posted by admin on June 16th, 2010
Does this look familiar? Maybe a little bit like your brand?
Has your brand swelled so big that you’re now trying to offer everything to anyone? Businesses seem to be, more and more, adopting this “quantity” over “quality” idea (that they need to provide everything to their customers), but in essence they are diluting their brand. Because I’m seeing more and more of this in the businesses around town, I thought it was prime time to provide a helpful list of questions to help you determine if your brand is overweight. Here are the questions:
Do you keep adding new features, products and messages to your brand, but are you rarely cutting things out?
Are you in a market space that offers you no competitive advantage or ability to create value above and beyond the competition? Why do you stay in that space? What is occupying that space doing to your core business?
If you had to reduce your product line, your marketing copy, your team, your prospect list down to the 20% that generates 80% of your success, what would you chose to cut first, second?
When you answer these questions, write down what instantly comes to mind and share it with the rest of us. This way we can all learn and strengthen our branding initiatives together. I look forward to your insights.
~ Brenton Schmidt
Tags: brand advantage, brand identity, core marketing value, niche marketing, online marketing, web marketing
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posted by admin on June 3rd, 2010
Today is the final day of my 3 favorite and most (personally) impactful brand messages series. We looked at eHarmony yesterday, a brand that I feel cleverly marries (pun 
a clear brand message with credible brand proof that builds customer trust in the eHarmony brand and services.
Today, I’d like to end the series with another personal favorite—Geico. Now you probably best know Geico as the car insurance company with the cute gecko with even cuter accent. Well the gecko goes a long way to add personality to a brand that already had a pretty strong brand promise. The ads all state “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance”, which increases the appeal of the insurance provider (it does for this guy at least) with the key—hard numbers.
The use of numbers is an often under utilized principle demonstrated by Geico. After all most insurance providers merely stated something like “we’ll save you money on your car insurance”. This is a very generic idea that generates a weak “same-old-same-old” response by viewers. However, Geico adds the hard numbers to that statement—“15 minutes can save you 15% on car insurance”—boosting the strength of the company’s brand and helping to differentiate them from a pack of other insurance providers who stick to general (and weaker) brand messaging.
~ Brenton Schmidt
Tags: brand essence, brand messaging, core brand messaging, geico marketing, online marketing, web 2.0
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posted by admin on June 1st, 2010
Everything communicates—especially when it comes to your core brand message. This is the differentiating and compelling benefit you are promising your customers if they choose your product, service, or experience.
Some core brand messages are weak and just add to the noise. However, others resonate with their audience. I plan to share three core brand messages that I love over the next three days.
I love these core brand messages because of the intelligence of the clear brand positioning strategy that is informing the message—and because of the way they make me feel. I feel these brand messages are in a league of their own and can teach us some valuable lessons when it comes to impactful branding. Here is the first…
1. Enterprise – We’ll pick you up
www.enterprise.com
Enterprise rises above the rest in the sea of car rental options. The differentiating idea that they will come to your home, office, etc. to pick you up has brilliant double meaning. First, there is the functional promise—we’ll come and get you—and secondly, the emotional promise—you’ll feel great because of it. If these two meanings can be combined cleverly into one rare idea—then why not? This is why I love this brand message so much.
Tomorrow I’ll share the second core branding message in the series. In the meantime, what do you think of Enterprise’s branding? I welcome you to share your own favorite branding messages.
~ Brenton Schmidt
Tags: brand messaging, core brand messaging, customer experience, Enterprise branding, online marketing, web marketing
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One Calendar with Social Networking Powers
Does this look familiar? Maybe a little bit like your brand?
