I picked this one up from the PlanningLab's blog.
As much as I like social media, I find its true limitation lies in brand building. This Louis Vuitton ad does a fantastic job in storytelling, brand repositioning as well as selling the product. As planners AND creatives, we should not fall blindly into new ways of engaging and reaching in place of efficiency in communication. The role of communications is often more important than the actual message.
via theplanninglab.typepad.com [Emphases mine]
I don't I agree that social media has its limitations in brand building.
First and foremost, I define social media as anything that facilitates communication between people about anything.
Which has been around forever.
I think of social media as people talking - crossing over to a neighbor's house to discuss the latest gossip, talking about the latest iPhone app with a friend over the cubicle walls, sending a short text message to a friend about a rock-bottom sales promotion at the Nike store, or shareblogging - on twitter or on facebook - about one's disappointment with customer service at a certain store.
I also think of brands as the fruit of messages that are put out by marketeers - and the responses that such messages generate amongst its targets. Brands do not exist unless there are consumers - brands are a fruit of how companies and brand managers envision them and these brands become and evolve in the minds and hearts (and wallets) of its target consumers.
So to say that social media is limited in brand-building, I think it is tantamount to throwing the baby with the bathwater.
Brand building could actually be where social media truly will prove its mettle.
So long as we don't get carried away with the buzz and the pomp and the talk on new technology that facilitate the social media and the conversations that people make.
