BCA

The Brand is the Identity
A brand may refer to products or services, but  branding involves much more than that. It is the process by which those  offerings and the values of the company are communicated to the buying public.  When done correctly, this process can clearly identify any company and enable  customers to clearly see exactly what makes that company different from all of  its business rivals.

Understand the Audience
When projecting an identity to the buying public,  make sure that the identity is consistent with the needs and vales of potential  customers. It is great for a company to have a personality, but that personality  will mean nothing if it fails to resonate with customers. Every attempt to  create and establish a company brand should only be done after extensive  research focused on audience sensibilities is completed.

Use the Right Methods
Brands require tools. These include logos,  recognizable company colors, a motto, and other easily identified methods for  distinguishing one company from another. While it is easy to get caught up in  the overall look of any logo or design, it is important to always remember that  customers care less about the actual aesthetics of these tools than the fact  that they are consistently used, and therefore, remembered and recognized

Be Consistent
Indeed, consistency is the key to successfully establishing  a company identity. Logos should remain fairly consistent over time. A company  motto that reflects the business’ core values should remain the same so that  customers come to identify the company with those ideals. Keep it simple, but  steady. Even a bland company motto or unattractive logo will take root in  customers’ minds if they are seen and heard on a consistent basis over time.

Use a variety of Mediums
Today’s companies cannot just rely upon the old  methods of communication. In addition to print media and broadcast  advertisements, companies should also develop clearly branded websites and make  use of the full range of social media available today. Every method for  communicating with customers is an opportunity to further develop the company  brand.

Focus on Value and Values
The brand should ultimately be associated with  values. To accomplish this, every interaction with customers must be  accomplished with those values in mind. This includes every advertisement, every  display, and every bit of contact between employees of the company and the  customers they serve. Many businesses become so obsessed with the external  aspects of creating their brands, that they neglect the very real role of  employee decorum demonstrated by actual contact with customers.

When executed properly, any strategy for building a brand can reap huge  rewards for the company. Entrepreneurs who adhere to these basic principles of  business branding will find themselves experiencing greater success as their  corporate identities become firmly established in the public mind.

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By Phillip Davis

As companies grow, product lines expand and market conditions change,  business owners often find themselves with a company brand image that no longer  reflects who they are or what they do. Perhaps they started in a niche market,  or with a very specific product, and built their entire company identity around  it — and the business now serves a different, bigger or more diverse customer  base.

What to do?

A sure symptom of this brand misalignment is the constant need to explain or  clarify what the company really does. Or when an owner pines “We’re more than  just (fill in the service or product category.) At this point, a new brand  strategy is obviously in order, but it begs the question “Do I need to  reposition my company or completely rebrand it?”

Reposition if the name is right but the message is wrong

Repositioning a company makes sense when the company brand name is well  established and not in any way misleading. In other words, it’s not so much an  issue with the identity as it is with the message and focus.  Apple expanded beyond its original core product line of computers, but that  didn’t require a change in their name. They simply dropped the word “Computers”  from their name and shifted their branding to reflect their “Think Different”  philosophy. They no longer position their brand as a “computer company” but more  as a cool, digital lifestyle provider.

Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure felt restricted by their brand image as a  racing school. It affected their approach to advertising, marketing and product  development. After carefully determining their core value proposition, they  re-emerged with the tag line “Full Throttle Living!” The emphasis  shifted from the cars to the experience. And that experience has since been  expanded to include World War II re-enactments and firefighting drills. They now  position themselves as a lifetime adventure company that simulates a day in the  life of an adrenaline-charged professional. That’s a big departure from a racing  school, and that’s the power of repositioning.

Old Spice has made a concerted effort to reposition its brand from a stodgy  aftershave product to a cool, contemporary array of “fragrant man goods.” Their viral video  campaign has served to introduce a whole new audience to this once  old-school cologne.

Rebrand if your company name causes confusion

Rebranding comes into play when the original company identity has grown  outdated, confusing or outright misleading. The owners and staff can all agree  on the brand’s current position and message, but the customer can’t get past the  name itself. CompUSA struggles to brand itself as more than just computers.  Radio Shack remains mentally tethered to an old technology and a dilapidated  building. Burlington Coat Factory sells more than just coats. At some point, the  cost of clarifying a brand becomes such a drag co-efficient that it makes more  sense to start with a clean slate.

Would 3M be recognized as a global leader in innovation if it had remained  The Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company? Popular consumer electronics  company LG rebranded twice, from the original legacy name of Lak-Hui Chemical  Industrial Corporation to Lucky Goldstar, and in 1995 to their current moniker  of LG with the tag line “Life’s Good.”

Repositioning and rebranding keep a company current, relevant and  profitable

Both repositioning and rebranding serve the goal of greater brand clarity.  Repositioning highlights a company’s emerging role and redefines its new  territory in the marketplace, (often while keeping the legacy name in place,  e.g. Apple) Rebranding addresses the outward facing identity of the company,  typically the name and visual components, and helps to alleviate and/or correct  misconceptions about the direction of the business (e.g. 3M and KFC).

Rebranding and/or repositioning offer unique and specific benefits when  applied correctly. Clarifying the brand identity and market position allows  potential customers to place the company in the right mental “box” for easy and  accurate recall. This type of intuitive branding reduces customer confusion,  improves bottom line performance and positions your company for continued  success. With careful consideration, rebranding and repositioning will have your  customers remembering and revisiting you more often.

How about your company? Have you considered or attempted a rebrand? If so,  share the ups and downs of your experience so others can benefit.

Phillip Davis is president and owner of Tungsten Branding, strategic company branding consultants specializing in name development,  rebranding and brand positioning.

There’s no longer any question that digital has a seat at the advertising table, although the dollars spent there don’t yet compare to the money spent on traditional media like television.

According to Q3 2011 research from media buying solutions provider STRATA, clients are becoming just as focused on digital media as they are on spot TV. US ad agencies reported 34% of clients were thinking most about online advertising in Q3, compared with 24% the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the number of clients whose primary focus was on spot TV dropped from 41% to an almost-even 35%.

The online marketing tactics in use by the agencies surveyed did not change much, with online display, search and social media coming out on top, their usage rates stable from quarter to quarter. On social media, similarly, priorities remained the same, with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter the clear leaders, though LinkedIn, in fourth position, gained ground.

The number of agencies purchasing mobile advertising for their clients also stayed relatively stable, at 23%, but the types of ads they were creating began to change. In Q3, display advertising took an even larger lead over SMS. More than half of agencies said they are now creating more mobile display ads for their clients than other mobile formats, compared to just 16% of agencies that are still mostly creating SMS ads.

The mobile devices being targeted by those ads were changing, too. Agencies cut their interest in BlackBerry by half between Q2 and Q3, according to STRATA. Still, Android-targeted efforts lagged behind iOS-focused ones.

eMarketer forecasts display will take 33% of mobile ad dollars in 2012, pushing it ahead of SMS and even with mobile search spending. It also estimates that the iPhone will lose its spot as the No. 1 smartphone in America by the end of this year, when Android’s share will far surpass it.

For complete data charts and story, go to e-Marketer.com

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Greater ability to demonstrate efforts vs. financial impact of marketing programs

According to Sagefrog Marketing Group, 68% of US business-to-business (B2B) companies allocate 5% or less of their company revenue on marketing. For an enterprise-level company, this could mean millions of dollars. But for SMBs, marketing money could be much tighter.

Although April 2011 data from Forrester Research suggested companies with 100 to 499 employees tend to allocate a slightly higher percentage of their company revenues to marketing than companies with more than 1,000 employees, these percentages still remain only a tiny wedge of total company revenue.

Given how tightly B2B companies tie marketing budget to company revenue, one would assume the majority of companies are closely measuring the effect of their marketing efforts on their bottom line.

 

Only one of three B2B marketers now report financial metrics to management 

However, research from Lenskold and the Pedowitz Group indicated only about one in three B2B marketers worldwide report financial-contribution metrics to senior management.

Though a third of B2B marketers track revenue metrics associated with marketing-generated opportunities, closed deals and percent of total sales, 35% said they do not report any financial-contribution metrics to executives.

Slightly fewer (33%) did not track return on investment (ROI) at all this year—a percentage mostly unchanged since 2009, indicating little movement on the part of B2B companies worldwide toward holding their marketing departments more accountable for the company’s bottom line.

 Marketing-performance related metrics is the norm now

For now, it appears marketers are more likely to be held accountable for marketing-performance-related metrics. More than half (58%) report the number of marketing-qualified leads to senior management and 48% track the number of opportunities generated. Far fewer B2B marketers report lower-funnel metrics like percent of opportunities converting to closed sales (40%) and number of days from lead to closed sale (20%)—a particularly important metric to understand for proper campaign flight and window of measurement.

Undoubtedly, these types of metrics are much easier to track and report than financial-related metrics that require a closed-loop reporting setup that takes time, effort and financial investment on the part of marketers and internal stakeholders. For example, the marketing department must work closely with sales to align metrics and often must invest in CRM technology or software to accurately track campaign influence through the life of the sales cycle.

Those B2B marketers who are able to move beyond performance-related metrics will not only be able to better justify their existing efforts, but also their future marketing budgets.

For complete data charts and story, go to e-Marketer.com

Social media marketing has been top of mind among marketers and is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Earlier this year, eMarketer estimated that worldwide social network ad revenues alone, not including money that companies spend developing presences on social networks or hiring staff to manage them, would reach $5.97 billion in 2011, a 71.6% increase over 2010.

Already, firms worldwide are seeing returns on their increased investment. According to a survey by office services firm Regus, 47% of businesses successfully used social networks for customer acquisition in 2011, a 7 percentage point increase over 2010. The US followed closely behind the average, at 43%.

China saw the greatest gains in customer acquisition from social networks among all countries studied, increasing from 44% in 2010 to 65% in 2011.

Biggest impact in developed markets

The survey had one other interesting finding: Social networks made the biggest impact for companies that are operating in developed markets. A significantly higher percentage of companies that used social networks for customer acquisition in developed markets, including the US, the UK, Japan and Canada, saw a revenue increase over the previous year vs. those companies that did not use social networks to acquire new business in developed markets.

Companies in developing markets like China, Mexico and South Africa experienced revenue growth whether or not they were using social networks to acquire new business, probably as a result of rapid overall economic expansion.

Reliable source of customer acquisition

As companies continue to chase revenue in both developed and developing markets, competition will force marketers to increase investment in new platforms to reach customers. Social networks are proving to be a reliable source of customer acquisition and increased revenues in both, but can provide a necessary edge over competitors in developed markets.

For complete data charts and story, go to e-Marketer.com.

The publishing industry has been rocked by the shift from print to online access, a development that has been notoriously challenging to monetize. Consumers have shown little appetite to pay for content on the web, and the soft economy has taken a toll on the online advertising-based models that many publishers embraced as a replacement for declining print income. So the arrival of ereaders and tablets comes at an opportune time for publishers.

The Kindle and iPad have ushered in a new device market and consumers have responded by buying more digital content. eMarketer estimates the US installed base of ereaders will be nearly 21 million by the end of 2011, a 62.3% increase over last year. Further double-digit growth in ereader penetration is expected in 2012.

Prices coming down

“There has been enthusiastic device adoption at both the high and low end of the ereader price spectrum and strong momentum in ebook sales,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Epublishing: Books, Periodicals and Devices.” “As prices continue to come down, there will be increasing opportunities for both publishers and marketers to address an even greater market.”

The installed base for tablets, despite the devices’ higher price point and shorter time on the market, is even larger. eMarketer expects 24 million US consumers to have an iPad or similar device by the end of 2011.

“These devices have opened a market for electronic books and periodicals,” said Verna. “For that market to reach its full potential, the publishing industry will need to reverse negative trends in magazine and newspaper readership and overcome consumer resistance to paying for digital content.”

Ebook revenues rising quickly

Ebook revenues are rising quickly, currently at 6% of total US book publishing revenues, according to IHS iSuppli, double their 2010 share of 3%.

“Publishers and retailers need to find the right mix of ebook pricing, enewspaper paywalls and emagazine subscriptions to grow their digital customer bases without alienating their print readers,” said Verna. “The recipe will vary on a case-by-case basis, even among different titles from the same publisher.”

For complete data charts and story, go to e-Marketer.com