It was March 15, 2023, and I snapped a photo that changed my life. And I’ll explain how it can change your life, too.

On that date, I was attending the annual SXSW festival in Austin, TX, and enjoying a wonderful late-night meal with my friends Joseph Jaffe and Eric Qualman. Suddenly, people stood up and quietly walked out of the upscale restaurant. It was surreal, like being in a Stephen King movie!

My back was to the door. Where were these people going?

Nowhere. They stood on the sidewalk, pointing their smartphones to the big Texas sky. My friends and I had to see what was going on. So we left our hot food and walked outside.

It wasn’t an alien invasion, but it was close. A dazzling drone show lit up the heavens, telling the story of a new sci-fi television program coming to the Paramount Network. Hundreds of drones were programmed along custom flight paths to depict scenes from the show.

To top it off, the display ended with a sky-high QR code that sent viewers to a website with the show’s trailer.

While drone shows have become a staple of city celebrations and sporting events, this was novel—the first time we had seen such a display.

We all took a photo of the drone-ad to share with our social media audiences:

In that moment, the line between marketing and magic blurred. We weren’t just watching an ad; we were living inside one.

The mesmerizing advertisement became the epicenter of buzz at SXSW, and with more than 300,000 influential people in attendance, that’s a perfect place to make a rumble.

Now, we get to the interesting part. How did this photo change my life, and possibly yours?

The revelation

I’ve spent nearly two decades researching and writing about one crucial problem—how can our marketing messaging become the signal above the noise in a world of oversaturated content?

I witnessed one of the most astonishing examples of a brand becoming “the signal.” Every person in this restaurant abandoned their hot food and cold cocktails to stand on a street in Texas to see an ad—not just see it, but record it and share it with social media audiences worldwide. It wasn’t just a signal above the noise—it was a supernova.

Remarkable.

Unprecedented.

Perfect.

For weeks, I couldn’t get this drone show out of my head. I played this mind-game: If somebody gave me the challenge to create an ad so disruptive that people would leave their hot meals to see it, could I do it? No.

What was the lesson for businesses desperately wanting to be “the signal” to their customers? Was there a scalable process behind this brilliant idea that could guide breakthrough marketing strategies? Was this a clue to the future of creativity and our place in a world dominated by artificial intelligence? I became obsessed with this story in the sky.

One word kept pounding in my brain: Audacious.

Audacious! Is that what it takes to stand out in the world today?

Audacity as a strategy

AI is here. Nipping at the heels of our skillsets and jobs.

Being merely competent won’t cut it. Competence doesn’t create conversations. Competence is ignorable. But audacity? That’s the currency of attention in our overstimulated world.

What if the key to becoming “the signal” isn’t shouting louder, bending AI prompts, or spending more, but the simple human bravery it takes to be … a little nuts?

I discovered that Giant Spoon had created this viral sensation, an agency behind many of my favorite marketing success stories over the years.

I called Marc Simons, one of the agency co-founders, and asked him if he and his team would reveal all their creative secrets to me for a new book. “Absolutely,” he said. The opportunity was irresistible, a siren call to a marketing geek like me. I jumped on a plane to visit him in New York City, the beginning of a journey that included meetings with some of the greatest creative geniuses from around the world — and they all gave me their secrets!

They helped me answer this question: In a world where AI is overwhelming our content world, how do we fight back? How do we unleash the uniquely human fireworks of marketing creativity?

And today, my friends, please welcome one answer to this question:

The reveal

After more than two years of research and writing, I’d like you to meet my new book, Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World.

So, you see how the story in the Austin sky truly changed the course of my life. But how does it change yours?

Whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, or business owner, you’re longing to be seen, to be heard, to be discovered, and that is more difficult than ever. How do you establish brand awareness in a world where content from bots already dominates more than half the internet?

Here’s a little movie preview of what’s in store for you with this book:

Filled with inspiring stories, hundreds of practical ideas (for businesses with any budget!), and all-new case studies, Audacious describes the essential human elements needed to:

• Disrupt the story narrative
• Disrupt where the story is told
• Disrupt show tells the story

Early readers of the book have been delighted, calling it “a masterpiece,” and “an essential path forward.” This will fill your head with ideas and your heart with hope. And, it’s a lot of fun!

You might have noticed that the book cover is a one-of-a-kind AR experience — the first book of its kind in the world! The cover will display abstract art based on the stories in the book!

Inside the book there is a puzzle, videos, and secret surprises. After all, a book named Audacious better be audacious, right?

Why did I spend all this time writing and publishing this book? I’m desperate to get my ideas out to you. I’m a teacher. I know that people need help navigating this overwhelming marketing world, and I have ideas that will help. I’ve spent thousands of hours bringing this to you and I know you will love it. This is my best work.

And this cool little book does not cost much money. Please order your copy today, and let me know how you like it!

CLICK HERE TO FIND AUDACIOUS ON SALE!

PS I also have an all-new speech to go with my book. This new talk was recently the highest-rated speech at a national marketing event, and I would love to bring it to your company or association. Drop me a line! 

Need a keynote speaker about brand communities? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The photo that changed my life (and maybe yours) appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

A common click-bait technique is to write a blog post with “The death of …” in the title. I’ve learned to ignore these, but I’ve seen such an avalanche of headlines with some version of “the end of brands” that it was time to comment. It’s not just a sensationally ridiculous idea, it’s a dangerous one.

I’d like to insert some common sense into the dialogue and explain why brands are more important than ever.

What is a brand?

Let’s take it from the top. A brand is an emotional expectation.

Here’s a little exercise I use in my classes: If I told you Coca-Cola was building a hotel in your city, could you imagine what it looks like?

Your mind immediately starts painting: Red velvet everywhere. Curved, flowing architecture like a bottle. A fountain in the lobby bubbling with happiness. The air smells like vanilla and spice. Even the receptionist’s smile sparkles.

You can see it, can’t you? Feel it? Hear it?

That’s a brand.

It’s not about sugar water. It’s about an emotional promise that’s so strong, so consistent, you could architect an entire building around it.

You can count on this “Coke feeling” in any circumstance, in any place. The trust in this consistency keeps that company at the top of your mind and maybe even at the top of your heart, almost everywhere in the world.

It doesn’t appeal to everyone, especially if you are health-conscious, for example. But the brand means something to enough people to make a difference, and make a profit.

There is no utilitarian advantage of a pair of 20-year-old Nike Air Jordans selling for thousands of dollars in Japan. There are better shoes, even pricier shoes. But this shoe makes us FEEL something and that makes it rise above the fray.

Creating this emotional shorthand isn’t easy. It’s like composing a symphony that plays in people’s hearts every time we see a logo.

But here’s why it’s worth it: When everyone else is competing on features and price, you’re competing on feelings.

And feelings? They’re priceless.

There are a few reasons critics claim brand marketing is in decline (or dead!). Let’s knock those down:

1. The Customer is in Control

One reason critics cite for the diminishing importance of brand marketing is the shift in power between businesses and consumers. In the past, brands held sway over public perception because they controlled the narrative through traditional media channels. Today, the internet has democratized influence, empowering consumers to control the narrative through their opinions, reviews, and posts.

I’ve written about this extensively, most notably in the book Marketing Rebellion, which suggests that nearly all the power to drive sales is in the hands of the customer. This doesn’t mean brand marketing is dead. It means that we can’t count on advertising any more. The new imperative is to create value and experiences so insanely great that people can’t wait to spread the word.

The Real Job of Brand Marketing Today:

1. Stop trying to control the narrative (you can’t)
2. Start creating experiences worth talking about
3. Give your customers something so amazing they become volunteer marketers

The customer is the brand marketer. How do we help them do the job?

2. The Rise of Performance Marketing

Over the past 25 years, performance marketing (SEO, targeted ads, etc) gained prominence over traditional brand marketing.  Businesses love how advanced analytics tools can track and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns in real-time. By comparison, assigning sales attribution to brand-building activities can be difficult or impossible.

Performance marketing is vital to many companies, especially early-stage companies that need to fill a pipeline and generate customers fast. But arguably, in the end, the brand is all you have to differentiate yourself.

In my book Audacious: How to Win in an AI Marketing World, I feature a case study on Liquid Death, the fastest-growing beverage in the world — a five-year-old startup! Founder Mike Cessario said:

“You’re only going to win with branding. You won’t win with some functional ingredients you can’t own. In that case, when you’re big enough, Coke or Pepsi or someone else will just produce the same thing—same ingredients, cheaper, more widely distributed, and then you lose. With water, there’s minimal, if any, functional difference between the brands. The difference is purely marketing. People want to walk around with this thing instead of that thing. None of the water brands were interesting. I did my homework. There was a huge opportunity to tell a different story.”

A successful company can’t stick with only performance marketing in the long-term. Building brand awareness powers long-term growth. When consumers recognize and trust your brand, performance ads become more effective. Case studies show that smart brand marketing can slash Customer Acquistion Cost by up to 70%.

Branding creates distance between you and your competitors, paving the way for future growth.

3. The Commoditization of Products and Services

Some say that the commoditization of many industries is killing brands.

Perhaps the poster child for this argument is Temu. Temu is an eCommerce company that ships generally non-branded, low-cost commodity products directly from Chinese factories. It is a company that has exploited digital technology and eCommerce psychology to the maximum and pioneered a new way to serve bargain basement shoppers.

Here’s the thing about Temu: They’re not killing brands. They’re just showing us what happens when price is the only story you need to tell.

There has always been a segment of consumers who love to hunt for bargains instead of brands for economic necessity or perhaps just for fun. Temu has digitized the treasure hunt.

Side note: I predict that at some point, Temu will create its own simple, reliable branded products, just as Amazon did. So, brand would matter, even in the commodity sphere.

4. Categories?

A recent exchange on LinkedIn offered an idea that creating “categories” is more important than brands.

Here’s an example: Dude Wipes. This company created a better, environmentally-sensitive way to wipe your rear. I literally never thought I would use those words in a blog post, but there you go.

Let’s break this down, from the bottom-up (pun intended)!

Dude Wipes didn’t just create a category — “premium man-focused bathroom hygiene.” They built a brand that makes guys feel okay about buying fancy toilet paper.

But creating a category without building a brand is like inventing a new sport and not telling anyone about the rules. Being first means nothing if you’re also forgotten first. Your brilliant new category is a sitting duck if you don’t wrap it in brand awareness. Your competitors are watching, waiting, and probably have deeper pockets than you do.

Look at what happened to:

• Friendster (created social networking, Facebook owned it)
• Zune (an early device to carry songs in a small device)
• Palm Pilot (invented PDAs, now a trivia question)

They all created categories. They all got steamrolled by brands that did it better.

Category without brand is silly.

5. The Impact of Social Media Influencers

Social media has fundamentally altered the way consumers interact with brands. Influencers, who often have more authentic connections with their followers, have emerged as powerful voices in the marketplace. Rather than relying on brand-created content, consumers turn to influencers for recommendations, reviews, and inspiration.

Hey … it’s still a BRAND! Whether it’s a person or a product, you’re still creating an emotional expectation. And the influencer is a lot more effective if their audience has heard of the brand!

Branding Forever

There is simply no rational argument for the declining importance of brand marketing. In fact, it is more important than ever, especially in an AI world. Here are a few quick takes:

• Branding alone creates differentiation in a crowded marketplace (like Liquid Death!)
• Brands are beacons of trust in a world of deep fakes and misinformation
• Branding isn’t replaced by “categories” or performance marketing. It enhances these initiatives.
• Loyalty to a brand enables consumer brand advocacy and influencer marketing.
• Brands and brand stories resonate across generations.
• In times of crisis, a well-established brand is better positioned to weather the storm.
• Brand trust and recognition is the fuel of international expansion.

In a world where anyone can make anything, brands are the difference between:

• Trust and uncertainty
• Loyalty and indifference
• Premium prices and commodity status

Declaring the death of brands isn’t just wrong — it’s like declaring the death of trust, loyalty, and human connection.

Need a keynote speaker about the future of marketing? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The end of brands, or the end of common sense? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

One of my favorite strategic brainiacs is Mathew Sweezey, and we used our latest podcast episode to explore the ideas we’re most excited about for the New Year. I think these are non-obvious, interesting, and worth your time!

Some of the items we discuss:

• Why enterprise-level AI integrations will finally begin to drive ROI
• The human-driven opportunity of experiential marketing
• Why brand communities are the new media
• Why marketing success might depend on change management
• How marketers will overcome a pandemic of dull

… and more!

Sit at the table with us, won’t you? Listen in as Mathew and I explore what the year has in store for us. All you have to do is click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 306

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this fantastic episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

The post Six marketing megatrends we’re watching right now appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

While AI is the greatest marketing story since the internet, it’s been earning a lot of bad press lately.

• Some analysts don’t see the possibility of an ROI commensurate with the billions being poured into the technology.
• Environmentalists decry the energy that is needed to maintain the systems.
• Lawsuits are flying everywhere, and deep fakes have become mainstream news.
• And on top of this, most people aren’t adopting the technology beyond “dabbling.”

It begins to make you think:: Does AI have a marketing problem?

A few weeks ago, I suggested that it was time for AI to embrace marketing. No tech company is telling the story of what AI is and where it’s going—the story is being interpreted by pundits, critics, and politicians.

Sure enough, both Google and Microsoft launched ad campaigns during the Olympics, but the ads were terrible. Google’s ad, in which a father encourages his daughter to use Gemini to write a letter to her favorite athlete, was particularly cringe-worthy. Writing a child’s letter? Is that the best you can do?

The AI marketing problem is one of many subjects I cover with Paul Roetzer on the new episode of The Marketing Companion. Paul is the founder of the Marketing AI Institute and always presents a measured view of the AI landscape. But we did address some hot-button issues like:

• The new AI “robber barons” knowing stealing content and IP to grow a business
• The HUGE copyright issue blocking adoption
• The special impact of Elon Musk
• The lack of preparation for possible AI-driven job loss
• AI and the U.S. election
• AI and marketing productivity

Does AI have a marketing problem? This episode will undoubtedly get you thinking. Click here to listen!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 296

Resources mentioned in the show:

JobsGPT

Artificial Intelligence Show

MAICON

CharacterAI

Special thanks to guest appearances from RISE members who participated in the bonus Q&A session:

• Joeri Billast
• Brian Piper
• Dan Christ
• Sandee Rodriguez
• Roxana Hurduca?
• Bruce Scheer
• Scott Scowcroft

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Does Marketing Have an AI Problem or Does AI Have a Marketing Problem? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

My theory is that if you created a word cloud of the most popular subjects on LinkedIn, somewhere between “let me help you skyrocket your sales” and “AI will destroy us all” is imposter syndrome. It seems to be everywhere.

One of the people I follow declared that she is writing a book about imposter syndrome and then decided that she couldn’t do it because of imposter syndrome. It seems to be a ubiquitous subject these days.

On a personal level, I don’t suffer from it much. I figure if I am invited someplace, I belong there. Either the people who believe in me are stupid, or I should be there. And I don’t think people are stupid. I have not met too many people who are immune from imposter syndrome. Why me? I’m not sure but I received a lot of positive reinforcement early in my career that might have helped.

But it’s still a frustration in my business coaching practice. For people I help, imposter syndrome seems common. I can see how worthy and talented they are, and maybe I can get them to believe it for a week, but then they devolve and feel the insecurity a week later.

In the latest episode of The Marketing Companion, Amanda Russell and I talk about different sides of this issue, and she brings up an important idea. In her days as an elite athlete, she underwent “brain training” to help develop the mental toughness to overcome injuries and setbacks. Why wouldn’t we use these techniques in the business setting?

It’s an interesting conversation you won’t want to miss! Just click here to listen in >

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 293

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Beyond Imposter Syndrome appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Early in my career, I learned a powerful lesson on how to battle boredom that changed my professional life forever. I hope this story will inspire you too.

How to battle boring

I began my career in corporate communications and had the amazing opportunity to have my own little company magazine. I did everything – writing, editing, design, and photography.

This dates me (painfully), but at this time in my career, a photographer still had to worry about f-stops and film speed. Digital wasn’t a thing—not even close. So, I needed to learn the craft.

I signed up for a weekend class with a master photographer who specialized in the type of corporate photography that was part of my job. He assembled a class of ten students in adjoining suites in a Dallas hotel, and this is where I learned how to battle boring forever.

The first day of class covered the basics of composition and lighting. The second day pushed us to put these lessons into action. The class was divided into two and we were challenged to create photographs that would make the other team laugh, ask questions, or feel curious.

Using Polaroid cameras to create our art on the spot, we were instructed to only use what we could find in the hotel rooms for props. With no budget or outside resources, we depended on the team’s collective imagination to create something out of nothing.

The teacher pushed us. “Never be average or predictable,” he said. “Use the team to create something I’ve never seen before.” We moved, changed, twisted, challenged, and pushed our meager resources until we had singularly unique and bold photographs.

The team trials became progressively more difficult, and near the end of the last day, the teacher issued a final assignment – create a photo that would shock the other team. Until then, creating a funny or puzzling photo had been fun and relatively easy. But shocking? Now we really had to reach … and remember we were stuck in that boring hotel room.

The Shock Doctrine

We did our best and worked to create a photo that we thought was shocking. But then he looked at both teams, shook his head, and said, “You’re not getting it. I mean, you need to create something really shocking. Go back to your rooms and create a photo that will knock our socks off. You have 20 minutes.”

By this point we were working well as a team and we were determined to produce something audacious. We emptied our pockets and backpacks. The women on our team emptied their purses on the floor. Was there anything we could work with?

One of the women had black mascara and started rubbing it on the back of her hand like shoe polish. Then the other woman took it and started rubbing it on her face until it was black as night.

Somebody else had a tiny flashlight. Another person had a mirror that we held up to her nose. We pulled up her blonde hair. At the end of 15 minutes, this was our photo:

Yes. We blew their socks off.

Decades later, I still see this photo as a great inspiration. If we could create this ghoulish, one-eyed monster in a dark Hilton hotel bathroom, it made me believe that I could make anything more remarkable. I could battle boring and win. I would never create dull content again.

I didn’t need money to push the limits, and I didn’t need a team of experts. I just had to be desperately dissatisfied with mediocrity.

Money is the bane of creativity

Later in my career, I worked at a plant location that was swimming in money. It was the most profitable plant in the system, and everyone just threw money at every problem. There was so much waste. And so much dull!

I realized that the most creative teams I worked with had the fewest resources. Money was the bane of creativity. It’s possible to battle boring, even with a small budget.

I’ve never met a fellow marketer who told me, “We have too much money in our budget.” No matter where you are in your career, you’ll face resource constraints. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be audacious. In fact, as long as you have access to a tube of mascara, you’ll probably be OK.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post How to battle boring … even without a budget appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve been giving many talks about community-based marketing, and one of the common discussion points is measurement. Isn’t that ALWAYS the most important question in marketing? What’s the value of a brand community?

But when it comes to community, brands are often entering an alternate universe — many traditional ideas of brand messaging and control are abandoned.

First, let’s be clear that when I say “community,” I mean either building or partnering with an online or offline community who:

• know each other
• gather for a unified purpose
• participate in the direction and evolution of the community

This is different than influencer marketing, which I probably need to address in a separate post. With influencer marketing, you typically lightly touch consumers through a brand mention. Through a community, your aim is to build brand love and loyalty through a consistent effort.

One other caveat — most communities are transactional and focused on customer self-service. The value of those communities is easy to measure because you can track customer service costs and cost avoidance. But a community aimed at customer loyalty and brand-building is harder to quantify.

How do we measure the value of a brand community? Here are ten ideas.

The value of a brand community

As a marketing professional, your ultimate goal is to create customers. There are two ways to do this, either through transactions or brand-building.

Direct transactions (sales) are usually troublesome in a community. People want to be there because they share some purpose with you. They want to grow, learn, and change the world with your help. Of course opportunities to sell are possible, but if all you do is sell, people will run away and never come back.

So, most unrealized benefits from a community come from brand-building. Here are some best practices I’ve observed as companies measure the value of a brand community.

1. Engagement

One of the largest and most successful brand communities in the world is hosted by Sephora. With 6 million members, 80% of the company’s revenues come through this community! But their most important metric is engagement. Nike measures success through user engagement in workout sessions, challenges, and community discussions.

If people are engaging in the community through comments and conversations, it shows the company and the community is relevant. And if they are relevant, their brand is heading in the right direction — a leading indicator of new product success and sales.

In the social media world, I’m not a fan of using engagement as a primary metric. But when it comes to community, engagement is highly prized.

2. Ideas and innovations

Many brand communities put a premium on ideas for new products and innovations. For example, IKEA, Nike, and Lego all run large communities devoted to product development. Community members have a stake in the success of these products, which drives loyalty and sales.

3. Advocacy

Research shows that trust in businesses, media, and advertising is at an all-time low. But we trust in each other. In fact, word-of-mouth recommendations and user-generated content drive a large portion of sales these days.

Using a community to drive UGC beyond the community is massively valuable for any brand, and it is fairly easy to measure.

4. Conversion Metrics

Tracking metrics such as conversion rates, customer lifetime value (CLV), and the correlation between community engagement and product purchases helps measure the transition from community member to customer.

5. Brand Sentiment

Closely related to engagement rate is sentiment. Are the brand-related conversations positive? Positive sentiment indicates a strong and healthy community that can drive UGC and loyalty. New AI tools are allowing communities to assess thousands of data points to gauge conversations.

6. Growth of Community

Measuring the number of members joining the community over a specific period is a reflection of relevance and a leading indicator of sales.

7. Brand relevance

A primary value of a brand community is the dialogue between you and your customer. A successful brand has to be a journey of relentless relevance and there is no better way to do that than to let your customers lead you to what is next.

The ideas shared in my community help me be a more relevant and effective speaker, writer, and consultant. This is the primary benefit of my community — not just to me but to all of us.

It’s hard to pin a specific dashboard measurement on this one, but it’s an important qualitative measure of success.

8. Customer Loyalty and Purchase Behavior

Some brand communities are using sophisticated tools to measure:

• Loyalty
• Purchase behaviors versus non-community members
• Referrals
• Affiliate sales
• Churn and retention rates

9. Information flow

This would go as a measure of the PR value of a community.

A value of a brand community is the unprecedented speed of information flow — in both directions. You don’t have to wait to gather a consumer panel if you want to test an idea quickly. Throw it out to the community.

Is there a rumor or problem with misinformation? You can address this immediately in a community and that can influence perception and subsequent coverage.

In a world of misinformation, a community is a place to find the truth and stop rumors.

10. Sales

Ultimately, we need to create buying customers, or we will go out of business. However, I’ve interviewed dozens of community leaders, and none of them claim sales are their primary goal. It can’t be. People are tired of being sold to. The focus has to be on the shared purpose between brand and community, which leads to commitment and loyalty.

Loyalty leads to sales, and when done right, community will certainly fuel your bottom line.

I hope these ideas help. I’ve been consulting and speaking extensively on brand community strategy, so let me know if you have further questions or ways I can help you.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Midjourney

The post How do you measure the value of a brand community? Ten ideas. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

by Sonia Hunt, {grow} community member

It took me almost dying for a fourth time to get serious about my health and well-being.

At age three, I was diagnosed with severe food allergies, asthma, and environmental allergies – the trifecta nobody wants.

I managed my diagnosis the best I could while hiding it from the workplace for decades because it did not offer me the psychologically safe environment that I required.

Over the years, I rose up the ranks to Chief Marketing Officer, still keeping my personal and professional lives separate. This brought a double whammy of stress, anxiety, and unhealthy behaviors from both sides, which I somehow survived through.

In 2008, I found myself on the emergency room table for a fourth time in anaphylaxis and almost dead. The diagnosis was that it was a severe food allergy reaction, and it left me with hives all over my body for the next year of my life.

There was no way I could hide this from my CEO or my team anymore.

This incident forced me to be real about my health situation, become empowered to live in my truth, and get serious about improving my health and well-being in a way that could finally see me thriving across work-health-life.

I wanted to stop “surviving.” I wanted to see myself thriving.

And so, I began what became a new journey to optimal health and well-being, breaking down personal and professional compartments, advocating for myself and my needs, getting help when I needed it, and leading my teams by example by taking care of myself first and foremost and promoting they do the same.

As I look at the world today, I’m guessing this is a very good time to write about marketing career burnout and YOUR HEALTH.

Marketing career burnout and you 

Ten years ago, there was no talk of workplace well-being. Many of us grappling with health challenges endured a silent struggle behind closed doors, striving to maintain well-being while the corporate world demanded the separation of our personal and professional lives.

That thinking was shattered with the pandemic.

Today, there’s no more compartmentalization, and Gen Z rocked that torch in this fight against employers.

Marketers, in particular, have been through too much pain in too short of a time. We’ve been trying to manage everything as best we can — pandemic catastrophes, new rules of marketing, remote work, layoffs, crazy customer behavior, and this little thing called AI. I am exhausted. And you probably are, too.

“The work cannot suffer,” said my former CEO … but here’s what he really meant: The people could suffer.

I’ll venture to say the Marketing Leader has the worst job today.

Others haven’t agreed with me, but they aren’t marketers! There is no career on earth that has changed so quickly.

And it’s not just the hard skills. You’re required to evolve in new ways – with strong inner/core skills, including resilience and adaptability – and almost immediately required to be the expert in them.

Marketing career burnout is real, my friends. The data shows it, and I know it from personal experience.

Today, as the lines between personal and professional are blurred, the holistic well-being of Marketing Leaders becomes paramount.

Why? I believe the skills and mindset cultivated in the field of marketing align well with the principles of Healthy Leadership, making Marketing Leaders natural candidates to champion a culture of well-being, collaboration, and adaptability within their organizations.

But to champion this within your organization, you must first be healthy yourself.

Marketing leader, healthy leader

Healthy Leadership is about a simple formula:

• For your customers to thrive, the business must thrive.
• For the business to thrive, your people need to thrive.
• For your people to thrive, their leader must thrive.
• For you to thrive, you must prioritize your health and well-being first.

Yes, it’s that simple. Because, if you don’t, how can you:

• Be your best?
• Enjoy your work?
• Make conscious decisions?
• Drive the change you need?
• Lead healthily and by example?
• Be resilient to changing dynamics?
• Build long-term, valuable relationships?
• Adapt to the intricacies of business today?

For personal and career longevity, it’s no longer a nice-have to be healthy and well; it’s a must-have.

Being a Healthy Leader significantly expands your capacity to navigate dynamic landscapes, engage stakeholders, manage changing narratives, and cope with a need to be constantly “on” in a new remote-first work environment.

Beating marketing career burnout isn’t just a great personal decision. It’s a necessary business decision.

In my own journey as a Chief Marketing Officer who managed in a high-stress environment, I discovered an approach that seemed to be right under my nose. I could apply my best marketing skills to improve my personal health and well-being!

You’re the product

Your success as a marketer depends on vision, strategy, and execution that grows customers and your business.

Those same skills can be used to grow and improve your personal health and well-being using a simple formula: “Define + Implement + Analyze.”

With my engineering background, I’m all about systems that help us get to an optimal state – whether that be for the business or myself.

I realized the systems I used in marketing could easily be applied to my personal health with one slight twist: Think of yourself as a ‘Product.’

When you’re marketing a product (or service), there’s a systematic way to go about taking that product to a high growth stage.

In that process, you’re defining vision, current state, challenges, optimal state, and a set of strategies or tactics to achieve optimal state.

Then, you implement those strategies and collect data that will then be analyzed to see how far you are from the optimal state, tweaking the strategies in a cyclical process until you achieve the optimal state.

This works in marketing, and it can work for your health as well.

Applying marketing principles to health

Let’s look at three familiar marketing steps and apply them to your health.

1) DEFINE
Like defining a vision for your marketing, this step is about defining the vision you see for your health by identifying three things:

1. Key Challenges: what health challenges are you currently facing?
2. Optimal State: what does the optimal outcome look like for each challenge?
3. Tactics: what strategies will you put into place to improve each challenge?

2) IMPLEMENT
Define a set of strategies or tactics you can put into action to improve your health.

3) ANALYZE
Just as you would analyze marketing data, this step involves tracking the effectiveness of implemented health strategies, tweaking them as needed, and working toward desired outcomes

Let’s look at an example of one of the things I often hear from my executive coaching clients: “I feel stressed daily, but don’t know how to reduce it.”

Applying marketing principles to stress

1) DEFINE

• Key Challenges:
  • “I feel stress daily, but don’t know how to reduce it.”
• Optimal State:
  • Awareness: I know when I feel stress.
  • Management: I know the steps to reduce stress
• Strategies/Tactics: can be determined with help of a health coach or healthcare professional.
  • Physical health: Nutrition
  • Mental health: Mental Health fitness
  • Emotional health: Meditation
  • Spiritual health: Self-care activities

2) IMPLEMENT: the actions in this example are scientifically known to reduce stress.

• Nutrition — Primarily eat plant-based foods during weekdays
• Mental health — Therapy 2x/month
• Emotional health — 10 minutes daily meditation morning and night
• Spiritual health/Self-care — Walk for 10 minutes after every meal.

3) ANALYZE

• Track actions: keep track of what’s working, what’s not, how you’re feeling in a spreadsheet or app.
• Adjust what is needed to get to the desired outcome of reducing stress.

Then, repeat this system for every health challenge that you want to improve.

Over time, you’ll begin to determine what’s working for you and what’s not. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. In harmony, the strategies and tactics that are working will begin to, in this case, reduce stress because you’re eating nutritiously, exercising, more self-aware, meditating, etc.

This 3-step system guides you through defining awareness, management steps, and specific strategies such as nutrition, mental health fitness, meditation, and self-care activities for reducing stress.

This systematic approach aligns seamlessly with the visionary, strategic, and tactical facets of successful marketing work. Run this system through anything in your life, and you’ll realize that you can use your day skills to improve your health and well-being.

A thriving marketer leader

Marketing is a journey of perpetual adaptation, resilience, and, most importantly, self-care.

The truth becomes evident: when you, the marketing leader are healthy, your team thrives, and the business attains unprecedented heights of success.

Prioritizing your well-being creates a narrative that extends far beyond the metrics and strategies of the corporate world. You become a beacon of inspiration internally and externally. Your decisions, fueled by clarity and mindfulness, set the precedent for a work environment and culture of prosperity.

As the complexities of the marketing landscape continue to accelerate, the simple truth remains – personal health is the cornerstone of effective leadership.

It’s a journey of acknowledging the challenges, implementing proactive strategies, and recognizing that a healthy leader isn’t just an individual accomplishment; it’s a strategic imperative for the flourishing of teams and the endurance of businesses.

As you struggle with marketing career burnout, let one truth guide your way – thriving through health is not just a choice: it’s the essence of marketing leadership today. 

Sonia Hunt is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, Executive and Health Coach, Best-Selling Author, and TEDx Speaker in Health and Wellness. Her mission is to create a world in which everyone can thrive by building a foundation of personal health and well-being. For business inquiries, email sonia@soniahunt.com or visit soniahunt.com

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

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I came across this graph that seems to capture a feeling in our world today:

The theory here is that however we perceive the rate of change today, it will be double that next year, and the perceived rate of change will be 32 times where we are today five years from now.

Is this true? Who can say? But even if it’s off by 50%, that’s still a lot for us to handle.

Here’s what makes me think this chart might be accurate. The following chart illustrates how the world is changing, but also changing at a much faster pace. This chart might be hard to read if you’re following along on a smartphone, so let me give you the summary:

Historically, AI computational breakthroughs have taken years. New AI-driven capabilities are now exceeding human capabilities in areas like math and problem-solving in a matter of months.

Source: McKinsey

This trend is only going to accelerate, and I can say that with confidence: follow the money. Nearly all the venture capital money is pouring into AI right now, not to mention historically large investments this year by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

In his famous book, The Condition of Postmodernity, David Harvey introduced the idea of time-space compression to describe how advancing technology, communication, and globalization results in tangible psychological effects of disorientation and alienation in the human brains that are unaccustomed to such rapid change.

Ever since ChatGPT was introduced, I’ve felt like a personal case study for time-space compression. When I look at LinkedIn bios, 105% of all marketing professionals now identify themselves as AI experts. Am I an AI expert? Of course not. I am lost if I’m not?

I’m not alone with my overwhelm. At a recent speech to several hundred marketing professionals, I asked how many felt overwhelmed, and every person raised their hand.

Now comes the creepy part.

I’m obsessed with the idea of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). When does artificial intelligence become sensing, rational, emotional … human?

I asked ChatGPT to explain AGI, and here is its gentle description:

 AGI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that possesses human-like intelligence and the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks and domains. AGI systems have the capacity to generalize their learning from one task to another, adapt to new situations, and exhibit cognitive abilities similar to those of humans, such as problem-solving, reasoning, perception, and language.

I’ve had some comfort learning from the leading experts that this is at least 20 years away. I’ll be out of the picture by then.

Hold the presses. A new study representing the consensus of AI experts, as evaluated on Metacalculus, has moved the projected AGI timeline up from 2042 to 2027.

Here is my selfie after I saw this report:

Does anybody know anything?

A symptom of time-space compression is that we don’t have any experts any more.

This time last year, economists said it was impossible to have high inflation and rising employment. But here we are — inflation and record employment levels (at least in America). Nobody understands the economy.

Google’s quantum computer is 241 million times more powerful than the number two competitor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. This means it can solve problems that would take the Oak Ridge computer 47 years to complete. This is so complex that Google has an entire department dedicated to understanding how it makes decisions. Let’s reflect on this … the scientists who built the computer don’t understand how it works. Perhaps that is a first in human history?

And my final example is this recent projection that AGI is 20 years away. I mean, this was the projection six months ago, and now they’re saying this is coming in 2027. How can you be wrong by 20 years?

So in addition to everything moving fast, it is moving in unpredictable ways. At this rate of change, we can’t project the future. Let’s be honest … we don’t even understand what is happening now.

How do you deal with time-space compression?

Here’s the short answer. Nobody knows. This is an unprecedented time in history. Nobody has been through this level of change before.

Here are a few things that are helping me. Maybe it will help you.

1. Perspective

It’s easy to be overwhelmed and spend each day connected to the fire hose. Step away. Go outside and walk in a park. Spend time developing human relationships and conversations with people who are outside the marketing bubble.

Want to know what’s really overwhelming? There are a thousand stars for every grain of sand on earth. Everything in its place my friend.

2. Let it go

This is a very bad time to be a control freak.

I would not call myself a control freak (at all), but I do pride myself in being enough of an expert to be confident in meaningful conversations about marketing.

Every single day, there is a new development in AI that makes me go, “Wow.” And think of how many developments I’m missing! I have to let go of this idea of being an expert in anything.

This is a weird time in my career. If I know less about what is going on in the world, by definition, I’ll be less confident in my expertise. Perhaps a key life skill right now is humility. I’m an expert in being humble, I suppose. Maybe that’s the best we can do.

3. The vital role of community

The RISE community is absolutely saving me right now.

In this crazy world, how do you focus on what to learn? How do you know who and what to believe?

It helps to have a group of smart friends suggesting notable trends and ideas. It takes the burden off of me.

I wrote a book about the unexpected, massive value of community. Belonging to the Brand presents a unique perspective of community + brand marketing, but there are also significant personal benefits to having a team of trusted friends guide you through this chaos.

Every speech I give, every post I write, and every class I teach contains some nugget I learned through the community. It’s helping me stay relevant. You can learn more about the community here

4. Self-care

Practice mindfulness techniques and self-care activities to manage stress and anxiety. These can include meditation, yoga, journaling, or simply taking time to relax and unplug from digital devices. I begin each day watching the sunrise. I try to spend time each week working on a watercolor painting. At the end of each day, I do puzzles that take my mind off the stress of the day.

Set boundaries on the news you consume. Focus on deep, quality sources of information rather than constant, quick updates.

5. Focus

Tine-space compression means endless new ideas streaming your way. The world is overwhelming, but it’s also endlessly fascinating! I’m interested in how AI is impacting … everything! That’s a good way to go crazy.

My job is in marketing. I need to focus on that area. That’s more than enough.

6. Technological literacy

I was recently teaching a class of university seniors, majoring in marketing. Almost none of them were using ChatGPT or a similar AI technology on a regular basis. This is inexcusable. How are you going to be effective in the world if you’re not participating in it?

Dive in, folks.  Flexibility and a willingness to experiment are perhaps the most valuable traits in a marketing role right now.

7. Be mindful of the ethics

As technology advances, ethical dilemmas become more prevalent.

In the early days of the internet, there were tons of unethical behaviors aimed at gaining some eCommerce advantage. Over time, those will not work. You will be found out and penalized.

With AI, we face unprecedented new ethical issues that will eventually become legal issues. Don’t just be legal. Be ethical.

If you’re working in a company, be the vocal advocate for policies and initiatives that promote equitable access to technology, protect privacy, and address emerging copyright issues.

Consider the long-term consequences of technology development. Responsible decision-making can help prevent unintended negative outcomes.

8. Foster adaptability

When the telephone became common in America, train operators felt threatened. They believed that if people talked on the phone, they would stop traveling. Of course that didn’t happen. We travel more than ever.

Fear is the default emotion in the face of change. It creeps into my mind, too. I have to constantly remind myself to adapt, adapt, adapt. There is no choice,

Change can be depressing, but it can also be exhilarating. Make the choice to be exhilarated and adapt.

Onward

Delaing with time-space compression isn’t just an individual issue. It will be an issue for companies who employ those suffering from overwhelm.

My friend Sharon Joseph, a creative director, said:

“Your advice and guidance is so poignant on an individual level, and I would love to push for the same on a societal level. How do we start building communities and like-minded leaders to bring a constant awareness to filter and overcome the perceived strain of real life against the illusion of gains from being superhuman?

“Yes, I love my digital lifestyle including the accessibility to AI, but I’m still learning how to apply today’s workplace norm to be hyperactive, hyper-connected, hyper-producing, and hyper-knowledgeable while balancing an actual sense of normalcy. And this is something that could be tied to a higher education across organizations and communities to create the balance between human and artificial experiences consistently.”

The challenge of time-space compression is here, and it will become more serious in the very near future. It’s inevitable that the fear and disorientation associated with endless, rapid change will take a toll. It could affect productivity, mental and physical health, and relationships.

Here’s a prediction: We’ll see a field of time-space compression specialists emerge. This promises to be a major wellness issue for years to come, and I think a field will develop to help with this widespread issue.

The best advice I can give you is to BE AWARE of how this pressure is impacting you. Maybe even save this post to refer to in the future as the world speeds ahead.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

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