Brand Champions

Will American's Ever Embrace Futbol Brand?

Last Sunday I watched the final match between the USA and Brasil in the FIFA Confederations Cup championship in South Africa. As you probably know this was the first time the the USA has advanced to a FIFA final. During the first half of the match I started making mental notes about what I would write for yesterday's brand champion of the day post. During the second half of the match the powerhouse Brasil team botched any chance for that post to happen.

As an American I was pleased that our team made it to the finals. Like most, I have been critical of our team over the past few years. There are more young people in the USA playing the world's game of futbol than any other sport. But, we struggle to compete on the world stage. Now that there is a glimmer of hope for the USA as they travel back to South Africa next year for the Word Cup, is there also a chance that we will embrace the accurate sport brand?

Perhaps if Americans changed their thinking and embraced the word futbol rather than soccer we would have a better chance of attracting the best athletes to the sport. By embracing the brand futbol rather than soccer, young people in America (and Australia) would place a higher value on the game. If I were a young person and elite athlete today deciding on the right sport, I would much rather travel the world playing futbol in places like South Africa, than getting beat up playing American football in the USA.

Too me embracing futbol would attract more brand champions for the sport. Soccer sounds like futbol light and dilutes the brand champion enthusiasm. What do you think about the futbol brand vs. the soccer brand for the USA?

Brand Champions of the Day- Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center Inmates

On Mondays and Fridays I feature someone or some organization who understands what it means to be a brand champion. Those passionate advocates who enthusiastically support a brand. Last Friday I highlighted Meg Whitman from eBay. Others have included US President Barack Obama, Richard Branson from Virgin and others.

Today I am devoting this space to a group of people who are obviously champions of the Michael Jackson brand. As you all know the king of pop passed last Thursday. In his honor the inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines paid tribute to him by rein-acting the video from Jackson's top selling hit album Thriller. This group of over 1,500 certainly understands what it means to be a brand champion.

Brand Champions Meet to Discuss Return on Brand Investment

Once a month I facilitate a discussion on a topic related to brand at the Brand Cafe in Denver. While we have nearly 100 members, the session is limited to 20 people who engage in a dialogue that we are passionate about, brand. This month our topic is "How Do You Measure Return on Brand Investment?"

For the past several years the business world has been obsessed with return on investment (ROI). Like many concepts that create buzz, some marketers have been quick to embrace ROI because they think that by so doing others will think they are "in the know." But, most have yet to develop metrics for determining ROI.

Now comes branding, and the buzz related to it. Because this is still an emerging trend for many organizations and many marketers, return on brand investment (ROIB) is just now getting traction. Tomorrow we will talk shop and share our thoughts on this topic and the brands that we all champion at the Brand Cafe.

How Will Cause of Death Affect the Michael Jackson Brand?

While the cause of his death is officially still to be determined, it will most likely affect the Michael Jackson brand one way or another. For his loyal fans the cause of the death will probably not have any affect. For those champions of his brand, Jackson will always be remembered as one of the world's top pop stars, a king of the entertainment world and one of the most talented artists of our time.

For skeptics, if the cause of death is related to drug use, their belief that Jacko is one of the strangest cats we have ever known will be confirmed. His visual transformations, suspected molestation, draping his kids faces and other antics will forever place Michael Jackson on the long list of entertainers who met an early death. These brand inhibitors will be members of the the "I told you so" club.

What do you think the impact of his death will have on Michael Jackson's brand legacy?

Brand Champion of the Day- Meg Whitman, Former CEO, eBay

I am sure you are all aware of the past accomplishments of Meg Whitman. Particularly her ground breaking work at eBay. When Ms. Whitman joined eBay in 1998 the company had 30 employees. When she stepped away from her post eBay had approximately 15,000 employees and was multimillion-dollar business. You are probably aware that she is rumored to be a candidate for governor of the State of California. 

Those are not the reasons that I am recognizing Meg Whitman as the Brand Champion of the Day. I am highlighting her for the work she is currently engaged with, writing a book about the core values that helped guide her business. As you know I am all about mission, core values and employee engagement as the keys to building a sustainable brand, and the primary reasons for success in recruiting and retaining brand champions.

For your work, Meg Whitman, you are the Brand Champion of the Day!

Should a Brand Building Process Start at the Top or is a Grass Roots Approaching to Brand More Effective?

In the beginning stages of every brand development project, this is one of the first questions that stakeholders ask me. My answer is, ideally both. The reality is that most organizations, especially those in the corporate world, start when there is a senior level executive who convinces the CEO that their brand needs some work.

When the CEO agrees then a consultancy is hired to help guide the organization through the process of developing a brand strategy. When employees and customers are given the opportunity to engage in the process, the brand strategy has a great opportunity for success. When the CEO and others provide directives that this is what we are going to do, don't allow others to give input, the chances for success are not so great.

When a grass roots approach to brand development is undertaken that  has little if any support from the top, the brand building efforts will go no where fast. So, if you are thinking about undertaking a brand initiative or you have already begun the process and are looking to how best move to the next steps, you will have the greatest chance for success when you get buy-in from the top and provide an opportunity for your stakeholders at all levels to be engaged in the process.

If you are a college or university and are involved with education branding, that would be getting buy-in from the president, provost, deans and vice presidents. That would also be engaging students, staff, faculty, alumni and others in the process. What approach have you found to be most successful? How doe you recruit and retain brand champions for your brand building process?

Robo Calls and Telemarketers Destroy Their Own Brands

 

It is amazing that in this day and age I have the opportunity to write about this topic. The word telemarketers seems like someone who comes from the industrial revolution. A person whose time has come and gone. But they still exist. Despite the no call list they seem to periodically find me. You know who they are.

The person who calls and then does not answer for about 15 seconds in hopes that you hang up and they don't have to talk to you. But, by hanging on they get their call recorded as a connection so that they can make their quota and their company thinks they actually spoke to someone. Or they are the people that hang up on you when you answer because they don't want to talk to you as much as you don't want to talk to them.

Robo calls are equally as ridiculous. In both cases the organizations that use these methods to attempt to communicate to you, and somehow live in a dream world where they think you are going to become their brand champion, do nothing but destroy their brands

How Do Brands Rank?

 

A few days ago I wrote about the subject of rankings, and asked if rankings enhance or dilute brands? That question was reinforced this past weekend when I received my monthly edition of Marketing News from the American Marketing Association. The June 30 issue was the annual rankings of US market research organizations.

The magazine included what Marketing News considered to be the top 50 US market research organizations. Approximately 50 of the 82 pages were filled with profiles of these companies. The remaining pages were filled with paid advertising from many other market research firms. As I thumbed through the magazine two other questions came to mind in terms of brand rankings.

Is this any way to recruit and retain brand champions? Who cares?

Brand Champion of the Day- Paul Gillin, Author of Secrets of Social Media Marketing

 

A few years ago when I was in the processing of learning about the then new social media that were coming onto my radar screen, I read an enlightening book titled, The New Influencers. The author of that book, Paul Gillin effectively introduced readers like me to emergence of social media and the role those who participated would play in the future.

Since then I have become a convert and spend the vast majority of my time marketing through social media like blogs, facebook, twitter, friendfeed, linked in and others. Like many of you I recently felt a bit overwhelmed by the warp speed with which social media was engulfing us. It was at that time I discovered another book by Gillin, Secrets of Social Media Marketing. I just completed it and recommend it to anyone who is new to social media, or someone like me who needed to get refocused on my social media marketing plan and how to make best use of social media to enhance one's brand.

I am a champion of Paul's brand. His work is contemporary, relavent and easy to read. Thanks Paul Gillin, you are the Brand Champion of the Day!

Brand and Strategic Plan

 

For many the words brand and strategic plan are two concepts that are difficult to understand, and even more challenging to comprehend why there needs to be a relationship between the two. Successful brands are those who understand the importance of creating and maintaining a relatonship between these two concepts. They also understand the importance of breaking things down to the basics for their employees and customers. So, let's try it here too.

To me a brand is your name, what your name stands for the associations that people make when they see or hear your name. A strategic plan is the course that you have laid out over the next several years for your organization and how your employees and customers can increase the value of your brand. I may be taking a risk of insulting some people's intelligence if they have been involved with brand development in the past. But, for the vast majority of people, brand development is relatively new. For most of those same people, strategic planning might sound like buzz speak or they have not had the opportunity to be a part of their organization's strategic planning process.

A great opportunity exists for those brands who engage their employees and their customers, I call these your brand champions, in the brand development process. When we explain what brand and strategic planning are, and when we give our stakeholders the opportunity to be a part of the process, then it becomes easy for most people to see the relationship. When we don't we allow most people to think a brand is a logo or tagline, and a strategic plan is just a bunch of words on a piece of paper that has no relevance to them.

Make the connection clear for your stakeholders. Don't make the process fuzzy. How do you engage your brand champions in your brand building process?