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A funny thing just happened to me, I just received a call from OCBC Bank. They asked if I had a home loan and when I mentioned I did not they proceeded to tell me if I was ever to consider getting a home loan I should consider OCBC bank. DONE. End of conversation which took less than 2 minutes.
2 things come to mind immediately, first off why would I bother getting an OCBC loan when I have had no prior contact with them. Do they seriously assume that from one single 2 minute call I would be interested to get a home loan from them?
Second, this lack of engagement or even relationship building on OCBC's part only confirms that they (i.e. OCBC) are only interested in selling to me.
As per my previous post, I mentioned that brands need to engage their customers. That goes for everything. Contact in any form must strive to build some kind of relationship with the potential or existing customer.
So, did OCBC make a huge marketing mistake - YES. Was their marketing technique time and money wasting - YES again! Two wrongs don't make a right.
Brands need to communicate more with their consumers. That is the gist of great branding today.
Here's an excerpt of an article found from The edge - a malaysian based newspaper. You can find the whole article here
(There is also a clear trend towards proactive consumers (prosumers). These are consumers who actively generate content for sites, communicate with brands, and network online. In Malaysia, this group is dominated by Malaysian youth aged 20-24, according to the Synovate Media Atlas Malaysia Q3 2007-Q2 2008. “Communication between brands and the consumer used to be one way. Now, it is a lot more interactive,” says Murphy. “The best brands, such as Nike and Coca Cola, invite consumers to interact, to provide ideas and feedback in exchange for rewards.")
A brand today has got to be more personal and more human. So how do you go about communicating your brand?
Well, one can start from the many fold places in the big 'ol world wide web, whether its a simple linked-in or even a facebook account. But whilst managing your on-line profile, don't forget about your other communication methods such as your consumers who have a mobile phones.
In Asia, the proliferation of data plans such as 3G is still relatively low, thus many phone holders still communicate via sms. For those of us in Asia not able to use accounts such as Twitter then they are in luck for I came across a service called Hailer
Companies such as Hailer and Twitter exist to help brands communicate. Hailer, for example allows its clients to communicate with mobile phone users who do not have data plans such as 3G thus giving potential brands the ability to communicate with millions of mobile users.
The great thing about this is, Hailer is set up on a platform which allow brands to create channels where mobile users can subscribe to. This type of setup forces brands to communicate responsibly where if a brands starts spamming its subscribers these subscribers can choose to unsubscribe to the brands channel.
Thus the ability to communicate goes both ways. Brands can now interact with its customers but in a responsible manner and consumers can now tell brands their thoughts and feelings. Gone I believe are the days where brands can be faceless and corporate.
In conclusion, the need for brands to communicate today is even more pressing then before. With the bountiful ways with which a brand can now communicate itself whether on-line or via mobile, I'm sure many will be interested to get in on the situation. So, grab your mouses and warm up your laptops and click away...
It seems these days; everything is for sale whether its opinions, integrity or principles. The idea is... throw enough money at anyone and you'll be able to buy their point of view.
To successfully build brands, I believe there needs to be integrity in the way companies or organisations go about their business. Without it, all that's left is a rotting foundation of lies.
So, the question is, are you brave enough to do what you say or is it the other way round?
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