Straight Talk | Ted Rubin

We want to believe that with a careful multi-faceted marketing strategy, we can protect our brand message and keep it from getting diluted or changed as it gets further from our reach.  The truth is, there are many things you cannot control about your brand… especially now that consumers have the power of social media [...]

Originally posted at SheSpeaks In the past, marketing owned the brand, using a tightly controlled set of messages piped through carefully selected channels to ensure brand “ownership” through control….but that’s no longer the case.  The increasing integration of social media into our consumers’ lives has shifted brand ownership away from marketers and into the hands of the consumer. [...]

The marketing paradigm is shifting with much greater “power to the people” facilitated by social media.  If you want to continue to reach your market, it’s not about advertising any more, but about building relationships. Consider the following differences: Advertising Building Relationships Telling Starts with “me” (the brand, the product, the service) Focuses on “what [...]

Originally posted at SheSpeaks In today’s fast-paced, ever changing environment, most brands rank poorly when it comes to customer service. We might argue that it’s to be expected, since change is now more constant than ever… but the hard truth is that if we don’t excel in customer service, our brands will become just another [...]

Originally posted at SheSpeaks Thanks to the continual evolution of social media, we have a growing set of useful tools for gathering feedback about our brand reputation.   Online branded communities, for example, are becoming increasingly valuable meeting spaces where community members and brand marketers can easily engage in meaningful conversation around specific products and services, and [...]