Current Marketing Trends – Transparency of Your Brand

John Vachalek - 10.13.2011 2:00 PM

Transparency is still a relatively new notion for many businesses. However, this idea is critical for all businesses to understand and carry forward with them on a daily basis. As one of the current marketing trends, it is a fundamental marketing concept that can have an extremely powerful impact on your brand.

So, what do we mean when we say transparency? Transparency is the notion (fact) that we live in an age where your customers and everyone else with whom you interact have the ability to publically share their experiences with your brand.  This can be done through reviews, blog posts, pictures they take and even videos. Transparency means that your public brand will be shaped far more by the cumulative input of what the world has to say about you rather than all the advertising and marketing campaigns you create.

Most people’s first thought is “How can I control all of this?” However, to be truly successful in this new age of marketing, you must embrace this notion of transparency at a higher level. You cannot just try to manage what people are saying about you (although, this is a great start if you are not yet doing this), but actually invite your customers into your world and share your passions with them. When this happens, customers become engaged, you begin to build community and loyalty around the brand, and you allow your brand to be seen as something more than just a commodity, upon which price is often the key deciding purchasing factor.

Great Transparency Example
During a recent, leisurely Saturday afternoon visit to Whole Foods, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Bean & Body.  This Colorado company has a unique line of high-quality coffee-based drinks. As I listened to the very knowledgeable person giving the demo, there was a great feeling about this brand being conveyed. Sure there was product information, but this was not the primary message. This person was telling me about their company, who they were, and the passion they have for what they do.

This transparent approach allowed me to connect with the company on a personal level, instead of just hearing about some new drink. It was far more impactful.  Some of the things discussed were:
• They are the only family-farmed, shade-grown specialty coffee company
• They were local in Colorado
• Healthy – Conscious – Coffee
• They are nice people, recycle, and love coffee

The kicker to the whole experience, which I thought was a great idea for embracing transparency, was that on the coupon, there was a barcode. If you scanned the barcode with your mobile phone, you were taken to a video to meet the family who grows the coffee for that particular drink.  Wow! How neat. To see this video, go to www.beanandbody.com/farmers

How To Use This Information
- Make sure you are you embracing transparency? How are you doing this? What are people saying about you? Are they getting more engaged?
- Ask yourself how you can invite your clients and customers deeper into the world of your brand and share with them the all the wonderful things that make your business different.  What are those special things you should share?

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