It’s all around us. Stars, personalities and with the Olympics around the corner, athletes, persuading us to buy into a brand. This isn’t anything new. In the world of social media and twitter, celebrity influence is becoming stronger,marketers are able to quantify their following and influence. The fact that many brands get celebrities to act as their brand spokesperson, appearing in commercials, using their products in music videos, etc… has always been a true and tried marketing strategy. It’s an easy leap from personality to brand… someone who represents and speaks on behalf of the brand to the public and literally becomes the brand personified.
A celebrity brand spokeperson/ambassador can help a brand relate to their target audience as it’s easier to connect with another human being than an abstract notion of what a brand is. The spokesperson brand strategy really became prevalent and mainstream when Nike used Michael Jordan in 1984. Today you see Jennifer Hudson in ads for Weightwatchers, Jennifer Aniston promoting Smart Water and various music artists signing along to Pepsi.
However, a spokesperson can also be someone from within the brand itself. Many brands chose the founders to act as spokespersons. Presidents’ Choice does it with Galen Weston. Franchise operation Liquid Nutrition combines the two. Liquid Nutrition is backed and enable by owners/spokespersons such as Steve Nash, Suzann Pettersen, Russell Martin, Torah Bright, Matt Ryan, Vincent Lecavalier and Elaine Hastings.
When choosing a spokesperson, it’s important to keep these steps in mind:
Identify the key values of the brand. What is your brands positioning statement? How do you want the public to perceive your brand? How does your brand identify itself in the marketplace?
Research possible candidates who might embody those values. A spokesperson can’t be just anybody. They have to fit in with the brand. Any associations with scandal-ridden individuals can have negative results for a brand. Remember what happened with Kate Moss and Tiger Woods?
Develop key messages. What specifically do you want the public to know about your brand? It will be the job of the spokesperson to deliver those messages.
Don’t make the spokesperson the brand.The spokesperson must embody the brand, represent the brand and build brand momentum. But the brand must be able to stand, grow and develop a persona on its own. The spokesperson is just another channel through which the brand spreads its message. Nike did this well…
Make sure the spokesperson is media trained. It is essential that the spokesperson knows the key messages and is comfortable engaging with the various channels through which consumers get their information, whether it be print, television, social media or radio. A spokesperson has to be able to speak and correctly deliver the message based on the medium. If not, the message gets lost.
What has your experience working with a brand spokesperson been like? What steps did you take to find an appropriate spokesperson?
In clear terms, it defines your company’s direction… and actually acts as a compass through growth opportunities and changing market conditions. It is the critical platform for all communications. Without direction or focus, the brand goes…. absolutely everywhere… and not in a good way!
It seems very easy to create… A few words that speak volumes. How difficult can it be? More to the matter, how significant is a positioning statement? Positioning Statements, or in the case of Consumer Packaged Brands, slogans, have been at the heart of advertising sell copy since the inception of mass selling.
It is an important component of your marketing initiative… if not the most important. Positioning is not just a fluffy marketing word… it defines and identifies your Brand/Business. A brand positioning statement eloquently states your brand’s “stake in the sand”. Moreover, it expresses “This is who I am, this is what I do, this is what and how I deliver”. In basic marketing practice, the easiest way to describe a positioning statement is that it announces to the world what makes your brand stand out above the rest and how you do that in a very succinct message.
Keep your brand/business on track with a powerful positioning statement. So how do you go about developing one?
A good marketing exercise to do prior to attempting to create your own positioning statement is to look at the brands that have successful taglines and try to identify the key messages that the tagline promotes. Ask yourself if the statement is relevant to what the brand promises, or the product delivers….or if it speaks to the service the business provides. View the positioning statement in rewind. You’ll find that the good positioning statements easily reflect the market, the target and the benefit of each brand or business. Here are some to get you started: McCain “It’s all good TM”campaign, “i’m lovin’ it”, an international branding campaign by McDonald’s Corporation (they incorporated it with their logo), and Scotiabank “You’re richer than you think”.
In this new world of do-it-yourself marketing and branding, many start-up companies go at developing a brand positioning statement on their own. Often those positioning statements end up being descriptors of the brand. Like the warning copy on an Evil Knievel daredevil act, I urge you not try this at home… and alone!
Here are the must haves of a positioning statement, in no particular order:
1) The Promise: Must state what we offer.
2) The Benefit: Must clearly identify what’s in it for them.
3) Personality: Must reflect the culture and brand voice.
4) Originality/Uniqueness: Must be a thing of beauty and joy.
5) Simplicity: Must be so succinct as to inspire a “wow”.
6) Longevity…. it must be there for the long haul.
What better way to demonstrate the importance of clearly stating the benefit simply within a positioning statement than with the Muppets! Watch this video clip from the Muppets Take Manhattan movie, for Ocean Breeze Soap. The message is bang on!
Once you achieve the Positioning Statement…. you must, and this is so very important: Use it consistently and frequently on all communication pieces. On business cards, web sites, apps, trade booths, ppt presentations, print ads, radio ads, digital ads, TV ads, leave behinds, etc, etc, etc.
This positioning statement will drive your message home to consumers, just like a GPS and will definitely build the foundation for brand recognition. Check out our ebook “Branding Understood” to get your gears turning!
Does your positioning statement have what it takes to direct your brand’s destiny?
Are you going app-crazy? How many apps do you have downloaded on your iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Android? Surely you’ve contributed to the latest stats that I’ve been hearing… to date, Apple has surpassed 25 billion (BILLION) apps downloaded, and 60,000 more added every month! I probably don’t need to tell you that mobile apps create interactive experiences. It goes without saying that they improve your business’ visibility. Today it’s all about 24/7 access to instant information and location sensitive content. In the not so distant future, mobile devices will replace traditional computers completely.
Being in business (B2B) or having a brand (B2C) there is ultimately one question to answer and deliver on: How do you break through the app clutter?
Well, just because it’s a new channel doesn’t mean you need to throw away traditional techniques. In fact, they are even more important to adhere to. To effectively market your app you must use a consistent, measured approach to best guarantee long-term success. Taking the time to ensure adequate support of the product, considering your market and designing a marketing strategy is vital. Understanding the value of the channel and the media properties you employ is key so that you don’t spend your entire marketing budget in the first few weeks.
Tips to successfully market your mobile app: 1) Build your website: I know it may sound crazy, but make sure your foundation is sound. You may have a great app, but eventually you’ll want to turn that app subscriber to a customer and client, and that takes a solid website ready and positioned to handle incoming traffic and lead generation. 2) Blog and update regularly, connect with like-minded blogs to promote your app. Your profile or company profile for each blog should always speak to your app, with a link to download it now. 3) Be the first! Be unique!It’s tough to be the first to come out with your type of app in an already saturated market , but you can offer an existing concept in a different way or be innovative taking an existing app and making it better. 4) Develop and Implement a Strategy: I won’t belabour this point. Let’s just say Marketing 101. 5)Shout it out!Being first or being unique doesn’t get you anywhere if people don’t know about it. Don’t wink in the dark! Consider a pay-per-success campaign where you are only required to part with money if the advert leads to a direct download. Don’t do it yourself… if you can’t. Enlist the services of a promotional tool to toot your horn to targeted audiences. 6) Build up hype about your app launch: A combined approach incorporating word-of-mouth, viral marketing and advertising is the best way to keep your downloads high and think long-term sustained success by staggering your message.
No shoemakers children here at 3H: Following our own advice, we have a just launched our new marketing app : Hoopla…. download it now! Just click here.
I like to think of Internal branding as mushy on the inside, solid on the outside… just like those chocolate coated marshmellow cookies! Businesses must realize that their internal brand must be a focus and it takes more than a positioning statement on t-shirts or jackets to make that happen. It is no longer viable for companies to rely on their external customer base to propagate the brand experience to their internal customers: their personnel. Gone are the days that the external message of brand is all that counts. In today’s environment, in order for an external brand to succeed, the internal organization, its employees, its processes all have to align themselves to the external brand…. if not, you’ll be short in offering your market base in brand experience, brand premise, brand promise and brand delivery.
Remember when offering friends and family discounts to your staff was the whole internal brand initiative companies employed? By doing this, companies provided employees with a way to “advertise” their product. In today’s social market, employees’ friends and families cast a wider net! Internal branding allows the potential of each employee becoming a proponent of your brand. They can and will be your best PR campaign. Word of mouth has taken on a whole new meaning.
Whether your business is in CPG (consumer packaged goods), b2b, medical, financial or non-profit… the ability to engage your personnel with your product, brand and service goes a long way in creating a complete brand experience. Organizations need to walk the talk. Today’s savvy consumers/customers expect and want more from their purchasing experience. In order to buy into a brand, to endorse it and select it, the complete 360 degree brand messaging must be consistent… and that includes your internal people. But how to do that?
To start, develop a clear company vision: Just like a brand positioning statement, this doesn’t have to be elaborate, however, it needs to be succinct. This isn’t anything new. Companies have always had a visions statement…. however, what you do with this company vision must be considerably more than framing it and placing it on the wall.
Identify key personnel to be the “internal brand ambassadors”, to motivate colleagues to embrace the vision: This is imperative. Identifying leaders within each department of your business will go a long way in creating a holistic experience for your brand. Empowering these ambassadors will ensure that within their department that the brand vision and premise stay strong and in line.
The company vision needs to be communicated to the internal team and “adopted” by senior management: The old adage “Do as I say…. not as I do” doesn’t work anymore. The culture of an organization needs to deliver on its brand promise. Actions speak louder than words. Management must get in line and be expected to tow the mantra.
Develop clear goals and measurement metrics, to assess along the way. (ie: sales mix % per sales person, customer service process and goals). This goes a long way in engaging employees and making them part of the process as “part of their job”. This assists in establishing the expectations and tying them up to the brand experience.
And lastly, but definitely very significant in the adoption of internal branding, is the ability to establish goals and reward personnel who demonstrate that they have embraced the culture.
In order to propel a cultural shift within an organization where employees are more client focused and more business focused, a developed and organized plan is essential in order to lead to the desired outcome. Just like everything else in business, a strategic plan identifying key goals is the first step. This will enable all key employees, and key stakeholders to be more engaged and relevant in the business process. I don’t remember where I read this but it did resonate with me: “There is a difference between communicating a message, and getting it understood, and changing behaviour.” So next time your are in a marketing meeting ready to establish your brand deliverables, don’t forget to bring those chocolate covered mashmallow cookies!
We’ve all said it before… but I’ll say it again. Brand is so much more than a logo, than a positioning statement. These establish the brand premise and the foundation to build the brand culture. A true brand must be bold, must stand apart every time it speaks to the consumer. It must always be authentic to its premise. It must reinforce its uniqueness and authenticity with every piece of communication… whether it’s an e-initiative, an ad, outdoor campaign, digital campaign, website, customer letter, greeting card and, yes, even a sign on the wall.
It has always been my belief that every detail that is viewed by the target market is an integral piece of the brand building process. I have always correlated building brand to building a house. The logo and the positioning statement are the foundation of the brand. Then the framework, dry walls, windows all have to be added…. to support and build the “total vision” of the house.
This “building strategy” recognizes the need of investing a little more in say, a business card or a leave behind , and is as integral as a full scale advertising campaign. Okay, I hear you asking the question… what do I mean by “investing a little more?” This is what I mean: look at every communication piece and ask the number one question… “How do I make my brand the sole owner of this piece?” Is it only colour? Is it simply by stating the brand’s offering? Does the initiative I am working on speak to my Brand and communicate my Brand solely… only and truly? Is it moving beyond the mundane, true and tried initiatives that have been done… offering no intrinsic value, no additional wow effect to my target audience? Does it assist in making my brand stand apart…even before they read it…as soon as they see it?
How to evaluate a marketing piece and increase the brand ROI of that piece. Here’s a simple way that will help you in answering the question.
If a competitor can replace your logo with theirs, change the colour and the words and use everything else that you’ve developed than you haven’t created a unique brand piece. This question works whether you are evaluating an ad, a flyer, a billboard, a sales aid, a leave behind, brochure, etc…
So how do you create a brand piece that no one can “take” from you. The answer is easy:
Create it so that it reflects your Brand Offering and USP… and I don’t just mean plopping a logo, and making everything in your brand colours (although that is must!). The initiative has to speak to the Brand Culture, position in personality, in format, in copy style. This is the only way that competitors can’t mimics your brand or “take ” your initiative and make it their own… because they can’t deliver on the promise or on your brand’s USP… only your brand can.
In short: creating brand ROI is the first step in achieving business success.It is obvious that Brand must provide ROI. But what should be the expectation of delivering on brand ROI? Is it reasonable to expect brand ROI immediately? Is it reasonable because you have a website and a logo to expect that your brand initiatives are done and all other initiatives just need to follow through? Today, more than ever, halfway measures and “me too look alikes” will damage the performance of you brand and believe me, that will definitely effect the brand ROI.
I look forward to your comments and discussing your point of view. I invite you to join in the conversation! If you got here via a link from a friend, or Linkedin, I invite you to join the conversation on marketing, branding and design… sign up on 3H hoopla! here.
