John Harrobin, SVP marketing and digital media at Verizon explained how important social research is.  Verizon does things like offering  consumers special tickets to concerts, and rewards them for freedback.  "Engagement is in our zone,"  he says. "We don't have good insights on how customers use our product that we don't measure.  We understand -- its not measurable -- how they use our product. "We have 35% market share on texting.  We thought we had great user interaface and we packaged it for free text. But we launched unlimited texting last year which made texting skyrocket.  We return a …

Steve Sullivan, SVP, Liberty Mutual says that engaging customers is critical:  "For us it's critical, because unlike many companies in this room, purchase of our product is infrequent, people see it as chore, so the wonderful thing about digital world is it offers the opportunity to create relationships with people before they become customers." Six months ago, he said, the company  launched "The Responsibility Project", an outgrowth of the ad campaign by the same name.  "It's all about notion of personal responsibility." The companyt launched Responsibilityproject.com, which has some ninety blog articles, short films.  "And we will begin  …

"Don't Tell Me" says Hidalgo of Nike.  "You can no longer broadcast to the consumer. The young consumer is not sitting on the couch waiting for Nike to say something.  There used to be time where we were in control of the brands. Those days are gone.   How do we give them a voice?" NikeiD, the in-store and online shop where consumers can design their own shoes, derived from consumers not wanting things made for them, but wanting to create things themselves, a trend exemplified by brands like "YouBar," a web site allowing consumers to create their own nutrition …

Joaqin Hidalgo, of Nike: we are very fond of saying that the consumer decides. We have become much more of a consumer centric brand.  Now we put consumer smack dab in middle of everything we do, placing the consumer i the center and engaging with them is what we like to do.   our consumer: growing up in different world. One big thing changing in their world is notion that they are digitally enabled and connected. But they don't call it digital, for them it's just life. they have more choices and options than ever and because of that, it's …

By now, we have been hearing a lot about putting the consumer first, even ahead of the brand. And about then engaging that consumer. How has that moved us forward from a year ago or has it? It hasn't. What's changed is the WAYS brands engage consumers. For example, Twitter (see earlier "One Word: Twitter" post). Joaquin Hidalgo, CMO, Nike Brand, is speaking now about how Nike "obsesses" the consumer. We need to understand the shift in how consumers are engaged, he says, sagely. You can't just broadcast to them. They won't sit still for your message. How …

Claire Bennett, SVP Global Marketing at American Express said the company has  moved from a brand awareness to consumer engagement model.  She said digital marketing has played a big role in that.  "I would be remiss not to talk about digital work and how we can uniquely play in the digital space.  We have done a number of projects online and have a team working on developing the community aspect of Amex," she said, because Amex has "A very like minded customer base.  We define our customers as 'creative achievers,' so beyond just advertisingm,  digital is huge part of portfolio." …

Members Project gets to customers passions and pursuits. Claire Bennett at Amex says their customers want to do something good for the world. We as marketers need to continue to inspire customers, she says. Having our card members feel special, inclusive community of American Express. It goes back to the heart and the soul of what our customers truly love.

Yesterday at lunch, a woman at our table overheard me speaking to my colleague, Karl Greenberg, about how much we'd been blogging all morning. "I couldn't believe you guys blogged all that stuff already!" she said, pointing to her BlackBerry. "I just got off the phone with my boss. He told me to take a lot of notes. So I'm figuring ... cut and paste! Thanks!" Um, sure! Happy to be of service. :P

Defining what your brand stands for is critical, says Claire Bennett, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, American Express. If you consistently deliver, you will grow. Other examples of those who have defined their brands well: Hermes Paris, Dole, Zappos.com, Walmart. Adjust your lens, persevere, skate to where the puck is going are keys to brand clarity. Lifestyle Services Company is how AmEx looks at itself, she says. History: In WWI, Americans stranded in London stormed the AmEx office. It cashed their cheques and got them home. Aha: travel opp. Adjusted the lens. Launched travel biz. In …