Skip to main content

Branding: Targeting Your Market Online

Start by Defining What You Stand For!

Your brand is not your corporate color scheme, or your logo, or your jingle. Your brand is the way customers and potential customers feel about your company when they encounter it in the market place. So, it is the specific reactions you would like those customers and potential customers to experience when your company hits their radar that must drive your branding activities.

For example, Sir Richard Branson includes "fun and a sense of competitive challenge" in his description of what the Virgin brand means. Over the years, his approach to the market has definitely reflected that brand mindset from brand name selection, to off-the-wall publicity stunts, and guerrilla marketing tactics.

Trevor Schoerie's PharmOut, on the other hand, had a different brand objective. Schoerie needed to build awareness of his company in a niche market with fewer than 100 potential clients. He knew that the nature of the regulatory compliant pharmaceutical industry required a very different approach to branding than that used by Branson (jumping out of planes would not work for PharmOut).

Shoerie focused on demonstrating impeccable credentials and building PharmOut's reputation for expertise in the field. He did this by creating a technical white paper that showcased his firm's expertise and offered valuable tips to their target market. He then supported the distribution of the white paper with a search engine-optimized news release. For more information about the specifics of PharmOut's highly successful branding campaign, visit http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/pharmout/study.html

Before you put a lot of money and time into your branding efforts, take the time to determine what you want your brand to be. Your brand, like your reputation, will be built on what you do and how you behave in the market place. Decide what you want your brand to stand for, and then make sure your advertising, marketing, customer interactions, and internal policies are all consistent with that intent. Only then will customers and potential customers begin to react the way you'd like them to when your company hits their radar.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Website Usability and Web Accessibility

Why are Usability and Accessibility Important? The web design and development industry has undergone a number of radical shifts over the last few years - in fact, many industry experts claim that it is the most rapidly changing industry in the world. What these changes have led to though, is increased potential - "anything is possible". The inevitable side effect of this is that software and web sites have become so feature-rich and complex that they are practically impossible to use.   This matters to individual website owners because, if they are not careful, their website project or website content management solution can easily suffer functional overkill. When launching a web design project, be sure to ask yourself and your web site vendor the following questions: How does your software meet accessibility standards? How do you implement usability best practices? Can users with disabilities use my website? How readable will my website be by visitors...
Post a Comment
Read more

RFP Guidelines

An Introduction to Writing RFPs A Request for Proposal is a crucial stage of the client/supplier relationship. Guidelines for an RFP are only now starting to become standard in the relatively new industry of web-related technologies. However, an RFP can help establish a line of communication and clarify the needs and requirements of your development project. This document can help you create a RFP. The proposal that Lewis Media and other proponents will prepare in response will attempt to cover, in detail, the time line, scope, technical requirements, and budget of the project. Therefore, the initial RFP should be as detailed and clear as possible; any budget limitations and time constraints should be initially established. This will help us all be on the same playing field from Day 1. Often a client can be daunted by a perceived need to approach a RFP from a technical perspective. An RFP should define your needs - Lewis Media will then interpret these needs into te...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Search Engine Marketing?

Tools for Building your Business Online Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the process and strategy of using search engine results as an advertising vehicle. This may include improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings, or a combination of methods all designed to increase visibility, clicks and, of course, leads and orders. Search Engine Marketing involves balancing a number of different work streams including Search Engine Optimization, Advertising Campaigns (pay-per-click, pay-per-impression, or pay-per-performance) and Paid Listings. The Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing industries have changed greatly over the last few years. Some highlights of the current state of the art are: Search engines publicly acknowledge penalizing marketers that do not adhere to recommended best practices Search engines are attempting to better engage marketers and developers Everything can and should be measured, including traffic, bid costs, conver...
Post a Comment
Read more