Consumers lost trust in brands this year as the recession deepened, according to an industry report, although longtime staples Coca-Cola and IBM retained their spots as the world’s two most valuable brands.
Emily Fredrix, AP Marketing writer, says that this is the first time the combined value of the world’s top 100 brands as ranked by Interbrand, a branding agency, has fallen in the 10 years Interbrand has assessed them. The list’s total value, including brands like Google Inc., Nintendo and Sony, fell 4.6 percent to $1.15 trillion, Interbrand estimates.
“That says something about the environment that we’re in, especially when you consider that brands are by nature less volatile than business valuations,” said Interbrand CEO Jez Frampton, who called a company’s brand its most valuable asset.
The environment — a recession the likes of which the world hasn’t seen for decades — has eaten away at people’s trust in specific brands, starting with financial companies, he said. Consumers even started to question retail brands as stores slashed prices to get sales, leading consumers to wonder about pricing, and why they had to pay so much before.
“All of these things lead you to re-evaluate the nature of the relationships that we have with brands and indeed how confident we feel in brands to live up to the promises they make,” he said. “Brands are promises which we value and are prepared to pay for and if we feel those promises have been broken we’re less likely to trust.”
Brands are more than just names, colors or logos — think Coca-Cola’s red or McDonald’s golden arches. A brand includes all the elements of a product or service from its design, ingredients and manufacture to its marketing, advertising and logo. A well-honed brand evokes in consumers an emotion and a promise of what it will deliver, without the consumer having to do much — if any — research, said Allen Adamson, managing director at branding firm Landor Associates. Brands are important for all businesses, and critical in categories that have direct consumer contact, like autos, he said.
“In a cluttered world where people are time-compressed, brands are short cuts to help them make decisions,” he said.
Each year, Interbrand ranks companies by the amount of their revenue that is attributable to their brands, using a formula that takes into account the brand’s future strength and its role in creating demand, whether among consumers or business customers or both.
The firm assigns a monetary value to each brand and measures annual growth, in this case from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009.
Given the recession, it was not surprising to see financial companies posting the steepest decline in their brands’ values this year, with drops by American Express (now number 22, down from 15) HSBC (now 32, down from 27), Citi (now 36, down from 19), and UBS (now 72, down from 41). Merrill Lynch and AIG both dropped off the list.
Automakers also dropped in the rankings as their sector’s sales slumped in the recession. In addition, major U.S. automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC received government aid to stay afloat, which generated negative feelings among consumers. Neither of those brands made the top 100 Interbrand list.
Even Toyota’s brand — top-ranked among auto companies at number eight, down from 6 in 2008 — suffered, while BMW went from 13 to 15, and Ford was unchanged at 49. Honda edged up two slots to 18.
Despite the economic uncertainty, the top 10 brands this year stayed relatively stable, with Coca-Cola Co. in the first slot, a place it has held since the rankings started in 2000. The soft-drink maker retains its recognition around the world, Frampton said, and it has been releasing new products as it hopes to woo consumers shifting to healthier juices and teas.
Coca-Cola’s brand value rose 3 percent in 2009 to $68.73 billion, while IBM’s gained 2 percent to $60.21 billion. The technology giant, often known as “Big Blue,” also rolled out new products that increased the value of its brand in 2009, according to the report. The company — which sells computer servers, software and technical services to businesses — received more than 4,000 U.S. patents during the period, marking the 16th straight year it has received the most.
Rolling out new products keeps customers interested and spending, even in a recession, Frampton said. Companies can’t be idle when times are tough, he warned.
“Innovation is the bedrock of any successful company in the future,” he said. “Nobody can stand still nowadays.”
The remaining brands in the top five all lost value but retained their ranks from last year. Microsoft’s brand value fell 4 percent to $56.64 billion to take third, while General Electric’s value fell 10 percent to $47.77 billion for fourth. Nokia lost 3 percent to place fifth at $34.86 billion.
The value of online giant Google’s brand grew the fastest in the world again, rising 25 percent to $31.98 billion to place seventh, up from 10th place last year and 20th the year before. Frampton said the company’s brand growth is “miraculous,” though the report notes that as it gets bigger, “it has to deal with the inevitable mistrust and ugliness ascribed to being a very large, diversified and very profitable company.”
But Deborah Mitchell, executive fellow at the Center for Brand and Product Management at Wisconsin School of Business, thinks Google already has found balance by earning consumers’ trust even as it becomes nearly omnipresent in their lives.
That’s partly due to Google’s value statement — “Do no evil” — which resonates with consumers, especially in a downturn, she said. Mitchell said consumers are increasingly focusing on a company’s values and don’t want to associate with businesses whose values they question.
“There’s been a shift in the focus on values and not just economics to consumers,” she said. “They’re looking more closely at who is selling them what.”
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Branding in a Recession
Consumers lost trust in brands this year as the recession deepened, according to an industry report, although longtime staples Coca-Cola and IBM retained their spots as the world’s two most valuable brands.
Emily Fredrix, AP Marketing writer, says that this is the first time the combined value of the world’s top 100 brands as ranked by Interbrand, a branding agency, has fallen in the 10 years Interbrand has assessed them. The list’s total value, including brands like Google Inc., Nintendo and Sony, fell 4.6 percent to $1.15 trillion, Interbrand estimates.
“That says something about the environment that we’re in, especially when you consider that brands are by nature less volatile than business valuations,” said Interbrand CEO Jez Frampton, who called a company’s brand its most valuable asset.
The environment — a recession the likes of which the world hasn’t seen for decades — has eaten away at people’s trust in specific brands, starting with financial companies, he said. Consumers even started to question retail brands as stores slashed prices to get sales, leading consumers to wonder about pricing, and why they had to pay so much before.
“All of these things lead you to re-evaluate the nature of the relationships that we have with brands and indeed how confident we feel in brands to live up to the promises they make,” he said. “Brands are promises which we value and are prepared to pay for and if we feel those promises have been broken we’re less likely to trust.”
Brands are more than just names, colors or logos — think Coca-Cola’s red or McDonald’s golden arches. A brand includes all the elements of a product or service from its design, ingredients and manufacture to its marketing, advertising and logo. A well-honed brand evokes in consumers an emotion and a promise of what it will deliver, without the consumer having to do much — if any — research, said Allen Adamson, managing director at branding firm Landor Associates. Brands are important for all businesses, and critical in categories that have direct consumer contact, like autos, he said.
“In a cluttered world where people are time-compressed, brands are short cuts to help them make decisions,” he said.
Each year, Interbrand ranks companies by the amount of their revenue that is attributable to their brands, using a formula that takes into account the brand’s future strength and its role in creating demand, whether among consumers or business customers or both.
The firm assigns a monetary value to each brand and measures annual growth, in this case from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009.
Given the recession, it was not surprising to see financial companies posting the steepest decline in their brands’ values this year, with drops by American Express (now number 22, down from 15) HSBC (now 32, down from 27), Citi (now 36, down from 19), and UBS (now 72, down from 41). Merrill Lynch and AIG both dropped off the list.
Automakers also dropped in the rankings as their sector’s sales slumped in the recession. In addition, major U.S. automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC received government aid to stay afloat, which generated negative feelings among consumers. Neither of those brands made the top 100 Interbrand list.
Even Toyota’s brand — top-ranked among auto companies at number eight, down from 6 in 2008 — suffered, while BMW went from 13 to 15, and Ford was unchanged at 49. Honda edged up two slots to 18.
Despite the economic uncertainty, the top 10 brands this year stayed relatively stable, with Coca-Cola Co. in the first slot, a place it has held since the rankings started in 2000. The soft-drink maker retains its recognition around the world, Frampton said, and it has been releasing new products as it hopes to woo consumers shifting to healthier juices and teas.
Coca-Cola’s brand value rose 3 percent in 2009 to $68.73 billion, while IBM’s gained 2 percent to $60.21 billion. The technology giant, often known as “Big Blue,” also rolled out new products that increased the value of its brand in 2009, according to the report. The company — which sells computer servers, software and technical services to businesses — received more than 4,000 U.S. patents during the period, marking the 16th straight year it has received the most.
Rolling out new products keeps customers interested and spending, even in a recession, Frampton said. Companies can’t be idle when times are tough, he warned.
“Innovation is the bedrock of any successful company in the future,” he said. “Nobody can stand still nowadays.”
The remaining brands in the top five all lost value but retained their ranks from last year. Microsoft’s brand value fell 4 percent to $56.64 billion to take third, while General Electric’s value fell 10 percent to $47.77 billion for fourth. Nokia lost 3 percent to place fifth at $34.86 billion.
The value of online giant Google’s brand grew the fastest in the world again, rising 25 percent to $31.98 billion to place seventh, up from 10th place last year and 20th the year before. Frampton said the company’s brand growth is “miraculous,” though the report notes that as it gets bigger, “it has to deal with the inevitable mistrust and ugliness ascribed to being a very large, diversified and very profitable company.”
But Deborah Mitchell, executive fellow at the Center for Brand and Product Management at Wisconsin School of Business, thinks Google already has found balance by earning consumers’ trust even as it becomes nearly omnipresent in their lives.
That’s partly due to Google’s value statement — “Do no evil” — which resonates with consumers, especially in a downturn, she said. Mitchell said consumers are increasingly focusing on a company’s values and don’t want to associate with businesses whose values they question.
“There’s been a shift in the focus on values and not just economics to consumers,” she said. “They’re looking more closely at who is selling them what.”
Monday, September 21, 2009
The 5 Selling Magic Secrets of Billy Mays
Barry A. Densa, freelance copywriter, says the late Billy Mays was a pot-bellied, black-bearded Atlantic City carnival barker in a blue long-sleeve shirt and a white undershirt.
He had a loud, shrill and annoyingly exuberant voice. And he seemed to lean forward, through the TV screen, and put his nose in your face, the way only pitchmen do.
Madison Avenue style brand marketers who believe asking for an order even once, unless it's in small grey type, is undignified, contemptible and just plain bad manners, absolutely loathed him. Direct marketers idolized him.
Consumers, well, they either loved or hated him... or were totally unaware of him (presumably Tivo owners).
Bottom line: Billy sold the hell out of stuff. And he didn't have to reinvent the wheel to do it.
Billy bellied-up to bar with the TV viewer and spoke straight and to the point: you got a problem, I've got the solution, I can guarantee it or your money back, buy it now and I'll make you an even better deal.
Inelegant to the max. But he sold and made millions. Not through artifice; there was no false imagery, cheating or stealing, just great showmanship and... Great Salesmanship. But great salesmanship, contrary to popular opinion, is not about selling ice to Eskimos. The truth is less flamboyant, and far more reasonable.
Simply put, behind every great salesman is a great product. And Billy Mays understood that better than most. Because if it's a great product—it was easy for Billy to sell, using salesmanship techniques he had honed over two decades of selling.
Who better than Billy Mays could grab your attention (Hi, Billy Mays here for...)... get you excited (So fast and easy...)... make you want to buy it (No more dings, dents or scratches—and it'll save you money, too...)... and get you to buy it (But wait, order now and I'll...)
So how do you know if the product you're currently selling or developing is great and easy to sell?
According to Billy Mays...
To be Great and an Easy Sell Your Product Must Have These 5 Essential Character Traits
1. It must solve a problem.
If it doesn't fix, mend or alleviate a nagging pain, problem, condition or situation—why would people want it, much less buy it? There must be a strong, recognizable and somewhat measurable or appreciable benefit to owning and using your product.
2. It must have mass appeal.
You may have invented the best mousetrap ever, but if only one in ten million homes has a mouse problem... you're not going to sell a heck of a lot of mouse traps. Sure, you can sell just a few at a ridiculously high price-point? But a mouse-trap priced at $50,000... how easy of a sale will that be?
3. It must be unique.
If it's the first or only one of its kind—that's a homerun! If it's not, then it should at least be different and beneficial in a way that isn't currently offered. A rose by any other name is still a rose—but a rose that never loses its petals, now that would be unique.
4. It must offer instant gratification.
If it'll only be of use next spring, why buy it today? People don't want to buy seeds. They want the fully grown tree, planted and providing shade now. We're an impatient nation of consumers. We don't want the fishing pole—we want the fish fresh, filleted, seasoned and served.
5. It must be demonstrable.
It's a law of nature: seeing is believing. The customer must see with their own eyes how easily, quickly and effectively your product does what it does. Though people will often say they can't trust their eyes—they always do.
"But wait, there's more..."
You Don’t Need TV Air-Time to be a Successful Marketer
A demonstration doesn't have be live or on TV to be effective. If you're selling off the page, diagrams, schematics, and before and after pictures will also do the trick.
And if you're not limited to a 30-second or 1-minute TV spot... you might have a distinct advantage!
When you're selling off the page, you can pile on the benefits—as many as you can think of. And, you can highlight features and advantages in bullet-point after bullet-point.
You can show why your product or service is superior to your competitors by creating tables.
You can provide testimonials, endorsements... and your own impressive credentials.
And as long as you know how to keep the reader reading you can methodically, step-by-step, convince and persuade the reader to buy from you in a voice and style that's compelling, empowering, believable and completely your own.
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