Why draw lines between a brand, branding & marketing?

Branding developed without audited
marketing intelligence may be wasted.

It is not uncommon for executives who finally bless a brand review do so as a necessary backlash to years of brand neglect. However, discussing Brand and Branding outside the context of an overall Marketing self-assessment is an exercise in the proverbial tail wagging the dog. If you can start the healing anywhere, start the process with marketing. Here’s why.

Historically, most in the small to medium business category are challenged to effectively manage their brand. With scarce resources, an executive who ignores the foundations of an essential marketing foundation squanders opportunity and a viable long term path to success in favor of short term flash and unnecessary risk. We’ll begin by describing the differences and overlap of Brand, Branding and Marketing, starting with the most visible (the Tail) and work our way through to the most strategically important (the Dog).

The word brand derives from a burning mark, a sign and a certification. In today’s narrowest marketing parlance, a brand is a logo. Virtually all who are exposed to our commercial world are fundamentally aware of the significance of logo as brand. None can argue against the caretaking of an identity, a logo design (or redesign) with attendant usage guidelines as a noble effort.

Lacking brand application guidelines or direction, well intentioned employees will populate their communications with every conceivable possibility for personal expression, causing employer mis-representations and contributing to market confusion. Symptoms of brand neglect include:

• Abundance of logo tweaks and settings - simply because it’s so easy!
• Tag lines that come and go with popular tides.
• Corporate, division or department identities presented inconsistently with a logo creates an amateur impression of the company as a whole, does not instill confidence.
• Sales channels that plop corporate logos willy nilly into jarring displays of affiliation, hinder more than help the desired effect of a stable relationship.

Today, in its broadest sense, a brand has come to signify everything an entity stands for, and thus begins the overlap and confusion with Branding and the over-arching Marketing function.

Branding is the act of promoting a company or product with distinctive design or advertising. The term Branding is a natural extension of activities associated with a corporate brand and requires extended creative attention and management. Why split such hairs? Beyond establishing a Brand, or a corporate mark, Branding also involves art and direction approved at the highest corporate level. Branding brings discipline to: graphic design, photography, illustration, videography, and all forms of content development to unleash a powerful gamut of promotions on a mission to proactively charge markets. The harmonizing of corporate Brand with Branding efforts results in effective market perceptions.

Marketing encompasses and supports all actions required to communicate a corporate value proposition to its target markets. As a science, marketing includes the identification of meaningful markets, their motivations, and response triggers.

A larger issue looms even as we have ironed out the finer distinctions between brand and branding. Consider:

if…

Brand = logo = identity
Branding = Brand x distinctive promotions.

If we were to end our argument here at branding, essentially a multiplier of promotions, our branding activities would be unchecked.

So, we need…

Marketing = Branding ÷ value research

With the addition of Marketing to our series of equations, Branding becomes focused, directed at where and how it will do the most good, and Brand provides the essential market signature. An organization’s unique value proposition supported by an overall look and feel that is managed for consistency becomes that company’s brand

Conclusion:
A brand as an identifying mark needs and deserves TLC. Branding demands more and therefore requires more information gathering to be cost-effective. A company has the best chance of success when its marketing; that is, information gathering and direction for how it is to be precisely communicated; takes the lead in sales operations.

Emil Walcek, President,  EJW Associates Inc.

Notes for the B to B marketer adjusting to new advertising

by Emil Walcek, President, EJW Associates Inc

The good news & the bad news: gone are the days of facing down this buyer.
However, just as advertising is always about stimulating interest, the B to B marketer is challenged to creatively deliver relevancy within the context of a consistent brand strategy. To be effective, marketing messages must be tuned for extended purchasing cycles and a buying chain with an ostensibly ‘just the facts, ma’am’ mindset.

With buyers having instant, stealth access to every vendor’s vitals, B to B advertising must adapt accordingly. First, there are more channels to weigh. Second, you are more likely to have more on your plate because, after all, Internet is synonymous with easy, ubiquitous, cheaper, better and faster. How hard can it be to decide, come up with the right 90 characters in a search ad, or compelling content before producing a tight banner ad?

It wasn’t always this way.
Before we hung everything out online, business buyers had a more tedious task as dramatized in the now-classic McGraw-Hill ad. The buyer represented by the man-in-chair acquired his grumpy moniker sitting through endless sales calls and visits. He was tasked to manually sort fact from marketing fiction with due diligence from diverse resources as best he and/or his staff could. Adding to the exercise he then reported findings and recommendations to many more accountable colleagues just like him up and down the buying chain.

Trade advertising in print was the only media that made sense for reaching B to B decision makers. Advertising had many more square inches to accomplish a much bigger job to soften the B to B sale, addressing timeless concerns from beleaguered decision makers:

I don’t know you.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s record.
I don’t know your company reputation.

Now—what was it you wanted to sell me?

B to B advertisers of old had it tough:

• Narrowing ad campaign choices typically involved less than a handful of vertical market trade magazines for each market.
• Marrying an optimum ad size, frequency, & positioning within the publications of choice with an appropriate marketing budget. Production and proofing was horrendous compared to digital.
• Balancing the right mix of trade advertising, trade press (PR, content articles), direct marketing, trade shows & events.
• Deciding how much to do themselves or entrust to outside vendors.

Old challenges are replaced by new ones.
On the plus side for your customers, B to B buyers today can pretty much learn everything they need to know about a you and your company within minutes. A marketer’s sales staff is unlikely to be in the hot seat opposite a grumpy man in chair. He still wants to know, but he’s at ease getting more information than you can control about you and your company. Worse, you won’t even know who, when, how, or even if you’re being evaluated.

B to B advertisers today must balance the incumbent advantages of better, faster, cheaper against many more more options:

• Online media choices have multiplied an order of magnitude. Print is not dead, but diminished, and its role is still evolving, i.e. especially internationally. Advertising that once had to directly or indirectly address all of the ‘I don’t know’s’ in a print ad is now reduced to a single value proposition in a click ad or banner campaign. Conversions that are a secondary action from an ad are now the measurement standard for ad campaigns. Gone are bingo card responses, with letters and phone calls not far behind.
• Determining an appropriate marketing budget is still a challenge, especially when weighing interactive, video, social, mobile and target market media choices. Rat holes abound.
• PR for awareness and articles for educating are now part of an overarching Content strategy.
• Direct marketing includes eMail, trade news, house lists and 3rd party distribution options with more stringent privacy and security issues.
• Unchanged: deciding how much to do themselves or entrust to outside vendors.

Like in yesteryear, tools alone do not make for effective campaigns. Outside B to B pros bring a focus and efficiency from implementing effective marketing tactics on a daily basis. Conversion metrics demand creative dramatization and integration like never before. The wrong 25 character headline and no custom landing page to close the sale can flush click dollars and ROI.

A meaningful value proposition and a campaign integrated with your other media properties is essential to avoid waste and maximize conversions. Sorting through the most cost-efficient media channels and developing the most appropriate creative for requires dedicated resources marketers must properly staff, or bring in a partner to accommodate.

What you need to know beforehand: Websites, SEO & Search Marketing

Confused about the functional roles of website design & development, website maintenance, SEO & search marketing in general? You're not alone. Yet, few budgetary line items have more impact on marketing ROI. For visitors & prospects a website is the company and visa versa: a company is the sum of its Internet marketing. Online exposure in all forms is what defines a B to B company for its customers, prospects, and other business contacts.

So let's manage expectations for both developers and site owners with a review of basic industry questions and definitions. It's a good, self fulfilling prophecy that when all stakeholder start on the same page we've taken the first step toward making practical & cost-effective Internet marketing production and maintenance choices.

What's included in website design? - Website Design encompasses the overall look and feel of a website, from the home page to inside screens. Design is fun, but because all websites are interactive to some degree, web design must also include the site visiter's interface with all aspects of the site, including structure.

So, website design, and user interface design in particular, requires a unique combination of graphic arts creativity, left brain logic, and a grounding in current technologies. Impossible in a single talent? Because devices, technology and standards continue to advance at light speed, interdisciplinary teams are more the norm than an exception.

A website design specification that outlines project scope with clearly defined deliverables will help manage expectations for a new or upgraded website.  Note: even in the design phase, development functionality (discussed below) may be addressed in general sense.

What's included in website development? - Another name for Website Development could be website production because it includes whatever it takes to make the approved website design a functional reality. This phase requires an intense focus on how everything in a website is to work and the information that will be conveyed to site visitors in every screen. This may include:

• Setting up or migrating Domain Name & hosting account
• Creating or purchasing illustrations, graphics, professional photography
• Creating or adapting written content
• Creating animations, videos & other multi-media
• Building an Administrator Dashboard
• Template setup/coding to design specifications
• Populating new site with content
• Functionality scripting, coding
• Integration with CRM & other databases
• Integration with eCommerce financial systems
• Beta website functional review, debug, revisions
• Final website roll-out

Website maintenance - Even a "brochure-ware" website is not a set it and forget it proposition. Not only do freshened websites garner more Search Engine ranking points, but an updated website is a marketing asset. Creating and refreshing content is a big deal.

SEO (search engine optimizing) is the process of optimizing a website so that it may rise to a top result in a Google, Yahoo, Bing search. When querying a search engine both natural (organic) and paid advertising listings are displayed in select areas within 100's or 1,000's of result pages. Search engines have special algorithms to ensure the most meaningful listings for a given search string are given top priority. This applies to both natural and paid listings

Optimizing a website to enhance a website's status in a natural search result is the sole focus of SEO, and requires yet another area of expertise. SEO has evolved from a combination of tricks and value-add practices to solely value-add content and link practices to warrant a priority rank. Today, search engine optimizing a website requires an initial setup with ongoing SEO only required to the extent keyword focus may change.

Search Marketing (or Internet Marketing) is an all-encompassing discipline that includes whatever it takes to promote a website in the context of a marketing search. Traditionally, Search Marketing was more narrowly focused Adword or "click" advertising and SEO efforts. But today, a marketer may use a wide variety of inbound or outbound strategic tools to enhance website and company exposure:

• Websites
• Landing Pages
• SEO
• Adword or "click" advertising
• Banner advertising
• Direct Mailing or ePromotions
• PR & Content Marketing
• Analytical Tools

Each of these tools may be employed individually or in some combination in an integrated marketing effort. 

For more information on agency services for website development & hosting call me at 770-664-9322, or visit http://www.ejwassoc.com/what-we-do/web-design-development/

Advertising agency, Inhouse, or freelance contractor?

The heart of this question posed by Brian Regienczuk in Linkledin, speaks to tools, ability, and management when it comes to jobbing out creative services. We are perhaps not too different from our advertising agency clients when it comes to resource allocation. As a small business we know what it means to be agile in augmenting our internal resources with reliable contract help.

However, big difference: our clients are typically not immersed in the advertising industry - with expertise to properly select, manage, and take full responsibility for a complete marketing project of which creative is but a single component. Art, design, illustration, videography and copy writing is highly subjective. Unless a company has a really well-rounded art director on staff, this is probably outside most managers' scope of work - regardless of who they know that does any one discipline either on staff or works outside as a freelancer.

Our agency lives in the B to B world where many smaller accounts understandably feel like they have to do everything themselves. But how much more marketing value could a client receive if a well rounded, empathetic, B to B advertising agency were brought into the picture?

I would say to companies who are actually at the point of realizing they need creative help: make an effort to find an advertising agency, and be prepared to form a real partnership. Raise your sights to find a group with whom you feel comfortable sharing challenges, not just an order taker.

Who knows? In the best possible outcome the company gains a fresh resource to serve as their de facto marketing department. Save overhead while getting (on demand!) new market communications ideas professionally-created and designed to boost sales. Visit http://www.ejwassoc.com/what-we-do/creative/

Manage your next corporate capability publication

Few would dispute the keystone significance of a corporate capability brochure, even as the Internet has (for some businesses) superseded an actual print rendition. Building a website has similar issues. Those who have been through the process know what a minefield the development process can be for any major communications work. Here I share my notes for taking on and managing such projects.

Identify your audiences.
Keep in mind ALL of your companyʼs potential publics, including: prospects, customers, vendors, bankers, employees and investors.

Note the development & production process
•— Concept development
•— Concept refinement with mockups, user interface design
•— Creative development - Research, Writing, Imaging
•— Prototype design and graphics with content text and images
•— Hosted Staging, testing. For brochure: Print ready artwork and print specifications
•— Live rollout. For brochure: Print production and distribution

Plan
A good plan well executed will fulfill its mission, net greater returns, have a longer life than an ill-conceived or poorly executed work.

Involve stakeholders from the outset
Nobody likes surprises, from the executive suite to the boots on the ground. Establish a representative team for the mission. Consider involving important partners, too. With skin in the game the hierarchy ensures that buy in is complete.

Research. Discuss. Listen.
It’s not just a marketing exercise. Collect many points of view from a broad variety of sources. C-level execs, managers, product engineers, department managers, sales and application engineers, HR. Begin with a free-form wish list from each stakeholder. Work this into a more detailed outline:
•— Introduction, company background
•— Capabilities & scope of operations
•— Industries and markets
•— Systems and products
•— How we work, sales & service support
•— Contact information, partner imprint.

However, avoid design by committee
Excessive delays in collecting input, proof approvals, etc., are the bane of any major project. Anyone missing a deadline forfeits bragging/bitching rights later. Not everyone’s opinion can or should be accommodated. Establish which experts will have final say for what project component.

What are others doing?
Review competitors, partners, suppliers samples to set the bar.
Develop a project timeline and stick to it.

Brochure Series completed in 19 days for show

Enlarge

Print thrives, but client expectations for production and delivery now verge on real time. After all, "it's digital, isn't it?" With a looming trade show deadline we committed to our client to deliver not one, but a series of product/corporate brochures in less than 19 days. Answering your question at the outset: Print, who needs it? Fewer folks than before but, then again, who needs trade shows, either? And yet, decision makers continue to rely on both.

In today's everyday world squeaky wheels of marketing tend to languish. Projects to effect performance 30, 60 and 90 days out is considered long term by many, particularly in small to mid size B to B businesses. Marketing plays a back seat to a daily grind of product management and sales.

That is, until a major event threatens to spotlight a company's market commitment. Then, the specter of inadequacy looms large to focus attention on marketing basics, such as: show booth graphics, Powerpoint & video presentations, visitor handouts, brochures. Pre-, during -, and post-show advertising, direct mail and promotions.

Another plus for trade shows. WIthout them how many marketing projects would languish in the lands of Hurry-Up-And Wait. This brochure project, originally approved without a particular timeline weeks before, now leaped to life with company stakeholders on red alert. Design concepts and rough content now moved forward with all due speed to meet impossible milestones. Failure is not an option when 10's of thousands of dollars in company resources are at stake, not to mention image and reputation.

In this industry show of mechanical systems, an all-out, full court analog experience was deemed essential. Brochures arrived on time and had the desired effect on the industry represented there and then and beyond.

In fast-tracking any new creative development, two factors rise in importance to ensure success to avoid crashing and burning: client focus and a solid agency vendor resource.

Call in a trusted partner. In this story, EJW had been working with our client for years. Every project with essential building materials is double archived. On the same wavelength we push the right buttons, ask the right questions, know what works in tight situations. To keep projects moving we become the shepherd herding the proverbial cats when milestones need attention.

Form a project team that includes agency & company personnel. To keep projects moving, fully prep members for expected participation. Assign point persons to manage all of the content likely to be required in any marketing project, such as: special image files, 3D renderings, content sources, vertical market expertise, product and application knowledge.

To Social, or not to Social, that is the question for B to B marketers

A B-to-B company looks back on one of its customers and the history of its last profitable sale. The purpose? Uncover telephone calls, sales visits, dinners, handshakes at trade shows that may have had an impact. An investigator also documents responses to direct marketing, ads, press release programs, and website interactions. A company may even have a social program that has yielded reactions.

What role did each "engagement" play? Which had more sales impact? Most importantly, and the reason we study marketing response, how should we separate marketing activities that are nice-to-haves versus those we need-to-have for next year's budget?

The real questions wrestled by business marketers when building budgets can be boiled down to priority.

It has been said in B-to-B land that Social media is social, more for customer service and not to be judged for lead generating. In that sense it takes on a more foundational role in marketing.

The fact is, for better or worse, Social opens up one more channel from which to support customers.

Instead of asking how to meaningfully count B2B Social interactions or impressions, a company would be advised to carefully study its customer base to determine its current perceptions and likely use of Social before rolling out another communications channel.