This blog is about developing a powerful brand thought but first some background.
Background - What is web marketing ROI?
It is natural for companies to want to get more sales and reduce their marketing costs, especially when times are tough. Is it possible to achieve both objectives? From my experience, it is. But, just doing 'advertising' & 'marketing' activities is no guarantee of success. Some companies waste thousands (and even millions) of pounds being busy fools. Others get great results for relatively low spends. Marketing ROI (Return On Investment) is all about getting more for less.
This is the first of a series of web marketing tips designed to improve Web Marketing Return On Investment (ROI). The tips are based on over 20 years experience of helping small companies as well as some of Britain's best brands to transform their Marketing ROI
The tips will cover areas like Pay Per Click advertising, email marketing, web metrics, customer lifetime value and KeyWords. This blog covers why it is so crucial to develop a compelling & distinctive brand thought.
What is a brand thought?
For me, a brand thought is a powerful message (a word or a few words) that you want to 'own' in your target consumers mind. It is not about developing a 5 page mission statement. It has to be short (ideally 3 to 5 words) to have any chance of success. Brand thought examples include Disney (Making people happy) & Apple (Think Different).
How can a great brand thought cost effectively deliver more sales?
If you don't have a powerful brand thought, how do you expect people to notice you & buy your product. There is a significantly higher chance of target prospects / customers noticing, understanding & believing a powerful brand thought which should increase their propensity to buy (& buy again). They don't care as much about your brand as you do & they are too busy to invest more than a few seconds in making a decision about whether they should buy from you or your many competitors.
It unites all company employees behind a common purpose of how they deliver value to their customers and makes it easier for every customer contact (face to face, telephone, email, leaflet, ad or web etc ) to be consistent and 'on brand'. To do this, all employees (not just 1 or 2 marketers) need to understand the brand thought, its importance and their role in delivering it.
It is crucial that every time a customer or prospect 'touches' your company that you effectively communicate your brand thought.
What are the key ingredients of a great brand thought?
Your target audience (n.b. not everyone) needs to find your brand thought:-
- clear
- concise
- credible
- consistent
- distinctive
- compelling
How do you develop a great brand thought?
You need to commit time and some budget (but not a lot) to go through a brand though development process. It's worth it because ultimately a great brand thought will always deliver a higher marketing ROI. Most companies lack the expertise to do this themselves. Even Britain's best brands buy in brand expertise. The techniques that I have used at Asda, Egg, RAC, work for companies big or small and I have run Brand Thought workshops for smaller companies (without internal marketing expertise) and seen great results.
So before spending a penny on advertising and marketing activities ask yourself this question. Do we have a powerful brand thought?
Take a look at some of my other brand thought related blogs:-
Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.
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