THINKing » Brand http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog My CreativeTeam Thinks About Creativity, Marketing, PR & Social Media Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:40:12 +0000 en hourly 1 Brands Need A Home http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-need-a-home/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-need-a-home/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:47:31 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2599
Photo credit: clarita from morguefile.com

Many brands are investing a lot of time and money into social networks, almost to the point of ceding control to another entity. It’s time to rethink this.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t participate on platforms like Facebook and Google +. I am just issuing a warning that it is not a good idea to become too intertwined in something controlled by someone else. Facebook and Google + are free platforms, and as such they can make the rules. Therein lies the problem.

Take for instance Facebook’s decision to remove the discussion tab from pages. Says Inside Facebook,

The in-house app, also known as Discussion Boards, allows Pages to host simple forums. However, Facebook says “The best way to encourage conversation and feedback is through posts and comments on your wall”. It will therefore eliminate the Discussions app, despite AppData showing that it has 22 million monthly active users.

Well, there are a lot of Facebook page administrators who have spent literally years using this application. Some have used it for its threaded discussion ability. What happens to the archives? Our friends at SocialFish don’t like this much either.

It doesn’t matter to Facebook that it’s much easier for people interested in ongoing discussions to follow an archived, threaded discussion format. Or that it’s much easier to have an actual discussion format, not Facebook’s ever-changing, secretly-algorithmed wall post format. What’s easy or useful for users is not Facebook’s concern; Facebook cares about Facebook. Period.

All brands are in danger here, but particularly smaller ones. For months, I have warned friends who own small businesses that they need a digital home besides Facebook. I encourage them to at least set up a free WordPress blog if they can’t afford to have someone build them a website. Your site should be the hub – not a spoke – of your content marketing. You should use social networks as a sidewalk back home, not the other way around. Or, someday, your brand could be homeless.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-need-a-home/feed/ 1 Netflix’s Corporate Seppuku http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/netflixs-corporate-seppuku/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/netflixs-corporate-seppuku/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:55:16 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2574

It’s good that Netflix has a red background on its logo. That way the blood doesn’t show from its self-inflicted wounds.

Apparently Netflix doesn’t have PR people to tell them how to communicate service changes. A while back they announced their pricing structure change, saying they knew the almost 60% price increase would lose them some customers but they were doing it anyway. The arrogance of the announcement was palpable. I immediately cancelled my account.

And now the blood is flowing again as they’ve plunged the sword in just a little deeper.

They have announced that they are renaming the DVD by mail portion of their business. The new Qwikster service was also communicated poorly. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sent out the suicide note this morning detailing the move. Here’s how I read it: “yeah, we screwed up with the price changes and we’re doing it again with this Qwikster move. Do not, however, take this as an apology.”

To make matters worse, it turns out there is a Twitter account named Qwikster, which has a profile photo of Sesame Street’s Elmo smoking a joint. For the win!

I don’t know about you, but I’m heading over to Etrade to short some Netflix stock.

UPDATE 10/10/2011: Apparently, Netflix hired some PR people. Alas, it is too little, too late. Have you seen their latest note to customers about the whoe Qwikster debacle. If not, you can read it below. Perhaps shorting Netflix stock is again the right hting to do.

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We’re constantly improving our streaming selection. We’ve recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.


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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/netflixs-corporate-seppuku/feed/ 0 A Time For Print http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/a-time-for-print/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/a-time-for-print/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:40:33 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2564
Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com

Marketers have a tendency – like pendulums – to swing too far in one direction and then reverse course. In my estimation, most marketers are too far on their swing toward digital delivery of marketing information. There are some marketers who understand there needs to be a balance and that printed material can be used very effectively to make that tangible connection with customers.

Recently, I had the pleasure of receiving my delivery from Raffaldini Vineyards, a small winery in North Carolina that makes very nice wines from Italian varietal grapes. Now, a bottle of wine is a very tangible expression of a company’s brand but I was really impressed by the value-added printed material. Inside the box was a sheet discussing each wine in the shipment – when it was harvested, soil type, age of the vines and other facts wine lovers like to know.

To my surprise, when I flipped the sheet over, there was a recipe designed specifically for each bottle of wine. The 2009 Montepulciano, I was informed, goes well with eggplant parmesan. (They weren’t lying. Just had a bottle with the eggplant parmesan. Tasty, indeed.)

Are you using print in your marketing mix? Got any examples of good use of print? Let us know.

 

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/a-time-for-print/feed/ 0 All Branding, All The Time http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/all-branding-all-the-time/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/all-branding-all-the-time/#comments Sun, 07 Aug 2011 18:33:31 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2455

We write a lot here about brands and branding, so I thought I’d pull together a compendium of some of our better pieces on the subject to make it easier for you to find.

Colorful Brands - We talked sometime back about the use of color in your branding efforts.  My Creative Team uses orange as our dominant color. Orange is considered an energetic color, connoting excitement, enthusiasm, playfulness and value.

Brands Out Of Control – Are you placing your brand in the hands of others? Better place your hands on the wheel and start steering.

Branding The Fortune 500 Way - The recipe for success: run the business on the basic principles of lean management, innovation, environmental stewardship, and last – but not least – a commitment to employees. Employees, after all, bring your brand to life.

Stand By Your Brand - With apologies to Tammy Wynette, who warbled the song, Stand By Your Man, now is the time to stand by your brand. If you don’t, someone could hijack it or do it irreparable harm.

Building Brands One Touch At A Time - So much of what we do as marketers involves communication with digital media that we forget how powerful the human touch can be in building a brand.

Branding Lessons From Santa - Every Christmas Eve, a burglar named Santa busts into homes around the world, but he has never been charged with B&E. He has one of the best, most positive brands around and it continues to inoculate him against any hint of impropriety, as it has for generations.

It’s About Experiences, Not Logos - Smart marketers, however, know that the brand is the sum total of what people think about your organization, and that it is expressed in every contact customers have with you.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/all-branding-all-the-time/feed/ 0 Brands Still Matter http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-still-matter/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-still-matter/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:07:54 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2438

I just ran across this piece, Why Brands Don’t Matter Anymore, by John Jantsch, who knows his marketing. But I have to disagree with his headline, which was probably written to create a hint of controversy. (If you read the piece, you’ll see that he and I don’t truly disagree on this topic.)

Brands do matter, even if brand awareness built over many years by multi-million dollar ad campaigns don’t matter as much as they once did.

What is a brand?   There are as many definitions as there are marketers. Here is how I see it: a brand is a mixture of tangible and intangible attributes symbolized by an entity’s name and trademark. Further, I believe the brand is the sum total of what people think about your organization, and that it is expressed in every contact customers have with you.  That is why I am such a proponent of ensuring your employees clearly understand and articulate the brand message in all of their interactions.

I agree with Jantsch, when he says,

Now, I’m not suggesting that having a strong brand isn’t a good thing; I’m merely saying it’s not enough anymore. The Internet and access to information has leveled the playing field to the point where a no name with a better collection of raving fans can compete with the largest brands in any industry.

Jantsch rightly points out that in this digital day there are a lot more factors that marketers must consider as they try to build a brand. A savvy, no name company can quickly gain market share by conquering the digital milieu and mobilizing a small, rabid fan base. A multi-million dollar ad campaign wouldn’t hurt, though.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-still-matter/feed/ 0 Fortune 500 Friday – 7/8/2011 http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/fortune-500-friday-782011/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/fortune-500-friday-782011/#comments Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:30:07 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2366

Since My Creative Team works with Fortune 500 firms, we often like to share the marketing techniques of these big boys with you. Many of these techniques can be replicated by marketers in any size business. So, let’s see what the big boys have been doing.

Eight Fortune 500 Marketing Techniques - Although red tape often slows down the big boys, they do a few things very well. Here are a few of these that any small business could put in place in their marketing effort.

Wal-Mart Accelerating Growth At Market Concept –  Wal-Mart has determined that their smaller footprint stores are delivering returns on par with their supercenters. The lesson here: consider changing the size of your product to reach a different audience.

New Marketing Approaches For Ford - You can no longer follow the traditional model of ‘announce, launch, abandon’ and then prop it up again when sales tail off. You have to keep listening, and keep responding.

Verizon: A Case Study In Marketing Done Wrong – Poor customer service, inept pricing and deceptive communications: that’s Verizon’s prescription for bad marketing. A small business who had done this would be belly up.

Coca-Cola Employs Music & QR Codes in Marketing - Coca-Cola has finally come up with a game plan to catch up and tap into Pepsi’s target audience and hopefully gain the patronage of a better chunk of soda consumers. And this game plan also involves the use of music to connect to people, albeit in a different manner.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/fortune-500-friday-782011/feed/ 0 Brands Out Of Control http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-out-of-control/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-out-of-control/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:02:51 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2094

Are you taking charge of your brand or placing its control in the hands of others? In light of recent crowdsourced ads at the Superbowl, that’s the question Beau Fraser contemplates in a MarketingDaily article.

Delegating too much authority to consumers makes me wonder whether we are creating a monster and in the process abdicating our role as professional marketers to a mob. The monster and mob are one and the same. They are the consumer.

Now, I agree that we can’t abdicate our responsibility as marketers but I disagree vehemently with Fraser’s assertion that,

I’ve never agreed with the idea that says “Set your brand free. The consumer owns your brand.” They don’t. We do. Or at least we’d better. After all, we created it. We gave it meaning. We keep it shiny and fresh. We redefine it when it loses its relevance. Any brand left to the consumer to define is a weak brand because every consumer will have a different definition.

You don’t own your brand. As I’ve said before,

a brand is community property. The company, its employees, allies and consumers share the brand. A brand is not solely graphics, logos, taglines and such. Every interaction a company has with its various publics adds to or subtracts from the brand.

You, the marketer, must try to steer the brand, but you also must accept the fact that others have input into its meaning. What do you think: is the brand yours or is it community property?

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/brands-out-of-control/feed/ 3 Lowe’s Gift List Builder http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/lowes-gift-list-builder/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/lowes-gift-list-builder/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:30:36 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=1460

UPDATE: With Christmas behind us, this Lowe’s tool is offline.

We’re proud to be launching today the Lowe’s Gift List Builder that we just completed.  It’s an online holiday tool catalog that allows you to build a gift list, save it online and then share it with friends via email and your Facebook account.

We had some fun with the email sharing feature, allowing you to select avatars that represent your personality. Or, if you have no personality, that’s OK, too.

So, I hope you will visit Lowe’s and build your Gift List today.  Please tell your friends about it, too.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/lowes-gift-list-builder/feed/ 2 Branding The Fortune 500 Way http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/branding-the-fortune-500-way/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/branding-the-fortune-500-way/#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:00:05 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=1321

Today’s Fortune 500 Friday is about Nucor, #206 on this year’s Fortune 500 list, & one of my clients. I have been in marketing since 1983, and in my experience, Nucor does a better job of branding than any other company I’ve ever been around. It doesn’t waste time or money on promoting itself outside its niche. The people who need to know about them, know who they are.

Your organization could take branding lessons from Nucor. The recipe for success: run the business on the basic principles of lean management, innovation, environmental stewardship, and last – but not least – a commitment to employees. Employees, after all, bring your brand to life.

Nucor hires the right people and immerses them in its corporate culture. The poster above that we produced outlines the Nucor way. Walk into a Nucor facility and you’ll see posters like this. This is not just empty talk. I’ve seen the culture in action.

Recently, I was producing recruiting videos for Nucor. Everyone I interviewed clearly understood and brought the corporate culture to life. It was truly amazing that they all told me stories that supported Nucor’s four employee relations principles:

  1. Management is obligated to manage Nucor in such a way that employees will have the opportunity to earn according to their productivity.
  2. Employees should feel confident that if they do their jobs properly, they will have a job tomorrow.
  3. Employees have the right to be treated fairly and must believe that they will be.
  4. Employees must have an avenue of appeal when they believe they are being treated unfairly.

When the video is completed, I’ll share some of the Nucor employees’ stories.

Are your employees part of your branding effort? Tell us about it.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/branding-the-fortune-500-way/feed/ 2 America’s Worst Ads http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/americas-worst-ads/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/americas-worst-ads/#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 07:00:44 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=1287

It’s time to vote on the worst ads in America. The Consumerist has launched its first contest to find America’s most annoying ads. And, sadly, there are a lot from which to choose this year.

There does seem to be a theme in 2010. From Progressive’s annoying Flo to State Farm’s pocket agent, insurance companies are dominating the list.

The categories are:

America’s Absolute Worst Ad – (I’ve gotta give it to Flo)

Most Grating Performance By A Human – (Nationwide’s World’s Greatest Spokesperson is my choice)

Most Annoying Animated Spokesthing – (my vote goes to Charmin’s Bears)

Duo Or Group That Needs To Be Broken Up – (Toyota Sienna couple, hands down)

Celebrity Who Must Have Lost Money In The Housing Crash – (Troy Aikman, Hulk Hogan – Rent-A-Center)

Creepiest Commercial – (although I like these ads, Allstate’s Mr. Mayhem is really creepy)

How did you vote?

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