Sword and the Script

Photo Credit: Flickr

by Frank Strong

Budweiser drew well deserved applause for its Clydesdale commercial.  It was good story which made for great marketing.

Like other brands, it turned to social media to extend the life of it’s big game investment. The commercial on YouTube has racked up nearly 2 million views at the time of this writing and search volume skyrocketed.

However Budweiser had another commercial on the Super Bowl and the company ran a few variations several times before the Clydesdale commercial was shown.  It was the launch of Budweiser Black Crown.  The video, which was also uploaded to YouTube, has just shy of 300,000 views at the time of this writing and search volume is tepid by comparison.

Black Crown is purported to be a premium brand, with a premium price, which also comes with a higher concentration of alcohol.  It’s a brand line extension that says it’s a Budweiser that really isn’t a Budweiser. Read More…

Sound has a powerful emotional connection; think for a minute what is triggered in our minds when we hear:  a heartbeat, a doorbell, a phone’s ring, a car horn,  a lawnmower, a dog’s bark, a baby’s cry, or Christmas carols.

Each sound has a special meaning, like a language onto its own;  someone needs us, is warning us or entertaining us.   These sounds trigger’s emotions: a doorbell for example, might trigger excitement for a familiar friend, or dread, with an unwanted visitor.

Sound isn’t commonly associated with branding, perhaps because it’s not often cited as a mechanism to raise awareness or drive leads; it might however have a powerful connection to customer loyalty and retention.  Consider the sense of community stadium-wide singing during the seventh inning stretch of a baseball game builds.

What sort of music do they play in retail stores?  Shopping music.

It seems to me, sound in branding goes nearly unnoticed, it’s almost unconscious, or perhpas subliminal, yet  in a way that’s different than simply trying to ignore web advertisements.  This is why I found a Marketplace story – Company logos expand into sonic realm – so interesting (you can read, or better yet,  listen to that story).

If you subscribe to the idea popularized by Ries & Trout, that positioning takes place in the mind of consumers, as opposed to the words of a tag line, then you can instinctively understand the power of sound.  Read More…

by Frank Strong

by Frank Strong

By far and large, I enjoyed this post — 25 random things to improve your brand, but the ninth piece of advice which reads, “Stop using any tactic that is not measurable, such as ‘positioning,’” caused me to pause.

A company or product position is central to all of its marketing efforts. It is the essence of a company’s image and defines what it is versus what it is not. Marketing efforts undertaken that do not reinforce the positioning are largely one off campaigns and more often than not, a waste of time and resources.

Young companies such as start-ups are particularly susceptible to this pitfall. Understaffed, under-resourced and earnest in the need to create momentum, or at least the appearance of momentum, are quick to chase any opportunity that looks like business and therefore conjure up marketing measures that penny wise and dollar foolish. The result is marketing, and worse a resulting image, that appears at best schizophrenic. This makes defining a position that much harder in the long run. Read More…