Category Archives: Business Branding

A Brand Budget

How much should you, or must you, spend to brand your business?

The most common answer: It depends!

The cost of marketing your products and/or services, through advertising, sales, promotions, or other avenues is related to your goals and objectives. If your goals are indistinct or your objectives lack focus, the odds are that you will be wasting marketing dollars on ineffective vehicles.

For purposes of discussion, let’s assume you’ve built a convenience store off a high volume interchange on an interstate highway. It should be apparent who your target market is, so why would you advertise in a phone directory in a community 50 miles away without easy access to your place of business? While you may be able to justify the expense, in the mind of most business owners that would be wasted money.

If, on the other hand, you were able to invest that money in billboard advertising on the approaches to your exit, you are more likely to meet your objectives for sales.

What you spend to build your brand should be measurable and tied to the bottom line. If your goal is to have your brand identified with the market segment comprised of men between 24 and 35 years of age, you can quantify how many of the male species lives in your targeted area. You can also identify which media is most likely to garner a positive response from those men, and build brand loyalty.

It might take six months or six years to reach the level of penetration you desire for your brand, with many variables playing a role. If you gain acceptance through a social media community, the time span can be shortened considerably. A heftier advertising budget and well-placed commercials can also push up the acceptance.

An important consideration is to take the time to do some planning. Think about what you want to accomplish and the best method to achieve it. Allocate some funds to test the waters and measure the results. If the campaign works, build on it. If it doesn’t perform as expected, stop and think about what went wrong or could have been better. Tweak it and try again, within budget constraints. Measure the results.

If you operate blindly in spending your advertising dollars, you may wind up joining the thousands of other business owners who assert that advertising doesn’t work. It does, if done correctly. That’s what there are professionals for; to help you make the right decisions and use your marketing budget effectively.

Defining Success

As a business owner or key management person, you know your business should have a strategy for constantly adding to the bottom line. That growth strategy outlines goals and identifies the steps to be taken in achieving those objectives. In the end, this defines what you consider and will accept as success for your organization.

Larger companies generally have the resources to set these objectives through annual planning sessions or corporate retreats guided by independent third party professionals, such as Brand Irons. Smaller companies also have the ability to conduct these strategic success meetings and bring in professional guidance. The cost of these planning sessions are more than offset by the focus they bring to your corporate culture and the results they generate through higher productivity and reduced waste.

The richest value comes when your team agrees to and commits to the end result of the planning and is able to successfully implement a majority, if not all, of the objectives.

There are others, but here are five of the objectives your business should define:

Net Profit. What are your earnings projections for 2013? Subtract anticipated costs to come up with your expected net profit numbers for the year. Are those realistic and attainable numbers? Will they satisfy you and/or shareholders?
Annual Sales. Knowing what your bottom line is supposed to be, consider how sales will achieve those projections. Who is responsible for generating sales and what will they have to do to get them? Do you need more sales people?
Production. Evaluate whether the capacity exists to produce what is sold in a timely fashion, or whether there is sufficient inventory to meet demand. Take a close look at ways to streamline costs yet still deliver quality products and service to your customers and prospects.
Customer Service. How loyal are your clients to your brand(s)? Do they enjoy the experience of working with or purchasing from your organization? Do your sales personnel and front line people convey the right sense about your culture? That culture should pervade your entire organization. Does it?
Marketing Results. Whether it’s through sales, advertising, promotions, or public relations, your company’s marketing efforts should generate measurable results. What do you measure? Conversion rates for sales presentations. Client response to advertisements (sales directly tied to an ad, for instance). Increased “Likes” on your Facebook page. Phone calls asking for information or to arrange meetings. New subscribers to your newsletter. You decide what else to measure, based on what is important for generating results.

You define success measurements to better allocate resources. There’s an adage about setting goals that goes something along the lines of “If you set sail without a destination, how will you know when you get there?” sailing ship

If you place an ad in the newspaper and ask viewers to call about a special offer, you can gauge the success of the ad by how many calls you receive. Then you must ask: Were there enough calls to 1) pay for the ad? and, 2) warrant the expense in terms of sales that resulted?

However you define success for your business, make sure you take the time to think through whether that is, realistically, how you want to define your success.

Budgets & Bullet Points

2013 Budget graphic When you are sitting down to develop an annual advertising budget, think about where you’re going to spend your hard-earned dollars. Will each dollar generate a return? How much will it cost you to acquire a new client, or to keep your existing customers?

You must measure these metrics to know if your strategies are working. If you plan on spending $20,000 on television advertising as part of your budget, you should also know what the value of a prospective client is to your business. Why? If your business is building websites and each prospect potentially represents $5,000 in business when they become a new client, that TV campaign would need to result in four new clients to cover the cost of advertising. More than four and you’ve generated a positive return on your investment (ROI).

Is it a negative ROI if you fail to land any new clients? From the bottom line perspective, probably so. From the viewpoint of the exposure you’ve generated for your business with TV spots, hardly. The bullet point becomes how effective was the message in your commercial.

And that is another bullet point. If your advertising fails to generate a positive impact on your bottom line, that should not result in the wide-ranging opinion and a deep-seated conviction that “advertising doesn’t work.” It only means it was somehow flawed.

More bullet points that impact your marketing budget when it comes to advertising:

Make sure you know your target audience for any advertising;
Verify that the delivery vehicle (TV, radio, newspaper, Internet) is effective in reaching that target market;
Find the market research that gives you reasonable assurance the audience will respond favorably to that message delivery vehicle;
Know what you’re offering but, more importantly, what the consumer is buying;
Craft a message that focuses on what’s in it for the consumer, not you;
Deliver the message by getting the audience’s attention first; and,
Finish with a strong call to action so the consumer has little doubt.

Back to my point about the effectiveness of your commercial. If you threw out a campaign or message that was missing some of the bulleted items above, chances are your results were less than what you anticipated. Add in that the commercial may have run at the wrong time for your audience or been buried on a seldom seen page of the magazine, and your results deteriorate.

We once worked with a jeweler who insisted on having the largest ad in the phone directory. We roughed out the concept and had the directory’s graphics department design an effective and attractive ad. We were good to go. When the directory hit the streets, we opened a copy to the “Jewelers” spread of pages and the ad wasn’t there! Phone directories place ads alphabetically. Our client’s ad was there, but it was on the page before the spread with all the other jewelers in town. Good effort wasted and beyond our control. Subsequent ads were mere bold-faced listings under Jewelers.

Rather than succumb to a sales representative suggesting your business belongs in their publication or on their station, take the time to think things through. Can they answer the bullet points you’ve established for your products and services to your satisfaction? If not, simply let them know that what they’re offering fails to meet the demographic profile of your target audience. They’ll understand, but not give up easily.

Another option is to use the professional consulting services of a business such as Brand Irons to help you come up with a solid profile for your customers and help you make those marketing decisions so they have a positive impact on your bottom line.

What is a Brand?

A brand is an illusion; a perception in the mind of a consumer.

Every consumer is different, so a brand can mean one thing to one person and something totally different to another.

Consider some examples:

If you drink red wine, and maybe have a glass every day, do you buy the same brand every time or do you try different reds? Do you drink a red because you heard it was good for you? Some of you may enjoy how you feel after a glass or two. All red wines are perceived to – in a branding sense – have medicinal purposes or go good with certain foods. If you, as the consumer, lock in and buy cases from a certain winery, you have bought the illusion it’s the best red wine … in your mind.

What convinced you it’s the brand to buy? Was it a commercial or advertising message? Was it an influential bartender? A good friend who also loves it? The perception that you should at least try the brand, followed by a bottle you really enjoyed, are the steps that would have created your brand loyalty.

My grandfather drove a Ford automobile. My uncle managed a fleet of vehicles for a multi-national company; all Fords. My dad drove Fords, although he was the trading sort and brought home a variety of makes and models over the years. This family history created the impression with me that Ford was the vehicle to own, so I’ve been loyal to the brand because of that perception. Three of the vehicles I’ve purchased new have been Mercury products; a former, now defunct, division of the Ford Motor Company. The kicker is that the illusion has stuck, largely because of history.

Yes, a brand is an association with a corporate product or service. Business owners will pay exorbitant fees to a big name accounting firm because of a perception, which might be that “they must be good because they charge so much.” In reality, accounting is about debits and credits so any certified public accountant (CPA) should be able to service your account as well, if not better, than the higher priced firm.

Is one brand of milk any better than the next one in the cooler? Only in perception … and probably price. Think about it. Where does the milk come from? A cow. What the cow eats may change the content of the milk, but it comes out the same way and is processed and bottled according to federal standards. And here’s a secret that applies to other products as well: Some milk processing plants bottle milk for a private label as well as for their own label.

From a business marketing perspective, the more people you can convince that your illusion – your brand – is what they should believe in, purchase, and remain loyal to as long at they need or want it, the greater will be the profits on your bottom line.

Illusions can work like magic if you create the right ones. That’s where professional help such as Brand Irons comes in, to strategize and help you create the most effective marketing for your product and services.

The Consumer Mindset

This is a topic that has always been fascinating to me as a professional business and marketing consultant. Marketing is about perception, so the mindset of consumers begs a whole series of questions.

What do consumers buy?
Why do they buy?
Why should they buy from a certain seller vs. a different one?
How do you reach the consumer when they’re ready to buy?
How do you convince or encourage them to buy when you want them to?

These questions seem simple, but the answers are rather complicated. Keep in mind that the average consumer wants to avoid being sold; they prefer to make purchases on their own terms. My hair stylist told me she finished her Christmas shopping early in 2012; she bought everything online. Her terms.

There are several factors that influence the consumer’s mindset, such as the budget (is the product or service affordable), the level of need (is it a necessity or a luxury purchase), and the deal (is it a bargain at the price offered or is it better to wait), among other variables.

Let’s start with the level of need. Remember the heirarchy of needs? It starts with basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter. If your business offers products to meet these necessities, the theory holds that your business should survive and succeed. The consumer, in most cases, wants toilet paper so you should have little competition … except there are different levels of softness, sheets per roll, and other variables. What determines the consumer’s decision to buy in this scenario?

Here’s where other factors come in. Is the consumer looking to stock up because the supply is running low? Is there a good price on their favorite brand? Are they totally out and need whatever they can find at whatever the price?

With other necessities, such as electrical power and a water supply, the consumer has little choice since the market is dominated by monopolies. Utilities provide cost savings through the control of grid systems which enable individual users to share the cost of a major development. Going “off the grid” for your energy needs is an expensive project for the same reason it is costly to develop your own water capture and filtration system.

Another aspect of the level of need is whether the purchase is vital or merely a luxury.

This can be where the budget factors come in. If a woman needs a pair of pants for work and the same slacks are available at a discount store for 30% less than at a name brand department store, where does she buy the pants? She may buy them at the department store for the “prestige factor” or save the money buying them at the discount store and saying she bought them at the other place.

As the retailer, your advertising is going to depend on which store you own or represent. The discount outlet can be effective marketing the pants as “department store quality at 1/3rd the cost” whereas the department store is likely to focus on the quality of the name brand with a message along the lines of “available exclusively at.”

Another influencers in the consumer’s mind is brand loyalty. If the woman needing pants has always purchased her work slacks at the discount store, she will most likely purchase the next pair from that store. And if she’s loyal to the department store, she will buy there despite the price difference. The deal is less a factor when the power of the brand trumps the perceived value.

So what have we learned about the consumer’s mindset?

While advertising tends to lump consumers together, the individual makes his or her own buying decisions based on their psyche, budget, personal preferences, and perceived value. As a business owner, it is essential to understand your customers as much as you possibly can so that you and your products or services, remain relevant to them and their desires.

If you’d like some assistance with some market research on your consumer’s mindsets, please contact Brand Irons.

Sex Sells – Part One

Yes, it’s true! Sexual attraction can sell your products or services.

Think about it for a few minutes (a few seconds for men) and you realize the attraction factor is more than male-female and female-male. What do I mean?

I have often thought that department store ads for underwear were unfair to women. The ads depict female models wearing the products in full color, which one might think were designed to appeal to the male audience. You rarely see male models sporting the masculine products; it’s usually a picture of the product in its package. That probably makes it easier for the guys to find it in the store.

The female models, I have learned, are what attract other women to the product. The ads are not oriented toward men! Women want to see what the product looks like, and the kind of body they would like to or do have. So, in the case of women’s under garment advertising, the “sex” factor is female-female.

Companies that market sporting goods or sports-related products also find success with the “sex sells” approach. Humor works well, too, such as some of the beer commercials where horses work out to improve their position or play football for example. Yet beer marketing companies also use male bonding approaches to selling their products since research has shown that men are the most likely high quantity buyers of their products.

We have become so familiar with the “sex sells” approach of print, TV, radio, and even Internet advertising that we rarely give it a second thought. For it to be effective for your business, therefore, it must be different, tasteful, and outstanding to get your product or service noticed.

How do you do that?

First, know your customers. Understand who makes the buying decision when it comes to purchasing your products or services.

Second, know your products or services. What are your customers or prospective customers buying? Are they buying wicker baskets, or are they purchasing decorative storage containers?

Third, decide if a sexy advertising approach is appropriate for your business, products, and services. There may be a more effective way to get the results you desire.

Fourth, if sexual attraction will move your merchandise, find creative and tasteful ways to advertise your goods and services. You may find that a subliminal, nuanced message has far greater impact on results than a raunchy, over-the-top and objectionable reference to bedroom behavior.

Allow me to share a couple of examples:

1) Think about the operation of a bar, tavern, or restaurant that serves alcohol. Think about the patrons. They could easily purchase alcohol and drink it at home. Why do they come to the drinking establishment? They come to be with friends, to enjoy the atmosphere, have fun, and to be entertained.

Ignoring the age of the patrons, they are more likely to drink more product if the bartender or server is younger, more attractive, and more out-going. Yes, even flirty! A female bartender with a great personality and an attractive figure will build a loyal, repeat male customer base more than a grumpy older woman. The same holds true for a muscular, handsome male bartender in building a repeat loyalty among female patrons.

2) Think about trade shows and exhibits for a minute. As you walk the floors of a convention center to check out the various products and services offered by vendors in your industry, what draws you into the exhibit? One, obviously, is that you are interested in learning more about the product or service being displayed. How do you react if there’s a “pushy” sales rep approaching you to “step in” or “take this brochure” as you get close? You either get sucked in or side-step to the other side of the aisle to avoid them.

Now think about the booth where there’s an attractive male or female staffing the display. They’re smiling at you (and everyone) and being a bit flirtatious as you approach. The display is also attractive, but the way the staffer is dressed and groomed reels you in. If they answer your serious questions professionally and appeal to your attraction to them, you are more likely to also be attracted to their products and services.

The point is to take the time to think things through when it involves using a sexual approach to marketing your business.

Website Reflects Your Brand

You have many places to display your brand, which some people refer to as a logo but is far more complex than your corporate emblem. Your website is one of the most critical locations to market your brand, in addition to displaying your logo.

I had a client ask me a few months ago if it made sense for his company to have a website any more. He was probably thinking that with all the attention social media is garnering, that a website was a waste. I insisted a website is still vital for marketing one’s business; it’s just that the technology behind websites and how the spiders search for content is constantly evolving. In other words, websites still and will always need to be updated to accommodate technology and the content modified to reflect the changes the business … and consumers … go through on a regular basis.

Another client was frustrated because a friend of her daughter told her he could build the business website. Sound familiar? After months of sitting on the domain name, the daughter’s friend had yet to activate the website. There was always an excuse, but the one excuse the friend found hard to swallow was that he lacked the expertise to get the project done at the professional lelve the business needed. We got involved by generating the content and working with a developer to get the site done.

The client has realized that marketing her business is a bit more complicated than the first blush, and that emotional connections can make business decisions difficult. It was hard for her to “fire” the friend of her daughter because of the emotional impact, and from the cost she had to incur to fix the problem.

It is a decision that must be made, however. Emotions aside, your website is one of the main tools for marketing your business. If you lack the skills or the staff to generate the content that will tell your story and present your business in the most advantageous light with the highest likelihood of generating top returns from the search engines, you need to find and contract with professionals who can get it done.

You can actually save money with professional assistance. Here’s how, and how you can tell if you are working with a pro: A professional meets with you to gather the information needed to generate your website’s content. During that meeting, they should also give you a fairly accurate estimate of how much time is required to craft your copy.

You save money working with your web development company when you can deliver content, images, logos, and color schemes in one fell swoop. If you are building your first corporate website, start with a basic site, but think through what elements you envision being there when it is what you want it to be, or if money were a non-factor. If you are tweaking an existing site, and bringing in a new developer, your old developer needs to give the new team access to your files.

While it may seem too complicated, remember the importance of your corporate image, and how it’s reflected in your web presence. Old images and expired dates, including the copyright, can be damaging to those visiting your site for the first impression.

Here’s an example of how a good team can save you headaches and time. We started working with a web developer who had constructed a website for a cookie company. The design was done and the content was in Latin because the developer was waiting for the business owner to provide copy. Getting involved, as we’ve often found, the owner lacked the time to generate the content because they were focused on running their business. That’s more common than you might think, and business owners often struggle because they lack marketing skills, especially when it comes to the Internet, in most cases. They simply don’t have time to devote to that aspect of their business.

The developer hired Brand Irons to generate the content. We met with the business owner on Monday and E-mailed the website’s content back to them on Tuesday. We followed up on Wednesday and heard the owner ask if the developer could just post something about the site being “under construction” instead of content in Latin. We advised them that all they needed to do was make any changes and approve the content and the site could be updated with new content within a couple of hours.

They did, and it was updated later that day. Visitors are much happier now, and we even translated the landing page copy to Czech, Danish, and German.

So, yes, you do need a professional looking website for your business. You can engage Brand Irons to design it in such a fashion that reflects your brand the way it should.

Branding Your Leadership Position

To establish your brand, start with the reason your business exists. Think about your mission and why you do what you do. The #1 immutable law of marketing is the law of leadership. That means being the leader in your industry or community or wherever you can exert influence as a leader, and thus own the brand.

If, for example, your business is a funeral home and there are two other funeral parlors in your community, how can you be the leader when it comes to funeral homes? What can you do to brand your services?

First, think about how you want to be known as a funderal home in the community. Study your competitors and figure out how you’re different. Then do some more research and think about how you want to be known. Analyze your options to own a specific niche and carve it out with a solid marketing strategy.

Options might be to position your furneral home, or brand, as the most economical of the three in your community. The opposite position would be to be the most expensive. How would your brand justify the cost and provide the value for the price if that’s the option you choose?

Is the brand the way you take care of customers? The extra value you provide, such as providing white gloves to pall bearers? Perhaps it’s the uniforms your employees wear? Is it how you greet guests coming to view the deceased? Or is it the follow-up you do after the services iwth the family? Perhaps it’s the relationships you have with area churches.

This used funeral homes as an example. Your business, wherever you’re located or whatever stage of business you’re in, can take advantage of the niche you possess. Whether you believe it or not, you have a niche you can use to build your brand. The possibilities are there, but there are also times when you need an independent, third party perspective to help you see the potential.