This is a world where you and your competitors are largely selling products with similar benefits and features.
This is a world where the fragmentation of media makes it tougher to get your message to your consumers.
This is a world where brand owners find their trade customers are not only their access to consumers - but increasingly their biggest competitors.
This is a world where you need to think about how you you can ensure that you are building a long term competitive advantage based on a unique, different but relevant and compelling offer to your consumers.
In order to do this, what few key things should you be doing to make you different enough to generate value and long term growth in today's competitive global marketplace?"
10 tips on avoiding an early grave for your brand or companyGary Bembridge
Based on observing brands that have died, seem to be dying and those that were revived or are thriving, here are 10 tips and observations about what do brands that survive and thrive do. This was a talk I did at Marketing Forum 2010.
What makes your brand different? A guide to being more competitiveguest18b160
This is a world where you and your competitors are largely selling products with similar benefits and features.
This is a world where the fragmentation of media makes it tougher to get your message to your consumers.
This is a world where brand owners find their trade customers are not only their access to consumers - but increasingly their biggest competitors.
This is a world where you need to think about how you you can ensure that you are building a long term competitive advantage based on a unique, different but relevant and compelling offer to your consumers.
In order to do this, what few key things should you be doing to make you different enough to generate value and long term growth in today's competitive global marketplace?"
A workshop presented at the National Scenic Byways Convention discussing how to create a charismatic brand for your byway that encompasses each community\'s intrinsic qualities under one theme.
The document discusses branding and storytelling for businesses. It uses Kimpton Hotels as a case study, noting the key aspects of their brand which convey whimsy, fun and individuality. It emphasizes using research to understand a brand's DNA and how customers perceive it. For adventure travel companies, it suggests determining how the company is a unique chapter in the adventure travel story by focusing on what category it is in, how it differs, its customers and why it is important.
Cult brands create extremely loyal customers who feel a strong emotional connection to the brand and will not consider other brands. Cult brands fulfill higher psychological needs for their customers and become an important part of their identity and social groups. They develop deep communities and prioritize customer feedback to continuously serve existing loyal fans. Some characteristics of cult brands include promoting self-expression, daring innovation, celebrating lifestyles, being inclusive, and empowering customers.
The document discusses what cult brands are and how to create them. It defines cult brands as brands that command extreme customer loyalty and devotion. It then lists seven rules for cult branding: 1) appeal to consumers' desire to belong to unique social groups, 2) take risks and push boundaries with new products, 3) make products fun and help customers celebrate lifestyles, 4) focus on serving existing customers, 5) continually give back to loyal customers, 6) openly embrace all interested customers, and 7) promote freedom and nonconformity while providing memorable experiences. The purpose is to help companies learn how to develop the same intense loyalty for their own brands.
10 tips on avoiding an early grave for your brand or companyGary Bembridge
Based on observing brands that have died, seem to be dying and those that were revived or are thriving, here are 10 tips and observations about what do brands that survive and thrive do. This was a talk I did at Marketing Forum 2010.
What makes your brand different? A guide to being more competitiveguest18b160
This is a world where you and your competitors are largely selling products with similar benefits and features.
This is a world where the fragmentation of media makes it tougher to get your message to your consumers.
This is a world where brand owners find their trade customers are not only their access to consumers - but increasingly their biggest competitors.
This is a world where you need to think about how you you can ensure that you are building a long term competitive advantage based on a unique, different but relevant and compelling offer to your consumers.
In order to do this, what few key things should you be doing to make you different enough to generate value and long term growth in today's competitive global marketplace?"
A workshop presented at the National Scenic Byways Convention discussing how to create a charismatic brand for your byway that encompasses each community\'s intrinsic qualities under one theme.
The document discusses branding and storytelling for businesses. It uses Kimpton Hotels as a case study, noting the key aspects of their brand which convey whimsy, fun and individuality. It emphasizes using research to understand a brand's DNA and how customers perceive it. For adventure travel companies, it suggests determining how the company is a unique chapter in the adventure travel story by focusing on what category it is in, how it differs, its customers and why it is important.
Cult brands create extremely loyal customers who feel a strong emotional connection to the brand and will not consider other brands. Cult brands fulfill higher psychological needs for their customers and become an important part of their identity and social groups. They develop deep communities and prioritize customer feedback to continuously serve existing loyal fans. Some characteristics of cult brands include promoting self-expression, daring innovation, celebrating lifestyles, being inclusive, and empowering customers.
The document discusses what cult brands are and how to create them. It defines cult brands as brands that command extreme customer loyalty and devotion. It then lists seven rules for cult branding: 1) appeal to consumers' desire to belong to unique social groups, 2) take risks and push boundaries with new products, 3) make products fun and help customers celebrate lifestyles, 4) focus on serving existing customers, 5) continually give back to loyal customers, 6) openly embrace all interested customers, and 7) promote freedom and nonconformity while providing memorable experiences. The purpose is to help companies learn how to develop the same intense loyalty for their own brands.
The document discusses branding and building a personal brand. It defines a brand as the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that influence a consumer's choice between products. Building a strong personal brand involves having a clear story, values and promises to deliver consistently through actions. People are their own brands, and should ask themselves how to enhance and reflect their desired brand through consistent behaviors.
Five common branding myths are busted in this document.
1. You do not own your brand because a brand exists in the minds of consumers based on their perceptions rather than your marketing.
2. Having "integrity" as a brand value is meaningless because integrity should be expected, not promoted. Specific promises and how you'll keep them are more effective.
3. A logo alone cannot convey all brand values because it must be simple but a brand's values are complex.
4. Attempting to copy another brand's voice will not be authentic - you must develop a voice that reflects your own uniqueness.
5. Advertising is not necessary to create a brand if you understand customers and focus on
An Introduction to Cult Branding provides the basic understanding of what Cult Brands are as well as the guiding principles they all share. Based on the research presented in The Power of Cult Branding, co-authored by BJ Bueno, this deck gives you the foundation needed to begin exploring authentic customer loyalty.
Cult brands develop extremely loyal customer bases, called "true believers", by selling a lifestyle rather than just a product. Apple and Harley Davidson are examples of cult brands - Apple builds products its fans want, while Harley Davidson fosters a culture of customization and owner clubs. Cult brands have advantages like low price sensitivity, strong competitiveness, and free word-of-mouth advertising from loyal customers. However, they also face challenges in adapting to changing markets and risks losing focus if management strays from the brand's core.
This document outlines various advertising techniques, including using beauty appeals, celebrity endorsements, lifestyle portrayals, peer approval, rhetorical questions, and scientific/statistical claims. Some examples provided are ads that try to make people feel more beautiful or intelligent by buying a product, that appeal to a sense of independence, or that try to make a product seem popular or necessary through statistics. Overall, the document discusses different strategies advertisers use to appeal to audiences and promote their products.
Different: Escaping the Competitive Herdjosh duncan
A few quotes from one of my favorite books of 2010 - Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, By Youngme Moon.
Full blog post here - http://www.arandomjog.com/2010/10/a-great-marketing-and-product-book-different/
POV: How to be a broadly relevant lifestyle brandJillian Hart
Here is a quick POV and best practices for brands who are looking to become more relevant with consumers while still maintaining luxury status.
published by www.ihartjillian.com
Marketing involves understanding customers to create value and satisfy their needs for profit. A brand represents a company/product through a singular concept owned in consumers' minds. Marketing helps brands understand customers for innovation while communicating positive messages. For example, Milo encourages exercise in kids and Vinacafe promotes family love. Brands in personal life distinguish products and build trust, like Bitis shoes known for durability. Personal branding also increases opportunities through a trusted reputation.
Creating luxury brand experiences through immersive activities and events. Brands discussed create memorable experiences for customers through curated events like Bentley's driving experiences in icy lakes in Finland, Ferrari's annual drive through Sicily for owners from 27 countries, and Maserati's driving courses paired with Italian cultural experiences. These bespoke experiences help connect customers emotionally to the brands and foster a sense of an exclusive community of owners.
Marketing helps brands understand customers to create products that satisfy needs and bring happiness. Brands communicate values through marketing that can make life better. For example, Milo encourages exercise in kids and Vinacafe promotes family love. When Uni Noodle faced competition, its "House of Little Moments" campaign redefined it as a nostalgic brand enjoying private moments, inspiring fusion recipes exploring customer moods. This revived the brand through viral videos and a pop-up shop, boosting sales 37% and media value.
The document outlines a marketing plan to revitalize the Quiznos brand. It introduces the creative team and provides a SWOT analysis. Research found that consumers value taste, quality, and convenience. The proposed target audience is those seeking an alternative to assembly line food. The big idea is to brand Quiznos as "A delicious escape from assembly line food" under the name "Qrave Escape? Qrave Quiznos." A commercial and social media campaign would promote winning a vacation. The total campaign budget is $26 million.
Jamba Juice, a smoothie and juice bar chain that provided nutritious meals and helped build healthy communities, has closed after 45 years in business. While it accomplished its goals of aiding well-being and influencing long-term good, competing chains still remain, such as Robeks Juice, Smoothie King, and locally owned smoothie restaurants. Jamba Juice's vision was to open more locations globally and continue positively impacting health for decades to come through riding powerful nutrition and lifestyle trends.
This document discusses important factors to consider when purchasing men's shoes. It recommends looking for shoes made of durable materials like leather that are sewn rather than glued. While quality shoes may cost a few hundred dollars, they are worth the investment to last longer and provide comfort. The document also suggests researching top shoe brands online by reading reviews to find the right style and fit for your needs and feet.
This document provides a report on a charity drive conducted by a group of students. It includes an executive summary highlighting the importance of teamwork. The objectives section outlines the charity's goals of donating proceeds to an orphanage to buy football equipment. A target market analysis describes the student customers and their preferences for coconut products over cookies. Competition from other student groups selling drinks and cookies is also analyzed.
The document discusses several advertising campaigns created by The Martin Agency, an ad agency founded in 1965 and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. It provides details on the founding and history of the agency, as well as campaigns they have created for clients like GEICO, Ritz crackers, and Walmart. Specifically, it summarizes the "Unskippable" campaign for GEICO that aims to capture attention in the first five seconds of YouTube ads, the "Life's Rich" campaign for Ritz focusing on meaningful relationships over possessions, and a "Steak-Over" campaign for Walmart replacing steaks at restaurants with their own steaks.
The document provides information about creativity and ideas from a presentation. It discusses that creativity comes from taking time, timing, being different, failing better, and having a vision. It also lists books about creativity. The presentation discusses how a clear brand story is the starting point for creativity, with the brand story having a what, how, and why. It emphasizes focusing storytelling on the why and being brave. The presentation concludes that everything a brand does should align with its brand story.
RetailOasis Big Breakfast: Garry Connell, CEO TrakRetailOasis
A presentation by Garry Connell from the RetailOasis Big Breakfast - talking about his time in New York City - his key observations from our Retail Tour and the National Retail Federation Big Breakfast.
Patricia Korbackova is pitching two article ideas and potential partnerships on behalf of luxury skincare brand YASOU and holistic health brand BeHealthfulRetreat.com. For YASOU, she proposes an article listing the skin benefits of ingredients like cucumber, jojoba oil, and grapeseed oil used in their products. She offers to provide samples and DIY tips using these ingredients. For BeHealthfulRetreat, she describes their upcoming conference and brand showcase, and invites the recipient to participate and discuss partnership opportunities to market to their database promoting natural products and holistic health.
Thomas Smith is an expert in brand creation and positioning who helps clients discover their brand's voice and tell compelling stories. His strategies have led brands from narrow distribution and $3 million in sales to widespread specialty store and department store placement and $10 million in retail sales. He specializes in developing online presences, viral marketing campaigns, and PR strategies that have generated coverage in major magazines. Smith also advises on product development, national account partnerships, and international expansion.
360 Degrees of Marketing: The Retail RevolutionFITCH
Wineries have an opportunity to differentiate with an Experience Signature. Michelle Fenstermaker presents at the Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium 2016.
The document discusses branding and building a personal brand. It defines a brand as the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that influence a consumer's choice between products. Building a strong personal brand involves having a clear story, values and promises to deliver consistently through actions. People are their own brands, and should ask themselves how to enhance and reflect their desired brand through consistent behaviors.
Five common branding myths are busted in this document.
1. You do not own your brand because a brand exists in the minds of consumers based on their perceptions rather than your marketing.
2. Having "integrity" as a brand value is meaningless because integrity should be expected, not promoted. Specific promises and how you'll keep them are more effective.
3. A logo alone cannot convey all brand values because it must be simple but a brand's values are complex.
4. Attempting to copy another brand's voice will not be authentic - you must develop a voice that reflects your own uniqueness.
5. Advertising is not necessary to create a brand if you understand customers and focus on
An Introduction to Cult Branding provides the basic understanding of what Cult Brands are as well as the guiding principles they all share. Based on the research presented in The Power of Cult Branding, co-authored by BJ Bueno, this deck gives you the foundation needed to begin exploring authentic customer loyalty.
Cult brands develop extremely loyal customer bases, called "true believers", by selling a lifestyle rather than just a product. Apple and Harley Davidson are examples of cult brands - Apple builds products its fans want, while Harley Davidson fosters a culture of customization and owner clubs. Cult brands have advantages like low price sensitivity, strong competitiveness, and free word-of-mouth advertising from loyal customers. However, they also face challenges in adapting to changing markets and risks losing focus if management strays from the brand's core.
This document outlines various advertising techniques, including using beauty appeals, celebrity endorsements, lifestyle portrayals, peer approval, rhetorical questions, and scientific/statistical claims. Some examples provided are ads that try to make people feel more beautiful or intelligent by buying a product, that appeal to a sense of independence, or that try to make a product seem popular or necessary through statistics. Overall, the document discusses different strategies advertisers use to appeal to audiences and promote their products.
Different: Escaping the Competitive Herdjosh duncan
A few quotes from one of my favorite books of 2010 - Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, By Youngme Moon.
Full blog post here - http://www.arandomjog.com/2010/10/a-great-marketing-and-product-book-different/
POV: How to be a broadly relevant lifestyle brandJillian Hart
Here is a quick POV and best practices for brands who are looking to become more relevant with consumers while still maintaining luxury status.
published by www.ihartjillian.com
Marketing involves understanding customers to create value and satisfy their needs for profit. A brand represents a company/product through a singular concept owned in consumers' minds. Marketing helps brands understand customers for innovation while communicating positive messages. For example, Milo encourages exercise in kids and Vinacafe promotes family love. Brands in personal life distinguish products and build trust, like Bitis shoes known for durability. Personal branding also increases opportunities through a trusted reputation.
Creating luxury brand experiences through immersive activities and events. Brands discussed create memorable experiences for customers through curated events like Bentley's driving experiences in icy lakes in Finland, Ferrari's annual drive through Sicily for owners from 27 countries, and Maserati's driving courses paired with Italian cultural experiences. These bespoke experiences help connect customers emotionally to the brands and foster a sense of an exclusive community of owners.
Marketing helps brands understand customers to create products that satisfy needs and bring happiness. Brands communicate values through marketing that can make life better. For example, Milo encourages exercise in kids and Vinacafe promotes family love. When Uni Noodle faced competition, its "House of Little Moments" campaign redefined it as a nostalgic brand enjoying private moments, inspiring fusion recipes exploring customer moods. This revived the brand through viral videos and a pop-up shop, boosting sales 37% and media value.
The document outlines a marketing plan to revitalize the Quiznos brand. It introduces the creative team and provides a SWOT analysis. Research found that consumers value taste, quality, and convenience. The proposed target audience is those seeking an alternative to assembly line food. The big idea is to brand Quiznos as "A delicious escape from assembly line food" under the name "Qrave Escape? Qrave Quiznos." A commercial and social media campaign would promote winning a vacation. The total campaign budget is $26 million.
Jamba Juice, a smoothie and juice bar chain that provided nutritious meals and helped build healthy communities, has closed after 45 years in business. While it accomplished its goals of aiding well-being and influencing long-term good, competing chains still remain, such as Robeks Juice, Smoothie King, and locally owned smoothie restaurants. Jamba Juice's vision was to open more locations globally and continue positively impacting health for decades to come through riding powerful nutrition and lifestyle trends.
This document discusses important factors to consider when purchasing men's shoes. It recommends looking for shoes made of durable materials like leather that are sewn rather than glued. While quality shoes may cost a few hundred dollars, they are worth the investment to last longer and provide comfort. The document also suggests researching top shoe brands online by reading reviews to find the right style and fit for your needs and feet.
This document provides a report on a charity drive conducted by a group of students. It includes an executive summary highlighting the importance of teamwork. The objectives section outlines the charity's goals of donating proceeds to an orphanage to buy football equipment. A target market analysis describes the student customers and their preferences for coconut products over cookies. Competition from other student groups selling drinks and cookies is also analyzed.
The document discusses several advertising campaigns created by The Martin Agency, an ad agency founded in 1965 and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. It provides details on the founding and history of the agency, as well as campaigns they have created for clients like GEICO, Ritz crackers, and Walmart. Specifically, it summarizes the "Unskippable" campaign for GEICO that aims to capture attention in the first five seconds of YouTube ads, the "Life's Rich" campaign for Ritz focusing on meaningful relationships over possessions, and a "Steak-Over" campaign for Walmart replacing steaks at restaurants with their own steaks.
The document provides information about creativity and ideas from a presentation. It discusses that creativity comes from taking time, timing, being different, failing better, and having a vision. It also lists books about creativity. The presentation discusses how a clear brand story is the starting point for creativity, with the brand story having a what, how, and why. It emphasizes focusing storytelling on the why and being brave. The presentation concludes that everything a brand does should align with its brand story.
RetailOasis Big Breakfast: Garry Connell, CEO TrakRetailOasis
A presentation by Garry Connell from the RetailOasis Big Breakfast - talking about his time in New York City - his key observations from our Retail Tour and the National Retail Federation Big Breakfast.
Patricia Korbackova is pitching two article ideas and potential partnerships on behalf of luxury skincare brand YASOU and holistic health brand BeHealthfulRetreat.com. For YASOU, she proposes an article listing the skin benefits of ingredients like cucumber, jojoba oil, and grapeseed oil used in their products. She offers to provide samples and DIY tips using these ingredients. For BeHealthfulRetreat, she describes their upcoming conference and brand showcase, and invites the recipient to participate and discuss partnership opportunities to market to their database promoting natural products and holistic health.
Thomas Smith is an expert in brand creation and positioning who helps clients discover their brand's voice and tell compelling stories. His strategies have led brands from narrow distribution and $3 million in sales to widespread specialty store and department store placement and $10 million in retail sales. He specializes in developing online presences, viral marketing campaigns, and PR strategies that have generated coverage in major magazines. Smith also advises on product development, national account partnerships, and international expansion.
360 Degrees of Marketing: The Retail RevolutionFITCH
Wineries have an opportunity to differentiate with an Experience Signature. Michelle Fenstermaker presents at the Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium 2016.
Marketing involves managing profitable customer relationships by meeting customer needs through products and value. Public relations also focuses on building relationships with stakeholders who can influence the company. While marketing focuses on products and branding, public relations focuses more broadly on the company and corporate messaging. Public relations both precedes and follows a product's lifecycle by establishing credibility for new products and managing perceptions after a product ends.
Zine is an international digital media agency that provides digital marketing strategies and inbound marketing campaigns using search marketing services, website content, blogging, social media, and video. They help clients engage with customers and generate sales through online relationship building and marketing messaging. The document then discusses how inbound marketing uses content to attract visitors and convert them into leads, close leads into customers through nurturing, and delight customers to turn them into brand promoters. It provides statistics on the effectiveness of inbound versus outbound marketing and outlines a methodology for an inbound marketing mix.
Paid, Owned and Earned media - how to build a P.O.E.M. strategy - starting with your Brand strategy. Slides of a course given for Solvay Business School in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
Your logo's great. How's your brand? | David Kelbaugh | PrintHustlers Conf 2019Printavo
David Kelbaugh from Tacklebox Brand Partners explains the what, why, and how of branding your business. Presented at Printavo's PrintHustlers Conf 2019, this presentation helps any business with branding. What does your business believe? Dive deep into developing a coherent, powerful, and meaningful brand for your print shop or screen printing business with this presentation.
The document discusses building brand love in B2B. It suggests that brand love can help B2B brands stand out from competitors by creating emotional connections with customers. Five questions are provided to help assess if a brand has the key aspects to cultivate love, such as having a vision for a better world that customers identify with. The document argues that brand love provides benefits like protection from competitors, room for mistakes, and positive word of mouth. It emphasizes that brands should express their vision consistently across all touchpoints to foster love.
Savings Highway is a company that allows members to earn income by sharing products and services from Fortune 500 companies with others. It has over 40,000 members globally and offers memberships, travel services, health and wellness products, and a compensation plan with the potential to earn residual income. The presentation provides information on the company's mission to help families become debt free and financially independent through sharing affordable products and services.
The document outlines six rules for honesty in media:
1) Prioritize greater good over profit by creating quality products that benefit consumers
2) Stop photo-shopping images to create unrealistic standards of beauty
3) Provide honest representations in advertising and clearly disclose any limitations or side effects
4) Embrace diversity and inclusiveness in representations
5) Avoid "green-washing" by only claiming environmental benefits when genuine improvements have been made
6) Ensure transparency through full disclosure of business practices, ingredients, and processes
A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. It is not a logo or identity, but rather the experiences people have that create feelings about a brand. Great brands create experiences that resonate emotionally with customers and help them achieve their goals, not just advertise products. A brand starts from within an organization's culture and employees, and is defined by what customers say about their experiences, not what a company says about itself.
Scott Bishop Omaha Advertising Expo Slides - OAX Scott Bishop
Slides from my Omaha Advertising Expo presentation.
How to Sell to the Right People, the Right Product, at the Right Time.
With the always-expanding fragmentation and personalization of media and audiences, businesses are increasingly losing the power to dictate their communications messaging. In today's uphill marketing battle the best way to maximize marketing ROI is to increase relevancy to your audience. In this session you'll learn what makes audiences click, share, and consume content. You'll learn how to make your business relevant to the right audience. And you'll learn how to maximize engagement with your current audience and how to go after the audience you want.
As a mentor in start-up Chile, I made a keynote a couple of months ago... and I got so many good reviews from the audience that i made it available for everyone. Hope it would help some. More at ritalinleon.com
Similar to What Makes Your Brand Different? Making your brand more competetive. (20)
Gary Bembridge Tips For Travellers Media Pack (July 2018)Gary Bembridge
Gary Bembridge runs the travel advice YouTube channel and blog "Tips For Travellers", which helps English-speaking travelers over 40 make the most of their travel time and money. The channel gets 550,000 video views per month and high viewer engagement, with an average watch time of over 5 minutes. It has a large audience that is mostly male, over 45 years old, and from the USA and UK. The channel has been successful, with 32 million total views and awards for its videos and blog.
How a blog position statement can revolutionise content creation (NMX New Med...Gary Bembridge
How you can apply business tools used by major companies to build their brands to build a better and more compelling blog. This draws on using a blog positioning statement which I presented at NMX New Media Expo in Las Vegas
How Bloggers Should Approach Brands : Gary Bembridge (MSC Cruises Traverse Ro...Gary Bembridge
This document provides tips for bloggers on how to approach brands for potential partnerships. It recommends that bloggers (1) understand the brand's specific marketing objectives and pitch a plan that helps them achieve those objectives, (2) show that their audience is a good fit for what the brand is offering, and (3) provide materials to brands that help sell a partnership internally and inspire confidence, such as a detailed written pitch, proposed reporting, and case studies. The tips are based on experience being both a client and blogger.
CLIA Webinar: Travel Blogs - what role do they play in a traveller's decision...Gary Bembridge
Webinar I ran for CLIA (Cruise Line International Association) UK & Ireland about Travel Blogs and the role they play on a traveller's decision making process. It covers what a blog and blogger is, what travellers are looking for, what content and approach if developing your own blog and how to engage with bloggers
World Travel Market London: Creating Content Travellers Really WantGary Bembridge
My presentation at WTM 2013 for TBU London was about creating content that travellers really want, highlighting some of the pitfalls and risks. I talk about the importance of bearing in mind that most people only travel once a year for an annual 2 week holiday - and what that means when creating content
Digital PR and blog trips: thinking beyond the press trips (Digital Tourism N...Gary Bembridge
Tips and advice on partnering with travel bloggers based on what travellers looking for from travel blogs, how to plan partnerships (including new models) and getting the most out of working with bloggers
TBEX Dublin 2013: How to develop your blog positioning statement (Gary Bembri...Gary Bembridge
The document discusses the importance of developing a clear positioning statement for a blog. It provides examples of positioning statements that define what a blog is about, who it is for, what it provides, and how it differs from others. An effective positioning statement ensures the blog content is focused, consistent, and attracts a specific, loyal audience. It should be referenced for all marketing and content creation decisions.
Travellers Versus Travel Bloggers. Content Use, Needs & Wants. White PaperGary Bembridge
White paper sharing the results of an independent study of what "regular" travellers use, want and need from travel content and information. It compares this to what travel bloggers think they want. Based on studies by Gary Bembridge of tipsfortravellers.com in partnership with TBU (Travel Bloggers Unite). First shared at TBU Rotterdam Conference 2013
Difference between bloggers and journalists. Why brands should consider worki...Gary Bembridge
A summary of the key differences between journalists and bloggers. What travellers are looking at getting from a blog. Why brands should work with blogs. This was prepared for a cruise industry roundtable discussion on the topics
Creating Content for Travellers Workshop: Content StrategyGary Bembridge
The document discusses developing a content strategy for travel bloggers. It emphasizes having a clear focus on specific topics, audiences, and the types of content provided. Key questions to consider include "What is the content about?", "Who is the content for?", "What specific content will be provided?", and "What makes the content different?" Answering these questions helps build a consistent strategy and loyal audience. The document provides examples and exercises to help bloggers define their own content strategy.
Creating Content For Travellers: TBU Rotterdam KeynoteGary Bembridge
Keynote talk at TBU (Travel Bloggers Unite) Conference in Rotterdam looking at what travellers are looking for in travel blogs - versus what travel bloggers think they want. Based on research I conducted for the TBU event exclusively
Brand Building: What makes you brand different? How having a brand belief can...Gary Bembridge
The document discusses how businesses need to differentiate themselves in today's competitive global marketplace. It emphasizes the importance of driving a distinctive product experience, communication experience, and shopper experience. To truly differentiate, businesses must also drive passion within their consumers by believing in something and communicating their beliefs. This passion and uniqueness will make the business different and generate long-term value and growth.
Digital Fundamentals: 10 things you need to know to develop a great digital s...Gary Bembridge
Digital Fundamentals: 10 things you need to know to develop a great digital stratgey and plan.
This is a talk I gave at Richmond Events Digital Marketing Briefing in London.
Digital Marketing with a Focus on Sustainabilitysssourabhsharma
Digital Marketing best practices including influencer marketing, content creators, and omnichannel marketing for Sustainable Brands at the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit 2024 in New York
Discover timeless style with the 2022 Vintage Roman Numerals Men's Ring. Crafted from premium stainless steel, this 6mm wide ring embodies elegance and durability. Perfect as a gift, it seamlessly blends classic Roman numeral detailing with modern sophistication, making it an ideal accessory for any occasion.
https://rb.gy/usj1a2
How are Lilac French Bulldogs Beauty Charming the World and Capturing Hearts....Lacey Max
“After being the most listed dog breed in the United States for 31
years in a row, the Labrador Retriever has dropped to second place
in the American Kennel Club's annual survey of the country's most
popular canines. The French Bulldog is the new top dog in the
United States as of 2022. The stylish puppy has ascended the
rankings in rapid time despite having health concerns and limited
color choices.”
Event Report - SAP Sapphire 2024 Orlando - lots of innovation and old challengesHolger Mueller
Holger Mueller of Constellation Research shares his key takeaways from SAP's Sapphire confernece, held in Orlando, June 3rd till 5th 2024, in the Orange Convention Center.
SATTA MATKA SATTA FAST RESULT KALYAN TOP MATKA RESULT KALYAN SATTA MATKA FAST RESULT MILAN RATAN RAJDHANI MAIN BAZAR MATKA FAST TIPS RESULT MATKA CHART JODI CHART PANEL CHART FREE FIX GAME SATTAMATKA ! MATKA MOBI SATTA 143 spboss.in TOP NO1 RESULT FULL RATE MATKA ONLINE GAME PLAY BY APP SPBOSS
Storytelling is an incredibly valuable tool to share data and information. To get the most impact from stories there are a number of key ingredients. These are based on science and human nature. Using these elements in a story you can deliver information impactfully, ensure action and drive change.
Unveiling the Dynamic Personalities, Key Dates, and Horoscope Insights: Gemin...my Pandit
Explore the fascinating world of the Gemini Zodiac Sign. Discover the unique personality traits, key dates, and horoscope insights of Gemini individuals. Learn how their sociable, communicative nature and boundless curiosity make them the dynamic explorers of the zodiac. Dive into the duality of the Gemini sign and understand their intellectual and adventurous spirit.
Industrial Tech SW: Category Renewal and CreationChristian Dahlen
Every industrial revolution has created a new set of categories and a new set of players.
Multiple new technologies have emerged, but Samsara and C3.ai are only two companies which have gone public so far.
Manufacturing startups constitute the largest pipeline share of unicorns and IPO candidates in the SF Bay Area, and software startups dominate in Germany.
Part 2 Deep Dive: Navigating the 2024 Slowdownjeffkluth1
Introduction
The global retail industry has weathered numerous storms, with the financial crisis of 2008 serving as a poignant reminder of the sector's resilience and adaptability. However, as we navigate the complex landscape of 2024, retailers face a unique set of challenges that demand innovative strategies and a fundamental shift in mindset. This white paper contrasts the impact of the 2008 recession on the retail sector with the current headwinds retailers are grappling with, while offering a comprehensive roadmap for success in this new paradigm.
Top mailing list providers in the USA.pptxJeremyPeirce1
Discover the top mailing list providers in the USA, offering targeted lists, segmentation, and analytics to optimize your marketing campaigns and drive engagement.
Best practices for project execution and deliveryCLIVE MINCHIN
A select set of project management best practices to keep your project on-track, on-cost and aligned to scope. Many firms have don't have the necessary skills, diligence, methods and oversight of their projects; this leads to slippage, higher costs and longer timeframes. Often firms have a history of projects that simply failed to move the needle. These best practices will help your firm avoid these pitfalls but they require fortitude to apply.
How to Implement a Real Estate CRM SoftwareSalesTown
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What Makes Your Brand Different? Making your brand more competetive.
1. "What makes you different?" This is a world where you and your competitors are largely selling products with similar benefits and features. This is a world where the fragmentation of media makes it tougher to get your message to your consumers. This is a world where brand owners find their trade customers are not only their access to consumers - but increasingly their biggest competitors. This is a world where you need to think about how you you can ensure that you are building a long term competitive advantage based on a unique, different but relevant and compelling offer to your consumers. In order to do this, what few key things should you be doing to make you different enough to generate value and long term growth in today's competitive global marketplace?"
15. As we believe that life is too short to settle for second best, but not so short you have to miss breakfast we have launched our 2 delicious chunky slices. These are handy ‘on the go’ versions of our cereals that have a high content of fruit, nuts and seeds held together naturally and they taste delicious. At Dorset Cereals we believe a healthy lifestyle isn’t just about what you eat. It’s also about enjoying the simple things in life. The moments that take you out of the daily routine, like the sound of a breeze stirring the tree tops, a game of beach rounders or the taste of the figs & grapes in these Naturally Light Flakes.
20. “ it’s no longer just enough for people to believe that your product does what it says on the label. They want to believe in you and what you do” “ We humans want to believe in our own species.. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature” Hugh MacLeod. Gapingvoid.com
21. People will never forget how you made them feel” “ People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but Anna Farmery. TheEngagingBrand.com
25. Einstein Bob Dylan Martin Luther King Richard Branson John Lennon Ali Ted Turner Amelia Earhart Ghandi Hitchcock Jim Henson Dali Picasso A young child..
41. Backstreet Boys: “What makes you different” 2000 “ You don't run with the crowd. You go your own way Got your own kind of style. That sets you apart” “ What's there inside you, shines through to me You got something so real. You touched me so deep” “ What makes you different, Makes you beautiful to me”
Hello, I am Gary Bembridge. Vice President Global Strategy & Marketing for the Global Beauty Care Business Unit of Johnson & Johnson. ( More detail as appropriate )
I was very pleased to be asked to come and talk on the topic of “what makes you different?” here at the “Marketing Forum” as being different is a topic that I am very passionate about and have a huge interest in. During this session today, I hope to convince you that there is one key starting point to being different successfully and that brands that are doing it best and the most successfully today all start with this one key thing. But before I get on to that, I thought it would be important to start this talk by defining what “being different” means. However, I wanted to avoid just using a dictionary definition of “different”, as that would not be different enough. Everyone does that. So I thought I would find out what philosophers or great thinkers think on the subject.
So I typed “what makes you different” into Google to see what great thinkers it would throw up, and what their answer to this deep and meaningful question would be. I clicked the “I’m feeling lucky” button. Now if you are not familiar with this option, this is supposed to take you to the best result for any search. So I did that. Now, I have to admit that I did not get exactly what I had expected. On the next chart I will reveal the group of thinkers that Google provided as the best answer to the question of “what makes you different” and I think you will also be surprised.
The Backstreet Boys! Yes the best answer to the question “WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT”, according to Google, lies in the wisdom of the 1980s/ 1990s boy band the “Backstreet Boys”. While I was at first amused and a bit disturbed, and even a little bit disturbed that my search had not pulled up anything more academic. But in the end I decided that it may be a different enough way of starting this talk. So I went along with it, and was pleasantly surprised. In fact, Google had suggested that I seek an answer in the Backstreet Boy’s song called “What makes you different?” So I did and this is what the Backstreet Boys told me:
As they say: “You don’t run with the crowd. You go your own way.” This actually, all joking apart, is a great definition of what makes you different. But there is one potential problem with not running with the crowd and going your own way. You may end up being different for the sake of being different . So how do you make sure that you “don’t run with the crowd” and that “you go your own way” in a way that ensures that you are meaningful , relevant and competitive ? In a way that makes sure that you will succeed?
My observation is that marketers do not spend enough time thinking about being different, as being the same is the easiest and least risky approach in the short term. In reality, we all get trapped into spending more time REACTING to our competition and short term events than focusing on ourselves and what makes us distinctive and different to our target customers or consumers. We know how it goes, the competition puts out a claim saying they get rid of spots in 2 days so we get one out saying we do it in less time. They cut their price and so we do. I believe, however, that fundamentally you are selling the same products or the same services as your competition. You need to find a long-term competitive advantage in everything you do that is driven by a core brand belief that is intriguing and relevant to your target. This will drive you to be distinctive That is what I hope to cover in this session today. I want to share with you some thoughts about how to ensure that while you are not running with the crowd, while you are going your own way - you can ensure that you are going the way that the consumer or customer ultimately loves and loves you for. About 5 or 6 weeks ago when I was pulling together my thoughts and preparing for this session, I was wrestling with the best way of bringing alive and illustrating the point in a way that would also be different and importantly relevant for as much of the audience as possible.
The risk with doing any presentation or talk on brands is that so often people tend to use the familiar, large or admired brands like Apple, Virgin and Nike. It can be frustrating for the audience as they can sometimes seem to not provide the relevance you are looking for as you try and see how you can apply some of these brand’s approaches when you are running say a small brand in a small private company or even a medium sized brand in a large company. Lots of stories and anecdotes about what these brands can be interesting and inspiring and I will come back to them later as we will see that if you simplify down the secret of their brand success it actually very relevant and very applicable to you. But I wanted to find something to start with that would be less grand, less well-known to first illustrate my points and hopefully show how the idea can apply to any one on any brand and category before coming back to these brands. I wanted something different! I wanted to use an example of something that was new even to me too! That (I thought) would really be a different approach! And then I went on a weekend away to stay with my partner’s family on the Devon and Dorset border
In the morning at breakfast time though I got very excited as I found a great example to use in this session. When I looked in the cupboard where they kept their cereals, I saw there were the very standard and similar looking boxes of Corn Flakes and Rice Crispies (some were probably branded and some were probably supermarket own brand as they all seem to look the same these days) as this image of a typical supermarket shelf shows. There was also something I had never seen before. The minute I saw it I knew I had an example, and this was what I saw
There on the shelf in the cupboard was a brand new to me that screamed out “I am different”. It was Dorset Cereals. Not only did the Dorset Cereals pack look different, but also the minute I picked up the pack and started to interact with it, it confirmed that I had indeed found a great example to use because there on the pack were THE magic words that give away the one thing that is the starting point and drives being different successfully. The magic words there on the pack are “WE BELIEVE”.
And this is what they say they believe “ We believe that life really is too short to settle for second best and that simple, honest pleasures are often the most rewarding ” Using Dorset Cereals and then a range of other brands at various stages of their development, I want to show you why I believe that a brand belief can be the starting point to transforming your brand and how it can drive making you different and more competitive. We will see how it is a catalyst to inspiring creativity and innovation and in ensuring not only are you different but you create a connection with consumers or customers. Notice this “we believe” statement is not explicitly about cereals or breakfast, but is a bigger idea. A bigger take on the world around us. We will see how this is important to a brand belief. The minute though I saw this distinctive pack I actually knew and expected to see the “we believe” thought. And when I got back to the office and did some investigation on the brand I found that it really was going to be a good example. Who here has heard of the brand? Does anyone here work on the brand? Once I have given my thoughts we need to hear from you!
This is what the brand looked liked before. This was in 2005, about 2 short years ago. Quite different to what it looks like now, isn’t it? The brand at this time acted like and looked like just about every other whole food, muesli, and good for you brand. Doesn’t it? So what happened and what can we learn from it? How did they get to here? ( Bring up image of new pack ) A brand that I believe grew 25% in its first year, is now sold in 60 countries and won Queen’s Export Awards and other awards. The brand was established in 1985. In 2005 the brand was acquired by a management buy–in team backed by the private equity firm Langholm Capital and this is when things really changed. The new team did one major thing that changed everything. They started by creating something inspiring that would drive everything about the brand - they created and adopted a brand belief. The one I showed you earlier that they have on their packs.
They adopted a brand belief that was inspiring. First and foremost brand beliefs are inspiring for the people who work on the brand – employees and partners. Imagine you were working on Dorset Cereals and the management come and say, from tomorrow I don’t want you to work on cereals – I want to work on creating and selling one of life’s little pleasures to go along with our consumers other healthy simple pleasures. Isn’t it? This is sure to create innovation and ideas, and so you should expect something unusual like the packaging to emerge. Asking your people to create one of life’s little pleasures will inspire people to be creative, be innovative and be distinctive and different. Let’s look at the brand belief in this case helped to drive the total offer. First of all it drove a overall brand proposition or core idea “our greatest pleasures are life’s simple everyday pleasures”
So how did that drive the product? We have seen what happened to the packaging. The product was already good I have heard. I am not sure how much they even changed the product formulation but look how the belief and proposition set them a simple and clear “product philosophy” See then how we see it flow through into the products, transforming a bowl of cereal for their target consumers into something more emotional, rewarding and passionate. It is now a story about indulging and being a simple pleasure. Take a look at the product here in the bowl. It looks different though to others as well. But more importantly for each product they tell a rich story story.
Look at what they say about their Flakes product: “ At Dorset Cereals we believe a healthy lifestyle isn’t just about what you eat. It’s also about enjoying the simple things in life. The moments that take you out of the daily routine, like the sound of a breeze stirring the tree tops, a game of beach rounders or the taste of the figs & grapes in these Naturally Light Flakes.” And for their cereal bars, look at how they link the product idea and rationale to the belief: “ As we believe that life is too short to settle for second best, but not so short you have to miss breakfast we have launched our 2 delicious chunky slices. These are handy ‘on the go’ versions of our cereals that have a high content of fruit, nuts and seeds held together naturally and they taste delicious”. The belief about creating one of life’s little pleasures even shows up in the way they talk and communicate about their products. And it is so much easier to write and innovate on this area with the inspiring belief!
So we saw how they already talk in a distinctive and different way linked to their belief. This sets the tone for their communication. This being a small brand does not TV advertise, and uses more the product and PR and placing products into the right context where they can bring the little pleasures idea alive. They don’t try to take the “big boys” on by running head-on straight into them and their TV and mass-media approach. This is a screen grab from their website taken in early August. This shows, as are the packs, all about suggesting and celebrating small pleasures and so builds and reinforces the belief. Getting consumers, for example, to send in photos of their simple pleasures that are shared, a daily pleasures screensaver and tips, a competition to win simple pleasure everyday and then sampling via Bloom festivals to reinforce naturalness and pleasures again.
When it comes to the “shopper experience”, the packs are the main area of differentiation and creating a different shopper experience. They leap out from the wall of sameness. They will need to evolve and change and maybe do more here to bring alive the “daily pleasure” as people try and copy their look.
But probably more important that what they do, is what response they get. If you have a belief you are more likely to engage with consumers as they get excited about what you are doing and the impact you make. I have already mentioned how reports say that they grew over 25% In their 1 st year but also they got a reaction beyond just sales that is important for longer term loyalty and differentiation. They got a response as they aroused PASSION in their consumers. You should expect to get a response to a belief and people identifying with you if you have a belief and are distinctive. This is an image I found on FLickr the photo sharing site. There are many of people commenting, celebrating and discussing how they feel about Dorset cereals, and showing how and why they enjoy the brand and what it stands for.
And here you see people discussing the product. It got a response, It arouses passions. I want to explore why that this.
There is quite a bit written on the topic but I found something very short and snappy that I think captures it well and cuts through all the blah-blah and will work in a short session like today’s one. A guy called Hugh MacLeod is a consultant and has an interesting blog called “Gapingvoid.com” where he posts his thoughts and also cartoons of business issues he draws on the back of business cards (which is what eh does to prove if an idea is clear and simple – of he can draw it on something as small as a business card it probably is a clear and simple idea! He wrote this.. “ We humans want to believe in our own species.. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature” “ it’s no longer just enough for people to believe that your product does what it says on the label. They want to believe in you and what you do”
A lady called Anna Farmery runs a blog and podcast called “The Engaging Brand” that can be found at theengagingbrand.com. She ahs a quote that summarizes her approach to leadership and branding that builds on this point. She says “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but People will never forget how you made them feel” This helps explain why having a brand belief is so important. It helps drive how you make people feel about your company and brand.
Let’s explore this a bit more. Think about people that you admire. Here are 5 people that have come up consistently as examples no matter where I the world I have asked the same question. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Ali and Ghandi. When I ask people why they admire them, they say because through their beliefs they connect or touch us in some way. They provoke passion in us. And passion and connection is what relationships are built on. As human beings we respond to people and brands that believe in something and do something about it. As Hugh MacLeod said – we admire people who believe in something and do something about it. But importantly, as with each of these people – it is BECAUSE they believed in something so strongly they went out and ACTED on it – in a way that was bold, distinctive and different from those around them. It is the result that makes us feel good about these people, even though we don’t know everything they did. This is the point that Anan Farmery makes. You don’t remember what they did eventually, but you do remember how they make you feel. The same is true of people who create brands. While they may not be as “worthy” as some of the people here on this chart – but like these people, people who create brands are visionaries. They start with a belief, and they do something about it!
Earlier on in this session I showed you these 3 brands, behind each of them is a person. A visionary. A person who had some clear beliefs which they did something about and created these large, distinctive and widely admired brands. They are Richard Branson (Virgin), Steve Jobs (Apple) and Phil Knight (Nike). All of these 3 are visionaries and succeeded by doing things differently. I would argue actually they have done things DISTINCTIVELY rather than differently as the risk with doing things “differently” is that you may not be relevant. I also believe that the way and reason they did things distinctively is that they have a fundamental belief for their brands. The best way to illustrate this is to hear directly.
I came across a video clip online about a year or so ago that I want to play for you to illustrate the point. It is of Steve Jobs talking to his employees about Apple. In the video you are going to hear him say that Apple is NOT about making products to help people do their job (although he says they do that better than most) but he says those magic words: WE BELIEVE.. Let’s take a look. He says: We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better Back up: Text of his speech: “For me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It’s a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us. Our customers want to know “who is apple? What is is that we stand for? Where we fit in this world”. And what we are about isn’t about making boxes for people to get their jobs done – although we do that well. We can do that almost better than anyone else can in some cases. But Apple’s about something more than that. Apple at the core, it’s core value, is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That’s what we believe”
I also want to show you a TV that brings this idea to life that Apple made. The reason I want to show it is not only because it brings the “We believe” alive and shows what they mean but also listen to the words as a lot of what the words say applies to the whole topic of this session about being different. Here is a list of most of the people in this ad. Take a look at the list. Each had a belief and each went out and did something distinctive and bold about it. I really believe that the reason they did distinctive things that were truly superior to what was out there was because they were DRIVEN. Beliefs Drive people Back up: Text of the ad: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They are not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. Think Different.”
But what has happened from the whole approach of starting with a belief? Steve Jobs told his people ( as we heard in the video) that “we believe that people with passion can change the world”. What his people go out and do? Change the world by creating exciting, different and distinctive products, distinctive communication and distinctive shopper experiences that consumers get excited about and communicate with. (have you see how many videos, blogs, podcasts are out there about Apple!)
If we did the same exercise on Virgin and Nike we could see the same thing. Each starts with a belief and this in itself inspires Virgin: customer champion / David & Goliath – for too long consumer has been abused/ poorly treated by large monopolistic companies Nike: Every body is an athlete – “Just do it” Out of these belief they created distinctive products, distinctive communication and distinctive shopper experiences. I am not going to go into detail about them here as time does not really allow – but of you explore these brands you will see the same pattern.
Visionaries understand the importance of having and retaining a Brand Belief. That is core to the success of Apple, Virgin and Nike so far. We saw the example of Dorset Cereals. In recent years I have been lucky enough to get to meet and talk to people who have set up brands in the beauty care space all around the world. Brands that have been exploding and growing, even in the face of fierce competition in the category with major global players like Unilever, L’Oreal, P&G, Estee Lauder, J&J etc. And every one I met had one common thing. They all had a brand belief. Let me share just one example to illustrate. The most recent of these I got to meet. The brand is called Korres. You may not have heard of it, yet, though it is sold in Selfridges, Harvey Nicks and has a store on the Kings Road and in Glasgow and Leeds here in the UK. It is a brand created by Mr. George Korres in a Greek Pharmacy using natural ingredient indigenous or found in Greece about 6 or so years ago. It is sold in about 15 countries through their own stores and listed on the Greek Stock Exchange earlier this year for several hundred million US dollars. It is growing so fast he is actually limiting growth and expansion. He gave us a talk about the business and one thing struck me as he spoke. He started his talk with the words, “I am George Korres and I believe …”. Through his presentation he kept coming back to that “I believe” statement and explained how that drive their approach and philosophy on formulations, packaging, communication and stores. He even spoke how when they recruit they recruit people who they feel share their beliefs. Korres Natural Products are based on 4 fundamental principles : • Naturally derived, top quality active ingredients • Clinically tested effectiveness with no inflated promises • Pleasing to the senses • Reasonably priced to enable every-day use
Personally I have also learnt a great deal through my experience on working on the J&J Beauty Care business. 16 years ago J&J had no adult skincare business and began a process of acquiring brands from visionaries who had created something distinctive but lacked the resources to grow it fast and global. One thing I soon learnt was that each of these brands had a belief that had driven it uniqueness. The key to success for each of them in their home market had been a visionary who had a belief, or a take on the world around them. The thing they lacked was the clout and resources to expand fast and globalize it. A the time of acquisition C&C was a range of products mostly in the USA and UK which including even hair care, though the best sellers were strong smelling high alcohol based cleansers RoC was a hypoallergenic pharmacy brand in France, with some sales in other European markets, based on only 7 mild ingredients, no fragrance and colourings Neutrogena was a $400 million mostly US brand built on a cleansing platform of an “amber bar”. Aveeno was a small paediatrician recommended line that had originally been created with the Mayo clinic in the USA with their hero product being a bath additive based on oats Ambi was a small African American brand Vendome was the market leading baby and mass market brand in France inspired by the colours and flowers from Provence in France Lubriderm was of course acquired with the PCH acquisition
The question you may be asking then is, ok I get it, But what f my brand does not have a belief today? The first thing I suggest is to go back to the creation of the brand, and if still alive or around the person who created it and find out what they believed at the time. Your brand is likely to be successful today because they had a take on the world that drive the creation of your brand and led to its success. BUT CAN YOU CREATE A BELIEF for your brand? I think we saw that with the Dorset Cereal example that you can. But I believe that you can also do it with a large brand too. I am going to use a skincare example as it is the category I work in and the example is Dove
Dove was a brand that came from a fairly rational place. It was milder than other soaps based on its quarter moisturizer story and adopted a belief based on a take on the market place that was quite “against trend” based on belief that the brand has taken that "for too long media has created and projected the view about what beauty is. A view that is unrealistic and unattainable". They therefore celebrate the beauty of "real women". Like the other brand examples we are seeing more and more distinctiveness across all their elements – after was what was largely distinctive communication led approach (PR, Workshops, Copy, Online viral including the “Evolution” 2007 Cannes Grand Prix winner”) which was very distinctive versus other beauty advertising using real women and celebrating flaws. We are starting to see them taking the distinctiveness into product (e.g. pro-age not anti-age) etc.
This stirred huge passion and response. We saw it when Dorset cereals adopted a belief but this was bigger. There were 4 big responses posting of the ads Dialogue back about the belief and if it was a good one (I will show an example) Challenge on the product link (I will show an example too) huge sales uplift…
People, thinking about the belief, argued that in fact aspiration was a good thing not a bad thing. And responded. It shows they understood the issue and point of view and FELT moved enough to get engaged and respond. Let’s take a look..
Others argued that Dove, far from celebrating real beauty, was actually selling products to correct and deal with the very problems they felt should be celebrated. Again the belief got people thinking, got them feeling something. Let’s take a look
Most of important of all, it generated a DRAMATIC increase in sales. This is just the UK data form Euromonitor who track sales. It shows the brand growing at 17.4% CAGR on average a year versus a category average growth of just around 5%. It also shows growth came from the traditional core categories for Dove: Bath & Shower, Deodorants and Skincare.
Brand belief creates passion Passion drives uniqueness Uniqueness makes you different Adopting using the brand belief the visionary had when creating your brand will help you to bring passion to the brand. Firstly, as it is more likely to liberate and excite and create passion within your company at all levels. People will be more innovative working for something that makes them FEEL more about. Passion in your teams will mean you get more innovative and distinctive ideas and solutions that are about you and your brand and not just about reacting to the competition and events. This will make you different.
But what if things change and the world changes……how do you ensure that you stay relevant? Your brand belief is not just about the narrow category you operate in and so already you should be thinking broader and give you the space to stay relevant and evolve. Let me give you a simple and fast example.
Dr Lissarague owned a major Pharmacy in Paris. Many women would come to his Pharmacy to look for allergy treatments. He prepared for them custom made soothing creams. He believed that fragrance, and other unnecessary or non pure ingredients incorporated in skincare and make-up products were the cause of those skin allergies. His idea was that the secret for best skincare lies on strict and limited INGREDIENT SELECTION based on purity, efficacy, and known clinical profile in allergy. Also clean manufacturing and preservation process were also critical He proved his belief and he created in 1957 RoC, the first AD-ALLERGENIC skincare brand, which later renamed HYPOALLERGENIC for regulatory reasons. CONTENT TO BE ADDED
What makes you different? Hopefully in this brief session I have been able to show how re-adopting or adopting a brand belief for your brand is worth looking at and exploring as a key way to make you different. Different in a way that will ensure you have a real long-term competitive advantage.
So let me leave you with the final thoughts from the Backstreet Boys who helped me set up this talk! If you look at more of the lyrics of the song “what makes you different”, they say:
“ “ You don't run with the crowd. You go your own way. Got your own kind of style. That sets you apart” “What's there inside you, shines through to me. You got something so real. You touched me so deep” “ What makes you different, Makes you beautiful to me” This is another way of saying what Anna Farmery of “The engaging brand” said when she said, “people will remember you for how you make them feel”
If you would like to keep in touch on this topic and other marketing topics, please visit my blog at garybembridge.com and sign up for the blog updates or subscribe to the podcast. If you are a facebook user, look for me “Gary Bembridge” or join the facebook group “Unleashed on Marketing” I hope to see you all there.