Marketing to Engineers Industrial Branding: The Lost Art in the Industrial Marketplace Rich Thompson, Vice President of Marketing, ITW Welding North America
Nov 29, 2014
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