Great article in the New York Times today (Do you want to “Friend” a Detergent?). It speaks to the difficulty for brand managers of using social media to promote their brands … or their incompetence in doing so and, in fact, of trying to do so.

Ted McConnell, the manager of interactive marketing and innovation at P&G, is quoted as saying “I don’t want to be best friends with a brand. Its just stuff.” McConnell’s suggestion is, by and large, that brands frequently assume that the large number of people on Facebook and other like social media applications can be segmented into their customer base or target audience and approached via that medium. However, they seem to ignore the reason why their consumer or target audience is on Facebook in the first place, which is to maintain a conversation with their real friends. It is not to be talked at by brands.

Of course, some brands align neatly with social media as a mechanism for brand expression and conversation. But many don’t. Its just another bad attempt at brand extension, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

A fun survey of Presidential nominees brand associations was published by Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland on October 21. While I did not feel the brands associated with the candidates reflected my own views of which brand I would associate with each candidate, the exercise was a good reminder of the power of brand archetypes. A more considered perspective was that of Robert Draper’s piece, The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate, in The New York Times Magazine’s October 26 issue, regarding the shifting sands of McCain’s campaign narrative. In either case, what is compellingly evident is that Presidential politics are an excellent illustration of the power of associating an iconic story with the person. (more…)