Inspiration
Inspiration for this post got to me when I was attending a business convention here in Umeå a few weeks ago. This was a convention for younger people that was given a peek into the world of different corporations. But I always love networking and talking to companies to learn more about how they think and act, so I thought I’d attend.
The convention was quite normal, companies giving out free candy, hats and holding competitions. Just doing whatever it takes to keep the crowd engaged; being interactive.
Now I don’t frown upon that, I actually think it’s a great way to connect to a younger crowd, even though most of the people will only want the candy. You will still get brand awareness from it though.
As usual some of the booths are more popular than the others. But one booth catches my attention (and no one elses).
In one booth there’s a representative from one of the major banks in the city. No one’s even paying the slightest attention to this booth, which really doesn’t surprise me. But on top of that, the woman standing there is TEXTING. That’s right, a booth without any activities (as far as I could see) with a representative looking like she’d rather be elsewhere at that time.
This got me thinking: What is their purpose? What’s the point of being visible when you don’t add value to the brand nor to the public?
“All publicity is good publicity”, right?
H*ll no. Especially not in this case. And here’s a few reasons why:
- Reputation: This has never been more important. It is quite clear by now that you can’t control your reputation anymore. Your reputation is an accumulation of all your brand’s actions. This gives little room for texting when you should be engaging with your customers.
- Time/Money wasting:Let’s face it, unless you’re Google or any other big shot you will have a set amount of money to put aside for marketing. You might as well put them to good use then.
In this case the publicity they got was close to zero. Of course this is an estimation from my perspective but I’m pretty sure it’s accurate. That way they litteraly spent hundreds, perhaps over a thousand dollars on an event which gave next to nothing. If they’d have gotten one single new follower on facebook (if they were even using facebook that is) it would have been more rewarding than the event. - Missed opportunities: You never know when something life/brand changing will happen. You will have to show your best side at all times, or you’re going to miss out. Actually that’s wrong of me to say: You should always be the best side. Strive for goodness and don’t let bad publicity ruin this.
Don’t get me wrong. Meeting people in real life is one of the most rewarding experiences for your company, given that you do it the right way. It is, however, far less scalable than an internet campaign. The decision is fully up to you to find what will give you most interaction for the buck.
I think that people who are saying that “all publicity is good publicity” is confusing it for something else.
Publicity is good given that you can make a stand for the actions you have taken. I will be writing an article about transparency later which be more in depth, but what it really comes down to is being a company who is totally true to its customers and stand by their decision. If you close in on yourself, you lose.
What’s worse is when you get publicity because you have done something wrong or acted in a way that’s not acceptable. And that’s where bad publicity is created, and often rightfully so. That way it’s actually good for the society that there still is a distinction between good and bad. This weeds out the bad guys in the long run, hopefully. There will always be examples of companies who tend to get themselves out of trouble no matter how wrong they’ve acted, but as transparency is becoming a customer expectation these will probably get fewer.
Conclusion
Bottom line is this: If you’re a non caring company with things to hide, You’re doomed.
If your company is bad it will show, so you better choose how you want to act now before the people makes the decision/reputation for you.
I’m glad you take this up for conversation as there is few things more annoying in my opinion than bad customer service. Though the conclusion you give to all of this is a good and very correct one, I think there are so much else to learn from what you just wrote. For example, why did they sent that represenative to the convention, instead of someone more outgoing? And if they did not have any better people they could send the should better not attend the convention and more importantly look over their staffing. Why does companies keep letting opportunites like this slide between their fingers? I agree that in this case one more facebook member is a more valuable asset for the company, but in the case of local companies conventions are such a good way to communicate with customers and find new one’s. Why waste that time?
As the economy tightens up for many countries, I think you will see them really begin to look over each way they decide to spend their money to attract potential customers. They can’t afford to waste money like they use to and are now forced to try their best to get their money’s worth. Whoever was representing that bank really let her employer down.
Hi Annelie! Thanks for joining in on the conversation
I’ve quoted a few parts below of your response:
Couldn’t agree more.
I doubt the bank would’ve ever sent that person if they’d known how she’d act.
I think that in a lot of cases it’s just plain stupidity. They fail to see the value of communication and thus feel no need to strive for a good way to communicate with their customers. In this case it’s about a future career choice for most of the attendants. Maybe they don’t think that far ahead; It doesn’t matter right now?
I’d also like to mention that the facebook example was merely an example, but that I have been kind of blinded by the whole “social media” phenomena lately. That’s why I will be writing a post on different mediums in the near future. I think there’s a big risk that we’re looking past old mediums when they are still really useful. More for some and less for others.
Hello Jason, Good to see you here
Spot on! I also think that this will be something that will keep on becoming a requirement in the future, even if the economy rises again.
There’s been such an inflation in education that a university diploma in something doesn’t really mean that much. It’s more about the person these days. And I’ve proved that for myself several times this past half year (got a job through twitter with no formal education on the subject) and I really think it’s more important than ever to realize this.
Today we’re talking about personal branding (which I might write a post about too) and I also think that if you’re smart enough AND good enough, education really doesn’t matter too much.
Businesses will see the benefits of this, and you sure will too