The Ten Commandments of Marketing

The commandments do not come from a mountain top. Lo it were that easy. They come from many years of experience in categories from caskets to computers and everything in between.
You might ask, why write about Commandments since you’ve already written about “Immutable Laws” (a book you might have read)? It struck me that laws are always based on a set of principles, something like a constitution. That was what was missing. So, I decided that just as religion had the “Commandments” so could marketing. Especially, since marketing is about do’s and don’ts. So, dear reader, as you begin this article, I give you the same warning that came with my laws: Violate them at your own risk.

1. Thou shalt realize that perception is reality.
To be successful today, you must touch base with reality. And the only reality that counts is what’s already in the prospect’s mind. It’s what “Positioning” is all about. The basic approach to positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist. But be aware that retying those connections must result in a point of difference vs. your competitors.

2. Thou should not commit the “me too” mistake.
Many people believe that the basic issue in marketing is convincing the prospective client that they have a better product or service. They say to themselves, “We might not be first, but we’re going to be better.” That may be true, but if you’re late into a market space and have to do battle with large, well-established competitors, then your marketing strategy is probably faulty. Me-too just won’t cut it.
If the secret of success is getting into the prospective customer’s mind first, which strategy are most companies committed to? The better-product strategy. Benchmarking against your competitors is a popular subject in the business management field. It’s an essential element in a process often called “total quality management” (TQM).
Benchmarking doesn’t work because regardless of a product’s objective quality, people perceive the first brand to enter their mind as superior. Marketing is a battle of perceptions, not products. When you’re a me-too, you’re a second-class citizen.

3. Thou shalt be aware of what you are selling.
This may surprise you, but I have spent a good bit of my time over the years figuring out
exactly what people are trying to sell. Defining the product category in a simple, understandable way is essential.
Companies, large and small, often have a tough time describing their product, especially if it’s a new category and a new technology. Or else, they describe the product in confusing terms that doom the effort right out of the gate.
The positioning of a product must begin with what the product is. We sort and store information by category, so your chances of getting into a customer’s mind are slim to none if the category is vague.
The biggest marketing successes come with basic, powerful explanations of the product being offered. Customers knew what the companies were selling and how the products were really different.

4. Thou shalt realize that truth will not out.
The failure to understand the simple truth that marketing is a battle of perceptions trips up thousands of would-be entrepreneurs every year.
Marketing people are preoccupied with doing research and “getting the facts.” They analyze the situation to make sure the truth is on their side. Then they sail confidently into the marketing arena, secure in the knowledge that they have the best product and that ultimately the best product will win.
This is an illusion. There is no objective reality. There are no facts. There are no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of customers or prospects. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.

5. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s idea.
A me-too product is bad enough, and equally problematic is a me-too idea: two
companies cannot own the same concept in the customer’s mind.
When a competitor owns a word or position in the prospect’s mind, it is futile to attempt to own the same idea. For instance, Volvo has preempted the concept of “safety.” Many other automobile companies, including Mercedes-Benz and General Motors, have tried to run marketing campaigns based on safety. Yet no one except Volvo has succeeded in getting into the prospect’s mind with a safety message.

6. Thou shalt not be impressed with your own success.
Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure. When people become successful, they tend to become less objective. They often substitute their own judgment for what the market wants.
As their successes mounted, companies like General Motors, Sears, and IBM became arrogant. They felt they could do anything they wanted in the marketplace. Success leads to trouble.
The bigger the company, the more likely it is that the chief executive has lost touch with the front lines. This might be the single most important factor limiting the growth of a corporation. All other factors favor size. Marketing is war, and the fist principle of warfare is force. The larger army, the larger company, has the advantage. But the large company gives up some of that advantage if it cannot stay focused on the marketing battle that takes place in the mind of the customer. Small companies are mentally closer to the front than big companies. That may be one reason for their rapid growth in the past decades. They haven’t been tainted by success.

7. Thou shalt not try to be everything to everybody.
When you try to be all things to all people, you inevitably wind up in trouble. Better advice comes from one manager who said, “I’d rather be strong somewhere than weak everywhere.”
This kind of “all things” thinking leads to what is called “line extension.”In a narrow sense, line extension involves taking the brand name of a successful product (e.g., A1 Poultry Sauce). It sounds so logical. “We make A1, a great sauce that gets the dominant share of the steak business. But people are switching from beef to chicken, so let’s introduce a poultry product. And what better name to use then A1. That way people will know the poultry sauce comes from the makers of that great steak sauce, A1.”
But marketing is a battle of perception, not product. In the mind, A1 is not the brand name, but the sauce itself. “Would you pass me the A1 please?” asks the diner. Nobody replies: “A1 what?”
Needless to say, the A1 poultry launch was a dismal failure.

8. Thou shalt not live only by the numbers.
Big companies are in a bind. On the one hand, Wall Street is staring at them asking, “How much are your sales and profits going to grow next month, next quarter, next year?” On the other hand, an endless number of competitors are staring at them saying, “We’re not going to let you grow if we can help it.”
So what happens? The CEO lies to Wall Street and then turns around to tell the marketing people what is expected in terms of profit and growth. They in turn scramble back to their offices and try to figure out how to make those unreasonable numbers.
Brash predictions about earnings growth often lead to missed targets, battered stock, and even creative accounting. But worse than that, they lead to bad decisions.
As panic sets in, upper management falls into the line extension, or the everything-for-everybody trap to drive the numbers up. Rather than staying focused on being strong somewhere, they opt for being weak everywhere. Their only hope is that they will be promoted before it all hits the fan.

9. Thou must be willing to attack yourself.
Much has been written about the likes of DEC, Xerox, AT&T, and Kodak and their efforts to move from slow-growth to high growth businesses. When this is exacerbated, companies are faced with what have been called disruptive technologies: DEC faced the desktop computer revolution; Xerox, the surge in laser printing; and Kodak, the digital camera.
Transforming a company when the underlying technology changes is no easy task. First of all, Wall Street is upset because lots of shareholder money starts to disappear in efforts that earn very little in return.
Traditional customers are often alienated as the sales force’s attention becomes diffused by new ventures. The internal folks become very uncomfortable with all this change in the air.
Though difficult, leaders have no choice in this matter. They must find a way to move to that better idea or technology, even if it threatens their base business. If they don’t, their future will be in question, especially as that technology is improved and picks up momentum.


10. Thou must have top management involved.
When the CEO or high-level management doesn’t take charge of strategy, things rarely go well. In today’s rough-and-tumble world, marketing strategy is too critical to be left to middle-level management. After I make that “you’re in charge” speech to general managers or CEOs, they often tell me that they don’t want to undermine their employees. They want to give them the responsibility they were promised.
That’s all well and good for morale, but I encourage them to think the Navy way.
When a naval vessel has a problem, the ultimate responsibility is not that of the young officer who had the conn when the accident occurred. It’s the captain of the ship who must answer to that board of inquiry. And chances are, his career is in trouble.
In the business world, it’s the CEO who has to answer to the board when things go bad. It’s your job on the line if you’re at the top, so you’d better take charge to make sure those bad things don’t happen to you.

Jack Trout
President, Trout & Partners
partner of BrandLounge Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com

Strategic Brand Insights about Digital Platforms

It seems not a day passes without some news somewhere about the world of digital, especially when it comes to brands.

The news report usually starts with words like “a recent survey of digital users found…” and ends up being a report of digital usage. Or a demographic analysis of a report of digital usage. Or an attitudinal analysis of the demographic analysis of the report of digital usage.

The problem with these reports—and it’s a big one, we’re afraid—is while they can be interesting, they miss critical strategic links to your category and your brand. These days, that’s a really big problem!

Studies of digital usage are easy to find, but simply knowing what digital platforms people use doesn’t tell a brand how that platform can best be leveraged. Or how to link the platform to the emotional and rational aspects that drive consumer engagement in a category.

The digital usage/demographic/attitudinal studies can’t possibly provide the strategic insights brands so desperately need today because usage reports – no matter how they’re sliced ‘n diced – operate in a silo, separate from how consumers engage with and choose among category brands. They fail to answer the question of how digital truly connects to how the category itself works. In short, they fail to give guidance to brands on how to be strategic in the digital space, not simply participate. But answers will be available soon.

For more on how we are approaching the problem, take a look at our new early-2012 offering, the Digital Platform Engagement Index – DPEI – the first-ever addition to our annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, now in its 16th year.

Read all about it. Or give a listen to a recording of a real world case study (http://www.brandkeys.com/dpeiqr/), one that we think brings the problem of digital into real focus.

Feel free to contact info@brandlounge.ae for more specifics and details on our pre-release packages.


Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
Brand Lounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com

Digital What?

Throughout 2011, the same sort of questions kept coming up as we talked with the good folks at brands. No matter what the category, it seems every CMO is wrestling with similar dilemmas, which can be boiled down to one big question: what impact is digital having on my brand?

Most brands are long past the “should we be on Facebook” question. They are already there because they’re afraid not to be, putting their most friendly face forward. But behind closed doors, they don’t really know if it matters. Or, if it does, how to most strategically use the opportunity to actually connect consumer with their brands. And, perhaps the ultimate question they are asking, how do they best approach those who are digitally involved? — a critical one to answer as the non-digital person continues to go the way of interest-bearing savings accounts and land-line telephones.

Studies of digital usage are easy to find, but we have found none that offer these kinds of answers. Simply knowing what digital platforms people are using does not tell a brand how that platform can best be leveraged, linking the platform to the emotional and rational aspects that drive consumer engagement with a category. Or which digital platform is more important than another in a category. Or how high digital involvement changes the way a consumer looks at the category. Usage has remained in a silo, separate from how consumers engage with and choose among category brands. And that approach is far too limited.

To answer these questions and more, we are debuting the Digital Platform Engagement Index — the DPEI — the first-ever addition to our annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, now in its 16th year.

We feel the time has come to really answer the question for brands of what to do in the digital space. Watch this space, as they say, for more as we continue to insist that the easy questions are usually not the ones really worth answering.


Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
Brand Lounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com

BrandLounge bags the most sought-after branding assignment in the region.The highly coveted first GCC Games

BrandLounge, the MENA region’s leading brand and marketing strategy firm, has just wrapped its branding assignment for Bahrain 11, the first and biggest sports event to be held in the GCC under the supervision of the Olympic Committee of Bahrain. The challenging assignment included brand creation and development, all brand applications and the stadium and game halls branding.

Thirty-three years in the making, the dream of the first GCC Games becomes a reality this month and BrandLounge was on board from the start, putting forth a brand strategy that led to the name Bahrain 11. BrandLounge also created a distinct brand identity for the sports tournament as well as its brand guidelines and the official mascot that captures the spirit of the event.
The comprehensive list created by BrandLounge for the event that is akin to the Arab world’s first Olympic Games covered everything from sales and marketing materials to uniforms and sports teams costumes and apparatus in addition to retail merchandizing, advertising and communication concept development and PR space branding solutions.
Bahrain 11 (pronounced Bahrain One One) needed a branding partner with a deep and nuanced understanding of the region and its culture. With presence in the GCC and North Africa, BrandLounge was able to pool its experience and creativity and drive the event’s image from strategy through to execution. The experience implementation designed by BrandLounge included branding the stadiums and game halls built specifically by the Bahraini government for Bahrain 11. The assignment covered indoor and outdoor corporate space branding as well as the commercial space production in addition to details such as signage and way finding.

It is noteworthy to mention that the tournament, which includes 11 sporting events, will take place at all new sporting centers. BrandLounge has come together with the Bahraini Olympic Committee to present the look and feel of each sporting center in accordance with the overarching brand identity.

Hasan Fadlallah, Founder and Managing Director at BrandLounge, commented saying: “Developing actionable brand strategy can be very challenging but also a lot of fun when you have the right tools to dig really deep and propose a strategy that hits the nail right on the head. I’m confident that we have the right ingredients for that job. With Bahrain 11 specifically, our team takes a lot of pride and feels a sense of ownership as every one of us was involved in giving birth to a brand identity for an event that is making history for the region”.

Top-100 Loyalty Leaders for 2011

This year’s list is out. For many brands it’s been a meteoric rise. For others it’s been a slow and steady decline. In some cases it’s actually been a freefall.

As we have always pointed out, it all comes down to delighting the customer and creating that essential emotional bond with the consumer. Brands that do not only end up on the top of the list but become top earners as well.

This year’s top-10 brands were:

Amazon (on-line retail)
Apple (smartphone)
Facebook (social media)
Samsung (cellphone)
Apple (computer)
Zappos (on-line retail)
Hyundai (automotive)
Kindle (e-readers)
Patron (tequila)
Mary Kay (cosmetics)
For a the complete list of the 2011 Brand Keys Top-100 Loyalty Leaders rankings we invite you to visit http://www.brandkeys.com/awards/leaders.cfm


Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com

Predicting by the Numbers

We take the word "predictive" very seriously, always careful to say that our loyalty and engagement metrics predict positive consumer behavior in the market place, but that our methodology is not a market model, as a brand can do a myriad of things that cause consumers to become otherwise engaged or to lose profits. However, independent third party validations have shown our loyalty metrics to correlate at extraordinary levels with profits, which brands find quite comforting as they face the ever-evolving consumer.

The recent article from The Atlantic Monthly, "Why Content Isn't King: How Netflix Became America's Biggest Video Service--Much to the Astonishment of Media Executives and Investors," speaks to the surprising profitability of Netflix, at least to those who make their living predicting such things.

We were less surprised, as our predictions are based on what consumers say are the brands that do the best job of meeting their expectations in the category – both emotionally and rationally.

This little detail, measuring emotion, is often what trips up those who measure using numbers and business tactics as their guide. We invite you to read the article and draw your own conclusions LINK. In the meantime, order your stock predictions with a side of real loyalty metrics – if it's profit you're after, that is.

by Dr. Robert Passikoff
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com

11 Branding and Marketing Trends for 2011

The recent partnership between BrandLounge and Brand Keys, Inc., confirms the need for accurate predictive brand loyalty, equity, and engagement metrics in the Middle East and Northern Africa region.

These metrics are able to measure the direction and velocity of consumer values 12 to 18 months in advance of the marketplace.

They also allow us to identify future trends with uncanny accuracy. BrandLounge, through Brand Key’s methodology, offers 11 trends for marketers in 2011. These 11 trends will have direct consequences to the success - or failure - of next year’s branding and marketing efforts.

1) Value is What the Consumer Says It Is
Excessive spending, even on sale items, will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. Only the consumer can tell you for sure. The appearance of ubiquity will be trouble for brands with no authentic meaning, whether high or low-end.

2) Brand, Meet Value
Brands will increasingly become a surrogate for "value." What makes goods and services valuable will increasingly be what's wrapped up in the brand and what consumers believe the brand means.

3) Zappos-ification
Marketers will have to comprehend what really drives their category, knowwhat consumers really expect, and where to focus both process and brand efforts. Yes, Zappos sells shoes, but their brand equity lies primarily in the emotional driver of "service" - how they get shoes to customers and accept returns.

4) Ethosnomics
Brands increasingly must stand for something beyond just rational items. Brands can't, however, just "stand for" the cause du jour. Doing what others do, just because they're doing it, won't work very long or very effectively. Corporate social responsibility efforts will need to be believable, sustained, and engaging. Some of the strongest will come from those brands that connect the public and the personal in today's financially-strained world.

5) Differentiation Can Be Emotional
Differentiation remains critical to brand success as the proliferation of products and services available to consumers continues. While true innovation does exist when it comes to the offerings available, increasingly differentiation will come from what the brand offers emotionally to consumers ¬especially as the ability of brands to mimic and get "me-too" products to market quickens.

6) They're Talking to Each Other Before Talking to the Brand
Social Networking and DIY media-exchange of information outside of the brand space will increase as consumers become more comfortable with their power to get the true story on products from total strangers. Brands will need to drive positive feedback out in the virtual world like never before, necessitating a deep understand of their categories.

7) Friendtelligence
Influence by friends will also increase. If consumers trust the community, they will extend trust to the brand. Not just word-of-mouth, but the right word-of-mouth is what matters. Look for more websites using Facebook Connect to share information with the friends from those sites while trying not to annoy anyone.

8) Putting the Brand Into Their Hands
It's increasingly handheld technology that facilitates transactions. Brands that make it hard to buy on the small screen will suffer. Watch for promotions and coupons to continue to explode, especially if the brand can customize that experience.

9) Prolifetition
Look for increased competition, and not just from traditional brands. The internet changed the game from consumers feeling they had to know a brand to even consider it. Ubiquitous awareness is replaced by strong word of mouth and positive viral sharing. Knowing what drives a category, what consumers really expect, and what creates loyalty, can give you a meaningful advantage when entering new and uncharted categories populated by strangers to your brand.

10) Exponential Expectations
Brands are barely keeping up with consumer expectations now. Every day consumers adopt and devour the latest technologies and innovations, and only hunger for more. As app technology becomes more entrenched, brands will be expected to deliver in that space. Look for even more apps to appear in 2011.

11) Engagement is Not a Fad
It's the way today's consumers do business. Period. Marketers will continue to use engagement methods like the right platform; program; message; and experience. But there is only one objective for the future: Brand Engagement. Attaining real brand engagement is impossible using out-dated awareness models.
Accommodating these trends will require changes on the parts of how companies measure, manage, and market their brands. And, yes, change can sometimes be terrifying. But change is, more or less, another chance. However, for brands that ignore these trends, it could very well be their last.

by Dr. Robert Passikoff
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com