1) The document discusses how leading brands like Gap, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's struggled when they failed to understand their target audiences and strayed from their core brand promises on social media. 2) It provides examples of how Volkswagen India and Snapdeal effectively use social media to engage customers and address issues, highlighting the importance of listening to customers. 3) Virgin Atlantic is cited for its customer-centric social media approach focused on learning from customers, supporting its brand values, and continually improving based on social media insights.

1. The One Thing You Must Get Right When
Building A Brand
By Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan

2. The Rise Of Social Media
And
The Shift Of Power To Consumers

3. Recent example of its rise and power with the consumers:-
faced significant on reports of it
joining and
to pull out of Airtel Deal Amid Backlash

4. social media helps companies reputation that consistently
deliver what they

5. - failing to keep pace with social media
developments.
- getting distracted by them and losing
sight of the fundamentals.

6. The
Case

7. Gap, known for everyday basics, tried to redo their image to appeal
to a more hip crowd.
In October 2010, Gap launched a new logo in an attempt to be
more modern. Guess how long that lasted?

8. A whopping two days
Gap quickly put the old logo back into place
after unbelievable backlash from the public.

9. failure on two fronts with this new logo
Unfortunately, they didn’t understand who their target market is - the people who
want the basics and aren't interested in trendy styles.
• Their loyal customers felt that Gap was changing their image for the
worse and lost a connection with the brand.
• Gap was also unsuccessful at attracting the younger, trendy generation
with the redesign

10. It wasn't so awful for Gap to pursue a logo redesign, the lesson is
simply to stay in touch with your buyer personas so you can ensure
your new design reflects them.
Marketers focus a lot on metrics -- for good reasons -- but never
underestimate your audience's feelings towards your brand.
They're harder to quantify, sure, but people will speak out when their
sensibilities are offended.

11. Made it right
One of the most recognizable fashion brands in the world,
GAP also recognizes the need to moderate the use of
social media amongst their employees within the work
place.

12. Here are some excerpts from their current guidelines in social media
“Some subjects can invite a flame war. Be careful discussing things where emotions run high (e.g.
politics and religion) and show respect for others’ opinions.”
“Your job comes first. Unless you are an authorized Social Media Manager, don’t let social media
affect your job performance.”
“If you #!%#@# up? Correct it immediately and be clear about what you’ve done to fix it. Contact
the social media team if it’s a real doozy.”
“Don’t even think about it…. Talking about financial information, sales trends, strategies,
forecasts, legal issues, future promotional activities. Giving out personal information about
customers or employees. Posting confidential or non-public information. Responding to an
offensive or negative post by a customer. There’s no winner in that game.”

13. The
Case

14. In 1985, Coca-Cola tried to introduce a new, sweeter version of
their beverage to combat their new competitor, Pepsi.
As people preferred the taste of Pepsi over Coke in blind taste
tests, Coke felt the need to regain market share with a new
recipe. So, how did it turn out?

15. Not well.
Public response was so negative, in fact, that people were actually
hoarding the old Coke and selling it on the black-market for
grossly inflated prices!

16. Coke’s brand embodied classic American traditions -- they didn't
want new Coke! They wanted that classic beverage whose secret
recipe is guarded under lock and key in Georgia! After finally
retiring the “New Coke” recipe, sales of the old classic -- actually
renamed “Coca-Cola Classic” to make it extra clear to consumers --
rose significantly.

17. Learn what your customers want before spending time and money
on a top-secret product or service change!

18. the many presented by social media while keeping an unwavering
eye on their brand promise .
 Judiciously the rather than trying to rewrite it.
To
in this environment

19. Social Media

20. social media as a tool for
and

21. Marketers at leading companies create
by tapping into participants’ expertise and creativity for product
development on sites such as
• American Express ( )
• Cisco ( )
• Ford ( )
• Examples:
• Procter & Gamble
• Toyota

22. Example

23. How
leverages on Social Media
using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube

24. How Volkswagen India practices Social Media
• Right now, Volkswagen India mainly has a presence across four
social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & LinkedIn.
• Apart from that they have dedicated sites for their ‘Innovations for
Everyone’ and ‘Think Blue campaign’ campaigns.
• The important aspect of Volkswagen India’s strategy is a long term
approach to build loyal community and the use of all the marketing
channels: TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor & Online to leverage their
promotional campaigns.

25. • All the social media properties are being cross-marketed on one another.
• The Facebook and twitter properties are highly interactive and keep the
users engaged with interesting contests, offers and replying to various
queries and feedback.
• On Facebook, they have grown the community organically to over
60,000 fans with the average rate of interaction being 150 fans per post.
• The communication is mostly about travelling, holidays, cars, roads,
etc.apart from cross-marketed content from other social media
properties, contests, campaigns.
How Volkswagen India practices Social Media

26. • On Twitter, they have identified the owners of Volkswagen vehicles on
twitter & have added them to the respective lists of different vehicles.
• They use these lists to keep a track of their customers & occasionally inform
them about any new initiatives or offers.
• On YouTube, the videos have received admirable number of views and the
videos have been distributed well among the influential bloggers and other
new media channels!
• They have made good use of LinkedIn company page by connecting to
relevant professionals there.
How Volkswagen India practices Social Media

27. The Tweeting Newspaper – Volkswagen India
#anything4jetta
• What will you do for all the new jetta? Was the question asked in the third
page of the Hindu. To answer the same you need to Tweet away with the
hashtag #anything4jetta. The wittiest and most popular tweet wins daily prizes
and wins an entry to the grand prize “The Jetta” itself.
• The Ad is well explained, usage of the image supports the title, people are also
encouraged to send in an audio tweet, a video tweet or a call in tweet.
• It is an excellent example of integration of traditional and social media to
generate curiosity, outreach and therefore mass participation!

28. Through
 gain rich, unmediated , faster than ever before
, trial, and ultimately

29. o making rather than
product centric
o products into people’s lives
o Social networks provides powerful new ways to

30. o Procter & Gamble
feminine care group
early adopter of social media
appreciate the need to listen to rather than talk at customers
the main value of Beinggirl.com to P&G is not that it drives
product sales but that it illuminates the target consumers’
world.
o Amex
uses OPEN Forum to learn about small-business owners
o Cisco
uses myPlanNet to better understand the new generation of
developers.

31. These sites work because
 participants are engaged with the brands
 find the platforms authentic, and
 trust one another

32. The companies create active communities by
ceding some control

34. The
Case

35. McDonald’s Twitter bane
Usually known for its smart social media strategy,
McDonald’s thought it was on to something interesting
when it launched the #McDStories tag to channel
conversations and optimize conversions.

36. Surprise, surprise!
The hashtag started attracting more negative stories than positive ones, and the situation soon
got out of hand.
One only needs to sample this tweet (courtesyLA Times) to understand how unpleasant it must
have been:
“These #McDStories never get old, kinda like a box of McDonald’s 10 piece Chicken McNuggets
left in the sun for a week.”

37. The lesson here is clear: Social media doesn’t always
behave as you want, and it doesn’t take long for the
exception to become the rule. Factor in these
considerations when planning your campaigns.

38. Indian Example

39. The
Snapdeal
Case

40. Listening on Social Media - Snapdeal.Com
–
How poor advertising leads to bad online
reputation

41. Poor Advertising and Consequences
On Social Media
• There was a huge negative response from bloggers and influential people on
social media after 2 bloggers commented about snapdeal’s fake and poor
advertisements.
• After the negative buzz, Rohit Awasthi (Head – User & Communities at
snapdeal.com) replied back apologizing for such advertisement and
explained what had probably went wrong and promised to clean up such
ads.

42. companies should
incorporate social media
into their marketing

43. Fundamental Qualities

44. Social media can be used to all four, even as
they make them more urgent

45. THE MODEL

46. Virgin Atlantic Airways has used social media
to the branding

47. THE CUSTOMER

48. o Learn What People are Saying in Call Centers, Websites,
and Public Opinion.
o Uses Social Media to Support the Brand Values and
Promises:
o Innova tion
o Fun
o Informa lity
o Honesty
o Va lue
o Ca ring Attitude

49. BUILDING

50. o Operational Execution
o Service delivery
o Websites
 Up -To- Date
 Accurate
o “Rapid Response” solutions
 Twitter
 Facebook

51. CONTINUAL

52. o Gathering Insights to Improve
o Travel Blogs
o Customer Complaints
 Tedious & redundant requests for security information
 Online-community suggestions
o Solutions
 Opt-in service
 Arrange taxi sharing from pax from same flight

53. beyond the familiar

54. •Big Trip’s Planning
•Facebook Flight Status App (first for airline)
•VTRAVELLED (inspirational journeys)
•Flight Club, VVA iPhone app
•Taxi2 Cab Sharing
•Flight tracker (real-time Aircraft positions)
•Flight Entertainment systems @ “Premium Economy Class”
•Benefits
•Exchange information, Stories, Advices
•Creation of “Trip Pods”
•Brand reinforcement
•Novel customer insights

55. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL
o Don’t throw out your Playbook
 Start with Brand Promise; Guide them with Social Media
o Use Social Media Primarily for Insight
 Real Value is learning about Customers
o Strive to go Viral, but Protect the Brand
 AUNTHENTICITY & RELEVANCE
 WILL IT BLEND? [ YouTube Video]
 SONY
o Engage, but follow the social rules

56. Example

57. 5
7
on Facebook- Cricket based
Social Media marketing case study

58. Adidas on Facebook - Background
• Cricket is like a religion in India and in order to
connect to the target audience on the online space,
they had to connect Adidas with Cricket
• They had to create a platform where the cricket
fans come, discuss, consume content and spread
word of mouth among their peers so that it
snowballs into a movement and by the start of
world cup, it becomes the one platform where the
real cricket fans can identify with
• The primary target audience for adidas was in the
age group of 14 – 19 years extended to 25. This
audience had a huge affinity towards digital media.
Their digital footprints cover social networking,
mobile, entertainment, sports, online videos etc.

59. • For sustained engagement, encouraged the users to share their views through
constant cricket related conversations
• Other engagement hooks were Games, Trivia and long term games like Fantasy
cricket
• Sneak previews and premiering of the new campaign TVC’s are released first on
Facebook before they are taken live on TV which has also increased the
excitement manifold
• The 60 sec Director’s cut of the TVC for the pure cricket campaign was exclusively
unveiled on Facebook during the IND AUS series in Oct
• There were many other activities which happened on a daily basis to make sure
that the excitement never stopped:
 PREDICT AND WIN
 RAPIDFIRE CONTEST
 SPOT THE BALL CONTEST
 IMMORTAL WORDS CONTEST
Adidas on Facebook – Implementation & Response

60. Adidas on Facebook – Implementation & Response
• Fantasy cricket generated phenomenal responses on all the engagement
parameters - It has more than 50 thousand registered teams
• Photos were the most highly consumed form of media on the fan page.
Users are constantly sharing their photos on the page to display their love
for the brand.
• The video plays shot up with the launch of the directors cut TVC on the
page.
• It has been a story of 24/7 engagement since the beginning and still going
strong.

61. Situation in India

62. How Top Brands In India Are Using Social Media Platforms In 2014

63. The scope of social media marketing in India
•The scope is tremendous, the pace and understanding of the domain is low
•Marketing managers still need to realize the potential of social media over traditional media
•Marketing and brand managers need to understand social media beyond Facebook and
Twitter - as in its utility in form of social applications, online communities, social campaigns
•A lot of questions are being asked about ROI and that is holding them to make significant
investments. Marketing managers need to be comfortable with the social media metrics like
active users, engaged users, evangelists etc
•Having said that however, India is a market, which once convinced, adopts newer technologies and
business models very fast. Hence once marketing managers are convinced about this new media, we
will see tremendous change in initiatives and outlook. Even till today a lot of brands have done some
exciting stuff for Indian audiences on social web like

66. Companies get the basics right in developing and
reliably delivering on a compelling brand promise.
Social media make it more urgent than ever that