The Results Are In

Two years ago, Mountain Dew tied in with the presidential elections and offered Dewmocracy 2, a multimedia promotion that started with a multiplayer online game. As part of the game, players were required to create new flavors of Mountain Dew. Pepsi, the company which produces Mountain Dew, chose the seven best flavors from those submitted in the game and had fifty Dew fanatic fans taste test them. At the same time, Dew lab trucks drove around the United States and reached more than 200,000 fans for their taste-test input.

From these taste tests, the seven flavors were narrowed down to three, which were put online for a vote. Dew fans for each flavor picked the colors, names, advertising, and packaging design for the new flavor. They also promoted their flavor. Mountain Dew encouraged fans to tell the world which flavor that they wanted by chatting with other fans on message boards, downloading wallpapers and icons, and getting others to vote for that flavor. The results are in, and White Out, the new flavor, was launched October 10. In the ad copy, Mountain Dew White Out is “built by Dew fans for Dew fans - - - letting the world know: It’s Different on the Mountain!”

Dewmocracy is an excellent example of using Web 2.0 as it was designed, which is to be interactive. Today’s Web tools offer businesses of every size the opportunity to connect with your customers and receive feedback from them, creating a two-way communication. The Web is different than traditional media in that it offers an opportunity for your customers to respond to your message. Mass media is only a one-way communication, which is why many mass media messages now contain Web references.

Those references offer the opportunity to involve customers. Whether the business sells a product such as Mountain Dew or a service such as Direct TV, giving customers the chance to feel more a part of the process through feedback is profitable marketing. Take this further by actually using the feedback for change in the product or service and you have employed the Web wisely. You have used interactivity to involve your customers.

This involvement expands and deepens customer relationships with your company and your product. You go beyond maintaining top of the mind awareness with your customer to making your business a part of your customer’s activities. Doing creates memorability Memorability generates repeat business. Repeat business develops profitable customers.

I understand that you might look at what Mountain Dew did and think, “Dew’s customers are young people with a great deal of time on their hands who are willing to get this involved. My customers are not like that.”

Don’t judge your customers too quickly. Perhaps a contest such as Dewmocracy is not a good fit for your business, but some interactivity online is. Your customers would enjoy an online process which allows them to do something that they love. What do your customers love to do? What do they love about your product or service? How do they use what you sell? Find a way to weave their interests into an online activity that involves your product or service. Consider a contest, an opportunity to share tips or have questions answered, or a chance to present a creation.

Challenge yourself to differentiate your business with your customers through online interactivity.