BRAND JOURNALISM - NEW DIRECTION IN MARKETING OR JOURNALISM?

ABSTRACT

This article presents a new perspective on journalism by the author: The new approach involved the creation of an "information flow" using a variety of messages transmitted through different channels and destined for different target audiences. He compared this approach to a magazine that brings together diverse material aimed at different audience interests into a single whole according to a single editorial concept.

Keywords: company, consumer, brand, journalist, journalistic community, information environment, marketing.

The appearance of the term "brand journalism" is associated with the company "McDonald's", whose marketing director Larry Light in 2004 at the conference "Edwarting Age" presented a new marketing strategy for brand promotion under the motto I'm loving it! He, in particular, said then that traditional marketing methods designed for the mass audience no longer work and "no advertising message tells the whole story". The consumer needs to tell "what's happening to the brand in the world" through a whole communications system.

The new approach involved the creation of an "information flow" using a variety of messages transmitted through different channels and destined for different target audiences. He compared this approach to a magazine that brings together diverse material aimed at different audience interests into a single whole according to a single editorial concept. At the same time, this method was associated not only with journalism, but also with the fact that creating information about a company-brand required professional journalistic tools, skills and style. However, in the first years the idea of brand journalism was not widely spread on the market, and its victorious procession began only on the threshold of 2010. Some experts directly relate to the economic crisis of 2008-09, which in the United States was called the Great Recession, by analogy with the Great Depression of 1929-33. The fall of the stock market, the real estate market, the bankruptcy of major banks, the rescue of automobile giants and financial corporations at the expense of taxpayers and many other events caused Americans as a nation "to lose faith in business and no longer trust companies ... have changed both the way they perceive business and the way they make decisions about buying. As a result, traditional marketing approaches in many companies have ceased to work the way they used to, and consumers are out of reach. [5] There was also a general satiety of the consumer with excessive advertising information, which forced the business to look for new ways to establish effective channels of communication with the consumer. Attention was drawn to the natural desire of a person to establish real, meaningful relationships in which a special place is occupied by a "well-told anecdote", which is exactly what distinguishes a journalist from a marketer - a good knowledge of the audience and the ability to address it in a clear language, to tell such a story and so that it could be interesting, impress the reader, make him talk about it, tell friends, acquaintances.

Another factor that contributed to the development of brand journalism was the change in the information environment. Companies used to appeal to journalists, newspapers, PR-agencies to create journalistic materials characterizing them positively. Modern means of communication and new information environment: websites, social networks, blogosphere, allow bypassing intermediaries and communicating directly with consumers, telling their stories in journalistic language.

In this respect, the task of brand journalism is the same as that of any other: sports, political - to tell a story in such a way as to gain the audience's attention, to tell what is interesting to read and useful to know. And only serious, objective materials can gain the trust of the reader. As Kyle Monson, a journalist and expert with the JWT advertising agency, put it: "It must be journalism in a good sense of the word - interesting, high-quality, objective texts. There should be a message there, but not a totalitarian one, but a liberal one. There is room in these texts for error recognition and sincere conversation. That is, everything that will make you think and look at the brand in a different way. If to simplify, it is to promote the brand through reflection. The Imperial Sugar Company brand journalism has also become widely known as a good role model, "creating a website dedicated to the sugar market. An expert network was formed around the site, other players pulled up, and analysts of retail companies drew attention to it. And this publication would not have received such demand, if it published biased or low-quality information. On the contrary, they pedaled their objectivity so much that for two quarters in a row they issued industry rankings of technological development, in which Imperial Sugar Company found itself in outsider positions. They became a famous brand within a few years, and with a very good reputation..." Moreover, on the pages of their publication, they began to sell advertising, turning it from a tool to promote the brand, as well as an additional source of income.

In just a few years, brand journalism has turned from innovative to one of the main methods of work of the marketing departments of large companies building communication links with consumers. In 2012, the American Public Relations Society included brand journalism among the 12 most important areas of development of the PR industry, and "Interprener" magazine devoted a special issue of "Branding 2012" to this topic.

According to a study conducted by the American Council on Information Content, in 2013 there was a significant shift towards the use of brand journalism among all marketing tools used by companies. Its share in total marketing budgets increased by 14%, and 37% of this budget was spent on creating and promoting journalistic information about brands. Moreover, 80% of marketers expressed the opinion that in the future further increase in spending on brand journalism will be moderate or aggressive.

Moreover, the attitude of the journalistic community to brand journalism, which was not recognized by all as journalism, began to change gradually. It was believed that when working for a company, journalists lose their objectivity and thus cease to be journalists and become ordinary PR-managers. Meanwhile, this opinion did not take into account the fact that one of the main conditions for success of brand journalism is fidelity to the main task of journalism, the need to create relevant, interesting content that meets the pressing problems of consumers and establishes strong relationships with it.

The fact that real journalists do not cease to be journalists working for the corporation and creating content for them is clearly demonstrated by the example of Ben Edwards, head of the Tokyo bureau of the "Economist" magazine, who changed his job to the head of the new media communications department at the ABC and then was again hired by the "Economist" publisher.

As a result, nowadays we can confidently say that brand journalism is a new developing trend not only in marketing, but also in journalism, opening up new information opportunities for business, consumers and the journalistic community.

References:

1. Light, Larry, "How Brand Journalism Is Impacting Brand Management", Adage.com, 21.07.2014 http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/brand-journalism-a-modern-marketing-imperative/294206/
2. Oftelie, Erin, "What Is Brand Journalism?", Community.Copypress.com, 01.04.2014, http://community.copypress.com/what-is-brand-journalism/
3. Pulizzi, Joe, "Can brand journalists still be? Does it matter?", Contentmarketinginstitute.com, 24.02.2011, http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/02/can-a-brand-journalist-still-be-a-journalist-does-it-matter/