Branding Is Branding

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(By Bob McCurdy) I was reviewing a marketing file titled “Branding” that I maintain, and was struck once again by the parallels between the positioning of products, businesses, and services, and salespeople. What follows are branding insights from various marketing experts that I have accumulated over the years that can be used in discussions with clients, along with my “take” as to how they apply to those of us in sales.

– All ad campaigns are branding campaigns. Whether you intend it to be a branding campaign or not is irrelevant. It will create an impression of your brand regardless of your intent.
Every interaction we have with our clients either enhances or diminishes their perception of us. Every one. Just like brands, an advertiser’s perception is a sum of all their experiences — with us. Maximize them.

– In the future, consumers will rely more and more on strong brands to help them navigate the digital world.
They need assistance not only with “digital” but with the entire media landscape. It is crazy out there. Local clients need local marketing experts to help them make sense of it. We must be up to the task.

– Is your story clear enough and bold enough to earn a place in the consumer’s mind?
Dozens of local media reps are fighting for real estate in your advertiser’s mind. Is your story powerful enough to break through?

– Great brands are where promise meets delivery. Great brands distinguish themselves by what they do — not just by what they say.
We can’t be BTNA: Big Talk, No Action.

– It is the job of advertising to help stock that mental cupboard with positive ideas and associations that link to a specific brand. Brands must be memorable, relevant, and useful.
Are we?

– Brands have to become known to be bought.
Are we visible enough, to enough prospects, to be remembered at key moments-of-truth?

– Brands are not rational, explicit memory palaces, but emotional, implicit memory traces.
Are our clients emotionally invested in our success? What can we do to enhance that emotional connection? Their emotional commitment to us, will match ours to them.

– Brands must find ways to stand out now more than ever. Building a big brand requires widespread attention. Brands will have to tell their story in an even better, more elegant way. And they should be doing it on every possible platform. Those that don’t will get flattened. It’s that simple.
Blogging, podcasting, social media, e-blasts, exquisite service, profound expertise, visibility with value. Are there any speaking opportunities in our markets? Lunch-and-learns to conduct? Create your own wind in being the most visible rep in the market. Get creative.

– People would not care if three-quarters of brands disappeared tomorrow.
This stat likely applies to media reps as well. Are we in the 25% or 75% group?

– A brand which strives for success MUST be great at telling its story in a compelling and relatable fashion.
Are we active participants in refining ours? It is too important to leave to others.

– In this world, brands aren’t only competing against their respective categories but against everything else that’s out there.
We offer online, on-air, on-demand, onsite. Every media channel is our competition.

– The key difference between leading brands and smaller ones is penetration.
Don’t become overly reliant on only a few large clients.

– As brands have shifted their focus towards short-term activations — driven in part by the nature of digital — so planners have drifted downstream. Brands should not empty the pool of prospects without refilling it.
It is about balance. We need to “close” today but also plant the seeds for success tomorrow.

– There’s an inevitable “regression to the mean” where heavy buyers often buy less over time; light buyers buy more; and some non-buyers become buyers. Brands can’t afford to count anyone out.
Neither can we — prospect and don’t assume. Churn is inevitable. Be ready for it.

– For brands, functional differentiation has narrowed.
Our competition is pretty good and getting better. We need to constantly improve or fall behind.

– New category buyers know very little about the category and the brands within it. This means less competition for “mental availability” and brands that do make an impression at this juncture make it on a blanker slate.
Call on non-traditional radio advertisers. Fish where the competition is not. There’s less competition.

– This is why established brands need to advertise: to hold on to their buyers in the face of substantial competitive advertising and to give themselves a chance to grow.
We grow the same way brands grow. By hanging on to existing customers and landing new ones.

– In marketing, “priming” is a well-established psychological phenomenon that people prefer objects and brands that they have seen more often.
The absent are always wrong in sales. We need to “prime” our clients.

– Any successful brand suffers week-by-week downs — temporary declines often caused by the successful STAS (short-term advertising strength) of competitive brands.
There are weeks the competition will write more business than we do. Every week won’t be a record breaker. Move forward with relentless persistence.

– It is critical to ensure that you understand the mental “landscape” in which our brand exists.
Look reality in the eye and act upon it. Dispassionately evaluate the depth and strength of our client relationships. Delusion results in lost revenue.

– Big brands have had years to build and reinforce a loyal franchise. This gives them serious strength to block up-and-coming competition.
Recognize that if the competition has been working with the client for a while, we will need to out-work, out-think, and out-care them to make headway with that advertiser. 

Use the “branding” quotes/concepts in your conversations with clients, and take to heart my comments below those quotes. If you do, 2020 could be your most successful year yet. Good luck.

Bob McCurdy is the Vice President of Sales for The Beasley Media Group and can be reached at [email protected]

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