The Market Intelligence Blog

Part II – What is Brand?

January 9th, 2011

Part II of an extended exploration of nature and value of “Branding” and practical discussion of how to create, strengthen and extract greater value from your ‘Brand’

Most successful brands have symbols we instantly recognize – logos, trademarks, tag lines, etc. And just as surely, those symbols invoke strong images and impressions in each of us. Here’s an experiment to help illustrate the breadth and richness of the branding experience.

Look at this logo, then …

- Imagine some phrases that you associate with the cars you’ll find it on

- Draw a mental image of the likely owner, and of the places you might see it parked

- List a few things that you would expect to feel and to experience if you owned one

Then, ask yourself these same questions about:

Chances are, you’ll come up with four distinct – and distinctly different – images of these four very successful car manufacturers.

* These trademarked images are, of course, the property of the respective car manufacturers.

Symbols of successful brands evoke powerful images, and the messages underlying these symbols exercise strong but subtle influence on the car buying choices that millions of consumers. Your “brand” is far more than just your logo or the tag line from your latest ad campaign:

Your “brand” is the sum total of everything that people think, feel, believe and ‘know’ about your company, its products and services.

Digging Deeper

Your brands consists of all the facts, beliefs and expectations that your potential customers have about you, along with the symbols which recall who you are and what your represent. Your brand is a complex, evolving entity, growing from :

1. Your offering: the product, services and all the ancillary experiences you intend to deliver to your customers, and …

… Customers’ perceptions of your offering: What you communicate about yourself and what you promise to deliver, augmented by all they see and hear about you from others

2. Your effectiveness and consistency in executing your vision, and …

… Your customers’ judgments about the quality of your execution (again, heavily influenced by the experiences, beliefs and prejudices of sources beyond your control)

Your brand, then, is the distillation of your customers’ expectations about your company and products and their experiences with you. And the value of your brand – your brand equity – results from:

1. Your ability to design and deliver offerings which potential customers find especially attractive: Understanding what your potential customers need and want, and tailoring your business to deliver what they are eager to spend their $$$ on, is fundamental to creating a successful business and a successful brand.

2. Your ability to consistently and effectively deliver what you promise

Tags: Brand, brand equity, logo, trade name, trademark
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Part 1 – Introduction to Brands and Branding

January 4th, 2011

Part I of an extended exploration of nature and value of “Branding” and practical discussion of how to create, strengthen and extract greater value from your ‘Brand’

From the largest corporations to the entrepreneurial start-up, “Branding” is a concept, a strategy, an exercise near and dear to the hearts of business owners and marketing leaders. Unfortunately, ‘Brand’ and ‘Branding’ are subjects as likely to sow confusion and wasted resources as they are to drive business and marketing excellence.

To many entrepreneurs and market development managers, ‘Branding’ means selecting a name, designing a logo, and laying out a snappy advertising campaign. Their driving interest is to generate early visibility, credibility and awareness, and to stimulate a respectable number of potential customers to ‘try and buy.’ Others approach Branding as a long term business strategy, a sustained investment aimed at creating Millions or Billions of Dollars worth of ‘brand equity.’

There is a depth of truth in each of these concepts of “Branding”, along with a significant degree of incompleteness. Great new products might never reach the light of day without a healthy infusion of introductory publicity and hype. But, relegating your branding investment to your new product launch risks leaving significant $$$ – potentially Billions of $$$ - on the table.

An intelligent approach to branding encompasses both the short term need for visibility, credibility and recognition, and the longer term opportunity to create tremendous power and wealth in your brand. While tactics to implement these diverging views of the ‘branding’ may appear radically different, the fundamentals are surprisingly similar:

1. Crafting an offering which is especially attractive to potential users

2. Communicating your promise to deliver performance characteristics and experiences that are valuable to the customers you hope to attract

3. Establishing your visibility and credibility among audiences which matter most

4. Consistently delivering what you promise

Simple enough, but there is a world of marketing strategy, plans and tactics – not to mention the hard work of consistent execution – required to create and communicate your promised ‘valuable product performance and experience’. In the following chapters, we will:

- Take a closer look at the fundamentals and value creating potential of a well planned and well executed branding strategy

- Highlight important steps that you can take to strengthen and extend the power of your brand

A couple of notes regarding fundamentals:

- As used here, the term ‘customer’ goes far beyond your transactional customer, the party who hands you a credit card or sends you a check. It also encompasses the much larger circle of the public which can influence you failure or success – potential customers and disgruntled former customers, competitors, commentators and regulators, internet busy-bodies, …

- ‘Product’ means whatever you’re selling – cars or cupcakes, business consulting or personal advice, dental or banking services – along with all the things that go along with it (your price, instruction booklets and telephone tech service, packaging, “batteries required – purchase separately”….)

- “Experience” is all those other ways that you touch your customers and community – the ease of finding and navigating your website or store, how well you answer emails and the telephone, the friendliness of your people, your ability to ‘get it right the first time’, the news and publicity that you and your employees generate ….

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Brands and Branding

December 29th, 2010

Your “brand” is the sum of everything that people think, feel, believe and ‘know’ about your company and your products and services
- Peoples’ experience with, and impressions of your company create your brand (with or without your guidance)
- Logos, trademarks, slogans, etc symbolize your brand
- Advertising, websites and signage publicize your brand
Successful brands create ‘equity’, value over and above the utility of their product
——————— // ———————
From the largest corporations to the entrepreneurial start-up, “Branding” is a concept, a strategy, an exercise that is near and dear to the hearts of marketers and business owners. Unfortunately, brands and branding are subjects as likely to sow confusion and wasted resources as they are to drive business and marketing excellence.

The Marketing Intelligence Blog will kick off 2011 with a series of posts designed to lift some of the mystery around “Brands and Branding” and to help you create and nurture the good name, recognition and value of your company, its products and services.

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Remember …

December 20th, 2010

What you think about your business is much less important than what your CUSTOMERS think – and what they feel – about your business.

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Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business

November 12th, 2010

A recent article at Yahoo Finance, “Ten Mistakes that Start-Up Entrepreneurs Make,” is a must-read for inventors, entrepreneurs and small business owners. Mistake Number 3, in particular, rings a bell with this marketing guy:

“3. Spending too much time on product development, not enough on sales”

Most inventors and entrepreneurs – from the newest medical device, to 3-D imaging software, to a designer cupcake and cookie business – are stretched just too thin. Under-resourced, under staffed and under-funded, the typical start-up is forced to prioritize and sacrifice … and areas often neglected are marketing and sales. Here are 7 things every start-up and small business should be doing to assure that the customers will be there, $$$ in hand, when you open for business:

1. Early, EARLY, EARLY in the life of your start-up, figure out who your likely customers will be. Who has the passion – and the $$$ – to buy a product or service like your? Where are you likely to find them? And even more important, where are they mostly likely to go – on the street or on the internet – to discover a product like yours?
2. Understand what your potential customers love and what they hate about products or services like yours. Then, emphasize the things the like, provide a solution to the things they hate, and don’t waste your time and resources on things they don’t care about
3. Test your concept – early and often. Ideas that seem obvious on paper or in your discussions around the company coffee pot are often far less than obvious to outsiders – investors, supplier or distribution partners, and potential customers. Entrepreneurs often fear that a competitor will ‘steal’ their idea, but for most start-ups, the much bigger danger is sinking all your hard work and $$$ into a venture that customers don’t care about.
4. Nothing can jump-start your start-up better than an early success, so Focus, FOCUS, FOCUS! I know, that dazzling set of opportunities that you envision is seductive, but the temptation to pursue them all is an invitation to doing none of them well enough. Pick a particular offering (or closely related family of offerings), a customer segment you know well, and a well defined distribution scheme. Then, invest all your effort in making it work. The credibility, confidence, publicity, and knowledge – not to mention cash flow – you gain from your first success will make it that much easier to pick off the next and the next and the next opportunity.
5. Remove any hurdles that make it inconvenient for your customers to do business with you. Take a look at your own business through the eyes of a customer: Is it easy to find and get into your store – on the street or on the internet? Does your website and your storefront signage clearly and succinctly explain your business? How can I learn more about you, your product, your business? Do you offer a convenient assortment of payment options and customer-conscious return and refund policies?
Remember – What you think about your business is ultimately a lot less important than what your customers think and feel about it.
6. Share your success. You deserve to be amply rewarded for pushing your idea to fulfillment, but don’t forget the ones who helped get your there. It’s the right thing to do – and it’s darned good business. The more closely that your partners’ success is linked to yours, the harder your employees, your suppliers and your distribution partners will work for yours.
7. Get to know, understand and appreciate your customers. Organize your business so that it’s a positive, rewarding and hassle-free experience every time your customer touches you – beginning with their first phone call, email or their first step inside your store.

Tags: customer, innovation, know your customer, marketing
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Where Should You Spend Your Time?

June 30th, 2010

Stefan Doering (New York Entrepreneur Week) started an important Linked-In discussion, asking “As CEO, Where Do You Spend Most of Your Time?” Many leaders of businesses large or small, I suspect, would react much as Doering’s audience ….

“On Monday I had a room of 30+ entrepreneurs glaring at me…. It started when I asked them how much time they spend in the following three basic areas of (any) business … The room fell silent when I told them how much they should spend:
Marketing: 60-80%
Production: 10-30%
Administration: 10%
…. [ because ] There is no one in your company that can sell your company better than you. No one!”

Doering’s is timely advice to anyone with an interest in making their business more successful, but it is especially pertinent to the majority of entrepreneurs whose business is the creation of their subject matter expertise – their superior ability to make or do something useful.

Marketing isn’t intuitive to many of us, and not comfortable for many others. If you’re one of these ….

First – Take time to something about marketing. The web is full of useful sources, great discussions, and access to real expertise. Linked-In and similar networking sites are particularly useful.
Second – Invest a lot of time getting to know your customers. Spend more time listening than talking. Find out what makes their business and their customer tick. Spend less effort trying to explain why your offering is so good and more effort figuring out how to solve their problems.
Third – Structure every aspect of your company – from product design, to sales, to invoicing, to customer service, to how the phones are answered and the emails responded to – to make it easier and more attractive for your customers to deal with you.

Remember – The ONLY source of your profits is a throng of customers eager to spend their $$$ with you.

Tags: CEO activities, entrepreneur
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Growing a Solar Business with Marketing Research

June 29th, 2010

In a recent Marketing Intelligence & Strategy project, I helped a small business owner:
1. Understand local markets and potential buyers for solar energy systems in residential and commercial buildings.
2. Create programs to educate local architects and builders about solar technologies and the viability of solar-electric and solar hot water systems in home and commercial building environments.
3. Implement a marketing communications program to inform homeowners and commercial building owners about the availability and parcticality of solar energy systems in the local marketplace.
For more about the insights and recommendations of this MISA project and its results ….

http://rcbrothers1.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/growing-a-solar-business/

Tags: homeowner, marketing communication, soalr energy
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More on ‘Green’ Chemicals

June 28th, 2010

A recently completed study by Marketing Intelligence & Strategy assessed market opportunities in the US and Western Europe for selected commodity industrial chemicals made by a new biology-based process. Key conclusions included:

1. In both the US and Europe, users of large volume commodity chemicals and solvents are eager to learn about and purchase ‘greener’ alternatives.
2. There is widespread acknowledgement that claims about the ‘green-ness’ of materials and processes are difficult to verify and thus difficult to accept as the basis for important business decisions.
3. Most industry figures would welcome a consistent, comprehensive way to assess cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of incumbent materials and ‘greener’ alternatives.
4. New REACh regulations being implemented in Europe represent a substantial hurdle, especially for smaller manufacturers, particularly those not already established in the Europe and marketplace.

Tags: chemicals, green, REACh, renewable resources
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Markets for “Green” Chemicals

June 23rd, 2010

Here is a quick summary of a consulting project I recently completed.
If this sort of assessment would be valuable to you, please contact:
Bob Brothers
Marketing Intelligence & Strategy
bob@market-intel.com

Working with the client’s VP of Business Development, Marketing Intelligence & Strategy Associates created profiles of the US and European marketplace for a selected family of industrial chemicals. MISA prioritized important market opportunities and developed marketing strategy and implementation recommendations for “green” versions of these products, made from a new, environmentally friendly manufacturing process.

MISA Principal Bob Brothers conducted interviews with key industry participants and utilized published information sources, to:

- Define the size and value of key end uses, and profile major suppliers and consumers of the targeted products.
- Explain the buying decision processes of key potential customers, and their protocols for evaluating and approving new products and suppliers
- Determine key customers’ and end users’ attitudes, materials selection and marketing practices around “green” products and formulations.
- Explain the impact of European REACh regulations upon targeted market segments in the EU and the resulting limitations and opportunities for the client to enter the European marketplace.

Insights and recommendations provided by MISA gave the client confidence to accelerate its investment and business development activities in the new “green” manufacturing process.

Tags: green chemicals, market research, market strategy, Marketing Intelligence & Strategy, REACh
Posted in 'Green' Marketing | 1 Comment »

Advice to New Employees

April 28th, 2010

Some good advice for new grads in their first job – and a good reminder for the rest of us – in a recent post over on Yahoo Finance. Yahoo’s 6 career damaging mistakes:

1. Thinking that because you have your degree, you shouldn’t have to do grunt work.
2. Not being thorough.
3. Thinking that what you post on social networking sites doesn’t matter.
4. Procrastinating.
5. Not putting effort into forming relationships with older colleagues.
6. Not saying “thank you.”

Here are a couple of more —
- Not being a team player. In much of your college work, you were on your own, competing, even, against your classmates. In business, however, you’re almost always part of a team, collaborating to accomplish a task. The more you can learn to get things done with and through other people, the more likely your long term success.

- Not learning the Big Picture. Again, in college, you’re typically given a well defined problem with an outcome that falls within a well defined set of possibilities. Although your early job assignments will probably be small manageable pieces of a larger business problem, the important business problems are hardly ever clearly defined or understood, and rarely do they have an obvious path to a solution. Context, history, and relationships often matter as much as the technology and analytics. Those who can put it all together are rare and valuable to your employer.

And – especially for young women – be mindful of the image you project. Study after study show the advantage – for both men and women – of being attractive, but a reputation as the office ‘hottie’ is not an ingredient for long term career success. Study and model you behaviors and appearance after people at the level of your boss’s boss. They have already achieved some measure of success, and they provide you with a clear indication of what your employer values and rewards.

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