Technology + MarCom Will Power Tomorrow's Brand Strategy (Guest Post)

Kenneth J. Weiss is Director of E-Commerce for Hoover (yes, as in vacuum cleaners) and author of the new book, Slightware – The Next Great Threat to Brands.

Kenneth sent me the first chapter (which is free for download at the link above) and after reading it, I immediately emailed him back to tell him that his premises is quite compelling.

In a nutshell, “slightware” is any digital glitch that negatively impacts a customer’s experience with a company and its products / services.

So I’m pleased that Kenneth offered to write a guest blog post about how technology, coupled with marcom, will power tomorrow’s brand strategy.

Take it away Kenneth . . .

The recession continues to linger, business owners are wrestling with layoffs, marketing budgets are being slashed and even if things improve a “lean” mindset will likely remain. So, is now the time to think about your brand portfolio? Absolutely.

Tough times often cause brand strategy detours: Prices are cut, offerings are unbundled, products are tweaked, packaging is changed, support is reduced, and more. These changes in direction are necessary to keep things moving, but they may not be in the best interest of the brand.

In addition to these tough economic times, a maelstrom of other conditions is ready to strike. Businesses need to put strong brand management practices into place for individual products, lines and the company itself.

Brand Threats, Here and on The Horizon

Crumbling Barriers to Entry – In the past, barriers to entry kept the number of competitors low in many industries. Your day-to-day activities could be used to build your reputation, and limited alternatives in the marketplace meant that real brand strategy could be put on the back burner.

Today companies can rapidly source products from overseas. Partnerships can be formed quickly. Vendors can deliver complete solutions for production and support. Complimentary product lines can evolve into competitors like never before. These dynamics will continue to accelerate. You best defense is brand awareness and purchase intent.

Workforce Turnover – While the businesses on your customer and prospect lists may remain somewhat constant, the names on the list will change. Unlike past years when people stayed with companies a long time or only moved within the industry, people now are changing jobs every few years and are moving to completely different careers.

On the surface this would seem to shoot holes in the need for brand equity. In reality good brand management allows brands to be easily understood, and provides immediate differentiation.

Changing Role of Trade Shows and Trade Advertising – Do you remember the time when you could measure the dominance of a company by the number of square feet at their tradeshow booth or by the number of full-page ads in trade journals?

Cheap travel, online tools, email and other factors have been leading to a change in this for a number of years. The recession is the nail in the coffin. Companies have re-evaluated their marketing expenses, and while trade shows and advertising will bounce back, the budget line items will be smaller than ever.

How you do business and manage brands on a daily basis will be critical. A terrible customer service phone call can no loner be blotted out by a 40 x 60 two-tiered booth.

Changing Workforce Demographics – Everyone knows that Boomers are leaving the workforce. A kid born in 1989 has lived with the Internet since first grade, and they are moving into those Boomers’ chairs.

Paper catalogs, service binders, printed price lists and line drawings will seem downright archaic to these younger people. When they are the customer, they will immediately form a perception of your company based upon HOW you do business and the information tools you provide.

The After Hours Digital Lifestyle – The average home in the US is becoming crammed with tech gear. Mobile phones, game consoles, toys, digital cameras, video cameras, GPS systems and home computers are changing the way that people interact with information.

People will Twitter about an event as it happens and upload dozens of pictures to Facebook the moment it is over. People do not leave this lifestyle at the doorstep when they walk into work.

How your company uses technology to collaborate and communicate in part defines your brand. How well equipped is your business (think both technology and skills) to deliver information to partners and customers?

Tech Skills Will Need to Work with Marketing Know How

When suits and ties ruled the office, a mastery of media and marketing was needed to build powerful brands. While knowledge of these will always be important an increased amount of the heavy lifting will be done by technology. Here are 5 key elements to building today’s B2B brands.

User Experience Acumen – Think of user experience as the general level of accomplishment and satisfaction people get when using a digital system.

• Do you want customers to login to check delivery status? Is it easy?
• Do they understand the way the information is presented?
• Can they jump to a related task?
• Can you impart an additional message during the process?
• Does the experience look and feel contemporary?
• Did they finish with a positive feeling about the company?

Many business-to-business digital systems feel old and cumbersome. That feeling damages the brand!!! What should be changed and how? That knowledge is your user experience acumen.

Construction and Flexibility of Systems – Your business partners will increasingly ask you to do business digitally, i.e. if you work with an inbound telemarketing firm they may need to securely send you credit card information, or a raw materials supplier may want to have a real time look at your systems to gauge on-hand inventory.

How are your systems built and configured to respond to these requests? If your business looks old and slow, that perception may bleed through to other aspects of your company.

Brand Tool Kits & Production Strategy – Almost every layer of business is communicating more often, and typically they are building their communications on the fly. In the past a binder of logo guidelines may have been used to police the brand.

This won’t work any more. Fonts, document templates, approved images, copy bullets and other digital components need to exist in a version-controlled environment to allow employees to present the company in a uniform, consistent way.

An Attitude of Innovation and Adaptation – The rate of technology change is unprecedented. Hardware and software is getting more powerful every day – and cheaper, too.

You can never wait to see what happens. You can never stop trying to improve your company’s digital abilities. Strong leadership must include a philosophy for staying informed, and making good technology decisions on an ongoing basis.

Technology is making the world larger and smaller at the same time. This is increasing the value of strong brands. Technical capabilities in conjunction with traditional marketing communications will be the power couple in tomorrow’s brand strategy.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with Kenneth?