Building your brand in an increasingly fragmented world is becoming more and more difficult with every passing day. When I was a teenager in the early 1980’s 
we had just three television channels, one local newspaper, three radio stations and one phone book. The local General Store in the small town where I lived advertised on two of the radio stations, in “the paper”, in the phone book, and every once in a while ran a few ads on TV. Their efforts kept people coming to the store to purchase everything from lumber to groceries. It was relatively easy for the owner to decide where to invest his advertising dollars.
Today in that same market there are 12 radio stations, two newspapers, three phone books, hundreds of television channels, two regional magazines, billboards, mobile marketing, direct mail, and the many digital opportunities associated with the internet. It’s no wonder businesses are finding it difficult to develop new brands. Which one of the many new digital venues will work best to develop a brand position in the minds of the consumer? Which medium or mediums will give me the largest “share of mind” that may be leveraged into market share?
This is the question facing all marketers today. We are all flooding to the new ground and the digital media, yet will we be able to build the brand? When was the last time any of you visited plumbing web site. There are hundreds if not thousands of plumbers on the web, yet I haven’t v
isited a single one. It seems that we don’t visit a web site until we have an interest in the product or service. So if a plumbing company places the majority of their budget on the web, and we aren’t aware of the brand, how will we know which of the many listed in a Google search will we call? Can we build a brand with just digital media?
At the same time another plumber uses three radio stations, one newspaper, and two phone books to position his business. He doesn’t feel the digital media will brand his business as well as the more “traditional” media. When his business fails to grow as quickly as he expects, he hires a marketing company to study his brand awareness. He finds out that only 8% of the market even knows about his business, yet he spent tens of thousands of dollars advertising his business. How can this be? The study also informs him that customers are searching the web when they need a plumber.
This is the scenario repeated daily in all levels of corporate America. How do we best develop or improve our brand’s image in today’s fragmented world? One must find a balance between both the new digital media world full of search engines, customer generated content, social networking, online video, etc... and the “traditional” media world with its large mass audiences and local content. It is a balance best obtained through a well developed marketing plan where the brand is the focus. In the past we were able to focus intently on the customer. Today we need to continue that focus, while we try to find the best media mix for our company.
Today the little General Store is gone, not because of the advertising, rather a mall, and many focused big box stores in a town twenty miles away. The general store couldn’t compete with the aggressive pricing and marketing of the “big” stores. By trying to offer everything to everyone, the store soon meant nothing to anyone. Today’s digital world is changing and as marketers, we need to ensure that our clients don’t go the way of the General Store.
we had just three television channels, one local newspaper, three radio stations and one phone book. The local General Store in the small town where I lived advertised on two of the radio stations, in “the paper”, in the phone book, and every once in a while ran a few ads on TV. Their efforts kept people coming to the store to purchase everything from lumber to groceries. It was relatively easy for the owner to decide where to invest his advertising dollars.Today in that same market there are 12 radio stations, two newspapers, three phone books, hundreds of television channels, two regional magazines, billboards, mobile marketing, direct mail, and the many digital opportunities associated with the internet. It’s no wonder businesses are finding it difficult to develop new brands. Which one of the many new digital venues will work best to develop a brand position in the minds of the consumer? Which medium or mediums will give me the largest “share of mind” that may be leveraged into market share?
This is the question facing all marketers today. We are all flooding to the new ground and the digital media, yet will we be able to build the brand? When was the last time any of you visited plumbing web site. There are hundreds if not thousands of plumbers on the web, yet I haven’t v
isited a single one. It seems that we don’t visit a web site until we have an interest in the product or service. So if a plumbing company places the majority of their budget on the web, and we aren’t aware of the brand, how will we know which of the many listed in a Google search will we call? Can we build a brand with just digital media?At the same time another plumber uses three radio stations, one newspaper, and two phone books to position his business. He doesn’t feel the digital media will brand his business as well as the more “traditional” media. When his business fails to grow as quickly as he expects, he hires a marketing company to study his brand awareness. He finds out that only 8% of the market even knows about his business, yet he spent tens of thousands of dollars advertising his business. How can this be? The study also informs him that customers are searching the web when they need a plumber.
This is the scenario repeated daily in all levels of corporate America. How do we best develop or improve our brand’s image in today’s fragmented world? One must find a balance between both the new digital media world full of search engines, customer generated content, social networking, online video, etc... and the “traditional” media world with its large mass audiences and local content. It is a balance best obtained through a well developed marketing plan where the brand is the focus. In the past we were able to focus intently on the customer. Today we need to continue that focus, while we try to find the best media mix for our company.
Today the little General Store is gone, not because of the advertising, rather a mall, and many focused big box stores in a town twenty miles away. The general store couldn’t compete with the aggressive pricing and marketing of the “big” stores. By trying to offer everything to everyone, the store soon meant nothing to anyone. Today’s digital world is changing and as marketers, we need to ensure that our clients don’t go the way of the General Store.
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