Chapter Seven Co-Creation Is Essential for Aligning Brands and Customers
Executive Summary: Smartphones and mobile tablets are game-changers. Managing relationships between brands and their markets requires strategies and structures that are nuanced, disciplined, and antifragile. Co-creation is essential for aligning brand communications with the interests and values of your audience.
Communication strategies exist for the purpose of developing, supporting, growing, and sustaining brands in competitive markets. Since it is virtually impossible to talk meaningfully about Reputation Strategy without also talking about brand strategy, let’s dive right in.
Brand strategy has numerous components and moving parts. Rather than focusing on operational tactics, it’s helpful to look at the basic conceptual elements that form modern brand strategies. First, let’s clear up a misconception that interacting with customers is equivalent to engaging with customers. You can interact with anybody at any time. Engaging with someone implies a degree of permission, which requires a preexisting relationship. Are you beginning to sense a hierarchy?
Imagine a Maslow-type pyramid (see Figure 7.1) with customer experience at the base. For all brands, large and small, the most basic requirement is providing customers with satisfactory experiences. If you can’t do that, your brand is kaput.
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