Sports sponsorship at its most visible

Manchester United is one of those brands that exceeds its category (sports), even its nation (the U.K.) to be recognized globally.  Even if you’re not a soccer — excuse me, football fan — you’re likely to have heard of the team, much as names like the New York Yankees, Montreal Canadiens or New Zealand Blacks are familiar far beyond the confines of their homeland or fan base.

So Aon’s sponsorship of the team is obviously a play intended to reach that global audience.  Better yet, they’re tying in with the club’s charitable and goodwill activities, which are extensive, adding heft to the sponsorship.

Any B2B marketer can take this as an example on several fronts:

• Look for a sponsorship that has “legs” beyond its immediate fan base or community, if possible…or help, through your own efforts, to expand your partner’s visibility through your own available channels so you both benefit.
• Make sure your relationship is authentic and provides opportunities to become more than the sum of its parts – as you both very visibly team up in service to a greater good or cause that burnishes your image while, of course, actually accomplishing something positive.
• Activate it effectively; many times, a business will fail to get the mileage it should out of a sponsorship by not looking at all the possibilities for utilizing what it’s paid for.
• Make certain it’s the right fit for your firm.  Does sponsoring a NASCAR team makes sense if you’re selling upscale lingerie?  Probably not — though that’s an example drawn from personal experience which got pretty far along in consideration before it was kiboshed.
• Take the broad view. Just because your sales team swears a golf sponsorship will work wonders with customers doesn’t mean you should outlay for a golf sponsorship, if there are other options that might work just as well with customers — and also score with end users, or consumers, or other stakeholders, too.  Everything’s proportionate, of course: that golf sponsorship may spin gold for you, but do your due diligence first to make sure it’s the best choice available!

‘Sales’ versus ’social’ media

Here’s an interesting post from Silicon Valley Watcher, an observer of the digital technologies industry, that points out a distinction that marketers need to bear in mind as they try to leverage the range of possibilities offered by social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, et al:

You’re not using social media tools for social purposes — you’re using them for sales.

Brands and businesses are present in those channels to, first and foremost, sell.  Don’t be disingenuous and pretend otherwise, because users of social media have their antennae out — and they’ll call you on it in a second.

Consumers use social media for personal purposes.  Marketers need to use good judgment about where and when to employ those channels, or else — as the article points out wryly –  they’ll be like the Tupperware rep who tries their spiel at a Super Bowl party: everyone in the room will end up avoiding them.

There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with using these tools to communicate with your prospects, existing consumers, stakeholders, or any other audience.  But remember to be clear and aboveboard about intent, and selective about where, when and how you deliver your message.   You’re using your tools to demonstrate the superiority or advantage of your offering, and make sales — not create a social community for its own sake.

The keys to great B2B blogging

What are the keys to creating a great business blog?  We don’t want to give away too much of the farm here – but there are some simple yet not-so-obvious rules that make all the difference. You’re out to generate leads, not just clicks and impressions, and that means your quality perception and interest level among readers is all-important in the B2B space, and you develop those by providing the kind of content that really resonates with your target audience.

How to get to that content?  Here are solid best practices:

• Content it – but not with branded content: You’ve already got a branded content nexus – it’s called your Website, and that’s a different locus from your blog.  Readers don’t want to read about your company or products on a blog – they want industry insight, information they can use, customer service concerns, and other topics that will serve to drive traffic based on relevant keywords and, ergo, higher search rankings that expand beyond the rankings your branded site may deliver.
• Never, ever sell: That’s what your Web site is for…and there’s a clean division in the minds of Web users, even in the B2B world, between the respective purposes of a blog and a branded Website.
• Point toward your Web site: Your blog, if it’s doing its job properly, is developing a new stream of qualified traffic that needs to be integrated with the site where you’re selling and presenting product and service particulars.  But (again), you should do it without embedding sell copy or links into your blog content, or similar heavy-handed approaches.   Making your blog a subpage or subdomain of your primary site, and incorporating easy and obvious navigation to your brand-centric pages, is a simple way to make them coexist productively.
• Be a publisher, not just a blogger: You’re about relevant content, news and analysis, insight and explanation, and advertising and outreach that serve to drive awareness of your blog the same as if you were merchandising a trade magazine…or a trade Web site, for that matter.  That POV should also inform your content (see above) – are you generating B2B blog content that’s really relevant and interesting to your readers?  Will it keep them returning for more, or even syndicating your content elsewhere?
• Quality of voice: It’s surprising how many blogs are atrociously anti-grammatical, badly written, passive and stodgy and, when you get down to it, unmemorable and unmotivating reads.  (Not to mention the various sins against good SEO you find!)  Remember that your blog, even though it’s not about pitchmanship or selling, is absolutely about motivating and engaging your audience.  That means good, pithy writing that’s pitch-perfect for your audience; that means solid, professional composition.  That doesn’t mean you have to engage a professional – but that you give it the time and craftsmanship it needs to succeed.
• Refresh or regress: Keep posting!  If you develop any real reader base, they’re going to look to you to keep the content coming.  One of the hardest parts of blogging is, obviously, keeping up your blog.  But if you get into the habit, you’ll find it’s no more time-consuming than drafting a good business email or memo.  And as time goes by, you’ll find the old argument that “I don’t know what to write about” fades away.  Either out of your direct experience or through just a little research, you’ll be amazed what kind of wisdom you can impart — or discover and share.  Remember – a blog can be a horizon-expanding experience not just for your readers, but for you and your team, too.
• It’s images, too: It’s not that photos, infographics or other visual aids should be considered an option in your blog – they should be seen as mandatory.  We all read and retain better when we see illustrations or images that compliment and expand the content, and there’s no exception in this case.  And the quality they lend to your blog further its chances of getting syndicated or linked by others.
• Ask your readers: Whether they’re customers, prospects, industry contacts or whoever is simply visiting your site, solicit their input on what their hot-button subjects may be…and then develop content accordingly.  Don’t just ask about what kinds of topics, but also find out how they’d like that content delivered – podcast? Video? PDF/white paper?

United + Continental branding: it’s a midair mishmash.

The brand mark that was quickly trotted out to merchandise the merger of United Airlines with Continental is one of the most ham-handed executions we’ve ever seen, ever.  And the rationale — or lack thereof — behind it is indictable as totally shortsighted.  

Not only is it is just bad from a basic design standpoint, it’s also actually done the exact opposite of what a good brand, transitional or permanent, is supposed to achieve, especially with regard to your stakeholders and internal audiences.

We have our contacts and friends in the UA community, being located in Chicago, and the message this logo sends to that community isn’t a good one.

First of all: from a design standpoint, the mark looks extremely hastily-kludged and unpolished — obviously contrived to meet the deadline of a press conference and announcement to the markets.  They quickly blenderized the UA name with the Continental logo, achieving an amateurish result that’s not even a pale imitation of either.

By taking the well-established and elegant United identity and visually suborning it to a serif font and globe that are Continental style points, it makes it almost seem as though United was the one who got absorbed by the (slightly) smaller outfit.  That’s because of the priorities that a brand’s visual cues establish with the reader.

The excuse you may hear is, “it’s transitional,” that it’s a temporary expedient.  But that logic doesn’t take into account the power of branding to create positive or negative impact, especially when you’re talking about brands as pervasive as those of airlines — which are, after all, seen nearly everywhere thanks to some of the most massive campaigns in marketing, aside from how they’re billboarded on thousands of aircraft.

Brands — even “transitional” ones — arouse reactions. In a situation like this, running out a poorly-considered, unpolished logo for the sake of a temporary Web site and a photo op has sent dismissive messages to employees and supporters of the companies that are merging: that heritage, tradition and culture, summed up in two pretty good corporate identities, are transitory and disposable.

The best counsel they could have followed?

1. Don’t march out a transitional brand mark at all. A banal typographic signature would have been enough for PR purposes.  It wasn’t critical, in this situation, to have a logo immediately in hand.  And by delaying the debut of a fleshed-out new identity, a smart marketer can build another round of buzz and anticipation.
2. Then we’d make it clear to everybody — especially the troops — that the final corporate culture is going to be a product of careful deliberation and process…and so will the brand identity that communicates it to the world.

The implication that this is a taste of the final branding is doing far more harm to “United Airlines” than good.

Lame notions in re-branding, Part One

It’s mainly an exercise in self-promotion by a company nobody’s heard of (and may never hear of again) named Zafira Consulting & Trading.  Doesn’t sound like a design company, and their clubfooted suggestion for revamping the famous BMW roundel doesn’t show much in the way of true Design Thinking — it’s just a flashy exercise in grabbing attention, and is not just wildly impractical out in the real world…but what’s the point?

You don’t mess with a logo as singular, identifiable and resonant as the BMW mark just for the sake of showing off some kind of technical verisimilitude.  Animating it, as they suggest, brings nothing to the brand — in fact, it’s so glaringly obvious a frippery it actually lowers the perception of the marque, rather than enhances it.

Proposed animated logo

That’s because it’s the sort of thing that quickly wears out its welcome by virtue of relying on momentary sizzle; it also throws each and every vehicle, display, Web site or other element where it’s used out of balance, because an element like this automatically violates any precept of holistic design.

A good logo isn’t about drawing attention to itself for attention’s sake — it’s about presenting a clear impression of what the brand represents.  BMW is about technical wizardry, yes, but it’s also about a certain Teutonic reserve and sense of order, especially institutionally.  And anybody who bothers to do their research finds out how the roundel isn’t referencing an airplane propeller, as legend has had it, so adding “motion” ceases to have a sound connection with the brand — instead, it’s an interpretation of the colors of the Free State of Bavaria.

Branding: the inside story.

When you’re considering branding or re-branding your enterprise, don’t just consider its impact on the marketplace, prospects, media or public.  In fact, a good case should be made that you ought to consider your internal audience first, or at least lend them the same importance.

We’ve posted before about the importance of focus in branding, in making sure the mission and message aligns internally and externally.  But here’s a pretty good post from Business Week about the importance of “internal branding,” and how it can contribute to the success of your business.  Because, as the article makes clear, if you can just get employees to take to heart the same branding insights and positioning that you’re utilizing externally, you’ll be creating a community with powerful advocacy and stewardship.

When I worked on the McDonald’s business, one project we undertook was an internal branding initiative aimed to getting employees to become better brand ambassadors — by inculcating them with motivational messaging, with “employee exclusive” premiums and apparel they could earn or purchase that made them feel part of the McD mission in a deeper and more visible way.

The “walking brand” project was aimed at not just raising the level of performance and advocacy, but through it, build a sense of community…that would, at its more actuarial level, reduce turnover — the average tenure for a McDonald’s employee, in those days, was six weeks, since many of them were just seasonal employees.  By getting them to stay on board for just an extra week or two through a “walking brand” strategy, the company could save millions per year in training costs alone.

That’s just one example of how building a strong internal branding initiative trickles down into real Return On Design Investment (RODI) that’s both immediate and long-term.

How to brand yourself…through habitual re-branding?

At first glance, what would a sensible-thinking marketer think about the difference in how Pepsi and Coca-Cola have managed their logo over the years?

(First, realize that the Coca-Cola side of the aisle is slightly oversimplified — the famous script has appeared against different backgrounds, used different holding elements, etc., down through its long history…but the essential script has remained constant.)

You might think Pepsi is guilty of being fickle...and of not respecting the “brand capital” a logo creates with its audience.   Or maybe they understand that perfectly – and are taking advantage of it like no other brand actually can.

Here’s what I mean:

Remember that Pepsi originally surfaced as, in truth, a knockoff brand, a faint and distant competitor to Coke until the 1950s-60s.   The “Pepsi Generation” put them on the map. And what that campaign signified, then and now, informs what’s going on with their branding.

Pepsi was, first and foremost, going to be contemporary.  The hipper, sexier alternative to Coca-Cola and its implied stodginess.  That’s the drum they’ve been beating ever since — and I know it well, having worked on both brands for long stretches.

(When I left Tracy-Locke, Pepsi’s Dallas marketing agency, to take a job on the Coke account at FCB, I still remember the horrified faces at T-L when I pulled a Coke out of my bag and cracked it in the executive lobby.  Security was not summoned, but I was still a heretic in the temple.)

That desire to stay contemporary is reflected in the fact Pepsi revises its logo with regularity.  Does that reflect inconstancy, or is it actually strategic?

Probably a little of both, as management strives to keep up with its audience, keep the brand fresh…and leverages re-branding as part of that effort.

In short: by making a big deal out of revamping their logo every so often, Pepsi is making the case that they’re ever-so modern, up-t0-date, and on the bleeding edge of attitude and change.  The continuity they’ve created isn’t the continuity of a particular brand mark — it’s the fact that the Pepsi identity is ever-evolving and updating.  Their size, and the image they’ve perfected over the years, puts them in a truly unique position to pull it off…whether they’ve intended it as part of their strategy — and meme — or not.

But I’d rarely advise an approach like this for anybody else.

Why a new Web site?

Now that Biersma Creative has launched our new Web site – an effort that consumed its fair share of  sweat equity, but we’re more than happy with the result — we can use it as a case study on why and when a company should consider revising its online presence.

Obviously, if there are substantive changes in your firm, your products or services, it’s an absolute necessity to revise your Website…and revise it  immediately.  The simple fact is, your Web site has superseded each and every other media channel in terms of immediacy and importance to your customer/prospect base, especially in the B2B universe, so it’s crucial that changes in your operations and offerings are reflected on your site — and that includes adjusting your SEO/SEM tactics accordingly, too.

In our case, we’ve expanded our scope of service over the past half-a-year to encompass advertising and other marketing services, at the behest of our clients.  So those changes needed to be reflected in a site that was as dynamic as the changes it reflects.

Changes in technology – like the upcoming arrival of HTML5, just to name one — that affect how the Web and Web sites operate can practically mandate change, but they’re also opportunties to embrace upgrades that can make your site stand out, or expand its reach — to tablets or mobile computing, for example.

Change for change’s sake — or, rather, news for news’ sake is important, too.  That doesn’t mean wholesale revision of every pixel every few years, but it does mean making sure visitors are getting some impression of freshening, new content, new news that will engage them more deeply during their visit.  Those kinds of revisions or updates should be displayed right on your mainpage, too.

Remember that the Web is all about interaction, not just information, and if your site remains static…so does your audience’s brand perception of your company.  And unless you’re an extraordinary exception to the forces of competition and change, you can’t afford to seem stuck in a moment.  Your Web site is a perfect place for proving your evolution.  Use it to trumpet progress, declare leadership, through a makeover that demonstrates you’re as contemporary and forward-facing as the competition…and willing to demonstrate it.

Where does the iPad take trade print…and trade print advertising?

Publishers view the iPad and the reader-friendly revolution it represents as a salvation.  Reports that the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other pubs are putting finishing touches on iPad apps and pricing models abound.   And video demos like this show the possibilities when imaginative design meets as intuitive and joy-producing an interface as the iPad promises to deliver.

So what’s a trade magazine publisher to do? It’ll be interesting to see how they exploit — or choose to not to exploit — the new horizons at hand.  It’s a bit of a toss-up as to how quickly the iPad — or tablet computing in general — will see enterprise penetration.  Will its reach be negligible?  Or will there be a tipping point driven by universal consumer adoption of touch-tablet interfaces where the B2B publishing community comes over the fence?

The simple fact is that tablet computer has a host of advantages in terms of portability and ease of usage that, combined with burgeoning 3G/4G network capabilities, and more, mean you could see tablets making pretty immediate inroads with business users.  Especially road warriors, I’ll wager.

Many of them are part of publishing corporations already investing in iPad/tablet reader technologies, so it might be an easy migration to platforms their organization already possesses.  Or it might be a painful transition for some smaller houses.  But is also begs the question…where does this take B2B advertising?

The video demonstrates just the very tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s possible.  That extends, obviously, to ads, as well. Embedded video? Site links? Augmented Reality overlays?   It’s all fair game.   B2B advertisers and their agencies need to take a loooooong look at where tablet computing is taking the B2B marketing and digital world — and their customers — so they can be ready to leverage its true B2B marketing potential.

Get social with your email in 2010

According to eMarketer, 2010 is the year when social media will begin to pay off — for email. Because it provides new avenues for engaging customers and prospects, even B2B prospects, social media is not just a potent tool on its own, but can work in tandem with email to deliver deeper relationships and more abiding results with a firm’s audience. Read more