How Google Helps Define Your Brand

Wed, June 11, 2008

Tags: Advertising, Broadway, Google

Type ‘Diet Coke’ into Google - you can't miss the listing of ‘Diet Coke Sucks’ three listings down the page. Brands of all shapes and sizes are continuing to have major challenges arise in the primary search engines when consumers are searching for their brand. A consumers see your TV spot – they run to Google. Aside from your paid search advertising, what comes up in the organic listings ultimately plays a large role in defining your brand to consumers.

For Broadway productions, the usual suspects include everything from a link to the NY Times review (hope it’s good), a Broadway Box discount for your show (selling a discount ticket to a full price buyer), a ton of brokers selling your tickets (at much higher than what you are selling them for) and a Wikipedia listing (what people other than your marketing folks are writing). How’s that for a lack of control of your brand?

What’s quickly becoming a reality is the basic fact that brands must begin to shift their focus from selling the sizzle – to focus on better selling the actual steak (a chris powers classic line). Every interaction consumers have with your brand brings an opportunity for them to voice their opinion – both good and bad.

How do you combat this? Deliver a good experience that begins from the ticket purchasing process all the way through to the ‘thank you’ and follow-ups the consumer receives when they return home after seeing your production.

You can scream your ‘funny’, ‘exhilarating’ and ‘enthralling’ in advertising – but, the reality is, conversations about your brand are happening with or without you every day and are based on substance and the real interactions consumers are having. I wish, as an industry, we spent more time talking about those interactions - the ticket buying process, customer service (in and out of theatre), the follow-up messaging, consumer reviews and ticket prices. I think shifting from us talking, to us really listening and acting, new audiences will come and our current audiences will stay.

Here’s an interesting article on the issue’s Dell faced when they lost focus on the customer experience. Very interesting.

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