The Branding Is In the Doing Reputation. That's what branding really comes down to. It's not merely what you say about yourself, it's what others say about you, and what others say about you has much to do with how they experience you first hand. All the fancy slick-o jingles, taglines, and logos that a retail outlet can muster will never make up for that sales clerk that bit your head off. The .commies got carried away. Fueled by VC bucks, they thought they could simply pump out imagery that would stick to you brain. The term "branding" came from the branding of cattle. You've got to do lots more than throw millions of dollars worth of sock puppet commercials at people before a useable impression is burned into a given target audience. Sure we remember the sock puppet. We also remember the Edsel. You need follow-through before and after the impressions are distributed. This is why I say the branding is in the doing. People like Amazon because of one-click shopping, and the way they handle you as a customer. You don't pledge your loyalty to them because of their logo or tagline. Don't get me wrong. Logos and taglines are important. But they have to resonate with and come out of your core essence. Oracle now touts they will increase your site speed thrice or give you $1 million dollars. Another Oracle TV spot tells you they themselves saved $1 billion dollars by using their own products and the Net. This is proof in the pudding. They couldn't say it if it weren't so. Contrast that with what many ad agencies are doing in their online space. Are the agency sites particularly outstanding or memorable? Probably not, judging by the rapidity of their derivative online firms being shuttered. There's lots of buzz around branding but the hard truth is a smaller percentage of marketing dollars get budgeted for branding when compared to ten or twenty years ago. Even before the Net came along, branding budgets were being sliced and diced in favor of DM, POS (Point of Sale) Co-op, Events, and other channels. Everyone is now from Missouri in that you have to "show" your target audience, not just tell them. In short, branding is what you stand for. Telling someone that you're the leaders or the only place to shop is ludicrous and only serves to increase the ire and suspicion in the minds of your target audience. WDFM itself is a living, breathing branding tool for yours truly. Once a week you get an email from me and you know you're going to get short, useful chunks of information. So when you want to place ads, or have me as a speaker, or as a consultant, or need to read a book on Net Marketing, you will already have received many weeks or years of consistent, positive impressions that I deliver the goods. I advise you don't think of online advertising as advertising but rather "info-tising." Think in terms of campaigns and not simply banner ads. Ask yourself the simplest, most basic question. Namely: "What is the point?" Nourish your target audience and build practical relationships with them rather than employing the shove-it-down-your-throat advertising which will only serve to alienate the very people you're trying get closer to. BTW, this doesn't merely go for online marketing: far from it. If you want to really wow your audience, do something outrageously unusual: tell them the truth! Give them useful info like WDFM or tell them things they need to see and hear. What a concept: using ad space as a channel for good, substantial information that your target will find useful and attribute to you. I tell you, you will build a brand loyalty that all the thirty-second spots on network TV cannot buy. |
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