Brand Benefit Cues

Several years ago, I was helping a health care system reposition its brand. After rigorous research, we discovered that their unique presence of a level one trauma center in the rural communities that they served signaled that they were uniquely set up to handle the toughest and most complex medical situations. This together with some other proof points would lead potential patients to believe that they were the best health care system to use to handle any medical problem ultimately leading to the greatest peace of mind. As a logical extension of this, patients should choose this health care system first every time rather than choosing it only for the most difficult medical situations. We tied the most important patient benefits together with their proof points and reasons to believe.

But here was the big 'aha' in our whole repositioning effort. The most important proof point related to the level one trauma center proof point was their two heavily branded Medevac helicopters that were often seen flying around the area. In your efforts to position or reposition a brand don't forget to identify the critical brand benefit cues or triggers that have the greatest potential to reinforce the brand's unique promise.

Here is another blog post I have written on the topic of brand triggers.

• Identifying and Crafting Brand Triggers

Retro Brand Imagery with Sexual Overtones

 

I was spending time at my Adirondack home last week and stopped by this Lake Placid wine and spirit shop to pick up some wine for the week. That's when I noticed their shop sign. It immediately took me back to vintage ads with sexual overtones that are now unacceptable. The sign depicts a woman with lots of leg showing sitting on a champagne bottle that has just exploded. Maybe this sign was created as an attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor or to be retro but it seems quite obvious in its intent and I was surprised to see it. 

As I was researching the vintage ads with similar sexual overtones, I was also surprised to discover other more modern ads with the same overtones. This Burger King ad ran in the city-state of Singapore in the first half of 2009. I really can't believe that they would run such an ad, but they did. Having come from a corporate background, I began to imagine how many approvals this ad must have gone through before it was released. 

And here is a recent ad from a Premier Estate Wine in Australia. It was ultimately banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for being 'degrading and offensive.'

While sex is a primal human instinct that can motivate at a deeply emotional level, these ads objectify women and are in poor taste. Tobacco and alcoholic beverage companies have been the worst offenders over time, but they are not the only ones. These types of ads used to be fair game for brands in any product category. For instance, this is a lipstick ad. 

I have advised several brands that they can do better than using sex to sell their products. There are many other equally compelling approaches that can be used that don't reinforce sexual fantasies or objectify women. I am still surprised when I see examples of humanity not transcending its most basic instincts to embrace more lofty motivators. I embrace human sexuality, just not so much in advertising these days. 

Here are some other blog posts that identify other human motivators that can be used in advertising:

• Marketing and the Deep Understanding of Human Behavior
• Giving People What They Long For
• Core Human Needs and Marketing
• Marketing to Human Needs

I didn't intend to be offensive in this blog post, but rather to highlight an advertising approach that I had thought was firmly in our past. 

PS - Here is one other vintage ad from a famous global brand that a reader brought to my attention. 

More recently, a friend asked me about these ads that he saw while driving around St. Martin. They play into sex, drugs, the Rastafarian lifestyle and the "bad boy" image. 

 

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