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Posted May 7, 2013 4:42 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Monster Loyalty is a book that reveals the power and popularity of Lady Gaga's undeniably-effective marketing machine. It highlights the methodology of Gaga's creation of a community of 'Little Monsters" that is quite willing to do anything for her music...and for her, their "Mama Monster." But the key here, Huba makes clear, is that community. The community members depend on the community. They feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves, and even bigger than Gaga herself.
Building a community of fans or customers doesn’t happen overnight. As Gaga and anyone else who is a community manager knows, it takes hard work every day to connect with those who are of like minds and to nurture relationship with them. It takes an egoless spirit to show the community that your company is not just concerned with financial gain also with what’s in the best interest of the community. Once you sense that customers want to be part of something more than a transactional relationship, you can begin the process of helping them self-identify.
So how do you translate that into your own marketing plan?
While Jackie Huba is clearly fascinated by and respectful of Gaga's approach and commitment to her fans, for the purposes of this book, she is equally concerned with teaching us how to apply those same methods to our own businesses, methods such as concentrating on you "One-Percenters", using imagery and naming to bring people together, making your customers feel like there is a greater purpose to the community. Huba also provides us with plenty of non-Gaga "business examples" of companies that use similar methods, such as Method (green cleaning products) and Fiskers (knives and scissors.)
The takeaway of Monster Loyalty is not only that Lady Gaga is an impressive marketing strategist, but that it's community that powers the popularity.
To learn how to do this in your own company, sign up to win a copy of Monster Loyalty!
Thinker in Residence: Jackie Huba on Business & Books
Posted May 3, 2013 4:28 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
In our final Thinker in Residence installment on Jackie Huba, author of Monster Loyalty, we asked Huba to share with us the business question that most inspires her and what books have most influenced her. Read on and enjoy Huba's take on business and books.
∗ What is the one unanswered question about business you are most interested in answering?
How to be fearlessly creative in the business world. I attended a recent business conference and one of the breakout sessions was on the subject of creativity. The facilitator asked attendees to take paper and markers and draw the time in our life when we felt the most creative. To my surprise, most of these marketers from large Fortune 1000 companies drew a time in college. They were free from constraints, having loads of fun and maybe even a little drunk. They all admitted that in their current corporate work environments, they couldn’t seem to find the inspiration and the gumption to stand out and produce creative work they were proud of. There is an opportunity to help people be fearless in their creativity.
∗ What business book has influenced your work the most?
Seth Godin’s The Purple Cow. It was my very first Seth Godin book and the introduction to his philosophies. I am a Seth Godin One Percenter Seth has inspired me with all of his books to stand out, make a difference and take risks. It’s literally been life-changing reading.
∗ What is the business book you wish you had written and why?
My next one. Is it done yet?!?!
∗ What business book are you reading right now?
Mack Collier’s Think Like a Rock Star. Mack looks at how rock stars like Taylor Swift, Jewel, Amanda Palmer and others grow their fan base and shares how any company can learn from them to create emotional connections with customers.
Jackie Huba is the co-author of two books on customer loyalty. Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message documents the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture. Jackie’s first book, Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, explains how companies convert customers into evangelists who spread the word about products, benefits or value propositions. Huba's work has frequently been featured in the media, such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Businessweek, and Advertising Age. She was a founding Board Member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Her new book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics, will be released May 2, 2013.
→ → Read our Thinker in Residence introduction to Jackie Huba and her newest book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics.
→ → Read Jackie Huba's answers about why she chose to write about marketing like Lady Gaga and what we can learn from the pop superstar in our Q&A on Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics.
Thinker in Residence: Q&A with Jackie Huba
Posted May 2, 2013 4:19 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
If companies are just trying to “become more talked about” for its own sake, it’s not going to take off. They need to make sure there’s substance to what they’re communicating and that it really is a conversation.
~Jackie Huba
Q: Some people might recognize Lady Gaga merely for her shock factor (outfits, videos, etc.) How has she used these triggers to attract and build an audience, and what can brands learn from that?
JH: Lady Gaga is a pro at generating word of mouth and getting people buzzing. But her real genius lies in what’s behind all that shock value. Her over-the-top ideas are rooted in meaningful messages with their own symbolism.
Remember the meat dress she wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards? That meat dress—love it or hate it—got everyone, from vegetarians to Cher, talking. Gaga has been a longtime supporter of gay rights, and she was using the dress to draw attention to the possible repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the U.S. military. The idea behind the dress was to illustrate that underneath our skin colors, religions, and beliefs, we are all made of “flesh and bone.” It was a meaningful gesture for her current fans, and it drew enormous amounts of attention from the mainstream media (Time magazine deemed it the “Top Fashion Statement of 2010”), getting her noticed and turning gawkers into fans. Her shock value has two purposes: It strengthens the bonds of her existing fan community when they interpret her latest, outrageous outfit, video, or song, and it also keeps the outsiders talking and wondering about what she’ll pull next.
Anyone trying to attract an audience, whether it’s brands or bands, should think about all aspects of their business and consider whether they are “word-of-mouth-worthy.” That is, are the things you are doing worthy of a word-of-mouth comment or referral from a customer to someone else? If so, go for it. If not, ask yourself, “WWLGD?”
Q: Beyond the shock factors, Lady Gaga is extremely focused on caring for, and helping her fans have better lives. What are some examples of this that struck you?
JH: I think it would have to be Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation that she established with Harvard University, the California Endowment, and the MacArthur Foundation. In November 2011, Gaga announced that she was starting the nonprofit with the mission of empowering youth by offering mentoring and career development, and focusing on issues like self-confidence, wellbeing, and anti-bullying. I suspect she founded it in honor of her late fan Jamey Rodemeyer, who took his own life in 2011 after years of relentless bullying. She’s focused less on changing laws and more on changing the culture where bullying flourishes. This is an issue that she has admitted facing in her own youth, and she knows it’s a cause very near and dear to her fans.
Q: What can companies learn from Lady Gaga’s focus on long-term business strategy?
JH: I use the term One Percenters to describe the tiny but oh-so-mighty subsection of a business’ customer base that evangelizes for that business. They’re your biggest fans. You can recognize them by a few distinct behaviors: They passionately recommend your company to friends, neighbors, and colleagues. They believe in the company and its people. They purchase your products and services as gifts. They forgive occasional subpar seasons or dips in customer service. They feel part of something bigger than themselves, seeking to connect with other like-minded customers around your products or services.
Lady Gaga, and her manager, Troy Carter, understand a secret to long-term business success is focusing on their One Percenters. They’ve built an entire online community for their die-hard fans, and it’s not just to sell more albums or perfume or concert tickets. Gaga and Carter are willing to invest now in the customer base that they want years from now. This is quite different from many current artists in the music industry. Think of Gaga’s pop contemporaries: Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Katy Perry. All very popular now, but will they be popular ten or twenty years from now? All sing catchy pop tunes. All wear crazy outfits that get people talking. But none of them seem to have much depth behind their personas. Don’t get me wrong; they have rabid fans. However, they aren’t doing anything to cater to their most loyal fans the way Gaga is.
Q: There are some great business examples in the book that mirror some of Gaga’s principles. How did a company like Fiskars use something as basic as scissors to create a passionate community?
JH: Fiskars, a 360-year-old Finnish housewares company best known for those orange-handled scissors, set about to create a relationship between the company and its crafting customers that went beyond tools. Working with branding agency Brains on Fire, Fiskars conducted in-depth research of crafters around the country to hear what customers were saying to each other. Through interviews, meeting with crafting groups, and conversations on message boards and online communities, Fiskars found a social and robust crafting community, especially among scrapbookers. After they identified their most loyal community, their One Percenters, they asked them what to name the group and the customers came up with the name, Fiskateers. They created a program for connecting passionate scrapbookers, including a members-only online community for sharing their designs, in-person demonstrations taught by Fiskars-certified customers, and an army of ambitious ambassadors to recruit new members.
Fiskars saw a tremendous return on investment. There are now more than 7,000 members of the Fiskateers community, branded mentions of Fiskars products online are up more than 600 percent, sales have doubled in cities with Fiskateers compared to non-Fiskateer cities, and the company receives 13 new ideas for products per month.
Most important of all: Fiskars understood that it’s important to become a member of the customer community instead of building an online community and hoping people will join. They sought to understand customers’ passions and how customers talk to one another, and then they built the community around that–not just scissors. And if you can make that personal, emotional connection happen between people, that’s something a product alone can’t do.
Q: Overall, Lady Gaga creates an interesting conversation. How might companies learn from her to become more talked about?
JH: As I mentioned before, she does a great job of giving her fans, and anyone, really, something exciting and meaningful to talk about. Isn’t that what all of our most interesting conversations are based on? People always have energy to find meaning, create personal relationships, and talk to one another about what’s important. Without meaning, generating buzz is a flash in the pan. Generating something to talk about that is meaningful and important ensures that your fans and customers will continue to look to you for inspiration and ideas. What can brands learn? Don’t just do something for the sake of getting attention. There has to be substance to fuel meaningful connection with your audience.
Another thing: Her fans feel better off for banding together and they identify deeply with what she stands for. They feel like she cares about what they care about. She also listens to her fans just as much as she shares with them. She’s checking in on social media, responding to fan videos, meeting with them at concerts, and she even set up her own social media fan site called Littlemonsters.com. It’s a two-way conversation. She’s really the whole package, and all of these different components need to be there for it all to work in the short-term and long-term. If companies are just trying to “become more talked about” for its own sake, it’s not going to take off. They need to make sure there’s substance to what they’re communicating and that it really is a conversation.
Jackie Huba is the co-author of two books on customer loyalty. Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message documents the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture. Jackie’s first book, Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, explains how companies convert customers into evangelists who spread the word about products, benefits or value propositions. Huba's work has frequently been featured in the media, such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Businessweek, and Advertising Age. She was a founding Board Member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Her new book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics, will be released May 2, 2013. Named as one of the 10 most influential online marketers, Jackie co-authors the award-winning Church of the Customer blog. With more than 105,000 daily readers, it’s ranked as one of the most popular business blogs in the world.
→ → Revisit yesterday's introduction to Jackie Huba and our take on her new book, Monster Loyalty.
→ → Check in with us tomorrow as we continue our Thinker in Residence series on Jackie Huba with her insight "On Business and Books."
Thinker in Residence: Jackie Huba, author of Monster Loyalty
Posted May 2013 3:37 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Jackie Huba is the co-author of two books on customer loyalty. Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message documents the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture. Jackie’s first book, Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, explains how companies convert customers into evangelists who spread the word about products, benefits or value propositions. Huba's work has frequently been featured in the media, such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Businessweek, and Advertising Age. She was a founding Board Member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Her new book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics, will be released May 2, 2013.
Our Take on Monster Loyalty:
Lady Gaga is a musician, an entertainer, and a pop star. She wears crazy outfits and has wild videos. But if you ask some people, she’s so much more than that. She’s the person who inspires them, who gives them confidence, and who listens to them and understands. Clearly, Lady Gaga isn’t just making music and putting on a show. Her work centers on connecting with her fans, which she calls “Little Monsters.” And by doing so, has created a devoted following of millions and a long-term business strategy that rivals most businesses today. A musician! Who knew?
Jackie Huba knew. She herself was a fan of the artist and began to observe the ways that Lady Gaga interacted with her fans – some of them unique, all of them personal and sincere. As CEO of her business, Gaga does everything from personally inviting fans backstage at concerts to chatting directly with fans on their own social network to discuss everything Gaga related. An online marketing expert, Huba has long shed light on the power of word-of-mouth marketing, and she saw Lady Gaga take it to a level most companies only dream of. So, she wrote a book about it: Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers Into Fanatics.
“An important step in creating passionate, loyal customers is not just to focus on the features and benefits of your product or service but to make sure customers know that your business is about something bigger. By bigger, I mean something emotional that people can believe in.”
Most musicians are focused on writing the next big hit, staying relevant, and creating products to sell their fans. According to Huba, Gaga focuses first on connecting with fans. After all, without fans, a good song is unheard, a concert hall is empty, and merchandise is unsold. Huba includes a quote from Lady Gaga to illustrate: “I’m not the beginning anymore. I don’t really see myself anymore as the center. They’re the center. I’m the atmosphere around it…I will continue to become whatever it is [the fans] would like for me to be.” How many companies think like this?
Huba examines a variety of them – Fiskars, Mini, Method, and other companies that share Lady Gaga’s commitment to and reliance on her followers. These companies, like Gaga, know to "Focus on your One Percenters" in order to "Build a Community," and "Embrace Shared Symbols" to "Make Them Feel Like Rock Stars." While there are companies successful at this approach, none of them are as successful as Lady Gaga. And therein lie the lessons to learn, and the inspiration to change our business for the better. Huba states:
Building community starts with finding a common thread that brings people together. Common experiences that the members of a community have had help define what a community is all about and make it possible for members to rely on one another for support. Companies who want to build these kinds of communities have to act small even if they aren’t. They need to treat customers like peers and create a feeling of intimacy--a feeling that those customers are part of a group of like-minded people, not merely purchasers to be mass-messaged at.
Monster Loyalty is a book about marketing, customer engagement, and building a business for the long haul. It also happens to be about an engaging but unlikely character, one with a very specific vision that connects with a very specific fanbase, one we can all learn from. Don’t miss the opportunity this book offers to create your own distinctive brand that inspires a monster-amount of loyalty.
Explore Further:
Named as one of the 10 most influential online marketers, Jackie co-authors the award-winning Church of the Customer blog. With more than 105,000 daily readers, it’s ranked as one of the most popular business blogs in the world.
Next:
Check in with us tomorrow as we continue our Thinker in Residence series on Jackie Huba with a Q&A interview on what brands can learn from Lady Gaga and companies who create both buzz and meaning.
Sketchnotes on Brains on Fire: The 2013 F.I.R.E. Sessions
Posted Jan. 31, 2013 9:03 a.m. by michael
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
A few weeks ago I reviewed Mike Rohde's The Sketchnote Handbook. This week Tuesday, as Jon and I were sitting inside Greenville's Peace Center, eagerly anticipating the start of Brains on Fire's 2013 F.I.R.E. Sessions, I picked up the blank Moleskine sketchbook (compliments of the Brains on Fire folks) that sat on the table in front of me and said to Jon, "I think I'm going to sketchnote this."
What followed was an amazing day full of insights. From the author Jackie Huba we got a sneek peek into the world of Monster Loyalty. Then Brains on Fire's own Geno Church delivered a compelling talk on creating authentic community interaction. Then we walked down Greenville's sunny Main Street to a delicious shrimp and grits lunch at Devereaux's. We returned for the afternoon session, kicked off by author Jonah Berger's presentation on how things become contagious. Closing the day was Love146's Rob Morris, a living, breathing definition of the word 'passionate'. The common thread throughout F.I.R.E. Sessions was one thing: people. This event served as a clear underscoring of what Brains on Fire is all about, and we were honored to be there to share in the conversation. My personal take-away is this: put people at the center of your business, always.
For an even more in-depth re-cap of the event, check out John Moore's blog post. To all of you at Brains on Fire: thank you!
Check out my sketchnotes from the two morning sessions below, but please withhold your criticisms—I will confess I'm an amateur. Be sure to keep an eye on the Brains on Fire folks in 2013. Since we're book people and you probably are too, I'll simply say that there is a new book on the way and it's going to be good. If you can't wait for the new one, make sure you've taken some time with the original Brains on Fire.
