Southwest public affairs responded with a call to Kevin, free air fair, and a public apology.  The public apology can be found on their corporate blog. 

The interesting read is not Southwest’s apology, rather the comments responding to the blog entry.  Some people applaud Southwest for deplaning over sized people, while others state they will never fly Southwest again.  This makes me wonder how much clout does Kevin Smith have in persuading people to not fly Southwest?

The Oprah Effect
Celebrity influence is used throughout advertising as spokespeople, endorsers, ambassadors … all to elevate a brand through the association with the celebrity’s ”brand halo”.   And many times it works.  The classic example is the “Oprah Effect” and how her endorsement can potentially vault a brand within her following.

This incident is different.  It is more like when bad things happen to famous people.  The fact the incident centers around Kevin’s weight and a standing airline seating policy hits homes with many people.  Even if the people do not care for Mr. Smith.   In reflecting on the incident did Southwest handle it well?  You could argue initially they did not.  They are doing everything they can to rectify the situation now, but unless Kevin chooses to reconcile with Southwest there will be lingering brand damage.

Which brings me to the point of — although people are empathizing with Kevin (or Southwest), how influential is he in their airline choice?  We are influenced by people in our social circle: people we know, people we trust, and people we may seek out in the course of purchasing a product.  They influence our purchase decision.  For example, per automotive research we know about one-third of people state social peer influence was either extremely important of very important in their purchase decision of a new vehicle.

While Kevin is no Oprah, he does have a following.  His current issue with Southwest will probably impact their decision in their next flight.  Whether it has a long term effect will be probably based on Kevin and if he let’s the issue die or he keeps bringing up the incident.

No one wants to be “Kevin Smithed”
Overweight people will also have a lingering effect in their airline choice, because they do not want to be “Kevin Smithed”.  Look, no one wants to be embarrassed.  The fact that he was deplaned and it made front page news resonates as the worst type of public humiliation for people (one could argue some of the embarrassment was self-inflicted through Kevin’s twitter feed).  Although many airlines have an “oversized passenger” policy, Southwest has been cognitively associated with this issue, and it will be difficult to shake.

So where should Southwest go from here.  If you view this from a trusted advisor perspective, the best way to mitigate the damage is from the advisor’s perspective — Kevin Smith.  Southwest can publish all of the public apologies it wants, and they may be sincere.  However, a public apology is expected, and the fact it is broadcasted will lack sincerity in most people’s eyes.  Instead of a public apology by Southwest, the truthful method for diffusing the incident would be if Kevin publicly states the dispute has been reconciled.   In a way, then Southwest would we have social closure.

On a personal note I am a fan of Kevin’s work.  Although I enjoy his movies and the ”evenings with Kevin”, he has no influence over my airline selection.  By the end of the week or so, buzz of this incident should subside, and Kevin will benefit in the end – he just got a great story for a “Four-vening with Kevin Smith”.

The ability to fulfill this promise is questionable.  I had several pending purchases, and thought it would be interesting to test the power of Twelp Force to assist me in my decision.

The first purchase related to my 2G iPhone.  I have been thinking about upgrading, but I am hesitant.   Six months after I bought my phone, Apple introduced a 3G phone at a cheaper price.   So, I was curious if it is worth upgrading to a 3Gs or is it better to wait until June 2010 to see if Apple will release a 4G phone.  To this question, I tweeted TwelpForce for assistance.  I didn’t receive much help. 

@egbowe:
I currently own an 2g iphone. should i wait until 4g comes out or buy a 3g now? @twelpforce6:00 PM Aug 25th from web

@Lodenk:
@egbowe There have been no announcements about a 4G iphone, I have the 3GS and the upgrade from using Edge to 3G is great. via @Lodenk

Although I appreciate the honesty (and endorsement for 3G), it became apparent the stadium of TwelpForcers were not any more in the know about Apple’s future plans than I was. 

My second attempt at Twelpforce was in reference to purchasing a new HDTV.  My current Sony was dieing a slow tubular death, so I was in search of a replacement.  I planned on spending about $1,000.   I did a little research on Best Buy’s Site and CNET to get a feel for different features.  I quickly realized I had no clue which features were most important for that price range, and which features weren’t worth buying.  I thought this was a good question to ask TwelpForce.   The following is the twitter exchange:

@egbowe:
I am looking for a new LCD HDTV from $1k to $1.2k, What features are “gotta have” versus “nice to have” versus “not worth it” ? @twelpforce

@agent3012:
@egbowe Here’s some initial HDTV feature tips, if you haven’t already read: http://bit.ly/3KCEJM via @Agent3012

@agent3012:
@egbowe The features I generally look at 1st are contrast ratio, refresh rate (Hz), and the number of inputs. via @agent3012

@BBYCiaran:
@egbowe 1080p and 120hz should be priority via @BBYCiaran

Several initial thoughts on the exchange.  First, the immediate response was impressive.  I do like the information received, although I didn’t find it very useful.  Another point relates to the first tweet response – sending me to a page on Best Buy which lists a glossary of terms and industry jargon doesn’t help.  My goal of talking to someone is to answer my question, not learn it for myself (I already tried that).

I was going to continue the twitter dialogue, but I felt it was fruitless for several reasons.  First being, it is not practical to exchange knowledge in 140 character bits of info. 

Secondly, I don’t think Best Buy Tweeters can truly answer my questions.  Although TwelpForce did a part of my question, the one question I would like to know is “what features are not worth it?” when spending $1,000 on an HDTV.  I could have re-asked the question, but I was losing patience.  So I tried a different tactic, and I did get my questions answered in about two minutes — at a Best Buy.  The store personnel were very helpful.  This is not a surprise to me.  In my experience I find Best Buy Employees helpful and most are knowledgeable about the products they represent. 

I think the TwelpForce is more PR play than a true customer service option.  Look, Best Buy has brain power to answer the question, when you consider their knowledgeable workforce (including Geek Squad).  So, this is not a function of desire, rather a limitation of Twitter as a customer service tool. 

An opportunity for Best Buy would be to not restrict  TwelpForce to the twitter channel.  Having Twitter as the end all be all limits customer interactions to micro-conversations.  Rather TwelpForce should be a mechanism for introduction.  If appropriate, an introduction which follows re-routes people to their different service channels: The Unboxed Community, Email, Phone, or the nearest retail outlet.  I think some agents have already figured re-routing is the way to go.  I did notice some interactions which re-routed people to another channel.

A better opportunity would have been to create (and market) TwelpForce page on facebook.  Although the Twitter feed is a tab on the current Best Buy facebook page, socially, it deserves more prominence.  Possibly it’s own facebook page.  A facebook page would solve some of Twitter’s limitations like the 140 character limitation.  Also, conversations can be threaded (and followed) better.

The revolution is a shift to a social architecture from a content architecture.  Most online brand experiences today are based on a content architecture.  In a content architecture content is king.  Consumers of the site are users, who experience the content and then move on.  We (marketers) talk about using social tools like facebook, YouTube or Twitter,  because it is fashionable, trendy — whatever.   The reality is marketers still treat consumers like users and content reigns supreme.

I believe moving to a social architecture will require a revolution, because it will require marketers to think differently about consumer to brand interactions; it will change core marketing procedures (e.g. content creation, budgeting;, and it will require a certain level of brand self-awareness (i.e. btw not everyone is an advocate for your brand).

So what are attributes of a social architecture?  In my view there are two significant differences between content and social architectures:  How content is used and how the consumer is treated.

Content Usage: Brands using a content architecture center the experience around the content.  In a social architecture, content takes on a new context.  First off, definition of content is more than video, images or copy, it is all content within the experience regardless of who generates it. 

Secondly, brand content takes on a new purpose.  It becomes a catalyst for action.  Many brand videos are a brand talking to themselves.  Rarely does a brand listen to the community and then provide content relevant to the conversation — therefore, fueling the conversation.

Consumer Treatment:  As I stated prior, consumers in a content architecture are users.  In a social architcture, consumers are participants — they are contributors — consumers are king.  A social architecture is designed to engage the consumer both initially and longitudinally.  We want a person to act immediately.  The action may be to comment on content, share it, or contribute their own content to the experience. 

Longitudinally, we would like to continue build a relationship by encouraging additional action.  We can accomplish this by inviting the consumer back based on how we, as a brand responds to their action, how other’s respond, and/or an invitation to contribute more content. 

To move to a social archtiecture measurement needs to evolve too.   Many marketers struggle with how to quantify their social experience.  They focus on visits, video views, content sharing, or commenting.  These measurements are not bad, just difficult to interpret the vibrancy of  the social experience.  

I would challenge us to assess how much of the conversation is carried by the brand versus the consumer.  If  90% or more of  the content is generated by a brand, this is still a content architecture.  Although the experience may include all of the appropriate tools, it is not resonating with the target consumer.  The brand should re-evaluate their overall experience premise.  A good start is answering the following questions:

• What are brand target consumers saying out there?  Are they talking about the brand?
• Does the site lack a unique value proposition when compared to other communities about the brand?
• Does the brand content on the site encourage commenting?  Sharing?  Consumer contribution?
• Are their activities on the site encouraging collaboration between consumers?

Finally, beware of novelty.  In my opinon slapping a social tool on your site is not a social architecture.  To me it is more of a novelty to say, “Hey look at me.  I’m a cool, hip brand that gets the social space.”  Sorry Skittles.  If your objective was to create buzz, you succeeded.  However, in my perspective you catered nicely to the Twitter evangelists, while you treated your target consumers like users.

Instead of a web site, Skittles has deployed an aggregation of social tools. Their primary site is a twitter feed. Product information is stored on wikipedia. Ads have been posted on YouTube and flickr. Oh yeah, I am also a fan on facebook with 581,772 other facebook users.

Pretty impressive.

Skittles executed a well-thought out online social expression. Is this a glimpse of new marketing? Or a social stunt which will run its course soon? In reviewing the twitter banter, it seems the communication is not about skittles, but an industry love-fest (or backlash) for a marketer deploying a 100% social play. The tweeting included:

tevan: the redesigned http://skittles.com uses social networking to the extreme. those aren’t little candies; they’re colorful balls of steel.

  

ner1ssa: discovered Skittlesis using new media for its website – Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, FaceBook and mobile web. Interesting. http://skittles.com

 

ahhyeah: Looks like http://skittles.com isn’t the only one with this idea, Check this out: http://www.modernista.com again, brilliant!

johnmills: Skittles thinks they’re cool. They are not. Just another stupid publicity stunt from a corporate giant. Side note: I want some skittles 

 

Papstio: Had to see what the whole Skittles hype was all about. Not bad! Doesn’t exactly make me want Skittles though.

Love it or hate it. The Skittles Social Experiment has struck a cord — at least in the industry. But can it work?

One awkward practice working against Skittles, is the requirement of providing an age prior to entering the site. Seems like this would alienate many Skittle consumers (e.g. my six-year-old son LOVES Skittles). Although common in the liquor and beer industry, it is not a common practice for CPG. The reason for age filtering is (obviously) some comments may be objectionable. And, yes, there were a few f-bombs, porn references, and other select profane comments in the feed.

Is Skittles turning over its brand? I am advocate for listening to customers and engaging brand advocates. This is not what Skittles is doing. Look, skittle-ites already own the brand. They don’t need Skittles.com to artificially inflate their advocacy. A Skittles advocate can blog, comment, or post about it anywhere on the social sphere. The goal should be not to replace the advocacy, but amplify it. But Will the Skittle advocate take time to contribute?

When the furor dies down and we (the industry) move onto our next social shiny object (should be about 72 hours), will the Skittles customer be heard. Right now, it is hard to tell if the site works for Skittles customers/advocates. With the advertising/PR industry flooding the site with comments, an advocates comment will get buried in the twitter barrage. Obviously, we (the industry) have plenty of time on our hands to use a twitter soapbox to profess admiration or disdain for the site. When the twitter dust settles will anyone care? Or will there be social silence?