Marketing should be built into products
I found this headline at Gapingvoid:
“Buying space in someone else’s brain is far harder than buying space in someone else’s media”.
It is very true. A brand is a perception in the minds of the consumers. But still businessmen and marketers put most of their investment in advertising. It is puzzling why they take this indirect way. Gapingvoid points at Nike’s partnership with Apple for the Nike+iPod, which has virtually transformed running and demonstrated how a brand can market itself by offering something useful to a community rather than just communicating its assets.
Rik is adding the following to the discussion:
“And it shows once more that marketing should be built into your product from the start, rather than slapped on afterwards in the from of advertising. The same can be said for design. And branding. These things should not be an afterthought, but built into your product right from its birth.”
Andra bloggar om: design, marknadsföring, reklam, varumärkesstrategi
Sunday 27 May 2007, 18:23
Buying space in someone’s brain takes time and conditioning, of which advertising is one strategy. First, a product represents itself through positioning, description, and if necessary, teaching the customer. The best example of this is Gillette, which had to go out and teach consumers how to use their hand-held razor and demonstrate why it was better and safer than using a strop razor.
Faced with a new product, the first question a customer asks, with curiousity and a little glee, is “what the hell is that?” The marketer makes a statement of definition which includes as many aspects of the product as possible, and successful braning is all about consistent delivery of the tangibles and intangibles promised by that product and the branding strategy.
So, perhaps one of the most important parts of branding is developing an image that the company agrees it can stay with for the long term, because the market will not tolerate a redefinition of that brand easily, especially if the brand is new and untried.
Other, developed brands that have beeen accepted and embraced, can claim more brain territory by expanding and shifting definition - Mc Donalds staged a great comeback in 2002-2003 by shifting and expanding its positioning - once a brand appealing to children and families, it had to realize that those customers’ needs were changing - families now are more than units for nurturing and “fun” - they are also charged with mutual assurance of healthy eating habits. Mc Donalds used to be the prime example of unhealthy fast food eating, but now has modified itself in a major way, and continues to occupy the dominant position through its abiity to adapt.
To the point, In the restaurant business, we cal that “top of mind”, which means the immediate awareness of the product and/or brand and THAT is the mind space you want to occupy, just as the placement of one billboard is better than the placement of another down the street. Your product and/or brand must have that mental real estate to be a market leader, and the components of that must be part of the development of any product.
Sunday 27 May 2007, 21:14
Julie, thanks for the insights on the topic concerning buying space in someone’s brain! As you are saying - immediate awareness of a brand/product/category is what you have to strive after to build a successful brand.
Friday 15 June 2007, 07:15
[...] David Report: “A brand is a perception in the minds of the consumers.” [...]