Free-Stuff Junkie or True Brand Advocate? - Kitty Kolding - MediaBizBloggers

I love that marketers are so tuned in now to the power of brand advocates or ambassadors, and are starting to take seriously the promise and peril of serious interaction with them. I know that this interaction will pay dividends to marketers and give consumers something that they consistently tell me they want: a voice with the brands they love.

In order for this to work, however, marketers must pay special attention to one vital task: making sure that the people they're giving free stuff to and counting on to promote their brand are true brand fans and not just free-stuff junkies. And this leads to a crucial question: How do you tell a real brand fan from a person who will do just about anything to get some free swag?

I put this question to some of my consumer engagement experts, and I came up with three key advocate tests:

Are they putting their hearts into it? When you give your advocates the opportunity to interact with you, look at what they're actually doing. Are they merely completing some small, transactional activity – filling out a short form, checking a box – in order to "get the prize?" If so, they could be free-stuff mercenaries, gaming one of the many opportunities out there. But if instead they are unleashing their creativity, having fun, coming up with ideas, spending time, and talking to you about it all the while, you have real advocates on your hands, customers who will do some powerful brand work for you.

Do they yearn to be your friend? There's no shame in incentivizing a consumer, and doing so doesn't by definition taint the engagement it can deliver. But is the consumer engaging with you to get something or to be something? Getting a coupon, a sample, or a contest-entry is fine. And wanting those things doesn't, in and of itself, make a consumer a free-stuff mercenary. But consumers whose interactions with you are sometimes based simply on their wanting to be associated with your brand, on wanting, for example, to be acknowledged brand fans – consumers like that are likely genuine brand advocates. If one of the things they like most is their acknowledged association with your brand, if that motivates them as much as anything else, then that's a pretty strong signal that they will be productive brand advocates.

Are they dying to talk to you? Our question here is, will consumers talk to you without a prize in the mix? If you ask them a question, will they respond, even if their response doesn't enter them in a sweeps, or get them a point of some kind? Even better, will they proactively contact you, to give you an opinion, suggestion, or some critical feedback? If they do, you should count them in the brand ambassador category and deploy them wisely.

Apply those three tests to the consumers you're interacting with and you'll sort out the free-stuff junkies from the true brand advocates. And you'll truly harness the power of positive word-of-mouth.

Kitty joined House Party in 2006 as SVP Sales, Service and Marketing. In March 2007 she was appointed CEO and has led the company to strong growth and profitable operations. Kitty can be contacted at Kitty.Kolding@houseparty.com.

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