Get the Brand Message Right

I have worked with clients who are totally focused on the media plan or the social media tactics or on which marketing communication vehicles to use and what the spend should be for each of them. But they completely neglect the brand message. 

Admittedly, marketers must carefully choose their brands' target markets and then identify communication vehicles that can reach those markets with the greatest effectiveness and efficiency. And admittedly, most of the impact of brand communication is on building brand awareness, not changing brand perceptions.

But having admitted to both of these, I contend that the most strategic part of what is largely a series of tactical marketing exercises is choosing the right message - one that reinforces the brand's unique value proposition. The message needs to be emotionally compelling, unique and believable for the brand.

I find that more often than not, true marketers get this. But people who have come from operations, engineering, finance or even general management backgrounds (or new, inexperienced marketers) often default to the tactical decisions while paying little to no attention to the message itself. Or sometimes, they decide that the message should be some gimmick (e.g. a celebrity endorsement), or worse yet, a giveaway or a price discount.

I have had marketing decision makers tell me that they don't have the time to determine what the optimal brand message should be. Maybe next time. 

You are wasting your marketing communication spending if you are not using the marketing communication vehicles to convey the right message. Before you jump into the weeds of the marketing communication tactics, step back and make sure you have the right message to communicate.  

Brands and Networks

I have never heard anyone talk about brands in terms of networks, but it would be useful to do so. In economics and business model strategy, "network effects" refers to the added value to certain types of businesses when more people are networked into them. 4G LTE networks become more valuable to their customers with each customer that they add, especially when they offer free "friends and family" plans. Social media platforms also have positive network effects. Consider the increased value of LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media platforms as they add more people. The same goes for a variety of online commerce websites. Consider the power of network effects for eBay. And consider how important network effects are for Airbnb, Craigslist, Angie's List and others.

In what ways can brands benefit from network effects? Certainly in the way that I describe above, when the business proposition itself improves with more users. But here are some other networks to consider:

• A brand's communication/media networks. Are they creating greater brand awareness? Are they getting to people who will act as brand advocates? Are they connecting with people who are "network hubs" and who can substantially extend the brand's reach to a large number of others?
• A brand's distribution networks. Are they extending the brand into new markets or they limiting the brand's chances of success?  Are they creating additional visibility for the brand with key target markets? Are they proactively introducing the brand to new markets or are they reducing the brand's value by extracting too much profit without a commensurate increase in brand value?
• A brand's delivery networks. Brands and their products and services can be delivered in a variety of ways - in person, through software, over the telephone, over the Internet, through ATM machines, through other companies' products, through other companies' services, etc. Some of these networks have great reach, while others are more limited in their reach. Some get to key influencers. Others don't. 

Reaching one person who is well thought of, highly networked, and outspoken through multiple communication platforms to the right audiences will have a very large impact. Consider me, for example. If you want to get your message about brand strategy out, if you can get me to say something about it, I could do so through one of my two blogs reaching close to 50,000 marketing professionals, or through my Brand Aid book, available in many languages throughout the world. The book is available in hard cover, an eBook version and an audio version. To date, more than 20,000 hard copies have been sold to marketing professionals. It is used in dozens of business schools across the world, influencing thousands of future marketing managers. And, I am highly active on social media, with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other accounts. Finally, throw in dozens of speaking engagements and dozens of new clients each year, enabling thousands of other people to hear what I have to say.

Another thing to consider is that some networks are more appropriate for your brand than others. And some are more credible than others. Some have higher quality perceptions. Some target more upscale audiences. Some are faster than others. And some are better at reaching the target audiences in the most effective and efficient ways. 

Clearly, considering and managing what networks your brand is tapping into will have a big impact on its success. 

The Donald Trump Brand - Our Research Results

Donald Trump has estimated his net worth to be in the billions of dollars, mostly based on the brand value of his last name. Prior to Donald Trump’s run for president of the United States, the Trump brand stood for luxury, success, risk taking and fearlessness.

Now that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president, we wanted to determine if his campaigning has changed his brand perceptions. To that end, we conducted a nationwide online survey between June 24 and July 4 to better understand Donald Trump’s brand perceptions. We asked 300 people how well each of 115 personality attributes described him. We compiled these attributes from articles written about Donald Trump combined with our battery of standard brand personality attributes. Here is what we found:

• No one perceives him to be shy
• Few view him to be subtle and very few perceive him to be politically correct
• Most everyone perceives him to be confident and outspoken
• Almost everyone identifies him as ambitious and a businessman
• Most identify him as rich and a billionaire

This is where the agreement ends. We found significant differences in brand personality perceptions by political party affinity, educational attainment and, to a lessor extent, household income level.  We also found that people who were unemployed and looking for work and those disabled and unable to work had much more positive perceptions of Donald Trump than people who were employed and those who were unemployed by choice. Interestingly, there were very few differences in perceptions by gender.

Republicans primarily described him using these words (in decreasing order):

• Businessman
• Hard working
• Successful
• Confident
• Leader
• Strong
• Real
• Entrepreneurial
• Competent
• Ambitious
• Rich
• Positive
• Energetic
• Passionate
• Professional
• Loyal
• Billionaire
• Interesting
• Good
• Smart
• Responsible
• Brave
• Honest
• Reliable
• Inspiring
• Outspoken
• Trustworthy
• Dependable

And they used many more positive words and almost no negative words to describe him.

While Democrats primarily described him as (in decreasing order):

• Outspoken
• Egotistical
• Narcissist
• Loud
• Bully
• Rude
• Greedy
• Sexist
• Bigoted
• Dangerous
• Intolerant
• Superficial
• Selfish
• Pretentious
• Narrow-minded
• Ambitious
• Crass
• Ill-mannered
• Angry
• Boorish
• Impulsive
• Confident
• Huckster
• Elitist
• Fraud

 People with less than a college bachelor’s degree described him as:

• Businessman
• Ambitious
• Hard working
• Confident
• Successful
• Outspoken
• Rich
• Entrepreneurial
• Billionaire
• Leader
• Real

 While people with a bachelor’s degree or greater described him as:

• Outspoken
• Egotistical
• Ambitious
• Confident
• Loud
• Crass
• Narcissist
• Impulsive
• Rude

 People with household incomes of $74,999 or less described him as:

• Outspoken
• Ambitious
• Confident
• Businessman
• Rich
• Successful
• Hard working
• Entrepreneurial
• Billionaire
• Passionate

 While people with household incomes of $175,000 or more described him as:

• Confident
• Ambitious
• Outspoken
• Egotistical
• Businessman
• Loud
• Flashy
• Entrepreneurial
• Rich
• Authoritarian
• Crass
• Energetic

In summary, those who (a) are Republican, (b) have less than a college bachelor’s degree and (c) more modest household incomes and (d) are unemployed looking for work view Donald Trump as a rich, successful, outspoken businessman who has many positive traits. Put another way, Republicans and those who are less successful have positive perceptions of Donald Trump. Those who are Democratic, and are fully employed with higher educational attainment and income view Donald Trump in a very negative light. The first groups would view the Trump brand similar to historical brand associations, while the latter groups have mostly negative perceptions of the Trump brand.

The data would indicate that his style and demeanor appeal more to people who are less well educated and who have more modest incomes. For instance, more highly educated people and people with higher incomes perceive him to be loud, while people with less education and lower incomes do not. Crass and other negative adjectives follow the same pattern, while likeable and other positive adjectives follow the opposite pattern.

If I were a Republican brand strategist, I would focus on Donald Trump’s bulldog qualities and his ability to “get the job done” on behalf of those who are fed up with the status quo.  If I were a Democratic brand strategist, I would focus on Donald Trump’s narcissism and propensity to operate only in his own self-interest and I would present evidence that he is not nearly as competent and successful as he portrays himself to be.

Interesting branding questions that emerge from this study are:

• Is all publicity good publicity?
• Does the extremely high awareness of the Trump name mostly help Trump, even if recent polls show that approximately 60% of US citizens have negative perceptions of Donald Trump? Which is more important, brand awareness or brand perceptions?
• Will these negative perceptions of Donald Trump affect his ability to license his name for royalty income?
• How does this affect the asset value of the Trump brand?
• Does this affect the Ivanka Trump brand, and if so, in what ways?

For more information regarding the results of this survey, contact Brad VanAuken, president of BrandForward, Inc. at vanauken@brandforward.com.

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Logo Research

When exploring new logo executions, the research may include any or all of the following components:

• Logo Imagery. Imagery evoked by various logo alternatives vs. that evoked by the current logo. (This exercise usually includes the intended brand personality attributes and attributes such as “boring.”)
• Logo Recognition. A “mock-up” of each variation of the logo is placed in its most likely usage environment (e.g., store marquis, product packaging) and then people at various distances are asked about what they see. This technique measures visibility, recognition, and the ability to break through visual clutter at various distances.
• Logo Recall. One at a time, different logo alternatives and the current logo are mixed in with other companies’ logos on a panel. People are allowed to view the panel for a few seconds. After that, the panel is covered or taken away and they must write down all of the brands that they remember seeing. Results are compared for each variation of the logo.
• Logo Preference. Each variation of the logo is featured on a card. People are given the deck of cards and asked to sort the logos/cards in order of preference. They are then asked to comment on why they ranked each logo variation the way they did.

At BrandForward, we conduct similar research for brand positionings, names, tag lines and messaging. 

© 2015 Brad VanAuken Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here and here.

Online Brand Building

Key considerations in online brand building:

• When building brands online, content is king. If your brand is not associated with continuous stream of useful or entertaining content, it will be taken far less seriously.
• The online medium invites feedback and engagement. Build this into your brand’s online experience.
• Visuals (including videos) are becoming increasingly important to any online brand experience.
• An important benefit of the online medium is that it makes it possible for your brand’s messages to go viral. There are specific strategies and tools to help you initiate and accelerate this viral process.
• As with any other brand activity, you must start by defining your target audiences.
• Furthermore, your brand must have a unique value proposition and you must be very clear about your brand’s promise.

In the Online Brand Building chapter of my Brand Aid book, I focus on eleven key components of online brand building:

• The Brand Website
• The Importance of Content
• The Power of Blogs
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Online Advertising
• Using Social Media
• Web Analytics
• E-Mail Marketing
• Online Public Relations
• Mobile Apps
• QR Codes

© 2015 Brad VanAuken Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here and here.

Brands & Price Sensitivity

It is extremely important to be able to estimate the impact of price changes on sales and profits. That is, it is important to know how a price change will impact consumer response, competitive response, and unit volume. Many businesspeople erroneously believe that a price increase is the most cost-effective revenue-generating marketing tactic. I have heard generally intelligent professionals share their excitement about how a price increase will drop to the “bottom line” dollar-for-dollar. Most of the time, this is simply not true.

People display different price sensitivities to different products in different situations. Often people are relatively price insensitive, but only within a relevant price range. Once a price exceeds that range, people become very sensitive. Raising the price across that threshold is akin to walking off a cliff.

Factors That Decrease Price Sensitivity

• Relevant brand/product differentiation.
• Marketing and selling on factors other than price.
• Convincing consumers that quality differs significantly among products and brands in the category.
• Self-expressive or “image” products or brands. (For example, if I wear sports apparel featuring Nike’s swoosh logo, it implies I have the “Just do it” attitude of Nike’s “authentic athletic performance” essence. If I carry a Gucci handbag or wear a Rolex watch or drive a Mercedes-Benz, it says I have social status. If I wear a Harvard ball cap, it says I am extremely smart and successful; and if I wear a Harley-Davidson tattoo, it says that I know the freedom of the road, that I am a free spirit.)
• Brand advertising.
• Situations in which price is a signal to quality—usually for relatively new or unknown products or brands.
• When it is difficult to ascertain a “reference price” within the category.
• When there are significant switching costs—in dollars, time, effort, risk, or emotional impact.
• Product categories for which the risk of failure is an important issue.
• When the price is insignificant relative to the total budget or discretionary income.
• When the item does not significantly contribute to the cost of the products and services that a business sells.
• When the price falls within the expected price range for products in the category.
• When offering “value-added services” vs. “price discounts” to motivate purchases.
• New markets.

Factors That Increase Price Sensitivity

• Price promotions, especially when people are able to stock up on the price-discounted items
• Mature and declining markets

© 2015 Brad VanAuken Excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here and here.

Donald Trump Brand Personality

I am conducting an online survey to better understand Donald Trump's brand personality. I will report the results on this blog when the survey is complete. Please help me spread this survey throughout the Internet as I want to have as large a sample size as possible with as diverse a set of respondents as possible. Later I will look at the impact of Donald Trump's changing personality perceptions on the Trump brand and its equity. Thank you for helping me with this. 

Here is the LINK to the survey.