June 15, 2003 - 12:29pm
That's a good question. It is
That's a good question. It is asking, What's your unique selling proposition? (USP).
Without a USP, it's almost impossible to brand your company. Google was recently recognized as brand of the year. Google did it w/o any advertising. How? By being the best.
Say you were to join in the rat race we call the web hosting market. Hundreds of others are offering hosting services; how would you set your service apart from the others? It's gotta be cheapest hosting, or best quality hosting, or best customer service, or affordable Zeus platform hosting, or something unique to your brand.
Always best to find your USP, make it into a catchy phrase and put it at the top of each page of your site.
8)
June 16, 2003 - 9:01am
Very good advice Scott.
Thank
Very good advice Scott.
Thank you.
Here are some questions I use when trying to help others find thier USP and to define thier brand, and help them focus thier marketing:
What is Your Company? Describe and define it for us.
What?s the vision for the Your Company?
--What is it going to be in five years?
--In twenty?
What is Your Company?s mission?
--What?s its reason for being?
What?s your value proposition in the market?
--note: - a clear statement of who the target market for a particular product is, of what key benefits the product will deliver, and of the price that will be charged.
What?s your brand promise?
--What reasons support this promise?
Who?s your competition? Anybody Else?
What are your key differentiation points?
Why would someone come to you instead of going to your competition?
Why would someone go to your competition instead of you?
Who are your customers?
--What are they like?
--What are their demographics?
--Where do they live?
--What are their interests?
--What do they read?/Watch? ? Media preferences?
What is the one thing you want your customers to remember about Your Company?
Hope these help someone.
--Sean
June 16, 2003 - 10:38am
Very good point, Sean. It's
Very good point, Sean. It's amazing how many clients I get who have done absolutely no market research. They have an idea to sell something, and think it'll just sell itself.
It's not about the product at all; it's about the brand. Product can be outsourced; brand is everything. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
June 16, 2003 - 10:43am
Yep.
I'm sure you've heard
Yep.
I'm sure you've heard the Coke example. Coke is the perfect example of how a brand can help sell sugared water.
Here is a dated, but still interesting read about online branding:
http://www.ries.com/ie_11laws/instructions.html
Also, this:
http://www.ries.com/Books/index.cfm?Page=C...2New&Book=22New
--Sean
June 16, 2003 - 10:48am
That's so funny that you
That's so funny that you would mention that last link; that quote (It's not about the product at all; it's about the brand. Product can be outsourced; brand is everything) is from Al Ries new book, The Fall of Advertising.
I love their work. It's very insightful.
...sorry, flashback to the time I spent in Texas there!
Here's a question for everyone I thought I'd throw out to get things going in the Marketing forum here - I'll post my own comments later.
In this day and age where almost anyone can produce a quality product or website, good enough just doesn't cut it anymore. With all the marketing messages people are bombarded with these days (they say it's 3000 messages daily) you need to, no...you MUST see to it that your website stands heads and shoulders above the crowd, and you must give your visitors a reason to stick around and want to buy what you're selling. (see me after class if you don't think your website is selling something!)![]()
/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />
Take a few moments to think about what your website does that makes it remarkable in the eyes of your visitors, or let me know how you plan to make your website more unique and valuable to your visitors. I'm waiting to hear from ya!
God bless,
Steve
www.ravedesigns.com - Affordable website design to help grow your business or ministry!