Is your brand fun? Do your consumers love being associated with your brand? Do they have a sense of pride when they talk about your product or service? If so, congratulations! If not, this post is for you.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who works for Apple Inc. I inquired to why he likes to talk about his job so frequently, to which he had an obvious answer, “Everyone knows about the iPod, and if you have one, you are cool, but if you can say you work for the company who invented the iPod, that’s a whole new level of cool.” Our conversation took an interesting turn as he continued, “No one really likes to say they work for a brand no one likes, and people certainly don’t go around telling their friends about a less than amazing product they’ve just bought. It’s like you’re not cool if you openly associate with those brands.” I realized that what he was saying was incredibly simple, but entirely true.

It’s true what they say, high school never ends. When I was in high school, the most important thing a person could do to be cool was associate with cool people. Brands aren’t much different. If you are seen with the latest custom Nike’s - you’re cool. If your Facebook profile proclaims to the world that you are a fan of USC, George Clooney, Kashi, iPods, and SmartWater, you just gained cool points. If you associate with top financial companies and have an account with one of Wall Street’s best brokers, people will notice that. Within the social media landscape, others will judge you in the same way that they did in high school, by who you choose to associate with.

Niche brands won’t have a hard time accomplishing this, but what about more generic brands? While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, comprehensive cross-media content and integrated delivery platforms are a good place to start. In the past, it was possible to build an effective TV or print campaign that could stand on its own. But that’s not the case anymore. While TV, radio, print, and direct pieces still hold an important role, these efforts can be optimized if they are full integrated into interactive mediums. It’s not just about getting a magazine reader to go visit your website either, it’s about getting web users to seek out your TV spot, or find the ad in the newspaper. The more interactive and connected all the pieces are, the more interesting the campaign and the more captivated your targets will become.

Maybe you don’t make iPods, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be part of the cool culture that people right now are talking about. Try investigating the recent campaign done by the California Milk Processor Board. It’s milk, not iPods, but the cool factor is there - one that I am tempted to become a fan of on Facebook.

So you’re tweeting, blogging, talking, laughing, and sharing, but are you researching? An often overlooked part of this wonderful social world is the ability to collect information, learn about the consumer, and make your brand better.

Sure, you can talk and talk until no end and you can be very successful at that, but why not use social platforms to start learning something more about your consumer. GM has recently implemented several programs that revolve around social media and are designed to get instant feedback from consumers on everything from concept models, to accessories, to the automobile lifestyle. The idea is that consumers can connect with the GM products and give input into the development of these products over time.

We’ve said in the past that to be successful in social media, you’ll need to begin to hand over some control to the members of your social communities. This can mean allowing them to share honest views and opinions of the company, creating their own ad parodies, making home videos using your product in unconventional ways, or even allowing them to help develop product ideas.

Vans, Fox, Apple, CNN, along with many others have reached out to their consumers via social media for feedback and suggestions on how to make their products better, more useful, and to meet needs more effectively. Vans has even created contests on the web that allow consumers to make their own commercial and the winner’s work would be presented on national television. Frito-Lay has carried out similar strategies as well, allowing consumers to truly become part of the brand.

By handing over some control to the consumer, you’re letting them know that you trust them and that you want them to be involved. This is a great way to build brand loyalty and to create a lasting connection with social communities as a company that is so interested in their consumer that they are actively allowing them to make the brand into what they want.

We are a species made up of storytellers. Each one of us are storytellers. We tell stories to our friends, family, co-workers, strangers, pets, and ourselves. At the end of the work day a question I often ask my friends is, “What did you do today?” I am asking them to tell me a story.

Storytelling might be the most important characteristic that sets us apart from all other beings, which is why we take storytelling so seriously here at HEILBrice.

Think about the stories you tell that are the most enjoyable. We all love to tell stories that include exotic locations, interesting characters, and unique circumstances. We don’t like to tell stories or listen to ones about the normal and mundane. We like stories that have an element to them that is different than the expected.

Before we begin work on a new campaign or positioning a brand, we often spend a serious amount of time talking about the story. What’s the story to be told? We look closely at the company, the brand, the products, the targets, and the marketplace to identify the most compelling story.

Each brand has a story to tell. It might be a story that takes place long ago, one that is comical, exciting, dramatic, or heartwarming. A story that is captivating will generate long-term interest with your target and will give you the opportunity to speak more frequently and more effectively to them. A flashy campaign without a good story might work for the short-term, but without substance, your brand is going to get lost in the mix of all the other short-lived flashy campaigns.

Think for a minute about some of the most well known brands: Disney, Gatorade, Levi’s, Coca-Cola, Ford - All have a great story to tell and while they may not all be actively telling that story daily, it does not take much digging to find it.

What is your story? What do you personally say when others ask you what your company does? Do you simple reply that you sell things? Maybe you haven’t thought about this before, but if you’re interested in bulding brand equity, a story is a great place to start. A good story with lend itself to all sorts of marketing tactics and will inspire creative executions that will reflect well on your company. Focus the plot around what makes your brand different from others. Don’t forget that conflict always helps. Identify the hero, and introduce the villian. Now you have the beginnings of a story - Who knows, maybe it will be the next one to be told over and over, generation after generation.

When is this market going to turn? Has it already? What indicators should we look to? Everyone has their own set of answers to these questions. Here’s another.

In the past, we would have notice an up swing in traditional media spends as a sign of a positive change, but we haven’t been through this serious of a recession since the world of online was considered a legitimate medium. The truth is, online still only accounts for a very small portion of media spends, but it’s obvious that more and more budgets will be given to online as consumers turn off their TV sets and close the magazines to view content online.

According to eMarketer, online ad spending is up 11% from the first quarter, and ROI on that spend is up approximately 6%. While the actual dollar amounts are still low, a 11% increase is a great thing to see considering how the last 18 months have been going. More encouraging is that ROI is up 6%, which will hopefully cause marketers to look to online as another tactic to add to their arsenal.

Another interesting fact - 22% of all online ads appear on social networks according to Neilsen, with Myspace having a slight edge over Facebook as of September 29, 2009. The more surprising number is 3.5%. That’s the percentage of online spending used on social ads. This is huge. 22% of the ads on the web are being purchased using 3.5% of internet ad dollars! The jury is still out on the true effectiveness of that investment, but being able to speak to very specific targets on the place where Neilsen also reports that American consumers are spending 17% of their internet time is something to take into consideration. Imagine if you could get that type of exposure on television!

Business Week is also reporting an increase in search spending over the past two consecutive quarters by 7.7% This is reflected in Google and Bing as well who both showed at least a 9% increase in search revenue.

Back to the question of indicators. Is this is a sign of recovery? Yes and no. The problem is we aren’t necessarily seeing an increase in actual dollar spending in overall budgets yet. This could simply be a shift in spending. It’s clear that online is beginning to recover nicely, whether this will spider out to other mediums, we’ll have to wait and see.

Building a efficient and productive social campaign takes a lot of work, but sometimes we get carried away and lose focus, so today we are bringing it back down to scale.

Why are you putting so much effort into social in the first place? Social is a great place to connect with people, and we all have big dreams of our brands going viral and having the whole world know about us in a very short amount of time without doing much heavy lifting. This is possible, but the reason you got on the social train in the first place was to talk to people in a more personal and casual way than you do in your traditional efforts. Keep this in mind.

I’ve said before that your social efforts are like a dinner party - full of different conversations that are relatively short, consist of many different topics, and have an ever-changing dynamic. It’s important to go to the party well dressed and smelling nice, but don’t wear a tuxedo and don’t be so formal. This is an environment where you can really get to know people and talk about something other than work.

Social efforts need to be interesting. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog, a Facebook profile, or a YouTube channel, your content needs to be interesting. These sites aren’t the place for you to put on the game face and make a million sales. This is a place where you make people smile laugh for a moment, or make them think for a minute or two, not a place where you try to tell them everything you can on their first visit.

It’s a two-way street, don’t forget. It’s hard to not do all the talking, but people want to talk also, so listen. Here, you can learn about what’s really important to your target, so let them speak, let them engage, and let them know that those are important things to you. If people feel valuable, they’ll want to keep in touch and they’ll defend you when you make a mistake.

Don’t try to be all things to all people. Social efforts can defiantly have a more broad impact than other mediums, but that doesn’t mean you should be trying to get everyone to fall in love with you. Get connected to the groups, discussions, blogs, and profiles where your targets are congregating. Don’t try to take control either, just be a contributor to the community and join in on the ongoing conversations. With a little time and a good strategy, you’ll become a trusted expert in those spaces and users will start to look to you more often for solutions.

Keeping your efforts simple and focused is the lesson for the day. Be friendly, be discreet, and have fun!

We’ve been touting social marketing via bloggers here for a while, not just because they are an inexpensive medium, but because they have a way of personalizing a product or service in a way that most of us have a hard time achieving, not to mention they have a loyal and trusting audience.

The web has been buzzing this week about bloggers who endorse a product or service and the consequences that may ensue if they fail to disclose they have received compensation or something for free from the company they are promoting.

We believe in doing the right thing - it’s easier to do the right thing then correct a mistake. So keep going after blogger endorsements, but make sure you notify them that they must disclose any free products you send their way. Taking that little extra step on something that is not legally your responsibility will reflect well on you and will show the blogging world that you want to keep their services around for future use!

Here is an interesting video about Steve Jobs, one of the greatest CEO presenters of our time. Enjoy!

Watch the Video Here

It is well-known in the HR world that the best employees you could ever want were your best customers first. These are the people who learned about your company on their own, invested money in purchasing your product or service, know the level of service that is expected, and understand your company’s culture.

The internet has only made this more true as consumers can now visit a brand as often as they like, get a detailed history of the company, learn about company values, and get information on the entire product line.

This opens the door to an interesting situation - What happens when your consumer knows more about your company than your employees? What if they can give better support and information about your products? What if they are more passionate about your company? What if you can’t hire them?

This is the future and it’s already happening. Companies are finding that there are customers out there who walk into their stores and know more about a company than the sales team. They are often more up-to-speed on products, future products, and ways to make the most out of the product or service.

Thanks to travel companies, like Priceline.com or Orbitz, users can get information from people who have actually experienced destinations, airlines, and hotels first hand.

Buying a car has changed. There are many sites devoted to detailed owner reviews and can make or break a purchase before the test drive.

Retailers are able to give more power to product owners as well. Best Buy has one of the most impressive databases for reviews of any electronics retailer website. Here customers not only decide which product is best for them, but they are also able to give candid and honest reviews to encourage others to make a similar purchase or to stay far away from a particular brand.

Technology and electronics companies can take great advantage of this and cut their technical support costs. One of the biggest supports of this idea is Apple Inc. The iPhone makers website is full of customer generated technical support and tips on how to get the most out of Apple products.

By allowing customers to have this power and influence, you start to show them that you care enough about their experience that you’re willing to expose your company to negative reviews. This helps to foster a good relationship with consumers and will also provide you will feedback, exaggerated or not. If you’re not allowing your customers to use your website as a forum to talk openly about your product or service, it might be something to start considering. Trust is key, and there’s something powerful about allowing your customers to speak openly to others on a site sponsored by your brand.

Everyone, businesses and consumers alike, are looking to save money. Here are some free (that means no cost) tactics to add to your arsenal of marketing solutions. You can roll these ideas out on the web to help build your brand today!

#1 Be the expert. The truth is, you’ve spent some serious time researching your industry, developing strategies, and building a quality product, but if you aren’t trying to establish yourself as the expert in your field, consumers aren’t going to listen. Show people you know what you’re doing and that you are ready to meet their need better than anyone else.

#2 Give your target something to laugh about. Arguably some of the most memorable advertisements have an element of humor. People love to laugh and they’ll be more likely to talk about something that is funny around the water-cooler than something that just says “buy my product”. Put together some short videos for YouTube or work on some witty pieces for your website - this is how viral begins!

#3 Personalize your email efforts. When was the last time you opened an email from sales@mycompany.com? Never. Anything that’s this generic or has something about getting us to spend money in the address doesn’t take long to make its way to the trash. Don’t stop your email campaign, but try to be smart about it. Send a message from a personal address that includes a full name. Don’t send these emails out everyday either. Would you open an email everyday from one of your favorite companies? Limit these emails to no more than one a week. Keep them casual, simple, and to the point.

#4 Network with the people that matter. Using one of the many social networks to get your brand out there can be one of the most cost effective tactics - but only if you’re reaching out to the people who matter (industry experts, industry journalist, associations, and core targets). If you are in the paint business, you probably shouldn’t spend too much time reaching out to high school cheerleaders and their thousands of friends. The world of social networks is vast, so focus your efforts. This will also show your customers that you’re not interested in trying to be all things to all people and that your goal is to meet their needs and desires.

These are four simple steps that aren’t going to cost you any money and you can start them today. Do these and you’ll be laying the ground work to do something bigger and more extensive in getting your brand noticed.