Neontics» Customer Development

Engaging with the Brand Part II

Neonliz — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:43:19 +0000

In the first instalment of this feature, we talked about the mechanics of branding – what the elements of the brand are that facilitate engagement. Some of these are visual – about identity, some of these are more psychological – associations and image that are evoked by recognition and impressions. In this post, we look at the brand from an internal perspective.

Origins of Brands

Ownership and Identification

In many respects the original intent of a permanent mark to prove ownership and facilitate identification are no different today than they were in the wild west. Consistent use of the logo and brand identity are essential ways of retaining intellectual property, goodwill, positioning in the marketplace and hence the overall value of investing in developing a recognisable brand.

More recently, these notions have been applied to what happens inside the organisation and “internal branding” has emerged as a topic of interest to those who are seeking to engage employees in their organisation.

Branding has become big business, evolving on the back of spending on agencies, advertising, merchandising and promotion. This has been ably assisted by the rise of consumerism in our culture and increasing competition amongst suppliers keen to differentiate their product and offering from others. Interestingly, thinking of such commodities as energy, water, salt and others, the idea of branding is to differentiate what is otherwise something indistinguishable. For example, is there any discernible difference to consumers between the wholesalers or even retail suppliers of the electricity that boils their kettle? Sure there are differences in price. Yet the power companies have invested a lot in branding to suggest that there are differences in the customer experience – easy billing, “added value” services – all in an attempt to create an overall distinguishable “value proposition” for what is essentially a commodity that allows them to charge a premium price. Virgin, Orange, O2 have all attempted to create a differentiated position, an identity, through stretching of their brand to provide something that is perceived as more, that creates preference in the market place for what is essentially the same core telecommunications product. What is different? Some of the add-ons it’s true, but arguably, it is through the distinct “personalities” of each of their brands and hence the type of customers that each appeals to that we see differentiation. At the level of the consumer these brands have worked hard to support customer engagement, build “relationships” and maintain satisfaction amongst customers with a view to supporting retention in an otherwise churning market. When it comes to internal branding however, the audience is the employee. So is it too simplistic to apply the same concepts inwardly, by assuming the same cause and effect, or is there something else at work when it comes to employees?

What Is Internal Branding About?

It is designed to promote particular ways of behaving and a culture within the organisation that produces a consistent “personality” or experience whenever you encounter it

It is designed to increase engagement with the organisation, its mission or purpose and its values. What that organisation is all about should be apparent each time you come into contact with it (which relates back to the first point and how staff behave)

It is designed to encourage and support performance by making it clear what is expected of employees, what values they are expected to uphold and ensuring the integrity of the organisation

And when there are changes made to the brand this can also be a clear sign and indicator of a desired shift or change of emphasis in the organisation, or an aspect of its operations

Brand Psychology And Engagement?

The brand meets certain psychological needs of employees in the same way as it does for consumers by providing reassurance and security. They know what it stands for, what status the organisation has, or the issues associated with it and this can be a source of pride. They may feel that the brand reflects their own personality and often staff identify very closely with the mission and purpose of their employing organisation – charities, social enterprises, public service and owner managed businesses in particular, often fall into this category but also hi tech, household names and heritage businesses could be cited. Many staff feel strongly about the organisation and the cause it represents in particular when they join it – it can be a means of attracting attention and pulling them towards it and the mission provides meaning to the work.

As social beings, we also identify with those we work alongside. Unions, emergency services and health care professionals have a strong affinity to each other as social groupings and this creates a bond and a sense of common purpose and an implied, if not explicit code of conduct. There is a sense of being on the same side, in the same team, working for the same outcome and this creates a bond.

Internal branding, when done well can therefore help to reinforce these psychological aspects of working for the organisation. With an internal audience, the brand can be a device to reinforce recognition and reassurance – for example for staff who work on multi-sites, the consistent use of corporate logos, colour schemes and other physical manifestations of the brand can help people to feel at home, accelerate their settling in by providing familiar surroundings and therefore facilitate getting up to speed and performing more quickly.

When the organisation wants to signal a change – perhaps through a business transformation project, embedding a merger or acquisition, or to focus on a particular strategic initiative such as health and safety, then branding can be used. Whether a slight change, or the introduction of a new treatment of the brand, this can be enough to penetrate the lack of conscious awareness brought about by habit, re-focus attention or introduce something new into the behaviour and repertoire of employees. The novelty can have impact.

You Want To Change Your Brand – Just Do It? The Condundrum

The problem with familiarity is that eventually, it ceases to attract our attention – we switch off from it. Witness the staffroom noticeboard – people stop noticing it! To stand out takes something exceptional and this is the conundrum for internal branding. How do we reconcile the consistency effect of branding we seek – that desire for familiarity, preference, loyalty and effectively integrity of the brand brought about by necessary repetition and ubiquitous, conspicuous use of it on the one hand with the need to keep it fresh and current to enable it to develop along with our business?

And this brings us right back to the mechanisms for branding which are all about attracting attention, being able to distinguish between the specific, intended message and the bombardment of “white noise” that is so prevalent in our daily working noises. This is where the brand “refreshes” or creation of “sub-brands” come in. Clever use of colour-ways, minor adaptations to logos that cleverly provide continuity while subtly inching away from a previous position. And that is the artistry and the trick in branding and what some classics with acknowledged longevity do so well (Coca Cola, Nike and others). The science is understanding why it might be necessary, what you are trying to achieve, where you are coming from and what you are trying to do. Like all strategy this is best planned, with an intent, and understanding of the outcomes you are looking for and a plan for achieving them. In that way you can observe the outcomes and measure the change. And that folks, is a whole other blog right there!

Art & Science of Marketing 2 – Do the Math!

Neonliz — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:44:58 +0000

I’ve been learning from marketing for over twenty years. Strangely, despite having gained several marketing qualifications, it was not until as a self-employed consultant, I got serious about the measurements my worth to clients. That said, even now it is a pretty hard sell to getmany small businesses to take on help to carry out their marketing. The reason for this is that I think, like me when I first started , people fall into a trap of accepting that half of marketing works and that there is more luck and art than science to it. Having been through a couple of recessions now, and using my own money to finance marketing, this tends to focus the mind more clearly on where to spend time and money by learning about what works. Here’s a few tips on how to get started with metrics.

“It’s impossible to know how to get where you want to go, if you don’t know where you are starting from“ anon

Surprisingly few small businesses ever actually set formal objectives for sales and marketing. They may well say they want growth, perhaps more sales, but actually they often don’t stop to quantify either. And more than that, they don’t have a very clear picture of where their current business comes from, what marketing works for them and what does not. Understanding these measurements is critically important as they allow you to more confidently concentrate your marketing efforts on activities that provide a return and therefore make your marketing budget go further. Without the statements of intent and measures of success that well set objectives provide, it’s not surprising that many people are reluctant to commit money to marketing. You can waste a lot of money employing specialist (or more usually for small businesses non-specialist) marketing help, if you don’t have this as part of a proper, sustainable marketing system.

So how and where do you start?

Every business plan should have a hierarchy of objectives with the broadest, overarching corporate objectives at the top and gradually getting more specific for each area of the business it covers. To get to specific marketing communication objectives, here are some of the questions to ask and answer to do the necessary analysis of what your business looks like now.

What revenue is the business planning to achieve? Or to put this another way, what income do you require in total? What do you want to achieve by product, or if more appropriate, market, or even sales person?
Typically, what is the value of your average sale, project or transaction? You should also understand how many units are sold per order or contract.
Looking at what sales and marketing activity you do now. The whole point of it is to generate leads that will eventually – sooner rather than later - convert to sales. So how many emails, mailings, sales visits etc. does it take to make a sale? This gives you a conversion rate of leads generated to sales closed. What’s interesting about this measure is that you begin to understand where in the process you need to pay most attention. If it is early on, then you need to address your marketing communications – perhaps the targeting, the key messages etc. Towards the end of the process then you may have an issue with the pricing or the sales process.
Following on from the above, what does that sales and marketing activity cost? Once you understand each of these you are in a position to set some measures of success for what your marketing has to achieve. You may also be shocked to see either how little or how much time you are spending on marketing and how effective it is, currently. This should help you to decide whether you should bring in an expert.

Lead Generation – Do the Math!

There are numerous ways to generate leads and having done analysis along the lines of the above, you are in a good position to understand which ones are more effective and efficient use of your time. You know your sales, you know your costs, so from this, it is possible to calculate how many leads you need your marketing communications to generate. If you understand your conversion rate, you also have an idea of how many contacts you need to make to convert that to leads. It’s mathematics – the science in the art and science of marketing. And once you know how many contacts you need, you can start to develop your prospect database. And so on….

These are some of the key marketing metrics that any new and growing business needs to understand. If you’d like to understand more about how to make your marketing more effective, take the plunge, do the math! Get in touch with Liz@neontics.com

Little Voice Communications

neontics — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:20:44 +0000

Welcome to our page.

Little Voice is a small web design and graphic design company specialising in building websites, designing and producing marketing materials and communications consultancy. We deal with clients all over the UK.

From simple business cards to full glossy brochures, we aim to provide a cost effective and quality design and print service.

With eight years experience in designing websites for small businesses we can get you online in minutes for less than you might expect.

Free Downloads

We have a couple of free downloads for you so far.

The first is a paper on communicating in business. It’s in PDF format and completely free to download.

The benefits of audience driven communications

The second is a presentation we did recently about Marketing on a Budget.

Cost effective marketing