Your prospect’s potential attachment to your brand can be measured and understood when you have a complete and clear understanding of the “meaning” that they assign to your brand. Uncovering that meaning is the first step in the process — understanding the implications of that meaning is the second step.

We learn a great deal about the robustness of a brand when we examine it in this way. We can understand the current preference levels, the competitors that are most vulnerable to attack, and predict trends and currents. All of this gathered intelligence data has strategic and tactical implications for all of us. If you do not have this information (and subsequent analysis) at your fingertips you are steering blindly. If your competitors have this knowledge and you don’t’ — you are on the fast track to a major collision and your brand will come out holding short-stick, even if you are currently the runaway market leader.

Knowledge is Different from Information

The idea of information and knowledge are linked — in that the clarity and value of the information you collect about your brand and the competitive market space in which you compete directly effects the value and resulting usefulness of the knowledge you glean. The information you collect is directly linked to the questions you ask. Your marketing strategy would be well served if the same amount of time that went into the analysis of the data were equally spent on the formation of the questions you ask.

When Stealing Share® or Resultant® creates research questionnaires, we spend many weeks creating the research questions. Before the first question is scribed, our strategists have already evaluated the competitive landscape, outlined the major competitors, modeled the behavior of the potential customers we wish to influence, and have hypothesized strategic solutions to the problem. Each of these important steps is necessary because strategic research is different from marketing U&A studies. In U&A studies, marketers are trying to understand how the product (or category of products) is used by the target audience and how they feel about them. Often, an analysis of awareness is included and many times researchers will also probe for what the “brand” means. These studies, made popular by companies with large R&D departments are necessary in helping guide product innovation and change. They are nearly worthless when trying to identify a strategy to take market share from your competitors.

A Preceptive Market Share Study

Preceptive is not a misspelling of perceptive. Precepts are life-organizational beliefs; they are the Magna Charta, Constitution, and Bill of Rights (all wrapped up in one). These core belief systems control everything your potential customer does, needs and wants because they “BELIEVE” them to be true. All of the desires that your customer needs to fill are a result of these core precepts.

Once a precept is adopted as true (there is no need for them to be true, just to believe them to be true is more than enough) the potential customer is compelled to live their life according to them. As brand anthropologists, we are able to use these powerful currents to ignite trial and loyalty of your brand.

It is quite simple to understand. If the customer is already using a competitor’s product or service, then there is no need to convince them of the efficacy of the category. For example, if they use a bank then there is not reason to convince them that using a bank is safe and smart. If they already choose to dine at a restaurant or to stay at a hotel, then there is no reason to convince them that great food or clean and reasonably priced rooms exist. If they currently use an office phone system, there is no reason to convince them that these systems are necessary, reliable, and easy to use. If they currently have an employee health plan, then there is no reason to convince them that the health plan you sell is reliable, flexible, and affordable. In all of these cases, these are examples of category benefits.

Once you understand that category benefits are indeed “table stakes” and are the minimum values needed to compete in any category, you are left looking for reasons for a potential customer to choose your brand. This is where PRECEPTS come into play — and they are more important than claims of effectiveness and product benefit (which are important too). They are important because they represent the fabric of your potential customer and if your brand represents these precepts, its importance is woven into the very fabric of the brand itself. Choosing differently would be akin to choosing a stranger over a family member or the familiar over the alien. It is where preference resides and yet many brands continue to fight for acceptance rather than preference. This is a mistake — acceptance is merely a result of reflecting the category” table stakes” and preference is where your margins reside.

Finding Your Brand’s Niche

This is a complicated subject to tackle in 900 words and if you desire to learn more, have a conversation with one of your brand strategists and they can explain all the nuances and implications of looking differently at your marketing challenges and developing a plan to create a lasting preference at the expense of your competition. For now, it suffices to say that if your brand returns meaning from your customers that represent category benefits or even levels of effectiveness (like best, fastest, and largest) you have danger signals all around you. These are not “brand” attributes (which are emotional and rooted in Precept) but product attributes which can quickly change colors as soon as a competitor is better, faster, or bigger. Training your customers or potential customers to choose in this way is a dangerous step and one that foretells future troubles. Finding the cues to preference is much more nuanced and difficult than understanding usage behaviors. But, it is vastly more powerful and will propel your brand to preference and market dominance.

Tom Dougherty
CEO, Senior Strategist at Stealing Share, Inc. (http://www.stealingshare.com) Tom began his strategic marketing and branding career in Saudi Arabia working for the internationally acclaimed Saatchi & Saatchi. His brand manager at the time referred to Tom as a “marketing genius,” and Tom demonstrated his talents to clients such as Ariel detergent, Pampers and many other brands throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. After his time overseas, Tom returned to the US where he worked for brand agencies in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. He continued to prove himself as a unique and strategic brand builder for global companies. Tom has led efforts for brands such as Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Fairmont Hotels, Coldwell Banker, Homewood Suites (of Hilton), Tetley Tea, Lexus, Sovereign Bank, and McCormick to name a few. Contact Tom at tomd@stealingshare.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Dougherty

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From large corporate conglomerates and global organizations, to small High-Street stores and independent retailers, the one thing they all value besides their customers is their unique brand identity.

Having a familiar, recognizable brand is priceless in consumer culture and really can’t be underestimated. Given a choice between a known brand and a new brand, a consumer will invariably go with the one they are familiar with.

Of course, the bigger organizations have whole departments dedicated not so much to promoting individual items, but to promoting the entire brand and ensuring its reputation and integrity is protected. But these are organizations that have millions of pounds at their disposal, and can afford television, radio and magazine advertising campaigns.

So, where does that leave the rest? How can the smaller organizations get their message out there and create a brand identity?

Well, there are many promotion and marketing strategies that can be employed that won’t need a blank check to fund it. The key is to simply get their name in the public domain, whether it’s on flyers, websites or newspapers. The more exposure a brand has, the more familiar the public will be with it and subsequently the more likely they will be to use their wares at some point.

Branding promotional products such as pens, bags, keyrings and other commonly used items is a good way of getting a company’s name widely circulated. And producing promotional mugs, in particular, is an effective way of getting a company’s name onto the desk of existing or potential business partners.

The great thing about such promotional methods is that they are relatively inexpensive to produce and it can all be organized with minimal hassle. With promotional mugs, for example, the type of mug (ceramic, china, glass etc), size of mug, colour of mug and quantity required, can all be requested.

Of course, it isn’t only the smaller organizations that use such promotional items. All the big names in the business world produce such items in addition to their media campaigns to help maximize their presence and ensure their brand identity is preserved.

With so much competition in the consumer world, even the smallest of advantages that can be gained over a rival is worth every penny. Brand recognition is central to any successful business, so whether it’s keyrings, bags, pens or mugs, getting the brand name circulated widely is crucial.

Questions on how to start branding your business or organization? Contact us!

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An effective marketing strategy identifies and targets your customers and prospects with the appropriate materials to communicate your company’s “value added” proposition. A strategy that, when it is well articulated and clearly charted, ensures that all your marketing and promotional materials are on target to your audience, have a consistent look and feel appropriate to your brand, and have the correct tone and tenor to communicate your unique selling proposition. If these elements are in place then all the oars of your marketing boat will be in concert, pulling your marketing efforts in the right direction.

The first step in developing a comprehensive marketing communications plan is to write out and clearly articulate what products and/or services your company is selling, to whom, why and what differentiates you from your competition.

Having a firm grasp on these concepts is a requirement to creating a strategy that will elevate your marketing effort to the next level. Capitalizing on this strategy what successful marketing is all about.

With so much competition and an uncertain economy, raising the visibility of your brand above the clutter is key to growing your business. In a constantly changing business environment, measuring results and charting successes and failures of your marketing efforts will show you how to adjust and react to this changing environment. Being armed with measured results and being flexible, you can reinforce the winning efforts and rethink or abandon ineffective and under performing ones. Go with the winners!

Periodic reevaluation of your entire marketing effort will enable you to stay on top of the changing business environment with an active rather than reactive approach. It is far better to be setting the pace rather than chasing your competition. By constantly monitoring and assessing the results of your program and then making adjustments as appropriate with updated and fresh ideas and images, programs and initiatives, you can make sure your company puts its best foot forward with customers and prospects.

Often overlooked and just as important as your customers and prospects, your staff and employees must understand your brand, internalize and deliver on your unique selling proposition. Without buy-in from your staff, you will not have a level of delivery on your value added proposition to keep true to your brand and keep you competitive in the market place.

How much should you be spending towards your marketing efforts. You should consider committing 2%-7% of your gross sales towards your marketing efforts. If this seems like a lot of money, remember this is an investment that will keep the orders and sales coming and keep you profitable.

Finally, get some professional help.

Professionally prepared ad copy, an excellent website, or a great brochure all require the expertise of professionals. While you or your staff may be able to create some of these materials, truly professional marketing can make all the difference in how your customers and potential customers view your company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Gellis

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Marketing is not a one time solution where you go all out and stop at a certain point. Rather, it is an on going process to sustain regular customers or to expand your market. It’s not enough to acquire the services of a large format poster printing company at one point and stop as well. It is a relationship you must keep - both as your business partner and service provider.

• The same thing cannot be said truer with your marketing strategies. It is too a relationship you must keep with your clients and build new ones with your prospects. Sending out a few brochures every now and then or handing out flyers when you feel like it isn’t enough.The only way to retain your hold on your consumers is to remain visible. Planning the right time, for the right products and services, to the right audience are just some of the several things you should consider. Communication is always the key and with which will propel your large format posters well.
• Large format poster printing is a way to anchor your advertising materials. It is the backbone your marketing can build upon. Large outdoor advertisements create the visibility you need to stay on top of your customer’s consciousness. Although it barely scratches the surface, it places a big foot in fast closing doors.

Marketing with Posters For whatever purpose you may think of, large format posters can generally do it for you. Brand your products well, build up your image, announce your promotions and increase your sales.

1. Use posters as a spring board to your marketing plan. Nothing would help establish your campaign better than large posters that can effectively dominate any landscape. Large posters give your other marketing materials a sense of credibility. Being viewed by a large audience, it is accountable to more people to get their facts right and promotional legitimate.
2. Call your clients to action. Poster slogans might be short, but it can be powerful. Suggest actions they can do immediately and conveniently. “Ask your Doctor (or dealer, mechanic, etc)” or “Visit our website”.
3. Use posters as your foot in the door. They can be patterned not just to make or promote direct sales. As illustrated in the previous paragraph, you can use posters to motivate your clients through more information, increase your visibility, and drive clients to your websites or events like trade shows and more.
4. Hammer in the message with repetition. It may be the same message over and over, but it works to build your brand and your customer confidence in your products. Consistency translates to dependability, and dependability sooner or later becomes trustworthiness.
5. The beauty of large format posters is that it is a very low maintenance advertising solution. You have it printed, you put it up and you forget about it, but it still keeps advertising.

Achieve these and more through the expertise of a large format poster printing company who can give you a variety of possibilities - from materials, designs, print options and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carla_San_Gaspar

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Developing a brand strategy can be exciting, but at the same time intimidating. Your brand image is a major part of your marketing plan, but executing it may be a tad more difficult. Building your company’s brand image and identity is a very important step and you want to do it right the first time.

Your brand strategy is something that you will want to implement and promote throughout the life of your business. Branding your image throughout your store can involve the smallest decision, such as which hangers you choose. For a retail clothing store, the hangers you choose can tell your customers if you are a high-end high quality wooden hanger boutique, or if you are a discount plastic hanger outlet. These decisions affect your business in a variety of ways, for example, suits being sold on wooden hangers consistently sell for more than the same suits on plastic or wire hangers. This just gives you one scenario of the type of thinking that should go into branding your image.

A good brand image should communicate something to your customers. The message should be clear and concise. You don’t want your image to be all over the place, but to the point. If I want to offer the best products, then I also want it to be clear that they are the best. I want courteous and professional staff. I want dressing rooms with good lighting. I want everything that you see in my store to give you the impression that you are in the highest quality store around.

Giving a vibe of a certain image helps you connect with your customers. If they feel a type of emotional connection with your store, then they are more likely to return. Connecting with them can motivate them to spend more money. They want to take that feeling that they get in your store home with them. They also will experience the emotion that you evoked every time they wear the item that they purchased from you. When that feeling wears off and they want it back, then they will want to return to the same place and find a new item to renew the feeling.

Coming up with an effective brand strategy isn’t an easy task, but it’s worth all of the time and money that you put into it. Communicating your intentions with your customers can be done through branding. Your unique branding strategy sets you apart from your competitors. Do your research and decide on a major theme that you want to promote. Research your target customer base and find out what makes them tick. Most importantly, what makes them spend money and what makes them come back for more. This could be an emotion that they feel in your store, the type of products that you offer or the deals that they get at your promotional sales. Whatever the motivation is, you need to find out and push the brand image on to everything in your store. Once you do, you’ll enjoy the identity that you create and reap the benefits for the life of your business.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the owner of The Hanger Depot, a leading provider of high quality hangers,including wooden hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.thehangerdepot.com

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Every organizer aspires to throw parties that are the talk of the town for weeks to come, but when word-of-mouth is a little slow to spread, it may need a little push. Send full color club flyers as an invite to tease your guests and create the buzz.

These are a cross between a postcard, a flyer, and an invitation. It looks like a postcard, sounds like an invitation, and are handed out like flyers. It is printed in full color and made of the same cover paper stocks postcards are made of.

Here are some ways club flyers help stoke the fire to create raging events.

1. Two important things to remember when designing your club flyer: people are quick to judge and they have a short attention span. They can decide in a glance whether your event is worth dressing up for and going to or not.

2. When you want to win people’s confidence, sometimes you have to strut in like a peacock and display what you’ve got in full color. Beautiful, professional looking invites give a preview to the amount of attention and sophistication the party has. Design them to make the knock-out first impression that will seal the deal.

3. Give your clients confidence. Word-of-mouth happens because people want the reassurance that in that moment, they have confidently made the right decision. Asking around is simply to confirm that other people feel the same way.

4. Never underestimate the power of curiosity. Flyers tease and flirt with the guests. Giving them enough to spike their curiosity in one effective way of reeling your clients and other interested parties in. Include a little introduction about the DJ you hired for the party or about the popular chef you made delectable and exciting hors d’ oeuvres for this even alone.

5. Club flyers are the perfect visual aid and conversation catalysts about your party. An intriguing and captivating invite is quite irresistible, more so a unique one. Discover plenty of ways you can enhance your club card flyers and edge out the rest of the competition. There are a variety of materials and accessories you can work with. From envelopes to accompanying stationary and more.

6. Always remember to make yours consistent to your event or themes. Make sure that all details embody the concept you had planned out for the party. This helps your recipients gather in what sort of event it’ll be, the type of atmosphere present, and just an overall feel of who the crowd will be.

7. His and hers invitations aren’t exactly new but keep in mind that strategies such as this can help make your parties or events more interesting. Personalize invitations in this manner and more.

Club flyers go a long way to get the conversations about your party going. It is something they can carry around or tuck into their planners or pin on their cork boards. Let your guests know just how hard you intend to party. With your club flyers, you’re party can be as good as done.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carla_San_Gaspar

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Think of your customers, or group of customers, as a dart board. I am sure at some point in your life, like me, you have played darts. Whether you know the rules or not does not matter for this example. However, like a dart board the closer you get to the center of the board the more valuable the points will be.

As you throw the darts you are trying to hit the center because that is where the most points are. The more often you hit the center, the more points you “rack” up.

Your customers are like that dart board. The customers you are striving to grab are closer to the center, with the best customers being the center spot. Those are the customers that will, without a doubt, buy your products and hire your services.

If your advertising is only reaching the outer rings of your customer dart board then you already know you are spending more money than you have to. You are because the empty space like on a dart board represents people that have no interest in your business, products or services. They have no interest, not because you do not have something good to offer, they have no interest because what you offer is something they have no need for.

For example, a friend of mine runs rental property repair business. What do you think would represent the center of his customer dartboard? Landlords and proptery managers right? These are the individuals that actually own and operate the real estate he is looking to supply his service for.

As he moves further away from that center, he will reach people that may or may not own rentals or investment properties. Now they might own their own properties or have things to fix in their houses or apartments they rent, but that is not the market he is targeting.

So does it make much sense for him to run an ad in a newspaper? Sure he might get a customer or two, but if you break down the cost per customer, it really would not be worth it. His ad is hitting too much of a broad general audience that may or may not reach the customers he is looking for. In other words, that ad in the newspaper would be considered hitting the outer rings of the dart board.

So in order to hit the center of his dartboard he needs to go right after the landlords and property managers directly. One technique he uses is to go to the courthouse in the area where he does business and obtain the mailing address of individuals he knows rents out their properties. Then he send them a postcard, a flyer etc. He has now hit the bullseye.

His advertising hit the center which is a customer he know can use his service. So as you can see all of his advertising money is being spent to hit as close to 100% of his market as you can possibly get.

Wouldn’t you like your advertising to hit 100% of your market? Of course you would. You need to find out what customers, areas, etc. make up your bulls eye. Then you need to find the best way to throw that dart and hit it.

For my friend his dart was the postcards and flyers he sent out, hitting the center which was the landlord or property manager on the other side.

First find your center target, then next create your “dart.” The vehicle by which you will hit the center. Finally, throw the dart and hit the center and start “racking” up the points.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

About the Author:
Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of http://www.Indocquent.com, an online resource that allows businesses and individuals to post their products and services for sale in 20,000 cities throughout 200 countries around the world.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bruce_A._Tucker

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In building your business identity, it pays to invest in your print materials. They are likely to come in contact with your clients before they enter your store and will make the first impression. Outsourcing your business printing to a commercial advertising company is your best bet to getting high quality print outputs that will surely impress your customers.

Your marketing materials and advertisements are a crucial factor in building your identity or business brand. It communicates intentionally or unintentionally promises or standards your products or services are set to deliver, or connect emotionally to your customers.

When you are building your brand remember to create a unique selling point or USP that differentiates your product and service offerings from those of other businesses. Your brand gives your customer of what to expect from your business. Do this and observe these following points, for both you business and printing concerns:

1. Educate your niche market with brochures and catalog printing

a. Innovate or market your business in a way that it meets highly specialized needs your customers are willing to pay a premium price for. The niche market is often a market segment large corporation with thick layers of bureaucracy and mass production fails to address.

b. Small businesses that innovate new ways to expand on current offerings find that they have to orient their customers about their products and services. Brochures, leaflets, and other print resources are the preferred marketing materials as they can be laden with tips and information.

2. Create emotional value with outdoor advertising

a. People associate themselves with the products they use and the services they hire. The brands of these businesses often communicate a set of attributes and values that reflect the customer’s own personal beliefs. These values are often unrelated to the products and services themselves, but influence the customers’ experience with the business and thus affect their purchasing decisions.

b. Posters, billboards, and other print materials that emphasize on images that resonates their emotional content are often the choice advertisements. They market their products and services as part of a lifestyle or a subculture that your customers are already predisposed to believe in.

c. Popularly, posters or print designs communicate notions that appeal on beauty, sex, distinction, confidence, and so many other facets that can attract clients. This gives them something to aspire for or lead them to believe that such products and themselves share a common ground.

3. Build Credibility with One-to-One Marketing

a. Your business brand creates and maintains the prevailing perception about your business. This reputation is a reflection of customers experience with your business or what you intend for them to expect in your products or services.

b. Credibility and building a reputation is a result of sustaining a relationship with the customers themselves. Enhancing the customer’s experience requires special treatment and personalized service. Postcards, greeting cards, and other one-to-one direct-mail-strategy are best used to build long term relationships and build credibility.

Brand management requires a sustained advertising effort. Dominating the consumer consciousness means saturating the market with marketing materials that affect your customers perception.

Having your marketing materials custom printed with business printing services allows you to create a premium brand for your small business. It reflects the amount of professionalism you place in every aspect of your business that will win your brand customer loyalty.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carla_San_Gaspar

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You’ve written your business plan, bought a nice identity piece, opened your storefront, maybe even placed a few ads. How else can you place your image in front of your potential customers in order make your target audience aware of your company? This concept is known as “extending the brand,” placing your company’s colors, logos, slogans, etc. within easy reach of your target audience to help burn your business’ name into their consumer minds.

One of the easiest ways to build your organization’s brand identity is to customize your documents such as reports, emails, presentation proposals and invoices with your company’s colors, logo and contact information. Additionally, highly customized reports are more likely not to end up in your customer’s trash cans. In this article, I’ll provide some helpful options for customizing your items.

Any item you send out to your customers, whether it be an invoice, newsletter or direct mail piece, should include your color scheme, logo and contact info. No communication, no matter how small, should be sent on anything other than your company letterhead and enclosed in a matching envelope. The same applies to business related faxes as well. Your fax cover sheet should include your logo and contact info. It’s easy to whip up a generic fax cover sheet in Word or to just have your fax machine do the same for you, but neither of these options do anything to extend your brand.

If you’re on a limited budget, but want to make an impact at your next presentation, consider using a clear covered binder with a high quality cover sheet that includes your logo as the front page. This is an inexpensive option for using reports and proposals to extend your brand identity. Presentation covers with a window is another inexpensive branding option if you don’t have a budget that will allow for your own custom printed presentation folders. Make sure to pick folders that are complementary to your company’s colors and make certain that your logo and important information show through the window.

Another creative choice for extending your company’s brand is foil stamping. Foil is available in dozens of metallic colors and can be imprinted on a variety of branding items. A clean stamping is a timeless classic touch to any business product, ranging from business cards to folders and giveaway items used to promote your business. The setup charges for foil stamping can vary, but once you have a foil die stamp made for your company, you can reuse it over and over again for different products.

Promotional products are a great choice for extending your identity. The trick is however, to make sure your item is something not only creative, but useful as well. It makes no sense to brand your company on an item you give to a potential customer only to have it end up in the trash. Pens are always a popular choice for branding items, you may also consider having notepads printed to further extend your brand. The possibilities are endless.

Embroidering and screen printing your logo on soft goods is a smart option as well, especially if you have a storefront with employees. Not only will wearing clothing with your logo make your staff stand out from your customers, it also puts your brand in front of them one more time.

As you can see there are numerous options for promoting your organization and done effectively, will keep your business in front of your target audience’s eyes and in their minds.

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Your company logo isn’t the only thing that makes up your brand. The service that you have provided to your clients, and your reputation are part of your brand as well.

If you think of your current customer base, how many of your clients or customers were referred to you by your past clients? If you answered “None”, you’re not cutting the mustard!

One of our clients who sells outdoor barbecue and kitchen islands has done a terrific job of building his brand name. He makes sure to include his company brand in everything he does. He’s consistently involved in local charity events, as well as donating his time to give back to his community. He passes out custom made T-shirts, hats, pens, and even branded butter mints (mmmmm). People who don’t even have a backyard in which to place one of his products know about his company. You can almost guarantee that when they do purchase their new home, they’ll be headed over to pick up one of his products to place in their new backyard.

I was on the phone with a friend earlier this morning, and he was praising our company for being ahead of the times in our town by being in the branding business. We were discussing that there are still many people who aren’t quite sure what branding is. He summed it up perfectly by using the example t