The New York Times published an article a few months ago asking a simple question: "Can social media sell soap?" While it is a basic question, it’s also a provocative one. This question has plagued every CMO for the last few years. The article pointed out that, using traditional metrics, the answer is—not so far, and not relative to the bloated expectations of social to transform marketing. But, the article goes on to argue that this may be more a result of the fact that we have not found the right ways to measure social media’s impact.
As an analogy the question of whether or not social media can sell soap is a great one. It is so simple that it cuts through a lot of the smoke and mirrors. The problem is that it skips an even more important question: is the soap any good?
David Ogilvy in a brilliantly honest quote says that: “Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don’t think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.” The same rules apply to social media.
Now let’s revisit the soap analogy. The first question should be—is the soap any good? Most of us have been down the soap aisle recently, and we are faced with an overwhelming amount of choice. If you strip away the packaging, and if we are honest with ourselves, all the soaps are the same. So chances are, the soap you’re trying to sell is fine, average and mediocre, a lot like the rest. If this is the case, then no, social media will not sell your soap. Social media can help you build a brand around your soap so it can command a higher price, but social media will not be better than any other advertising medium if the soap is ‘on par’. In the end, it probably comes down to smell, packaging, shelf placement, price, and if you have any promotions running. These are where the real impact is made, not social. So, social media will not be the game changer that takes your soap from mediocre to breakthrough product of 2013. Or is it?
We have just established we don’t think social media will sell most soap, but can it help a company make a better soap that will sell?
Well, what is social really good at? Connecting people. What do companies struggle with most? Creating the right products. Why? Because they cannot efficiently, quickly, and ‘scalably’ connect with their customers to understand their needs and motivations at a granular level (I’m not talking about the old men 20-35 of average income are motivated by x. That is impossibly generalized, to the point of not explaining anyone.)
Social media may always struggle to be a good advertising tool, but it is a powerful customer collaboration tool. With the right mix of incentives, community management and tools, brands can have real-time, global conversations with their customers. So, maybe social media can’t help you sell soap, but it can turbo-charge how you innovate, which will help you sell soap.
The kicker is that by leveraging your customers to help make better products, brands will inherently make their social media efforts and advertising more effective. Customers are not going to share BS claims about a product, but if brands create something great, customers will want to tell everyone and social media becomes immensely valuable.
Top image from Imgembed.
This is a cross-post from Napkin Labs blog.