User Generated Content: A Dissenting Opinion

User generated content has been discussed much in this blog, and it's usually centered around new campaigns, trends and stats to help you consider whether incorporating it in some way into your efforts is right for your brand. So it's about time for a dissenting opinion that trashes UGC's very worth, which is always welcome to keep the debate interesting.

Denise Lee Yohn of brandchannel.com writes that UGC is the enemy, a diluter of the very brand we marketers have worked so hard to ensure "transcends the product or service being sold."

Hmmm. The article continues:

"This is because consumers know what they know at the moment—they know why they like a product—but they don't know the vision of the brand," Yohn says. That's right, they know the consumers grainy reality not the marketers big dream.

Yohn goes on to acknowledge that while UGC may churn out "cute or clever" ads, it will not further brand leadership. She argues that "innovative, game-changing companies don’t ask consumers to actually develop new products for them; they shouldn't ask consumers to develop ads for them either."

Maybe she’s right? Maybe "resorting to consumer-generated ads also signals a fundamental problem in the company that solicits them."

After all, having "a team that takes the time to develop a campaign (to do the hard work of distilling down everything that could possibly be said about a brand into a simple, single message) and to search for a way of expressing the message that is worthy of the brand is all the better for it."

Sing it sister! Branding Voodoo, however, argues that there is room for the brand, the consumer and all of the gray areas in between in modern brand marketing. In fact, a somewhat fragmented approach is virtually a must to reach the many audiences who are consuming your product or service in very different ways in today's multimedia, multiplatform and multicultural world.

Is it possible then to keep the brand integrity intact while embracing the consumption and attitude changes of your audience?

Post your thoughts on the topic here.