Before, in the good ol’ days (about 6-7 years ago), SEO was purely a digital strategy. It was all about link-backs, key words, mark up, snippets, etc. The holy grail was to get onto, and stay, on the first page of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Lately, I have seen SEO companies start to change their tune. Many of them now see SEO, not as an online strategy only, but as part of an integrated marketing approach. They now include such things as branding, design, PR and traditional advertising. SEO companies are starting to redefine themselves and retool in order to stay relevant in search. They are trying to acquire the skill sets of these “traditional” marketing tactics. Why is that? Here is a link that was provided to me by a colleague who is very knowledgable and works in the SEO world: Why we can’t just be SEOs anymore

The overview:

• SEO is bigger than SEO – True SEO is bigger than what many normally think of when they talk about SEO. Now search engines are looking for “brand signals”, social graph signals, user/usage data and even offline data potential.

• SEO is about “all things marketing” – Integrated marketing is what gives brands the edge in SEO. Now SEO must address defining the brand, culture, mission, community, email, social, product, etc.

• SEO  must be redefined – It used to be considered spam, manipulation, unethical and rule breaking. There are companies who are dropping the SEO in their names to become a more holistic marketing company who happens to have expertise in the digital arena.

• True SEO touches all marketing activities – SEO must be baked into design, advertising, branding, PR, email, development/engineering, social.

As I have always believed, integrated marketing is more effective, in the long run, than any single tactic used independently. Many of these “former” SEO companies are now calling themselves In Bound Marketing or Digital Marketing firms. Great branding is about everything you do from the warehouse employee to the CEO and from every piece of communication from the newsletter to major advertising campaigns to your online social graph.

So, if you are branding, advertising, emailing, building your social graph and have a robust PR program, along with your “traditional SEO”, you are now a digital marketer. If not, then you’re just a plain old SEO guy or gal, stuck in the “old ways.”

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

Over the last 3-5 years, many marketers, large and small, have focused their advertising and brand in communicating more of a higher purpose than just selling stuff. Messaging has become more messianic. On the surface, this makes sense, especially with the millennials. Many do care that a company is giving back, taking care of the planet and just trying to be good corporate citizens.

The real question, is it paying off on the balance sheet? Though it’s too early to tell, initial indicators is a “qualifying” no. I’ll get to why I say, “qualifying” shortly. P&G helped lead the charge several years with Bob McDonald’s (P&G CEO) public mantra of “Marketing is serving.” Burger King embraced, “empowering consumers to achieve social connectivity.” And Pepsi’s strategy to divert marketing resources to award grants for all kinds of worthwhile purposes.

Results thus far:

P&G – They have lost market share in core businesses that account for more than 50% of their revenue. Bob McDonald is on the hot seat with investors calling for his firing. In response, Mr. McDonald has gone back to focus more on marketing products, though he says the higher purpose is still important.

Burger King – Still floundered and gained no focus until it was sold, brought more under discipline and began to market food at an attractive price point.

Pepsi – They saw their flagship brand drop to #3 behind Coke and Diet Coke. This sent an alarm throughout Pepsi Co. Now they are focusing their marketing might to push their brands.

Purpose-driven marketing does have an effect, but THE key element must be alignment. The purpose must be in harmony with the brand. The most successful companies do this. People know when a brand is “faking” it. A purpose must be a natural association to your brand.

A myth of purpose-driven marketing is it separates you from your competitors. If everyone starts adopting this idea, and it already is reaching a mass adoption point, then there will be “Nobility Parity”. Consumers will be left confused deciding which purpose is more noble than the other, so they will go back to the basics on judging products and services by benefits and costs. This ends up leading back to where we were before. Purpose-driven marketing is a powerful tool for brands, but it must be relevant to the brand and it’s mission, not just tacked on because it’s the thing to do or it sounds good.

As Alfredo Gangotena, the chief marketing officer of MasterCard World Wide has said, “You see many brands doing good with cause-related marketing, but honestly, if the cause they are involved in is not fundamental to their brand, what good does it do? Brands are like humans. You can see quickly if they’re faking it.”

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

According to some reports, even at the latest CES (Consumer Electronic Show), many tech companies still cater to men and boys with their spec sheets and “booth babes”. That will end up costing many of these companies a ton in the long run. According to Angela Steele, CEO of mobile agency Ansible Mobile, women are quicker to adapt newer technologies, especially if it helps her get things done. For example, women use QR codes much more than men. Here are a few other points on why tech needs to change their stereotypes of women and technology:

• Keep the focus on the benefits. Women are very rational when it comes to making decisions, especially for their families.

• Things don’t need to be “girly” to be accessible. Look at Apple, they haven’t made one pink phone, but focus on the life benefits their technology provides. This is one reason why a vast majority of women love iPhones.

• Don’t overwhelm women. They are already multitasking. Your benefits should help them gain control of their busy lives. If you make tools to help them manage life’s situations, they will reward you with their loyalty.

• Women will be at the forefront of the retail revolution, driven by convenience enabled by mobile devices. This dramatically changes the way women shop.

• A powerful motivator is to show, and prove, how your technology will benefit their children. For example, if you show that this iPad app will help your child cognitively or in their coordination, it will resonate for them.

It is no secret, women are the CFO of most American families and control how the household dollars are spent. When developing your technology strategies, don’t focus on the Y chromosome. That’s the niche. The winning play is to understand and accommodate women by communicating clearly the benefits that help her manage her daily life, keep control and provides value their family, especially, their children.

And don’t make it pink.

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

There is much talk these days about the battle between Apple and Samsung in the high-end smart phone market. Court battles as well as marketplace battles rage on. What used to be unthinkable about 3 or 4 years ago is now being discussed openly in the business and investment circles: Has Apple lost it’s “Cool” position to Samsung?

There are a few indicators supporting this thought. Apple’s stock is getting hammered as of this writing (down by almost 35% from their high of late 2012).  Samsung has sold more smart phones in 2012 than Apple. Just in the 4th quarter of 2012 alone, Samsung had sold 64 million while Apple had sold 48 million. Finally, there is more buzz and chatter with the Galaxy S series among consumers than for the iPhone 5. It used to be people only talked about was iPhone, nothing else.

What has contributed to this extra “coolness” to Samsung? There are three factors (according to Wall Street Journal), engineering prowess, manufacturing power and deep commitment to marketing. I’ll focus on the marketing portion since that is my area of expertise. As you see, all components of a company must be in alignment to deliver a consistent brand experience and brand message.

Samsung poured over $200 million in the U.S. alone in marketing muscle to promote their Galaxy S line. So much for being the best kept secrete. They didn’t just depend on word of mouth or hope it catches on in the social media world so they could save a few dollars. Samsung believed in their product offering and aggressively told their story. Of course, social media was part of their mix, but that wasn’t the focus of the campaign. Most smart marketers know that in order to win the battle for consumers emotion and mind, they must invest in telling their own story and not just depend on others (social media) to do it for them.

Another point is you know when a company really likes their product. They tend to do less competition bashing and more excitement building for their own stuff. This is what Samsung has done with the launch of the Galaxy S III. In fact, they even took a page out of the Apple play book by centering their advertising around the idea of “What If” with the same confident, reassuring tone of Apple advertising. (It goes to show, everyone steals, the difference is the best knows what to steal.) They also successfully painted the iPhone as passé which takes away from it’s coolness. Their success was achieved through a significant commitment to marketing and integration of their media (traditional, social, online, transit, outdoor). As Tom Peters (business management guru) says, “How can you expect splashy results when you only dip your toe in the water?

Here are some reactions that any marketer would love to have to show the effectiveness of the brand push thus far:

Dora Daniels, 26, of Oakland, Calif., said she learned about Samsung’s latest Galaxy S III because of giant ads plastered around a downtown San Francisco transit station. ”It’s silly because I don’t want to be a slave to marketing but it really got into my head,” said Ms. Daniels, who recently switched to the Samsung phone from an older iPhone.

“If you see this stuff on TV enough, it gets you thinking,” said Mr. Hernandez, a 34-year-old resident of Somerville, Mass.

The battle royal is on.

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

PSY is a phenom. His song Gangnam Style is one example of the power social media has in promoting a brand and driving revenue. To many, the mass popularity of the song is contributed to a lucky break or some other one-off reasoning. Many also see him as a one-hit wonder. PSY could most likely be a one-hit wonder, but his global popularity is not a lucky break of an individual.

PSY is a part of a strategic global branding effort by South Korea. They are trying to make their own space and brand since they are caught in the squeeze between China and Japan. Through years of planning and execution, South Korea is emerging as a cultural and economic powerhouse in their own right. They blend pop-culture such as K-pop’s (Korean pop music, a term that is gaining global status) Wonder Girls and Girls Generation (they have gained global appeal over the last few years) with business powerhouses with the likes of LG, Kia, Korean Airlines and Samsung. PSY is just another installment of this global strategy to build and enhance South Korea’s global brand influence.

Their mission is to “export” their ideas and brands to the world since their own country is a relatively small market. Most countries spend millions and billions of dollars promoting cultural brands within their own country (Buy American), The Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism spends $3.5 billion in promoting “Brand Korea” to the world. As a comparison, the U.S. spent $146 million in 2012. There’s little wonder why the emergence of South Korean entertainment and business have dominated Asia and, now, the global scene.

Their investment in branding deserves a closer look. Here are the key elements they employed on their road to success:

• Investment – They put their money where their goals are. Too often in this tech world, many companies are under the false notion that you can market and dominate for almost nothing. Social media is “free”. Crowdsourcing is “free”. All of the digital metrics allow us to see the effectiveness of each tactic leading to the believe in a “silver bullet”. If all of this “free” stuff and singular tactic approach really worked by itself, shouldn’t we have a lot more mega brands? It still takes good, old fashioned capital investment to make any marketing and brand strategy work effectively.

• Integration – South Korea just didn’t rely on social media or TV advertising. They also didn’t just depend on promoting their companies or entertainers. They created an integrated approach to market their total brand. A blend of tourism, entertainment and business combined with a fluid mix of social media, paid media and PR, all contributed to the rise of South Korea as a nation. They understood integrating their assets and marketing is more powerful than just trying to sell each one individually.

• Creating brands we like to belong to – They understood how to brand and position each of their assets in a way that had great appeal and not come off as competing with each country. While buying a car from Shanghai Motor Company would feel like a slap to Uncle Sam, buying a Hyundai feels green and right on. South Korean brands don’t threaten, but are seen as more of a common cause we want to belong to. They are viewed as challenger brands and, for the most part, we all love those.

If you are a small business or are competing against giants in your industry, use South Korea as your example to follow. They are punching way above their weight. Who knows, Gangnam Style should be your rally cry.

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

It is predicted online shopping will break the $1billion mark by the end of the year and it looks like it will be growing even more in the near future. There are so many advantages as a consumer; convenience, time saver and instant shopping comparison are just a few of the many benefits. With all of this e-commerce, where does this leave the retailer or business, both big and small?

To many, it reduces them to just a price point with no real distinguishing value. This has caused many brick-n-mortar brands to disappear or become reduced to just a shell of their former glory. With all of this rapid change and price shopping dominance, does this also mean there is no need to create a strong brand? In my opinion, it is the opposite, having a strong brand is more critical now and in the future. Here is why I think this:

• Lack of physical contact means brand recognition has to work harder – Because people are shopping more online, they cannot feel, touch and otherwise, engage physically with your products, so many decisions come down to brand recognition. If they don’t know you, then most likely, you won’t make the first cut. Shopping online is also a function of trust. Customers are making decision on what they currently know about your brand. If they trust it, this reduces the risk factor. Often great products and services are not purchased because the customer thinks, “I’ve never heard of that brand before.”, then gravitate towards the brands they do know something about. This lack of physical connection that a brick-n-mortar store allows forces brand recognition to have to work even harder.

• Avoid the price war trap – Online and comparison shopping has reduced many of our purchase decisions to just a price point, regardless of the intangibles. It’s hard to “feel” or experience the quality just from your computer screen. A lack of a strong brand makes you 1 of 1,000 who offer similar quality, similar price and similar features. Not many companies can win the price war, especially small to medium sized businesses. For example, if the concept of Target was only online, then they wouldn’t stand a chance to Wal-Mart, but many people are willing to pay more for the Target experience than save a few bucks and shop at Wal-Mart. It’s the feel of a Michael Graves gadget or the fit of an Isaac Mizrahi dress. Both of these examples deliver something more than just a price point. They deliver on Target’s unique brand of cool chic at a low price (notice, I didn’t say “lowest” price.) A strong brand helps you break away from the price war game. Apple is the gold standard in proving this concept.

• Reviews are good, only to a point – I know many people believe in customer generated reviews. They take them as gospel and depend on the “wisdom of crowds” theory that many digital companies embrace (Google, Amazon, Yelp). What about plunking down $500 for a flat screen TV brand you’ve never heard of? The reviews are good, the price is great, so why the hesitation? It’s usually because there are TV brands you’ve heard of with similar features and price point that are also being shown in your search list. A vast majority of shoppers will consider the brands they know first before they drop down to the names they don’t know. By then, the no-name brands have already lost the sale.

As the world turns more to online shopping, it creates both crisis and opportunity for all brands. If you have not invested in creating a strong, great brand in your customer’s mind, then it is crisis time for you. Now you are reduced only to a price point and are at risk of not even making the first cut on a customers online list. It’s a great opportunity if you have consistently invested in building a brand that has real intrinsic and emotional value in your customer’s heart as well as their mind. Now, when you show up on a list based on a specific search criteria, more customers will keep you as a choice since many feel they already know you and have an emotional connection to  your brand.

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

Online advertising and social media has fostered a marketing myth, digital advertising is about speed. Fast results, fast data, fast changes, fast profits. Yes, the digital tools and online world does allow us to market and accomplish a lot of things quickly and is much more efficient in many ways.

But, there is a flaw in the popular belief of quick results happen online. To get REAL results, it takes time. Why do I say this? Yes, you can buy PPC and banner ads and get instant feedback on the activity of the ads. You can change them within minutes. Online advertising and social media is also cheap (so it must be effective, right?) All you have to do is buy a hand full of keywords, fund a PPC campaign, link to your web site and watch the dough roll in. Sounds good to me. In reality, this actual scenario is rare. If it wasn’t, there would be only 10% of new businesses fail instead of 90%.

Digital marketing is about being SLOW. You can make fast decisions and see fast feedback (data) and optimize things on the fly, but real, tangible results take time. You can’t just start a blog and get thousands of readers right away. You can’t start SEO on Monday and expect to be on the first page of any search engine by Wednesday, let alone staying on the first page for any length of time. You can’t launch a PPC campaign and expect the cash to roll in on the first day. You can’t join online groups and get any value from it unless you take to meet the right people and and make the right connections and contribute any value yourself.

Digital marketing is not a one night stand. It is about building real relationships and trust with your customers and potential customers. Just as it is in the physical world, it takes time and consistency to build relationships and trust in the digital world. Your digital brand is a paradox. It must keep up with fresh content, design and functionality, but it’s the older content that has been searched and linked to the most and has become a trusted source by individuals and search engines. Google ranks things not by how new it is, but how long it has been around, how often it’s been linked to and ultimately, how valuable it has become to the community it serves. It’s a slow and steady process that makes digital marketing and your web content rise to the top of Google and other search engines. Once it is trusted, through the test of time, then your online brand is able to develop real relationships with your customers and potential customers.

Where speed plays a part is the faster you post online, the sooner your marketing or content can start the process of becoming trusted and valuable over time. Speed is a strategy, but not the result. The true result is building relationships and trust with your customers. And that takes time. Even though it’s online, there is no short cut to real success.

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

There’s a trend that is becoming even more prevalent in the last 4-5 years, especially with online companies. It is “marketing as a last resort” strategy. The scenario goes something like this:

• Company launches without advertising and marketing, depending solely on social media and word-of-mouth
• In early years, company growth explodes and gains critical mass
• They “brag” to other companies in seminars and events that you don’t need advertising. It’s a waste of money.
• Once they gain a mass following, growth slows down as competitors flood the arena.
• Users and revenue (if they had any) begin to quickly erode because of a lack of building a true brand to withstand the onslaught of new competitors.
• THEN, they turn to branding and advertising to rescue them.
• Often, it doesn’t work because it’s too little, too late and they either go out of business or are rendered irrelevant.
• The experience confirms, to them, that they were right, advertising doesn’t work.

The flaw in the story is branding and advertising is not a quick fix or create instant turn arounds. When competitors catch up, all you have left is brand as a differentiator. The window of most “competitive advantages” are about 3-6 months.

Think of it this way, branding is like reputations. It takes time and consistency to build. Consistency in message, frequency and marketing. Sure, you can get “spikes” in your sales charts, but that quickly fades after the promotion. This is why it’s called building a brand.

For example, Groupon has been sliding downhill ever since their IPO. Granted, operations and business model has a lot to do with their deterioration. Because of their initial success, competitors, both powerful and start ups, have joined in the game. The interesting fact is they are currently in talks with advertising agencies about a branding campaign. They claim it’s time to tell their story, but in the opinion of some stock analysts, they could be on the way out. About a year ago, their stock was $26.11. Now (as of the time of this entry) the stock is $5.29. Just now they are telling their story using branding and advertising as a last resort. What they’ve should have done was create a more emotional connection from day one to their users and business partners. Now, everyone is getting into the daily special game and they are considered an aging commodity that doesn’t work for their business partners.

Zynga and Angie’s List are both in trouble as well. Angie’s list launched their first massive national advertising campaign in 2011 hoping to turn their fortunes around. As of this writing, they are still hemorrhaging money ($23.4 million in Q2, 2012 alone.) Zynga is considering advertising for the first time while they are watching their Facebook business erode along with their stock price.

Branding and brand-driven advertising is just as essential at the beginning of a company as it is when a company gets any scale. When you don’t build a strong brand, you leave an opening for competitors to come in and commoditize you because your  products and services can, and will, be duplicated. Then it comes down to a couple of scenarios, who brands the best and/or who has the lower price. You lose your “first mover” advantage and are fighting a price war.

So, don’t look at branding and advertising as something to do when you’re in trouble or when multiple competitors get into your arena. It could be too late by then. It’s not that you’ll go out of business, though that is a strong possibility (think Groupon), but you’ll become irrelevant in the market place and be reduced to just a price point. At this point, you’ll need to spend much more in advertising to gain back any ground.

It’s much more effective in the long run to build your business and build your brand at the same time.

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

Most people believe it’s important to build a brand, but many don’t know how to start accomplishing this goal. There are also many who believe building a great brand isn’t important. It just takes things like a great sales team, lower prices or better technology. Unfortunately, business life isn’t that simple. Consider this: The Fortune 500 isn’t the only ones crowding the market place. It’s also the other 17,509 companies in America with more than 500 employees. These 17,509 companies operate out of 1,180,446 locations, employ 58.2 million people. Throw in the 27 million small businesses in the U.S. and you realize very quickly there’s nowhere near enough room in the average consumer’s mind to file away facts about all of these companies and to truly create an emotional relationship with them.

The problem, as you see, is noise. There are soooo many companies out there with similar products/services, similar quality and similar price points. There is nothing to really separate them from the mass herd. Only building a brand is what makes you stand out in the hearts and minds of your customer from the other 17, 508 companies (not including the 27 million small businesses).

So, where to begin? It comes down to two points: FOCUS and FIRST.

Focus – This is being very simple and clear on what value you provide, both emotional and physical. Here’s a saying that rings very true: You should not be something to everybody, but you should be everything to somebody. This is the essence of focus. Companies like Apple, Whole Foods and Amazon are examples of focus. It is the power of keeping a product or company brand focused on a simple idea instead of trying to expand it into every new development. To expand, most successful companies create a new product brand so it can follow the same path of building that brand on a singular, simple idea.

First – This doesn’t mean “first to market”. Rarely are the first to market the ones who survive in the long run and dominate their category. (Google was the 28th search engine created.) What I am referring to is “First in mind”. That is more valuable than being physically first. Often, a company introduces a new product/technology/service and believes they now own the category since they were first. That is a myth. It is the company who is “first” in creating a powerful brand in the minds of their customers who are really “first”. Business history is full of examples of this phenomenon.

Brands are built, not instantly created. It takes a commitment to a single, simple idea and staying focused in communicating this idea throughout the whole brand experience from the marketing to the store to the online experiences. As in the famous words of Ricky Bobby, “If you ain’t first, yer last.”

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226

Many companies want a great brand. They dream of dominating their category, being the “household” name when it comes to their core products or service and even being loved by their customers. All of these things are what a great brand can deliver whether you are a large corporation or a privately ran small business. I will use one of my favorite products to serve as an example of how a small, family-ran business is dominating their industry niche by investing in their brand.

Boar’s Head is a premium deli meat and cheese company. Recently, they have been making industry headlines and are dominating the deli section across the country. They have carved out a niche in the premium deli meat category and are now considered the market leader. My family and I personally love their products and believe the extra few dollars are worth the great taste. And isn’t this what most brands want, customers willing to pay a premium just because they love them so much? This is the power of a great brand. So how did this family business come to own the local deli meat case? Here are a few points that can be applied across industries:

• Invest in your brand – Boar’s Head invests over $19.9 million in measured media spending (that’s just air time, ad space, etc. and not counting creative and production costs). The second place competitor spends about $7 million in measured media spending. That’s a huge gap between #1 and #2 and that’s one reason why Boar’s Head muscled their way in to the top spot, even again heavy hitters such as Oscar Mayer, Sara Lee and Jennie-O Turkey brands. (Note: Other brands and generic store brands sell more in terms of volume, but they are not considered premium brands and fall way behind with their version of “premium” brands.)

• Don’t under estimate the value of customer image – Boar’s Head realizes their image is vital to success since most consumer decisions are made at the deli counter. Boar’s Head makes sure all POP displays, signage and any other visible materials are the best it can produce with great design, emotional messaging and a singular reason of why customer’s would be thrilled with their products over any other brands in the deli case. No other brands have done it better and over a longer period of time, including the big brands.

• Train your partners in your brand – Any grocer or restaurant that carries Boar’s Head goes through extensive training and brand “indoctrination” covering everything from quality control to how to represent the brand. They also provide constant, on-site assistance in their deep knowledge of POP marketing and display set ups to maximize sales. They even call their independent distributors and truck drivers “as a family of brand ambassadors”.

These are just a few points that has helped make Boar’s Head the hottest name in premium deli products to date. One other key factor is their consistency in marketing. They have always taken the long view and continually invested heavily in marketing and brand building with customers and retailers. This isn’t about an instant success story because when you look closer at almost all long-lasting successful companies, they’ve steadily built the brand and image over time with committed investment in their brand on a holistic scale, advertising, training and on-site management.

This is a great example of how a family-owned company can best the largest corporations in the U.S. It comes down to defining the brand, training others in the brand and ultimately delivering the brand experience to the customers.

www.bebranded.net
317-797-7226