049: Scott Cook – A Brand Is No Longer

“A brand is no longer what we tell consumers it is. It is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook

This was drawn by Eastfist. You can check out his art at his profile.

Scott Cook is a co-founder of Inuit, the accounting software. He is also a director at eBay and Proctor & Gamble. For an old guy, I’m surprised his advice is up-to-date.

His quote is the crux of pull marketing. The kind of marketing we are shifting towards nowadays. No longer do the ads that interrupt you work any longer. People know what they want, and know where to research it, i.e. the Internet. And it is on the Internet, where people review and recommend products to each other. Even if your company can claim and promise it can do ‘miraculous’ things, the consumer can go online to verify your claims.

The reason why I have used ‘coke’ as an example is because if you noticed, they are a big brand that has been shifting to pull marketing. Remember those “hug-a-coke-machines” and similar campaigns? These things cause buzz not just for the people witness the machines, but for their friends online when these people shared videos of the machine in action. Soon the buzz spreads far and wide as people who haven’t seen the machines first hand, but only saw a video of the machines also help to spread the buzz by sharing the videos.

I’ve been an advocate for pull marketing, and in particular content marketing. Businesses can find it more efficient by getting their customers to recommend them to potential customers, via social media. And of course, to aid the recommendation/conversation is the use of content. Businesses that share content like pictures can have their businesses talked about more.

If you want to really learn social media marketing and content marketing, I suggest two books. Social Media Marketing, by Tracy Tuten and Michael Solomon, and Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi.

Here at Rational Comics, we can help with your content marketing needs. Do look at our commission us page. We can do artwork for articles, as well as comics.

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