You Brand

CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CTO, CMO, President, Vice President, Senior Vice President, Director, Executive Director, Senior Director, Junior Director, Vice Director, Managing Director, Senior Managing Director, Manager, Executive Manager, Senior Manager, Vice Manager, General Manager, Junior Manager, Marketing Manager, Head of Marketing, Head of Advertising,…. – the list is endless.

Not all of these functions and titles will be found in one single company, but one will most probably find a clearly defined hierarchy shaped like a pyramid, in which the job title expresses the position in the pyramid. What started as an organizational principle has unfortunately turned into an operational principle and in some case even into a governing principle.

The system conditions employees and wakens their hunting instincts. Unfortunately their prey is the next ‘higher’ title and not additional market share for example. Employees start focusing on managing their careers, their immediate environment becomes the frame of reference for their decisions and they procrastinate courageous, innovative decisions, because their positive effect is not immediate. In other words, they are out of touch with the market and the consumer sooner or later and fade out the fact that in reality it is the consumer that feeds them.

Herein lies their major problem with social media. They define listening to consumers, opening up the dialogue, crowdsourcing etc. as an attempt to include consumers in the pyramid. The consumer is perceived as another hunter for the next ‘higher’ title, as a competitor rather than an ally or friend.

Lack of metrics, insufficient ROI etc. are neither here nor there, in reality it is about the preservation of the status-quo. That is however impossible. If companies don’t realize that, they will be out of business sooner or later.

Changing the structure of the organization by developing an alternative to the pyramid and getting rid of the title inflation would be a good starting point. What do you think?

Let me first explain what this post is not: It is not another comment on his incredible performances in Berlin and won’t attempt to analyze his relationship with the brand that supplies his running shoes.

Rather it is a post about decision and resulting action.

When Usain Bolt got his first running shoes – I assume he still had to buy them back then – he knew beforehand that he wanted to become a runner and to do what it takes to become a successful one. In other words, he didn’t get the running shoes to perform a task he previously performed with other shoes (like going to school or to the beach or shopping or whatever). He got them to run as quickly as possible on the track. He also realized that it requires a special, different attitude (training, nutrition etc.) to be really good at that.

Looking at many corporations and the way the treat social media, we find that they are not acting like Usain Bolt: They treat social media just like another marketing tool (i.e. just like another normal shoe) and refuse to realize that it requires a change in attitude.

If they want to be successful in social media, they have to commit to it beforehand and adhere to the rules that apply there. As long as they don’t change, they won’t be successful. Just like Usain Bolt wouldn’t have been successful wearing his running shoes to go to the beach or wearing street shoes to run on the track

Der erste Fehler war die Namensgebung. Der zweite, daraus resultierende, Fehler war es, die Bewertung und Bearbeitung dem Marketing zu überlassen.

Aktuelle Burger King Kampagne in Facebook. Funktioniert allerdings nur einmal pro Teilnehmer – sorry, Junkfood-Fans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/08/burger-kings-facebook-pro_n_156320.html