Brand Research

 

Introducing our online brand research course. This comprehensive introductory course focuses on how to use marketing research to build, manage and grow successful brands and it highlights the most important marketing research issues and considerations. Further, you will learn about more than 40 different qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and techniques and when it is appropriate to use each. Topics include brand positioning research, brand equity research, brand extension research and customer segmentation research.

To learn more or to take the course, click here. 

Tapping Into Human Needs

 

I am excited to announce that I have developed a new inexpensive online course entitled "Tapping into Human Needs." 

This one-hour seminar will help you better understand human needs and motivations. This understanding should inform brand positioning, marketing copy, selling scripts, and unique value propositions. We will cover Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, The Triune Brain, the power of fear, the two scarce resources (time and money), thirty-six powerful human motivators, how to differentiate brands by human need and eleven different market segmentation approaches. This seminar features several well-known brands as examples and six advertising videos associated with three of those brands. I think you will find a few of those ads to be quite timely and relevant. It also includes a few exercises and links to relevant online articles and blog posts. 

At the end of this seminar, you will have a much deeper insight into human motivation and how that relates to marketing and brands.

Click here to learn more about the course.

Marketing Needs Assessment

We have been running a continuous marketing needs assessment survey since April of 2017. Here are the latest findings. 

Organizational role:

• CEO - 19%
• CMO - 12%
• Marketing director - 12%
• Product manager - 12%
• Marketing manager - 10%
• Marketing vice president - 7%
• Brand manager - 5%
• Research analyst - 5%
• Marketing analyst - 3%
• Media planner - 3%
• Creative director - 3%
• Graphic designer - 2%
• Account executive - 2%
• Other - 5%

Industry (adds up to more than 100% because people can select more than one):

• Consumer products - 20%
• Consulting - 19%
• Consumer services - 15%
• Business services - 12%
• Communications - 10%
• Education - 9%
• Financial services - 7%
• Industrial products - 5%
• Research - 5%
• Healthcare - 5%
• Energy - 3%
• Automotive - 3%
• Aviation - 3%
• Hospitality - 3%
• Defense - 3%
• Software - 2%
• Enterprise solutions - 2%

Findings:

• The biggest issue facing people's businesses today is increasing sales/growing the business.
• The second biggest issue is successfully launching new products.
• The third biggest issue is dealing with COVID-related challenges.
• The forth biggest issue is generating more qualified leads.
• The fifth biggest issue is lack of confidence in the marketing function.
• The two biggest marketing issues are building brand awareness and successfully differentiating the brand.
• The top specific issues are (1) finding the most cost effective way to reach customers, (2) developing a strong identity for the brand, (3) knowing how to best use digital, mobile and social media marketing, (4) determining the best way to spend the marketing budget and (5) better understanding customer needs.

We are always looking for additional feedback from marketing practitioners and business executives. To take the survey yourself, please click on this LINK. While the survey is anonymous, if you so choose, you may enter your name and email address for a chance to win a Brand Aid book, two hours of free consulting or a $50 Amazon.com gift card.

Transitioning to e-Commerce

I am conducting a free two-hour workshop on transitioning to e-commerce for artists on Sunday, September 27 from 4 pm until 6 pm. You are invited to attend.

This workshop will teach artists how to develop, host and promote websites for e-commerce including becoming familiar with different web development and hosting services, e-commerce platforms and payment methods. It will also briefly cover content creation, blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, lead generation, marketing automation, search engine optimization, online promotion, web store organization, privacy policy generators, terms of use generators, and virtual museums, concerts and other events.

Register HERE now!

Comprehensive Brand Positioning Course

This course will provide you with everything you need to position your brand to win. It is based on a proprietary process and set of tools that have been used to successfully position hundreds of brands throughout the world. 

This unparalleled brand positioning process was refined over 30 years and has been used by more than 200 highly successful brands in almost every product and service category.

To unleash your brand's full power, you must create a unique value proposition that is emotionally compelling. This requires a rigorous brand positioning process based on deep customer insight. And it requires an understanding of how brands can connect with customers through shared values and exceptional experiences.

This brand positioning process is part art and part science, using both the left and right sides of your brain. 

The course includes examples from many world-class brands and all the tools, templates and information you will need to position your brand to win.

The course is comprised of a video, seven handouts and links to 28 relevant blog posts. I will instruct you to use the handouts at appropriate points throughout the video. 

While the video is an hour and a quarter in length, the total course length with exercises and blog post readings will require between two and four hours to complete. You can stop and restart the course at any time based on your schedule. 

You can take the course here: Positioning Your Brand to Win

Marketing and Marketing Communication Are Not the Same

Frequently, I encounter organizations whose marketing departments consist solely of marketing communications professionals. Those organizations view marketing solely as marketing communications. The department is tasked with writing marketing copy, providing content to websites, running social media campaigns, creating brochures, crafting event announcements and the like.

But who is developing the brand's unique value proposition? Who is identifying its target markets? Who is determining the product mix? Who is deciding on each product's functions and features? Who is setting prices? Who is creating the distribution strategy? Who is crafting the customer service strategy? Who is responsible for publicity? Who is responsible for event marketing? Who is responsible for marketing research? Who is developing the overall marketing plan?

Often the answer is "the product planners" or "product development" or "sales" or "the business units." If the organization is a not-for-profit organization, the answer often is "the development person or function" or the "membership coordinator." But sometimes the answer is "I don't know," or worse yet, "no one."

If your marketing department consists only of people who write copy and design graphics and nothing else, you don't have a marketing department. You have a marketing communications department. While there is nothing wrong with having a marketing communications function, it does ignore all of the other marketing levers. It is akin to having a tool box that only consists of a pair of pliers. While the pliers come in handy at times, they are not helpful if a screwdriver or hammer are needed instead.

So please broaden your thinking about what marketing encompasses.

For further reading, consider these blog posts:

• Marketing 101
• Marketing Fundamentals
• Marketing Training and Marketer Competency
• The Elements of Business and Marketing Strategy
• Marketing Careers
• 39 Marketing Tactics That Work - Part 1
• 39 Marketing Tactics That Work - Part 2
• 39 Marketing Tactics That Work - Part 2
• The Eight Skills of a Marketing Rock Star
• What a Chief Marketing Officer Needs to Know
• Honing Your Marketing Skills
• After 35 Years in the Business, My Thoughts About Marketing

Marketing to Human Needs

If one is not marketing to human needs, that person should not be considered a marketer. Marketers, and especially those who craft brand strategy and marketing communications, must deeply understand human needs to perform their jobs well. I have written a number of blog posts over time that speak to addressing human needs. I have compiled links to them here to help you more easily find them.

• Need-Based Marketing
• Basic Human Needs & Branding 
• Core Human Needs & Marketing 
• Businesses, Brands & Human Needs 
• What People Want 
• Brands, Pain & Pleasure 
• Should Marketers Rely on the Reptilian Brain to Motivate People? 
• States of Mind 
• Brands and Freedom 
• Laddering Research 
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 
• Summary of Maslow on Self-Transcendence