Your Brand’s Future Lies in Its Framework

When you have a new product or service, and want to reach a new or different market segment, is it better to sub-brand or create a new brand?

As a marketer, it’s important to understand the Brand Architecture framework and be aware of the different options. A Brand Architecture defines the roles and relationships between the various brands in your “owned” and “extended” family or portfolio of brands. The objective is to maximize clarity, synergy and leverage to maximize customer value and internal efficiencies.

Why does every company need a brand architecture strategy? Consider GE has more than 20 brand names, P&G has hundreds, and BMW has 3. It gets more and more complicated as most companies have multi-brands from merger and acquisitions, aggressive brand extensions due to pressure for quick profits and increasing complex structures.

Here you can learn more about the three common types of brand architecture models, 4 factors in making brand architecture decisions, and 4 steps to optimize your brand architecture. One more thing, I also put together a case study about Apple’s brand strategy, brand architecture, brand idea, brand transformation……a long story, so take your time and I hope you enjoy reading them. Your comments are always welcome!

33 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Engagement

What social media engagement represents is a two-way dialogue between brands and customers. The more effective you are at engaging with consumers, the more successful you will be at growing your subscriber rate, which in turn will help provide you with more leads to conversions.

Needless to say, being active on social media is an essential part of your marketing plan. But, how can you reach your audience more effectively than your competitors? Do your fans interact with you on social media? Want to spark more engagement?

The primary rule of engagement is: If you want to increase engagement, be engaged. Like most people, social media users don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. Start by giving before you expect to receive.

While it’s relatively easy to get people to like and share posts, it takes creativity to drive comments and dialog. Here are 33 ways with examples to boost your social media engagement.

Please share with us if you have more creative ideas.

How to write compelling product descriptions that sell

Good product descriptions create an impression at once. They communicate value, get people excited, and make them switch from browsing mode to paying customers instantly.

Realize that your potential customers cannot touch or feel the product on your website. So, the responsibility of identifying and addressing the needs and expectations of your target audience relies on your copy to a great extent.

Learn about the 9 quick tips here to write compelling product descriptions that sell.

Innovation often starts with a dream & how to sustain it internally

We all know the world has changed. Business models have been disrupted, customer experience is now a huge competitive advantage, partnerships are more highly leveraged and technology is often a big part of a solution.

For many years, innovation was seen as the development of new products. However, creating new products is only one way to innovate. There are countless examples of innovations in all areas of business and the desire and satisfaction of bringing them to life are immense.

But whether it’s a design, a product, a service, a process, a business model, a market innovation or any other type for that matter the process of achieving these is a long and arduous journey.

Just do it or get ready to perish.  You can see some slides I posted here.

Discover the Best of California

Living in California for almost 20 years (in S. CA and in the bay area), I feel I can speak a little bit and can probably give you 50 reasons why I think California is America’s best state. Below are just some of them.

• We’re easy to find. Head west in America. You can’t miss us.
• One-tenth of America’s population lives here.
• California boasts two world-class cities: Los Angeles and San Francisco. No other state can say the same.
• Apple, Google, Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, and the next, and the next, and the next, but California inventiveness is nothing new.
• As if to apologize for giving the world McDonalds, we gave the world In-N-Out Burger.
• The tacos, and those tacos are brought in what we call “food trucks.”
• We know it might be upsetting when state border workers take your fruits away upon entry. But, really, you won’t need them, because we’ve got fruit enough for everyone.
• We are the world’s breadbasket.
• In most cases, you can make a right turn on a red light.
• San Francisco has more restaurants per capita than any other place in America.
• Speaking ofThe Simpsons, it doesn’t matter where Springfield is. The show — like almost everything else in our media culture that anyone enjoys — comes from here.
• Our 840 mile coastline means that it’s impossible in California ever to be surrounded entirely by pirates.
• Death Valley National Park is both unspeakably beautiful and a chilling glimpse of America’s global-warming future.

I can always go on……. All in all California is an amazingly beautiful state and that’s why every year there are so many international tourists want to come here to discover and experience its beauty.

Though I have been working in the technology industry, I always think a professional marketer needs to be able to promote an idea, a product, a service, a city, a state, and even a country. I put together some slides here – I try to think like a marketer in the tourism industry and think about how to promote this beautiful state to more Asian tourists. Feel free to leave comments. 😉

B2B Content Marketing ~ 4 Effective Ways to Generate Leads

Your target market is always looking for the best, most cost-effective products, services and solutions to meet their needs. Content marketing ensures that your brand remains visible when interested customers search for what you have to offer.

Providing relevant, valuable content establishes your business as a thought leader and builds trust with both existing and potential customers.

The digital revolution has scrambled the B2B playing field. There are 4 truly successful ways to generate leads, regardless of your industry.

1. Use Social Media Strategically
2. Launch a Consistent Content Marketing Plan
3. Give Away Tools
4. Make It Automatic

Also learn about some B2B website best practices to generate more leads here!

Creating a Unique Retail Experience

Apple stores enable Apple to fundamentally transform the purchasing conversation with consumers into a valuation of total product experience that is empowered by the unique retail atmosphere of the Apple Store.

The soul of the Apple Store is in its people. They are hired, trained, motivated and taught to create magical and memorable moments for their customers. Lean about the Secrets of Apple’s Retail Success and how to create the Apple Store experience for your own brand here.

The New Age of Public Relations

The PR/marketing industry has undergone a dynamic shift that requires a new set of skills and a deeper understanding of the power of the Connected World.

Today, we are experiencing new opportunities as social technology has uncovered expanded roles and responsibilities for professionals. It’s critical that we, as a PR professional, develop a deep understanding of the importance of social media and its overall role in bridging connections between online audiences.

Learn about social media’s role in PR and why you should be combining SEO, Social and PR strategies here.

Brand Repositioning That Worked – Then & Now

So many brands and companies are constantly reinvigorating their businesses and positioning them for growth. There is a constant need to innovate, reinvigorate, update, recalibrate, or just simply fend off the competition in an effort to better explain “why buy me.”

To move forward, companies and brands need to first take a look at their current brand positioning, then ask what the reasons are for repositioning the brand. They can include declining sales, loss of consumer/user base, stagnant product benefits, or the competition, including such issues as increased technology and new features.

Once you have a good and solid understanding of where the company, business, and brand sit within the overall marketplace, as well as a good understanding of its value to consumers, the next step is to find out how far to grow, expand, and stretch the brand.  Effective and successful brand repositioning will help retain existing customers and acquire new ones.

There are many successful brand repositioning case studies you can find in marketing textbooks and on the internet.  Here I just want to share with you two good examples and both of them have something in common – the “Un” approach.

7 Up – The UnCola

In 1967, marketers for 7 UP struck gold when consumer research found that the lemon-lime soda was a “refreshing alternative” to other colas.  While this research went along with how the soda was already perceived by consumers, it allowed marketers to group 7 UP’s main competitors such as Coke, Pepsi, and RC into a category of colas, allowing 7 UP to stand out.

As it they do today, young people made up a large portion of sales for soda in the late 60s.  Marketers played off the free-spirited 60s, and advertised 7 UP as a soda that rebelled from boring colas.  The tagline introduced for 7 UP was “The UnCola”.  According to the brand website, “The UnCola” campaign set 7 UP apart from its competition and became part of a counter cultural that symbolized being true to yourself and challenging the status quo.”

The “UnCola” campaign aligned perfectly with the target market and proved incredibly successful; and it helped 7 UP to move up to the top three leading sodas in the U.S.A. at the time.  However, success won’t last forever.  There are a variety of reasons often given for why 7 Up has fallen so hard that it’s becoming the soda equivalent of Blockbuster.  You can learn more here.

Note: the rights to the 7 UP brand are now held by Dr Pepper Snapple Group in the United States, and PepsiCo in the rest of the world.

T-Mobile – The Un-Carrier

Are you still one of the long frustrated customers with complex plans, locked-in contracts, restrictions against upgrading phones and the loss investments in existing devices?  Then you should know that T-Mobile has introduced a game changer to the wireless industry and wins back customers by rewriting the rules of the wireless carrier game.

They call themselves the Un-Carrier, to vividly emphasize that they are doing something radically different, and they’re basing their whole philosophy around doing exactly what the customers want.  T-Mobile CEO John Legere has been changing the dynamics of the wireless industry with his “Un-Carrier” moves since 2013.  Previous initiatives were the introduction of the “Simple Choice Plan”, installment financing plans, early phone upgrades, the termination of data overage charges, free music streaming, free in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity, and an offer to pay the termination fee of the locked-in customers of Verison, Sprint or AT&T and give them a credit toward a new phone.

At the beginning of 2013, T-Mobile was suffering from an ongoing loss of share that affected its image as well as its financial health.  The Un-Carrier initiative dramatically changed that.  At one point during the campaign, T-Mobile was gaining customers at a rate that exceeded the three competitors combined.  In the minds of many, T-Mobile went from an also-ran company to one with leadership position that reinvented a major industry.  That’s an amazing achievement.

So why is it take so long to create such a strategy?  And why was T-Mobile, the number 4 player in the industry, the first to innovate?  The industry leaders had too much to gain by sticking with the status quo.  As a challenger brand, T-Mobile had less to lose and more to gain by disrupting the wireless category and doing what other carriers do not; they put the customers’ needs ahead of business-as-usual.

The disruption of a major industry doesn’t happen very often, the T-Mobile momentum and energy will make it hard to reverse these changes.

What have I learned from the above two examples?  Any brand can become a true challenger brand.  Once you start innovating, keep up the momentum!

10 Tips to Develop Your Holiday Content Marketing Strategy

The holiday season is the holy grail of sales.  Consumers spend more around the holidays than at any other time of the year.  According to the National Retail Federation, total 2014 holiday retail sales, which include November and December sales, increased 4 percent to $616.1 billion. In addition, non-store holiday sales, which is an indicator of online and e-commerce sales, grew 6.8 percent to $101.9 billion.

‘Tis the season to be jolly…and to ramp up your marketing efforts, and not surprisingly, content is a crucial component of marketers’ game plans.  Here are 10 tips for getting the most from your holiday content marketing efforts.

1 – Optimize for mobile

According to the IBM data, mobile accounted for 45 percent of all 2014 online holiday traffic and for 22.6 percent of online sales, a 27.2 percent gain over the 2013 total.  And more than 50 percent of online shopping traffic came from mobile during the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.

Consumers aren’t just spending more online, they are also conducting more research and transacting more purchases on their mobile devices.  Ensure your site is optimized for mobile – 30 percent of people will leave the page if it’s not.

2 – Increase your focus on social media

Your content is for naught if nobody sees it.  Marketers are using social channels to increase sales, expand brand awareness and promote their content marketing efforts during the holiday season.  Although the bulk of budgets are being spent on Facebook and Twitter, Instagram is another social media platform to watch – it has reached 300 million monthly active users.  I believe more brands will be expanding their Instagram presence this year.

Keep in mind, you’re competing with more content than ever before, and because of algorithm changes, it’s more difficult to ensure your organic content shows up in Facebook’s feed. Consider investing in paid opportunities to ensure your content reaches its desired audience.

3 – Get into the spirit

It’s a great time of year to offer discounts and promotions, but it’s also the season for showing off your company culture and brand voice.  Try using seasonal hooks in your content to create pieces your audience will really want to read and share.  Let your audience get a glimpse of your company holiday party, and don’t be afraid to add festive design touches to your websites, social channels and blogs.

4 – Turn to email marketing 

The most-used marketing channel to drive holiday purchases this season is email marketing, says Experian Marketing.  Almost 90 percent of marketers plan to leverage it.  Your message will be even more powerful if it’s aligned with high quality, useful content.  Make sure you share more than just coupon codes this holiday season.

5 – Unify

The last thing a customer wants is a slapdash experience.  A positive user experience is the foundation for positive brand placement.  Unifying all possible data streams in a single persona allows you to bring information from e-mail, customer relationship software, and transactions to bear in creating smooth, cohesive, pleasant experiences for your customers.

6 – Share

Providing quality, shareable content with consumers isn’t just preaching to the choir.  You’re establishing reliability and assuring potential consumers have the ability to shop your site.  The content you share is among your most valuable online possessions – it is content you control, as well as being content that is least likely to be misunderstood by readers and cause a backlash.

By sharing content about your products and materials at a time when consumers are searching more widely than usual, you pave the way for visitor approval and lay the foundation for sales. Don’t skimp – put the resources in place to entertain and engage through high-quality content.

7 – Boost that landing pages

If you want to increase conversions, optimize your landing pages.  This is especially true for mobile paid media.  The landing page for a special deal needs to be designed to inform and engage the person clicking through.  Making every transaction as fluid and easy as possible can keep your site from bouncing visitors.

8 – Segment

Social media really has changed the way prime demographic groups approach the act of distinguishing fine gradations and grouping.  Segmenting your products in ways that facilitate these processes makes searching more intuitive for consumers.  So instead of the demographic indicators of age, gender, and location, use the information from social media channels to segment based on purchases, behavior, brand and product preferences, and habits.

9 – Inspiration

The holidays are the season of deal inundation.  Every seller offers some form of deal.  Because most consumers do not take the time to carefully select the gifts they purchase, relying in most instances on inspiration, make your marketing efforts more than just making people aware of your deals.  Personalizing or contextualizing retailer/e-commerce interactions can be a powerful way to stand out from the mass of offers.

10 – Give back 

Your business probably gives back all year ’round, but there’s no better time than the holidays to let your audience know which causes you’re passionate about.

On November 24, 2014, TD Bank released a #MAKETODAYMATTER video that showed the company giving $30,000 to 24 people in 24 communities in the United States and Canada. These individuals had one day to figure out how to give the money back to their neighborhoods. So far, the video has garnered over 5.1 million hits and received earned media from outlets all over the world.

The video clicked with people because it was in the true spirit of the holidays, which are all about goodwill and giving back.  Marketers should take note and produce contents that are about the real messages of the holidays, and not about pure consumerism.

or say thank you to your loyal customers

Here is another great video campaign (#TDThanksYou) TD Bank ran last year – the video has reached 22.5 million hits so far.