Danskin Creative Communication

A simple answer to the most important brand positioning question

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:49:27 +0000

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When determining your brand position, you should first ask yourself or your marketing director “Why should we position our brand, product, or service in direct competition with other more established companies?” If you examine this question, you might determine that the answer lies within the question. By the way, the answer is “We (you) shouldn’t.”

In order to simplify the concept, I’ll offer a metaphor. In order to position yourself, in a spatial sense, exactly where another object is, you would have to move the other object first. To further emphasize the point, imagine the marketplace is a puzzle, each competitor consisting of one piece. Now, imagine removing the piece that represents one of the companies you feel you compete directly against – one that you will strive to unearth from their enviable position in the marketplace. It’s pretty simple, right? After all, it is our nature to want to compete and beat the establishment at their own game.

Now, picture the shape and characteristics of your puzzle piece, which represents your company. It would not have the exact same size and shape of the company’s piece you’re striving to replace. Following that logic, your piece would not fit into the vacated space. Therefore, the answer to the question at hand, “Why should we position our brand, product or service in direct competition with other more established companies?” is likely to be “We shouldn’t and we can’t.”

If you’ve bought my premise thus far, your next question might be “Do we position our brand to compete against nobody?” Precisely.

It isn’t easy. But it is easier than going head to head with established products, targeted to a similar audience, at a similar price. Imagine trying to get your customers and prospects to explain why they do/would do business with you if you’re constantly communicating through your advertising, publicity, web site design and internet marketing, direct mail, brochures and company literature that you’re just like competitor A or Z, only better.

The result is that many marketing initiatives will have minimal results. In fact, by making this basic and common error, most companies will come to the conclusion that marketing just isn’t effective or necessary for their company. With a me too brand positioning approach, they’re probably right.

As Al Ries has so effectively documented in his books on positioning, the only surefire, if not the easiest, way to win category leadership for your brand is to be first in the category. That means you’re going to have to create the category in the minds of the customers. It is common for marketing directors to head for the safety of the me too camp at the very thought of this proposition. We recently had a client adopt the new category positioning strategy, then abandon it abruptly, even after the media and customers who called in had embraced the new category name in the exact terms used in our communication to the market. When asked why they wanted to abandon the strategy, one member of their team said, “Because the media and customers who are calling in are all referring to it by name.” Another said, “We don’t want to coin a whole new phrase.” Finally, another member said “If I Google the category term, I can’t find any mention of it.” Of course, they all missed the point of creating the category – you’re competing with nobody. Eventually, those searches would bring up results that would lead directly to their Web site and their site only. That is, until the me too followers begin chasing after their position, vainly trying to remove and replace their puzzle piece.

Once they had returned to the positioning of their competitors, who largely had failed to make much headway in the marketplace, we knew that any future marketing efforts would be undermined by a doomed position in the market. We resigned from the account.

We encourage you to develop your brand position very carefully and avoid a me too approach. And, we’re willing and able to assist in this process.

The next article will provide some examples of how to create a new category as the first step to gaining market leadership for your new found brand position.“

No budget to waste

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:49:17 +0000

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As our marketing communication firm attracts new prospects and clients who have new products or services, or ones that haven’t been publicized properly in the marketplace, a common ironic theme is repeated: “I have no budget.” After further prying, it is determined that they once had a budget, but they feel it was squandered on initiatives that failed to inspire confidence in more investment. We feel your pain.

So, try to shift your paradigm from “no budget,” to “no budget to waste.” That should be any marketing director’s standard.

The next step is to identify how to achieve that high standard. The fact is that no comprehensive and perfectly accurate guide exists to reveal every marketing communication initiative that will result in ultimate success. It will require using every bit of expertise and experience at your disposal, on your staff and for hire. Of course, any decisions in this regard will also have to meet your “no budget to waste” criteria, as well.

Some marketing directors will seek firms that have track records in their specific industry. Some will lean toward firms that excel at specific marketing initiatives they suspect will be utilized most often, such as Web site marketing and email marketing, advertising, special events marketing, public relations or media relations, or direct mail. Again, there is no absolute guide for this decision. However, rest assured that if you conduct an adequate evaluation, you’re likely to succeed.

Here are some helpful steps to increase your opportunity for success:

Identify your internal strengths and weaknesses regarding marketing knowledge, experience and skills.
Identify resources that best match up with your marketing expertise and your organization. This could be a marketing firm, graphic design firm, PR firm, or advertising firm, etc. Some marketing directors will seek firms that have track records in their specific industry. Some will lean toward firms that specialize in marketing activities they suspect will be most utilized, such as Web site marketing and email marketing, advertising, special events marketing, public relations or media relations, or direct mail. Again, there is no absolute guide for this decision. However, rest assured that if you conduct an adequate evaluation, then complete the following steps, you’re likely to have abundant success.
Identify your organization’s top 3-4 business objectives (more info).
Work with your chosen resource to develop a simple, yet comprehensive and integrated marketing communication plan (more info).
Evaluate this entire process at least every two years. Marketing communication plans should be considered living-breathing documents. Consequently, they should also be refined every year, as you determine new opportunities, challenges, successes and failures through plan metrics.

If you follow these steps, you will minimize wasted effort and budget and continually gain applicable knowledge. The result will be compounded impact of your integrated marketing initiatives and visible marketing success. Happy marketing.”

Gain Competitive Advantage Through Corporate Culture Marketing

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:49:05 +0000

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If your organization invests a great deal of resources toward communicating programs and successes that build good will with customers, employees and/or the community, that’s good. But, imagine if that investment could give you long-term advantage over your competition. Now, that’s great.

Corporate Culture Marketing is the term Danskin Creative Communication has given to a new category or strategic process for differentiating a company or organization in a marketplace full of corporate distrust and employee apathy. Corporate Culture Marketing integrates corporate public relations, advertising, internet marketing, community relations, employee relations, public accountability and professional speaking to build visibility and trust with potential partners in order to overcome barriers to entering new product or service markets.

Simply put, Corporate Culture Marketing allows organization to win new business, regardless of where in the sales cycle you are with that prospect. However, the benefits of implementing a CCM program are dynamic, multi-layered, immediate and long-term. I don’t have space, here, to list them all. In fact, you will uncover many more as your program is customized to meet the needs and opportunities in your business.

How do you know your organization can benefit from CCM? Simply answer these questions:

Do you lament the long sales cycle in your business?
Have you developed a less-than-pristine reputation with customers or employees?
Do those working on RFP responses struggle to develop relevant and significant answers to questions?
Is employee morale lower than you’d like?
Are you unclear about the values that your company promotes? Do your customers, employees and other stakeholders perceive that the company is out of alignment with those values? (see gap analysis description)
Are you rarely aware of how well your group and the company is meeting its objectives?
Are your prospects and customers in the dark about your company’s ongoing performance?
Has it been a while since glowing publicity about your organization was published by periodicals or in broadcast media?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then your organization could benefit from a CCM program.

In contrast to traditional public relations or corporate publicity initiatives, Corporate Culture Marketing can utilize a broader mix of activity, and integrated marketing communication that includes public relations, internal communication and employee recognition programs, advertising, video production and video streaming, brand identity, graphic design, copywriting, direct mail, internet marketing, html email campaigns, podcasts, webcasts, article submission programs, and literature, etc.

The benefits are as diverse as the mix of promotional tools. They can include:

Improved employee morale.
Sharper focus on meeting important business objectives and goals.
Heightened integrity through accountability measures.
Better measurements for success or failure.
Improved communication with employees.
Gain direct access to decision-makers at prospect companies.
Brand identity is refined and strengthened.
Increased awareness of company’s products/services in the marketplace.
Employee retention.
Improved employee recruitment.
Stronger new business development and RFP response.
Increased recognition and awards.
Build visibility of key executives.

The list of benefits continues. I can’t think of an initiative within CCM that can’t be used to improve another initiative. In this sense, the value of every initiative is multiplied. This fact makes Corporate Culture Marketing a marketing opportunity that you should pursue, immediately.

If you would like us to conduct a CCM audit of your organization and assist in building your CCM plan, please feel free to contact us at Danskin Creative, Inc.

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Parity Busters

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:48:53 +0000

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In reality, your company’s products and/or services are very likely perceived by the marketplace as a commodity. In many cases where you’ve won market share, it is likely due to the fact that your account managers were better networked or better liked, were more persistent, or your main competitors simply blew the account, handing you the business. Unfortunately, these scenarios are the exception. The rule is that it can take some dumb luck, and a great deal of time, too.

Everything today seems to be moving faster. And that means that even when you develop new products or services, competition is responding more quickly. So, how do you differentiate in this environment of parity? Below are some initiatives in which companies can invest to differentiate their product/service from their competitors, improve their positioning and steal market share by capitalizing on real and perceived strategic, tactical, and cultural advantage.

The Parity Busters

Corporate Culture Marketing – Developing and communicating a program of measurable value-based initiatives that project your organization above the competition (read more).
Leadership Excellence – By developing your leadership team and teamwork, you will gain strategic and tactical advantage by streamlining the decision-making process, which improves responsiveness to market opportunities and broadens competitive advantage (read more).
FLOT line Marketing – The Forward Line of Own Troops in marketing is where your focus should be in order to make headway against your competition. The objective is to give your account team an upper hand through superior marketing initiatives that will provide the greatest visibility and exposure possible to your account managers, products, services and messaging. It is critical to consider the most effective mix of both technology marketing initiatives and traditional approaches, i.e. podcasting/association events.

Take advantage of both real strategic and tactical advantage and the building of perceptions which will differentiate your organization in the marketplace in which it competes. For more information on how to develop these opportunities within your organization, contact Danskin Creative Communication.”

Don’t Overlook Proven B-to-B Media

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:48:42 +0000

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While the deer hunter, with binoculars fixed to his brow, anxiously scanned the horizon two hundred yards away, a beautiful five-pointer buck passed forty feet to his right then turned back into the woods, undetected. We are solidly implanted in the age of information, constantly scanning the distant horizon for the edge that will bring success and visibility over the competition.

The key to real success in corporate marketing communication is not to let that ambition lead us toward more intoxicating frontiers while neglecting tried and true solutions. Although the Internet and other developing marketing technologies have proven themselves as vital avenues for corporate marketing messages, the good old trade publications still represent the high road to your industry.

Because the World Wide Web continues to shed its baby fat, while moving forward with steady progress, the trade magazines have found ways to mature, as well, in most cases, developing their own online periodicals. Some of this maturing may be due, in part, to on-line competition. Most of this maturation, though, is due to pressures on publishers to provide more focus and education to their readers and more meaningfully segmented markets for their advertisers. With these forces constantly working, trade publications will retain a role as a primary tool for communication professionals for the foreseeable future, with or without a more powerful Internet.

Unfortunately, some companies have never learned how to take advantage of the trade media. In fact, some industry leaders dedicate negligible resources toward paid and free publicity. Sad, especially when you consider that most of the trade press is friendly toward manufacturers and suppliers and encourages participation on many levels. Some companies go a step further backward – they believe that all media are out to harm them. So, they avoid providing any ammunition. If you are one of the once misquoted gun-shy, consider this: a trade magazine editor in chief must fill pages monthly, in most cases, with meaningful, useful information. This information is limited to industry related news items and product/service information and editorial.

As market segmentation has narrowed the focus of these publications the number of information sources has shrunk. The result is that most editors encourage and rely on manufacturer participation, even when it comes to editorial, more so than in the past. Perhaps you’ve avoided the trade media path because you’ve simply never taken it.

Well, the good news is that it is simple to blaze your trail and results will be seen almost immediately. Here are some basics that will make your venture down this path comfortable and profitable.

1) Identify Potential Messages. First, you should build a list of important products/services that are of interest to key customers and prospects in your industry. For instance, has your company manufactured a new product recently, or have you discovered a new use for an existing product? If your industry is broken into several segments, list those segments and categorize each message with that/those market segments, appropriately. The editor will prioritize submitted news releases by how receptive readers will be to the information, so make sure your messages are vital to his/her readers. Putting yourself in the editors’ and audiences’ shoes will help you determine what information warrants submission.

A good rule is to be more inclusive than exclusive. Simply keep in mind that editors are busy and receive piles of submissions every month. You don’t want to alienate editors who perceive your company submissions as frivolous.

2) Choose your media. The second step is to identify the key trade publications that serve markets in which your products or services are sold. List the top three to five publications that serve each of those markets. This can be accomplished by surveying contacts at trade associations, or ask a few key customers which publications are most often read in their offices. Then determine the circulation (readership) of each magazine. Utilize the internet to obtain the telephone numbers of editors or circulation managers from which to order a media kit and complimentary subscription to the magazine (Warning: once you contact them, you will be receiving a call from your local advertising salesperson). Build a file containing this information. Another option is to subscribe to Cahners’ SRDS, which provides comprehensive information on these magazines, including key editorial and advertising personnel, editorial content, advertising rates, circulation, and special editions of all audited business publications, organized by market.

3) Write the News Release. If you don’t have access to a public relations firm, or marketing communications professional, a competent business writer will have to do. Two to three paragraphs for each news release are usually sufficient for getting key product/service characteristics across to the reader. Don’t include every detail. Editors will help to format your information before publication, so don’t fret.

Utilize a journalistic style, such as inverted pyramid, mentioning the most important information first, and then getting into more detail as you continue the news release. Be sure to include your company name, name of the contact person at your company, telephone, email and Web addresses. You can write a headline if you would like.

If you write the release to be published in a special section of the magazine, indicate that location above the body of the release. As an example, you could write “”for New Product Spotlight section.”" It is also very important to be consistent in your format – editors will begin to recognize your company’s news items.

4) Acquire Product Photography. Product photography taken for sales literature, advertising, point-of-purchase displays, trade show graphics, etc., can serve as an able ambassador for your written news releases. If your product has unique visible features that are best communicated by pictures, being published is much more likely if a photo of your product accompanies your news release. Most publications accept slides. However, a few still require prints, and the trend is toward electronic submission (jpeg. or tiff. files). You should be able to uncover the editor’s photography requirements within the magazine’s media kit, which should be available by mail or on-line. Otherwise, a quick call to the editor or assistant is necessary.

Finally, it is beneficial to review your complimentary magazine issues to get a feel for the quality of competitors’ product photography that is being published. Your photography, if at all possible, should match or exceed that quality level.

5) Follow up on your submissions. Editors don’t usually mind a friendly call to discuss your submission. They may not immediately recall reading the release – it may take two or three months before they get to it. Then, it is usually another month of production and printing before the magazine finally hits the street. You can see why patience is a necessity. Another good reason to call is to ask the editor specifically what articles he/she will be looking for in the future. You may uncover opportunities to participate in future features. Once you’ve opened a line of communication, don’t be surprised if the editor calls you occasionally.

6) Measure results. The final step is to scan the key publications for your published news releases. You won’t be able to avoid this meticulous step. However, you will get the hang of where to locate any published information after scanning a few issues of each magazine. Over the next few months, you will also be receiving response cards (a.k.a. bingo cards) from the magazine for readers who have requested more information about your publicized product or service. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for you to respond to these inquiries in a timely manner because they don’t show up until 2-4 weeks after the readers mailed it to the publisher, who input the date and sent out a lead sheet with mailing labels. This is why I suggest listing your web site or email address for those who require more information. Not all publishers will print this with your information, currently. Eventually, all will.

7) Report your successes. It’s hard enough to get support for a reasonable marketing communications program from most organizations. Do not forget this final step. Create a brief report depicting the fruits of your labor, i.e., what and how many publications ran the information you submitted, what are the markets and circulation of those publications, how many leads did each publication generate.

It is important to recognize that the landscape of trade media is changing along with the electronic age. As a marketing communication professional, it is important to take advantage of the right media at the right time. As the internet and other electronic marketing opportunities develop, your marketing strategy will necessarily evolve. For now, however, the trade publications remain a vital avenue for communicating the value of your company and its products. Utilize them well and often.

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Corporate Identity Package

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:48:30 +0000

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A Corporate identity package is the process of creating and composing the visual communication elements necessary to define an organization in the marketplace and to its employees and stakeholders. Corporate identity design is formed through the creation of graphic design, logo design, messages and copywriting including positioning statements, vision and mission, photography, video and film, web site design and content, sales collateral materials, such as brochures, advertisements, public relations activities, corporate communications, etc.

See also: corporate identity; logo design; graphic design logo; company logo design; custom logo design; corporate logo design; online logo design; professional logo design; corporate identity logo design.

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Corporate Identity Design

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:48:16 +0000

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Corporate identity design is the process of creating and composing the visual communication elements necessary to define an organization in the marketplace and to its employees and stakeholders. Corporate identity design is formed through the creation of graphic design, logo design, messages and copywriting including positioning statements, vision and mission, photography, video and film, web site design and content, sales collateral materials, such as brochures, advertisements, public relations activities, corporate communications, etc.

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Corporate Identity

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:48:06 +0000

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Corporate identity encompasses the visual and human communication elements that define an organization in the marketplace and to its employees and stakeholders. Corporate identity is formed through the creation of graphic design, logo design, messages and copywriting including positioning statements, vision and mission, photography, video and film, web site design and content, sales collateral materials, such as brochures , advertisements, public relations activities, corporate communications, etc. A corporate identity is the overall impression that is the comprehensive result of these activities.

See also: corporate identity design; logo design; graphic design logo; company logo design; custom logo design; corporate logo design; online logo design; professional logo design; corporate identity logo design.

See our article on brand identity: Discover Your B-to-B Brand Identity

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Trade Show Graphic Design

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:47:52 +0000

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Trade show graphic design is the design of large format graphics used in conjunction with a trade show booth or custom exhibit to bring attention to your booth, products and services. Trade show graphic design utilizes graphics, illustration, photography, video, type styles, headlines and audio-visual elements.

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Brochure Design

Mick Danskin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:47:43 +0000

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Brochure design involves the creation and composition of graphic design elements, including illustration, photography, logos, colors, text styles, shapes, and textures, etc. to communicate messages in a printed document. Brochures commonly highlight information about the organization and its products and services.

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