by Miriam Hara | Apr 2, 2015 | Branding, Business Success, Latest, Marketing, Social Media
There was a time (in the recent past) when brand sell was all about showcasing features and benefits to an intended target audience. With the emergence of social media, the art of the brand sell has evolved to include a very real social component. Social media has made engagement and response rate some of the main objectives for brands. With that, in the framework of brand development, the art of storytelling has become much more important. What was once brand sell, is now story sell. Now brand marketers need to wrap their initiatives around the story sell of their brand. Like it or not, engagement is where it’s at today and the way to consumers’ hearts is through storytelling.
The connection established through story sell is much deeper than brand sell.
So why not merge the two? For most of us marketers, this is nothing new. Brand sell was and is about brand storytelling, but now it is more socially inclined. Brand stories need to take their intended audience on an emotional journey. They need to connect with them on a deeper level, establishing a promise not so much in words, but in context and feeling.
Here are some pivotal components to developing good story sell:
1. What is your brand’s personality? What are its characteristics? Is it serious and no-nonsense? Is it fun? Is it highbrow? List all of them.
2. How does your brand’s personality and characteristics tie in with its potential consumers’ values? Dig deep. We like people based on their personality and characteristics, but we maintain the relationship because they connect with our values.
3. What are your brand’s preferences? What does your brand like? What does your brand dislike? What your brand doesn’t like, want or have is equally as important as what is does.
4. Who are your brand’s potential friends? We all have various types of friends. Those friends have at least one thing in common – they’re friends with us. What are the other common denominators that make your brand a fit in amongst its friends?
The social sharing of a brand story is of paramount importance to forging a deeper connection with the consumer. Entering into the zone of the consumer’s intimate social media space is where sharing your brand story is crucial. Make your next brand sell approach all about brand story sell.
Heard a good brand story lately? Please share it here with us.
by Miriam Hara | Mar 13, 2015 | Branding, Business Success, Communications, Latest, Management, Social Media
Could it be that corporate social media has seen its day in the sun? Only a few short years ago social media growth was exponential. Now it’s slowing down – almost to a crawl. Yet the explosion of the social media channel caused major corporations and small businesses alike to throw budget and people power at it.
Today, I feel that the burst of corporate social media has come and gone. Now, corporate social media as a channel has taken its place alongside the many other communications channels that are available to businesses and their brands. Corporations are reallocating the resources they once channeled into their corporate social media initiatives to other marketing, sales and customer service departments.
It wasn’t that long ago that social media as a communications channel was the place to be, especially for big corporations. Business and brands alike jumped on the bandwagon to be among the first or second waves of those to be part of the corporate social media growth phenomena.
It’s a little disconcerting that what was just recently touted as the channel to be in, is now almost an add-on in the corporate landscape. Why is this happening? Has business grown more fickle? Or is it that corporate social media initiatives haven’t delivered the desired results?
Like any emerging channel, corporate social media had a growth/learning curve. This resulted in ill-defined tasks and roles as well as a lack of understanding about realistic objectives or ROI expectations. The essence of social media is that it takes time. It takes effort and it takes patience. The expectation of a quick ROI was ill-founded. Corporations saw small businesses, entrepreneurs and even everyday people take to social media and succeed virally – thinking it was easy. Inevitably many found out that it wasn’t that easy and even if initiatives did achieve viral status, few garnered true ROI.
The state of corporate social media is really sitting on a precarious perch. It’s at risk of becoming part of corporate communications, or even worse, shared by many departments with no one strategy leading the way. Many would say that social media is part of corporate communications. Well, maybe I just see it differently.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on this? Do you agree that social media as a channel in business is moving away from what it was intended to be?
by Miriam Hara | Mar 10, 2015 | Advertising, Agency, Branding, Business Success, Communications, Latest
How do you determine if your branding and advertising agency is your true soul mate?
In today’s fast-paced market conditions it’s important for your agency to be part of your marketing team. What makes a branding and advertising agency a true partner? In order to come up with a good answer, what needs to be established is: What are your expectations of an agency? Is it great creative? Is it thinking outside of the box?
It goes without saying that every relationship takes two parties to come together and it’s based on both parties’ willingness to make it work. The basis of this article however, is about the degree of difficulty to making the relationship work.
Here are a few indicators to determine if the branding and advertising agency you have on board really is your business soul mate.
Adding value: The sign of a good agency is that it acts as your partner. Your agency should also always have the brand’s or business’s best interest at heart. In order to do that, they need to anticipate the needs of the brand and bring forward any issues they foresee. They need to take the brief you provided and expand on it – adding alternatives that you as a brand manager may not have thought of.
Attention to detail: When time is of the essence and turnarounds are quick, team players must all do their part to make sure that details are accurately addressed. Regardless of the relationship you have, “My bad.” shouldn’t cut it as an excuse.
Meeting budgets: Your agency needs to be in control of projects and their budgets, not the other way around. One sure way of knowing if an agency does exercise control, is if they have the ability to raise a flag at the precise time that a project’s budget starts going north.
Delivery on timelines: Let’s face it, an agency’s role is to help make the brand team look good. One of the easiest ways to do so is by meeting timelines. The agency world is all about deadlines, does your agency meet yours?
Creative relevance: It’s important for any brand initiative that the communications set forth have creative relevance. It’s not about pretty pictures, or creative awards. It’s about strategy and resonating with the consumer base. If you find that you constantly have to wrestle with your agency about what your brand is about and meeting requirements, maybe they are not the “one”.
Do you agree? What are some issues you have come across when dealing with your branding and advertising agency?
by Miriam Hara | Feb 13, 2015 | Branding, Business Success, Communications, Latest, Marketing
The most common marketing pitfall that brand keepers make that I have come across is “talking to themselves”. I am not eluding that I have never fallen into that marketing pitfall myself. However, I believe after years of training against “talking to myself”, the lesson has finally kicked in!
It goes without saying that most of us marketers pride ourselves on the the fact that we know our brand. Not only do we know it, we live it, breath it and love it. In order to excel at our profession, we need to understand and know our product, our market, its various segments, the competition and of course our target markets.
It’s so easy to fall into the marketing pitfall of “talking to yourself”. After all, aren’t your views, your expertise and experience what the brand needs? Isn’t that why you’re at the “marketing table” so to speak? The short answer is yes and no. How do you determine if you are succeeding to make important decisions about your brand not basing them on your own point of view?
As professional marketers, it can be easy for us to believe that we see the world the same way that consumers see it. Simply put, that’s not accurate.
That’s really the most common marketing pitfall. Think of it this way: There’s a reason why market research surveys eliminate those of us who say we are in marketing. We just don’t view the world the same way.
The truth is, to be a good marketing professional, you need to immerse yourself in your brand and then you need to step away from it. You need to ask the key questions, listen to the responses and most importantly, be prepared to make the necessary changes.
As marketers we need to understand that consumers don’t think of our brand for a fraction of the time that we do. Hopefully, your brand is in the subconscious minds of your consumers, although they just don’t think of it in the same way that you do. But, your brand will become top of mind for those consumers who are in need of the ‘product’, from cars, tablets, detergent to salt. Of course, that’s if you’ve done your job properly.
So when you’re designing your next brand campaign or building a better website, don’t assume. Research, develop questionnaires that are designed to flesh out the real story of your brand to determine what it means to consumers and how they perceive it. To avoid this marketing pitfall of “talking to yourself” you need wear your consumer’s shoes. That way, you’ll talk the way they do.
by Miriam Hara | Feb 9, 2015 | Branding, Business Success, Latest, Marketing
What type of marketer are you really? Are you a brand maker or a brand keeper? Is there a difference? Before going any further, I would like to point out that there is no shame in being one or the other – Brand and business need both.
In the era of personal branding, it is becoming vastly important to define yourself within your profession so that you and your brand can achieve success. At the same time, there is no gain in not being truthful about the qualities you have.
Defining these two types of marketers is probably the best way to distinguish their differences. A brand maker is involved with key decisions that involve the destiny of a brand or business. Whereas, a brand keeper holds to the path of the brand as it has been determined by others. Also, a brand maker takes risks, albeit calculated and educated risks, but risks all the same. A brand keeper is ofter risk adverse. A brand maker relies on intuition coupled with the information they have through all other channels. They can “see” the next curve and aren’t unafraid to go up to bat and fight for the direction that the brand needs to go in.
In reality, a brand existence needs both to grow and flourish. In my view, whether you’re a brand maker or brand keeper is subject to the market environment. Due to globalization, it’s a market reality many marketers are faced with today. However, regardless of why, the truth of it still applies.
I read a statement from Beloved Brands, taken from a slide presentation about Personal Branding for Leaders. The author, Graham Robertson, eloquently and succinctly stated, “With less control over the pure direction of a business or brand, marketing becomes a bit more of a do-er support function who explains what has already been done by the brand, rather than a strategic marketer who leads the business.”
As markets are merging, and the world is getting smaller, so is the business world. The advent of technology has facilitated the ease of viewing information and content internationally. Like all situations in business, it’s a matter of opportunity. There does still exist opportunities to shape business and brands wherever you are. So essentially it’s a matter of if you are willing to take that opportunity and run with it. You decide.
by Miriam Hara | Nov 7, 2014 | Branding, Latest, Marketing
Believable brands, do they exist? If so what makes them believable? At one time or another we’ve all loved specific brands. Brands that ingrain themselves in the hearts and minds of consumers’. Brands that evoke an emotional reaction from consumers on a deep, personable level. Does loving a brand, or caring for a brand also automatically make it believable?
What are believable brands? Or more importantly, what makes for believable brands? I believe that in today’s world, consumers expect brands to care by providing them with information or education without having to purchase anything from them. Why is that? Well Gen Y and now Gen Z have grown up in a world where information, music, movies and books are shareable – and mostly for free! The digital world has provided so many with the ability to bootleg much of what Gen X and the Baby Boomers had to pay for. The new consumer isn’t really conscious of propriety rights, nor do they care. Nothing is contained. Nothing is owned. But the expectation of “receiving” information, advice or knowledge for free is definitely there.
Brands need to step up to the plate and not only talk the talk but walk the walk, in order to become believable brands.
Why? Because the consumers of today have come to expect a relationship with the brands they purchase. The theory of cognitive dissonance has evolved encompassing a longer time frame – perhaps even a continuous time flow. In order for brands to a keep top of mind position with consumers in today’s crowded space, they must maintain their stance consistently, socially talking with their consumers.
To resonate with today’s emerging consumer, brands need to provide information, helpful hints, advice as well as engage in authentic, thought provoking dialogue. It isn’t about selling, it’s about leveraging and owning the category. This is the only way to establish believability.
The social media space has allowed for the constant questioning and assessment of a brand. How can a brand maintain its believability? The customer journey allows for so many touch points which on a whole create the essence of the brand’s believability. These are 1) brand voice 2) brand tone 3) brand promise 4) brand premise. What is equally important for brands to achieve the pinnacle of believability is to maintain consistent exposure through traditional and social media in order to encourage dialogue and to continuously increase reach.
What do you think? What makes for a believable brand?
