Heath Anderson's Strategic Brand Management blog.

Friday, May 18, 2007

What's Your Value Proposition?

In reading yesterday, I came across the buzz word “value proposition.” As a person from the school of direct response, it was refreshing to see that brand marketers actually know and use the concept of the value proposition.

Anyhow, let’s take a brief look at value propositions and I’ll chime in with my two cents.

First, what is a value proposition? A value proposition is simply a short statement or message that clearly communicates the benefits a potential client receives by using your product, service or idea. A value proposition takes all of the intricate details and complexities of the sales pitch and condenses them down to answer the question of “What are you going to do for me?”

With the question above in mind, just think about how many times people have attempted to sell you on the basis of “we’re the best” or “we’ve won these awards” or other non specific pitches. If you’re like most, you could care less about awards and claims of this and that. Bottom line… companies want to know “What are you going to do for them?”

And this is where the value proposition comes into play. Awards don’t provide value to a prospective client but tangible results specific to that prospective client do. A good marketer pitches ideas on the basis of solid measurables – increasing brand awareness, strengthening brand identity, delivering actionables, etc.

For instance, when I present to clients, I don’t go in and base my pitch solely on vague, conceptual ideas or past accolades. My value proposition is simple. I answer the question “What are you going to do for me?” based on real actionables and real numbers that can be expected at certain levels of commitment. In other words, my value proposition is that you can expect “X” number of actions (leads, sales, reservations, downloads, etc.) based upon a budget of “Y” dollars.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Touchpoints: Where’s the Favicon?

Since I didn’t touch on this in my first post, it’s probably important to let everyone know that I’m using Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler as my main reference for this independent study.

Anyhow, I tend to like her definition of “what is a brand?” According to Wheeler, a brand is the “promise, the big idea, and the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service or company.” Unless and until I come to the conclusion that there is a better definition out there, we’ll use this when we refer to a brand.

Moving along… one of the first topics covered is “brand touchpoints.” Touchpoints are very simple to comprehend. A touchpoint is an opportunity in the process of conducting business to strengthen a brand and communicate its essence. For instance, a business card is a touch point. Billboards, websites, direct mail and proposals are all touch points. What about public affairs, advertising, packaging and networking? Yep. They’re all touchpoints. Any point of interaction with the customer – pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase – is a touchpoint that presents an opportunity to further a brand.

An interesting concept suggested by Guy Smith is that “your brand, as perceived by the only legitimate judges—your customers—is the sum of all their interactions with your company.”

With all of this talk about touchpoints, I wanted to take a look at touchpoints in the context of the web and ask why in 2007 don’t more organizations use the favicon?

The favicon, short for ‘favorites icon’, is the 16 X 16 pixel web site icon that is located in the url address bar of your browser. This icon is also present next to the corresponding bookmark in your favorites or bookmarks list. To take a look at some favicons, go to Google, Microsoft, CNN or IBM. What do you notice in the address bar? A favicon. For closer to home examples, take a look at New Mexico Highlands University or UNM. Again, both web sites utilize the favicon.

However, go to Coca Cola, General Electric or Phillip Morris. What don’t you find? A favicon.

How can some of the most recognizable brands in the world still fail to utilize the favicon touchpoint?


Reference

Smith, Guy. "A Brand is the Sum of All Touchpoints." MarketingProfs.Com. 28 Sept. 2004. 17 May 2007 .

Strategic Brand Management Intro

I should start this blog off by explaining why I’m authoring it. While my background is in interactive advertising and specifically search engine marketing, I’m currently working on my MBA at New Mexico Highlands. As part of my program, I’ve built an independent study that I’ve titled Strategic Brand Management and my goal is to learn about brand management. Hopefully, I can take these branding concepts and apply them to the interactive channel.