How often have you felt helpless & cheated after buying a product and not getting what it had promised? Quite often. Right? What could you do about it? Nothing, but to stare at the small asterix sign which read ‘conditions apply’ and to go through the innumerable clauses attached to it.
Not anymore. If you are active on the social media circuit and you are followed by thousands on twitter you can do something that will really hurt the brand that cheated you. You can BLOG. Blogging is just another ‘small’ way in which the internet is levelling the playing field for all.
Blogging about brands isn’t just about avenging the fee-laden insurance that some company sold you. It’s much more than that. It’s a way for the brands to connect to their customers, to woo them, to receive their feedback, to sell them something more and to reward them for being a loyal customer. And slowly, Brands are realising this.
Manish Bhatt and Raghu Bhat, Senior VPs and Creative Directors at Contract Advertising India has to say this about the Internet Advertising-
“We want to create stuff that dominates conversations, stops traffic on the roads, pops up in panel discussions years after it first appeared. And in this ambition, our strongest ally is the Internet. The net is the janta ki adaalat. If the people love your stuff, nobody can touch you. If the content is compelling and entertaining, it spreads like a cancer cell. It just spreads. Nobody, not you, not me has the power to halt its spread. We love the purity of this medium. Bad work can’t pass off as ‘effective work’ on the web. There is good work that gets celebrated and shared, there is bad work that is greeted with a thunderous silence.”
Why do Brands need Blog?
From Amitabh Bachan to Aamir Khan, from Intel to Infosys, from Roadies to Radio City and from Surf Excel to Sunsilk- all have their own blogs.
Why you ask? Well no other media, be it Television or the Print, can let you connect and receive feedback from your consumers the way Internet/ Blogs can.
Imagine a Television ad campaign gone horrendously wrong and the junta are hating it. It would take some time before the brand realises that it’s a failure. Not so on the Internet. The feedback, be it good or a bad one, is instant and right from your consumer.
If presented to the right target audience and with the right content, Blogs also helps in improving the brand image. One such example is Sunsilk’s Gang of Girls. This is a site on which women can network and discuss things of mutual interest, share gyaan on beauty and hair 
, read blogs of celebrities, take part in contests and polls etc.
Once a consumer feels connected with the blog, she indirectly gets connected to the brand. This helps in generating repeat consumers and also helps the brand in promoting other products to her.
Recently, Roadies- the reality TV show on MTv conducted their auditions completely on the web where participants uploaded videos of their tasks and were voted by visitors to the site.
It’s interesting to note that the Indian Televisions News channels, almost all of them have embraced the idea of Blogs pretty quickly. Sadly, I can’t say the same about Indian Brands. It’s time they realised the true potential of this media and tapped it.
Another thing I really hope that picks up is personal blogging by famous people other than the movie celebritites. How nice would it be to have blogs by Infosys’ Narayan Murthy or Bharti’s Sunil Mittal or the heads of other business houses? This would not only let us have a sneak into their thoughts and leadership styles but also help their company in talent acquisition by inspiring the youth.
PS: Microreviews is also a site which strives and aspires to become a one-stop-shop for all the brand reviews you need. We provide unadulterated, impartial and critical insight on a Brand’s product.
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