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Dec 14th, 2009 by Larry Vincent

Wireless disconnect

AT&T wants you to use less wireless data.

Last week The New York Times reported AT&T is considering communications programs that encourage you to do so. The initiative is intended to reduce the burden on AT&T’s network, due to the explosive popularity of Apple’s iPhone. Before changing consumer rate plans based on actual data usage, AT&T would inform consumers on how their data consumption affects performance of the entire network.

This plan creates a brand gap.

AT&T and Apple have spent two years promoting the iPhone’s value, and its Applications or “Apps.” In fact, “Apps” are one of the biggest drivers of the iPhone’s popularity—so much that new competitive offerings (i.e., Blackberry Bold, MyTouch 3G, Droid, etc.) include similar “apps” platforms. BUT, promoting “apps” AND launching campaigns to curb data usage will send a conflicting brand message to AT&T’s current and potential customers. It’s akin to tobacco companies advising you not to smoke while depicting smokers in glamorous, energetic lifestyle scenarios.

The truth: Apple and AT&T created a remarkable brand platform with the iPhone. Twice as many people choose AT&T for their smart phones over other competitors. “Apps” are an essential touch point for the brand. Though AT&T may prefer encouraging users to consume less data instead of changing pricing strategies, the program will likely fail, create a brand alignment challenge—or both.

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tags: brand, marketing, technology

Nov 10th, 2009 by Larry Vincent

Healthcare for your brand on a budget

Average Americans aren’t the only ones fretting over healthcare issues. Brand health is becoming one of the hottest topics in the CMO community. Two forces are driving the sudden interest in metrics and “brand dashboards.” Managers are growing more metrics-focused because of the rising use of online media in the total marketing mix. Online media allows managers to see a direct cause-and-effect relationship between a demand generation initiative and sales. It’s only natural that the same managers would start to ask, “How much is my brand driving sales?”

The other factor is money, or more precisely, the scarcity of money. Marketing budgets are usually the last to recover when an economy rises from the ashes of a recession. Every expense is scrutinized. Before investing money on a brand, it’s helpful to assess your brand’s overall health. Think about it: Would you be willing to let a doctor perform a procedure on your body without first doing an examination? Probably not.

When funds are scarce and investments are heavily scrutinized, you owe it to your shareholders to assess your state of wellness, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, many managers think that measuring brand health is a massive endeavor that requires quant jocks running loose with expensive studies, time-consuming audits, and complex statistical analyses. They fear that in the end they’ll be sitting around a table scratching their heads trying to make sense of all the data sets, still clueless where to invest. It doesn’t have to be this way. Here are four time-tested diagnostic areas to consider when assessing your brand’s health.

To read the full article click here.

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tags: healthcare

Sep 8th, 2009 by Larry Vincent

Even Olympics feel the squeeze from recession

The Vancouver Winter Olympics are proving a tough sell to the business world which seems willing to pass on an advertising bonanza that promises to deliver billions of TV viewers worldwide and an avalanche of good will.

Click here to view article.

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tags: media mention

Jul 28th, 2009 by Larry Vincent

7 Misguided Brand Strategies

There are many guaranteed paths to brand failure, and during a downturn, botching a campaign is even less of an option. Here’s how to avoid making those missteps. Conventional wisdom advises marketing managers to exercise prudence during tough economic times. That is why so many companies freeze or reduce marketing spending during recessions. Some line items fare better than others. For example, it is easier for many managers to justify spending on demand generation than it is to rationalize brand investment. To quote one senior marketing executive, branding is often considered “a rich man’s game.”

But evidence from previous periods of recession provides us with good reason to challenge conventional wisdom. A 2002 study by McKinsey & Company found that companies willing to invest in branding and advertising activities, while their industry peers were cutting spending, outperformed industry performance averages when the economy recovered. For many companies, a down economy is an ideal time to invest in the brand. The question is, where to invest? There is less room for failure in an uncertain economic climate. Spending on the brand may provide an advantage, but only if that spending is well focused.

When budgets are tight, your objective as the brand manager is to pick the brand investments that will deliver tangible business value, preserve the equity in the brand, and mitigate risk. As a cautionary measure, I’ve listed seven sure-fire ways to fall into the “Tropicana trap” and fail at this objective. Click here to read the full story.

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tags: brand, media mention

Jun 11th, 2009 by Larry Vincent

A Strategy Expert on the Future of Newspapers

“I doubt that bloggers will completely satisfy the demand for objective reporting.”

With the future of newspapers in debate, TheWrap decided to see what some of the terms of actual discussion should be. In that vein, we spoke to Laurence Vincent, Group Director, Strategy, for Siegel+Gale at the branding company’s L.A. office. Vincent, the author of “Legendary Brands,” has crafted strategies for Microsoft, MasterCard, the Walt Disney Company and the NFL, among others.

Let’s cut to the chase — can the newspaper industry be saved?
There was a time when I would have answered, “Yes, unequivocally.” But that opinion is driven by legacy readers like me who have an affinity for the product experience. The product experience is changing for new generations of readers. Click here to read the full article.

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tags: media mention

May 20th, 2009 by Larry Vincent

Toward Sustainable Branding

“Realistically, this thing must live for three to five years.” He was the CMO of a rapidly
growing technology company and his disclaimer came shortly after he approved our
strategy recommendation. He justified it with two reasons. First, he needed a shelf life
of three to five years to justify the financial investment. But his second reason was far
more interesting. “We’ll be bought by then and we’ll either have to lose the brand or re-
invent it to match the new company.”

Welcome to the age of disposable branding. The longevity of the modern brand identity
shrinks each year, which is good for strategic branding firms, but not necessarily good
for brands and the cultures they serve.
(more…)

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tags: brand

Nov 20th, 2008 by Larry Vincent

Stalking Digital Experience

In the past decade, the web has matured as a critical touchpoint for brands. Online has continued to grow, audiences have matured, and the tools available to make the web more useful, interactive, and experiential have proliferated. Yet, despite advances in technology and demographics, the optimal online experience is often challenging and elusive for leading brands to accomplish.

Earlier this year, Siegel+Gale launched an initiative to study the best practices and common challenges of some of the web’s most innovative purveyors. We interviewed senior executives in four distinct industry segments: media and entertainment, information services, financial services, and sports. While we discovered nuances specific to each segment, all respondents sounded a common concern: how do you manage and measure the sometimes obscure, always alluring benefit of online experience?

(more…)

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tags: brand

Aug 26th, 2008 by Larry Vincent

Want to learn more about how to articulate your organization’s digital brand voice in the Web 2.0 World?

Join Larry Vincent, Group Director, Strategy of our Los Angeles Office for a one hour webinar, sponsored by the BAPTIE Online Marketing Community on Wednesday, Sept. 24th to learn how to effectively transition your organization’s brand voice in an ever-changing Web 2.0 world.

For more information about the webinar or to register:

http://www.baptie.com/liveandonline/show.asp?e=189

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tags: events

Aug 19th, 2008 by Larry Vincent

How to Get Your Olympic Marketing Right

Fred Burt, Siegel+Gale Managing Director, London Office examines the opportunities for brands during the Olympics – and some advice to make sure your brand gets the most from any association.

With Beijing in full flight and minds beginning to turn to London, it’s a great time to be thinking about brands, and the role they play in the Olympics.
There are three key types of brand we need to think of when looking at brand building within the Olympics.

The first, and most obvious, are the sponsors and advertisers. Much will have been written about this - I’ll leave aside the need for breakthrough creative, for example, which in my mind is a given.

Here are four key observations however which I think are key strategic issues brand owners need to address.

1. Make sure you have a established, genuinely international brand.

The Olympics is not the forum to launch a new brand. Local market ring holder rights, as well as national team sponsorships can be more cost effective if your brand is regional or local. AT&T, for example, sponsors the US Olympic team as their brand (certainly their consumer brand) is a US brand.

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tags: media mention

Aug 19th, 2008 by Larry Vincent

Spinning Olympic Gold

Business Spectator
Edited by Sophie Vorrath

There’s nothing like a major global sporting event – like, say, the Summer Olympics – to reinvigorate the world of mass marketing.

While marketing was "a dirty word in China less than a generation ago", say Kevin Allison, Geoff Dyer and Patti Waldmeir in the Financial Times, "Beijing is using the Olympics to market itself as a superpower", as well as to shift its corporate image from "sweatshop to the world" to that of a high-quality, high-valued-added and high-technology hub.

"Never before has the market potential of the host country on its own been viewed as possibly worth the significant investment," says Julius Roberge, strategy director for Siegel+Gale New York, talking to MarketWatch.

The challenge, he adds, "is Herculean". And while success would send a strong new message, any missteps mean China "will not soon have such visibility to transform a lagging image."

Read the complete article

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tags: media mention