I have had a very interesting problem recently that is both technical and philosophical. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to post about it until now. At the heart are some difficult questions that “brand managers” are going to be struggling with over the next few years.
The question is this, who owns your brand online? Specifically what I have been dealing with is the Plato’s Closet brand. It is made more interesting because it is a franchise. There are lots of independent franchise owners who have a legal right to exclusively use that brand within a certain radius of their store. How in the hell does that translate to the internet?
One company that I think has handled the internet branding of a franchise well is Harley-Davidson. From what I can tell, all Harley dealers use the same platform, but they are responsible for their own look and feel. This allows individual dealerships to show their unique personality, etc. It also provides a distinction from the local implementation and the overall brand. This is especially important when policies can fluctuate from store to store.
Still, what I have just described is how to deal with the Web 1.0 version of the franchise-brand-on-the-web problem. It is something that we are still trying to figure out, but Web 2.0 has been around for what seems like an eternity now, and it poses a much different set of problems. In today’s crowd-sourced, read/write web, the keeper of the brand is just about anyone who talks about it. The Plato’s Closet brand on the internet is no longer managed by the franchisor and the franchisees. Now the brand is managed by the customers (and former customers) who post about their thoughts and experiences. As far as I know, I am the only Plato’s franchise owner who blogs about owning a store. My dad and partner in the store has a blog, but he doesn’t talk about it, and there may be other owners who talk about it in covert terms, but search Technorati and I am likely the only person who actually has any legal ability to speak on behalf of the brand (albeit only in a small geographical region).
You know who is talking about Plato’s on the web? The customers. Search Technorati and you will see them. search Facebook and you will see groups dedicated to Plato’s Closet (and there are some groups affiliated with an individual store). Those are the brand managers. To some degree the effect of this is magnified because our customers are the most internet-savy generation ever. They are the Facebook/MySpace/Xanga/LiveJournal/etc users.
I read what people write about the brand online. You know what I see? I see people posting Plato’s Closet as one of their favorite places to shop on MySpace. I see LiveJournal posts from people who are pissed off that the store they went to didn’t buy their stuff. I see people blogging about how they spent their weekend and talking about the super cute tank that they totally had to buy since it was only like three bucks and when they wore it to the party on Friday night their crush said he liked it. These are the keepers of the brand (as they should be in today’s world).
Every time I read a post about Plato’s that I find from a search, I am tempted to comment. I want to let them know things like “It is great that you listed Plato’s as your favorite store. We appreciate your business.” or “I am sorry that you had a bad experience. Buying used clothes is tough. Here is a link to how and why we make the decisions we do. I would really love any additional feedback you would be willing to give us.” or “I love that you got complemented on the shirt you found at Plato’s last week. If you are on flickr please add a picture to our Flickr group.” etc.
The problem is that I am not really authorized to make those kinds of comments. If I ever read a post from someone who was shopping at one of the stores I am a partner of, I would comment in a heartbeat, but they are either somewhere else or I am unable to tell where the poster lives. So all of this conversation goes unnoticed. The people with the greatest financial stake in the game are not a part of the conversation and it is all out there for everyone to see.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that customers of Plato’s Closet feel passionate enough about the store (good or bad) to post about it. I just wish we were doing a better job of interacting with our customers on the internet.
When I started this post, my intention was to keep this pretty abstract. There are really interesting problems in play here and I can argue different positions. I am just too close to the situation to keep it abstract without sharing a little about my frustration.
Maybe next time I can post point/counterpoint as to why store owners should(not) play an active role on the internet.
Note: The irony here is that this post will end up being fairly visible in the search engines when people look for information about the store. I still doubt that anyone with a vested interest (i.e. other store owners or corporate staff) will ever read this post. If I am wrong, I would love to know your thoughts.
