by BJ BuenoJul 22, 2010
Today brands are faced with a new challenge, mainly that of clutter. In a cluttered marketplace of indistinguishable brands, developing a strong position in the heart of the customer is extremely challenging. Brands that don’t actively work to differentiate are generally defined and controlled by their competition.
In the world of Branding, you either grow or die—branding, category leadership, market share, relevance, there’s no in-between.
In most cases, the winner of this game for the customer’s heart takes all, leaving the rest of the competition struggling for minor market share. In order to develop a strong position in the marketplace, CMO’s have to understand three key ingredients for developing brand dominance:
- Relevance
- Growth Potential
- Category Leadership
by Scott JeffreyMay 20, 2010
Few companies are successful at developing solid brands. Branding is difficult and few executives appreciate branding as a discipline.
Effective branding requires clarity, focus, and sacrifice. Effective brands have a deep understanding of what business they’re really in. They know what they promise their customers and continuously focus on delivering that promise. If an existing operation or a proposed idea doesn’t speak to their customers’ needs, they eliminate it.
Effective brands show unfaltering courage. It takes strength to stand for something meaningful and tenacity to do it each and every day. (Courage is one of the Seven Golden Rules of Cult Branding.)
Effective branding takes patience and maturity. It takes a willingness to learn from your customers. It takes resolve not to radically alter course to chase the latest fads, but also courage to innovate in new directions.
Effective branding requires open, honest communication across all business divisions and even with key partners and vendors. Effective brands go through the painstaking effort to cultivate a culture that reflects the brand, rallying their employees and their customers around their brand.
Branding is a discipline. It’s not “airy-fairy” and it’s not about logos or taglines. Branding is at the heart of your business. If you don’t understand what your brand represents, you’ll likely see your market share continually shrink. Business owners who understand the importance of branding and adopt it as a discipline cultivate customer loyalty and will rule the future of commerce and industry.
by Scott JeffreyMar 24, 2010
When a person first hears the term Cult Branding, there are two basic responses. Understandably, some might be put off by the term “cult” which rightly has negative connotations. Second, if they are a marketer, they often get excited about the idea.
Who is a Cult Brand? Sure, there are some easy answers that might come to mind: Apple, Oprah, Harley-Davidson, and Star Trek, to name to a few. (Review a list of Cult Branding profiles here.) But these appear to be anomalies more than anything else.
The small business owner might say, “Yeah, that’s great for them, but I’m a little shop. I can’t create that kind of a customer loyalty.” A valid concern, but not necessarily true.
The chief-level marketer of a Fortune 500 company might say, “We’re a global brand with mass market appeal. We can’t just cater to a small group. We’ll lose market share.” A valid point, but again, not necessarily true.
The important take-away from Cult Branding, as the concept’s originator BJ Bueno often notes is that great brands serve their customers better than anyone else. Any business can learn the principles that Cult Brands live by and adopt whatever principles seem appropriate in their context.
As BJ explains, “We must recognize that brands don’t belong to marketers. Brands belong to the customer. The customer’s embrace is the only vote that counts, yet it is constantly ignored by strategies that place our products and services as the ‘goal’ rather than the means to satisfy our customer’s needs, wishes, and fantasies.”
Cult Brands actually uphold a higher level of integrity by focusing on the needs of those who support and grow their business: their best customers (or what we call, Brand Lovers).
