Insightful video clip from Steve Jobs about marketing and branding. Create your story based on your core values, being clear what you’re about and what you stand for. Communicate clearly, with simplicity and consistency. Easy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmG9jzCHtSQ
I came across an interesting web application that I’m probably going to try out. This tool greatly improves on-site conversion rates by being able to present content to web site visitors dynamically, based on a certain set of user defined rules, such as keywords, visit frequency, location, referred / visited URL and so on. What this means is that based on what you know about the visitor as a persona, you can present the visitor with more relevant content, which leads to higher conversion. For example, if one of the web sites visited prior to yours was one of your competitors, you would have a different message compared to if the visitor was a frequently returning loyal customer. Not only does this helps in being more targeted in your messaging, it also provides a potential solution for reducing “page sub optimization” (this is when the same one web page is trying to target multiple audiences, by scrolling messages / banners, etc.), and the need for specific landing pages, which are not helping to build your SEO equity on your main site.
A brand starts with a vision to solve something (a problem), by providing a service, or a product. This vision includes elements such as whom, what, where, how much, unlike others, etc., forming the basis of segmentation, targeting and positioning, from which a position statement, a value proposition and messaging can be created.
In addition to the above, the vision also includes intangible elements, providing an answer to the question. How does the organization go about “delivering a solution to the problem”? This is where culture, values and company personality comes into play. These are generally more challenging to understand, as they are often only experienced by clients during or after a service interaction.
Customers who interact with the organization, then forms an overall perception of value for the company services, interaction and relationship, in relation to other similar solutions or substitutes?
To understand the perception of value, the brand attributes, strengths and weaknesses must be measured. Since attributes can be perceived or real, and all are not equal, the relative importance of these also needs to be understood. Typically there are basic ones that are required to play in a particular industry, and then the ones that drive value. In addition, brand attributes often need to be categorized into, for example, company level, service level, category level, industry segment level, etc. The job of brand tracking is to closely monitor attributes, providing facts, data and support for the organization in strategic marketing (segmenting, targeting, positioning) and all its marketing communication (both internally and externally).
The summary of all this is a brand system including: