A Word on Trends in Brand Management

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It is very exciting to see big brands engaging with the customers through social media to carry the brand message. South West Airlines had a recent contest on the best video ad for “Wanna get away” campaign, while Frito Lay gets free market testing/product testing info on a new chip flavor. Apple does not have to ask, its users engage themselves into creating ads and parodies for brand characters. I wish the same contest started for Geiko “Caveman” campaign (my favorite!).

Another cool application of interactive web or social media, whatever its best description, is when bloggers can test brand value on a high level like “If this product/company drops from the face of the Earth tomorrow, would we care?”.  Brand Autopsy blog recently posed that question for Wells Fargo in the “would you care series” and hopefully someone from Well Fargo managed to pick up the feedback. Even if they did, would they try to ignore it or deal with it?  Sears got the best remarks and one can see how much experience matters in brand perception.  You have pleasant experiences while consuming the product or being in the purchasing decision process, you flip those like a favorite photo album. You have a bad experience (customer service as in the Wells Fargo example), you care less and perhaps try avoid experiencing any transaction at this point with such a brand. Thus, emotion and ambiance are tied into the brand perception as well. The examples with South West Airlines and Frito Lay add a community aspect.

So what are the top 5-10 aspects/parameters of a solid brand? Any literature on brand management that is fresh and at the same time timeless?

Thought-Provoking Video That Is Worth Your Time Watching

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While enjoying my Sunday morning, I stumbled upon this capivating video by Carl Fisch brought to my attention by Mike Arrington on CrunchNotes. Very dramatic production: the background music add the urgency sense to the content shared. I find it very exciting and inspiring! It alsmost wakes you up a bit and allowes your imagination get activated again. I want to see all the “predictions” happen. There were no images in the video presentation, but the idea was communicated so well as it induces emotion and action (conversations about it and sharing the actual content). Very powerful. Stepping back into today, including a video into a somewhat dry business presentation might create a great effect…

The Essense of Passion

Filed Under Ruminations | 2 Comments

Well…I have been asking number of people on ”What makes you wake up in the middle of the night to think about what you do (for a living)?” Why you are doing it? Why this industry? and I must confess I get perplexed when I find no passion in the profession a person is engaged into. I think being passionate about the cause of your actions is so important. It is like having a quality experience. It is like being in a continous process of extending your imagenary limits….I can understand people have mortgages to pay and children to feed. But, why not find something you enjoy and be passionate about it and get the bills paid? I also observed that in some industries there is a bigger percentage of passionate people than in others. Why? In my opinion, there are variations of passion in the industries that have those: it could be a strong brand of the company that drives the culture and creates a cult (which is not a bad thing), or the venture is so exciting and going to change the way we do things. But, I will never understand doing things just because you have to…why not do the things you care about and can invest maximum energy?  I also found that being around passionate people creates an invisible aura of can do attitude which actually gets realized in real life. In reverse, lack of passion is so infectuous that it makes me want to run (cause I do not wish to catch it). Am I too idealistic in what I expect? Do not think so.

How To Communicate the Idea To Inspire Action and To Actually Have Things Done

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Teamwork, group projects and things that need to be done moved me to revisit the basics of how to get some action out of group communication process. I found a very useful framework of natural planning techniques from David Allen’s book (Getting Things Done) that I would like to share. It is a 5 phase process:

1) Purpose - never hurts to ask the question “why we are doing it”, helps to focus, define sucess, align resources, motivate and expand options.

2) Principles - “a great way to think of principles is to complete the following sentence” - “I would give others totally free rein to do that as long as ….” , thus they provide guidelines on the packaging or points of reference.

3) Vision (Outcome)…how would success would look like, feel like, sound? I really liked the qoute ” You often need to make it up in your mind before you can make it happen in your life”, very powerful and I know I can do that!

4) Organizing - get all the ideas OUT OF YOUR HEAD - in front of your eyes - thus patterns and relationships emerge from the “invisible world”! Sort those out by components, sequences and priorities.

5) Action - Next Steps. Clarify what can be done today, who should be doing what, what you will be waiting for.

The idea is to walk your team through this process and the project should be implemented with ease or at least save time in the preparation stage. The trick is to walk yourself through the same process first, utilizing “the outside your head tracking system”. The work of the “communicator” is never done!

 

The Power Of The Story

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I had a chance to listen to the speech of Scott McCain, the author of the book “What Your Customers Really Want”.  Very engaging speaker. He expressed a great point that I wanted to share. We all hear about the elevator speech and short story that we need to tell our customers (I even blogged on it here). However, we sometimes forget about the “High Concept” of the story structure. If we think of our business story as a movie we are going to shoot, it makes it easier to construct a powerful piece. Just 3 simple things can help us communicate better with our audience and thus be more successful in our demand generation efforts:

Act One: Introduce the characters and the conflict.
Act Two: Tell about the various ways those characters try to solve the above-mentioned conflict.
Act Three: Provide the heroic resolution.

The three basic steps that can help us create a compelling story are good to keep in mind. Just imagine, you are shooting a new blockbuster movie about your product/service/program. What would you do, how the plot will unwide?

The more I learn, the more simplified versions of the same concepts I value!

EQ Important Factors for Marketing Professionals

Filed Under Professional Development, Ruminations | 2 Comments

It was interesting to see how the EQ (Emotional Intelligence Knowledge) is applicable to work success within various business functions. According to Steven Stein and Howard Book, there are 5 top factors that are relevant to work success for marketing professionals:

1) Optimism - one has to have it while looking for market opportunities!
2) Reality Testing -  to accurately/ballpark assess the situation
3) Independence - to be able to make decisions on your own
4) Impulse Control - to be able to think before leaping
5) Social Responsibility - to be able to see far enough to not step on someone’s toes

Great insights. I think, personally, I would focus on working more on reality testing, impulse control and self-regard.

Oddly enough, for a marital bliss, interpersonal skills come last on the list. The most important factors in priority are happiness, self-regard, self-awareness and self-actualization and reality-testing.

    Content Disclaimer

      Everything posted on this blog is a product of my own thoughts, ideas, reflections based on the professional interests. It is based on the public information, works of the colleagues and fellow researchers that are cited respectfully and my opinions as an industry professional.