Sunday, March 25, 2007

PUT A LABEL ON IT

An article in a recent Advertising Age about how Brand Coke is aiming to "re-frame" the marketplace perceptions of carbonated soft drinks in a more favorable light calls to mind the amazing power of perception--especially when it comes to brand positioning. So often we marketers miss opportunities to creatively provide our parity - performing brands with a differentiating perceptual advantage. This week we look at some examples of brands that are succeeding at this...developing a winning Perceptual Competitive Framework, a winning "label." (If you find this helpful for your brand, you may want to learn even more at our upcoming Brand Positioning & Marketing Communications College. Check out bdn-intl.com for details.)

Kindly click on the appropriate link to view this article in entirety in pdf format. Should you experience any problem opening this article, please contact Lori Vandervoort at loriv@bdn-intl.com or 800-255-9831 (620-431-0780).

PutALabelOnIt.pdf (PDF File)

Sunday, March 18, 2007

BUILDING LASTING RELATIONSHIPS

Ever feel the pangs of jealousy or covet those special "relationships" that some marketing managers say fuel their competitive edge for their brand? This week's article delves in some detail to that very subject. Please click on the appropriate link below to view in its entirety.

Your comments are as always very welcome. We'd love to hear from you. If you should experience any problem opening our article, please contact Lori Vandervoort at loriv@bdn-intl.com or 800-255-9831 (620-431-0780).

The Dispatch for March 18, 2007 can be found here:
BuildingLastingRelationships2007.pdf (PDF File)

Sunday, March 11, 2007

GETTING CHARACTER REFERENCES FOR YOUR BRAND - AN UPDATE

Why is it that, whenever we think about differentiating our brand positioning, we automatically think only about the brand's Benefits and Reasons Why? Why do we not just as automatically think about making our Brand Character differentiated - from other brands in our company's portfolio and, even more critical, from competitive brands? We think the answer, more times than not, has to do with the ineffective "languages" we typically use to express our brand's character. We need other modes of expression to get this all-important job done right. This week we offer an updated version of Dispatches we first issued in 2002. If you find this helpful for your brand, you might also want to consider attending our upcoming Brand Positioning & Marketing Communications College (May 1-3, 2007 in Chicago -- see our website for details) ...where we will delve into the challenge of Brand character development even more.

The Dispatch for March 11, 2007 can be found here:
GettingCharacterReferencesForYourBrand2007.pdf (PDF File)

Sunday, March 04, 2007

LOOK ELSEWHERE TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Learning from other categories within your industry, other industries and even areas outside the world of commerce is not something new. The really smart operators have been doing it for some time. They recognize the existence of universal principles. It's the application that may vary from one field to another. Principles are derived for fundamental laws of how things work while application is an art form to optimize their workings. Please click on the appropriate link below to view the article in its entirety in pdf format.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

The Dispatch for March 4, 2007 can be found here:
LookElsewhere2007.pdf (PDF File)