What Does Building a Brand Mean Today?

What does building a brand mean today?  Now more than ever before, building a brand should incorporate a carefully calibrated mix of both "on land" and "online" marketing elements – that is to say, the traditional methods of allowing potential buyers to touch and feel a product, and the digitally-oriented, social media strategies that have been gaining popularity in recent years.

It was this mix, better known as Integrated Communications, that Racepoint Group CEO Marijean Lauzier and a panel of marketing experts from Staples, New Balance, The Museum of Science and The Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism set out to examine during the Pub Club’s 360 degrees of communications panel on December 1st. 

Amy Shanler from Staples explained that when scaling up public relations, advertising, social media and internal communications at the outset of a campaign, the branding and marketing teams meet to outline goals.  Social media practices at Staples are in an ever evolving state, Amy said, and when asked about measurement, she told the group that campaign success hinges on brand awareness rather than direct impacts on sales.  When launching campaigns like the photo shredder application on Facebook, Amy and her team chart fan uptake numbers and how many people are utilizing the tool to measure success.  The Staples Twitter handle, which was originally conceived to be a channel for announcing sales and deals to followers, has since become a two-way listening tool where the Staples team can interact with customers.

Chris Mann from New Balance has one of the most rewarding jobs a marketer could hope for, and manages the cause-related partnerships at the company. Because consumers are increasingly looking for the "trusted" brand, aligning with a cause can be a great way to elevate and add credibility to your product.  He cautions that you should be careful, though: it’s easy to target a cause, slap a ribbon on a product and call it a day, which will ultimately do nothing to lend trust to your brand. It’s important to take the time to develop corporate messaging the ties to and complements the cause you’re supporting. According to Chris, there are four points of integration that should be hit to guarantee a successful cause-related campaign:

• Working with product development to come up with a product that spreads a message
• Viewing product packaging as another opportunity to reinforce campaign messages
• Developing the story - linking back to those impacted by the cause wherever possible
• Adding a unique element to the product that will appeal to consumers after the purchase (in New Balance's case, this involved embroidering custom messages on the tongue of the shoe)

Because there are so many moving parts in any successful integrated campaign, it's best to sit down at the outset and figure out who's responsible for what.

Mari Megias from the Museum of Science shared with the audience a story from her time at Framingham State College.  The school had an image issue to contend with, and Mari and her team were tasked with casting the school in new positioning that would help increase enrollment.  To do this, several groups at the school came together to address messaging, social media, direct mail pieces and the visual elements associated with the school (the Web site, etc).  Students were even intimately involved in this effort, and managed a blog to help attract new students.

The question was raised about controlling content on a blog with such a diverse set of contributors. Marijean pointed out that the blog should be bigger than the brand, and focus on thought leadership and discussion on topics that don’t always related directly back to the company.

Chris offered another tip: apply the 80/20 rule to blogging, where 80 percent of the content is one-way information sharing and 20 percent is back and forth communication where you answer questions and solve problems for followers.

Victoria Cimino from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism spends her days promoting the state as a leisure destination.  To do this, Victoria works with several other government offices across New England to compile research and tailor messaging that can be rolled out to international audiences.  Because of their modest marketing budget, Victoria and her team take a grassroots approach to this effort: working with travel writers for editorial content, partnering with commercial airlines to come up with promotional programs and hosting "familiarization tours" where potential tourists are given the opportunity to experience firsthand what Massachusetts and New England have to offer.

After hearing about the amount of research that goes into one of Victoria's campaigns, Marijean stressed to the audience that research and planning are of the utmost importance when launching any campaign, especially ones where so many different elements are at work.  With the proper research tools, the focus to make sure every dollar is optimized and the emphasis on accountability across your organization, she said, it’s easy to construct an integrated communications campaign that effectively builds your brand.

By Dana Gulick, Racepoint Group