Hot Tips on Branding

In addition to the heat and humidity, over the past month I have been hit with a wave of great articles about branding. I want to share what I've learned and offer you some tips on how to improve your branding efforts.

We all know that a strong brand can - and often does - withstand specific shorter term product performance or other organization issues for BTB companies. More importantly, we know it can get you a premium over generic or "imports" in the dog-eat-dog, highly competitive market place a lot of BTB companies participate in today.

So, read on!

Branding vs. New Product Campaigns

An editorial piece in the July 10 issue of BtoB magazine wonders if "long range, multi-year, BTB branding efforts have taken a back seat to tactical campaigns around new products." Smart companies have the answer to that question: this is not an "either/or" decision.

While pure branding campaigns may have gone the way of the dinosaur over the past decade or so, building a larger company brand can - and should - go hand-in-hand with shorter term new product launches or specific product advertising.

TIP: Always use the biggest and most relevant brand name you have in all of your campaigns as your grounding point and springboard when introducing new products.

For example 3M would use the 3M brand for any campaign they employ to introduce a new product. Charmin would use the Charmin brand (not Proctor and Gamble) for a line extension.

Measure Brand Preference Not Just Brand Awareness

The same magazine included a great article about the importance of measuring brand preference.

It is especially important for customers of industrial or BTB companies (where the selling cycle is long and complex), to have a singular impression of what the company does and a sense of familiarity and comfort with it. This is exactly what a brand is and does.

TIP: If you don't have the time, money or inclination for specific brand preference market research, include consistently worded brand preference questions in other market research studies you may be conducting, when appropriate.

This will give you a reading on how your brand is perceived and to what degree of strength it has in the marketplace among current and potential customers.

One last finding and TIP below…

Strengthen Your Brand

Business Week's August 7 issue is the annual "Best Global Brands" issue. It is always an interesting read, as it not only shows what brands are stronger than others, but which ones are gaining and which ones are losing ground. Plus, I LOVE being reminded about the methodology used to determine their final ranking.

While the details are too complex to get into in this forum, the first step is "figuring out what percentage of a company's 5 year projected revenue stream can be credited to the brand" - not to specific products, benefits or features, patents, management strength, but to the brand itself. Sounds a little like Brand Preference doesn't it?

The big winners this year are:

• Google up 46% since 2005
• Starbucks up 20%
• Ebay up 18%
• Motorola up 18%

Weakening brands include:

• Gap down 22%
• Ford down 16%
• Kodak down 12%

TIP: If you are not continually strengthening your brand you are allowing it to get weaker. Strengthen it by using it consistently across all media and touch points with your customers and channel partners. And be clear about and consistent in what it represents to those audiences.

Give us a call if you are concerned that your brand could use some help OR if you would simply like to strengthen it to work harder for you. We help clients on a daily basis with these kinds of challenges.

Remember, Mosaic creates customers for business-to-business companies through specific project work, on-going retainer assignments or marketing coaching sessions.

Until next time….keep cool!

Rosemary Walter
847-483-5018
Rose1Walter@MosaicMM.com

Quote of the Month

© 2006 Rosemary Walter, all rights reserved. You are free to use material from Mosaic's Monthly Marketing Tips in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including a live website link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

"By Rosemary Walter of Mosaic Marketing Management, Inc. Please visit Rosemary's web site at http://www.MosaicMM.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for business to business companies."