Talk about social brands..

No I’m not going to write a letter, thats to old-fashioned!

March was the month in which I researched various brands, international ones like Nike, Puma, Ben&Jerry’s, Heineken, Only, Red Bull, Diesel, but also Dutch ones like television channel BNN, radio station Radio538 and telephone provider Hi. These brands told me some interesting things, about amongst others, their sociability.

Now in april I’m going to interview al lot of Young Adults and will ask them questions about brands, internet, social media, brand activation and of course social brands.

Naturally I will also ask questions about Ben&Jerry’s going a 100% fair-trade, Nike’s new application True City and Heineken’s pay-off Serving The Planet (what do they mean by that?).

This month I will feed this blog with some cool and insightful quotes from the Young Adults I interview.

About participating with brands (inventing new flavours, campaigns and such)…
Thijs (20) I think it’s really cool that you can add something of yourself to the brand, instead of the brand trying changing you.

About brands…
Joris (22) I like image, its one of the reasons you buy a brand, because the image fits you.

About getting in contact with a brand…
Rose (24) It should be easy, a telephone number or e-mail address. And NO I’m not going to write a letter en send it by regular mail, that’s too old-fashioned!

How can a company called ‘Hi’ not be social?

Hi, a Dutch telecom provider, helps the Young@Heart be social. Because texting and phoning your friends is a very social activity and you also need cheap and fast internet so you can update your social network all the time, not to mention Twitter…  you have an obligation to your followers.

Hi provides all this, so you can be social, isn’t that social!?

NIKE+ - a social community around running…

On their site Nike.com, they say ‘ Today, Nike continues to seek new and innovative ways to develop superior athletic products, and creative methods to communicate directly with our consumers.’ I quite agree.

They enriched our lives with NIKE+, a true social community. NIKE+ creates a whole experience around ‘running’, which motivates even me to go for a run – and that says a lot ;)

BNN’s social power

The social power of BNN (Youth TV-network) lies in the fact that they signal a need for information in the society about a specific subject, and than make a controversial program about it!

This clearly works, look at their programs:

• Over My Dead Body (about young people with a terminal decease),
  
• Spit & Swallow (sex and drugs education),
  
• Try Before You Die (where the presenters experience crazy things like streaking at Wimbledon, pulling the emergency break or having a food fight).

Social with Heineken

Holland Heineken Experience, Holland Heineken House, Heineken Music Hall, JouwHeineken.nl, Biertje?!, Heineken serving the planet - can this brand be anything other than social? We’ll find out tomorrow!

Redefining Social Brands

After a lot more background reading, brainstorming en some hard thinking, we already re-defined the definition of a social brand:

A social brand is a brand that plays an important role in the social environment of the target group, and by doing so distinguish themselves positively from the competition.

Let’s define social brands

If you go looking for the definition of a social brand on the internet, surprisingly you’ll find very little. The only definition that is found, talks about a brand that has embraced Cause Related Marketing. I believe it doesn’t do justice to the social brands now materializing, like Coca-Cola and Ben&Jerry’s. Brands that listen to their target group en act on their ideas and desires. Brands that are approachable.

I’ve defined such social brands as follows:

A social brand plays an important role in the social environment of its target group, it acts humane and has the capacity to empathize with its target group. A social brand is accessible, connected and responsive (towards needs and ideas of the target group).