brand marketing 101
DESCRIPTION
Presented to GoodCompanyVentures, Philadelphia (social entrepreneurship incubator) class of 2009 as part of curriculum.TRANSCRIPT
Building your brand and marketing your offering:
art, science & conversation
June 25, 2009
Laurie Gelb, Sr. ConsultantTrellist® Marketing | Technology[now Principal, Profit by Change]
Be practical or be passé
• “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.”
- HL Mencken
Engage yourself first
• Tune into your senses as you socialize, analyze, transact
Challenge, engage, connect prospects Avoid perceived cynicism, condescension,
arrogance, indifference
• Share drama, mystery, comedy, discovery
• Cast a wide net, outside your comfort zone
• Collaborate across time and space
• “Everything that happens to a product or service from when it’s created to when it’s consumed or used”
• The four Ps: product, price, promotion, “place” (distribution)
• The four Cs: customer, convenience, cost, communication (may substitute competition for convenience) or: create, connect, change, cancel
• Marketing exchange theory: two or more parties make an exchange of perceived equal value
Mind the marketing mix
• Sincerity and a “big idea” don’t replace effectiveness, efficiency, and paying your dues
• The questions remain: Why this? Why now? Why you? Why me?
• Language is your friend; indifference to it is your enemy
• Show, don’t tell: understanding, consistency, durability, flexibility, friendliness, worldliness
The mission is not the brand
• Your success hinges on ongoing community, market and product assessment
• Belief in your mission ≠ interest in your offering
Your audiences are a moving target before being offered anything
New offerings may shift expectations and/or mandate a change in your competitive set and/or target audience(s)
• You’re only as good as your last encounter, and the grass is always greener somewhere else
Sincerity: action, not vision
• Everything represents, everywhere, all the time “Small stuff” is the intangible value of
your organization
• Don’t cheap out on the time and money needed for noticeably good front line contact
• Don’t save for another day the sagging sign, the Web site typo, the generic voice mail message
• Don’t sing yourself to sleep with “people focus on the result” or “people know we’re sincere”
Every puddle makes a mark
Be a useful marketer
• In tough times, easily-perceived durable value prevails
• Support informed choices, satisfying decisions and no-mess transactions
• Help users find, index, sort, filter, act on what they need from strangers, friends and peers
• E-mail and search: still online marketing pillars, but as pathways to content and social bridges
“People want choice, convenience and control.”
Ed Artzt, past Procter & Gamble CEO, 1994
• Specify ingredients of the marketing mix
How will you (and others) make money? How will you ensure consistent
outcomes? Differentiate yourself? Create organic entry and/or copycat
barriers?
• How will marketing support your strategy?
• Create [good things and ways to connect them to other good things], connect, change, cancel
Lay the foundation
• Pursue new short and long-term channels for services, information, marketing and networking
• See prospects on multiple levels: social/business connections, individual context
• Whom can you benefit? [by association, by service, by networking]
• Whom can you convert as a(n) ally, referrer, sponsor, advertiser, content provider, affiliate, partner, roommate, fellow traveler?
Span B2C and B2B
• Lock down an agreed, important, believable, relevant, durable brand promise (how customers benefit) and positioning platform (how do they know?)
Create 5-30-60 sec pitch statements
• Weave your story as an organization, person, couple or family throughout your brand; refine it all year
• Leverage your location, allies, mission, infrastructure, processes, people
Build the brand
• Changing the consideration set is easier than changing the competitive set
• Provide personalized urgency and relevance (PUR) With a message that makes sense
• What’s not understood, you haven’t communicated
• Embed easy access to the benefits you provide
• Offer the ability to build, share, interact
Stress-test the structure
• Marketingwithmeaning.com provides examples
• Identify yourself: with an e-mail domain, your subject expertise (more than your mission)
• Position the business for peer validation, unasked support -- far more powerful than any pay-for-praise
Avoid reciprocity traps (like holding hands on LinkedIn)
• Measure outcomes all day, every day
Market with meaning
Go where the heart is• Experiences convey authenticity > status
Stories with meaning replace material things
Social networks and digital scrapbooks help
• Embed your brand everywhere it belongs Surround it with events, causes,
passions, activities, community, politics, the everyday
• Treat the mundane as respectfully as the sublime (to which we aspire)
• Wear a positive identity (motif, logotype, tagline, palette, tone of voice, vocabulary) all and every day
• Listen first to infuse value into everything you do
• Can everyone you’ve served, or wanted to, provide anonymous or identifiable feedback, and receive a response? Customize the questions Use the answers
Love [by hearing]the one you’re with
Monitor the market• What, when, how, why, where are relevant
topics mentioned, queries made, advice provided?
Include yourself, you, allies, competitors, influencers and emerging players/solutions
Resource: http://mashable.com/2008/12/24/free-brand-monitoring-tools/
• Closed networks, blogs and boards: not the real world
• Monitor trendwatching.com and springwise.com, and whatever else blows your mind
You and your
customers
Friends, allies
(people & groups)
Colleagues
Affinity groups
Shared content
(YouTube)
BlogsShared
bookmarks Communities
Transaction engines
IMPortals
(Amazon)
Link in, learn more
• The Internet: a foundation to access, share and repackage information
• Mobile applications leverage users’ locations
• Rich media: content formats that enable more immersive communication
• Social media: share content, beliefs, knowledge, skills and experiences beyond one-to-one “word of mouth”
• All these comprise “the social Web”
No medium is an island
‘Tis a gift to be simple…• Build your Web site in a content
management system (CMS) so marketing can drive content
• Body copy in any medium: ban essays, laundry lists and manifestos
What and where is your CTA? You may not close sales on your pages, but you can
always close doors
• Expose information gradually, in the user’s context
Hint at her story and how you might fit in Leave her wanting more and starting to fit the
pieces for herself
Share your brand• Provide mindshare on your personal Web
• Help key staff and allies represent See www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/
• Add and house UGC (user-generated content)
Add “share” buttons and use others’ Link in your blog, site, allies, networks and UGC Seek both one-way and reciprocal links
• Tag and post static and rich media…everywhere you go
Leverage social & search• Social equity (buzz) and organic (free) search
results are earned, not bought, and drive each other
Use the right vocabulary to be in the game
Create ties that bind to be a hub, not a club
• As the semantic Web matures, natural-language search will be routine, e.g.
“Help for parents taking care of their parents,” not “caregiver support”
Google offers semantic search help; Bing was built on it
It’s still the sunset
“A return to more meaningful values and an embrace of more mindful spending will bring pain, but it should also allow us to focus on what we have been taking for granted. Remember, the sunlight in the South of France was enough to draw F. Scott Fitzgerald and Picasso years before the fancy boutiques and the red carpet -- and it's still the best part of a visit.”Melissa Biggs Bradley, 12/10/08
