Too short for a blog post, too interesting to ignore, here are a few snippets on what I’ve been thinking about lately.

Content creator angst

I am finding it harder and harder to post on social media. I feel like it has become a performance. People are trying to out-vulnerable each other.

I just want to do good work. Spending one second of my life editing a Reel seems like a waste of a second that will never come back.

Perhaps this is why I like writing. Create. Let it sit. Make it sing. And it doesn’t disappear.

There’s no schtick to it.

Content you can create in your underwear. Now that’s livin’.

Content creator angst part deux

My friends and colleagues are constantly debating any system tweak that pleases the LinkedIn algorithm. The major theme is to post stuff that generates comments. LinkedIn wants conversations.

I generally do not write for comments, but sometimes I stumble into it.

A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of myself sleeping on a bench in the Amsterdam airport after canceled flights and a hotel foul-up. It received more than 82,000 views.

The following week, I posted a helpful, original article reflecting on Peter Drucker’s unique wisdom and how his “five questions” remain relevant to marketing today. This post, which took about four hours to write, received 2,000 views, or about 3% of the airport post.

This suggests that the key to engagement on LinkedIn is goofy personal photos. But before you follow this path of least resistance, keep asking yourself — for LinkedIn and ALL social media activity — “to what end?”

Engagement is largely a vanity metric. You can engage yourself broke. Marketing is about creating customers.

It’s all about the feeling

New research shows that 42% of teens say that talking about their feelings is important to them, and brands are responding. McDonald’s new “Draw How You Feel” Happy Meal boxes trade the classic red for a blank canvas. This ties into a broader trend of experiential and wellness-driven packaging.

Built around the finding that 85% of teenage girls aren’t meeting recommended physical activity guidelines, Nike and Spotify launched Make Moves to encourage girls to move to just one song a day, using music to make physical activity more joyful and emotionally accessible. A UK pilot with 700 girls showed a 20% improvement in confidence and a 19% decrease in regular feelings of anxiety.

Experiential marketing is such a huge opportunity and is largely overlooked.

More about experiences

My new book, How AI Changes Your Customers, details six ways AI is rewiring human psychology.

Chief among these is cognitive offloading, addiction, and a trend to form trusting emotional connections with chatbots.

But pay attention to the news. There’s a backlash trend emerging.

Young people are rediscovering the joy of gathering. I’ve recently seen articles about young people watching movies together, listening to vinyl albums straight through at parties, and a surge in the popularity of board games:

How can your company help bring people together like this and be part of this trend?

Keeping pace with AI

The AI world is changing so rapidly. I think there are three key strategies to keep up:

1. Schedule time to dabble every day. Most platforms have a free or trial version. Push the envelope and experiment.
2. Subscribe to at least one podcast, newsletter, or video series commenting on the latest updates and releases. I really love the Artificial Intelligence podcast hosted by Paul Roetzer.
3. Join a community of like-minded people who are experimenting and can teach you by association. One option for marketers is RISE. You can’t stay relevant on your own.

We need to find new channels

Here’s another reason why looking at alternatives like experiential marketing and word-of-mouth makes sense: Social media use appears to be in decline. A roud-up of research I’ve seen:

• A 2025 Deloitte consumer trends survey of more than 4,000 Brits found that nearly a quarter of all consumers had deleted a social media app in the previous 12 months (inclund one-third of Gen Z)
• Social media use has steadily declined since time spent on the platforms peaked in 2022, according to an analysis of the online habits of 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries by the Financial Times and digital audience insights firm GWI. Globally, adults 16 and over spent an average of two hours and 20 minutes per day on social platforms by the end of 2024, down almost 10% since 2022. The decline was particularly pronounced among teens and 20-somethings…
• Young people who are deleting their social media platforms cite the increasing pressures of being online as well as damage to their mental health as causes. Deloitte’s consumer survey found that nearly a quarter of respondents who deleted social apps reported that these apps had negatively affected their mental health and consumed too much of their time.

Implementing AI in your company

Long ago, I led a Fortune 100 company into the digital age.

The marketing world faced the same distractions — lots of sexy opportunities to make a splash on social media, with easy-to-measure “Likes.”

I was more successful than almost any competitor in my space by staying strictly focused on one thing: Digital applications that could directly make us money or save us money.

And, like today, measurement with absolute attribution was difficult. But you know what great managers pay attention to?” Stories, like “hey, a customer just raved about how easy it is to do business with our new eCommerce system.”

I think this is still an effective implementation playbook: 1) Focus tightly on making money and saving money instead of vanity metrics; 2) Look for qualitative measures like comments and stories as a success indicator, at least at first.

Thanks for reading along with me today. I never take you for granted!

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

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A friend commented to me the other day, “The Marketing Rebellion is happening right before our eyes. In the crisis of the pandemic, big companies are being forced to demonstrate true compassion and empathy. They have to be more human. This is what you predicted in your book.”

That’s a very nice compliment, but is it true?

My friend is referring to a manifesto I wrote calling for more human-centered marketing — outlined in my book Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins.

I’ve contended that small companies are ideally positioned to be “the most human company” in their communities, but large brands are too locked into obsolete ideas about marketing and agency relationships that prevent them from adjusting to new consumer realities. They’re asleep.

Is the pandemic forcing companies to adopt a more human approach, and will this transcend the crisis?

Are companies waking up?

“Of the community”

One of my favorite lessons from the book comes Fabio Tambosi, now a brand executive with Adidas. He provided an example where he created highly-successful World Cup promotions in the streets of cities, neighborhoods, and the poor favelas of Brazil.

His explanation: “Today a brand can’t just be in a community. It has to be OF the community.”

So far, the rebellion has largely been led by emerging young marketers who look at our world of spam, interruption, robo-calls, and “lead nurturing” and think, “why would we do that to one another?”

In this world where every brand is trying to jump on the purpose-driven marketing bandwagon, we’ve become weary of hazy, agency-driven promises of sustainability and social good. We want to SEE something happening in our own lives and communities. And NOW is the time it has to happen.

I’ve written that in this coronavirus crisis, most companies have to wipe the marketing slate clean and focus on a customer base that is suffering, grieving, and worried about basic human needs.

We see some evidence this change, this rebellion, is happening. One study showed that in a period of just a few weeks in March, 86 percent of marketers had pivoted to change their approach and message.

My observation is that some of the biggest brands were slow out of the gate. Coca-Cola and Audi changed their logos in a cute way to support social distancing. But that isn’t really “of the community,” is it? That’s not getting down into the streets and neighborhoods.

Finally, we’re seeing a number of companies roll up their sleeves and working in the trenches to solve problems and connect with customers where they are now. Their marketing is “at the tip of the shovel:”

• Burger King waived delivery fees, provided free burgers to students, and delivered meals to hospital workers in hundreds of communities.
• Fashion brand Everlane is donating all profits from the sale of its 100% Human collection to Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund, providing food and supplies to local food banks nationwide.
• Cottonelle pledged $1 million and one million rolls of toilet paper to United Way Worldwide’s COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund.
• Frozen food brand Steak-umm leveraged its popular Twitter account to share tips on handling the pandemic and to dispel misinformation regarding the coronavirus. It’s been doing such a good job that it’s received recognition and endorsement from medical and health institutions.
• Household appliance brand Dyson plans to shift production to make 15,000 ventilators to support the global response to the pandemic.
• To promote self-care and help reduce anxiety during the coronavirus outbreak, fitness brand Lululemon is offering a variety of free yoga, workout, and meditation classes through its online community #thesweatlife. 
• Luxury retailer Nordstrom is using its alterations teams to sew more than 100,000 masks, which will be sanitized and donated to Providence Health & Services, a nonprofit that operates hospitals in multiple states. 

The common idea here is that even the largest brands are finding ways to meaningfully serve people on a local level.

It gives me hope that lessons in human-centered marketing will be learned that can transcend the crisis and help the Marketing Rebellion take hold.

However …

I hope these meaningful efforts will amount to something more than a short-term PR initiative and that the idea of a human-centered approach to marketing will stick.

But we’re also seeing many brands show that they are nowhere near this goal.

We’ve been into this crisis for a couple of months now, and companies unable to disconnect from their legally-approved scripts and Mad Men-era advertising sensibilities are grating on me.

Here is a great example of the emotional disconnect the biggest brands have put on display. Watch this short video. It’s a hilarious illustration of how many companies are just checking a box when it comes to connecting in a crisis:

If you can’t see the video, view here on YouTube: Annoying pandemic ads

So let’s get back to the original question — is the pandemic creating an environment that is forcing the kind of overhaul in marketing I predict in my book?

Here’s the way I look at it. I’m sure my book is right. We don’t have a choice but to connect to customers on their terms. The customer is in control. The customer is the marketer.

The pandemic is accelerating the inevitable. 

• For example, brick and mortar retail locations are closing now instead of five years from now.
• Working from home has probably been pushed ahead by 10 years.
• The race to create enhanced online commerce and digital experiences has hit hyperdrive.

Look at any long-term societal prediction and it’s happening faster now.

Same for marketing. Nobody believes ads. Nobody wants ads, especially the sappy memes featured in the video I shared. The world is demanding a new, more human-centered approach to marketing and this is also accelerating now.

Some companies don’t get it. They’ll never get it. They’ll become a meme and a symbol of irrelevance.

Our customers are suffering and need real help. They need to see their favorite brands at the ground level doing something bold and meaningful. Our customers need to recover some sense of confidence that the future is something they should invest in, with you.

That’s human. That’s meaningful.

And that’s what people will remember on the other side of this pandemic.

The most human company wins.

Note: I’ve prepared an inspirational, 30-minute virtual presentation designed for weekly team meetings. Filled with inspirational case studies and real-world solutions, it’s called “Fighting to The Other Side.” To learn more, or to bring this to your next meeting, send me a message here.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Is the pandemic driving a new marketing rebellion? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Since I wrote an article on small business marketing, I decided to ask my friends to help me out with entrepreneurial photos to “decorate the post.” Have fun on this crowd-sourced post as you see some of my entrepreneur friends in action, starting above with Tracey Matney!

A few years ago, I interviewed a researcher in New York about the most significant marketing mega-trends. Chief on her list was that the most effective marketing was becoming “artisanal,” meaning that it had to be local, conversational, and connected to an individual or community.

I asked her, “How will giant brands like airlines and car companies survive in this environment?”

She thought for a long moment and said, “I don’t know.”

The future favors the small

I believe that small business owners (like rising star Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez) are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the marketing rebellion before us.

Here’s an interesting thing to consider. If you list every negative trend in the general marketing world, you’ll see why big businesses are hurting and small businesses are positioned to win:

• People are not seeing big-budget broadcast advertising. Ad-free subscription services like Spotify and Netflix dominate our attention.
• Major digital advertising programs are jeopardized by new privacy laws and moves by Google and others to end the use of cookies.
• Ruthless cheaters with unfettered access to our customers flood the market with cheap knock-offs, threatening the biggest companies and their hard-won national brands.

Now let’s look at some of the most important marketing trends driving success today:

• 

  People don’t believe ads and company spin. They believe business owners, entrepreneurs, and technical experts (like Karima-Catherine Goundiam).

• Increasingly the personal brand Is the company brand as people seek an organic personal connection to the companies they love. You probably love and admire a business owner in your community. Who do you love at Verizon, for example?
• Big companies can’t plaster billboards around a city touting how involved they are in the community. We want people to show up. You can no longer just be “in” a city, you have to be “of” the city.
• Direct-to-consumer online models have disintermediated the advantage of shopping mall scale.
• Platforms like Shopify, Etsy, and eBay are opening up global commerce for even the smallest businesses.

This is why I’m so bullish on the potential for small business marketing success in this era. Every important business trend seems to be tipping their way, at least to those who really understand what’s going on in this dramatic Marketing Rebellion.

Small business on the rise

A study found that more than $17 billion in consumer product goods (CPG) industry sales have shifted from large players to small ones since 2013!

Sales among “extra small” brands — those generating annual sales under $100 million — rose 4.9 percent, the fastest-growing CPG segment, according to market research firm IRI.

In contrast, large players saw their combined market share drop to 55.5 percent, from 57.7 percent, during the same period.

Let’s go back to that question I asked at the top of the post … “How will big brands survive in this consumer rebellion?”

The expert didn’t know at the time, but an answer is emerging. The big companies know they can’t adjust and are snapping up the smaller “artisanal brands” at a rapid rate. If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.

A few examples:

• P&G snaps up small toothpaste company
• Coca Cola snaps us Texas “cult” favorite Topo Chico
• Campbell Soups buys California organic soup company to appeal to Millennials

Of course, this is also good news for small company founders who newly-minted millionaires!

The small business marketing formula

There are lots of ideas for small businesses in the Marketing Rebellion book but if I were a small business owner (wait … I am!) here are the key small business marketing ideas to focus on:

1. The customer is the marketer

Two-thirds of our marketing is occurring without us.

How do we get invited into the online and offline stories being told by our best customers? How do we help them do their job? Make the customer the hero of your marketing.

How do we create something so unmissable, cool and conversational that people cannot wait to talk about us and carry the story forward?

2. Show up

People don’t want to see photos of your president handing a check to the United Way. They want to see you involved in the community.

Don’t just lend a hand. be the hand. This is hard for the big companies to pull off so get out there and show your community love. Show up where your customers want to find you. Let them see how you care.

3. Be the brand

For a small business, the founder is normally the face of the company. This is a huge advantage in this marketing environment.

Great branding means building an emotional connection between what you do and your customers. Increasingly, that is a person, not a coupon or a product attribute.

Jon Ferrara, pictured here, is a role model for this idea. Jon is so gracious, generous, and accessible, that you can’t help but love his company, Nimble, because you simply love him. In everything he does, Jon puts his family, customers, and employees before his own interests.

My book KNOWN teaches you how to build a strong personal brand in the digital age. This is an essential tactic in the Marketing Rebellion era!

4. Engineer “peak moments”

Build exciting, unexpected delights into mundane customer interactions. When you give people something to talk about, they will.

Jessika Phillips — that’s her in the blue suit in the front — engineers peak moments into every customer engagement and event. Somehow she has made Lima, Ohio, the summertime epicenter of the social media marketing world through her fun and inspiring event.

She creates so much positive buzz that people can’t wait to attend or speak there. The customer is the marketer!

Think about how you can build peak moments into every customer touchpoint.

5. Bring people together

In the end, The Most Human Company Wins

How does a small business do that?

By showing your face, your smile, your heart, and passion at every opportunity. One of the best ways to do this is to bring people together. Celebrate something. Teach something. Connect people and let them see how amazing you and your employees are!

Julia Bramble, shown here, is becoming an evangelist for helping people “belong” as part of a marketing strategy. Obviously I agree with her. I think it is one of the most powerful things we can do!

There has probably been no better time in the history of the world to start a business. Small business marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Just focus on one thing: Be the most human company in your niche.

Make sense?

That is the end of my post. But let’s keep going with my cool entrepreneurial friend photos. Every one of them is trying to make a dent in the world! 

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post The small business marketing formula to dominate your niche appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I came across this charming ad from Coca-Cola. It’s from 1890. It’s obviously from another era, but the intent behind the brand is the same — Coke is trying to evoke an emotion of youthful vigor and sophistication … all at a good price.

Some things never change, but mostly they do. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. How has the idea of “brand” evolved over the decades?

What did “brand” mean in the 1800s? 1900s? The “Mad Man” days … versus what is happening now? Are some fundamentals of branding foundational and evergreen, or is the idea of “the brand” shifting toward something new?

I have some of my own ideas about this, but I polled some of my smart friends and they came through for me with some great perspectives. Let’s get into this fascinating debate.

Branding is more important than ever

I first started studying this question of brand evolution in 2014 as I was writing The Content Code. In this book I envisioned a new content marketing approach required by a world filled with far too much content. One conclusion: Branding in the modern world is more important than ever.

Content marketing today is a war for attention. If you already have some brand recognition, and maybe even an emotional response to a certain brand, you have an advantage in winning the war.

But how we gain that attention and sustain that meaningful emotion is changing dramatically, as my friends tell us:

Evelyn Starr, CEO and Founder E. Starr Associates

Branding is not the same today. There has been a huge shift in the idea of a brand, from a manufactured image to a collection of experiences. It is the reason companies are now focused on customer experience. The most forward-thinking companies realize that employee experience makes the customer experience. Progressive CEOs I have interviewed have literally said “my employees are 98% of our brand.”

In the past, companies could influence their brand image by tapping the dominant media of the time — TV, radio, print. But they were never really in control, which is why when social media came along things unraveled so fast.

Samantha Stone, Founder and CEO Marketing Advisory Network

The goal of a brand in the Mad Men era was to sell something. Today, our primary goal remains to sell something. However, the most durable brands also have a goal to stand for something — not only to their customers but for their team.

Carlos Oramas, CEO GEMS Group

The work of the Mad Men time aimed at having people aspire to belong to the brand, whereas today brands aim to belong to the people.

Chad Illa-Petersen, Founder Social Chadvisor

An old-school definition of brand: “a particular identity or image regarded as an asset.”

This is still the case. The identities, images that represent the “brand” may have changed, but “the brand” is still your biggest asset. Whether that’s is people, causes, quality, or a tiger on a cereal box, your brand is still the thing that makes you grrrreat

Shannah Haley, Director of Communications, City of Plano

Marketing still touches on the issue of creating attention (building awareness), but it’s much more about creating experiences (including the issues of FOMO and belonging) that lead to trust.

Gene Petrov, CEO Petrov LMC

The highest aim of a brand should be to serve people not necessarily sell. I think we are moving closer to that ideal, but it is obviously still a work in progress.

Jeff Thomas, President 30dps

Branding is still about being noticed and recognized, but it’s so much more about THEM (the customers) instead of US (the marketer). I still run into marketers who think that branding is all about self (who WE are as a company). While brands must be authentic (and transparent) to succeed, if the brand isn’t first and foremost about THEM, I believe they are ultimately doomed to failure.

Tyler Lessard, VP Marketing Vidyard

It feels like we’ve moved from a “one-dimensional” world of brand which was flat and static (Mad Men advertising, one way push), to a two-dimensional world of brand that is two-way and real-time (social media). We’re on the cusp of the “3D” brand where it’s a living organism. How it acts and behaves is just just as important as what it says.

Nir Betan, COO at StudeoHQ

The erosion of centralized control is one of the biggest paradigm shifts in branding today and is likely to only accelerate.

My own view

• Many aspects of branding are the same … and always will be. The “Four Ps” are still solid – Place, Product, Promotion, and Price all matter, all communicate. I would add a fifth P in some cases – Purpose, which is quite different form the MadMen days.
• Great branding requires that you connect some emotion to your product that compels a customer to buy.
• Creating a long-lasting brand image — like Disney, Nike, or American Express — is important. But increasingly, branding is in-the-moment as consumers are always-on, always discovering, always reacting to the pulse of the culture. Example: Budweiser created a campaign in 12 hours based on a single strange event at a baseball game.
• A brand used to be about changing a consumer. Today, it is more about respecting a consumer’s ability to make up their own mind and coming alongside them.
• A brand used to be what we told you. Today, a brand is what consumers tell each other. Marketing today is about earning a place in that conversation. The customer is the marketer. How do we help them do that job?

What would you add?

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Is the idea of “brand” constant or evolving? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

[podcast_player]

By Mark Schaefer

I first learned about online retailer Everlane from a close friend. She raved about the honesty and transparency of the company — every clothing item on the site comes with a break-down of the actual cost of the product, with links to where the item is manufactured. She became a fan because the company is disrupting the traditional economic model of retailing.

Now, Everlane founder Michael Preysman is on another mission — to eliminate plastic from the company’s supply chain. Every company employee is obsessed with eliminating plastic, as reported in this Fast Company article.

Everlane is launching a sneaker brand called Tread that attempts to have minimal environmental impact. It partnered with The New York Times to share facts on climate change.

But here’s the part of the story that connected with me on a personal level. Preysman was trying to find something to eat at an airport and bought McDonald’s hamburgers because they were the only item he could find that wasn’t wrapped in plastic. This is a great example of how a company is congruent with its environmental stand, and an example of values-based marketing at its best. He demonstrating that big changes start with small acts like this.

This story connected to me deeply on an emotional level because it was:

• Interesting — This leader is walking the talk
• Relevant — I’m interested in the environment
• Authentic — This was not a story manufactured by a PR factory.

Those are the elements of a story primed for transmission! Buying a hamburger to reduce an environmental footprint became a story I am now transmitting to you. I have become the marketing department for Everlane.

And, I went to their site and bought a jacket.

But here is where it gets interesting. What happens when Everlane employees are obsessing over eliminating plastic instead of doing their actual jobs? Or, has this become the job?

On the new episode of The Marketing Companion, Brooke Sellas observes that Everlane is exhibiting many characteristics on a non-profit. Is that a glimpse of the future of marketing? Will we be seeing successful companies organize and operate more like a non-profit?

Such an interesting discussion. You won’t want to miss this episode!

But wait! There’s more!

• ASMR is a new marketing and YouTube sensation. Never heard of it? Don’t worry. You’ll get a full-on demonstration on this episode!
• The retail apocalypse is upon us. If you depend on a brick-and-mortar business, what can you do to survive?
• Karen Quintos is Dell’s Chief Customer Officer. She explains why listening and serving is key to marketing success.

Click here to dive into this amazing show!

Click on this link to listen to Episode 160

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By Mark Schaefer

I recently had an interesting conversation with my friend Jeremy Floyd, the CEO of FinWorx, and he made a provocative comment. “When we create material for our customers, we never call it content,” he said. “Content has become the enemy.”

He had my attention!

“Content is like a food buffet that feeds Google,” he continued. “If Google wants corn this week, we feed it corn. If Google wants steak, we feed it steak. Maybe we try to create better steak so Google will choose us, but it’s still a content buffet that benefits Google, maybe more than it benefits us. I’m in the personal services business. I wonder if serving that buffet helps us or hurts us in the long run?”

Our discussion continued along the lines of the food analogy.

“Instead, I wonder if we shouldn’t be serving up some sort of gourmet entree that becomes our specialty, some dish that only we are known for? When they see it, they know … it’s us. Maybe the key is something highly, highly specialized. Maybe it is an experience.”

The Economist lesson

This debate made me think of a recent interview I did with Jeff Pundyk of The Economist. I was doing research to learn how traditional publishers are dealing with the forced march into the social media news stream and talked to a number of publication editors. All of them expressed various shades of fear, confusion, and dread.

Except The Economist.

This is what Jeff said:

“In order for us to succeed in this content revolution we have to control the environment.  We’ve created a thought leader salon. It’s an experience. The magazine was founded in 1863 and if somebody from back then saw it today, it would feel familiar. I think that is an advantage we have … the experience of the content.

“I don’t see the print publication going away any time soon. We still have millions of print subscribers and they love it. Even when we talk to millennials they like the print version. We are in good shape today because our content is an experience.”

In the space of two short paragraphs, Jeff used the word “experience” three times. He’s not serving the content buffet. He’s cooking up an experience. And in a world where the traditional news magazine is dying, The Economist is thriving with their “experience” mindset.

Should that be our goal? Forget about content and create a unique experience?

Branding versus experience

Perhaps the idea of “experience” over content is just another term for solid branding.

I used to work in the packaging business and I was on a team challenged by Coca-Cola to create an aluminum can that was shaped like a Coke bottle. This concept tested the limits of physics but Coke was relentless. “We want people to know our product by touch,” they said. “We want them to know it’s a Coke even if they are reaching into a dark cooler and they can’t see a thing.”

Essentially, Coke is surrounding their colored sugar water with an experience. And eventually, they got what they wanted.

Here’s another example of experience as brand. In my book KNOWN, I have an awesome story about Isadora Becker. Isadora records cooking videos. How many people in the world do that? A bajillion. Really. I looked it up.

But Isadora stands out and became known in her native Brazil by delivering an experience. She cooks famous recipes from the movies and TV, and dresses up like the characters from the shows. At the top of the post you saw her as Marge Simpson (making Homer’s donuts). Here she is as a Ghostbuster:

When Isadora creates her cooking videos, she never thinks about keywords, SEO, or a content strategy. She is delivering a fun and unique experience that has become her brand. And now, she is known.

What are your thoughts? As we strive to stand out in an increasingly competitive and information-dense world, should we create content, or create experiences?

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Why content is your enemy and experiences are your friend appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.