Why the 'Power of Branding' is a Myth
Inc.com

Brand is important. No question of that. A strong brand can make it enormously easier to sell.  However, the notion that "branding" can create a great brand is a myth.  Worse, it's a myth that can cost you a lot of money, without getting much in return.

By "branding", I mean the panoply of marketing activities like brand-focused advertising, packaging, marketing materials, logos, taglines, and so forth. In almost every case, money spent on these activities is money wasted. I fully realize that this viewpoint flies in the face of what you heard in business school. Nevertheless, it's the truth and to understand why, you need to understand what "brand" really is.

Bottomline: Your brand is the emotion that a customer feels when thinking about your product. That’s it. Neither more nor less. And that’s why "branding" is so impotent.

While it is true that branding can associate an emotion with a product, especially when pointed at highly impressionable buyers (e.g. young men who watch beer ads), in the vast realm of B2B sales and even in most consumer markets, there is one, and only one, thing that creates customer emotion: the customer’s experience with your product.

Once customers start thinking your product is garbage, there's no amount of "branding" that can change the perception.  In fact, attempting to use "branding" to fix a product problem always backfires. All it does is call attention to the difference between the brand message and what the customer knows is true.

By contrast, if customers love your product, then the brand will reflect that love.  Of course, you can use the some of the tools of "branding" to help spread the word, but the keystone is always the customer's experience.

Procurement Execs Not Just for Clients Anymore
AdAge

There was a time when the biggest clashes in adland were right brain-left brain squabbles between creatives and account executives. Today, the most tense conversations take place behind closed doors, with client-side procurement folks and an agency's finance and account leaders haggling over fees.

It's an arduous process, and one that's leading some shops to think that if you can't beat "em, join "em.Toronto-based ad holding company MDC Partners anointed its first chief procurement officer, Brett Colbert, in the hopes of helping its member agencies change the dialogue. Until recently Mr. Colbert was global manager of procurement at Anheuser-Busch InBev. He will work across MDC agencies, educating them about procurement practices while participating in fee negotiation and procurement discussions.

The largest holding company in the world, WPP, also recently hired a former senior procurement officer from Kraft Foods, George Dan. WPP declined to comment on Mr. Dan, but his role is not believed to be client-facing like Mr. Colbert's.

"I'll be honest, I've been waiting for this day to come, and I'm surprised more haven't done it sooner," said Bill Duggan, exec VP at the Association of National Advertisers. "I think it's a good thing for agencies. It could potentially help some agencies to get some clients to change the conversation from savings to value."

Mr. Colbert—a spry, fast-talking individual with a sly smile—takes great pride in his procurement background. LinkedIn sums up his career as "Rock and Roll Procurement." He got to know MDC when he brought one of its member agencies, Anomaly, on board AB-InBev's agency roster last year. Before the brewer, he spent time in procurement posts at Nestle and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

"Client procurement is driving the price down to prove their value, and the agencies are often playing along just to be in the game," Mr. Colbert said. "The big opportunity is to say to the agencies that, 'It's not a negotiation if you don't say no.'"

Retailer Brands Committed To Search, Email, SEO In ‘12
Marketing Daily News

Brands are committed to beefing up their digital marketing budgets in 2012, with paid search, email, and SEO/natural search leading the way.

The survey of 110 leading retailers, done by the E-tailing Group, an e-commerce consulting company and sponsored by Bronto Software, also found an intense effort among stores to improve their data analytics, in order to nail down the most profitable channels and adjust their marketing mix accordingly.

“Data is going to be the next big thing,” Lauren Freedman, founder of The E-Tailing Group, tells Marketing Daily. “Merchants are realizing that the state of their data determines the sophistication of experience they can give the customer. There’s a lot of work to be done in that area. Less than 10% believe they are in a good situation to tap into data they already have.”

She says the “workability” of data becomes even more important with social marketing. And those with a strong loyalty program already in place “have a huge leg up, because they do have the data.”

The survey, which combined both quantitative and qualitative merchant research, reports retailers intend to devote 30% of their digital marketing budget to paid search, 18% to email and 11% to SEO/natural search. And 31% of respondents say they expect SEO to generate the most revenue, 30% say mobile, and 22% email.

The report also found that 87% already use Facebook, with 8% planning to use it in the year ahead; and 29% already have an mcommerce site, with 42% planning to add that capability in the next 12 months. So far, 38% are using bar codes or QR codes, with another 31% looking to add them, and 19% are using mobile applications, with 27% planning to employ them in the coming year.

Brands Must Evolve, Says Coca-Cola SVP
Direct Marketing News

Brands need to keep up with the pace of innovation and consumers' interests to retain and build value, said Wendy Clark, SVP of integrated marketing communications and capabilities at The Coca-Cola Co., during a keynote address at the ad:tech New York conference on Nov. 10.

“Evolution is absolutely mandatory for marketers because, by definition, the landscape is constantly changing and therefore we must change constantly,” she said.

In addition to creating shareable content, brands need to focus on how that content is distributed, Clark said. She said that Coca-Cola views media as owned, earned, shared and paid “in that order.” The company has developed a paid investment model that is trisected among what currently works (the now), what the company must experiment with (the next), and what is on the periphery (the next).

“Done well, each of these spaces informs the next,” said Clark. “Your next informs your new, your new informs your now, and you start to create innovation within your company.

“The combination of mobile commerce and location-based technology for us moves our business from the point-of-sale to the point-of-thirst, and that's a significant shift for us. We know where you are and that you're thirsty, and we can get you to the nearest outlet to solve that thirst,” said Clark.

She said Coca-Cola's approach to experimentation is “we lean into what's next, but we don't get distracted by it.” Clark brought on stage Renny Gleeson, global director of interactive strategies at Coca-Cola's agency Wieden & Kennedy, who said that Coca-Cola is working with the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) to determine how Coca-Cola can use loyalty points as currency.

At the Half, the NFL is on Record Pace: Ratings, Revenues up for League’s Partners
AdWeek

It’s halftime of the 2011-12 NFL season, and the league’s broadcast partners are putting up big numbers on both sides of the ball.

Through the first nine weeks of this year’s NFL campaign, all nationally televised games have averaged a draw of 17.9 million viewers, more than double the prime-time average (8.4 million) for the Big Four broadcast nets season to date.

At this juncture, NFL broadcasts account for 13 of the 15 most-watched programs on TV. No fewer than five NFL games have delivered 25 million viewers or more; tops among these is Fox’s Oct. 16 late game (Patriots-Cowboys), which scored 28.4 million viewers. The shootout was available in 95 percent of the country, although pockets along the Gulf Coast saw the New Orleans-Tampa Bay game.

The only non-football fare to crack the list were CBS’ Two and a Half Men and Game 7 of the World Series. The Sheen-free season premiere of Men delivered 28.7 million viewers on Sept. 19, edging the Cowboys-Pats game by some 300,000 viewers, while the Cardinals clinched their 11th MLB title on Oct. 28 in front of 25.4 million Fox viewers.

Remarkably, nine of the highest-rated NFL games aired in a national, non-prime window. Fox claimed six of these broadcasts, while CBS hosted the other three. NBC’s Sunday Night Football accounted for four of the most-watched programs of the new TV season; tops among these was the network’s Sept. 8 Thursday night kickoff battle between the Saints and Packers (27.2 million viewers and a 10.9 rating among adults 18-49).

Through its first 10 SNF broadcasts, NBC is averaging a record 21.4 million viewers and an 8.6 rating in the demo. Seven games have drawn an 8.0 rating or higher, and of these, three have notched a 10.0-plus in the demo.

Promoting Brand USA: America’s New “Awesome” Global Positioning
AdAge

America's got a new plan of attack when it comes to marketing itself around the world. Going forward, the country will base communications around the idea that this is the "United States of Awesome Possibilities."

The country's new positioning comes courtesy of the Corporation for Travel Promotion, which this summer hired JWT to handle a global marketing campaign and is worked with branding firm The Brand Union to create a logo for Brand U.S.A. At a time when America's economy has been sagging, the goal of this group is to promote leisure and business travel in order to drive economic growth and job creation.

So how do they plan to do it? Based on the first glimpses we're getting of the CTP's strategy, it appears they are leaning heavily on creating content, such as this website that houses travel itineraries for different U.S. cities.

The site also links to several partners in the effort, among them: federal agencies related to tourism, such as the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration National Scenic Byways Program, transportation companies like rental cars and buses, and travel agencies and tour operators. Another major part of its push so far appears to be social media, with the CTP creating fan pages on Facebook for different cities.

Of course, it's going to take a lot more than a few day-trip suggestions and "likes" on Facebook to get tourists and business executives from around the world flocking to our shores—especially at a time when the nation's government and its values are seeing heightened criticism. Pew Studies in recent years have shown America's image declining not just in parts of the world where anti-Americanism runs rampant, such as the Middle East, but also in Latin America and in Europe. And you could say that in light of movements such as Occupy Wall Street, the country's image problem isn't just abroad but in its own backyard too.

It remains to be seen how the CTP will try to repair its image with the forthcoming global marketing campaign, which is being shepherded by the group's CEO Jim Evans and CMO Chris Perkins, who spent 25 years in the advertising agency business. The non-profit group—which has secured an enviable marketing budget of $200 million—is planning to launch a worldwide push in March, which it calls "the first-ever coordinated global marketing effort dedicated to welcoming international travelers to the United States."