Build,Your,Business,with,Stron marketing Build Your Business with Strong Brands - not a Mountain of C

Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t

You're having the gang over on Sunday to watch the football gameon TV. Which pizza parlor do you call? Your child needs braces. Which orthodontist does everyone intown go to? You want to sell your house. Which Realtor do you call? The answer is the same in each case: the one that has the bestbrand. Branding is important because it makes sales easier! Realtors, dentists and restaurants all have brands. So doesevery small business in the world. Sure, we think that onlyFortune 500 companies, like Coca Cola and Procter and Gamblehave brands. But that's not true. Every company has a brandimage. Whether the brand image is good or bad, or if it is wellknown or invisible is up to you. If you're involved in marketing in any way, shape of form,you've heard the term "branding" but you probably couldn'tdefine it. And if Regis asked you "Is that your final answer?"you'd probably take your money and run rather than risk losingyour cash. That's because if you asked 50 marketers to define "branding,"you'd get 50 different answers. Very few people agree on whatbranding is, but they do agree that is important in buildingsales and profits. So what are brands and why are they important to you? Brands make selling easier! Plain and simple. To understand branding, we need to understand what brandingisn't. From my studies and research that includes hundreds ofinterviews with top marketing managers at large and smallcompanies, I've come away with several conclusions: 1. A brand is not a logo, slogan, catchy saying, missionstatement or publicity campaign.2. A brand is about trust. You select a company because you trust them and the companies have credibility. These are twoissues that are important to every company of every size. When you travel along the highway and need a quick meal, do youstop at the local diner for a meal featuring the local cuisine-or do you pull in to McDonald's because you know the fries arealways going to be the same? People trust McDonalds. They will give up the chance for aninnovative meal in favor of the trusted resource every time! That's because people buy on emotion and justify with logic. "Gee the local diner might be good, but it might take a longtime and we're in a rush."Is it any wonder why McDonald's is a multibillion-dollarenterprise? Look at the best brands on the Internet: Yahoo, eBay and Amazon.What do they all have in common? People trust them! In my seminars at Stanford and Berkeley, I always ask if peoplehave bought books from Amazon. Most people raise their hands. Ithen ask if anyone has ever had a problem with Amazon. In oneout of three seminars, one person out of hundreds will raise ahand. But they quickly say that Amazon resolved the problem intheir favor, quickly and courteously. I then ask if people have telephones. Everyone raises theirhands. I ask if people have ever had a problem with their phonecompany. Most people keep their hands up! You probably have thesame experience. Phone companies have bad reputations forcustomer service. Good companies create good brands by creating trust. Do you need a lot of money to create trust? No way! Yet hundreds of companies have blown through more than a billiondollars on TV ads during the Super Bowl and other major eventstrying to build a brand image. I attended a top-level seminar on branding and a venturecapitalist on the panel said a consumer company must spend $50million dollars to build a brand identity today. However, in my seminar on branding at Stanford, I asked theparticipants - all brand managers at major companies, to name 10search engines, 10 consumer web sites, 3 pet supplies sites and10 business-to-business web sites. No one could! And these are the very people who are in the industry, and areexposed to the millions of dollars of advertising to createbrands! What does this mean? Buying your way to brand awareness does not work! The net is littered with those failures: Dr. Koop, Priceline'sgrocery service and Boo.com stand out as highly publicizedfailures. So, as a small company, you don't have to worry about not have atreasure chest full of cash to buy a reputation - because itdoesn't work! How do you create a great brand? That's where brand assets comein to play. Brand assets are your slogans, advertising,publicity, promotions, characters, spokes people, as well asyour customer service and sales people! These tools help createa meaningful identity that creates an emotional bond with youraudience that compels them to take action - and provides thelogic that justifies their choices. The Internet has a treasure chest of tools to create brandawareness, brand identity and brand loyalty including youre-mail address, website name, signature file. You also need totransmit your own personality and identity to create trust. When you build trust, you build a great brand. If you can dothat, then you will build sales and create customers for life! Article Tags: Companies Have