Author: Joseph Grano

Joseph Grano Homepage Post, News

February 2016 Newsletter: Branding in the Age of Social Media

It does not take a marketing sage to understand the degree to which social media has transformed the way companies approach their branding practices. The hysteria over social media and its potential life altering effect on branding methods has led companies to hire creative agencies and an abundance of technologists to help implant their brands throughout the digital universe. However, few brands have been able to generate meaningful consumer interest online. Why? It has become evident that social media has put brands on a level playing field, and as a result has made brands less significant and stimulated a much greater need to distinguish oneself from the rest of the pack.

 

Think about it, in social media platforms like YouTube or Instagram, corporate brands rarely appear (in fact, only three have cracked the YouTube top 500). Instead, you find entertainers you have never heard of. The fact is big companies excel at organizing and executing complex marketing programs, but fail at cultural innovation, which is what audiences on social media thrive on. Consumers have little interest in branded content to show up on their newsfeeds, they view it as brand spam. So what can companies due to evolve and approach branding in the age of social media.

 

  1. Think beyond common cultural orthodoxies

Consumers want to be presented with ideas that go beyond the traditional ways of thinking. They want something inspiring, different and interesting. This will require organizations to challenge cultural orthodoxies and promote innovative ideologies that break with category conventions.

 

  1. Locate opportunities to push forth new ideologies

As time passes, disruptions in society cause an orthodoxy to lose footing. Consumers then begin searching for alternatives, which opens up an opportunity for innovative brands to push forward a new ideology in their categories that are meaningful to customers.

 

  1. Target the “Crowdculture”

Social media has brought together communities and people that were once geographically isolated, greatly increasing the degree of collaboration. The Harvard Business Review recently coined the term “crowdculture” to define the way social media has altered how culture works and is influenced. Digital influencers now serve as effective and creative pioneers of culture, which has changed the rules of branding. Understanding crowdculture is to understand what branding methods are inspired by social media.

 

  1. Consider taking on an important cause

One way for a brand to sustain its cultural relevance is by playing off a particularly intriguing or contentious issue that dominate the media and turning it into something innovative and thought provoking. Take Chipotle for example, with its efforts to champion food without GMOs. Despite the fact that this claim challenged their credibility, once the company successfully convinces the crowdculture that it’s doubling down on its commitment to get preindustrial food right, the crowd will advocate for its brand once again.

 

  1. Stay True to Your Brand Promise

With all the chaos and desire to appease and appeal to as many customer segments as possible, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of your core brand promise. However, nothing can turn off consumers like a company going through an identity crisis. So go out there innovate, challenge the status quo, push forth into uncharted territories, but remember what makes your brand unique and stay true to your brand promise!

 

At Next-Mark we pride ourselves in having the skills and know how to create that groundbreaking, avant-garde conversation about your brand. We love helping our clients reach new heights through social media and innovative branding techniques.
Joseph Grano Blog, Homepage Post

Hackathons – A Heck a Concept

For the uninitiated, “Hackathons” – surprisingly, a good thing – unsurprisingly got their start in the software development, with people coming together in a sort of highly concentrated creativity fest. In a common model, people take a defined measure of time to explore any idea they want, presenting their results to the group at the session’s end.

“Hackathons are an important part of how we come up with new ideas,” said Mark Zuckerberg, announcing Facebook’s 50th event, focused on ideas that use artificial intelligence. Crediting hackathons for a lot of the social network’s best ideas over the past decade, he continued: “We have a saying at Facebook: Code wins arguments. The idea is that you can either debate for a long time about whether something is a good idea or not, or you can just code it and see if you can make it work.”

The concept also has spread to a wide variety of other industries and evolved into other formats.

While the term hackathon may not be in everyone’s vocabulary, it’s a concept we long have embraced. In marketing communications we’ve found, a fixed brainstorming session can produce the kind of rapid-fire ideas that can get lost in over-thinking. It’s not an end point, of course, but it can be a solid jumping-off point for further refinement.

When working with clients in similar sessions, we often ask that stakeholders other than management and marketing be included. Often this group includes product representatives and sales people, who can know more about prospects’ and customer’s expressed needs than most. Customer service staff can give insight into most frequent complaints, and design engineers are well versed in the pluses and minuses of a product.

The point isn’t to crowd the room, but to give some thought to who could contribute some valuable thoughts from their perspectives and give them a little creative free rein.

As noted, hackathons take many forms these days, including competitions and purpose-driven projects, such as improving government or transit systems. The best thing about them, from our perspective, is that they start with a problem, move through “what ifs” and, when successful, produce something impactful.

Creativity feeds off creativity, no matter the field or endeavor, and a little adrenaline never hurts. We’re excited to see where hackathons go next and what we all can learn from them.

Joseph Grano Blog

Boost Your Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2016

Social media marketing has never been the clear-cut, black and white model that you learned in Marketing 101. Back in the early days of social media, platforms were finicky, the concept was vague and critics insisted that social marketing was not a viable marketing strategy.

Oh, how times have changed. We’re now immersed in an era with highly functioning platforms, useful advertising options and plenty of free opportunities to make our content public.

New Platforms, Shifting Audiences

Still, the world of social media changes quickly, and with new platforms constantly emerging and audiences continuously shifting, it’s no wonder that companies are scrambling to stay ahead of the game. This past year brought some expected and unexpected changes for social media audiences. Facebook remained strong, leading the pack with its astronomical audience size, along with the ever-growing number of users on Facebook-owned Instagram. Interestingly enough, Facebook began to see a trimming of its audience, losing some younger users while picking up their weight in older audiences.

If history and some recently emerging trends are any indication, 2016 will be a host for a variety of new trends and changes in the social scene. In addition to new platforms and shifting audiences, here are five things The Guardian.com suggests to focus on when planning your social media strategy this year:

  1. Make the Investment

However great your content is, if it doesn’t reach people it can’t possibly impact them. Plan investment based on how many potential consumers you’d realistically need to reach to drive business results, not how many fans you have. And don’t produce any content you won’t have the media budget to support.

  1. Quality, Not Quantity

Producing just one or two great posts a month removes the need to churn out thoughts of the day and reactive nonsense, and allows you to focus resources on producing something genuinely memorable. And don’t underestimate the power of video. Video offers a huge opportunity to tell richer stories or even just to better stand out with gentle animation.

  1. Make it Real

Although social media allows you to broadcast to the masses, it’s also a hugely personal space where a generic message can feel out of place. Managing how people see your content across related platforms such as Facebook and Instagram starts to give you real control of your marketing – allowing you to stop wasting money by reaching someone in too many places (frequency capping) or even to tell a continual story across channels.

  1. Get the Message

Four of the world’s six largest social platforms are messaging apps, and their growth is only accelerating. In western markets, few scalable opportunities exist, but platforms such as WeChat and Line in China and Japan respectively, give a glimpse of what’s to come when these platforms open up. By the end of 2016 the capabilities of messaging apps, and in turn the transformational opportunities they present to marketers, will be remarkable.

  1. Don’t Underestimate the Basics

Don’t try to be innovative just for innovation’s sake. The most impactful advances of the past couple of years come from looking again at the basic tools social media platforms offer. As marketers, of course you’re anxious to be part of the next big thing, but chances are that might be right in front of you. Don’t overlook the tried and true basics.

So as you’re doing your planning, it’s easy to be distracted by the latest shiny innovations, but focusing on quality content and media planning are key for successful social media marketing in 2016.

Joseph Grano Blog, Homepage Post

Reflecting on 11 years at Next-Mark

It’s been quite a journey…

As 2015 ends, we at Next-Mark are putting the bow on our 11th year in business. A lot has happened since that fateful day we first opened our virtual doors. We’ve worked with amazing clients from around the world, helping new companies get started, venerable companies change with the times and established companies grow even stronger. In those 11 years, we grew as they did, adding staff and services and becoming a full-tilt bricks-and-mortar operation.

Throughout those years, we worked hard at keeping our clients ahead of ongoing change during what was one of marketing’s most volatile periods, a decade in which businesses and consumers forever changed their relationships.

For instance, during the past 11 years:
Mobile phones went from a convenience to a lifeline to, in some cases, an addiction. Enter Smartphones, and possibilities exploded. Knowledge literally was in the palm of the hand, and marketing could to be anywhere the consumer was. Moreover, tablets have created a new category of interaction and communications.

Consumers were introduced to the era of “talk less, say more,” with micro-content on social media sites that marketing extrapolated into pithy pitches.

They also got over the fear of “big brother” knowing all about them, to the point of expecting curated marketing messaging personalized just for them. With this knowledge, of course, came the responsibility for marketers to actually deliver information that mattered to each individual.

Media and advertisers began offering stories and promotions that require virtual reality glasses to view.

The average American began spending an hour and 40 minutes a day on his or her multiple social media sites, checking feeds and, perhaps, being diverted by personalized ads.

Fighting through the marketing clutter got harder, as democracy ruled and any size, type and quality of company could reach their audiences.

Fragmentation of attention reached new heights, as individuals watch (often recorded) TV while surfing on iPads, glanced at their smart watches and answering every mobile ding. With this came new focus on messaging that matters.

The need for speed increased, as consumers sought information and goods in as few clicks as possible or through frictionless payment integrations, allowing them to go on with their hectic lifestyles and their next online connection.

As we enter 2016, these and other constantly evolving technologies, trends and expectations no doubt will keep marketing on the move, and we will continue to keep our clients out in front.

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Joseph Grano Blog

Content IS Conversation

Content, by itself, seems like such a vague, non-descript little noun, but when added to your marketing plan, it can pack quite a punch if done right.

Content marketing involves the creation and distribution of relevant information that draws an audience and drives customer action. The goal, as noted in a recent article on the Content Marketing Institute site, is to create content that people would want to “sit and discuss with friends.”

This is not new. What is new is that, today, much of that discussion takes place on social media, exponentially expanding your reach. Also a more recent occurrence, an increasing amount of useful and interesting information is found in blogs – relatively short, readable articles with personality that now are a must in content marketing.

Taking his cue from the world’s three most popular blogs, the Institute’s Neil Patel offered three rules for creating posts that proliferate:

Know your audience(s) to address their information needs or desires in a meaningful way.

Find and publish killer content. It’s out there. Know what you want to say and scour the web and other resources for backup, if necessary.

Feed and fuel curiosity. Give your readers a few “aha” moments or some good advice to pass on.

And while this may sound daunting, Patel assures that it is not, concluding:

“It comes down to great content. You don’t need a star staff, a celebrity endorsement or a $7 million round of funding to be successful in the content marketing game.”

“You have all that you need right now.”

Joseph Grano Blog, Homepage Post

Finding Your Social Voice

We believe social media is uniquely suited to connecting brands with customers on a deeper level. To ensure that depth of relationship, however, brands must do more than simply “talk” to their audiences; they must communicate in a way that resonates with their audiences’ passions, interests or curiosity and compels them to engage.
Following are a few key components of this very worthy quest.
1. Keep your eye on the goal, which is to take your social media and content marketing from okay or good to outstanding and memorable. Ask yourself: How can I best tie social media to my desired business outcomes? How can I empower and mobilize my employees and customers to maintain a dialog?
2. Create a position of thought leadership among social followers. This involves having the type of information they will search for – and use. This means content that addresses issues of importance to them, gives them an “aha” to pass on or, especially, solves a problem for them. The right back-end work can steer initial searches to you, and the right content will make you a go-to source the next time.
3. Treat social media as a strategic asset. This means integration into marketing to support strategic marketing, alignment with brand messaging and going beyond timely information to forward-thinking posts.
4. Listen and learn. At Next-Mark, “social listening” goes beyond the basics of tracking share of voice and brand mentions. The real value comes from the insights our analysts glean from reviewing real consumer conversations. These insights can help inform brand decisions on everything from marketing campaigns to product development and customer service practices.
5. Leverage content to build community. You want content that not only creates engagement, but also converts browsers to buyers and is worth their sharing with others. Perfecting your content can take time, but it’s time well spent, as it produces leads, sales and other business-centric results.
6. Create an optimal list of platforms that work for your company. Sure, there’s LinkedIn, but you may be surprised how many once purely social networks have B-to-B relevance. These include leaders such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as newer platforms, such as Instagram, Periscope, Pinterest and SnapChat.
7. Respect social media as a powerful brand advocate. This involves paying close attention to your brand’s social reputation, identification of your online advocates and other influencers and quantification of your reach and influence on each platform.
8. Know when to hold’em (advertising dollars, that is). Know when to be organic or paid in your approach. Strategically smart targeting paired with real-time optimization results in ads that resonate with the community and exceed goals. For many brands, using an “organic-like” approach, which combines quality content creation, community management and efficient paid media, has dramatically cut cost per engagement and increased share of voice, channel growth and engagement.
9. Get analytical. Understand and track your social milestones with relevant and timely insight, whether using a proprietary or custom tool.
Above all, remember that Next-Mark is here to help you in creating engaging content firmly based on a sound, effective social marketing component to your strategic business plan.
Joseph Grano Blog

3 Social Media Trends to Watch for in 2016

Last year around this time, I wrote a blog about emerging social media trends that were taking shape in the latter half of 2014. We have all been witness to how quickly the digital marketing landscape can change and evolve, especially social media marketing. New players are continuously entering the market, and brands have to find new and innovative ways to get their messages across.

More than ever, brands have to focus on the latest social media trends and plan their marketing efforts accordingly. Building genuine relationships and keeping customers engaged should be a priority for any business owner using social networking. Now that a year has passed, and we are now in Q4 of 2015, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the latest emerging social trends and what we can expect to see as we move into 2016. According to SocialMediaWeek.org, here are three trends to watch out for:

  1. Retail Meets Social

As Western-based social sites such as Pinterest are making the jump to on-site direct sales, they still seem to be playing catch up to Asian sites. Popular sites in Asia such as Shopline dominate the Chinese e-commerce market, and social media plays a significant role in their sales. Additionally, Chinese apps have already integrated social media with e-commerce, which has made online retail and digital wallet use a large part of the Chinese shopping experience.  We can already see that the US and other Western countries are quickly following suit. Some sites are already equipped with the “buy it” button, but as more apps develop mobile payment services—Snapchat has already done it— the digital wallet will come to be the next big thing in the US. Internet marketing experts claim that social selling will increase by over 50 percent by the end of 2016. Thus, expect continued integration between social networks and online retail in the coming year.

  1. Vlogging will Become Increasingly Popular

Vlogging (video blogging) has already gained quite a large amount of traction in the US and is poised to take this trend to the next level. Vloggers and micro-vloggers own the world of YouTube and other online platforms. Self-broadcasting is a way to feel a close (if fleeting) connection with both acquaintances and strangers despite the distance. At the same time, more and more brands are realizing the benefits of social videos. Snapchat, Vine, Instavid and other platforms have made it easy for companies to display products and services through audio and visual storytelling. Expect this trend to grow in popularity next year.

  1. More Pinterest

Pinterest’s focus on goods separates it from others in the social media pack. Other platforms target job seekers and networkers, connect friends, get news or even listen to music. The audience is predominantly women in their 30s with young families — a group that does the majority of the shopping. They find information on a multitude of products and services for their families on the website. The appeal lies in the fact that the site rolls the “search function” of shopping and the “social function” of sharing into one package.

Research reveals that there are 47 million users on Pinterest and the audience is expected to grow. In fact, Pinterest has become the fastest growing social network, surpassing Instagram. In the last six months of 2014, active users increased by 111%, and members increased by 57%. Even though it is still maturing when it comes to advertising, some experts speculate it may one day drive more sales than Facebook. If your business is image-centric — i.e., food, fashion or home décor — then you should definitely consider having a presence on Pinterest.

Have you thought about how any of these trends will fit into your overall marketing picture? Perhaps you are already using Pinterest to increase sales or are seeing the fruits of a well designed website. As with any discipline, it pays to stay on top of things and grow accordingly!

Joseph Grano Blog, Homepage Post

How do you create brands that consumers love?

Fortune.com recently published an article detailing how to build a killer brand like Apple. We ate it up, and now want to share our take on the whole thing with you.

It’s no secret that the Apple brand is a beautiful thing. It is strong. It stands out. It is chic. As Apple consumers (the Next-Mark team included), we constantly crave the shiniest, thinnest, fastest products with the most storage space. In short, we love to love Apple. But how do we create brands that consumers love?

If you already have a brand, you’re one step ahead of the game. But it better have some sex appeal. Solid brands — think Apple, Amazon and Starbucks — just sell. Period. Fortune.com refers to these as apostle brands. It takes as little as one photo of a slick new iPhone, major megapixel GoPro or creamy Cotton Candy Crème Frappuccino and we’re practically drooling.

But not all companies can accomplish the foam-at-the-mouth-gotta-have-it-now sensation. The article notes that of the 10,000 multi-million-dollar consumer companies in existence, only 100 can properly claim to have apostle brands. It is these beauties that charm and enchant us by giving us exactly what we want — even if we don’t always know what that is. Sadly, weak brands get cast aside, find a home on the shelf while their prices drop and are then sought after by bargain shoppers.

Synthesized from the book “Rocket: Eight Lessons to Secure Infinite Growth,” the rules, in our opinion, may not be right for every organization. However, they do serve as thought-provoking ideas for creating, and transforming, brands. For instance:

Rule No. 1: Don’t ask your customers what they want (because they don’t know until you show them). We would advise not to discount the desires of the people actually using your product or service, but to leverage your specific knowledge and technical expertise to create something beyond their expectations.

Rule No. 2: Woo your biggest fans (because they’re absolutely worth it). We always advise clients that loyalty goes both ways, and loyal customers need to feel they are recognized and that you won’t let them down.

Rule No. 3: Always welcome your customer’s scorn (because you’ll come back stronger). Yes, this is difficult, but all complaints must be considered – even those that prove invalid. You can never know too much about what your customers are thinking.

Rule No. 4: Looks do count (because people really do judge a book by its cover). Not every company can aspire to the “visual brilliance” that is Disney, but they should, at the very least, appear professional and in touch with their target markets.

Rule No. 5: Transform your employees into passionate disciples (because love is truly infectious). While this rule addressed direct customer service, we encourage our clients to consider every employee as a potential brand advocate. This entails keeping them apprised of where you’re going so they can help you get there.

Rule No. 6: Better ramp up your virtual relationships (because that’s what your customers are doing). It’s a “constant contact” world, and we advise our clients to keep all their circuits open.

Rule No. 7: Take giant leaps (because you’re not going to win with timid steps). We would add the caveat that “fearlessness” cannot be the mantra of every organization. Organic growth is not always a bad thing.

Rule No. 8: Find out what schismogenesis means (because it will save your relationships). It’s like we tell our clients: Brands are not static. They can have lives of their own and require constant monitoring to maintain their place in the market – and their apostles.

Our final piece of advice: Make your brand magical, inspiring, trustworthy, loyal and easy to love.

 

 

 

 

 

Joseph Grano Homepage Post, News

Next-Mark Adds Two Key Leadership Positions

For Immediate Release

SARASOTA, Fla. (July 16, 2015) – Next-Mark, a full-service marketing agency based in Sarasota, FL has announced the appointment of two new fundamental members of its team. Recent hires Jesse Brockmeyer has been appointed Director of Creative Strategy and Jamie Grim, Manager of Client Experience. Both Jesse and Jamie will play key roles in conceptualizing and developing creative strategy and content for Next-Mark’s client portfolio.

Originally from the Midwest where he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Montana, Jesse comes to Next-Mark with an unparalleled background in creative design and project management skills. “A strong conceptual thinker, Jesse possesses a self-starter attitude that will be a great addition to our team as we continue to work with our existing clients, and take on new ones,” said Joseph Grano, president of Next-Mark.

Before joining Next-Mark, Jamie served as a marketing communications specialist at HonorHealth, a multi-hospital health system in Scottsdale, Arizona. Prior to that she was employed by Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland in their marketing department. “With extensive knowledge in the healthcare marketing sector, Jamie will play a significant role in managing and cultivating our healthcare client relationships as she has already proved herself an integral part of our team,” said Grano.

About Next-Mark
Next-Mark was founded in 2005 to help client organizations reach their full potential through marketing success. Breaking away from the constraints of traditional marketing service organizations, the Next-Mark team facilitates new conversations about their client brands integrating experience, analytics and innovation in developing strategic marketing solutions to meet clients’ individual needs. Next-Mark focuses on internationally and nationally recognized brands along with growing companies across a broad spectrum of categories, including healthcare, technology, retail, real estate, environmental, marine products and tourism, among others. With clients from Alaska to The Netherlands, its roster includes industry leaders such as LexisNexis, Elsevier, Nuance Communications, Westfield Corporation, California Pizza Kitchen, CitySide Apartments of Sarasota, Ad-Vance Talent Solutions, Ascom Wireless among many others. For more information, visit their website at www.next-mark.com.

# # #

Jesse
Jesse Brockmeyer, Director, Creative Strategy
Jamie
Jamie Grim, Manager of Client Experience

 

Joseph Grano Blog, Homepage Post

PR is Changing!

We often hear or read about how the marketing world is constantly evolving and changing and how companies must constantly adapt new strategies and evolve in order to remain successful in such transient times. However, what we do not hear enough about, is how public relations has changed, and how companies must modify and tweak their PR practices in order to remain successful. We as a marketing communications organization know that the PR world is in rapid change. The following are a few trends that are pressing organizations and public relations professionals to revaluate their strategies and step up their game.

  1. Relationships with Reporters have become Transactional

Whilst working for Next-Mark, I’ve found it has been very important to develop and foster relationships with key journalists not only because it can benefit both parties but also because this can turn a negative story into a positive one. However with that being said, relying on those relationships to get the desired coverage for your company or clients is not enough. Relying solely on these relationships to get coverage does not show that your capacity to understand your companies or clients desired message and how you can fit that into the ever-changing editorial needs of your target publications. A lot of times, timing, relevancy and a degree of creativity can trump relationships.

  1. Innovation and Creativity Are Now More Important Than Ever

Today, writing bylines and arranging meetings with reporters and clients won’t allow you to remain competitive in the PR world. This might have worked in the past but things have changed. Today, a good blog post or a creative social media post has the potential to generate as much brand awareness as a well-written story in a news publication. PR professionals now have to be comfortable experimenting with innovative stories, and using a variety of platforms and formats. Generating newsworthy content that journalists are interested in using has become increasingly difficult, so it is encouraging PR professionals to think more out of the box and push the limits.

  1. Understand the Details

While I am still early on in my career, one thing that has been clear since I started working in the PR industry is that if you work for an agency, it is of the utmost importance to understand not only the industry in which your clients operate, but also understand the company itself and their desired brand message. You must become a subject matter expert. This has always been the case however, what has changed over time, is how much PR professionals are expected to understand and the reliance on them to make critical and timely decisions. A successful PR expert will develop a deep understanding of the industry and of an organizations products. If you do not do these things, guaranteed someone will be found that will!

Through all the brand communications it has been and always will be important to select the relevant channels and collaborate on the activation. In order to keep up with the times we must be brace and creative in all areas of communication, and while everything is changing, we need to remember to incorporate strategy in all that we do.

Trying to navigate the PR world – I know we can help – just ask!