10 Branding and marketing Trends for 2010

As a branding agency, we at Beltrame Leffler follow branding trends and innovations. I've found Branding Strategy Insider to be a great blog for this. Recently, they had an article on branding trends for 2010 that I found very informative and helpful for our agency and our clients. It's titled "10 Branding and Marketing Trends for 2010" and focuses a lot on the "value" and authenticity of your brands and what you bring to your customers, and brand engagement. Here are some highlights.

#1 Value is the new black
Consumer spending will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. So, your brand better have an authentic meaning and real value.

#2 Brands increasingly a surrogate for "value"
What makes goods and services valuable will increasingly be what's wrapped up in the brand and what it stands for.

#3 Brand differentiation is Brand Value
The unique meaning of a brand will increase in importance as generic features continue to plague the brand landscape. Differentiation, more than awareness, will be critical for success.

#4 "Because I Said So" is over
Your brand values must believably exist in the mind of the consumer. Consumer will now decide if you stand for something and must see measures of authenticity to support it.

#5 Consumer expectations are growing
Consumer expectations are growing every day with new technologies and innovations. You will need to understand where the strongest expectation exist in order to survive - and prosper.

#6 Old tricks don't work/won't work anymore
Consumers are on to brands trying to play on their emotions for profit. This may be especially true for insincere or doubtful pairings of celebrities and brands.

#7 They won't need to know you to love you
Front-end awareness is becoming less important. In this online-driven and international market, a brand with the right street cred can go viral in days, with awareness following, not leading the conversation.

#8 It's not just buzz
Conversation and community is all. Your brand "community" is very important. If consumers trust the community, they will trust the brand. This indicates a new era of customer care.

#9 They're talking to each other before talking to you
Social Networking and exchange of information outside of the brand space will increase. Look for more companies to set up a Facebook page and use Facebook connect with their websites, and to use LinkedIn and Twitter.

#10 Engagement is not a fad; It's the way today's consumers do business
There are four engagement methods:
- Platform (TV, online)
- Context (Program, web page)
- Message (Ad or Communication)
- Experience (Store/Event)
But there is only one objective for the future: Brand Engagement. To attain real brand engagement, you need to be using new attitudinal models.

Dealing with these trends may require some big changes on your part. But, this is the marketplace you will be competing in, so prepare for it.

Here at Beltrame Leffler, we are utilizing these trends on value, authenticity, differentiation and engagement in our thinking and planning for our clients. You and your agency should too. If not, give us a call and we can show you how they apply to your brand and how you can use them to your advantage in 2010.

Impact of Social Media on Search

An article today on eMarketer.com, The Synergy of Search and Social Media, talks about the impact of social media, in addition to paid search ads, on users search of the brand or product terms. This research, from comScore, GroupM and M80, looked at the effect of both "relevant" social media and "influenced" (directly by the brand) social media in combination with paid search ads. It basically indicates that "two are better than one."

Previous research has shown that display/banner ad exposure can lift consumer response to paid search. Now, this research indicates searchers are also more likely to keep a brand in mind if they have seen a combination of paid search ads and social media, especially "influenced" social media.

Compared to those who only saw a paid search ad, there was a 19-percentage point lift (64% vs. 45%) in brand term searches among Internet users who saw social media relevant to the brand in addition to the campaign's paid search ads. And, there was a 32-percentage point increase if it was influenced social media.

Additionally, consumers exposed to paid search and influenced social media had a 50% increase in click-through rate on paid search ads.

Graham Mudd, vice president of comScore, says that "This finding provides strong evidence that investing in social media marketing can both increase initial brand consideration and drive higher conversion rates once the consumer has decided to purchase."

So, if you haven't already started using social media, especially "influenced"social media, you need to strongly consider it. This may include a business Facebook page, Twitter, blogging and YouTube video. At Beltrame Leffler Advertising, we have been helping our clients "get in the game" using these various marketing tools and can do the same for you. Give us a call at 317-916-9930 or an email at fbongle@bladv.com to learn more about how social media can grow your business.

New Market for Wal-Mart - Consistent Branding

Wal-Mart looking to change the way America uses its cell phones.

I just saw an article that Wal-Mart is offering a no-contract cell phone plan, called Straight Talk, for $30 or $45 per month. The $45 plan offers unlimited minutes, texts and mobile web use. The $30 plan offers 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 30MB of web usage. Both plans are way below the average fee of $78 for 1,000 minutes per month. The plan will start being offered at 3,200 Wal-Mart stores on October 18, just in

What will this do to the cell phone market? Would you take advantage of this?

Wal-Mart is known as a low price brand and this sure seems to fit that condition. So, it appears to be a good branding extension. Can Wal-Mart change the cell phone market the way they did the grocery/food market? We shall see.

The State of Social Marketing

At our agency, Beltrame Leffler, we are always looking for new ways to help our clients build their brands and communicate their messages to their target consumers. This includes using both traditional and new media tools. Part of the new media are the rapidly growing social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogging, etc. But how are marketers using these tools to take their messages online and into web communities? Such insights could help you in preparing your plans.

I recently ran across an article that could help. Chief Marketer just published the results of a survey on The 2009-10 State of Social Marketing that sheds some light on this and that you may find helpful.

Most (61%) of the marketers in the survey are currently integrating their online and offline campaigns, with another 19% planning to within the next year. They are doing it to reach their target audience at multiple points of their choosing and because of lower costs.

Efforts are measured for success mainly by tracking sales and leads, with the primary focuses being to drive customers or prospects to their website or to be able to identify and speak directly with a company's "fans."

Given that Web traffic is important, how are they generating it? The top method is organic search, as generated through search engine optimization, followed by links within e-mails and URLs in offline media (direct mail, catalogs, print ads, etc.). Smaller firms (revenue below $10 million) are more likely to use social media sites, such as blogs and social communities, to pull in Web traffic than are larger firms, again probably due to budget factors.

If you are not yet integrating your marketing campaign, you are not alone, but you need to be thinking about doing that. At Beltrame Leffler Advertising, we can help. We have developed integrated campaigns for several clients and can do the same for you. Give us a call and see how social marketing can help your company build its brand and achieve your goals.

It's Not Easy Being an Ad Agency...Stand Proud!

As I sit here, reviewing research, considering our target's mindset, and our client's product, I realize that a blank piece of paper or two, or three, or... is waiting for the words, the visuals; the flow of a message that will not only catch the attention of an unsuspecting but predetermined subject and potential 'buyer', it might, or perhaps it better, elicit an emotion that drives a need, and in the end, "closes the deal".

Take a BLANK PIECE OF PAPER, develop a concept, design a site, an ad, a label, a billboard a video, a ???. Write the headline, write the copy, write/produce/direct the music, design and develop the site AND HURRY...but before we get too far, let's lay our necks on the conference table while trying to stand behind our ideas and present them. IF all goes well, and it better, finish the effort in half as much time. In other words, HURRY!

Where the days of open-bar-offices, and nicotene-addicted ad execs schlepping around a high-pressure agency are long gone - MADMEN - the demands of our profession aren't.

Advertising is a tough business. It's definitely not for everybody. For those of us who are in this demanding, unpredictable, and often times unforgiving profession, hats off!

Be proud of your stamina...NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Twitter and New Marketing Possibilities

Twitter is getting a lot of publicity, but can it or should it be used as a part of your marketing mix? At Beltrame Leffler, we say the answer depends on what you want to accomplish and your target audience.

How big is Twitter? In a recent Harris Poll, only 5% of adult Americans are currently using Twitter. However, that is expected to grow and even double by 2010.

But, how can your company use Twitter, if you'd like to test it? In an article titled, Five Ways to Use Twitter to Improve your Marketing, the author, Heidi Cohen, proposes some possibilities. Five possible ways are for:

1. Content distribution - Twitter is useful for time-sensitive information such as: Announcing breaking news, transmitting time-sensitive information, positioning your company as a thought leader and providing an alternative forum for comments
   
2. Commerce support - Twitter can aid sales through: last-minute deals, sales support like chat lines or toll-free numbers and offering customer service
   
3. Advocacy forum - Twitter can aid brand building, provide useful information to your followers
   
4. Public relations support - enhance PR communications by enabling reputation monitoring of conversations, providing another channel for crisis management and timely PR outreach to journalists.
5. Research enabler - Leverage Twitter's search functionality and ability to query and respond to an audience. Track new trends on Twitter and ask prospects questions.
   

These are some ways to use Twitter in your marketing. But, it's also critical to have hard metrics to measure the impact and ROI of Twitter to your business. Four useful metrics are:

• Followers - how many people are following you or your brand?
  
• Conversations - What's the content been and how engaged are your followers?
• Brand improvement - Has public perceptions of your brand changed since you started using Twitter?
• Lead generation/sales retention - track sales leads, purchases or reduced customer complaints. Have these measures become more positive with a larger following?

If these metrics can be positive, then Twitter is working for you, and you have another potential marketing tool to complement your other marketing elements. But, before you start up with Twitter, you may want to review and evaluate your other marketing elements in order to see what you can do to optimize them.

If you have questions about the impact and effectiveness of your current marketing and advertising strategies, give us a call at 317-916-9930 or an email at fbingle@bladv.com and we'll see how we can help to improve your brand image, market share and sales.

Marketing Trends for Online Media in 2009

As far as online marketing tools, what are you currently using and what do you plan to increase in 2009? I attended a webinar that talked about such things recently.

In the webinar, they talked about the results of a survey of 400 companies on online media usage. From this study, the two biggest current uses are for websites and email. These were followed by search marketing and webinars. The third tier included online display ads, online video, discussion forums and blogs. Some (10%) were even using virtual trade shows. Interesting to me was the already relatively high use of webinars, online videos and discussion forums.

Marketing Tool	% Using
Website	90+%
email	90+%
Search marketing	69%
Webinars	50%
Online display ads	43%
Online video	42%
Discussion forums	35%
Blogs	34%
Other web 2.0 media	20%
Virtual trade shows	10%

These were tools that are already being used. For 2009, these companies saw more increases planned for search marketing, online video, discussion forums, webinars and even more email.

Increases in 2009
Search marketing	+46%
Online video	+40%
Discussion forums	+38%
Webinars	+38%
email	+37%

You may want to seriously look at what you and your company are doing now, and how you can possibly implement some of these online media to help you reach your audience and 2009 goals.

Another interesting point was that there is a new way to reach your audience and for lead generation. The Old Way was for the "sellers" to be in charge and to be presenting information and appeals to their prospects in a one-way exchange. The "sellers" were trying to qualify the buyers. That Way can be represented by marketing and advertising on TV, radio, print, newspapers and outdoor. But that has changed. The New Way, due to the Internet and search, is for the "buyer" to be in charge, and the "buyer" is qualifying the seller before they make their purchase decision.

Therefore, you and your company need to be out in front of "buyers" and giving them opportunities to see and read about you and to "qualify" your company and products. If they are able to "qualify" and interact with your company, then they will be visiting your website and calling you, rather than you trying to find and persuade them.

Beltrame Leffler Advertising has helped our clients to take advantage of this New Way, and can do the same for your company. To find out how, please visit our website at www.bladv.com or call us at 317-916-9930.