For the better part of my advertising career I worked with commodity and specialty brands. This was especially true in the chemical industry. Consumer brands such as M&M’s or Revlon would prefer that their customers not know too much about what really goes into the making of their favorite snack, nail polish color, or fragrance. We referred to these brands as the name behind the name you know.
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In today’s cluttered marketing environment, standing out from the competition has become more challenging. Everywhere we turn, thousands of brands are vying for our limited attention span. This overload has conditioned us to be hyper-sensitive to brand messaging delivered through advertising, POP marketing, and social media platforms, or as I prefer to call it, our “BS” meters are working overtime.
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Depending on your browser search engine preference, you may have noticed a change in the SERP (Search Engine Page Results) for organic listings.
This is due to the fact that search engines make their money from paid search advertising and because of this, more page space is being allocated to paid search results at the top, bottom, and side bar of the browser window. Continue reading
Speak with almost any CEO of a small to mid-sized brand, and they will tell you that inbound marketing is an important communication component in creating and maintaining brand preference. However, ask them what resources or processes are in place dedicated to inbound marketing content, and the answer will tell you that this is usually more wishful thinking than reality.
Why is this? Small and mid-sized brands are resource-challenged. Their employees have a wealth of knowledge to share but usually there is no process in place to capture content.
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The State of Airline Marketing 2014 report published by SimpliFlying and airlinetrends.com identifies seven trends that airlines are exploring to increase brand preference and customer engagement. It’s not surprising that the tactical execution of these trends rely heavily on the connectivity of mobile marketing using social media networks and mobile devices (smart phones & tablets) combined with promotion. Some of the trends mentioned have merit. Others could be considered annoying in a confined space. One thing for sure is that airlines are beginning to understand the connected traveler and are looking for innovative ways to create brand loyalty.
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There is not a huge amount of difference between leading brands. Depending on the category, almost all brands offer the same feature, function, and benefit to the user.
What makes a differentiated brand?
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Email marketing can be a quick and efficient way to deliver your inbound marketing content to select groups and prospects. However, many times marketers do not fully review the email analytics to understand viewer email habits, engagement with content, and how the success of the inbound marketing efforts is affected.
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When working with companies serving the aviation industry that are transitioning to people-to-people marketing, I stress that marketing content should be centered around two things: 1) solving customer problems, and 2) the journey through the purchasing process – because these are the two main elements of creating brand preference. Yet many times after this suggestion is made there is resistance to change and a tendency to circle back and do things the way they are most comfortable with. This usually takes the form of reskinning their current website with the latest product iteration.
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Aviation manufacturers are slowly warming up to the idea of inbound marketing. Progressive practitioners are realizing the benefits of improved organic search rankings, broader reach of influence, and increased brand preference by investing in a strategic inbound marketing program.
When contemplating the execution of an inbound marketing program there are business, strategic and tactical issues to consider before starting the process.
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The website technorati.com has lunched a podcast series, “Social Brands & Influencers”. Technorati interviews top thought leaders and decision makers in the social media and marketing world. Liz Brown Bullock formally of Dell Computer and now CEO of the start up SASI provided her perspective on getting employees involved in social media marketing. Below is my interpretation for aviation marketers.
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Life After Advertising 