A compelling article by William Arruda on brandchannel.com that focuses on how employees help to build the brand brought out a number of good points. In our work with clients we have seen extraordinary results when staff members align with and embrace the brand message and context. You can link to the full article here http://www.brandchannel.com/brand_speak.asp?bs_id=230 or read an excerpt below:

Branding During an Economic Downturn
During lean times, talent is often viewed as a liability, not as an asset. But with the current down business cycle, the opposite seems to be true. Sure, unemployment figures are soaring and companies are rightsizing or downsizing or rescaling or whatever they call it; but at the same time, companies are investing in their people. I see this in my own business. Most of my work is focused on personal branding for leadership development in the enterprise, and almost all of my clients are continuing their commitment to their people; many have increased their efforts.

Even as companies cut costs across the board, savvy organizations are investing in their talent – understanding the impact it will have on the corporate brand. According to the 2008 Bersin and Associates Leadership Development Survey, 40% of organizations polled said their spending on leadership development has remained the same and 36% said their budgets were slated to increase this year.

It’s no wonder when you look at the benefit of engaged employees who understand the brand. Committed employees stay at your company longer, work harder and deliver on-brand work every day. So with reduced marketing and branding budgets, harnessing the power of your employees to build the brand is a cost-effective strategy for bolstering the brand. Once your brand is clear in the minds and hearts of these important assets, they become your brand ambassadors and go off steadfastly in support of your mission.

How have we seen this level of communication and training brought to life?

Our recent work for Cascade Employers Association involved distilling their work into key messages that established the context, not the list of “stuff” they do. How they interact with members, the approach to the services they provide, the context of what they deliver for their members is distilled into the brand promise, “Unsurpassed resources for great employers.”

Once defined, we took the messaging into the environment with posters that restate key messages and the organization’s core values. Business cards with different messages on the back (each staff member received multiple messages within their box of cards) help each employee “own” the messages and bring them to life in discussion with anyone they interact with. The results? Despite the challenges of the economy, the staff has looked forward, aligned with the concepts and continues to represent the best tenets of the brand.

President Patrice Altenhofen shared, “We have moved Cascade Employers forward, even in an economic downturn—we have thrived rather than merely survived.”

Our work in 2005 for Western Oregon Waste, while focused on the naming and branding (WOW), had the long-term additional result of aligning staff and bringing new energy and enthusiasm to the different divisions within the company. And it’s still working as a premise for a “WOW level of service” and a measurement of the commitment of every person in the company.

People build brands. It’s not about the logo or the message or the brand promise. It’s about how those elements bring people together around a compelling idea, generate enthusiasm and engagement and build pride and ownership. Amazing results are possible when the brand truly reflects the culture and unites employees.

]]> http://advancetoprosper.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/employees-contribute-to-brand/feed/ 0 jlmorrow http://advancetoprosper.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/brandact09-october-15/ http://advancetoprosper.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/brandact09-october-15/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:31:35 +0000 advancetoprosper http://advancetoprosper.wordpress.com/?p=265 ]]>

Note your calendar for another installment of BrandACT™ 09, November 7th, in Los Angeles, California and November 12th in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Well, we have a bit of advice to offer in these tough economic times. Focus your marketing, don’t cut it out. Marketing is not fat, it’s muscle. And when you tone that muscle and concentrate your efforts where your customers and potential customers are most likely to see it, you’ll be more effective without spending more money.

Because we know so many businesses continue to struggle with getting their message out, we’re putting on BrandACT, a workshop on marketing and branding. This intensive one-day workshop, led by Jennifer Larsen Morrow, the president of Creative Company, will stimulate your brain with new insights and deliver valuable tools and tactics you can put to use right away.

We’re currently enrolling for another session in Los Angeles at the Crowne Plaza LAX, on November 7, 2009 (Register now)  and in Wilsonville, Oregon at the Holiday Inn, on November 12, 2009 (Register now). The workshop runs from 9am to 5pm. Jennifer will explain the principles of branding and how they can be used to make your marketing, recruiting and fundraising efforts far more efficient and effective than ever before.

Jennifer has more than 30 years of experience creating effective, award-winning brands and marketing programs for a range of clients in industries as diverse as food products, professional services, financial, manufacturing, telecommunications, waste management and higher education. She is an engaging speaker with an arsenal of examples to show and success stories to tell.

In the sessions planned for 2009 Jennifer will share a new perspective on branding that begins with the essential “points of choice” in the sales, recruiting or fundraising process. This proprietary approach has been tested and proven with many clients in many industries. By focusing first on the audiences, then identifying where they make their choice to ask for more information or to make a purchase decision, each marketing program built from the point of choice is more effective. By fine-tuning all communications, messages and visual systems at the points of choice (which are different for each organization and each audience) and then seeking out other existing opportunities to apply the tactics of branding, Jennifer and the Creative Company team have created exceptional results for our clients, generating greater attention in their markets, increasing the number of inquiries and driving sales volume.

The workshop is formatted for plenty of interaction, with no more than 20 attendees. Often attendees use the group as an informal focus group, to test ideas and discuss strategies. With worksheets and discussion throughout the day, you’ll get a chance to voice your opinion and ask plenty of questions.

Jennifer has spoken to conferences such as the National Marketing Conference for NTCA (National Telecommunications Cooperative Association), the annual conferences of PNACAC (Pacific Northwest Association of College Admission Counselors), and the annual conference of NACAC (National Association of College Admission Counselors). She receives rave reviews from those who have attended BrandACT in the past or have heard her speak at conferences and business groups.

It’s just one day. And it’s one day that could transform the course of your business. It’s also a great day for you to step back from the marketing you’ve been doing, take a fresh look, gain some insight from a branding expert and your peers, and establish a new direction based on how you can differentiate your organization in your marketplace, where the essential “points of choice” are for your target audiences, and what the best communication tools are for your market, your business and your audiences. Ready to transform?

Check us out at creativeco.com and on Facebook.

Wondering how to spend your marketing dollars online these days? According to a Forbes study as reported by eMarketer, if the goal is to generate sales businesses of all budget sizes should start with SEO.

“Fourty-eight percent of marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating conversions online.”

Supplement SEO with email marketing and pay-per-click search advertising. SEO and paid search will both get you in front of people who are already going out of their way online to find information about your industry or products. And email marketing builds a communication stream with folks who’ve said they’re interested in you.

If the goal is branding – building, maintaining, or changing perception – site or page sponsorships were considered the most powerful, presumably because of the high visibility and brand-value communication that this kind of adversiting provides. Next in line for branding? SEO again… everybody’s doing it. Are you?

Today I attended a webinar by HubSpot describing how to use video in your inbound marketing efforts.

What IS inbound marketing, you say? Inbound marketing is any marketing effort focused on helping people find you. Rather than pushing your message out to “leads” using tools like trade shows and cold calling, inbound marketing makes your content available to people already shopping in your industry. They’ll find you through tools like blogging, SEO and social media, and hopefully make the effort to reach out for the initial contact.

Video can be a great way to draw these folks in and get them to engage with your brand. By creating educational or entertaining videos and publishing them on sharing sites (Blip.tv, YouTube, etc.) and on your blog, or by sharing the link in your email marketing you can educate them on what your brand is about and how they can use your products.

A few tips from today’s webinar:

• Shorter is better. People’s attention spans drop very quickly after the first ten seconds; give them something exciting to grab their attention in the first few seconds of your video and then keep it moving.
• Live video makes your message feel more personal and requires no editing, which means it’s fast, easy and cheap!
• If you’re camera shy, use screen recording to show web navigation with your voice over. This is great for instructional and how-to videos. A couple of software options: Camtasia and CamStudio.
• Upload your video in Flash, which is compatible for the most people, but also consider an M4V version for use with iTunes, iPods and iPhones.
• If you don’t have hosting capabilities, upload your videos to a sharing site like YouTube and then cut and paste the html code they’ll create for you to embed the videos on your own site.
• Don’t embed the videos in your emails, they’ll take up too much space. Instead take a screenshot of the video and hyperlink it to a place where your visitors can watch.
• To make sure your video gets picked up by search engines, add descriptions, notes or transcriptions below your video. Also make sure you select tags that are going to get you appropriate placement within the sharing site.
• Be sure you put your URL in the beginning of your video description so it doesn’t get hidden in the condensed description format, which is the default for YouTube.
• To encourage sharing add things like a “Tweet This” button to your video – you can create this through HubSpot at twitter.grader.com/tweetit.
• Don’t forget the call to action – at the end of your video tell viewers exactly what you want them to do next.

And finally, how do you know if your video was a success? For B2B videos, HubSpot considers 10,000 YouTube views a win. But you can also use analytics tools provided by your video hosting company such as YouTube Insights.

Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.

What are you doing today to ensure your business succeeds in these tough times?

Many business owners or managers responsible for their company’s marketing are struggling with the proliferation of media choices, the challenges of communicating clearly and the continual shifting of the economy, audience perspectives and marketing opportunities. They’re looking for solutions that will generate bigger response from every marketing investment, and insight that will help them choose the right methods, tactics and media. It’s a changing landscape, yet the foundation of good marketing–understanding your audiences, speaking in their language and connecting at all of the touch points–will help every organization in any industry succeed.

The organizations that are successful today and in the future are focusing their marketing strategies, tuning up their Websites, clarifying their message and distinguishing their products and services from the competition. The most innovative companies are reinventing their brand now, when times are tough, in order to set the stage for the future.

Today is a gift. It’s an opportunity to reinvent how you do business, to capture a leadership role in your industry and to re-energize your staff around who you are in business. Is it time to step out of what you’ve always done and take a fresh look at what’s possible? Instead of retreating from the challenging marketplace and hunkering down, what about reaching out and kicking in a whole new level for your brand and your marketing? It’s actually a great time to do it. Now. Really. Right now. Let’s do it!

I posted last week about the benefits of combining your email marketing and social media efforts. Today, MarketingProfs sent out an email dedicated to a post at the Digital Marketing blog citing research supporting the use of video in email marketing.

According to Nielsen Online, total video streams in April 2009 were up 24% year over year, streams-per-viewer were up 27% and time-per-viewer was up 58%. And, according to Forrester, a video link in an email can increase click-through rates by two to three times.

So, get to it!

• Create videos that provide value and entertainment for your audience.
• Post them in places where they will be easy to find and easy to share, including your own website and social media outlets such as YouTube and Facebook.
• And finally, send the link to your email base. Remember not to embed the video directly in your email because most ISPs limit the amount of information that can be sent and received; instead hyperlink a screenshot of your video and place that in a prominent position in your email.

Here’s a collection of interesting motorcycle helmets and unusual helmet designs I discovered this morning. The mellon head gets my vote. Let’s talk about functionality. Can you see out of these things?

Be safe!

World Wide Developers Conference

As usual, the company is tight-lipped – which, as always, just adds to the frenzy. That, of course, is the way they like it and the way we always play it. At least we all have our roles down pat!

Unsurprisingly, this year’s rumours centre on the iPhone, which has sold around 21 million handsets in its roughly two-and-a-half short years.

One analyst, Gartner, reports that the iPhone was the fastest-growing smartphone of 2008; another, PiperJaffray, believes that Apple can grow its sales to 45 million units by the end of 2009.

Let’s not forget that it still ranks third behind Nokia and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry. And let’s throw in the unknown factor of the Palm Pre, which launches in the States this weekend and which some industry watchers have touted as a serious challenger to Apple.

Rumoured iPhone features include better battery life, a video camera, memory upgrades, a speedier processor and a digital compass. There has also been talk of a cheaper handset, selling at around $99-$149.

The previously-announced improvements to the operating system via a software upgrade should be rolled out, adding in-app commerce, live streaming and the ability to cut and paste. There will also be some new numbers on the app store – which, earlier in the year, passed the one billion download mark. But does all this really set the heather on fire?

Well, it would if “you know who” were doing the honours from centre stage. Apple’s founder and CEO Steve Jobs has been on sick leave since the beginning of the year and is due back at his desk at the end of the month.

Naturally, the “will he / won’t he” question of Mr Jobs making an appearance at the WWDC comes down to a fact that nobody really knows, except for the chosen few and his nibs.

The BBC will be there to report on whether or not the rumour mill got it right this time and whether Apple pulls out its famous “one last thing” to wow the crowd.

Thanks to Maggie Shiels of the BBC.

A lot of companies are in a difficult financial position this year and when choosing where to make money-saving cuts, one of the first things to go is marketing and advertising. I’ve always told clients to think about this in a different way – rather than cutting your marketing budget during a downturn, take advantage of the limited competition and make a splash with customers. While they may not be spending right now, seeing advertising from you will reinforce their belief that you are a strong, vital organization. Plus, people will remember your name when their wallets start to fill up again.

Today, eMarketer.com posted an article supporting this argument with some research:

• Fifty-six percent of Internet users who noticed a decline in ads from a retailer saw it as a sign that the store was struggling—15% thought the store would go bust, and soon.
• On the other hand, frequent retail ads led respondents to feel the stores were committed to doing business, being competitive and—in some cases—healthy. (Ad Overkill May Not Be a Bad Thing During Tough Times by eMarketer, June 2009)

EDIT June 5, 2009 – Just received an Ad-ology report confirming the data above and adding some interesting points about consumer spending habits now versus one year ago:

Today I attended a webinar by ExactTarget and Forrester that discussed how to use email marketing and social networking together and I wanted to share some of the key points with you.

Three-quarters of US online adults use social technologies, which now includes any forum for sharing information and content online – Facebook, You Tube, Twitter and email are all social. Even with all these other ways to talk to our friends, email is still the most popular way to share online content both in the adult crowd (18+) and with teens (12-17). More than 80% of online adults share content via email.

• 77% trust content received via email from people they know.
• 60% trust consumer ratings and reviews.
• Compare that with only 38% who trust television ads.

So what does this mean to marketers? Use email as the link between your social media efforts and make it easy for users to share your email and other online content. Remember that your emails don’t always have to focus on marketing messages; build user trust and loyalty by sending out fun, interesting and relevant content without the sales pitch. And make sure you don’t wear your marketing hat when working with social media.

• Use Twitter for short, immediate communications.
• Use Facebook to keep in touch with fans.
• Use email for deeper engagement with brand advocates.

The commitment to become an engaged subscriber to your email list is much larger than the commitment to follow you on Twitter. Get to know your customers and their behaviors before reaching out to them in any of these arenas. Reward your brand advocates with in-depth email content and promotions that make them feel special. And again, make your content easy to share so you can build your base of engaged subscribers.