To Brand or Not to Brand - That is NOT the Question.

Written by Donna Lehman


Continued from page 1

Sounds simple, but it’s not that easy. Here are some ofrepparttar compelling facts that result from religious brand building:

At a recent branding seminar which I attended, one ofrepparttar 120107 speaker’s provided some staggering numbers related to valuation of a few ofrepparttar 120108 largest global brands.

Coca Cola at #1 tellsrepparttar 120109 story: Total Valuation - $115 Billion (give or take) Brand value - $70.45 Billion (about 61%) (source: Business Week, 4 Aug 2003)

Anecdotally, Ford is said to have 75% brand valuation. You can guess whatrepparttar 120110 stats are for Microsoft, IBM, MacDonald’s, Nike, Intel, etc.

“So what?” you might be thinking, “I’m not in that league. I can focus on selling and networking. No need to spend time and money on that BRAND stuff.”

Certainlyrepparttar 120111 deep-pocket conglomerates have had plenty of time and money to buildrepparttar 120112 kind of numbers that take your breath away. But it’s not justrepparttar 120113 advertising spend that got them there. They had to start and continue with a vision, products people wanted, service that satisfied and made their customers talk about them, creating more customers. That’s what brand is all about.

Brand Building on Any Budget: 1. Articulate your vision, and stick with it. No flip-flopping. No re-inventing every year. No re-naming to stay trendy. Takerepparttar 120114 time to clarify who you are and what you offer. The exercise alone will be worth it. Then build your communication tools.

2. Deliver your products and services in a consistent way that satisfies people. They WILL talk about you. And according to David Thompson, CMO of Webex (“We’ve got to start meeting like this.”),repparttar 120115 only true brand measurement is this: Your customers are willing, nay, ANXIOUS to refer you to others. Amen.

3. Make sure your brand is communicated by everyone in your organization and anyone associated with you. Bad to say, “We are a high-touch service provider” and have someone call your phone number only to go into an endless, impersonal phone script hell. Be honest about your value.

4. Yes, it will also help if you develop a “look and feel”, those somewhat scary words that conjure up $$$$ and endless rounds of designers comps. It doesn’t have to be like that. The dot.bomb era should have weaned anyone of that notion if nothing else. Money was flying around paying forrepparttar 120116 jazziest names, logos, taglines and websites. And it kept flying…far, far away. Famous? You want famous with out frill? Try “Hewlett-Packard”. “HP”. Two names. Two blue initials inside a curved frame. Starting in 1939 they didn’t launch ad campaigns, they instead delivered consistent innovation. Tagline: Invent.

5. Measure. Be persistent. And real, and sometimes creative. But, be yourself.

I’m going online to order some authentic Chattanooga, TN Moon Pies to be delivered, which I will then have with a Starbucks, not an RC, that I will have purchased from a Starbucks location, becauserepparttar 120117 brand experience is so much more rewarding there than at Albertson’s. (Where there is a Starbucks kiosk, but it is an extremely disappointing extension ofrepparttar 120118 brand.) Starbucks – are you listening?

Further reading alongrepparttar 120119 same lines: http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/layton1.asp

http://www.marketingprofs.com/3/arruda7.asp Small Business Branding: The Personal Connection

Brand history and fun facts sites: http://www.foodreference.com/html/fhellmansmayonnaise.html http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2879첥

Donna Lehman welcomes comments: dlehman@market-up.com

Ms. Lehman is Founder and Principal Consultant of MarketUP. She authors Knowbits, a monthly ezine of marketing tips for small business. MarketUP is a Berkeley, CA based consultancy for a number of startup and small-mid sized companies. Prior to MarketUP, Donna spent more than 17 years doing design, communication, and B2B marketing for start-ups and Global 100 conglomerates in various industry sectors.


Oh the Tangled Webs We Weave! When We Forget What to Practice.

Written by Donna Lehman


Continued from page 1

#4 Bring them back. OK, so it’s unlikely anyone will make your site their homepage. But you can get people to come back if you give them an incentive. To develop leads: publish a series of articles online. Or set up a Blog. Send email alerts when you post new content – better yet, create an RSS feed. Post survey results, best practices, Q&A with your experts. Hold webinars for potential customers or paying participants. Deliver ongoing project information online. Set up an extranet. The details depend on your particular business, but you can probably do more.

#5 Keep it fresh. “Oh, just leave it up. Something is better than nothing. Nobody will notice.” Old stuff might fool some ofrepparttar people some ofrepparttar 120106 time. But forrepparttar 120107 most important readers – return visitors – out-of-date content can be a red flag. At best it says you’re not paying attention; at worst it says there’s something seriously wrong with your company. So stay up late once in a while and post new information. Or hire someone who will.

Creating and maintaining a website isn’t rocket science any more. But like most useful things, it does take careful thinking, tinkering, and rethinking to get maximum marketing power fromrepparttar 120108 Web.

Byrepparttar 120109 way, MarketUP falls intorepparttar 120110 camp of ‘those who stay up all night working on their website’, and on some of our clients’ sites too. Sure beats howling atrepparttar 120111 moon.

Just for fun - other tangled webs: ‘Engineering a Spider’ [ http://www.isa.org/NVTemplate.cfm?Section=News_and_Views&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=38472]

When we practice to deceive. [http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/2004/08/oh_what_tangled_9.html]

This month’s headline – “Oh,repparttar 120112 tangled webs we weave, When we practice to deceive.” is attributable to Sir Walter Scott, Scottish romantic novelist, from “Marmion” http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/14174.html

1997 Presentation by Peter Magnusson – with Internet evolution and forward projections. Interesting. http://www.sics.se/~psm/ar97/sld011.htm

If you have a question or topic you would like to see in Knowbits, write to Donna Lehman: dlehman@market-up.com

Ms. Lehman is Founder and Principal Consultant of MarketUP. She authors Knowbits, a monthly ezine of marketing tips for small business. MarketUP is a Berkeley, CA based consultancy for a number of startup and small-mid sized companies. Prior to MarketUP, Donna spent more than 17 years doing design, communication, and B2B marketing for start-ups and Global 100 conglomerates in various industry sectors.


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