How to avoid brand failure in a world of social media

Customers have in many ways taken control away from brands – turning their passions, or voice consternation over what they see as unfair company practices, into web content that catches fire – and moves quickly to the top of social media and search results.

But increasingly, we are seeing examples of brands who bury their head in the sand, or worse, when it comes to engaging customers. Now the turn commes to Volvo - a perfect story of brand failure that was discussed by Steve Rosenbaum of Magnify.net.

About two years ago, someone built a collection of videos on Magnify.net called Volvo Cars. This was a fan site, lots of sexy car shots.

About six months after the site went up, a team from Volvo legal contacted them. The claim was that the site had violated Volvo’s trademark, and had to be taken down.

He says that in about three seconds he was able to come up with a whole bunch of Volvo fan sites that the word Volvo in them, and in fact, it wasn’t clear to him what about the site bothered Volvo. He wrote back and pointed out that sites like macdonaldssucks.com, walmartsucks.org, whydellsucks.com and ihatedell.net have been theire a long time. He pointed out to the Volvo team that if changing VolvoCars to VolvoSucks would solve their concern - They apparently went strangely silent after that.

But now that Ford has sold Volvo to the Chinese car company Geely Corp., the web’s brand police are back in business. He got this lovely legal letter from the attorney’s at Volvo yet again.

It’s almost funny. A site that has videos of Volvo fans is being sent a take down notice by Volvo for LOVING THEIR PRODUCTS?

Brands need to adopt if they want to survive in the world where customers have taken control of the message:

1. Brands no longer control the conversation. So be nice. Invite customers to share, and don’t expect only positive feedback
2. Rules of conduct are ok. You can edit language of belligerent posts or video: but don’t take down criticism, it’s part of the conversation
3. Invite customers in. You’d rather have feedback in your curated conversation, than on a YourBrandSucks.com site
4. Customers are your marketing department. Zappos figured it out. Happy customers tweet, facebook, and blog your brand story
5. Everyone matters. If you only focus on twitter accounts with large followers, you miss the opportunity to grow your fan base from the ground up

The conclusion is – the world is moving fast, and getting noisy. Without your involvement, the unhappy customers will be the loudest voices talking about your brand. But if you embrace and amplify your fans – you have a chance at turning the brand conversation into a supportive and engaged community.

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How to avoid brand failure in a world where customers have taken control — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/xka

About the author

Torben Rick Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement and development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland View full profile

About the author

	Torben Rick
Experienced senior executive, both at a strategic and operational level, with strong track record in developing, driving and managing business improvement and development and change management. International experience from management positions in Denmark, Germany and Switzerland View full profile