Over 50% of B2B Marketing Leaders Now Use Social Media

"Many opportunities exist in the 2.0 world to apply classic communication principles to hot new technologies," said Ken Jones, Executive VP of the B2B branding unit at Godfrey, commenting on a recent survey of B2B marketing leaders conducted by Godfrey, a business-to-business branding and communications agency.

"You need to reach your customers and prospects in ways they want to be reached, and then deliver messages that build your brand and encourage a dialog between marketer and audience. It's marketing in the truest sense of the discipline," he added, “and Godfrey's methodology reflects the practical approach of B2B marketers”.

In a business-to-business marketing environment awash in hot new technologies - RSS, blogs, podcasts and social media - one might think that branding is declining in significance. In fact, it's just the opposite, say branding companies and marketers alike. 78% of respondents, said Jones, in the survey considered branding "very important" or "critical to success." Respondents also indicated an increasing interest in new media for marketing communications. More than 50% of respondents consider or are currently using, blogs and social media as an important part of their programs. More here.

City gathers input on its branding efforts

The city of Dayton's marketing team is gathering public input on the city's branding effort it announced early this year.

Tom Biedenharn, spokesman for the city of Dayton, updated a group of about 25 downtown professionals on the marketing project at the Downtown Promotions Network meeting Tuesday morning at Mr. Hyman's Fine Dining.

Biedenharn told the group that the city is gathering opinions from across the city, and he also sought thoughts on the project from those gathered this morning.

The city is looking to brand itself and better market itself to the region. It has hired two marketing groups -- Nashville, Tenn.-based North Star Destination Strategies and Dayton-based Penny/Ohlmann/Neiman -- to work on the project.

North Star specializes in branding and marketing cities and communities. Once it completes its research, they will pass off the information to Penny/Ohlmann/Neiman for the implementation of the brand through marketing materials, Biedenharn said.

In this effort, the city is cooperating with the Dayton Development Coalition, which is working on a regional branding effort that it will market to the country and to the world. The local economic development group's results also are to be announced this fall.

The Branding of Nations

Companies, products, universities, museums, municipalities and individuals brand themselves. Why not nations? After all, they have more at stake then almost any other entity – tourism, exports, foreign direct investment, industry formation/focus, immigration, satisfied citizenry, national heritage and support of domestic and foreign policy, to name a few.

Some countries or regions that have attempted to brand themselves include the UK, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Ireland, Scotland, Singapore, Portugal, Spain, Thailand and Dubai.

Branding nations is an extraordinarily complex task. The stakeholders are legion (politicians, businesses, industries, citizens, etc.) as are the potential target audiences (tourists, immigrants, business and political leaders, etc.). It is extremely difficult to control a nation’s image because of all of factors that can influence that image. Because so many factors contribute to that image and because brand building is such a long term process, it is also very difficult to measure the effectiveness of even a very well funded re-branding campaign. Read more here.

Future is Online: Only 39% Read Papers

Less than 4 of 10 adults - 39 percent - in the US regularly read daily newspapers, according to a recent Harris Poll.

In Europe the numbers are even lower - 6 percent of adults in Great Britain and Italy to a high of 13 percent in Spain and Germany. Te study polled adults in five European countries, Australia and the United States.

Where is this headed? Respondents said that within five years online news and information sites would become the number-one source of news and information in the US, France, Italy, and Spain (and tied for first in Australia), with TV network news remaining the top source only in Great Britain and Germany.

Half or more of Italian, U.S., French and Australian adults say it is easier to get their news online.

The takeaway? ED practitioners need to include online news in marketing strategies.

A Contrarion View of Branding

This from Russell Davies of the Open Intelligence Agency:

“There was a point in the 80's when branding was the future of business. Businesses realised you could stick brand value on their balance sheets, so they did. Consultants realised they could charge a lot of money for advice about brands so they did. And the money people looked to the branding people (often conflated with the marketing people) for all the money making ideas. So you got line extensions, big ads, expensive logos, brand onions. You got branding. And most of it was as intellectually rigorous as phrenology. Actually it was probably more like Scientology; it was somewhere between a fake religion and a false science.”

"The dismal nature of the branding science has started to become clear to business recently and they’re starting to vote with their investments and appointments. They’re turning from the people who create perceptions of value to the people who create actual value - the designers, technologists, innovators. Hence the rise of communications businesses that can actually make stuff rather than just think of stuff.”

“I think it’s the hubris we have to get rid of. Launching logos is not the way forward. A logo should be repository of meaning, not a substitute for it. And you have to build that meaning, not borrow it. We should be announcing smart and interesting things and then saying; by the way, this is the logo for it.”

Marathon latest Surf City branding

The City Council on Monday night will consider whether to extend the county's largest and longest-running marathon through 2010 -- just weeks after officials changed the name.

The renaming of the Pacific Shoreline Marathon to the Surf City USA Marathon is the latest effort in branding the city to lure more tourists.

"After more than a decade in our community, we're thrilled that the marathon has incorporated the Surf City USA brand name into its title,'' said Doug Traub, president of the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau.

Though the name has changed, the marathon will remain the same, starting on Pacific Coast Highway and runnning past the pier. It's on Super Bowl Sunday every year.

The bureau is in the midst of a campaign to make Huntington Beach a world-wide destination by obtaining trademarks to brand the community Surf City USA . So far, it has secured licensing deals and trademarks for exclusive use of the slogan on everything from bicycles to special events -- and now a marathon.

The campaign reignited a fight with Santa Cruz over who really is Surf City USA. In 2004 the bureau announced it had applied to register four trademarks to use the Surf City USA slogan for economic development, apparel, beach bags and printed materials.

In September, owners of two Santa Cruz shops received a letter from Huntington Beach demanding they stop selling T-shirts emblazoned with Surf City USA and Santa Cruz. Store owners sued the bureau, arguing that Huntington Beach's trademark does not apply. The parties are scheduled for mediation on July 12. Read more here.

Branding Pensacola

Marketing strategy aims to make area standout in a crowd while improving its self image

Carl Wernicke
cwernicke@pnj.com

The Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce recently sponsored a series of public meetings to develop information that can be used to help develop a "brand" for the area.

"This may well be the most important initiative undertaken during my service to the chamber," said Evon Emerson, president and chief executive officer at the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. "From an economic perspective, it will help us recruit and retain quality businesses and talented individuals. From a community perspective, it will help us define who we are now and who we want to be in the future."

News Journal Opinion Editor Carl Wernicke sat down with Jane Birdwell, of BPM -- Birdwell Photography and Marketing, to talk about Pensacola and what branding is all about. Read the interview here.

Regional alliances help lure business

REGIONAL COOPERATION — multiple counties using collective muscle to land new businesses - is fast becoming the state's most touted development strategy.

It's mostly in the wake of the Toyota plant announced in February in north Mississippi. A three-county alliance worked together quietly for a year to land the $1.3 billion plant near Tupelo. Since then, calls for regional cooperation have echoed through the Capitol's chambers, Rotary Club podiums and county boardrooms.

Now the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, which was formerly known as the MetroJackson Chamber of Commerce, is on board and looking to raise $3 million from private companies to market an eight-county region. The chamber's marketing arm, Greater Jackson Alliance has promoted regionalism for a decade but private money is new ground.

Duane O'Neill, president and chief executive officer of the chamber, said the fundraiser will help direct the efforts of regional economic development. The money will be used to grow and land call centers, logistics and warehousing businesses, biotech and automotive companies across Attala, Copiah, Hinds, Leake, Madison, Rankin, Simpson and Warren counties.

"The area has become recognized as one region. When we get inquiries, it is for a 50-mile radius or 100-mile radius from Jackson," O'Neill said. Read more here.

How Germany won the World Cup of Nation Branding

In a recent issue of South Africa's leading business daily, The Business Day, Internal Branding Expert Dr Nikolaus Eberl shares his insight on how Germany won the World Cup of Nation Branding When the final whistle is blown on July 11 2010, will the president of the world’s largest sports brand, Joseph Blatter, be able to reiterate his summary of the 2006 World Cup, that “This was the best World Cup of all time?”

What happened in Germany during the four weeks to July 9 2006 was a celebration of Brand Germany, with such overwhelming success that the latest Nation Brand index lists Germany as the second-most admired country brand, up from seventh place previously.

Apart from soccer, the 2006 World Cup transformed Brand Germany from the old image — effective and efficient, yet cold, unfriendly and, at times, bullying — to a new image: fun-loving, welcoming, modern and creative.

This did something that no politician had ever achieved — it imbued the nation with a sense of pride and common destiny. On the day after the final, Britain’s Times, not known for being pro-German, ran the headline: “Never mind the Finals, the true Winners are Germany!”

Barely two years before the World Cup, Germany was a very different place — a nation so plagued by self-doubt that it was diagnosed by its own president as entering “collective depression”. The German soccer team had crashed out of the first round of the European championship, the Bundesliga was riddled by match-fixing scandals, and xenophobia had gripped certain areas of eastern Germany such that politicians were advising people of colour against entering so-called “no-go zones”.

So how did Germany achieve such a dramatic turnaround in branding fortunes? Read more here.

Think local; Economic development depends largely on adding value to what's already being done

A consultant recommends Bruce and Grey counties encourage value-added enterprises, agri-tourism and local food systems.

In a report prepared for the Grey-Bruce Regional Economic Development Partnership, George Schrijver of WCM Consulting noted Chapman's Ice Cream in Markdale is the area's only major food processing plant.

He said traditional economic development strategies are unlikely to attract other major food processing plants because of distances and lack of transportation and stressed the importance of being realistic about what advantages the area has in its efforts to attract a large food processing plant.

"You better have a good case for it as opposed to a nice brochure that says we're a wonderful place to be why don't you come here," said Schrijver He compared the Grey Bruce area with eastern Ontario, which may be best positioned to attract large food processing plants because of its proximity to the transportation corridor - rail, road and seaboard - and easy access to U.S. markets. That region recently attracted a new Kellogg's plant.

Schrijver said Grey-Bruce has a number of strengths, such as a skilled labour force and infrastructure coupled with the potential to supply local consumers, retailers and specialty markets in the cities.

Schrijver recommends using the Bruce-Grey name to boost marketing - so long as there's consistent quality and quantity of product. He also listed 10 ways the region could promote value added products: Read more here.