Brand Success = Customer Focus + Brand Essence

With consumers becoming less brand loyal, it is more important now that brands understand their consumers and what the consumers believe those brands mean to them. Sadly, the day when a brand was able to determine its meaning has passed, making it important to understand why consumers use a given brand. In these examples, Hershey an Absolut, they demonstrate what happens when a brand understands how it fits into its consumer’s world and what consumers relate to and continue to buy said brand. These examples provide lessons for other brands to follow not by trying to be everything for everyone, but rather understanding what they are for those who want them and where they started.

“How Hershey Brand Got Its Start in China –But Don’t Call It an Import” by E.J. Schultz, shows how for the first time, Hershey launched a new product, a new type of caramel candies, first in China before the United States. The composition of these candies show the research and understanding that went into the creation of these candies while demonstrating that Hershey understands the important differences between the United States candies and the China candies, along with the different consumers. By creating these products concurrently, Hershey focused on gaining efficiencies through selling these products. Additionally, these products exist in different categories in each country; in China they fall into the “milk candy” category, whereas in the United States they are more traditionally caramels.

 “Absolut’s Iconic Bottle Is Its Ticket toYounger Consumers: Staying competitive in a market flooded with new spirits” by Joan Voight: since 1986, the Absolut bottle shape has remained consistent and been a place for artists to test out their art. While there are certain aspects about Absolut that keep it from being a craft vodka, by maintaining its deep connection to the artistic community and the care with which it fills every bottle, Absolut knows how to keep its loyal consumers returning time and time again.

Based on my work at the Medill program and analysis of these articles, these are three things that you need to do:

1.  Understand what your brand means to others – this is different from understanding what the brand meaning/promise is, rather it is looking at the brand through the lens of the consumer. Ask your consumer what your brands meant to them and why they bought it. (Look at how Hershey understood what different markets wanted from seemingly similar products).
2. Conduct market research – use this to determine who your consumers are and how your brand connects to them. (Look at how Absolut connects with its artist community)
3. Find a path to follow and stay with it – do not be afraid to stick with what made you famous (i.e. Absolut and its iconic bottle along with its connection to the artistic community) or pick a new path and fully embrace it (Hershey's dual product launch).     

In a time when competition within the food and alcohol industry is fierce, the brands are showing how they can continue to innovate based on their understanding of their product, brand and consumer. These examples show brand managers and marketers what they need to best understand about their product, especially in the food and alcohol/spirits industries, to maximize acceptance and maintain a position in its consumer circle. To say relevant and front of mind with consumers, it is necessary to follow these steps as these are examples of how Hershey and Absolut have remained connected to their consumers and strong contenders in their markets.

·      Marti Lauer is a graduate Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) student at Northwestern University’s Medill School. Her interests lie in the food and beverage industry and CPG along with understanding how consumer experiences and insights shape attitudes and actions. She can be reached at @MartiLauer on Twitter

Image: http://georgeteiosanu.ro/tag/studiu-de-caz/

CMO's- Misunderstand Your Brand Value...and Risk Losing Customers!

As a CMO of any company, establishing brand equity is important because it leads to a supply of loyal customers and helps develop a company’s personality.  As a graduate student at Northwestern’s Medill Integrated Marketing Communications program, I have found this topic very insightful and I would like to draw your attention to the following two articles that summarize the importance of brand equity and the ultimate goal of brand loyalty.

The article by Scott Cullather, “The Importance of Brand Equity and How to Maintain it”, focuses on the value of brand equity and the ultimate drive to customer loyalty.  The development of brand equity is important as it allows companies to more effectively engage with their customers in ways that drive brand loyalty, allowing the business to grow.  Brand equity is particularly important to start-ups because it helps them define themselves and their core values as well as steer the company in the appropriate direction towards profitability.  Start-ups also have an advantage, as they have the ability to figure out particularly who they would like to target at an early stage and leverage their customer base accordingly.  This helps them figure out their own niche and maintain a competitive advantage.  The structure of brand equity from an internal company’s standpoint is also very critical, as it can affect the outward brand appeal.  As the business becomes comfortable with its customer base, it is easy for it to lose sight of its core values and therefore affect the internal culture of the company, which in turn, reflects the brand positioning and could eventually lead to problems retaining customers. 

The article by Jennifer Taylor, “The Importance of Brand Equity for your Business”, discusses the importance of building a brand personality through brand equity so that the customer base recognizes the product and product sales lead to profitability in the long run.  It is crucial the brand or product is unique in some fashion and can be differentiated from its competitors.  The ultimate goal of the company is to provide value to the customers through emotional ties and passion.  These emotions lead to sales and lower price sensitivity, which lead to customer loyalty.  Finally, brand equity is the value of the brand that you have created; strong brand equity can lead to higher profit margins and customer retention.

Based on my review of these two articles and my graduate work in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, there are three things you should know to achieve high brand equity:

1.     Figure out who you would like to target- You can’t target everyone at once, your company needs a market to focus on and adjust to.

2.      Turn the customer into a loyal buyer- Make sure your brand is unique enough to be differentiated by the consumer.

3.      Establish and maintain core brand values internally and externally to create a brand personality- although external values are important, if the company employees don’t retain these values in an internal setting, this will eventually be visible to the consumer through external branding and can lead to diminishing customer retention.

In the ever changing business world knowing your customer, staying one step ahead of the competition and developing a brand personality can help you maintain a competitive edge and ultimately create brand loyalty. 

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/aug/10/brand-equity-start-ups-advantage

 http://www.womensenterprise.ca/blog/importance-brand-equity-your-business
Image- http://growthweaver.com/brand-equity-and-social-media/

Marina Goldshteyn is pursuing a Masters degree in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) at Northwestern University.  She currently works as a Sr. Marketing Acquisition Associate at Discover Financial Services. She hopes to continue her professional career post graduation to focus on brand strategy and execution. 

Continue the conversation via Twitter @MarinaGoldshte1 or via LinkedIn.

The "Moment of Sweat" is Critical to Your Success

By Hannah Leone

As a Fitness Executive, you need your members to actively track and evaluate all aspects of their fitness profile.  Being connected with your users is absolutely essential in order for your company to survive and thrive.  As a graduate student at Northwestern University in the Integrated Marketing Communications program, I have found two articles that I think reveal the immense potential of connecting with users on a mobile platform in the health and fitness industry and would also like to offer some suggestions about how to foster even deeper user engagement.

The first article, entitled “Helping Brands Engage in Connected Fitness,” explains the concept of connected fitness, which is the use of technology “to make fitness social, fun, effective, and rewarding.”  Author and General Manager of MapMyFitness, Christopher Glode discusses the importance of the “Moment of Sweat.”  The idea is that if a brand is able to connect with, congratulate, or reward people at their proudest moments, upon completion of a 10k, for example, that interaction will foster a brilliant connection.  MapMyFitness has built a platform that easily enables these types of meaningful connections between various users as well as between brands and their users.

This is the MapMyFitness mobile user interface, displaying the various capabilities of the app.

The second article, “How Brands Use Connected Health to Engage Consumers,” details the vast amount of lifestyle data that users are logging on the MapMyFitness platform.  The opportunity for brands in the health and fitness industry to create extremely deep connections with their consumers and generate terrific brand loyalty is immense.  Using challenges that log points, display leaderboards, award prizes, and give badges of completion help to increase the level of user engagement and create lasting, meaningful relationships with consumers.

Upon reviewing these two articles and applying my learnings from the Integrated Marketing Communications program, I think that MapMyFitness has done a wonderful job of capitalizing on the consumer shift to mobile and finding ways to engage with users on this platform.  That being said, I would like to suggest three things that MapMyFitness and other companies in the high tech health and fitness industry can do to foster even greater user engagement.

First, put more emphasis on the concept of gamification. 

By creating interaction based on the principles of wanting to compete in a game, your product or service can become an integrated experience that penetrates multiple aspects of your users’ lives.  Once you have established yourself as an integral part of their lives, it is hard for them not to think about you, talk about you, or live without you.

Second, consider adding coupons into your social media plan.  

Research has shown that 65% of people who engage with companies through social media do it primarily for coupons or information on sales.

Third, listen to your users. 

Fostering engagement through challenges or contests is one thing, but your company must also listen and respond to what consumers are saying. They are interacting with each other in virtual communities and can offer very useful insight into problems, desired product offerings, and much more.

With mobile usage on the rise, staying connected and creating deeper user engagement through constant interaction with consumers is becoming easier.  Now is the time for CMOs to take advantage of the opportunities here and develop a large, loyal user base ahead of your competition. 

Hannah Leone is pursuing an M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications.  Having been a student for nearly the entirety of her life, she is ready to head out into the “real world,” ideally in the high-tech health and fitness industry.  Feel free to connect with her on Twitter @hannahrleone or via LinkedIn.

Sources:

http://about.mapmyfitness.com/2013/10/connected-fitness-gathers-at-advertising-week/

http://about.mapmyfitness.com/2013/06/how-brands-use-connected-health-to-engage-consumers/

Image Source:

MapMyFitness Mobile App Home Screen