This document discusses how marketing is being disrupted by user-generated media and increased consumer empowerment. Trust in institutions is declining as people increasingly trust peers and online reviews. Companies struggle to respond to negative sentiment in a timely manner. The company Brandtology offers 24/7 brand monitoring and protection services using proprietary technology to help clients engage in digital conversations around their brands. Their services include monitoring brand sentiment online, responding to threats, advocating for brands, and conducting competitive intelligence.

1.
THE UNFOLDING STORY
Companies today stand at the edge of a cliff. Their position is precarious because Marketing – the way
companies create customers and enable sales – is being turned on its head like never before. No longer can
companies rely wholly on the marketing messages they send out – and the way the public receives them:
passively, co‐operatively. People today are rejecting the notion of information forced down their throats,
and assembling the reference points they want, from wherever they wish, whenever they like, in whatever
form they choose. Increasingly, they are empowered to have more choices – and have the technology to
enforce them.
“It’s the Age of User‐Generated Media (UGM) – and it will profoundly impact
the way products and services are sold and business is done… forever.”
Trust has become the new battlefield. Today, people build trust in a fundamentally
different way than the generation before them. They increasingly distrust
institutions they used to trust for a long time (think about recent unfortunate
scandals involving banks, doctors and lawyers, to name but a few). They
increasingly do trust their peers: someone who shares a similar experience (even if
they do not know the person).
According to the seventh annual Edelman Trust Barometer, a survey of 2,000 opinion leaders across 11
countries, global opinion leaders say their most credible source of information about a company is now “a
person like me”. Opinion leaders also consider rank‐and‐file employees more credible spokespersons than
corporate CEOs (42% in 2003 vs. 28% today).
THE RESPONSE SO FAR
Trust has important bottom‐line consequences Problems Companies Struggle With:
because it underpins corporate reputation and
1. Respond to negative customer and public
effectively gives companies a license to operate. To
sentiment.
build trust, they need to localize communications,
2. Act proactively to alleviate customer
be transparent, and engage multiple stakeholders
continuously as advocates across a broad array of
escalations.
communications channels. 3. Detect and defuse exposure of confidential
company information.
Some companies are at a loss when it comes to 4. Harness feedback for product or service
handling so many online conversations. The larger improvement.
companies hire external PR agencies to help them 5. Protect their brand equity, corporate
manage these online conversations about their reputation, revenues and bottom line.
brands. Others choose to assign someone in their
organization to surf the Web to find such conversations and to respond to them. Reports typically come in
once a month or perhaps weekly; but they are usually too late for companies to respond in a timely manner.
Such ad‐hoc monitoring and response is usually also limited to working hours – unfortunately the Internet
doesn’t work that way. None of the existing solutions are adequate.
brandtology.com

2.
BRANDTOLOGY’S PROPOSITION
Brandtology is the world’s first 24x7 managed brand and reputation servicesTM provider. Our command
centers are manned by experienced staff, and powered by proprietary state‐of‐the‐art
technology which enables us to help our clients
monitor, protect and promote their brands and
corporate reputation; or to carry out
reconnaissance on their competitors. By listening
to unfolding brand stories within blogs and forums,
on product review portals, and other online social
networks – all served up on Web‐based,
customizable dashboard that can be accessed
remotely 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – our
clients can stay on top of the buzz around their
brands, products and services like never before.
Brandtology is ready to:
1. Work directly with private and public sector companies operating in the B‐to‐B or B‐to‐C space
who wish to actively engage in the digital conversation to protect their reputation and nurture
their brand online
2. Support government agencies wishing to monitor grassroots sentiment regarding public policy
3. Provide information and insight to PR agencies looking to expand and deepen their service
offerings to multi‐national clients
4. Offer customized data and dashboards to high‐profile individuals seeking to protect or promote
their public image
OUR SERVICES
Monitoring 24x7 discovery & monitoring of online media & content generated about client brands.
Sentiment analysis.
Protection 24x7 supervised, reactive response to counter any online threats to client brands.
Promotion Supervised, proactive advocacy of client products and services.
Reconnaissance Sustained surveillance of competitive data online to assess client brands' relative
standing in the marketplace & provide insights for future strategies.
WHAT’S YOUR BRAND STORY?
The most important conversation today about a brand and its target audience is not the one that happens
between the two – but the one that happens among the prospects themselves. Good news spreads fast, but
bad news spreads even faster. There is little brand owners can do unless they proactively listen to the digital
conversation, then strategize and take action in a timely manner. The question is not whether you can afford
to do so – but whether you can afford not to.
Contact: contact@brandtology.com
brandtology.com