What Is Branding?

Brands are built by countless interactions of people with other people--customers, suppliers, dealers, shareholders and communities and one another. If your brand does not reflect your people in a way that makes them proud and passionate, they will not deliver the brand experience in the marketplace.

A brand is a work in progress requiring constant vigilance, care and protection. Given the changing needs of the marketplace, brand perceptions can shift, and brand strength can weaken from neglect.

Your brand is your company's most valuable possession. As technologies change and competition grows, the one quality that endures is your brand. So what is a brand? Is it your logo? Is it you tag line? While each helps to deliver your branding message, none alone is your brand.

Your brand is the result of constant reinforcement of a distinctive core benefit that your company or product delivers to your customers.

Can Small and Medium-Size Companies Build Their Brands?

The answer is yes, but it takes time and a real, long term commitment from management. The key is to develop an integrated marketing communications program and stick with it.

The first step is to conduct as much market research as possible--both internal and external. You need to understand your customers, your markets, your strengths and weaknesses, your competition, your distribution channels, your awareness level and current perceptions. The more intgelligence gathered, the greater the odds of being on target with strategies and positioning. Without this information, it's like shooting in the dark and your chances for success will decrease.

Long Haul Is The Key

If management can't commit to a long-term brand building program, save your money and lower expectations. A "start and stop" program doesn't work and is a waste of both time and money. Creating a branding program involves more than advertising. It is only part of a total marketing communications program integrated with everything produced, including advertising, brochures, websites, data sheets, email blasts, trades show exhibits and PR. Everything needs to ahve the same "look and feel" to project the personality of the company.

Dare To Be Different

If most business-to-business products are commodities being almost identical in price and performance, then the brand becomes the difference. Consumer companies figured that out a long time ago. B2B, and particularly companies in the metalworking manufacturing space, are often run by enginnering types. Marketing has most often taken a back seat.

Many B2B companies have been slow to recognize the importance of marketing, but they are now becoming more receptive to brand building programs due to increased technology parity and more global competition. More-and-more, there is a shift from product marketing to brand marketing. As competitive advantages diminish, brand building becomes a necessity rather than a luxury. The need to differentiate by personality or image is rapidly increasing.

However, brand building is not easy as technology and products become more similar. Plus, target audiences, communication channels and media are increasingly complex. It can be expensive as well.

Next time: Can small and medium-size companies build their brands?

Brand Building

It's 2011 and print is still with us. Although beleagured, print remains a key ingredient in the B2B mix. It has impact and shelf-life; it has texture and a certain portability. And print has a way of commanding an audience's attention that its flashing, beeping, buzzing electronic counterparts are hard-pressed to match. But for print to be most effective, it must be integrated with the Web and its own content.

One of print's primary roles is to drive prospects to the marketer's website. That's even true for branding ads. Brand loyalty is a sound foundation on which businesses can build enduring, profitable growth.

By aggressively competing on features and price, it's difficult for companies to create meaningful and lasting differences from their competitors. While customers benefit from price wars by saving money, they also get confused when choice is confined to price. The customer is in effect buying a commodity and has no sense of brand loyalty because little is known about the company making the product or about service after the sale.

Next time: The Brand is the Differentiation.

How do prospects react to your web site?

Is your web site informational and organized with smooth navigation that makes it easy for prospects to find the information they need? Or, do they get frustrated and leave your site? We've all visited those really bad web sites that instantly turn us off....and then we click off.

A great web site should be easy and quick to navigate. Speed is so important because it reduces frustration and helps prospects get to your content quickly. Your visitors need to be able to find their way around your web site easily or they will leave. Make sure to link all your pages together on each and every page using the top menu bar so they can be found quickly. Your contact information should also be included on each and every page.

Keep your web site simple. The latest flash, scrolling text boxes or moving banners won't impress anyone except maybe you and they will only slow down your site. The simpler the site, the quicker it will load and the better your prospects' experience. The "skip intro" button is the most clicked on button on the web for a reason.

On the Internet, sharing information has become so easy it's expected. Create a unique and original web site worth visiting, that solves prospects' problems and they will come back to visit again.

Teach and entertain your prospects.

Web Content

Buyers Crave Content

Buyers crave useful, relevant content to justify buying decisions. It's up to you to provide valuable content to help buyers make informed business decisions. Take stock of your current content and map it to your audience needs. Then, fill in any gaps. Maybe analytical buyers don't understand your approach to solving a problem. That might call for a case study. You don't have to start from the beginning when developing content. Often you can repurpose content to use across several media. For example, a whitepaper can become a webinar and later a video. Or, a technical article can be repurposed into a series of blog entries.

Users Want A Multimedia Experience

As with most audiences, your prospects and customers are now reading and watching and listening to online content. Take advantage of this trend by offering more that just words on a screen. You have plenty of source material to create videos. You can record interviews, product demos and presentations--delivering anything from expert analysis and advice to product announcements. And don't forget to promote your videos everywhere you can--on web sites and blogs using links and banners and via email and social media.

Measuring Return On Investment

For the last several years, return on investment (ROI) has been "top of mind" for advertisers and non-advertisers alike. With nearly every company visit, discussion starts out with ROI. Marketers are searching for ways to measure return on investment for both print and electronic advertising. More than ever, perhaps due to expanding web options, marketers want to know if they're spending their ad dollars wisely.

Researching how to measure ROI all this time, I must admit that I've held on to some old metrics. For some that remember the old reader service card, ROI for print ads was measured by numbers of so-called "bingo card" inquiry returns. Then with web sites, ROI was measured by number of ad hits and links to advertisers' own web sites. In both cases, quantative results were the criteria.

Then, more recently, I had a "duh" awakening. To measure the impact and effectiveness of advertising and branding on a quantitative bottom line alone is a mistake. There are far too many facets of the success quotation. The value of reputation, relationships, brand awareness and buyer attitudes are impossible to measure by quantative numbers. ROI instead should be measured by:

... total sales revenue

... change in awareness of your brand

... change in market share

... change in buying pattern for your products

... change in intent to buy

... change in incremental sales revenue

... customer retention

How did I arrive at this revelation? Watching several NFL playoff games on TV this weekend, I viewed commercials for Sony, IPad, Verizon, Buick, Cadillac, Ford, Hyundai, AT&T, Reebok, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Gillette Fusion, Budweiser, Dos Equis, even M&M's and more. While I didn't rush out to buy any of these products this morning, I might do so down the road. Their brands are certainly imbedded in my mind! In the end, branding is a life of its own.