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- Q&A with the authors of The Passion Conversation: Understanding, Sparking, and Sustaining Word of Mouth Marketing
- Great marketing starts conversations
- 7 things you didn't understand about @LadyGaga's #VMA performance, unless you are a Little Monster
- Influencers vs. brand advocates: confuse them at your own peril
- Bruno Mars makes fans feel like rock stars
- How to go Beyond Humanizing your Brand
- July #MonsterLoyalty book tour events in Chicago and Portland
- Word-of-mouth marketing: control is futile
- The best customer service is invisible
- #MonsterLoyalty book tour and other speaking events
"What the heck are these blue balls in Lady Gagas MTV Music Video Awards peformance Sunday night?"
Thats the question I got emailed this week from a friend of mine. Since I wrote a book about how Lady Gaga built her loyal fan base, he thought I would know. Well, this confusion from my friend is a classic Gaga technique for building loyalty and is one of the lessons in my book.
THE IDEA HERE IS TO CREATE AND USE SYMBOLS THAT ONLY YOUR COMMUNITY OF LOYALISTS WILL UNDERSTAND.
In history, studies of cultures and societies often show an emergence of shared symbols. We can all visualize many symbols we share with others as members of a given group, city, or country. These shared symbols are tangible vehicles through which some meaning is expressed. The symbols could be gestural, pictorial, object-oriented, linguistic, or some combination of these. Through the repeated process of rituals, symbols are given significance in the group. Shared symbols also have the ability to be exclusionary. Those who can recognize and understand the meaning of these symbols feel part of the group, like they be long, while outsiders will not understand the meaning and turn away, sometimes mocking the symbols. Gaga and the Little Monsters use many symbols to communicate with each other, with the most well known one being the "monster paw." By using these symbols that only her loyal fans understand, she is speaking to them in a special language. Fans feel a strong bond to the community, and to Gaga, because they feel part of a special club of people who understand what the symbolism represents, while outsiders do not.
This is exactly what Gaga was doing with the VMA performance of her new single, "Applause," from her upcoming album _ARTPOP_. The concept of the album is that Gaga wants to bringing art back into pop culture. The 4:51 minute performance was chock full of costume changes (three in all), blue metallic balls and face painting.
You may not have understood all the imagery or references, but Gaga doesnt care. She want to create an entertaing performance for everyone but she includes these special symbols that she knows only her diehard fans will understand. Heres what most Little Monsters recognized:
1. The opening white outfit was inspired by the floating dress worn during the _Born This Way _album tour for the song "Bloody Mary." The white board around her head was meant to portray a blank canvas for the artist.
2. The opening few lines that Gaga sings a cappella are not on _ARTPOP _but were written especially for this performance.
3. The boos and shouts of "Lady Gaga is over!" as Gaga floated down the stage in the white outfit were not from the live audience but were part of the soundtrack to symbolize that artists must deal with harsh criticism.
4. The first costume change into the sparkly blue, heavily shoulder-padded jacket and skirt with a platinum bob wig was a nod to the looks she sported during "Just Dance" days from her first album,_ The Fame._
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5. The second costume change to the bright yellow wig was reminiscent of her "Telephone" video with Beyonce.
6. Special metallic blue balls the size of cantaloupes are carried by dancers at one point in the performance and even Gaga grabs one and throws it across the stage. The balls are a reference to pop artist Jeff Koons "Gazing Balls" exhibition from earlier this year. Gaga is a big fan of the artist and he is mentioned in the lyrics to "Applause."
7. The third costume change, into a just barely-there seashell bikini, is a reference Botticellis famous painting, the _Birth of Venus._
_Note: all photos are credited to Kevin Mazure/WireImage_
Organizations other than Gaga use symbols too. Sport teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers have the Terrible Towel. Apple fans plaster stickers of the Apple logo on their cars.
The key to shared symbols, like the Terrible Towel and the Apple logo, is not the symbol itself. What is important is how the meaning of the symbols binds a community together. People who are part of the community truly understand its meaning and are moved by it. For Steelers fans, we wave the Towel to rally our players when they need our help to accomplish a crucial first down. No matter that the players are on TV and they can’t hear or see us. We know they can feel us. Yes, I know that may seem ridiculous to non-fans, but die-hard fans understand the power of the Towel. When Apple fans see other sporting the Apple logo, it says that that person "thinks different" just like they do.
What symbols do you have for your business that your only your best customers understand? Have your fans created their own symbols that they use online? Try building symbolism into your marketing to help engender more loyalty and emotional connections to customers.
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Marketers are looking to get more word of mouth for their products and services and are investigating building influencer and advocate programs. Before you do this, its imperative to know the difference between influencers and advocates as I find they are often confused by marketers.
Influencer campaigns can be good for short term buzz. But dont ignore the fact that brand advocates, or customer evangelists as I would call them, are an investment in loyalty that pays dividends in the long term.
Heres a terrific infographic from the good folks at Zuberance and Convince and Covert on the difference between influencers and brand advocates.
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_The following is a guest post from my friend Jay Baer, based on his new book, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype._
Consumers are being subjected to an invitation avalanche, with every company of every size, shape, and description asking people to like them, follow them, friend them, click, share, and +1 them. This is in addition to the interruption marketing tactics and findability campaigns already in existence. At best, it wears thin. At worst, it does more harm than good to brand equity and contributes to the rampant distrust of business. There are only two ways companies can differentiate themselves within this din and derive meaningful business results.
The first is to be disproportionately amazing, interesting, human, wacky, irreverent, or timely. This is where advice to “humanize” using social and new media stems from. It’s also the wellspring that feeds the quest to deliver knockout customer experiences—doing so creates “buzzworthy moments” that boost awareness and loyalty. It’s where real-time “newsjacking” (as David Meerman Scott calls it in his book by the same name) comes into play—where you listen to the zeitgeist so aggressively, and where your organization is tuned so perfectly, that you can capitalize on opportunities in an instant. It’s at the heart of the pitch-perfect and real-time Oreo response to the Super Bowl blackout, whereby the brand created an image of a lone cookie in shadows and the headline “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark.” The image captured the moment perfectly, and immediately went viral, with tens of thousands of shares on Facebook, Twitter, and beyond.
All of that makes you smile, and it can create a psychological bond of kinship and recognition that yields loyalty and advocacy among consumers. I believe in the premise of amazing, interesting, human, wacky, irreverent, or timely so much that I co-wrote a book in 2010 that is partially devoted to it—especially the human and timely components. But here’s the truth: I’ve worked with more than seven hundred companies as a marketing consultant, and I’ve come to realize that while “be amazing” can work, it’s also extraordinarily difficult.
Telling someone to be amazing is like telling someone to make a viral video. There’s no such thing as a “viral video.” There are videos that become viral, but they are few and far between. The marketing of “be amazing” is the marketing of the swing-for-the-fences home run hitter. There are two by-products of that approach: an occasional home run, and many strikeouts You can do better. You can break through the noise and the clutter and grab the attention of your customers by employing a different approach that is reliable, scalable, functional, and effective.
It’s simply this: stop trying to be amazing and start being useful. I don’t mean this in a Trojan-horse, “infomercial that pretends to be useful but is actually a sales pitch” way. I mean a genuine, “how can we actually help you?” way. This is Youtility, and, quite simply, companies that practice it are followed, subscribed to, bookmarked, and kept on the home screen of mobile devices. Companies that don’t... aren’t. Not because they are worse companies, but because they are trying to create customer connections based on product and price, and customers are both tired of it and able to filter through it more than ever. Youtility is marketing upside down. Instead of marketing that’s needed by companies, Youtility is marketing that’s wanted by customers. Youtility is massively useful information, provided for free, that creates long term trust and kinship between your company and your customers.
My family is useful. My friends are useful. Companies can be useful, too. Will yours?
Just wanted to let you know about two July book tour events for my new book, _Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics. 
_For both events, I will be doing a 60-minute presentation on the book concepts and all attendees will get a signed copy of the book.
* July 11, Chicago: The good folks at the Shedd Aquarium are hosting an evening event in their cool private event space. Details are here.
* July 16, Portland: This evening event is co-sponsored by the Portland Social Media Club and the Portland American Marketing Association chapter. Details are here.
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Even today, marketers are still trying to control the conversation customers have about their brand. Give it up. With social media acting as a word-of-mouth jetstream, its impossible to make sure people are on "brand message" when they talk about you to friends and family. We can only hope to create products and brands that people want to evangelize and then join in the conversation.
I love this cartoon from my friend and "marketoonist" Tom Fishburne. Click here for his post on what happened when the Kentucky Department of Tourism tried to control the message about their brand. Tweet
Hi there!
Heres my speaking schedule including book tour events. If you live in one these cities, I looking forward to seeing you!!
* May 8: Austin - book tour event (private)
* May 10: Orlando - book tour event (private)
* May 21: Chicago - WOMMA WOMM-U Conference. Use my discount code WUSPEAK50 to get $50 off registration.
* Jun 2: Orlando - book tour event (private)
* Jun 12: Milan, Italy - private event
* Jun 20: Salt Lake City - book tour event (public) sponsored by SoulSalt. Get tickets here.
* Jun 27: Las Vegas - Confirmit Conference
* Jul 11: Chicago - book tour event (public), details TBD
* Juy 16: Portland - book tour event (public). Get tickets here.
* Sept 17: Las Vegas: Brand ManageCamp conference
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