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December 27, 2005
Which Comes First? The Investment Chicken or the ROI Egg?
The conundrum is this: while a lack of internal resources and knowledge contributes to the low levels of implementation that ROI analysis for brand and marketing investments currently enjoys, the hard data that conscientious ROI measurement over time delivers is exactly what upper level management at most institutions crave.
In our experience, the typical CEO or CFO will not hesitate to put the necessary resources towards a venture that has a proven, compelling return on investment. But resources for measurement must first be allocated to enjoy this result. No, solutions aren’t simple. But you can start small, by promising yourself (and binding your team to an oath) to always consider, and if possible measure, the efficacy and ROI on virtually any marketing or branding spend.
Comments (1) | Posted by MCorp. at 8:26 PM | Permalink
December 23, 2005
Experience Matters
Your brand is an experience, ideally resulting from a successfully planned and delivered combination of messages and interactions across multiple Touchpoints.
To keep these experiences (and brand perceptions) positive and appropriate, companies must consistently touch customers and prospects in ways that build satisfaction, trust and loyalty, at each stage of their Customer Relationship Lifecycle. This systematic process creates expectations that must be regularly met, resulting in customer confidence and an emotional connection--the foundation for all successful brands.
The downside, of course, is when good Touchpoints go bad. How many customers can you lose due to dissatisfaction to a call center employee with an attitude, or an accent they cannot understand? You get it. It’s pretty simple, really. Managing the brand experience across all Touchpoints matters.
Comments (1) | Posted by MCorp. at 8:26 PM | Permalink
December 19, 2005
Changing Your Brand with the Times: Ask Jeeves Takes a Page From The Donald and Tells Butler, “You're Fired!"
The genteel and chubby butler that has been the face, image and brand of search engine giant Ask Jeeves, has been ousted.
Why? Company research indicated that users associated the butler with earlier versions of the Ask Jeeves search engine technology, which was strictly designed to field inquiries in the form of direct questions. As the company moves to upgrade its search engine and become more competitive with Google and Yahoo!, turns out there's little room for reflection on the past.
“This research shows that continued use of the character as the prominent symbol of the brand may inhibit people from recognizing that our search engine has changed,” the company said in a statement. Again, proof that an understanding of your customers - and their perceptions - is critical to positioning and brand. And just as importantly, a shining example of the organizational "will" required to act on that information.
Thank you to Christine Hollinden, Owner and Principal of Hollinden Marketing for co-authoring this entry. You can contact Christine at christine@hollinden.com
Comments (0) | Posted by MCorp. at 8:22 PM | Permalink
December 5, 2005
It’s Time to Move Brand Measurement Up the Priority List
The importance placed on measuring an organization’s ROI on branding (and customer perceptions and attitudes towards it) appears to be far less than that placed on ROI for marketing or customer satisfaction initiatives.
While brand value, and the ROI on investments in it is indeed very difficult to measure, organizations must understand their brand and the value associated with it to be successful in today ’s ultra competitive environment. This is of particular importance in commoditized industries such as banking and financial services: your brand, and your customer’s relationship with it, is all you’ve got.
The fact that it isn’t easy to quantify and measure shouldn’t relegate it to the bottom of the priority list. Instead, marketers should eagerly grab the opportunity to acquire statistics on their brand, which can put them well ahead of their competition when it comes to identifying market opportunities, and positioning their organizations to take advantage of them.
Comments (2) | Posted by MCorp. at 8:21 PM | Permalink
December 1, 2005
Growing Customers the Old-Fashioned Way: Acquiring and Keeping Them.
Combined with the hectic M&A pace of the last decade, Executives have focused on cost-cutting, improving and streamlining operations, governance, and technology. As a result, they’ve cut most of the fat, some of the meat, and a few chunks of bone from their operations. But the desire to grow top-and bottom line growth continues unabated.
In brief, organic growth is regaining favor. That’s why many organizations are increasing both the intensity and focus of efforts to acquire customers the old fashioned way, by luring them from the competition as well attracting new entrants to new products and services. Companies are starting to focus more attention on acquiring and keeping the customers who will make this possible.
Marketers must become ever more adept at navigating the challenges of a changing media landscape, increasing numbers of customer Touchpoints and ever-more-diverse and demanding customers, and competition that’s smart and focused.
And from where we’re sitting, this is great news for marketers and branding professionals. After all, it’s our job to create the demand that will drive this growth. And the better we’re able to prove the worth of our efforts, the more important we’ll be to the future of those organizations we’re helping to grow. But don’t forget the cynic’s motto, the answer to which drives rewards and recognition throughout the upper levels of any organizations worth its salt: Prove It.
Comments (1) | Posted by MCorp. at 8:17 PM | Permalink
The (New) Brand Frontier
Unsurprisingly, online advertising is growing. And yes, it's growing fast... according to the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, year-on-year growth bounced 33.9% in the third quarter this year. Marketers pour money into the 'net as consumer (and business) power continues to increase, with brand interactions controlled more by the customer, and less by the company. RSS ("Real Simple Syndication") and Social Bookmarking are just two of the new technologies that put users in the drivers seat. As tagging software like Yahoo's My Web 2.0 (beta) joins Furl!, Spurl and Clipmarks, web users literally "tag" just what they want to see or interact with online, and, nothing more. RSS let's us get the content we want pushed to our desktop (and laptop, and phone, and TV...). Forget the sleepless nights brought on by Tivo in marketing departments around the US, and on Madison Avenue - brands simply need to get, and stay, relevant. And just spending money online isn't going to do it. By really understanding what their customer's want and need, and how they want it delivered across ALL Touchpoints, brand marketers can initiate and keep the more-important-than-ever dialogue with their customers alive. Because if it isn't a two-way discussion, marketers can count on getting an earful - of nothing.
Comments (3) | Posted by MCorp. at 9:30 AM | Permalink