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.

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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.

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People look like their dogs. I say this based on my non-scientific sample of fellow pet owners I have met while walking through Oz Park in Chicago with my own (handsome) dog, Kelsey. My informal assessment is supported by researchers at the University of California at San Diego. Dog owners, the researchers theorize, pick pooches that reflect the owner’s disposition–happy, moody, tough, etc.

What does this have to do with marketing? Well, marketers should foster the same type of match between their brands and channels as pet owners do between themselves and their dogs. If your company’s brand stands for “productivity,” that’s what your channel should deliver. If you promote your “inventiveness,” your channels should be similarly creative. If your company is known for its “high style,” your customers expect to see that cutting edge image when they meet your resellers.

While this might seem intuitive, I am amazed by how few companies take proactive steps to ensure that their channels reflect the brand image the manufacturer is trying to present. In our brand implementation work with clients, Frank Lynn & Associates uses a detailed checklist to review all of the potential “touch points” between customers and the brand. While advertising, Web sites, product literature, and other media clearly play a role, the channel is frequently the most influential brand communicator on the list.

One of our industrial clients is working hard to promote a brand image that stresses cost-cutting and efficiency (by promoting the use of its products in six-sigma manufacturing processes). The client has educated its salespeople, enlisted industry consultants, created an online knowledge base, etc. Unfortunately, most of the client’s distributors are primarily “order-takers.” The distributors’ salespeople do not know how, and are not motivated, to make a consultative, engineering sale. Having visited our client’s Web site, or hearing our client’s CEO speak, a customer would be significantly confused when they visit one of the distributors.

The situation reminds me of the (possibly apocryphal) meeting between Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe. Monroe gushed, “Gosh what do you say, professor, shouldn’t we marry and have a little baby together? What a baby it would be–my looks and your intelligence!” Einstein then quipped, “Yes, but dear lady, it might be the other way around.”

Fearing such a result, our industrial client is taking steps to rectify the situation.

Before we get into the steps that any manufacturer can take to align brand and channel messages, we first need a sidebar on the issue of channel power. When I bring up the issue of brand/channel alignment, many clients complain they do not have the power to compel their channel partners to behave in a certain way. Sure, if you are John Deere, Lexus, Coca-Cola, or IBM you carry some clout in the channel relationship. But, even these companies cannot command adherence to a brand strategy. And, at the other extreme, manufacturers of tertiary products, those who might represent less than 1-2 percent of their partners’ business, sometimes feel powerless.

I do not believe the situation is as problematic as some companies might believe. We have developed a significant list of tactics that can help. While each tactic might not apply to your company, or a tertiary-product company, I am convinced there is something for everyone in our list.

Before pursuing any of these tactics, companies need to make sure they have a powerful brand message. Without going into much detail here, we tell clients to think about brands using an approach we call UCC–unique, compelling, and credible.

With such a brand position in place, companies can create a strong brand/channel alignment by adopting some combination of the following tactics:

1. Channel Selection. Perhaps the most powerful tactic to deploy is making brand alignment one of the criteria you use to select channel partners in the first place. If, however, you are already stuck with channel partners that do not exactly fit the brand message, then add even a few new partners that do fit, and promote them as a model. Competitiveness and guilt are wonderful motivators to the existing partners.

2. Company-Owned Channels. While we do not generally advocate that manufacturers open up their own dealerships or distributors (especially in competition with existing channel partners), this tactic is sometimes necessary. When IBM launched the first PC, they opened up IBM Product Centers, in no small part to demonstrate to new, independent dealers what a retail facility should look like. Sony, Nike, Viacom, and other companies have opened up their own dealerships for similar reasons. Some of our clients have even opened up company-owned channels, on a temporary basis, to get across their brand message–then turned around and sold the business to an independent dealer who understood the value of the brand.

3. Activity-Based Compensation. You may already know that Frank Lynn & Associates strongly advocates activity- or functional-based compensation, in general. You can tie some portion of the channel’s discount/rebate to performing activities that relate to brand alignment, e.g., training salespeople, using your promotional materials, or any of the other tactics in this list.

4. Store-within-a-Store If you sell through a retail channel, consider the store-within-a-store concept to bring a bit of your brand directly into the retailer. Perfume companies pay their own reps to work behind the counters at department stores. HP and Microsoft teamed up to create unique display areas within retailers, where customers could gain hands-on experience with products in a variety of applications. Industrial products manufacturer, Parker Hannifin, has established several hundred ParkerStores at its distributors. Kodak has placed thousands of its photo kiosks in retail locations.

5. Point-of-Sale. If a store-within-store or even a kiosk seems a bit overwhelming, do not underestimate the power of basic point-of-sale materials. These may be small displays that surround your product, stand-alone racks, or simply hand-out materials. Regardless, they bring your message directly to the customer. They can also serve as training (see below) for channel salespeople. Make sure to coordinate with channel partners since each has its own perspective of what fits (and what does not).

6. Channel Training. Partners may not reflect your brand message due to a lack of employee skills. Or, perhaps your message never filtered down to the individual sales or technical people that “touch” the customer. You can roll out a separate course just on branding and marketing your product, or you can combine it with product training. If you are on a budget, try webinars or CD/DVDs.

7. Champions. If training does not get you far enough, consider building channel champions. These are channel employees that, for whatever reason, are, or could be, boosters of your brand. Maybe, they have had a good experience using or selling your brand. Maybe they are just really into your technology or style. Maybe they have a good relationship with your channel account manager. Whatever the reason, find these people and treat them right. Their enthusiasm for your brand can be infectious. This strategy works particularly well for manufacturers of tertiary brands. Maybe you cannot get the attention of your partner’s CEO, but the category manager or individual sales rep might care.

8. Marketing and Sales Tools. Aligning manufacturers and channel brands requires repetition. You need to communicate your brand position to and through the channel on a frequent basis. One means of accomplishing this is by providing channel partners with tools that they can use over and over. (Proposal boilerplate, partner portal with product, ordering, technical information, sales checklist, product configurator, planogram, or FAQs on your website) While these tools are not conventional brand media, each of these tools can slowly, but surely, shape the way your channel partners act and communicate with customers.

9. Account Plans. Partners often do not fully appreciate the strategic thinking behind your brand message. If so, I can guarantee that they do not appreciate the benefit of the various tactics I have described above. To help partners grasp your brand strategy, the importance of your tactical plans, and the financial impact on their business, you need to instigate an annual planning process with your partners. The plan, preferably developed by the channel’s principal or senior executive, should squarely address the issue of brand alignment. Channel principals/executives, especially in smaller firms, do not have anyone with whom they can discuss strategy. Your account manager becomes their business consultant. The plan should outline how you and the partner will achieve joint sales and profit targets. As such, it should cover all the activities that relate to brand alignment - training, promotion, advertising, customer targets, employee training, etc.

In a world of increasing commoditization, manufacturers must create and reinforce brand messages that trumpet their differentiation. Channels are arguably the most important media for communicating with customers. However, customers simply do not want to buy from manufacturers and channels that are not in agreement about fundamental premises and promises. The good news is that you have a wide variety of tools and tactics to bring channels into alignment with your brand message.

Oh, and don’t forget to take the dog out for a walk.

Bob Segal is a Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates. He oversees the firm’s industrial and technology practice groups. He has 24 years experience and is a nationally recognized author and trainer.

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