Brand Positioning to Win Clients

Brand Positioning to Win Clients

by | Jan 9, 2012 | Blog, Promotion, Strategy

Why is it that some of our society’s brightest minds have no idea how to translate their “no holds barred” skills from the courtroom to the public domain of marketing communication in a battle to win more clients?

Maybe they just don’t need the extra business, maybe they don’t know how, or maybe the truth is a combination of arrogance and ignorance steeped in tradition! If you want to know the historical reasons why the legal profession is the way it is when it comes to brand positioning in marketing and advertising, then you’ll see an excellent exposé here:

http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1181207138051 by the (American) National Law Journal.

Brand Positioning in the Real Estate marketplace

Brand Positioning in the Real Estate marketplace

by | Jan 8, 2012 | Blog, Strategy


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 brand 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 brand 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 Brand 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

How to avoid an expensive divorce from your marketing agency

by | Dec 12, 2011 | Blog, Strategy

If you’ve realised you can’t do all your marketing and advertising in-house, take action now.

It’s quarter 4 already and your plans for 2012 should be signed off and ready to implement. Most budgeting and marketing plan development for 2012 normally happens around September. But, it’s not too late.

The key to getting your marketing sorted is being a priority to the marketing agency and advertising agency that you plan to use. Before selecting an agency, consider this…

Are you going to be a big or small client to the agency? The truth is, if you are just a small account, you might not be a priority.

Choose an agency that is of a comparable size to your business. This way you will get the service you deserve, the attention you need and the outcomes you expect. At qubePartners, a marketing consultancy and advertising agency, all in one, we work with many small to medium size businesses that need a partner in marketing and advertising. Our business is an extension of yours and functions as your marketing department.

It’s about resourcing and experience, we have both! So, don’t think that using a big agency is the answer; firstly, they will charge you like a large corporate but will put your account down the priority list, because your business is small. It just doesn’t make any sense.

When you are too small to matter to the big boys, you’ll matter at our agency and we’ll make a big difference to your marketing results.

Are Your Briefs Embarrasingly Brief

by | Dec 9, 2011 | Blog, Strategy

Is your brief, too brief?

We are not talking about showing too much skin, but we are talking about improving your bottom line.

When you measure the success of your marketing project it is dependent on how well your marketing agency met your expectations. But, how do they know what you are expecting? It’s all in the brief!

Consider a dating site, you fill in the questionnaire and it doesn’t ask you some critical questions…what’s the likelihood that on your first date you’ll end up with Mr/Mrs. Right? Highly unlikely! Asking the right questions, leads to the right outcomes.

So, it makes sense that if you only tell your marketing agency half of what you really want them to do, they will never be able to fully meet your expectations. You don’t set out to withhold information from your marketing agency, but if they don’t ask all the right questions…. it’s not surprising that they won’t know your full expectations.

Take the situation of a B2B company, perhaps one with a smaller budget, chances are they have only ever completed a handful of briefs to agencies. Brief writing is hard to do and takes experience to master. At qubePartners, a marketing agency and advertising agency, all in one, we assume that our clients need guidance with completing their briefs. Our briefs are specific and detailed; they are simple, yet comprehensive and all online.

In many cases, the first step with our clients is not receiving a brief; we undertake a marketing audit or brand health check, a review of all existing communication and how effective it’s been or ineffective. Then we work on their advertising or creative brief collaboratively to reach a better return on investment.

Make sure that when using a marketing agency, they know you and your brand inside and out, and if the brief seems too brief, then it probably is!

See qubePartners resources for all briefing needs…