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Author Archives: Sofia Ibarra
Boston Strong
As we all know, a few weeks ago the Boston Marathon’s finish line was the scene of two large explosions that killed four people and more than 260 were injured.
Emerson College students, junior Nick Reynolds and freshman Chris Dobens, decided to take action and contribute to One Fund Boston. They created blue t-shirts with yellow letters that said “Boston Strong”, coming from Livestrong and Army Strong. Each shirt is worth $20, an affordable price for students and professionals. So far they have sold about 48,000 t-shirts.
The whole project started as an Emerson trend aiming to sell 110 shirts overnight, later on it turned into a sale of 16,000 shirts to Emerson admissions for the class of 2017, and now it has spread across the United States and Canada.
Their goal is to reach $1 million. Reynolds says: “It’s not just us who’s raising money, it’s 47,000 other people. We believe Boston Strong belongs to the community.”
Other universities such as Boston College and Tufts University created a Boston Strong t-shirt, selling them for $10 and donating the money to the One Fund as well. They also raised $1,200 at PJ Ryan’s’ trivia night.
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| Source: Usatoday.com |
The special thing about this fundraiser is that the donators have a closer connection with the cause since for most of them, the tragedy occurred a few yards from their homes.
Clark University also raised money for the One Fund by hosting a one-mile run around campus, in commemoration of the last mile of the marathon that some people weren’t able to finish.
It’s amazing how such tragic events bring people together and the power that social media has in such cases. The fundraising students were interviewed on television and they are active both on Facebook and Twitter which creates a stronger presence among adults and the youth. Wearing the Boston Strong shirts means more than just giving out the $20 for the fundraiser; it represents a person who cares about the city and the country, it’s about showing that we are all in this together and if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.
Reynolds adds “Boston Strong meant for us that the city is resilient.”
Making boring things fun
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| Source: saferoutespartnership.org |
The Fun Theory by Volkswagen
In 2009, DDB Stockholm created a campaign for Volkswagen with the intention of changing people’s behaviors to better ones. The whole campaign is based on the idea that fun can change people’s behavior and they proved it using different experiments.
Rather than using normal advertising, the agency created inventions in daily settings and also encouraged others to come up with their own ideas.
The “Piano stairs” was placed in a subway station next to the escalator; it consisted of a staircase rebuilt as a giant piano to see if people would go up the stairs instead of the escalator. Each stair would sound as a different piano key, making fun melodies every time someone used the stairs. Videos proved that people were actually using the stairs more simply because there was fun included. The video below shows camera footage of the Piano Staircase:
Another “activity” created by Volkswagen is the Fast Lane consists of a slide next to a long staircase in Berlin. The people in Berlin had the choice of taking the stairs or have a little fun and move faster through the red slide.
Volkswagen, with the help of applicants’ ideas, is taking advantage of The Fun Theory to promote safety and environmental awareness. Nevanja Stojanovic from Serbia came up with an idea to promote the use of the seat belt. The children were able to watch television inside the car once they put their seat belt on, otherwise it would not turn on.
The Award Winner
The award winner for the whole Fun Theory was the speed camera lottery. The speed camera lottery in Stockholm was Kevin Richardson’s idea and it consisted of rewarding people for obeying the speed limit. Before the idea came out, the average speed were 19.88 mph and after the test the average speed came down 4.35 mph, lowering the average speed 22%.
Volkwagen is still very successful with their Fun Theory and were able to prove that people did not mind changing their behavior to good if there was fun included. It’s all about understanding an issue and finding new ways of looking at it.
Check out their Facebook page for more updates on The Fun Theory.
2013 Marketing Trends
As I was reading some articles and clicking whatever looked interesting to me, I stumbled upon this interesting article on Hubspot.com by Jessica Meher (head of Enterprise Marketing at HubSpot) about marketing trends. In 2012, Pinterest became part of social media; Facebook reached 1 billion users, and the famous Korean singer Psy became worldwide known thanks to YouTube.
Let’s see what’s happening in marketing 2013…
Top 10 Marketing Trends for 2013
1) David Meerman Scott believes real-time marketing is used to grow businesses, including real-time events based on inbound marketing and not push-marketing.
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Source: optify.net
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2) Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot, says that marketing is no longer a single department but rather every activity, from HR to finance and customer service will become an inbound marketer.
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| Source: nonprofit.about.com |
3) Now that we have an account in almost every social media platform: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. what’s left to do? Integrate all of these together in order to reach customers in real-time with relevant messages.
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| Source: kunocreative.com |
4) Everyone is going mobile. According to comScore, 133.7 million people in the U.S. own a smartphone (which is 57% mobile market penetration). Marketers have the task of making the media platforms relevant, quick and easy to navigate through a mobile device.
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| Source: mobilewebsitetutorials.com |
5) Marketers are embracing “smart” content. We all know the expert in this is Amazon.com with their suggestions on what our next purchase should be based on the items we viewed.
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| Source: amazon.com |
6) Marketing language is switching to human language. No more Blah, blah, blah that makes no sense. Companies are starting to talk to their customers as if they were talking to a friend, one on one.
| Source: empowermentnetwork.com |
7) Increase in relevant content. As Meerman Scott repeats, “you are what you publish”, content has become one of the top priorities for marketing teams.
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| Source: blog.bevelwise.com |
8) More crowd sourcing please.Marketers are using the consumers’ help to come up with new ideas that they will love.
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| Source: aneditorspick.com |
9) Gaming and marketing come together. Marketing is becoming more interactive in order to increase social media and online marketing results. The content will stick more through its entertainment value, reward, and learning abilities.
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| Source: blog.desertrose.net |
10) Outbound marketing is disappearing. Inbound marketing produces 10 times higher conversion rates than outbound marketing because consumers value content that is more educational and helpful.
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| Source: oscardelsanto.com |
Out with the old, In with the new
David Meerman Scott, the author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”, is an online marketing strategist. He believes that marketing and public relations is very different on the Web than on mainstream media, like it used to be.
An important characteristic that companies should take into consideration is the power of content-driven material: creating and sharing relevant information to engage a customer base. Meerman Scott believes the formula for success is a combination of great Web content that provides valuable information and a network of people that will share your content and create a discussion among their social circles. He also talks about the concept “word-of-Mouse”, which consists of spreading an idea through the Web.
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| Source: google.com |
The new marketing form reaches consumers through social media and its effectiveness can be measured through the social activity of users in reaction to images, articles, videos and ads online. Social media is incredibly influential in people’s lives; it has the power of changing a person’s point of view, lifestyle, beliefs and culture. That is why it is important to communicate a story in a way that will be relevant to the audience and will create a reaction.
Inbound marketing is advertising a company using the Web, including video, blogs, podcasts, etc. It is important earn your way into people’s lives rather than beg for their attention.
According to Ogilvy, the top 10 most popular and effective content marketing tactics are through:
- · Article publishing
- · Social Media (non-blogs)
- · Blogs
- · eNewsletters
- · Case Studies
- · Live Events
- · Videos
- · White Papers
- · Webcasts
- · Microsites
The content HAS to be relevant, unique, timely and valuable. Creating this content gets the consumers’ attention and keeps them up to date on what the brand is up to, which builds into brand loyalty.
The Old and the New Paradigms
With today’s technology and the community’s growing relation with social media, the rules of marketing simply had to change.
- · True or false? Marketing= advertising. FALSE. Marketing is way more than that. It’s about building long-term relationships with the consumer, communicating a brand’s value through positioning and satisfying their wants and needs.
- · Advertising consists of interrupting people to get them to pay attention to a message. Nonsense. According to David Meerman Scott, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it. Consumers don’t want to stop doing their thing to pay attention to your brand; they want your information when they need it.
- · It used to be that advertising was one way: company to consumer. But times have changed and what consumers really want is to be part of it; they want participation not propaganda. You have to take advantage of all the ways of communicating with your consumer. It’s not just TV, newspapers, and radio. The new and most influential media are blogs, online video, e-books, news releases, and social media.
Marketers have to take the role of publishers. It is vital to deliver content at the right time and place. Like publishers, you need to create a strategy and then find the different ways of reaching it. Answer questions like: Who are my readers? How do I reach them? What are there motivations? What are the problems I can help them solve? How can I entertain them and inform them at the same time? What content will compel them to purchase what I have to offer? – David Meerman Scott.
An example of the creation of customer engagement and brand loyalty is Golf GTI’s mobile phone app. A couple years ago, Volkswagen launched a free app in which you could race the GTI around a track and post your times on Facebook and Twitter. They had an online competition with a live leader board with the chance of winning one of six limited edition GTIs. The app became the #1 downloaded iPhone app in 36 countries.
Volkswagen applied Meerman Scott’s rules by using social media to spread the word (word-of-mouse) about their new car, they also included customer participation by not only allowing the customers to get the feel of driving the car and also share their results, but also taking part in a live competition that connected players around the world.
Put your money where your mouth is
David Meerman Scott is his own brand. He puts his name and work out there. Not only does he writes books but also talks about his books and knowledge all around the world, he also writes his own blog. He is constantly writing about anything related to marketing and PR. One of the blog posts I recently read was called “Hire Philippe Dubost because he has the coolest online CV ever created”. Meerman Scott wrote about Philippe’s Dubost resume which is created in the format of an Amazon page. He is literally the product. The link gives out his information, his past experiences, and skills. I thought it was a cool way of making a CV that will definitely catch an employer’s attention because of his creativity and branding strategy.
| Source: phildub.com |
Check out more of David Meerman Scott’s blog!
Go Kiva
According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), there are over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations. They all have the same purpose, help a cause, but different ways of approaching their audience.
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| Source: kiva.org |
Kiva is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California that works through loans from people via the Internet. It allows people to lend money through field partners such as microfinance institutions, schools, social businesses or nonprofit organizations. Kiva is supported by grants, loans, and donations; the loans do no include interests.
Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley founded the nonprofit in October 2005. They first heard about microfinance at a lecture given by Muhammad Yunus at Stanford. Later on, Jessica started working for the nonprofit Village Enterprise Fund. While in Africa, both Jessica and Matt started researching and interviewing entrepreneurs about the problems they were facing with their businesses. When they returned to the United States they created Kiva, which means “unity” in Swahili.
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| Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackely Source: oprah.com |
The way Kiva works is by allowing social businesses, microfinance institutions, schools and nonprofits to post profiles of qualified local entrepreneurs on Kiva.org. Individuals can lend as little as $25 to help create opportunities. 100% of the loan of the loan is sent to the microfinance institutions, called Field Partners, who administer the loans in the field. The organization is present in five continents, 67 countries, and counts with over 450 volunteers working with the Field Partners, and editing borrower stories and making sure everything runs smoothly.
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| Source: kiva.org |
Take a look at this video to get a clear idea on how Kiva works…
Kiva is giving others the opportunity to succeed in their businesses without making others actually spend because in the long run lenders get all their money back. The idea is brilliant, it helps people individually but also increases the growth of the economy world wide. All it takes is a few clicks.
The lender gets to choose what industry to focus on, who to help, and how much money to lend.
Kiva also provides lenders with updates on how their help has improved others lives.
Click here to learn more about Renee and her success.
Is it too cold inside the movie theatre?
Getting someone’s attention is not at a complicated task; the hard thing is to make them react to it. This is especially true in the marketing of nonprofits. We see signs everywhere demanding us to do things: “donate now” “help us out” “give us a hand” “it will only take a second”… But these messages are actually interrupting our daily activities (as selfish as that can sound, it’s actually true) and we don’t want to stop and do what someone else is asking us to.
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| Source: google.com |
So what are nonprofits supposed to do to make their audience react?
Fiftyfifty, a gallery based in Germany, is on a mission to help out the homeless with the help of Harvas Worldwide and they made a creative marketing campaign together.
Inside a movie theatre, during the commercials, they turned the air conditioner to 46° F to match the outdoors temperature that homeless people have to endure every night. Even though 46° F isn’t as cold as it can get, it still makes the people realize how uncomfortable it is. They are then showed a video of the homeless people talking about the campaign and what they think about it. The people in the movie theatre are given blankets that have a QR code in which they can donate to the cause.
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| Source: creativeguerrillamarketing.com |
Take a look at the video to get a better idea…
This is one of the marketing campaigns that help the audience understand the cause by placing them in the feet of the homeless and then immediately gives them the option of being a part of the change. The consumer feels a certain obligation to donate because it would be selfish for them not to when everyone else is doing it.
Would you not donate if you knew exactly what others were suffering?
Marketing in Nonprofits
The marketing strategy in a nonprofit organization plays a fundamental role that, like in most cases, determines the organization’s success. There is a countless amount of nonprofits that it is essential to discover an innovative way to capture the public’s attention because, the truth is, we are kind of tired of hearing the same propaganda again and again, which will most likely not make us want to give our money.
David Williamson published a 14-page article called “Marketing and Communications in Nonprofit Organizations”, in which he outlines the importance of marketing in nonprofit organizations, summarizing it into nine different morals. Out of his nine morals, I chose three that were the most relevant in my opinion.
Three Morals…
Williamson says, “Your mission should drive your marketing. If you are trying to change individual behavior or social norms it’s time to invest in social marketing.”
We live in such a fast-paced life in which social media is the place where people express their wants and needs, global discussion is created among the public by both simple and complex topics. Nonprofit organizations have to adapt themselves to these times and seek the public’s attention through the media they use on a daily basis. Williamson believes social marketing, even though it is expensive and requires a level of expertise, is necessary and must be included in the organization’s marketing and communications strategy. Marketing online expert Laura Lake believes it is important to have a balance between marketing online and off since they both bring many benefits to the company.
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| Image from: jlpmoose.webs.com |
A good example of a nonprofit that makes good use of social marketing is Invisible Children. Although it has not been long since we learned about this organization, it is not new but they have spent a lot of time and effort over the last ten years capturing the youth’s attention. They are focused on attention philanthropy doing whatever it takes to get people to pay attention to issues happening around the world. They use celebrities and Hollywood film tactics to not only capture a wide range of attention, but also create political and funding pressure.
Kony 2012 went viral in a matter of days and the reason for its success was the way the story was told, a father explaining to his son the violence happening in Africa. The YouTube video has about 90 million views. The 30-minute long video is not only moving and powerful but it demonstrates how to spread the information and promote action. Invisible Children makes it easy to share their videos and messages on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
They used a varied mix of celebrities including liberals, such as George Clooney and Ellen DeGeneres; philanthropic names, like Warren Buffet and Oprah; pop stars, Lady Gaga and Rihanna; and geeks, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. The celebrities catch the people’s attention and create discussion relevant to the issue. The following word cloud shows the words used in the accounts who posted about #stopkony or #kony2012.
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| Image from: socialmediacollective.org |
Kony 2012 campaign had the objective of making Joseph Kony famous, the Ugandan warlord responsible for terrorizing and kidnapping children. Although there is controversy with this campaign, they had the social marketing part covered in a complete manner and they invested a lot of time and money in it, which helped them achieve their main objective.
The second moral I am going to talk about is, “Your brand defines your organization to the outside world. Take the initiative and define yourself, before one of your enemies tries to define you.”
Building a brand is not an easy task and nonprofits are not very well known for managing their brand because they usually don’t invest the right amount of time in it. The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University developed a study based of the role of the brand in the nonprofit sector. The brand is more than a visual icon: logo, name, or graphic design. It is more the idea of the product or service constructed in the consumers’ mind; a brand can also be described as an intangible asset and a promise that entails what you do, who you are, and why it matters.
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| Image from: allwallsinfo.com |
An example of a well branded nonprofit is the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as the COO would agree, “our brand is the single greatest asset that our network has and it’s what keeps everyone together.” The brand creates trust, one of the most influential factors in the nonprofit sector, aligning both identity and image.
WWF it an international nonprofit organization that works toward the conservation, research and restoration of the environment. It has more than 5 million supporters around the world in over 100 countries. WWF strengthened its brand by adding more consistency to the global presence. ASHA, a Brand and Marketing agency in the UK, helped them reinforce the brand a few years ago. WWF was facing a problem that, as ASHA said, “they were in danger of becoming like the Church of England. Everyone likes to have them around, but no one really know what they are for.”
As part of the brand improvement, they brought the Panda to life by adding context and relevance to its use. The Panda was changed into a kind of stencil that reflected the different environments WWF was involved in.
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| Image from: ashawebsite.co.uk |
To bring value to the brand, ASHA created a “value tab” that directs the reader to the information.
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| Image from: ashawebsite.co.uk |
They also created a sector with scientific information with graphs, diagrams, and charts, with the purpose of demonstrating WWF’s science to the world.
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| Image from: ashawebsite.co.uk |
Lastly, ASHA wanted to incorporate emotion to WWF so they added photography to create a link with an audience.
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| Image from: ashawebsite.co.uk |
The third moral is “There is no such thing as the general public. Find the audience that matters most to your mission, and focus on them like a laser beam.”
Choosing your target market is not an easy task. As we always say in class: an age range is not a segment. An 18 year-old boy may have the same interests as a 30 year-old woman, but it all depends on specifics such as age, gender, race, lifestyle, values, beliefs, etc.
Narrowing your target market is key when it comes to delivering the right message. As Williamson says,
“The narrower the audience you choose, and the more audience appropriate our approach, the higher the probability that you can move that audience to action.”
Defining your market requires a close study of whom you want to talk to. Philanthropy expert Susan Burnash believes this is the most complicated part for nonprofits. It sounds wonderful to say “We serve the hungry” rather than say “We serve hungry senior citizens living in the Boston area” that is why narrowing the segment is important because it avoids future marketing disasters.
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| Image from: mymissourian.com |
An example of a well-set target market from a nonprofit is the organization Susan G. Komen. This organization is dedicated to the education and research about causes, treatment, and the search for a cure for breast cancer. The organization started in 1982, you can easily recognize it by the color pink or pink ribbon placed and different products. They have done a good job of strategically placing their logo in products that their target market, middle-aged women concerned with women’s health, often use. For example, they have partnered with Chap Stick, O.P.I., Estee Lauder, among others.
An interesting product they are partnering with is Purina Cat Chow because pet food has no relevance at all with breast cancer but it is actually more common for women than men to own cats. Susan G. Komen is aiming at the segment in a variety of areas, from beauty care to pets to food products.
For a nonprofit to become successful, it is vital to have a well-defined target market because it influences the decisions on how to market your mission, services, or products, as well as understanding the people you are focusing on.
Purified water coming from a billboard?
When it comes to advertising, colleges and universities don’t really think out of the box. It’s always the same old paragraph with information and beautiful pictures of their campus and student life.
Well the UTEC, University of Engineering and Technology in Lima, Peru decided to change things a little.
I found this article in FastCompany and it’s about a billboard created on the Pan-American Highway of Lima, Peru that “generates potable water out of thin air.” The billboard has the purpose of attracting upcoming students interested in engineering.
Due to its desert environment, it only rains in rare occasions in Lima therefore it is the perfect place to put a water-creating billboard, where there is a lack of fresh water and a very humid climate.
The way the billboard works is by purifying water using five generators through a reverse osmosis system. The clean water is sent to a tank that can store up to 100 liters each day.
Take a look at the video to get a clearer idea of what I am talking about…
This is such a creative way to advertise a university because it creates ambition and desire to be part of a change that will make a difference in the country. When upcoming students see this, it gives them motivation that what they will learn in this university will be put into actions that will make their country a better place to live.
The university is reaching to the consumer’s emotions and showing them what they want to see to attract their attention. Unlike the usual colleges and universities’ advertisements, UTEC demonstrates the opportunities that the students will receive while being a part of UTEC.
Helping others help their country
Ghana has two main problems in their country: pollution and homelessness. Over 40 tons of plastic waste appears every day in the streets of the city of Accra, Ghana. 60,000 people do not attend school, and half of these people (30,000) live in the streets, half of which are young mothers less than 20 years old.
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| Image from: aban.org |
ABAN is the organization that wants to change these statistics and give the women of Ghana a better life. They help them learn a trade, make a living, and secure a future, and also receive the tools and skills to change their city into a better and healthier environment.
Killing two birds with one stone…
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| Image from: aban.org |
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| Image from: chapelboro.com |
Pollution in Ghana is mainly caused by plastic bags, in which clean water is stored. It all started with the creation of a mock non-profit on recycled products, which then turned out to be a feasible idea. Two study abroad students from the United States decided to help find solutions for this country and created ABAN. They provide shelter and schooling to young mothers, and teach them how to reuse these plastic bags and transform them into hand-made products such as bags, totes, and small cases. These products are then sold in stores and online and the revenue is used to sustain the organization. They also receive donations.
Creating the products not only helps reduce the amount of litter collected in the streets of Ghana, but also creates awareness for the people who witness the effort put into making the products.
Holly Stewart came to our class and talked about the trendiness in social causes. ABAN is just one of the different types of social causes existing nowadays. Corporate responsibility plays a big role in a company, especially because it is an influential factor for the buyer, and it has become very popular among companies to have an alliance or sponsor a social cause.
One of the most important factors in social causes, as Holly Stewart says, is to not make your cause faceless or unemotional because once the viewer is able to identify with the cause, that is when the action occurs. There has to be a balance in the cause in order to reach the customers’ heart (and money); unlike the long Sarah Mclachlan puppy commercials that are just too sad to watch that you end up changing the channel instead of investing your time and money in it.
An example of a social cause campaign that has been very successful is the Lee National Denim Day that consisted in organizing workplace drives at which employees could pay $5 for the right to wear jeans to work on the first Friday of October. The campaign started in 1996 and so far has raised nearly $75 million for breast cancer research and advocacy.
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| Image from: kansascityonthecheap.com |
Getting the social cause to work is all about strategy and planning out every detail. According to an article in FastCompany by Melanie Pinola, using the “But You Are Free” method will get you the “yes” from people…but just use it if you want to.
The technique consists on making a request but letting the person know that he has the choice not the obligation to do it.
Giving people this freedom makes them more likely to help out. Just like in the Lee’s National Denim Day, the employees are not obliged to wear jeans, instead they feel like they are in control of the decision and before you know it $5 can turn into $1,000.
Preferred brands…
If you were asked to say which is your favorite Fast Food restaurant, your favorite shoes brand, and your favorite Non-profit social cause, which ones would you choose?
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| Image from: businessinsider.com |
I asked 10 of my friends this same question and I got somewhat expected results.
Let’s begin with the Fast Food restaurant. The most popular response was McDonald’s which was said four times out of ten and when asked to provide a reason why they chose this restaurant they said it was because they loved their French fries but also because they had good food and no matter which country they were in, they always knew they could count on the food to taste good.
According to Forbes, McDonald’s is considered the seventh most powerful brand in the world; they operate in 119 countries globally with a total of more than 32,000 restaurants. The brand has done a great job in brand awareness, looking for locations that are the most convenient for people (in malls, near colleges, airports…); they also look for intersections with traffic signals- typically corners of two well-trafficked streets- and ample parking (McDonald’s Corp.).
The Golden Arches are not only present in almost every corner, but they have implemented different strategies that make the consumers feel like they are in the same restaurant no matter the country. I can personally say that I get the same feeling when I go inside a McDonald’s here in Burlington, North Carolina than when I go into a McDonald’s back home, which is Guatemala; (one of my friends spent her Winter Term in China and said that the only place they felt it was safe to eat the food was McDonald’s).
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| Image from: http://www.interbrand.com/en/our-work/McDonalds.aspx |
(I’m pretty sure you sang the song while reading the poster above).
Their famous brand tune was used worldwide to change the image of the brand into: “Simple, Easy, Enjoyment.” This tune was a strategy to appeal to the consumers’ values as well as make the brand equal all around the world.
As Gobe says in the reading Fuel for success in the 21stcentury, “The emotional element is what gives a brand both the foundation and fuel for future business strategies-consumer-driven strategies.” McDonald’s does not have the best burgers but they have implemented strategies that achieve that “emotional element” in their consumers, which create a sense of community and comfort.
And now switching to the shoe industry…
I was actually not too surprised by the results since Nike was chosen by five of my friends, Steve Madden was chosen by two. I know I have blogged a few times about Nike but, I personally love the company, and apparently my friends agree with me (they are my friends for a reason…).
The company is known for their sports gear and constant innovation, they work closely with technology. They were recently awarded as one of 50 most innovative companies for creating polyester jerseys (used in the last World Cup) using 13 million used plastic bottles and melting them down (FastCompany.com).
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| Image from: medcitynews.com |
Nike has created a strong image in the customers’ eyes; beginning with what the co-founder Bill Bowerman says, “If you have a body, you are an athlete”.Consumers are inspired by the brand that believes in them, stands by them and helps them achieve their goals. The company focuses in the brand image by getting famous athletes to wear their products; this way people will assimilate success to the brand and will want to become as good as the famous athletes.
They have such a powerful brand presence and image that they don’t need words in their logo, the famous “swoosh” is known all around.
Relating this once again to Gobe’s reading, “Creating product identification by stressing product benefits is only relevant if product innovation are memorable and exciting to consumers.” This is exactly what Nike has been doing by creating products such as Nike+, Nike’s array of digital products like the fitness tracking app and the Nike FuelBand. According to Nikeinc.com, the Nike+ Accelerator program will begin in March 2013 through June. The program consists of balancing the success of Nike+ to support technological innovations by partnering with companies that also want to help people live more active lives.
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| Image from: tech.co |
It is strategies like these that keep the brand in the consumer’s mind, creating not only value but also causing the consumer to immediately think of the brand whenever thinking about shoes or innovation.
Non-profit social cause
The Non-profit social cause industry can be seen as completely separate from Nike and McDonald’s but if you think about it, they need as much branding as the others.
The winner for this industry, among my friends, was St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The pediatric treatment and research facility was founded in 1962, and it focuses on children’s catastrophic diseases.
To be honest, I am not very well informed in this sector because I haven’t been in the United States long enough to know about the different organizations, and most of my friends that I surveyed are international as well. It is interesting for me to hear that the majority said St. Jude was their favorite Non-profit because I am pretty sure they don’t know enough about the social cause to say it is their “favorite”. But this result reflects how well the organization has managed its brand image. The brand has a place in the consumer’s mind, even if they don’t completely understand what it is all about. In fact, St. Jude is listed among more than 50 other internationally recognizable businesses and consumer brands and it was one of the three non-profits selected by the American Brands Council.
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| Image from: misssocialnetwork.com |
John P. Moses, chief executive office of LSAC, the fund-raising organization of St. Jude, said:
Our brand awareness is critical as we seek the support of volunteers, donors, groups and major corporations. Recognition of this kind reminds all of those who support us that when they associate with St. Jude, they associate with a world-class organization.
Brand image can be even more important than the product or service itself because, as mentioned earlier, the emotional rather than the rational feeling guide the customer. Gobe says it is about creating a relationship, getting in touch and understanding the consumer; sensorial experiences, establishing brand preference and creating loyalty; imagination, find subtle ways to constantly surprise and delight consumers; and vision, brands have to evolve through its natural life cycle.