Winning Moves: A Strategic Marketing Newsletter from Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications

December 2006 • www.visionsmc.com • 410-849-8095

Editor's Note

About ten years ago this November, I was in Japan for the first time, on business. I was traveling as part of a large delegation, but working mostly with a colleague who was pregnant. It was her first visit to Japan, also, and we had a great time checking out many amazing aspects of Japanese culture in between our formal agenda items.

We visited shrines, were photographed with a wedding couple in traditional costume, ate fabulous food, met very warm people, and tried to find our way around in a country that doesn't use street signs or house numbers the way we were used to.

One evening we were in a taxi heading back to our hotel when I saw a sign out the window, "Le Beaujolais Nouvea est arrivée!"

A few years before this trip, a friend in California told me how she enjoyed the Beaujolais Nouveau. As a way to remember and connect with her, I would often reserve a case of the new wine a few weeks before it was released the third Thursday of every November.

So here I was in this very different environment from any I'd ever been in. An environment so interesting, but so different, that when I looked in the mirror even I was surprised by my own curly hair.

So what did I do when I looked out the taxi window of a darkening November afternoon in Tokyo and saw this sign? I asked the driver to stop, dashed into the liquor store, and bought a bottle of wine! Knowing that my pregnant friend wouldn't have any, and that I couldn't finish the bottle on this, the last night of our trip, I still jumped at the opportunity to perform my familiar ritual.

The annual, global release of the Beaujolais Nouveau, announced by it's universally distributed sign, is a brilliant bit of branding for the nouveau. This month's issue talks about various benefits of strong branding. Enjoy your wine!

Molly Hughes Wilmer

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Feature

The Benefits of Branding

The benefits of branding should not be underestimated. Branding is a key component of strategic marketing-it sets the foundation for any marketing campaign. And this goes for all offerings-products, services, events, even advocacy. Once the brand is defined, all other tactics evolve from this definition, this personality. But branding is extremely important just for what it can accomplish on its own.

A brand initially puts a stake in the ground, defining the "personality" or image of the offering, and the value it provides. This essential step gives the whole marketing campaign a focus, and all tactics spin this story in different ways, reinforcing the core message.

Strong brands have diverse branding elements. A variety of these branding elements are combined to appeal to your senses, intentionally reinforcing the central message. Bank of America includes an "audio logo" in their branding. The same theme music that is played on radio and television commercials and during on-hold messages is heard when visiting the web site. The smell of McDonald's French fries is a consistent part of the McDonald's brand. Tom's of Maine uses strong, unique flavors to distinguish it from competitors with higher sugar content. Bank of America uses red, white and blue colors to denote trust and patriotism. McDonald's uses red and yellow to be warm, hospitable, and to emphasize food and eating (red lips, red catsup, yellow French fries).

Many companies personify their products. VW personified the GTI in their "Make Friends with your Fast" campaign, where "Fast" was a round little character representing drivers' desires to go fast. The VW New Beetle was re-introduced with ads showing the front of the car head-on, looking like a face-the headlights the eyes and the trunk a smiling mouth. Geico uses the gecko, McDonald's the clown Ronald.

Images complement other branding elements. The Nike swoosh looks fast and graceful. The IBM logo is reminiscent of office blinds.

Together with all these sensory appeals, strong brands use words to connect verbally with your brain-"Just do it." "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." "It's the real thing." The VW tag line, "Drivers wanted" came across as a personals ad-"friendly car ISO driver."

Combined, all these branding elements impact the customer by:

Creating an emotional connection-you like the personality of the VW bug; McDonald's is a warm, friendly place; it feels good being American by banking at Bank of America; you can admit you like to drive fast in a GTI.
Sets an expectation-you expect the GTI to go fast; you expect comfort food from McDonald's; you expect to be healthy with Tom's of Maine's peppermint flavored toothpaste, you expect insurance to be more understandable at Geico.
Provides a sense of familiarity-you know that the bathrooms in every McDonald's are to the right of the counter; the Bank of America audio logo reminds you where you are, on hold or online; you are happy seeing the VW New Beetle on the road, and may even look for the flower in the vase.

As a result, branding contributes to:

Customer satisfaction-this works in two ways: because you understand the expectation, you're more easily satisfied; because you have an emotional connection, you are hoping to be satisfied.
Customer loyalty-the emotional connection and the sense of familiarity make you feel comfortable with the offering and you don't want to leave.
Increased perception of value-if your expectations are met, you are satisfied; if you feel connected and comfortable, you are willing to pay more for that sense of comfort.

Even if you are not a big company expecting to launch multiple branding elements, defining your brand should be the strategic first step in looking at your marketing initiatives.

What Can You Do?

Do you have a brand?

If not, get started.

If you do have a brand, look at your current brand and try to define it. What things, emotions, adjectives does your brand elicit? Is your brand focused, but comprehensive enough? Is your brand unique, setting you apart from your competition? Does your brand accurately reflect the value you provide?

Does your brand accurately reflect your company and where you want to be in five years? (Do you know where you want to be in five years?) Or does your brand describe where you were five years ago? Start acting like the company you want to become.

What branding elements do you use? Are you creating an emotional connection? Are you setting an expectation? Are you consistent with your elements, creating a sense of familiarity? Are you letting your brand elements live long enough in the marketplace to become familiar? Or have your brand elements been around so long that they are stale and mockable?

Ask the Expert

Question
Is it possible to have an effective marketing campaign without a defined brand?

Answer
It depends upon how you define "effective". You may generate one-time or short-term results from your initial promotions or calls to action, but the long-term customer relationship costs will be higher. Whether your initial call to action is a purchase or an initial stage of a longer selling cycle, maintaining or strengthening these customers is more expensive without the brand and branding elements creating the customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and higher perceptions of value.

So, yes, you could have an effective short-term campaign in terms of response rates, but you will probably not have an effective campaign in terms of the long-term customer acquisition and retention costs.

If you think of branding as "air cover" and individual campaign tactics as "ground cover", you can see that the battle is most effectively won with a combination.

Submit your questions to the editor: molly@visionsmc.com

Want to Know More?

Learn from your every day life by becoming an active consumer. Dissect the brands you interact with. How do they create a connection with you, set an expectation, and provide a sense of familiarity? When are you happy paying a premium, or responding to a promotion, and when do you feel ripped off? Feel free to laugh at yourself when you happily succumb to effective branding, and realize when you should keep your guard up because you are not going to be a pleased consumer.

Call Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications if you want to talk about your own branding.

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