Advertising's fall from grace

The majority of ad agencies create environments that will supposedly attract certain buyers, and by association, suggest to them that the product or service is attractive enough to consider. This is their contribution to brand-building.

These are the agencies and their tactics whom Al Ries and his daughter, Laura, target in their book, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR.

Their thesis now resonates with many marketers.

They've experienced, or at least witnessed, the lack of response, and the strain on credibility, most advertising produces.

How often have you scoffed at an advertiser's message?

How frequently have you scratched your head trying to figure out just what the message you just experienced had to do with anything remotely related to the company/product/service being advertised?

And how often have you, an experienced marketer yourself, determined a particular ad campaign was a complete waste of money?

Well, my opinion is that you don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water. Throw out the "creative" but keep the concept of "brand".

I think you want to build a brand. I think you do that by first differentiating it in a meaningful and positive way, and then expressing that platform with words and graphics. Base the brand on internal, core value expressed in terms of benefit to the consumer.

Brand for sales. Brand for referrals. Brand for buzz.

I advocate straight-forward and benefit-oriented communication that consumers can positively and compellingly position in their collective mind's eye.

For me, that's effective branding.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding

303-242-5975

Posted by Martin Jelsema on September 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

September 26, 2005

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

It's been widely quoted that a typical buyer will need to be exposed to at least 17 impressions of a company before considering doing business with it.

So it stands to reason that those impressions had better be associated with the company in a consistent manner. Otherwise, it will take more than 17 impressions because prospects may associate some of those impressions with another company.

That means your advertising and promotional efforts aren't being as productive as they might. And with limited budgets, a company might never accumulate the required impressions before purchase.

To get the most from a promotional effort, the message, the "look", the tone, the terminology, and the offer should be consistent. Or as ad media reps like to voice it, repetition rules.

In branding, consistency can, and probably should, come from a brand standards guide so everyone, including the maverick running the Tucson branch, will be able to execute the brand consistently.

The manual should address intent of the brand as well as instructions on using the brand elements - name, logo, tagline, color palette, type styles, sizes, textures, terminology and any other attributes considered central to the brand.

Call it the "Brand Bible", and encourage all to read and use it.

It's vital to consistency and to the brand, even in a three-person business.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding

www.signaturestrategies.com

Posted by Martin Jelsema on September 26, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (56) | TrackBack

September 21, 2005

Taglines and platitudes

Taglines, slogans, positioning statements, or whatever you want to call them, are usually five-to-eight-word phrases that are supposed to differentiate your business, product, service or event from your competition.

Y2K Marketing, a network of no-nonsense marketing consultants founded by Richard Harshaw and Edward Earle, have a great way to evaluate taglines.

After hearing or reading a tagline for the first time, if your reaction is "Well, I should hope so!", you're hearing or seeing a platitude, not an effective tagline.

I mentioned a moving company in a recent blog with whose tagline is "the caring moving company". Isn't your reaction to that line, "well, I should hope so!"? That's a platitude.

Effective taglines are difficult to craft. That's why so many turned out by wordsmiths sound good but mean nothing.

But taglines can be evocative, define a context, or express an idea if it's based on the central core of your organization. There's where you should start. Once you've captured the essence of your organization in a tagline, subject it to the "well, I should hope so" test.

If you discover your best efforts result in a platitude, I suggest you look to your business core. Perhaps it needs to be rethought and revamped to reflect a truly differentiated offering.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller businesses profit from the power of branding

www.signaturestrategies.biz

Posted by Martin Jelsema on September 21, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBack

September 13, 2005

If K-Mart is now Sear Essentials, what is Sears?

Sear purchased K-Mart and decided to change its name. Good Idea.

But then they fell into the Line Extension Trap.

That's the trap Al Ries and Jack Trout warned everyone about in their pioneering book, Positioning, the Battlefield for Your Mind. When you take your name and apply it with a modifier to a different, possibly related, product or service, that's line extension.

The danger is dilution, and it's two-fold: First, it dilutes the original brand and the position it has fought hard to establish. Second, it tends to dilute the loyalty gleaned for the original brand. The result is the original and the extension share the sales once enjoyed by the original.

Sears has done a fine job to introducing new product lines and store concepts in the past: Craftsman, Die-Hard, The Great Indoors. But they went against their success formula with Sears  Essentials.

Will other customers come to the same conclusion I did - that I should shop at Sears Essential for essentials and shop at Sears for non-essentials?

This is a case of poor branding that attempts to solve one problem while creating a larger one.

I agree the K-Mart name needed to be purged if it were to become a viable chain. It was carrying too much baggage.

I also agree that there should be some means of associating the new acquisition with the Sears tradition. But NOT by line extension.

Here's how I'd have solved the problem.

I'd go into the rich history and heritage of Sears and...

I'd have named it Roebucks.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding

www.signaturestrategies.biz

Posted by Martin Jelsema on September 13, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (42) | TrackBack

September 07, 2005

Customers, not you, position your company

If you've been in business for a while, that business has been "pigeon-holed" by the folks who know something about your company.

They do it based on their observations and experiences, and they compare them with similar observations and experiences with your competitors. They judge you, rank you, classify you, accept or dismiss you on the basis of their perceptions.

This process is called "positioning". The idea of positioning, first espoused by All Ries and Jack Trout in the 1970's, is how people collectively determine the likelihood of doing business with you.

Positioning is what people "do" to brands. That is they judge, rank and classify them. "Coke is number one", "Rolex is the highest quality watch you can buy", "Wal-Mart is the least expensive", "Volvo is the safest car".

For many brands with a history, the company has made a determined effort to position their business or product favorably and to establish the brand as a unique (differentiated) offering.

As Ries and Trout put it they, "establish a lasting relationship between a positive attribute and the brand in the collective minds of your target market members." That attribute is the differentiator: first, oldest, most innovative, safest, least expensive, sweetest, most versatile, most durable, etc.

Most companies position their offerings consciously and deliberately. As long as the offering delivers on the differentiating attribute, the attribute is important to the market, and the position is not already taken by a strong competitor, the offering can become positioned in the market's mind as the company planned and profits follow.

However, there are many examples of businesses attempting to position their offering without the credentials. The result is the market scoffing and positioning the product as being deceitful. I offer Qwest's "Spirit of Service" advertising campaign flying in the face of customer experience as a prime example.

Thus, prior to attempting to influence a market to accept the position you prefer them to have, make sure you can deliver better than your competitors can. And most importantly, deliver at least as good as your market’s expectations.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding

Posted by Martin Jelsema on September 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (37) | TrackBack