The Big-Pay Off -- Brand Value

Many CEOs and marketing directors find their time wasted evaluating marketing opportunities instead of acting on them. When every possibility is followed, a meandering trail of hit and miss effectiveness is the result. Despite significant expenditure of time and money, marketing tactics may not produce the desired gains.

What is their problem? They are missing a crucial step in the marketing arsenal -- branding. The power of branding is that it is not just for your customers. When done correctly, it also creates a roadmap for you to follow internally, streamlining your planning and decision-making processes for years to come.

Outward Brand

This is what many people relate to when thinking of a "brand:" a logo, tagline, style of advertising, product packaging, etc. These are not the brand, but rather the brand elements. To be truly branded however, all of these elements are developed based on the core value of the company. The core value will stay the same, through product changes, service changes, and staff changes.

The value of this is in attraction. If you have spent the time identifying your ideal prospect [read: most profitable] and created an emotional reason to buy [read: comes back and brings their friends with them], then all your time and money is now focused on creating interesting tactics to engage a prospect you know will be profitable, rather than baiting the hook with whatever you have and hoping you're fishing in the right pond.

The investment in developing a set message to a clear audience is rewarded by recognition, recall and referral of your brand. You can change ad campaigns, update packaging, and replace staff and if all reflect your underlying message, the brand impact will be carried over to your audience no matter how or who delivers it.

Inward Brand

Developing brand clearly improves external communication. Impressively, it can increase your internal efficiency as well.

What often bogs down the marketing process is planning, and deciding on a case by case basis what actions should be taken. We have seen marketing efforts derailed and budgets drained by everything from an aggressive ad sales person to a company executive driving past a billboard and insisting the marketing department book it.

It is so easy to latch onto what sounds like a great idea or a sure thing or to give up on a plan when no immediate results are seen. However brand marketing is not direct response, it is viral, increasing in scope and intensity the more it is replicated.

With a brand built on focus features, key benefits and a core value, it is easy to plan strategy and tactics to capitalize on your goals. And the next time someone asks you to place and ad, sponsor an event, or recommends a billboard rental, you will know if that is on your brand path or an expensive joy ride to who knows where, what we call an "off-road vehicle."

The Reward

The effort of building and maintaining a brand must be constant. Your brand provides a roadmap but the destination is ultimately having customers so loyal they always choose your company and so zealous they bring their friends along. The value is in the opinion and the action customers are willing to take because of how they feel, and in the speed and accuracy of the decisions you can make to achieve your goals.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at bsb@iriscreative.com or 610-567-2799.

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

Brand Building 101

Building your brand into a brand leader isn't easy. There are 2 areas that can really help you grow your brand, passion and consistency. Passion is incredibly... Read More

Branding Strategy - Brand Identity

Today, in many organizations around the world, branding is treated as a cosmetic exercise only, and regarded merely as a new name, logo, stationary and possibly a... Read More

Branding: What Not to Do

Here's a little story about what not to do as you carve out a name for yourself in the world of internet business.Don't use a miscellaneous email... Read More

The Aim of the Name

Large corporations spend lavish amounts seeking names for their products that grab a consumer, or convey positive feelings. Book authors do the same. As do magazine writers.So,... Read More

Hiring the Right Graphic Designer for Your Small Business

Every small business needs it, but not many have it. I am not talking about cash flow, clients or even your product or services to sell. Yes,... Read More

Brand to Sell Well

Branding is an application of appropriate marketing techniques in the right proportion to a product. Brand management is to manage the forces in a market suitably to... Read More

Brand Building 201: Finding The Ideal Way

The strongest and longest lasting brands branch off of an existing category. Branching takes patience and time. There are two speeds for launching a brand, each one... Read More

12 Ways to Reduce Postage

1. Never send a letter that weighs less than 30 gms. Five size8-1/2x11 circulars can be mailed with a 1st class postage stamp. By using all 10... Read More

What About Me? What You Need To Know About Me-Marketing

What about me? Are you asking yourself this question? If not you should be. Don't wait until you are in crisis mode when you are losing your... Read More

Branding Services - Brand Identity Guru

Branding Services is a tactic that marketing executives and managers should not only understand, but also employ. Branding services helps your company clearly position your company over... Read More

A Successful Failure

A successfully positioned business sometimes doesn't win a new client. And that, my friend, is the point. Let me illustrate with an anecdote.Recently I was making a... Read More

What the Heck is Branding and Why Should I Care?

There's been a lot of buzz lately about branding. But what exactly is it, and who needs to do it? Simply put, a brand is what makes... Read More

Nike / Sears / Kmart

The Sears-Kmart merger hopes to fabricate some sort of silver lining for both retailers but instead seems to embody the inevitable philosophy of "going down together." Kmart,... Read More

Branding Fiasco -- Better Be Who You Say You Are!

Our experience as customers offers great instruction into the concept of branding. Come with me on a recent "experience" and you'll see what I mean. Here's the... Read More

Understand Brand

Branding has been defined, explained and examined extensively. There are books, articles, publications, seminars, and groups all dedicated to exploring the meaning and use of brand today.Interestingly,... Read More

How to Write Classified Ads that Get Results Now.

SELLING DIRECTLY FROM A CLASSIFIED AD Classified ads can be used to sell products directly from the ad.This works best for items costing no more thanapproximately $5.... Read More

What Make Us Unique and Different

Starting a business can take a lot of time, money, and energy. And because we don't want to completely re-invent the wheel, we often want to copy... Read More

Do What Works

"Can you hear me now?"You'd be hard pressed to find someone in the US who doesn't know the company behind that question.So why do big companies, like... Read More

Go Ask Alice

One of fiction's finest marketing minds, The Cheshire Cat, once told Alice in Wonderland something all business owners and marketers should remember:"If you don't care where you... Read More

Why Should I do Business With You?

It's the question that is on the minds of all our customers regardless of what products or services we are offering. Potential customers want to know what... Read More

Strategic Moves In The Branding Gamble!

The so called 'globalisation' has cluttered the world markets with so many products and services that nearly 90% of the marketing managers in competing companies do pretty... Read More

Id Buy That: Getting A Brand Mindset

Feel that? The crisp tingle in the air? It's fall. Fall ushers in the promise of eating, seeing, and getting. It's my favorite time of year. By... Read More

Branding: All My Exs Live In...

...my senses. I know, you were thinking 'Texas'. Well, if they do live in Texas, then it's a good thing that I live in Virginia (dodged that... Read More

10 Secrets for Free Media Placement

Why pay a high priced PR agent when you can get free media placement to promote your product, service, or book?Follow these top ten tips for 2005... Read More

Build Brand Identity - Brand Identity Guru

Successful Guru marketers have a secret weapon that they use every single time they communicate about their businesses. It's one of those intangibles that are easily misunderstood.... Read More

Simple Risk Reversal Formula Will Send Your Sales Into Space (1 of 2)

Make A Bold Promise Then Back It Up With An Awesome GuaranteeOnce you know what problem you, your service or your business can solve or what genuine... Read More