Marketing & Branding Blog

U.S. Independence Day

2012-07-04T00:35:00.002-04:00

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." ~Thomas Paine

"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." ~Benjamin Franklin

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." ~Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863.

"There, I guess King George will be able to read that." ~John Hancock, on signing the American Declaration of Independence.

Corporate Social Responsibility

2012-06-24T23:55:00.000-04:00

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is not new. These company behaviors date back to early Capitalism and the two are not mutually exclusive, despite popular political opinion.

http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2012/06/a-brief-history-of-doing-well.html?awid=4929111144116256515-3271

Green ‘drivel’

2012-06-23T00:28:00.001-04:00

I think "green" was just handed a major branding problem.
The godfather of global warming lowers the boom on climate change hysteria

Is the thrill of Facebook starting to fade?

2012-06-05T12:39:00.000-04:00

In a Reuters story today, a recent survey revealed that 4 out of 5 Facebook users have never bought a product or service as a result of an ad or comment viewed on Facebook. Even more discouraging is the fact that while the number of Facebook subscribers might be growing, 34% of those surveyed reported that they are spending less time on the site than they did 6 months ago.

Advertising on the site appears to not be very effective and user engagement is waning.

These are very hard facts and a tough position to be in for a company with an advertising revenue business model.

Facebook stock is down? How predictable.

2012-05-22T19:44:00.003-04:00

So after the third day of trading, Facebook is trading for $31/share after an IPO last Friday at $38/share.

If I've got this right, we're talking about social networking company that gets the majority of its revenue from advertisers, that has users who hate ads, and the ad model doesn't really work well on mobile devices anyway...which just happens to be an ever-increasing percentage Facebook total users.

News flash: User growth does not equate to profit growth. I thought we learned this during the dot com bubble of the 1990's.

Just because a social networking site can attract a lot of non-paying users does not mean it creates significant value for anyone. Value exists when people are willing to pay something to get it. How many people would stay on Facebook if they were charged a monthly fee to do so? How many users are willing to click on ads and purchase products so value is created for advertisers?

Until Facebook can figure out a way to create sustainable value for its users and/or advertisers such that people are willing to start engaging in commerce on Facebook in significant ways then it has a faulty business model. Attracting lots of eyeballs never was a business model in and of itself. Money needs to start changing hands.

SEE ALSO: Social media is not a business model.

Last issue of Personal Branding Magazine

2012-05-02T00:31:00.001-04:00

Personal Branding Magazine publishes its last issue.

Publisher Dan Schawbel provides no explanation for why the magazine is ceasing publication, but offers it for free.

You don't ultimately define your brand.

2012-04-24T23:11:00.002-04:00

You don't ultimately define your brand. Your brand is defined by the people in your market. Branding is about authenticity and respecting your customers so they gladly allow you to have some influence on shaping how they view your brand because they trust you and got more value from you than the investment they made in your brand.

Why marketers should forget trying to message on video

2012-03-23T00:37:00.000-04:00

Why Some Ads Go Viral and Others Don't - Video

2012-03-23T00:27:00.000-04:00

Ever wonder why some Internet ads go viral while others don't? In this video, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira explain why.

Why Some Ads Go Viral and Others Don't - Video - Harvard Business Review

Image, Response, and Eye Candy: Trade show giveaway strategies

2012-03-22T01:16:00.000-04:00

A colleague once asked me if I would suggest or recommend a giveaway or promotional item for his company. His company exhibited at many trade shows throughout the course of the year and he felt a giveaway item, or "tchotchke", would help his booth personnel draw traffic to his company's exhibit booth.

Despite the fact that the age of trade shows seems to be quickly fading, this topic is still often discussed amongst marketers and the thought of giving away a promotional item with a corporate logo or URL in mass quantities is very tempting to many trade show marketers. "What could be better?", they think, than placing the company name or logo in front of many, many people?

I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about promotional items with you that you might find helpful if you are considering incorporating promotional, giveaway items as a part of your trade show marketing efforts. Examine my colleague's logic and see if it sounds familiar to you...

COLLEAGUE'S PERCEPTION:

"I think at shows we need to have freebies or a giveaway item to just get our name out there and get more people stopping by the booth. This may not increase the quality of leads, but it does increase traffic for traffic's sake".

MY THOUGHTS:

Giving away freebies to increase booth traffic just for traffic's sake is foolhardy unless you can give away an item that makes a lasting impression at very low expense. This represents a very big challenge and it might even be an oxymoron. Untargeted promotion is simply a waste of money.

The best "freebies" are those that are targeted toward the right audience, that clearly communicate benefits, and that are just one part in a methodical, brand-building campaign that is reinforced by other marketing communications. Too many companies spend far too much money on expensive giveaway items that have little to no impact. Worse yet, these companies often do not even understand the impact or effectiveness of their giveaway item because they can not or do not measure the campaign in any way.

If you are thinking about using a giveaway item as a trade show marketing tactic, the place to start is with careful consideration of your budget and your goals. Believe it or not, I've seen more than a few trade show giveaway campaigns launched because the boss wanted a golf shirt with the corporate logo on it or because he/she thought all the employees of the company would appreciate a new T-shirt. This should not be the reason you launch such an initiative. Some things that should help define your campaign are:

- Your budget
- Your goal
- The message your giveaway item will communicate
- Your target audience
- The impression you are trying to create

You must ask yourself how much money you can afford to spend and how many impressions you need to make with that budget to achieve your goals. As with any other form of marketing, if you can't measure it then you shouldn't be doing it.

You, wise marketer, know you must work hard to fully understand the economics of the campaign, measure it, and maximize the effectiveness of each and every dollar you invest. You also need to define what you hope to accomplish with your campaign. Will you use the giveaway item to generate tangible sales leads? Will you use the item to reinforce your brand or identity in a complementary fashion to your other marketing communications? Will you use the item to reward your existing prospects and engage them in continuing dialogue?

Let's take a look at some of these strategies a little more closely.

Choosing the item

It is best to have a giveaway item that is somehow related to your business or products -- if at all possible. As examples, carpenters could give away rulers, car dealers - key chains, coffee shops - coffee mugs, etc. The more closely related the item is to your business the better because people make associations in their minds so give them a "hook" to make such an association. If you can't find an item that is somehow related to your business or product, at least make sure the creative aspect of the item conveys a close tie to your business or product.

I have seen or have been involved in successful campaigns that have used letter openers, ice scrapers, lotto scratch-off tools, posters, custom printed logo labels on water bottles, calendar magnets, pens, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. Any of these items, if targeted to the wrong market or with the wrong imprinted message, could just as easily have been losing campaigns. The possibilities when it comes to choosing a promotional item are almost limitless so take some time to explore the options available and choose an item that matches your business.

Image campaign

Some businesses have large budgets they can use to create an item that reinforces an ingrained marketing message or to help project corporate identity. These companies may be able to afford anywhere between $ 5.00 to $50 or higher per item and give the item away in an uncontrolled manner to anyone who walks by their exhibit booth and grabs one. They have closely analyzed their costs and know the lifetime value of their customers such that they know this approach is very effective for them. If you fall into this category and you know your costs are worth it to build your brand or identity, then by all means try a creative or clever giveaway item that reinforces your brand or identity and get it into as many hands as possible at your next exhibit. Most businesses, however, do not have such a strong identity or such strong brands that this type of image campaign is cost effective.

Customer relations campaign

You might be able to succeed giving away a high value item in a relationship building capacity if you make sure you target your prospects first and only invite pre-qualified prospects to stop by your exhibit booth and receive the giveaway item. Often you can target your audience by sending out a special invitation to your in-house mailing list or by carefully selecting the right segment of the pre-registered attendees using the exhibit's mailing list. In other words, target people you know have the need for or the interest in your products/services first, invite them to visit you at your exhibit booth, and then use the giveaway item as an additional incentive for them to stop by your booth. Marketing is a relationship and you are rewarding your prospects for staying in the relationship with you in this case.

Drawing or raffle

An alternative to using expensive giveaway items as incentives for pre-qualified prospects is to give away only one (or few) such items via a drawing in which you ask booth visitors to drop their business cards into a bowl and then conduct a drawing at the end of the exhibit. You will undoubtedly suffer from the "unqualified lead" syndrome if you choose to go this route. Some marketers use this tactic when they define a dangerous metric to measure their campaign -- the number of leads garnered at the exhibit. We're after quality of leads not just quantity. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that everyone who attends the exhibit or trade show is a qualified prospect. The number of names collected at an exhibit is rarely an effective measure of success.

Also, not only does the "drawing" campaign have to be fair, but it has to be perceived as fair. If people feel they don't have a chance at winning because the odds of winning are very small, then this will limit the effectiveness of the campaign. If you choose this tactic, you also run the risk of overburdening your sales force with expensive follow-up activities or sending out lots of literature to unqualified prospects. This is a hidden expense that many marketers overlook. Lastly, if you choose to conduct a drawing for your giveaway item, make sure it is not against the policy of the exhibit. Sometimes such games of chance are strict "no no's" and against the rules of the exhibit.

Response generation

Most marketers I talk with are interested in maximizing the lead or response generation aspect of the giveaway item while minimizing expenses.

If you wish to use the item as a lead or response generator, then you should think about how that item will either lead to the capture of a person's contact information for sales follow-up or how you will measure the reach and marketing effectiveness of that item. Do not create an item that provides no way for people to contact you (don't laugh, it happens). You are trying to generate a response so you need to provide a way for people to respond.

Ice breaker

If you think, like my colleague initially thought, that you must give away something in great numbers in order to (try to follow the logic here): Increase booth traffic in the hope of talking to more people in order to try to uncover needs and hopefully make a match between those unmet needs and your products and you don't care to measure response rate, then save your company some money and try using some low cost item such as candy. What you are really looking for is a way to break the ice with people and attract people to your booth regardless of whether or not they might have a need for your products or services. I don't necessarily recommend this tactic for everyone, however, it can be effective for people who feel compelled to give away something to attract booth traffic, qualified or not, on a very tight budget.

A bowl of candy is an excellent, inexpensive tactic that works well in this case. Think about it for a moment. A bowl of candy in your exhibit booth is very low cost, will not take much effort on your part, will be appreciated and most visitors will appreciate a little bit of chocolate, a mint, or other such confectionery delight. People will walk up to your booth and ask if it's OK to take some candy. At that point, it is very easy to say, "Sure, help yourself. By the way, what do you know about how you can benefit from our products"? You have broken the ice, you brought people to your booth, and it did not cost you a great deal of additional money on top of the cost to exhibit at the show in the first place.

Impressions

The risk we as marketers take with any giveaway item is that it will attract unqualified takers that are only interested in getting something for free. Since we can never fully and absolutely control this, another alternate tactic is to give away an item that has high pass along value. In other words, an item likely to be highly visible on a desk, attached to a wall, or otherwise be visible for many other people to see. Impressions is the name of the game in this case and we want to maximize the number of impressions -- or exposures to our advertising message -- while minimizing costs.

Examples in this case might be posters, magnets, or paperweights. Giving away expensive or personal items such as laser flashlights, calculators, hand-held electronic organizers, etc. are generally not a good ideas in this case because, although many people will want them, they will be consumed by individuals and very few other people would ever have the chance to see your company's advertising message.

Think about it for a moment.

Have you ever received a calculator as a giveaway item? Did you leave it out in the open for many other people to see or did you hide it in a drawer somewhere so nobody else would see/take it? If you choose to maximize ad impressions with your giveaway item, carefully consider how the item will be visible to many other people or how high its pass-along rate will be. An item given away to maximize ad exposures should clearly and concisely state a primary benefit of your products or services and also contain contact information, such as a URL, address, or telephone number.

Measurement

Measuring your campaign is critical. Here are just a few ways to measure the success of your giveaway promotion:

- Require booth visitors to swipe their conference badge through your electronic card reader
- Require visitors to fill out a form requesting additional information and indicate their level of interest
- Conduct or commission pre- and post-exhibit market research surveys to measure the effectiveness of your campaign and its impact on strategic awareness
- Train your booth personnel to record as much information about your visitors as possible. Booth personnel should collect business cards or otherwise capture people's names and contact information, as well as, take extensive notes about their personal interactions with booth guests

Creating an effective giveaway item for your trade exhibits can be a very important part of your marketing mix. Now that we've taken a look at some ways to approach the process, I want you to think about what you are trying to accomplish before you launch your next trade show giveaway campaign. Understand your budget, define tangible goals, develop a strong message, establish ways to measure the campaign, and most of all, be creative and have fun!

Good luck and happy exhibiting.

A disembodied voice tells us about branding...

2012-03-22T00:52:00.000-04:00

The Power of Introverts

2012-03-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

What is a QR Code?

2012-02-27T22:05:00.000-05:00

Have you started to see strange, digital squares in restaurants, in stores, and on advertisements lately? Do they seem strangely familiar yet oddly, well, odd and out of place to you?

Welcome to the age of QR Codes.

And just what is a QR Code? "QR" stands for Quick Response and these Quick Response Codes are popping up everywhere because they are essentially bar codes...but of a very special kind.

No longer just about keeping inventory or tracking products on assembly lines, these QR bar codes are a way for marketers to generate a unique code that will allow anyone with the proper bar code reader to scan the code and be taken immediately to a website or URL of their choosing. Most times this will be a web page with more information about the product, an online video, or some additional information regarding the product or service that the marketer is offering. By taking you to a URL via the QR Code the marketer is able to provide a much more detailed and often multimedia-enhanced experience that otherwise would be space or cost prohibitive.

And just why are these things cropping up everywhere?

That would be because more and more people are carrying fancy bar code readers in their pockets and purses. These fancy bar code readers are called smartphones.

So now you know. When you see these QR Codes they are intended for people with smartphones who will scan these codes with their phones and then be taken immediately to an online web page to learn more about the product or service.

Let's Lift the Human Spirit

2012-02-27T21:38:00.003-05:00

Many advertisers and marketers seem to have lowered their standards to the least common denominator when creating and communicating their messages. Far too many in our profession seem to appeal to the dark side of the human psyche.

Many marketers feel that no message or style is too raunchy if it provides shock value in the quest for increased awareness and profits. Although these tactics might be providing short-term bumps in sales and brand awareness, they might be damaging brand equity in the long-term. Further, the messages sent are often socially irresponsible or have no lasting moral value.

As marketing professionals, we create brands and ad campaigns intended to appeal to emotion and elicit behavioral change. Since we are doing the work anyway, we should appeal to positive emotions and seek to elicit responses that lift the human spirit and, perhaps, maybe even bring out the best in others...

Continue reading:
Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/branding-brand-development/4682984-1.html#ixzz1ndkElYUv

By The Marketing Guy Who Drives Sales

U.S. Economy Declines, Dollar Store Concept Soars

2012-02-21T22:28:00.000-05:00

From:
http://moneyland.time.com/2012/01/27/why-shoppers-and-shopping-centers-alike-now-embrace-the-dollar-store/

Social Media Myths

2012-02-21T21:58:00.000-05:00

A good white paper from OhMyGov.com

http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2010/08/24/ohmygov-research-social-media-myths-5-roadblocks-to-discovery.aspx

'Tis the season

2011-12-11T23:17:00.001-05:00

While in the store earlier today I happened upon the following board game:

Nothing tells me that the holiday season is being ruined by commercialism more than a board game based on logo recognition!

At first I could not believe that anyone would buy this game let alone create it. Next I was curious about it. Now I'm secretly hoping to be able to play it to see how well I do.

Trendy, overused phrase that I wish everyone would banish from their marketing materials:

2011-12-07T23:01:00.002-05:00

"Join the conversation!"

Where do good ideas come from?

2011-11-22T22:39:00.000-05:00

Despite what many believe, good ideas might not come from flashes of insight or moments of brilliance. Here is a good video that discusses further.

One cynic's view: Morality makes terrible brands

2011-11-08T23:05:00.000-05:00

A strong brand creates an emotional bond with consumers and establishes a degree of trust. This bond and established trust attracts brand advocates who allow a brand to make some missteps along the way and these brand advocates are a little more understanding and forgiving when these setbacks occur.

Unfortunately, I fear that our society does not behave the same way toward brands that are connected in any way with a squeaky clean image or those built upon any degree of morality as a driver of brand equity, however much or little that morality is implied or explicitly defined. It seems to me that brands that are widely perceived as being moral or clean or uplifting become huge targets upon which many people will turn as soon as there is even the slightest hint of misstep, lapse in judgement or setback. Often before the facts are even in.

Perhaps it is the natural tendency for humans, who by definition cannot possibly be 100% moral, to tear down and try to destroy something perceived as morally superior at even the slightest hint of a failing because it makes us somehow feel better about ourselves. Perhaps we resent any air of morality associated with a brand because we know it is impossible to be 100% moral 100% of the time. Perhaps brand managers who foster any sense of morality are simply setting their brands up for catastrophic failure when an inevitable lapse occurs.

Why do we allow a lesser degree of forgiveness or understanding for brands that are built upon any degree of moral value? Why do people seek to completely destroy these brands when an inevitable misstep happens?

It seems to me that we ought to allow these brand more leeway but quite the opposite occurs.

Brand managers beware.

Don't want U.S. jobs to go overseas?

2011-08-26T22:18:00.001-04:00

As our U.S. economy continues to struggle it is quite common to hear people on radio and television talking about the state of the economy and the job market. One comment I tire from is when people state, "I don't want U.S. companies to move our jobs overseas when we need those jobs right here."

Stop to think about that for a moment.

Companies do not move jobs overseas to be mean-spirited. They move jobs overseas to find a lower cost structure so they can remain competitive in a world where low price is a main driver of consumer behavior--especially during difficult economic times.

So the next time you find yourself complaining about American jobs going overseas stop and ask yourself if you are willing to buy more American products and pay more for them than foreign comparable ones. If you would rather continue to choose products with the lowest prices so you can save money then look in the mirror the next time you are looking for reasons jobs are going to other countries with substantially lower labor costs.

Book review: Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

2011-06-02T22:05:00.000-04:00

In this work Guy Kawasaki manages to take basic truths about business, sprinkle in a little bit of useful information about the latest social media technologies, stretches it all into book length and emerges with a book that will underwhelm anyone who has read other business books related to marketing, branding and/or customer satisfaction.

That is not to say the book does not have an audience.

If you are a young entrepreneur or new to business management then this is a good book that will teach you the basic generalities of how to create useful products that people want and appreciate. You'll gain a better understanding of why it is important to be truthful in your marketing, why it is important to create realistic expectations for customers and why delivering on promises (and making the right promises) will help you build your brand. You'll gain a better idea, conceptually, of how to create products that stand out and are different in a crowded marketplace.

For those who have read other books on business management or basic marketing the triteness of this work will envelop you in a familiar fog of vague, basic truths about how to deal with people in the manner or style of Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill and Zig Ziglar. If you are looking for meatier nuggets than "be likeable, "be trustworthy" and "be prepared" then you'll want to pass on this work unless you are seeking a breezy refresher or looking to renew your commitment to The Boy Scout Law.

The later chapters that provide some useful and actionable information on how to most effectively produce online marketing videos and how to leverage push/pull technologies earn it three stars from me, but I was hoping for much deeper insights, more current case studies and more actionable information.

Everything counts in brand building

2011-05-02T22:42:00.000-04:00

OK. So I'm a bit of a brand geek.

I was watching a documentary-style news program about Coca-Cola the other night when a company spokesperson talked about introducing the contoured bottle shape to the company's 2 liter beverage offering in an effort to try to produce incremental sales. (It is truly an art when a change in packaging produces increased sales with absolutely the same product inside.)

That reminded me of a previous post for which I took some flak regarding the redesign of Wal-Mart's soda packaging. But that's not what I want to talk about today.

Today I want to talk about pizza.

Last week one of my Facebook friends posted the following picture to his wall (photo used with permission) along with his thoughts, "It seems like there are more toppings in the picture."

As you probably already guessed, the post sparked a number of humorous comments regarding deception, truth in advertising and the importance of good lighting in the studio when taking product shots.

It made me think a little about product packaging and how important package design is to a brand.

In this day and age, why would a product brand use packaging or labeling that misrepresents the product?

Social media almost ensures that any misrepresentation is going to not only be uncovered but shared with many, many people. Here is one of my fraternity brothers from yesteryear opening a package of pizza in his home and he feels so fooled by the packaging that he snaps a picture and uploads it to his Facebook page where no less than 136 people ( # of his FB friends at the time) see it, realize the misrepresentation on the package and then start commenting. Do you think Frescetta has helped or hurt its brand at this point?

When you are managing your brand everything counts. The product itself, the promises you make and keep, and even the promises made or implied by your packaging. If your product does not deliver on those promises then you have made a one-time sale and probably hurt your chances for repurchase and long-term brand loyalty. There simply is no place to use deception or misrepresentation because in this day and age of social media and user-defined brands, you just won't get away with it and you'll achieve the opposite of a strong brand.

Perhaps I've misrepresented this as a blog post about pizza.

Mea culpa!

This post was really about how packaging can either support or undermine your branding effort. Use packaging wisely.

Book review: The Power of Alignment

2011-03-26T23:54:00.000-04:00

This is an absolute masterpiece that reminds all business managers that if an activity is not aligned with the overall objectives of the organization then it should abandoned or not embarked upon and that profits come only after relentless focus on people and service.

The authors describe the overall objective of the business or organization as The Main Thing and remind us how critically important it is to make sure that The Main Thing remains the main thing in the business otherwise the forces and efforts exerted in the business are at risk of working against each other. Yes, departments can meet their immediate or departmental goals and objectives but actually not get the business any closer to its overreaching goal if things are not properly aligned. I've seen far too many businesses operate with a silo mentality where silo goals are almost completely detached from overall corporate goals. This condition has lead to devastating results in management, branding, marketing and acquisition strategies. The authors remind us how important it is to make sure everything is aligned and remains in alignment.

Does everyone in your business know how their objectives are tied to the overall objective or mission in your organization? Do they really understand how all other employees' objectives are tied to the overall Main Thing? If not then "The Power of Alignment" will help you understand how to bring about organizational and cultural change that will allow your business to prosper and endure.

Loaded with great quotes from business leaders and plenty of examples, this book will show you how to make sure everyone in your organization is working together to hit the main target and why it doesn't actually matter if that main target changes from time to time when market conditions change. In fact, if your organization is aligned to hit targets then the target can be just about anything.

I highly recommend this book and hope that one day it is required reading at all business schools and executive management courses.

How to Use Facebook to Drive Higher Sales

2011-03-17T22:25:00.001-04:00

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/how_to_use_facebook_to_drive_h.html
"As Facebook has grown to more than 600 million users, many companies have been struggling to figure out how to leverage it to help their businesses.

Most have limited themselves to advertising or establishing company pages on the platform only to discover that while these methods allow them to engage their Facebook fans in a dialogue and increase brand awareness, they do not necessarily lead to increased sales..."

continue to article @ Harvard Business Review.