Every company is–or should be–concerned about its brand. Even those that are, though, tend to focus more on the customer-facing brand. Granted, customer and prospects perspectives are important. But there’s another key audience that often gets overlooked in the rush to build brand. Continue reading “Managing the “Employer Brand””
Category: Brand Management
The Biggest Hurdle to Overcome In Your Brand Building Efforts: Reality
Marketers are understandably concerned about building and protecting strong brands. An Economist article from last year discusses the power of brands. “Brands account for more than 30% of the stock market value of companies in the S&P 500 index, reckons Millward Brown, a market-research company. Everyone knows that a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt costs more than a polo shirt; Coke without the logo is just cola.”
But, brand-building efforts are sometimes misguided– Continue reading “The Biggest Hurdle to Overcome In Your Brand Building Efforts: Reality”
Content Marketing Best Practices From Online Influencers
As of July 1, Jeff Haden’s June 8, 2015, LinkedIn post, “7 Things Employees Wish They Could Tell Their Bosses,” had grown to about 481,000 views, more than 1,800 likes, and 307 comments. Haden, a ghostwriter and speaker, is a LinkedIn Influencer. Similar to other Influencers, his posts often go viral. Most of those who are attempting to engage with an audience online, though, struggle to generate even 100 views. What can the masses learn from online influencers, whether they are the capital “I” LinkedIn variety or from a wider array of content outlets? Continue reading “Content Marketing Best Practices From Online Influencers”
How Well Are You Managing Your Personal Brand?
Most of us are familiar with the concept of branding from a marketing perspective. Brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, IBM and Target are well known. Also well known is the time, effort, expense and attention that goes into managing brands. But brand management isn’t just for organizations. Individuals have brands too, and, just as with major companies, those brands need to be carefully managed to achieve desired results.
Continue reading “How Well Are You Managing Your Personal Brand?”
From Brand Awareness to Purchase: The Consumer Purchase Funnel Process
How many times throughout the week do you see a company logo slapped onto a billboard, incorporated into the name of a sporting event, or even plastered on the back of a boxer? These are classic examples of brand awareness strategy. With brand awareness, companies are simply making the consumer aware that they exist—that’s about it.
While brand awareness is generally of little use on its own, it’s an important first step in a process known in marketing as the purchase funnel. Continue reading “From Brand Awareness to Purchase: The Consumer Purchase Funnel Process”
Walking The Talk: Do Your Actions Match Your Words?
PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. chairman Robert Moritz recently discussed the issue of engaging younger employees in an article for Harvard Business Review titled “The U.S. Chairman of PwC on Keeping Millennials Engaged.” While the article contains a number of intriguing insights, one point that stood out from a marketing perspective was Continue reading “Walking The Talk: Do Your Actions Match Your Words?”
A Wealth of Social Media & Marketing Tips from Experts and Practitioners
Just returned from the 6th Annual Social Media & Marketing Conference sponsored by the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce and my head is spinning. It seems that no matter how much we may all think we know a lot about social media and/or marketing, there is always so much more to learn. I learned a lot today from both the presenters and other attendees. Continue reading “A Wealth of Social Media & Marketing Tips from Experts and Practitioners”
Selling Yourself, or Your Services, on LinkedIn
Social media – and particularly LinkedIn – has emerged as THE new method of job search, providing significant benefits to both job seekers and recruiters. I’ve been a long-time LinkedIn proponent and use it extensively for my own professional communication needs. I also highly recommend it to the students I work with each semester as the “go to” resource for job search–whether looking for internships, freelance opportunities or full-time jobs.
In fact, at the beginning of each semester in one of my classes I like to use it as an introduction to “selling something” — in this case themselves. And, truthfully, the steps and process for selling yourself or your business services via LinkedIn are absolutely the same as best practice marketing for any product or service. Continue reading “Selling Yourself, or Your Services, on LinkedIn”
What do your employees know about your brand?
In our work with organizations, primarily in service professions (e.g. healthcare, consulting), we often find one critical audience overlooked–employees. Particularly for service organizations, employees are everything. They literally are the product! If they aren’t kept informed about your company’s mission, vision, values and desired brand image, they can’t help you support your brand.
The big question for you: do your employees understand your desired brand image? Continue reading “What do your employees know about your brand?”
The Trick to Brand Building? There is no Trick!
In marketing, as in other areas of business I suppose, it seems that we are always looking for the “magic bullet” — the quick trick that will lead to exceptional success. But in business, reward rarely comes without risk. One area of risk for any organization is brand building. Many are looking for the magic bullet here, as well–that quick trick that will lead to brand success.
Unfortunately, there is no trick! There are just some basic, tried and true best practices that the big brands follow. Even they, though, are constantly subject to brand erosion if they don’t continue to take steps to monitor, measure and manage their brands effectively. Brand managers in the 21st century are fortunate because, despite the proliferation of online communication from the masses which can significantly impact brands, either positively or negatively, Continue reading “The Trick to Brand Building? There is no Trick!”