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SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER

Guest post by: Neil Mahoney

Article Overview: Winning BIG in Sales & Marketing: Don't Oversimplify/Overestimate Branding Efforts: Branding is hard and costly -- BUT IT HAS VALUE

SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER

In the 1980s and 90s building brand awareness (customers and prospects who recognize the name of your company and its offerings) and brand perception (the opinion customers and prospects have of your company and its offerings) was viewed realistically. It was understood that lots of time, money and effort were required to create these building blocks for a company's success and profitability. Today, too many business executives talk about branding as though you can buy it by the pound at the local supermarket.

Branding is vital. Branding has value. Branding has just one purpose -- to help sell your product or service. But don't kid yourself: Branding is hard. Branding is something a company must do consistently -- week after week, month after month, year after year to get to the top of the pack and stay there.

UNDERESTIMATING THE TIME, MONEY AND EFFORT IT TAKES TO BUILD A BRAND -- ACOMMON MISCONCEPTION TODAY

Several years agoI was VP Marketing for a well-known, well-respected company that manufactured digital readout systems (DROs) as one of its many lines. The DROs wereused to measure very small units of distance (thousandths of an inch) in high-accuracy manufacturing. Because the name of the company was so well known, we had a brand recognition that exceeded 80% -- and webenefited by that. The DRO portion of the business was sold, and what had been the brand name of the DRO now became the company name. To the shock and dismay of the new owners, the name recognition of the company tumbled from 80+ percent to 18 percent overnight -- despite the hundreds of thousands dollars that had been invested over the years to establish the DRO's brand.

To repeat: It takes years of effort and expense just to build a brand. There are no shortcuts, no easy ways to do this -- just time, effort, and lots of money and patience.

There are a very few exceptions where brands became well-known in a short period of time -- but in those cases millions of dollars were spent to achieve this, or the product was such an important break-through that it benefited from scads of national publicity -- or the product was used by almost everyone on a day-in, day-out basis. Computers and software are two examples

MONEY WELL SPENT. . .

That strong brands have value is demonstrated by one of the world's leading handtool manufacturers. Their brand is not only a badge of honor that construction pros use to signify their status, the brand has proven value as well. In the mid 90s research showed that one of their lines -- despite several low-cost competitors -- had a 50% unit share. Half of all these types of tools that were bought bore the company's brand.

Even more importantly, the company had a 60% revenue share. Their brand commanded a 20% premium, on average, over all the same type of products that were purchased.

The next installment will discuss how strong customer relationships can often trump strong brands.

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Article Tags: brand awareness, brand perception, Branding, Branding, Branding, Branding, company name, name recognition, respected company



Related Forum Posts
Placemat / Table Top Advertising - Was curious if any of you have done anything like this and how you pitched it. Some people say placemat advertising dont work and I laugh. To say such a thing would mean no advertising works. Advertising in the form, not even newspapers can compete. We have a CAPTIVE audience unlike any other form of advertising. Everyone waits for their food while dining out and obviously rather than stairing at there silverware, they are going to read a few if not all the ads searching for great deals in coupon form or just looking it over while waiting for their meal. Billboards, radio, t.v just can compete with a advertising medium which holds a reader captive, relaxed and in a great frame of mind. Everyone I have talked to says calling businesses up is a waste of time but i can accomplish more by hitting more business than i can going business to business, plus with gas prices these days..WOW. I have put together the following scrpit for calling and I would appreciate any feedback please (good or bad)... Hi, my name is Daniel with (my business name). I got your number from the (local chamber). We are calling on behalf of the pizzahut. (NAME), the manager has an exciting new promotion going designed by us to increase local area spending. We are looking for local sponsors to advertise their business on the table tops at the restaurant for the next 3-4 months. Becoming a sponsor is a great way to show your community support and promote your business. If your interested, I will be in the area (FRIDAY). I would like to stop by and show you an example. What time works for you? maybe that is just to long. Maybe i just want to sound like a real person, a friend over the phone rather than a CAR SALESMAN so how bout this... We are calling on behalf of the local pizza hut. Crystal, the manager has an exciting new promotion designed to increase local area spending. It seems to be a poplular place to eat so we're looking for local sponsors to advertise their business on the table tops at the restaurant for the next 3 months or so. Will be in the area friday showing examples all day long to those already interested. What time works for you? Hmm, i just dont know. I would like to hit the gound running with this. They say SELL THE SIZZLE, NOT THE STEAK. Do i want to say that we got their name as a referral from, hmm, i think it was the local chamber (chamber of commerce). That might help loosin them up or maybe not. Maybe i am thinking on this way to much. PLEASE HELP! Our local newspaper charges 45 bucks a day for a black/white 2x2 ad. Needless to say radio and tv along with billboards are much more. Problem with billboards, most use a pretty graphic which then gets all the attention, you never get to look at the number or business name during your drive by and a few minutes later, out of site, out of mind. These are 350-400 to create the vinyl ad, then 400-700 dollars a month depending on location. Is it really worth the expense unless you can afford putting an ad up on 10-20 billboards? We charge $210 for 3 months / $70 monthly / $16 weekly / $2 daily. I would say we have the most economical marketing product on the market today!" or another option is $250 for 3 months which includes any radio promotions which we would plug them as a sponsor. Another option would be rather than run them for 3 months at a time. Run our placemats for (1) month at a time for $210 monthly but combine the ads in 3 different restaurant locations (same franchise of coarse). All within 30 minutes of each other. Or just do the 1st one and upsell the others for options. Wanting some feedback and opinions on it. Thanks, Daniel


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