Gales Network • Brand building from the inside out

July 2008

I Like It, I Love It, I Want Some More Of It, But What (or Who) Is It?
Content and Product Identification In The Multi-channel World

THE BIG IDEAS TOPIC: Consumers are bombarded from every direction with products of every description, every day. The good news is that we receive more information and impressions about products and brands than ever before. The bad news is that we often can’t identify them. The Big Idea behind identification strategies is that they are an essential component of content transactions in the multi-channel world.

AT ISSUE: How can you buy it if you don’t know what it is? How can content owners ensure that consumers can identify their products, as they are exposed on countless channels often without the benefit of identification?

Before VCRs, DVRs, cellphones, the Web, video games, satellite radio, movie theatre previews, product placement, digital billboards and uncountable opportunities for integrated marketing at events, there were only a few broadly targeted media avenues for brands of every description. Print, Radio and Television dominated the spectrum of exposure channels and therefore any appearance (many of which the creator controlled) of a product was relatively easy to identify. The name brand ruled.

Today, in the multichannel universe, identification of a brand or product is often more elusive. This is no more prevalent in any category than music. Gone are the days when DJs announced songs and artists as they were played on the radio. And, as potent a medium for exposing music as radio remains, today our ears pick up recorded songs from many other channels (restaurants, sporting events, elevators, clothing stores) with no way to know who is singing or the name of the song. Apart from music, other venues such as television, movies and even webisodes are full of consumer products you might want but don’t know what they are called or how to find them.

THE BIG IDEAS VIEW: Your product is special. Now, more than ever, it is important to articulate the essential need your product meets and who wants it, and be sure the message is consistent across all channels. Simply hoping you’ve shot-gunned your artist or product in front of the right group is no longer enough. But these essential steps will not work, no matter how flawlessly executed, without the ability to identify your product.

Enter our new best friend, Technology. In the music space, tools are emerging to help consumers and content owners name the music they are listening to, no matter the source. Two such services are Shazam and Midomi. Both enable consumers to identify songs by using cellphones. The applications allow the cellphone to “hear” the music, compare what is heard to a database of sonic fingerprints and display identification info on screen. From there, consumers can buy the content through mobile or online retail, join social networks around the content and share it with others. One service even identifies tunes that are hummed or sung into the phone.

Technology solutions exist, or are in development, to instantly identify all manner of consumer products on television and film. Want that blouse on Desperate Housewives, or Batman’s new watch? Even if you don’t know who makes it or where to purchase, you can click on the tv screen or send a text message in the theatre to order and it’s shipped to your door.

Digital products like music are among the first to develop identification tools, but the physical world has some options now and more on the way, using cellphones as “readers” and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags that carry identification information attached to products.

The message is clear, even if the name of your product isn’t. Don’t let the love pass you by.