Written by Christian Hoffmann
1. Introduction
Recently, YouTube, today the worldwide second biggest search engine for the web right after Google, had its tenth anniversary. As YouTube was purchased in autumn 2006 by Google, it is today integrated in Google’s advertising network and therefore an essential channel for reaching audiences worldwide.
This article will provide a contribution, why and how the usage of videos on YouTube can serve for building brand reputation and brand trust today. On the one hand, this article is highly relevant, as the society from today is developing in an attention economy tomorrow, where attention will be one new currency besides trust (TRENDONE, 2015).
The content format “video” can serve both currencies of the future, attention and trust, as video can transport information, in this context brand values and messages, in a more efficient way, as video combines audio and visual stimuli in one message.
Another Megatrend which makes this article highly relevant is the increase of “Connected Living”. In the world of tomorrow consumers will use an integrated network of devices, where it will be possible to use and share information in form of video, voice and data services (Jawad, 2014). In this context, the strong growth of mobile connected devices, like smartphones and tablet computers, favoured the easiness of content sharing on the go in the last years. Today, the common end-user needs no specific technical skills to share videos besides regular text and pictures. Also, all content types can be shared with ease in either private, e.g. personal messaging, or public on social platforms, like Facebook or YouTube. This second aspect also lead to a state of ubiquitous access of information, created by companies as well as by customers. This means that the general level of knowledge of end-users respectively customers has increased in the last 7/8 years so much, that it is necessary for companies and their brands to change their approach of marketing. This new transparency through online access to information created so called “prosumers”, who are producers and consumers of content at the same time for everything they are interested in. These empowered consumers can be even be seen as comarketers, who must be identified as lead user by marketers of a brand. Another term in this context is co-creation of content, where marketers of a brand try actively to engage and interact with their brand respectively customers to invent new products and/or services or improve exisiting ones (Wind, 2008).
2. Research Question
This article examines the question how the Internet changed consumers and their consumption behaviour over the past 10 years and how marketers can adapt to these changes today. For answering this question, the author chose to create an approach how to use the content format “video” to successfully build brand reputation in social media. The focus of this article is based on the identification and management of lead users on the content sharing platform YouTube, who act as trustworthy brand ambassadors for one or several brands. Since trust and therefore brand reputation are the new currencies, especially on the web, it is important to outperform competitors right in the moment of truth during the path of purchase.
To sum up, the author combines theoretical models about brand reputation, moment of truth and results of empirical research studies with real life case studies to deliver the mentioned approach.
3. Theoretical Framework
3.1. Online vs. Offline Brands: A useless distinction?
As this paper deals with building brand reputation in online channels, specifically in social media channels, it is necessary to figure out, if certain characteristics exist, which are specific for managing and communicating brands on the internet.
According to Kapferer (2013, p. 86), an internet brand is characterized by being experiential as well as relational. Therefore, firstly it is essential in the context of the internet to deliver gratifying and positive brand experiences to users respectively fans of a brand on every online touch point in order to establish brand loyalty and finally a positive brand reputation. In most cases this takes place when users consume brand related online content or exploring an online product or service of a brand.
The the relational characteristic of an internet brand refers more to the product or service itself, which is offered by a brand. The perceived relational level of an internet brand is higher the more individual, personalized or customizable a product or service is. In the context of this paper, the relational characteristic can be seen as the quality and frequency of interaction between a brand and its fans respectively customers, which add real value to them. Applying this on brand content on YouTube, either user- or brand-generated, the most important aspect is regular delivery of content, that fits to defined brand values (Ryan et al., 2012).
However, all these aspects mentioned above, can be applied to other types of brands as well, independently of its type or industry. Today, nearly every brand has several online touch points, which form at least a part of its brand image that is perceived by fans or potential new customers. Therefore it can be conclude, that a distinction between online and offline brands becomes more and more useless and the principles of building brand reputation, e.g. according to Urde et al. (2014), in online channels, in this context on YouTube, can be used for different types of brands, independently of marketing budgets or offered products or services.
3.2. Content is King & video on YouTube is the Queen of content formats
Derived from Kietzmann et al. (2011) brand reputation is connected to brand trust on social media platforms and can be gained by identifying and engaging key influencers in conversations with a brand. Kietzmann et al. (2011) states further, that especially YouTube is very useful to build brand reputation and create conversations. These conversations can take place between fans/consumers (C2C) as well as brands and fans/consumer (B2C). According to Kietzmann et al. (2011) YouTube is the best social media channel to share content, in this context videos, because the platform reaches a broad audience, as its content can be accessed publicly without the need of using a personal account.
Google (2013) formed and named a new target group especially for YouTube: Gen C. This target group equals to 80% of all millennials (Generation Y), but is more defined by its common mindest and shared passion for creation, curation, connection and community. According to Google, the monetary influence of this audience group equals to 500 billion USD, alone for USA. Gen C also values relevance and originality in conversations and even 39% of the audience is open to ads on YouTube, when they are relevant for them.
The group interacts online to get news and information about products and services, no matter what or who the source is: other persons, content provider or brands. Especially on YouTube, 50% of Gen C regularly shares consumed content within their network as well as gets influenced by YouTube content about a product or service with regards to their next purchase decision (Levy, 2013).
The major trend for the next years is mobile, as YouTube has the same reach with Gen C on every device: 80% of Gen C consume content on YouTube on desktop as well as on mobile devices (Google, 2013).
To sum up, as YouTube is the number one content sharing platform and video is the best format for communicating entertaining as well as informative messages, that fit to strategic defined brand core values, it is essential to be present on this online touch point to building brand reputation online.
4. The new online Customer Journey & Moment of Truth
According to a study of Google (2012), today the customer journey can not be described as a traditional sales funnel anymore (see Figure 1.). According to the study, all (3000!) conducted customer journeys were different, that means that customers consume information in different situations and on different devices. It was also conducted, that online journeys were also cancelled to try products offline and search for alternatives online afterwards.
Figure 1. The new customer’s multi-channel journey map (Source: Google, 2012)
One main finding of the study was, that certain online spots could be grouped as so called hubs, which were used by all customers sooner or later. Obviously, the largest hub was ‘online search’. Another main finding was, that the new customer multi-channel journey map was full of ‘pull moments’, that means that these moments were initiated by the customer and not directly pushed by an brand advertisement. In this context, Google extended the traditionally known model of the Moment of Truth with a new ‘Zero Moment of Truth’, short ‘ZMOT’ (see Figure 2.). The tradional ‘First Moment of Truth’ can be seen as the old initial contact with a product or service in an online shop or on a brand website. The new ZMOT takes place before this and contains all these pull moments of the ‘new customer’s multi-channel journey map’. It can also be seen as all online touch points of a brand, where fans or potential customers want to get relevant information for a product or service, ideally personalized on their specific persona.
Figure 2. The new moment of truth model (Source: Google, 2011)
These touch points at the ‘Zero Moment of Truth’ can be very different, e.g. live communication within the own online network, reading user reviews on product portals or watching a product test video from unknown fans or unhappy customers. In the context of this paper, all content from or about a brand and its products and services on YouTube can be seen as relevant content or moments at the ZMOT.
5. Managerial Implications
As mentioned in the last paragraph, monitoring is a key task for building online brand reputation. Hennig-Thurau introduced the metaphor of the ‘Pinball Age’ as a comparison for the new situation within social media, where every user can interact with the brand and other users. It is important for brand managers to understand, that the direction of a communication progress cannot be forecasted anymore that easily as it used to be 10 years ago, like in a pinball game.
To conclude this paper, the author adapted four essential tasks according to Lecinski (2014) and combined it with recommendations from Hennig-Thurau (2013) in order to perform well at the ‘Zero Moment of Truth’ in the new ‘customer’s multi-channel journey map’ (See Figure 1.). The five steps deliver a how-to for the specific usage on YouTube for building online brand reputation.
5.1. Accept that the Game has changed
In this context, the first task, according to Hennig-Thurau, for successful brand building on platforms like YouTube is to “accept that the game has changed and to therefore co-create brand stories with active consumers, instead of continuing to do so autonomously” (Hennig-Thurau, 2013).
5.2. Analyse & Identify Touch Points at the Zero Moment of Truth
In the context of YouTube, the major step is to identify lead user, who create content about the brand or interact regularly in the own brand channel. A second task is to identify current search trends within the collective Gen C on YouTube (Lecinski, 2014).
5.3. Deliver relevant content in the right context
Create content campaigns, that fit with the defined brand values, which are relevant and entertaining for the specific target group. The main goal for content creation is to focus on lead user, who are highly connected and/or have many followers on YouTube and other social media channels. As soon as lead user start to share brand-generated-content the process of engagement between fans starts, which ideally leads to increased attention outside of the specific brand fan base and ultimately attracts new potential fans and/or customers (Lecinski, 2014). For more information about how-to create high valuable content for YouTube on an operational leve, please read more in ‘The YouTube Creator Playbook for Brands’.
5.4. Be There: Proactive & Reactive
Hennig-Thurau (2013) calls another success factor ‘Active Moderation’ on a right level. This means to find the right balance between an engaging and restrictive behaviour of brand managers in online touch points that is in line with defined brand values. It is essential that moderators show an open-minded behaviour towards positive as well as negative communication.
5.5. Monitor & Measure
A study found, that the culture of self-promoting of users on YouTube has the strongest influence on brand-related user-generated content (Smith, A. et al., 2012). It can therefore be concluded that it is highly relevant to monitor and moderate brand-related content on YouTube and deliver the right brand-generated content on this platform and monitor and manage all brand related user-generated content as well (Hennig-Thurau, 2013).
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