The Truth About Best Branding Practices (Collection)

Michael R. Solomon, Ph.D. is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Consumer Research in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He is also Professor of Consumer Behaviour at the Manchester School of Business, The University of Manchester, U.K. Professor Solomon’s primary research interests include consumer behavior and lifestyle issues, branding strategy, symbolic aspects of products, psychology of fashion, decoration, and image, services marketing, and the development of visually oriented online research methodologies. Professor Solomon has been recognized as one of the 15 most widely cited scholars in the academic behavioral sciences and fashion literature and as one of the 10 most productive scholars in the field of advertising and marketing communications. His textbook, Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being, published by Prentice Hall, is widely used in universities throughout North America, Europe, and Australia and is now in its eighth edition.    In addition to his academic activities, Professor Solomon is a frequent contributor to mass media. His feature articles have appeared in magazines such as Psychology Today, Gentleman’s Quarterly, and Savvy. He has been quoted in numerous national magazines and newspapers, including Allure, Elle, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Mirabella, Newsweek, The New York Times, Self, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on television and radio to comment on consumer behavior issues, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, Channel One, Inside Edition, Newsweek on the Air, The Wall Street Journal Radio Network, the Entrepreneur Sales and Marketing show, the WOR Radio Network, and National Public Radio. Professor Solomon provides input as a marketing consultant to a variety of organizations on issues related to consumer behavior, branding, services marketing, retailing, and advertising. He frequently speaks to business organizations around the world about new trends in consumer behavior.    Dr. Brian D. Till is the Steber Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Marketing Department at Saint Louis University. He holds a B.S. in Advertising and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. His Ph.D. is from the University of South Carolina. At Saint Louis University, he teaches primarily marketing strategy and advertising courses to M.B.A. students. His research is in the areas of celebrity endorsements, associative learning, and brand equity. He has published in Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Sport Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Product & Brand Management, and Psychology & Marketing. Dr. Till serves on the editorial review boards of Journal of Advertising and Psychology & Marketing.   Prior to his university career, Dr. Till worked in brand management at Purina. He continues to serve as a marketing strategy and advertising consultant. Previous clients include Energizer, Monsanto, AT&T, Boa Construction, Charter Communication, Concordia Publishing House, Squeaky Clean Car Wash, and Medicine Shoppe International. He is active in the community, with recent nonprofit board appointments with the Stella Maris Child Center (where he recently completed four years as board president) and Forest ReLeaf of Missouri. Dr. Till is also a founding principal of the Brand Cartography Group, a market research firm that specializes in research designed to provide strategic insight into the structure of brands.   Donna Heckler is the Brand Strategy Lead for Monsanto, where she leads the company in its brand building and brand portfolio management. Ms Heckler has a B.A. in Zoology from DePauw University and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Indiana University.   Ms. Heckler has provided strategic brand guidance for a variety of firms. She has worked for Energizer Batteries to lead brand efforts both domestically and internationally. She led the brand marketing domestically and internationally for a division of Cardinal Health. She also led brand activities for Kimball Office.   Ms. Heckler had a brand strategy consulting firm for a number of years, where she supported such clients as The Clorox Company, Emerson Electric, Maritz, Inc., The American Red Cross, and Ralston Purina.   Ms. Heckler is actively involved in the community and supports a number of art institutions. She currently serves on the Alumni Board for the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She is a board member for the Center for Brand Leadership and The International Institute of Greater St. Louis. She also sits on the Alumni Board for Indiana University.      William S. Kane is a highly accomplished human resources executive with experience in all aspects of global functional management. He has specific expertise in leading, planning, and executing the human capital strategy associated with profitable business transformations, including startups, large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and enterprise-wide stabilization and repositioning. Bill has held senior positions for a variety of multinational industrial leaders, such as International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., Electrolux/ Frigidaire, and FMC Corporation... companies with sales volumes ranging from $250 million to $17 billion, with more than 100,000 employees. He’s presently the vice president of human resources and general administration for Kyowa Pharmaceutical in Princeton, NJ.  Bill is an adjunct professor in the MAOB graduate-level certificate program in leadership studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University, as well as a frequent guest lecturer at Montclair State University and at Rutgers University. His professional memberships include the New Jersey Human Resources Planning Group (NJHRPG), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the national Academy of Management (AOM). He’s also a mentor in the nationally recognized leadership program for Women Unlimited and in the Beyond the Banks executive program at Rutgers College. Bill’s perspective on matters of corporate responsibility and human resources has been featured in USA Today, National Business Employment Weekly, and The Financial Times. He has also appeared at New Jersey gubernatorial press conferences, New Jersey congressional hearings, and at forums sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Labor and the New Jersey Network. Bill is currently studying for his Ph.D. in human and organization development at the Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. As an extension of his academic efforts, Bill has collaborated with John Wooden, UCLA’s Coach Emeritus, and Andy Hill, authors of the best-selling book Be Quick But Don’t Hurry, to create and conduct management training seminars for corporate clients, civic groups, and students seeking to lead their teams toward optimized and sustained performance (www.woodenwayleadership.com). Bill holds three master’s degrees: an MA from Fielding in human and organization development, and an MBA in management and an MA in organizational psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He earned his undergraduate degree from Rutgers College. Bill is a resident of Westfield, New Jersey. He may be contacted at wmskane@aol.com.

A. The Truth About Creating Brands People Love

TRUTH 1 Managing brands is not common sense

TRUTH 2 No one loves your brand as much as you love it

TRUTH 3 The brand is not owned by marketing; everyone owns it

TRUTH 4 Making more by doing less

TRUTH 5 Does your brand keep its promise?

TRUTH 6 Price is the communication of the value of your brand

TRUTH 7 Brand personality is the emotional connection with your brand

TRUTH 8 Does your sales force know the difference between a product and a brand?

TRUTH 9 Beware of the discounting minefield

TRUTH 10 Packaging protects your product; great packaging protects your brand

TRUTH 11 Brand management is association management

TRUTH 12 The retail experience is the brand experience

TRUTH 13 Corporate ego: Danger ahead

TRUTH 14 Brand metrics: Best measure of success?

TRUTH 15 Customer complaints are a treasure

TRUTH 16 Brand stewardship begins at home

TRUTH 17 Market share doesn’t matter

TRUTH 18 Avoid the most common segmentation mistake

TRUTH 19 Public relations and damage control: The defining moment

TRUTH 20 Focus equals simplicity

TRUTH 21 Marketing is courtship, not combat

TRUTH 22 Don’t sacrifice brand focus for sales

TRUTH 23 The medium is not the message; the message is the message

TRUTH 24 Brand development and the small business

TRUTH 25 Imitation is an ineffective form of flattery

TRUTH 26 Positioning lives in the mind of your target customer

TRUTH 27 The value of brand loyalty

TRUTH 28 Quality is not an effective branding message

TRUTH 29 Effective use of celebrity endorsers: The fit’s the thing

TRUTH 30 Brand-building consumer promotion

TRUTH 31 Advertising built for the long run

TRUTH 32 A service brand is a personal brand

TRUTH 33 Is your brand the best at something? If so, be satisfied

TRUTH 34 Great positionings are enduring

TRUTH 35 Effective branding begins with the name

TRUTH 36 Your brand makes your company powerful, not the other way around

TRUTH 37 Be consistent but not complacent

TRUTH 38 Is your brand different? If not, why will someone buy it?

TRUTH 39 The three M’s of taglines: Meaningful, motivating, and memorable

TRUTH 40 Customer service is the touch point of your brand

TRUTH 41 Smaller targets are easier to hit

TRUTH 42 Beware of the allure of brand extensions

TRUTH 43 Keep advertising simple, but not simplistic

TRUTH 44 It’s a long walk from the focus group room to the cash register

TRUTH 45 Repositioning can be a fool’s chase

TRUTH 46 With advertising, don’t expect too much

TRUTH 47 Don’t let testing override judgment

TRUTH 48 Effective advertising is 90% what you say, 10% how you say it

TRUTH 49 Compromise can destroy a brand

TRUTH 50 Don’t let the pizazz outshine the brand

TRUTH 51 There are no commodity products, only commodity

 

B. The Truth About What Customers Want

TRUTH 1 Your customers want a relationship, not a one-night stand

TRUTH 2 Design it, and they will come

TRUTH 3 Sensory marketing–smells like profits

TRUTH 4 Pardon me, is that a breast in your Coke?

TRUTH 5 One man’s goose…

TRUTH 6 Throw ‘em a bone, and they’ll no longer roam

TRUTH 7 Stay in their minds–if you can

TRUTH 8 These are the good old days

TRUTH 9 Why ask why?

TRUTH 10 He who dies with the most toys wins

TRUTH 11 Your customers are looking for greener pastures

TRUTH 12 “Because I’m worth it”

TRUTH 13 Love me, love my avatar

TRUTH 14 You really are what you wear

TRUTH 15 Real men don’t eat quiche (but they do moisturize)

TRUTH 16 Girls just want to have fun

TRUTH 17 Queer eye for the spending guy

TRUTH 18 Yesterday’s chubby is today’s voluptuous

TRUTH 19 Men want to sleep with their cars

TRUTH 20 Your PC is trying to kill you

TRUTH 21 Birds of a feather buy together

TRUTH 22 Sell wine spritzers to squash players

TRUTH 23 They think your product sucks–but that’s not a bad thing

TRUTH 24 When to sell the steak, when to sell the sizzle

TRUTH 25 People are dumber than robots (lazier, too)

TRUTH 26 Your customers have your brand on the brain

TRUTH 27 Let their mouseclicks do the walking

TRUTH 28 Nothing shouts quality like leather from Poland

TRUTH 29 Consider investing in a drive-thru mortuary

TRUTH 30 Go to the Gemba.

TRUTH 31 Your customers want to be like Mike (or someone like him)

TRUTH 32 Go tribal

TRUTH 33 People like to do their own thing–so long as it’s everyone else’s thing too

TRUTH 34 Catch a buzz

TRUTH 35 Go with the flow–get shopmobbed today

TRUTH 36 Find the market maven, and the rest is gravy

TRUTH 37 Hundreds of housewives can predict your company’s future

TRUTH 38 Know who wears the pants in the family

TRUTH 39 Youth is wasted on the young

TRUTH 40 Make millions on Millennials

TRUTH 41 Grownups don’t grow up anymore

TRUTH 42 Dollar stores make good cents

TRUTH 43 The rich are different

TRUTH 44 Out with the ketchup, in with the salsa

TRUTH 45 Look for fly-fishing born-again environmentalist jazz-loving Harry Potter freaks

TRUTH 46 Ronald McDonald is related to Luke Skywalker

TRUTH 47 Sign a caveman to endorse your product

TRUTH 48 Make your brand a fortress brand–and make mine a Guinness

TRUTH 49 Turn a (pet) rock into gold

TRUTH 50 Think globally, act locally

 

C. The Truth About Thriving in Change

Part I The Truth About Staying or Going

TRUTH 1 Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react

TRUTH 2 If your values don’t agree, it’s probably time to flee

TRUTH 3 Service awards aren’t what they used to be

TRUTH 4 Teaching long division doesn’t work on a Blackberry

Part II The Truth About What You should Pack

TRUTH 5 It’s not what you’ve got; it’s what you need

TRUTH 6 To manage change, you must lead change

TRUTH 7 You can’t do without a “can-do” attitude

TRUTH 8 If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything

Part III The Truth About Those Early Days

TRUTH 9 Run before you walk

TRUTH 10 Keep your boss your biggest fan

TRUTH 11 There are only three ways to introduce change

TRUTH 12 Build the case: It’s a challenge and an opportunity

TRUTH 13 Teach others how to treat you

Part IV The Truth About Planning

TRUTH 14 If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t get there

TRUTH 15 To realize the future, you must create it

TRUTH 16 Convert aspiration to invitation

TRUTH 17 Having organizational values matters; living them means more

TRUTH 18 Make the change agenda everyone’s agenda

Part V The Truth About Communications

TRUTH 19 We listen with our eyes

TRUTH 20 Email is the tool of the devil

TRUTH 21 People can’t drink from a fire hose

TRUTH 22 Conversion is for missionaries and crusaders

Part VI The Truth About Matching People with Purpose

TRUTH 23 Organizational structure: Look in from the outside

TRUTH 24 Build your team around your “A” players

TRUTH 25 Candidate screening: Let the facts speak for themselves

TRUTH 26 Avoid the ten potential “placement pitfalls”

TRUTH 27 Don’t surround yourself with yourself

TRUTH 28 Why you need to get staffing right

TRUTH 29 If you must “right-size,” do it the right way

Part VII The Truth About Managing Performance

TRUTH 30 One style does not fit all

TRUTH 31 You can influence without authority

TRUTH 32 You can’t work the plan if you don’t plan the work

TRUTH 33 There’s no excuse for excuses

TRUTH 34 Know what buttons to push

Part VIII The Truth About Creating Your Cultural Framework

TRUTH 35 Calm waters make for easier sailing

TRUTH 36 Trust is a currency not easily earned, but easily spent

TRUTH 37 If you’re out of sight, you’re probably out of touch

TRUTH 38 Teams aren’t a necessary evil

TRUTH 39 Your way may not be the best way

TRUTH 40 The whole is greater than the sum of the parts

TRUTH 41 Embrace–don’t run from–the questions

TRUTH 42 Decision making: The fastest don’t always finish first

TRUTH 43 Exceptions: Can’t live with them; can’t live without them

TRUTH 44 Employee discipline: Ask the more meaningful question

Part IX The Truth About Recognition and Reward

TRUTH 45 Make every employee feel like your only employee

TRUTH 46 A little formal recognition goes a long way

Part X The Truth About Sustenance

TRUTH 47 Your best investment is in… YOU

TRUTH 48 Your title is manager; your job is teacher

TRUTH 49 Trying to be all things to all people is a slippery slope