This document discusses how to increase both sales and profits through branding. It argues that businesses often focus too much on revenue growth through price drops rather than profitable growth. It also argues that brands are often seen only as marketing tools rather than business assets that can generate profits. The document proposes that brands should be viewed as a business's purpose and foundation. It provides case studies of how focusing on brand experience over expression and aligning promises with delivery can help businesses grow profits through their brands.
Every corporate entity must create a brand and an image. this is not an easy task. but here is step by step points , with case examples. please download .and say so if you like and share it
The Good Brief - a no-frills guide to writing creative briefsKam Fatt Chen
A simple, no-nonsense guide to writing creative briefs that work. Complete with tips, pointers and cheat sheets to help you focus and distill the things that really to write an effective creative brief.
Every corporate entity must create a brand and an image. this is not an easy task. but here is step by step points , with case examples. please download .and say so if you like and share it
The Good Brief - a no-frills guide to writing creative briefsKam Fatt Chen
A simple, no-nonsense guide to writing creative briefs that work. Complete with tips, pointers and cheat sheets to help you focus and distill the things that really to write an effective creative brief.
Branding is about discovering and communicating the essence of your business and what it delivers to your customers. Your brand creates your business' reputation and its 'personality'.
Sandpaper – advice to shape your businessBen Sandman
Business development publication put together for the Australian marine industry (early 2011).
A collection of whitepaper-style articles offering branding, communications and media advice.
Starting a business...a guide on what to consider, brand identity, financing, culture, marketing, plus more. Includes interactive tools for you and your team.
Branding is the process of investigating, designing, and adding to your company a distinctive feature or collection of features so that customers can start associating your brand with your goods or services. Branding is an iterative process that involves getting in touch with the hearts of your clients and your company.
Guide to Promotional Items- Business.com Business.com
There are numerous benefits for gifting promotional items to existing or potential customers, or to long- term or high-performing employees. However, a few of these benefits are cited as the main reasons organizations use these items. Promotional items can help a business improve sales, bolster a reputation, and perform better financially. This whitepaper will help you do just that.
Presentation delivered by Susan Gunelius, President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., at the Entrepreneur Magazine and UPS Growth 2.0 Conference in Miami, Florida on January 26, 2010. Audience included small business owners and entrepreneurs.(www.keysplashcreative.com) (www.twitter.com/susangunelius)
Attraction is a Beautiful Thing
Whether it’s a business or a non-profit, your goal as a leader is to build, transform, and elevate your brand—so that you can attract attention, create buzz, nurture a preference, generate leads, and engender loyalty.
To do that, you need to understand the essential truths about your organization, interlace them with your audiences’ perspectives, and use that knowledge to create a smart and fearless presence that changes minds and inspires action.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ......................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................... 5
Vision & Voice ............................................................................... 6
Vision ............................................................................................. 6
Voice............................................................................................... 7
USP................................................................................................. 9
Name............................................................................................. 11
Slogans or Taglines ..................................................................... 13
Visual Branding ............................................................................ 15
Conclusion..................................................................................... 17
Resources ...................................................................................... 18
You may ask this:
1 branding is a which decision
2 do corporate branding
3 do cows feel branding
4 do good branding
5 do it yourself branding
6 do it yourself branding iron
7 do not disturb hotel branding
8 do tattoo shops do branding
9 do your own branding
10 do's and don'ts of branding
11 do's and don'ts of personal branding
12 how can branding add value to a product
13 how can branding benefit a business
14 how can branding help a business
15 how can branding influence customers
16 how can branding influence customers perception
17 how can companies create emotional branding
18 how can recruiters use branding effectively
19 how can strong branding benefit businesses
20 how can we do branding
21 how can you relate marketing and branding
22 how hot should a branding iron be
23 how important is branding
24 how long should a branding statement be
25 how much branding cost
26 how much does branding cost
27 how much for corporate branding
28 how much is a branding iron
29 how much is a branding package
30 how much is branding design
31 how much is vehicle branding
32 how much should i charge for branding
33 how much should i pay for branding
34 how much to budget for branding
35 how to be a branding consultant
36 how to branding
37 how to branding a product
38 how to branding your business
39 how to branding yourself
40 how to define branding
The slides from my inaugural creative brief writing workshop. Theory and practice. Attendees had to complete a brief prior to the session, and their work was used to illustrate best brief writing practice. More sessions to follow.
A quick study of the basics and importance of strategic brand development. By Fanen Acho, Headstart Consultimg Limited. Headstart is a strategy and innovation company
Branding is about discovering and communicating the essence of your business and what it delivers to your customers. Your brand creates your business' reputation and its 'personality'.
Sandpaper – advice to shape your businessBen Sandman
Business development publication put together for the Australian marine industry (early 2011).
A collection of whitepaper-style articles offering branding, communications and media advice.
Starting a business...a guide on what to consider, brand identity, financing, culture, marketing, plus more. Includes interactive tools for you and your team.
Branding is the process of investigating, designing, and adding to your company a distinctive feature or collection of features so that customers can start associating your brand with your goods or services. Branding is an iterative process that involves getting in touch with the hearts of your clients and your company.
Guide to Promotional Items- Business.com Business.com
There are numerous benefits for gifting promotional items to existing or potential customers, or to long- term or high-performing employees. However, a few of these benefits are cited as the main reasons organizations use these items. Promotional items can help a business improve sales, bolster a reputation, and perform better financially. This whitepaper will help you do just that.
Presentation delivered by Susan Gunelius, President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., at the Entrepreneur Magazine and UPS Growth 2.0 Conference in Miami, Florida on January 26, 2010. Audience included small business owners and entrepreneurs.(www.keysplashcreative.com) (www.twitter.com/susangunelius)
Attraction is a Beautiful Thing
Whether it’s a business or a non-profit, your goal as a leader is to build, transform, and elevate your brand—so that you can attract attention, create buzz, nurture a preference, generate leads, and engender loyalty.
To do that, you need to understand the essential truths about your organization, interlace them with your audiences’ perspectives, and use that knowledge to create a smart and fearless presence that changes minds and inspires action.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ......................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................... 5
Vision & Voice ............................................................................... 6
Vision ............................................................................................. 6
Voice............................................................................................... 7
USP................................................................................................. 9
Name............................................................................................. 11
Slogans or Taglines ..................................................................... 13
Visual Branding ............................................................................ 15
Conclusion..................................................................................... 17
Resources ...................................................................................... 18
You may ask this:
1 branding is a which decision
2 do corporate branding
3 do cows feel branding
4 do good branding
5 do it yourself branding
6 do it yourself branding iron
7 do not disturb hotel branding
8 do tattoo shops do branding
9 do your own branding
10 do's and don'ts of branding
11 do's and don'ts of personal branding
12 how can branding add value to a product
13 how can branding benefit a business
14 how can branding help a business
15 how can branding influence customers
16 how can branding influence customers perception
17 how can companies create emotional branding
18 how can recruiters use branding effectively
19 how can strong branding benefit businesses
20 how can we do branding
21 how can you relate marketing and branding
22 how hot should a branding iron be
23 how important is branding
24 how long should a branding statement be
25 how much branding cost
26 how much does branding cost
27 how much for corporate branding
28 how much is a branding iron
29 how much is a branding package
30 how much is branding design
31 how much is vehicle branding
32 how much should i charge for branding
33 how much should i pay for branding
34 how much to budget for branding
35 how to be a branding consultant
36 how to branding
37 how to branding a product
38 how to branding your business
39 how to branding yourself
40 how to define branding
The slides from my inaugural creative brief writing workshop. Theory and practice. Attendees had to complete a brief prior to the session, and their work was used to illustrate best brief writing practice. More sessions to follow.
A quick study of the basics and importance of strategic brand development. By Fanen Acho, Headstart Consultimg Limited. Headstart is a strategy and innovation company
If you asked a customer what they think about your business, how would they respond? Would they recognize your logo or be able to recite your slogan? Would they talk about the quality of your product? Maybe they'd talk about how much they love working with your employees.
These perceptions – both positive and negative – are what form your brand, your company image. A memorable brand will define your business, separate you from the pack, and create loyal customers. So how you do you build a effective brand?
This presentation will help you:
1. UNDERSTAND YOUR BRAND. We’ll learn what comprises your brand and how you already have one... whether you knew it or not!
2. BUILD YOUR BRAND. Your brand is far more than just your logo. We’ll discuss how to discover your brand and make a “brand promise.”
3. STICK WITH IT. The biggest branding challenge is getting enough exposure. You’ll learn why consistency – and patience – are key.
Here is a chance to create a "big idea" for your brand, which that big idea is then used through the organization. It would help frame the long range Brand Strategic Road Map, helping to frame the brand promise, strategy, story, freshness and experience behind the brand. That big idea also gets used to tell the brand's story, both internally through vision, values and behaviours, and externally by creating a brand position in the minds/hearts of consumers through mass communication, logos/packaging and the inshore experience.
Workshop for Brand Leaders to make them smarter at media planning and help them make better decisions with their Brands. We help the Brand Leader look at media as an investment within the planning process, assess media’s role in your advertising, and show strengths/weaknesses of both traditional and digital media.
This is the second session (Sep 8) of our Free Open Advanced Branding Masterclass at www.mootee.typepad.com. Pls rememebr no books are needed. We will forward additional reading material for all registered participants.
UNSTUCK: Use the Brand-As-Business Management Approach to Troubleshoot Your Business is a short guide that introduces six prevalent business issues and the solutions offered by the brand-as-business approach.
The Balanced Rebrand: The Art & Science of Brand BuildingEastwick
Read how to balance business value and emotional value to create an authentic brand that not only sets your business up for success, but also resonates to your audiences’ needs.
Brand Box 1 - Know Your Business - The Marketer's Ultimate ToolkitAshton Bishop
http://www.stepchangemarketing.com/
In this Slideshare presentation:
1. Brand Box 1 - Know Your Business 2. Credits 3. Contents 4. Introduction 5. Introduction 6. The Authors 7. Who do they work for? 8. How To 9. User's Guide 10. Actions from insights 11. An apology 12. Getting started 13. Familiarity exercises 14. Flip flop 15. Raw creativity 16. Infinity stairs 17. Necker cube 18. Are you sure of what you see? 19. Are you sure cont... 20. Are you sure cont... 21. Actions from insights 22. Let's get started 23. A bit about brands 24. What is a brand 25. A brand is more than just the product 26. Apple 27. Brands are like clothes hooks 28. Why brand building is so important 29. Brand building 30. Why bother? 31. Commitment beyond belief 32. Lovemark theory 33. Why do people need brands 34. 5 Ways brands can influence consumers 35. Identical products seeming different 36. Positive expectations 37. Inspire loyalty 38. Influence the price 39. The bad news 40. What are some brands in your world 40. So how do I build a brand? 41. Brand Roles 42. Roles cont... 43. Roles cont... 44.Glossary of terms 45. Brand Experience 46. What does brand experience mean 47. Functional benefits 48. Emotional benefits 49. Experience: Functional and emotional 50. Positioning and value propositions 51. Welcome to jargon land! 52. Features, value propositions and positioning 53. Features, benefits and Implications 54. How do you provide value 55. Value proposition 56. What do you do with value propositions 57. Example: Impulse 58. Example: Jaguar 59. Positioning: The battle for your mind 60. Brand Identity and positioning 61. The battle for the mind 62. Effective positioning 63. Positioning principles 64. Positioning: USP and ESP 65. USP: What is it? 66. ESP: What is it? 67. Example: Kleenex 68. Positioning: How is it done? 69. Developing a brand position 70. Positioning principles 71. Positioning: Work over time 72. BMW Case study 73. BMW The ultimate driving machine 74. Be relevant 75. Challenger brands 76. Positioning as a challenger brand 77. Positioning as a challenger brand 78. Positioning traps 79. Positioning pitfalls 80. Repositioning 81. Minds are hard to change 82. Brand Archetypes 83. Brand Archetypes 84. Brand Archetypes 85. The 12 archetypes 86. The 12 cont... 87. The 12 cont... 88. Brand Archetypes 89. Brand Archetypes 90. 3-Step tool to finding your archetype 91. 3- Step tool cont... 92. An archetype example 93. Additional archetypes 94. Additional archetypes 95. What do I do with my archetype 96. Naming brands 97. Names names names 98. The power of the name 99. The ear and the eye 100. How the ear failed 101. So how do you choose a good name 102. Give a dog a good name 103. Brand protection and strength 104. Protecting your value 105. Real brand value 106. Brand strength 107. Value to customers 108. Short term benefit and long term risk 109. Brand extensions 110. How strong is my brand 111. Leveraging your brand 112. Types of extensions ...
Financial curveballs sent many American families reeling in 2023. Household budgets were squeezed by rising interest rates, surging prices on everyday goods, and a stagnating housing market. Consumers were feeling strapped. That sentiment, however, appears to be waning. The question is, to what extent?
To take the pulse of consumers’ feelings about their financial well-being ahead of a highly anticipated election, ThinkNow conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey. The survey highlights consumers’ hopes and anxieties as we move into 2024. Let's unpack the key findings to gain insights about where we stand.
Monthly Social Media News Update May 2024Andy Lambert
TL;DR. These are the three themes that stood out to us over the course of last month.
1️⃣ Social media is becoming increasingly significant for brand discovery. Marketers are now understanding the impact of social and budgets are shifting accordingly.
2️⃣ Instagram’s new algorithm and latest guidance will help us maintain organic growth. Instagram continues to evolve, but Reels remains the most crucial tool for growth.
3️⃣ Collaboration will help us unlock growth. Who we work with will define how fast we grow. Meta continues to evolve their Creator Marketplace and now TikTok are beginning to push ‘collabs’ more too.
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
Top 3 Ways to Align Sales and Marketing Teams for Rapid GrowthDemandbase
In this session, Demandbase’s Stephanie Quinn, Sr. Director of Integrated and Digital Marketing, Devin Rosenberg, Director of Sales, and Kevin Rooney, Senior Director of Sales Development will share how sales and marketing shapes their day-to-day and what key areas are needed for true alignment.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
SEO as the Backbone of Digital MarketingFelipe Bazon
In this talk Felipe Bazon will share how him and his team at Hedgehog Digital share our journey of making C-Levels alike, specially CMOS realize that SEO is the backbone of digital marketing by showing how SEO can contribute to brand awareness, reputation and authority and above all how to use SEO to create more robust global marketing strategies.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
5 big bets to drive growth in 2024 without one additional marketing dollar AND how to adapt to the biggest shifting eCommerce trend- AI.
1) Romance Your Customers - Retention
2) ‘Alternative’ Lead Gen - Advocacy
3) The Beautiful Basics - Conversion Rate Optimization
4) Land that Bottom Line - Profitability
5) Roll the Dice - New Business Models
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
SMM Cheap - No. 1 SMM panel in the worldsmmpanel567
Boost your social media marketing with our SMM Panel services offering SMM Cheap services! Get cost-effective services for your business and increase followers, likes, and engagement across all social media platforms. Get affordable services perfect for businesses and influencers looking to increase their social proof. See how cheap SMM strategies can help improve your social media presence and be a pro at the social media game.
A brand new way to grow your business e book by mahesh enjeti (2017-01_25 20_03_31 utc)
1. BRAND
How to increase sales and profits simultaneously
MAHESH ENJETI
Brand Developer, Architect,
Builder and Restorer
A
NEW WAY
TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS?
3. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 3Contents
Brand standing: A view from the Grandstand
The BIG idea behind this little book
Your Brand is your purpose
Case Study: Sound Thinking
Brand value is Business value
Case Study: Norfolk Island
Experience first, expression later
Case Study: Bubblefish®
Matching promise with delivery
Case Study: ORBIZ
Build your Brand. Boost your business
Take a different Brand pathway. Talk to ME
About ME
4
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
CONTENTS
4. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 4
Weeks before I put the finishing touches to this little piece, I emailed a draft to Kevin
Luscombe^, asking if he would be kind enough to provide an appropriate preamble.
I greatly value Kevin’s business acumen and his marketing nous, but more importantly,
I have immense respect for him as a person.
This is what he had to say:
“It is 2016. Technology is enabling companies to find so many new
ways to build competitive advantage, change channels of sales and
distribution, track customer behaviour, and engage with individual
consumer needs.
The touchpoint of the customer impact in all these initiatives is the brand
(and I don’t mean ‘branding’). Yet there are so many people with the word
marketing in their job title who still do not understand the real role of
brands and how they create value, deliver cash flow, build profits and
grow companies.
No wonder the leaders vastly outnumber the followers.”
It was typically Kevin. Sharp, straight and sagacious.
Thank you, Kevin. I take this as a nod from you on the message in this nugget.
Mahesh Enjeti
Sydney
July 2016
Brand standing: A view from the Grandstand
BRAND STANDING:
A VIEW FROM THE GRANDSTAND
^ For those who do not know him, Kevin Luscombe AM is the Chairman of Growth Solutions Group,
a strategic consultancy based in Melbourne. His sharp intellect, rich experience inside market
trenches all the way to Australia’s Board rooms, his marketing savvy and leadership perspective
have been a source of inspiration and encouragement to many marketers, me included.
A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 4
6. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 6The BIG idea behind this little book
THE BIG IDEA BEHIND
THIS LITTLE BOOK
Actually, it was not one idea but two.
I have worked in Marketing for over 40 years now -
across sectors and segments, products and markets,
countries and challenges. Over this period, I have
noticed two distinct factors that seem to limit how well
businesses can perform.
Firstly, they seem to be chasing revenue rather than
growing profits. Sales become the primary driver - often
achieved by dropping price. Revenue increases, margins
decline, profits remain the same or even disappear.
Per Davidson, Paul Steffens and Jason Fitzsimmons,
in a chapter titled Growing profitable or growing
from profits: putting the horse in front of the cart1
,
demonstrate that SMEs that pursue profits at the
expense of growth are more likely to achieve high
profitability and high growth over time. On the other
hand, businesses that seek growth in sales while
sacrificing profitability end up with low growth and low
profitability as the years go by. A revealing insight!
For large companies, Bain and company’s work on the
provides a good perspective on
sustainable growth.
This booklet shows how businesses can grow sales while
also making profits.
1 The chapter appears in a book titled New Perspectives on
Firm Growth by Per Davidsson and Johan Wiklund, Edward
Elgar, 2013. Its findings are based on research undertaken
in both Sweden and Australia.
The second factor limiting performance stems from
businesses being unable to leverage the power of their
brands. Brands merely become the means to increasing
awareness and expanding sales. Their value has mostly
to do with value for the consumer, rarely about profits
for the business.
There is a different way to look at brands, not as a
marketing cost but as a business investment that
generates incremental profit. A way that allows brands to
deliver value to the business as much as to the consumer.
This booklet is an attempt to connect these two ideas
- profitable sales growth and sustained brand value - to
help businesses in building long term prosperity. You will
find in its pages an approach to building your business
that will work each time, every time if you are passionate
and committed to your task and learn to be smart about
how you spend your dollars. I have applied these lessons
in my corporate and consulting life, mostly in large
companies, and now want to share it more widely.
This is a little book that can make a huge difference to
your business.
8. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 8Your Brand is your purpose
A while ago, I created a consumer brand for a clever piece of ingredient audio
technology that went into devices such as television sets, portable audio, video games
and mobile phones. The techies were ecstatic about the ‘code’ that was at its heart.
Digital signal processing enabled a range of amazing features such as listening to “Hotel
California” the way you wanted it, or watching “Psycho” at night by enhancing whispers
and subduing screams so you enjoyed the film while others were fast asleep.
Take away the technical wizardry and there was one core purpose left - “The personal
enjoyment of sound” i.e. the ability to alter sound, and experience it according to your
taste. This purpose became the inspiration for a powerful visual metaphor - the sea shell
that captured the unique property of the brand to both create and consume sound.
Knowing your underlying purpose can clarify and shape your brand thinking.
SOUND THINKING
YOUR BRAND IS
YOUR PURPOSE
9. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 9Brand value is Business value
BRAND VALUE IS
BUSINESS VALUE
When we hear the words ‘Brand value’, we often think in
terms of how valuable your brand is to your customers
- which is critical because customers will not buy what
you have to offer if they don’t see enough value in
it. (That is, if the value you deliver is not as much as
what your competitors provide for the same price).
However, there is another side to ‘Brand value’ which
is rarely considered: What is the value of your brand
to the business? This value is critical because it has
the potential to build both sales and profits (explained
further on page 15).
Brands are particularly relevant when problems arise e.g.
when sales stagnate and profits decline as a result of:
1. Worsening economic conditions
2. Emergence of competition (e.g. a new entrant,
disruptive technology….)
3. Changes in target market composition (or their
behaviour)
Businesses often respond to such challenges by
dropping prices, refreshing their look and feel, launching
a new campaign, etc. none of which usually works
because the underlying reasons for declining sales/
profits are not adequately addressed.
The building blocks of your business model drive the
value of your Brand
Before embarking on any communications activity:
a) validate the segments you are targeting;
b) reassess your customer’s needs;
c) re-visit your core value proposition (the bundle
of tangible and intangible benefits that your
product or service provides);
d) critically examine all your costs of production
and delivery and your processes;
e) review your pricing and
f) objectively compare yourself against key
competitors
(How you rank against competition influences your share
of wallet, a fact well documented in the book “The Wallet
Allocation Rule” by T Keiningham et al).
Consumer insight and a better understanding of your
business model as well as its context can help shape
your brand experience, an experience that is defined by
your purpose and delivered by your people. True brand
value stems from brand experience that flows directly
from your business model.
10. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 10Your Brand is your purpose
Norfolk Island in the South Pacific was a popular holiday choice for older Australians.
Mostly in their seventies, visitors often came back to relive their fond memories. But,
this was a declining segment so the destination had to develop newer, younger markets.
However, the value proposition was weak to those who were unaware of it. What could
an island 5 kms. by 8 kms. offer for a week-long holiday?
The place (including a range of activities), its past (layers of history) and people
(heritage and culture) that together made up the Brand experience inspired the concept
of “The World of Norfolk” and the promise “Small world. No small wonder.” They
helped to differentiate Norfolk Island as a world in itself no longer directly competing
against other larger, more resourceful South Pacific islands which had much more to
offer. The experience became the Brand. The Brand was the experience. True value.
CASE STUDY: NORFOLK ISLAND
BRAND VALUE IS
BUSINESS VALUE
Image credit: Norfolk Tourism
11. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 11Experience first, expression later
EXPERIENCE FIRST,
EXPRESSION LATER
Business owners/managers are easily inclined to spend
money on a facebook campaign, revamping their
company website, making a new TV commercial, redoing
a brochure, or producing new Point of Sale (POS)
material. At times, they might choose to rebrand their
business or refresh its brand identify – usually involving
a name change, a new logo, tagline or colour scheme.
Surely, all these deliver tangible benefits. For instance,
campaigns and websites are visible, attract public
attention, make you feel good and are something you
can show off proudly to others.
Each one of them can most certainly help in enhancing
the awareness and appeal of your products/services
and has the potential to influence your customers and
prospects to take a fresh look at whatever you are
selling. But, they are merely an expression of your brand.
Make expression a reflection of your experience
A more important aspect is your brand experience,
the bundle of benefits and satisfaction sought by your
customer. Before you spend any dollars on shaping
your brand expression, you need to first get your brand
experience right. Otherwise, you could be building your
brand on a very shaky foundation.
Remember, the best ad campaign cannot overcome
serious shortcomings in your brand experience.
Find a creative agency that makes the effort to
understand your business and knows how to build
brands, not just churn out campaigns. The magic of
creativity and the logic of strategy must work together.
12. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 12
A couple of years ago, I met Delia Suteja, a young business woman who had successfully
run her own creative design agency, Bubblefish, for nearly 10 years. I agreed to mentor
her once I sensed her purpose and passion in building brands.
Here was a rare instance where Brand experience was not quite matched by expression.
Her agency was committed to delivering business results for its clients. With my input,
it became even more determined to be insights led and strategy driven. It was time for
Bubblefish to reposition itself and revamp its expression. Simultaneously fine-tuning
its target selection (towards more growth oriented clients) and service offering (from
building websites to building brands and businesses).
The change in messaging across web, social media, credentials, electronic mail and
proposals reflected Bubblefish’s new promise: “Scaling up your business.”. A brand
expression better aligned with brand experience led to improved bottom line results and
more team satisfaction. I am now associated with Bubblefish as an Advisor.
Experience first, expression later
CASE STUDY: BUBBLEFISH®
EXPERIENCE FIRST,
EXPRESSION LATER
13. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 13
We have seen the importance of getting the experience
right before working on the brand expression. There
is another reason why it is critical to align brand
expression with brand experience.
Expression represents the promise you make to
your customer. It is reflected in how your product
is showcased through your promotion - all your
advertising, your email campaigns, your social media
content, your store front, and the messaging on your
packaging. Expression is about how you communicate
value to the consumer.
Experience, on the other hand, is about the delivery of
that promise. Defined by your purpose and dependent
on your people, it has to do with performance. Is the
product or service doing the job it is meant to do, and is
it doing this better than competition? Is the perceived
value of what customers are buying more than the price
they are paying for it? Experience is about how you
deliver value to the consumer.
Promise only what you can deliver
We often tend to be fixated with expression, how good
our product looks, how clever our advertising is, how
many people like our Facebook page - almost to the
point of falling in love with our own communication.
Instead, we need to be more concerned about how
closely our product performance matches its promise.
There is no doubt that Marketing is about creativity
and that products/services should have an aspirational
appeal. But overpromising and under delivering is the
surest way to destroy the value of any brand. When
a product falls short of its promise, consumers are
reluctant to buy it again. After all, your brand is a promise
that your product or service will provide consistent
quality and assured value each time it is bought.
Matching promise with delivery
MATCHING PROMISE
WITH DELIVERY
14. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 14
A young operations management consultancy approached Bubblefish seeking to
establish a distinctive corporate profile in a competitive market.
Delia and I discovered that their purpose was performance improvement using
sophisticated lean techniques. The client agreed with our recommendation not to sound
too technical like other operations management experts, or assume a superior stance
associated with some management consultants. This led us to develop a communication
platform based on the simplicity of the service delivery model that the firm’s clients
would experience during every engagement (whatever their size or sector). The promise
was perfectly aligned with actual delivery.
“ORBIZ Performance specialists. Simplifying operations. Amplifying outcomes.”
became the Brand expression for an experience that was founded on the VIRTUOUS
CICLE of Purpose, People, Process and Performance (the letters CI in CICLE
represented Continuous Improvement).
Matching promise with delivery
CASE STUDY: ORBIZ
MATCHING PROMISE
WITH DELIVERY
15. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 15Build your Brand. Boost your business.
BUILD YOUR BRAND.
BOOST YOUR BUSINESS.
Imagine you are selling 1000 units of a product that
costs $70 at $100 each to make a total profit of
$30 000 {1000x (100-70)}. Now, assume you are
able to reduce the price by ten dollars, and sell 10%
more i.e. 1100 units. Assume also that there is a 5%
saving in the production cost because of higher volume.
The profit per unit is now $23.50 ($90 less $66.50).
Total profit is now $25 850 (1100x$23.50) which is still
less than the profit made prior to the price reduction.
So the effect of a price decline, despite any economies
of scale, could potentially diminish overall profits.
Sustainable growth (as we have seen on page 6) comes
from profits. Marketing’s role is to grow profits not sales.
(Of course, a price reduction can be a useful short-term lever
to disrupt competition).
When brand expression is backed by brand experience
i.e. brand promise is matched by brand delivery,
there are two distinct benefits. Firstly, more people
in the target segment are able to clearly see there is
commensurate value obtained for the price paid. A
stronger brand (achieved through consistent brand
building) can gain more sales without having to lower
the price. A spin-off benefit is the ability to occasionally
launch short term promotions without diluting the value
of the brand.
In the above example, if sales were to go up by 5%
without any reduction in price, the total profit would
increase by 5% to $31 500 (1050x30).
Secondly, a stronger brand can also ensure that your
customers perceive a higher value for the price paid. This
gives the business the freedom to raise prices without
sacrificing volume. In the same example, assume you are
able to increase the price by 2% with no change in sales
volume because of the pull of a stronger brand. Profits will
increase by $2 000 or 6.67% to $32 000 {1000x (102-70)}.
A small increase in price can thus deliver a proportionately
larger increase in profits.
To summarise, brand value built on the back of a great
brand experience and supported by creative brand
expression can manifest in two ways – selling more
without reducing prices or being able to charge a price
premium without sacrificing volume. If businesses begin
to purposefully invest in ‘Brand building’, it is possible to
achieve both outcomes at the same time because of a
multiplier effect. Higher profits allow future incremental
investment in the brand, leading to more growth.
The combined effect of increased sales and higher
margins is what makes a business successful in the
longer term.
The inherent value of a brand is in its power to grow
sales and command a better price. Next time when you
choose to spend money on any marketing activity, ask
yourself how this will help enhance ‘Brand value’.
16. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 16Take a different Brand pathway. Talk to ME.
TAKE A DIFFERENT BRAND PATHWAY.
TALK TO ME
In my day to day work, I come across scores of business people as clients, prospects,
students (in my MBA classes) or as mentees.
Some have a clear vision but many have ended up doing what they are by sheer
accident. Or because it seemed like a good idea at the time. For others, it may have
been the only available option.
Whatever your circumstance, it’s never too late to think about your vision and your
purpose (whether gainful or noble), because these are the building blocks for your
brand as well as your business.
If you are unsure how to go about this, I am happy to help you get started. I will set
aside up to 90 minutes exclusively for you at a mutually convenient time and place (or
virtual space). No strings attached. I can only offer a few spots each quarter.
If after that meeting you are keen to build your brand and grow your business
profitably, we meet again to scope your project. This will include what we can do to
get your brand experience right and how we go about matching this experience with
the right expression - so you have a twin pronged growth solution.
Size doesn’t matter. What you prize more does.
It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is. I am willing to talk to anyone.
The only requirement - you need to believe in the value of your brand and be seriously
committed to building it. The path will not be easy or quick. It will take time and effort,
passion and perseverance and a reasonable investment. But I can assure you, it will be
more than rewarding both materially and intellectually.
Take the first step. I look forward to connecting with you.
Warmly,
Mahesh Enjeti
Call me
+61 2 8206 2482
Text me
+61 425 254 659
Link in with me
Email me
17. A BRAND NEW WAY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 17About ME
ABOUT ME
Mahesh Enjeti, Managing Director of SAI Marketing
Counsel and Advisor, Bubblefish Creative Brand
Building, combines the best in management and
marketing consulting to create sustainable profits for
clients' businesses.
Over four decades, Mahesh has worked with hundreds of
brands across every conceivable sector. These include
names such as Allergan, Coromandel International, DCM,
DOLBY, Hawkins Cookers, Hunter Regional Economic
Development, Indian Overseas Bank, ITC Hotels, LG,
Maxxium, Norfolk Island Tourism, Sheraton, TABCORP,
The George Institute for Global Health, Tourism
Australia, Tourism Tasmania, VISA and more.
Since 2014, Mahesh has worked closely with Bubblefish
in building brands for a naturally flavoured water (Sol.
QUENCH and Sol. ESPRIT), a boutique operations
management consultancy (ORBIZ Performance
Specialists), a bubble tea franchise operation
(QueenTea) and a home-grown, all natural, West African
hair and skin beauty range (Pure Persona).
Mahesh has won Awards for marketing effectiveness
and excellence in New York, New Delhi, Hong Kong,
Singapore and Sydney and has been published
worldwide (e.g. Market Leader, UK, Professional
Marketing Australia, CMO Council and HSMAI Marketing
Review, USA).
Mahesh teaches Leadership, Strategy, Marketing,
Entrepreneurship while also mentoring students
undertaking practical business projects at the Sydney
Graduate School of Management, a part of Western
Sydney University. He is involved as Strategy Lead
in the 5-day Executive Development Programme for
Visiting C-Suite Managers from Malaysia.
Mahesh has served on the Board of the Australian
Marketing Institute and on the judging panel of the AMI
Awards for Marketing Excellence over several years. In
2016, he also judged entries to the Stevie International
Business Awards. The year saw Mahesh chosen as a
Regional Finalist in the Business Leader category at the
New South Wales Business Chamber Awards 2016.
With an honours degree in Physics and a PGDM from
IIM Calcutta, Mahesh is also a Fellow of the Australian
Institute of Management, Fellow of the Australian
Marketing Institute and a Member of the UK
Marketing Society and the Australian Market & Social
Research Society.