Branding Strategy Insider

Direct Marketing Guide

Direct marketing is a very specific sub-discipline with its own rules within marketing.  It offers several advantages to the marketer:

•    It allows you to target specific people.
•    It enables you to tailor your message for each person.
•    It is action-oriented.
•    It is confidential.
•    It’s economical.
•    You can track and measure the response rate and the return on investment.
•    You will be able to significantly and continuously improve its effectiveness over time.

The three most important elements of direct mail response are the list, the offer, and the creative.  Of the three, the list is by far the most important.

The List

•    You will have the most success with your current customer list (typically, it provides 2 to 10 times the response rate of a rented list). Beyond that, always seek out frequently updated lists.
•    Use a list broker that you trust.
•    Profile your current (or prospective) customer base (behavioral and demographic characteristics) and compare that to the profiles of the various lists that you are considering.
•    Test each of the lists that you are considering (ask for free names or rent the minimum number of names possible).

The Offer

Great Moments in Branding: Roy Disney's Speech

This speech was delivered by Roy Disney at a shareholders meeting on March 3, 2004. Could it be, the closer  you are to a founder and/or their principles, the better the understanding you have of the brand's essence? Clearly Roy shared Walt's compass.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your many letters and emails and all your encouragement in this campaign.

Stanley has talked about why we need to make a change. I want to spend a few minutes talking about what kind of change we need.

The Walt Disney Company is more than just a business. It is an authentic American icon -- which is to say that over the years it has come to stand for something real and meaningful and worthwhile to millions of people of all ages and backgrounds around the world.

This is not something you can describe easily on a balance sheet, but it is tangible enough. Indeed, it is the foundation on which everything we have accomplished as a company -- both artistically and financially -- is based.

I believe our mission has always been to be bringers of joy, to be affirmers of the good in each of us, to be -- in subtle ways -- teachers. To speak, as Walt once put it, "not to children but to the child in each of us."

We do this through great storytelling, by giving our guests a few hours in another world where their cares can be momentarily put aside, by creating memories that will remain with them forever.

Tom Brady, Greg Brady and Social Media

Some of you know that The Blake Project has been proudly working with America's reliable big brother, Barry Williams aka Greg Brady, helping him build his brand online with social media. Earlier this month we launched his robust fan portal, The Greg Brady Project.

What you probably do not know is that New England Patriots Quarterback,Tom Brady is the 4th brother of The Brady Bunch. Greg, Peter, Bobby and lil' Tommy.

ESPN has broken the story wide open in front of this weeks SUPER BOWL.

China and the Branding Highway

In a recent visit to China, I had a sense that the nation's high-speed manufacturing machine was in need of a course change to avoid a very rough road ahead.

Built as a low-cost machine aimed at the OEM market, China is truly the world's workshop. But the explosive growth has come at a high price. There are big environmental problems of factory pollution and energy shortages. There are quality control problems that are causing many customers to rethink China as a reliable supplier. There are "social responsibility" issues that have led the government to force entrepreneurs to pay higher wages. Managed growth and more controls are in the offing.

But here's the difficulty. All these problems will only increase China's manufacturing costs. That in turn will force manufacturers in China to shift production to lower cost areas in the country or move to places such as Vietnam. Since there is always someone out there that will do it for less, if you live by low cost alone, you will die by low cost.

China must consider taking what can be called the "branding highway." This takes it to where it can start to build local and international brands that offer more than just low price. In other words, instead of making products for someone else, it makes them for itself. But this road also leads it into the land of intense competition.

The Language of Branding: 'Brand Architecture'

Think of Brand Architecture or Brand Structure as a brand’s family tree or its hierarchy.  It is how an organization organizes the various named entities within its portfolio.  Ideally, the brand architecture is simple with no more than two levels: brand and sub-brands.  In fact, brand/sub-brand is the type of architecture most often used.  It takes many forms, mostly based upon the type of name used for the sub-brands.  Some organizations add a third level: named products.  But, any more than two levels can be confusing.

The four general types of architecture are:

(a)    master brand,
(b)    brand/sub-brand,
(c)    endorsed brand, and
(d)    separate (stand-alone or independent) brands.

Brand architecture addresses the following:

•    number of separately named entities,
•    criteria for becoming a separately named entity,
•    levels of relationships between separately named entities,
•    naming and other brand identity conventions for each level, and
•    the nature of the relationships between the named entities at different levels.

Sponsored By: Brand Aid

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

In their book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Jack Trout and Al Ries deliver sage marketing advice as demonstrated by the title of each chapter...

  1. It is better to be first than it is to be better.
  2. If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
  3. It is better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
  4. Marketing is not a battle of products, it's a battle of perceptions.
  5. The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect's mind.
  6. Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect's mind.
  7. The strategy to use depends on which rung you occupy on the ladder.
  8. In the long run, every market becomes a two horse race.
  9. If you are shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader.
10. Over time, a category will divide and become two or more categories.
11. Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time.
12. There is an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand.
13. You have to give up something to get something.
14. For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute.
15. When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive.
16. In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results.
17. Unless you write your competitor's plans, you can't predict the future.
18. Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure.
19. Failure is to be expected and accepted.
20. The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.
21. Successful programs are not built on fads, they're built on trends.
22. Without adequate funding, an idea won't get off the ground.

Sponsored By: Brand Aid

Personal Branding

I have been asked on occasion to help people with their ‘personal branding.’ While I am always happy to help, this request does seem a little bit odd to me because I define a brand as the personification of an organization or of its products or services. This is what allows a brand to build relationships and emotional connections with its customers. It is also what allows a brand to make promises (of relevant differentiated benefits) to its customers. So, when someone asks me to help brand him or her, I think he or she is asking me to help him or her to become a more authentic and compelling human being, which is actually a worthwhile request.

“My general formula for my students is ‘Follow your bliss.’ Find where it is, and don't be afraid to follow it.”  Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, pp. 120, 149

“I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”  Henry David Thoreau

“Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”  Frank Outlaw

I took a course entitled Self-Assessment and Career Development while at Harvard Business School. It was the most useful course I took while there. The premise of the course, from alumni research, was that those who most loved what they did succeeded the most, regardless of what it was that they did. So, when asked to help a person brand him- or herself, I focus on helping him or her discover what energizes and what enervates him or her.

Great Moments in Advertising: 1984 Political Campaign

Ronald Reagan's 1984 Presidential campaign was built on what is generally considered one of the most effective political campaign ads ever, mainly for its simple, optimistic message - "It's morning again in America". The phrase was used both as a literal statement (people in the tv spot are shown going to work) and to bring to mind other common sayings such as "a new day has dawned" and "wake up and smell the coffee."

The full ad copy was penned by advertising legend Hal Riney who also narrated the tv spot.

"It's morning again in America. Today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. With interest rates at about half the record highs of 1980, nearly 2,000 families today will buy new homes, more than at any time in the past four years. This afternoon 6,500 young men and women will be married, and with inflation at less than half of what it was just four years ago, they can look forward with confidence to the future. It's morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?"

Sponsored By: Brand Aid

Selecting an Ad Agency

Begin by thoughtfully defining what is most important to you in an agency, and clarify where you need the most help.  This will be an important touchstone throughout the remainder of the process. 

Cut out your favorite magazine ads and tape your favorite television commercials. This site is a good place to find great ads, as are One Show and Communication Arts awards books.  Also, most cities have ad clubs that judge and recognize the best ads from local agencies.  Check with these clubs as well.  Once you have selected several ads that you like, find out which agencies created them.  Of those agencies, find out which are already working for your competitors.  Rule them out.  Talk with marketing peers at other companies about their perceptions of the agencies that are left.  Ask about the agencies’ capabilities in each of the following areas: product, company and market place knowledge, creative, strategic insight, media planning, and production.  (I have found that the two most important aspects of an effective agency are strategic insight and translating that insight to creative communication.)  Contact the top three to four of those that are left.

When you meet, ask to see their best ads.  Don't assume that the team that made the ads are still employed at the agency - ask that question. Have the agencies demonstrate how they would address your most pressing strategic issues.  You might also ask each agency to create three campaigns to move your brand forward.  (Be sure to pay each of the agencies for their work.  This protects you if you use an agency’s ideas but do not end up hiring that agency.) You should also look for the agency that you can best work with based upon personal chemistry.

Some other notes:

•    Don’t assume that going with the biggest well-known agency is best.  Unless you have an enormous advertising budget, you are likely to be assigned to their “C team” and may not be happy with the “C team’s” work.

It's Founder's Day for Starbucks

Last week Starbucks went back to the future. In response to declining sales growth and a share price that halved in 2007, it fired chief executive Jim Donald and asked Howard Schultz, its chairman and former chief executive, to take control.

It is remarkable to put the founder of a company back in charge, but it is an appealing and successful strategy for many major organisations. Big brands such as Charles Schwab and Callaway Golf have benefited from sitting their founder back in the big chair. More recently and notably, both Dell and Apple have enjoyed resurgent fortunes after their founders were restored to the chief executive position.

This is not surprising. The verb 'brand' means to burn the mark of the founder or creator onto the product being offered. Who better, therefore, to run the company than the person who created it in the first place? Founders have an implicit grasp of a brand's equity in their bones. Better still, they tend to be natural leaders and, despite appreciating the importance of financial growth, rarely put short-term fiscal performance ahead of the long-term interests of the brand. In contrast to the generic accountants who normally vie for the top role, founders can use their genuine knowledge of what a brand stands for to rescue it from trouble and bring it back to health.