IMHO this word – Brand – is thrown around much too casually.  Every creative shop in town talks about “Branding” to their clients.  But, do they really know what branding is?

A complete Brand strategy will accomplish two important objectives.  Here they are along with a sentence to clarify:

1. Explain why anyone should do business with you
   • Defining who you are and the benefit(s) you deliver to a specific target audience over a long period of time.

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2. Aid in recognition and recall
   • Creating a recognizable logo and differentiable tag line along with supportive color schemes and consistency guidelines for how to use them.

Unfortunately, too often Brand is mistakenly thought of as only a visual thing.

A Brand strategy should help you generate business.  It must answer the “why” question to generate profitable action.  It’s more than just the pretty stuff.

Tens of millions will tune in.  Most for the game.  Regardless – it’s what they call “appointment TV.”  The Olympics start soon too.  American Idol is in full swing.  Fire up the DVR.

Pulling interest and creating loyalty to a group of stars or a certain concept is what network programming is all about.  They seek the magic formula that will get you coming back for every episode.  What gets you to care.

That’s your job too. What gets your customers to care about you?

The Albany Business Review has an article on Price Chopper’s (Golub Corp.) Fuel Advantage program this week.  That’s the program that gives you a discount on gas for shopping with them.  They’ve meshed two things you deeply care about.

Food and Gas.  Basic.

The equation is even clearer for them because local competition is among just a few major brands.  Although they are tough competitors – shopper in this market basically choose from Price Chopper, Hannaford, and WalMart when it comes to supermarkets.

You win the tug of war, more come to you.  Of course, there’s a new match regularly.  Each seeking that little edge over the other.

It’s more difficult to find the caring when you offer a product or service in an exceptionally crowded field.  Or if you’ve basically become a commodity.

Now what?

In this scenario, finding the caring often comes down to who’s the more relevant to the customer.  What are they looking for besides your offering?  Is it comfort and trust.  Personal relationship.  How green you are?  Convenience?  Who your other customers are?

It’s somewhat different in each market category.  Each geography.  Your job is to find it.  Find what’s most relevant to your targets and ensure that your businesses authentically offers it.

For years, saying something is the “Cadillac” of [insert type product of service] said it was the best of the best.  A “Chevy” or a “Honda” (sorry Toyota) means affordable and/or reliable.

Find the caring.  Be real.  And find your customers.

Basically, professional investors think that when the little guy has caught on – the big opportunity is over.

That brings me to the hot topic of social media marketing.

The time for the easy money is over.

But that won’t stop many advertising agencies and social media ‘experts’ from trying to cash in on the enthusiasm of the masses.

Here’s what tells me that the “go-go” days of social media are over-

This past week, my partner Laurie attended a panel discussion here in the Albany area with 3 marketing hot shots talking about social media. That was just one of at least 5 different events on the topic scheduled for the the greater Capital Region in the next 30 days.

The topic is hot as a pistol on Marketingprofs and MarketingSherpa as well.  Local chambers and economic development groups are allowing some marketing insiders to get on their social media soapboxes as well.

As they used to say, “everybody’s doin’ it.”

Social media isn’t free

So should you think the social media trend is flaming out?  Well…yes and no.

While Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Stumbleupon, Squidoo, and hundreds more social sites are adding thousands of new members a month – only a few marketers will tell you the truth.

It takes tenaciousness, dedication, ingenuity, and an interesting point of view to make a mark in social media.

Most people are coming to seriously consider social media as a marketing tool because of two main reasons:

1. They’ve heard about it for some time from their ‘cool’ marketing friends and now they want to do it too
   
2. They’re hard pressed to find cheaper ways to market and many think social media is free

The first reason reminds me of my mother asking me if I’d jump off the Brooklyn Bridge if everyone else was ‘doin it.’  The second reason is total bull.

For social media to work, it needs to be a part of a broader integrated marketing program. You’ll need to feed it with content, content, and more content.  Interesting content. Useful content. Provocative content. By the way, it’s the same with blogs – the last trend everyone had to do.

Now the web is littered with abandoned blogs.  Soon it’ll be littered with abandoned social net pages and bookmarks as part of a program that some advertising agency or marketing firm sold you.

Marketing is hard work. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune, but it doesn’t follow the “Field of Dreams” strategy either – “if you build it, they will come.”

No they won’t.

Begin with a purpose for your social media effort. Find traditional as well as unconventional ways to get the word out about your page. I’ve seen many use Ebay, Craigslist, and the local coffee shop to gather followers. You’ll need to become a part of the culture. by commenting on others’ blogs and posting on others’ walls.

Bottom line – the little people have caught on. Now the real work begins.

Posted by: Steve Banis

For those of us in the marketing business, the Super Bowl is more than the game on the field and the halftime show. It’s about the strategic decision to spend $3 million for a 30 second ad and how to make it pay off (although the economy has forced some last minute discounting by the network).

Since you’ll be thinking about advertising during the game (at least some of the time), here are the 3 biggest lessons to remember:

1. Don’t Hide - the economy makes it even more important to communicate
2. Get Permission – because so many people watch for the ads, they’re basically giving you permission to sell to them.
3. Integrate – use different tactics to get more bang for your buck. Smart Super Bowl advertisers make every attempt to integrate Internet and social networking tactics, along with advance PR and direct marketing.

I typically root for the underdog. Phoenix in this case.  To me, it’s like helping a smaller business beat the big guys. I like winning smart.

Speaking of smart, here’s Mary Ann Rogers’ take on the big game and the need to keep your message out in front.  (Steelers 27 Cards 20; My heart’s with the Cards but my head knows better. Now if the Cards had a running game…)

The Super Bowl is here

People everywhere are stocking their fridges with an endless supply of beer, chips and deep-fried goodies.

And since I have no personal affiliation with either of the teams playing in Sunday’s game, I will resign myself to watching the next best thing – the Super Bowl commercials!

Taking into account the current economic state and the fact that a thirty second spot costs a whopping $3 million, can we expect this year’s commercials to be as effective as in years past?

In previous blog postings, Burst Marketing has advised area businesses not to run for cover during a recession, but rather market smarter and more efficiently. And from the looks of a recent CNN.com article, several big-name NFL sponsors like Anheuser-Busch, Audi, Bridgestone, FritoLay and GE are doing just that. (Click here for more.)

It’s Worked Before

Anheuser-Busch, famous for their Clydesdales and talking bullfrogs, has been a cornerstone of Super Bowl advertising for years, winning the top spot in USA Today’s “Ad Meter” for the last decade. This year the brewer has recruited comedic star Conan O’Brian and purchased an additional 30 seconds of air time, ramping up their total commercial time to four and a half minutes.

Anheuser-Bush chief creative officer Bob Lachky said, “We’re trying to reassure the viewer, and our consumer, that we’re here and we’re strong and we’re never changing.” (Click here for more.)

That’s exactly the right message to send in this economy. Remind your target audiences that you’re relevant and reliable.

“What makes the Super Bowl unique is that this is the one time every year where, instead of complaining about advertising, we celebrate advertising,” said Peter Blackshaw, chief marketing officer for Nielsen Buzz Metrics. “You can’t really beat the reach.”

But not everyone is embracing this idea of recessional-style marketing. Past Super Bowl advertisers FedEx and General Motors will not be running ads in this year’s game. Blaming the economy and “bad timing,” these two giants aren’t willing to pay the hefty price tag for ad space.

“As a country, we are in unprecedented economic waters,” said Steve Pacheco, managing director of advertising at FedEx. “A Super Bowl ad buy is not where we should put dollars at this time although, in the past, the value of doing so for FedEx has been indisputable.”

While most Capital Region businesses won’t be running ads in the Super Bowl, the need to out in front of your target audiences is still the same.

So if anyone gives you a hard time for paying too much attention to the Super Bowl commercials on Sunday, just tell them its market research.

Posted by: Steve Banis and Mary Ann Rogers

Today, too many marketers, agencies, and advisers think that setting up a Facebook or Myspace page, a Linkedin profile, a Squidoo Lens, or tweeting on Twitter makes them a social networking expert.

Social networking sites and applications are designed to bring people together online, and, employed wisely, they can be good tools for building online communities. However, this is only one element of an effective “social networking” program.

Excepting a few very unique business models (amazon perhaps) – all social networking programs, and in fact ALL marketing programs, must ultimately involve human interaction. Facebook and others are good at sorting people and helping similar birds of the same feather find their flock.

Bringing people together online is an important step, but the next step is to create opportunities for touchpoints. Principals and/or their representatives need to meet, diagnose problems, propose solutions, build relationship, and establish trust.

Trust, is required to inspire action.

It’s fun and easy to join online groups, post comments on blogs, and share thoughts and ideas. But the proliferation of spam filters, firewalls, and virus scanners are evidence that while cyberspace is fun, good sense dictates that you’re not taking anyone home to meet your mother until you’ve checked them out first.

So go ahead, get social. Just don’t forget the feel of a firm handshake.

Posted by: Steve Banis

This follows a trend going on in the communications industry. A May article on Adage.com exclaimed that if you’re acquisition minded, it’s a great time to be in the ad agency business. So this trend shows no signs of slowing. Big advertisers want to consolidate agencies, and big agencies are buying up rivals to keep up with client desires.

So where does that leave over 95% of those who aren’t the biggest clients? It leaves them with rising prices, and if they’re smart, with smaller agencies that are a better fit. (see more on this here)

When companies get bigger and achieve scale, their own cost of doing business usually drops. But in the image conscious communications biz – a bigger name means bigger prices for their clients. And it’s likely that only “A” list clients will benefit from their agency’s newfound clout.

Posted by: Steve Banis