The key to building and extending your brand is
integrated marketing -- when all of your company communications activities evolve from a
central selling proposition with a singular message.
Your corporate marketing message should permeate through everything that
touches your customers and prospects. There
should be consistency in messaging, look, tone, and feel.
Integrated marketing requires a
big picture perspective that demands that companies look at their communications as a
whole, rather than by individual parts: advertising,
PR, sales promotion and Web marketing.
With integrated marketing, each
component is carefully blended to work with others, so that you can take full advantage of
the collective power of your messaging to then maximize ROI. This may sound obvious and simple, but many
companies have difficulty implementing it.
Integrated marketing requires
careful planning, strong discipline, and talented people working around a common goal and
vision. My advice is to start now – the
bigger your company gets, the harder it gets to implement.
Develop a strategy that is
grounded by an accurate understanding of your buyers, their needs and your company’s
products/services place in satisfying those needs. Doing
your homework properly at this stage in the process always results in sharper, more
persuasive integrated messages.
Do the research:
- Who represents your best customers?
- How does this group perceive the services/products in your
category?
- What aren’t your customers getting from those
products/services now?
- Does your product/service really fit the customer group?
- What makes your product/service different?
- What do your customers think of a company like yours?
- What is the most compelling benefit of your
product/service?
- How can you make that benefit available to the buyers?
Once you have researched the
market, understand your buyer’s needs, and believe fervently that your product is
uniquely positioned to fulfill those needs, how will you communicate the message and get
your target audience to listen? Every company
needs to differentiate its product/service in a way that is meaningful to buyers. Do not move forward until you have met each
aspect of your positioning criteria.
- Is it relevant?
- Is it available?
- Is it defensible?
- Is it sustainable?
- Is it simple?
Once you have chosen your
strategy, and you have created a message that will resonate with your target, you are
ready to share this brand with your audience. Chose
a graphic style and copy tone that reflects your distinct corporate personality.
To leverage and use your
integrated marketing tools, it is essential that you have:
- A strategically derived positioning statement that drives
the development of all communication activities.
- A visual palette and a verbal personality that permeates
all communications. The same visual and
verbal voices should speak consistently across all mediums.
- Clearly stated communication goals and objectives. The program’s stewards must regularly
remind each of the contributors of the essential nature of the goals and objectives to
ensure consistency of purpose and effort.
- Every contributor must be focused not only on the results
of his/her program component, but also on the outcome of the program as a whole.
Integrated marketing is about
strategy, discipline, collaboration, and patience. Understand
the resources and technologies available to you. Make
the best selections for your company, product, and/or service. Build relationships with customers using
personalization, push, interactivity, telephone and A/V conferencing, email, and
community. Above all else, reinforce the same
compelling message throughout.
Kathleen Goodwin has over
20 years of experience in marketing strategy, communications planning, and sales campaign
development. Goodwin is currently with
10milk. She can be reached at: Kathleen@10milk.com
