Branding Strategy Insider

Online Promotions: Stop Guessing

Over the years, promotional tools have become oft-used weapons in the brand marketer's arsenal, employed by thousands of brands to attract and retain customers. One of the major benefits of running promotions has been the window such efforts can open on consumer behaviour. Brand builders can monitor the effect of promotions by soliciting action from consumers -- getting them to complete coupons, enter competitions, return product labels, you name it. The response to these gimmicks then stands as a clear indicator of the success or otherwise of a campaign. Compare the measurability of this strategy with that of, say, pure TV advertising, which affords brand builders scant consumer analysis in the short term. 

But what are you measuring? It's one thing to monitor the number of coupons being returned by customers, but it's another to ensure the marketer's message was understood. The case might very well be that the consumer acted on the coupon, completing and returning it, without ever having understood the brand message behind the promotion. You can understand my pleasure, then, in noting the recent debut of several companies that offer what I would call second-generation online promotion. These start-ups are using the Internet's interactive capacity in new marketing tools -- tools that enable marketers to monitor their online campaigns and enhance their promotions by measuring the consumer's demonstrated understanding of the brand message.

One example is YouWinTrivia.com, a Florida-based site that created a small but very lucrative niche for itself and gathered a very attractive audience. The company developed a form of brand advertising and ad analysis, called Mind Share Marketing. The idea - that consumers choose subject areas that interest them, then play a trivia game based on those interests. But before they play, they're exposed to an ad -- and the game includes questions about the ad.

Big Mac or Coke: who's got it right?

A Big Mac and Coke. Two stellar brands of the 80s that seemed locked in each other's orbit, linked by simple usage occasion, power-brand status and shared origins in US consumer culture. The two brands even supported each other, with McDonald's selling only Coke drinks brands in its restaurants since 1955.

But being the world's number-one carbonated beverage isn't all that it once was as consumers turn to healthier, more natural drinks. Similarly, McDonald's position as the ultimate fast food is secure, but of questionable long-term value as consumers turn to healthier and greener alternatives. 

The fascinating issue now is not whether Coke and McDonald's need to change, but which company has chosen the best strategic transition, given that the two have opted to take very different paths.

Coca-Cola has, internally at least, accepted that the writing is on the wall for carbonated beverages, including its flagship Coke. While the iconic brand will always have a place in the hearts of millions, the company is diversifying its portfolio and growing sales with new and acquired brands. The recent $4.1bn (£2bn) cash deal for vitamin-enhanced water producer Energy Brands, and its star water brand Glaceau, is the latest in a long line of acquisitions and creations that includes Powerade and Nestea iced tea (a joint venture with Nestle)

Overcoming Common Brand Problems - 37

As we record the 40 Most Common Brand Problems we see one few marketers will ever avoid...

Common Brand Problem Number 37: Well thought-out marketing decisions are second guessed by non-marketers who think marketing is a matter of opinion rather than an art and a science in which experience matters

Analysis: When people without marketing experience, insight, or appreciation are in positions to evaluate, review, and approve marketing decisions, the common result is ineffective marketing.

Key Point: Most marketers would never claim to know how to perform surgery, write a legal brief, design software, or reconcile journal entries. Yet many doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and others think they can produce a better ad or develop a better marketing campaign. Just because marketing seems less than “black and white” and isn’t always measurable on a quarterly basis doesn’t mean that relevant experience doesn’t count.

Sponsored By: Marketers Seeking Employment

Wal-Mart: Deaf to its Best Advisers

In many ways Wal-Mart is a massive success story - especially in the US, where the retailer started. Two-thirds of Americans visit a Wal-Mart on a monthly basis; more than 138m visit its stores in an average week. As its chief marketing officer, John Fleming, succinctly put it: 'Wal-Mart is the only retailer in the world without a traffic problem.'

Look beyond such mind-boggling figures, though, and a very different picture emerges. A sorry share price and missed profit targets suggest all is not well. Until recently, this has been mostly conjecture, but a internal-positioning report leaked earlier this year laid bare the sorry state of the Wal-Mart brand and the challenges it must overcome.

The report, prepared last year for the retailer's senior managers by its ad agency, GSD&M, lays out a company with big brand issues. It concludes that Wal-Mart's obsessive emphasis on lowering prices has led it to forget its original brand values and left it as little more than a commodity business. 'Shopping at Wal-Mart used to mean saving money and being patriotic, being a member of the community, being part of the "American Dream",' said the report. 'Today, it just means saving money. All value - no values.' It confirms this by referring to brand-tracking data showing a gradual decline in consumers' trust and respect for Wal-Mart.

The report also spells out the difficult competitive environment in which Wal-Mart operates.

Branding in a Changing World

A recent article caught my attention. It was entitled "Kodak takes Hit in Film and Digital." It discussed, in some detail, how analysts had begun to question just what future the firm that has been synonymous with film and pictures might have in the consumer photography market. This problem is worth writing about as it is an example of what can happen to even the biggest brands in an era of change. But to learn, you must study history.

Like AT&T and General Motors, Kodak is an industry icon that is having difficulty dealing with competition and new technology. Because of their long history of success, they have put inordinate faith in their name and logo. They could do what they wanted to do.

A fundamental mistake that big successful companies often make is to see themselves and their reputation far beyond the way the world is willing to see them. The corporate feeling is, "All I have to do is put my well-known name on the product and the world will buy it."

No they won't. Especially if you're horning in on someone else's specialty. And besides, the world also loves an alternative. So if you're sitting there all alone, enjoy it while you can for as soon as an attractive alternative comes along, you're going to lose some business.

Branding: Just Ask...

Sylvia, a brand manager in Frankfurt asks:

What are your thoughts on the employee discount craze by GM and other auto manufacturers that took place in the US market? Do you think these measures will have a long-term impact on sales and market shares of these companies? Will these discounts and others like them be able to influence the market dynamics and halt the growth of Japanese auto sales?

Sylvia, thanks for asking. The employee discount promotion by GM and other USA auto manufacturers which began in 2005 is indicative of a fundamental problem in the demand for these cars. (Honda and Toyota have better met the needs of the USA market with their automobiles.) Price discounts never help brands. They may sell more cars in the short term but they erode the value of brands.

Any type of price promotion makes consumers more price conscious and less brand loyal unless the marketer is able to increase the perceived value by adding something of value to the offering for the same price rather than decreasing the price. While employee discounts and zero percent financing are valuable to consumers, they also seem to be somewhat desperate moves by the manufacturers.

Have a question related to branding? Just Ask…

Sponsored By: Brand Aid 

Branding Seminars and Workshops

Pardon us as we take a moment for some shameless self-promotion. Brand Education is a core offering of The Blake Project and we'd like to share an overview of some of our most popular topics. Our complete list is here.

We offer international seminars, workshops and keynote speeches on branding with some of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject. Described by partcipant's as “insightful and dynamic” these interactive engagements are designed to educate and empower audiences to release the full potential of the brands they manage.

Brand Identity and Architecture Workshop
This workshop focuses on the design of a brand’s structure, architecture or family tree. Learn the different types of relationships that can exist between brands and sub-brands and when sub-brands are necessary and when they are not. We address ingredient branding, co-branding and brand endorsement. The workshop also provides information on all of the most important brand identity components – name, logo, tagline, etc. We highlight the different types of names that can be created and used and the situations for which they are most appropriate. And discuss the importance of color in a brand identity system and the meanings associated with different colors. Finally, we share ways to ensure consistency in brand presentation across communication vehicles (through brand identity guidelines, systems and processes).

40 Most Common Brand Problems
This workshop identifies the 40 most common brand management issues that organizations encounter and addresses how they might be resolved. The issues range from organizational governance issues to brand identity issues. This workshop is based upon the experience of hundreds of organizations. It offers practical, common sense solutions to the problems that most often plague otherwise potentially successful brands.

Innovative Marketing Techniques that Work
Learn about 60+ innovative marketing techniques that have been highly successful for other organizations. This workshop will be conducted as an interactive exercise/game in which members of the audience pick an image in a matrix and a story is told about how one or more companies have used the corresponding technique to achieve their marketing objectives. At the end of this exercise, you will have the opportunity to generate and share additional innovative marketing techniques. This workshop will help you to think creatively and broadly about how to market your brand(s).You will leave with specific techniques that you can apply immediately.

Great Moments in Marketing: Ries, Trout & Positioning

The term 'Positioning' was coined in 1969 by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the paper "Positioning is a game people play in today’s me-too market place" in the publication Industrial Marketing. It was then expanded into their ground-breaking first book, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind".

Positioning is something (perception) that happens in the minds of the target market. It is the aggregate perception the market has of a particular company, product or service in relation to their perceptions of the competitors in the same category. It will happen whether or not a company's management is proactive, reactive or passive about the on-going process of evolving a position. But a company can positively influence the perceptions through enlightened strategic actions.

In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. It is the 'relative competitive comparison' their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.

Of Branding and Greed

In a recent post, I attempted to clarify what branding is all about. It comes down to building perceptions about what makes your product different and what the benefit is in this difference.

Now for the bad news: Building a brand is often easier than keeping it from being destroyed by internal forces.

This destruction often happens because of the pressures that financial guys put on an organization. To make the numbers that management wants them to make, people start to do things that begin to unravel a brand.

To ratchet up more business, the organization starts to lose focus on what makes it unique. They do things that erode the core brand. They chase business they shouldn't chase, such as Marlboro trying to sell menthol cigarettes or Cadillac trying to sell small Cadillacs. Sometimes, they create a sub-brand, thinking it will give their new effort some legitimacy, as in the case of Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza. The customers thought that the Crowne Plaza version was a little too expensive for a Holiday Inn. It never flew.

It's easy to see the problems of trying to go up-market with a down-market brand, but what about the reverse? That can be good news and bad news.

Playing the Brand Game

If I scroll through your media plan I’m sure it will contain all the usual and well-known media options, TV and Radio ads, the print ads and the outdoor. We’ve all picked these options for years well in fact decades because we knew you would never be fired on choosing them. Just like an IT guy wouldn’t be fired for installing an IBM solution for your company. But soon these days are long gone – soon you will be fired to choose these options.

Today the size of the computer gaming market is double of the revenue generated by the movie industry. ACNielsen predicts the movie industry will be one third of the computer gaming industry within only four years leaving me wondering where the enormous power once placed in the hands of Hollywood is about to go. Is it about to go online? And if it is – where are you?

It is fascinating to think about that almost every media you can think of has a price, which you at a click at Google would be able to find in seconds. It’s a fixed   and well-known price. All this except one channel – the  computer game. Quick – tell me what’s the price of placing a commercial message in a computer game and I’m sure you’ll have no clue. Is it $1 per user? One million up front? One cent per second? Who knows – no fixed model exist, no media agency really has (yet) specialized in booking space in computer games like in any other industry – in fact this is virgin area – which often means virgin prices. Low prices.