Branding 2.0

Content Marketing: Thirty Ways to Make It Easier for Your Customers to Buy

Over the last several years, with little notice, the use of content marketing has grown exponentially.  While good numbers don’t exist, some say the total amount spent on this marketing category is more than $25 billion a year.

Most marketers use some content marketing, in one form or another, in their communications mix.  This category does not receive much media hype because most people don’t realize it’s become a major category of its own, plus it lacks the intrigue of advertising, cache of public relations or the buzz of social media.

As the power of Internet marketing technology keeps expanding and people continue to dislike traditional advertising, content marketing is gaining more credibility as a cost effective way to build brand performance and increase sales.

No longer do magazines, newspapers, radio and TV networks control the distribution of content.  Today, with the democratization of publishing, the ball is in our court.

Your challenge is to learn the language of relevant content that provides customers with the knowledge they need to make informed purchase decisions, and deliver it in a convenient and compelling way.

Over time, if you do it right, you will gain the confidence of the customer and become a trusted resource — the key first step in getting someone to buy.

Download our free e-book A Primer on Content Marketing to learn more about how to use this powerful marketing tool.

White Paper: Jump-Start Your Brand

Every year, generally during the annual planning cycle, it is common for marketers to step back and reflect on the past with a view towards the future. As you start to put the tough economic times behind you, it is now time to search for strategies and new ideas that will jump-start your business.

The purpose of this blog post is to introduce our latest white paper which will help you do more than that.  It is to help you shape your brand’s future as you move deeper into the year.  It is written in a straightforward manner so the insights presented here can be easily translated into increased brand performance. 

Progress manifests itself in many different ways, but it always involves change. Sometimes you can hear or see that change coming, sometimes you can’t. But, as you will see from this paper, some big branding changes have already arrived that have dramatically changed the marketing landscape.

There are four things you’ll need to do to jump-start your brand:

            • Recognize the dynamics and increasing
              power of the new consumer          
            • Utilize the new approach to differentiation
            • Add more social media to your marketing mix.
            • Increase your use of content marketing.

To read more, click for a free download of Jump-Start Your Brand: the Four Things You Need to Know to Optimize Brand Performance. No e-mail required.

After reviewing our white paper, we would appreciate your comments.
Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm.

#branding

Content Marketing Gaining Traction

Content marketing is one of those sleeper-strategies that can give you a competitive advantage.

Content marketing has been around for more than 100 years.  John Deere & Company, one of the world’s largest tractor manufacturers, is believed to be the first, with a newsletter (The Furrow) in the late 1800s.

Because of the increasing power of Internet technology, content marketing has been gaining traction over the last several years, and self-publishing has become cheaper and easier to do.

With the declining acceptance of interruption marketing (e.g., TV and radio ads, junk mail, etc.), consumers have been looking everywhere for content that will help them make smarter purchase decisions.  Some studies have shown that consumers actually enjoy doing their own research.  They want to be educated about a product or service, not bludgeoned over the head with TV and radio ads.

Tons of media coverage recently has gone to extol the virtues of social media.  However, brand managers should not lose sight that “it’s education-based, relevant content” buyers are really looking for — not social media, per se.  Social media conversions are recognized as important to building a brand, but great content is considered better.

Most marketers today are doing some form of content marketing.  Some are spending up to 25% of their marketing budget on it.  However, few are aggregating their bits and pieces into some structure that will allow them to visualize and harness its full potential.

Today, every brand should have a formal “content-marketing” plan.  It’s a four-part equation.  First, you need to define your objectives.  Second, is about the content you need to use or create.  Third, you must decide what form your content will take. And fourth, you need to plan how will you market that content so that it gets seen, and acted upon, in a way that helps build your brand.

No longer do magazines, newspapers, radio and TV networks control the distribution of content.  Today, with the democratization of  publishing, the ball’s also in your court.

The challenge is to learn how to create relevant content that provides customers the knowledge they need to know, and deliver it in a convenient and compelling way.

Over time, if you do it right, you will gain the confidence of the customer and become a trusted resource — a key first step in getting someone to buy.

Brand managers who learn to master this seismic marketing shift, and properly staff and fund this strategy, will be the big winners in the years ahead.

Please comment on this blog.

Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.

#branding

Location Branding

Not only has social media turned marketing upside down, the explosion of really, really smart phones has changed where and how we brand.

One of the newest marketing concepts is location branding.  It’s not quite as deadly as the predators or drones the Air Force uses, but it is a little bit scary.

Walk by a sports store and it’s possible your phone will vibrate and flash a 20% coupon offer for a pair of running shoes.

I won’t bore you with the details surrounding the convergence of technologies, but with navigational tools like GPS, local marketing and branding have arrived.

In the old days (the 20^th century) brands relied on point-of-purchase (POP) advertising to encourage sales.  Then retailers decided that the signs that came with POP made the stores look junky and tossed them out.

While this advance in marketing is avant-garde, and doesn’t depend on store owner cooperation, I’m not sure it won’t get overwhelming, and backfire on the brands.

Sometimes too much of a good thing, is a bad thing.  Sometimes we just want to shop alone, and not be bothered by Big Brother.

Please comment on this blog.

Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.

#branding

Smart Phones as Branding Tools

As we enter 2010 it’s becoming more apparent why they call the smart phone smart.

As phones get smarter, so do the consumers.  According to a Deloitte survey, an estimated 20% of shoppers used their cell phones to make, or aid, purchases this last holiday season.

One of the latest trends for mobile consumers is to pull out their smart phone and, as they roam through store aisles, scan bar codes to connect to the Web for vital information on the products they’re interested in.  They want to know what reviewers say about the product.  Does anyone have a better price?  Are e-coupons available?  What’s the product’s carbon footprint?  Consumers are now king because with more information than ever before, they have the upper-hand in the branding relationship.

Consumers know that by doing their own research it’s possible to save as much as 50-60% on a product — just by acting smart.  Oftentimes, it also pays big to avoid instant gratification.  Today’s smart, disciplined consumer can accumulate so many multiple savings — that its like having a second income.

Although some of the latest mobile-marketing technology is still a little clunky, smart brands are revamping their Web sites and their mobile apps to make things easier.

This trend is starting to gain momentum, and for brand managers there are some  implications.  First, the price/value ratio will  become more transparent to buyers, and second, the concept of “perceived-value” will lose some of its luster as consumers become better informed. 

The bottom line is that the better products will win, not just the ones with snazzy advertising.

Please comment on this blog.

Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.

#branding

Branding Baloney

One of the amusing facets of branding is the baloney some graphic design firms use to justify a logo recommendation.

In my opinion, logos are often overrated.  A logo is just an identification badge, it’s not the brand promise.

It also appears that sometimes, the more important a logo project, the bigger the baloney.

For example, according to the New York Times (11/23/09), AOL is preparing to spin itself off from Time-Warner on December 9, 2009.  Now I am not against revamping logos if there is good justification.  What’s humorous is the hype some design firms use to describe new logos.  In the AOL case, they are changing the type face — using upper and lower case, and adding a period — AOL becomes Aol.  So far so good.

But, I assume in an effort to strengthen their recommendation, the respected design firm, Wolff Olins of New York, said the period was added to “suggest confidence, completeness” . . . and it signifies that AOL is the best place to go to get the best content period.  Really?  What happens if Google or Bing catch on and put a period after their name?

The new logo looks fine, but please, spare us the stories that are phony baloney.

Please comment on this blog.

Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.

 

#branding

How to Build a Newspaper Brand

Even before the recession, and social media took off, newspapers were feeling the heat.

Because the Web was gobbling up their most lucrative sections (e.g., classifieds) many newspaper publishers thought they could survive with some consolidations, cost cutting and tweaks.

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work.  They kept cutting costs as ad revenues fell, but instead of smelling the sweet fragrance of printers ink, they were still smelling the stench of red ink.

Most everyone in the industry was starting to seriously worry.  Would their newspaper survive?

After getting beat up for years, the San Francisco Chronicle finally took a bold step and raised their subscription price 63%.  The impact was immediate.  The Chronicle’s circulation dropped 26%. But, they were back in the black.

In hindsight this was a brilliant move, not of pricing (that was the tactic) but of the strategy of repositioning the newspaper — from a common mass-product to a small luxury experience.

As it turns out, avid readers, who are generally better educated and with higher average incomes, are happy to pay a fair price for the privilege and experience of having something tangible to enjoy with their morning coffee.

Newspapers are not for everyone.  They shouldn’t try to be.

Today, newspapers are a small luxury, not an entitlement, but the publishers are entitled to a fair profit.

The key now for publishers is: how to build a luxury brand around this new positioning?

Please comment on this blog.
Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.
#branding

 

B2B Advertising Shift

B2B trade advertising doesn’t get much press these days because it’s not sexy.  But it does account for 10%, or $25 billion, of the total U.S. advertising expenditure.

For small to mid-size B2B’s there is now a new alternative for spending that $25 billion: the fast growing Internet-based marketing-video category.

Because the cost of decent equipment, for producing your own video ads, has dropped below $200, it is now within the reach of every business’ budget.

Companies are getting more comfortable with the ease and process of producing and starring in their own commercials  They likewise are getting more comfortable with not forking over the big bucks for a full page, 4-color ad in a leading trade publication.

Many marketers now believe the new communications model, in the B2B category, is a small space print ad that drives traffic to a Web site where users can view a 2-3 minute video clip.  It makes eminent amount of sense because it’s so much more efficient than the old media model.

As this shift continues, some media experts forecast that many industry-specific trade publications will lose up to 75% of their ad revenue over the next 5 years — pushing many into bankruptcy.

Please comment on this blog.
Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.
#branding

Opt-In Advertising

Facebook realizes the consumer data they collect on their 300 million users is extremely valuable — and plan to use it to monetize their site.

While Facebook promises not to sell your data to others, they are planning to use it to sell targeted ads to advertisers.

There’s the rub.  They probably do own your data legally, but people do not like receiving ads in general, and according to the recent Annenberg-Berkeley Report, 70% of Internet users really don’t like the scheme of using their personal data against them.

Because brands are now controlled by consumers, Facebook, and other social networks, better listen carefully.  They should also try to visualize the facial expressions of their users.  Their faces say it all — no, no, no.

The days of marketers freely advertising, when and where they want to, are over.  Consumers someday will probably create a list of advertisers they will welcome into their space.  It’s the concept of opt-in ads.  It’s not here yet, but it’s on its way.  Social networks should initiate these new rules, in conjunction with their users now, or they may have a rebellion on their hands.

P.S. Facebook should know this first hand.  A while back they tried to change their privacy policy on the sly, they got caught, and had to retreat.  Hopefully they won’t make the same mistake twice.

Please comment on this blog.
Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.
#branding

How Social Media Affects the Purchase Decision

Many people still wonder, and rightly so, how social media gets the cash register to ring.

As reported in the October 6, 2009 Adweek article written by Brian Morrissey, WPP’s research group has evidence that engagement with a brand’s social media helps lead towards a purchase decision.

This new study has part of the answer and it is very positive for using social media to build brands.

According to the results of the study, people who bumped into brands through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., are 2.8 times more likely to search for a brand with click rates increasing by 50%.

This is great news for managers and provides cover for them when they shift money out of old media into social media.

However, it does raise the question, why do people have to search for a brand’s Web site address?  It seems silly that someone has to search for it.  On the other hand, maybe companies are being savvy by not appearing to want to give a sales pitch.  People may perceive a www cue similar to an 800# — inferring, give me a call, I want to sell you something.

Please comment on this blog.
Twitter us with your thoughts @  twitter.com/BrandingComm or visit us on Facebook.

#branding