Mashable are hosting the ‘Open Web Awards’ for Social Media and you can nominate your brand right now.

Mashable have a host of How-Tos and Resource Guides on the site that take the media out of being Sociable. The lists are easy to see and follow and I am a bit taken with the product even though the brand value hasn’t hit me yet.

In the crowded space of social media this is an attempt at a form of directing directory with oomph so I will be interested to see how they fare.

Do You Poken?

A new addition to the language, a question for Twitter or a faddish new product to transfer contact details, emails and pictures? Either way it is worth keeping up with social media driven products as one or two will really fly. I hope you are poken into action.

The folks at Poken say ‘On the Poken site you and your friends can view your contacts alphabetically, or chronologically in your “social timeline.” You can also send messages, group contacts with a label, write notes for yourself about each contact, and so much more.’

Interest Wayne….ing

Where are you now as you read this and will it encourage you to join ‘YASNS’ yet another social networking site. Or You Are Where Now? Asleep!
Micro blogging is big business but it seems to be fickle and fast moving. If your business depends on consumer viral trends you need to keep up and effectively be there.

Wayn could stand for What are you – nuts? or Well ah yes no.
As an aside it looks like the character needs to go to Specsavers.

Buzz Your Own Brands

Get a new Buzz with the marketing art of creating pull for your business through dialogue. It begins by giving people something to talk about by getting attention in an entertaining manner. With the variety of communications available to everyone I suggest you pick one new viral channel and give yourself a Buzz.

Blogging can be used to test your Buzzability. Set up and work hard on your blog with links to your trade contacts. Keep bringing fresh items to the blog at least twice a week. Ask for comment and respond when you get it.

Enter stories in blog carnivals that are appropriate to your industry. Submit entries to blogs of your trade publications and other appropriate entities. Pay a copywriter if you are concerned with the effort but try find someone in house. Otherwise outsource the whole project and collect the honey.

Meebo

Under 18 year old’s grow up very quickly and will take their favourite tool kits and spending power with them. This instant messaging, ‘multiple online conversation browserware’ is a ‘top web app’ of the moment – or so I am told by various teenagers.

Overview all the communication methods that appeal to your target markets. Kids won’t think you are keeping young but your contempories might and so will your marketing people.

• A brand is a product or service which has been given an identity; it has a brand name and the added value of a brand image. (This may include distinctive packaging, logo or trademark)Margaret Crimp Marketing guru
• ‘A brand is a product with personality.’
• The American Marketing Association say a brand is a ‘Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.’
• A brand is a promise that includes your customers’ experiences and the expectations.
• A brand is a means of creating associations or connotations in people’s minds in such a way as it persuades them to ‘buy in’ to that product or service.

Brand Differentiation

• A differentiated product may arise from a new invention like a Blackberry or the Polaroid camera. It may also be differentiated by marketing/branding.
• An undifferentiated product is one that is standard and made to a specification. eg Petrol, sugar, steel etc. Branding will be a key weapon to give identity to such products.
• Key differentiators include
  Brand Name
  Trademarks and logos
  Colour, slogan or catch phrase, presentation or packaging
• Other recognisable features like the Dulux dog or the hole in a Polo mint reinforce brand differentiation.
• With some goods, performance is the key differentiator as with motor vehicles or Dyson cleaners.
• Often the differentiator is called a USP or unique selling point. That is to say the product is different to any competitors product for some good and sale-able reason.

Branding Aims and Objectives

• Association with quality and fitness for purpose. Fast food may not be haute cuisine but it can be ‘finger licking good’.
• Link the brand to excellent customer service. M&S product return and exchange policy fits in this category.
• Merchandising is the art of displaying for sale and attracting customer. Point of sale material can reinforce the brand
• Purchasing takes place at several levels, the heart and emotions, the eye and the brain. Brands aim to influence all these aspects of a product or service.
• Branding aims to Add Value for the customer, the stakeholders and the business.

USP

smarta’ the new business owners and entrepreneurs support organisation has an interesting USP page on its web site.

Own Label Branding for Supermarkets

This is a corporate brand that you may not have heard much about but it supplies Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys amongst others. Their brand position is clear…. to be the pre-eminent supplier of household and personal care products to the leading retailers and brand owners.

If you aspire to sell to retailers also consider contract manufacture for brand owners who already have retail channel customers.

To be pre-eminent you do not need to be known by consumers you need a B2B brand image. In the case of McBride they support private label by innovation.

]]> http://www.bonbrand.co.uk/on-brand/students-on-brand/what-they-teach-you-at-branding-business-school/feed/ 0 http://www.bonbrand.co.uk/on-brand/personal-brand/cult-of-celeb-or-personal-branding/ http://www.bonbrand.co.uk/on-brand/personal-brand/cult-of-celeb-or-personal-branding/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:07:47 +0000 hortoris http://www.bonbrand.co.uk/?p=1906 IS CASSIUS CLAY THE NEW RACHEL ZOE? screams the Daily Mail between Christmas and the New Year 2010/11.

Well sorry to disappoint but neither of these personality brand names have hit my radar.
Hit may well be the operative word as I do remember the original Cassius Clay before he relinquished his name to become the ‘world heavy weight boxing brand’ that was Muhammad Ali.

Be On Brand Personal Branding View

• My contention has always been that a brand has equity value with intangible assets supporting that brand value and an intellectual asset base. Much of that seems to be missing in the Cult of Cleb.

• Personal branding is with you for life. Celebrities come and go.

• Celebrities in this context are all about recognition whilst Personal Branding is about what and how the person is, interacts and operates in the market.

• The cult of Celebrity is  created, managed and perpetuated by others whilst a good personal brand is just that Personal.

• Cult of Celebrity is not the same as Personal Branding, the former is about temporary opinion the latter about value and intangible assets.

Paris Hilton 3 Sept 2010
After a spell in prison, Paris Hilton now faces a law suit from her sponsor Hairtech International. Allegedly she has been wearing the wrong hair pieces, (a bit of a bald statement).
Who says blonds have all the fun, not Paris if she has to stump up $35 million.

The cult of celebrity will forgive reckless driving but wearing someone else’s hair extension, that is a personal branding no-no.

Red Letter Day Doomsday

I listened to Red Letter Days former owner, Rachel Elnaugh, rationalise her business failure upon which she bases much in this book. A banker in the audience had different views and the question time exchange was more illuminating than any book.

I have linked to a paperback edition of the ‘Nightmares’ at less than a third of the price or click on the hardback cover above.

“Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best” by Donna Childs, is a guide to disaster planning for small business. She observes that many of the problems that occur in a disaster are also ones that could happen in the best of times.”

John ‘Giraffe’ Timpson Brand Repairs

The Daily Telegraph ‘business agony aunt’ tackles the question of changing your brand,logo, corporate image. Based on years of retail experience and good common sense he says ‘think twice before betting your future on corporate image -it might not be the magic you are hoping for’.

For more practical gritty advice read ‘Dear James Secrets of Success from a Management Maverick’ or John sticking his neck out in ‘How to Ride a Giraffe’

Timpson shoe manufactures since 1865, suffered after the introduction of cheap shoes by retailers like Marks & Spencer, B.H.S., etc. and the trend away from conventional footwear to trainers. Fashion is not for ever and products and services must move with the times and trends.

‘John Timpson put his shoe shops back on the retail map by taking up the cause of the customer and introducing a Code of Practice that ensured everyone shopping at Timpson got a fair deal. In 1987 he focused on shoe repairs and bought Mister Minit, Supasnaps and Sketchley to own 550 shops.

The Timpson’s web site put success modestly down to ‘Everything from ethics, history, benefits, charity work, training, careers, latest news, customer care and the people who make it a great place to work.’

Tommy Hifliger

Once known as a “bling” brand clothes label Tommy Hilfiger has sold out to join Calvin Klein at Phillips Van-Heusen after 4 years ownership by Apax partners.

The brand’s eponymous founder will stay on as “principal designer and visionary” . “Calvin and Tommy are global iconic mega-brands” and since Apax worked wonders relaunching the company it may deserve the €0.7 billion it is reported to have made on the deal.
That is one heck of an uplift in brand value even discounting product investment along the way.

Sainsburys

What do Delia, Heston, Jamie and Marco Pierre have in common? They are all ‘Brand Representatives’ or ambassadors food retailers.

Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal will feature in an advert or mini cookery programme for Waitrose. Marco Pierre White starts his ‘bootiful’ job promoting Bernard Mathews after Jamie Oliver of Sainsbury fame did such a job on Turkey Twizzlers.

Click on any book cover to buy from Amazon

Batman

Batman or the Caped Crusader was named and created by Bob Kane for DC comics in 1939. Will your business name or nom-de-plume last over 70 years?

Avoid fashions that come and go if you want to establish longevity with your brand.

The Joker
‘Robin, I need to go to the bat-room for a couple of minutes’
‘Holy-loo-ya Batman’

Time to eat – Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Batman

Naming your new business and company is an important step. It will remain with you for the life of the business and is the first step in brand and relationship building.

Top Business Name Tips

1. Generic names can help particularly for web searches e.g. The Spade Store.
2. Take a sanity check some names have double meanings or can be misinterpreted far too easily. Avoid names that are hard to remember or spell.
3. Check out the availability of an appropriate domain name before fixing on a company name.
4. Seek the views of other to test out your best ideas.
5. Be specific – it is great if your name also says what you do Gardener’s Tips UK Ltd.
6. Use your name if it carries weight but generally this shows lack of imagination.
7. Avoid copyright problems with big brands. ‘Easy Anything’ can end up as easy court appearances.
8. Associate the name with some positive attribute like Sunshine Holiday Cottages or Darwin’s Genealogy Services
9. Avoid numbers and fashionable shorthand like Gardeners4U
10. Trying to get at the front of directories is too contrived Aardvark Builders is too naff to get quality business.
11. You do not want to be too ‘Cheezey’ like some of the hairdressers you see – ‘A Cut Above’, ‘Snippers’,'Scissor Sisters’ or one I saw recently ‘Skalps’.
12. Do not over complicate the name and make sure it isn’t in direct conflict with a similar name already in use.

Also Read Brand or Corporate Identity

Customer Relations

Eight out of ten tips on branding keys emphasise the ‘Customer’ in the blog of Brad VanAuken. That may be the only tip you need ‘put emphasis on the customer’.

1. Learn everything about your customers. Understand them at a deep level. Know what motivates them. Know what they aspire to and what they fear.

2. Stand for something important to your customers. Let them know that you share their values.

3. Interact with your customers as if they were your partners. Respect them. Listen to them. Collaborate with them. Co-create new products and services with them.
Read the next 7 keys and more on Branding Strategies

Brand Aid is Brad VanAukens best selling book ‘An Easy Reference Guide to Solving Your Toughest Branding Problems and Strengthening Your Market Position’ available from Amazon
It is useful for students as it includes sections on;

Introduction to Brand Management
Designing the Brand
Building the Brand
Leveraging the Brand
Brand Metrics
Ending up with a Brand Quiz (not quite an examination!)

Associate Your Brand with the Best

The business associations and links you make can be key to your success. Therefore take great care when using relationships in your marketing. As a horticultural business you may be a member of say the RHS but they have rules about the use of their name to further your business.

The cup is the symbol of the Award of Garden Merit and can only be used on an approved plant not for general business. Similar rules will apply for The Soil Association if we dig further into the horticultural analogy.

The Queens Awards for Industry, Governmental or professional accreditations may be worth marketing recognition. Only borrow someones brand if you and the brand owner will mutually benefit. Don’t get your brand confused with other.

Some brands are three times better than others but they still need to keep reminding customers what great value they deliver.
Due to the economic situation focus your marketing effort don’t just slash your budget.

Tiffany’s

is the New York Stock Exchange quoted premier Jeweler and an internationally recognized luxury brand.

Over 50% of the companies sales now come from the USA. The appetite for luxury goods is particularly strong in emerging and growing markets like BIRC and Asia- Pacific.

They have over 170 years experience but if you have a successful luxury brand consider the steps you need to take to develop overseas

Radleys

There may be better or more desirable luxury handbags but the success of an image is often its originality and that seems to have worked wonders for Radley ‘Luxury Handbags’. Imitation is a form of flattery but if you want to distinguish your business be creative.

This dog tag works for me on several levels and I have created an Avatar or digital dog tag for my own personal web presence.

Richemont

owns several of the world’s leading companies in the field  of luxury goods but it is hardly known to the public. As a Swiss quoted company it has a business brand and strong reputation within the financial community.

Richemont’s interests  include Cartier, Van Cleef  &  Arpels, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre,   Net-a-Porter and Montblanc.  Most of these interests have their own strong brand reputations with individual product brands underneath.

Some businesses need to remain as  financial or funding brands and do not need to be exposed to consumers. This is part of a brand hierarchy matching image with need.

Polo

is not just a ‘Shirty’ brand, named for the designer Ralph Lauren. The symbol of a polo player appears on sneaker, after shave, perfumes and luxury goods.

It has control of channels to market through its own iconic retail outlets, via the internet, with licensing partners and through the worldwide retail trade.

Burberry

The web site strap line ”Burberry – Iconic British Luxury Brand Est. 1856 caught my attention and that is what it is supposed to do. The web graphics were too smart for their own good and I left the site quickly – not what they are supposed to do.

The reason for my visit was press comment and Angela Ahrendts, Burberry’s chief executive recent statements. Angela defined their new target market place as 25 Londons. These are the international cities most visited by the “travelling luxury consumer or TLC”.

That says to me Burberry understand their customers and have a tight focus on where to reach them.
I also liked the new product Burberrry Bespoke Services a multitude of coat styles from it’s own factory in Castleford Yorkshire.

Credit DailyPia, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I liked the quotation and it attracted me to the book even though Mary Portas seems to talk down to me amongst others. Still for a retailer or merchandiser this book and ‘Windows the Art of Retail Display’ contain many pearls of wisdom so credit where credit is due.

Tip -If you have kleptomaniacs in the family let them do your shopping they get the best discounts

Charity Shopping

Are we now a nation of Charity Shopkeepers? A well organised and operated shop can increase the brand awareness of the Charity concerned as well as providing a funding source.

In June 2009 Mary Portas set out to improve the quality and quantity of donations to Save the Children charity shops, and for giving in this way to become a more regular occurrence. Help your local charities by giving and buying or volunteering.

Mary Portas has been commissioned by David Cameron to report on the ‘Decline of the Highstreet’. Hopefully she will have ideas on how to prevent the growth of “clone towns” dominated by dominant brands and chainstores.