EXPERIENCES & BRANDING

Social Media is here to stay

2010-08-02T20:12:00.001-07:00

Just consider some of these numbers for a second...

Facebook now has 500 million members..

There are over 3 billion mobile phones in the world- and anyone who doesn't believe Google won't play a part in this new world had better think again, Android shipments for Q1 2010 grew by a staggering 851% in the US.

Twitter has just recorded its 20 billionth Tweet, that's 2 months after it reached 15 billion and five months after it reached 10 billion.

These numbers are huge and should send shivers down the spines of anyone who is trying to capture the attention of consumers by conventional means and it's now starting to show.

Data from the latest Nielsen survey shows that time spent on social media increased by over 40% in the past year.

It's time to stop considering social and mobile as niche additions to media plans if budgets allow and to move them up to the front and center of your thinking.

(From Influx updates)

2010 Banding Trends

2010-01-05T19:43:00.000-08:00

Niels Bohr once noted that "prediction is very difficult, especially about the future," but then he didn't have access to predictive loyalty metrics. Happily, we do. And, as they measure the direction and velocity of consumer values 12 to 18 months in advance of the marketplace and consumer articulations of category needs and expectations, they identify future trends with uncanny accuracy.

Having examined these measures, we offer 10 trends for marketers for 2010 that will have direct consequences to the success - or failure – of next year's branding and marketing efforts.

1) Value is the new black

Consumer spending, even on sale items, will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. This spells trouble for brands with no authentic meaning, whether high-end or low.

2) Brands increasingly a surrogate for "value"

What makes goods and services valuable will increasingly be what's wrapped up in the brand and what it stands for. Why J Crew instead of The Gap? J Crew stands for a new era in careful chic --being smart and stylish. The first family's support of the brand doesn't hurt either.

3) Brand differentiation is Brand Value

The unique meaning of a brand will increase in importance as generic features continue to plague the brand landscape. Awareness as a meaningful market force has long been obsolete, and differentiation will be critical for success --meaning sales and profitability.

4) "Because I Said So" is so over

Brand values can be established as a brand identity, but they must believably exist in the mind of the consumer. A brand can't just say it stands for something and make it so. The consumer will decide, making it more important than ever for a brand to have measures of authenticity that will aid in brand differentiation and consumer engagement.

5) Consumer expectations are growing

Brands are barely keeping up with consumer expectations now. Every day consumers adopt and devour the latest technologies and innovations, and hunger for more. Smarter marketers will identify and capitalize on unmet expectations. Those brands that understand where the strongest expectations exist will be the brands that survive - and prosper.

6) Old tricks don't work/won't work anymore

In case your brand didn't get the memo here it is -consumers are on to brands trying to play their emotions for profit. In the wake of the financial debacle of this past year, people are more aware then ever of the hollowness of bank ads that claim "we're all in this together" when those same banks have rescinded their credit and turned their retirement plan into case studies. The same is true for insincere celebrity pairings: think Seinfeld & Microsoft or Tiger Woods & Buick. Celebrity values and brand values need to be in concert, like Tiger Woods & Accenture. That's authenticity.

7) They won't need to know you to love you

As the buying space becomes even more online-driven and international (and uncontrolled by brands and corporations), front-end awareness will become less important. A brand with the right street cred can go viral in days, with awareness following, not leading, the conversation. After all, everybody knows GM, but nobody's buying their cars.

8) It's not just buzz

Conversation and community is all; ebay thrives based on consumer feedback. If consumers trust the community, they will extend trust to the brand. Not just word of mouth, but the right word of mouth within the community. This means the coming of a new era of customer care.

9) They're talking to each other before talking to the brand

Social Networking and exchange of information outside of the brand space will increase. Look for more websites using Facebook Connect to share information with the friends from those sites. More companies will become members of Linkedin. Twitter users will spend more money on the Internet than those who don't tweet.

10) Engagement is not a fad; It's the way today's consumers do business

Marketers will come to accept that there are four engagement methods including Platform (TV; online), Context (Program; webpage), Message (Ad or Communication), and Experience (Store/Event). But there is only one objective for the future: Brand Engagement. Marketers will continue to realize that attaining real brand engagement is impossible using out-dated attitudinal models.

Accommodating these trends will require a paradigm change on the parts of some companies. But whether a brand does something about it or not, the future is where it's going to spend the rest of its life. How long that life lasts is up to the brand, determined by how it responds to today's reality.

Contributed by: Robert Passikoff, President, Brand Keys

How important is the CEO to your Branding Efforts?

2008-05-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

Many a times when I companies, they send in a junior executive to do their work and later on the CEO is never really involved in the process. I always stress this. Everyone needs to be on board a branding exercise, most importantly the CEO who needs to walk the talk and live the brand for all to see. Communications consultant Bob Lamons says, "The CEO needs to be the No. 1 brand champion. No exceptions. No extenuating circumstances. Is she resists accepting this responsibility, the company will suffer."

I remember going in for a meeting recently with an organisation which had its brand values as Passionate, Fun, Dynamic & Empowering. In the meeting with the CEO and his team I observed that the staff were terrified of him. They were scared to talk back to him. The entire meeting was filled with fear and tension which was personified but a tough, tyrant like CEO. So much for the brand values which were not seen in the staff and definitely not in the CEO.

So the key thing to take note is that everyone in the organisation needs to be aligned to the Brand DNA of the organisation. NO BUTS!. They must project the values of the organisation through the right On Brand Behavior and they need to live the brand in across all their touchpoints including meetings, emails, customers meetings etc.

Contact me at jerome@thebrandtheatre.net for more information on how you can align your branding internally.

What is Branding?

2008-05-14T05:17:00.000-07:00

1. The process of creating and enhancing the brand assets beyond the product or service itself

2. Leveraging an organization’s personality to create a customer relationship

3. Delivering what’s promised, or more, but never less

4. Differentiation from competition

5. Built over time

6. Perception

7. A million gestures all adding up create a brand experience

Happy New Year to All

2008-01-14T02:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

A Happy New Year to all! Thank you for being part of our Journey! We look forward to Performing with all of you down the road. Take care and God Bless always.

Here are 3 branding trends for 2008 which you should be aware of when you bring in the New Year:

1. Engagement: There will be more emphasis on Brand Engagement and rightly so. Brand Engagement measures and metrics will be put into place as well. When you consider the power of today’s “bionic” consumers, born hot-wired into the internet with an iPod in one hand and a TiVo controller in the other, engaging them will be the only way of guaranteeing loyalty and profitability.

2. More “brands” will become “Category Placeholders.” As brands become more and more enamored with and enmeshed in “new” media like social networking and messages beamed into consumers’ living rooms from outer space, marketers need to ensure that their brands actually stand for something in the mind of the consumer.

3. Marketing and Branding will become more touch point focused and personalised. Key considerations:a) which touchpoint best reinforces brand values;
b) where the brand + media equation yields real engagement;
c) where the plan is seamless, believable, personalised, and authentic.

Experientially yours,

Management & Staff of:

The Brand Theatre Team – www.thebrandtheatre.net

The Brand Theatre was formed to create access to a sole experiential brand agency that can create and communicate a brand idea innovatively and experientially in everything your business does across the communication spectrum both internally and externally. We want to connect to your audience across all touch points, from end to end, by providing them with memorable brand experiences.

The Brand One Team – www.brandone.us

Brand One is a full service Corporate Brand & People Training Agency. Our entire business philosophy is helping people and organisations become successful as brands through training. Brand One offers programs and training in the areas of Personal Branding, Experience Branding and Internal Branding.

The 2 models of Experience Marketing

2007-09-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

We are rapidly moving into a landscape where there will only be two models of experience marketing communication:

1. An entertainment-based model where marketers work hard to breakthrough the clutter. The goal is to raise awareness and to get people to like you.

2. A utility-based model the brand provides something useful, good and meaningful to its consumers and perhaps the world beyond. Instead of just running regular ads, they are big idea platforms that inspire, encourage engagement and give something back.

If you don't do either of these, you will die. The "shouting" benefits model of marketing communication is about to become as extinct as a dodo.So the challenge for brands that operate is to understand how they get to entertainment and/or utility.The secret is the same as it has always been.It's all about having a disciplined strategic process that allows you to uncover the big idea.Something that allows you to stand for something that's way bigger than yourself or your category.Once you have it, the opportunities become boundless.It's a place that comes from a brand truth but expands way beyond that. It can be like Nike's philosophical, entertaining Warrior Spirit ethos in the form of its competitions and sponsorship just to name a few or Kit Kats entertaining and fun "Take break, Have a Kit Kat" campaign.

Contact me :jerome@thebrandtheatre.net for more information on the above topics be in creating experience campaigns for your business or in training.

Top 10 Branding Trends Globally

2007-07-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

Branding strategies and marketing mix have entered a new era and every day each company is trying new technique to establish its brand value. Although, each brand tries a different approach to establish its value, nevertheless, there are few branding techniques that are popular world wide. These techniques are adopted worldwide and give same results irrespective of place, people, cultural background, demographics, etc.

Experiential marketing strategy has given spectacular results worldwide. The world’s top brand is Google with a brand value of $66,434 million adopts viral marketing as its main marketing tool. Amazon, Apple, LEGO, Harley Davidson are others who have been generating word of mouth with their blogs. Blogs for these companies are not maintained by their owners but people are talking about them, fans of Harley Davidson are readily talking about their experiences and are all ready to give an advice to fellow blogger. Slowly, the consumers are driving the market and making news. EBay is yet anther example after Amazon that has established itself because of a branded customer experience. Even those who may have never shopped from or sold at eBay know about it. The main reason being, they know someone who had had a great experience at the website.

Franchisees are flourishing in United States and in most part of the worlds. Each day they account for more and more retails sales all across the world. Subway is celebrating a global reputation since past 40 years of quick restaurant service offering fresh, tasty, healthier alternative to traditionally fatty fast foods. The main branding strategy of Subway has been designed after keeping in mind that it needs to be transfered through franchises.

Another trend for branding success is to adopt to the cultures to sell more. Google, MSN, Yahoo, eBay, UPS, DHL, Citibank, all have websites and their landing pages which are country specific. It is important to offer local news, local feel as per the culture and pieces of information that affect the people locally. Offers from Citibank in US would hardly matter to those in Singapore or in England. Similarly, MSN news from US or UK would be of little interest in Malaysia or UAE. All these websites have their homepages customized which are exclusively country specific.

Customer is the king. Companies specifically address customer specific issues. Supermarket aisles are laden with multiple options for the same product. Pringles, Lays, Uncle Chipps all compete within the same segment but all each has rolled out an option for people with choices of tomato, onions, cheese or plain salted flavors. They brands have marked their presence and hold a strong presence worldwide. Starbucks creates the beverage as per the consumer choice. Nike allows you to design your own shoe online.

Negative PR also stands to create a wave and makes a long lasting impression. Big Brother for racist comments on its show, Wal-Mart and Nike for abuse of foreign workers, Call centers across the shores, all hold out on Negative PR.

The product should be more than just a showpiece on the supermarket shelves. Now the companies should have a cause or they must have a stand on the issue. No matter what you think of Fox News but you have a fairly good idea where it stands on issues. Ben & Jerry’s is more than an ice-cream. The company has a cause thus it has a brand value.

Quick Tip: There is no one shortcut to create world wide brand. Let the consumer experience the brand and offer him a customized product. Negative PR can also act as one of your branding strategies.

Special Events LA conference

2007-02-13T22:59:00.000-08:00

Had a great session at the Special Events Congress 2007. Spoke on how to create brand experiences in Asia. Session was very fulfilling and participants really enjoyed the workshop.

Manage to catch some other speakers as well as some of the specially created events. The opening ceremony was amazing and a showcase of creativity, energy and talent.

The ceremony was themed ignite. The opening ceremony started with everyone being give a light stick. The stage had numerous plasmas showing a burning flame. The entire room had a red glow to it. The event kicked off with 2 mascots who were so funny. The "detonated" a fake bomb to start the event proper and boy was it a showcase of amazing talents. Acrobats, singers, high wire acts, bands all merged to create the ignite experience.

Event ended with 2 keynote speakers who used juggling as a means of promoting teamwork.

There were plenty more events in this amazing conference and I am glad I was part of it.

More to come.

You never know?

2006-12-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

The things they say ...The things the've said in the past:

1) "The average American family hasn't time for television."The New York Times, 1939

2) "It's a great invention but who would want to use it anyway?"President Rutherford B. Hayes after a demonstration of Bell's telephone

3) "The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most."IBM to the founders of Xerox, 1959

4) "There will never be a mass market for motor cars - about 1,000 in Europe - because that is the limit on the number of chauffeurs available!"Spokesman for Daimler Benz

5) "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."Ken Olson, President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977.

The things tehy're saying now:

6) "I think if I was Procter & Gamble, I'd be buying billboard space. A lot of it."Professor Nicholas Negroponte, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994

7) "Supermarkets have replaced TV as the delivery channel for a mass audience. If I want to get my message across to 70% of British households it is obviously going to be more cost-effective to run display ends in major retailers than to purchase overpriced breaks in a soap."Andrew Harrison, Marketing Director, Nestle Rowntree, UK, September 2002

8) "It [the Internet] is, beyond question, the fastest growth curve of a fundamental change in society. And almost everybody will have to get used to it."Bill Gates, April 2000

9) "The web is a very socialistic, almost communistic force. It attacks traditional ways of doing things and elites, and this is very uncomfortable for traditional businesses to deal with."Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP, UK, April 2000

Empathy for the Brand

2006-12-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

Just the other day in class as I was lecturing this word struck me as being very profound despite the fact that we hear it so often. That word was Empathy. There is a saying: Never criticise a man till you have have walked a thousand miles in his shoes." I think this one word sums up what Brand Experience is all about. It is about really understanding what your target audience wants, needs, desires and doing something about it. Very profound indeed ... Empathy.

I will be speaking at the Special Events Congress 2007

2006-12-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

I will be speaking at the 2007 Special Events Congress on the area of Brand Experiences in Asia. With over 6000 people attending the congress, this makes it one of the largest conventions ever. Watch this space for more information and Congress highlights.

The 5th P of Marketing - People - Create Brand Ambassadors of your people

2006-12-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

The name of the game for any brand manager today is romancing the customer with a view to establishing a long-term relationship. Relationship, not product, is key. Relationships bind, have duration, foster loyalty, create repeat sales. The sum total of millions of relationships is a priceless asset that never appears on the brand balance sheet, but given the tremendous cost of customer acquisition, it is a foundation of profitability. One-night stands are expensive; companies need to marry customers, preferably for life.

Marketing 101 reduces the main determinants of customer loyalty to the familiar Four Ps: Product, Place, Promotion and Price. These are all critical factors, but marketing orthodoxy is myopic, for reasons that are often lodged right in the structure and culture of corporations. The result is that a fifth P is typically left out of the reckoning: People. Specifically, I mean the people who actually deal with the customer during any part of the transaction. The delivery of the brand promise often happens by human agency at the point of sale and proceeds through service, complaint and resale. Yet marketers, who have the bottom-line responsibility for brand health, rarely focus on the Fifth P.

Why this neglect? In part it's because this Fifth P manifests itself far from marketing headquarters, and a corporation's customer-facing employees are not often the responsibility of brand managers but are instead relegated to what is usually called human resources.

Adding a fifth P may sound easy, but organizational rigidity stands in the way. The CEO must demand that top-level marketing and human resource teams share insights and develop a permanent program that accounts for the employee in the brand equation.

If you need help aligning people to your Brand, contact Jerome@thebrandtheatre.net for help with your internal branding process.

Beyond Customer Satisfaction

2006-12-01T02:37:00.000-08:00

In his groundbreaking research, management consultant and author, Fredrick Reichheld, discovered just how customers react to their
suppliers today. Reichheld’s research is summarized in the book Beyond Customer Satisfaction to Customer Loyalty and points out the following dramatic economic impact, both negative and positive, that customers have on the financial success of the firm:
• 15 to 40 percent of customers who say they are “satisfied” defect from a company each year

• It costs five to seven times more to find newcustomers than to retain current customers.
• 98 percent of dissatisfied customers never complain – they just switch to other competitors.
On the up side:
• “Totally satisfied” customers are six times more likely to repurchase a company’s products over a span of one to two years
than merely satisfied customers.
• A 5 percent reduction in customer defection can result in profit increases from 30 to 85 percent.
• If companies increase their customer retention by 2 percent, it is the equivalent of cutting their operating expenses by 10
percent (Bhote, 1996).
Based on Reichheld’s research across a variety of industries, businesses should be pinpointing that which satisfies its customers – on an
individual basis. But this level of satisfaction is difficult given the individual values and needs of each person with whom a company has an
interaction. I believe, however, that there are a few key areas that a business can focus on in order to more effectively manage its
customer relationships for the overall success of the business – and for the total satisfaction of the customer.

When a customer buys a good or service,many factors certainly influence that purchasing decision. The bottom line is, however, a
customer buys a product or service when his or her expectations have been met, or exceeded, in terms of the offering and the personalized attention of a firm’s employees.

Businesses that do not meet customer expectations on a consistent basis do not survive in the long run, especially in this day and age of competition and advertising clutter.

Create a Branded Differentiation for your Customer Experience to create a memorable and differentiated brand that will turn customers into advocates.

For more information on my Branded Customer Experience Programs please have a look at www.brandone.us or contact me at jerome@brandone.us

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

2006-12-01T02:06:00.000-08:00

I did an interesting debate in my lecture the other day. I asked which is the most powerful Communication function. This are the results. Out of the 30 students. 10 voted Advertising, 10 voted PR, 5 voted Events, 3 voted Direct Marketing, 2 voted Sales Promotion while 1 was undecided. This is my take. All these tools are powerful. A marketer has to adopt a Strategic outlook ... which tool will best serve his needs to achieve maximum ROI.

My class however persisted. Pick one, pick one. So I told them. If it had to be 1. I would pick Internet Marketing as the most powerful communication tool right now. More thoughts on this later ...

Cheers

Jerome

Question – what makes experential marketing different from other marketing?

2006-11-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Question – What makes experential marketing different from other marketing?

My friend Tim Roux from Mud Brand Community asks me to critique this article and this is the final result. Here is the final article for you to read which can be found Tim's MV site.

Experiential marketing is so named in that it taps all the senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, movement, linguistic etc.) at the same time in order to impart a profound communications experence to a selected, influential audience.

Key action pointsExperiential marketing is what B2B marketers do naturally, and what consumer marketers are catching onto, with the realisation that you only need a few highly influential people to get your message across.In their ordinary marketing activities, B2B marketers will talk to customers, visit them, set up trade shows and live new product launches, do exhibitions within customer sites, promote themselves within the trade press, and cultivate key influencers (such as government officials, NGOs etc.).Which is as easily said as done if you are only addressing a limited community, but what happens when you are a consumer brand marketer addressing millions? You cannot meet all your customers!However, if you learn from the disciplines of NLP (neural linguistic programming) and The Tipping Point, you can potentially get the same effect by engaging some critically influential people in a truly memorable experience.

The psychological NLP school is the one that publicised the notion that only 10% of the impact of a communication is based on words. 90% of communication relies on other communications channels, and especially body movement and posture. For instance, where you look is important. Looking up suggests intellectualism, looking directly forward is assertive, looking down suggests shiftiness and/or depression. If you speak in short, crisp sentences, you label yourself as a leader. If you speak in long, articulate sentences, you position yourself as an academic.The Tipping Point argued that only a very few people are needed to spread an epidemic. Its author, Malcolm Gladwell, cited several small-scale actions that have had global effects, such as the spread of venereal disease, the Paul Revere’s ride to spark the American Revolution, and the sudden resurgence of Hush Puppies.

Marrying these two thoughts with experiential learning, experiential marketing attempts to identify the key influencers on your target customer audience, and to involve them in a live real or virtual event which energises them to spread the word to thousands and millions of people.It is therefore also closely related to the concepts of “viral marketing” and “buzz marketing”.In more detail ….NLP research suggests that although we all want to describe our products & services in interminable and loving detail, few people are willing to read it, and even fewer are capable of doing so.

The same thing goes for presentations. From a presentation lasting 1.5 hours, we will take away, at most, three thoughts.In order to get your message across memorably, you need to use a blend of channels. As human beings, we like pictures and visual imagery (thus all the “visual candy” on TV, websites and magazines). We also like people’s voices and other enticing sounds (try watching a film without a soundtrack, e.g. the recent “War of the Worlds”). We memorise smells, without much ability to analyse them (e.g. essence of roasted chicken wafted around supermarkets). Our brains are instinctively attracted to movement.So, if you want to get people up and motivated, bombard them multi-sensory inputs, preferably in an appropriate context (memory is context-dependent). That is the live event accounted for.But you cannot get all your millions of consumers into one event, typically, although Live Aid!, “Run the World” and “Make Poverty History” did just that virtually.What you need to do, therefore, is to select for the event those few people who will get your message across effectively, efficiently and economically to the millions.

According to The Tipping Point analysis, you need three types of people:“Mavens” – thought leaders (e.g. celebrities, journalists, fashionistas)“Connectors” – people who know lots of other people, and make it their pastime to talk to them (bloggers would be one example)“Salespeople” – people who are good at persuading others to try thingsGet these types of people to an event, fire them up, and set them loose. That is the fundamental concept of experiential marketing. You then want to keep them informed of developments through repeat events, websites, magazines, e-mails etc..Another, old-fashioned, example of experiential marketing, is the massed rally – a march, food and drink, speeches, and entertainment. Participants to the rally then go off and tell people all about it, write about it, and the event itself provokes news coverage and punditry.The bonus is that those people attending an experiential marketing event are also considerably more likely to buy your product / service, and more quickly.

Some tips on developing an experiential marketing event:
- define your target audience
- define your objectives for the event
- decide how to measure/track your objectives
- identify the people who are most influential with your target audience:thought leaders socialisers persuaders
- develop the strategy for the event, bearing in mind the full range of your brand identity:central organising thought of
personality
Values
Stories
Culture
emotional benefits
hard benefits
- develop key messages for the event, based on both rational and emotional persuaders. These messages must be absolutely authentic, and enthuse the target audience to evangelise your brand and its messages on your behalf .
- decide how the key messages and brand identity can be communicated multisensorially
- define the event, ensuring that the location/space is the most appropriate for the target audience(s)- pre-publicise the event in the national/trade press, on the web, through PR etc..
- manage the event- publicise the event- follow up the event with mechanisms to keep people informed of developments

For more information on experiential marketing please contact me or if you want Tim's email I would gladly provide it to you.

Great Experiential Ideas 1

2006-11-28T09:09:00.000-08:00

Recently saw some great Experiential Branding Ideas in play. Whats so great about these ideas is that there are cheap, creative and engaging.

1. Trying out a Watch

2. Ribbed Condoms Anyone?

3. Say Ahhhhh!

As you can tell these ideas are lots of fun and easy to implement. Big part of my business is coming out with ideas like this so drop me a line and let me know what I can do for you.

Cheers

Jerome

Experiential Brand Strategist

2006-11-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog where I will share with you my ideas on Branding, Experiential Branding/Marketing, Strategic Brand Communication both on a consultancy level and training level.

My Name is Jerome Joseph. I am the author of 3 books on Branding. One book focusing on Experience Branding, one on Personal Branding and the last one on Branded Customer Experience. I am an experienced practitioner and trainer in this area. My Training topics include : Internal Branding, Personal Branding, Branded Customer Experience & Experience Branding

Have a look at my agencies & personal site:

My Brand Consultancy- The Brand Theatre: www.thebrandtheatre.net
My Corporate Brand Training agency - Brand One: www.brandone.us
My Personal Site: www.jeromejoseph.com

Here is a quick Summary of Me:

About Jerome Joseph-

Over the last few years, Jerome has been a key catalyst in expanding management focus to Branding and to wider and strategic issue of Brand Experiences. He has developed some of the latest thinking and practice around this subject, focusing in particular on how organisations can achieve brand differentiation and long-term customer loyalty through brand experiences.

Having consulted more than 1000 organizations and speaking to companies around the world, Jerome preaches bold, innovative "out of the box" experience marketing and integrated brand communication strategies to build and grow your brand both externally and internally. Jerome Joseph works with management teams to grasp the nature of the emerging functions of the Experience Mindset and envision their role in it - whether it be staging brand experiences or guiding brand transformations. Jerome has worked with global companies like DHL, Standard Chartered, Great Eastern, Microsoft, Singtel, AIA, Montblanc, Spring Singapore, National Speakers Association of America, Civil Aviations Authority Singapore, Scanteak, Sky Blue Airlines, Malaysian Airlines among many to create unforgettable brand experiences.

Jerome Joseph is part of the International Speaking Federation and conducts keynotes, customized training programs and seminars on a regular basis for organizations around the world focusing on Experience Marketing, Customer Experiences, Internal Branding, Personal Branding, Brand Strategy workshops and Integrated Brand Communication Strategies.

Jerome is also a visiting lecturer for Communication, Marketing and Business programs at Thames and Management Development Institute Singapore as well as for various universities such as Edith Cowan University (Australia, Perth), Southern Cross University (Australia, Victoria), University of Southern Queensland (Australia, Queensland), Oklahoma University (USA).

Key Areas of Knowledge

1. Brand Research/Analysis – Creation of Proprietary Brand Audit Tools, Analysing Data, Brand Discovery Workshops
2. Brand Strategy – Implementing Brand Platform/Strategy/Positioning/Identity
3. Experiential Marketing/Branding – Proprietary Experiential Filters
4. Internal Branding – Development of an Internal Branding Process/Training
5. Customer Experience Management
6. Strategic Brand Communication –
a. Advertising – TVC, Print
b. Public Relations/Promotions
c. Experiential Events
d. Design
e. Interactive Online/Multimedia
f. Promotions
g. Video Production
h. Guerrilla/Ambient Marketing

You may contact me at jerome@jeromejoseph.com for more information or enquiries.

Speaker Insights on the Global Brand Forum

2006-11-28T08:15:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to Share some insights gained at the Global Brand Forum. I have included this information in my next ezine which goes out but I thought you might like to have a look at some of their content.

The speakers included David Aaker (my idol), Jack Trout, Faith Popcorn, Martin Lindstorm as well as some industry speakers.

Professor Aaker

Speaking Style: Academic, Lecture driven, Content Heavy, Monotone

Key Learning Points:

Aaker spoke about Brand Imperatives to Build your Brand. He focused on 3 key areas:

1. How to Differentiate your brand
Here he provided suggestions such as creating differentiated personalities, how to use People, programs and values to create differntiation as well as introducing the tactics of Branded and Co-Branded Differtiators.

2. How to Energised your brand
In this area he talked about Branded energisers. A branded energizer is a sub brand or brand that energisers or enhances a parent brand. Some suggestions included new energizer products, programs and external brand energizers. Brand Energisers look at developing a brand long term that is part of the product portfolio that can create energy and link them with the Brand. He talked about using the right Brand Extension to leverage on the Brand and provide visibility for it.

3. Relevance for your target
He then focused on relevance and stressed the importance in making something your customer wants to buy. He talked about Trend Drivers and Trend Neglectors as ways to be in touch with your target market.

Jack Trout

Speaking Style: Hard Hitting, Brash, Dramatic

Key Learning Points:

Trout talked about Positioning. He focused on the importance of positioning and perceptions. He then focused on differentiation. Some strategies he provided were:

1. Diff via attributes
2. Diff via Source (how it was created)
3. Diff by being 1st
4. Diff by being the Latest
5. Diff via Leadership
6. Diff as a "Specialist"

He then went on to talk about Strategy and he focus on War methaphor in Branding Strategy. Some ideas he had were:

1. Defense Warfare to defend your Number 1 position in the market and to block competition.
2. Offense Warfare to focus on competitors weakness and exploit it
3. Flanking Warfare where pursuit is critical. You can flank by price, distribution, size etc
4. Guerilla Warfare where you find a segment and defend it, be felxible and set your own rules.

Hope you found this useful. For more information contact jerome@brandone.us or jerome@jeromejoseph.com