What is the difference between and offline and an online brand?

 

 

Now that we are in the “age of the internet,” it is crucially important for companies to understand how to successfully launch a digital brand.

 

But before we cover digital brands, let’s look at branding in general.

 

According to Wikipedia, “A brand is a collection of symbols, experiences and associations connected with a product, a service, a person or any other artefact or entity.”

 

The idea of branding is to create certain emotions in the minds of your consumers. In other words, when people think “Nike,” ideas of quality, performance, living the dream (like Michael Jordan) and athletics enter your mind. This is not by accident. Nike has spent years building it’s brand of “authentic athletic performance.”

 

The purpose of a digital brand is no different than an offline brand. There are, however, some differences that you should be aware of.

 

Word travels much faster now:

It used to be that you could launch a company slowly. Start on a local level and then go regionally and then nationally and then even internationally. With the internet, that has all changed. The market is not nearly as forgiving. If you have a concept that becomes popular online, it can spread like wildfire. The pro to this is that you can build a brand VERY quickly. The con is that your brand can fail just as quickly. If you mess up, the whole world knows about it and won’t touch you with a ten foot pole.

 

The Online Experience:

Digital branding is very dependent upon existing technology to provide an “experience.” Many companies miss out on the idea that their website and online material must function in a way that supports their brand. For example, check out Wal-Mart’s website - the experience of browsing through it is much like perusing their store. It is to-the-point and functional, there are many categories of products you can choose from, and you can shop by price which is very important to the Wal-Mart brand.

 

Now check out Gucci’s website. It feels luxurious. It functions well and a lot of effort has been put into the way the site responds and transitions to new screens. When you click on a product category, the products are displayed beautifully as if each one is a treasure. This is all a part of their brand. If Wal-Mart tried to create a luxurious site, they would lose customers because that is not what Wal-Mart customers value. Gucci customers value luxury, feeling glamourous and buying “the best” (at a price). These companies are two polar opposites and their digital brands express that.

 

A Level Playing Field:

It used to be that the “big players” in the business world were those with lots of money. They were the businesses that could spent millions of dollars on advertising campaigns. That is not the case anymore. The internet has made it so that even start-up businesses with a shoestring budget can make a large impression and attract many customers. Because of the internet, big companies have many small competitors that can establish just as much online credibilty. This means that your online brand and image matters more than ever.

A big challenge in the digital marketing / digital media world we live in now is a false assumption.  It’s the assumption that cool new ways to reach an audience have changed the rules of marketing and branding. The internet is the greatest message delivery mechanism yet invented. But it’s important the message being delivered be guided by age old, time tested marketing principles.

 

These marketing principles, at their core, boil down to branding through differentiation – through your position in the market, your brand message, and the way the message is “dramatized”.  It’s creating the perception in your customer’s mind that your product or service is the one to meet their needs.  It’s clearly stating the difference, the reason that your product is better than your competitors.  When your customer’s perceptions cause them to choose your product over the competition’s, you’re well on your way.  The key to all of this is perception.  It’s less a question of whether your product really is better, and more a question of whether it’s perceived that way in the marketplace.

 

Most companies are convinced that their products are the ‘best’.  The issue is whether or not your customers – potential and actual – perceive it that way.  That perception is affected by branding… how the message of your product’s differentiation is “dramatized”.  That can occur through advertising, public relations, word of mouth – and increasingly, the internet, in its various forms, is the best choice for all three of these methods. 

 

But it’s easy to get caught up in the medium – at the expense of the message.  The message needs to do its job, no matter what medium it’s carried over.  And the job of the message is to clearly differentiate your product.  To give the customer the reason, in short, that they should buy yours instead of theirs.

 

This may all seems obvious, but mistakes abound in following these simple rules of the road.  And on the information highway, it’s easy to get lost in all the clever things that can be done with the latest, greatest Web 2.0 delivery mechanisms.

 

Example of what doesn’t work:  Heinz comes out with mustard… in a bottle shaped like their catsup bottle.  (You haven’t seen it, it flopped.)  The reason it flopped is in the customer’s mind – their perception, in other words – Heinz equals catsup. 

 

Example of what works:  Toyota spends one billion dollars in R and D, and rolls out the Lexus.  Not the ‘premium Toyota’, but the Lexus.  It becomes one of the most successful products in history.  In the perception of the customer, Lexus is a separate product from a Toyota.  It has it’s own category (Premium Luxury Car – Japan.)  Toyotas are reliable.  Lexus is luxurious.    

    

 Currently these kinds of messages (brand messages) can be communicated to the marketplace in a nano-second through digital media. Digital media is fast, powerful, everywhere at once.  So it’s more important than ever that the customer’s perceptions – the ones that exist now, and, just as critically, the new ones - that you are influencing – are carefully taken in to account.  Digital media is powerful, but it amplifies everything.  So mistakes (Heinz mustard) and successes (Lexus premium luxury cars) are amplified.

 

The bottom line – use the powerful new digital tools, and follow the lessons of the wise old men of marketing and advertising.  Proper attention paid to both creates the perfect approach to building your brand.

Within 24 hours the video of President George Bush dodging a reporter’s shoes at a news conference in Bagdad on Saturday was viewed over 4.4 million times. Want to see how it compares to the viewing of Obama’s acceptance speech? Click here.

 

 

Presidents have done a lot of stupid things over the years (i.e. Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky, Nixon’s Watergate, JFK’s Bay of Pigs, etc.). NEVER has there been a time, however, where leaders are so transparent. Millions of people around the world are watching Bush almost get nailed with a reporter’s shoes like it’s America’s Funniest Home videos. In the past, this would have been covered up, underplayed or at least only available on news stations. Now ordinary people and bloggers (like me) are distributing it all over the internet. Within those first 24 hours, the video was placed over 600 times… meaning over 600 people put it on their blogs, facebook, and websites.

 

Now that’s a viral video!

 

A few days ago I told my younger brother to sign up for twitter so he could be my twitter friend. He first asked me what the heck twitter is and then after I explained it was a place to type little mini message updates - he told me it sounded a little too weird for him. “What do I have to update people about every day?” he asked.

 

It wasn’t until I told him that Joe Sugarman was following me (and I was following him) on twitter, that my brother got excited. You see my brother has been faithfully studying copywriting for the last couple of years and Sugarman is one of the greatest copywriters of all time and one of my brother’s personal heroes. 

 

Twitter is being used by the most innovative marketers to make a HUGE impact. Just to give you an example - at my company, we do a lot of work with online product launches and twitter has now become one of the best ways to announce a new product and quickly get it out there.

 

I know that when I first signed up for twitter (not too long ago), my first question was “How do I actually use this thing?” I had a lot of friends who were constantly updating me about everyday things - i.e. going out to lunch, coming back from a workout, hanging out at the airport… Although I didn’t get it at first, those little messages started to become addictive. Even though what they were doing was somewhat mundane, I still was interested because they were my friends.

 

Once I got into it a little more, I began following business gurus that I admire. I find it so cool that I can keep up with what Eben Pagan is reading or what seminar Joe Sugarman just returned from or see the CEO of Zappos warming up a pizza with his iron in his hotel room… all of this on twitter.

 

All of this is “cool,” but what is really amazing is how twitter can help you market your business.

 

The following are the top ten steps to successfully marketing your business on twitter:

 

1. Pay Attention To Your Name: Your username is very important. It is listed in each post and is a part of your business or personal brand. Be sure that it doesn’t contain too many letters or odd symbols (like underscores).

 

2. Be a Proactive Follower: Search for people to follow right when you sign up (you can follow me at http://twitter.com/lauraroser - that is - if you want). The more you follow, the more likely you are to be followed. The following links will get you started searching: 

• Twitter’s search engine: www.search.twitter.com 
• Twellow.com: more targeted searches by categories
• Twitterati.com: lists the top tweeters (for a list of the top click here)

 

3. Manage Your Replies: I recommend downloading a program called tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) - this will help you to organize who is on your list and your responses. It also makes it easier to send personal messages. TweetScan can also be great to manage your replies (I haven’t used this, but it’s gotten great reviews).

 

4. Advertise Yourself: Add your twitter account ID to your email signature so people you email can start following you. (your ID, by the way, is just www.twitter.com/YourUserName).

 

5. Say Something That Makes People Say “Wow!”: For example, if you are selling pizza ovens, you may say something like “did you know that president JFK ate 200 pizzas a year? http://tinyurl.com/blah.” The url at the end would direct them to your pizza oven site. (I just made up that stat, in case you were wondering).

 

6. Read The Bios Of People Who Follow You: See what interests them and send a personal message. This is a good way to form a relationship. For example, if someone who enjoys art just started following you, send them a personal message about an art blog they should check out. This gets the conversation going in a positive way.

 

7. Don’t SPAM: In other words, don’t send a personal message to a bunch of different people with the EXACT same question or content. And don’t just try to sell your products or services. Twitter is about providing useful information. It’s fine to mention what you do, you company, etc… but change your mindset from one of “sales” to one of “information giving.” Make it your mission to help others, give useful information and build relationships with no ulterior motives… If you find someone who can genuinely benefit from your company, offer your help in a very genuine way.

 

8. Say “Thank You”: I have to admit, I don’t do this one very well. But, it is an excellent idea to thank people for taking an interest and following you. The more interest you take in someone else, the more interest they will take in you. Also, if someone decides to follow you, it’s nice if you start following them. 

 

9. Keep the Conversation Going: Make sure to update your posts often. This keeps you in the minds of your fellow tweeters and increases the odds of people building a relationship with you. The more information rich your posts are, the better.

 

10. Direct People To Your Sites: If you have an interesting article you just posted on your blog, post a link for people to go check it out. If you just released a new product, post a direct link to it in your twitter post. Get people going to your website. Twitter has a limited number of characters, so you may need to use tinyurl.com or a similar service to shrink your url down.  

 

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at laura@virtualmg.com (follow me at twitter.com/lauraroser)

 

Happy Tweeting!

These days, social networking sites, blogs, review sites, and similar forums are a double edged sword for businesses.  On the one hand, new products can be launched in record time.  It used to take months or years to spread the word about a new product or service.  Now it takes a few days.  Both positive and negative public relations now travel at the speed of light.

 

What starts out as a comment or an aside on facebook, twitter, or a relevant blog can and does spread like wildfire.  Lately, companies like Taco Bell and Burger King have both experienced the power of P R at the speed of light.  Issues that might have never surfaced at all just a few years ago now take on a life on their own.

 

Taco Bell is in a running battle with rapper 50 cent over the use of his name and image in Taco Bell ads.  All of the details of this issue are all over the net. 

 

Burger King has created controversy around its Whopper Virgins campaign.  Anyone with an axe to grind and an internet connection can now make trouble for any company, practically overnight.

 

Although Russ Klein, President of Burger King’s global marketing, has stated that “We know we can’t be pleasing 100% of the people 100% of the time”, it’s a real dilemma for businesses that would prefer to be doing just that (if possible.)

 

 

Think Like a Political Advance Team

 

Pete Blackshaw, Executive Vice President at Web researcher Nielson Online, says “Marketers need to think more like political advance people.  Political advance people are always scoping out what could go wrong ….and in an age of viral communication and consumer control, you really need to up the ante on advance work.”  (USA Today, December 8th.)

 

Advance teams think through how their campaigns and branding messages could be perceived, and develop spin control and instant reaction messages as contingency plans.

 

For most small to medium size businesses, this might seem like overkill, but your brand is at risk.  If you think in terms of how you will respond to negative P R of any kind in advance, it will keep your company out of crisis mode.  You can act, instead of react.

 

The key to all of this is speed.  Don’t let misperceptions fester unanswered for days… think in terms of hours.  You or your PR agency will want to get your message out fast, so your positive P R can travel at the same speed that the negative PR will.

How LDSWA Founder Daryll Jonnson Turned Her Dream into a Reality

Latter-Day Woman Magazine

There are not many women in this world who are more sincere and loving than Daryll Jonnson. I’ve heard Daryll’s story many times, but it always inspires me. As said in her own words:

“I had been working for many years, in the corporate world, and although I enjoyed what I was doing, I did not feel a great deal of satisfaction. I felt that I wanted to really do something that would help others and that I was very passionate about.  Coming from the United Kingdom, I also had a desire to find something that would allow me to interact with other LDS women across the oceans…

… Then, in a quiet moment, while sweeping the floor of all things and feeling desperation because I was getting no answers, a strong impression and idea permeated my whole body and left me feeling “WOW…. where did that come from?”  Again, I prayed about it and received confirmation that this was the path I was to follow – to form a women’s alliance, the LDSWA.”

LDSWA launched its new online presence in July of 2008. Shortly thereafter, it launched Latter-Day Woman, its online magazine, and Our Ladies Room, its social networking site. Within only several short months, their magazine is already being read by women in over 48 countries.

LDSWA is an amazing company with so many things it’s doing right, but the thing that really makes it such a success is Daryll’s ability to tell a story that is remarkable. And the reason it is so remarkable is not only because it is different, but mostly because it is so relevant. Her idea has spread like wild fire throughout the LDS women’s community because there are so many women who didn’t have a place to congregate online. Daryll has provided this in a sincere, humble way.

When you can tell a story about your business that comes from the heart, it makes all the difference. It’s not about a slick advertising campaign. It’s about being sincere and tapping into a need (or want) that isn’t being fulfilled.

If you are interested in learning more about LDSWA, visit www.ldswa.com.

Online Product Launch Success

“I’m going to create an online 12-week program for stock traders,” said Norman Hallett to me about eight months ago. “It’s called ‘The Disciplined Trader.’ I’ve already bought the domain name…Now I need a logo, website, some sales pages and an online membership system. What’s your schedule for the next few weeks?”

 

This is how it all began.

 

Norman has been a client of VirtualMG for over three years. And has turned into a very dear friend. We helped him design and implement his “lifestyle hypnosis” membership program a couple of years ago (www.selfhelpexpress.com) and have been working with him throughout the years to maintain his websites, shopping cart, sales pages, set up emails, and so on.

 

Although Norman has always been a visionary, I could tell that this new endeavor was going to take things to a whole new level.

 

The first milestone was the “beta” launch. This is where the program had to be 100% functional so Norman could market it to his own list and fix all the bugs before marketing it through other affiliates or to the general public. The goal was to get at least 20 sign ups and a lot of feedback. We created a brand for The Disciplined Trader, as well as a sales website and backend area where members could pay and login to view their new ‘lessons’ each week. The backend consists of a forum, videos and interactive training materials that are posted each week and some bonus content (such as trading journals, tips, and bonus recordings from famous traders).

 

The beta launch went wonderfully. Through his emails and web sales page, Norman was able to get over 20 people to sign up for the beta program at $800 a piece within only a few days (and on a holiday weekend to boot!). He meticulously paid attention to what worked and what didn’t with the marketing and we adjusted the marketing materials to optimize their success.

 

Then we had the theta launch about eight weeks later – this was another test to ensure we had everything just right. At this point we (mostly Paul Galloway) added a more robust affiliate system.

 

Finally on November 6, Norman began his first official launch with his affiliate partners.

 

By November 12, Norman had over 100 people signed up for his program paying over $900 each. Incredible!

 

If you are interested in learning more about Norman’s program, please visit www.thedisciplinedtrader.com. 

If you want to improve your online rankings, bookmark your blog and your website. Here is a list of the bookmarks that we use for our clients:

 

blinklist.com	clipmarks.com	faves.com	linkagogo.com
propeller.com	spurl.net	bibsonomy.org	clipfire.com
del.icio.us	furl.net	memori.ru	simpy.com

On Friday we shot 24 videos about digital branding and online marketing. They are currently in the editing booth…

 

Here’s why we did it:

1. Video is a VERY good way to get high rankings on Google and other search engines.
2. Video is a very good way to promote your company… it’s interactive, it helps you connect with people on a personal level, it’s a better way to tell your story.
3. Video is hard to produce (or at least semi-difficult)… this means not EVERY company out there is going to have a bunch of videos - so, it’s a very good way to differentiate yourself.

Why 24 videos?

The first 20 videos will be distributed on various listing sites…i.e. youtube, podcast directories, vimeo, etc. They will be titled with different key words - so when someone looks for “digital branding” online, the appropriate video will come up and then direct them to our website. The 20 videos each highlights a caveat of our service so that people can learn more about what we do and more about online marketing in general.

 

The last 4 videos are for:

• Video 1: Goes on our landing page or squeeze page where we will be offering a free report about digital branding.
• Video 2: Is a “thank you” video that will pop up after they have signed up for our list.
• Video 3: Is a short video that asks them to go to our website to get the free report (this is tacked on to the end of each of the 20 videos).
• Video 4: Is a longer video that goes out in our email communications and is put on our site - detailing our story and how we can assist businesses with marketing.

 The whole point of all of this is to quickly build up our email list and to help people learn more about digital branding and online marketing.

 

We are going to launch the campaign in about a week - I’ll let you know how it goes!

 

Best,

 

Laura (laura@virtualmg.com)

Is your product or service ‘on code’? Every culture has a “code” – for love, health, beauty, sex, family, obesity, home… even cars. Marriage, drinking, music, movies…. different cultures have different ‘codes’ for all of these important facets of life.

 

How is this relevant to marketing and branding? It’s important that when you advertise and promote your product, it’s ‘on code.’ An example of a product that was on code a few years ago was Chrysler’s PT Cruiser. Dr. Rapaille, a French marketing consultant that conceived the Culture Code, ran sessions for Chrysler and determined that the American code for cars is IDENTITY. Based on this, the design and marketing of the P T Cruiser reflected the sense of identity that Americans take in their cars, and the product was a smash.

 

Some brands are ‘off code.’ Although it was lauded in the press as an innovative way to market their firming lotion, Dove’s “Real Women” campaign is actually ‘off code.’ The American code for youth is MASK. In general, lotions and creams that are marketed to U S women should reflect that they will replace an aging, wrinkled look with a ‘mask’ of smooth, youthful skin. The more the marketing and the message reflect this ideal… even if it’s at odds with reality… the more it is on code. Dove’s real women campaign more or less promised women that they would look like every other real woman – very off code. What women want in a beauty product is to look like an ideal woman… to be provided with a mask that will immediately make them young and beautiful.

 

There are codes for every important part of life – and every important product or service. Determining the real reason people buy can have a huge impact on the success of your marketing program.

 

It Starts When They’re Young

Codes are formed most strongly in the early years. Children become imprinted with different meanings from infant to seven years of age.

 

In the seventies, Nestle was frustrated in their attempts to open the Japanese market for their instant coffee products. Utilizing the process of determining the Japanese code for coffee, it was determined that there wasn’t any. There was no imprint of any kind in Japanese culture for this product. Nestle concluded that they would have to start with the rising generation… and by introducing a line of coffee flavored sweets and candies (for kids), they started the process of imprinting a code for coffee in to the Japanese culture.

 

Our earliest memories and emotions stay with us well in to our senior years. More than we can imagine, they effect our choices and the decisions we make… whether we realize it or not. How we respond to the way a product is presented and positioned is heavily affected by these subconscious memories and codes.

 

To the degree that you can determine the ‘real’ code for your product and service, you can ensure that your message is on code.

 

(For more information on the ‘code’, contact us at VirtualMG or check out the book “The Culture Code” by Clotaire Rapaille.)