Brand Rezonance

When we think of marketing the most likely connection is towards the customers, clients, vendors or shareholders. But yet another ‘market’ just as important as the actual one, is our own organization. They are our employees who make our brand come alive to our customers. Many organizations often ignore this critical reasoning of internal branding for gaining maximum output from the employees which are again translated as positive energy towards our customers.

But why is internal brand selling so important? Why do organizations fail to view this as a critical constituent? Internal marketing is the best way to help employees make a powerful emotional connection to the products and services we sell. Without this connection, employees are likely to undermine the expectations set by our advertising.
They do not understand what we as a company have promised to our clients, as a result there exits a lot ambiguity in their roles and end up working at cross-purposes. In some cases they do not have enough faith in the brand and feel distorted and disengaged.

When the employees have faith in the brand and care about the company they are motivated to work harder and their loyalty and sense of ownership towards the organization increases. They are unified and inspired by a common sense of purpose and identity.

Unfortunately, in most companies, internal marketing is done poorly, if at all. One of the prominent reasons is ineffective communication through out the hierarchy. The top executives invariably recognize the need to keep the employees informed about the strategy and direction. But a major chunk fails to understand the need to educate and embed the brand’s power to the employees. The HR personnel have a critical role to play in transferring the communication about the brand within the organization. But in most of the cases this does not happen because the information is blandly doled out to the employees in the form of memos, circulars or notices. These kinds of communications are not designed to depict the uniqueness and power of the brand to the employees.

There are ways to effectively imbibe the brand into the employees. By applying many of the principles of consumer advertising to internal communications, leaders can guide employees to a better understanding of, and even a passion for, the brand vision. And when employees live that vision, customers are much more likely to experience the company in a way that is consistent with what we have promised.

When the organization is undergoing any sort of a change, be it structurally, functionally, culturally or likewise, the employees most likely are unreceptive to these changes. When they are seeking for direction such moments can create either positive or negative energy—enthusiasm for new programs or unproductive rumor mongering. Turning points are thus ideal opportunities for an internal branding campaign, managers can direct people’s energy in a positive direction by clearly and vividly articulating what makes the company special.
The arrival of new leadership is another opportune moment for internal re-branding. The Staff expects to hear from a new leader right away and is usually open to new ideas at such times. Carly Fiorina exploited this window when she took over Hewlett-Packard. She took a personal interest in the branding strategy and played an active role. Some of the personalities that drive strong internal branding are a brand by themselves. Richard Branson, Michael Dell and Jack Welch have demonstrated the need of internal branding.

Syed Zohaibullah

Business Solutions Thinker

Branding has emerged as a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that brands are one of the most valuable intangible assets that firms have. To be precise brands create the value and personality for the firm, it decides the future of the organization. Therefore, “branding the brands” forms the most important part of any organization.

The Brand strategy

As I see it, a company’s brand strategy depicts how the brand intends to create an impression of itself in the minds of the consumers/customers. Specifically; brands set forth the creative, social and moral steps that the brands take to create customers who will drive the business forward.
For Brand strategy to be effective they should include a few aspects like:
1. Value-based: Value-based brands deliver value that customers can use. This is value beyond that of the product proper. Their intent is to sink brand roots into the customer base, and to grow the customer in ways that can grow the business. In short, their responsibility is to make customers become better off through the brand.
2. Innovation: Brand strategy must also include innovation; higher emphasis on innovation will give companies an edge, something beyond the scope of reach of the competitors in order to gain a long term competitive advantage.
A brand strategy should be created keeping in mind the brand mission. It also includes the capability of brand vision, which is the ability to see your future through your customers’ eyes.

Many brands don’t have strategies

Many brands don’t have brand strategies; they give more importance to the product than the brand on the whole. The advertisement lays more emphasis upon the functioning and use of the product than the brand. Here, the concept of product usage and utility is taken into consideration in order to gain customers interest rather than the brand itself.
While many brands are also constructed as intense identities to be flogged by advertising campaigns, in which the “brand” operates as a stylized sales stimulant. Such brands are synthetic creatures of marketing and sales. They’re part of a persuasion package, and persuasion is not a strategy. It is just a tool used to induce customers in buying the product.

Sahan BN

Business Solutions Thinker

Naming a start-up business is a major decision and demands tremendous importance. The name becomes the company’s brand. A company’s name is its first impression and it definitely has to be impressive and appealing. The name chosen is just not merely a name, it represents the company and serves as a link to the customer’s mind and forms perceptions about the organization.

Consumers may look on branding as an important value-added aspect of products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or characteristic. Brand names will fall into one of three spectrums of use - Descriptive, Associative or Freestanding. Descriptive brand names assist in describing the distinguishable selling point(s) of the product to the customer. Associative brand names provide the customer with an associated word for what the product promises to do or be. Freestanding brand names have no links or ties to either descriptions or associations of use.

But what are our options to zero in on a particular brand name that has appeal, drives the brand power and connects to the consumer’s mind?

The easiest option would be to pay a specialist branding company to come up with a name. This may or may not be the perfect name for the business, but it certainly is an expensive option. Another method would be to randomly throw around names between friends and family and select the ones which seem appealing and stand out the most. This is a very crude method and does not require much logic and research.

A more refined approach would be to do some serious targeted research on the internet and find out exactly what people on the internet search for. If people are searching for specific words/terms, then surely it would make sense to adopt those words when naming a business. Software tools such as name generator, keyword selector can be extensively used to identify and also look for synonyms for the same. Unusual names or names with rarely used letters such as ‘Z’ easily attract people’s attention and builds curiosity to learn about the brand.

A background check needs to be done once a few names have been finalized. Background check helps in identifying the availability of the name and ownership of the brand. If the brand name is available it needs to get registered as quickly as possible. Another good idea is to buy a domain of the same name if possible.

Therefore the new brand name must resonate with the target market. Naming tends to be a somewhat different process for small businesses versus large corporations, but the basic premise remains the same-the brand must be consistent, crisp and clear in the target mind. It is evident that developing a brand name isn’t a process suited for lunchtime brainstorming or employee naming contests. It’s real work, and should be handled by real experts.

Syed Zohaibullah

Zohaib is a Business Solution Thinker at ReZonant

With global warming reaching to an alarming high, most of the companies are leaning towards green marketing. Hike in fuel prices have even accelerated the process of environmental awareness through green marketing and advertising. So what is green marketing actually? The ads that actually focus on the green products or speak about the company’s future intention to launch environment friendly products fall in the category of green advertising. The hope that was initially generated with green marketing advertisements has been hurt by the notion that sustainable products do not really carry on their environmental promises.

Green marketing still has a long way to go and there is no denying that the situation is improving. People are waking up to green. From organic food to hybrid cars to energy saving appliances to reclaimed furniture growing number of consumers are ready to buy sustainable products these days than ever before. But the question here is whether it is happening at a right pace? One of the strongest regulating bodies for this could be the government. Since more and more advertisers are seeking to promote their eco-friendly credentials the responsibility lies on the government to set a standard for sustainable products in order to prevent deception and degradation of product quality.

Green marketing gets tougher with people being skeptical on the quality of such products. It is also the responsibility of the company that they should keep in mind that customers are unlikely to compromise on product features such as quality, price, availability that come with traditionally manufactured products. Therefore it is good to for the companies to realize that there is no single marketing strategy for a company to sell green products. As manufacturers tend to believe in the business of sustainability there is increasing number of organizations coming up with environmentally sustainable products.

Grocery chains also began patronizing sustainable eating with organic food that is actually recycled from the leftover food available in the hotels. Dozens of companies are finding values in practicing food conservation. With soaring fuel prices car companies are turning towards the same. Most of the automobile manufacturing companies are designing fuel efficient hybrid cars. However, one needs to understand that green marketing is not just green advertising, which includes environmental awareness and concerns of a company while promoting its products. It is all about using the communication channels and media to persuade consumers to pick up more sustainable products and in turn, help companies realize the market need for their eco-friendly products.

Rahul Vij

Rahul is a Business Solution Thinker at ReZonant

How does one go about getting an email strategy in place that does not include stinkers from people who did not cherish receiving the email one so lovingly fabricated? After all, your labor of love needs to be presented and sent, to quote an oft repeated cliché, at the right time to the right place. What does one do to make your time and investment in email marketing worth the while? A few handy tips:

1: Ask the all-important question: You may have a great email marketing deal your partner came up with, but the question is, are your customers regular readers and recipients of email? It will not help your cause, if most of your customers turn out to be people who check their email once in a while, probably to post the latest family development on their favorite Yahoo groups. If, on the other hand, your product is the toast of always online, always connected users who believe that life without a Blackberry is not worth living, give email marketing a shot. For example, email marketing would work great for a seller of Blackberry phones.

2: Where small is big: Now, we all love to tell everyone everything about our business, so much so that with just a few sittings you have given a crash course in your business, but have you realized how much your recipient wants to see? Keeping it short and sweet as a concept works great not only for mini-skirts, but also for emails. They should be simple enough to be read on all devices.

3: Is it useful? A typical business email user gets close to 200 mails per day. You don’t want your email to be the proud 201^st delivery into his mailbox, that clamors for attention. What if your email were actually useful to him. For example, the Blackberry seller would probably like to send a “Tip of the week” for using the phone and then tantalize the viewer with some cool accessory pics.

4: Don’t give the viewer yet another decision to take: Most of us despise taking decisions, especially those that have no immediate bearing on one’s life. Such as an unsolicited mail which forces the viewer into another decision. “How soon to send this mail to the trashbox”, wasn’t exactly your original plan of email nirvana. Instead, help them with tips to take other decisions.

5: Package it well: Once you decide that email is the way to go, it is better to get professional help. Get hold of a creative writer who can help fabricate your email. Get hold of a designer who can make it look presentable. It is your brand which is at stake out there.

6: Opt-in lists: If you pinned your marketing hopes on the “1 million guaranteed contacts” CD which you recently purchased from your friendly neighborhood software vendor, the only thing that is likely to come your way is a barrage of spam-angry responses. Do not get a generic database; procure an opt-in list instead. Opt-in customers are those who have chosen to receive mails on selected topics.

7: Organize your campaigns: Any email campaign has to be sustained in order to be successful. Use professional emailing programs to get your campaigns organized.

8: Build mechanisms for tracking: You need to know how your emails are doing. Are they opened, viewed or trashed? Important insight that will help you refine your campaigns further. Get a good emailing software or use an on-demand online model to give you reports.

9: Plan in advance: You should have clarity for at least 6 months with respect to your email campaign. It is not good enough to run just one or two campaigns and wait for results. A consistent brand is a good brand. For example, a mobile phone user may not have an immediate requirement for a Blackberry, but he may need one after 6 months and if your email is not there in his inbox at that time, your competitors will be more than happy to engage him.

10: Prepare a response mechanism: And wonder of wonders, if your email marketing does hit bull’s eye and customers revert back, plan your response. If you are left in the lurch without a proper response mechanism, the whole email investment may go down the drain.

Good luck and happy emailing.

MP Hariharan

Smart Marketing
Part 1: Making Social Network Portals work

Nothing grabs more attention at any business meet these days than two things. One, the never ending tale of how the plunging economy is devastating business, and two, how does one cut costs. Firms are slowly ( and painfully ) realizing that every dollar now counts and ingenuity in using it will decide who weathers these times, and who will not.

So how can marketers get more bang for their buck in trying times? Beginning this issue, we shall look at one technique each month that adds to the marketing muscle but is easy on the pocket. We start with Social Marketing.

Leveraging Social Network Portals

Almost each of us has a presence on one or more social networks – LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy etc. What is interesting is that most marketers don’t use these networks due to pre-conceived notions. What if they shoved aside perceptions and gave these networks a try? The trick is to use them the right way. Here are 10 steps.

1: Dedicate time: It is important to make social marketing a part of your business day. Allocate at least 30 minutes. Anything less and you may fail to spot opportunities.

2: Exclude, not include: If you want your network to throw up great leads, the first critical step of is to build a good member list. 500+ connections may look impressive, but can you manage them? Quality matters here, so research your contacts thoroughly before adding them.

3: Map your power groups: It is time to do some research. Go back into history and make a map of how you landed most of your deals. There will surely be a pattern and you will find that certain types of individuals give you the maximum business. Make a list. And make them your friends.

4: Background research: Once you get your list right, make sure the people on that list are likely to get you leads. Do research using private message tools available on most network. Ask your friends about them. Trim the list.

5: Fish them out: Get your existing friends or connections to provide you an introduction.

6: Follow-up: Once you get introduced and begin a dialogue with your prospects, invite them to join your network. Categorize them as new leads in your Facebook or Linkedin contact list. These people are valuable when it comes to introducing new prospects.

7: Give your profile a make-over: Remember, when you seek an introduction, your profile is going to be visited first. Make it look good. Add pictures of your products, get recommendations, link-it to your blog, anything that makes them stay and get interested in you.

8: Use technology: Facebook and LinkedIn now have several third-party applications that help you be more effective. You can add a presentation, a video or any other application that makes your profile better.

9: Review and track: Strategy for social network is unique for each individual. Once you identify a successful pattern, build upon it. Documenting your successes on freeware CRM tools helps you get reports on how your network is working or not working for you.

10: Believe in your network: Don’t give up, even if results take time to show.

 MP Hariharan

Google. Sony. Toyota. Pepsi. Adidas. How were the biggest brand names coined? Different anecdotes about different brands are famous. While Google is said to be one followed by a hundred zeros, Adidas is supposedly an acronym that stands for All Day I Dream About Sports. While we do not know for certain how believable these brand-anecdotes are, we do recognise on almost a daily basis the icons these brands have become in world markets.

So how do we create names that might become icons of the future? Here are a few simple tricks:

New word, renewed interest – A new word or a lesser used one will always grab more attention than a word from the dictionary; simply because people will make double-sure they pronounce and spell it right. When a Japanese electronics major was looking for a name that sounded the same no matter which language it was spelled in, the term Sony was coined.

Size does matter – There was a time when longer names seemed more impressive, but with the decline in people’s attention span, smaller names have become the norm. So, KISS it. No, didn’t mean the romantic gesture, I meant Keep It Short, Stupid! 

Old wine, unusual use – An old over-the-hill word used in a contrasting context will leave people searching for context, just like when a wacky technology start-up named itself Apple and almost instantly earned invaluable aspirational value from every tech-geek.

Has to have a ring to it – A name will have greater recall if people enjoy saying the name. Poppins. Beetle. Laughing Cow. Rings-a-bell means will-be-remembered. 

Speak, if not spell – If it’s spoken not like its spelled, it might make a mark.  Garment brand Enyce, pronounced ‘E-nai-chee’ rose to popularity soon after its launch, simply because youngsters wanted to join the correct-pronunciation bandwagon. The sales followed. The snob-factor might work with certain demographics.

Perfect or Almost Perfect – iPod. A two syllable word where the first syllable is formed of just one vowel and the second is a 3-letter word containing two consonants. The fun part is, both the syllables get equal emphasis while speaking. It is this minor imbalance that perhaps makes the name so interesting. Similarly, FCUK’s suggestive mischief makes it famous bordering on infamous.

Keep forgetting old rules – In a market where fads die out every few years, how do you make sure you keep coming up with more contemporary names? Keep forgetting the old rules and evolve with the task. Once in the flow, coining icons is not rocket science.

Saurabh Kejriwal

Saurabh is Creative Thinker at ReZonant.

I must admit, one can learn a lot from the friendly neighborhood portable green grocer, better known as Thelawala. While his daily morning vocal exploits may not be entirely palatable to those with inclinations to tuck in late, he sure knows how to make an announcement. Perhaps our railway announcers should take a page or two from his book. So what does he do to get his products noticed? He announces them quite efficiently, and different vendors stake claim to different pitch bands. Positioning, eh?

Lets picture the common entrepreneur at a business meet. Are you able to make a good announcement? Does your company really get noticed at once, or do you find yourself struggling to make a presence? While you are still trying, the likes of “I want to jump into every single networking dinner” to log in the numbers are constantly edging you out wasting precious time uttering pleasantries that are as contemporary as a fog horn on the Titanic.

So where is your personal announcer? I call this a brand horn. Take for instance, an important dinner meeting where you are likely to bump into the prospects that you have been looking to meet. In the 10 seconds someone ( by this I mean, someone important ) gets to have a look at your business and more importantly, you, there could be significant spoils to be gained provided you make an impact. Here is a dummies approach to 5 brand horns that may do the trick for you.

1: Get yourself a fancy title: Gone are the days when prospective mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law would drool at a “director” title. Not cool anymore in business circles unless you want to target the wedding set. Or for that matter, the film set. Get yourself a title that can evoke a little conversation. One of my friends responds to “Chief Catalyst”. Whether the title reveals inherent matchmaking abilities during chemistry class during his school days or a strong desire to change the world, only he knows. But the title does stick to the mind of someone receiving his card.

2: No cheesy pick-up lines, please: You may have heard this one. “Hi, I am Swami from XYZ company. Here is my card, can I have yours?”. Swami may think his direct approach accompanied by serious finger cruncher hand-shakes are killer, but ask the others. “Is that a visiting card collector?” is more likely their response. Get introduced only to prospects whom you feel are absolutely necessary and spend more time understanding their business, there is a good chance they may ask you in detail about yours.

3: Differentiate your communication material: Do you have a standard A4 brochure, which follows a set template? If so, it may be time to have a good serious look at the brochure from the perspective of a user. Standard sized promotion material tends to get clubbed with similar sized material to be conveniently dumped at the next dust bin. Get into a format that helps differentiate your product. One of our clients uses a foldable accordion-style brochure that reportedly gets picked up more often. Why? The size perhaps, since it fits into a pocket easily.

4: Challenge the mind of the user with your business card: Think of a puzzle, use of folded paper, use cut-outs; anything that can engage the receiver of your card. Does your card stand out or does it get lost in the crowd? Think, and it can make a difference.

5: Attire that stands out: It may be a great idea to have smartly designed T-shirts or shirts that have your brand emblazoned right at the front. With advances in printing technology, it is now possible to get even a single T-shirt customized to your brand. Wacky is good if it works for the industry in which you are in. A more serious satirical approach can build humor in just the right dose. Yes, good humor does work with everyone, without exception.

MP Hariharan