Brand Advocacy (or look how jolly nice we are!)

One of our Account Execs, Charlotte battled through the busy crowds in our local Starbucks this morning to get her hands on her free Latte. The Latte give-away has been the centre of a massive campaign for Starbucks aiming to make the brand more friendly. You give them your name in exchange for the freebie making the morning coffee run a lot more personal. Starbucks’ promise ‘to make your coffee just the way you like it’ because ‘after all, it’s personal’ got us all thinking about how easy it is to create brand advocacy. 

It’s all about human brands and random acts of kindness...

With Social Media connecting people and brands all over the world, it has become apparent that brands need to engage with their consumers on a deeper personal level.  In a time where Facebook has taken to viewing ‘brands as people’ by allowing them to post directly onto user’s newsfeeds (Marketing Week) it is not simply enough to be a faceless corporate brand. As trendwatching.com points out, it is all about creating a human interface with character and personality and therefore experiential activities are only truly successful when they manage to create a deeper emotional connection. 

The human brand with character and personality, according to trendwatching.com, embodies traits that include random acts of kindness and activities based around generosity and giving suggesting that Starbucks was on the right track with this morning’s latte give-away.

Here are some other brands that have recently caught our attention with their acts of kindness:

• We love Kinder Bueno’s ‘Try Me Free’ Campaign which offers you the money back for your Bueno purchase and suggests ‘It's the perfect excuse to treat yourself to another!’ – We Agree!

• Mr Kipling has created an exceedingly good experiential activity (come on now- we couldn’t resist!) which will make waiting for the bus an experience you will never forget. Bus shelters in locations such as London, Nottingham and Glasgow will not only emit the smell of an Angel Slice, it will give you one too - surely sampling at its best! (via the DRUM )

When talking about brands that have individual character and personality it seems hard not to mention Ben & Jerry’s who are known for their strong social mission as well as their yummy ice cream. In the last few days it was announced that they have joined ranks with gay rights organisation Stonewall and renamed their Apple Pie flavour ice cream, Apple-y Ever After, in support of equal rights to marriage for same sex couples. Read the full story here: http://www.benjerry.co.uk/our-values/appleyeverafter

Humans have flaws and so do brands...

Easily accessible online reviews and comments are quick to point out the flaws in brands marketing strategies but, as trendwatching.com points out, this adds to breaking down the corporate façade. Nobody is perfect and neither are brands.

And so back to Starbucks- Their personalised coffee cups don’t always go down well elsewhere as you can see here... http://thatsnotmynamestarbucks.tumblr.com/ but we are staying open minded for now (and most definitely going back to load up a new Starbucks card and receive our next free coffee!)