Dr Nikolaus Eberl : “Social media has become the hallmark of brand leadership in the new economy”

Dr Nikolaus Eberl will give a three-day seminar in September on social selling, movement marketing and the Madiba code at the initiative of Quick Focus. Prior to this event, the brand specialist share some thoughts with Business Magazine.

BUSINESSMAG.Technology is evolving at a tremendous rate. Can you tell us about the new trends in the marketing and branding sphere?

As a brand historian who has researched the rise and fall of ancient and modern empires alike, I have come to the conclusion that the new dimension of brand leadership is encapsulated in one sentence and gone mostly unnoticed by the global media: in times of turmoil and the transition to the new/digital economy, the best brands are growing market share by sparking movements.

Movement marketing has been drawing the interest of global brand leaders, such as Microsoft, Unilever, and Gillette which have all shifted their marketing strategy to the power of movements, with astounding results.

For instance, Gillette built a Movement of Women against lazy stubble to grow sales by 500%. Dove used Movement marketing to redefine the concept of ‘Real Beauty’ and increase sales by 600%.

Microsoft turned a boring product ‘MS Office Accounting Professional’ into a movement marketing campaign that overachieved Microsoft annual sales target threefold in less than two months.

Brands that spark movements are more likely to s쳮d in today’s changing world than companies that adhere to traditional brand building. In a nutshell, movement marketing takes the old marketing and business models and flips them on their heads.

BUSINESSMAG. Is there a simple way for a traditional entrepreneur to catch up with the modern challenge of brand leadership?

Yes, absolutely! The best way for entrepreneurs to establish brand leadership is to use the content marketing capabilities of social media, especially LinkedIn, and to become a thought leader in their industry.

If done properly, this can be achieved within 100 days. The social selling seminar will provide delegates with a detailed roadmap on how to double qualified leads within 100 days.

BUSINESSMAG. In what ways can modern practices in bran-ding and marketing (digital, social...) impact on a business?

For the first time in history, the playing field of business has been truly levelled. Size does not matter anymore. Advertising has become grossly ineffective and 92% of consumers do not trust commercials anymore. The rise of social media has enabled anybody with access to the internet to generate earned media which now has become the hallmark of brand leadership in the new economy.

The most important success criterion in the digital economy is the brand experience. In other words, how do customers experience the brand at the moments of truth? This is how a brand like Uber has become one of the most valuable brands in the world (at US$51 billion as of last week), without having to employ any driver and only having 300 employees. The growth of Uber is almost entirely driven by word of mouth and social media rather than advertising.

BUSINESSMAG. As a capacity builder, one of the topics that will be brought forward during your seminar will be the Madiba Code. Can you briefly explain the principle and some of the tangible benefits that can be reaped?

The Madiba Code is about the secrets of charismatic leadership and how to inspire like Nelson Mandela used to. Research has shown that charisma is the single most important leadership quality for achieving employee engagement and that a difference of almost 52% in one-year performance improvement in operating income exists between companies with low employee engagement and companies with high employee engagement.

According to Forbes Magazine, charisma is the X factor of leadership. There’s evidence to show that charismatic leaders promote better team performance.