling is in fact older than written communication. Anyone familiar with Homer and the Odysee probably knows that this famous Greek myth was first passed on by story tellers before it finally got written down.


While it took centuries to go from oral to written. It would take a few more centuries to go from handwritten manuscripts to printing. Basically the 3 first marketing tactics took thousands of years to develop. 


Then we got newspapers, telephone, radio and television. The impact of these channels on both advertising and branding were tremendous but somehow manageable.


Then the internet emerged and branding, marketing and sales have changed almost overnight. 


So here are some thoughts on the recent changes imposed on us by everything digital:

• What would Homer tweet if twitter would have existed in his time?
• Imagine Hannibal and his forces having access to email.
• Would Napoleon have conquered Russia if he would have had a mobile phone?
• Would Shakespeare's Romea & Juliette have ended differently if SMS would have existed at the time? 

Of course these questions are rhetorical. But as a thought start they might get you to realize how profound digital is changing our lives in just two decades... 


What doesn't change is that with regards to the rhetorical questions above leadership made the difference. We know about Homer, Socrates, Napoleon and others because they were somehow bigger than life. They became the equivalent of what we could call a brand today and through that they entered written history.


Today anyone can keep track of himself in writing, video or audio recording but the leadership part has not changed. 


If you look at brands as leaders then anything digital might mean facilitation of brand story leadership but it doesn't necessary mean that all brands succeed over time in the same way as the Napoleon's of yore. Telling a leading story is still that makes the differences between a great and a 'yet another' brand.


Brand story-telling needs to be leading. With this in mind the digital channels need to be evaluated regarding their potential tactical and strategic story-telling contribution. The questions to ask are:

• What defines my brand leadership, regardless of channel?
• Where can digital sustain, support or amplify this story?
• Looking at the digital story scenario today, what will be our story tomorrow both a digital only and a digital combined with 'classic' branding scenario?

Although these questions are pretty obvious the actual answers might reveal much more, specifically if you think about what Homer, Napoleon or even Shakespeare would have done if they would have had Twitter.

Amazon's Psychic Fire Power

What do Amazon and Psychic Pizza Delivery have in common. Well, more than you think at least when you look at it from a marketing perspective. 

Let me start by saying that I don't own a Kindle Fire yet but that I am planning to order one as soon as its available in Europe.

But there's a lot you can say about the device without having touched it. Of course I read quite a few reviews and a some were downright negative. Slow processor this, clunky UX that and too small screen, bla bla bla. Yes, all true, probably. But it is still the most significant piece of hardware that came out in all of 2011. Here's why.

Jeff Bezos started out with a BIG idea. He didn't want to sell thousands of books. Instead he dreamed of  selling millions of books, preferably ALL books available via the web. So far he has succeeded in bringing that dream to reality pretty well.


So most readers will still think of Amazone as an oversized digital bookstore. The great thing about Amazon today is that they didn't stop at books. As we all know they started delivering household appliances, hifi equipment, computers and... digital content.

So now they started selling there own hardware. All of a sudden Amazon is playing in the same area as Apple, Dell, Sony, HP and some others. Why bother would you think? Plus apparently the UX of the Kindle Fire is poor and it doesn't offer a lot of applications. Ok its only 199$ but still. Amazon is failing here, right?

The thing is I think they're not. Much like Apple they are creating their own ecosystem that allows them to deliver content faster and better optimized than they could do if they would continue targeting the gazillion different computers and tablet on this planet. Plus, delivering digital content over your own hardware comes with numerous advantages that so far only Apple has masterd to the full extent:

• You can kindly request or in the case of Apple bluntly insist on pushing alerts and update messages, also regarding new available content, to your audience.
• Payment becomes an afterthought, specifically if prices are low and there is content available for free. In fact consumption - or if you like joy of use - comes first and pricing should ideally be connected to the actual desirability of the content.
• You can actually measure the use of the content and build recommendations on it.

Now that last point sounds familiar doesn't it. Regular users of Amazon know the feeling. They've looked at something a while ago and all of a sudden you find suggestions for similar or even the same products in your email or on the homescreen, often weeks or months later. Amazon has become really good at that. 

Now imagine what they can do if they continue polishing and perfecting these algorithms over time. There's a really great blog article on Mashable written by Matt Silverman where he quotes Eli Pariser on how algorithms are in need of improvement. 

The 7 points where matching algorithms fail today are exactly the weaknesses that Amazon's current matching suggestions don't solve, although I am still every now and then amazed by the anticipation of some of the suggestions they bring up.

Now back to the Kindle Fire and actually all things Kindle at Amazon. What Jeff Bezos has seen correctly is that issuing hardware brings numerous advantages in terms of tying your brand closer to the consumer and his preferences. In my mind Jeff has created an ecosystem that would allow him to start addressing the 7 things that personalization algorithms do poorly today. But suppose he's not even thinking of going there yet, then he still has something that Apple doesn't have...

Amazon can easily tie 'real-world' products to digital content. Although this would also require some clever algorithm tuning my gut feeling tells me that this should be easier than creating algorithms that somehow will come up with mind blowing anticipated suggestions as stated by Eli Pariser.

Let's continue even thinking about the 7 points that algorithms should do better. In fact think about age old marketing challenge that most brands would like to solve. What if marketing could actually predict what customers want and as a brand you're there to offer it by the time they start asking for it? The famous be where the puck is going to be not where it actually is paradigm.


So, slow processor, clunky UX? Maybe but I'm sure they'll fix it and while they're at it Jeff and his team will create other benefits for his customers some of which we might not even expect today.

I leave you with the wonderful Psychic Pizza Delivery cartoon while I'll give you this: Amazon is creating an eco-system with the Kindle that could potentially create more value than they've currently locked up in their warehouses and on their servers together.

Matt

Update;

Another proof of why Jeff has been right about a few more things all along (thanks to LinkedIn and Businessinsider):

14 Years Ago Jeff Bezos Told You How To Take Over The World

Written by Henri Blodget

Set the Tone of your Digital Brand Voice

Have you met Siri yet? If not, try to find someone near you with an iPhone 4S and try her (?) out. While Siri is another iteration of voice-recognition and voice-driven command systems that as a technology have been around for a while, it is the first time where the current state of technology combined with the genius of the late Steve Jobs provides us with a compellingly powerful package. 

Now let's leap a few steps into the future. It is safe to say that Siri and comparable voice command systems will very soon become more and more important. Those who know Kit from the Knight Rider may have considered a car that talks back to you and executes voice commands to be a laughable sci-fi fantasy. But there are only 30 years between Hasselhoff's appearance in the first episode and today, where Siri is turning into a handy companion and things are only speeding up from here. Kit can become reality in just a few year's from now;  many of us will get to say 'please park my car' and our vehicle will respond with a 'very well sir' or whatever your car brand has come up with as an answer.

And this is where the marketing and branding part comes in again. WHAT exactly will your car, phone, hifi system, iPod wannabe, elevator, website coach or whatever the product is you're bringing to market say? What will be the tone of voice, will it be female or male or optional? How do you deal with the various languages and cultural differences if you have to localize for multiple markets, regions and continents?

In short, how will you include yet another technological innovation into your branding strategy and your marketing communication. What will be the guidelines and what will they be based on?

Siri is a sign on the wall telling us how fast technology is advancing and how marketing and brand managers need to be pro-active from a strategic point of view. And when I say marketing and brand managers this applies automatically to agencies as well. There is probably even more urgency to address this if a brand wants to remain consistent and compelling across current and near future communication channels.

Strong brands with a clear story will have an advantage over brands that are competing on price or features. The best examples can be found in the luxury sector. A brand like Louis Vuitton has a story to tell and the values this includes will help identifying the right voice and more importantly the right tone of voice for when Siri starts talking back.

This does not mean it is going to be easy. Here are some additional and more random thoughts on this topic:

• Audi is a great example of how brand is translated into every aspect of the final product. Audi actually tests the quality feel of buttons and switches and has even developed guidelines for how scents and smells of their car interior. They have a rudimentary voice control system in their cars but I am already wondering how their cars will speak to me in the future, provided that my next car is going to be an Audi of course.

• Abercrombie & Fitch offers another example of how a brand experience is extended and even includes a brand specific store perfume. Those familiar with the brand will smell the store's particular scent before even seeing it. One of the best recent examples bing the brand new Champs Elysée flagship store in Paris.

• For a while the 'haptic feedback' topic was very hot for agencies designing UX for handset manufacturers. This principle is supposed to improve the use of a touchscreen. Apple has meanwhile proven that you can use a touchscreen without knowing or even hearing that you've touched  button or initiated an action. Yet some haptic feedback can be part of a specific brand experience. The question again is, what is useful and in line with the brand story and what kind of features will be considered as too geeky or even worse detrimental?

So in short, are you ready to create the voice that will speak on behalf of your brand?

If not, get in touch with your branding agency and start preparing. Your customers are waiting to hear from you sooner than you think...

For further reading:

Evolver.fm on Siri:

http://evolver.fm/2011/10/05/5-things-we-cant-wait-to-say-to-apples-siri-virtual-assistant/

Wikipedia on David Hasselhoff (yeah I know but hey, you can still admire his guts for continuing to produce Bay Watch on his own account) :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hasselhoff