Business vision

Identifying and communicating a clear vision is one of the most important functions a business leader can perform. All business leaders should understand the basic elements of visioning and all marketers should know how to communicate that vision to all stakeholders and how to leverage it in brand strategies.

Creating a clear and effective vision delivers many benefits to the business. Not only does a clear, shared vision help define the values of the company and its employees, but it also helps guide the behavior of all employees. A strong vision also leads to productivity and efficiency.

Companies and organizations everywhere invest enormous resources in marketing and selling their products and services. Many of these organizations have a strong sense of who they are and why people should want to conduct business with them. Sadly, however, many organizations fail to have a strong sense of their own guiding principles and cannot clearly articulate their vision or communicate unique aspects of their brands in a way that compels customers and prospects to develop emotional attachments and buy their products and services.

Linking the vision and values of the organization to the brand promises made by the organization can propel the value of those brands into a whole new realm of business performance.

The following two articles expand.

Crash course in visioning

Linking vision & values to brands

Ad agencies and you the client

Ad agencies and traditional marketing firms are most concerned about impressing you with fancy images and slick graphic design because that’s how they make their money. They impress you and you pay them before you can measure the actual results of any given campaign that they create for you. Sweet deal for them, isn't it?

Somewhere lost along the way is the fact that effective marketing must speak to the ultimate customer, offer superior value to them and communicate with words and imagery that resonate and motivate them to modify their behavior in some way. Usually this behavior modification means that you make a strong enough case that somebody purchases your product or service -- and they are happy they did so long after the fact.

Also lost or often concealed from you is the fact that building brand awareness is nearly worthless (even though this is probably counter to everything you've been told by ad agencies) without building strategic brand awareness that differentiates and builds brand preference amongst people who actually spend money for your type of product.

This latter type of marketing is more difficult to achieve but it is precisely the kind of marketing that builds great brands. It is also the kind of brand building that makes cash registers sing. Brands that benefit both you and your customers over the long-term. Brands that ensure your profitability and customer satisfaction. This is the kind of marketing you should be trying to achieve.

Forget about the way brands were built yesterday. Yesterday is gone. Mass media are not so "mass" anymore. Consumers are different. Technology is different. Attention spans are shorter. Cynicism is everywhere. True connections are more important than ever.

Are you ready to step outside of the ad agency box and listen to more effective ways to approach your marketing? Are you ready to embrace the marketing of the future?

Is green marketing smart strategy?

“Green marketing” is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe or that at least represent much lower impact on the environment than alternative products.

Green marketing therefore can incorporate promoting a broad range of activities such as new and improved production methods, product modifications, changes in package design and different ways to conduct business operations, among other things.

Green has always been smart strategy. Think about it for a minute. Does any rational person really strive to willfully incorporate waste and destructive practices into their business operations? Of course not.

Since my very early days in the Boy Scouts developing a love for the natural wonders of this earth I have believed that treading lightly is a worthy exercise, that leaving a natural place cleaner than one finds it is smart practice and that only using as much as one needs is courteous to others as well as the environment. (As a father and parent, I have subsequently learned that teaching such principles to my children also has the side benefit of saving me money!)

Lately, however, there is a growing trend for companies to proclaim their green credentials in their marketing communications and wear their environmentalism on their corporate sleeve. Is this new wave of green marketing smart strategy?

Greenclaiming is not guaranteed to stimulate sales, especially for companies out to make a profit for their owners and shareholders. The risk of backlash is also very real.

I recently came across an article written by Pamela Eichenbaum entitled, “Greenwashing – Ethics Aside, It’s Just Bad Business.” In the article, Pamela points out that with so many companies loudly touting their green credentials, there is a risk of desensitization and there is no guarantee that companies will benefit from the practice. She also states that no matter how green you claim to be, you might just invite criticism that you are not green enough.

I’d like to go even a step farther than Ms. Eichenbaum.

Today’s modern environmental movement is not only a social movement but also a scientific and political movement. There are different shades of green to this movement.

Towards the dark green end you will find anti-capitalists who are opposed just about everything that modern, industrialized society represents. If you are a for-profit concern, you will never win with this group.

On the lighter green end of the spectrum you will find highly-educated, upper-class, environmentally-conscious people who wish to be seen as virtuous through their conspicuous consumption of sustainable, environmentally-friendly, organic and often higher-priced products so they can be viewed, for social reasons, as elites who operate with the proper motives.

Of course, the movement includes people of many stripes in between, but as you can see, the green movement is not a monolith that will guarantee that a capitalist company or organization will be rewarded for flying a green banner. In fact, far from guaranteeing it, it will probably bring skepticism and scrutiny from many. Doing so may also have people questioning whether you are trying to position your brand as morally superior which might, in fact, come across as condescension.

Creating strong brands that make unique promises of value and that deliver on those promises every time is one of the most important things any marketer can do. Not only should brands be differentiated, but they must also represent superior value that cannot be found anywhere else. With so many companies claiming to be green these days, claiming to be green is no longer a point of differentiation and making such claims potentially opens you up to scrutiny and criticism that you are not green enough or that you only claim to be green in order to increase profits or to gain some other selfish benefit.

As a marketing strategist, my advice is to think very hard before you decide to wear green on your corporate sleeve and shout it loudly via your marketing communications.

Yes, I know it is the trendy and politically correct thing to do these days, but doing so will make you just like every one else trying to cash-in on the trend and possibly even backfire on you or make you look disingenuous.

If you are a business owner or manager who truly believes -- and always has -- in conserving resources and treading lightly, then you won’t be able to stop that philosophy from permeating your organization and affecting organizational behavior such that your organization acts in accordance with your beliefs. You will get more satisfaction from walking the walk than you will from talking the talk.

If I could give marketers (and politicians and green activists!) one bit of advice on the topic, then I would advise them to lead by example rather than preach to others how to lives their lives. Nothing speaks as loudly as living authentically.

Chances are that those who have true concerns will ask you about your practices and your green credentials will be a wonderful, hidden value that comes as an added, free bonus along with all the other wonderful and unique benefits delivered by your brand.


Greenwashing - Ethics Aside, It's Just Bad Business by the Kolbrener branding agency.

Don’t let a motorcycle run over your cookies

There seems to be some confusion outside of marketing departments as to the difference between a line extension and a brand extension. Hopefully I can help remove the confusion and help ensure the proper terminology is used.

A line extension is when you develop a new product closely related to one of your existing product brands and launch the new product under the same brand name in the same category. The new product is designed to meet somewhat different needs of customers. By using a successful brand name to introduce additional items in a given product category, line extensions typically represent a less expensive, lower risk alternative for increasing sales. An example of this is Oreo sandwich cookies introducing Double Stuf and Oreo Minis.

A brand extension is when you use one of your existing brands to launch a new or modified product in a new category. A brand extension gives a new product instant recognition and faster acceptance while saving much of the high advertising costs usually associated with launching and building a new brand. The brand extension strategy, however, is not without risk because you run the risk of confusing or diluting the image and value of the original brand. Sure there are successes such as the Honda brand being able to simultaneously remain healthy in several categories such as cars, motorcycles, lawnmowers and generators, but Bic was unsuccessful in launching women’s underwear, Harley Davidson perfume never went anywhere and nobody really wanted McDonald’s pizza.

When choosing a new product strategy , remember that a brand is an identifiable entity that makes specific promises of value and those promises of value might not make sense in a new category. The same brand name must stand for the same promises.

The world's only online exchange about branding?

OK. Let's discuss something.

BrandChannel.com uses the tagline, "The world's only online exchange about branding, produced by Interbrand".

If there are other online exchanges about branding (such as this one or BrandTrellis.com), does this mean Interbrand has chosen a poor tagline or positioning statement for their website brand? Should they change their tagline? Would they be OK if they simply removed the comma?

I'm very interested to hear your thoughts.

Top 30 Customer Loyalty Brands

It's time for the annual list of the top brands according to consumer loyalty, from Brand Keys:

1. Google
2. Yahoo.com
3. Avis
4. L.L. Bean
5. Coors
6. J. Crew catalog
7. Samsung cell phone
8. Sam Adams
9. Hyatt
10. Verizon Wireless
11. Amazon.com
12. Target
13. Lowe's
14. Sears catalog
15. Marriott
16. Fairmont hotels
17. Netscape.com
18. Canon office copiers
19. Miller Genuine Draft
20. Panasonic plasma HDTV
21. True Value
22. Eddie Bauer
23. Victoria's Secret
24. Land's End
25. H&M
26. Apple
27. Blackberry
28. Sony LCD HDTV
29. Treo
30. Samsung analog TVs

Some marketing definitions

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying "Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday," that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that's promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations. If the town's citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales.

The best way to brand?

There is no universal single best way to brand product(s), of course, but the best way for ~you~ to brand your product(s) depends upon many factors.

The first thing to study is your competition. Who is your competition and what are their positions in the minds of consumers? What is your vision for your company and what are your core values? How do those compare with others in your industry and what advantages, tangible and intangible, do you hold over your competition? What unique qualities will you bring to the marketplace? What are the benefits associated with doing business with you?

The answer to these questions can help lead you toward determining a strong brand position for you that is defensible and profitable over the long-term.