"Project Runway" Offers Template for Marketing Best Practices'- Jory Des Jardins - MediaBizBlogger

Originally published September 22 2008Every year my company distributes a feedback survey to the attendees of our annual conference who are mostly women who blogamp8212some of the most opinionated and influential wordofmouth sources that exist And every year I39m amazed by how passionate our community is about all aspects of the eventamp8212from the amount of protein available at breakfast to the extent to which we recycle And I39m even more surprised at how diametrically opposed their opinions are on well everythingIt39s not easy trying to move forward on decisions when our audience shares a passion for one thing blogging but is so diverse in other ways This reality sensitizes me to the challenges of brands who are trying to do good by soliciting feedback from their most influential customersamp8212those who engage in social media No matter how hard the brand tries by virtue of engaging the community it has opened the door to higher expectations and lots of conflicting messages While one customer may be in love with your new brand enhancement another may hate it another may not care And if this rush of opinion is not responded to right away everyone is alienated quotWhy39d you bother to ask us huhquotThis occurred after Jet Blue39s barrage of new media apologies after a spate of ridiculously delayed flights left thousands of customers peeved When Jet Blue failed to increase its ontime rating after all the public promises the Blogosphere was more critical of the airline than of those who had even worse ontime records We can always refer back to the online recordamp8212JB39s customer bill of rights for instance or the video on YouTube of CEO David Barger promising things would changeA fear I hear quite often from marketers is that by engaging in communities they are now on the hook for making a community feel heard And let39s be honest can you really make hundreds of thousands even millions of people feel heard Can you magically rearrange your operations to accommodate every blogging Toni Debbie and Harriet who bothers to write about you No you can39t And I don39t suggest that you try By not trying to please everybody you risk losing a few customers but by trying to please everybody online you lose your point of viewamp8212what made you resonate with your customers in the first placeThere39s an incredibly fine line between smart market outreach and listening too much Perhaps the best way to describe the distinction between the two is through something that I39ve found to be quite the metaphor for best marketing practices even life perhaps amp8230 the television reality show Project RunwayThis show often requires the contestants aspiring fashion designers to create something for clients who have included female wrestlers drag queens and teenage girls And it39s always tense and fun to watch how the designers struggle to create something that the client considers wearable while also establishing a point of viewDesigners who lose tend to insist on their visions at all costs dismissing the client39s requests as do designers who bend over backwards to give a client what they think she wants with no hat tips to their own personal style Think of this season39s Daniel whose insistence on sticking to his selfproclaimed high taste level led to a lackluster drag queen outfit that seemed tone deaf next to the fantastical overthetop creations of his competition see images It seemed he missed the point of Drag and made his own taste look bad tooHistorically the winning designers delight the client and judges while still showing off their signature statementsamp8212be it Season 4 winner Christian Siriano39s quotfiercenessquot even when designing an outfit made of old Levis or Leanne who could still show off her devotion to refined geometric lines even while incorporating car seats in the skirt of a dress See above And the model still looked great in itThe golden ticket for brands that publicly open themselves to user feedback is to be fierce and flattering at the same time A point of view must be there but so must a willingness to compromise juuuuuust a teensy bit on that vision to accommodate audience customers and community The people that matterEarlier this year Johnson ampamp Johnson learned this with deep humility and my respect when they created an impressive custom event for Mombloggers called Camp Baby enlisting prominent women to join them at corporate headquarters for two days of networking and sessions presenting their brands but failed to provide child care for these womenamp8212an example of all fierceness and no flattery They redeemed themselves by apologizing wholeheartedly to these women and trying their best to accommodate schedulesIn early 2007 Unilever opened the floodgates of public customer opinion with one of its most progressive brands Dove in a launch campaign for its new Cream Oil line In conjunction with AOL the brand sponsored an open video contest for which anyone could submit a 30second spot with the winners being shown during the 2007 Oscars a campaign my organization promoted The next year Dove ran the same contest but this time provided art music and branding selections that users could incorporate into their submissions Artistic heresy I argue no This is an example of a brand opening its doors to the public while still maintaining its point of viewCan a company listen too much Yes if it also has nothing important to say

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