Frank Delano provides the following examples of what he says are brand names that catapulted their products to global marketing stardom:
Nissan’s Pathfinder—believable because the vehicle is built for off-road exploration.
Sony’s Walkman—simple and captures both the product’s essence and consumer attention.
Planet Hollywood—projects the image of an exciting dining experience inspired by the worlds of film and television.
Ford’sTaurus—the astrological sign Taurus suggests power, durability, and reliability.
Intel’s Pentium—captures the uniqueness of the product and consumer attention.
Absolut Vodka—suggests the “ultimate” and captures the consumer’s attention.
Procter & Gamble’s Ivory Soap—suggests the product’s essence (clean smelling and white).
Volkswagen’s Beetle—unique, attention getting, and believable.
Source: Frank Delano, The Omnipowerful Brand:America’s #1 Brand Specialist Shares His Secrets for Catapulting Your Brand to Marketing Stardom (New York:AMACOM, 1999), pp. 61–64.
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
Omnipowerful Brand Names
David Aaker’s Brand Identity System for Building Brands
Aaker argues that to build your brand you must develop a brand identity to provide direction, purpose, and meaning for your brand.“Brand identity,” he writes,“is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain.These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members.” In order to develop an identity for your brand,Aaker says you should consider how your brand could be portrayed from four perspectives: (1) as a product, (2) as an organization, (3) as a person, and (4) as a symbol.
Product Perspective
Product scope—with what product or products is the brand associated? For example,Visa
credit cards.
Product attributes—functional/emotional benefits.
Quality/value—is the brand a Mercedes, Buick or Ford?
Use or application—can the brand “own” a particular application? For example, Clorox bleach “owns” an association with whitening clothing and Gatorade “owns” an association with athletics and high performance.
Users—Gerber babies;Weight Watchers weight control and nutrition.
Country or region—Chanel French, Swatch watches Swiss, Mercedes German.
Organization Perspective
Organization attributes—characteristics such as innovation, drive for quality, concern for the environment, and so on that result from the people, culture, values, and programs of the company.Aaker notes that organization attributes such as reputation for innovation and so on can be extremely valuable in building a brand because they are hard for competitors to copy.
Local vs. global.
Person Perspective
Personality—the humanlike qualities people attribute to the brand or should attribute to it
such as competent, impressive, trustworthy, fun, active, humorous, casual, formal, youthful,
intellectual, and so on.
Brand/customer relationship—how people view the relationship. For example, Saturn
friend, Levi Strauss - rugged outdoor companion, Hallmark - warm, emotional relative.
Symbol Perspective
Visual imagery and metaphors—Transamerica pyramid, Nike “swoosh,” McDonald’s Golden Arches, Quaker Oats man.
Brand heritage—U.S. Marines the few, the proud;Amtrak the heritage of first-class travel by rail.
Aaker says that by considering your brand from these four perspectives you should be able to arrive at both a “core” identity and an “extended” identity for your brand.The core identity is the essence of your brand; the associations that are essential to the meaning and success of your brand and that are likely to remain constant as you enter new markets and launch new products.Your brand’s extended identity includes elements that provide completeness and texture to your brand’s identity.These are the elements that flesh out the details of your brand. For example, Saturn’s core identity, says Aaker, is that of a world-class car delivered by a company that treats customers with respect and as friends. Its extended identity is as a U.S. subcompact, a no-pressure/friendly buying experience with no-haggle pricing, and a personality that is thoughtful, friendly, down-to-earth, reliable, youthful, humorous, lively, and thoroughly American.
Kevin Clancy and Peter Krieg: Steps to Creating a Compelling Position
Here are the steps that Clancy and Krieg recommend following in developing a positioning for your brand.They begin with the assumption that you have clearly identified your target customers and that you have conducted research to determine your target customer’s desires and problems and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
Step #1: Make a list of at least 200 tangible and intangible attributes and benefits that might motivate your target customers and thereby serve as the basis for a powerful positioning.
Step #2: Prioritize the list and combine redundant items to get the list down to between 50 and 100 items.
Step #3: Survey at least 200 and preferably 500 or more target customers on these 50 to 100 items on three dimensions: (1) how desirable each item is to them (dream detection),
(2) the extent to which the product/service they are currently using contains that attribute or benefit (problem detection), and (3) the likelihood they would buy a product or service that had that attribute or benefit (brand preference detection).
Step #4: Average each respondent’s scores for each item across the three dimensions to get the motivating power of each attribute or benefit. (Note: Clancy and Krieg say you may want to give more weight to the first dimension if the product is new and more weight to the second dimension if the product/service is an established one.)
Step #5: Examine the results of step four to identify highly motivating attributes and benefits that your brand enjoys relative to competing brands.
Step #6: Write three to seven different positioning statements and test them with 150 or more target customers to determine which is most powerful in terms of purchase interest, uniqueness, and product/brand superiority. Pick the winning positioning strategy.
Source:Adapted from Kevin J. Clancy and Peter C. Krieg, Counterintuitive marketing:Achieve Great Results Using Uncommon Sense (New York: Free Press, 2000), pp. 121–129.
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Business Forcasting, More Art Than Science
Business forecasting is not a pure science. It is more likely to be a matter of common sense, patience, research, and educated guessing than statistical analysis or higher mathematics.
Consider the weather forecast: it’s one of the best forecasts available anywhere.
Meteorologists study wind patterns, satellite pictures, air pressure, and years of past trends. Each forecast is based on careful analysis of what’s going on, why it’s going on, and why it might lead to something else tomorrow. If a storm is over the ocean and is headed toward the coast, then the probability of rain or sunshine is a professional guess, based on a wealth of knowledge, some good judgment, and common sense. Computers, satellites, and other tools increase the store of knowledge, but they can’t do it all alone.
The same general idea applies to many other good forecasts. Market researchers, stock brokers, and even political analysts base their guesses on huge volumes of carefully analyzed information. They might use computerized econometric or simulation models or
complicated trends analysis. But even the most sophisticated computerized forecasting models do little more than pull equations out of the past and spread them into the future. This is a good way of considering alternatives and a valuable check on the thinking process. But there is still no substitute for consideration of trends and alternatives: the famous “what if” we hear so much about.
There are no magic forecasting methods that always work, let alone a computer program that will forecast by itself. The heart of forecasting is good guessing and the best guess is an educated guess. So use common sense, judgment and as much information as
possible. Look at as many angles as you can and consider past trends, new developments, anticipated cycles, and anything else that gives you a hint of what is to come.
Your Competitive Edge
What is your competitive edge? How is your company different from all others? In what way does it stand out? Is there sustainable value that you can maintain and develop over time?
The most classic of the competitive edges are those based on proprietary technology and protected by patents. A patent, an algorithm, even deeply entrenched know-how, can be a solid
competitive edge. In services, however, the edge can be as simple as having the phone number 1 (800) SOFTWARE, which is an actual case. A successful company was built around that phone
number. Sometimes market share and brand acceptance are just as important. Knowhow does not have to be protected by patent to offer a competitive edge. For example, for years Apple Computer used its proprietary operating system as a competitive edge, while Microsoft used its market share and market dominance to overcome Apple’s earlier advantage. Several manufacturers used proprietary compression to enhance video and photographic software, looking for a competitive edge.
The competitive edge might be different for any given company, even between one company and another in the same industry. You don’t have to have a competitive edge to run a successful
business - hard work, integrity, and customer satisfaction can substitute for it, to name just a few examples - but an edge will certainly give you a head start if you need to bring in new investment. Maybe it’s your customer base, as in the case with Hewlett-Packard’s traditional relationship with engineers and technicians, or it’s image and awareness, such as with Compaq. Maybe your competitive edge is quality control and consistency like that of IBM.
Keys to Success
The idea of keys to success is based on the need for focus. You can't focus efforts on a few priorities unless you limit the number of priorities. In practice, lists of more than three or four priorities are usually less effective. The more the priorities (beyond three or four), the less chance of implementation.
Virtually every marketing plan has different keys to success. These are a few key factors that make the difference between success and failure. This depends on who you are and what services you offer. In a manufacturing business, for example, quality control and manufacturing resources might be keys to success for one strategy, and economy of scale for another. In another example, the keys might include low cost of assembly, or assembly technology in packaging kits. The channels of distribution are often critical to manufacturers. You might also depend on the brand or the franchise.
Think about the keys to success for your marketing plan. This is a good topic for a discussion with your management team. What elements are most important? This discussion will help you focus on priorities and improve your business plan.
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