Branding Is Important to Your Survival - Smart Marketing Move

This week’s Smart Marketing Move goes to The National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Their branding efforts have spread like wild fire and they should get some credit. What do you think of when you hear breast cancer awareness? PINK. They have done a fantastic job at making a color theirs. This is what branding is all about.

Their biggest step was the pink ribbon campaign. Here’s the background:
Ribbons have been used to express solidarity on the part of the wearer with the identified cause since the early to late 20th Century. Pink Ribbons (and the color pink) are used to express support for women (and men) who are diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
In the fall of 1991, the Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to participants in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors.[1]

The next year, Alexandra Penney, who was the editor-in-chief of Self,[2] a woman health magazine, was working on the second annual National Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue. Evelyn Lauder, who was the senior corporate vice president at Estée Lauder, was invited to be the guest editor of the NBCAM issue edition in 1992. Penney and Lauder came up with the idea to create a ribbon and to enlist the cosmetics giant to distribute it in stores in New York City. Evelyn Lauder then promised to spread the ribbons throughout the entire country, but a color for the ribbon was not yet decided upon.

Charlotte Hayley, who battled breast cancer, produced peach color ribbons. She sold them with a card saying, "The National Cancer Institute annual budget is 1.8 billion US Dollars, and only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon".[3] Her message spread fast. This made Penny and Evelyn Lauder interested in Hayley's concept. They offered to adapt Hayley's idea by working with her. But Hayley rejected the offer, saying that they were too commercial.
After discussing opportunities with Lauder, Hayley and their lawyers, they came up with a "new" color. The new color of the ribbon was pink and became an international symbol for breast cancer awareness.


Lesson Learned: Even though this example is on a large scale, branding is an important step you must not miss in your business. This includes your logo, business cards, website, letterhead, t-shirts, etc etc etc. Remember, a strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience.

Cross Promotion - Smart Marketing Move

This week’s Smart Marketing Move of the week goes to TWO companies, Doritos and Pepsi.

They have joined forces in radio commercials while both introducing a new sub-product. Pepsi now has Pepsi Max – Cease Fire, and Doritos now has 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burn flavors. The commercial went something along the lines of a male calling into 911 because the Doritos he just ate were so hot, so 911 instructed the gentleman to use Pepsi Cease Fire, with lime, to cool him down. It got the point across and got my curiosity. Exactly what they were going for in this commercial!

They even took the cross promotion further. They’ve included each product on their packaging. Smart! Although they are both owned by the same larger company, in consumer’s minds they are separate and that’s an even better reason to marry the two.

Lesson Learned: Cross Promotion can be a powerful source that is untapped. Even a small business can take advantage of this by partnering up with another local business where you will both benefit. Start thinking of your customers, where they shop, what they do and see if any businesses are interested in starting up a cross promotion. It could be your secret weapon.

Communicating from the Right Perspective

What is the one subject that your target audience is most interested in? 

Themselves!

Thus you need to be communicating from their perspective, not yours. What "message" impacts sales of your products or services more than anything else? Is is Price, Features, Benefits? It's the latter, whether they are real or perceived benefits, they are the points that need to be communicated to answer the question - What's in it for me to become (or stay) your customer?

Responsibility Campaign Gains Ground - Smart Marketing Move

This week’s Smart Marketing Move goes to Liberty Mutual.

In an ever increasing environment of disrespect, lack of civility, and self-centered attitudes it is not only refreshing to see the Liberty Mutual Insurance's campaign built around responsibility, but highly motivating.

Responsibility is not easily defined, but Liberty Mutual expressed it very well visually in an impressive manner in their commercials. They then followed it up through efforts throughout their company even down to the grass roots where the idea touched a nerve in thousands as seen by the response the company received, unsolicited, from the public. They continue to encourage positive action by all of us. Their management not only deserves kudos, they get our: "Smart Marketing Move" Award because they proved how being smart and caring pays off.

Here's one commercial for Liberty Mutual:



Lesson Learned: Your core values as a company and a person can be reflected in your marketing. It can span from TV, radio, print, and grassroots marketing. This can turn into word of mouth marketing which is one of the most powerful sources for any company. But be careful, make sure everyone in your company is on the same page, an employee's bad attitude will make your campaign feel dishonest to customers and bad word of mouth is even worse.

Where is experience and common sense?

Both, common sense and experience, are increasingly missing from the staffs of corporate marketing departments and their agencies. "Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment."

A fact of life is that it takes time (years) to develop experience and the resource network (rolodex) so important to success. Another fact or impacting the thinking behind marketing activities is the increasingly lack of common sense. What is common sense?

"Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are
and doing things as they ought to be done."
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Both these factors are important ingredients in building a strong foundation that will benefit those efforts directed to generating sales, acquiring and keeping customers and enhancing profitability.