Cameron Olthuis

Burger King loves their viral marketing, they just can’t get enough. Today I came across a new site that BK put up where a puppet king dances to different musical beats. You can then email the videos to your friends. These videos are pretty fun and I can see them really being a hit.

I first wrote about BK a few weeks ago when they launched the Huckin’ Chicken web site, it features videos of the chicken mascot performing stunts on a dirt bike, better videos unlock after a certain number of page views. This isn’t the first experience BK’s had with viral marketing either, there’s also the infamous Subservient Chicken site.

Burger King is doing a great job with viral marketing. These sites are also great examples of what we call “linkbait” in the SEO industry. That basically means these type of sites bait people into linking to them. I guess the question is how many more customers is this bringing in?

Last night I posted on page views as a business model and why I think it will work this time around. This morning I stumbled across a new twist on page views.

The Huckin’ Chicken is a viral marketing site setup by Burger King. The site features the Burger King chicken mascot performing stunts on a dirt bike. Here’s the twist, the videos are locked for viewing and as the site gets more visitors then videos are unlocked, and the stunts keep getting better and better.

This is a very clever take on marketing 2.0 to encourage page views. However, the Huckin’ Chicken is missing a few key elements. For example, they should have an RSS feed to notify us when new videos are viewable. This would encourage more return visits that they will otherwise be missing out on.

Will we continue see more stuff like this? Absolutely, I think it’s a fantastic idea and we will definitely continue to see more viral videos like this. It’s an extremely inexpensive form of branding. However, these marketing techniques won’t work if they’re directly tied to ad revenue, you can’t just slap something like this up with some ads and expect it to work. Those that try will fail miserably.

When you think of branding techniques search engine marketing is probably the last thing that comes to mind. It’s unfortunate though, because branding through search marketing is very effective and valuable. Do I really need to point out the obvious that anytime a search query is performed for kewords realted to your brand you need to show up. It’s an opportunity that a lot of companies both big and small are missing out on.

Even if you’re not selling products on your website you still want as much targeted traffic as possible, otherwise there’s no point in having one. I can’t think of a better vehicle to bring that traffic besides search engines.

In order for your brand/website to be successful you need to build trust and credibility with your target audience. Without it, people will take their business elsewhere. Building trust and credibility takes open communication that goes both ways. It takes to time to develop but will only take seconds to lose. What takes years to build can be lost over night. Here’s a few tips to help you build trust and credibility online.

Website
What impression does your website give? There’s a good chance your website will be the first time a potential customer comes in contact with you or your company. Needless to say it’s pretty important that it makes a good first impression. You wouldn’t setup a retail store in an old dirty building, so why would you even think of doing that with your website? Would you meet business associates for the first time wearing grubby clothes? I sure as hell hope not.

Your website is not a place to skimp on your budget, yet some many people still do it. They think saving a few bucks asking their nephew to design their site is a smart decision, when in fact it probably ends up costing a lot of money in lost business down the road. A professional looking website is a must.

Marketing
What kind of marketing messages are you sending? Are you annoying people with spam such as; unsolicited email blasts, pop-ups and pop-unders, spyware, or other in-your-face sales techniques? If you are and you want a credible brand you should stop, immediately. These do nothing but piss people off.

How visible is your site? When people search for your company or keywords relevant to your website are you easily found? The more someone sees your brand around the web the more they will trust it. It’s important to invest money and time into your search engine marketing. Not only will this bring an increase in business, but it will build the credibility and trust. How can your customers trust you if they can’t even find you on Google?

Build alliances with other credible third parties.

Assurance
This is one that also deals with your website. There are little things you can do on your website that tells customers your are a trustworthy company that can easily be contacted if something goes wrong. So with that said, make the contact info prominent on your site, don’t try to hide it and don’t even think about leaving it off altogether. Make sure you have a well written ‘about page’. Let your customers know that you’ve been around awhile and you know what you’re doing.

There’s plenty of other little things you can and should do as well. For example, display your security certificates in prominent locations. Make it easy for your customers to see that you take security seriously. Are you a member of the BBB? If so then you should display the logo on your site and link it to your profile. Ask for testimonials and proudly display them on your site, often times customers are happy to do this, especially if you’ve pleased them.

You’d be suprised at how far these little things go, they really do give peace of mind and comfort to your customers.

Communication
Communicate early and often. You must be willing to admit(and take responsibility for) mistakes, deliver bad news, and openly share information. Don’t be afraid to apologize if necessary . Acknowledge and listen to what your customers have to say, let them know that you care and value their feedback. Speak in a language that is easy to understand. If problems arise then take care of them.

Bottom line: Don’t let you website fall victim to a crisis in consumer trust. Build and maintain trust and credibility and keep the lines of communication wide open. Building trust after you lose it is a hard thing to do and takes time, make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

Do you have anything you would like to add that you’ve found helps build trust and credibility.

branding, user interface, marketing, branding

To Seth Godin’s question.

Is marketing the art of tricking people into buying stuff they don’t need?

Or is it about spreading ideas that people fall in love with?

Since he doesn’t allow comments on his blog I’ll answer here.

It depends on a number of variables. The product, the marketer, the consumer, the market, the demand, and so on and so forth. To be honest it’s really too broad of a question for one right or wrong answer.

I think it really boils down to the marketer and the product or brand he’s marketing. Is he passionate about said product? Does he believe in the product? Would he actually use or purchase the product for himself? Does this product solve a problem?

All these questions would need to be answered before one could give a complete answer to the question.

There’s some products that no one would buy if they weren’t tricked into it first. I can’t help but think of MLM products for this example. These are the same products that just happen to be the stuff no one would ever fall in love with, which is obviously why the marketer has to resort to tricks.

I truely believe a really good marketer can do both, and do both very successfully. But I think a marketer who’s passionate about marketing would much rather take a job spreading ideas that people fall in love with. It’s easier, more fun, and a lot more gratifying.

Marketing for long term success that creates a powerful products/brands means spreading ideas that people fall in love with. I don’t think you can have a lasting product/brand if you can’t get people to fall in love first. But not all products are supposed to be around for long.

So Seth, the answer is both.

Marketing, Branding