Corporate Eye

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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

Tiffany – Brand Longevity in a Blue Box

There is perhaps no other brand as closely tied to a color as Tiffany & Co. On September 18, 1837, Tiffany & Co. opened its doors for business and shortly thereafter, the iconic Tiffany blue color was selected to represent the company’s brand image as one built on solid craftsmanship and quality.  Now, almost two centuries later, the Tiffany blue box is one of the most iconic brand symbols in the world and instantly conveys a brand promise that few people are not familiar with.

It could be argued that the Tiffany blue color and box are stronger identifiers of the Tiffany brand than the Tiffany logo, itself, and that’s probably true.  The logo remains a simple wordmark and takes a back seat to the powerful perceptions that the Tiffany blue box generates in consumers’ minds.  It’s a one-of-a-kind story that succeeded for one primary reason: consistency.

The Tiffany brand has remained consistent throughout the past 150+ years, which means that blue box has remained a constant, trustworthy indication of what consumers can expect to get when they take out their hard-earned money and buy an item that comes in one of those boxes.  There is no confusion or question that the item in the box carries the Tiffany brand promise of luxury and quality.

The three main steps of brand building are consistency, persistence and restraint.  The Tiffany brand is a perfect example of a brand strategy that has successfully navigated all three steps of brand building.  At a time when companies are constantly updating logos to modernize them, make them more Web-friendly, and so on, Tiffany remains consistent, persistent, and restrained in its own brand identity initiatives.  Consumers can rely on the brand and the tangible representations of the brand promise.

Can you think of any other brands that can say the same?  Certainly, there are examples of brands that can claim similar successes thanks to their logos, but is there another brand that can claim brand consistency and success in whole or part to a color to the extent that Tiffany & Co. has?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Advertising, Social Media, and Neuroscience – Marketing by the Numbers

neuroscience_brainwavesIn the first study of its kind, NeuroFocus (a leading neuromarketing company) researched how consumers subconsciously react to ads viewed on different media.  Specifically, the company used its own brain measurement technology to analyze consumers’ responses to VISA’s “Trip for Life” television commercial related to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.  Consumers watched the ad on television during the Olympic Games, on a special VISA-created Olympics Web site, and on a VISA-created Olympics Facebook page.

Key results reported by NeuroFocus included:

  • Overall effectiveness for the ad, especially with women: highest on Facebook
  • Purchase intent generated by the ad: highest on both Facebook and TV
  • Messaging carried by the ad: strongest on the Internet, with Facebook stronger than the Web site
  • Attention-getting: highest on the Internet
  • VISA brand perception: lifted most strongly TV

These findings certainly indicate that social media marketing has strong effects on consumers’ subconscious minds and can even effectively boost purchase intent.  However, it’s also important to note that social media comes in many forms and those forms are multiplying and changing quickly.  With the widespread use of smartphones, the new iPad, and more gadgets undoubtedly coming soon to make it easier to access the Internet than ever, social media marketing is like the Wild West with few rules and even fewer people knowing what they’re doing.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that executives are afraid to take the risk necessary to build a social media marketing strategy that actually works.

For corporate brand managers and marketers, you can add the results from this report to your arsenal.  Next time you need to argue for social media marketing for brand building and marketing with senior management, take these statistics with you as evidence that social media marketing has tangible benefits in terms of motivating consumers to action just as traditional advertising and marketing does.  Ask them to argue the case for television advertising over social media marketing.  See if they can provide any argument other than “because TV ads are what we’ve always done,” and then challenge them to come up with a better argument.  You might not win, but you might successfully plant a seed that will grow into a bigger social media marketing budget in the future.

Image: Flickr

Online Video Viewing up 37% in U.K.

Online video presents an incredible opportunity for brands to reach consumers, and in the past year, that opportunity has increased by 37%.

According to a report from comScore, U.K. online video viewing grew by 37% between February 2009 and February 2010 among the U.K. audience age 15 and older accessing the Internet at home or at work.  Mirroring online video viewing statistics in the United States, the U.K. audience watches the vast majority of online video content on YouTube (99.6% in the U.K.).  You can see the specific results in the chart below.

comScore_uk_online_video_viewing_statistics

Clearly, online video is attracting more attention from audiences who are spending more time watching online video than ever before with no signs of that growth slowing down.  Many viewers are even shifting time away from broadcast television to watch traditional programs online instead, making the case for two opportunities: online video creation and publishing as well as online video advertising.

The question for brands is not whether or not you should consider leveraging online video to build your brand but how fast you can capitalize on the opportunity.  The problem, however, is identifying the best way to successfully capitalize on that opportunity, which is something no one knows how to do yet.

So what do you do?  First, you have to set your goals for online video and commit to the fact that it’s a long term marketing strategy that will take time to test, tweak and try again in order to figure out what works for your brand, business and audience.  The challenge is getting buy-in from senior management to invest time and resources into experimenting with and learning about online video in lieu of sure-fire, short-term tactic implementation that is practically guaranteed to bring results.  There is no doubt that shifting money and time into untested and unfamiliar territory is a risk.  The rewards are out there to reap, but it will take time to figure out how to reach them.

Has your business committed time and resources into testing online video marketing opportunities?  Leave a comment and share your story.

Corporate Executives Prefer Clicks over Brands

boardroomA new survey of Fortune 500 executives released by Datran Media reveals that the people who fill the C-suites favor clicks over brands when it comes to digital marketing.  In other words, digital marketing goals mirror financial goals — short-term gains are better than long-term sustainable growth.  Sadly, that’s a problem that keeps rearing its ugly head across the financial sector, but executives whose salaries and bonuses are tied to short-term growth continue to pursue those quick gains — in both finance and marketing.

The survey reveals executives’ top objectives for digital marketing:

  • 84% want to reach a target audience.
  • 74% want to generate high quality leads.
  • 63% want to convert leads into sales.
  • 60% want to measure and understand their audiences.
  • 57% want to digitally interact with consumers.

The power of social media marketing comes from the long-term, relationship and brand building opportunities that it presents.  Unfortunately, just over half of corporate executives surveyed cited interacting with consumers as an objective for their own digital marketing plans, which doesn’t bode well for social media marketing success.

But that’s not all.  When the same executives were asked to identify the digital channels that performed the strongest for their companies in 2009, the results revealed the following:

  • 39% email
  • 24% search
  • 9% affiliate marketing
  • 5% social media
  • 1% mobile

Clearly, the surveyed executives haven’t made the necessary shift in thinking that will help them understand how to measure social media marketing performance.  By measuring return on opportunity in terms of soft metrics such as long-term brand building and relationship building as opposed to only evaluating hard metrics, these companies are missing out on huge opportunities for long-term sustainable growth based on trust, brand advocacy, and word-of-mouth marketing that come from active participation in social media marketing activities.

Let’s face it.  Most large companies are a long way from being able to truly leverage the power of social media marketing for a myriad of reasons.  However, it’s very obvious from these survey results that the necessary shift won’t be made anytime soon — not until corporate executives understand the value of moving from a short-term tactical focus to a long-term strategic focus that relies on many of the intangible components of business strength (such as brand and customer relationships) rather than hard numbers.  However, for public corporations that must increase shareholder value year-over-year, that shift in thinking and engagement might never happen.

What do you think?

Image: sxc.hu

Facebook Like Opens Targeting Opportunities for Marketers

facebook_like_buttonYesterday, Facebook announced the new Like feature that enables businesses to add Like buttons to their Web sites and increase their presence on Facebook.  While the debate is just beginning about the new Like feature with marketers and consumers on very different sides, the addition of the Like button has also raised speculation that Facebook is preparing to launch its own ad network to add to its own bottom-line.

Whatever Facebook’s ultimate goals are (and I’m sure they’re huge given the 350 million Facebook users around the world), the addition of the Like button does add a new layer of targeting for marketers that is sure to be popular.  When Facebook users click on the Like button indicating that they like a brand or business, that preference will now show up in their own Facebook profile, adding a targeting element that advertiser’s can easily exploit to boost the return on investment on ads they place on Facebook.  On the flip side, when people click that Like button, it also makes it easier for brands to interact not only with that person, but also with that person’s network of friends.

For Facebook, the most interesting part of this story is the perception that Facebook is getting too big and powerful with too much access to too much personal information about its users.  The word “trust” is being used across the Web as social media professionals, marketers, and consumers wonder whether or not they can actually trust Facebook with all of this private information.  We’ll have to wait and see how that story develops, but it is certainly the trend for large online companies to attempt to access and control information about its users (Google has certainly been accused of this in the past).

I predict there will be some regulations and laws developed in the not so distant future related to accessing and using all of this information.  The hope is that there isn’t some kind of tragedy before those regulations are defined.  In the meantime, marketers who can exploit that information should enjoy some nice returns.

What do you think?  As a marketer?  As a consumer?

 

Color Makes a Difference to Cadillac Customers

According to Cadillac, 50% of new car buyers are willing to upgrade and pay more for Cadillac vehicles that have special color options. There is no doubt that color plays an important part of emotional branding and marketing as well as brand differentiation, but this statistic demonstrates that luxury brands might want to take a closer look at their color strategies because it could be a differentiator and a moneymaker.

JDSU has worked with Cadillac for years, developing special luxury colors for the luxury brand.  For example, have you ever seen a Cadillac that seems to change colors when you look at it from different angles?  That’s a JDSU effect that Cadillac markets as “subtle and sophisticated.”

To showcase its collaboration with Cadillac, JDSU has created “JDSU Revs Up Car Colors with Cadillac,” a look into how choosing the right colors can help differentiate a brand.  The site includes interesting videos with color experts and offers insight into the color trend analysis services JDSU provides to help Cadillac determine what colors will be popular on its vehicles several years out.

jdsu_cadillac

Interestingly, this level of color analysis isn’t used by Cadillac or the automotive industry alone.  JDSU color services are actually used by a wide variety of companies to help differentiate their products and brands.  For example, color analysis is an important part of brand strategy for companies in the consumer electronics, sporting goods and cosmetic industries, too.

Color marketing isn’t a new area of marketing and branding strategy, but it’s certainly one that’s gaining attention as companies look for any conceivable edge in consumers’ minds and wallets.  Dell’s Inspiron Mini 10 netbooks are offered at a base price in black, but if you choose your netbook in another color such as (Product) Red, Promise Pink, Ice Blue, Jade Green, or Passion Purple, you’ll have to pay more.  Other brands haven’t jumped onto the premium price for color bandwagon, such as Apple whose iPod nano, for example, is available in ten color choices — all with the same price tag.

The interesting point to analyze is which products consumers would actually be willing to pay more for enhanced color options.  50% will for Cadillacs.  I wonder what the statistic is for Dell.

What do you think?  What other industries or products would you be willing to pay extra for cool color choices?

Image: JDSU.tv