How do you integrate word of mouth, advertising, editorial, speaking and sponsorship to grow your brand?  Last night we won “Best Emerging Business” in the Redland City Chamber of Commerce’s 18th Annual Business Achievement Awards.  At the event, I was nicely surprised when I was told by some of the guests that my brand was well known amongst local businesses.

From the launch of Sustainable Marketing in July 2008, I was very clear that I would concentrate on building a brand presence in the Redlands first and then focus on our next segment.   With word of mouth being the most powerful form of marketing for service businesses, WOM was always going to be a strong focus for our marketing.  

Recently I attended the annual Australian Marketing Institute’s conference.  John Sintras from Starcom MediaVest Group gave a fantastic presentation on the “Power to the People: Harnessing Human Interaction in Modern Media Communications Planning and Activation”.  John indicated that over 80% of word of mouth branded conversations still take place in person. 

Using a local area approach to our marketing, we actively implemented the following marketing activities:

• building genuine relationships with key influencers in the Redlands
• helping local businesses to improve their marketing (either paid or over a free coffee)
• attending the local Chamber networking events on a regular basis
• giving presentations at local Chamber and business events
• taking active roles in the committees of the Chamber and BNI
• placing small advertisements in the local papers on a consistent basis
• placing editorial content in the same papers on a regular basis, and
• sponsoring local Chamber events from time to time.

Another important part of our approach was having an authentic brand which we consistently live, promote and deliver on.  Our brand is committed to sustainable business practises.  To us this means:

• delivering marketing activities that generate ongoing revenues for our clients
• building authentic relationships with clients, partners, suppliers and our community
• ensuring our financial sustainability by balancing our budgets
• helping our business community prosper
• minimising our impact on the environment.

So why would you want to do all of these activities? Many businesses focus on short term trade and consumer promotions.  These are  still important activities because they generate sales.  Investing in branding activities is a long term strategy which can help you grow your brand much faster.  So doing a bit of both can help you to build a more sustainable business model.

Tell us how you integrate your word of mouth with other marketing activities?

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Suzi Dafnis from the Australia Businesswomen’s Network asked a question today (via  linkedin) on “How can you most effectively use a strategic marketing plan to elevate the success of your business plan?”  As I thought this was such a good question to ask, I was motivated too write a blog on the topic.   I would also love to hear your ideas on the question.

So here are my views which are based on my philosophy to marketing:

1. Ensure the goals, strategy and activities for your marketing plan are in alignment with your business goals
2. Select a brand positioning that talks to your strengths, that your clients love, that also minimises the risk of competitive threats
3. Make sure your distribution strategy and your brand strategy support each other
4. Make sure your marketing plan has activities that focus on three core areas 1) activities that build your brand 2) activities that attract new clients 3) activities that retain clients
5. Undertake client insight research to better understand your clients’ needs and then revise both the business and marketing plan to reflect this – see Tribe Research
6. Focus your marketing resources on the best performing activities e.g. what are the 3 to 5 activities that are most likely to help you achieve your goals
7. Measure your marketing in two ways 1) against business goals to assess the actual return delivered and 2) at a tactical level to assess the effectiveness of each activity
8. Make sure your marketing plan continues to evolve with the resource and growth requirements of your business.  At different stages in the growth of your business, you will need to different market strategies to achieve your goals
9. Set your pricing strategy from both a business and marketing perspective e.g. one example of a marketing pricing strategy is to set the prices for your core strengths, where you have a strong point of difference, at a premium price  Make sure you package your product and services to appeal to a range of potential clients within your target market e.g. ensure you have a good, better and best option.

And finally, have some fun on the journey while your business grows!

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I attended the annual AMI Brand Forum last week.  One of the speakers, Russell Howcroft (George Patterson Y&R Melbourne) gave a presentation on the “Brand Bubble - Maintaining Brand Energy”.  Russell talked about how consumers are falling out of love with brands, how they expect brands to be different and to keep being different.  Watch the Brand Bubble video. 

What is a brand?

Your brand is much more than your logo.  It is the sum of all of your customers, staff and supplier experiences.  It involves all of your customer touch points including phone, store, web and staff interaction.  A strong brand has a unique personality that appeals to the hearts and minds of your customers.

Why differentiate?

Differentiating your brand from your competitors can help to increase your margins and grow your business sooner.   Unfortunately, differentiation levels are falling for brands all around the world as shown by the Y&R’s global BrandAsset Valuator tool.  As a result, margins are falling and customer loyalty is decreasing.

Nine tips to growing a strong brand

1.     Identify your point of difference

2.     Make sure your brand is relevant to your customers

3.  Ensure your brand has an emotional connection with your customers

4.     Describe your brand vision

5.     Describe your brand behaviour and culture

6.     Create your visual identity and key messages

7.     Protect your brand’s intellectual property

8.     Develop customer service guidelines

9.     Establishing training and quality controls.

Tell us why your brand is different.  How is it relevant to your customers?

Attended an Australian Marketing Institute CPM Boardroom Luncheon ‘Marketing and Innovation: Out of the ‘Credit’ Crunch’ today.  Measurement was one of the topics we discussed. 

In my humble opinion, I believe it is important to measure marketing in two ways:  1) against business goals to assess the actual return delivered and 2) at a tactical level to assess the effectiveness of each activity. 

The challenge though, is that the period in which the return on marketing is delivered usually occurs 3 to 6 months after the investment in marketing is made.  Some of the ways we can measure include:

• response rates to tactics
• click through rates online
• number of new leads
• number of new customers
• retention rates of customers
• average revenue per customers
• life time value of new custoemrs
• Net promoter score

How do you measure your marketing?  What works for you?  What are your thoughts?

The global financial crisis is destroying trust – trust in our leaders, trust in our financial institutions and trust in our companies.  Distrust imposes a large penalty on our businesses with lower consumer confidence and on our community through increased emotional and health issues.

The good news is that we can positively influence trust through authentic branding and increased communication.  Consumers are increasingly seeking to make purchases from brands they perceive to be honest.  With consumers more likely to switch brands in tough economic climates, companies that practise honesty can strengthen customer loyalty.

Here are some tips on how to increase trust and consumer confidence:

1.      Communicate more.  Increase the frequency of communication with staff, customers and suppliers during times of uncertainty.

2.      Be transparent with staff.  Tell staff the truth about organisational changes as they are your greatest brand ambassadors.

3.      Use clear messages.  Ensure all of your stakeholders understand your business practises, policies and marketing messages.

4.      Monitor the level of trust.  Ask customers, staff and suppliers for feedback on their perception of the trustworthiness of your company.

5.      Keep commitments.  Honour promises to customers, staff and suppliers to maintain a sense of reliability.

6.      Create brand promises.  Develop, implement and measure three to five brand promises about the experience your stakeholders will receive.

I would also recommend reading the book “The Speed of Trust:  The One Thing that Changes Everything” by Stephen Covey.  This book is absolutely amazing, it changed my understanding of trust, and includes practical tools to build trust faster.