The Importance of Brand

Right now, the last thing we want to hear is talk of another bubble that has yet to burst.  However, John Gerzema and Ed Lebar have put together compelling research that argues we’re in the midst of a “brand bubble” in their book “The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It.”  The basis of this bubble is that while key brand metrics (consumers’ opinions of the value of a brand) have been steadily decreasing, corporations have continued to see an increase in the total value attributed to brand (investors’ opinions of the value of a brand).  The implications are significant, to the tune of trillions of dollars in market wealth.
 
Why aren’t brands worth what they once were?  In essence, the key brand attributes that gave brands competitive advantages decades ago, the most basic being awareness, are simply not as powerful an indicator of brand strength.  That’s mostly because consumers have become increasingly picky about brands they will be loyal to.  Gerzema and Lebar argue that consumers don’t simply look at the current or past state of a brand, but are aware of a brand’s direction and “energy.”  The best way to think about this, they say, is that consumers “now select brands based on the same principles investors use to select stocks.”  But, even though the reality of brand loyalty is changing, many brands, and investors, are failing to adjust to the new reality. 

Most brands have failed to continue effective brand building now that the bar has been reset, in large part because most brands haven’t changed the way they approach the market in decades.  What brand really means to a corporation is a promise of future value: the ability to drive future sales, to win consumer loyalty, and, most importantly, not being forced to commoditize your offering. This is why performance advertising on the Internet is not for brands. As soon as you begin to compete for transactions, you begin to “teach” consumers to value your brand on the discounts your brand is willing to provide.

Excerpts taken from “The Importance of Brand” by Joe Marchese

Average Angel Investment is $?,???,???

$10,000

These facts on angel investing from Entrepreneurship Professor Scott Shane were enlightening:

Prof. Shane notes that only 21% of angels meet the Securities and Exchange Commission’s requirements for being an “accredited investor” – or an individual making $250,000 annually or more, or a couple making $350,000 or more (or net worth of more than $1 million). What’s more, the majority of angels don’t end up making money on their investments, and only 2% of businesses they invest in eventually become IPOs. And, only 15% of angels do “extensive” research on the sectors of the businesses they fund.  In a nutshell, the median angel investment is only around $10,000. 

 

The Secret Sauce

“If you work just for the money, you’ll never make it, but IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU’RE DOING and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” 

RAY KROC  (1902-1984), Entrepreneur and founder of McDonald’s

The New Power Couple? Sales & Marketing, Part 3

Fast forward to a vision of the singularly focused, well-aligned sales and marketing organization focused on both short-term and long-term goals.  The team is reaping the benefits of communication, interaction and collaboration tools and technologies that are prevalent in businesses today. 

THE FOCUS	THE GOAL	THE SOLUTION:  What do you need to get there?
Success criteria	Business profitability	Full visibility into results/ KPIs (key performance indicators);  Predictable pipeline and accurate forecast to allow earlier insight for adjustment
Vision of the ideal customer	Customer profitability	A join definition of the ideal customer that looks at revenue and costs to serve over the lifeime of that relationship
Relationship quality (outlook)	Long-term	Needs-based and collaborative—as a result of capturing knowledge over time
Process	Collaborative and easy to use	Joint planning, shared customer database, connects all users in a single customer lifecycle
Technology	Integrated CRM	Holistic view of the customer; Best practice workflow is created and improved over time

The answer is a single mission-directed plan, crafted by stakeholders in both marketing and sales that shares the same success criteria, vision of the ideal customer, relationship outlook and process.  The plan is supported by a strong technology foundation comprised of a set of applications that are flexible, scalable, familiar, and easy to use. 

In this ideal state, marketing becomes a sales multiplier, making all front-office processes more definable, repeatable, and friction-free.  Sales becomes the confidante to marketing, sharing customer insight and best practices.  Together, they focus on what customers need and when they need it.  They learn together and get smarter together over time. 

 

The New Power Couple? Sales & Marketing, Part 2

Today, both sales and marketing operate in a vacuum.  It isn’t any particular individual’s fault.  It’s the result of their company’s structure and culture.  Their organization has designed their departments, responsibilities, access to customer information and rewards systems to function as separate entities.

The New Power Couple? Sales & Marketing

You know the story.  It’s the end of the quarter and the sales numbers are below target.  The sales team is pointing fingers at marketing because they aren’t “bringing in enough qualified leads,” and marketing is responding by saying sales is at fault because they “don’t know how to follow up on a lead.”  Sound familiar?  Like your two kids at home?? 

Today, many businesses lack synergy between the sales and marketing organizations due to a variety of reasons which I will explore this week.

• Success in the sales and marketing departments is measured quite differently
• Sales and marketing have a different vision of the ideal target customer
• Actionable customer insight sits in dozens of disconnected databases
• A lack of a 360-degree view of customers and their buying preferences exists widely
• Broken processes make it impossible to track what is working
• The technology is too hard to use so that there is limited adoption

This disconnect is making it difficult for organizations to make the most of the marketing expenditures and sales opportunities.  When companies are unable to provide the right offers to the right person at the right time because insights live in disparate locations, businesses should begin to turn to applications and personal productivity technologies to help them build a cohesive sales and marketing alliance.  Over the next several days, let’s discuss the obstacles to making business development a team sport and explore some options for best practices to align the sales and marketing organizations.