Trends 2012: What’s Your Value?
Within the new economic reality, efficiency, practicality and sustainability are the key to a company’s survival. Consequently, the branding and marketing trends we witnessed in 2011, along with those emerging for 2012, point toward putting an ever deeper focus on creating exceptional value for all stakeholders.
Perceived value is a direct result of the experience a company creates for its audiences, and the most successful companies now recognize that increasing perceived value through brand experience is not just strategically smart but economically desirable.
Especially in B2B, where so much of a company’s success depends on relationships, value-building brand experience strategies create the ideal platform for bringing ever greater depth to those relationships with each interaction and at every point of contact. Companies willing to create more value for all of their stakeholders will grow relationships that are exponentially more valuable.
But what exactly does “more value” mean to the stakeholders? What do employees, partners, suppliers and board members want from their relationships with companies?
In this article, we highlight several 2012 value-building trends that create value and relevance for a company and its audiences.
The Rebranding Challenge: What’s a Smart, Involved In-House Marketer to Do
Successfully navigating your firm through a rebrand can be a career high point. It’s also a monumental challenge. The role you choose to play in the process and how you play it will make an equally monumental difference in your credibility and the perceived value you bring to the firm.
So how do you ensure that you stand out as a strategically smart and brand-savvy leader from beginning to end?
Green Marketing 2.0: What's Next
Ida Cheinman presented this program to the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Washington, DC.
With "green" and "SCR" hitting mainstream, communications strategies for markting an AEC firm's "doing good" initiatives have changes. Today, it's no longer about simply creating a campaign – it's about creating shared value, aligning purpose with business strategies, and making sustainability a part of brand promise.
Beginning from a high-level overview of new rules of sustainability marketing, the presentation walks its audiences through strategies, tactics and existing industry best practices to help AEC marketers create differentiation and gain competitive advantage in the increasingly crowded, and often confusing, “green” marketplace.
Green is the New Black
This presentation was given at the 2011 A Day in the Life Design Conference, held at Brown Center in the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, Maryland, on Saturday, April 9, 2011.
What role should design and designers play in helping to solve the issues of the 21st century? What is our responsibility?
Beginning from a high-level overview of sustainability principles and green design philosophy, the presentation walks its audiences through numerous tips, tools and resources that can be instantly implemented in a marketing department or a design practice.
A/E/C Marketing: How to Market Green When Everyone Else Is
This seminar was presented to the Society of Professional Services Marketing (SMPS) Maryland on February 9, 2011.
Today’s business success requires that organizations demonstrate their environmental commitment and social purpose, engaging internal and external stakeholders in a meaningful and relevant way. So it is imperative for A/E/C firms to market their environmental and social initiatives – to help create differentiation and gain competitive advantage in the increasingly crowded “green” marketplace.
While in the past many A/E/C firms relied on the number of LEED-certified projects or LEED APs to get ahead, most firms today have LEED-certified projects in their portfolio and LEED APs on staff — A/E/C marketers need to move their message beyond LEED to remain competitive.
For the Greater Good: “Cause Marketing” as a Path to Brand Leadership
As we watched 2010 come to a close to the cheerless tune of slower consumer spending and other not-so-good news, one holiday trend continued strong – corporate charitable giving.
In the past few years we’ve seen numerous organizations making their customary year-end charitable contributions into smart, lasting marketing campaigns that engage their clients, partners and employees at a much deeper level than a one-time monetary donation. Leader brands have come to recognize that social mission plays a critical role in brand building and a company’s commitment to the greater good has a direct impact on its bottom line.
Yet, building a good reputation requires much more than running a one-dimensional campaign with a primary aim of boosting short-term sales – it requires the clear vision, authenticity and long-term commitment that create a shared value not only between an organization and its audiences but also between economic success and social mission.
Rebranding: The Moment of Truth
In the constantly changing marketplace, audience perceptions of an organization’s brand gradually shift, and this affects the organization’s bottom line and its ability to compete. In order to remain competitive and profitable, business leaders become eager to evolve their brand and re-establish their market position.
The fear of being left behind often leads to a knee-jerk reaction: Let’s rebrand! However, while an organization’s brand is a critical ingredient to its business growth (and survival) strategy and needs to evolve, the decision to rebrand should not be a rushed response to the changing market dynamics.
Employer Branding: How a Strong Employer Brand Can Help to Recruit and Retain the Right Talent
Your employees are your best asset.
For organizations that are defined by the strength of their teams, hiring and retaining top talent is pivotal to their business success.
And the same way that your overall company brand attracts the right clients, your winning employer brand helps you attract the right talent. Everyone wants to be on the winning team!
Five Steps to Creating a Winning Brand
For an organization of any size, its brand is one of its most critical business assets. Yet, while the word “branding” officially has entered the buzzwords category, the strategic and systematic act of branding is often overlooked. Many organizations fail to make it a part of their business strategy, and therefore they are unable to take full advantage of what an effective brand can do for the success of their business.
Branding for Sustainability – The Rules of Achieving Market Success
“Green” marketing presents unique challenges – we live in a time when the word “sustainability” is topping the buzzword charts and a wave of greenwashing is flooding the mainstream. But we also live in a time when sustainability and social responsibility are the forces driving many buying decisions. While being a “green” business already creates a competitive advantage, simply being “green” is no longer enough. Marketers and business leaders are faced with the challenge of creating differentiation by developing an empowering and memorable brand experience for their audiences in the increasingly crowded sustainable marketplace.