Marketing and Sales are the two important components of business.They are the two sides of the same coin, so one must remember that both should not be mixed but they are used interchangeably.They are similar but not same.
Marketing creates an environment where Sales can thrive.
Marketing is the tool to push sales,as it markets the product to make the targeted group aware of it and than sales can take motion....!!
keep reading..!!!!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Taste of Branding...!!!
Standing out amid a massive chorus of competitors is a challenge for any company in today’s business climate. You people want evidence? Look at any magazine, TV show or surf the Internet. The number of offers and sales pitches one receives on a daily basis is simply staggering and increasingly ineffective. It’s no wonder, then, why businesses are seeking new and more effective ways of increasing the influence of their brand strategy in the global marketplace today. A strong brand strategy can increase the awareness of a company and its offerings in such a way that establishes strong feelings and reactions and a favorable view towards the company as a whole. To create this sort of “brand awareness” in global market, it takes skillful Brand Strategy management.
Successfully out-branding your competitors is a continuous battle for the hearts and minds of your customers. The proposition your brand strategy makes must be very compelling, attractive and unique among competitive offerings as no market is enjoying monopoly. The proposition must also be consistently reinforced throughout all phases of an organization, from senior executives to customer service, research and development, business development and even your business partners as well as stakehoders.
What entails a comprehensive and effective “Brand Strategy” process……. That cannot be defined in brief as it distinguishes from industry to industry….!!!!!!!
Brand Strategy—what’s the big deal?
Brand Strategy is nothing new to us its being managed from the very beginning. Yet, the expectations consumers have for a product or service they buy is stronger than it’s ever been. This is why companies interested in long-term success must create the most promising, targeted brand experience possible ever.
Whether companies know it or not, each of them already have a brand, and their customers are having a “brand experience” when they interact with company, whether it be with their products and services or the people in their company. In order to craft this “brand experience” in a calculated way that is beneficial for the company, companies must have a strong understanding about what exactly a brand is.
Brand is the Alpha and Omega………………….!!!
In other words, brand is the totality of company and its business.
“A brand is the sum of the good, the bad, the ugly and the off-strategy,”. “It is your best and worst product. It is your best and worst employee. It is communicated through award-winning advertising as well as those ads that somehow slipped through the approval cracks and sank anything riding on them. It is your on-hold music and the demeanor of the receptionist who puts that valued client or prospect on hold. It is the carefully crafted comments by a CEO as well as negative buzz by the water cooler or in chat rooms on the Internet. Brand is expressed through written, audio and visual content. It is interpreted through emotional filters every human being has—where anything can happen. Ultimately, companies cannot control their brand. They can only hope to guide it.”
The Road to Branding Success…..
Building on the inherent values of a brand should be the core of any branding strategy. If they’re not clear, get a good grip on them first. Is the brand about honesty or integrity?????? Quality???????????? How about excellent communication and customer satisfaction…………?
Knowledge of a company’s values, at least in a literal context, is typically an internal matter; yet, those values become evident to everyone in contact with the company, from customers and prospective customers to business-to-business relationships and employee relations sort employee relationship management. Consistency is the key here. If members of the organization are not accurately representing the values of the brand, steps must be taken to rectify the chink in the armor. And unlike a brand’s key business proposition, values should never change even though the landscape in which the company operates and even its products may.
Winning brand strategies starts with top-notch research….
With values fully set, a brand proposition is ready to be established. Objective and comprehensive branding research are the keys here. At a minimum, both must be done to establish clarity on the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, the target audience and the competition. If possible, branding research should also be done on the brand’s industry, its history, the status of the market and possibilities for future expansion as business would always like to grow with changing environment and passage of time.
Target customer will determine your success….
If it’s only possible to do one body of brand research, discover as much as possible about your target customer. Find out who they are and what their needs and desires are. Make it your mission to get as detailed information as possible on their age, gender, income, shopping habits (online and off) and anything else of relevance you can determine. If you are targeting a business market, these criteria will differ, depending on the industry. Understanding your target market and what they want is key to developing a winning brand. Knowing these things should also give you an idea for what communication medium and content would work to engage your market in a better way.
Other research you might want to do is find out who are your comprtitors, what your competitors’ offerings are like. How do your offerings stack up? What can a customer get from your product that they cannot get from anyone else amongst your competitors? Find out these things, and you have the seeds for a winning branding strategy, and an innovative fodder for advertising campaign…………………………………….!!!!!
What is brand promise?
The brand statement, often called the brand promise or proposition, is a derivative of branding research. It states the benefit of buying and using your company’s products or services. For clothing, it could be about style or comfort and latest. For a car, it could be about safety or reliability. Whatever it is, it must be clear, engaging and presented in a context relevant to the customer. One example of an effective brand promise is that of BMW’s. It’s stated right in the company’s tagline: The Ultimate Driving Machine.
Promise should be golden…..
If company’s products and service don’t live up to their brand promise, new customers will become lost customers and loyal customers might leave, too. Simply put,deliverable,what ever that is, must follow through on the promise—in fact, it would be best if it actually over-delivered.
Promise should be unexpected, but welcome……
Never ever reuse something a competitor has already promised even if it works for your product or service, and don’t be vague in trying to position your company favorably against your competitors (such as saying you are “the best coffee in town.”). Be specific because specific is exponentially more memorable. Besides, people expect you to be good. Otherwise, they wouldn’t give you their business.
Rule…….Hearts and minds first, wallets later…!!!
Creating a positive emotional association in your market for your product or service is key. It can create want and desire by the mere mention of your brand, product or service name. Needless to say, that’s powerful. For instance, the mere mention of Ben & Jerry’s conjures up images of numerous unique premium ice cream flavors and with the anticipation for your favorite. Such positive emotional associations are built over time through good branding practice and a time-tested relationship between you and your customer based on intrigue, trust, understanding and support.
To create a brand promise that creates such emotional connections, it should be:
1. Grounded in the brand’s core values
2. Clearly relevant and engaging to your target market
3. Able to create some sort of positive emotional attachment beyond just being “good”
4. Repeated internally and externally within your organization
5. Adaptable to the business climate
6. Continually reinforced
7. Consistent across advertising and marketing mediums
8. Known and echoed by business partners and many more……
This would help you people, to understand branding in detail with major decisions required to adopt the branding strategy.
I hope you people enjoyed it…..isn’t it..!!!!!!!!!!
Successfully out-branding your competitors is a continuous battle for the hearts and minds of your customers. The proposition your brand strategy makes must be very compelling, attractive and unique among competitive offerings as no market is enjoying monopoly. The proposition must also be consistently reinforced throughout all phases of an organization, from senior executives to customer service, research and development, business development and even your business partners as well as stakehoders.
What entails a comprehensive and effective “Brand Strategy” process……. That cannot be defined in brief as it distinguishes from industry to industry….!!!!!!!
Brand Strategy—what’s the big deal?
Brand Strategy is nothing new to us its being managed from the very beginning. Yet, the expectations consumers have for a product or service they buy is stronger than it’s ever been. This is why companies interested in long-term success must create the most promising, targeted brand experience possible ever.
Whether companies know it or not, each of them already have a brand, and their customers are having a “brand experience” when they interact with company, whether it be with their products and services or the people in their company. In order to craft this “brand experience” in a calculated way that is beneficial for the company, companies must have a strong understanding about what exactly a brand is.
Brand is the Alpha and Omega………………….!!!
In other words, brand is the totality of company and its business.
“A brand is the sum of the good, the bad, the ugly and the off-strategy,”. “It is your best and worst product. It is your best and worst employee. It is communicated through award-winning advertising as well as those ads that somehow slipped through the approval cracks and sank anything riding on them. It is your on-hold music and the demeanor of the receptionist who puts that valued client or prospect on hold. It is the carefully crafted comments by a CEO as well as negative buzz by the water cooler or in chat rooms on the Internet. Brand is expressed through written, audio and visual content. It is interpreted through emotional filters every human being has—where anything can happen. Ultimately, companies cannot control their brand. They can only hope to guide it.”
The Road to Branding Success…..
Building on the inherent values of a brand should be the core of any branding strategy. If they’re not clear, get a good grip on them first. Is the brand about honesty or integrity?????? Quality???????????? How about excellent communication and customer satisfaction…………?
Knowledge of a company’s values, at least in a literal context, is typically an internal matter; yet, those values become evident to everyone in contact with the company, from customers and prospective customers to business-to-business relationships and employee relations sort employee relationship management. Consistency is the key here. If members of the organization are not accurately representing the values of the brand, steps must be taken to rectify the chink in the armor. And unlike a brand’s key business proposition, values should never change even though the landscape in which the company operates and even its products may.
Winning brand strategies starts with top-notch research….
With values fully set, a brand proposition is ready to be established. Objective and comprehensive branding research are the keys here. At a minimum, both must be done to establish clarity on the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, the target audience and the competition. If possible, branding research should also be done on the brand’s industry, its history, the status of the market and possibilities for future expansion as business would always like to grow with changing environment and passage of time.
Target customer will determine your success….
If it’s only possible to do one body of brand research, discover as much as possible about your target customer. Find out who they are and what their needs and desires are. Make it your mission to get as detailed information as possible on their age, gender, income, shopping habits (online and off) and anything else of relevance you can determine. If you are targeting a business market, these criteria will differ, depending on the industry. Understanding your target market and what they want is key to developing a winning brand. Knowing these things should also give you an idea for what communication medium and content would work to engage your market in a better way.
Other research you might want to do is find out who are your comprtitors, what your competitors’ offerings are like. How do your offerings stack up? What can a customer get from your product that they cannot get from anyone else amongst your competitors? Find out these things, and you have the seeds for a winning branding strategy, and an innovative fodder for advertising campaign…………………………………….!!!!!
What is brand promise?
The brand statement, often called the brand promise or proposition, is a derivative of branding research. It states the benefit of buying and using your company’s products or services. For clothing, it could be about style or comfort and latest. For a car, it could be about safety or reliability. Whatever it is, it must be clear, engaging and presented in a context relevant to the customer. One example of an effective brand promise is that of BMW’s. It’s stated right in the company’s tagline: The Ultimate Driving Machine.
Promise should be golden…..
If company’s products and service don’t live up to their brand promise, new customers will become lost customers and loyal customers might leave, too. Simply put,deliverable,what ever that is, must follow through on the promise—in fact, it would be best if it actually over-delivered.
Promise should be unexpected, but welcome……
Never ever reuse something a competitor has already promised even if it works for your product or service, and don’t be vague in trying to position your company favorably against your competitors (such as saying you are “the best coffee in town.”). Be specific because specific is exponentially more memorable. Besides, people expect you to be good. Otherwise, they wouldn’t give you their business.
Rule…….Hearts and minds first, wallets later…!!!
Creating a positive emotional association in your market for your product or service is key. It can create want and desire by the mere mention of your brand, product or service name. Needless to say, that’s powerful. For instance, the mere mention of Ben & Jerry’s conjures up images of numerous unique premium ice cream flavors and with the anticipation for your favorite. Such positive emotional associations are built over time through good branding practice and a time-tested relationship between you and your customer based on intrigue, trust, understanding and support.
To create a brand promise that creates such emotional connections, it should be:
1. Grounded in the brand’s core values
2. Clearly relevant and engaging to your target market
3. Able to create some sort of positive emotional attachment beyond just being “good”
4. Repeated internally and externally within your organization
5. Adaptable to the business climate
6. Continually reinforced
7. Consistent across advertising and marketing mediums
8. Known and echoed by business partners and many more……
This would help you people, to understand branding in detail with major decisions required to adopt the branding strategy.
I hope you people enjoyed it…..isn’t it..!!!!!!!!!!
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