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Here is a blog post I wrote for the CraveBusiness site that talks about brand strategy and why a good one can save you lots of heartache – and money.
It also promotes my upcoming workshop with Whitney Keyes, Branding Strategies to Boost Your Business – on Feb 11 from 6-9 pm in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. Anyone is welcome!
Excellent blog post from marketing guru Seth Godin on being boring. I can’t tell you how many CEO’s do not understand that they are not getting press coverage, not getting response to marketing programs, not generating buzz because they DO NOT HAVE A GOOD STORY TO TELL. Announcing your latest product release or a new store location is not in and of itself exciting – you have to get creative on enveloping the story within a larger cultural or business context. That’s why Whitney and I are putting on this Branding Strategies workshop for folks that need inspiration and creative ideas for telling their story.
Many companies try to get “something for nothing” when it comes to marketing – they try to low ball the PR agency or the design firm. They skimp on actual email marketing experts who know the ins and outs of getting emails noticed and delivered. They think marketing is easy because they are inundated by marketing every day, and somehow that makes them knowledgeable in this field.
I’m not saying “non-marketing” people do not have great ideas – some of the best marketing minds I’ve worked with are ones that don’t come from marketing. But just like you hire a Finance person with accounting skills, and a developer with Java skills, you will need to pay a marketing/PR person for their marketing skills. You can be frugal, especially in this economy. But don’t skimp on quality!
As I always preach, brand is not just your logo. It is the core of your business and all decisions – marketing and otherwise – stem from it. A strong brand strategy is the key to making all those other business decisions – and for ensuring you don’t waste time and money on useless marketing, design, or copywriting.
Need help putting together your brand strategy for more precise and targeted marketing? then check out this workshop I am giving with Whitney Keyes. It is a huge value – over $1000 of consulting time with two leading Seattle consultants for just $100. You will walk away with tips and tricks and a headstart on your own brand strategy. Check it out – but hurry: there is only space for 15 people!
Branding Strategies to Boost Your Business
Date: Wednesday February 11, 2009
Place: Whitney Keyes Productions – 1000 N. Northlake Way, Seattle, WA 98103 (Fremont)
Time: 6:00-9:00 pm
Cost: $100
Register: http://www.whitneykeyes.com/seminar.php#brand (scroll down to the Branding Strategies workshop)
Over $1000 of consulting time for just $100 – don’t miss it!
With the economic downturn, you need your marketing dollars to work even harder for you. Your competition now includes people not spending any money at all! You don’t have to have multi-million dollar marketing budgets to cut through the clutter and attract customers. Discover the secrets of effective branding and marketing and how following some simple rules will ensure your marketing is more targeted and effective than your competition.
Attend this interactive and dynamic marketing workshop, hosted by Seattle-area marketing consultants and dynamos Whitney Keyes and Maria Ross. Combining their expert advice in this unique and fun forum, they will guide you through the marketing maze and help you find practical and creative ways to attract new customers – and keep the ones you have loyal to you..
Register now for this limited space workshop and you will:
1. Define marketing and how branding, messaging, integrated activities and PR all fit in to the plan
2. Build your own Brand Strategy by simply answering 10 key questions
3. Discover how effective branding upfront can save valuable time and money with designers, writers and programmers
4. Understand the marketing communications lifecycle and the building blocks needed to create your key messages
5. Debunk the top 3 marketing myths that hold business owners back
6. Learn 5 tips to maximize your marketing now
7. Discover the 3 audience groups that are key to your success
Space is limited so sign up by February 1, 2009 at http://www.whitneykeyes.com/seminar.php#brand. Scroll down to the “Branding Strategies” workshop.
How happy was I to read in today’s Wall Street Journal that, when it comes to advertising design, red replaces last year’s orange as the color of choice? This makes Red Slice very glad indeed.
Other useful tidbits on what to expect with 2009 advertising:
Not sure how pervasive some of the smart ads and such will be – take with a grain of salt that these predictions are coming from big ad agencies with heavy interactive and digital divisions. I beleive that, with all this technology invading our lives from a marketing perspective, at some point the only way to cut through the clutter in the future will be to go back to basics like direct mail. But maybe that’s just me. We do after all have to adapt to changing patterns of information consumption in order to reach people where they are. Thoughts?
Spending time at home recuperating from my health issues, I have had the chance to watch a LOT of TV. And over the last few months, I’ve noticed a new technique for ads. It first started appearing in movie trailers for Twilight and other films, and then I started seeing it done on ads for products as well.
It’s a black (or other color) bar flanking the main picture above and below. So essentially the ad itself is running ina the middles of the screen but not touching the top or bottom. That space is being used to, in the case of movie trailers, show the movie title and premiere date; in the case of products, it shows the website URL and phone number.
I’m thinking this is just a new technique to cut through the clutter (worked for me) or a way to have the info constantly up on screen to combat Tivo-itus (forwarding through the commercials) or as a way to get the message across in a loud bar with the sound turned off (sort of like closed captioning). In any event, it’s been interesting to see it being used infrequently enough to get noticed.
It’s the simple things that can get you noticed – just think creatively about what can make your print ad, TV ad or billboard stand our from the crowd.
I keep reading about all these retailers (and being subjected to their marketing) who are totally trying to spin the economic crisis. And really, who can blame them? The most interesting ones are the seemingly “luxury” items who are still trying to get you to part with your money.
A WSJ article recently talked about some UK retailers who are using the term “credit crunch” in their advertising – and doing pretty well with it. Selfridge’s department store is hawking a Credit Crunch snack mix that has become one of their top 3 confections sold in-store. And we’ve all seen the barrage of ads focused on small budgets (Wal Mart; aside here: they have been touting value in their brand for years and their current ads suggest they have been the ones “doing this all along.” Nice.), deeply discounted items, value for the money, and sales, sales, sales. I even got an email marketing piece from a very high end men’s store here in Seattle, ackowledging the economic conditions and saying, essentially, we care so much about you as a community we are having a sale on all current merchandise next week – just in time for Christmas.
There are some great deals to be had out there. I would say the only caveat would be if your brand is a high-end, luxury product, you want to spin it in a way that won’t tarnish your hard-fought brand image. It’s much better to talk about a sale, or a “secret treat for valuable customers” or the like, rather than looking like your products or services are so worthless, you’re willing to slash the price. Now I know the reality is you have to stay in business and keep selling, but just do it carefully so you don’t erode your brand when the market stabilizes again. This means choosing the right words and emotion in your campaigns. After all, we can’t all be Wal Mart, who is probably going to do pretty well given the market conditions. They have been honing the cheaper, value-brand image for a long time and it may be the one thing that saves them in what promises to be a pretty dsismal holiday shopping season.
I once had a sales rep at a start up say to me, “Why can’t we do ads like the UPS guys? They just have a guy and a whiteboard – how expensive could that be?”
I responded with a gaping mouth and mumbling something about paying Union dues and getting permits, but I’m sure it fell on deaf ears. Folks not in advertising have no idea how much good production and media buys cost. But that is not their fault.
We have all been tortured by local ads that look like they were filmed with Uncle Howie’s camcorder. And don’t even get me started on the acting. but you know what? Sometimes, those ads are just what that particular business needs and they do get attention. It all depends on your marketing goals. If you’re a local business with a unique service (like cleaning up after fire and smoke damage, let’s say) and only care about getting your name out there associated with your service, then locally produced, regional ad buys can and should be a part of your plan IF 1) your target audience watches TV and b) your target audience watches the show or channel on which you are advertising. This second part is one of the most important parts of media buying. Advertising sports apparel to 75 year olds watching Matlock reruns may not get you to your revenue goals.
But I’m talking about a more subtle branding element called production quality. Did any of you see the Obama ad last night? Everyone commented on how good the production quality was – which is consistent with Obama’s brand image and all his materials to date. Production quality means it looks like it was professionally filmed, lighted, miked, etc. and does not look like they filmed it at my house.
You are actually able to get fairly good production quality with today’s HD video cameras. I once was in a short film shot on HD (with some lighting and mike elements, granted) and it looked like film quality. It’s amazing what technology can do. Then it can be edited on computer software from a laptop and look like you spent hours in an expensive editing bay.
So think about your brand before you embark on any video or ad production. There is a local proposition for parks on the ballot in Seattle this year and their ads look very cool compared to other local initiative ads – and probably not really that much more expensive. If you are practical, down and dirty , you can get away with local-looking stuff – but not if you are trying to be hip, fresh, sleek or current. It’s important to know what your brand really is so you can decide which approach to take. Consistency, after all, is the key. As for the acting, no need to go Union but think twice before hiring your sister. That’s all I ask.
Have you become addicted to the AMC original series, Mad Men yet? If you love advertising and you love drama, you should. I recently caught up with Season 1 on Comcast On Demand. This is a juicy peek into the marketing (and personal) machinations of a 1960’s fictional ad agency, Sterline Cooper. The best parts of where they are in creative strategy discussions about everything from cigarettes to Israel tourism.
From the “you can’t make this stuff up” file, I read about Chinese advertisers spending hordes of money on ad campaigns starring Chinese Olympic athletes and their parents. Hawking everything from milk to baby products, these ads are embracing the Chinese value of family loyalty. Smiling athletes pose with proud Mom and Dad as headlines float behind them in billboards, TV spots and the like. Problem is: today’s role of Mom and Dad is being played by professional actors.
Seriously?
Talk about completely taking brand essence and wringing the life out of it. “Strong, family values” is a tried and true brand identity that evokes what I like to call “assumptive brand attributes.” These are ancillary messages that stem from your core brand message. In this case, family = goodness = honesty = purity. And how can you stray more away from that than “hiring” people to play the parents? Talk about schizophrenic.
Nothing boils my blood more than businesses that try to contrive a brand. Saying they are devoted to eco-friendly products while destroying the environment; selling beauty products meant to celebrate the diversity of real female body types while hawking “put on our cologne and hot, skinny, big bosomed chicks will have relations with you in an elevator” to their male audience, etc. But to blatantly sell family loyalty and honesty and not honestly use real parents?
One of the advertisers stated that “the athletes’ parents were shy.” Right. Now, being a marketer, I’m not so naive to think those doctors on drug company ads are real. I know all about “camera-savvy” and non-camera savvy types; a shoot is going to go much more smoothly with someone who knows how to pose for the camera and work on a professional film shoot. An old company of mine was going to do a joint ad with a certain telecommunucations client showing a rep in a call center. And they (rightly) demanded in that instance not to use any of the real customer service reps but an actor. Fair enough. But when you are showcasing an athlete – a real person – and people that are supposed to be his real parents, that’s a different story.
Time will tell how the Chinese public responds to such a blatant manipulation of a cultural mainstay. What do you guys think?
Nine times…ok, maybe eight….out of ten, you might not have a marketing problem but a communication problem.
The more years I spend in marketing, the more I realize the following truths are repeated over and over again. And yes, guilty as charged on some occasions:
1) Marketing does not ask their customers why they have chosen their product and then has to guess when crafting website copy, collateral copy, advertising headlines, etc.
2) Product Management does not utilize Marketing as the conduit to the customer to understand why people buy, what features they find useful and what they wish they had for future versions.
3) Customers do not always give feedback on the products and services they use, often resulting in the most happy or most disatisfied giving their opinions, which leaves too many unknowns in the middle.
4) Marketers are not sure which messages resonate so they communicate everything about the product/service in the hopes that SOMETHING will click (aka, the Throw Jello at the Wall and See What Sticks theory).
Let’s break this down:
1) Ask your customers
Marketers spend lots of money and time sitting in Collaboration or Innovation – or whatever they are calling them – rooms, whiteboarding possible messages to their audience. Most of the time this is based on what we think we know about the market, what an analyst has told us is important, what our competitor is saying or what our CEO has told us they want to focus on for the quarter. But here’s a thought: why not communicate with your most valuable resource, your own existing customers and ask them “Why did you buy from me?” That one simple question can open up a host of possibilities. “Well, your website was easy to navigate.” “I liked the playful tone of your brand, doesn’t take itself too seriously.” “You had the best price” “I couldn’t find this product/service anywhere else.” “I had bad experiences with your competition and your service was excellent, even if your prices are more expensive.”
Think about the possibilities of what to stress in your marketing messages to attract more people like the ones who already bought from you.
2) Product Management and Marketing: So happy together.
All too often product management (or product development) and marketing are at odds. Product management thinks marketers are just talking heads who should be the last ones to know what is in a product so they can just spin it the right way. Marketing thinks product management is a bunch of eggheads that build useless features into a product, fail to deliver versions on time and fail to understand the realities of how customers actually use the thing.
Sigh. Can’t we just get along? These groups should be working together: marketing can inform product management about how the product is really being used today, provide research and insight into what competitors are offering, and be a great reality check against prioritizing new bells and whistles that will actually drive sales forward. product management can inform marketing about new trends in R&D, feasibility and consequences of new features, and realistic timelines for release. Both groups can work together to get the best possible version out into the market by playing to their strengths and being in lockstep throughout design and development, with neither one being last to know.
3) The only customers you might hear from are the very happy or very angry.
This leaves a lot of gray. Wouldn’t you rather know what 80% of your buyers are thinking rather than just the fringe 20%? Wouldn’t that be more effective for your overall marketing strategy and product mix? And yet, we give customers no incentive, no dialogue to engage us throughout the process.
A woman who runs a lingerie and sleepwear site wants to be in constant touch with her customer base as she grows her business. So she offers a permanent incentive: tell me about your experience and get a discount on future purchases. Awesome – and simple, right? And yes, I know other companies do this, but they hide this away just in case someone might actually take them up on it. She proudly advertises this incentive on her front page so even I have an average experience, I might be tempted to spend a few minutes telling her what worked and what didn’t. I bet you could come up with other ways to do this creatively as well. The incentives don’t have to cost you much and the feedback is like gold.
4) Throwing Jello at the wall
The most common marketing communication problem by far. “But I want to attract anyone who is willing to buy from me, so I need to tell them all 15 reasons to do so.” Uh-uh. Doesn’t work like that. People only retain 3-5 messages from a field of many. So be crystal clear on what you want to say and to whom you are talking. People will not spend their time digging their way through your 15 reasons to find one that resonates with them. This is not a treasure hunt.
Yes, this might mean people will come to your site and not buy from you. But I guarantee if you are clear on who you are communicating to and reinforce a few core messages to them, those that do fit your criteria will result in more conversions in the end. 10 buyers out of 20 is a much better metric than 2 buyers out of 1000.
Communication is key – internally and externally – to make your voice heard. Just make sure your words and your interactions are about quality, not quantity.
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