Posted by Rahna on July 29, 2010 under Branding, Personal Branding, Strategy | 
How does your personal brand interact with the company brand?
There is a direct connection between someone’s personal brand and the company brand, and this is an important factor for you to consider in the development of your personal brand. The interplay between the two is real and tangible, and the impact is reciprocal. By that I mean that the company brand impacts you, and your personal brand impacts the company.
This has definitely been true in my own career. When I would mention that I worked for LEGO, people’s eyes would light up and they would tell me about the latest creation their children had made or share a fond memory from their own childhood experiences. People have an expectation about LEGO that carries over to the people that work there. If I worked for LEGO, I must be creative and fun, as these are qualities embodied in the company brand. In this way, the company brand “rubbed off” on me.
The same is true going the other way; your personal brand will “rub off” onto the company brand. Think about it for a minute. When the FedEx guy shows up at the office to pick-up and drop off packages, he is communicating something about the company’s image. At that time, he IS FedEx. If he is cheerful and efficient, then you will think that FedEx is a great company—efficient in its service and pleasant to work with. If he is grumpy, complaining and unorganized, this will negatively impact your perception of the company.
As you explore and expand your own brand, you will need to understand the impact of the other brands that surround you, most notably the company brand. A good brand manager will look to associate their brand with other strong brands that share the same values, the same target audience, and compatible brand images. You will want to do the same.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What is your company’s brand?
- How do they present themselves to the marketplace?
- If the company were a person, what type of person would they be?
- Is that a person you would want to hang out with?
- Do other people respect this company?
- What does your association with this company say about you?
If you are a leader in a company, you will want to consider this concept from the other perspective. What do your employees convey about you? How can you impact this in a positive way? One way is to bring the concept of personal branding to everyone’s attention. This has multiple effects. First, it will heighten awareness of the employee’s impact so that they are more mindful of how they behave with others. Secondly, it acts as a catalyst for change if needed. Some employees may be unaware of how they have been potentially negatively impacting the business with their behaviors. Third, it empowers employees, who begin to see that they and their actions can make a difference and contribute to a greater whole.
Posted by Rahna on July 1, 2010 under Consumer Engagement, New Product Development, Strategy |
As part of a new product development project I worked on recently, we looked at current and upcoming trends to spur our imaginations and see what new product ideas could be generated with those trends in mind. In your new product development, make sure you include some trend work in your ideation session, as the combination of a few random trends could make for some really inspired new product ideas!
To spark your thinking, I am including a few trends–from American Tea Parties to American Idol, from the appeal of the latest technological toys to a yearning for simplicity–that may have implications for your industry:
Recessionary Reset
How has the shift in American spending impacted your industry? What will healthcare reform mean for you (personally and professionally)? What do you see ahead? As the media argues over a double-dip recession versus a slow return to prosperity, marketers must evaluate the permanent mindset change that has impacted consumers over the past two years—the loss of jobs that is forcing greater entrepreneurialism, exploding direct selling industries, and causing the belt-tightening that has led to a struggle for middle tier brands to prove their value amidst the resurgence of private label brands, the staycation phenomenon, the rise of DIY décor, and the inconspicuous consumption of those who still have jobs and money now tiptoeing out to spend money without anyone noticing, not bringing in their designer shopping bags from the car until after dark.
Empowered Narcissism
The rise of the social media allows everyone to shine a spotlight on everyone’s favorite topic…themselves. Now that people can tweet about what they had for lunch today and blog about their opinions on the latest celebrity scandal, it means that everyone’s an expert and everyone is media (see blog post from April for more on this topic). Crowd-sourcing on-line has empowered everyone, given each person an opportunity to contribute a potential SuperBowl ad idea, speak up and let their voices be heard, from American Tea Parties to giving their rating on the latest novel at Amazon, voting on who should win American Idol, America’s Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars or any of the other “audience participation” shows on prime time.
Authentic Environ-mentality
Green efforts continue to build, as more Americans are gravitating to products and services that can boast environmental friendliness. However, buying green must be easy, and authenticity matters —DON’T bother to “greenwash” your product; such efforts will eventually backfire.”Buy local” is a watchword that goes along with those efforts, with many just now discovering the delights of the weekend farmer’s market.
Technological Touchpoints
Whether you are an individual consumer or a multinational retailer, technology still rules. With M-commerce on the rise as now 32% of Americans using mobil phones and mobil apps to access email, text or shop on-line, technology is changing how and when we communicate, while web-based training programs at the office and do-it-yourself scanners minimizes the need for human interaction—even at the hardware store. While some argue that today’s mobile-empowered consumers cannot communicate “properly” (meaning that they can’t carry on a conversation of more than 160 characters at a time), others will argue that technology is only enhancing how that social interaction happens, with tweet-ups and meet-ups organized on twitter.com or eharmony.com.
Take some time with each of these ideas (and many others that you can see in your own industry) and discuss how they are impacting or could impact your business moving forward. Looking at these trends slightly differently could yield a whole new stream of revenue one year, three years, even ten years down the road!
Posted by jos on May 27, 2010 under New Product Development, Strategy |
It’s been said many times that “hope is not a strategy.” Everyone’s heard the stories of those who stumbled upon great inventions that revolutionized their tiny corner of the world (like 3M Post-It Notes or Disney’s mythical “flubber”), but in general, new business development, and in particular, new product development is a lot more structured than that. Even when you are exploring unchartered waters, it still helps to have a goal in mind so that you can build even a rough plan for how to achieve that goal.
I’m working on a new product development project and one of the first essential activities is to ensure that everyone impacted by the new product exploratory agrees on the objectives of the project. You see, everyone says, “We want more business! We want to grow!” But they don’t always take the time to determine specifically what they are looking for. “We need new products—we don’t know exactly what it is, but just bring us your idea and we’ll tell you if it’s any good.”
This is not a recipe for success. It’s so much more efficient to outline the criteria against which the project or product will be measured—even if you aren’t certain exactly what the outcome will be.
Usually, the easiest measurements include gross revenue, but the more specificity you can provide up front the better your outcomes will be. Are you looking for $1MM idea, a $5MM idea, or a $100MM line of business? Also, what’s the timeframe expected to generate that revenue? In general, there’s a “build” that happens in most industries as consumers become more aware of your new offerings, so it’s important to think through your timelines leading up to (and through) commercialization.
It is helpful to gain agreement with every interested party, as each will have their own perspectives on what you should be striving for—the VP of Finance has certain gross margin expectations, while the head of Sales needs products that deliver specific turn rates in order to sell it in to his retailers. Brand Management will be looking for those innovations that enhance the brand’s image and answer unmet consumer needs, whereas Manufacturing is concerned with how much excess capacity this new product will use and how it will integrate with current manufacturing processes. Getting everyone’s desires and expectations out in the open up front will streamline the evaluation process and ensure that the innovation process is not just a “fluke” (or a flubber) but is a methodical system for new business development.
If you’d like to help bring consumer-oriented innovation to your business, come talk with us about how we can help facilitate the growth of your business.
Posted by jos on April 29, 2010 under Media, Social Media, Strategy |
Phil Mickelson at Krispy Kreme
Here’s a bit of commentary on our highly-networked social media world:
In an interview leading up to this weekend’s golf tournament, this year’s Masters’ champion Phil Mickelson was asked about a Krispy Kreme incident that happened on Monday after winning the coveted green jacket. Phil pulled up to the drive-thru window in his Masters’ jacket (“it was kinda chilly out, so I just grabbed a jacket….”). Phil was fulfilling a promise to his kids that he would get the sugary donut treats once the tournament was over. The woman working the drive-thru that morning recognized him, snapped a picture on her cell phone, and posted it online.
Phil’s comment was that it was just another reminder that “everybody’s media.”
How true. Anyone with a cell phone and a computer can now report the goings-on of anyone else.
To me, there are several lessons in this.
- Always be your best self because you never know who is watching or listening or reporting. For those who were required to read George Orwell’s 1984 in their high school English class, concerns that “Big Brother is watching” were tied to big government and was seen as totally un-American and the ultimate invasion of privacy. Now, of course, we actually have “Big Brother” reality shows and YouTube, where it is not the government who seems to be watching but everyone else. Whenever I counsel people on social media, my biggest caution is, “Don’t put anything up on Facebook that you wouldn’t want to appear as the front headline of the newspaper.” Your boss (or potential future boss) is actually watching, despite what you might think.
- Be respectful of others. The media has laws and codes of ethics to follow as it relates to public figures, and John Q. Public, Reporter-at-Large, needs to honors those same codes. For celebrities and non-celebrities alike, at the very least, the Golden Rule should apply. They may all be new tools, but the same basic principles of human decency still apply.
- Yesterday is gone. There’s a whole new world of power out there. Use this power for good, not evil. Yes, “everybody’s media,” and that has given rise to a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs, empowered consumers who want to engage with their favorite brands, and given marketers a whole new slew of venues for communicating with their target audience.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Feel free to add a comment for any of our articles!
Posted by jos on April 26, 2010 under Branding, Consumer Engagement, Media, Strategy |
Advertising works.
That’s something that not many people will dispute. The question becomes, “What should we say in our advertising?” And there are many schools of thought to answer that question.
Last August, I read a discussion about whether drug advertising should be regulated or abolished in the New York Times “Room for Debate” article (which can be read here). Marcia Angell, a senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School was quoted, “Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising does exactly what it is intended to do — increase sales for drug companies. Increasingly, it does that by promoting medical conditions, as well as drugs. If the industry can convince essentially normal people that minor complaints require long-term drug treatment, its market will grow.”
Some advertising sells pain; some sells pleasure. That “pleasure” is referred to in advertising circles as the “end benefit” to the consumer. I’ve always been a positive person, so I am drawn (both as a marketer and as a consumer) to that which sells pleasure. At Miracle-Gro, we always showed the amazing results and beautiful gardens achieved with product use; with LEGO, the advertising celebrated and highlighted for kids the joy of building. I am bothered by the barrage of negativity ever put before us, as I believe pharmaceutical ads simply sell sickness. Yes, I am one of those people who push the mute button every time the TV starts talking about restless leg syndrome, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction. I choose not to fill my head with such negative images.
I am watching, as many Americans are, our country’s struggles to deal with healthcare issues. One productive answer might lie in the same premise, that advertising works. Maybe the insurance companies should be advertising wellness—the joys of exercise, the fun of not smoking, the confidence inspired by good eating habits.
But what does this have to do with your brand and your business? Well, my question to you is, “What images are you putting top-of-mind with your consumers?”
Maybe you don’t have a multi-million dollar budget, but every company (large or small) has ways to heighten awareness of something—through an online video, a TV ad, a windshield flyer or even in a simple email communication. Everyone can bring a product/service/problem/solution to the forefront of someone’s mind in order to move them to action.
If you’d like help strategizing the best messages to keep top of mind with your customers, give us a call. We’re experts at identifying the compelling, motivating, get-them-off-the-couch end benefits so that you can highlight them in your marketing efforts. We’d love to help you.
Posted by Rahna on March 22, 2010 under New Product Development, Strategy |
With all the research into consumer insights, and the type of strategic work that we do, new product development is a natural extension of what we can bring to clients. The following article by Jack Loechner discusses the new product processes and how we can help our clients grow their businesses.
“Innovation Desperately Needed”
That’s what today’s business community is crying for. Given the Great Recession and the state of business, today’s companies must produce growth through innovation. Performance improvement and expense reduction have already been effectively implemented and owners, directors and stockholders are expecting a rebound out of the recession—one that will require bold, aggressive, maybe even risky efforts. How can you innovate without a team behind you? The current configuration of many of today’s companies has left a void in advance planning that an independent business development company can fill.
Most “make and sell” companies have these things in common:
- The majority of profits are generated by 20% of the current product line. A core business dependency that has traditionally been considered the” bread-and-butter”
- Product Development is either stagnant (without a proprietary breakthrough) or is evolving from a competitive product in the marketplace whose lifecycle has usually matured by the time your new product reaches the market (a me-too product introduced too late).
- The weakest 20% of the product line is expected to be discontinued near the end of the current sales or production cycle. These products usually serve a limited customer segment, could be replaced by a more profitable alternative, and don’t get attention because they don’t “seem important.”
- The performance of the remaining 60% of the product line could be improved, but every department of the company has a different recommended approach to change; sales wants a lower price, marketing suggests new packaging, the user would like better performance, manufacturing needs longer runs or higher volumes, distribution prefers a better deal, finance insists on increasing the margins, and QC wants improvements in reliability. Every one of these suggestions has some merit but treats only the symptoms.
Let us help you. We understand that a situation analysis is required before taking action. In addition to the accurate analysis of the symptoms of product weaknesses, and uncovering the underlying problems, a tactical approach to the profitable solution is necessary.
Beacon Marketing can now implement an accelerated scientific process with your integrated team to discover workable new opportunities to meet your company criteria of investment, time constraints and profitability requirements. We do this by bringing an interdisciplinary growth and development program designed, refined and implemented with innate business savvy, years of experience in operational skills and grounded in consumer learning.
We will create a custom program for each client and include the team in this innovation cycle. This process considers the best interests of everyone involved from the production line, to distribution, to the end user. The program is an interactive project with your integrated team from general management, sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and finance to uncover specific opportunities for profitable growth in your business. Here are some of the outcomes we can guarantee:
- New business growth opportunities
- Proprietary new products
- Strategic marketing improvements
- Easily implemented minor modifications to the core business
- Longer-term new business opportunities.
Please give us a call if you’d like to discuss how we might be able to help you innovate your way to business growth.
Posted by Rahna on March 18, 2010 under Branding, Consumer Engagement, Strategy |
If you’ve been keeping up on your business and marketing news recently, you already know that the HUMMER brand is dead. General Motors has decided to retire this iconic brand. They tried to sell it to a Japanese company, but in the end, they found no takers.
What happened?
The market shifted and HUMMER did not.
The funny thing is, the brand enjoys very strong recognition levels–so much so that it is number one in mass-market brand scores for the latest J.D. Power & Associates Consumer Service Index. Branding without relevance doesn’t work, as this case study clearly shows. With the seismic shifts in the global economy, the “bling bling” era came to a crashing halt in 2007 and with that, HUMMER sales plummeted (50% decline in both 2008 AND 2009-Yikes!). The age of conspicuous consumption, gone. Mix in with that America’s increasing emphasis on environmentally friendly solutions and “green marketing,” millions of people laid off from work, and it’s easy to see why it died.
The tragic thing from a marketer’s perspective is that it didn’t have to die. Those brand managers could had figured out a way to bridge the legacy that it had built up into an area where it would still have some viability and perhaps the brand could’ve survived. For several years, I was involved in the development and marketing of HUMMER vehicles, so I know the strength of the brand, one part ostentation and two parts rugged individualism. HUMMER brand managers could have leveraged that brand’s affinity into more niche markets — perhaps snowmobiles, ATVs or some other extreme sports. Who knows … maybe it will get resurrected somewhere, somehow.
To me, it’s a lesson in staying relevant. You must stay on top of consumer trends and know where your customers are going. You cannot simply rest on your laurels or you will become as irrelevant as an Edsel, a Pontiac, Oldsmobile or now, a HUMMER.
Don’t let that happen to you! If you’re looking for consumer insights or trends, let us help you! With over 25 years in building and rebuilding brands, keeping top brands on top and expanding brands into new product categories successfully, we can help you to stay relevant to today’s consumers in today’s markets.
Posted by Rahna on March 15, 2010 under General, Personal Branding, Strategy |
When I give talks about personal branding, I encourage people to figure out what it is that they are good at, what their core competencies are, what the activities are that bring them the most joy, where they add the most value. We refer to this as “breathing,” doing things that seem so easy to you. These activities, these qualities are a natural part of our personal brand and the strengths upon which we can build a successful career.
But then there’s the other stuff … those things we’re NOT good at, those activities that we seem to struggle with, that take us forever to do because we procrastinate, avoid or otherwise drag our heels. Database management, mailings, on-line coordination, blog postings, ad design, website updates — all tasks that are necessary … but maybe not your forté. Is it costing you business? Maybe you haven’t accepted that offer to give a speech to a roomful of your best prospective clients because you don’t think your slides will look any good. Maybe you need to get your brochure done and out the door. You’re happy with the copy, but you keep fiddling with the design because you don’t like what you came up with on your own. Maybe your brilliant speech hasn’t been transcribed because you don’t have time (or you know that it will take you forever to transcribe it yourself). OR, maybe you’re not spending enough time bringing in valuable new clients because your time is being used to complete these non-billable tasks yourself. Stop it!
This is where a virtual assistant can help. I’ve used a virtual assistant for over two years to help me with presentation development, brochure development, website development — even this blog and newsletter! If you hit a wall and you just can’t take it anymore, I can highly recommend Holly Koziol as the best virtual assistant EVER (in fact, I was the one who insisted she use that name for her business). Check out her website, and then contact her to discuss how she can help you too! You’ll be glad you did!
Posted by Rahna on February 15, 2010 under Consumer Research, Strategy |
At Beacon Marketing, we answer strategic questions like:
- “Sales are great; what are we doing right?”
- “How should we best position ourselves in the marketplace?”
- “What are the best areas of growth for us?”
- “How could we become more well-known?”
How we answer these questions depends on the particular question being asked. Sometimes it’s best to have in-depth (qualitative) conversations with consumers or employees about the nuances of the brand. But many times, quantitative research is the most effective way to get the answer.
Many love quantitative research. Done online, it can be quick, relatively inexpensive, and can answer many strategic questions. But not all online research is alike. Beacon Marketing offers an affordable method of gaining valuable quantitative consumer insights without the expense of a full-blown custom survey.
Would you like to have the confidence of a thousand consumer responses for your top strategic issues? Perhaps your senior management would approve that new product idea — if you had just a little bit of data to back up your big idea?
The research team for Beacon Marketing has developed an omnibus study for clients to participate in. This is an on-going, proprietary consumer research vehicle, and we would be happy to include you in this process. If you would like to ask a few timely questions to a group of a thousand consumer respondents as part of this research, give us a call! For just over one thousand dollars, you can get a customized question about your critical issues — and that includes upfront consultation on question development AND back-end graphic detail for optimal reporting to your constituents!
The River or the Pond? What is River Sampling?
Now, don’t confuse this information with your typical, run-of-the-mill panel data! At Beacon Marketing, we pride ourselves on being anything but ordinary. This research methodology uses an ever-refreshing group of respondents (often called “river sampling”), which is a non-panel sample source, where consumers on the internet are recruited to participate in online research, in real time.
Panel research has been around for quite some time; large research companies have ongoing questionnaires they field to ask about a myriad of topics:
- “Which of the following did you buy at the grocery store?”
- “Do you like package A or package B better?”
- “What is your child’s favorite snack?”
In research circles, there’s been much discussion about “river sampling” versus panel sampling. One of the issues with traditional panel data is that the panel gets… well… stale. The respondents are not repeatedly screened and represent only a small slice of the Internet universe. In today’s world of immediate and near-universal consumer access, there is no reason for stale panel data. Methodologies like “river sampling” work from the premise that the research results will be fresher, (richer, better, more accurate) if you pull fish (respondents) from the river as they swim by rather than if you go repeatedly to the same (potentially stagnant) pond that everyone else goes to (panel data).
Simply stated, methodologies like “river sampling” can cast a wider net across the World Wide Web, collecting consumer input and providing the following benefits:
- Stronger, fresher recruiting
- More frequent screening
- Larger populations (covering 92% of online users)
- Higher response rates (that can save you money!)
If you are looking to gain new insights and quantitative confirmation on your brightest ideas, give us a call. And remember, there’s no need for stale insights anymore!
Posted by Rahna on January 7, 2010 under New Product Development, Strategy |
Jack Loechner, New Product Development Expert
In order to ensure that we stay ahead of our clients’ needs, we are always learning, growing and expanding our resources to be able to meet the coming needs. While 2009 saw most businesses retrenching, down-sizing and huddled over in the fetal position, just waiting for the Great Recession to end, we believe that 2010 will be a year of expansion for most.
We’re so excited to share that, for business development identification, product development and introduction, Beacon Marketing clients can now also tap into the expertise of Jack Loechner, who has been responsible for the strategic planning, product design and sales development for new business in excess of 400 million dollars for multinational companies since 1979. If you are looking for practical experience and operational expertise to guide you throughout the life cycle of any project, from inception to introduction, give us a call! We believe the combination of branding expertise, consumer focus and now, the addition of product and operational mastery makes an unbeatable combination for our clients to experience double-digit growth! To read more about Jack’s background, click here.
