Beiträge

Quelque chose en francais – trouvé par SOM

Voila une presentation par l‘ agence Vanksen qui s’appelle „10 Best Practives en Marketing 2.0 – Conference BuzzTheBrand 2009. J‘ ai choissisez cette presentation parce qu’elle explique très bien le link de une marque forte et le phenomen „Buzz“.

Social Media in Europe and Germany

We have already shared this lovely presentation on our youtube channel last week (SOMMarketing) and here it is now on your website.

This video/presentation nicely sums up all the facts currently circulating about Social Media and the impact it has on how companies will do business in the near future. Social Media may not be the right tool for every company. But for those it does make sense, this presentation provides excellent arguments to convince marketing execs to go social. However, efficiency, costs and a stringent Social Media strategy which is carefully embedded into the company’s overall marketing strategy still are major „ToDos“ that need to be defined before investing into the colorful world of Web 2.0.

Enjoy!
And to the authors: Thank you for creating and sharing it!

IMD Tommorrow's Challenges: Anything Can Be Branded – It Takes Stamina and Renewal

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By Professor Dominique Turpin – October 2009

Anything can be branded, from toothpaste and tourist destinations to cartoon characters and Chinese revolutionaries. Professionally managed celebrity brands have been around for several decades; one of the most famous, Elvis Presley, has been so successfully handled that he has sold more records – not to mention coffee mugs and calendars – since he died in 1977 than while he was alive. It looks like Michael Jackson will be 2010’s top-earning celebrity brand – making an almost $250 million from beyond the grave.

Professionally-managed branding of athletes is a slightly more recent phenomenon but it’s undoubtedly big business. For example, David Beckham, the former England captain, managed to take his popularity on the field and turn it into a brand worth an estimated £200 million thanks to endorsement deals including Vodafone, Adidas, Pepsi, Brylcreem and Marks and Spencer. He almost certainly learned a lot about how to build a personal brand from his pop star wife, Victoria “Posh Spice” Adams, who already had a strong brand in her own right when they met. Together, they merited a great deal of tabloid coverage. Interestingly, when Manchester United sold him to Real Madrid in 2003, some analysts suggested that the Spanish club was more interested in buying his brand than his sporting ability.

But creating a strong brand for a real person – one that lasts and that means something commercially – takes more than good looks and a famous spouse. In fact, it starts from exactly the same principles as any brand strategy. First, any great brand must have something different and distinctive. For a footballer, this is likely to mean world-beating talent. Second, the brand’s messages must be simple, consistent, clear and easy to communicate. (Executives who are building their own personal and professional brands can learn from this as well. Many try to communicate far too much with their brand; it’s better to emphasize one or two things that make you unique.)

On top of this, for a footballer to become a successful brand he must represent moral values or ideals, such as professionalism, tenacity and team spirit, that will make him valuable to the companies that endorse him. When companies link themselves to celebrity brands it’s because they want the values associated with them to transfer to their own brands. For example, a business that sells men’s grooming products may link itself with male athletes who are seen as healthy, attractive and successful.

However, companies must be wary of relying too heavily on celebrity ambassadors. Famous names should never be the main driving force behind a business’s brand or it will run the risk of the celebrity’s personal brand overwhelming that of the product or service. This can result in people remembering the celebrity but not the product they were paid to endorse. Ultimately, corporate and product brands need to be built on, and be able to stand up on, their own distinctive merits. Careful use of celebrities can enhance or strengthen existing product brands but it should not be seen as a way of creating a brand.

The other big risk for companies is that celebrities may behave in a way that’s inconsistent with the values that they were brought in to represent. When this happens, it threatens not just the individual’s personal brand but that of any associated products; this is one of the areas where it is most certainly not true that any publicity is good publicity. After all, a company that recruited a celebrity athlete based on his wholesome, hard-working and sportsmanlike image would be less than enthusiastic about keeping him on if he was caught taking performance-enhancing drugs, for example.

From the celebrity’s perspective, the downside of interlinking brand and personality is that misbehaviour that may once have been seen as purely private can seriously damage his or her brand commercially even if it is not linked to their core activity. For example, when the Brazilian footballer Ronaldo was hit by a scandal involving transvestite prostitutes in Rio de Janeiro it didn’t affect his ability to find the back of the net but it did lose him an advertising contract worth $4.8 million per year. Clearly the mobile telephone company involved no longer wanted its name linked with his activities.

For both athletes and businesses the best way to maintain and develop a brand is by stamina and renewal. Many brands disappear or experience a decline simply because they lack a regular stream of innovations, whether in the product itself or the way in which the brand is communicated to the public. For a player coming close to the end of his professional career, the challenge is always to continue to make news, either as a player, an individual or in association with the brands or products that he or she endorses. For example, George Foreman, a former world champion boxer has made over $150 million from the sales of his barbecue grills, a sum that is substantially more than he earned as a boxer. But he still has a way to go before he matches Elvis!

Dominique Turpin is Director of the International Seminar for Top Executives. He also teaches on the Orchestrating Winning Performance and Strategic Marketing in Action open enrollment programs and in IMD’s Partnership Programs.

Source: http://www.imd.ch/research/challenges/TC063-09.cfm

original post: IMD Tommorrow’s Challenges: Anything Can Be Branded – It Takes Stamina and Renewal Posted in Manchester United News

GM's 60day campaign – revisited

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The following article has been published by BusinessWeek Automotive Blog

GM’s 60-day guarantee seems to be working

Posted by: David Welch on October 14

General Motors encountered plenty of skepticism when the company launched a 60-day buy back guarantee on its new cars in September. Some critics said it wouldn’t get many shoppers to dealerships. One dealer told me that the program would only entice joy riders who want to take a Corvette for a month and bring it back, free of charge.

But so far, the program appears to be working. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told reporters today that consideration is up 15%. That means that 15% more people are giving its cars a look. Edmunds.com, which tracks web traffic and vehicle consideration, confirmed Lutz’s figure saying it comes form the website’s own research.

And the joy riders? Lutz said that of the 150,000 vehicles sold at retail during the program, only a few hundred even opted to take the 60-day guarantee. And of those buyers, only one returned his car. It was a Corvette. But Lutz said the buyer decided he didn’t want the bother of a manual transmission. So he returned his ‘Vette for one with an automatic.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2009/10/gms_60-day_guar.html

Chris Anderson – Free

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I much enjoyed Chris Anderson’s Free (the future of a radical price). I really recommend getting the audio book which is absolutely entertaining and easy to listen to.
„…by Chris Anderson – That’s me.“ – Just love that line.
Anyways, in case some of you have not yet read his book or listened to the free audiobook (indeed, it is free, other than the book), here is a short appetizer for you: