Hello, again reader! We are getting closer to making a social media marketing expert out of you! Today’s post is going to touch upon values, ethics, and overall positioning that you will want to take on as a newcomer to the brand Olympics!
Okay, so far, we have taught you how to begin to establish yourself as a brand and how to start setting up your persona on the web to appeal to your consumer. Now, it’s time to talk about how to correctly position your brand to continue creating and nurturing that bond that you’re building with your customer base.
To start, let’s look at some leaders in the industry who are doing just that. The first one I want to look at is my favourite ice cream company, Ben and Jerry’s. In 2017, Ben and Jerry’s released the following article on their website (see here) expressing their take on the Black Lives Matter movement, their stance on LGBTQ* marriage, and the idea of “prisoners to profits”. Along with their delicious ice cream, Ben and Jerry’s has been known to hire those who were previously incarcerated and are now trying to find their way in life after being released. They pay all of their workers a liveable wage and foster an environment that challenges the status quo. As of 2020, the average Ben and Jerry’s employee makes $18.13/hour, working out to nearly $37,000 a year. Ben and Jerry’s takes their values and the values of their consumers to heart and express that in every action that they take. The reason their ice cream is as expensive as it is is that they believe that their employees deserve to make enough money to live a comfortable life. It’s a business model that has worked out remarkably well for them and is one of the biggest reasons why their fans are as dedicated as they are! Also, can we talk about the flavour variety! Are you kidding me?! They put BROWNIE BATTER into ice cream- genius. Also, they’ve quickly become one of the leaders in dairy-free ice cream that doesn’t taste dairy-free- that, along with their choice to use ethically sourced ingredients, are just more reasons why this brand is as amazing as it is.
Now, how does this work its way into social media marketing? Easy. Take your consumers' ethics and values into consideration when you are marketing to them, A great way to figure out what your target audiences care about is to ask. It sounds simple, but by doing just a little bit of research, you will be able to get some invaluable information. Let’s look at a brand that did their research and who know exactly what their consumer base cares about: Dove. Dove has been around, and a staple in my own household, for many, many years. They mainly feature women of varied ages and cultural backgrounds in their ads and have always made it a point to do so. Thanks to the invention of social media, the pressure for women to attain society’s beauty standards has never been higher. Dove took notice of this back in 2013 and released the Dove Real Beauty Sketches campaign. In the ad, a sketch artist sits with a series of women. They are seated, separated by a sheet so they cannot see each other. He asks each woman to describe themselves in detail; the shape of their eyes, their hair, their facial features. He creates a sketch based on their descriptions. The women then meet each other and get to know one another. Then, once again, the women are seated with the artist. However, this time they are to describe each other. In the end, the women look at the 2 different sketches and realize that how their counterparts viewed them was vastly different from how they viewed themselves. Overall, the message was touching and really drove home Dove’s entire brand position about empowering women and how every woman is beautiful as she is. This video was shared all over social media and the video is still on their website today.
These two brands brilliantly formed their values and ethics based on those of their consumers and this is something you should strive for when you’re building your brand. Take a look at your demographic, figure out what their values are. What issues do they care about? Take this information and work it into your brand positioning. This will not only set you apart from other brands, but it will only build and strengthen the foundation of trust and loyalty from your customer base.
Aside from gaining consumer trust and loyalty, when you’re building your online persona and establishing your position, you need to make sure that your values are evident in your posts. This can be done in the form of change-making (petitions) or simply using your platform to spread a message. Another awesome idea would be pairing up with a non-profit organization or foundation that aligns with your values. You will be able to reach a broader range of potential consumers while also further strengthening existing business-consumer relationships. As long as your posts are appropriate and relevant and align with your consumer’s value base, you can’t go wrong.
Brand positioning takes time, research, and effort but, if done well, I promise you that it will pay off tenfold.
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