Facebook scores huge branding coup with 'Like'

The most successful brands share several attributes in common. One of the most important: Ownership of a single word that defines the brand. Last week, Facebook made the word "like" its own, in one of the biggest branding coups in decades.

"Like" is seemingly everywhere this week and associated with Facebook. The social network didn't just extend the mechanism beyond its territorial borders, but claimed ownership over the word, too. Backed by the social network's reach and popularity -- approaching 500 million subscribers -- and Open Graph protocol, the "Like" thumbs-up icon already appears on hundreds of thousands of Web pages outside Facebook. Perhaps then, Facebook's branding coup is double -- not just 'like' but the thumbs-up symbol, too.

I use Tumblr for my Odd Together blog, where the service's subscribers can like something by clicking a heart. The point: Facebook wasn't the only social service using a "like" mechanism. By the way, Tumblr rivals Posterous and TypePad have built-in easy support for Facebook Like. Hehe, they like Like.

Big brands do big business by claiming ownership over a single word. For Volvo it's "safety." For, Nike it's "performance." For Apple, it's increasingly "magic." Barack Obama claimed "change" during his presidential campaign.

In 2002, Rajendra Srivastava, Emory University Goizueta Business School professor, explained the importance of word ownership. "A brand really lies between the two ears of the consumer. The company owns the physical brand, of course, but the value of the brand really is what it means to the consumer." What could be more meaningful than like? The word is loaded with positive and personal connotations. "I like you" or "I like this," with the important emphasis on "I," which is me (or is that you). Good branding also is about generating good feelings. What could be more good feeling than like, other than perhaps love?

From a broader branding perspective, word ownership is most potent when it is a verb, meaning there is action behind it. For some brands, like Google or Xerox, the word is the company name replacing a verb. People "Google" instead of "search" or they "Xerox" instead of "copy." Facebook is never going to be a successful verb, but like already is one.

Facebook's Like branding is atypical from a larger marketing perspective. Generally, companies take ownership over a word because they want people to buy something. Facebook wants people to vote for something by Liking it. Around those Likes -- and the associated subscriber identities -- Facebook is looking to profit from advertising and marketing intelligence services. As good as cookies and other tracking mechanisms are, an identity is much better. Facebook can build demographic profiles around those Likes, which are marketing gold.

Perhaps the closest atypical word branding campaign to Facebook is Barack Obama's run for the presidency. How strange, he sought people's votes, too -- wanted more Americans to like him than rival John McCain. The Obama political campaign ran one of the most effective marketing campaigns in US history. Advertising Age named Barack Obama marketer of the year in 2008. In Nov. 5, 2008, AdAge story "What Marketers Can Learn From Obama's Campaign," Al Ries explains how Obama came to own "change". He writes:

Mr. Obama's objective was not to communicate the fact that he was an agent of change. In today's environment, every politician running for the country's highest office was presenting him or herself as an agent of change. What Mr. Obama actually did was to repeat the 'change' message over and over again, so that potential voters identified Mr. Obama with the concept. In other words, he owns the 'change' idea in voters' minds.

"Change" didn't come easy. The Obama campaign effectively used social media tools to engage and marshall supporters. In Janaury 2009, PR agency Edelman released report "The Social Pulpit: Barack Obama's Social Media Toolkit." The report explains, and to my reading surprisingly effectively, how the Obama campaign converted "everyday people into engaged and empowered volunteers, donors and advocates through social networks, e-mail advocacy, text messaging and online video." Change was Barack Obama's message, but social media tools were the means for marshaling volunteers and voters.

Social media is the other connection to Facebook. An April 1, 2009 FastCompany story explains "How Chris Hughes Helped Launch Facebook and the Barack Obama Campaign." Hughes created the social networking tools vital to the campaign's eventual success. Hughes' now defunct blog offers insight into how volunteers used My.BarackObama.com to establish "35,000 local organizing groups" in all 50 states. Hughes also is one of Facebook's cofounders.

Facebook and Barack Obama share somewhat intertwined fates. A Facebook founder created the social networking infrastructure that helped a presidential campaign own the word "change," and to pull off one of the most successful branding campaigns in American political history. Now Facebook is claiming ownership over "like," using social networking tools to drive the brand ownership/association. Did Facebook marketers learn something from Hugh's work on the Obama campaign, or is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg just lucky? He would be the first geek to demonstrate accidental branding brilliance.

Regardless, Facebook has taken ownership over the word like. Brand marketers around the world wish they could have done something similar. They'll cash in by association. Facebook Like is going to big marketing.