Don't Discount the Importance of "Building the Brand"

I was in a meeting the other day with a group of fellow downtown business owners. The group was made up mostly of young entrepreneurs with a couple of veterans thrown in. The purpose of the meeting was to brainstorm ideas to bring more shoppers downtown over the holiday shopping season.

It went much as I expected it to. People floated ideas about promotions, cross promotions and events. All ideas had one common denominator — no one wanted to invest any money on anything, which made the event kind of gloomy for someone in the advertising business.

One of the veterans in the group has owned a high-end furniture store downtown for decades. He’s a very respected member of the community.

One of the younger people asked him what kind of advertising and marketing techniques had worked for him over the years.

“It’s always been about building the brand,” he said.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Promotion is short-term, a flash in the pan, something that grabs attention for a minute.

But building the brand is the slow burn that helps any business stand the test of time. It is paramount to a long-term marketing strategy.

A business’s brand is what sets it apart from everyone else. It’s the cornerstone of the public persona of a business.

And it cannot be built overnight.

Your brand starts with your store’s physical appearance. Is it neat, inviting and unique? On a national level I’ve always thought clothing stores for teens like Hollister, American Eagle and Abercrombie & Fitch do a good job of creating a unique physical space.

Your print pieces, signs, website, social media, and other advertising need to be cohesive. Keep your colors and your message constant across the board regardless of the medium.

Even your packaging, if applicable, should create excitement for the shopper. At Church Street Candle Company (one of my wife’s businesses), she gives shoppers a pack of personalized matches when they buy a candle. What is your special touch?

And of course, your brand is reflected in your customer service. Is your training program for new employees adequate? Do you push exceptional customer service and reinforce it constantly with your staff?

Your brand is not only the way people see you, it’s the way they remember you.

New Hyper-targeting Geofencing Program Performs Beyond Our Wildest Expectations

The results are in for our newest program, SmartReach Targeting, and we couldn’t be more pleased.

We developed SmartReach during the first couple of months of lockdown. We blogged about it here.

In short, this program delivers your ad with pinpoint accuracy directly to the phones, tablets and computer desktops of thousands of potential customers based on their real-world and online behaviors.

Here are some of the results one client received from one of our first campaigns:

• More than 98,600 impressions, meaning the client’s ad was seen almost 100,000 times in one month.

• The client’s ad reached each potential customer for only 10 cents! And those potential customers are highly targeted. The waste on SmartReach Targeting is virtually zero.

• And here’s the best news: the percentage of people who clicked the ad was more than 300 percent over the industry standard. 300 percent!

(Learn more about SmartReach Targeting)

Client meetings are fun when you can present those numbers!

For the real-world behavior, we draw a virtual fence around your competitors, or neighborhoods, Zip codes, etc. When people visit those locations, your ad can be sent to their phone or tablet.

Online behavior targets those who visit sites, use apps and exhibit other search behaviors related to your business. Those people will see your ad on both mobile devices and computer desktops.

When someone clicks your ad, they will be sent to your Web page, social media account or a special landing page we can create and customize just for you.

We serve ads to an astounding 120,000 apps and 100,000 dot coms!

What is the Difference Between a Product and a Brand Campaign?

These two terms may sound similar, but they are not the same thing. 

Before we compare the two, let’s begin with a simple definition of each term:

Brand campaign- A focused effort to remind people “who you are” in addition to your product or service.

Product campaign- Using a variety of media to promote an item or a line of products.

Example of a successful brand campaign: 

• John Deere: “John Deere Green” and yellow colors since the 1960s.

The ad on the left is from 1964. The one on the right, 1996.

Example of a successful product campaign:

• Always- “Like a Girl” campaign talks about stereotypes for women as they relate to men. The campaign showcases testimonials from older girls overcoming being self-conscious of doing “boy things,” while it shows younger girls doing everything the boy does with confidence and no hesitation.

These two ads from Always depict girls of different age groups.

Key differences between product and brand campaigns:

As you can see, there is a significant difference between a brand campaign and a product campaign. 

Whether you are searching to promote your company’s brand or your products, we at White Oak can help you succeed!

Sources:

https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/brand-driven-mobile-marketing/2827

https://bizfluent.com/13312280/how-to-market-a-product-campaign 

https://stephanbrady.com/blog/difference-brand-campaign/

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/branding-vs-product-marketing-22583.html

A Holistic Approach to Marketing

Potential clients sometimes come to us and say something like, "I need a billboard," or "I want to do a radio spot," or "I need someone to help me do a Facebook ad."

I understand the impulse to do this. I have to resist the urge to say the same thing when trying to market some of my own pursuits.

But then I pause and ask myself what it is I really want. Do I really want to do a Facebook ad? Or, is that merely me effectively saying that I need to reach more customers?

It's obviously the latter.

It's easy to see a billboard or an ad on social media and think that's the way to market your business. You saw it, right? So then everyone else must have seen it, too. That's just human nature.

On the other hand, it's similarly easy to label marketing delivery channels you are unfamiliar with as worthless. People will say things like "who even listens to that radio station?" Or, "I don't read that paper."

You don't, but maybe your customers do.

When we create a marketing plan for a client, we perform extensive research on the best ways possible to market that client's business. Sometimes, it's a conventional approach. Sometimes, it's unconventional.

This holistic approach to marketing ensures your message is coordinated across platforms and you are using the platforms that reach your customers.