We are living in a period of truly transformative advancement and change. Technology’s impact is seen all around us. It affects how we live, work, socialize, and learn, and it has accelerated business cycles. As a result, things that once seemed incredibly futuristic are happening now. Self-driving cars, computers in glasses and in watches, in shoes, and in just about any other form of apparel—realtime translation: all of these impossible things are either here today or right around the corner. Moore’s law—the 1965 maxim, coined by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, which states that computer processing power doubles every 18 to 24 months—has held true for over 45 years, and it is making many things that once seemed impossible not only possible but normal.
This trend is having a big, permanent impact on the relationship between consumers and brands. We see this in a couple of ways. First, consumer expectations are rising as never before. When the impossible becomes possible, people get used to it! Instant answers, fast navigation, one-click ordering, same-day shipping, and personalized experiences have increased expectations and raised the bar for every business. Second, the balance of power has shifted in the consumers’ favor. They have an enormous range of choices, since online shelf space is practically infinite, and they are empowered with superior information along the entire path to purchase. The Internet is teeming with reviews, price comparisons, and specifications, and it has created an entirely new way for people to talk about products they like (or dislike). Recommendations from friends and trusted experts are within everyone’s reach, no matter where they are.
In this new normal, brands can no longer just talk to consumers and expect to be successful. They need to talk with them. What does this mean? Successful brands (whether business to consumer or business to business) need to understand their purpose and value to their customers, to their employees (if they want to attract and retain the best people), and to the many stakeholders in the communities around them. They get there by becoming social—conversing, discussing, listening—just like their customers, and by embracing real-time connectivity and transparency across all aspects of how they operate.
Taking this focus as a brand and business is a big change from the past, when companies could control the flow of communications and interactions with their customers. Brand building processes used to be fairly linear: start with a carefully researched positioning of functional and emotional benefits for a target audience, then bring the brand to life with a communications plan built largely on one-way media such as TV, radio, and outdoor and in-store displays. The focus was on precision, consistency, and tight control, with less attention paid to cultivating direct relationships. After all, consumers couldn’t easily respond.
Today, they can. In fact, the consumer has more influence on the conversation about brands than the brand owners themselves: 70 percent of brand content is now created by consumers. Companies can shape the conversation by providing great products and experiences, but they can’t control it. This is true for even the biggest companies. Do a search on any of the world’s top 20 brands, and you’ll find that more than 25 percent of the results are links to user-generated content. So companies and brands need to take a whole new approach, one that puts serving the customer at the center of everything they do. They need to think about the moments that matter for their customers and how they can engage and help them in meaningful, valuable ways. More often than not, those moments are happening online, so the smart brands are the ones who are the most easily found and recommended both online and off.
The Internet hasn’t changed the essential need for humans to socialize, but it has given us the ability to do it with widening circles of people as well as with brands that are part of our lives. Brands can now use the tools and insights of the social web to be more discoverable, approachable, and recommendable. This is what Paul Rand’s Highly Recommended is about, and it is why I was so excited when Paul invited me to write this Foreword. I have known Paul for many years and have tremendous respect for his intellect and wit and for the results he’s achieved in helping companies build stronger businesses and brands.
Paul believes that many of the existing concepts used to measure brand differentiation aren’t well suited for today’s environment, in which we have so much data and real-time insights. It’s not just about whether or not people recommend you. It also matters when and how they do it. Do they say things that differentiate you? Do they think that you matter in their lives, at the most important times? Paul’s thesis is that we now have the information to shape the answers to these questions as they come up, and in Highly Recommended, he proposes a straightforward approach that any business can use to do just that. It’s a smart way to establish meaningful differentiation for your brand and to use the Internet to take word of mouth marketing and the power of recommendation— both implicit and explicit—to new heights.
As you read Highly Recommended, I hope you stay true to Paul’s core challenge. Do you have a story that is worth telling and that your customers will want to endorse? Do you understand the moments that matter for your customers, the times in their lives where your brand can make a difference? Are you present in the right times and the right ways? Is your marketing focused on engaging your customers and converting them into brand advocates? When they talk about you, is what they say aligned with what you care about? Are you always accountable for and transparent about your actions, especially your missteps?
These are not easy questions, and in fact for business leaders, today the pace of change and plethora of tools, metrics, and data can feel overwhelming. Yet, despite these challenges, we are undoubtedly in a golden age for marketers. We have more insights into what people care about, and more opportunities to be relevant, engaging, and useful, than we could have even dreamed about just a few years ago. Fortunately, the things that have always made great brands great— remarkable products and experiences that earn users’ love—haven’t changed. Brands such as Google, Nike, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and American Express follow this relentlessly. When people love you, they want to tell others; they want to share your story. And in this era of ubiquitous information, always-on connectivity, and global reach, that story can reach the world in an instant.
This is the power of being highly recommended. It’s why we are clearly not the same consumers we were a few years ago. We’re better informed, and we can share our views much more quickly and easily than ever before. And this change is helping to drive better businesses and brands. We all win.
—MARGO GEORGIADIS, President of Americas, Google