Transformational Power of Branding
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Jay Olson, Brand & Marketing Strategist from QuadCreative, discusses the fundamentals of branding and provides actionable, cost-effective tips to help you grow your brand. Key topics covered include: defining your company’s brand vision, validating audience relevance and resonance, creating alignment between your brand vision and the customer experience, creating brand magic, engaging your customers and measuring the success of your brand building activities.
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Transformational Power of Branding
- 1. The Transformational Power of Branding Jay Olson Brand & Marketing Strategist Quad/Graphics Creative Services
- 3. To grow the value of your business
- 5. What is a brand? December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference A promise A totality of perceptions A shorthand for making good choices A business tool Sources: B2B Brand Management by Philip Kotler, 2006; The Brand Gap, by Marty Neumeier, 2006
- 6. What is brand equity? December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference Benefits: Increased profitability Reduced vulnerability Premium price New product acceptance
- 7. Common myths Branding is not important in B2B markets B2B purchases are based on cold logic Emotive appeals are unimportant in B2B markets December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 8. Why is branding important in B2B? Incremental price premium Strong strategic competitive advantage Produce true economic value Emotive propositions resonate with decision makers Business people buy the brands they trust Branding is even more important in B2B! December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 9. Noise We help customers solve their metal challenges worldwide. We work with you to define your needs and improve your products. Unique in the diversity of the casting and metalworking process. A partner for innovative thinking, real value and reliable results. Expansive technical knowledge backed by a proven commitment to customer satisfaction. We deliver high quality parts, on schedule and at a good value. December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 10. Why branding in B2B? Today’s B2B customers may articulate their need for ROI, lower price & higher product performance. But, what do they really want? To avoid doing business with an Enron To do business with people they trust To buy from a leader You never get fired for buying IBM Source: “It’s a Fact: Strong Brands Drive B2B Markets,” by Kevin Randall, Brandchannel, 4/14/2006 December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 11. Why is branding important to you? If you are the President/CEO Puts the face on your vision & business strategy Builds long-term profitability & asset value If you are in Marketing or Sales Creates the foundation for everything Winning the battle for your buyer’s attention December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 12. Successful B2B brands December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 13. Most valuable B2B brands Source: Interbrand December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 14. A successful small brand Acme Brick 84% brand preference An extra ten cents on the dollar A 13-fold return on marketing Source: Marketing News December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 15. To build a leading B2B brand Make the case for change Vision & leadership Analyze the gap Position your brand Create the magic Build with flawless execution Measure your success December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 16. #1 – Make the case for change Business case: Need & benefits Scope & impact on corporate resources Downside December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 18. Outdated or inconsistent brand image
- 23. Preparing to go public, spin off or be soldDecember 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 24. #2 – Vision & leadership Articulate your vision Communicate it to your employees with clarity & understanding Empower your employees to deliver differentiating & compelling customer experiences Rally the troops December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 25. #2 – Vision & leadership CEO is a highly visible brand cheerleader CEO understands the benefits The organization is focused on building a single, global corporate brand Marketing ROI is rigorously measured Company websites are seamlessly integrated to present a consistent face December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 26. #3 – Analyze the gap December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 27. #4 – Position your brand Brandarchetype Brandidentity Valueproposition BrandPositioning December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 28. #4 – Position your brand Product attributes Quality/value Users/uses Core values Brand personality Relationships Visual imagery/metaphors Brand heritage Brandarchetype Brandidentity Valueproposition BrandPositioning Source: Building Strong Brands, David A. Aaker, 1996 December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 29. #4 – Position your brand 12 archetypes hardwired in our brains at the collective unconscious level Brandarchetype Brandidentity Valueproposition BrandPositioning Source: Hero & the Outlaw, by Margaret Mark & Carol S. Pearson, 1976 December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 30. December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 31. #4 – Position your brand Purchase decision drivers: Functional benefits Emotional benefits Brandarchetype Brandidentity Valueproposition BrandPositioning Source: Building Strong Brands, David A. Aaker, 1996 December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 32. #4 – Position your brand Primary brand archetype Subset of your brand identity & value proposition* Target audience & key points of differentiation* Brandarchetype Brandidentity Valueproposition BrandPositioning * Building Strong Brands, David A. Aaker, 1996 December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 33. #5 – Create the magic Creates the overall look & feel, tone & manner Logo, brand identity, color palette & tagline development Conceptual development of your new web presence/ sales literature/other marketing materials December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 34. #6 – Build with flawless execution The real challenge: Winning the battle for attention Making it through the WIIFM filter Source: “The New B2B Marketing Manifesto,” Velocity December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 35. #6 – Build with flawless execution Overcoming the six second factor: Title – Does it stop your busy target reader? Subtitle – Does it promise something of interest? Design – Is it a quick read? Landing page – Does it communicate a resonating value proposition & substantiate your claims Source: “The New B2B Marketing Manifesto,” Velocity December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 36. #7 – Measure your success Key performance indicators: Premium price Customer franchise Rate of new product acceptance Net-advocate score Source: Measure what matters, Laura Patterson, VisionEdge Marketing, 2004 December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 37. CASE STUDIES
- 38. Quad/Graphics Special Interest Publications Group Company & situation overview: New market New sales force & dedicated mgt. team Need for baseline to measure awareness & perceptions December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 39. Quad/Graphics Special Interest Publications Group Solution: Brand audit Quantitative benchmark study Internal brand audit Competitive assessment New brand position & marketing communications plan December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 40. Quad/Graphics Special Interest Publications Group Brand archetype: Caretaker Brand essence:Do what you do best Brand position: QuadSIP resets the standards for the industry in print quality & customer care, and enables special interest publishers to do more by freeing their time to focus on their core competencies. December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 41. Quad/Graphics Special Interest Publications Group December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 42. Quad/Graphics Special Interest Publications Group Results: Awareness more than doubled within the 1st year Perceived as the top brand in printing for quality & innovation 100+ new customers within the 1st year of operation December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 43. International Design Guild Company & situation overview: Alliance of 100 high-end floor covering showrooms Products sold to interior designers & luxury consumers Looking to broaden its niche Lack of buy in & sell through December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 44. International Design Guild Solution: Brand audit In-depth interviews Internal brand audit Updated brand positionings & brand-building strategy New website and marketing materials December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 45. Dabbieri Signature Collection Brand archetype: Creator Brand essence: Envision the possibilities Brand Position: The industry’s largest selection of designer-driven, high-quality flooring products, so interior designers & luxury consumers can create their own unique vision of style, elegance & sophistication. December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 46. International Design Guild Results: Product lines were successfully broadened & adopted by showroom owners Showroom traffic & sales increased Membership continued to climb December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 47. Q&A December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 48. Thank you! December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 49. About the presenter Brand & marketing strategist,Quad/Graphics Creative Services Career background Phoenix Marketing Group (Principal) C.A. Muer/ Corp. (Director of Marketing) Marcus Restaurants (VP of Marketing) Ralston Purina Company (Director of Marketing, Restaurant Division) San Jose State University Michigan State (honorary faculty member) DMA (DM & interactive mktg. certification) Presenter at AMA & other leading organizations on the topics of branding, interactive strategy & integrated marketing communications December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
- 50. Contact Information Jay Olson Brand & Marketing Strategist Quad/Graphics Creative Services jay.olson@quadcreative.com Direct: (414) 566-7053 Cell: (262) 703-0330 December 7-8 2010 AFS Marketing & Selling of Casting Conference
Editor's Notes
- Hello everybody. Thanks for being here and welcome to the last presentation of the conference. I’m not sure whether I should feel blessed or cursed being the last presenter. But, I’m delighted to have the opportunity today to talk with you about the transformation power of branding and how you can leverage this important tool to increase the financial outcomes for your business.
- But before we begin, let’s pause a moment. Why are you here today? If you are looking for new ideas to achieve greater competitive advantage or to grow the value of your business then this presentation is going to be highly relevant. But, to maximize the benefits of your time, I encourage you to set aside your day-to-day challenges and visualize the benefits that could accrue from transforming your company into a leading brand in your industry. Consider the next 45 minutes to be an investment in your future.
- Topics we’ll be covering include: What is a brand? (We’ll also address and clarify some common myths as we do it.) Why branding is important in B2B markets? Then, we’ll show you some examples of successful B2B brands, share some thoughts with you about how to build a leading B2B brand, review a couple brief case studies and wrap up the remaining 5-10 minutes with a Q&A session. Any questions? Okay, let’s get started.
- The first question we’re going to tackle is what is a brand. The terms brand and branding can be confusing and often create misconceptions. This often relegates the meaning of abrand to nothing more than a logo or a tagline. But, the concept of brand is far more reaching. There are numerous definitions, but here are a few. (Click #1) First, you can think of your brand as a promise to your customers and employees. A promise that needs to be clearly articulated and consistently delivered in every aspect of your business. (Click #2) You can also think of your brand as the totality of perceptions that people have about your company and its products and services. This is based on everything they see, hear, read, know, feel and think about your company. (Click #3) Or, You can think of your brand as a shorthand that helps customers distinguish your company from your competitors products or services. (Click #4) All of this is true, but at the end of the day you can also think of branding simply as a business tool… the one tool in your tool box that can have the biggest impact on growing the value of your business.
- Another closely-related term that is also often confusing is brand equity. Brand equity is one of the most valuable assets that a company can have. At the firm level, you can think of brand equity as the intangible asset on your company’s balance sheet known as goodwill. While there is no generally accepted method for calculating brand equity, the benefits are clear: increased profitability, reduced vulnerability to competition, the ability to charge premium prices and quicker acceptance of new products and services. And there is general agreement among marketing thinkers that brand equity is the composite of a brand’s awareness, its image in the marketplace and its level of preference by customers.
- Now let’s look at some common myths about branding in B2B markets. One is that branding is not as important in B2B markets as it is in B2C markets. Another is that B2B purchase decisions are based purely on cold logic or a product’s or service’s functional and economic benefits. And finally, emotive appeals, such as mastery and achievement or control and stability are unimportant in B2B markets. But in truth, this kind of thinking is naïve and undermines your ability to drive incremental business value and ROI.
- So, why is branding important in B2B. First, for those companies that choose to focus attention on their brand’s emotional drivers this empowers them often times to command an incremental price premium, create stronger strategic competitive advantage and produce significantly higher economic value. Furthermore, research has proven that emotive propositions do resonate with business decision makers more than you might think, and business people definitely prefer to buy the brands they trust. In fact, it can be argued that branding is even more important in B2B markets due to larger purchase investments, multiple people involved in the decision-making process and longer purchase cycles.
- And, branding provides an excellent opportunity to differentiate because marketing communications in B2B markets is generally characterized by numbing sameness, commoditized feature wars and laundry lists of product benefits.
- Bottom line: What do B2B customers really want? It is to avoid doing business with an Enron, to do business with people they can trust and to buy from a leader. As the old saying goes, you’ll never get fired for buying IBM. These are powerful emotive drivers that build long-term customer value. And they cannot easily be duplicated by your competitors.
- But, you still might be asking yourself, why should I care about branding or what’s in it for me? (Click #1) If you are the President/CEO, its because it puts the face on your vision and your business strategy. But, a word of caution… you’ll need to be patient. Branding is not a tool for boosting short-term sales. It is a purposeful strategy for building long-term profitability and asset value.(Click #2) If you are in marketing or sales, branding provides the foundation for everything you do from customer acquisition to building customer loyalty and lifetime value. It is also your most valuable tool for winning the battle for your buyer’s attention. We’ll talk more about that in just a little bit.
- Here are some examples of successful B2B brands. I’m sure most of you are familiar with many of these companies.
- Interbrand is a company that tracks the top 100 global brands. To do this calculation, they estimate brand value on the basis of projected profits discounted to a present value. According to Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2010, IBM, GE and Intel, largely B2B brands, are among the most valuable brands in the world. Their intangible asset called goodwill drives billions of dollars in value and market capitalization. Their brands, not their products and services, are their differentiators that lead to competitive advantage and market dominance.
- But, you don’t have to be a big company. Branding drives value for small businesses as well. Acme Brick in Fort Worth, Texas is a good example. This small company manufactures bricks that are sold largely through the building trade. Through effective brand building and a unique 100-year product guarantee, Acme has established itself as the dominant brand in its region. A survey of homebuyers showed that Acme achieved an 84 percent brand preference while no other supplier was above 10%. In fact, Acme estimates that its brand is worth an extra ten cents for every dollar’s worth of Acme brick sold. And there is a 13-fold return on an Acme’s average annual marketing investment. So, the moral of this story is that if a brick can be successfully differentiated, then almost anything can be branded to create value. And that includes companies like yours in the highly competitive metal casting industry.
- Now, let’s talk about how to build a leading B2B brand. During the next series of slides were going to present a seven-step roadmap to help you reap the benefits.
- The first step is to make the case for change.If you are the head of marketing, you should probably take the lead role for this. Your goal is to prepare a compelling business case that outlines the needs and benefits. This should also communicate the scope and impact on corporate resources, as well as the downside by not pursing this important investment. But, it can be difficult to get busy executives to step back from the morass of daily challenges that face them and look at the future of their business with a critical eye. But at the end of the day, companies must pursue both short-term and long-term strategies to grow and ensure the long-term health of their business.
- Reasons that lead companies to invest in re-branding initiatives are many but often include rapid business growth, an outdated or inconsistent brand image, changing economic conditions, acquisitions/mergers, changes in leadership, new products/services/markets/channels and when companies are preparing to go public, spin off or be sold. If one or more of these situations apply to your company, then your business case should focus on these areas.
- The next step is vision and leadership. If you are the CEO, your vision for where you want to lead your company during the next 2-5 years is the primary driver. Clearly articulating that vision is mission critical so it is easily understood & embraced by your employees. And, they must be empowered to deliver differentiating and compelling customer experiences that are consistent with the brand promise that you will be making to your customers. This is especially important for B2B companies because brands are built from within the organization first… from the shop floor to the executive suite. But the roadblocks in creating and sharing an inspiring vision that rallies the troops are many. And the resistance to change can be even greater. Behind the scenes, your marketing people can play a key role in helping you articulate and communicate your vision.
- A Harvard Business School research team recently conducted a study of the top B2B global brands and learned that they shared the following characteristics: The CEO is a highly visible brand cheerleader and storyteller; The CEO understands the benefits of building a great brand; the organization’s efforts are focused on building a single, global corporate brand rather than individual product brands; the payback on marketing investment is rigorously measured; and company websites are seamlessly integrated to present a consistent face to stakeholders and to control the look and feel, tone and manner of their brands.
- The next is to analyze the gap that exists between your strategic vision and how your company is currently perceived. Your marketing team will likely take the lead role for this activity, but you can also use a marketing services agency or consultant. This is a critical step because perceptions are reality. So, you’ll want to understand what motivates your customers and why they choose to work with your company. You will also want to understand your competitors’ strengths and vulnerabilities and how they position their brands. And, you will want to talk to your own employees to better understand their perceptions about your company’s brand image, strengths and capabilities, and organizational values. Much of this discovery process can occur anecdotally through customer feedback to sales and other sources. But, a more formalized approach may also be needed to better understand the voice of your customer. And this investment can pay huge dividends in almost every aspect of your business.
- Now you are ready to develop or refine your brand positioning. Again, your marketing team should probably take the lead role for this important activity, or you can use a marketing services agency or consultant. Here is where all of the insights learned during the brand audit are synthesized and used to define your brand. Your brand positioning is driven by three main components, including your brand identity, brand archetype and value propositions. Let’s briefly look at each of these building blocks.
- Brand identity includes the unique set of brand associations that represent what your brand stands for. Think of this as the DNA of your brand. Your brand identity is typically somewhat aspirational because it is based more so on your brand vision than on the present state of your brand. The dimensions of brand identity can include product attributes, your organization’s core values, your brand personality and the other associations that you see here on this slide.
- At the heart of every great brand, whether it is a chocolate bar for its consumers or a foundry that provides component parts for its OEM customers, is a compelling story built around an emotive character or personality. While it is important to have a good product or service, and a competitive price, it is this story that provides sustainable differentiation. A book titled The Hero and the Outlaw identifies 12 brand archetypes that are hardwired in our brains at the collective unconscious level. What’s more, research has proven that brands that are closely aligned with only one of these brand archetypes have a significantly higher market valuation than those that are not.
- This wheel summarizes the twelve brand archetypes. We won’t have time to go through all of these, but the three archetypes that are most linked to change reside at the north end of the wheel. They include the hero, the outlaw and the magician. Leading hero brands include Nike and FedEx, while Apple and Harley-Davidson represent leading outlaw brands and DuPont and Lucent Technologies represent leading Magician brands. By comparison, the three archetypes that are most linked to stability reside at the south end of the wheel. They include the caregiver, ruler and creator. Classic examples of the caregiver brands include GE, Nordstrom and Marriott, while IBM and Microsoft represent leading ruler brands and Martha Stewart and Kinko’s are examples of successful creator brands.
- A brand’s value proposition is a statement of the functional and emotional benefits that provide value to your customers and drive purchase decisions. It is very important to also support your value proposition with actual case studies, objective 3rd-party endorsements and other forms of substantiation. Proof of concept is mission critical.
- Bringing these building blocks together culminates in developing your brand positioning statement. This is a highly disciplined endeavor that forces you to make strategic decisions in three critical areas. First, you must select your primary brand archetype. Secondly, you must choose which elements of your brand identity and value proposition you want to emphasize. And lastly, you must choose your target audience and your key points of superiority and parity. Remember, if you try to make your brand positioning too broad, it will stand for nothing so you need to be highly selective and focused.
- But it takes both the left and right sides of the brain to build a leading brand. So, this next step is where the creative expression of your brand comes into play. Whether you have your own in-house create staff or use a creative services agency, it will be important to involve your creative team early and frequently. Unfortunately, a chasm often exists between strategy and creative execution. Silo or throw-it-over-the-wall thinking is counter-productive. Branding needs to be a highly collaborative and seamless process. And for best results, concept testing is advised. You don’t have to boil the ocean with a lot of research, but it is important to get live feedback on your preliminary concepts to make sure you’re on the right track and then make refinements as needed.
- The next step is to build your brand with flawless execution. This is where the tread on your new tires meets the pavement. To do this, you need to develop your plan for how you’re going to communicate your brand message and implement it. I understand that Barbara Castilano already shared some great tips with you yesterday on how to build a successful marketing plan, so I won’t spend a lot of time on this now. But, if I could leave one thought with you on this subject it would be this. The real challenge in getting your message heard is winning the battle for your customer’s attention. That’s because in today’s metal casting marketplace you’re not only competing with direct competitors, but you’re also competing with every other company, technology, solution and strategy that even remotely addresses the same people you’re talking to. So, before you can compete for your customers’ budgets, you have to compete for their attention – something that is much more precious, scarce and fiercely defended. To win this battle, you’ll need a really, really good answer to the question that we all ask ourselves thousands of times a day: “What’s in it for me?” or what is referred to on this slide as the WIIFM filter. This is no easy task.
- You have about 6-12 seconds to convince your audience that your message will be useful to them. This phenomenon is called the six second factor. To do this you have four main tools to work with: Your title (Does it stop your busy target reader dead in his/her tracks?); your subtitle (Does it promise something of interest to your audience?); the design of your email or direct mail piece (Is it feature laden and include lengthy copy or is it a quick read?); and your landing page (Does it cut to the chase by delivering a resonating value proposition that is easy to understand and memorable? These are the things that you need to think about before crafting your message in order to break through the WIIFM filter.
- And lastly, you’ll want to measure your success. As stated earlier, branding increases the long-term value of your business, but it takes time and you’ll want to set checkpoints along the way to measure how you are progressing. You don’t have the time and resources to measure everything, so here are four key performance indicators (or KPIs) that are arguably among the most important to measure. They include: Premium price; customer franchise (which measures the aggregate value of the purchases from customers who buy from your company repetitively); rate of new product acceptance; and Net-advocate score (which measures the percentage of customers who are advocates or promoters of your brand minus the percentage who are detractors). You will want to define what metrics you plan to measure early in the process and lay the groundwork internally for this to happen. I can’t stress the importance of doing this enough because it closes the loop by validating that you are on the right track toward accomplishing your longer-term objectives.
- Now, let’s briefly look at a couple of case studies. These were chosen for a couple of reasons: First, I have intimate knowledge because I was directly responsible for these branding initiatives. And secondly, they represent real-world situations involving smaller B2B businesses that are now reaping the rewards of successful branding.
- This first case study is for Quad/Graphics Special Interest Publications Group or QuadSIP as we refer to it internally. Quad/Graphics is our parent company and QuadSIP is now one of our operating units. In the fall of 2009 when we began this project, Quad’s reputation for quality and innovation was well established among leading retail and publishing brands. But, Quad was looking to enter the special interest publishing market where it had little or no awareness. Our leadership team saw the need to establish a baseline to measure changes in awareness and perceptions as its sales and marketing efforts unfolded to quickly establish a strong leadership position in this growing market.
- We conducted a quantitative benchmark study and learned, indeed, that well over half of the market was unaware of Quad. We also learned that quality was the primary driver of purchase decisions. This was a bit of a surprise because price was believed by the sales team to be the most important criteria prior to conducting the survey. The needs for flexibility and proactive customer service were also identified as important criteria because this market is largely comprised of small business owners with limited resources that need short production cycle times to attract advertisers. These insights learned from the brand audit were then used to develop the new brand positioning and marketing communications plan for this new business unit.
- The “caretaker” was selected as the brand archetype and the final positioning statement reads as follows: “QuadSIP resets the standards for the industry in print quality and customer care, and enables special interest publishers to do more by freeing their time to focus on their core competencies.”
- The new brand positioning drove the key message as well as the look and feel of the landing page that you see here. It was also consistently applied to all of this business unit’s other marketing materials, including its sales literature, newsletter, tradeshow booth and direct marketing campaigns.
- One year later, we conducted the same survey again and learned that our investment in sales and marketing was definitely on the right track. Awareness more than doubled and catapulted Quad’s ranking to become the 2nd most highly recognized brand in all of printing. Quad is also now perceived as the top brand for quality and innovation, and Quad has already acquired over 100 new customers during its short tenure in the marketplace. The ship is definitely sailing in the right direction and this business unit is well on the way toward accomplishing its sales, marketing and financial goals.
- Our second case study features The International Design Guild (referred to internally as The Guild). The Guild is an alliance of high-end floor covering showrooms that operates 100 locations throughout North America. The Guild’s products are sold to interior designers and luxury consumers. The Guild’s president was looking to broaden the scope of the organization’s product lines to include area rugs, hard surfaces and less expensive carpets to better meet the changing needs of the marketplace. It was challenging, though,to convince the showroom owners that it would be in their best interest to do this because of the additional investments that would be required. The Guild’s own proprietary high-end line of carpets, called The Dabbieri Collection, was also not receiving the attention it deserved from showroom members.
- Sofirst, we conducted in-depth interviews with influential showroom members and a professional organization of interior designers to better understand their needs, goals, awareness and perceptions. We learned that lack of awareness was a huge problem for The Guild, The Dabbieri Collection, and even for the member showrooms in their local communities. We also learned that there was overwhelming interest by the design community in The Dabbieri Collection as well as The Guild’s strategy to expand into additional flooring products.The interviews with the interior designers were videotaped and presented to the showroom members at their annual conference. This 6-minute video clip provided a highly compelling argument that motivated the showroom members to expand their local marketing efforts and get behind and promote The Dabbieri Collection.Then, based the findings from the brand audit, we updated the brand positionings for both The Guild and The Dabbieri Collection, developed a brand-building communications strategy and launched a new website and other marketingmaterials for The Dabbieri Collection.
- The “creator” was selected as the brand archetype for the Dabbieri Signature Collection. The positioning statement reads as follows: “The Dabbieri Signature Collection offers the industry’s largest selection of designer-driven, high-quality flooring products, so interior designers and luxury consumers can create their own unique vision of style, elegance & sophistication.”
- It has been a bit challenging for us to get quantifiable data from the showroom owners, but our understanding is that the re-launch of The Dabbieri Collection brand has been highly successful.The Dabbieri Collection now includes new lines of hardwood floors and area rugs and has been successfully adopted by a large majority of the member showrooms.In spite of challenging economic times for luxury marketers in general, The Guild has continued to be amazingly successful in driving growth in showroom traffic and sales, and its membership has continued to grow.
- That concludes our presentation. I believe we have a few minutes left for questions, correct?
- Thanks very much for your time. Should you have any further questions or need anything further, please let me know. My contact info is included on the last slide.