 "<b>Book Extract:</b> Customer as brand ambassador")
A brand ambassador program brings together special customers who not only are fans of your brand, but also take passionate ownership of it and want to work with you to promote it to other customers. These are fans who will start conversations with other customers and will go out of their way to expose them to your brand. Although promoting your brand to other customers isn't the only expectation, it's typically the chief goal of brand ambassador programs. The idea is to find fans of your brand who are passionate and outgoing and are already actively promoting your brand to others, and give them better tools for doing so. Let's look at a couple of examples of brand ambassador programs.
YouTube's marketing ambassadors program
YouTube launched this program in early 2012. It picked nine businesses from across the United States that were successfully using YouTube as a marketing tool to grow the business. Since these businesses were selected based on how well they were leveraging YouTube as a marketing tool, their participation in this program was dependent upon their sharing what they have learned. For example, upon joining the program, each business immediately picks a nonprofit organization and begins mentoring it on how to use YouTube effectively to build awareness for its organization. In addition, the nine businesses that are part of this program will periodically participate in Google Plus hangouts and contribute marketing materials and advice for other businesses.
Maker's Mark's brand ambassador program
Maker's Mark has one of the most successful and longest-running brand ambassador programs. Maker's Mark was a small distillery in Kentucky that made one thing very well: bourbon. The company had a very passionate but very small customer base and wasn't well known outside the state of Kentucky.
But all that changed in 1980 when the Wall Street Journal published a front-page article on the company, its distillery, and its founder. Overnight, there was national interest in the small Kentucky distillery, and the company received more than 25,000 letters as a result of that one Wall Street Journal article (http://www. dcgourmet.net/archives/i3i). This created two big problems for Maker's Mark. First, its bourbon took six years to age, so the next batch was several years away. And that batch was only large enough to supply the local customers in Kentucky that loved the bourbon, not the entire country. Second, Maker's Mark didn't have a national distribution system in place. It could service Kentucky, but that one Wall Street Journal article had created a firestorm of national interest in the brand, and Maker's Mark didn't have the supply or the distribution to meet that demand.
The first issue that Maker's Mark had to address was sustaining this sudden wave of interest in the brand for the next few years until there was more of Maker's Mark available for sale. Many people from all across the country who had read about Maker's Mark in that Wall Street Journal article were now looking for its bourbon, and they couldn't find it. So Maker's Mark started reaching out directly to its customers, not only in an effort to keep a dialogue going with them, but also to help them locate whatever supply of Maker's Mark bourbon was actually available in stores across the country! Also, Maker's Mark asked its customers to request their local stores to carry Maker's Mark bourbon.
At this point, it's important to talk about Maker's Mark's founder, Bill Samuels. Samuels hated marketing and felt that it was quite rude to promote your product openly. He believed that friends don't market to friends, and since he viewed his customers as his friends, he didn't want to market to them. In general, Samuels didn't want to "get in the face" of his customers; he wanted his customers to discover his brand, and then he and they could develop a relationship. He felt that it wasn't right to promote a product to customers who hadn't shown an interest in it, but if a customer was interested in Maker's Mark, then the brand could develop a relationship with that customer.
So Maker's Mark had always put a premium on having a personal relationship with its customers, and specifically with those customers who had shown an interest in supporting the brand. In other words, Maker's Mark wanted to connect with its most passionate fans. And in the early years, when most of the customer base was located in Kentucky, the company knew a good percentage of its customers personally. But as the company's growth accelerated through the 19805 and into the 19905, that growth created a sense of distance between the company and its customers. The question became, how could Maker's Mark continue to have a close relationship with its customers now that it was a national brand? In 2000, the company found its answer. It launched a brand ambassador program that allowed it to work with its most passionate fans across the country. These fans would not only attempt to convince others to try Maker's Mark, but also talk to stores and bars and encourage them to carry its products.
AUTHOR: Mack Collier
PUBLISHER: McGraw Hill Education
Price: Rs 395
YouTube's marketing ambassadors program
YouTube launched this program in early 2012. It picked nine businesses from across the United States that were successfully using YouTube as a marketing tool to grow the business. Since these businesses were selected based on how well they were leveraging YouTube as a marketing tool, their participation in this program was dependent upon their sharing what they have learned. For example, upon joining the program, each business immediately picks a nonprofit organization and begins mentoring it on how to use YouTube effectively to build awareness for its organization. In addition, the nine businesses that are part of this program will periodically participate in Google Plus hangouts and contribute marketing materials and advice for other businesses.
Maker's Mark's brand ambassador program
Maker's Mark has one of the most successful and longest-running brand ambassador programs. Maker's Mark was a small distillery in Kentucky that made one thing very well: bourbon. The company had a very passionate but very small customer base and wasn't well known outside the state of Kentucky.
But all that changed in 1980 when the Wall Street Journal published a front-page article on the company, its distillery, and its founder. Overnight, there was national interest in the small Kentucky distillery, and the company received more than 25,000 letters as a result of that one Wall Street Journal article (http://www. dcgourmet.net/archives/i3i). This created two big problems for Maker's Mark. First, its bourbon took six years to age, so the next batch was several years away. And that batch was only large enough to supply the local customers in Kentucky that loved the bourbon, not the entire country. Second, Maker's Mark didn't have a national distribution system in place. It could service Kentucky, but that one Wall Street Journal article had created a firestorm of national interest in the brand, and Maker's Mark didn't have the supply or the distribution to meet that demand.
At this point, it's important to talk about Maker's Mark's founder, Bill Samuels. Samuels hated marketing and felt that it was quite rude to promote your product openly. He believed that friends don't market to friends, and since he viewed his customers as his friends, he didn't want to market to them. In general, Samuels didn't want to "get in the face" of his customers; he wanted his customers to discover his brand, and then he and they could develop a relationship. He felt that it wasn't right to promote a product to customers who hadn't shown an interest in it, but if a customer was interested in Maker's Mark, then the brand could develop a relationship with that customer.
So Maker's Mark had always put a premium on having a personal relationship with its customers, and specifically with those customers who had shown an interest in supporting the brand. In other words, Maker's Mark wanted to connect with its most passionate fans. And in the early years, when most of the customer base was located in Kentucky, the company knew a good percentage of its customers personally. But as the company's growth accelerated through the 19805 and into the 19905, that growth created a sense of distance between the company and its customers. The question became, how could Maker's Mark continue to have a close relationship with its customers now that it was a national brand? In 2000, the company found its answer. It launched a brand ambassador program that allowed it to work with its most passionate fans across the country. These fans would not only attempt to convince others to try Maker's Mark, but also talk to stores and bars and encourage them to carry its products.
Reprinted by permission of McGraw Hill Education (India). Excerpted from 9789351344834: Collier: Think Like a Rockstar. Copyright © 2013 by Mack Collier. All rights reserved.
THINK LIKE A ROCK STAR: HOW TO CREATE SOCIAL MEDIA AND MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT TURN CUSTOMERS INTO FANSAUTHOR: Mack Collier
PUBLISHER: McGraw Hill Education
Price: Rs 395
| Engaging with customers is no longer optional: Mack Collier |
| Today, customers have the tools and ability to create and spread messages faster than brands can, Mack Collier tells Ankita Rai Companies should make sure that customers get a consistent experience. Many people turn to Twitter and Facebook to voice frustrations over a customer service issue that they first tried to resolve either on the phone, email, or in person. Additionally, each area of customer support needs to communicate with the other. For example, phone support should be communicating with the staff providing customer support on social media, and vice-versa. That way not only can the company co-ordinate its support efforts across multiple channels, each channel can share information and feedback to provide a better and more consistent experience to the customer. What are the key challenges brands face while engaging with their customers, both online and offline? The biggest challenge most brands face is understanding how to engage with their customers. Prior to social media, customers had limited ways to create and share content online. Today, customers have the tools and ability to create and spread messages faster than brands can. So engaging with customers is no longer optional. Very few brands understand how to manage negative feedback online. What are the key things to keep in mind when responding to a negative comment left online? Ninety-nine per cent of all negative comments online about a brand come from frustrated customers that have a problem and want the brand to help them. They have bought your product and it doesn’t work and they tried calling your customer support line and were put on hold for an hour. They emailed you and you didn’t respond. So they do the only other thing they can to get your attention: they go to social media and complain about you. The good news is if your brand does help an angry customer with her problem, you can convert her into a passionate fan of your brand. Mack Collier Social Media Strategist & Founder, #BlogChat |