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Brand Strategy – A Launchpad to Send Your Business Skyward

Guest post by: Scott C. Margenau

Article Overview: Tired of the same old mediocre business results? What is it that separates the proverbial men from the boys? A coherent brand strategy. Find out how a brand strategy can take your business to new heights.

Brand Strategy – A Launchpad to Send Your Business Skyward

Strategic branding sounds like something reserved for Fortune 500 companies. Not so. This is something that every business, from the smallest to the largest must pay attention to if they hope to succeed. Logo design, website look and feel, product names and even a company mission statement are all key aspects to any business. Strategic branding is the glue that holds these components together. If a cohesive brand strategy is in place, business success is sure to follow. The brand strategy is developed by defining and understanding three key components, which are the target marketplace, rhetorical and visual messaging, and message delivery. Branding strategy simply put: who, what and how. No target definition is a killer to any marketing effort. How should you deal with it?

One of the most common mistakes encountered in the business world is a lack of target definition. Without a clearly defined target market, every marketing activity is watered down. When a marketing message reaches a person who is not interested in buying that message falls on deaf ears.

Pop Quiz: How many people must see and ad on the side of a bus for accounting software before the advertiser converts a new customer?

A) A hundred

B) A thousand

C) A hundred thousand

D) None

E) Don't ever pay for this

Probably much closer to D, but common sense tells us that if we have marketing budget, steer towards E. Why? Because an ad that appears on the side of the bus is making impressions on a random sampling of people, the vast majority of whom have no interest in accounting software. Bus advertisements are probably best left to various public service announcements.

Let's leave the absurdity of a bus advertisement and look at the more familiar world of website marketing...

We'll put aside for a moment the fact that the majority of companies have no articulated website strategy. Be that as it may, there are some important observations to make. When a new search engine marketing campaign is launched, the publisher or agency will have a choice as to where ads should run. If our Accounting Software company is looking to gain website visitors form online ads, where should those ads show up? If we use the "bus" approach, we could launch ads anywhere - from sports websites to entertainment sites. If we use a thoughtful strategy, we would only run ads on websites that are relevant to our product. The business section of a news website perhaps, or even a specialty accounting and finance site like bloomberg.com, for example.

In talking about target marketing, we have begun to scratch the surface of messaging. Once a visitor sees an online advertisement that appeals to them, they click into the website. The fate of that prospective customer will be made in less than 7 seconds - that's about how long a website has to compel a visitor to proceed, or bail out of the session.

How many times have you encountered a website that has the following labels on the main navigation:

Home

Services

About Us

Contact Us

Locations

This is far and away the most common layout - and it's all wrong.

When a visitor arrives at a website and sees a "Services" button, what does that say? What message does it send? Compare that to the same visitor arriving at a site and seeing a button labeled "Accounting Software." Between "Services" and "Accounting Software," which speaks more clearly to a potential customer? By changing site messaging from broad, meaningless terms to focused, relevant terms, the user experience is greatly enhanced. This is akin to taking the ad off of the bus and sending a direct mail piece to a list of Fortune 1000 Accounting Controllers.

Messaging doesn't stop at something as simple as navigation bar tabs. It must be a comprehensive and cohesive effort. The tag line, body copy, headlines, bold type and other font attributes must all promote a theme that makes sense to the target market. Bolstered by meaningful images, tuned to colors that are representative of the message at hand and your rhetorical and visual branding is complete.

With a proper target market defined and messaging well crafted, it is time to define the delivery mechanism. The strategy must be focused specifically on the nature of the target market. Some businesses do quite well using social networking like Twitter and Facebook. In 2009 many political candidates saw great success using social networks to talk to their constituents. A company selling accounting software may find that while social networking helps with their reputation management, a polished pay per click campaign better serves new customer acquisition. The proper mix of online and offline channels must be examined and launched based on the target market demographics and the overall business goals.

With a well defined target market, strong messaging, and the proper delivery vehicles selected, the branding strategy becomes the launchpad every business plan needs to propel a company upward.

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Article Tags: branding strategy, company branding, corporate marketing



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