So I came across this picture from Ed Felix’s blog at http://appdoption.com/ and I found it rather interesting. But being in the little red dot country (also known as Singapore) with neighboring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, I can’t help but wonder what is the percentage of market share in Singapore and how it is like in Indonesia as well. I would only guess that in Indonesia it has a higher market share holding Blackberry. What do you think?
Make advertising personal.
Build a story around the brand.
Don’t be afraid to collaborate.
Continually surprise your customers .
There is a communal building up and self trust is being built. Nowadays marketing requires reengagement of people – how to make people care about your brand is saying that resonates with them. Consumers in their cultural context and not acting alone. It is a bottom up approach and they are leading brands in. Brands are participating in what is important to them. This means we have to look into meaningful marketing. People don’t join for the ideology, they join for the community – only over time do they understand and buy into what the thing is all about.
Develop empathy.
Currently we live in a very narcissistic industry – our ego, our style but it’s really about them ( consumers). It is about understanding the other side. Creating a character with depth for the audience to connect with on some level. Do they have a brother or sister? Are they working from 9 to 5pm? Doing the actual research to create this character. When you want to be real, you are no longer real anymore but you can come close. Companies are shifting from authority to credibility. Thus so important in getting int character to speak for that brand. You speak the same language as the culture you go into and you see the same as they do. This establishes trust.
On the flight from San Jose to Boston stopping over at Denver, Colorado (3rd March 2011), I started reading a presentation done by Neutron LLC by Marty Neumeier called The Brand Gap How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design. The following are notes that I have taken down on my perceptions on branding.
Branding occurs when what people say it is (This could be done via viral marketing… people saying what it is). The entrepreneur, John Paul DeJoria saying if you want to sell anything sell the one with the best quality. This is because consumers base buying on trust.
Trust is achieved when you meet or do more that customers expect. = Reliability + Experience (happy)
Branding’s purpose? Get more people to buy more stuff for many years at a premium high price. So when you are measuring branding, you look at:
Branding = strategic tool strategy vs creativity. If built correctly, a charismatic brand is achieved. This is when there’s no substitute for it.
(1) Differentiate yourself to allow people to easily identify you from others.
In a world of personalization and answering “who you are” / identification. So we need to focus in order to differentiate your brand. When we say have focus, need a value proposition that encompasses in answering the following questions:
You want “good brand extensions” – growing value of a brand by reinforcing its focus. Don’t deviate to chase short term profits in the expense of long term branding. Will not only lose focus but damage your brand value.
(2) Collaborate: “takes a village to build a brand”.
Model: “one stop shop” – resources to develop and steward the brand which allows easy management and consistency but not so much on choice of teams and no ownership.
Model: “brand agency” – hires the best firms to help develop and steward the brand which allows the choices of teams and consistency but little choice of ownership on the brand.
Model: “integrated marketing team” – internal with open collaboration among specialists. This is the solution to ownership of brands and you can choose the teams and a promise of consistency but the cons is that it is difficult to manage. Deep insights come from deep experience.
(3) Innovate
Execution is not strategy. Execution is where the rubber meets the road. Creativity gives brand their traction in the marketplace. It is creative if it scares the hell out of everyone.
Too predictable = no surprise. No surprise = nothing new. Nothing new = no value
So brand = stand out name. Stand up name criteria:
Package is best and last chance to make a sale (retail) o Notice the package – “What is it?”, “Why should I care?” – wants to be persuaded:
(4) Validate – Bringing the audience into the “creative process”
Communication model shift: monologue to dialogue .
Question: how to test your most creative ideas before they get to market?
(5) Cultivate
Business = Process. Business is not an entity.
Brand is a pattern of behavior, not a stylistic veneer (an attractive thing covering and disguising the ugly)
New paradigm: Influence the character of a brand.
What happens when you reach number one? Solution: Need a compass. This compass continues the brand education program.
A more distributed a brand is = stronger the management needs to be.
Need a human bridge between logic and magic – strategy and design.
You want to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Simple framework:
Aspirations, Benefits & Constraints
Learn:
1. How to identify profitable consumer segments & uncover deep hidden consumer insights
2. Develop cutting edge proposition & convert then into effective advertising
3. How to create an integrated marketing campaign that drives short term sales & long term equity
4. How to create innovations that work first time & can meet the needs of both top end and bottom end brands
- Information was given by NTU Careerhub.
Have you seen the recent marketing of Dell Singapore with Swarm?
Apparently if you buy in a “swarm” (max 15 people), you get to save!
http://www.dellswarm.com/sg/index.php
Click here to see how it works:
http://www.dellswarm.com/sg/howitworks.php
Have to say it’s a great idea since Dell does make money by bulk manufacturing and bulk selling. And to tie technology of facebook and twitter. Competitors of Dell better be careful!!
