Build Your Business with Strong Brands - not a Mountain of Cash

Written by Daniel Janal


You're havingrepparttar gang over on Sunday to watchrepparttar 121859 football game on TV. Which pizza parlor do you call?

Your child needs braces. Which orthodontist does everyone in town go to?

You want to sell your house. Which Realtor do you call?

The answer isrepparttar 121860 same in each case:repparttar 121861 one that hasrepparttar 121862 best brand. Branding is important because it makes sales easier!

Realtors, dentists and restaurants all have brands. So does every small business inrepparttar 121863 world. Sure, we think that only Fortune 500 companies, like Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble have brands. But that's not true. Every company has a brand image. Whetherrepparttar 121864 brand image is good or bad, or if it is well known or invisible is up to you.

If you're involved in marketing in any way, shape of form, you've heardrepparttar 121865 term "branding" but you probably couldn't define it. And if Regis asked you "Is that your final answer?" you'd probably take your money and run rather than risk losing your cash.

That's because if you asked 50 marketers to define "branding," you'd get 50 different answers. Very few people agree on what branding is, but they do agree that is important in building sales and profits.

So what are brands and why are they important to you?

Brands make selling easier!

Plain and simple.

To understand branding, we need to understand what branding isn't.

From my studies and research that includes hundreds of interviews with top marketing managers at large and small companies, I've come away with several conclusions:

1. A brand is not a logo, slogan, catchy saying, mission statement or publicity campaign.

2. A brand is about trust. You select a company because you trust them andrepparttar 121866 companies have credibility. These are two issues that are important to every company of every size.

When you travel alongrepparttar 121867 highway and need a quick meal, do you stop atrepparttar 121868 local diner for a meal featuringrepparttar 121869 local cuisine- or do you pull in to McDonald's because you knowrepparttar 121870 fries are always going to berepparttar 121871 same?

People trust McDonalds. They will give uprepparttar 121872 chance for an innovative meal in favor ofrepparttar 121873 trusted resource every time!

That's because people buy on emotion and justify with logic.

"Geerepparttar 121874 local diner might be good, but it might take a long time and we're in a rush."

Is it any wonder why McDonald's is a multibillion-dollar enterprise?

Look atrepparttar 121875 best brands onrepparttar 121876 Internet: Yahoo, eBay and Amazon. What do they all have in common? People trust them!

In my seminars at Stanford and Berkeley, I always ask if people have bought books from Amazon. Most people raise their hands. I then ask if anyone has ever had a problem with Amazon. In one out of three seminars, one person out of hundreds will raise a hand. But they quickly say that Amazon resolvedrepparttar 121877 problem in their favor, quickly and courteously.

Marketing as a Second Language

Written by Jed McKendrick


One ofrepparttar defining features of Western civilization is that we're all amateur marketers by default. Regardless of what our mother tongue is,repparttar 121858 second language we are most exposed to is invariably Hype.

Byrepparttar 121859 time a child is five years old he is probably able to sing more jingles than songs and identify more corporate logos than letters ofrepparttar 121860 alphabet. No wonder, since it can be very difficult to tell where a hamburger or a toy or a movie leaves off, and where a global marketing juggernaut begins.

Consider an average day in your own life. Becauserepparttar 121861 most precious commodity in our marketing-based society is Consumer Attention,repparttar 121862 fast and furious battle for our awareness clobbers us during every waking hour.

Rather than list allrepparttar 121863 places and ways in which marketers grab our attention, it would be easier and more poignant to listrepparttar 121864 places and situations that are free of any marketing message: to wit, none.

You pretty much have to leave society and head off into nature to get away from it all, right? Wrong. The average person dressed and equipped forrepparttar 121865 great outdoors displays more corporate emblemry than a Nascar racer. If that's not enough, they're probably imprintingrepparttar 121866 earth with a shoemaker's logo with every step.

The point isn't to decry this arguably greed-warped and spiritually bankrupt situation, but rather to sharpen our own marketing skills from it. For instance, don't be fooled byrepparttar 121867 name - junk mail is a goldmine of marketing intelligentsia. Collect it. Become a student of it. Ask others to save theirs for you, especially those items that they like and dislike most.

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