The English term branding originates from the old Norwegian word 'brandr' and stems from cattle hustling, where cattle was branded to be able to separate them from other herds. Trademarks are today’s equivalent and are used to distinguish a product or company from the competition.

It seems indeed that Ms. Cow still has many marketing and branding secrets to share with us.

In a study published by Anthrozoos involving 516 dairy farmers in the UK, Dr. Catherine Douglas and Dr. Peter Rowlinson at Newcastle University found that treating these animals as individuals increased milk production.

Though at first glance this survey doesn’t seem to provide much value outside of farming, marketers might discover some hidden insight.

By increasing milk production, Ms. Cow proves to us that giving her an individual name had a positive impact on results. From this, we can thus deduce the three following arguments:

By naming his cattle, the farmer managed to increase his “employee’s” productivity.
This shows us that good HR policies are helpful and that marketing starts within the company.

You can call your customer sir or madam; but in order to develop a strong relationship, one has to call his customer by his name or personal brand.  

As a reminder, Brand equity refers to the marketing outcomes that accrue thanks to a product with its brand name, compared to those that would accrue if the same product did not possess any brand name. If we consider Ms. Cow as an asset of the company, we might think of selling her at a higher price than any other un-named cow. But that’s not all; any other stakeholder which has a direct or indirect contact with Ms. Cow will show a higher satisfaction.
For more info check also this post.

At second glance, we might notice that this survey also has a hidden message related to social media.

Any individual cow is part of a larger herd. By naming and sharing a stronger connection with each member of the herd, one can expect to see the cows’ welfare improve and anticipate an increase in milk production (as proof of satisfaction).

Consequently, individually satisfied cows might positively influence the whole herd. 

This anecdote sounds a lot like good brand engagement or consumer service, and is highly expected from most companies.

On the other hand, these same principles apply to personal branding and the way companies should use social media to converse with the crowd.

The market should not be perceived as one big uniform herd, but rather, a collection of individuals with names and personalities.

This “awareness” might be the reason why some people talk to their plants or why others name their car.

And if you believe this is crazy, remember you’re reading the blog of a lemur.

  A creative mind that enjoys sharing its knowledge and passion with others.
Often found promoting ideas and innovations, the Fan is a “brand” advocate by heart.

The Fans have an idyllic relationship with a particular brand, sport, person or state of mind and want the world to know about it. Their blog shows genuine passion for the main topic and a strong red line in the communication. The Fans convey a message coming from the heart, punctuated by a rash desire for self-expression.

Fans keep part of their childhood dreams and visions. Their blog focuses on a chosen “hero”; hence, the general layout of the blog can be extreme. It can be simple, almost minimalist with a focus on the actual and personal (creative) content, or it can on the contrary be full of colours, pictures and videos. This depends on the main topic in focus, and the age and state of mind of the blogger. Fans will most probably not use a personal domain name and will use a free, yet personalised, template. The writing style reflects passion which at times can compensate for a lack of mature communication skills.

Fans enjoy interactions regarding their own writing. Comments and feedback are very important, and they gladly share their view with other people. Yet, the purpose of a fan’s blog is to show their appreciation and love, and although the world may be listening, their contribution still is something very personal. Most Fans therefore have few or limited readership, but have a very strong bond with them. One can also be a fan of his own life and use his blog as personal diary, as an autobiography and for self-branding purposes.

Fans are quite knowledgeable about their preferred subject and will be able to find a balance between evidence and opinion. They probably have several interesting sources they're tapping into, but are not necessarily visible. Fans provide their readers with their own and unique view on the subject and do not wish to resemble an exhaustive encyclopaedia or replace the official press. They will therefore combine their acquired knowledge with the message they wish to share, rather than talking about crude facts.

Fans will probably be members of different social networks and will potentially use other social media to share their passion. The blogs will likely use videos and pictures, yet the use of many textual links should not be expected. The Fan’s Blogroll will expectedly have related fan blogs and other subjects of interest which are not directly related to their blog.

Advertising and affiliations are not important and adverts should have a connection with the blog’s subject and its design.

Example of blogs: Groupie, Sport Fan, Supporter, Amateur Philosopher, Brand Lover, NGO member

Fans are people who have an intense liking and enthusiasm for a person, brand, sporting club, idea or trend. Though there is some confusion as to the origin of the word fan, it is the 20th century which really forged its meaning. Whether they are called aficionados, political supporters or band groupies, all have common characteristics resulting from a liberal society with an ever growing media reach.

Fans have existed since even before the introduction of mass media outputs, such as radio and television; nevertheless, new technologies have considerably helped develop this lifestyle. People can now for instance watch sport games at the other side of the world without the need to be physically present at the match (even though the real enthusiasts will book a plane ticket to go there). With television came movies and attractive actors introducing some glamour into our lives. This has created new categories of fans. Etc, etc.

In the meantime, companies started to grasp the underlying economic significance behind this particular lifestyle and started tapping into it. T-shirts, dolls, posters, collectibles, and any kind of other merchandising or advertising with a star (actor or sportsman) would have anticipated success. Yet, the real value of a fan is not only his wallet, but his enthusiasm and viral communication. 

Those are the advocates, people that do not necessarily follow a fan’s lifestyle, but can share their feelings with Fuggles (non-fan, a personal neologism based on JK Rowling’s non-magician or Muggle).

But this is not where it ends. First of all, actors, sport clubs, bands and politicians are starting to understand this new channel and tap into it. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails (NIN), Obama, Schwarzenegger are examples with moderate to extremely successful results. Social media helps to create stronger bonds with the fan’s subject of interest by creating interaction or at least being provided with information. The fan therefore feels relief as he knows his favourite sportsman (singer or other) knows about his existence.

Companies are also trying to understand how to tap into this pool of enthusiasm and are reaching out to the fans. This however is much more complex as there is no easy way to create a strong bonding with them.

This has brought a new level to “fanship”. On the one hand, anyone with some guts or a funny idea can have his 15 minutes of success and can probably make it last much longer.

With other words, the real fan is losing ground to common people. By showing our love or appreciation time and time again on social networks, by using applications such as iLike or fan pages, aren’t we just usurping the fan’s title and therefore condemning him to an impoverished state of mind?

The same way that experts and journalists have to deal with User-Generated Content (UGC), the fan has to adapt and overcome this new ordeal by providing better content.

If this is the case, how can companies adapt to this change and acclimatize to this new environment when they haven’t yet grasped the full meaning of social media?

Should their online strategy be focused on growing their consumer base, or should they be willing to focus more on their existing fan-base and add value to this relationship?

Is the use of advertisements, applications, affiliation marketing or sponsoring the right method? Or, on the contrary, should there be different approaches per category of fanship, distinguishing the real fan from the amateur?

What would you suggest?

Talking about sharing, I have learnt that very few have actually share information about fellow bloggers or micro-bloggers. This might have been the case in the beginning of the blogging age, but today, few are the rookies succeeding in making their place and many decide to call it quits. When saying great minds are often less than capable communicators, it also means a potentially great loss for the virtual community.

Wasn’t Web2.0 about collaboration and helping each other out? Why not organize mentoring, coaching and webinars for new bloggers? Are there any headhunters looking around for the talented writer eager to get some readership?

Several efforts have been undertaken such as Bloggersbase, an Israeli venture presented at LeWeb. Its model is based on a contest where the quality of the posts provides you with a status. The higher your status, the more visibility you get - same as everywhere else. However, there are organized timeslots where bloggers compete. Those elected as the best can, in time, join the elite. In other words, if the system works well, everyone has a fair chance to get his share of the spotlight. It works like an international football (soccer) tournament: you start with qualifying pools and the winners continue until the finals. Then you start again, with the former winner maintaining a small head start.

As I stated before, social media is a form of bartering, and thus we at ZackBrandit have decided to start with our own hopefully not too futile small initiative. We have noticed that there’s no bloggers listing for members on LinkedIn, and as a network of professionals there are surely plenty of interesting ones. We have created a list using Deli.cio.us, which can be found here. This list is updated daily with LinkedIn members who have asked us to add their blog, and each blog is forwarded to my Friendfeed account. In this way, we wish to provide a helping hand and create increased visibility to fellow bloggers, while at the same time perhaps finding some great content (yep, not everybody is on Tweeter yet).

Should you wish to be added to this list, please send an email to zack@zackbrandit.com and include the following details: 1. LinkedIn profile URL 2. Name of Blog 3.  Blog URL 4. RSS Feed 5. Is your blog professional, semi-pro or hobby? 6.  3 tags 7. Language of blog

You can check every blog one by one or make a search using the cloud, but most importantly, each blog is connected to a LinkedIn profile giving you more information about the author.

Please be assured that this list is not used for other purposes than for the listing.

Also, do not hesitate to send us suggestions to improve this list.