Managing Brands from inside the Fishbowl

Tom Fishburne, creator of my all-time favorite Word-of-Mouth cartoon, has published a new one, which depicts perfectly the situation brand managers are in today:



Tom writes:

In today's hyper-connected world, consumers choose how they interact with your brand, not the other way around. And they're more apt to look through or around the brand "persona" to the real deal. And then share what they find with others in blogs or other social media. We're all in a fishbowl now, and we're all held up to a different standard.

Exactly right and a great metaphor! Very often, I find myself in front of people from agencies or big brands, who want to know my opinion about that clever new campaign idea, which depends 100% on consumers not figuring out, what is going on. I usually ask them: but what if your audience finds that out? The usual answer: how should they?

Well, I guess from now on, I will just refer them to this cartoon...