September 09, 2011

How To Reposition Your Brand For Higher Meaning

To be successful at repositioning your brand, you have to create higher meaning and aim higher. Aiming higher requires outward thinking and learning from the marketplace. Over the past two years, we have been engaged with a variety of consumer products brands whose managers are seeking new opportunities to grow their brands value. In all these engagements, I have noticed a common thread among all of them consumers no longer care about them because they have lost their compelling meaning in the consumers mind. One thing is certain once a consumers mind is made up about a brand, its next to impossible to change it. The decisions facing brand mangers and marketing executives regarding how they deal with our ever-evolving market landscape usually comes down to three options: - continue to invest in the existing brand meaning - create a sub-brand - invent a completely new brand All of these options have advantages and disadvantages, more so if the brand is also facing dramatic challenges in distribution. The driver underpinning all these options is change. Brands are dynamic. They have their cycles and they run their course. Whats hard for managers to grasp is when to move on.

This is particularly true if the brand was once a leader. Market success always creates size, power and a false sense of security. Over time, this creates an unrealistic view of the external reality, and a lack of urgency to correct course in maintaining relevancy among consumers. Continue reading "How To Reposition Your Brand For Higher Meaning" Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Thomson Dawson in Brand Positioning, Re-Branding | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: Brand Management, Brand Positioning, Branding, Jack Trout, Magners, Rebranding

September 06, 2011

The Two-Day Brand Positioning Workshop

The Blake Project, the brand consultancy behind Branding Strategy Insider now offers a highly facilitated two-day workshop designed to help brand owners gain clarity and consensus on key strategic and creative decisions that impact business success when introducing new products, inventing new brands and transforming under-performing brands.

With a process designed for issue resolution, marketing and brand management teams come together in a creative environment that aligns stakeholders around the brands target customer segment, desired brand positioning, brand promise, essence and delivery in the markets the brand will compete. Over the course of two days we work with you to build a strategic roadmap for brand growth and success through focus in four key areas: To whom you market You can only create successful products or solutions when you know who the most fervent buyers will be. It is critical to understand as much as you can about the core target customer segment to whom the brand is intended to appeal. Why they buy Grabbing the largest share requires a complete understanding on what drives the target customer to products/brands in your space. Defining the context that will give the brand unquestioned relevance to the target customer against their illuminating needs, motivations, attitudes, and preferences is essential for brand building success. Continue reading "The Two-Day Brand Positioning Workshop" Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Derrick Daye, The Blake Project in Brand Positioning, Derrick Daye | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Rebranding, Workshop

August 04, 2011

Position Your Brand To Transcend Product Categories

Have you heard of Smith-Corona? If you are my age or older, you have. If you are 25 or under, you may not have. They made typewriters, a product format that became obsolete with the advent of personal computers. Kodak was associated with photography and film, but mostly with film and film processing. Canon, Nikon, Olympus and others were better known in the camera space. It was easier for film-based cameras to translate to digital cameras than for film to translate to digital images in peoples minds. Film became obsolete with the advent of digital photography, something that Kodak created. And the decline of film brought about Kodaks decline. Admittedly, it is easier for a large ship to avoid an iceberg than for Kodak to switch from chemistry-based operations and personnel to digital (software) based operations and personnel. But, what if Kodak had proactively and aggressively sought to broaden its brands meaning well beyond film many years ago, not only with marketing communication but also with products, services and other proof points? Continue reading "Position Your Brand To Transcend Product Categories" Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Brad VanAuken, The Blake Project in Brad VanAuken, Brand Positioning | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: Brand Positioning, Branding, Bush Brothers, Canon, Disney, Hallmark, Kodak, Nikon, Olympus, Smith-Corona

August 02, 2011

Brand Repositioning Research: A Mandate

As brand consultants, our primary focus is brand strategy and repositioning based on deep customer insight. Many organizations will ask us to reposition their brands but are reluctant to conduct the necessary customer research at the beginning of the brand repositioning process. They will say, We conduct ongoing customer satisfaction research, or We do product research quite frequently or We measured our brands equity five years ago or We talk with our customers all of the time. But, do they know which brands have the highest top-of-mind unaided awareness within the relevant product categories? Do they know how their brand is perceived? Do they know the top-of-mind associations for their brand? Do they know their brands personality? Do they know if their customers can relate to their brand emotionally? Do they know how attitudinally loyal their customers are to their brand? Do they know the most important brand and category benefits and how their brand stacks up against the competition in delivering against these benefits? Do they know their brands perceived strengths and weaknesses vis--vis the competition? Have they identified their brands positioning vulnerabilities and opportunities? Do they know whether their brand is perceived to deliver a good value for the price paid? Is their brand perceived to be vital or resting on its laurels? Is it perceived to be innovative, responsive, trustworthy, reliable or friendly? Do they understand how these perceptions vary across various customer segments? Successful brand repositioning requires intuition, creativity, insight, analysis and a deep understanding of the customer and his or her perceptions. The insight, analysis and deep understanding are largely informed by rigorous brand research. Repositioning a brand without research is akin to painting a masterpiece with ones eyes closed. Neither is a good idea. Sponsored By: The Brand Positioning Workshop Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Brad VanAuken, The Blake Project in Brad VanAuken, Brand Positioning, Brand Research | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: Brand Repositioning, Brand Research, Branding

January 12, 2011

Reconsidering The Brand Strategy Toolkit

Abraham Maslow, the man famous for formulating one of the most ubiquitous tools in the marketing toolbox, the Hierarchy of Needs, was also famous for admonishing against over reliance on one tool. His caution has come to be known as the law of the instrument or Maslows Hammer. It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. Evolving competitive market places have placed enormous pressure on brand strategy. Competition changes perceptions of the existing options by default. Maintaining differentiation then is more than a matter of updating positioning. It requires layered and nuanced approaches rooted in the customer experience, shared community, and brand purpose. Positioning is indeed a powerful tool, especially when the competitive landscape is well demarcated, consumer targets are identifiable, and advantages reside largely in product performance or functionality. But over reliance on positioning can lead strategists to overlook other means of differentiation and possibly even spell disaster for their brand. The Case of Blockbusters TOTAL ACCESS

Blockbuster may be a case where over reliance on positioning lead to failure. In September 2010, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in order to reduce its debt to $100 million from $900 million and its shares are trading for 8 cents. The reasons for its downward slide are generally attributed to failure to adapt to changes in technology and consumer needs which were exploited by upstarts Netflix, Redbox, Vudu, and Hulu as well as non-traditional competitors like YouTube, Vimeo, video on demand, and the DVR. In retrospect, the story seems almost inevitable. After all, TIME magazine wrote off the Blockbuster brand as early as 2005. (Blockbuster to Remake Itself Under Creditors, Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2010.) But the script didnt need to run that way. Blockbuster had its chance and came closer than most people know to actually beating Netflix and the other new players at their own game. Continue reading "Reconsidering The Brand Strategy Toolkit" Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Derrick Daye, The Blake Project in Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Derrick Daye | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: Abraham Maslow , Blockbuster, Brand Amplitude, Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Branding, Carol Phillips, Jack Trout, Marketing Executives Networking Group, MENG, Netflix, Repositioning

December 30, 2010

Building A Category Of One Brand

Category of One brands tend to be exceptionally successful. A brand that finds itself in a crowded market with too many competitors and too few viable positions would do well to reframe its business so that it becomes a category of one brand within the new frame of reference. So rather than being one of many brands in the consideration set with few meaningful points of difference, the brand becomes the only alternative within a new category. Many brands have successfully accomplished this. The Strong Museum expanded significantly, becoming the third largest childrens museum in the world and the second largest in the USA. But rather then claim being number two or three in childrens museums, it decided to preemptively name itself the Strong National Museum of Play, becoming the only choice in the new category of play. More recently the brand renamed itself simply The Strong and created the following sub-brands: National Museum of Play, International Center for the History of Electronic Games, National Toy Hall of Fame and Brian Sutton-Smith Library & Archives of Play. The Strong has achieved an international reputation as the expert in play. Continue reading "Building A Category Of One Brand " Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Brad VanAuken, The Blake Project in Brad VanAuken, Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: American University, brand positioning, Branding, Category of one brand, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Strong National Museum of Play

November 18, 2010

Killing A Sacred Cash Cow Brand To Thrive

New and fresh ideas usually come from an awareness of new opportunities in the marketplace. It can be challenging for iconic brands to take advantage of new opportunity and remain relevant to people. Iconic brands tend to lose their relevance long before the cash they generate begins to dry up. Once they lose their luster, iconic cash cow brands are nearly impossible to change. Consider the fate of these iconic brands that held on to their heritage at the expense of innovating a bigger future: Sears: once the dominant leader in the mail order business, now an also-ran against big box retailers. Their relevance lost by disruptive technologies. The very principles of mail order that made Sears a great iconic brand, were reinvented by Amazon. The rest is history. Newsweek: Once the biggest news magazine by circulation in America. Now diminished by lost circulation and advertising revenue, it has finally been sold to a digitally savvy Internet competitor. Chevorlet: No brand was more iconic and embedded into the fabric of 20th century American culture. The problem is we are now in the 21st century and the game has changed. Chevys current advertising mantra runs deep is a gallant attempt to reinvent itself by looking to the past. Good luck with that one. Most people seem to be paying more attention to forward-thinking Hyundai these days. Xerox: It invented laser printing but held tightly to its dominant document company positioning while HP exploited the technology and became the industry leader.

Kodak: It invented digital photography, but cemented itself into its dying film business. The most successful companies are the ones who have no problem killing their cash cow brands. Continue reading "Killing A Sacred Cash Cow Brand To Thrive" Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Derrick Daye, The Blake Project in Brand Positioning, Derrick Daye | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: Amazon, Apple, Apple, Atra, Branding, Chevrolet, Ford, Gillette, Hyundai, Jaguar, Kodak, Macintosh, Marty Neumeier, McDonald's, Newsweek, PULL Brand Innovation, Repositioning, Sears, Thomson Dawson, TRAC II, White Castle, Xerox

October 26, 2010

1 Minute Brand Positioning Self Analysis

As a marketer striving to build a winning brand in a sea of competition, your chances for success are greatly increased if: You have profound insight into your consumer's values and motivations. You fully understand the following for all the categories in which your brand operates: (a) the different market segments, (b) the competitive set, and (c) which consumer benefits are cost-ofentry versus differentiating.

You fully understand the decision making process (rational or not) the consumer uses to purchase your brand. You defined the role, target consumer, essence, promise, archetype and personality for your brand and are certain every key stakeholder is united around each. You have absolute clarity around what your brand stands for and how it is unique and compelling to consumers. You have criteria to help you decide when you can use an existing brand, when a completely new brand is needed and when a sub-brand is the right choice. The success of your brand depends on many things...but mostly on you. Sponsored by: The Brand Positioning Workshop Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Derrick Daye, The Blake Project in Brand Positioning, Derrick Daye | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: Brand Positioning, Branding

October 14, 2010

Marketing Decisions: Too Important For Marketers

Peter Drucker, the father of modern management once wrote that, the purpose of a business is to generate new customers, and only two functions do that, marketing and innovation. All other business functions are expenses. That piece of advice has since been ignored by many business leaders with but a few exceptions. Today, when top management is surveyed, their priorities in order are: Finance, sales, production, management, legal and people. Missing from the list: marketing and innovation. When one considers the trouble that many of our business icons have run into in recent years, it is not easy to surmise that Druckers advice would have perhaps helped the management to avoid the problems they face today. Ironically, David Packard of Hewlett-Packard fame once observed that Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people. But as the years rolled on, rather than learn about marketing and innovation, executives started to search for role models instead of marketing models. Tom Peters probably gave this trend a giant boost with the very successful book he co-authored, In Search of Excellence. Excellence, as defined in that book, didnt equal longevity, however; many of the role models offered there have since foundered. In retrospect, a better title for the book might have been In Search of Strategy. A very popular method-by-example book has been Built to Last by James Collins and Jerry Porras. In it, they write glowingly about Big Hairy Audacious Goals that turned the likes of Boeing, Wal-Mart, General Electric, IBM and others into the successful giants they have become. The companies that the authors of Built to Last suggest for emulation were founded from 1812 (Citicorp) to 1945 (Wal-Mart). These firms didnt have to deal with the intense competition in todays global economy. While there is much you can learn from their success, they had the luxury of growing up when business life was a lot simpler. As a result, these role models are not very useful for companies today. Nothing brings this to light more than when you study what I call, the tale of two companies. Its the story of General Electric versus United Technologies. One has had terrible marketing. The other has had good marketing. Continue reading "Marketing Decisions: Too Important For Marketers" Email this Share on Facebook Twit This! AddThis! Book a Speaker Posted by Jack Trout in Brand Positioning, Jack Trout | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Technorati Tags: Al Ries, Branding, GE, General Electric, Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, Tom Peters, United Technologies

August 20, 2010

Brand Positioning For Multiple Target Audiences

Today, another request from the BSI Email Bag. Ezra, a marketer from Manila, Philippines asks... "Please help me address this concern about a brand's positioning consistency issue: How do you maintain a consistent marketing communications approach to both of your primary target market (couples) and secondary target market (cancer patients, pregnant women, with thyroid problems, etc.) when they have different sets of values and profile? Our product is in the oral care category, specifically natural-based toothpaste. Thank you so much for your great insights." Thanks for your question Ezra, we're happy to help. This is a fairly common problem in brand positioning. Often, a brand and its products will have a different appeal to different audiences. First, I would craft an overall brand position that speaks to the unique benefits of the brand and its products, an overarching position that could work for most audiences. Then, I would tailor the brand message to the individual audiences as appropriate, emphasizing the benefits that are most relevant to each audience. The messages for each audience need to support or at least fit under the overall brand position. A marketing agency with brand positioning expertise should be able to help you with this. It is very possible to do successfully but here are the most common problems in doing so: Defining the overarching brand position so generally that it is trite or meaningless

Crafting such different messages to each audience that it would not be clear to anyone how the different messages work together in support of the overarching brand position

The trick is to create a hierarchy of benefits and messages that work at an overall brand level but also with individual audiences. So for instance with a natural-based toothpaste, the hierarchy of benefits might look something like this: Brand (natural-based toothpaste, no artificial chemicals, good for your body, good for the environment) -----> Couples target market (natural, safe, used by those who care about the environment and themselves) -----> People with specific medical problems (natural, safe, no complications, no side effects, the choice of people who suffer from ..., or recommended by physicians for those who suffer from...) While I have not been briefed on your particular brand or its products, I hope this illustrates the point that I am trying to make about benefits and messages that support the overall brand position. Have a question related to branding? Just Ask Sponsored by: The Brand Positioning Workshop Email this