Before embarking on any social media marketing

Before embarking on any social media marketing campaigns, it is essential to set your goals and define your prospects or target audience. Without a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and who you want to reach, your promotional campaigns will not be focused and the results may be fragmented and weak.

Determining your goals and target audience is a fairly important preliminary process when it comes to social media marketing.

This is not just plotting objectives for the sake of being organized; your goals directly determine the best strategy to take and the community to target.

This article talks about the common goals for social media marketing and includes suggestions on how you can determine your target audience.

Social media marketing goals will often involve different overall strategies and social media channels. It is possible to market with the aim of achieving all the following benefits; they do complement each other and some results naturally arise when other goals are achieved (e.g. better brand awareness eventually brings links).

Let’s take a look at some of the goals you can strive towards:

1. Increased Brand Awareness.

Content can be created and spread through social media to improve public perception of your brand by evoking specific qualities which make it distinct from others. For new websites or businesses, this pervasive visibility generates brand familiarity. Social media channels can rapidly generate word of mouth and buzz for most brands.

2. Reputation Management.

The goal here is to positively influence the way a potential and existing customer/audience perceives your brand. Work of this nature is less push-orientated and may involve the creation of social media profiles and wikis that rank well on search engines for your brand name.

This also includes monitoring public forums and feedback channels to track and address what is said about your site. Some view this as social media optimization, although I would classify it as pull-marketing.

3. Improved Search Engine Rankings.

When considered within a larger SEO and link building framework, content can be creatively developed and promoted for the purpose of obtaining links from the members of the social news websites.

This means you should primarily target social sites with the highest potential to give you links, instead of smaller-sized communities which only offer interested traffic. While important, your site’s profile need not be entirely relevant to the social media website in question; content can be created specifically to appeal to different audiences.

4. Increased Relevant Visitor Traffic.

If you are only interested in getting interested visitors or users for your website, you should invest more time on social communities which have a high topical relevance.

The social site’s topical focus should be inline with what your site covers/offers. For example, instead of promoting your internet marketing articles through wide platform like Digg, try pushing it on more appropriate communities like StumbleUpon, because it will get you people who are more likely to follow your site.

5. Improve Sales for a Product (goods and services) To effectively increase your product sales, you should release your offer through an influencer who is respected in the community or work through a sponsorship model (contests etc.). Hard selling a social media audience through an overtly commercial profile is not advisable because it will come across as marketing spam.

One solution is to segment the market and focus on being the number one solution for specific user problems. Naturally, you should mostly target communities which are highly relevant to your niche focus because this increases the likelihood for traffic to convert.

Having distinctive goals allows you to embark on mini-campaigns which target specific communities to fulfill individual goals. For instance, you can run a link building campaign through Digg while simultaneously building brand awareness by leveraging social video communities like YouTube.

Spitting up your campaigns will allow you to more easily examine the general ROI (returns on investment) for each community. Plotting and analyzing your achievements over time will allow you understand which social media channel fulfills your goals the best. This allows you to plan for future marketing initiatives.

Define the target market for your social marketing campaigns

After determining your social media objectives, you need to define your actual target audience. If your website or business has been around for a while, you should already have a rough idea of who you need to reach.

In the context of social media marketing, the goals you’ve chosen will partially determine your target audience as well. For instance, if you’re looking to increase overall sales conversions, you want a social media demographic that is profitable and potentially interested in your product or offer.

If you’re trying to build links, your target audience should be people with the ability to link or influence links. (e.g. bloggers, social media users). While your social media goals may partially determine the crowd to target, your business model is also an important factor to consider. What are you selling and who is likely to be interested?

Sometimes your target audience crosses many demographic segments. If you run a general technology blog your audience profile may be quite varied. You will have programmers, marketers and both male and female tech enthusiasts of all ages.

Some business models have in-built audience profile. Women’s magazines have a more defined audience which can be broken down by gender, age or even geographic location. The communities you target should have users of this mold.

Here are some questions to ask before you begin your social marketing campaign:

1. Who is likely to be most interested in my content?

2. Who do I want to communicate with and why?

3. What kind of audience does this social community have?

4. What are people currently saying about my website or business?

5. Which type of person is likely to purchase my product (goods and services)?

6. What tools or online services do my target audience use?

7. Which websites does my target audience frequent on the net?

8. What do my target audience have in common with each other?

I  like to send some of these questions to a few friends or colleagues and compile their answers. Each individual has a unique perspective and different ways of using the web and their answers will give you a good general idea of your potential online customers and their preferences.

Once you create a general outline of your audience, you can more easily select the social media channels to target. This brings us to the end of the preliminary preparations for your social media marketing campaign.

Understanding the limitations of social media marketing

Social media channels can certainly get you traffic, attention and links but keep in mind that a big part of your potential customers/readers may not know about or use these social websites. This is certainly the case for geo-specific small businesses.

If you’re a plumber in Los Angeles,  they are not going to go on YouTube to find a plumber.

What you can do is to use dynamic content to set up multiple funnels that direct traffic and attention to your website. This may involve creating a blog and producing content which gives you an excuse to be disseminated on high traffic and wide-focus channels like YouTube or Digg.

Your sales page won’t fit in but a humorous article or video about a plumber’s trade is relevant to the general audience. The plumber is just an example. Most businesses will benefit from dynamic content which can be spread through online communities.

The marketing equation and strategy for small businesses goes something like this: social media visibility = brand awareness + word of mouth = new customer.

This is an indirect method to increase sales and your customer base. While extremely powerful as a tool to spread brand awareness, social media marketing should be integrated alongside traditional search marketing goals; you should always try to improve the visibility of your website in the search engine result pages.

Done correctly, social media marketing will get you more customers and increased sales. The results will just not be as immediate as direct response marketing.

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Lets face it – In the real world, competitive brands seldom differ much from each other. Any market successful innovation tends to be quickly cloned. Nor does much advertising give very different images or values to functionally similar brands, despite what tends to be said about this.

Differentiation?

It is often said that brands need to be differentiated.  In a differentiation strategy, a firm seeks to be unique. it selects one or two attributes that many buyers in an industry perceive as important  (Michael Porter, 1985).

Differentiation which is successful (in terms of sales) asks to be copied.

If we steal a lead we find the advantage is only temporary. So we rapidly lose our edge and off we go again, striving to get ahead once more. Thus the battle of the brands continues, with broad competitive parity/ over time the normal and natural state of most of our markets.

Me-tooism remains the dominant force in competition. Being competitive means cashing in on one’s competitors’ successes.

So innovation may  not the stuff of effective long-term competition, except defensively. One probably cannot afford to be left behind.

The key strategic objective needs to be remembered – to gain a sustainable competitive advantage by building sustained customer loyalty with products (goods and services)

What is brand salience?

According to Neil Barnard and John Scriven (Ehrenberg, A., Barnard, N., and Scriven, J. (1997). ‘Differentiation or salience’, Journal of Advertising Research, 37/6: 7–14.)  If Brand A has more salience than B, it has more people who:

• Are “aware” of it (for just about any awareness measure)
• Have it in their active brand repertoires (for frequently bought products)
• And/or have it in their consideration sets (i.e., brands they might buy)
• Are familiar with the brand
• Feel it has brand assurance (e.g., retail availability, after-sales service, etc.)
• Have positive attribute beliefs about Brand A
• Regard it as value for money
• Harbour intentions to buy and/or to use it in the future (and do so)
• Would buy-A-if-their-usual-brand-wasnot-available
• Choose A in a named product test
• Note and recall its advertisements (by and large)
• “Talk more often and more richly about it in focus groups
• Are “loyal” to A (by any measure of loyalty)

Salience is about how many consumers regard it well, or “well enough,” or see it as “salient”

So – the real differences need to  occur in what we see as the margin .  That is ensuring competitive brands will differ in emotional features (e.g., brands have different personalities) which link with specific target segment desires. The real differentiation is understanding that a brand’s true salience and value lives inside consumers minds and help them identify products that promise them a certain set of benefits.

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You’ve tried and tried to convince others of your ideas and position. You’ve worked hard,  laid out your logical arguments — but you still have trouble being listened to. Your good ideas (even with great PowerPoints) do not seem to sway them. Yet you see others, whose ideas are seemingly less developed, who have not done the hard yards succeed.

Psychologists and behaviourists will tell you that the approach you are taking is rarely successful. Good intentions, great ideas, and hard work are not enough to make it.

To succeed you will need the support of others

People with higher levels of charisma influence others.  People with positive, authentic charisma influence others in positive ways so both benefit.

Think of charisma as force of character, or personal presence.

Charisma is a behavioural quality that anyone can develop. With the right information (and some assistance) anyone can increase their personal influence.

Other similar terms to charisma, include personal magnetism force of character, ‘strong personal appeal or gravitas)

Charisma is the spirit with which a person which can enlighten a whole room.

People with higher levels of charisma get noticed, listened to, respected, and followed.  In short they are more likely to succeed, because the reality of success is that you need others to help and support you.  Being smart, having good ideas and working hard are seldom enough.

A strong charismatic personal presence is useful for relationships of all sorts (leading, teaching, entrepreneuring, selling, speaking and developing professionally) Having an effective charismatic force of character is also useful for defending yourself and others, and for negotiating, complaining, and seeking redress.

Authentic charisma, the  power of personal influence is not commonly taught, but it can be.

Despite the early origins of the word, the notion that charisma is ‘God-given’ or exclusive to a lucky few is simply not true.  What people may see as an accident of nature or perhaps heritage is in reality the result of experience and learning – it has been learned.

Ordinary people achieve success (in many fields) and even greatness every day, because they can influence others.

Becoming charismatic  is not a gift from the gods. If you want to be charismatic, you can be.

What’s So Useful About Charisma?

Charisma is not about showing off.  It is a useful personal tool.

Charisma enables us to influence our external environment and the expectations of others which from time to time we all need to do – even the introverts among us.

If you want to succeed  then you have a good reasons for developing your charismatic powers.

Charisma is an applied force of human personality which can be understood, measured, and developed.

Charisma is not just for those in senior or leadership roles.

Certainly good leaders benefit from having charisma.  A leader who does not influence is a poor leader.

But the power of personal influence, is for all sorts of people.  It is what helps determine which ideas get adopted and how effectively projects are implemented. Good charisma is critical anytime you’re applying for a job.  Charismatic receive higher performance ratings. They tend to  get more promotions.

Charisma is not monolithic.

There’s no one form of charisma that is good or bad per se. There’s only the right form of charisma for the particular situation. Western cultures often glamorises extroversion, leaving  Quieter people to sometimes feel defective.  However introversion can actually be an asset for several forms of charisma.

Is charisma about being coldly manipulative?

It can be – but not Authentic Charisma which is based on kindness. The type of charisma people like the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela are known for.

Will you have to become a different person? 

In some situations, the ones you choose – yes you will.   It is a conscious behaviour to be used when needed. And something that will become second nature.  Something you switch on when needed

Charisma is helpful for managing problem-solving, facilitating and pioneering new ideas.

And charisma is very useful for all sorts of personal relationships including parenting.

When you see charisma in these terms and as a way of understanding and controlling your own strength of character – you might also see reasons in your own life for wanting to develop some charismatic power for yourself.

Key Personality Traits of Authentically Influential/Charismatic People:

Speaking with Authority

The ability to communicate your ideas effectively to others.

Strong Self-Esteem

Self-confidence, inner-calm, self-reliance, independence.   This conveys confidence and authenticity.

Personal Warmth

Influential people are  known for their ability to focus warmth the people they are with. A person who is concerned about the welfare and happiness of others is a respected person.  It is inevitable that people who dislike others will be disliked; people sense disapproval

Projecting Silent Messages/Image

The way you carry yourself, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.

Listening Attentively and Actively

Listening is a key to communicating and making others feel special in your presence.

High Energy

Persuasion is often about passion, enthusiasm, commitment, determination.   High personal positive energy builds and maintains a positive energetic response in others. Positive energy makes others feel good

Persuasiveness

Motivating others to follow your lead and adopt your ideas.

Self Discipline – Temperance

The person who lacks the necessary self-discipline to manage his or her personal habits is seldom attractive to others. .

Respecting Others

Respecting and honoring another person will affect the amount of tension and trust you develop.

Smiling

When we smile at another person, it puts them at ease and raises their self-esteem. It also releases endorphins in your brain that gives you a feeling of well-being and contentment. Your smile will change the attitudes of those with whom you come into contact.

Humility

Keeping empathy and ego in balance.

Gracefulness

Charismatic people tend to exhibit good “body skills” They also have the skill and grace in dealing with others

Sensory Awareness

Empathy and  emotional intelligence (EQ).   Charismatic people are aware of their own feelings and the feelings and moods of others.  This makes them expressive and compelling in the way they communicate and engage with others.

Sincerity and Authenticity

Authentically charismatic people are genuine and honest and free from deceit and phoniness.

Frankness in Manner and Speech

Influential people present as being straightforward and sincere. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Getting the point across in the shortest time with well-chosen words

Personal Adaptability

Understanding contexts . Understanding how to treat others in differing situations. The ability to adapt to quickly changing circumstances without losing composure.

Projecting Vision and an Aspiration For Success

Charismatic people are seen to have a vision of success and have the ability to make it happen.  People are attracted to people they believe have or can succeed.  This is the ability to influence others to follow, change their ideas or take action.

Innovativeness and Creativity

Everyone is born with a brain and imagination.  Charismatic people can use theirs to develop their fullest capacity to create a great life for themselves.

Versatility and a Range of Ideas.

Popular and persuasive people are listened to versatile. They have at least a surface knowledge of many subjects. They are interested in other people’s ideas.

A Confident Presence

A confident presence is that sense of energy and feeling emanating from a person who is happy within their own skin and confident in their belief that, generally, life doesn’t throw up anything that they can’t manage.

A Sense of Calmness

Calm is the foundation of perceptions of personal presence. Developing presence and poise should be everyone’s aim.  An inner sense of calm, regardless of circumstance.  Remaining calm under pressure, inspires others.

Did you find this article useful?  Please let us know

These are outline notes from a MAANZ course.  If you are interested in obtaining the full set of notes (and a PowerPoint presentation) please contact us – info@marketing.org.au

Also check out other articles on
http://smartamarketing2.wordpress.com

MAANZ International website
http://www.marketing.org.au

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It is at this stage that an inexorable rule has to be considered no matter how much information, how much skill and how much science go into establishing what the fee will be.

High fees – opportunity for high profit = low chance of success. Low fees = risk of low profit or loss = high chance of success.

More than anything else the practitioner requires a methodology for arriving at fees which are acceptable to the organisation, to clients and will not influence third publics (possible referrers) adversely. It has already been remarked that the organisation that is at the mercy of its clients deserves sympathy and nothing else.

Some methodologies comprise a multi-stage process which leads towards the final fee but such mechanistic approaches fail to account for the interaction between the different stages. To be effective the multi-stage process must be reviewed as cyclic and reiterative rather than a one-way flow from start to finish. The stages are:’°

Objectives

Just as with the total practice development strategy an early step must always be to decide and to obtain agreement on fee objectives. These can be as variable as the objectives of the total strategy; a given level of profitability, return on investment, achievement of specific growth rates, high cash flow, optimisation of special skills and resources, attracting new clients/higher level of repeat consultations or instructions.

Designation of targets

This stage will have been completed in the preparation of the practise development strategy. Clearly, the fee structure must fit the target market and it may well be that having arrived at the fee structure either because of the nature of costs or of demand, it may be necessary to reconsider the market targets in the total practice development plan.

Demand estimate

The next step must be an estimate of the demand which will be generated at a particular fee level. Because it would be impractical and unprofitable to undertake marketing research for every occasion, but by no means impractical to arrive at general level of acceptability, this must be best judgement.” The teleological nature of pricing decisions is nowhere better illustrated than at this stage where fee level can generate or inhibit demand and where high or low demand has an immediate favourable or adverse impact on costs and thus fees. Nevertheless, those responsible for setting fees cannot sit on the fence. A view must be taken on assumed demand at given fee levels.

Fee–image relationship

There is a direct correlation between fees and image. As has already been pointed out a professional service just like a product can be suspect if the fees are perceived as so low as to affect the quality or delivery of the service. Conversely, high fees will frequently indicate a high level of qualification, experience or ability.

It is unwise to an extreme to attempt to arrive at a fee level without first considering what image the practise wishes to convey both overall and in the specific transaction under consideration.

Selection and use of communication techniques

This must be a judgemental decision towards which not even the most advanced thinking on marketing can contribute. No matter how sophisticated the marketing of any organisation may be and no matter how many protestations to the contrary are made, the communication ‘mix’ is still decided much more by empirical than methodological means. Just because there is unlikely to be any multi-million pound budget to juggle with the problems are no less severe. Indeed they are probably greater in having to work within a very limited budget and in a market where there is little record of client reaction to any given fee level and perhaps no market information whatsoever. Yet again the practise developer has to take a posture even with minimal information.

Decision on fee policy

The practise will have to make a decision on the basic policies relative to fees. How far will fees be flexible to meet particular circumstances or to secure and retain particularly desired clients? What will be the policy relative to keeping the fees above, level with or below competitive fees? Is there to be some provision for fee incentive for perhaps continuity, forward commitment or use of the full or fuller range of services available? It is even possible that reciprocity with clients whose products or services can be utilised by the professional practice would be considered and encouraged.

Selection of a fee strategy

It may be useful in developing a to distinguish fee policy from a fee strategy.

Policy might be said to apply to the predicated situation, most particularly those situations that are recurrent. However, demand is never wholly predictable and is subject to many fluctuations caused by the impact of the forces or change which are largely uncontrollable – social, economic, political and technological. Changes whatever their cause may well demand a change in fees. Strategy is the formulation of the guidelines in setting fee levels to meet any special situation not envisaged or allowed for within the policy principles. It is in fact the contingency fee plan and the trigger for implementing it would be any situation which the price policy could not encompass.

Choice of fee tactics

Surprisingly, some of the pricing techniques adopted in parts of the consumer goods industry are applicable for professional services but their very names will usually lead to instant rejection as examples of commercialism at its most brash and therefore totally inapplicable. This is quite wrong. Whatever nomenclature and however they are used in consumer goods and services’ markets their applicability is clear. The main methods which are relevant to professional service pricing tactics are summarised in Figure -1.

If the titles and techniques of fee tactics appear totally divorced from  practice it is only necessary to see how many of them are in current use. ‘Offset’ fees can be found in dentistry where a low examination fee may be combined with high cost ancillary services, for example X-rays or supplies such as prophylactics; ‘discount’ offers are commonplace in computer services, engineering and management consultancy; ‘service flexibility’ is not unknown, indeed is commonplace, in many forms of financial services most particularly insurance; ‘inducement‘ (or loss leading as it is known in commercial parlance) is an extreme taken by solicitors offering free first interviews to private clients who may be involved in accident claims.

Precisely how each tactic is used is totally dependent upon the service involved, the target client group, and what might be termed the “situation – ‘ambient conditions’.

Whatever the circumstances, the use of any of these tactics to be effective, requires a knowledge and understanding of clients and in the case of commercial clients a knowledge of the selection and decision-making process also.

Any discussion of fees in consulting  services is surrounded with a type of taboo typified at its extreme by the barrister who receives not a fee but an honorarium, and all financial arrangements are negotiated through his clerk. (Barristers still carry in their gowns the vestigial remains of the pocket into which the fee was placed to avoid their actually having to receive the money from the instructing solicitor.  Thus fee tactics are frequently seen, not as they are – a legitimate and efficient tool of practice development – but as a somewhat devious means of separating the client from his money.

However, whether it is called loss leading‘ or `development fees‘, or a ‘sprat to catch a mackerel‘, the tactic remains the same and is wholly applicable to consulting services marketing.

When policy, strategy and tactics have all been decided and agreed there still remains the final step which the whole multi-stage process is leading to, the selection of the fee or fee structure. The interactive nature of these stages and re-cycling, which will lead to the selection of the actual fee, is best illustrated on the same basis as the total practice development strategy, namely as a planetary system. This system has final price as the ‘sun’ and the various stages arriving at price moving around on an eccentric course depending both upon the circumstances of the practise and the changes in the environment in which they operate.

For the decision on the final fee the practitioner will be limited in his options by the various factors which impact on fees. Nevertheless, there will be a range of possibilities that will be consistent with the various stages of the fee-setting procedure.

The two key points are that fees charged must cover direct costs and carry a reasonable margin of profit; the arithmetic of pricing must not be ignored; that is a study of the costs and the revenues generated by alternative fees within the range which is circumscribed by the different stages passed through in moving towards the selection of the specific fee. By approaching the final fee on the basis of each different consideration the risks of deciding what this fee shall be, based purely on ‘cost’ or ‘values’, are avoided and a more rounded view which improves judgement is obtained.

Although the multi-stage approach is claimed as practical as opposed to the elegant theories which are frequently offered, the practicality is often limited by lack of information on which to base each incremental decision.

The multi-stage approach will have the virtue for each organisation, no matter how lacking it is in information, of at least indicating the data it requires to achieve, as time progresses, better and better fee bases and structures that are both practice and client orientated.

Fees may be a key decision factor when services are undifferentiated while in other circumstances they will be of little or no consequence within the restraints imposed by the client’s resources. In the first instance when identical services charge identical fees the fees are not part of the decision-making process. This could apply to payment of doctors, dentists and other professional personnel employed in state health services. The opposite circumstance is medical assistance in an emergency where it is the existence of the assistance and not its cost which is all that matters. Between these limits, fees will play a variable role in the range of factors considered deciding both on the use of a professional service and the provider of that service.

The multi-stage approach suggested will narrow down the options and range of fees from which the choice must be made. It is a considerable aid to judgement but does not replace it. There is no certain way to arrive at an optimum fee and the multi-stage approach is an attempt at systemisation and avoiding the excesses which on over-reliance on rigid methods can produce at one extreme or allowing emotions or history to shape the final decision at the other.

The problems and rewards of effective techniques for setting fees or devising fee structures as a vital part of the total practice development plan have been treated only superficially. It has been more an introduction to the subject than a detailed explanation of its mechanics. The purpose has been to ensure that the question of fees is not allowed to occupy a less important place and command less consideration within the practise development plan than its all pervasive impact on results justifies. All consulting organisations should examine their policies (or lack of policies) to ensure that methods of setting fees which have been used in the past are still relevant in today’s conditions and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

Fee setting at the correct level is of considerable consequence both for the individual and for the survival of the organisation. Fees are a tool, to obtain and retain clients as well as to ensure the profitable continuance of the organisation. The two objectives are inter-related and lend themselves to a variety of strategies for their successful achievement. Those concerned with practice development, faced with increasing professionalism in marketing consulting services, need an understanding of fee-setting techniques if they are to have any chance of success

If you are basing your marketing on simple demographic titles like “Millenials”  or Generation C  or Baby Boomers.  You should read this Segmentation Philosophy

Segmentation Philosophy

Segmentation, or the idea of targeting the homogeneous components of a heterogeneous market rather than the market as a whole, was initially popularised in 1956 by Wendell Smith’s article in the Journal of Marketing.  Smith defined it as a marketing strategy designed for “a heterogeneous market by emphasising the precision with which a firm’s products can satisfy the requirements of one or more distinguishable market segments.

Wroe Alderson, writing at the same time as Smith, justified segmentation by saying that an advanced market economy harbours a highly diverse demand.’ This heterogeneous demand implies a market composed of different groups or segments, each with unique patterns of income, spending, lifestyle, product preference, and many other characteristics.  These clusters of buyers, forming cohesive groups that differ from one another, invite firms to cater to their needs.  Entrepreneurs exploit the market differences by offering products fitted specifically to the various segments.  In this way, marketers fulfil the social obligations of the marketing concept-serving consumer needs-by matching supply with demand more effectively.

Market segmentation was originally conceived as an alternative to product differentiation.  But good ideas get copied quickly, and a company that finds a profitable market segment soon discovers it has competition.  The firm must then concentrate on keeping the identity of its products unique.  Thus, segmentation and differentiation take place at the same time.

As the segmentation concept grew in popularity, it expanded to include almost any marketing plan that contemplates less than an entire market.  Regional marketing is sometimes categorised under that label.’ Promotions of wine with lunch or dinner can be considered occasion segmentation because a single meal is only one of many situations in which people drink wine.  Product positioning can be called psychological segmentation, for the advertising tries to carve out a “share of mind”. These interpretations may be valid, but a marketer must take care not to define a segment too abstractly to be useful.

While each business incorporates segmentation into its direct marketing program according to its needs, these activities collectively share common criteria distinguishing them from other strategies.  These criteria fall into two categories, those that differentiate segmentation from other marketing efforts and those that examine the process itself and classify the types of segmentation being performed.

Requirements for Effective Segmentation

Any marketing activity must meet certain requirements not mandatory in other marketing practices for it to be considered as using true segmentation.  The most oft-cited requirements are substantiality, differential response, identification, stability, and accessibility.

Substantiality

The matter of size is a relative one.  Does it matter that yours is bigger?

What may be adequate to one firm may be inadequate to another; no two companies possess identical strengths and weaknesses, no two firms have the same resources and managerial philosophies.  But, regardless of its internal capabilities and outlook, the segments a company chooses as its marketing areas must fit its objectives and resources.  The choice of market size alone does not differentiate segmentation from other activities; size is a factor when defining any market.  It is more critical to segmentation, though, owing to its focus on parts or fragments of a market.  If segments are small in relation to a company’s current operation their contribution to overall corporate results may be meagre, but large segments may tax company resources and strain cash flows.  As with any marketing strategy, the optimum ratio between resources and market size must be found.

Differential Response

An absolute requirement for segmentation is that each defined segment must have unique market response characteristics.  The fact that a market segment or a mailing list represents households with selective traits is of no use if the response from it is not substantially different from that of other segments or lists.  Though a selective approach usually means higher communication costs per thousand prospects, a correctly targeted segment will pay off in equally high purchase rates.  Since a uniform response over an entire market renders segmenting that market irrelevant, the choice of specialised media his no functional value other than limiting the scope of operations.

Identification

Any segment used in a marketing program must be capable of being identified quantitatively.  If a segment cannot be reduced to statistics there is no way of knowing if the marketing program targeted to it is successful.  Segmentation is a method of resource allocation, and as such must be subject to mathematical analysis; managers, planners, and financial analysts need to know how all the defining characteristics of a segment are distributed among its population in order to judge each one’s effect on the marketing program.

Stability

Segments must be relatively stable over time.  Segments that change radically in a short time are precarious investments.  Shortening the payback period reduces risk, but long-term returns are still unreliable.  Unstable segments are often attractive to marketers wishing to cash in quickly on a trend, but they generally hold little attraction for prudent, long-term investors.  Some marketing segments are more volatile than others.

Groups that adopt fads are prime examples, as are segments that follow the vagaries of fashion and style.  Any analysis should determine a segment’s stability and whether it is worth the risk and expected returns to market a given product in that segment.

Accessibility

Accessibility dictates that direct marketers must be capable of reaching their chosen segments efficiently through one or more media.  Each firm determines its own level of efficiency by correlating its resources and objectives with certain factors common to all marketing programs.

First, the efficiency of message transmission is positively correlated with market size.  For example, the cost per thousand names for a mass-produced list is normally lower than for a selective one.  Smaller, more specialised lists can be justified only if their greater response offsets their additional expense.

Second, Promotional (eg advertising) unit production costs tend to decline as volume expands.  Longer production runs bring economies of scale.  Larger order size, especially of identical units, reduces transportation and handling costs.  These quantity-cost relationships hold for all media though their effects are greatest with printed material.

A third issue is communication wastage.  Assuming a company initially targets segments with the highest spending potential, any further expansion must lower efficiency.  The general rule is to proceed until the marginal net return equals the marginal outlay.  As this process continues it deviates more and more from segmentation’s selective product-market philosophy.

Fourth, a firm’s market size criterion or other marketing goals may conflict with segmentation’s specialised approach.  For example, holders of American Express Prestige cards form a distribution that skews towards the upper end of the socioeconomic scale.  From this standpoint, American Express serves a selective market.  But the company is only practicing segmentation to a limited extent when it advertises on network television.  With the exception of certain events, the medium is a generalised one; it reaches all people.  The fact that the higher-income, better-educated portion of the audience is more apt to respond is beside the point.  If segmentation is a marketing strategy then the focus falls on what the company does; what buyers do are consequences of marketing action.  When commercials go out as generalised messages, addressed “To Whom It May Concern, segmentation is compromised.

Compromises are always present in varying degrees, reflecting the ever-present possibilities of trade-offs.  Marketers must select criteria for use that both define a market segment and target those elements in it that advertising is to be directed toward, for only then will the returning information tell them whether their chosen compromise is the best strategy for any particular market mix.

TABLE-1     Most Often Used Criteria for Segmentation Marketing

Behaviour

Benefits sought

Psychological

Personality

States of Being

Lifestyle

Opinions, interests

Perceptions, images

Attitudes

Preferences

Consumption patterns

Product usage

Recency of purchase

Geography

Frequency of purchase

Purchase volume/order size

Socioeconomic

Demographics

Criteria for Segmentation

The criteria used to segment markets are of three types – behaviouristic, states of being, and psychological.

Behavioural criteria divide a market on the basis of purchase behaviour; what was bought, in what quantities, where, and at what times.

States of being are attributes of the population, including sex, age, education, occupation, income, and geographical distribution,

Psychological criteria involve individual states of mind and their collective effect on the market.  Because they are subjective, states of mind are the most difficult criteria to quantify.  There is no agreement among market researchers as to whether the measurements are in effect ordinal or interval scales.’ Ordinal scales rank items into graded groups and thus cannot yield all measures of central tendency, such as mean, median, and average.  Interval scales, in contrast, are continuums beginning at arbitrary zero points, and therefore do yield central tendency measurements.  In contrast, behaviour and states of being can often be measured on a ratio scale, the only one that permits comparisons of absolute magnitudes.

These classifications can be broken down into innumerable subcategories, limited only by the imagination of the analyst.

 The criteria in Table 1 can be used independently or in combination.  These single or multiple variables are then associated with predetermined general response rates to yield market segments with unique combinations of buying traits.

The predetermined response rates used in this analysis fall into two categories: response to the product itself and response to previous promotions of the product.  The former quantifies a product’s long-term sales pattern; the latter involves consumer reactions to price deals, coupons, and other promotional appeals.”

Response can be measured over a single defined purchasing period or series of such periods.” The former requires cross-sectional data, the latter longitudinal measurements, obtaining repeat observations from the same consuming units.

The selected segmentation criteria provide a conceptual framework for a market partitioning strategy.  It then remains to gather data from the segment according to the established criteria.  This is the operational phase of the segmentation strategy.

Behaviouristic Criteria

 Consumption and usage patterns

The most popular method of segmentation in direct marketing is to divide up customers according to consumption and product usage patterns since purchase and usage rates are usually correlated.  This criterion is especially attractive when promotions are directed to names kept in an internal database of previous and current customers.

This approach rests on the premise that for many products a relatively small percentage of buyers are responsible for the lion’s share of the volume purchased.

Goods and services

Any marketing effort should be directed to the main source of business, the heavy buyer, for sales and profits are obviously better where the propensity to consume is highest.

The heavy user strategy has been in use since long before the segmentation concept was developed.

Decisions based on buying patterns can be uni-dimensional, two, or three factored, using recency, frequency, and amount bought singly or in combination.  Groupings are relatively few in number and large in size, which raises questions about the extent of homogeneity within a segment.” The less the similarity in buying behaviour, the less the value of the segment.  In practice, the various segments based on the tripartite criteria are used primarily to determine whether solicitations should be made or withheld, and not to match offers to segments as envisioned by the segmentation philosophy.

When recency, frequency, volume weights are used, they should be related to a particular product mix.  Different products have different replacement rates, and hence varying buying frequencies.  Items at different price levels would also have diverse elasticities, and account for different proportions of a total purchase.  Many marketers assign arbitrary percentage values to the three factors, with recency weighted .50, frequency of purchase .35, and amount of purchase .15.” The large weighting for recency is based on the rationale of attrition among buyers, which may easily come to 50 percent a year.  When the multiple purchase pattern, or buying frequency, is added to the recency factor, the pull of a mailing is said to increase substantially.  Regardless of the logic, these weightings have no theoretical basis.  Arbitrarily derived ratios are too general to apply to specific products.

Segments based on patterns of consumption lend themselves best to being marketed using customer lists from multi product marketers.  But firms must also often go beyond their own databases to mass-produced lists and possibly to general media.  Here purchase data are not recorded for each name.  Heavy users must be identified by indirect methods, relating consumption and usage patterns to other variables, the most common of which denote states of being.

 Geographic

Geographic variation is of two basic types: unevenness in population distribution and locational differences in product tastes and preferences.  The first source of variation involves the placing of physical inventories and is of minor concern to this text.   The second factor is inherent in market demand, and heavily influences segmentation practices.

Taste and preference differences can occur at various geographic levels.  For example, real estate developers of recreational communities are confronted with regional differences.

Airline travel similarly has strong regional biases, and tours promoted by direct marketing must consider these geographic variations.

To arrive at viable segments, direct marketers must link geography with response rates and to other state of being measurements.  Otherwise, their promotions to broad, geographical areas are regional marketing rather than segmentation.

Demographic and socioeconomic variables

 Demographic and socioeconomic variables are highly popular in segmentation analysis when using other than in-house or responder lists.  Their popularity, in part, stems from the availability and completeness of information.  Because these data can be projected to defined universes, a firm can easily estimate both market size and market coverage resulting from specific action.

The Bureau of Statistics systematically updates its socioeconomic data through a program of continuing surveys.  Estimates for large geographic regions or major metropolitan areas contain relatively small sampling errors, but such sample bases are wholly inadequate for estimating current population characteristics for small units, such as zip code areas; these must await the  Census to be updated.

It is possible in certain instances to make local estimates from sources other than those of the Census.  Real estate values can be updated from local assessment rolls.   These methods, however, are tedious and time-consuming.  Compilers of mass lists and directories update small area counts but not changes in distribution of demographic and socioeconomic data.

Despite their shortcomings, socioeconomic characteristics are invaluable for pinpointing opportunities among population segments.

Multiple states of being 

Using segmentation properly requires establishing a relationship between purchases or usage and demographic variables.  The discussion so far has implied a simple relationship between only two factors.  The simultaneous use of more than one state of being may yield more discriminating consumer targets.

Another combination of state of being categories could improve the buying rate but this can only be determined by repeating the analysis until the most profitable combination is found.

Another approach to prediction is multiple regression analysis.  This uses more than one independent variable and, assuming a linear relationship

Psychological Segmentation

Consumption patterns and demographics are useful ways of conceptualising market segments.  But age, income, and occupation alone do not account for consumer behaviour.  Insofar as they describe markets they indicate prospective buyers, but they cannot tell what causes a person to respond to a particular offer.  Such causal factors are to be found in people’s minds, not in their economic or social status.

Attempts to map buyers’ states of mind have applied numerous theories of consumer behaviour and used a variety of measurements.  These make up a vast literature and are beyond the scope of this book.  Among direct marketers using segmentation two psychological categories have gained prominence: the benefits sought by consumers and their lifestyle psychographics.

 Benefits sought (by consumer)

Benefits segmentation assumes that marketing should address itself to consumer needs.  Its underlying rationale is that consumers are not interested in products per se, but in the benefits ensuing from their consumption.  Accordingly, the variations in benefits sought create natural market segments.”

The search for product benefits focuses not on a product’s physical attributes, but on the consequences of its use.  Thus an automobile is not a four-wheeled vehicle but personal transportation.  Consumers do not buy toothpaste, but cavity-free teeth.  However, not all consequences are necessarily utilitarian, or obvious.  An automobile can be a status symbol or an object of vicarious pleasure.  A toothpaste can be a love amulet.  A perfume offers not only a distinctive scent, but an erotic fantasy.  A wine may evoke not only sensations of the palate, but images of romantic escapades and sidewalk cafes.

The search for benefits must therefore take into account the obvious as well as the imperceptible, the utilitarian as well as the imaginary.  The investigation also concerns itself with discrepancies between preferences and products; it seeks to discover gaps between what consumers want and what they are getting.  On the whole, larger gaps lower the probability of a purchase, but since not all discrepancies are of equal import it becomes necessary to determine which are decisive in consumer choices.

Lifestyle psychographics 

Lifestyle segmentation is more complicated and less straightforward than product benefit segmentation.  This is because lifestyles can be defined from various perspectives.  Sometimes they are seen as coinciding with social class, and are ultimately delineated by the conventional mixture of education, occupation, and financial status.” On other occasions they are viewed as combinations of different social and economic variables, and hence classifications differ little from those using only demographic and socioeconomic criteria.” The activities and states of mind making up a lifestyle are studied using an analytical tool called a psychographic profile.”

The usual lifestyle psychographic profile in marketing is based on consumer activities, interests, and attitudes.

It distinguishes between activities, which denote behaviour, and psychographics, which connote a mapping of mental states.  One reason for this dichotomy is direct marketing’s widespread use of lists representing activities, such as attendance at conventions or trade shows, membership in professional associations, subscriptions to magazines, or use of credit cards.  It is therefore useful to distinguish between the activity-oriented and psychologically-oriented aspects of a psychographic profile.

Interests and attitudes are inferred from activity-oriented data.  Thus, a subscriber to a gardening publication is presumed to be interested in shrubs and flowers.  Homes that entertain heavily are regarded as good prospects for wine, liquor, and snack sales.  The psychological segments derive their classification by direct measurement of the motives, interests, and attitudes that supposedly trigger behaviour.  Inference nevertheless plays a part, for the measurements are of indirectly observable variables.

On the whole, psychological criteria have been the least used in direct marketing for purposes of market segmentation, for they are more limited than either consumption or states of being criteria.

One major limitation is that these studies have defined segments in psychological terms that have no counterpart in population statistics.  A liquor study, for example, characterised groups drinking for “mood modification” and “social lubrication.” Another defined its segments as innovative, opinion leaders, socially active, and community-minded.  A Psychographic study with a sample of 4,000 adult males divided the population into eight groups: quiet family men, traditionalists, discontented, ethical highbrow, pleasure oriented, achievers, he-men, and sophisticated.”

Another shortcoming is that psychographic profiles have no theoretical underpinnings.” In the absence of a well-defined theory there is little understanding of causality, how variables relate to each other.  This lack of defined relationships leads to what Richard Bagozzi called the two most common faults of contemporary marketing research, “blind empiricism” and “sterile tautologies.

Did you find this article useful?  Please let us know

These are outline notes from a MAANZ course.  If you are interested in obtaining the full set of notes (and a PowerPoint presentation) please contact us – info@marketing.org.au

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http://smartamarketing2.wordpress.com

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Content marketing and Social Media serve up a lot of material.  A lot of it more that 140 characters.

If you have a lot of reading or study to get through, you will need to develop different types of reading skills.  Reading technical material, as distinct from novels, requires that you quickly absorb a large number of ideas or the major points of articles and books, not the details.

There are a number of techniques which you can use to improve your reading skills. however, ultimately it is your purpose for reading which will influence your reading rate and how you will deal with the text (eg. take notes, underline key words etc.).

Below is a description of four different reading approaches which can be adopted according to your purpose and the reading material.

Overview Reading

Reading for an overview of any material entails reading quite rapidly, reading the introductory and concluding paragraphs, noting the main themes or points and forming an overall impression of what you read.  You are not concerned with specific details or a complete understanding of the material.  You read for an overview when, for example, you want to:

*          find out how this book or article might be useful to you

*          decide whether to read a book or article in detail, or

*          add to your store of information on a familiar subject area or topic.

Reading for Specific Information

To locate (or re-locate) a specific item or section in a book or article, read through most of the material quite rapidly, using such features as the table of contents, the index, chapter headings and sub-headings to guide you to the item or section you want.  Then read the section thoroughly, possibly taking notes or underlining.  Use this technique if, for example, your purpose is to:

*          look for specific sections in this book

*          locate biographical details on a literary figure, or

*          find evidence for or against a case you will debate.

Reading for Central Ideas

To familiarise yourself with central ideas in any material, first take an overview of it.

Then read so that the structure of the material and its central theme, thesis or argument becomes clear enough for you to write it down or explain it to someone else.

Read for the central message or ideas when, for example, you want to:

*          familiarise your-self with the main approaches to study presented in this book

*          read an article as background for a research paper, or

*          understand the central conclusions in an experimental report.

Reading for an in-depth Critical Understanding

When reading to understand an entire book or article as thoroughly as possible, first preview or overview the material.  Then read the material in detail, section by section, criticising or evaluating it. As you read ferret out the structure to understand its main thesis, the information supporting this, its theoretical perspective and the underlying assumptions.

Reading in this depth does not mean laboriously reading every page word by word.  It does involve making sure that you read actively, understanding each section so that you can reproduce clearly what you have read with the material set aside and so that you can see how each section fits into the whole.  Seeing clearly how material is organised or structured can help you to understand its content.

Read for an in-depth critical understanding if, for example, your purpose is to:

*          identify the assumptions underlying this material and to evaluate its usefulness to you as a student

*          follow a complex argument

*          understand each stage of an experiment in order to repeat it yourself, or

*          to understand the material thoroughly so you can build on it in further learning.

Reading guidelines

The following guidelines provide you with a number of questions to consider while you are actively reading.

The author’s purpose

*          Why has the author written the material?  Are these purposes explicitly stated?  Are there other implicit purposes?

*          For whom is the material intended?

*          What theoretical perspective has the author taken?  How does this perspective relate to other material in this field?

Content

*          What is the main theme (thesis or argument) in the material?

*          What main points are used to justify or support this theme?

*          How does the author develop the theme from one main point to another?

*          What explanation or evidence is used to support the main points?

*          Do the evidence and explanations seem well researched and accurate?

*          Is the factual information correct as far as you know?

*          Which aspect of the topic has the author chosen to concentrate on and which to omit?

*          Is the material presented in too much breadth or depth?  Is the material dealt with superficially or in too much detail?

*          Has a contemporary issue or a particular philosophy influenced the author’s purpose?  Is the author defending a particular point of view?

*          What are the author’s underlying assumptions?  Are these explicitly stated?

*          Is there any evidence of deliberate bias, such as interpretation of material or choice of sources or factual information?

*          Is any irrelevant material included?

*          Does any graphic material illustrate or restate the written content?

*          Which of your questions about the subject does the author answer?  Which are not answered?

*          How do the contents relate to what you know about the topic?

*          Do any items puzzle or intrigue you?

Structure

*          What framework is used to organise the material?  Is the framework clearly explained?

*          How is the theme/thesis/argument reflected in the structure?

*          How is the content organised and developed within the framework?

*          How does the author introduce the subject?

*          Does the author recapitulate what has been said at appropriate points?

*          How does the conclusion relate to the introduction and to the rest of the material?

Style and format

In what style has the material been written?  For example, is it formal or informal, simple or complex, didactic or persuasive, narrative, analytical?

How does the style and format influence your reaction to the material?

Dr. Brian Monger

Corporate culture is used to describe a set of more or less common norms and vales shared by people in an organisation.  Hence culture is an overall concept that explains why people do certain things, think in common ways, and appreciate common goals, routines and even jokes, just because they are members of the same organisation..  Culture provides the ‘rules of behaviour’.

Service Culture:  The Internal Service can be perceived as an internal climate.  Service firms have to organise and manage their internal climate for services, so that employees develop positive attitudes and common goals.

A weak corporate culture, where there are few or no clear common values and norms, creates an insecure feeling concerning how to respond to various clues and how to react in different situations.

For example, what to do when a customer has unexpected requests may be self-evident, when the culture is strong.  On the other hand, if there is a weak culture, such a situation frequently results in inflexible behaviour by the contact persons, long waiting times, and a feeling that you really do not know what is going to happen on the part of the customer.  This, of course, damages the perceived service quality.  In such a culture, employees do not have any clear norms to relate, for example, sales training or a service course to, and hence they do not know how to respond to such activities.

A strong culture, on the other hand, enables people to act in a certain manner and to respond to various actions in a uniform way.

Especially in service organisations, clear cultural values are particularly important for guiding employee behaviour.  In many cases newly employed persons are easily formed by the prevailing culture.  A customer conscious and service-minded person who is recruited for a service job may quickly be taken down to earth by his or her new colleagues, who share strong norms and values which do not honour interest in customers and in giving good service.

A  strong service-oriented culture easily snowballs.  Service-oriented persons are attracted by such an employer, and most new employees are formed in a favourable way by the existing service culture.

When employees identify with the norms and values of an organisation, they are less inclined to quit, and moreover, customers seem to be more satisfied with the service.  In addition to this, when there is a minimal employee turnover, service oriented values and a positive attitude toward service are more easily transmitted to newcomers in the organisation.

Moreover, the modern views of quality and productivity, and the relationship between them, “the wheel of fortune” if it can be identified and used by managers, are related to corporate culture.  “Improving productivity (and, for that matter, quality) is a matter of infusing a way of thinking into the organisation’s culture. . . .

Behavioural scientists are tentatively concluding that the improvement of both productivity and quality seem to result from or at least be related to corporate culture.

A strong culture is not, however, always good.  Especially in situations where the surrounding world has changed and new ways of thinking are called for, such a culture may become a serious hindrance for change.  It may be difficult to respond to new challenges.  In such a situation a strong culture does not only affect the responsiveness of employees in a negative fashion, it may paralyse management as well.  For example, a strong manufacturing-oriented culture may develop into a serious problem for a firm that obviously should respond to service-related changes in the market and in competition.  A service strategy is perhaps the obvious solution, but the management team may be too restricted by their inherited way of viewing the business.  And if only marginal   internal activities to introduce a service strategy are implemented, the equally or perhaps even more old fashioned ways of thinking among middle management and the rest of the personnel do not permit any major attitude change.

The Importance of an Effective Service Culture in Organisations

In a service context a strong and well-established culture, which enhances an appreciation for good service and customer orientation, is extremely important, maybe more so than in a manufacturing environment.  This follows from the nature of service production and consumption.  Normally service production cannot be standardised as completely as an assembly line, because of the human impact in the buyer-seller interactions.  Customers and their behaviour cannot be totally standardised and predetermined.  The situations vary, and therefore a distinct service-oriented culture is needed which tells employees how to respond to new, unforeseen and even awkward situations.

Since service quality is a function of the co-operation of so many resources-human as well as technological-a strong culture which enhances quality is a must for successful management of quality.

Moreover, since it is more difficult to control quality in a service context than in manufacturing, very service oriented and quality conscious values are necessary in the organisation.  In this way management can execute indirect control.

Profitability Through a Service Culture

Implementing a service strategy requires the support of everyone in the organisation.  Top management, middle management, contact employees, and support employees will all have to get involved.  An interest in service and an appreciation of good service among managers and all other employees is an essential requirement.  What is needed is a corporate culture that can be labelled a service culture.  Such a culture can be described as a culture where an appreciation for good service exists, and where giving good service to internal as well as ultimate, external customers is considered a natural way of life and one of the most important norms by everyone.  Service has to become “the raison d’etre for all organisational activities

It does not mean however that service consciousness is not a marginal or even second-level concern, but a top-priority concern in strategic as well as operational thinking and performance.  It is one of the, say, three guiding philosophies shared by the people in the organisation.

A service culture means that the employees of the organisation can be characterised as service oriented.  Service orientation has been defined as “a set of attitudes and behaviours that affects the quality of the interaction between … the staff of any organisation and its customers”  In several studies service orientation correlates substantially with overall job performance.

Clearly, a service orientation enhances the functional quality dimension of customer perceived service quality, and it probably also supports the production of good technical quality.  Service orientation among the personnel fuels an important positive process internally in an organisation.  A service orientation that is a characteristic of a service culture improves service quality as perceived by customers.

Service-oriented employees who take an interest in their customers do more for the customers, are more courteous and flexible, try to find appropriate solutions to customers wishes, and go out of their way to recover a situation where something has gone wrong or an unexpected situation has occurred.  Furthermore, we know that customer perceived quality is a key determinant of profitability.

Hence, service orientation improves service quality, which, in turn, positively affects profitability.  And this favourable process continues as a spiral, because better profitability provides the means to maintain and further improve service-oriented attitudes among the personnel.

Shared Values

The values people in an organisation have and the prevailing norms are the foundation of the culture.  The shared values constitute guidelines for employees in performing their everyday tasks.

In an organisation with strong shared values three common characteristics are often present:

• The shared values are a clear guideline for task performance;
• The managers devote much of their time to developing and reinforcing the shared values; and
• The shared values are deeply anchored among the employees.

It has also been found that performance is improved by strong shared values in an organisation.  Managers as well as their subordinates devote themselves more to issues and ways of performing that are emphasised by the shared values.  The performance is better, because people are more motivated.  Strong norms and shared values may, however, become a problem, too:

• The shared values may have become obsolete and are therefore not consistent with current strategies and, service concepts; and
• Strong shared values may lead to resistance to change, which makes it difficult for the organisation to respond to external challenges.

In many firms these are highly relevant problems.  Even though there may be no service culture, there may be a strong corporate culture.  The existing culture may emphasise manufacturing ideals or bureaucratic routines.  Today, in many manufacturing firms and institutions within the public sector, a strong culture that does not appreciate service is a major hindrance to change.  Challenges from the market and from society may go without notice, or the organisation is not capable of adjusting to the need for change.  The results are sometimes fatal.

The effects of even a single internal activity that does not have a strategic foundation will probably be counteracted by the hostile culture.  Internal marketing efforts easily fail if they are not in line with the prevailing culture, or if the objectives of the internal marketing efforts are contradictory to it.  On the other hand, a long-term internal marketing process is one ingredient in a process that aims at changing an existing culture.  A strategic approach to internal change is needed.

Requirements for an Effective Service Culture

Introducing and implementing a service strategy requires a service culture.  In many firms, or organisations within the public sector, a cultural change is called for.  Such a change is a long-range process, which demands extensive and long-range activity programs.

The requirements for good service are:

• Strategic requirements
• Organisational requirements
• Management requirements
• Knowledge and attitude requirements

If the four kinds of requirements are not all recognised, the internal change process will suffer and the result will be mediocre at best.

The different requirements are intertwined.  For example, a complicated organisational structure makes it impossible to implement a good service concept; or a service-minded and motivated contact person gets frustrated and loses interest in giving good service because he or she gets no support and appreciation from his boss, or finds it impossible to be service-minded because the service orientation is not derived from a strategic foundation and therefore sufficient resources are not granted.  In the following sections we are going to discuss the four requirements in some detail.

Developing a Service Oriented Strategy

By developing a service-oriented strategy the strategic requirements for good service are fulfilled.  This means that top management wants to create a service-oriented organisation.  The management team is not ‘just paying lip service to service orientation.

Here top management may be the CEO and his or her management team, but it may also be the head of a local organisation or a profit centre which can operate sufficiently well independently.

The business mission is the foundation of strategy formulation.

Based on the scope and direction of the business indicated by the mission, strategies are developed.

A service strategy means that a service orientation, which of course in different industries and even firms means different things, is to be achieved.  In this context we will not go into any details in this respect.

However, a service strategy requires that service concepts related to the business mission and the strategy be defined.  If service concepts are not clearly defined, the firm lacks a stable foundation for discussion of goals, resources to be used, and standards for performance.  As previously stated, the service concept states what should be done, to whom, how, and with which resources, and what benefits customers should be offered.  If these issues are not clarified, the personnel will of course not understand what they are supposed to do.  Moreover, goals and routines do not form a clear and understandable pattern, because there is no clear and well-known service concept to relate them to.  If the service concepts are not clearly understood at the middle management level, it will be difficult to perform supervisory duties in a consistent way.

Managers as well as the rest of the personnel easily feel a disturbing role ambiguity.

Personnel policy is an important part of the strategic requirements.  Recruitment procedures, career planning, bonus systems, and so forth are vital parts of a service culture, as they are of any culture.  Good service performance pretty much has to guide the administration of personnel.  The more aspects other than skills and service-orientation dominate, for example, recruitment procedures and bonus systems, the less inclined toward service-mindedness employees will be, and a service culture will be difficult to achieve.

Good service has to be rewarded and accomplishments have to be measured in such a way that employees realise the importance of service.  However, good people are often forced to do stupid things, because the measurement and rewarding systems are wrong.   If this is the case, and employees feel they are rewarded for accomplishments other than excellent service quality, any attempts to develop a service culture is bound to fall.

Dr. Brian Monger is the Executive Director of MAANZ International and a Principal Consultant with The Centre for Market Development.  He is an internationally well known speaker/presenter.

He is available for consulting tasks and speaking engagements

Did you find this article useful?  Please let us know

These are outline notes from a MAANZ course.  If you are interested in obtaining the full set of notes (and a PowerPoint presentation) please contact us – info@marketing.org.au

Also check out other articles on
http://smartamarketing2.wordpress.com

MAANZ International website
http://www.marketing.org.au

Smartamarketing Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/bmonger)

A practical guide to developing and using your voice better

Dr Brian Monger

We are all capable of speaking effectively to an audience large or small but some of us have never had any practice, many of us are woefully out of practice and the vast majority have had no tuition in the skills involved.

This topic provides a practical and basic introduction for the busy manager who has to talk to a group of people.

The word ‘talk’ has been used throughout and is intended to cover presentation, speech, address, lecture and synonymous expressions.  The word ‘audience’ is used to include listeners, conference, meeting, assembly and similar expressions.

The voice

The voice is our main and easiest means of communication.  It can also be the most effective.  But we must learn how best to use it, and to keep it in trim.

Athletes, singers, boxers, golfers, rugger and tennis players and people in many other professions practise daily.  So should we if we have a professional approach.

The  Spoken  Word

Once, “rhetoric” was a key part of a learned persons learning, but the art of speaking has been badly neglected over the past few decades.  Few schools teach it.  But, those that have the skills will get the attention and have their ideas listened to, moreso than those who cannot.

Charisma is more effectively deployed with an engaging voice presentation

Because of the neglect in learning to speak in public, confidence is lacking.  The results in many cases may be disastrous.  With effort and practice much can be achieved.  Knowledge, preparation and practice are essential factors in successful speaking.

Effective speaking

These days not all ‘effective speaking’ is the old fashioned idea of ‘public speaking’.  The latter suggests a formal gathering with a platform and a large audience.  Much work today is done in an informal situation and with an audience of only three to eight.

Whatever the audience size,  one must be effective.  Do not underestimate the amount of effort required to talk to a small group.  The world is full of mutterers, “ummers”  and “ahhers”.  Do not be one of these.  If you are to sound enthusiastic and convincing, vocal vitality is essential.

Whether you talk to 3, 30 or 300 the basic approach is the same.  You need a style that appears confident and conversational.  To do larger audiences, your voice need enlarging and having the ability to project

The number one rule of all effective communication – including speaking is KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.

Your presentation needs to be tailored to who your audience is and what they want.

Lord Curzon (1859-1925) was recognised as one of the finest orators of his time.  He made a perceptive statement about talking to audiences.  He said that the three most important things to remember, in their order of importance, are:

·      who you are

·      how you say it

·      what you say.

At first sight the second and third statements may appear to be the wrong way round.  But no matter how excellent your material, if you cannot present it in an interesting and entertaining way, if you cannot make it interesting and the ideas palatable, then you might as well not bother.

Who you are is your personality, relevant knowledge and experience.  You must engage the whole of yourself – voice, eyes, face, hands, arms – the whole of your physical self to assist communication.

If you are extrovert then discipline yourself as necessary; do not completely overwhelm the audience.  If you are a quiet and shy person, use these attributes to draw your audience towards you.  Shyness does not prevent voice projection or vitality.

Don’t be over-modest.  Use relevant experience whenever you can.  Anecdotes always stick in the mind.

How you say it demands the best use of your voice, the best possible presentation of your whole self and of the material.

Every effort should be made to increase and enlarge the vocal range and to keep the voice in trim with constant exercising.

You must create the right atmosphere.  Jargon and technical terms must be avoided if they will not be readily understood by your audience.

What you say requires careful selection and ordering.  Everything must be relevant to the particular occasion,

Personality

You will be effective only if you are willing to disclose your personality.  The actor develops, not hides behind the character he or she portrays.  You must be yourself.  You must be prepared to put yourself at risk.

A presentation that is without personality will be arid and lacking in audience interest

The element of risk causes nervous tension which will inhibit your performance.  Relaxation will prevent this.  Until you are relaxed you will never give of your best.

To learn relaxation takes some  practice.  But it can be done.  Once relaxed you will enjoy the experience of talking to audiences.

How to make the Best Use of Oneself

Speakers sometimes fancy that if they take refuge behind a lectern or projector or some sophisticated aid, their lack of skills or nervous tension will go unnoticed.  It is not so.  In fact the more sophisticated the aids the more the weaknesses of a poor speaker are highlighted.  A multiple projector presentation has often been followed by a disastrous question time because the speaker was tense, looked desperate and mumbled the answers.  And this is what the audience remembered.

Relaxation will solve all the problems caused by tension.  Practice will improve the speaker’s performance.

Nerves and tension

Many people say they would prefer death before speaking in public.  Others have learned to enjoy it and the benefits it provides.

It is important to distinguish between nerves and tension.  Nerves are essential to set the adrenalin flowing into the blood stream.  This has a stimulating effect on the system and gives the necessary ‘edge’ to our performance.

Some think, quite incorrectly, that eventually a person ‘grows out’ of nerves with the benefit of experience.  This is not so.  The time to worry is when you don’t feel nervous!   Watch actors pacing, coughing and fidgeting backstage before a first entrance.  See the effect of the red light in a TV studio on the most experienced actors.  However, they have learned to control their nerves and so prevent the assault of tension.

Tension is a wrecker.  It constricts the voice, prevents breath control, causes the speaker to look anywhere but at the audience.  Clinging to a lectern or a piece of furniture, swaying, fidgeting and other distracting mannerisms are further manifestations.

Controlling nerves and eliminating tension

Useful exercises practised for a few minutes each day will eventually enable a person to relax at will.  It is simply a question of mind over matter.  Once relaxation is achieved speaking engagements become a positive pleasure.  The speaker knows that self-control through relaxation will give an appearance of relaxed authority.

Some exercises for relaxation

These are exercises commonly used by actors and professional performers

1          On tiptoe, stretch arms upwards, fully extended; stretch fingers on hands.  Stretch calves and thighs.  Stretch the abdomen.  Imagine yourself on a vertical rack with toes nailed to the floor and fingers pulled by unseen wires towards the ceiling.  Feel the discomfort of it.  Hold the position for a few moments and then relax.  Feel the pleasure of relaxation.  Repeat this exercise three times.

2          Tense the arms from shoulders to fingertips.  Feel the discomfort.  Relax and feel the pleasure of relaxation.  Repeat three times.

3          Keeping the soles of the feet on the floor, stretch the legs from thighs to tips of toes. (Keep the arms relaxed during this exercise.) Feel the discomfort.  Relax and feel the pleasure of relaxation.  When you relax keep both knees braced but not rigid.  Repeat three times.

4          Stretch arms and legs together (as in 2 and 3).  Feel the discomfort.  Relax and feel the pleasure of relaxation.  Repeat three times.

The shoulders and neck are most prone to tension.  Breathing becomes difficult, the voice is stifled in the throat and the speaker is extraordinarily aware of hands and arms.

The following exercises are designed to help remove tension from these vital areas.

5.        Shake the fingers loose on limp wrists and try to throw them on to the floor.  Next shake the fingers and lower arms from the elbows.

Finally throw the arms from the shoulders.  Feel all tension in the arms being flung out of the fingertips.

6          Roll the right shoulder forwards and then backwards several times in vigorous circles.  Repeat with the left shoulder.  Then exercise both shoulders together.

7          Relax the muscles in the neck and allow the head to fall forward.  Roll the head round slowly three times, (if it falls off, stop )bending from the waist so that the weight of the head takes it round.  Stop and rotate slowly in the opposite direction three times.  Stop with the chin resting on the chest.  Lift the head level.

Creating a Feeling of Confidence

Standing or sitting well creates a feeling of confidence in both speaker and audience.

For the speaker it aids relaxation, enables ease of movement, assists breath control and helps to free the voice.

The audience see someone authoritative, knowledgeable, confident and delighted to talk to them.

Standing well

The feet should be slightly apart.  This gives a good grip on the floor.  Never stand with your feet together.  Brace both knees firmly but without tension.  Bring the stomach wall under control so that it is firmly held but not pulled in.

Hold the chest freely without pushing it forward and settle the shoulders on the chest with two or three easy movements up and down.  They should be very slightly braced.

Look comfortably straight ahead.  The position should be ‘head in the air’ and not ‘nose (or chin) in the air’.

Have the weight of the body on the front of the feet and not the heels.  If you stand on your heels the blood flow is restricted and this will make you tense and tired.  You should be able to stand on tiptoe without toppling forward.  Raise and lower yourself on your toes several times.

Keep the feet anchored and swing the trunk left to the back and then right to the back.  This will prevent any stiffness creeping in.

Sitting well

Choose a chair in which the seat and the back form a right angle.  Place your bottom as far back as possible.  When you sit up the back of the chair supports you.  You can both sit comfortably and in a position which allows maximum freedom for movement from the waist upwards.  It also allows freedom for breath control and voice projection.

If you are condemned to a badly designed chair sit forward on the seat and lean very slightly forward as well.

Eye contact

Standing or sitting well enables an ease of eye contact with the audience.  The top half of the body can move freely and, so long as the neck muscles are relaxed, the head will turn freely in every direction.

Eye contact with a large group is easier than with a small one.

When talking to an audience of less than 20 people the speaker’s eye must light occasionally on each person.  But don’t ‘searchlight’ the group from side to side.  This can be very wearisome all round!

With a large group the speaker should look for the most part about two-thirds of the way back.  Occasional glances should be made to left and right of the front rows.

Gesture

Good gesture helps to underline what is said.  All movement of the arm should be hinged at the shoulder and not the elbow.

The elbows give strength to gesture, the wrists enable precision and the hands contain power and control.

Bad gesture distracts.  Twitches, fidgets and repetitious movements are fatal.  The audience spots them and attention is diverted from what is said.

Extending your Vocal Range

The human voice is a unique instrument.  Unless physically impaired we each possess the necessary equipment and may do wonderful things with the voice.  But we must learn to use it properly and to realise its full range.  Relaxation and good posture help to free the voice.

Breathing

Correct breathing assists projection, helps avoid strain, gives the voice the necessary vitality and helps the speaker to sound enthusiastic.

For any form of speaking to groups we need to inhale quickly and deeply.  In normal conversation we breathe through a slightly open mouth.  This enables speedy and silent inhalation.

To breathe more deeply we must learn to expand the chest cavity.  In normal breathing the rib cage moves upwards and outwards, and the diaphragm (a powerful muscle separating the chest from the abdomen) contracts and descends.  These movements increase the volume of the chest cavity, a partial vacuum is created and air is sucked into the lungs.

The more movement of the ribs and diaphragm the more air is drawn into the lungs.  The more air in the lungs the better our voice control.

The thick black line indicates the position of the diaphragm before inhalation.

Exercises for expansion and control

These exercises are best done near an open window or in a room with plenty of fresh air.

Spend only two or three minutes at a time on breathing exercises.  Should you feel dizzy then stop immediately.  Overdoing things may result in hyperventilation.

1          Practise heavy sighs.  This is a natural way of relieving tension.  Sigh heavily and feel the rib cage collapse.  Sigh several times.  As you draw breath before the sigh feel the upward and outward expansion of the rib cage.

Note that the shoulders play no part in breathing.  They should be slightly braced (as for good stance), relaxed and still.  On no account should they hunch at the time of inhalation.

2          Stand at one end of a large room. Inhale deeply and whisper ‘One, two, three, four, five’ using all the breath.  Send the whisper on the stream of breath to the far end of the room

3          Hum quietly.  On the same note intone (or chant) ‘One’.

4          Fill the lungs and intone ‘One, two. three, four, five’.  Repeat two or three times.

5          Once able to complete exercise 4 with ease and with ‘five’ fully projected repeat the exercise  to ‘ten’.

6          When you can complete exercise  with ease gradually extend the counting to ‘fifteen’.  The final number intoned should always sound as resonant as the first.  When you run out of sufficient breath then stop.

7          When ‘fifteen’ is accomplished extend the counting to ‘twenty’.

The exercises are to employ the rib cage and diaphragm so that they may work fully and easily: they are not voice exercises.  Constant practice (a little at a time) will help to ensure an ease of deep breathing.

Resonance or the human amplification system

We should strive to make the best use of our vocal tone by ensuring that we are fully resonant.

All hollow chambers above the voice box (larynx) act as resonators.  These are the pharynx (the back of the throat), the nose and all the cavities and chambers connected to it, and the mouth.

The key exercise is humming.

1          Moisten the lips with the tongue and hum gently on an ‘m’ sound. The lips should be lightly together and the teeth slightly apart.  When you hum a tingling sensation should be felt on the lips.

If no sensation is felt part the lips slightly and make a sound like a foghorn by blowing through them.  Repeat this but after three seconds bring the lips together for the hum.

The tingling should resemble that when playing the comb and tissue paper.  Quality of humming is more important than volume.

2          Hum, feel the tingle, open the mouth slowly and as wide as possible and sing ‘ah’.

3          Intone ‘Mary had a little lamb’ feeling the tingle at the beginning and end of the line.

4          Speak this sentence with conviction, ‘I must keep my voice in the front of my mouth’.

5.         Do 3 and 4 together.  Attempt to speak the words of 4 in the same place that you intoned 3.

6          Hum up and down the scale with a slow, smooth beat.  Think and feel the sound on the mask of the face.

7          Hum any tune you know and keep the sound forward.

These exercises help to produce a forward voice and a well balanced resonant tone.

Clarity

Good articulation helps to make speech clear and distinct.  The key instruments are the tongue, the teeth and the lips.

1          Say ‘Articulation is a form of gymnastics between the tip of the tongue, the teeth and the lips’.

2          Say ‘the tip of the tongue, the teeth and the lips’ three times as nimbly as you can but without gabbling.  The letter ‘t’ is made by the explosion of teeth and lips parting.

3          Say ttt ttt ttt ttt (don’t say tee tee tee).

4          Practise ‘t-say’, ‘t-sow’, ‘t-sigh’ and then try ‘t-snake’ ‘t-slave’  ‘t-star’.

Practise precision of consonants:

ppp ppp ppp ppp (lips)

bbb bbb bbb bbb (lips)

ttt ttt ttt ttt (teeth and tongue) ddd ddd ddd ddd (teeth and tongue) kkk kkk kkk kkk (body of tongue and soft palate) ggg ggg ggg ggg (body of tongue and soft palate)

6          Practise tongue twisters.

Modulation

To modulate means to vary or to change.  Vocal modulation helps to highlight important words and phrases and makes it easier for the listener to comprehend the meaning.

The communication of technical information is particularly dependent on a well modulated voice.

Vocal modulation depends on inflexion (glides or kicks up or down on one word), changes of pitch (usually on a phrase), the use of pause and pace (here defined as a slight speeding up or slowing down of the rate of speech in reaction to the matter).  A voice that is not modulated is monotonous.

1          Use inflexion to change the meaning of the following words:

hello; goodbye; yes; what.

(e.g. ‘Hello’ when you are delighted to meet someone has a different inflexion than when it is said with suspicion.)

2          Change the meaning of the following groups of words by changing pitch (steps up or down) and using inflexion:

what is that; if I must; why me; yes sir.

3 Using inflexion, pitch, pause and pace, how many ways can you say:  You are coming home with me tonight.

Phrasing

A phrase is a group of words which makes sense.  Phrasing is the grouping of words in a way which is calculated to bring out the meaning.  All words forming a phrase belong closely together and nothing should spoil or break this sequence.  A phrase therefore should be spoken on one breath.

Exercise:          Practise reading aloud from good prose.

Dr. Brian Monger is the Executive Director of MAANZ International and a Principal Consultant with The Centre for Market Development.  He is an internationally well known speaker/presenter.

He is available for consulting tasks and speaking engagements

Did you find this article useful?  Please let us know

These are outline notes from a MAANZ course.  If you are interested in obtaining the full set of notes (and a PowerPoint presentation) please contact us – info@marketing.org.au

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by Samir Kumar

Naming brands is a serious business. It is the first expression of public branding. The brand’s name is what the world connects to and uses to describe the brand. And if done right, naming becomes the most crucial aspect of the brand’s positioning, its tonality and personality. Naming is also a strategic communication tool that builds associations with the consumers and over a period of time turns into a valuable equity. In the aggressively competitive world of today, where no opportunity of communicating the proposition and building a relationship can be missed, naming is definitely an area that demands critical and significant attention. While brand naming is a vast subject that involves various creative approaches, etymology, cultural studies, legal aspects, etc, in this article we are focusing on some of the more fundamental aspects around the act of naming; a simple eight step approach to naming that owners of business and brand managers should look at.

1. Giving it time

Naming is a complex process, but is often not considered till the last moment. Any serious brand manager approaches a product or company launch with a systematic and clearly defined path—from concept development through to implementation. But naming process is rarely given its due consideration. Most companies have a launch date planned before they begin talking to professionals for the branding exercise, and naming becomes a part of what is called ‘the laundry list’ of deliverables. This rarely leaves enough time for getting into a systematic approach to naming. A typical naming sheet has numerous columns for creating and evaluating names and involves aspects like relevance, differentiation, tonality, audience mindset…the list is quite exhaustive. In the absence of time even professionals at some point tend to overlook the entire process and partially rely on instincts and gut-feel. Now that’s not quite right for such a critical and perhaps the most important aspect of building meaningful consumer relations; especially, if you are a new brand entering into a cluttered category. The need, therefore, is to begin the process right at the beginning

2. Understanding the strategic perspective

Before the creative process can kick-start, the strategic aspects of naming needs to be defined. After all, a name is worthwhile only if it clearly defines the personality and the positioning of the brand.

To get a name that truly fulfills the positioning of the brand, we must begin with defining the strategic role of the name. How does it connect with your audience, does it create resonance, how about differentiation potential, the sound of it, does it have the ability to transcend geographies, what about the brand does it communicate, does it define a personality of the brand, what are the existing market dynamics and does the name explore opportunities for future trends, how about the design potential of the name, can the name lead to verbal branding and lingo-usage by the audience; there are several strategic questions about the brand that the naming process can and should address. It is only when the strategic role of the naming is defined that the creative process can be systematic and objective. Also, having a defined strategic objective aids in finalising process of the name. Through experience, we have known that more than any other process of brand creation, the naming tends to be the most subjective. The pit-fall of subjectivity needs to be avoided as it leads to many stumbling blocks in choosing the right name for your brand that most suits the strategic and business objectives. You don’t want a scenario where in the absence of the right evaluation framework, a less appropriate name gets selected despite having a couple of strategically and creatively names already in the consideration set.

3. Defining the creative direction

Most brand managers value the potential of the right creative brief for any marketing or communication-led exercise. However, the aspect of creative briefing for naming is quite unsystematic; the ground rules are not clear. Here, it often becomes the responsibility of the branding agency and professionals to create an appropriate brief for the naming process to begin in the right direction. While the brand strategy will mostly have all the directional elements for the naming process, a brief for naming specifically highlights aspects of the brand strategy and attributes to consider; it is important to establish clear parameters for the approach and construct. What’s the competitive scenario like; does a category code evolve on studying the players in the Market; personality, tonality, word types, constructs, areas to avoid; the brief creation forces us to think about specific questions that matter to the creative team while coming up the consideration set for the brand naming. If the creative team begins with an agreed-upon brief, the chances are significantly higher for getting the kind of names that have a better fitment with the culture of your organisation, the end-consumers and reflecting brand personality more in-sync with the brand objectives.

4. Going beyond the descriptive

This is one of the trickiest aspects about naming – which approach to take? A name that’s easy to remember, or a name that’s hard to forget?? A descriptive name signals the right message and becomes a clear indicator for the category/service/sector that the brand operates in. The belief is also, that this approach should reduce the burden on marketing expenditure on just explaining the name in building correlations. But this approach does not necessarily build differentiation. IKEA, for example states nothing about the category; NIKE is somewhat there as a god; the APPLE is as far away from the Adam’s days as it gets; and then off-course there are examples of business that changed their course with the times and the only thing that remained constant were their names; think of International Business Machines. Yet another category of existing corporate powerhouse names would be Ford, Honda, Cadbury, Gillette, Godrej, Tata…the list of corporates and brands that simply emerged from family names is quite exhaustive. They are found in practically every region and category. So, is there a clear-cut approach to understanding what works for a name; the answer like most other aspects concerning branding, lies in diligence and prudent thinking!

We cannot compare the business growth possibilities in the same terms as brands and business could afford to do, even a decade ago. Facebook and Google have been around for quite some time now, but they can be considered as current examples. Both these names have used different approaches to be communicating their positioning. Facebook, even though it does not spell out clearly the social interaction aspect of it, but it still connects to the aspect of being a representation for the individual; Google on the other hand, provides with a feel, a tonality aspect of what is aims at doing. Some of the other such examples could be the stumbleupon, Linkedin, Twitter, etc, where the aspect of naming creates a personality differentiator or a function signifier – both these approaches seem to be working; and here we have taken examples of somewhat similar functions targeting a somewhat similar set of audience; they are operating in similar categories. The need therefore is not be stuck-up with any predefined approach and to look at all emerging possibilities; but as mentioned in the step one, we need to begin with enough time to be able to arrive at solutions from across approaches and then use our strategic lens to zero-in on the final set of probable names.

5. Thinking Trademark

In the branding business, it’s a common scenario – it takes days of intense work and brain-storming sessions to arrive at the right name and then you discover that it has already been taken. There are over 15 million active trademarks globally. And it gets even more complex when it comes to registering your URL. There are over 108 million URLs registered globally; the entire Oxford dictionary is taken, in fact all the words in all the major languages are taken!! So, it’s extremely important to have the trademark pre-screening in place along with the creative nomenclature process. This aids eliminating names well in advance and saves a lot of crucial ideation time coming up with names that you may not eventually be able to take up. Also, coined names can be a great way to be one up in the game; few examples at Brand Harvest have been the naming of Skytes – a travel company, VE – technology company, Lifescapes – construction, TripEarn – rewards, etc. These names serve their purpose in carrying a value proposition besides the sound and personality connect.

6. Linguistic possibilities

Think of Chevy Nova in Latin America or Microsoft Vista in Latvia!! They are linguistic disasters. (Personally, I was myself a bit petrified about Laura in India – but that’s besides the point!).  When your brand is positioned to transcend borders, you have got to be planning against linguistic disasters as your brand enters new cultures, because that is what the people in that culture are going to be calling you; it’s better to ensure that your brand name does not cause unforeseen discomfort of usage in a given culture. In today’s Global economy, it’s extremely important to consider the linguistic cultural aspects even if the immediate plan is not to expand across the globe; that ways, your brand is prepared for any future expansion and you don’t need to get into any mad scramble suddenly on realising that the name isn’t appropriate at the time of entering into a new geography. A language and cultural idiom suitability test is a must today for a meaningful brand naming process.

7. Being Objective

In the above points, we have discussed of ways that will ensure that the name creation process is robust with a clear strategic role of the name defined along with the creative brief highlighting attributes, tonality, personality, etc. However, once the consideration set of the probable names are created, it is pertinent to be objective-driven in finalising upon a single name. Our personal biases, likings, names of existing brands/corporates we follow, cultural background, etc tend to play a role in liking a particular name over the others. To avoid any subjectivity at this stage, it is important to leverage the guidance of research. This way, subjectivity can be ruled out and the decision guidance can come from the eventual target audience who would be the users of the brand in the future. While research may not be the final word for choosing the name, it provides valuable and quantifiable guidance and aids in building consensus amongst the key stakeholders.

8. Leveraging naming as verbal branding

The case for strategic role of the name is quite established, considering the premise that the brand’s name is what people will first associate with and that it is an opportunity to position and form associations with. Now, should the naming process have ended at arriving at the brand name itself? We all know that the logo created around the name is in most cases (assuming that the professional creating the brand identity system are not just logo designers!!) liberated and extended to become a complete design system that permeates every brand interaction, internal and external. The colours and graphic aspects are used in environmental, print, stationery, advertising, stalls, brochures, literatures, interior design and any other opportunity for the brand to occupy; this is the aspect of building design consistency. This works on the belief that constant interaction at various cross-purposes allows for the consumers to relate to the brand and understand the brand’s various dimensions. The same logic is also applied to the verbal tonality aspect where, in some cases, even the adjectives and verbs to be associated with the brand communication is selected as a guiding (though not restrictive) universe. But when it comes to naming, the aspect of extension is not that well understood; unfortunately, even amongst the various practitioners of branding discipline. I’ll try and illustrate this point through a naming exercise done recently at Brand Harvest.

I have illustrated the name Ibid in a different context. Probably, that’s because this is extremely recent, but also to illustrate the point that various aspects have to be necessarily looked into any given branding exercise. The example is of ‘VE’ – this was a rebranding exercise for a travel company that’s going global. Now, while the new name itself allows to contemporaries the brand, allows for the new positioning of ‘simplifying travel’, and creates a rich design dimension; what it also achieves is the verbal branding aspect in a richer, more interactive sense. Try saying, “VE help you”. Or any other English Language sentence that begins with “We”. You’ll realise that the naming process here allows creating a usable, infinite universe of possibilities; and once defined, the brand is liberated and democratic that can be used in practically every interaction of/by the organisation. That’s the verbal potential of the brand; that is not merely restricted to the designed aspects of brand’s aspects. Now, let’s look at yet another level of verbal branding using the same example; imagine words like ‘Love; live; give; serve…’, all the words that end in ‘VE’; the brand can be present in every message and own word associations more powerfully than otherwise possible.

It is only by leveraging every potential aspect of positioning, differentiation, strategic context, target audiences, association, cultural contexts, tonality, extensions, interaction, usability, symbolism, origins (etymology), sound & voice, idiom, layering…(almost breathless there with the possibilities!) that any branding exercise can be worthwhile. While, naming is not the only aspect of the branding process, it definitely is one of the most critical. It is an extremely powerful tool, that deserves its due diligence and, I believe, it has the ability to address some of the most significant challenges that a brand faces, especially in its inception, formative or re-invention phases.

Samir Kumar is Creative Head of Brand Harvest Consultancy Pvt. Ltd Mumbai India

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