Effective Marketing Requires More than Perceived Value

Before the digital age of today, effective advertising meant creating perceived value through its communication. Marketing does indeed need to communicate value to an audience, however, the actual products and experiences must become the biggest asset.  With social media and countless amounts of information accessible to us via the internet, a product or services inability to stand out from the crowd and offer actual value is going to hurt. Despite the advertising message, a person’s experience with the product is going to far outweigh any perceived value attributed to the product.

Frank Streifler in his AdWeek post entitled “5 Marketing Principles Brands Should Embrace in 2010″ explains this so well:

A Bain & Co. survey notes that 80 percent of CEOs believe their product to be differentiated, but only 8 percent of consumers agree. And Y&R’s recent Brand Asset Valuator found a 90 percent erosion in brand differentiation over the last 10 years. These are not just sad examples of illusory superiority, but a staggering statement of our industry’s failure to add value in the past decade.

It’s critical that marketers realize that the product itself is the most powerful brand-building tool. We’ve all heard it before: “innovate or die.” But today’s hyper-connected society adds a sense of urgency to this broadly accepted mantra because mediocrity is getting extinguished with increasing speed via social networks.

Because reality always trumps image, marketing needs to create real value versus just adding a perceived value. Marketers need to shape the offer — the product, service and experiences consumer buy — not just communicate it. Marketing becomes the product and the product becomes the marketing.

I would love to hear your thoughts on creating real vs. perceived value!

How to Effectively Use Twitter for Brand Building

A lot of emphasis is being placed on businesses using social media.  Countless companies are reaping the benefits of participating in these online forums. Likewise, some companies are suffering for their lack of presence. In any case, social media is causing a shift in advertising and the way advertising works. In the midst of it all, however, companies must not forget that brand-building is still extremely important.

Just as traditional advertising methods aim to create familiarity, brand awareness, and build trust,  the same holds true when you transfer your efforts online.

Twitter, specifically, is capable of becoming a very useful branding tool when used properly.

Here are a few tips for building your brand on Twitter:

Determine what feelings you want your audience to associate with your business. Seth Godin describes this as “telling your story.”  Are you a restaurant that offers a fun and relaxed atmosphere for your patrons? Then be sure you are posting tweets that are down-to-earth and friendly. The first step is in knowing exactly what you want to portray.  Need more help with determind your brand? Check out this previous post.

Visually brand your Twitter page. There is nothing worse than an Twitterer who refuses to upload a picture. Your picture and background image is a tool that should be used to your advantage! Visually branding your page reinforces your company image, allows Twitterers to recognize you at a glance and paints a memorable picture. It does not have to be anything over-the-top, but simply branding your page even in  your company colors makes a huge difference.

Be human. The beauty of Twitter is it’s ability to humanize companies that seem “out there.” If you come across as a spammer or a robot, your brand message will instantly be lost. It will appear as if you don’t care about the Twitter community because you are not offering anything of value.  Being sales-y all day is the quickest way to turn off your audience to your message.

Remember branding takes time and repeition. Branding is not about instant gratification. It is about building an image over time. Do not get discouraged if your followers have not jumped into the thousands right away. Keep reinforcing your message to build famliarity and trust. When you are participating in Twitter for branding purposes, you are thinking “long-term” not a quick fix.

Attention Consumer-Based Businesses: Your Brand Represents 50-80% of Your Value! Communicate Wisely!

When asked to identify a brand, many people probably automatically go to a logo or slogan.  Although these are both very important aspects of a brand, the implications go FAR beyond the surface. Your brand is your image, however it is more than visual appeal -  it is deep-rooted thoughts and feelings about the core values of your business. What is the first thing you think of when you hear names like Mcdonalds, Pepsi, Prada, Target? Each brand has a rooted image, which conjors up different feelings and responses.

ALSO, try this on for size… for consumer market companies,  a well-managed brand typically represents about 50 percent to 80 percent of a company’s total value!! Basically, how you manage your brand holds a HUGE impact and is not to be taken lightly!

So what is your brand saying about you? What does your customer FEEL when they think about you? The best marketers and communicators build brands that evoke emotion! In order to build your brand the following steps must be taken.

1. Decide on a target market. If you need help figuring out where to start, this post may be helpful. Targeting is extremely important and must be done FIRST!
2. Determine your unique selling proposition. What are the benefits someone receives from your product or service? What do you want people to think when they think about you? Where do you want to be with your brand?
3. Determine reality. You now know what you WANT people to perceive about you, but what is really happening? Perform market research, ask those in your target market. This means taking a step back and objectively analyzing your business and what you are currently communicating.
4. Determine the differences. After you find out what is really happening, determine if this is matching up with your desired outcomes. What are the differences? What needs to be changed in order to help your target audience break their associations and form new ones?
5. Form a new marketing strategy. Once you know what associations you must tackle, form your message around these attributes. Focus on what you must change and do so in your communication with your customers and target audience.

Building a solid brand now will save you tons of headaches, frustration and money in the future! Once attributes become solidly embedded in people’s minds, it is very hard to break them.

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