LISTENING TO FANS OF YOUR BRAND

I attended an an online marketing summit and had the opportunity to hear Eric Anderson of White Horse Marketing present.

One of his topics was Brand Building and how the 2.0 world has changed the way brands do business:

Old School vs.2.0 World
1. Create vs. Listen
2. Promote vs. Enlist (engage fans of your brand and have them tell your story virally)
3. Defend vs. Converge

Listening-and taking advantage of the opportunity to react quickly to fans of your brand- is key these days. I love what Celestial Seasonings tea did when fanatics of its Fast Lane tea started an online petition to bring the tea back after it was discontinued.

To its credit, the brand listened to a fairly small, but vocal group of supporters. According to Anderson, Fast Lane tea now outsells all of the company's online tea sales by tenfold.