Positioning the Brand -- knowing what to throw away and what to keep

Stephen Denny makes a great point about brand positioning.

The positioning statement isn’t ad copy. It isn’t “Be All You Can Be”, or “Just Do It,” or anything that remotely looks like either of these two taglines. A positioning statement is a verbal schematic of your brand:

[BLANK] is the [BLANK] that [BLANK] because [BLANK].

You fill in the blanks.

It's worth reading his entire post at Note to CMO.

He also makes the point that branding is also about defining what your brand is not. Reminds me of the actor's theatre show I saw the other night interviewing Eddie Murphy about his quote in the High School yearbook. Eddie spontaneously said (and it sure seemed like without any prior knowledge that he would be asked):

“In reality, all men are (we are all) sculptors, constantly chipping away the unwanted parts of their lives, trying to create a masterpiece.”

Quote found at Nels Lindahl's blog.

Knowing what should be in the negative space is important...probably more important than knowing what goes in the positive space. It's the end of 2007, time to declutter and make room for the new. Trying to figure out exactly what should be chipped away is the trick, isn't it?


Tags: Marketing Branding Rebranding Brand Positioning Positioning

New Marketing BuzzWord: Branding turns into Bonding

Another marketing buzz word... Maybe branding (stemming from a hot brand on the rear of a steer) is a little crass. But I'm not sure bonding is that much better... it reminds me of bondo on a car, or something expensive for your teeth.

This from Brad Williamson at Small Business Marketing:

This is why I’m pushing for a new marketing movement - A movement that involves accumulating sales via strategies that are less-dependant upon brands, and more dependant on the creation of emotion-filled relationships between products and consumers. Such a relationship can be developed when a product’s nuts and bolts are valued for their true quality, and its personality (brand) is emotionally appealing.

I think it's still branding, but with another name. The term branding feels like it's being pushed onto the consumer, but the term bonding implies a loyalty stemming from the consumer. If the brand advertiser is the one seeking the bonding, wouldn't it remind you more of stalking than bonding.

I really feel the branding and marketing process is one of a courtship, where both sides take a role. Call me naive.

Tags: Marketing Branding Rebranding Bonding Marketing Buzzwords

Rebranding: The PC Fights Back...

It seems like I no soon posted the PC vs Mac videos as 2006 ad campaign of the year, than my eyes fell on an article in my Fortune magazine that has been sitting around: REBRANDING: How Hewlett-Packard Got Its Groove Back about HP's new ad campaign to answer the popular Apple ads.

On page 125 they also photo profiled Mark Hurd, the CEO... in October HP overtook Dell to reclaim the number 1 spot on the PC market.


Tags: Marketing Branding PC Apple Ads Mac Japanese Apple HP Fortune Rebranding

The New Water Cooler -- or Why Do I Need a Blog?

Are you blogging yet? BizInformer's Deborah Brown brings up a good point: Why Do I Need a Blog? One good reason: because you'll get left behind.

Reading blogs is a great way to stay current in a really fast paced world.

Writing blogging helps to focus your thoughts. Making daily posts on a subject that you embrace helps to hone your communication skills and thought patterns.

Besides, it's a great way to "meet new people" with like-minded beliefs! Blogging is the new business community water cooler. Hanging out at the water cooler, never saying a word, is better than say, never even visiting the water cooler. Right?

Comments?

Spelling out a Brand with your 800 number? Not on a PDA Phone!

Many company phone numbers feature an 800 that spells out a word or the brand to help remember the number.

There's a big problem with spelling it out when you use a Blackberry, Motorora Q or other PDA phones. They have a different layout for the numbers than most phones.

It doesn't really make sense to have 3 lines of copy on packages and molded in the product. Should you really have 3 numbers: one for phones, one for PDA's and one spelled out for people who just like to dial the regular number?

One more word on getting with the times: When is the last time you dialed your phone? Some how push the number or punch in the number doesn't seem right.

Tags: Marketing Branding Phone Branding

Missed the Forrester Consumer Marketing Forum? No Problem!

If you missed the October consumer forum from Forrester (like I did) now you can hear what went on... at your own pace, in your own time. That's the cool thing about podcasting. Just download into your MP3 and listen when its convenient.

Thanks to Charlene Li of Forrester for the links to the Forrester Podcasts

Tags: Marketing Branding Podcasts Forrester Consumer Marketing Forum

Best Ad Campaign of 2006: Marketing the Mac

Even though I am a marketing professional who uses a PC, I love the new Apple campaign. It's also great how they were able to go global with the whole thing.


Thanks to Bert Helm at BrandWeek's Brand New Day blog for the link to the Japanese version of the virus commercial.

Here's the same thing in English:


Part of the appeal is that these ads are so simple, so true. As a PC owner, they are very hard to argue with or even discount. Luckily one of the computers in the office is a G5 so I can pretend to be a Mac user.

Tags: Marketing Branding PC Apple Ads Mac Japanese Apple

Seven Steps to Building a Strong Brand

Is your New Year resolution to build a stronger brand in 2007? If so, these seven steps may help.

1. Develop your benchmark. Measure your client's or consumer's and/or customer's experience.

2. Compare your organization to the various competitive choices available to your target market. (Don't tell my you don't have any competition!!)

3. Analyze your SWOT. (Outline your brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Hint: Strengths and weaknesses are internal. Opportunities and threats are external.)

4. Focus on the Opportunities. Expand on your Strengths. Capitalize on your competitor's weaknesses.

5. Identify your message. Carve out your niche.
Create the branding images. Think visually. Your message has to communicate in a second or two. (Did you read Malcolm Gladwell's book: Blink... if so, you know what I mean.)

6. Time & Money. Layout the timetable. Identify your budget components. Estimate your investment.

7. Implement the branding tactics.

This seven step program also provides strategy for rebranding your current brand by updating and honing your message to match your target market.

Tags: Marketing Branding Target Market Brand Strategy Rebranding

Style Guides: One Key for Revamping the Marketing of a Brand

Even when I'm not at work, I can't stop thinking about marketing and branding. I guess it's getting in my blood. My son is a senior and has entered into the college application process. So we've spent quite a bit of time on various colleges and university websites.

As a branding professional, I see tremendous branding opportunities in the way many of the college websites are handled. Poor navigation. Clutter. Conflicting information. Some sites feel like they've been added to and tacked on and grown organically without any rhyme or reason. It is easy to criticize what is obviously wrong. It's harder to find good examples of what to do right.

As an example of what I consider good work in branding a university, here is BrandLogic's case study from St. Johns University. They did a nice job of cleaning up the clutter and focusing on brand. Visually it is clean, focused, good use of color.

But, like any good branding campaign, it didn't begin with the visual, it began with the strategy. A focus on the customer... the target... the who. In the case of new admissions: it's a primary target market of three: the parents, students, and high school guidance offices.

Also like most branding campaigns, the visual graphics are the most noticeable, but I believe it's the strategy behind the clean visuals that really drives the impact home:

• editorial guidelines
• key positioning messages for specific audiences
• attribute words
• as well as the photo style guides

Brandlogic did a great job of showing what they did for the university, including an outstanding style guide... and after I dug deeper on their site, I found a very sophisticated, well developed process for developing brands and implementation across all areas of marketing: Lots of tools, repeatable processes and logical system for developing a brand and implementing the strategy.

Well done!

Tags: Marketing Branding University Branding Brand Strategy Rebranding Style Guide

Taking a break from Branding & Marketing

Merry Christmas. I'm taking the day off and taking a break from branding and marketing.

Market Research vs Marketing Research

As part of that long Z-lister marketing and branding blog post started by Mack Collier, I discovered a website that I probably wouldn't have visited without the list

GAMEPRODUCER.NET is a Daily Game Development and Production Resource that had a terrific post about the difference between Market and Marketing research.

Marketing research is sort of a communication link between company and customers, market and environment: marketing research generates and gives company information to help companies make better marketing strategies and plans.

Market research (compared to marketing research) is the part of marketing research that is about researching the market place (customer needs, competition, opportunities, changes in the marketplace).

Well said.

Tags: Marketing Branding Market Research Marketing Research

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing - Everywhere I Look

Yesterday I was doing some Christmas shopping and couldn't get over all the marketing everywhere. Merchandising makes such a difference when I'm out shopping. So much of it just blares at the consumer, instead of helping/aiding/guiding. The blaring kind can be so annoying.

Yesterday I visited Best Buy, Target, Walmart and Kohls.

Best Buy had most of the merchandise I was interested in buying, but the check out lines were so long, products that we wanted were missing or sold out... and I just kept wanting to get on line to double check what else was out there. Sales people were eagerly helpful but they launched into too many "gigabit" feature conversations before even asking how it was going to be used. We walked out without buying anything

Target's merchandising was outstanding. Although the store was PACKED, it sure didn't feel that way. Wide aisles, beautiful aisle layouts. I found we had more in our cart than we had planned on spending. We not only found what we were looking for, we found more.

Kohls experience was the worst. Just piles of stuff that looked like what I call pre-yard sale. Crammed aisles, difficult to walk through.

Walmart was quick because we had a list of 3 things we needed to pick up from there. Dirty and unappealing for real shopping, it's hard to beat their prices on the commodity stuff like laundry detergent and shampoo.

My prediction: Target is going to eat Walmart's lunch this season. Kohl's is going to be looking at about 30 to 40% carry over... and Best Buy will have (or already has) really good sell thru.

Marketing and Branding: The Growing Community OnLine

What were the most profound changes to marketing and branding on line in 2006?

Some of the biggest changes in my opinion:

* Growth of online advertising using Adwords
* Emergence of mainstream blogging
* More use of web 2.0 as a marketing tool
* Video usage. YouTube and Google Video.
* Growth in community

Overall I believe the Growth in the Marketing Community had the biggest impact. Mack Collier's Viral Garden is a great example of that. How about his Zing List Marketing Meme that is flying through all the Marketing Blogs? It started 12/12/06. I jumped in early and Mike Sansone was right there too, but in just a few days has grown enormously.

Here's the latest list of marketing and branding blogs:
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman’s Blog About Surprise
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
NewsPaperGrl
The Copywriting Maven
MapleLeaf 2.0
darrenbarefoot.com
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Two Hat Marketing
The Emerging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew's Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Scott Burkett's Pothole on the Infobahn
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Perspective
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Social Media on the fly
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Customer Experience Matrix
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
Bob Sutton
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
SMogger Social Media Blog
Masey.com
MovieMarketingMadness
UniqueEpitome
ReBang Product Design. Virtual Design.
uzyn an undergraduate freelance web developer in Singapore
TheQualitativeResearchBlog
MineThatDataSpecializing in Database Marketing and the analysis of complex multichannel customer behavior
Experienceology
Freaking Marketing
Really Small Fish
The Orange Yeti
What's your brand mantra?
John Windsor
Experience Curve
Josh Hallet - Hyku
Henry Jenkins
AttentionMax
Daphne Loo
Sweska
GratisvibesU-Fong
Linda Chua
Xiao LuoWhippleworld
Lih Shin
Shimmer
Chuan Zhi
Occam's Razor
Juice Analytics
LunaMetrics
Rimm-Kaufman Group
Sports Marketing 2.0
Business Enterprise Management
Digital Solid
Acxiom Direct
Marketing Measurement Today
Marketing Geek
Customer Experience Matrix

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Blogs Community Building

A Word about Effective Marketing for the Small Business Owner: OUTSOURCE

Although the headlines blare news of layoffs and business closings from big companies incessantly, one area that is really growing is Small Business Ownership.

BusinessWeek reports:

The Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of Advocacy states that there are 24.7 million businesses in the U.S., and that small companies with fewer than 500 employees represent 99.9% of the 24.7 million businesses, since the most recent data show there are just 17,000 large businesses.

The SBA report also states that 580,900 small businesses opened in 2004, and 576,200 closed. Two-thirds of these new companies survive at least two years, while 44% survive at least four years.

So what gives some small business owners the edge? What makes the difference? Why do some small businesses make it, while so many fold?

I think it's the ability to juggle and maturity to outsource.

Two things I've learned in my 8 years as a small business owner:

• I've found that it's powerful to outsource things I don't like to deal with (like accounting!)
  
• I've found that it really helps when I work with strategic advisors who are experts in fields not directly related to my own. This also really helps to keep me from spending all my time working on our client's marketing and not on my business.

I guess I'm like most small business owners. I love to do the work I love, but find that I ignore/procastinate/do badly/have to force myself to address the other business functions. As an owner who struggles to juggle them all, I've found that outsourcing works.

So, my marketing advice to those business owners who are awesome engineers, doctors, designers, architects, attorneys, manufacturers, and every other very intelligent, highly-trained specialized technical experts who are running a business and juggling all those hats:

Outsource your marketing. Hire a graphic designer. Don't try to write your own press releases. Find an expert to do your market research.

Unless you have a background in marketing, stick to your profession and outsource your marketing. It's not rocket science, but it does take a lot of time, expertise and development. You'll get farther, faster. And enjoy it more.

For those who are unconvinced: To the business owners who want to learn to do it themselves, here's an interesting marketing resource to check out: The Marketing Maven. Wendy offers great "how to" marketing advice for small business owners, particularly those who want to market solely via the internet. Wendy really seems to know her stuff.

For those who have tried to do their own marketing and have realized that outsourcing really works and who want to focus on what they do best: I recommend a marketing firm like Marketing Resources & Results. This is my company. We have a strong track record of helping companies build brand awareness, launch new products, introduce new services and find new customers. We help design the plan and implement it.

When just starting out, many small businesses may not have the financial resources to outsource anything. The owner gets stuck doing the invoicing, setting up the computer, putting stamps on stacks of postcards, and running the checks to the bank, even emptying the trash. This is the juggling. All this while, the owner is trying to provide the outstanding services they've been trained to do. Outsourcing allows you to hire the talent, get better results, grow faster and lessen your stress.

Here's to going beyond just staying in business. Here's to growing and thriving in 2007!

Tags: Marketing Branding Small Business Owners Entrepreneur Outsourcing Marketing Tips

Branding and Marketing Plan for 2007

Do you have a plan in place for 2007 for your company's branding and marketing?

1) Don't "wing" it. Figure out how you want to be known in your community, among your potential customers and by your referral sources.

2) Plan a drip campaign. Do something every month that takes action to push your company a little closer to the goal. I call it a drip campaign because it's like water torture... Drip. drip... Drip... Many soft reminders are better than one loud one at the wrong time.

3) Keep track. Measure your results. Know what works. Rejoice in the small successes. Focus on the positives and do more of that. You can make adjustments to the plan during the year.

4) Write it down. Make sure it's in writing. Show it to your staff. Make yourself accountable to get it down. In fact, delegate some of it. Or all of it. But make sure you have a written plan.

So, what's your plan for 2007? Send me an email or post a comment. Include the following:

• Goal:
• Action Steps:
• Timeframe:
• Measurement:

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Goals Branding Building

More Branding and Marketing Blogs

Here's some branding and marketing blogs that I like. Although they are not necessarily new blogs, they are new to me:

Marketing Nirvana - a weblog authored by Mario Sundar, marketing evangelist and board member of the American Marketing Association (Silicon Valley Chapter).

On Message from Wagner Communications -- News and views on marketing, advertising, media, PR and grass-roots communications from John Wagner, principal of Wagner Communications. For communications professionals AND their clients.

Perspective - authored by Niti Bhan. How do brands communicate their qualities across borders, as they enter foreign markets, using culturally and socially appropriate cues in order to engage with their local audience effectively? Strategy. Analysis. Emerging markets. Jugaad. Socioeconomic and geopolitical issues with marketing, design, communication and ROI. India. China. ASEAN. USA. BRIC. One global point of view.

Tags: Marketing Branding

New Product Marketing: a new quick way to learn about Patents

Many new products that I have helped to promote have had patents, or a patented or patent-pending design or function.

It can be a key to creating the unique selling positioning in their marketing program. Although info about patents has been online at the US Patent and Trademark office for a quite a while, now Google Patents offers a quick and easy search of patents.

If your products' patented or you're competing against a product with a patent, this new site may help you brand and market smarter. Of course, it's no substitute for a good patent attorney!

By the way, if you've got a new product to introduce, check out our new Audio CD with 10 great marketing tips to help you bring your product to market faster and save you money too.

Tags: Marketing Branding New Product Introductions Entrepreneurs Inventors Marketing Tips Patents

Branding: integrity is more important than image

Another corporate flog (fake blog), this time from Sony, spurs articles and suggestions for those tempted to pretend to be a brand fan when they're actually a paid promoter. The best suggestion in my opinion:

The consumer is smarter than you think, alternative marketing tactics must be genuine, authentic and in today's world, transparent.

Public relations is much more than getting your name right. Building a reputation and awareness is one of the first steps in marketing your brand... but don't build it on a house of cards. (Does anyone still build card houses anymore?! Maybe not the best cliche to use when talking about PSP! But I digress.)

These corporate flogs will continue to appear until the tools are in place to statistically measure the financial impact of getting caught. Right now mainstream corporate America is not even convinced that blogs can help them... or that flogs could hurt them.

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Blogs Branding Building Public Relations

Branding and Marketing in the Information Age

By now you have probably heard about Time Magazine's Person of the Year: YOU.

This only makes sense to me. Following the report this summer from the Pew Internet about the huge increase in blogging... coupled with the scientific reports about the brain's reaction to brands as measured by an MRI machine when the participant is shown different brand symbols, I think you have to agree that this is the year of the Blog.

Even so, not everyone gets it! How about the "Des Moines, Do More" campaign? The chamber built an AWESOME branding and marketing campaign for their city with Meredith Corporation. It's complete with songs, videos and wearables and a full marketing program.

But here's the zinger: They don't let Mike Sansone of Conversations to post the videos on his web site. How crazy is that? What, emailing is okay but posting is not? Viral is like the sneeze. Unstoppable. Uncontrollable. Maybe they didn't read Seth Godin's Idea Virus book.

Maybe they don't know that Mike's ConverStations blog is in the top 1% of all blogs in the world (#12,746 out of 55,000,000 blogs as measured by Technorati today.)

Or that he writes the #15 most read marketing blog site... as measured by Mack Collier's Viral Garden, (based on his ranking of 111,553 out of all websites on the internet by Alexa.)

But, Mike's popularity and reputation shouldn't matter. The whole point of marketing is to build awareness and persuade the target market to take action. So ANYONE and EVERYONE should be able to be a brand evangelist for them. That's the point of Web 2.0. Power to the people.

Gee, it seems an organization that puts that much time, effort and money into a MARKETING campaign, would allow one of the top viral marketers in the world to promote it! Maybe they want all the traffic for their GDMP chamber web site. You've got to have an abundance mentality. (Wasn't that one of Covey's 7 laws of success from the 90's?!!)

Hmmm. Maybe that's why the traffic on the Greater Des Moines Partnership web site has actually dropped in the last 3 months.



Their site is way behind Mike's ConverStations in traffic.


I guess it's like any "new fangled" technology. Unless you know it can do for you, you resist.

I hope the Des Moines chamber has a sitemeter traffic meter on their site and recognizes that Mike is probably personally responsible for driving more traffic to their site more than any other link they've got out there. They need to make it possible and easy to increase the viral marketing of their "Des Moines. Do More" branding campaign.

It's nice to brand and market by controlling everything... but hey, that's not the way it works anymore! You put it out there. It better be good, because you can't control what people say about you! That's why it is so powerful. That's the beauty of Web 2.0 when the individual opinion counts more than the "company line." Intimating, yes. But powerful!

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Blogs Branding Building Person of the Year

Keeping Newspapers Innovative: Hyper Local Hero

Fast Company focused on a big problem facing the newspaper industry, but instead of lamenting declining readership, they focused on a different angle:

Hyper-Local Hero -- Ten years ago, Rob Curley was covering city hall for the Topeka daily paper. Now he's lighting up the entire industry. How a "nerd from Kansas" discovered the web, and hit the big time.

It's a new way that newspapers can connect with their audiences by getting super local-- announcing rained out events and covering the local angle. It's really not anything new, but it is something that really makes sense.

The irony is that Curley is teaching newspapers to do the very thing they did so well for so long: cover the local community. "I don't think I'm new media," he says. "I'm old school. I think newspapers lost their way and started focusing on big investigative stuff and forgot to cover the prom or 10-year-olds playing baseball." Not the Daily News. It's running a yearlong series exploring the lack of affordable housing in the area, including an online database of 100,000 home sales during the past three years. And it's "covering Little Leaguers like the New York Yankees," says Curley.

Thanks to C.B. Wittemore at Flooring the Consumer, a marketing blog about improving the consumer experience, for the link.

I think if Curley really has something with his HyperLocal focus, he should check out the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's grant guidelines for the new media. The foundation is serious about trying to keep the newspapers vital in the community.

Tags: Tags: Marketing Branding Newspapers Hyper Local Hero Knight Foundation Fast Company

Marketing and Branding -- steps in the heirarchy of acceptance

Not unlike the various Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, each level in this marketing staircase must be fulfilled before the individual moves up. Unlike Maslow's version, it's not focused on the individual within, but the exteral feelings they have about the brand and the increasing levels of brand passion, intimacy and influence.

Somehow comparing the steps of of branding and marketing to food, shelter, and love seems somehow crass, especially this Christmas season with a chart called the "Hierarchy of Evangelism." I know that Canada's Agent of Wildfire, Buzz Canuck is referring to the brand evangelists, but I think it is better named the heirachy of acceptance.

Thanks to Marketing Canapes for the link.

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Steps Branding Evangelism Marketing Hierarchy

Marketing Tips for New Product Launches

Inventors and entrepreneurs who have a new product to introduce may find it helpful to listen to my recently released audio CD called "Bring Your New Product to Market".

Works on a computer or personal CD player. Some people like to pop the CD into their car's CD player to turn their hourly commute into a mini seminar. Ordering ordering information is available at 10 Tips to Launch Your New Product.

So many first time product developers have asked me "What should I do to improve my marketing?" that I thought it might be a good idea to find a way to make the information available in a very affordable format. This presentation was recorded live at the small business workshops sponsored by Norma Rist CEO Consulting and hosted by Staples.

Tags: Marketing Branding New Product Introductions Entrepreneur Inventors Marketing Tips

Marketing Blogs -- Spotlight on Strong Branding and Marketing Talent

I'm a firm believer in what goes around, comes around, so when I heard about this idea, I had to do it.

The Viral Garden's Mack Collier -- the marketing blog measurement and collector guru -- made a great suggestion to all the fellow marketing and branding bloggers that we link to little known (but well-executed) marketing and branding blogs. Finding the good blogs can be quite a trick. That is what Technorati attempts to do, but with their system, only the ones with the most authority rise to the top. It doesn't mean the blogs with best information or the most helpful rise to the top.

This is an attempt to somewhat equalize the system and recognize some of those great marketing blogs along the way. As Mack says:

The end result is that many great blogs will get a ton of extra exposure, we'll all find some great new blogs to add to our reading list, and you'll get mucho good karma points for helping out your fellow bloggers!

Here's Mack's list:

Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim

And the two I added:
Two Hat Marketing
The Branding Blog

If you have a marketing or branding blog, consider paying it forward. Meanwhile, hope you enjoy reading these great branding and marketing blogs the way I have!

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Blogs Branding Blogs Branding Your Business Technorati

Branding on the Brain: a follow up

Here's the Wall Street Journal article from the Brain study on Branding that I wrote about a few days ago. This permanent pdf link is courtesy of Drew McLennan at the Marketing Minute.


Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Research Marketing and Brain Measurement Brand Research

Determining Branding and Marketing ROI

Marketing is shows up on the P/L statement as an expense, but just like so many of those expenses it is an investment and should be measured for it's return.

It's difficult to measure one aspect of your brand to determine the ROI. Many of your projects in the marketing campaign blend together (into an integrated approach) which is great for getting better results, but it does make it harder to measure specific aspects.

Before you just grab this formula:and apply it to your marketing budget,read John Dodds' opinion about measuring the strategic marketing results:

Thus marketers should have the confidence not to rush to generate spurious numbers simply to justify actions based upon their qualitative understanding of how consumers think and how markets are changing. If financiers can approve fees for "strategic" initiatives, you can justify much smaller expenditures in pursuit of more immediate cash-flow positive outcomes.

What is your sales cycle? Two weeks? 9 months? Two years? That must be taken into account as well. Marketing generates leads, but doesn't guarantee conversion. Measure the number of times the phone rings, where the customer heard of you. For those selling a product through a distributor, in-pack surveys for the end user can help provide valuable data for comparison as well.

It's not all about generating that single number. Marketing your brand is like planting seeds for the future and there is no silver bullet.

Tags: Marketing Branding Integrated Marketing Product Marketing ROI Strategic Marketing

The Marketing/Branding/Creativity Squasher from Brand Camp

From The Brand Builder Blog: Brand Camp Monday The 8 types of Bad Creative Critics by Olivier Blanchard.

Tags: Marketing Branding Creativity Brand Camp

Brain Branding: Beyond Marketing Surveys to Actual Brain Response

A recent study about brain function and branding has some interesting implications. The findings were presented November 28, 2006 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Your brain may be determining what car you buy before you've even taken a test drive. A new study gauging the brain's response to product branding has found that strong brands elicit strong activity in our brains.

Christine Born, MD, a radiologist at the University Hospital at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, studied the effect of brands on the brains by showing 20 participants fleeting images -- each lasting three seconds -- of 16 car brands and their logos. Half the brands were "strong" brands, meaning they were well-known.

"This is the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) test examining the power of brands," said Christine Born, M.D., radiologist at University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. "We found that strong brands activate certain areas of the brain independent of product categories."

Popular Brands May Brand the Brain from the Washington Post.
The actual presentation at the Radiological Society of North America.
Psychology Today: Your Brain on Mercedes

From focus group rooms to MRI machines. Hmm. At first glance, it seems like it could have some expensive implications for market researchers, but then, think of the payback on investment. If you could actually measure the scientfic impact your branding efforts had on the brains of the individual, you could determine even more closely how to influence brand perception.

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Research Marketing and Brain Measurement Brand Research

Marketing Measurement: Tools for 2007

What tools will you use to measure the effectiveness of your marketing? Now's the time to get a benchmark of where you stand at the end of 2006.

Some measures for a service business:

• Number of new customers acquired in 2006
• Number of proposals written
• Leads generated throughout the year
• Accounting of where the leads originated from (internet, ads, PR, referrals)

Some measures for a product business:

• Number of new listings
• Feet in plan a gram/shelf space
• Impressions in Trade magazines/Consumer publications

Gather your 2006 statistics now so you know what number you're trying to beat for 2007. What are the key marketing indicators that drive your business?

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Measures

Branding your Business: Pwn Your Niche

Teenagers have a language that helps to separate themselves from mainstream, but it's funny how the slang and made up words creep into everyday usage.

Take the phrase "My Bad" for instance. You've probably seen the TV commercial that uses the phrase "My Fast", turning it into a noun.

"Ownage" is another one. "You really Own" started as a rare compliment from one video gamer to another, meaning you really controlled, dominated, and maximized the situation. Similarly "PWN" or "Pwnage" is the stronger version, a similar compliment, but with the mystic of a keyboard typo turned into a cool phrase.

To borrow a teenage phrase: To have a strong brand, you must pwn your niche, own your space. Narrow your focus so that it's a sharp beam directed at the center of your target market bullseye.

Where to begin? It's crucial to define your niche. The smaller and more succinct, the better. Then you can build your reputation as the best ____ for _____. (You fill in the blanks.)

For 2007, have you determined your narrow focus within your business category?

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Focus Niche Branding Your Business

Integrated Marketing Puts the Focus on the Customer, not the Product or Service

Find a need, then fill it. Isn't that the essence of good marketing?

When we integrate the marketing efforts, instead of marketing products to customers, we market products to customers, with the emphasis on customers not products.

Brad Berens interviews Don Shultz, the "father" of integrated marketing and he explains how to view the marketing efforts.

The first thing they have to do to get to any level of integration is to stop thinking about products and start thinking about customers. That sounds really easy,; but it’s really difficult for organizations. That’s because of the organizational structure. By and large, most structures are vertical silos with one product in a silo, another product in another silo and so on.

The job of the person who is responsible for the product is to get rid of of what has been made. That’s the most difficult part, because in a silo, you really don’t want to think about integration. You don’t want to think about marketing. What you want to think about is: What can I do to get people to buy right now? It's all short-term. It’s not customer-focused. And it is difficult for an organization to get out of that system once it has been established.

The only way you can really start to integrate is to start thinking about customers as income flows. By that I mean, customers generate flows of income for the firm. If you start thinking about customers as income flows, it allows you to next say, "Are we trying to acquire a new income flow? Are we trying to retain an existing one? Are we trying to grow an income flow we have? Are we trying to migrate that income flow from one product category to another, and so on?"

Most companies that I know have product managers, rather than customer managers. Once in a while I've heard of channel managers, who are responsible for the Wal*Mart, Target or Home Depot account. Often the sales department is segmented by territory or geography (convenient for the manufacturer), the marketing & engineering departments are segmented by product line (again convenient for the manufacturer) and purchasing is segmented by raw material type (also with the convenience of the manufacturer.)

As a former product manager on G.I. Joe/Transformers and Playskool, I always considered integrated marketing as coordinating all the elements if a marketing program. Interesting... maybe it was for my own convenience...

Maybe I should have read Don's book.

Tags: Marketing Branding Integrated Marketing Product Manager Customer

Key to Marketing: Focus on the Benefits, not just the Features!

Customers care about benefits. WIIFM means "What's In It For Me?" I know we all try to focus on the benefits when creating marketing materials, but it's really surprising how quickly the message seems to revert back to those features.

Benefits. That's why they buy. They don't buy because of the features of an item. Not because it is the smallest or the largest or the cheapest or the cutest or the most extravagant. Because it will either save or will help or it will benefit them.

From a marketing session by Denise Paccione, president, The Marketing Design Group in California at the recent International Association for Exhibition Management trade show:

“You need to talk about the features” of the show in a marketing piece, said Paccione, “but you also need to talk about the benefits. If you can’t put ‘You will…’ in front of it, it’s not a benefit.”

Well said.

Tags: Marketing Branding Brand Promise Features Benefits

Marketing Budget Strategy: How much do you plan to invest in your Marketing Budget for 2007?

As 2006 comes to a close, many companies have their 2007 marketing budget already in place.

If you're a business owner or a top level sales & marketing executive, you've probably struggled with trying to figure out how much to invest in marketing your products, services and trying to build the brand name of your business. Do you project your investment as a percent of projected revenue? Or do you take a look at the percent of revenue coming from new customers and new product sales? How much will it take to retain the current customers? How much to get current customers to buy more?

If you're expecting some serious growth next year, you know you've got to lay the groundwork with a plan and then fund it. But what's the right number? Sometimes looking at the competition helps, or just looking at averages. So how much do companies spend on marketing?

The long (and correct) answer: it depends. According to a study from 2004, the answer is a 9% average. Better answer: it depends how much revenue they have. Or want. Or who they want to reach. Or how they reach them.

Bottom line: Companies with $100 million in revenue or more allocate an average of 13.8% of revenue to marketing. Companies with less than $100 million in revenue allocate an average of 8.7%. More complete information is available at the Blackfriars Marketing survey.

I think the first place to start is your marketing strategy. Who's your target market? Are you trying to reach consumers or business people? Your budget will be a lot different if you're trying to reach and influence:

• 300 million people (entire US consumer population) or
• Only the 32,541 design engineers who could use your particular product to enhance their design or
• the actual number of car owners living in a 30 minute driving radius from your service or
• the specific number of single males between the ages of 25 to 40 with an income of $40,000 plus.

Your marketing budget depends on your marketing strategy. Depending if your strategy is to blanket the world with your message or use a silver bullet to target the specific individuals with the buying authority to make the purchase decision for your product or service, you'll be looking at very different budgets.

So what's your marketing strategy? A blanket or a bullet? This determines your budget more than even the size of your company and your expected growth percent.

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing Strategy Marketing Budget

Branding: 7 ways to Build Brand Awareness

A brand is a promise of expectations fulfilled.

Here are 7 steps for brand building -- I especially like the last one -- listen to your customers!

So often marketers forget that branding isn't a one way conversation. The critical element is the not the creator/developer, but the receiver/customer.

The website, blog, logo, employee attitude, the voice that answers the phone... all of these comprise the brand.

Tags: Marketing Branding Brand Promise Customers

Marketing and Branding on Campus: the College Mascot

I read a recent branding post on a culture/community blog about naming college mascots and team mascots. Since I live in the land of "Fear the Roo" of Univ. of Akron and "Golden Flashes" from Kent State Univ. I could relate to his point.

FEAR THE ROO was a popular slogan found on bumper stickers and hoodies all over the county about 2 years ago -- A clever marketing hook that transformed cuddly "Zippy" into the "Kangaroo of fury." Unfortunately, months later, now more fun is poked at the team with the slogan, than enthusiasm built by it.

When I attended Kent State, I remember one of the most popular cheers shouted throughout the freezing cold stadium in late October/November was "Get Hot Flashes!" Now the mascot looks more like an eagle than a lightning bolt.


This blog post also made me think of the local professional team mascots: all the changes Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians has made over the years.

At the end of the blog post, the blogger did a "bleg" (I think that's a blog beg, where you're looking for more material about the subject... just a guess!)".... My favorite mascot is "Brownie" from the Cleveland Browns, so I just didn't feel that my marketing insights would be the contribution he was encouraging.

Come to think of it, the local high school's mascot is a sailing ship called the "Explorers. It's tough to come up with a mascot that's aggressive, politically correct and marketable. Developing the right logo for the sports team mascot is tough to satisfy everyone, even when it's "just" a sports team. How about when it's supposed to represent education, academia as well as the sports team. Even tougher in my opinion.

Hmmm. I grew up with a high school team called the "Bulldogs" and my husband's school was the "Tigers". Maybe it's too simple, but that works, doesn't it?


Tags: Marketing Branding College Mascots Branding on Campus

Marketing Mishaps: Planning for Typos and Misspellings in your Markeitng

Do your potential customers every make a typo when looking for your product or service on a search engine? Have you ever wondered about if misspelled words that have ruined your chance of a potential customer finding their way to your web site?

Perhaps you can actually capture the traffic from some of the most comman misspelled words related to your product, service, business or URL for your website.

A marketing tool I found generates comman misspelled words or comman typos and then let's you link to Google to see exactly how comman they are.

I tried marketing by misspelling it maketing and here's the result. Click on the image to enlarge:

Tags: Marketing Branding typos in search misspellings in search

MPlanet 2006 on Branding and Marketing

No great copy or strategic planning can change a brand image when the customer's experience doesn't match the hype. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for having a great product or service to being with.

Thanks to Robert Kingston from Small Business Marketing for his post describing highlights from one of the final MPlanet 2006 branding sessions with Co Founder and Chief Strategist of GEN3 Partner Michael Treacy :

Basically, Michael described how customer experience can: Destabilize a brand: by generating negative publicity. Enhance a brand: by having an experience which compensates for other lacking features of a brand (ie. High price). Define a brand: by becoming renowned for a certain aspect of the customer experience.

You can read the full post at the Small Business Marketing Blog.

MPlanet 2006 was sponsored by the American Marketing Association. I have to be honest, when I visited their web site to sign up for the event and search for some real content, I was so turned off by all the fancy flash, gismos and programming tricks that I figured the whole event was going to be a lot of sizzle but not much steak. I don't know about you but I was surprised to find the AMA would have a website so difficult to navigate and chock full of useless, time wasting sections.

Glad to hear the steak was better than the sizzle and the actual conference was a winner.

Tags: Marketing Branding American Marketing Association MPlanet 2006

Northeast Ohio: Ubiquitous Wireless?

Does this mean we can expect wireless connections all over Northeast Ohio soon? Cool.

Thanks to Sheila for her comments in the Hudson Chamber of Commerce Newsletter.

Branding & Marketing Prediction: Blogs will be the most significant new Marketing Tool for 2007

Did you realize that there are more than 100,000 new blogs launched EVERY DAY? Most are in the US and Japan.

I predict that with all these new blogs, they will be come the most important new tool for companies planning to market their products, services and businesses. The great thing about blogs is you can't fake it -- at least not for long! -- You've got to be authentic.

Remind me 12 months from now to look back and see if my prediction rang true for 2007.

Tags: Marketing Branding Marketing tools Predictions