More and more, 2012 is looking like a year of growth, and a prime brand imprint moment for companies looking to recapture wallet share lost to the recession.

We thought we’d take you on a brief tour of four proven strategies for sustainable brand growth, as illustrated by MLC members:

Establish a repeatable brand-building framework. Think about it: a lot of dominant brands in various markets are dominant not necessarily because of planning and business acumen, but tradition and accidents of history.

American spirits manufacturer Brown-Forman, famous in particular for making Jack Daniels whiskey, arrived at a set of tools and processes to establish and build on a meaningful and differentiated brand position. MLC members, for more, click here.

Develop a marketing and brand plan that supports overall corporate strategy. It’s vitally important that your brand resonates with your actual consumers, yes. But almost as important is whether it resonates internally – if marketers can’t communicate their contribution to the corporate bottom line, it makes it pretty easy to cut a popular brand from the market.

One MLC member solved this problem by creating a purpose-built dashboard that shows exactly how marketing and branding initiatives align with and contribute to corporate goals. MLC members can see the whole case here. We’ve also blogged about this case.

Develop a clear, differentiated brand strategy. Many of our readers and members work for mature brands – ones that have been around for decades or centuries – and in the intervening years, brand promises and strategies can get muddled to the point of ineffectiveness.

Recognizing the problem, Clorox (which will be 100 years old next year) launched a study into what made brands consistently outperform their categories, and found that each had a single-minded growth strategy that all activities aligned with. They then created the HighFlyer program that helped brands find that growth strategy. MLC members can see the whole case here, our toolkit here, and we’ve blogged about it before, too.

Focus on consumer focus. Ultimately, we marketers are here because of customers and consumers, but the complexity of many firms’ business, our marketing plans often revolve around something else – the demands of television partners, for instance.

Kellogg’s, recognizing this, refocused its planning process to concentrate on measures of customer engagement and focus, leading to stronger, more sustainable brand growth. MLC members can see the whole case here or listen to a webinar replay.

Go ahead, curse me for getting the song stuck in your head. But there’s something important here that I think many marketers don’t realize or understand, and that’s that all this social media stuff may in fact be weakening your brand.

Typically, we hear the refrain that channel proliferation and the more information-dense lives of consumers offers companies an opportunity to reinforce – not dilute – their brands. Consumers spend greater chunks of their life connected to various information platforms and, at least so the story goes, this offers brands three things: more screen real estate to do branding, better data about which consumers to target with which branding initiatives, and more “dense”, interactive ways to experience the brand.

So, what could go wrong? One clue comes from a recent paper by Harvard Business School professor Michael Luca, who examined the effect that Yelp has on the restaurant market in Washington State. First, the good news: he found that a one-star bump in a restaurant’s Yelp rating led to a significant rise in revenue (between 5-9%). The bad news: he found that that effect did not apply to chain restaurants, and that as Yelp usage has proliferated, the market share for chain restaurants has declined.

What’s driving this? My theory is that the informational power of a strong brand is declining. Look at these two signs: Read More »

Improved technology, policy intervention, and the recession have led to broad structural changes in a number of industries we write about on Wide Angle, but probably none so much as healthcare. In the past few years, we’ve seen a major health reform effort in the US that will bring millions of new patients into the system, growing consensus around a reformation of the patent system abroad, and technological shifts that may soon allow for a very rapid scaling in diagnosis and other medical services.

So, how should marketers expect their jobs to change? We came up with a few ways; let us know more in comments! Read More »

Walt Disney World is a vacation destination beloved by many (including me).  Its themed rides, immaculately dressed characters, and song-and-dance-filled shows are hard for most brands to emulate, but there are several non-princess-based strategies marketers can use to boost their own brands: Read More »

Marketers have always found ways to grab consumers’ attention to get their message across.  But attention is scarcer than ever – given marketing message overload (ad fatigue), DVR uptake (ad skipping) and the rise of multi-tasking (lower attention/focus in general).

The latest tactics for breaking through increasingly high barriers to attention all have some serious limitations: Read More »

Editor’s note: We put this up (and in our member newsletter) prior to last night’s news that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away. We’ll have thoughts on his legacy later this week.

The following is a guest post from Robert van Alstyne, a media and technology analyst with our sister program, Iconoculture.

It’s a testament to technology’s ascendant role in pop culture that today’s Apple press conference had more consumer buzz than any new TV show this fall season. With media-saturated consumers’ tastes increasingly splintered, gadget lust is now one of the last common denominators uniting the masses.

Heading into today’s press conference, professional pundits and John Q. Public speculated wildly, debating what new treats Apple would unveil. Would we get an iPhone 5 or just a new iPhone 4? Prior to the event, rumors of a slimmer, 3X-faster iPhone 5 reached a crescendo. By the time new Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage this morning, online chatter had reached such a pitch that one colleague speculated on Twitter, “I wonder, did America stop what it was doing in, say, 1953, when the next model *car* was announced?”

In a move that disappointed some true believers, there was no iPhone 5 announcement, “just” the iPhone 4S, which will hit stores October 14. The new phone still boasts impressive hardware advancements. Among the iPhone 4S’ selling points are the ability to switch intelligently between two antennas to transmit and receive (thereby doubling data download speed), along with a serious camera upgrade. Initial online reaction was “meh,” but we’d be shocked if the 4S doesn’t sell extraordinarily well, just like its predecessor.

Right now, Apple’s main selling point is its image as a cutting-edge company, so the product details matter relatively little to the average consumer. By tirelessly turning their brand into an essential emblem of digital savvy, Apple has carved out both a cult-like following and an ever-broadening base of users. Apple’s old-guard faithful might be disappointed, and they might not “need” the latest iteration of the iPhone. But whatever the specs, in a growing number of consumers’ eyes, Apple’s latest remains a cherished status symbol, broadcasting to all that they’re in step with our fast-moving information-driven world.

MLC members, for more great Iconoculture insights, check out the selected pieces we publish each week on the latest consumer trends.

Even though the weather and leaves are just beginning to turn, and we still have to get through Columbus Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving before turning our thoughts to visions of sugarplums and eight crazy nights, marketers are hard at work figuring out ways to close the year off strong with a good holiday season.

But how should they do it, while stengthening their brand positions for the year to come? We’ve got a few tips below:

Find ways to lighten the load. For kids, the holiday season is a magical, wonderful time of presents, candy, and sometimes magical elves. For adults, though, it’s probably among the most stressful times of the year – even if the stress is likely to pay off in the form of fun with family and friends.

Great brands recognize that not only is the season particularly hectic, the very act of brand interaction might be, too. Finding ways to save consumers time and money, as well as raising the chances they’ll make the right choice when it comes to gifts, can pay dividends throughout the rest of the year.

So how does this play out practically? Offer your consumers some measures of assurance that they’re making the right choices. Some brands we’ve studied have done this through transparent buying guides – presenting consumers with a range of criteria and offering relevant gift ideas for each – while others have gone the technology route, using social networks to make gift recommendations.

Clarify the brand promise – and deliver it, 100%. There’s no better time to make sure brand promises are airtight – and delivery consistent – than the holidays. The uptick in shopping offers brands an opportunity to make a positive imprint on the consumer, but if crowd-weary shoppers aren’t satisfied with what they get, you may suffer the consequences the rest of the year.

MLC has a wealth of material designed to help companies consistently deliver their brand promises: for instance, here’s how Exxon Mobile motivated employees to consistent brand delivery, how Starbucks ensured consistent brand delivery across all touchpoints – human and not human, and how we recommend brands ensure consistent brand delivery across geographies and segments.

Find avenues of emotional differentiation. Here’s the place where brands – particularly consumer and retail brands – have a golden opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition: finding areas of shared values and ways to emotionally differentiate themselves from competitors. We’ve found, for instance, that brands that align with consumers around emotional values perform at a much higher level than brands that emphasize functional differentiators.

Luckily, emotions are running high during the holiday season, and there are a number of brands that have particularly strong associations with the holidays. Macy’s, for instance, is associated in my mind with the holidays: their sponsorship of the Thanksgiving Day parade and the movie “Miracle on 34th St.” form that association in my mind, and I’m much more likely to shop there during the holidays than at any other time.

Understand and fit into seasonal routines. Routines shift a bit during the holidays for a lot of people and families. I’d say that, on average, one is more likely to bake cookies on a random Tuesday night during December than in other months; one is more likely to visit a mall in December than in other times, one is more likely to drive around looking at tacky Christmas lights – all sorts of things.

Brands that unearth subtle shifts in consumer routines during the holidays can capitalize big on them. For instance: there’s the classic case of General Mills’ Betty Crocker brand figuring out that parents often spent the first week of the holidays doing nothing special, then felt guilty about doing so. So the brand targeted cookie-baking in the second week of the holidays, figuring this was an easy way to assuage parental guilt about not being festive enough.

MLC members, how are you shifting your brand communications mix for the holidays? Let us know in comments below.

I had the pleasure of attending Retail Advertising and Marketing Association’s CMO meeting here in DC last Thursday.  Conversation ranged from loyalty to simplifying consumer decisions (MLC presented this year’s B2C findings) to the growing economic divide in developed economy consumer populations (our friends from Iconoculture shared their insights on this topic).

But the most fireworks happened around a discussion on mobile marketing.  Sean Bartlett, the director of mobile strategy & platforms at Lowe’s, presented on recent mobile activity by that company.  What they’ve accomplished is great mobile work for marketers to emulate. The new Lowe’s app, which has been on the top download boards in the App Store, scores very well against MLC’s 11 criteria of a world-class mobile execution.

Why the fireworks? One marketing leader in attendance asked a simple question: how does Lowe’s measure the ROI on its mobile efforts?  The assumption behind the question was that Lowe’s is spending well into six digits, or even seven digits, and so how to justify the resources internally?

(light fireworks here)  The discussion quickly bounced back and forth between various other retailers in the room, several of which stated that the ROI discussion is over—that was for 5 years ago.  Consumers are moving so quickly that it’s not a question of if, but how.  One retailer shared that it had just launched m-commerce the week before, and watched as its mobile sales ticked up to 3% of total–in just 3 days!!  The CMO indicated customers must have been wondering what took the retailer so long to offer mobile purchasing.

The discussion took on a life of its own, and ultimately landed in a place that struck me as a turning point for retail marketers—if you’re obsessed with ROI to the point that it’s hampering getting some big mobile bets up and running, you’re moving too slow for your consumer.  I’m sure there are exceptions in categories that serve older generations, but by and large, the mobile train has left the station.

MLC members, score your mobile concepts against world-class criteria using our Mobile Execution scorecard.

(Our current research stream on in-store marketing for retailers and CPGs is on its way in a few months, and we’re looking for interested marketers to talk to about the topic! If you’re working on any in-store activations – shopper, mobile, etc. – please e-mail me and we’ll set up a time to chat!)

Last week, Target generated so much buzz that increased traffic shut down its website and some stores sold out of new merchandise within hours.  Surprisingly, this wasn’t a big Black Friday-style sale – it was the introduction of a new clothing line.

With e-commerce sites increasingly encroaching on bricks-and-mortar sales, retailers are being forced to innovate to keep consumers coming back to their stores.  From 2009 to 2010, e-commerce revenue increased 15.8%, while general merchandisers’ revenue increased 2.9% and department stores saw a revenue decrease of .8%.

A major factor in this shift to e-commerce is the rise of price transparency.  Before the rise of smartphones and price trackers, consumers would have to either go to many physical stores or leaf through many weekly circulars to know which stores offered the lowest prices.  Since both of these methods are incredibly time-consuming, though, consumers didn’t research the products and prices as much.  This gave retailers some wiggle room to offer slightly higher prices without alienating their shoppers.

But now, price trackers and smartphones abound.  Consumers are able to research products in-store, getting historical price information on sites like camelcamelcamel and finding cross-store location-based price information on sites like Goodzer.  And since so many shoppers have smartphones, they are now able to do this anywhere – even while standing in one retailer’s aisles, examining the product.

So what’s a retailer to do?

Make stores more of a destination experience.

One way to do this is to make the shopping experience incredibly fun, like I wrote about earlier about the American Girl Place or the World of Coca Cola.   Retailers are making their stores more novel by pursuing strategies like launching lines of unique merchandise (like Target’s Missoni example above), while others are hosting classes and events (like Home Depot’s Kids Workshops).  These unique products and classes can intrigue shoppers enough to get them into the store, and they will often buy more things once they are there.

Several retailers are also adding departments that feature products that can’t be or aren’t yet often purchased online.  For examples, health clinics can encourage shoppers to come to the store.  Since most visitors to a health clinic will pick up little things like cough drops and medicine on their way out, these health clinics can help increase both foot traffic and sales.  Groceries, too, can help increase foot traffic.  Since most grocery products have relatively short shelf lives, most consumers go shopping on a weekly basis, boosting foot traffic.

Use technology like mobile alerts and coupons.

New technologies like Shopkick can reward consumers for going into a store by providing points and coupons.  These points for checking in may be enough to actually get to the store, and the coupons may be enough to get them to buy more once they are there.

Take the store to the shoppers.

This summer, H&M successfully took its merchandise to the consumers by building a beachfront pop-up store that sold summer clothes and accessories, like shorts, swimsuits, and sundresses.  Shoppers were able to buy the beach gear and use it almost instantly.  This model increases foot traffic by significantly reducing the effort shoppers must exert to get to the store.

Other retailers are doing this by building smaller locations that cater to local shoppers.  This is taking the form of City Target, a store under construction that will be in a historic building to blend in with the nearby streetscape, and it will feature products like apartment furnishings to cater to neighborhood shoppers.

We have just begun our 2011 research on ways to boost foot traffic.  If have any ideas on how retailers should do this, please email me at colong@executiveboard.com to get involved!

At MLC we’re always scouting all things marketing. As I was reading through a list of top 100 global brands for 2010, published by brand agency Millward Brown, I couldn’t help but notice that 6 of the top 10 brands were from the technology industry. What has made technology brands such a runaway success? Are there any marketing lessons we could take from technology companies?

One could argue that technology has become omnipresent and all pervasive in our lives, and it’s natural that technology brands are likely to enjoy higher brand equity. On the flip side, technology brands also operate in an environment of fast paced competition, shortened product life cycles, and a lingering threat of obsolesce. The intense rivalry among technology companies today makes it ever harder for these companies to compete on product attributes – the conventional approach used earlier.

The question then arises, how can technology companies differentiate their marketing and stand out? I examined 4 successful global campaigns from the world of technology, and here is what we can learn from them:

Make it about the customer, not you: Technology companies may be tempted to over-emphasize the technical aspects, and superiority of their products. While this serves good fodder for the tech-geeks, the average buyer is often unimpressed. Through their More You campaign, Dell computers have helped buyers understand what their product can help them do. The practical approach has pushed up Dell’s brand perception to the top spot in the 18-34 year age group.

Ensure your tagline is what you really do: When recession hit, IBM suffered reduced business growth. Conventional technology marketing didn’t get the company new clients. Introspection of what the company really did, helped IBM come up with Let’s Create a Smarter Planet campaign, which reflected the business IBM was really in. The upfront value proposition had high resonance, and won the campaign a Gold Effie Award in 2010.

Empower the customer: Technology buyers may feel threatened and overwhelmed by the uses they can put the technology to. With its Power to You campaign, Vodafone lets customers take charge of their phone, and allows them the flexibility of designing their own experience on its network. Vodafone presents an empathetic human face to an essentially technical offering. In many markets, such as Ghana, the campaign won Vodafone new customers.

Transcreate (not translate): Apple’s simplistic messaging in all its campaigns has a universal appeal, ever wonder why? Definitely not for minimalistic jargon, and powerful use of simplistic imagery, but for using these in a way that connects the audience to it. Apple transcreates it’s messages, and not just translates them. Transcreation is a process of capturing the essence and spirit of a message, transforming it into one that is locally relevant and meaningful (see an Apple example here).

These campaigns would have never been possible without a strong global marketing organization. MLC members, our work on Structuring for Global Success provides guidance on organization design for global marketing success.