ESSAYS
DR PAUL MARSDEN, CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGIST AT UNIQUE DIGITAL
SOCIAL BANDWAGONS & THE VIRTUAL PEACOCK’S TAIL
Social media bandwagons are a form of ‘conspicuous consumption’. We consciously consume media - by viewing and sharing - because we hope the sharing will make us look good. You can think of social media sharing like a virtual peacock’s tail: it’s a show-off signal to others that we are desirable - a good ally or mate. We all had social media timelines full
of #IceBucketChallenge videos last summer. The idea worked because it allowed us to signal an association with celebrities, that we’re fun to be with, and that we’re good people - given the cause element. From a psychology perspective, social media bandwagons are all about ‘signalling theory’, signalling to others something about ourselves. In this way social media sharing is today’s Rolex watch, all about conscious consumption and ‘impression management’ - managing our public image online.
uniquedigital.co.uk
SKIP FIDURA, CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR, DOTMAILER
THE MEDIUM IS NOT THE MESSAGE
We’re facing two major trends which are transforming the marketing landscape before our eyes. First, customers are increasingly
interacting with our brands in a homogeneous, sterile, online world. Secondly, customers are demanding that we interact with them through the channels of their choosing. In response to these trends, marketers are focusing more and more attention on developing a single view of customer-driven, contextual customer experiences through cloud- based automated marketing solutions. I’m concerned that we’re so focused on how we’re delivering the messages that we’re not spending enough time on what we’re saying. This is the wrong way round. It is very easy to determine what we should be saying. Most times you only need to say something in response to an action by your customer. Once you’ve identifi ed the situations where you need to say something, imagine your customer was right there in the room and ask yourself, ‘What should I say to this customer?’ Then and only then should you start to think about how you’ll source the data to initiate that conversation and the delivery mechanisms you’ll use to deliver the message. By starting with the data you have available, you severely limit your options, and by focusing on the delivery mechanism you run the risk of saying something monumentally stupid at enormous scale. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln - better to keep quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
dotmailer.com
41 issue 23 january 2015
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