| Rank | Brand | Score | Old Score | Old Rank | Change |
| 1 | Emirates | 72 | 62.8 | 4 | 9.2 |
| 2 | Nokia | 71 | 75.9 | 1 | -4.9 |
| 3 | 68 | 68.8 | 2 | -0.8 | |
| 4 | Sony | 65 | 67.2 | 3 | -2.2 |
| 5 | Toyota | 57 | 56.2 | 5 | 0.8 |
| 6 | Mercedes | 56 | 53.8 | 6 | 2.2 |
| 7 | Microsoft | 55 | 53.1 | 7 | 1.9 |
| 8 | BMW | 53 | 50.1 | 9 | 2.9 |
| 9 | Mall of the Emirates | 49 | 51.9 | 8 | -2.9 |
| 10 | Lexus | 45 | 42.4 | 11 | 2.6 |
In 2007, DuPont launched five videos on eight web blogs in a marketing program designed to increase share of voice for DuPont on the Internet and to introduce DuPont science to a younger, wired and online generation. The videos were made specifically for online audiences looking for stories told through video which are different and interesting.
Tapping into over 40 years of video archival footage, each video showcases how science from DuPont helps to protect people and how innovations developed by DuPont enhance people’s lives. The blogs offered a mix of general and targeted interest audiences.
Blogs were selected for this project because they reach a devoted, targeted audience and their audiences tend to talk to others about their interests, encouraging word of mouth.
Completing DuPont’s marketing pilot to the blogosphere, videoblogger Amanda Congdon was the on-screen host for the five videos. Amanda is best known for her work on Rocketboom, a popular news and entertainment videoblog. BlogAds and FM Networks assisted the project in distributing the videos.
The campaign delivered on three key objectives:
(1) increasing awareness for DuPont science,
(2) increasing positive sentiment for DuPont and
(3) creating stories sufficiently compelling to generate word of mouth.
The DuPont Science Stories campaign was one of three national finalists for the Online Media Marketing and Advertising (OMMA) Best Campaign in Social Media Award 2007.
Here is one of the five videos in the series. You can view all the videos in this series at stories.dupont.com, however, I cannot find any link to this anywhere on the DuPont website. I would like to think that if they hold up a two-year old social media program as a success, they would want to continue to tout that success by providing access to the video. Additionally some of the links no longer work, which is another indication that this campaign has been relegated to the backwater of the DuPont website. If you are presenting a case study of an old program, make sure you check all the links on an old page.
Too many industries still consider members of the retail distribution chain to be their customers. The businesses (especially manufacturers) in these industries put most of their marketing budget and effort selling to those who will sell their products. The end-user is almost an afterthought, even though the end-user is the one who creates the demand that retailers fill through ordering the brand the end-user wants.
It does no good if retailers buy your products, but they gather dust on the shelf because there’s no consumer demand – because you didn’t create any.
It does no good to compete on price point alone, because someone will always undercut you. Rock-bottom pricing isn’t always the basis of a consumer’s buying decision. Even Wal-Mart is positioning its brand as allowing consumers to “live better.” The mega-retailer is promoting the benefit of its low prices, not the feature of the prices themselves.
The end-user is your customer. So build brand equity by creating awareness and a sense of community among consumers. Talk to them on blogs and social media outlets, but don’t “sell.” Get them to talk to each other about your brand. Meet them at shows and events, and – if you can – sponsor shows and events. Make your Web site an engaging destination for consumers to learn more and communicate.
Worry less about competitors stealing your ideas and beating you to market and more about competitors stealing your market share because they’re better at talking to consumers than you are. It doesn’t matter if that’s the way things have always been done. Things are now being done differently.
CASE STUDY PRESENTATIONS
Pepsi is just on a roll with their packaging: "We didn't want our cans to feel left out this Halloween, so we dressed them up, too. Look for these limited edition Pepsi cans in the Halloween Section of your local Walmart.
