by | Jan 8, 2012 | Blog

Here’s an example from the Real Estate category for one of our clients.

Using the ‘Pepsi strategy against Coke’, we have used the principal of taking a leading competitor’s strength “Hardest working Real Estate Agent” by Hocking Stuart and developing a positioning statement that capitalizes on their weakness:

  • Everyone knows that it’s not about working harder but SMARTER
  • We all have the perception of Real Estate agents being ‘sharks’ who only care about their bottom line and have hence made the Bayview positioning statement all about the buyer – YOU!

The result was “Working Smarter – For You”

It is interesting to note that Hocking Stuart, the very firm that became the marketing thought leader in their field has since changed their positioning twice since I first wrote this and now has no slogan or positioning statement at all! Do they now think that they are all grown up and don’t need one? I wonder how this will effect them…only time will tell and unless something drastic happens only they will know! What I am confident about is that they would have been much better off by sticking to and reinforcing their original slogan “Hardest Working Real Estate Agent”. Their size in the market (number of franchises / outlets) together with their marketing budget would have ensured their prominence and top of mind awareness in the minds of their customers and prospects.

For in depth exploration of the laws and principles of Positioning in the marketplace, you can’t go past Al Ries – http://www.ries.com/.

What is a Brand and Selling the Brand First

by | Dec 25, 2011 | Blog, Strategy

Selling the brand first

What is a brand? Sounds like a fairly basic question to ask, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t really know the answer.

A brand:
– Stands for something
– Has an emotional connection with it’s customers
– Has some need that it fulfils for it’s customer
– Is often hard to substitute
– Is unique
– Is associated with a logo and should have a tagline

How do you build a brand?

A brand is not something that naturally evolves; it is a based on a strategy to target it towards a specific group of people, and makes it relevant and appealing to them. A brand has a meaning, a benefit and an objective. The rule of thumb is to lead with an emotional benefit and support this with a rational benefit. An emotional benefit is what draws your customers to your brand and builds loyalty. For example, Nappies – the emotional benefit is that by using Brand X you will feel like you are the best mother that you can be. Whilst, the rational benefit is about performance and has to do with the practical functionality of the brand, for example, having side panels on the nappies to avoid leakage and the 100% hypoallergenic cotton fabric.

Why build a brand?

Brands are not easily substituted and this important is from a commercial perspective. If you have built a strong brand, your customers will feel loyal to your brand and this makes it difficult for competitors to take your market share. By raising the “barriers to entry” for new competitors, you are effectively making the market seem unattractive to new entrants – this keeps your customers coming back to you.

At qubePartners, a marketing agency an advertising agency, all in one, we help design, plan and execute branding strategies to ensure that your brand is as strong as it can be. Download Brand Design Questionnaire

We also recommend brand health audits on existing brands to ensure that they are relevant and building the emotional connection that is needed to create loyal customers. Download Marketing Check Fax

B2B Brand Building; Selling the Brand First

by | Dec 22, 2011 | Blog

In B2B, particularly in start up businesses, time and investment is reserved for R&D and production. If this is all that you do, you’re not going to make it. You’ll be another business with a great idea or a great product that finds itself a little lost in the commercial world.

Your product is only as good as the strength of your brand. Brands attract attention; brands get noticed and brands are memorable. Investing in brand building protects you from other companies trying to take market share from you and raise the barriers to entry.

Let’s work through an example, imagine you developed the “intel chip” and were ready to take it to market. You had put an enormous amount of work into R&D, production, manufacturing, forecast, and financing – but it had no brand, no tagline, no logo. It has a value proposition; you know what it does well, what it does differently, who will benefit from it and how it will change people’s lives. However, these elements are not easily communicated without a brand, something to bring it all together and make it mean something to your target audience.

In B2B often people think that brands are a fluffy/nice to have, non-essential item. Without one though, if you were take the “intel chip” to PC manufacturers and tried to on-sell it, you are offering them just another component, and what is stopping another company with the same amount of resources and expertise from offering the same type of chip cheaper? Brands help you to charge a premium, brands help you to mean something to your customer and brands are not easily replaced by substitutes (when you invest in them).

At qubePartners (www.qubepartners.com), a marketing agency an advertising agency, all in one, we come in at the early stages of product development or even when your product is just an idea. We help you to create a strong value proposition to build an emotional connection with your brand, so that when you are ready to launch, your brand is ready too. Read more about B2B Marketing at Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2B_Marketing#B2B_Branding.

Small marketing budgets are all about which marketing tool to use

by | Dec 16, 2011 | Blog

If you have a small budget and your marketing agency is suggesting email marketing – consider the benefits of a direct mail piece instead. The payoff between the better marketing tool can make the difference.

The main difference is that direct mail is considered a more acceptable form of communication for new leads, especially if you have a great offer. Whilst email is a cost effective was of keeping in touch with people who know and love you, but is often dismissed as spam when it arrives in the email inbox of a prospect.

If you have a decent budget, then hedge your bets and do both! But, if you don’t then you have to know the facts before you make your decision

At qubePartners, a marketing agency and advertising agency, all in one, we understand that you can’t have it all, on a small budget. So we suggest that to really get your brand noticed, consider the old fashioned way – snail/direct mail. The rationale is quite simple.
• Firstly, you are putting your brand in the hands of your target market.
• Secondly, it engages all the senses, plus addressed mail has an emotional component (i.e. it’s addressed to me, I feel special).
• And lastly, the letterbox is the least cluttered promotional channel. The inbox is full and the letterbox is quite empty!

On a small budget, it makes sense to look for a channel that is less cluttered, allows for a high degree of creativity and has a far higher chance of getting noticed. A direct mail that ends up in the bin was read first!