In case you don’t read Fast Company, Follow me on Twitter or somehow didn’t stumble across this latest study by Vivaldi Partners on Social Currency be sure to download it here.
Today, one of the most important strengths of a brand is its social currency, the extent to which people share the brand or information about the brand with others as part of their everyday social lives.
Premium Luxury Brands tend to have a higher social currency
Volume Brand vs. Luxury Brands – Premium make drivers show a much stronger sense of their brand’s community while volume brand drivers show a lower need to affiliate with others, in return having less social currency.
I personally found it interesting that Mercedes-Benz was high on this list (not really). Having a Mercedes-Benz dealer under my realm, I often hear when speaking about social media “that’s not our customer”. However, according to this study, Mercedes-Benz is high up on the social currency scale.
Luxury show significantly higher social currency levels in general, implying that, with buying a car, drivers seek to not only enter a social peer group but also to grow as an individual by becoming an active member.
Investigating individual brands more closely, it becomes obvious that high social interaction volume can better utilize social currency levers to provide additional selling propositions.
The study also touches on how Toyota’s social currency suffered after recall and that Toyota needs to focus on its brand’s social currency as much as returning to its six-sigma standards in production.
Vivaldi Partners research shows that the use of social media and social networks in managing private lives, careers and personal interests, as well as lives at work is accelerating at a rapid pace.
Marketers must understand how people engage with these new ways of connecting, collaborating, and co-creating. These new ways change the way consumers make choices about brands and businesses.
According to Vivaldi Partners – there are 4 key steps to building, nurturing and managing social currency:
- Understand the buyers’ ecosystem
- Determine the levers of social currency that drive value in the industry or category
- Define your social currency strategy
- Develop and execute social currency programs that drives value
Have you thought about managing your dealers Social Currency?
What aspects of Social Currency will you determine creates value for your dealership?
