Protecting brand equity

Is it necessary to compromise your business objectives short term to protect your brand equity? Well, I say yes.

I was listening to a webinar on brand yesterday and the outcomes of the webinar were interesting. At some point when you are doing the creative for your next ad, direct mail campaign or blog you may need to change your focus from just asking for something from your audience to giving them more and developing a deeper understanding of your brand.

Dove does this well in their latest campaign for Real Beauty. They could keep the same focus of providing an alternative cosmetic in the marketplace but instead they have shifted focus to develop a new strategy based on the idea that all women are beautiful and that ageing is part of the process. By doing this they have created more depth to their brand. They have developed campaigns to each target market and then build valuable resources to show that they care and are invested. From a self esteem fund for young girls to taking on those model stereotypes head on, they are offering a real point of difference to the other cosmetic brands out there.

This investment of developing a brand position that has depth is a large commitment and protecting this stand will mean that in the short term, Dove will have had to set aside their business objectives of immediate revenue while they build this positioning. However, the pay offs are huge. By being brave and taking an alternative position (that is long over due) Dove are likely to have more loyal and a broader audience and start to vote with their dollars when buying their next bar of soap!

www.campaignforrealbeauty.com.

What is a value proposition?

Sometimes we marketers forget that there is a whole language that we use just and this jargon is confusing for the novist. Value proposition is one such term. What does it mean?

Well to me a value proposition is the unique offering that a product or service has that is hard to replicate by competitors and what sets it apart from other offerings in the marketplace.

A value proposition is the positioning of this unique characteristic and communicating it is such a way so that the target market (key audience for the product or service) can understand the value that it offers them.

The 3 key elements to creating a great value proposition are as follows:

1. Understand your customer: in detail describe them and if you can define them in detail you are on your way to be able to communicate to them effectively.

2. The second element is to understand why your customer would buy your product/service. What is in it for them? What makes it so special?

3. The third element is being able to position your offer against the competition and be able to defend your claims. What are the key proof points that helps the customer understand your offer well.

Lets look at my favorite brand. Nudie. www.nudie.com.au . They have a target market of young healthy hip people probably between 18 and 40 years that have a good sense of humour, like the healthy option and are conscious of the environment.

Why do I buy off Nudie, well I know what is in their juice. They make it perfectly clear that some of the fruit is of a multicultural nature (appealing to my sense of humour, plus they let me know in my language ( 2 apples, 1 carrot, etc). It is fresh, but not as expensive as a juice from a juice bar and it has no preservatives or additives and it fits my budget as well.

They have differentiated themselves . They are fun. Their packaging is honest and simple, their language and marketing is all focused on the audience they are appealing too.

So when you are thinking about developing a value proposition, maybe you need to think of a company who has done it well and follow their example.

Why do you need a marketing plan?

I was talking with a client today and there was an underlying idea that a marketing plan may be a waste of time. Why did their organisation need one? I think the real issue was that this client didn't see the value in a marketing plan because she didn't understand it's purpose.

1. Marketing plan has to have an objective - what is the aim of the business and make it measurable, over the next 12 months. Is it to grow the database, increase the sales coming from existing customers, build awareness, launch a new product, relaunch a brand, etc, etc

2. You need to do your research. The whole point of a marketing plan is to understand your market/s and then plan out your activities. Makes sense, doesn't it!

3. You need to understand your competition so you can position yourself against their offering/s. Show your points of difference, making it easy for the customer to decide the options.

4. You need to profile your markets so you understand their needs. Once you have done this you should be able to identify your ideal customer and with this information comes great power. This understanding allows you to tailor your offerings and ensure that you are able to focus your energy in the right areas.

5. Brand promise is the key to any good plan. What is your point of difference or value proposition?

6. Tactics for the marketing plan, the action plan.

7. Track to see progress and refine.

8. Communication plan to target markets.

9. Work your plan, it is an evolving ever changing, active document.

10 Congratulate yourself on being organised and have a long lunch!!

Brand or the Marketing Strategy, which comes first? Chicken and egg or real marketing dilemma

I had a conversation with a colleague the other day, in fact we often have the same conversation over and over. Which comes first, the brand development, logo, what the shining soul of the product or service stands for or the marketing strategy....

Well the truth is they are inseparable. The brand and the value that it creates is directly linked to its value proposition (the value that is has, the uniqueness that it offers the target market/s it serves).
Great brands for me are Nudie http://www.nudie.com.au/
Virgin http://www.virginairlines.com/ they have a uniqueness that is hard to replicate and maybe the ideas came to them and then they built the strategy to ensure that their customers/market knew what they had to offer with a marketing plan. Or maybe they saw a gap in the market, developed a strategy and then built the product to fit the demand.

True marketers would like to think that the best way to create an effective product or service is to understand your customers and then build a product or service to their needs. In fact exceed their expectations and you would really be on a winner!

Anyway it is an interesting discussion and there are probably several approaches that work.

Good websites should ....

My top things a website should do:

1. Engage with an audience from their perspective
2. Establish trust and authenticity - the right messages
3. Provide something of value so it’s “sticky” - come back to this site over and over
4. Organize navigation according to the audience’s mindframe and interests - you can find all you need
5. Provide interactive components - participate
6. Show, don’t tell: use story and compelling messengers to get your point across

These are the basics but many sites just don't do this. It seems so easy and natural to think like your customers when building communication tools but many get it so wrong. They focus on the look and feel and forget the content and reason for the customer going to the site in the first place.

Not For Profit Organisations - They just don't get marketing?

Marketing Not for Profit organisations is a interesting Business. I have found the managers of these organisations are not really able to visualise their business as one that is able to leverage marketing. The very nature of not for profit almost precludes them thinking of themselves as a business and yet of course they are. They still need members, they still have target markets and value to offer that they need to communicate.

This is a largely untouched marketplace that is only now coming to realise the potential that having a strong value proposition and marketing strategy can have to help shape their potential appeal and thus financial contributions.