“Brands spend inordinate amounts of money in ensuring that they are communicating with their consumers in the correct way, spreading the right message and encouraging those customers to think about the brand in a positive way and transacting with them.

Conversely, affiliates are not necessarily worried too much about what the consumer thinks of the brand, as long as they still buy something from them.

Brands wish to control the messaging that goes out and affiliates wish to adapt it to suit their own means.”

So, how to keep these two from working at cross purposes? Here’s what they conclude:

Brands should set guidelines but give affiliates latitude.

While they shouldn’t be allowed to lie about products or services, affiliates must be given flexibility to adapt the message, within reason, in order to produce sales. Brands should set a rough set of guidelines for affiliates to use and then allow them freedom.

Brands should create a plan to manage their image when working with certain types of affiliates.

Working with some affiliates, particularly those known for discounting, many brands fear that they lose control of discounting themselves and their messaging. Whatever positive image is created by the discount, the credit goes to the affiliate, not the brand. The danger in removing yourself is lost revenue and sales volume.

Like the author, I believe that the question should not be whether to appear with these affiliates, but how best to manage your appearance on these sites. Creating an affiliate strategy is at the heart of it.

So does affiliate marketing damage your brand? It can. But like all marketing and sales initiatives, the answer lies in actively managing your campaign, asserting your objectives and seeking to work in partnership.

Source: Latest Lead Generation content from Econsultancy

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A Top Team Is Key to Growth – Entrepreneurship.org
(tags: entrepreneurship management entrepreneur)

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Hard to believe that a major brand like Toys R Us can make it so hard on the consumer and their own employees in this day and age, and yet they do.

Two experiences just this week alone.

Toys R Us opened a little temporary store called Toys R Us Holiday Express in a vacant shop in the mall near my house. Now, even though there are two locations within 10 minutes from me, this is a stroke of genius for the holidays. Toys R Us will now get all the foot traffic they’d otherwise miss being that their other locations are in drive-up malls, not the happy little foot-traffic shopping district near me. Genius. What’s not genius is that their own employees at the permanent big box locations haven’t got a clue that this little Holiday Express location exists. That’s what I found out when I went to the big store to try to purchase something I’d seen in the Express locale after it had closed and my daughter was giving me no peace about a certain kitty cat she just had to have because “I think she misses me, Mommy”. The guy I talked to at the regular store had no idea what I was talking about, but did tell me that another mom had just mentioned she bought something “near there” just a few days before. Turns out his manager knew about it—in fact, he works there. So how could other employees be so uninformed?

Just days later, I’ve found out that my child’s crib is on the recall list. To make a long story short, the crib I’d like to replace it with is an “in-store only” purchase. They don’t stock it at all. OK, inconvenient, but we know how these things go. The big problem? They wouldn’t allow me to purchase it over the phone—and there’s no means to order it online for delivery to the store. So if I want the crib, I have to drive to the store and order it for delivery in the next few weeks. Interestingly, when you look the product up online, it offers you a Buy Online option, even trying to upsell you with a Buyer Protection Plan—none of which you can actually activate. Apparently, they’re just there to frustrate customers.

What’s wrong with this picture? I probably don’t even need to ask. You’ve already spotted all the customer service and supply chain management issues for yourself.

It’s a shame all the missed opportunities Toys R Us stacks against them. Moms like me are a fiercely loyal audience when a brand treats us right. Toys R Us could be providing world-class service, a place for moms to gather, play areas for kids, an unsurpassed online experience that leads to more purchases, fun and educational areas in the store and online, and certainly better-informed employees. The list goes on and on.

Speaking of lists, looks like I’ll be taking my toy shopping one elsewhere this holiday.

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Quick copywriter synopsis: Wales says, because everything online is very measurable, we measure everything. Impressions, click-through rates, conversions. But traditional brand advertising has to be measurable in other more traditional ways, like consumer awareness. Because we haven’t had a lot of that online, brand advertising online is extremely cheap. If you want to reach 40 million college students in the US, you can use Facebook and pay a lot less than advertising on TV.

My two cents is that marketers understand the direct marketing effect. We know when we send something out intentionally, under our own control, how to apply measurement. You send out an email, people click or don’t, you measure it.

But branding online is different. We can control the initial launch, but the ripple effect is harder to forecast or measure because once a brand campaign is online, it’s out of the advertiser’s hands. You have to be more sophisticated about measuring awareness that continues to grow organically. It’s worth doing, however, as well as applying more traditional branding measurements, as Wales suggests.

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Music has followed, as have movies, video and books. Along with or because of the Internet, we can all literally put our hands on the tools of creation and reach others who want what we have to offer, bypassing previous modes of distribution by creating our own. Or at the very least, hijacking the pathways that once required multiple levels of permission, acceptance and negotiation to bring what we have to light.

Now, branding is another realm that’s fallen into the hands and consciousness of the public. Whereas once, a jeweler might work her craft and put her creations in something beautiful only because it appeals to her personal aesthetic, today she’s talking about packaging jewelry for online sales as “opportunities for branding and customer loyalty”. She’s not Christian Dior or Chanel. She doesn’t have an ad agency. She’s a gal who makes and sells crafts and publishes about it.

Don’t get me wrong. I see this as a good thing. As an owner and operator of my own business, I’ve always espoused the importance of brand. It’s not just what I do, it’s what I believe in. You can look at it as a way to make sales, or you can see it as a calling for ethics.

We all have brands to manage. By the very nature of being here, being public, publishing, putting ourselves out there, we have created our image, formulated our message, segmented ourselves, increased our reach, extended our opportunities for customer loyalty, sought differentiated packaging. We’re branding, and branded, whether we like the word or not.

If you don’t like it, if it conjures up too many images of big business at a time when many of those very businesses are failing us, then pick a different word. Make it a statement to live up to. Something that carries a value judgment at a time when values and judgment are sorely needed.

It’s not your brand. It’s your reputation. And you better believe people are paying attention.

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No long walks on the beach for leaders

Recently, a client asked what other companies are doing to differentiate their leadership and experience messaging beyond the usual “we’ve been in business for xx years, are an industry leader …”, etc. It’s a good question, as it’s easy to get trapped in your existing company rhetoric and hard to look at your own brand with a fresh eye. Yet it’s ever more important.

Take for example Josh Klein’s article, Features of a blog worth caring about, where he describes the importance of the About Us page. Who would’ve thought that this page, a mere footnote on most websites, would command so much attention? Yet today, as everyone is trying to encourage everyone else to read their blog and join their social network (just call it today’s CRM, if that helps), you have to give people a reason to care and tell them why you’re worth listening to.

That means, if you’re a leader, you need to show it, not just say it. This may seem like common sense but it’s easily forgotten in the long list of to-do’s on most people’s plates. (Don’t feel bad. Look at how many politicians and executives seem to forget it.)

So here are a couple of quick case studies showing how I helped clients differentiate their leadership messaging.

I recently worked with a major health care brand to conceptualize, develop and launch a campaign, a social networking site for people in their late 50s/early 60s who are about to be or are newly retired. The approach is to offer this audience a place to share common interests, connect, ask questions of experts, and generally socialize with peers who are facing the same time-of-life issues they are–namely retirement planning in these heady times. This is not a get-rich quick scheme. It’s taking the long view. They know that if they make the investment in time and resources to give potential customers a place to be heard and “pay it forward” with support and concrete advice, those people are likely to think of them as leaders in the industry, and eventually put their dollars where their socializing is.

To that end, I crafted their message and philosophy for their About Us page to align with the spirit of the network. Interestingly, if you look at the page, there are way more references to “you” than “us” because ultimately, that’s what the site is about: you the user and how we can help you, not us the brand and how long we’ve been around. Here, the brand is a supporting player. (Of course, it helps that they are a big-name brand with easy recognition but take this for what it’s worth, no matter your size.)

Likewise, last year, when Blue Shield of California was creating a direct marketing effort to the senior community, I recommended they explore bringing their foundation to the forefront, as there was a component of it that focused on initiatives in aging. This came from two things directly out of their creative brief. First, that consumers were confused about what Blue Shield’s non-profit status meant. And second, that Blue Shield needed to differentiate itself in California to seniors–a market where it’s facing increased competition. So I did what any good writer does. A little research. Lo and behold, one of the Blue Shield Foundation’s initiatives was best use of technology by seniors as a way to increase their ability to live independently. It was an excellent way to highlight Blue Shield’s non-profit status by showing where the money goes and make it a benefit, and leadership differentiator, to seniors.

As I said, it’s not easy to look at your brand history anew. But as I told my cousin, who just posted his first online dating ad, the goal is to paint a picture of yourself that’s different than the other guys, but that is still you. Then you’ll have better luck getting a response from someone who you’d find interesting also, or in the case of a brand, is likely to be or become a customer.

Take a look at your company, its history, passions, philosophy, initiatives, team, charitable contributions, what have you. I’m sure you’ve got more in your arsenal than just “likes long walks on the beach”.

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