We follow a short list of guiding principles in development of successful,
motivating and differentiating marketing communications that we will put to work
for you.
View our client experience snapshots for selected examples.
- Relevance. It’s number one
- Keeping your offerings relevant in the ever-changing world, to the
evolving customer, is critical. Awareness isn’t enough. Relevant
awareness is much more important.
- Competition is huge
- We won’t insult your marketing intelligence by telling you that
understanding your competition is important. We only ask you to think
about, with just one new product launch or ad campaign or one
well-placed speech to your customer, their stunning ability to deal a
swift blow to the months and years of disciplined marketing you’ve
successfully executed. What are we going to do about that?
- Positioning is the
foundation
- Brand positioning isn’t a luxury. It’s the easiest way to achieve
success with your marketing, no matter the budget. Positioning helps you
achieve competitive differentiation with a message that’s meaningful to
your target audience and showcases your unique strengths. Executing your
positioning with simplicity and single-minded consistency in all efforts
is the foundation of marketing success.
- Insight- and
fact-driven marketing works
- Our opinions and experiences are not those of your target audience.
Target audience insights are one of the most important marketing tools.
What do they want? How do they buy? What do they think about you?
Understanding how yesterday was different than today, and how today is
different than tomorrow drives short-term and long-term marketing
decisions. Using research, whether primary or even secondary, is
critical.
- Connect with
the heart, not just the brain
- Never forget the emotional connection between you and your customer,
even in the b-to-b world. To connect the heart of your brand to the
heart of your target audience requires that they perceive your brand,
product or service to be THAT which meets the deep need they didn't even
know they had.
- Take a leap past linear
- Creativity isn’t just for those agency types. Don’t underestimate
the importance of creative brand thinking, of veering off the expected
marketing path.
- Take a page from Gestalt
theory
- They were onto something with their philosophy that the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts. This applies to your brand, to your
product/service attributes and benefits, to the myriad perceptions and
experiences your target audience has of your offerings. You can’t
separate perception from reality, experience from word of mouth.
- Remember yourselves
- External success starts internally. Your internal teams are your
brand ambassadors so any marketing initiative is more successful when
launched with internal training cross-functionally, at all levels in the
field and at corporate headquarters. Every department has to live and
speak the brand for it to be executed with a consistent voice. Your
sales force has to become indoctrinated, as they’re the living breathing
representation of your brand to your trade customers.
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