Industrial Branding: The Lost Art in the Industrial Marketplace

Marketing to EngineersIndustrial Branding:

The Lost Art in the Industrial Marketplace

Rich Thompson, Vice President of Marketing, ITW Welding North America

“The business of marketing and brand management is terribly unforgiving: of carelessness, incapacity, neglect, or

ignorance”

Find yourself in a position of handling your brands with care, fully funded,

stewarding your brand each day, and mindful of what your value chain says

about your brand.”

• Developing/creating brands lie in

– Understanding underlying issues– Gathering data – Developing workable insights from that data

to determine future direction on how to meaningfully and profitably present, message, promote and develop that brand.

• Market-based facts vs. internal beliefs.

A definition of “Brand”

“A brand is a set of differentiating promises

that link a product to its customers.

The brand assures the customer of

consistent quality plus a superior value

(both functional and emotional)

for which the customer is

willing to give loyalty to and pay a price that

brings a reasonable return to the brand, business and shareholders.”

Its Only One Portion• …of an overall Strategic Marketing

Initiative to define a business to an external and internal customer base.

• Brand is far more than a logo/look.• Taglines are not positioning statements.• It is a how you move forward and structure

your actions for you customers.• Its how you behave• It is pervasive and persuasive.

The GAP• What your customers and future

customers believe/perceive about your brand(s)…

• …And where you would like that perception to actually be.

Reality Check• The “fun” part is contained in the creative

solutions and outputs (i.e. logo development and design, rollout, ad programs, taglines, etc.)

• The HARD part is defining gap, measuring your audience through research, developing a fact-based, workable, lasting direction to present your brand and message.

• It is HARD…but critical.

Brand

• Brand is the entire experience people have with your business/products/services…this is both internal and external.

• This relates to your culture.• Good, lasting, sustainable branding starts

with DEFINITION.

Reality Check

• You get one shot at this to do it right• It is NOT a six to twelve week project that just

produces a “brand program”: some nice logos with some quick and dirty surveys and then work with printers, sign companies, etc.

• Some companies have gone that route and aren’t happy with where they are...and how much they paid to get there for what they ended up with.

• This sits at the core essence of who you want to say you are for a long, consistent, and sustained period of time.

The Issue of Brands• Brands are built and are either made or

destroyed on four dimensions– Relevance– Differentiation– Esteem– Knowledge

IT IS FOUNDATIONAL

What A Brand is NOT• A Slogan• A Symbol• An Ad• A Spokesperson• A Package• A Logo• A Project Name

• A Shape• A Sound• A Positioning• A Jingle• A Product• A Liability (if it is,

you are in trouble!)

How do brands help us?• Key ingredient of intangible value• Prime driver of profitable loyalty• Pricing power• Creates communities• Extendibility/Elasticity• Key in creating profitable -- successful --

portfolio

Critical Levels of Brand Association

Beliefs

&

Values

Benefits

Attributes

Beliefs & Values (Heart)

The functionality provided to customers

(Head)

Features or Processes that

must be provided

Most meaningful and most difficult to imitate but hardest to deliver.

Easiest to deliver, but

least meaningful and

most easily imitated & least

interesting

Five Principles of Brand Positioning

Fit

Leverage strengths of your current

offerings & desires

Sustainability

What you have to own for 3 – 5 Years

Value

The perceived benefits that

customers value

Credibility

Who are you and is it credible?

Uniqueness

Go where competitors are not

“Stewardship and Discipline”

Essential to a brands success

“Brands always lose their way when they lose their WHY”

The What and the How-the focus of product driven companies-only bring

you Relevance, Knowledge and sometimes Esteem…they do not grow

a set of Differentiated Promises