Is Your Product Name Turning People Off?

February 12, 2012 by Dorie Clark

Every company wants customers talking about their products. But before they can sing your praises on social media or evangelize to their friends, they need to remember your product?s name. It seems obvious, but many companies ? especially in the technology sector ? overlook this easy way to connect with their audience. That?s the thesis of Alex Goldfayn, former Chicago Tribune technology columnist and author of Evangelist Marketing: What Apple, Amazon and Netflix Understand About Their Customers (That Your Company Probably Doesn?t).

Article: Does ‘Liking’ a Brand Drive User Loyalty?

February 8, 2012 by (author unknown)

59% of consumers have ‘liked’ a Facebook brand page in the past 6 months

Look Out, Google: Online Brand Ad Spending May Pass Search in 2012

January 9, 2012 by Robert Hof

Direct-response advertising has dominated the online ad business ever since Google perfected search ads following its IPO in 2004. That has kept many brand advertisers from diverting much of their budgets from traditional media, in particular television, to the Web. This year, however, that may be about to change.

How Twitter Brand Pages Evolve Your Social Brand Experience

December 13, 2011 by Sandra Fong

TIME Magazine’s person of the year in 2006 was “you,” paying tribute to the hundred millions of social media users who framed the information age with user-generated content. Conceived in 2006, Twitter, along with other “emerging platforms,” was evolving and looking for better ways to enable users to share content. Five years later, Twitter includes brand pages in efforts to expand its 100 million user base.

As brands quickly mobilized and saw value exchanges from social networks, leading platforms worked to align brands and their communication goals. Twitter recently joined Facebook and Google+ in what is dubbed a  ”three-way brand shootout,” referring to its new page design for brands. But which design and platform will be most useful for brands?

Following up on colleague Geoffrey Colon’s post, brand pages are useful for companies that want to 1. Manage customer relationships 2. Generate leads and 3. Create direct social experiences. Ultimately, here are the reasons why we think Twitter’s brand pages will alter social experiences for audiences on Twitter:

1.    Consistent social experience from Web to mobile preserves users: Twitter’s overhaul is focused on building a seamless user experience from Web to mobile to draw fans away from third-party platforms like HootSuite where Twitter has less control over on-platform paid executions. As a result, users are more likely to be exposed to Twitter on-platform paid executions and targeting, including promoted Tweets and soon, branded pages. By maintaining consistency, Twitter has made its platform more valuable through preserving its users on its direct platform.

2.    Featured and embedded tweets allow brands to showcase their best work and current promotions for a given timeframe: Twitter is the only platform that drives brands and users to describe themselves in one line. The new branded featured tweet function allows brands to highlight specific campaigns or promotions. The “featured Tweet” embeds and expands to reveal videos and pictures, allowing brands to showcase their best work and offerings. Additionally, consumers get a greater sense of current brand activities and an opportunity to learn more. Featured Tweets are also drivers in effective sales and promotion plans, as users will gravitate towards branded pages.

3.    Customizable headers allow brands to thump their chests: Limited to 140 characters, brands are required to ponder the “big idea.” Customizable headers and page layouts allow for brands to create their own manifesto and to position themselves according to their own terms. Brands can alter the large header images to display their logos and taglines more prominently, and is one of the first features visitors will see at first glance when they arrive on the page. Customizable headers are essentially an open invitation for brands to highlight their most important and most engage content. Equally important, it is an open invitation for fans to dive deeper and wider. When consumers want to learn and engage more, many of them will end up on the brand page.

4.    Organization and simplicity is a gateway for consumers to be more engaged with brands: One of the most compelling updates to the Twitter user interface are the “connect” and “discover” functions, which allow content to be personalized for each user. Similarly, Twitter extends the opportunity for brands to personalize their own image with its new page interface. As my colleague Colon previously mentioned, the smarter brands will use Twitter’s open API for a more targeted customer relationship management strategy by capturing data and monitoring content.

5.    Separation of @replies from @mentions allows for a more streamlined approach for customer relations: Twitter’s brand pages will separate @replies from @mentions. This allows for a more sleek approach for brands to filter what people are saying about the brand and what people are asking of the brand. Separating @replies and @mentions into two buckets will make fan interactions appear more engaging and less of a one-off response. With this function, brands are able to easily isolate mentions from fans and prospective followers and manage their reputation.

Twitter’s new interface shows that creating experiences is just as important as sharing content. Do you believe Twitter brand pages are a game changer? How do you think your favorite brands will react?

Blake Bowyer contributed to this post.

Why Trust Matters More Than Ever for Brands

December 8, 2011 by Deepa Prahalad

We’ve all been taught that trust and reputation are important elements of branding. Today, though, trust is not simply a nice thing to have, but a critical strategic asset. Therefore, it makes sense to be specific about how and why it adds value. The drivers of brand value have changed over time, and there are three forces at play that have brought the issue of trust to the center stage:

1. If we look at company valuations, an increasing portion of a firm’s value resides in intangibles. In The Brand Bubble, John Gerzema and Edward Lebar highlight the fact that in the 1950s, about 30% of firm value was intangible (at the high end); today it is closer to 62% globally.

Let’s look at some of the components of intangible value. Gerzema and Lebar offer this construct:

Sources of Intangible Value
Brand: Brands, trademarks, customer goodwill, company reputation
Market Position: Contracts, licenses, legal monopolies, customer lists
Business System: Organizational models, software investment, proprietary process, franchise rights
Knowledge: R&D, patents, human capital, IP

If we look at these from the perspective of trust, there is a really interesting pattern. The bottom two components, business system and knowledge — with items like R&D, patents, business systems and proprietary processes — really speak to how well companies are able to mobilize people and build trust inside the company.

Companies cannot get these outcomes by simply hiring bright people or paying them a lot of money. They must create an environment in which people can work well together and where they are engaged with the mission of the firm. They must treat suppliers and collaborators well. They have to give freedom to ask tough questions and experiment with new ideas. Trust is a prerequisite for all of these.

The top two elements, market position and brand — with items like goodwill, customer lists, reputation and contracts — are largely a measure of how well companies are building trust with consumers and the wider community. They touch issues like, How well are we taking care of the environment? What are the causes the firm is championing?

So creating value today is not only about the quality of the product or service we deliver. It’s very much about the quality of a firm’s conduct, both internally and externally. With more consumers, more “noise” from brand messaging, and more people invested in the stock market, there is greater transparency to these elements. It is easy to see how a trust deficit will ultimately slow long-term growth prospects, regardless of favorable macro indicators.

2. Another major shift is a fairly profound convergence of brand and design. Consumers today are trying and bonding with brands through design touch points and their experiences, not through advertising alone. Brand leaders today — Apple, Nike, P&G — are also design leaders. Advertising and marketing can amplify the success of a great design, but they can rarely compensate for a poor one. Here, trust is a function of the brand messaging lining up with the consumer’s actual interaction with the product or service. When brands now have to speak to an increasingly diverse global consumer audience, design is critical to delivering a consistent experience and calling attention to innovations.

There is another reason that trust is so critical to the innovation process. We also know that the statistics on successful innovation are not great anywhere in the world. Like people, brands need a community of friends to offer suggestions, call out missteps and help a company change course and refine its offerings. Only trusted companies are likely to have this luxury in a crowded marketplace. The trust inside companies helps to build some of the fundamental building blocks of innovation, and the trust with consumers enables companies to engage in co-creation, enjoy high levels of engagement and ensure the relevance of their offerings.

3. Technology has also changed the picture for many brands in terms of building trust. It’s a mistake for us to keep thinking and talking about technology simply as a platform for people to learn or communicate about brands. If we look at Interbrand’s 2011 global survey, six of the world’s top ten brands (IBM, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Apple, HP) today are technology companies. They are brands in and of themselves and have been forging the same kind of deep emotional connections with consumers that we used to see in other categories such as personal care and automobiles. This is not altogether surprising, because the amount and sensitivity of personal data that is entrusted to technology companies today is unprecedented.

The most profound effect of the increasing share of intangible value, and the role of design and technology is that some of the metaphors of brand meaning have changed. It is no longer just about exclusivity and status. It’s also about networks, connections and communities.

Although there has been some erosion of trust from recent scandals, anecdotal evidence suggests that consumers are quite forgiving of strategic mistakes. People understand that the world is becoming more complex, that companies are under constant earnings pressure, and that innovation is really hard work. The mistakes that are hard for companies to recover from are largely from poor conduct. Consumers are not looking for perfection — they are looking for decency. Trust and brand leadership is also a function of the many quiet decisions and judgment calls a company makes about its own values. It’s Apple saying that it will not accept apps for pornography. It’s SC Johnson going beyond the industry standard to be more transparent about the ingredients in its products. It’s the Tata group retaining every single employee and hotel contractor after the 2008 Mumbai attacks while the Taj Mahal Palace hotel was being rebuilt.

Finally, the issues that companies have set their sights on today require an unprecedented degree of collaboration. Delivering great consumer experiences today means combining the capabilities of many companies. When it comes to business trying to address larger issues such as sustainability, security and poverty reduction, this trend is only amplified as NGOs, governments and citizens are brought into the fold. Today, trust is more important than ever — and it can be an important source of strategic advantage.

Navigating the Don'ts of Technology in Branding

December 5, 2011 by Lori Senecal

As marketers and communicators, we all know that modern branding marries creativity and technology,  but it can’t do so indiscriminately.  To discuss the pitfalls of taking anything  less than a considered approach, I sat down with Ed Brojerdi, co-CCO for kbs+ and pioneering entrepreneur in the creative technology space.

Behold The Power of a Single Second

November 29, 2011 by Rob Schwartz

What can you do in a single second? Seriously. One second. Not 30 seconds. Not 60 seconds. Not even 2 seconds. One second. Turns out, a lot. Check out “The Beauty of a Second,” a crowd-sourced film and activation program, curated by filmmaker Wim Wenders. It’s all part of Mont Blanc’s celebration of the birth of the chronograph. To learn more, check out the website at montblanc-onesecond.com. In the meantime, take a few seconds to enjoy the power of a single second.

Who Knew? Turns Out Google Is a Killer Brand Marketer

November 9, 2011 by Robert Hof

Recently I wrote about how Google markets without advertising. Little did I know how much it’s getting out of that small bit of advertising on the SuperBowl and more recently a few TV shows such as Terranova. According to a new study from ad measurement firm Ace Metrix, the search giant known for its cold, mathematically precise search advertising has five of the 10 most effective TV ads for Web sites so far this year.

Ikea, Google, Nestle Tops In 'Meaningful' Impact: Survey

November 8, 2011 by Jennifer Rooney

Ikea, Google and Nestle top the list of a new brand ranking from Havas Media measuring brands’ perceived positive impact on lives. The brands were ranked according to the proprietary Meaningful Brand Index, which gauges people’s perception of a brand’s influence on society, environment, economy, health and emotional wellbeing. Rounding

How To Make Amazing Branded Apps

November 4, 2011 by Scott Goodson

A new report has found that more than nine in 10 of the world’s biggest brands now have apps for things like smartphones and tablet devices.

A Different Premium Brand Strategy

October 10, 2011 by Alessandro Di Fiore

After you spend years investing to build an aspirational brand, a competitor launches a new clothing brand or perfume and your customers disappear to buy the new new thing. The luxury and fashion industries are full of such stories.

Luxury and fashion have been playing this aspirational model forever. It works like this: I am not part, but would like to be; because I want to be recognized as a rich and important person, I buy a Gucci’s bag, Prada’s shoes, and so forth. To aspire and be recognized is part of being human.

But the aspirational branding strategy is intrinsically risky, because it is so exposed to consumers’ fashion hypes and downs. How can a luxury business stand apart from the aspirational crowd?

Let me present a successful case in Europe and parse out the managerial lessons. Loro Piana sells both exclusive wool and cashmere fabrics and its own branded clothes. An six-generation-old Italian family business, the company’s sales have grown from €243 million in 2000 to €478 million last year, despite two deep recessions. Loro Piana is distributed globally in 22 countries and operates 135 retail stores, most of them directly owned.

The company’s mission is to sell excellent products made from the best sources of raw material (wool and cashmere). Over the years, the company has been able to scout in remote areas of the world the best raw materials, building local sustainable ecosystems and preferred access to breeders.

For example, Loro Piana has been working with the vicuna from the mountainous steppes of South America for many years, culminating with the animals saved from extinction thanks to a project developed with the support of Peru government and the local community. By acquiring 2,000 hectares in the Andes, the company is establishing a natural reserves to further protect these animals. The vicuna produces the finest fiber capable of being spun with an average diameter of only 12-13 microns against the 15 microns of cashmere. Thanks to its preferential access and local community bonds, Loro Piana buys 85% of Peru’s production.

Another example is baby cashmere, a fiber the company obtains from the undercoat of young Hircus goats in the remote Gobi desert in Mongolia. Loro Piana works smoothly and sustainably with local nomadic Mongolian goat herders and has set up a local Mongolian company to manage the process of baby cashmere sourcing to be closer to the local nomadic community.

For Loro Piana, success depends not only on its ability to build competitive advantage through access to the best raw materials, but also on its sophisticated marketing skills and ability to use its exclusive raw material access for its branding. Baby Cashmere and Vicuna are now prime Loro Piana labels, associated by clients and consumers with product excellence. The company uses a very limited advertising budget compared to other fashion houses, mainly focused on promoting local ecosystems and stories of raw material excellence. The company does nearly no advertising on clothing lines or what aspirational brands usually do. In contrast, Loro Piana wants to be hidden.

Over the years, thanks to its obsession for sourcing and product excellence and sophisticated marketing, Loro Piana has become a classic of elegance. Its branding consumer’s perception is the opposite of aspirational. This brand and strategic positioning preserves them from the hypes and downs of fashion brands. Business is more stable, less cyclical, with lower advertising investment requirements — and, as a consequence, very profitable.

Do you have a plan for you brand on how to become a classic and shy away from the aspirational crowd?

Auto Branding in Overdrive at German Show

September 25, 2011 by (author unknown)

While the prestigious Frankfurt Motor Show is often an exercise in automotive-branding extremes, this year’s event redefines one-upmanship, with Audi and other marketers spending lavishly to show off their goods.

What Brands Can Expect From Google+

August 22, 2011 by John Bell

A lot of social media tech geeks have been spending a fair amount of time exploring and writing about Google+ over the past few weeks. With 20+ Million “users” (people who are registered but not necessarily active users of the stream or other features) and with the pedigree of Google, it is a force to be reckoned with. 

It’s true that ‘brand pages’ don’t exist yet and even though a few have squeaked past onto the service (e.g. Ford’s page), it’s tough to say that brands should do more than get super smart about the platform fast. We have every reason to expect Business Profiles (i.e. brand pages) to launch this year. And while there may no first mover advantage beyond learning the platform quickly as engaged users cluster around brands they care about, it is still a good enough reason to act fast. 

I have attached a brief deck that I used during a recent PRNews webinar. I tried to capture the major points that brands ought to consider as they get smart about the platform.   

Google+ for brands_ogilvy

View more presentations from John Bell.

Define Your Social Brand

August 15, 2011 by John Bell

Having worked in advertising, marketing and communications for more than 20 years, I have learned a thing or two about carefully crafting images, messages and ‘brand personalities.’ My first career was producing television commercials back in *cough cough*.

I can remember agonizing over Coke pours on set. Beautiful acrylic ice cubes with just the right ice-like wavers. Pour after pour of Coke as the Xenon lights fired in a seizure-inducing frenzy to get the effervescence just right. 

Years later, social media offered a chance at ‘real-ness’ and spontaneity that was not so staged. I, like a lot of people, saw social media as a chance for brands to build a more direct and human relationship with people. The qualities of genuine conversation and active listening felt like an antidote for the somewhat overwrought finesse of brand imaging (how many times did the prop guy run in to spray condensation on the glass before we shot again?)

The idea of a brand talking with customers via their Facebook wall or twitter handle seemed to go against any notions of contrivance or orchestration. 

What is your social brand?  

I have come full circle and now believe heavily in the purpose and benefit of brand owners carefully deciding how their brand speaks, appears and behaves in social media. Managing a social brand need not include the same fanatical attention to detail as crafting “owned” messages like the aforementioned TV spots.

When we define the ‘brand voice’ for how a marcom team talks to customers via social platforms, we determine:

• A role – what role will the brand play via social platforms in peoples lives (e.g. entertainer vs. coach)
• A personality – what are the characteristics of the voice of the brand
• A set of principles - how will the brand behave and respond based upon what it believes 
• The brand voice (show me) –  bring it to life with examples of how a brand would phrase something and how it would not
• Brand vocabulary - tactically, we also define a ‘brand vocabulary’ which are a set of words we will routinely use to describe products and services. This is less about contrivance than it is trying to strengthen search engine results and connect customers with relevant content through Google. 

We are doing all of this for three basic reasons:

1. Consistency in how the brand speaks and behaves makes a lasting impression on people just like many aspects of marketing and communications. The brand becomes “known” by followers.

2. People appreciate connecting with real personality. This appears true both for the Captain Morgan’s Facebook page where the voice is consistently from the playful Captain as it is for the celebrated Starbucks Facebook page where the voice feels like a friendly barrista yet I understand to be someone from their corporate  social media team. 

We must go beyond FSI (free standing insert) promotional language and voice that too many brands use as they dole out coupons and samples via their feeds. That is the functional equivalent of becoming a discount or price brand where the only value the brand can think to offer people is 30 cents off. 

I firmly believe that every brand owes it to their customers to carefully think through the qualities of their social brand. The harder part is rolling that out internally and externally on the global web such that it makes sense in Mumbai and in Cape Town and to the brand managers or communications pros behind the local market social effort.

Netflix Buzz Just As Negative Three Weeks After Price Change

August 3, 2011 by Brand Index

While many industry observers were surprised at the size and intensity of consumer response to the Netflix price change in July, it might be just as surprising that consumers still appear to be angry. Three weeks after the price change announcement that angered some and sent brand perception tumbling, Netflix?s Buzz score is still firmly in negative territory. Its score remains neck-in-neck with Blockbuster?s, as kiosk-based rental service Redbox has taken the lead in the category.

The New Wave of Online Brand Management

July 14, 2011 by Scott Monty

Guest post by Matt Polsky.

Prior to the rise of social networks, online brand management solely focused on common SEO techniques such as keywords, content, and proper HTML code. These techniques were used to secure and maintain the top positions on the search engines, and to ensure that only content a company wanted to remain visible regarding its product, services, or mission did so.

However, those days are over. A company can no longer rely only on SEO to provide proper online brand management if they wish to survive in the online world. Company’s now must integrate SEO techniques with the use of social media sites if they wish to protect and promote their brand.

Social media sites have become increasingly important for companies wishing to outperform their competition. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn have opened up completely new audiences to companies, which would have otherwise not been able to be reached. For many companies’ marketing teams these social networking sites have been a marketing dream.

After Ford’s monumental success of using social media to build hype for the 2011 Ford Fiesta, companies have been scrambling to adequately market themselves online. Now consumers cannot even watch a commercial or listen to a radio announcement without a Facebook or Twitter logo being given.

However, this increased visibility does come at a price. Companies have access to multiple platforms in which they can strengthen and expand their brands, but these sites can also be detrimental to a company if the accounts are not properly maintained. The 2010 Pew Internet & American Life study found that 58 percent of all consumers with access to the internet research a company’s product or service online before giving them their patronage, and most of those consumers are not going directly to a company’s primary website either. Third party sites, such as Facebook, Viewpoints.com, and Angie’s List have become popular stopping points for company reviews and information.

If a company’s Facebook page is covered in negative press, odds are, the potential customer will immediately move on and check out competitors. For businesses to get the most out of their social media accounts, they need to properly manage each account with frequent posts, updates, and positive press. Companies should also be actively engaging their customers. Not only negative comments need a response, comments and tweets complimenting the business are great openings to build strong brand advocates.

Companies wishing to succeed in the ever-growing online world need to increase their connectivity by incorporating both social media and the latest SEO techniques. Visibility can quickly determine a company’s success or failure, and without social media sites, businesses are giving up inexpensive resources that build brand awareness and hype. As social media sites continue to rise, online brand management will become increasingly more important, and companies should become proactive in managing their social media sites.

Image credit: slagheap (Flickr)

Matt Polsky is the Senior Content Manager for VA Mortgage Center, providing insights learned from the nation’s leading provider of VA home loans.

10 Tips for Brands on Google+ (and a list of brands on +)

July 6, 2011 by Jonathan Burg

UPDATE: Google has announced that a dedicated, richer business offering will be coming later this year.  In the interim, all non-real person accounts will be removed.

A number of brands have begun to experiment with Google+.  Early adopters are trying various tactics, some smart, some spammy.  In the limited time that I have spent with brands and celebrities (who are kind of like brands) I have noticed a few common areas where they could use some optimization.  

Please find my early recommendations below.  As always, please feel free to add you own thoughts in the comments section and I’ll be sure to update.

10 Tips for Brands on Google+

1. Don’t publish too often.  This isn’t Twitter and you don’t need to post every single thought or story that you have available.  As brands will likely have a larger following, brands posts will resonate far louder than intended (as all post activity will bring the posts back to the top).  News outlets, please pay attention to this one.
2. Educate.   This platform is very new to most users.  They may be confused or offended due to their inexperience in the platform.  Prepare sample posts and responses that can be used to address common complaints, such as Why is my stream all posts from you? and  How can I send you an email or DM?  For an example, see Robert Scoble’s post on Plus here.
3. Optimize your Hangout setup.  While you don’t need a studio, decent lighting, a quiet setting, good bandwidth, and a decent quality webcam and microphone will help.  Don’t over-think this, but remember that people should be able to clearly see and hear you.
4. Make Hangouts worthwhile.  Access to senior leadership  is a fantastic surprise and delight that your early adopter fans will love.  Keep them as long as they are meaningful, but leave the community wanting more.  Alternative uses for Hangouts may include focus groups, Q&As and even just general jam sessions (provided this is of value to your community).
5. Prepare for the unexpected.  Don’t think that this will be just like everything you’ve done before.  Set expectations with management before jumping into an unknown and evolving social dynamic.
6. Learn and adapt fast. This dynamic is evolving rapidly as new people come on board and those with a bit more experience under their belt begin to use Plus for things other than talking about Plus.  Be sure to capture these learnings in writing for future use and scale.
7. Think through your service solutions.  Your in the conversation for your customers.  If service is something your facing in your other channels, be prepared for the implications of service in this channel.
8. Get the right staff in place.  This isn’t basic community management, this is a whole new experience.  This isn’t for the newbies, yet.
9. Listen.  Loudly.  Setup a Spark for your brand name and read it.  This is what your biggest fans and employees may have already done.  Demonstrate to the community that you are listening by replying to their posts.
10. If you’re doing it, talk about it.  Very few brands are playing in this space.  This is a great opportunity to position yourself as a leader and innovator.  

 

Caveat: Google has yet to unveil their API or brand marketer offering.  Early adopters may find themselves re-doing some of their early efforts to accommodate the formal offering.  Additionally, as more robust usage of features like photo uploading and tagging grows, new doors will be opened and new dynamics will emerge.

 

List of Brands on Google+

• Ford Motor Company
• Ford Europe
• Search Engine Land
• Mashable News
• Chicago Sun Times
• GMA News
• Breaking News
• Weatherbird – St Louis Dispatch
• The Next Web
• KOMU News

Please feel free to add a comment below and I will add it to the list.  Kudos to Noah Mallin and David Berkowitz for contributing to this list.

Why Brands We Know Partner With Startups That We Don't

June 26, 2011 by (author unknown)

Marketers are becoming increasingly entrenched with digital-media startups, often kicking the tires on a new service or social network even before consumers have had a chance to give it a spin.

INFOGRAPHIC: Top 200 U.S. Brands Ranked by 2010 Ad Spend

June 22, 2011 by (author unknown)

Here’s an industry-by-industry look at spending by the leading U.S. brands. The ranking by Marketing Degree is based on Ad Age DataCenter analysis of data from Kantar Media as part of Ad Age’s 100 Leading National Advertisers report.

Article: Why Do Affluent Consumers Connect with Brands on Social Networks?

May 10, 2011 by (author unknown)

Motivations differ from general population