…And corporate marketers relinquish control.
You’ve heard about Brand Tags, haven’t you? (You’re nodding yes.) It’s the site where you — yes, you, the consumer — tag brands with the first thing that comes to your mind. Anyone can play. And the result is a “collective experiment in brand perception,” according to creator Noah Brier.
Brier released Brand Tags one month ago today, calling it “70% done.” Since then Brand Tags has over 940,000 tags and mentions on numerous blogs, including Seth Godin’s blog and Tom Weber’s Buzzwatch for the Wall Street Journal.
As Weber notes, “the free-for-all aspect of the Brand Tags approach may cause some corporate marketers to shudder.”
Here’s what the tag cloud for Target looks like. If you reorganize it in the “orderly view,” you’ll see that the first entry (at least of this post) is a gigantic “cheap.”
Ouch.
But “cheap” is quickly followed by some pretty terrific, titanic-sized adjectives, including “awesome,” “cool,” and “fun.” And true to Target’s branding, the tags “design,” “red,” and “bullseye” also appear as absolutely immense words. I’m thinking those tags would cause any corporate marketer to smile, rather than shudder.
It would appear, at least on Brand Tags, that Target has achieved a nice congruence between corporate marketing and consumer perception, an enviable position indeed.
Not all the tags you’ll find on the site are nice. Or polite. But as we heard at the most recent MIMA event, “Dual Reality: Who Controls Social Media in the Enterprise,” which featured panelists from Target, Best Buy, General Mills, and Fingerhut, most marketers believe it’s okay for customers to talk about them online. And even better to listen. In her wrap-up post about the event, “Social Media: Leave Your Leisure Suit Behind,” Erica Butler writes, “It’s less about what we (branders) want to say, and more about what our customers want to tell us.” Brand Tags is certainly telling. In some cases shouting.
Let’s take a quick look at two other brands represented at the MIMA event, and what consumers are saying:
Best Buy. As of this post, the top entry is “electronics,” followed by “cheap,” and “overpriced.” Interesting tug of war here.
General Mills. Hmmm. Not currently on Brand Tags. (Anyone care to submit it? Jim Cuene, what do you say?) Several noted General Mills brands are not on the site either, including Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Pillsbury, Cheerios, or Haagen-Dazs. You will, however, find Green Giant and Old ElPaso, although the latter has not received many tags.
What about other big brands here in Minnesota? What are people saying? 3M, Dairy Queen, Thomson Reuters.
And MIMA? I thought about submitting a request to have it appear on Brand Tags, but since it’s a regional brand, I was concerned we might appear, well, like this.
Should I care?
(Hat tip to Todd Nesser, my colleague at Larsen, for first pointing me to Brand Tags.)
