Destroying the Funnel With "Denny's"

I don't eat at Denny's. The last time I ate at one was when I was in San Francisco five years ago and there was one across from my hotel. Living in Worcester and being surrounded by awesome independent diners can really spoil you.
Regardless, Denny's is on my mind. I know what the chain restaurant is up to, I know their current campaigns and promotions and what's new on their menus. All because the corporation has been hijacking the groundswell and exploiting all of its resources in order to gather a loyal and loving consumer base.

Chapter 5 of Groundswell focuses on the impact that listening can grant a company, claiming that "your brand is whatever your customers say it is." This causes brands to belong to the customers or those who are talking about it. There needs to be a respect for the customers instead of a separation. The more human and relatable a brand can be, the more likely that the consumers would want to interact. 

In order to listen to the audience, you need to know how to talk to them. Chapter 6 includes the graphic shown above - an outdated and difficult to manage representation of the process that advertising goes through. The model stands in that reaching out to customers goes through the same process, except with the introduction of the groundswell, people are now learning from each other instead of only from what their eyeballs see at the beginning of the funnel.

Groundswell outlines four easy and basic ways to talk with the groundswell (and in turn, adding a catalyst to the funnel): post a viral video, engage in social networks and user-generated sites, join the blogosphere, and create a community. 

This is where Denny's comes in.

1. Post a Viral Video

Denny's has an active and social YouTube channel. They post all of their television commercials and some special behind the scenes shorts for subscribers.

In conjunction with their special Hobbit themed menu tied to the release of the Desolation of Smaug Denny's uploaded this exclusive behind the scenes video of the film. Despite it having no visuals of bacon or brunch specials, it reminds viewers of the Hobbit menu and garners a loyalty from interested fans. Even though it only has around 200,000 views, the response is very positive. 

These comments were on the video above - Now they will be attuned to the channel for Hobbit updates and will be getting Denny's updates as well!

2. Engage in Social Media and User-Generated Site 

This is where Denny's truly thrives. Their website puts their social media outlets front and center, providing links to their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube. It is apparent that Denny's wants to communicate with consumers and has made a great effort to conform their social media sites to the fads and jargon that are prevalent. 

Denny's Tumblr presence has caused quite a stir. Tumblr is a blogging site where people can upload original content (text, photos, gifs, videos, audio) or they can "reblog" posts from other users on their blog represented by "notes" that the post receives. There is a particular language that exists on Tumblr, with favorite memes, popular gifs, and a quick-witted silliness that pervades its sense of humor. Denny's understands Tumblr-speak and exploits it in order to reach out to Tumblr users and possible consumers. Simple posts like a text post only saying "baecon" (a play on "bae" a popular slang word for a significant other) or one containing the gif below receive thousands of notes and reblogs. Denny's gets the word out through those who repost their content. By only listening and conforming to the societal norms of the specific site they can designate more than half of their outreach to be done by consumers instead of employees.

3. & 4. Join the Blogosphere and Create a Community

By being so active in their social media outposts and by using Tumblr on a daily basis, Denny's has joined the blogosphere successfully. 

As seen on their Tumblr page, on the right they have links to their most popular posts (tagged bacon, gifs, text posts - like the "baecon" post mentioned above, Denny's fans - where they post submitted pics from fans, Denny's selfie - any photos with a Denny's building in it, and Denny's things - a play on a Tumblr meme to put inspirational text over an intriguing picture). 

By putting their fans in the spotlight and playing along with popular jokes and memes a community is formed of Denny's and their fans. Fans feel like they can speak to them as they would anyone else that they follow, opening up conversation and keeping the smell of bacon and pancakes fresh on the mind.

To have a company in the time of the groundswell, one must be patient. There can't be a hierarchy where the company is unreachable and distant. By taking advantage of the social media sphere, companies like Denny's show that they are "just like us" and understand where we are coming from. Groundswell reminds us in Chapter 5 that "communities add lasting value, even for research." As people that follow Denny's Tumblr reblog more and more gifs of bacon, Denny's realizes that "their people" have a love affair with that particular cut of meat and can introduce it into more of their dishes and promotions. 

"Consumers in the middle of the funnel are engaged in conversations on blogs, in discussion forums and in social networks," according to Li and Bernoff. The funnel becomes more of an open tube as consumers are interacting more with each other and with outside influences than attempting to directly with the company. Denny's has embraced the groundswell by ignoring the antiquated proceedings of the marketing process - they have made a community with the new set of consultants and informants: the people of the internet.