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Brand and corporate image.

Marketing messages.

Market information management.

Tools in the marketing mix.

Market share and market penetration.

Parts of a marketing plan.

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In the lesson, Marketing Messages, you'll learn about:

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In the lesson, Marketing Messages, you'll learn about:

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Brand and corporate image.

Market positioning.

How to form a marketing message.

Features and benefits.

Using emotions and problems in marketing messages.

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Brand image is the perception people have of your brand. It is usually closely associated with a specific product or set of products.

Your corporate image, or corporate identity, is the perception that people have of your company. It includes any qualities or characteristics that people associate with your company.

Your brand and corporate image might be the same, especially if your company and brand name are the same.

In large corporations with many different products, the corporate and brand image may not be as closely related.

For a small company, it's usually best to keep corporate and brand image as closely related as possible, to avoid customer confusion.

As long as people are aware of the connection between your company and brand, your corporate and brand image are related and affect each other.

EXAMPLE  If your company becomes involved in philanthropy and makes an effort to help the community, this will improve the perception people have of your company, and it will make people more likely to buy your brand name products.

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The type of customer associated with your brand affects how people perceive your brand.

You can help control this through marketing.

EXAMPLE  If you are targeting retired adults, you can use retired adults in your advertisements.

Some customers will define your brand based on people they know or have heard of who are loyal to your brand.

If you get celebrity endorsements, this can influence others to choose your brand, too.

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Reviews from other people who have interacted with your company or have experience with your brand can be a big factor in customer perception.

These might be reviews from people who your potential customers know personally, or they might be reviews in the media or online.

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When you create an advertising plan, where you advertise is just as important as the message you use.

EXAMPLE  Advertising in high end magazines will create a different brand image than advertising in a discount catalog.

The places you advertise should be consistent with the marketing message and personality you are trying to convey, and they should be places your target market is likely to see the ads.

You'll learn more about marketing messages soon. You'll learn more about advertising later.

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Where your product is sold also affects your brand image.

Your product might be easily available, or customers might have to seek it out.

If a product is difficult to find or only carried by high-end retailers, this adds to its prestige. However, status and prestige might not be important to your marketing message.

EXAMPLE  Convenience might be the most important thing about your product, so you want to make the product available in many convenient locations for your customers.

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The way you package and present your product affects customer perception and can be a good way to reinforce your marketing message and personality.

Your company's Web site, logo, name, and packaging all affect how people perceive you.

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The price you set for your product affects how people perceive it.

The more expensive the item, the higher the expectations people will have.

Higher priced items tend to have more prestige and status, but quality will have to be high enough to make people think the product is worth it.

Lower priced items attract people who are looking for deals. Most people don't want to pay more than they have to in order to get what they want.

You'll learn more about pricing later.

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The age and reputation of the brand and corporate image is important. Familiarity with a brand can be the deciding factor in a sale.

EXAMPLE  If you are shopping for electronics and see a brand you recognize with a reputation you trust, you are more likely to choose that brand instead of a product with a name you don't recognize.

Familiarity and age of the brand are only useful if they create a positive reputation.

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The way your brand compares and ranks against competing brands is another factor in customer perception.

If your brand dominates the market for this product, this affects how people view you.

Brand dominance is good for attracting customers who want a trusted, bestselling brand.

Some customers are looking for smaller, alternative brands with specific specialized strengths.

Specializing instead of dominating can be a good strategy for a small company to compete in a market that already has one or more dominant brands.

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Over time, the consistent quality of your product will help you build your reputation.

Keeping your product consistent is important, so people know what to expect.

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People will notice and remember how your company deals with problems and mistakes.

If you treat customers well, they will speak well of you.

If you are committed to solving problems and complaints, customers will respect you and be likely to return.

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Your company's integrity is its ethical and moral commitment to responsible behavior toward society and the environment.

People will notice if your company is helping, hurting, or indifferent toward society and the environment.

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Marketing is the combination of ways your company researches, plans for, and communicates with the market.

Market positioning is when your company makes an effort to actively control and shape your brand image with your target market.

Your target market is the particular group of people or companies your company is trying to sell your products to. You'll learn more about target markets later.

Your position in the market is determined by what people think of your brand and how they compare it with competitors.

It's not easy to control what people think of your company, but your marketing strategies can help shape their perception of you.

You'll learn more about marketing messages next.

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1. Define your brand.

Before you can market your brand, you need to decide what your goals are. What qualities do you want people to associate with your company and brand?

Your mission, vision, and values statements are a good place to start. Also, consider your competitive advantages. Which of these things would be most attractive to your target market?

Your brand definition may be related to your mission and values, but you may need to simplify or shift your emphasis to find something that will be a true competitive advantage that attracts your target market.

Make a list of the qualities you want people to associate with your brand, and consider which of these qualities will make you most attractive to your target market.

EXAMPLE  Does your target market care most about quality? Safety? Ease of use? Elegance? Convenience? Affordability? Style?

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2. Focus your message.

There might be many things you want to have people associate with your brand, but it's best to focus on the most important one or two.

If you are trying to communicate too many things, your message will be confusing and less powerful.

It's best to start by creating a brand that is something specific to a specific group of people. Don't spread your message too thin and try to be everything to everyone.

Just as you focused your products, you need to focus your marketing message. This makes it more powerful and memorable.

Find the most important thing you want to convey about your brand, and stick with that.

Marketing is your chance to stake out territory and define your company as being different from the rest. Focus on something that makes your brand special.

Try to find something that isn't easy to copy. If it is, you need to stake out the territory as early as possible, so you can "own" that part of the market.

EXAMPLE  Volvo® claimed safety as its key marketing message, and it now "owns" that section of the market. People who want safety in their cars usually think first of Volvo.

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3. Express your personality.

Your marketing message can also express the personality of your brand. Keep in mind that this is the personality of your brand, not of you personally.

Your brand's personality might be revealed in the way you communicate your marketing message.

EXAMPLE  That personality might be youthful, rebellious, humorous, quirky, calm, intellectual, and so on.

Your brand's personality helps you connect with your target market. It shows that you understand your target market and are like them.

EXAMPLE  You might share their sense of humor, appreciation for beauty, or quest for independence.

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4. Communicate your message.

After you have defined your marketing message and personality, you are ready to communicate that message with your target market.

There are many sorts of marketing tools you might use, including advertising, packaging, distribution methods, and more. You'll learn more about marketing tools later.

Even your company name and logo can help you establish and maintain your brand image.

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5. Meet or exceed expectations.

After you have presented your marketing strategy and created expectations in the minds of your target market, you need to live up to those expectations.

Always meet or exceed the expectations of your product, so customers are satisfied or impressed, not disappointed.

Your customer service should also meet or exceed expectations.

A weak product or bad customer service can destroy all the hard work you put into establishing a positive brand image.

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6. Improve the community.

Your company should demonstrate its commitment to ethical, responsible behavior and community well being.

At the very least, you should avoid hurting people, the community, and the environment. But it's better to take an active role in improving the community.

Philanthropic (charitable) donations and efforts will create good will toward your company and brand.

If your company does not use ethical and responsible behavior, this may drive away potential customers.

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Features are the notable qualities or characteristics of a product.

EXAMPLE  If you are a physical trainer, features might be the length or frequency of sessions, your experience and expertise, or the types of equipment your customers have access to.

Many companies make the mistake of focusing their marketing on the product's features. They expect the customer to figure out why they should want those features.

This is not very effective, because it makes the customer do too much work to interpret the features.

Most customers don't just want to know what the product is. They want to know what the product will do for them. They want to know the benefits of the product.

Benefits are the ways a product will improve the life of the customer by solving a problem or making the customer feel good.

Good marketing focuses on benefits, not features. It tells the consumer how the product will solve a problem or make them feel good.

EXAMPLE  If you are a physical trainer, it would be more effective to create a marketing message focused on the benefits of your physical fitness training, such as a strong, fit body that is admired by other people.

Of course, you do need to provide some information about features, but that can usually wait until after the customer is already interested in your product.

Most companies are much better at listing their product's features than its benefits.

EXAMPLE  A drill is a classic example of features and benefits. People who buy a drill don't really want a drill. They want a hole. So instead of focusing on the drill, marketing should focus on its benefits, such as clean, accurate, and fast holes.

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In order to focus on benefits, you need to figure out how your product makes people feel good or solves a problem--or both.

You can use emotional messages to convince people that your product will make them feel good. You'll learn more about how products solve problems later.

Since each target market is different, you'll need to figure out which emotions are likely to appeal to your specific target market.

EXAMPLE  Some groups might care about safety. Others might be more concerned with fitting in and being socially accepted. Some might want comfort or convenience.

Then you need to find powerful words and images that inspire this emotion. Desires and fears are a powerful way to inspire emotions.

Let us learn about desires and fears.

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Desires are things people want to have in order to be happy and feel good. Desire-based marketing and advertising shows people who are achieving what they desire.

Desires might be things customers want to experience, or things they want to be.

Below are some examples of common desires, but you will need to investigate which desires are most important to your target market.

EXAMPLE  The ways a teenage boy likes to have fun are probably not the same things that a businesswoman would find fun.

Some common desires include:

Social acceptance

Love

Admiration

Respect

Attractiveness

Beauty

Confidence

Fun

Freedom

Adventure

Wisdom

Winning

Taste

Comfort

Convenience

Success

Wealth

Style

Elegance

Status

Health

Humor

Saving or making money

Helping other people or the environment

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Fears are things people want to avoid.

Sometimes, fears are just another way of viewing desires.

EXAMPLE  The fear of being socially rejected is another way of looking at the desire to be accepted and admired.

Fear-based ads focus on the bad things that will happen to people who don't buy the product.

EXAMPLE  They might show people who are socially rejected, weak, lonely, uncertain, insecure, or unattractive. They might also show successful, happy, empowered people who did choose the product. This might be the same person who was showed negatively at the beginning of the ad but then chose the product and experienced a change.

Some people respond better to desire-based messages, and others respond to fear-based messages.

You need to learn more about your particular target market to find out if they are likely to respond well to fear-based messages.

Most people don't like things that make them feel bad, and a negative, fear-based message is more likely to make viewers unhappy than a desire-based message.

If you create fear-based messages or ads, make sure they won't upset your customers so much that they will not like your company or product because of the negativity of the message.

It may help to address fears in a message that ends on a positive note, or to use humor.

Some common fears include:

Social rejection

Weakness

Loneliness

Insecurity

Unattractiveness

Sickness

Dangers

Failure

Losing

Boredom

Missing opportunities

Inconvenience

Discomfort

Pain

Suffering

Being outdated or uncool

Selfishness

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A product can solve a problem by satisfying a need.

Needs are things people believe are necessary for their everyday life. They are not just the things that people require to stay alive. Needs can also be things that people consider necessary to maintain their lifestyle or quality of life.

If your customers believe that they need your product, it's easier to get them to buy it. Of course, you'll still need to convince them to choose your product instead of a competitor's.

If people believe a product is necessary to keep up with the pace of life, they will start to feel like it is a need and not just a want.

EXAMPLE  Many people feel that computers and Internet access are now a need.

This works well for products that solve problems in more convenient ways than previous products have.

EXAMPLE  Before washing machines were first sold, many people washed dirty clothes by hand. Now, they are a normal part of daily life for many Americans, and many people consider them a need and not just a desire.

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Some products solve problems and satisfy needs that customers already know they have.

EXAMPLE  The customer who is considering a drill already knows that she wants to make a hole.

Other products may solve problems that consumers don't even realize they have.

In that case, the marketing message needs to identify that unknown problem, make consumers aware of it, and then present the product as a solution.

Emotional messages are helpful in expressing a previously unknown problem. Negative emotions are associated with the problem, and the product promises positive emotions if the consumer buys the product.

EXAMPLE  Your ads might show that all the popular or cool people have a certain new electronic gadget or type of jeans. Consumers who don't have this item have the problem of not being popular or cool, but they can fix the problem by buying the product.

Some products provide an easier solution to a problem consumers are already dealing with in a different way, like washing machines did for people who washed their clothes by hand.

Think about what type of problem your product solves for the customer, whether the customer is already aware of that problem, and what emotions are involved.

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The marketing message and strategies used for goods and services may be slightly different.

This is because people usually judge goods based on the quality and utility of a physical, tangible good.

EXAMPLE  A car is judged based on the quality and utility it provides for the customer. Or a raincoat is judged based on the quality and utility it provides in protecting the customer from rain.

Services, however, are usually judged based on the people providing the service or the experience of receiving the service.

EXAMPLE  A doctor's office is judged based on the experience and professionalism of the doctors and other staff members and on the experience other customers have in dealing with those people.

EXAMPLE  A cruise line is judged based on the experience of being on the cruise ship and the type of service the workers on the ship provide. It may also be judged partly on the quality of the physical facilities on the ship, but that usually isn't the main marketing focus.

Companies that provide services often focus their marketing message and strategy on the people providing the service and the experience that customers will have, since these are ways that people commonly judge services.

Customer reviews and testimonials can be especially helpful for a company that provides a service, since there isn't a physical good to show people. Instead, potential customers can learn about the experience from other people who have used the service.

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Which of these is most important in forming your marketing message? (Select the best answer.)

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Which of these is most important in forming your marketing message? (Select the best answer.)

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Focusing your message on one main thing that makes your brand special.