Enter “beach” in an Instagram search and you can expect to see the first 30 images stuffed full of perfectly lit, posed images of “influencers”, men and women in various swimwear, languishing on exotic beaches from Ipanema to Koh Samui to Byron Bay. A collection of largely anonymous characters paid to promote brands on social media. The giveaway, a link to the brand with some gushing “heaven” comment.
What started out, as a grassroots, guerilla marketing activity has become mainstream as the media companies and regulators exert greater transparency rules on the influencers and advertisers.
The medium in the rush for authenticity, fake or otherwise, is commanding huge time, energy and resource from small retail brands. Is this innovative or merely fixing a marketing problem? Is it really impacting purchasing patterns? Do the influencers possess real power and authority?
The answer lies in this question: if customers in a high-tech world can check the reviews, prices and quality of any retail clothing product 24/7, 365 days a year globally, do you agree the consumer now “owns” a brand’s marketing?
In other words, traditional sales and marketing teams, and resources are largely redundant.
If you do, the priority is “evangelism”. Highly credible and influential figures, who respond to innovative and creative brands not because they are paid to but because they are passionate about the product or service and see it is as mutually beneficial to promote the brand. So in one sense, little has changed for big or small brands in the 15 years since Tom Ford left Gucci? Perhaps not a lot. Other than who the consumer sees as someone with the power to have an effect, direct or indirect, on their style and purchasing patterns. Some are timeless like Julianne Moore, who is arguably as relevant today as when she first arrived in the entertainment business.
For small, emerging brands, instagram and its’ band of influencers “get stuff out there” but do they really achieve anything more? How do you know who really is watching, reacting and buying? How can you easily capture the data, turn it into information, and information into powerful knowledge you can apply to key strategic decisions? Let’s be honest it is “guesswork marketing”.
Why wouldn’t you if you were a small brand focus on, who your ideal customers are, who they listen to, who they admire, what they read and where they hang out? Armed with that information raise your “voice” and embrace multimedia with stiletto-like marketing spend (word of mouth, networking, speaking, publishing and hosted events).
I mean how many times do you meet someone, who says in response to a flattering comment, “I saw this amazing product or service on the Instagram page of a nobody in Orange County, and thought that is cool, I’ll go and buy it?”
Just because Instagram influencers with fake lists of 5,000 or 50,000 followers convince you their medium is your priority, if you are a small, high-growth brand owner wouldn’t you want to maximise your control and power over engaging with your ideal demographic?
Accidental sales don’t count. Prioritising resource where real business lies with some degree of certainty does – “probabilistic marketing” – rather than relying on individuals with zero credibility. Just because it is “cheap” doesn’t make it a valuable use of your time, money and energy.
