Excerpts from Kerry O'Malley
Marketing communications creates "top of mind" awareness
All you have to do is watch TV for a few hours (and actually watch the commercials) to get a sense of how repetition of the same message starts to creep into your subconscious mind. After you've seen 5 commercials for those cute, new VW's, you suddenly find yourself daydreaming about going car shopping. After all, that Suburban IS almost 8 years old, and of course you want a vehicle that's more fuel efficient! An integrated marketing communications plan that gets your messaging out to the right target audience, consistently and over time, WILL eventually create the "top of mind" awareness for your product or service that turns a prospect into a customer.
Preferred brands command a premium price - short and long-term
Go through a process of determining your institution's unique value proposition, and then start purposefully communicating that to the marketplace (promotion.) This is the only way you will create a point of differentiation between you and your competitors. As your customers and the industries you sell to begin to recognize your company (brand) as the preferred choice for a certain product or service, it allows you to charge premium pricing. Not only does this boost sales in the "now," it creates a perception in the minds of future investors that your business has more value than another one that claims to do the same thing.
Happy customers not only send referrals, they create perceived value
Every sales person knows it, but businesses still hammer them to get out and develop "new" business: the most powerful form of lead generation comes in the form of an existing happy customer. Happy customers talk to other potential customers, even in the industrial world. I talk to manufacturers every day that tell me a good percentage of their new business comes through referrals from satisfied customers. It takes more than the experiences with your company to make a satisfied customer - one who is willing to be an evangelist, of sorts. It also takes a marketing strategy that positions your company (in the minds of your target audience) as the market leader in overall customer satisfaction and intimacy. It's part of the image you build around your brand - it's the magic result of well executed brand development and marketing communications. Word of mouth praise for your company not only attracts more business, it attracts potential investors that want to own a company with this kind of status.
Employees who are "brand ambassadors" sell your company - to customers AND potential buyers
Today, marketing is not just something you do "outside" of your company. If you truly want to create a powerful image and value proposition for your business, the first group of people you have to convince are your own employees. Internal brand integration is just as important as your external marketing strategies. Every employee in your company should understand how their position contributes to the promise your company makes to its customers and be motivated to carry it out. Understanding their unique role in your company's brand promise is just the beginning; if you want brand ambassadors, you need happy employees. An employee that feels appreciated and fairly compensated (and that doesn't always equate to their salary) is much more likely to sing the praises of your company. I think it goes without saying, this is good for business today as well as making an impression on a future investor. Who wants to buy a company full of overworked, disgruntled employees?
Marketing IS a long term investment. You will not create a recognizable brand (name, image, reputation, etc.) without it. You will not develop a stable, growing business without it. You will not beat the "lead generation" game without it. You will not create "brand ambassadors" among your employees without it. You will not create a company that has obvious value to a potential buyer without it. Marketing is essential to the health and continuing prosperity of any business - including manufacturing and industrial businesses. So what are you waiting for?
What is branding and why is branding important?
Courtesy Dave Dolak Marketing Blog
A brand is an identifiable entity that makes some specific promise of value.
Branding is used to create emotional attachment to products and companies. Branding efforts create a feeling of involvement, a sense of higher quality, and an aura of intangible qualities that surround the brand name, mark, or symbol.
Successful branding efforts build strategic awareness where people not only recognize your brand, but they also understand the distinctive qualities that make it better than the competition. Branding is more important today than ever due to ever-increasing advertising clutter, media fragmentation, the commoditization of products, and the seemingly limitless choices we are offered in just about every product category.
As marketers, we need to work hard to ensure that we are offering our customers strong brands that are clearly differentiated and that offer clear, real value and unique benefits. The need for branding has never been greater.
Here are just a few benefits you will enjoy when you create a strong brand:
- A strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience.
- Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion-- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.
- A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium.
- Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features.
- Branding will help you "fence off" your customers from the competition and protect your market share while building mind share. Once you have mind share, you customers will automatically think of you first when they think of your product category.
- A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant. A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products.
- A strong brand signals that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell product. A strong branding campaign will also signal that you are serious about marketing and that you intend to be around for a while. A brand impresses your firm's identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an immediate sale but rather to build a lasting impression of you and your products.
- Branding builds name recognition for your company or product.
- A brand will help you articulate your company's values and explain why you are competing in your market.