Branding Your Product

In the early 20th century, companies like Ford and General Motors relied on sales people to create demand for their products and services. But in the 1950s and 1960s, companies like Procter and Gamble invented marketing, which used mass communications to differentiate products and services. A key component of any marketing program was the brand. A brand was loosely defined as the “position” a product or service held in the consumer’s mind. But over the past several years, that definition has died. It has been replaced by the concept that a brand is not what people think about your product or service, but how people experience your product or service. For example, Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee. They sell the entire coffee experience, starting with the first subconscious inkling that it might be time for a cup of coffee and continuing through the entire purchase and post-purchase process. It doesn’t matter what you have to say, to sell or to give away, it’s about what customers want and how they Feel about you. You can’t compete anymore on product innovation, geographical advantage, protective regulation, patenting, etc. Many of these previous bases for competition—such as geographical advantage or protective regulation—have been eroded by globalization; proprietary technologies are rapidly copied, and breakthrough innovations in products or services are increasingly difficult to achieve. Many companies today offer similar products and use similar technology. Only your emotional connection to people, will differentiate your company and its product, lubricate your marketing channel, ignite the conversation engine in social media, and call to your door ready-to-try-or-buy prospects. Customer experience is about orchestrating memorable experiences for the customer; and it’s the memory of these unique experiences that becomes the product or service you are selling. In the experience economy, Customer is the product. Of critical importance is the takeaway feeling your customer has about you or your product. The memory of this feeling creates you and your business at the same time it creates the Customer. Remember, in the experience economy, people are not buying a product…they are buying an experience, an experience they won’t forget. Once you get in the mind of your customer, your loyalty program goes on autopilot.

Understanding the Power of Social Media

From a blog: Late Tuesday evening, around 10:00 pm, I received a call on my business line from a local area code (my phone was forwarded to my cell phone as I was out of the office for meetings). The person was not already in my address book so all I got on my caller ID was the phone number. To answer or not to answer … that is the question. I always answer my phone if I am available. The gentleman on the other end is interested in franchising, actually, interested in starting a franchise concept from ground zero. It’s a great idea, I think, and he has a lot of the work started. After a brief conversation my question was, “How did you find me?” “Well,” he says. “First, I searched the word ‘franchise,’ found FranchiseWorks.com and I saw your profile. Then I decided to search your name, Jack Someone, in Google. From there, I found your blog and also your website. Your phone number is on your website.” Let’s suppose Jack is not a person but a product, and the caller is a customer. This puts into perspective the efficiency of social media as a marketing, advertising and PR tool. With social media you can target a specific segment of the audience. Let’s say your product is a mug with business messages written on them. So you want to look for 30 to 65 year-old, males/females, hot beverage drinkers, CEO/Manager/Purchaser of businesses who may be interested in your product. You go to blogs written by and read by your target audience and fine-tune the message to their interests and lifestyles and…voila! You save time, money and effort by targeting your product to the right audience.

Smart Phones as Marketing Tools

Underwriters Laboratory's ubiquitous but somewhat invisible UL mark is attached to most consumer devices, since it is the industry standard for safety-checking electronics equipment. For a campaign designed to raise consumer awareness of the UL mark and its home safety message for mothers, a cross-platform campaign that used mobile technology as a key element in making the logo visible again was created. The campaign involved the "Just Look for UL Sweepstakes" which ran in print magazine spreads and business response cards, online banner ads, and an outreach to online influencers. People could enter the contest by snapping a phone cam image of a UL logo attached to any nearby electronics device. They could send the image via email or short code and enter the photos into a daily drawing for a digital camera and a grand prize of $10,000. The response messages went via email, which helped engage the users on the Web or encouraged smart phone users to click through on the mobile device. The sweepstakes entry was available online as well, and in the end about 11% of the 85,400 unique entries came from phone cam submissions. The most interesting aspect of the campaign from a mobile perspective is how it leveraged an existing phone habit -- taking photos opportunistically with a cam -- and directed it to create a new habit: looking for the UL assurance label. The campaign engaged the device and user on the simplest level: how people tend to use their phones in the wild, and how that behavior dove-tails with the presence of the brand in their lives. There is a cool seamlessness to this campaign across its goals, messaging and use of device. It clearly used mobile to make a point about the invisible ubiquity of the brand that no other medium could have made in quite the same way.