Break Through Branding Clutter
July 7, 2008
Does your brand stand out in the crowded marketplace? Does your brand message stand out from the myriad of messages that clutter consumers’ minds each day? In order to ensure your brand is noticed and remembered amidst the clutter, you have to be certain that it stands for something specific. In other words, it needs to offer a unique value proposition.
Truth be told, I dislike the buzz phrase “unique value proposition” because I think it’s overused. However, I’m using it here since it actually does apply. What makes your brand unique and what makes it distinctly different from other brands available to consumers? What makes your message more important than all the other messages customers hear? Read more
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Mozilla Firefox Sets Guinness World Record
July 4, 2008
On June 2nd, I published a post called Mozilla’s Firefox as a Relationship Brand where I discussed how Firefox has become a perfect example of a brand whose success relies heavily on its relationship with loyal customers. I also mentioned that Mozilla was leveraging that relationship with its customers with Firefox 3 Download Day where the company asked customers to help set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads of a software program within 24 hours. The official results are in and a new world record was, in fact, set.
Can you guess how many downloads of Firefox 3 occured between 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008? Read more
Can Your Brand Be Replaced?
July 3, 2008
Last week, I asked Does Your Brand Matter? where I talked about the tombstone test and asked you to analyze your brand and determine whether anyone would care if your brand disappeared tomorrow. Today, I have another extension of that test with this question:
If you replaced your logo on your advertising, marketing materials, website, etc. with your competitor’s logo, would the message still apply for that other company?
This test is meant to show you whether your messages (particularly your brand messages) are too generic. If another company’s logo could sit on your ad and the message would still work perfectly, then your brand message is not unique enough.
An important part of branding is differentiating your business or product from the myriad of others available on the marketplace and to make your brand stand out from the crowd. If your message would work just as well with another company’s name and logo attached to it, then you need to go back to the drawing board.
Talk to your best customers and find out what it is about your brand that makes them choose it over all others. That’s the message you want to communicate, and that’s the message that will differentiate your brand.
Measuring Word-of-Mouth Marketing
July 1, 2008
There is an online debate in the marketing world related to measuring word-of-mouth marketing. The online and offline buzz surrounding a brand or product has been nearly impossible to measure accurately, but the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is trying to do just that by developing a standard metric system to accurately measure the success of all word-of-mouth initiatives.
Some marketers and brand managers argue against creating this type of metric saying that true word-of-mouth is earned by spending time, money and effort in building a relationship with customers. I have to concur with that theory, but at the same time, with the explosion of viral marketing and social media marketing, both of which lend themselves perfectly to word-of-mouth marketing and generating an online buzz, there certainly is an abundance of new opportunities to connect with people through the social web. Read more
7 Steps of Advertising Success Drive Word-of-Mouth Marketing
June 27, 2008
I’ve been talking over the past week about emotional involvement in brands and how that type of connection to a brand can lead to deep customer loyalty. What comes from customer loyalty aside from repeat purchases? Typically, loyal customers are also very vocal about the brands they love and generate a great deal of free word-of-mouth advertising for those brands. 
Earlier this week I wrote about the 3 S’s of Customer Loyalty and how to create an emotional involvement to your brand by focusing on those 3 S’s. Today, I’d like to share my 7 Steps of Advertising Success to show you how your advertising efforts can lead prospective and existing customers down the path to loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing. In other words, with each tactic executed as part of your overall branding and marketing plans, you’re moving people through the 7 Steps of Advertising Success as follows: Read more