1:9:90 Theory of Online Brand Marketing

I was reading a newspaper today when I came across the idea on the 1:9:90 Theory. Not sure who was saying this in the newspaper but I am definitely not going to claim that this theory is mine. I am only going look at it a bit deeper.

The 1:9:90 Theory is simple to understand, profound in thought and difficult to implement. But thou shall reap immense rewards if you execute it.

The Theory says:  Among your consumer group (or target audience if you will):

• 1 % should create content
• The content created by the 1 % should engage 9% of your audience and convert them to Brand Evangelist or to use the Facebook phraseology – Fans.
• This 9% of brand evangelist should then take the content, connect and collaborate with 90% of your target group. Of course, the 90% who will absorb the content is important but marketers in the online space would do great by focusing on finding the 1 % content creators.

These content creators are what, if I may borrow Seth Godin’s terminology –  Tribes.

Find the Tribe:

Seth Godin in his remarkable book Tribes talks about how it is important to find and engage the members of a  Tribe. The Tribe are your diehard fans. He/she is the one who will do what it takes to get and use your product/service ignoring all others in the market. All you ought to do is make space for your fans/core consumers to create content. Democratize your company. Give them the tools. Let them create content. All you have to do is channelize the tribe by being the Leader.

Let the fans create the content, find and touch base with the 9% of the brand evangelists who in turn will share the content with 90% of your target audience.

Your job is to basically find the content creators.

And it isn’t an easy job. But it is definitely better and more effective than creating million dollar advertisements targeting everyone out there and praying to Almighty that someone watches the ads and respond to it.

Finding loyal fans and content creators is tough but it is long lasting, just like true love. Finding true love is not an easy job. But when you find it, engage with that person, nourish the relationship; it becomes bliss and long lasting.

It was exactly this point Geoffrey Moore was trying to tell us in his seminal book Crossing The Chasm.  The book is all about the importance of Early Adopters of technology.

Find the Early Adopters.  Give them the importance they deserve. Give them the tools through which they can play with your product/service. Show them how you value their passion for your products. Then politely ask them to create content for you. Ask them nice and be honest about it and guess what? They will give you the content. And since they are doing it out of passion and love for the product and not you, you will get great viral content.

The word Viral is important. It is word of mouth. It is something you will get by Co-creating value with your customers as C.K Prahald articulate in his books.

Building Brands Online:

Today it is far easier and better to build brands online than using traditional media. It is easier because online activities can help you engage with your audience. It is measurable and accountable.

More importantly it can be used to target the your real serious customers than every tom,dick and harry ( no pun intended of course). When you launch focused advertisements or campaigns the reach is better, ads can be tweaked, mistakes can be made so that old rules are broken and new lessons learnt.

Simply put: The status quo can be challenged.

When you do that, you somehow will manage to create The Purple Cow (I love Seth for what he stands for  … you ought to read his blog). From then on use innovation to sustain and feed the Purple Cow

Digital Marketing Agencies:

The agencies of tomorrow should not be stand alone Advertising and Public Relations companies. Instead they should become an Integrated Digital Solutions companies which should have core team of people who can come with digital strategies and how to use such tools (like me … lol) and people who can create engaging content ( not necessarily award winning creative’s) and solid tech cum web team who can implement your communication ideas in the most optimized way.

Read this awesome blog by Seth Godin on Viral Growth to understand on how important it is to connect with core fans and creating great content

Social media: Listen less and sell more (page 3 of 3) – iMediaConnection.com

“2010 , Marketing guys should start using social networks to sell more and not just sit with engagements “

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Advertising Vs PR :Chevy Beat Vs Tata Nano

Saw the Chevy Beat today! Not really a looker as I assumed it to be. Once again realize that TV and Print Ads is shit load of crap info with glamour which they call “Creative”.

The Beat looked all great, peppy and big in Tv and Print Ads. I went Gung-ho with my friends saying – “Beat is gonna rock the Indian roads “and all that jazz. Until I saw it today!

The Beat looks small. It is only the ads which make the car look big, compact and awesome. The Print and TV advertising is also very misleading.

Consider Tata Nano. The biggest viral campaign was set when Mr.Ratan Tata said “an Rs.1 lac car”. And, made it frenzy when the car was launched and Mr Ratan said “A promise is a promise”.

Then Nano went for a publicity blitzkrieg. It looked small, so-so cute and really vulnerable when it was shown in TV and newspaper articles. When it was released and when you see them today on Indian the car looks really cute, formidable to ready to handle the curves and bumps of the Indian roads and more than that. The car:  Under promised and Over-delivered.

Best part: Not a shred of advertising money spent on Tata Nano. It was purely viral, tact public relations and what Seth Godin will call “an idea virus: a purple cow”.

Big Takeaway: If you want to launch products then I suggest that you have great or rather an Outrageous Idea. A viral theme and get into Publicity than Big Money Advertising. The era of mass advertising in gone guys…

Aint gonna have my heart beat when I see the Beat now.

Now majority of Journalist depend on Social Media for story research

I have always favored Public Relations, Digital PR and Advertising over traditional forms of advertising. While  social media picked speed in the west , India took its time. Today, India is absorbing social media and internet at break neck speed.

It is then heartwarming to see this report by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations which found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

While this report is based on journalist out of US, I am not sure to what extent PR people  use social media and digital pr tactics nor do I have any info on how journalists consider to use social media, websites, twitter and other digital platforms to search and research on their news.