Branding

“Branding is what people say about you when you’ve left the room” – Jeff Bezos Have truer words ever been spoken? Branding is about delivering on a promise. What your consumers say (or don’t say) about your products/services when they’re facing their friends, relatives, coworkers is likely to be about how well (or how poorly) you delivered on that promise. You made an implied commitment to them to fulfill upon their needs by making claims to specific benefits you could provide, advantages...

Master of trivia, I’m not. Nor am I one of those who remembers movie lines – however classic – beyond the epymonyous “Luke, I am your father.” and the less-remembered but fun “Cyrus, this here is your barbecue, and it tastes good.” espoused by honor-bound Nicholas Cage in ConAir. But I digress, for I do have an interesting bit of trivia that’s niggling at the corners of my mind. According to emarketer.com, a full 61% of survey respondents say that they checked online reviews,...

We all know about audience segmentation, profiling, personas. There’s a myriad of methods to categorize targets utilizing metrics that can be captured, assessed, and generalized based on statistical data and probability. Ad nauseam. One advantage of a deep understanding of your audience, of empathizing with their experiences both joyful and sorrowful, anticipating their needs and their receptor points, being sympatico with your customers – is critical insights that state of “oneness”...

I've been giving a lot of thought to branding lately.  More specifically, consumer affinity with brands and the impact the current economic climate might (does) have on their emotional connection, and ultimately, loyalty with brands.  Let's choose the service industry for this academic discussion - banking in particular.I, for one, have had my share of negative experiences with banks.  I've historically chosen big regional banks for their supposed security and progressive attitude toward...