BRAND MARKETING

Marketing is critically essential in today's "age of sameness" where products are basically indistinguishable and the way of the marketplace is to commoditize categories. Given the realities of the economy and the dynamics of the marketplace customers are becoming more discriminating - on price.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for February 7, 2010 can be found here:

BRAND MARKETING

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BRAND MARKETING

It is also available in PDF here:

BrandMarketing.pdf (PDF File)

"UP YOUR GAME" TO ACHIEVE STRETCH OBJECTIVES

This economic recession is taking its toll on virtually every organization and everyone in it. Our companies are no longer safe, nor are our brands, or marketing budgets, or even our positions within these organizations. And if we are one of the lucky ones left standing from personnel cutbacks we are being tasked with doing much more with less, much less.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for February 1, 2010 can be found here:

UP YOUR GAME TO STRETCH OBJECTIVES

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UP YOUR GAME TO STRETCH OBJECTIVES

It is also available in PDF here:

UpYourGame2010.pdf (PDF File)

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2010 OPEN

It's that time of year again. No we're not referring to another golf or tennis tournament but the Brand Development Network International OPEN for brand marketers. It's our popular and well-traveled Brand Positioning and Communications College training and development program.

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The DISPATCH^TM for January 27, 2010 can be found here:

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2010 OPEN PROGRAM

It is also available in PDF here:

RegisterFor2010Open.pdf (PDF File)

CONSTRUCTING THE PORTFOLIO POSITIONING STATEMENT

It's early in a new year. In our Dispatches of last week, we offered some resolutions to get you and your brand team started off right. This week we offer another kind of help to get the brand started off right--a re-look at one of the most useful tools we have ever found to effectively implement the brand?s positioning (really, a "must" for just about every brand today): The Brand Portfolio Positioning Matrix.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for January 24, 2010 can be found here:

CONSTRUCTING THE PORTFOLIO POSITIONING STATEMENT

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CONSTRUCTING THE PORTFOLIO POSITIONING STATEMENT

It is also available in PDF here:

ConstructingThePortfolioPosStatement.pdf (PDF File)

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

New Year's resolutions typically are about personal development and success. They're about doing better or just doing different.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for January 17, 2010 can be found here:

NEW YEAR\'S RESOLUTION

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NEW YEAR\'S RESOLUTION

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NewYearsResolution.pdf (PDF File)

NEW YEAR. NEW DECADE. NEW CHAPTER.

It has been ten years since Amacom (The American Management Company) published our first book, Creating Brand Loyalty. And over that time we have been gratified to learn from many marketers across the globe of CBL's value to them ? especially towards the crafting of a competitive, winning Brand Positioning for their brands?one more likely to foster brand loyalty! And, naturally, during that time, we have learned a great deal ? from our clients and from carefully watching the marketplace ? about how to make a brand's positioning even more competitive than before. So, within the next sixty days we will be publishing the first of our updates on CBL, which we are entitling Competitive Positioning. We thought it was appropriate, therefore, to offer a sampling of what's to come in that updated version. For this week's Dispatches we provide a portion of one of the new chapters in that update, a chapter called "The Top 10 Most Commonly Asked Questions about Brand Positioning." You?ll see that we have included our take on six of these "Top 10" questions; for the others, we hope you'll want to read them in the new edition!

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The DISPATCHES^TM for January 10, 2010 can be found here:

NEW YEAR. NEW DECADE. NEW CHAPTER.

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NEW YEAR. NEW DECADE. NEW CHAPTER.

It is also available in PDF here:

NewYearNewDecadeNewChapter.pdf (PDF File)

THE TOP 10 MOST COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT INSIGHTS

We're coming to the end of another Dispatches year. And we hope you have found our perspectives and practical suggestions (especially in our weekly Boats & Helicopters section) enjoyable and practical. For our last e-mailing of 2009 we return to a never-ending hot-topic for marketers: The Insight. We get asked about this topic almost every week when we are working with brand-builder clients. So we decided to share the Top 10 Most Common Insight Questions with you?along with the way we usually answer them. See you again with a new Dispatches in early 2010!

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THE 10 MOST COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT INSIGHTS

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THE 10 MOST COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT INSIGHTS

It is also available in PDF here:

Top10QuestionsAbout Insights.pdf (PDF File)

COMMITING TO MARKET EXCELLENCE

The New Year is less than one month away. How quickly 2009 year has gone bye. Many of us will be making resolutions for 2010. Undoubtedly, if we do, our resolutions will include what we hope to achieve in our work life. Afterall, we are all marketing professionals. One of the resolutions we hope you will make is to commit to achieving marketing excellence for yourself and your organization.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for December 6, 2009 can be found here:

COMMITING TO MARKETING EXCELLENCE

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COMMITING TO MARKETING EXCELLENCE

It is also available in PDF here:

CommittingToMktExcellence.pdf (PDF File)

THE BIGGEST EXCUSE IN MARKETING: "MY BUSINESS IS DIFFERENT."

Making the transition from a product to a brand is a challenge for many brand-builders. It's a challenge sometimes because their companies say they want brands (for added shareholder value) but don't always support their marketers in actually developing brands. But it's also a challenge because some marketers - especially those in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries - get into a bad habit of making excuses for things they cannot do because "their category is different." This week we take a harder look at this notion of "my category is different" - a notion we don't buy.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for November 29, 2009 can be found here:

THE BIGGEST EXCUSE IN MARKETING:

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THE BIGGEST EXCUSE IN MARKETING:

It is also available in PDF here:

TheBiggestExcuseInMarketing.pdf (PDF File)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The DISPATCHES^TM for November 22, 2009 can be found here:

Happy Thanksgiving

A printer / handheld friendly version can be found here:

Happy Thanksgiving

It is also available in PDF here:

Thanksgiving2009.pdf (PDF File)

ARE YOU TURNING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS? IT'S THE EXPERIENCE STUPID.

We've written a few DISPATCHES articles dealing with the importance of the customer's experience with your products and services. We dramatized these articles by exhorting "it's the experience stupid." No, let us reassure you in this article that we are not calling you stupid. Instead, this is drawing, for dramatic effect, from the Bill Clinton versus senior George Bush 1992 presidential campaign where the economy was the critical and deciding issue. Today, people still will confirm the rather obvious learning, "It's the economy stupid."

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The DISPATCHES^TM for November 15, 2009 can be found here:

ARE YOU TURNING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS? IT\'S THE EXPERIENCE STUPID

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ARE YOU TURNING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS? IT\'S THE EXPERIENCE STUPID

It is also available in PDF here:

AreYouTurningOffCustomers.pdf (PDF File)

WHY STRATEGIC TARGETING IS SO HARD

We have been writing a great deal lately about targeting for a brand's positioning because doing it well is so challenging ? and so important. The positioning target sets up the entire positioning, after all. And one of the themes we have been pushing is that it's time to think about the target as not merely the set-up of the positioning, but also as a prime opportunity to differentiate the brand from competition - as in identifying and selecting a strategic target segment (or may be two) that competitive brands have not identified and could not satisfy as well even if they did. This week we reprise this theme and share some of the principal reasons why strategic targeting is so hard to do.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for November 8, 2009 can be found here:

WHY STRATEGIC TARGETING IS SO HARD

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WHY STRATEGIC TARGETING IS SO HARD

It is also available in PDF here:

WhyStrategicTargetingIsSoHard.pdf (PDF File)

GIVE YOUR PROMISE A REASON-WHY TO SUCCEED

This week we are re-publishing an oldie for your reading enjoyment. This was first published in 2006 and still holds true.

The reason-why is a critically important strategic element of both the brand's positioning and communication strategies. It's also important to ensuring compelling communications. Too often marketers confuse "reason-why" with the rationale ...

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The DISPATCHES^TM for November 1, 2009 can be found here:

GIVE YOUR PROMISE A REASON-WHY TO SUCCEED

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GIVE YOUR PROMISE A REASON-WHY TO SUCCEED

It is also available in PDF here:

GiveYour PromiseRev.pdf (PDF File)

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BEST PRACTICES FOR MARKETING TRAINING

Business managers today face a conundrum. As one manager put it "a Gordian knot" ? a problem for which it is difficult to find a solution. The problem is that marketing managers are expected to grow sales, market share and profits and yet at the same time resources for marketing support are being slashed. This is truly our conundrum.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for October 25, 2009 can be found here:

BEST PRACTICES FOR MARKETING TRAINING

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BEST PRACTICES FOR MARKETING TRAINING

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BestPracticesForMktTraining.pdf (PDF File)

MULTIPLE MESSAGING IS NOT POSITIONING (LET US BE HONEST)

We are privileged to have worked in many, many pharmaceutical drug classes. Even more, we are fortunate to have been involved in teaching pharmaceutical marketers how to better build their brands - sometimes within their company's "Marketing Excellence" curriculum. There are many fundamentals that drug-brand marketers can learn and adapt from fast-moving consumer goods marketers. One of them is that Positioning ≠ Advertising (or "Messaging" as many pharma folks call their communication efforts). This week we take a harder look at the challenge of building differentiated, leadership brands within pharmaceuticals. And, as part of that, the necessity of being totally honest about those efforts that implement a brand positioning and those that run counter to implementing a brand positioning.

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The DISPATCHES^TM for October 18, 2009 can be found here:

MULTIPLE MESSAGING IS NOT POSITIONING (LET US BE HONEST)

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MULTIPLE MESSAGING IS NOT POSITIONING (LET US BE HONEST)

It is also available in PDF here:

MultipleMessagingIsNotPositioning.pdf (PDF File)

CONVERSION

Marketing Objectives are the specific target-customer behaviors we expect and need to achieve in order to deliver against the Business Objectives of sales, market share and profits. We do not generate sales unless we first stimulate behaviors. And...

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The DISPATCHES^TM for October 11, 2009 can be found here:

CONVERSION

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CONVERSION

It is also available in PDF here:

Conversion.pdf (PDF File)