“Too much information, running through my brain. Too much information, driving me insane.”
- The Police, from their album Ghost in the Machine.

In his book The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier offers some sobering statistics about information clutter. Consider this:
• In 1965 an average supermarket carried twenty thousand items, today it’s forty thousand.
• In 2006, 40 billion product-jammed catalogs were published in the U.S. (equals about 135 catalogs per person).
• Compare the features of a 1986 telephone with today’s smart phones.
• On average there are 3,000 marketing messages per day, per person. Up from 1,500 in 1965. Our ability to take in these messages stands at about 100 per day.
• Most commercial messages contain too many elements, all competing with each other for our understanding.
• 1960 there were 44 radio stations, today there are nearly 14,000. Add to that services like Pandora and other online music feeds and the options are virtually endless.
• Also in 1960 there were 6 television stations, today there are hundreds. As well as 25,000 internet broadcast channels.

Added to this information bombardment, we have social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter to contend with, daily emails, and Google searches that return millions of results. Barry Schwartz, professor of social theory at Swarthmore College and author of The Paradox of Choice states “too much choice is paralyzing us and making us miserable”.

The booming science of decision making has shown that more information can lead to objectively poorer choices, and to choices that people come to regret. It has shown that an unconscious system guides many of our decisions, and that it can be sidelined by too much information.

So what does this mean to you? Well it means now, more than ever, it’s critical to present your offer in a clear, compelling manner. Toward that end there are specific metrics you can use to track your advertising and marketing effectiveness.

The 4 brand assets you need to evaluate and direct are:

Differentiation is the positioning of a brand or product to a specific audience (e.g., A Hooters burger might be promoted alongside a scantly clad young woman garnering a primarily male audience, whereas a Gourmet Burger might highlight its European cheeses, which appeal to a foodie-focused audience.)

Relevance is how applicable a brand or product is to consumers’ lives. Products of higher quality and value than other comparable products in the same marketplace are more relevant.

Esteem is how the brand or product is positioned in the minds of consumers. Consumers’ trust and admiration of a brand can be low or high, depending on the nature of the product (e.g., Toyota is a brand that may be held in much lower esteem than Volvo due to Toyota’s recent recalls).

Awareness is the way a brand or product communicates how it is differentiated from other brands or products (e.g., Starbucks communicates its implementation of free WiFi in its cafés using a variety of media channels, including social media, whereas a small bistro that uses fair-trade coffee beans may advertise its offerings in a locally published magazine).

Great marketing will consider these pillars and permeate them into your brand communications. Get it right and you’ll reap the rewards. Ignore them and your communication will meld into the mass of marketing noise. And as we all know, a confused mind always says “no”.

It’s a fact: 70 percent of all purchasing decisions are made in the store. Your packaging has the greatest chance of influencing that decision. It is your main point of contact with the consumer. And for many companies the package is the only touchpoint for their brand.

If packaging is so important why is it so often overlooked?
The reasons vary but some play out more often than others. Sometimes it’s purely financial. The Purchasing department, rather than Marketing, grabs the packaging reins. Purchasing considerations can be especially demanding when faced with the proposition of redesigning existing packaging lines. Buybacks and established production requirements can further complicate the effort. While unit cost is certainly critical to monitor, it is sometimes a false economy. If the package is less costly to produce but the product sits on the shelf – or worse gets bumped by a competing brand – have you really benefited?

Vanity can also fool a company into believing their products are so well known that they sell themselves. While shoppers can be loyal to specific brands, they also need to understand the product’s benefits and whether or not it meets their needs.

Other times the role of the package is not understood. Not enough emphasis has been placed on the importance of designing a great package. The package is viewed as merely a container that protects the product in transit. A necessary chore of manufacturing. Poorly conceived packages result in lackluster sales. Often this cycle repeats itself and the Marketing Manager is left with the dubious task of fixing a problem without knowing its cause.

The anatomy of great packaging
So how does one package beat another at the point of sale? How much of the decision to purchase is influenced by left-brain thinking and right-brain feeling? The fact is it’s a little bit of both. You need to communicate the right things, in the right order, for your category. Be sure to get the reading sequence right.

A hard-working package should:
1. Grab the shopper’s eye, even when your package is shelved alongside hundred’s of competing products
2. Identify what the product is
3. Reflect the quality of the product
4. Answer the question “Why should I care?” by informing the shopper of the problem solved or pleasure delivered by the product. This is your why-to-buy message. Don’t make the common mistake of leading with features before giving them an emotional reason to care.
5. Delve into the details of features, size, or whatever is relevant to your product category.

Don’t overburden your package with too much information – especially on the primary panel. The current trend is moving toward simpler design. In addition to clearer communication, a simpler design conveys confidence. If your trying to be the category leader, you have to look the part. Standing out at retail is not about decibels, sometimes it’s about restraint. You can stand out by being the quiet, confident, alternative. Remember, looking at a package is an act of choice. If the information on the front is overwhelming – or worse uninviting – most shoppers, given the choice, will look the other way.

So, where do you start?
First, clear guidelines for the brand need to be in place. If they aren’t then the process needs to back up to that point and brand guidelines need to be established. It’s the barometer by which all things are measured. Once those guidelines are established the process is broken down into ten primary steps:
1. Clarify goals and positioning
2. Conduct audits and research as needed
3. Research legal requirements
4. Research functional criteria
5. Determine printing specs
6. Determine structural design
7. Finalize copy
8. Design and prototype
9. Evaluate solution
10. Manage production.

If you’ve been at this awhile, many of these steps are automatic. Just understand the package design process begins at step 1, not step 8.

What you can expect of great packaging
By giving a packaging project its due diligence you can move forward knowing you’ve given your product the best chance at succeeding. Additionally, research and evaluation will provide you with persuasive evidence for the product merchants of the various retailers you are pitching. 75 percent of all purchasing decisions are awarded at this level, so convincing the merchant is crucial to product placement.
Even if you have a better mousetrap, a deficient package can result in another product failure. However a well conceived package can help differentiate your product, influence a purchase, and ultimately result in a product’s success. Savvy marketers understand this. They know – from the shoppers viewpoint – the package is the product.

1. Obtain a media attendance list from show management
The biggest payoff from attending the tradeshow often comes from the industry buzz about your company and products. Send press releases and contact reporters for personal appointments three weeks prior to the show. Prepare a media kit to distribute.

2. Distribute VIP invitations
Don’t assume prospects will wander to your booth, or even know which show you’re exhibiting at. A printed VIP invitation announces your attendance and gives the recipient all the info needed to pay a visit. Avoid traffic-building gimmicks however. The increased traffic will cut into the time you have to spend on qualifying and selling real prospects.

3. The White Hot Center
Try to tap into the white hot center of your industry. These are the people Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, refers to as “connectors”. They are valuable not only for the volume of people they know but also for the kinds of people they know. Connectors have the power to promote your company in a way that you cannot. Be sure to connect with them.

4. Establish goals, what’s your primary reason for attending?
It sounds obvious but this is often overlooked. Why are you spending all this money to build, man and support a tradeshow exhibit? Are you trying to: Build awareness? Introduce a new product? Have a specific number of meetings with key prospects? Generate qualified leads for future follow-up? Don’t say, “all of the above”. It’s better to focus on one or two measurable goals. Studies show you’re far more likely to achieve them.

5. Contract the design of your booth
It’s not the size of the booth that matters but rather the execution. First, decide on a theme or message. Be sure it’s consistent with other advertising. Keep it simple. Next, consider using big visuals and strong copy. Keep the message clear. Choose a few powerful words and images about your company and its products. And finally, don’t block the way to your booth. Tabletops displayed at an angle or off to the side allow easy access to you and your products.

6. Prepare promotional literature
Prepare an inexpensive collateral piece for mass distribution from your booth. When you return to your office at the close of the show, follow up with your new sales leads by sending out your primary literature. This not only lowers your show collateral expense but ensures your main selling piece, whatever it is, makes it to the prospects office. Frequently the literature collected at a trade show never gets looked at again.

7. Sponsorships and advertising
There are a number of show sponsorships and advertising opportunities available. Sponsoring an event or service on site is an effective way to raise your company’s profile and drive traffic to your booth.

8. Host a workshop or seminar
Consider conducting a workshop or seminar. But be sure to make it informative. No one likes to attend a 45 minute sales pitch that’s disguised as a “workshop”.

9. Follow-up
Research shows that 70% of tradeshow leads do not receive proper follow-up. Before attending the show, put a program in place to follow up with leads within 1 week of show contact. Your prompt delivery of requested information could make all the difference when turning leads into actual sales.

10. Evaluate
After the show be sure to evaluate your performance. What happened that you did not expect? What areas need more preparation? How effective were your presentations? Which products attracted the most attention? Why? What response did you get to your pre-show mailing? How did you perform in relation to your goals? These are just a handful of questions you should consider.

Let’s assume for the moment that you have a well defined brand. That is to say you have a clearly defined position in the marketplace and all of your brand touchpoints – collateral, web, employees, etc – are working in unison. If you’ve worked to position your company and brand to that level of organization then it should be easy to maintain right? Well, the reality is there can be many disruptive factors. Every brand challenge is different depending on your company, your culture, your competitive environment and where your brand and customers are today.

Brand challenges include:
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Misplaced attempts to be more creative
• Your business is diversifying requiring your brand to evolve
• Your business strategy has changed and your brand is out-of-step
• Your design needs are spread across multiple suppliers with little knowledge or interest in your brand
• A new competitor has changed the rules in your industry and you need to adapt
• Every division is doing its own thing and its inefficient

This is a small sampling of the disruptive forces at play. Some of which (Mergers) are to be embraced and in those instances change is good. For instance a merger is a brand opportunity to explain how one and one equals three. However, poorly managed design resources can wreak havoc with your brand. Here’s an example; You have a new brochure need so you call your PR firm because they list design as a service offering. The problem is most PR firms, while credible as a PR resource, lack the design savvy of a seasoned graphic designer. So in their attempt to provide you with design, they hand your brochure project off to an underling who has little to no experience with your brand, or worse a freelancer who doesn’t even work there.

Poor branding leads to missed opportunities.
Here’s another common problem we see. You finally get the return call from the prospect you’ve been chasing for months (years?). They ask you to come in next Thursday and make your pitch. The scramble for information and presentation materials begins. You pull some numbers together, hastily create a Powerpoint presentation, and prepare some conceptual materials to show the great new products, services and ideas you offer.

Unfortunately your Powerpoint presentation looks like a grade-school project, your product prototypes are non-existent, and your packaging concepts are hastily conceived and poorly presented.

Worse yet other sales/product reps are compounding the problem by doing the exact same thing in an entirely different way. They’re creating their own materials and they have no relation to yours. This haphazard approach creates chaos and confusion of the brand on so many levels. There’s no consistency of message or image for your company and the sales team feels ill-prepared for the important meeting they’ve worked so hard to get.

Sound familiar?

So how do you manage your brand?
For the sake of simplicity let’s break it down to the five most critical areas.

1. First, someone has to act as the brand steward. They can be internal like a CBO (Chief Brand Officer) or an external resource like a senior manager at a good brand design firm. There needs to be a “buck stops here” enforcement of decision-making regarding your brand. This is not a committee-driven process. You need one person with the authority to veto something if it is not in alignment with the established brand platform. If you do appoint someone inside make sure they know a thing or two about branding. And not the trite little definitions you find on the web. They need a thorough understanding of what branding is and isn’t. There are many fine books on the topic. There are also some bad ones out there so be careful. Or better yet just email me for a bibliography of some of the best I’ve read.

2. Next be sure to get your employees on board with a clear understanding of what it is you’re trying to do here. If your employees believe in what your brand stands for, they’ll be able to communicate it much more effectively to customers.

3. And speaking of employees … since key people turnover every 2-5 years, it’s imperative you put a brand education program in place. This will provide continuity and ensure your brand knowledge base remains intact with the inevitable departures and arrivals.

4. Get regular feedback from customers to find out if your business delivers the promises of your brand. Ask dissatisfied customers as well. See how they perceive your brand and if the message is consistent.

5. Most importantly get it right the first time. If you’re tempted to reinvent yourself in knee-jerk fashion every time the wind blows, then you’ve probably never spent the time to do it right in the first place. This second-guessing is a result of your inability to believe in the brand yourself. Fix it now. There’s no better time. Competition is at an all-time high and the market pressures for 2011 and beyond will reward the confident, consistent, compelling brands. The others will play catch-up and many will disappear.

Oftentimes makers of commodity products feel that branding and marketing their products is impossible. If that were true Intel wouldn’t have spent millions of dollars successfully branding their microprocessors. And the makers of aspartame could not have turned Nutrasweet into a household name.

Time to face an ugly truth: most products are commodities. The manufacturing difference that existed decades ago is diminishing because most products can be knocked off with increasing speed. Any product you make can be duplicated, packaged and shipped in the blink of an eye. And therein lies the problem. There’s too much parity and clutter on store shelves. This homogenization has created a need to differentiate your products beyond their functional attributes.

Weave them a story and you’ll get their business.
Selling emotion in a commodity category is a real challenge. The emotion has to ring true and feel authentic. It also has to link to the intrinsic value of the product or service while differentiating it from competitors. In short it is good theatre.

The simplest way for me to demonstrate this storytelling is through a quick case study. Although this analysis demonstrates branding a product, the principles apply for services too. The only difference are the end deliverables.

Project challenge
The client came to us with a common problem. Their terra cotta pottery line was increasingly viewed as a commodity. The brand was too generic to stand out in retail environments. The line was losing market share and in danger of becoming another lament of shrinking margins and dwindling shelf space. They needed to build a compelling brand story that could attract attention, differentiate the product, elevate the perception of the line and subsequently boost sales to retailers and consumers. Here’s the process we employed to reverse the trend.

Our approach
The goal was to create a premium brand from a commodity item. Knowing a quick-fix redesign was not the answer, we proceeded to re-position the line and create a motivating brand identity for the consumer. We began by doing an audit of competing offerings. This helps us assess the landscape and look for gaps in the category. Next we complete a diagnostic of the existing brand. This is an often overlooked, crucial next step since it provides a snapshot of the existing brand and ensures we are measuring what is and isn’t working. A future post will explore the details of this step.

Working with the client we defined key brand attributes that would resonate with the consumer. We focused on the product origin, qualities and benefits. The product was imported from Italy which is know for having the world’s finest clay for pottery. Italy also has strong associations to craftsmanship. Another key product attribute was it’s ability to promote healthy plant growth. Developing a brand around these attributes would help lift the product line from the ordinary to the exceptional.

Using these attributes as a guide we then developed and tested several names and taglines.

Next we designed the visual brand identity. We explore color, type, imagery, and a positioning statement. At this stage no concrete design is fixed but rather we are working loosely and engaging the client in the process. We’re developing the mood of the brand and it’s story. All visuals should point back to the attributes defined earlier. This is also a good stage to test the approach since it is easily adjusted should our findings dictate.

Once we are all in agreement with the design and mood of the brand, we begin applying this new identity to a variety of brand touchpoints. In this example we created in-store signage, consumer advertising, product labels, a custom display and a brand name to hold it all together.

The results are in …
By all accounts the Terra Sienna brand positioning is a success. Among its target market – major Garden Centers in the Northeast – the program has produced record results with sales increasing by 36%. Not only did it turn a declining product line around but the rebrand effort went on to win the Golden Hammer Award for POP branding at the Hardware Show. Proof once again that when it comes to branding a commodity, nothing beats good storytelling. Brand stories instill trust, facilitate shopping and purchase, build loyalty, steal share, and provide a barrier to new entrants.

Told any good brand stories lately? We’d like to hear your feedback or experience on this subject.