As the keynote speaker at Social Media Camp 2011 in Victoria, Jay Baer touched on something pretty unique and thought provoking. Describing a case study with Heinz, he suggested that a new set of consumers is developing. People are tired with mass production, mass consumption and mechanization. We want to be acknowledged as humans, customized and unique.
"It's about people, not logos"
as Jay described it, marketing has changed, for the better. More people are connecting to social media to create human to human relationships. Not only with their friends, but with brands as well. Some clever brands are using social in all levels of their operations, to create a more natural, friendly, human impression.
"Grown in America", not made, was a subtle change created by a 4 person marketing agency in Stockholm, hired by Heinz. The tagline became so popular in Scandanavia, that Heinz now puts it on every bottle of ketchup sold.
People like the human touch, instead of calling into an automated call center with a question, consumers tweet a post to a company for a quick, humanized response. Companies realizing this are seeing real results in both social engagement and sales. And just when everyone thought we were mere decades away from robot-ification.
"Food for thought", I thought. And good on ya, social media, for making business a little more human.
