YOU DON’T HAVE TO SPEND millions to successfully promote your product or service. In fact, the secret to marketing in this recovering economy is rooted in a simpler time, when word of mouth was the primary influence on consumer behavior. The only difference now is the communication delivery vehicle: Today, online communities of like-minded individuals are the most trusted source for consumers making a purchasing decision.

What does this new style of peer-to-peer influence mean for marketing? Brands that are transparent, authentic and honest rise above the rest. Consumers want to feel good about the products they are buying and using. Here’s how marketing can help:

SHOW FAITH IN YOUR PRODUCT

Building brands is not about numbers; it’s about value and people. When you have faith in the value of your brand, you can communicate that belief and extend it to consumers in a genuine way. A lack of faith can be a brand killer because consumers can detect dishonesty. Everyone needs something to believe in.

TALK ABOUT VALUE

Resist the fashionable marketing cliché urging you to “think outside the box.” Everything you really need to know about marketing your product can actually be found by examining it. Focus deeply inside it and discover its fundamental value to consumers.

ESTABLISH A POSITIVE IDENTITY

Consumers are drawn to brands that offer a positive emotional connection for them—something they can personally relate to. Your brand identity needs to reinforce that connection simply and directly, communicating to consumers how your brand can enhance their lives.

THINK LIKE YOUR CLIENTS

Being a good marketer is like being a good friend. You’ve got to be a good listener, and you have to care. It’s that kind of empathy that allows you to establish a sense of trust with your customers that they instinctively know is sincere.

DO WELL BY DOING GOOD

Consumers not only care more about environmental and social issues, but they have the social networking prowess to spread information about companies who refl ect those values—or don’t. To compete, brands must rise to this new level of social and environmental awareness simply by doing the right thing–and communicating their actions in an altruistic way.

Look for technology to help in all fi ve of these areas. The advent of user-generated content in the digital media landscape (blogs, message boards, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) makes it even easier to connect with consumers by providing the tools to create virtual tribes around goods and services. Even the smallest companies can take advantage of these new technologies, as money is no longer a barrier to entry.

 

Lynda Resnick is the owner of such iconic brands as POM Wonderful, FIJI Water, Teleflora and Wonderful Pistachios. She is also the best-selling author of Rubies in the Orchard: The POM Queen’s Secrets to Marketing Just About Anything