Brand Values Archives : Page 6 of 6 : Persona Design

Why Align Your Brand to A Worthy Cause?

March 7, 2013/0 Comments/in Brand Reputation, Brand Sponsorship, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Branding, Business, Cause Marketing, Customer Engagement, Global Branding, Integrated Marketing, Marketing /by Lorraine Carter

The benefits to worthy causes or charities of partnering with big brands are obvious. Charities, such as Oxfam, use partnerships with commercial brands as a media platform and an opportunity to get its message out to the public.

Partnering with Marks & Spencer allows Oxfam to tap into the huge influence the M&S brand has over consumers. Being able to promote their message among that captured audience via this kind of partnership is immensely beneficial to the charity and their work.

However partnerships of this nature can be mutually beneficial to both the charity and brand alike. It bequeaths the commercial brand with a deeper meaning and offers another opportunity for engagement with their customers on a different emotional level.

It can also become a significant part of the brands social contribution policy. Without wishing to sound cynical, tying up with a worthy cause or charity can be a winning formula for brands sensitive to the current climate and worth serious consideration as part of your brand strategy.

4 Top Reasons Why Brands Should Engage in Cause Related Marketing

Whether sponsoring charitable activities or committing to donate profits to a worthy cause, the benefits to brands in aligning themselves with good causes are significant

1. Build Brand Awareness

Building partnerships with charities can make a sustainable difference to the cause but it also enables the brand to raise awareness with a wider target audience. Sponsoring a charitable activity often coincides with providing the brand with significant visibility of their logo and products with an engaged and receptive audience. It also provides a platform for brands that are looking to reposition themselves in the market, and change customer perceptions, with a great opportunity by aligning themselves with the right charity associated with the desired target market.

Charitable partnerships can make the brand more accessible to a wider audience particularly if the brand engages in an experiential marketing campaign. It also enhances a company’s credibility and provides an opportunity to educate the public about their products and services. Product sampling is also a great opportunity to attract new customer attention and commonly used by brands sponsoring charitable sporting activities.

2. Corporate Social Responsibility

Engaging in a strategy of corporate social responsibility through charitable partnerships displays a brand’s desire to make a positive contribution to social issues in the community.

It can also have a positive effect on the internal culture of the organisation. Charity partnerships provide the potential to boost employee engagement, and subsequently improve morale, as well as raising awareness among staff.

HSBC has ties with environmental charity Earthwatch and sends employees to visit projects. ‘It is good for motivation and makes employees more likely to stay with the company and become effective brand ambassadors,’ says Nigel Pate, head of environmental partnerships at HSBC.

It can give a sense of purpose and involvement to employees. It highlights the importance of nurturing the strategy to support not just the corporate image but the wider stakeholders too. There is a sense of corporate pride amongst employees at being associated with a project that makes a positive impact in their world.

3. Differentiate the Brand from Competitors

Aligning your brand with a positive cause engenders a more caring image with customers. In markets where the variances between individual brand offerings becomes blurred, associating your brand with a significant social issue or charitable cause can give your customers a new reason to pick your brand over competitors in the market.

It is a way to communicate something about the brand that is beyond price, product or service. Brands who partner with charities or champion significant social issues often benefit from a boost in sales because, given the choice, customers are more likely to buy a brand that supports a worthy cause over a competitor who does not.

O’Egg is a great example of an Irish brand with modest resources which has aligned itself with ‘Action Breast Cancer’. They operate in a market with weak brand differentiation and yet the O’Egg White Egg product in its bright pink packaging is very much targeted at a female audience. The cause has a very obvious relevance to its target market which has helped raise brand awareness and benefited the cause too.

4. Boost Brand Equity

Championing a social issue or engaging with charities is a worthy way to boost brand equity and invest in a little feel-good-factor. Aligning marketing activity with cause related issues enables brands to build a reputation with their target market and build an emotional connection can help strengthen brand loyalty.

Linking brand support to significant social issues or charities creates an emotive response alongside goodwill. Customers feel they are extending the value of their purchase to include a worthy cause investment and are more likely to be repeat purchasers.

Flora’s support of the woman’s mini marathon shows their customers that as a brand, they care about what their customers care about. They recognize their customers concerns and actively try to support them. Brand loyalty is strengthened and brand equity is boosted when the customer’s affinity with the brand extends beyond the product itself.

(RED) is an example of a long established initiative encompassing the support of some of the worlds biggest brands who have each committed to supporting charitable initiatives in Africa. Each brands dedicates a (RED) product in their product line to the cause.

How to Beat the Cynics

For cause related marketing to work your customer must feel differently about your company and brands as a result of the association. The partnership must be relevant to the target customers in order to be trusted. The Nissan Leaf brand alignment to the issues of global warning, and its threat to the environment, is a great example of brand cause marketing, all of which is very relevant to their eco sensitive core target audience.

For the most part customers know that sponsorship of charitable causes or championing a significant social issue is not a form of corporate altruism but a strategic business move. Consequently brands need to be upfront and transparent as to the corporate motives behind the association.

Partnerships must prove its credibility with customers before making any kind of direct product links. For this to be successful the commitment to the aim of the cause must be sincere. Long-term commitment is needed to create a degree of trust, and show that the partnership is more than just an add-on to other marketing activity.

Arts and charities sponsorships are cheaper than sports sponsorships and can generate profit and brand equity while boosting corporate social responsibility credentials and employee engagement.

In an uncertain economic climate where consumer trust in major consumer brands has been damaged, partnering with a worthwhile cause could be the best investment you make in your brand strategy in the year ahead.

What local, national or global cause could you authentically align your brand with, that would be congruent with your core brand values, relevant to your target audience and genuinely make a difference – show that you really care?

Is Your Price Right? Does It Strengthen Your Profitability or Undermine It?

February 25, 2013/0 Comments/in Brand Profiling & Positioning, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Branding, Business, Marketing, Return On Investment /by Lorraine Carter

For some companies, the pricing policy for goods and services is based purely on a combination of covering costs and making a reasonable profit. Smart management however, understands that pricing is one of the most obvious indicators of a brand’s competitive strategy.

Pricing policies determine where your offering is positioned in the market. It is a reflection of your brand’s core values and helps shape customer quality expectations of your product or service. With this in mind, ask yourself, what is your pricing policy telling your market about your brand?

Top 3 Most Common Pricing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Lowest Price Does Not Always Mean Best Value

Most customers care about value for money rather than lowest price. In tough economic times people still have to spend money and so their tendency to focus on the value of their ROI is even more pronounced. Customers are far more than one-dimensional money savers. They want brands that will serve their needs and offer value for money.

2. Cost Cutting

The current economic situation has come companies cost cutting and lowering prices in an effort to survive until things improve. Brands need to accept the current economy as the new normal. Look at it not as a bad economy but as the economy. Companies should implement a pricing structure that best reflects the core value of the brand, rather than clutching at the lower end of the market.

Companies need revenue more than ever. Cost cutting can position your brand as the low cost provider and that is a risky place to be in. Brands that focus on being the low cost provider are left with little to offer the market if suddenly undercut by competitors.

3. Inconsistent Pricing Strategies

Frequently changing pricing strategies makes it difficult for customers to calculate the value received with each purchase. It can lead to consumer confusion and can trigger a lack of confidence or mistrust in what appears to be disorganized management. Identifying your most appropriate pricing strategy and keep it consistent.

Top 5 Strategies That Can Strengthen Your Brand Positioning

1. Emphasize Benefits

Lowest price doesn’t always win. Customers develop feelings through their brand experience that impacts on their judgment of value. Customers care about value. By remaining consistent in your pricing strategy and focusing on communicating the value proposition of your brand you will provide your customer with the confidence they need when making a purchase and help them feel more positive about the way they spend their money.

2. Focus on Core Values

Core values are the foundations on which brand identity is shaped. Re-examining your brand’s core values can help refocus your pricing strategy and provide the guidelines to strengthen your relationship with your customers. If your brand’s core value was to provide greater quality at a fair price then moving to a low price strategy will damage the very nature of your brand. Customers tend to be more willing to spend a little more money for better value.

3. Bundle Costs

Customers feel a loss when they spend money. Separately listing all the elements they are paying for highlights the extent of the loss in the transaction. Bundling the items into one price is easier to change the customer’s perspective, encourages purchasing and can provide a sense of increased value for money.

4. Stagger Price Increases

Webers Law is a strategy adopted by Starbucks in their pricing strategy. It states that customers do not register price increases until they become highly significant. By raising their prices by only a few cents at a time Starbucks did not deter their customers and managed to rise prices without consumer backlash.

5. Make Your Offering Incomparable

You don’t want to be forced to lower prices, but how do you deal with low price anchors set by your competition? The easiest way to make your offering incomparable to your competitors is by changing the way you present your offer.

For example, if you are in the B2B software industry, rather than a generic offering; “software solutions for business”, try “software solutions for business that maximize productivity”. That one small change can make sure that your solution is incomparable and will make it harder for customers to reference the low price anchor.

Do not compromise your brand integrity by slashing prices. Focus on your brand’s value proposition and articulate it clearly to your employees and customers alike. Make sure the pricing strategy you employ supports a sustainable and profitable future for your brand.

• Do you need to reposition your brand to increase your profitability?

• Are you undermining your brand with unsustainable discounting?

• Could re-evaluating your core brand values help you increase your profitability?

Brand Commoditization : How Safe is Your Brand?

February 18, 2013/0 Comments/in Brand Profiling & Positioning, Brand Relevance, Brand Reputation, Brand Revitalisation, Brand Risk Management, Brand Risk Mitigation, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Brand Voice, Branding, Business, Customer Service, Global Branding /by Lorraine Carter

A question to ponder this week… What would your customer’s identify as the number one reason for buying your brand?

If the answer is ‘low price’ or ‘convenience’ your brand could be at major risk of becoming just another commodity brand; a very risky position for any brand to be in.

When it comes to commoditization, no industry is safe. Whether you produce consumer products or supply professional services, when your customers can no longer differentiate your offering from that of your competitors it puts the company’s success and profitability in jeopardy.

Commoditization is a never ending reality in business today. No matter how hard a successful brand works to be different, their competitors are working equally hard to replicate it.

Markets are awash with ‘me too’ products. Customer choice has never been greater online and offline. Brands need to be very proactive in reinforcing their differentiating factors to their customers i.e. the reasons why their customers should choose them. But without a truly unique product or service that process is becoming more and more difficult.

Is Your Brand At Risk?

How easily can you quantify the differences between your products and services from those of your competitors? Think then about how easily your customers and prospective clients can make the same distinction? What’s your big why for your brand? What does it stand for?

When the tangible differences between competing brands diminish, the danger of commoditization grows. But all is not lost. Many brands enjoy a sustainable longevity in their market, despite aggressive copycatting, and do so by identifying the broader value offered by their brands.

Articulating the extended intangible values of your brand creates a tougher opposition for competitors. Replicating a product is easy, replicating a brand identity is not.

5 Ways To Safeguard Your Brand Against Commoditization

1. Brand Values

The first step for any company in safeguarding against commoditization is to use internal knowledge to identify the company’s broader value. Take time to consider the intangible benefits of your brand, the perceived benefits to customers, and the desired emotive response when someone experiences the brand. Think back to the very beginning and refocus on the brand identity. What were the core values that established the brand?

Apple’s strength lies not just in innovation but on a dedication to producing a high quality product. Their product prices are amongst the highest on the market but their willingness to lose a portion of market on price reaffirms their dedication to their core value of quality and establishes their brand identity in the mind of the consumer.

2. Relationships

Tangible elements are easy to replicate. Strong brands succeed in developing strong relationships with their customers. Leverage face-to-face interactions and social media to learn more about your customer and start a dialogue that fosters a meaningful relationship that extends beyond the brand experience.

3. Leverage the Corporate Brand

The corporate brand often has sustainable equity. Leveraging the corporate reputation and trust can deliver broader value to product brands and help shape a comprehensive offering to customers that extends beyond the product service attributes.

4. Package Design

Innovative packaging that creates an aesthetic beyond function can help increase perceived value to the customer and enhance market share. The O’Egg brand focused on package differentiation to turn a commodity product into the pre-eminent egg brand in Ireland.

5. Brand Experience

When a product or service is easily replicated, innovating brand intangibles can strengthen the position of the brand and protect it from the threat of commoditization.

Think differently about your business. Change how its’ perceived. A unique service area, outstanding customer support, or special loyalty rewards can set your brand apart.

Starbucks’ strength grew from creating a brand experience around a commodity product. What set the brand apart were the various elements that nurtured the customer’s experience of the brand; from the service setting, to the coffee ordering system, to the interactions with staff. They changed the way the world ordered coffee.

Global giant that it is, Starbucks is now under threat because the brand experience has become the commodity and the Starbucks focus has drifted to profit margins and market growth rather than extending customer value. The brand is currently in the process of returning their focus to their core value, putting the customer’s coffee experience at the heart of their operations again.

One of the biggest problems that lead to a weakening of brand equity is a lack of awareness in the company of the causes of commoditization.

Businesses end up spending valuable resources on updating products and expanding product lines without having a real understanding as to what their customer’s really need and value.

• When was the last time you surveyed your customers or researched your market properly?

• Do you really know what’s happening at grass roots level in your market?

• Do you need a brand audit?

In short, how safe is your brand?

De-Branding to Differentiate; Is Your Brand Strong Enough?

February 6, 2013/0 Comments/in Brand Experience, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Branding, Communication, Customer Engagement, Global Branding, Innovation, Marketing, Retailers, Trends /by Lorraine Carter

Selfridges department store in London made waves recently with consumers and marketers alike with the launch of their “No Noise” branding project.

In an aim to address the increasingly cluttered world of 21st century marketing, Selfridges opened the Quite Shop in-store. Minimalist art and music, and a ban on mobiles and shoes set the scene for a tranquil consumer experience, but bucking the very core of consumerism, the store went beyond by launching brand-free retail.

Global brands such as Levi’s, Heinz, and Dr Dre Beats all produced products that were void of logo or product information for the project, leaving customers to experience the products without the usual assault of marketing design.

Arguably a campaign for media publicity the project did highlight two important branding issues:

1. How Strong Is Your Brand Without Its Logo?

A truly strong brand transcends its logo, as was evident from the No Noise project. Not only were the brands instantly recognizable when void of logos but critically, consumers had developed such an affinity with the brand through the intangible intrinsic values that even the un-branded product still offered value.

2. With the Prevalence of Brand Clutter, Can De-Branding be a Valuable Differentiator in the Market?

The de-branded products of the No Noise project also created exclusivity out of normal brands. Void of logos and product information suddenly made Heinz baked beans tins a desirable limited edition unique offering. In a world where branding information is bombarding the consumer, could the simple brand-free product be the one that makes the biggest impact?

Starbucks might be one of the most recognizable brands in the world but it too has started to explore reducing its brand imagery in an effort to differentiate its business and extend its market catchment.

Starbucks global reach meant that the visibility of the brand worldwide was almost having a negative effect with consumers. Over saturation of the corporate logo was almost making it uncool with consumers, with a trend towards local coffee houses emerging.

Starbucks began removing their name from their cups, and even redesigned their newer stores to fit into the local environment. In the UK no two stores are the same and the brand is focusing on less corporate branding and offering a more personalized experience to their customer. In a high street with Costco chains blatantly visible, would the de-branded Starbucks coffee house offer a more welcoming personable experience to the consumer?

De-branding to gain attention was a strategy adopted by VO5 last year in an effort to target the teenage boy market. The brand’s strategy focused on building brand equity through a meaningful narrative in their advertising. They wanted to be less pushy with their products and thought that un-branded advertising adds to their credibility with their target market.

An unbranded 30-second teaser on YouTube spearheaded its new integrated campaign ’Pageant’. The short trailer achieved 180,000 views in two weeks after its launch in October and was also voted one of the most popular videos on YouTube’s comedy channel. The trailer was followed by an online film and a TV spot as well as a YouTube channel and Facebook page.

The viral success of the campaign means that there might be credence to the claim that de-branding might just be the key to breaking through brand clutter and gaining the attention of the audience.

Branding and logo saturation is something that is having an impact in the luxury brand industry, an industry that once thrived on the power of their logos. Recent years have seen brands like Gucci experimenting with logo-free products where they have achieved success targeting a more sophisticated customer.

The customer’s affinity with the product was defined by their interest in the quality of the product materials and design rather than perceived status attained from the visibility of the logo.

With a logo-free product the brand has achieved enhanced positioning and exclusivity with their target consumer. By recapturing a more knowledgeable customer and developing an aspirational product, the brand was rewarded with a 25% increase in annual profit last year.

Eliminating the brand name from marketing activity is also evident in the professional services industry. While many brands strive to develop brand awareness in the market, sometimes negative brand connotations make it necessary to de-brand. Coutts private bank recently did just that, dropping the well known but unpopular RBS parent brand from their name in an effort to extend business.

The common thread in the examples above it that, before the de-branding took place, each company had developed an offering that presented value to their customers that extended beyond that tangible product itself. The strength of customer’s brand loyalty enabled the brands to experiment with the de-branding process. For obvious reasons de-branding won’t work in every case.

Tesco explored removing their brand name from some products but research has shown that the products were more popular with the Tesco name included as the customer has a better understanding of perceived quality that the brand represented.

De-branding certainly is not for every company, but it does force you to think about what elements of your brand make the biggest impact with your customer. Could de-branding be part of your brand strategy?

• Does your brand offer value to your customers that extends beyond the tangibles of the product or service?

• Do your customers have a clear understanding of your brand and its story, what it stands for?

• If you de-branded your product, what are the remaining elements that would have the biggest impact with your customers?

6 Top Customer Trends in 2013 and How To Leverage Them Effectively

January 22, 2013/0 Comments/in Brand Reputation, Brand Risk Management, Brand Risk Mitigation, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Branding, Business, Communication, Customer Engagement, Cyber Threat, Facebook, Integrated Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Linkedin, Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Engagement, Social Media, Twitter /by Lorraine Carter

With so many emerging marketing trends impacting 2013 the opportunities are plentiful for brands to really make meaningful connections with their customers.

Never before have we had such easy access to copious amounts of data about our customer’s online behaviour. This gives brands invaluable insights from which leverage their brand strategy and capture market share together with increased profitability.

Equally, now is the time to identify challenges, which if left ignored, may leave your brand lagging behind its competitors, not to mention lost revenue. Seize your opportunities and be proactive in the year ahead!

1. Social Media Accountability

Social Media has been getting a bit of a knocking at the moment and seems to be making a regular appearance in mainstream news due to the increased prevalence of cyber bullying. This in turn has made online accountability and a heightened awareness of transparency in both engagement strategy, and quality content creation, a bigger issue for brands in the year ahead.

The need for proper social media training with clearly defined policy and procedures has never been more critical for brand custodians. Online risk management needs to be a top priority in 2013 for all brand owners.

2. Customer Power

The rise in crowd-sourcing and the increasing might of social media means that the balance of power is continuing to tip towards the customer. Brands need to really understand the difference between owned content and earned content. Brand engagement on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter is largely earned content through engagement with your customers.

The key for brands in the coming months is to leverage the collective voice of their customers and turn content and interactions into marketing opportunities. Don’t shy away from your customers voices, listen to them, value their needs and let this be the year your customer gets heard and becomes central to your brand strategy.

3. Brand Experience

Continuing the trend of recent years, 2013 will continue to be about building a truly meaningful brand experience for your customers.

Build a narrative around your brand and create content that reinforces your brand story and what it stands for. Emotive content has the greatest impact in the market. Structure your branding content so that each touch-point forms a memorable brand experience that engages your customer.

Focusing on your customers’ needs and creating a seamless customer experience between online and offline branding can significantly impact your bottom line. Develop a focused content plan with clear objectives tailored to your core target audience, make it more about them this year – be truly customer centric.

4. Brand Adaptability

Mobile device usage and m-commerce domination are set to make significant leaps in the year ahead. They will become a customer expectation rather than addition to the brand experience. Be the brand that drives change and adapt your brand strategy to embrace these changes. Don’t run the risk of struggling behind your competitors in 2014.

5. Data Convergence

The buzz words of digital marketing in 2013. With so many digital channels with which to reach your customers the need to analyze, interpret and translate the data into meaningful insights and actions has never been stronger.

The move on the web into predominately mobile and social media means that multi-channel reporting should be adopted so that your brand can identify the effectiveness of your multichannel mix. Use the data to determine the real contributors from each channel; refine your segmentation and get more specific with your targeting.

6. Relevance

At the end of the day we are not trying to reinvent the wheel. The core values of your brand should still provide the direction and remain the driving force behind your business. Digital demands attention but it must stay true to the core essence of your brand. It’s a tool that enhances the marketing mix and expands connection opportunities.

The strongest brand experiences are those that are created when the brand is relevant to the customer in every context. To really benefit your customer you need to align your offline and online marketing campaigns.

Harness their synergy by creating a seamless brand engagement for your customer through all your touchpoints. Stop dividing your strategy into online and offline and start offering a fully integrated brand experience.

The returns will be evident with increased brand awareness, enhanced brand equity, more solid brand longevity and increased profitability.

How are you going to change, adapt or fully integrate your brand strategy to harness these trends to increase your revenue and grow your market share?

Celebrity Brand Endorsement: 7 Tips to Getting it Right

October 12, 2012/0 Comments/in Advertising, Brand Champions, Brand Sponsorship, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Celebrity Endorsement /by Lorraine Carter

Michael Jordan and Nike, Michael Jackson and Pepsi, Jennifer Lopez and Venus. For decades now branding giants have paid big bucks to get celebrities to endorse their brand and it’s not hard to see why. It can be a critical and very profitable part of your brand strategy.

From winning athletes to global superstars of the entertainment industry, the use of celebrities as brand ambassadors offers significant advantages to a company.

Celebrity endorsement is concerned with the strategic alignment of the celebrity brand and the marketing brand. A celebrity brand spoksperson can attract attention and generate emotional affinity with the brand in a way that may not be possible with traditional advertising.

A well-matched celebrity endorsement partnership can benefit the brand when the target audience transfers their admiration for the celebrity onto the brand, thereby allowing it influence their purchase decision making process.

As well as influncing the bottom line, aligning the brand with celebrity gives the brand greater access to more fans. The wider the fan base the larger the spread of the marketing message and the increased profitability of the brand.

7 Essential Tips to Getting the Right Celebrity Brand Match

Celebrity Brand Mismatch

In the same way brands develop a perceived brand image within their market, celebrities develop a public persona based on their professional achievements and public behavior. The closer aligned the brand image and celebrity image the better the return on investment of the celebrity endorsement.

Using a celebrity who’s public image, or what they stand for, which is incongruent or does not align with your brand’s message/image and what it stands for, will cause confusion and largely do more harm than good.

Damage to Reputation

The danger of using celebrities to endorse your brand is that any discrepancies in their personal life can damage the reputation of the brand. Celebrities as brand ambassadors should be looked upon as role models or inspirational people for your customers.

In associating your brand to the celebrity it is intended that their positive public image is reflected on to your brand. An athlete who tarnishes their reputation by using drugs instantly strips value from any brand they were endorsing. Tiger Woods lost millions in sponsorship deals when brands were quick to disassociate with him after his marital indiscretions.

Brands Like Winners

Sporting heroes are admired because of their talent and performance. They are desirable brand ambassadors as they inspire audiences and positively influence purchase decisions, as long as they are winning…

There is a risk to brands when investing in a sporting partnership in case the athlete is ‘off form’ or performs poorly. The value of the sports celebrity to the brand is only as valuable as his or her performance in the field. The ROI often lies in the amount of media coverage they receive. A player who is not getting the pitch time offers little value to the brand.

Personality is also a factor. If the athelete is lacking in the personality stakes then they are of little value as a brand representative at consumer-facing events or brand-focused media activity.

According to a national survey, Brian O’Driscol is Ireland’s most admired sports personality, favoured by one in four irish adults. It is a combination of his performance on the field with his personality off the field that makes him appeal to consumers and the brand alike.

While the use of celebrity endorsers has been shown to improve brand recall, increase brand awareness and help develop brand image, the cost of signing up strong celebritiy role models as brand endorsers is often prohibitively expensive to small business.

Even by Irish standards, IRU players can command €10,000. for a single corporate appearance, never mind the cost of exclusive brand partnership deals. There are however a number of ways to align your brand with a celebritiy ambassador without bursting your budget

Gifting

If you have identified a celebrity that fits with your brand identity and can increase your market penetration or reach with your target audience then gifting your product to that celebrity may be a way of gaining greater exposure for your brand.

Neff Headware is now popular street wear among snowboarders, surfers and other boarding customrs. Unable to pay for celebrity endorsement in their early days the company sent their merchandise to up and coming influencers in the sport. When the audience began seeing the brand being worn by their sporting idols the demand for the brand sky-rocketed with the company enjoying a 300% increase in revenue over the last 3 years.

Equity

There is a growing trend of getting aspirational celebrities on board as brand ambassadors by offering them an equity stake in the company. This allows the company to land high profile endorsement while maintaining cash flow. Furthermore, the celebrity has an incentive to continue their association with the brand and continue to offer promotional support.

Influencers

Traditional celebrity endorsers were those that had wide audince recognition and influence. Some of the biggest influencers of the 21st centuary come not from entertainers and athletes but from those with a large online following.

Frequently bloggers have as wide and significant a reach as traditional celebrities and demand fees of far less to promote a brand. By redefining ‘celebrity’, brands can harness these people with an engaged internet following and use their online voice to fuel marketing campaigns for the brand.

Charitable Causes

Many celebrities rely on sponsorship to suplement their salary. Therefore remaining relevant and maintaing a positive public perception is equally important for their earning potential.

Celebrities that have had their reputations tarnished in some way often look to improve their public image by being associated with charities and non profits. Small companies can use cause marketing to find common ground with potential customers. For every pair of TOMS shoes purchased, the company gives a new pair of shoes to a child in need. This makes the brand attractive to celebrities in public disrepute.

Celebrity endorsement is not for every brand but it certainly broadens the potential customer reach for those that find a suitable celebrity match.

• Have you considered if your brand is suitable for celebrity endorsement?

• Does your brand strategy include elements that would be attractive to a potential celebrity ambassador?

• What do you think of celebrity brand endorsement?

Drop us a line we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Company Culture: Your Brand’s Strongest Competitive Advantage

September 6, 2012/0 Comments/in Brand Experience, Brand Revitalisation, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Brand Voice, Branding, Business, Communication /by Lorraine Carter

Company culture may be the most vague aspect of brand management but carefully controlled and nurtured it can provide your brand with a sustainable competitive advantage that even your strongest competitors cannot replicate.

Company culture is a culmination of the behaviors, attitudes, relationships, core brand values and environment within a business. Simply put, your company culture can be viewed as “the way we do things around here”. The manners in which these components are managed make your culture what it is.

How Does This Support Brand Development?

Many of the strongest brands have a product offering that is similar to that of competitors in the market. What gives them their greatest competitive advantage however is that while competitors can replicate the product, apply similar marketing techniques, and headhunt their staff, they can never fully duplicate their company culture. A company culture is the one truly unique sustainably competitive advantage a brand can have.

A winning culture can be a real point of differentiation, but it must be managed, driven, and reinforced in order to truly see results.

What is the Culture Within Your Company?

Many companies aim to strategically shape the culture that exists within their organisation, but even companies who have never heard of company culture already have one in place.

The question is, is your company culture strengthening your brand or holding it back or, worse still, undermining it? A good place to start when developing and understanding your corporate culture is asking your staff and customers what they think of the company; the good, the bad and the ugly. What you need to take from that exercise is what elements of the existing company culture that you like and your customers like, and what needs to be eliminated.

What You Do, Not What You Say!

The core values you identify for your brand will shape the behaviour of your employees and provide the guidelines they need to best serve the brand. If providing the best customer service possible is a core value of the brand then employees know that they are expected to do their best to achieve this value through all customer interactions.

Remember, it is not enough for your brand to have strong core values that are clearly articulated to stakeholders if they are not acted upon. It is what you do, not what you say that counts. It must be a fully integrated and intuitive part of your brand’s signature way of doing things.

What Is It That Your Company Values?

In order to create a corporate brand culture that yields results you must first identify what is it you value as a company? How to you live and authentically demonstrate the importance of these brand values to your stakeholders?

If you want to delight your customers then what is the reward for your employees when they achieve this? Think of it this way. If your company culture values customer service and your core value is to delight customers, then what happens if two supermarket employees each make sales of equal monetary value but one offers to carry the customer’s bags to the car. Does that employee receive a reward for going out of their way to delight the customer? Or more to the point, is the other employee penalized for not doing so?

Reward your staff for embracing your company’s culture. Don’t just review employees based on measuring results, measure their behaviour and what they try to bring to the work environment. Encourage, support and acknowledge those that not only promote but act on your core brand values.

If you want to create a sustainable corporate brand culture than staff recruitment should aim to find employees who fit within the existing brand culture and whose values are closely aligned with the brand.

Zappos famously offer potential employees $3000 to leave the company during their initial training to make sure those who choose to stay do so because they believe in the brand and not just the financial benefits of the job.

The Role of The Leader

The most critical influencer on the development of a corporate culture that supports strong brand development is the leader. Leaders understand that their brand’s identity is shaped through touch points between their customers and their organisation.

Leaders cannot possibly anticipate every possible touch point that could influence perceptions of the company’s brand, and advertising can only get you so far, but they can set the example as to the attitude and behavioral cues for the corporate brand culture.

Strong leaders understand that in a sustainable winning company culture, the behaviours of employees are intrinsically linked to relationships, informed by attitudes, built on a foundation of core brand values and suitable to their industry environment. By managing these cultural components a leader can create a company culture that supports strong brand development internally.

Southwest Airlines embrace a company culture that nurtures staff first and customers second. This may seem counter intuitive but by giving employees the tools to make decisions, by building a culture where people feel respected and valued, Southwest Airlines understood that these values would also be reflected in interactions with customers. Their corporate culture has created an environment where employees want to deliver the best customer service in the business.

As Zappo’s CEO Tony Hseih states; “company culture and company brand are two sides of the same coin. Your culture is your brand.”

• Does your corporate culture nurture your brand and provide a competitive advantage?

• How do your core brand values support your corporate culture?

• Do you as a company leader understand your role in the development of your company’s brand culture?

• Do you need to engage in a Brand Discovery Programme™ to re-evaluate your company culture and brand values so you can reinvigorate your brand’s offering to make it stronger, more relevant and more profitable?

Brand CEOs/Leaders: Why Aren’t You Using The Power of Your Voice Online?

August 30, 2012/0 Comments/in Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Brand Voice, Facebook, Online Marketing, Social Engagement, Social Media, Twitter /by Lorraine Carter

As a company director or CEO you are of course aware of your influence on the internal dynamics of your business and brand. Your actions and decisions extend beyond the day-to-day issues of just running the business.

You champion the vision and core values that drive your company activities. You have creative control over how your brand is marketed to your customers. Your interaction with employees influences their behaviour and helps create a culture that has an effect on the identity of your company brand.

However the challenge for many brands is effectively projecting this brand ethos and identity to their customers. With company leaders having such an influential role on the internal brand development why are they so often inaccessible, unknown and unheard by the external stakeholders?

What many business leaders fail to recognize is that they have the potential to have a hugely influential role in developing the brand’s public image.

Embrace Social Media for the Sake of Your Brand

Your responsibility to your company brand is now much more than how effective you are in the workplace or traditional leadership roles. Research into CEO activity online, and particularly through social media channels, has proven that company leaders who proactively engage online positively affect brand image, customer behaviour and relationships with key market influencers.

Enhance Your Brand’s Image

Company leaders who embrace social media bring a level of authenticity and openness to the brand message that brand communication campaigns cannot replicate. CEO’s understand their core brand values better than any one else in the company. They are the visionaries behind the brand, the leaders of the brand.

When company leaders use Facebook or Twitter to join the online conversation it ensures that the brand message is a dialogue and not just a one-sided promotional push from the company.

82% of respondents in a recent survey into the social media activities of C-level executives said they are more likely to trust a company when its CEO and leadership team communicates openly via social media about their core mission and values. 71% felt that a Tweeting CEO also boosts brand image and 78% said that it gives the perception of better communication.

Inspire Employees

Employees have a fundamental role in championing and shaping the brand image during customer interactions. Company leaders who use social media set the standard and tone for how to communicate and interact with potential customers.

CEO activity on social networks also appears to influence employees’ confidence in their company. The study findings indicate that 82% of employee respondents trust a company more when the company leader and management team communicate via social media.

Boost Sales, Increase Your Profitability

A company leader’s social media presence influences purchasing decisions. 77% of survey respondents claimed to be more likely or much more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media to clearly define company values and leadership principles. Direct access to the company leader can help close sales that might have proved more difficult for lower level employees to achieve.

Financial Services firm ING Direct Canada is known for its tweeting CEO, Peter Aceto who has said using social media helps him gauge how both employees and customers view the company and its products. It helps him keep in touch at a grass roots level and enables him build a more ‘accessible and engaged relationship’ in his market. “We saw it as a competitive advantage for us. There was no science. There was no ROI. We just needed to get going, start to build a community and learn how we can use it.”

No time? No excuses!

In this post digital era brand leaders are surprisingly slow to adopt social media as a means of developing their brand’s identity. Social Media takes time and commitment, particularly for those that are new to online engagement.

While time, or lack thereof, is an excuse used by many business leaders who have yet to adopt social media the fact of the matter is that the world has changed and there is no hiding anymore. If you are not speaking for yourself and your brand then someone else will do the speaking for you and you might not like what they have to say.

Brand Blog

Nervous of using social media? A good way of getting used to introducing your views to your customers is through a blog. Most leaders are more comfortable writing a post rather than launching themselves into an open dialogue with customers. Richard Branson writes a blog with a style that is very true to his personality, a personality that is deeply intertwined with the Virgin brand. He’s also very active on other social channels too such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Facebook & Twitter

Social Media is not going away. In fact it’s the most ubiquitous part of our lives now and becoming the more dominantly preferred form of communication for many users over more traditional email.

Your customers have integrated Facebook and Twitter into their daily lives. There is no better place to influence your brand image and enhance customer engagement than through these channels.

It will benefit not only your customer’s perceptions of your brand but it also provides you, as a leader, with a greater understanding and insights into how customers engage and interact with your brand online.

The time is NOW to embrace social media and start really using the power of your voice online to shape public perception of your brand. It could be the most influential thing you do for your brand this year.

• Do you know how to leverage your voice online to strengthen your brand image?

• Does your brand strategy articulate the role of the leader in the development of your brand image?

Stats: *BRANDfog, 2012 CEO Social Media & Leadership Survey, March 12 2012

Are Your Brand Values On The Money? They’re Critical to Your Profitability

August 24, 2012/0 Comments/in Brand Relevance, Brand Revitalisation, Brand Strategy, Brand Values, Branding /by Lorraine Carter

The last five years has seen a massive shift in the fundamentals that shape the corporate operating environment. Technological advances and economic influences have led to fundamental changes in global business practices and customer behaviour.

These changes demand businesses to alter and adapt their business models in order to maintain relevancy and profitability, but it also challenges companies to reinvent their strategies while maintaining the company’s vision and staying true to their core brand values.

What Are Core Brand Values?

Core values are essential to the integrity of every brand while also underpinning every organisation’s culture and priorities. They provide a framework through which all decisions surrounding the brand are made.

Explicit core values empower employees and provide them with information they need to understand the brand. Strong brand values help employees articulate what makes their brand different compared to their competitors and enables them to communicate its message effectively to their customers, thereby making them far more effective brand champions and sales agents for your business.

In times of market turmoil and change the temptation exists for business leaders to abandon or compromise their brand values in an attempt to capture market share or adapt to new customer demands. A high quality brand that changes their core values and lowers prices in an effort to capture market share only confuses both customers and employees alike, which in turn undermines the brand, the very heart and life blood of their business.

While every business must keep profits front of mind, with ongoing plans for increasing sales, failing to act with an authentic representation of the values and beliefs of the brand leads to loss of credibility for the company and brand erosion or devaluation and eventually loss of market share.

Remain True to Your Core Brand Values

Starbucks is a global brand but their commitment to their core values is evident in every market in which they operate. Their success in the Chinese market, a market where many American branding giants have failed, was due to their ability to adapt their strategy to meet the dynamics of the Chinese market while staying true to Starbuck’s core brand values.

Understanding the difference in the Chinese consumer tastes and expectations, Starbuck’s altered their product to include flavours preferred by the Asian consumer. Unlike their western peers, Chinese customers preferred to sit in rather than take out and so Starbucks encouraged this element of the customer service experience. They could have adopted a low price strategy more in keeping with the purchasing power of the average Chinese customer. They could have changed their entire business model to match that to other tea and coffee houses in China.

What Starbucks refused to alter was their dedication to the highest level of customer service and a high quality product. Their commitment to their core brand values paid off.

While many of their Chinese customers claimed they actually preferred the taste of rival brands, they continued to go to Starbucks because of the level of customer service they received. By maintaining their core values Starbucks captured the market of the higher-spending middle class Chinese consumer while also becoming a status symbol along the way.

Flexible in Strategy, Firm in Core Values

A brand strategy should be flexible and capable of adapting to changing market demands, but solid core brand values are essential to provide structure and direction for the brand to evolve and grow profitably.

Customers need brands to adapt to their changing demands and brands must alter their offering and communication in order to stay relevant. A brand that tries to offer everything to the customer without remaining true to the underpinning direction of their brand values will fail.

Customers are quick to recognize a brand that is acting disingenuously and without substance. Customers develop brand loyalty based on identifying and aligning themselves with the values of that brand. In order to capture and deliver value to your customers you must first identify and commit to the values that are core to your brand and your business, in order to meet your customers’ needs authentically.

4 Elements of Brand Strategy That Allow More Flexibility:

1. Location:

In most cases the ability to transfer the brand from one market to another is not something that is fundamental to the brand, unless the brand is built around a specific location. Las Vegas’s Sin City brand is intrinsic to that one location.

2. Communication:

New communication channels can and should be adopted in order to maximize customer value. Even television, radio and print brands expand their communication channels to include a mix of appropriate online communication channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, web sites and appropriate blogs to name a few.

3. Product Features:

While the core product should be consistent across markets, strong brands can adapt some features to suit changing local market demands.

4. Message Creation:

Brands are learning that they need to relinquish some control of the brand message and embrace customer-created content. If the communication of the core value is strong then the message created by the customer will more than likely still fit within the core brand strategy too.

When it comes to brand strategy there is no one-size-fits-all model. There are countless channels available and it is about selecting the most relevant to the brand at that current time. However having concrete core brand values is key to your success.

Core values are the focal point from which the brand message is shaped and communicated to and through customers. Remaining true to your core brand values ensures that no matter what turn the markets take, your brand will have a clear vision of what the brand strives to achieve, your brand promise and the direction on how to achieve those values through re-shaping your business strategies.

Volvo is a brand that has steadfastly remained true to their core value across the various markets in which they operate. Volvo state that “safety is a fundamental core value… safety is and must be the basic principle in all design work”. They consistently offer value to their customers through their commitment to safety.

Your brand strategy should be flexible and capable of adapting to changing market dynamics, integrating new methods of communication, satisfying new customer tastes, even entering new product markets, but your core brand values must remain true and underline everything you do.

• Does your brand have clear brand values?

• Does you brand strategy allow your brand to adapt to changing market dynamics?

• Do you need to redefine what values are core to your business?

• Do you need to engage in a Brand Discovery Programme™ to re-evaluate your brand values and revitalize your offering to keep it relevant and profitable?

http://www.personadesign.ie/brand_discovery_programme