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June 29, 2007
Branding Your Brand Equity
OK, let’s face facts. Managing your brand is paramount to any business. Right?
After all, it's the best way to boost its perceived value to your customers so you can drive brand equity, boost business growth, and increase profitability.
It was launched by the brand geniuses at Procter & Gamble in the early 1930s. But in today’s über-competitive marketplace with an increasing number of media channels ––digital, print, broadcast and mobile –– brand management is more critical than ever to product and corporate success as organizations attempt to communicate promises, build preference, and create other barriers to competition.
But brand management isn’t just about enabling multiple brands from a single company to compete in the same product category. You know that. I know that. Heck, even my kids know that with the Apple iPods or the Abercrombie & Fitch clothes they buy with their weekly allowances.
But building brand equity is even more imperative to organizations with just one single brand that must overcome the odds and out-market their competitors to create stronger bonds with their customers. This fact is key to the relationships between your divisions or product groups who are constantly cross-selling, up-selling, and trying to corral as many customers as possible within a branded family.
So whether your organization is large or small, multinational or regional, statewide or local, each article in Brand Perspectives can provide insights, guidance and counsel as you contemplate the various ways to manage ¬¬¬–– and grow –– your brand.
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June 13, 2007
Listen. Your Customers Are Speaking.
(After a hiatus, we’re proud to say that Brand Perspectives is back and will again be publishing regularly.)
You may know it. I certainly know it. But many brand experts don’t know that customers can provide you with a myriad of intriguing insights into building your brand –– and boosting your business. You just have to offer them an open channel of communications.
After all, once you’re privy to what your customers are thinking through ongoing customer research, you can truly enhance their relationship with your brand.
• Example #1: For 50 years, Japanese car makers have catered to their growing customer base who love driving peppy, fun, fuel efficient vehicles. So savvy brand marketers like Toyota, Honda and Nissan have carved out an increasingly larger share of the global vehicle market by constantly researching what their loyal customers want.
• Example #2: These non-traditional companies kept listening to what their customers wanted, not what their Board of Directors demanded. In early May, Toyota passed General Motors as the world’s largest auto seller. That’s quite a coup considering Toyota only makes one brand, while GM produces 11!
• Example #3: The merger of Daimler-Chrysler has slammed into the guardrail and is careening off the cliff. Further proof that a poorly run US car company can’t be saved, even by a flashy European import.
These three case studies are perfect examples of being able to measure relevant customer metrics over the long-term to gain accurate, actionable results. Brand research helps you understand more about your prospects, your customers, your shareholders, and others, so you can step up your sales pitch to the loyal ones and stop wasting your money on those who aren’t as faithful.
With the right tools and the proper step-by-step guides to improve your research practices, you can more easily capture, codify and interpret information to move your marketing strategy forward.
So whether you need to present perceptual brand attributes to a data-oriented board, to make a case to extend a product line, or to justify some long-delayed pricing updates, brand research can serve as the foundation to build your case, get better mileage out of your marketing budget, and enjoy more sales.
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