Wondering what people are saying about you or your brand? One of the most powerful tools to keep up what people think is to do a vanity search from time to time. A vanity search is a search (usually on Google) for your name, company name or brand name (really should be doing all of them). Ideally you should own the first page of results – meaning you’ve written or posted everything there. But when a results from someone else shows up, it’s an opportunity for you to take action.
[Read more...]
Dec
22
2009
Best of 2009: Advantages & Disadvantages of Different Branding Strategies
It’s the end of another year and we’re highlighting the best posts of 2009…(originally posted March 25, 2009)
On Monday, we talked a bit about various branding strategies and why you should consider picking one to help your business and marketing strategies. With each branding strategy comes both advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of.
Mar
25
2009
Advantages & Disadvantages of Different Branding Strategies
On Monday, we talked a bit about various branding strategies and why you should consider picking one to help your business and marketing strategies. With each branding strategy comes both advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of.
- Corporate Brand – For companies that only offer one benefit to a customer, they usually use a corporate brand (unless they have an overall holding company).
- Advantages: Everything the company does is attributed to its brand.
- Disadvantages: Everything the company does is attributed to its brand.
- Distinct Brand – Some companies choose to release each product or service as its own brand (ex. Proctor & Gamble).
- Advantages: Each product stands alone so failures do not affect the entire company or other products. Distinct benefits for each product can be directly attributed to a specific brand.
- Disadvantages: Each product will require its own marketing strategy and budget, with no synergy possible between products. Successes will not be directly attributed to the company’s brand.
- Hybrid Brand – When a product extends the benefit of an overall brand or company, some companies use a hybrid branding strategy.
- Advantages: Marketing and branding can take advantage of the overall brand for budgets and reputation.
- Disadvantages: Any problems or negative press for either the product or the overall brand will affect both brands.
- Umbrella Brand – If a company offers different products with different benefits, but they all extend the same value to the customer, sometimes they are all offered under an overall brand (ex. Nike – athletic gear).
- Advantages: Each product contributes to the shared value offered to the customer. Marketing and branding strategies can be at the shared value level, touting all the specific benefits.
- Disadvantages: Any product can negatively affect the overall brand and specific benefits may be muddled in the overall shared value.
Whichever branding strategy you choose, once you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of each, you can take those into account when preparing your marketing strategies.
If you found this post helpful, please consider signing up for our free newsletter or subscribing to Sazbean.com through our RSS feed or email.
(photo by Sarah Jane @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: brand, branding, branding strategy, business, marketing strategy, marketing
Mar
19
2009
Use Co-Creation to Create Products Your Customers Will Actually Buy
From Wikipedia:
Co-creation is the practice of product or service development that is collaboratively executed by developers and stakeholders together.
Your customers know what they want – or at least what they don’t want. They have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t and what types of features they’d like to see in a particular product. Usually companies base their product offerings on research conducted on focus groups or small groups of customers. But the power of the Internet allows companies to communicate with a much larger percentage of their customers (at least for most products).
Co-creation is the process of tapping into the knowledge your customers have to create products they are actually willing to buy. This process does not necessarily have to be online, although online does provide some great opportunities for 2-way communication. The important part of co-creation is actually using this feedback to improve and create your products, which may take a few organizational changes. Companies who successfully implement co-creation practices have internal processes for having 2-way conversations with their customers and using that information to improve their customer experiences. Using co-creation, you can more closely meet your customers’ expectations for your products while improving both ROI and customer satisfaction.
(photo by leans @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: co-creation, design, product management, business, product marketing, product development, customer service, marketing, customer-centric
Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our weekly enewsletter.
Digital Marketing & Strategy
Connect with Sazbean