Tapping the vast audience of the social Web is a low-cost way to catapult a small-business brand onto the global arena. Building your brand using social media allows you to develop new (and strengthen existing) relationships, which often leads to everything from brand awareness, loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.
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I met a banker this week with the first name Carnarri (pronounced Canary – as in the bird). My first conversation with Carnarri was over the phone. I had all sorts of images of this banker. I never met a Carnarri before. Would he be tall and blond like Sesame Street’s Big Bird? With a profession as a banker (who I believe should be somewhat reserved and conservative), why didn’t he use his middle name? Could a banker with such a name be proficient in finances?
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When you think about Stephen Harper, do you also think “taxes”?
When you consider Michael Ignatieff, does the word “corruption” spring to mind?
How about Jack Layton — “in touch”? Me, neither.
None of those words apply to any of those political leaders. The Conservative leader is associated with taxes? The Grit boss — who has never held power — is somehow corrupt? The Dippers are “in touch” — with what, exactly? Sheesh.
But, according to Abacus Data, those are just some of the words Canadians associate with Harper, Ignatieff and Layton.
A national poll Abacus did in early December asked nearly 1,400 respondents the following: “When you think about the [political party], what three things first come to mind?”
You’ll be surprised by what they found. I was. If Harper has a “brand,” it sure ain’t taxes. Ditto Ignatieff — he may be branded with lots of words, but “corruption” isn’t among them.
Now, brand analysis — that is, the identity of a product or company, represented by a logo or slogan — is nothing new in politics. Long ago, some cynic likened selling politicians to the way in which we hawk soap, so there have always been those who believe that politicians have a “brand.”
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Whether it be the Haiti Presidential second round election (expected on Jan. 16); the Peruvian Parliamentary and Presidential ballots (in April); or the Argentinian presidential election (in October), the precise outcome of several key ballots in the Americas in 2011 is uncertain.
What is far more sure, however, is that foreign political consultants will be working behind the scenes in many (if not most) of these countries trying to steer candidates to success.
Indeed, it is estimated that U.S. political consultants, alone, have already worked in more than half of the countries in the world. In 2011, that tally will only grow as globe-trotting U.S. firms reach out to more and more uncharted international territory following their widespread employment in last November’s U.S. midterm congressional elections.
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It has not always been like this. The traditionally “natural governing party” once held sway in all but one of the provincial legislatures for most of the 1930s and 1940s. For much of the 1980s and 1990s, the Liberals formed government in five or six of Canada’s ten provinces.
Today, however, the Liberals sit as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and form government in only four provinces: British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island. Only in PEI are the Liberals leading in the polls, and if current trends hold firm the Liberals will only have premiers in Quebec and Prince Edward Island at the end of next year.
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VietNamNet Bridge – A miss is as good as a mile. Sabeco made a mistake and now it has to pay a heavy price for the carelessness. How can such a big enterprise misunderstand simple branding? Experts are called on to reconsider processes in state asset management.
As VietNamNet has reported, SABECO, a big Vietnamese brewery brand is now facing the risk of losing its brand to the hands of a foreign partner. A lot of businesses and experts have voiced their opinions about the case.
Tran Anh Tuan, the founding member of The Pathfinder, a brand consultancy firm:
Currently, many big enterprises still do not have a brand management division. I don’t know if Sabeco had its brand valuated, set conditions for choosing partners or applied any policies on intellectual property. Or it only took care of possible turnover when it assigned a foreign partner to cover so many (20) markets. It should have been allowed to only distribute products in Singapore or some neighboring markets. After only one or two years, if Sabeco has good business results, it could have allowed the foreign partner to cover other markets as well.
It is a shame that Sabeco has not paid appropriate attention to protecting its main asset – the brand, especially when this is not a kind of franchise but just an exporting contract for distribution.
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BC’s Matt Lauer did an extensive interview recently with former President George W. Bush, who was promoting both his new book and a perspective on his presidency.
During the interview, Lauer mentioned that despite the large number of deaths and injuries in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former President Bush had enjoyed a special and very warm relationship with the military.
Bush agreed and said that he treasured that relationship. He then recounted a visit and talk with the widow of a soldier who had been killed in Iraq. He expressed his sorrow to her and they talked for a while. In parting, the soldier’s widow told the president, “He did his job. Now you do yours.”
It was an emotional story that obviously touched Bush deeply. It was also a remarkably effective, powerful moment on television, one that could touch viewers. If you’ve ever spent any time with politicians or CEOs, you could almost hear them saying, “I want that. I want that kind of special relationship.”
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I don’t know. I have an ambiguous relationship to the concept of branding. On the one hand, I know it’s real, and have talked about it as real. A network, especially an ad-supported cable network, has to deliver certain things that its viewers — and advertisers — expect. Especially the advertisers; the average viewer might not have expectations of a network, but an advertiser certainly does have expectations of the kind of viewers their commercials are going to reach. (HBO also has a “brand” but defines it more eclectically, in terms of shows that have the feel of being “stuff the other networks won’t do.” That’s because they’re selling their service to the viewers, rather than to advertisers.) That’s probably the biggest factor in creating the existence and importance of a brand, since the average viewer does not — and shouldn’t — care what channel something is on as long as it’s entertaining.
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Web Design Company Brands Up have given their website http://www.brands-up.com a new look as part of their overall expansion of business services. The site now features a homepage flash presentation as well as incorporating additional Web 2 elements into the range of services offered by the branding and web design Company. CEO Vincent Octaviouz believes the face-lift was necessary ’not only because the Company has developed, but because the more engagement your site provides, the less likely it is that people visiting the site will click away.’
With the emergence of Facebook and Youtube, branding has of course altered radically in the last 5 years. It is now no longer the Media who have exclusive control over what is published, because anybody with an opinion or a digital camera can significantly affect how a brand is perceived. In a recent interview, Vincent explained the new dynamics: “If someone has a bad experience at Cafe ZYX, and they video their experience and upload it to Youtube, and if it then goes viral, that can devastate a company’s brand. So now you see all the big companies like Nike and Adidas with Facebook Fanpages, because they have to engage with their customers, to be totally accountable and as approachable in as many ways as possible.
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Tobacco manufacturers have received support from a brand-focused lobby group after health secretary Andrew Lansley touted the idea of removing all branding from cigarette packets.
Andrew Lansley: favours plain cigarette packaging (photo: Pete Hill)
Andrew Lansley: favours plain cigarette packaging (photo: Pete Hill)
Lansley claimed at the weekend that “the evidence is clear that packaging helps to recruit smokers, so it makes sense to consider having less attractive packaging”.
The idea could be incorporated in a forthcoming White Paper on public health due to be produced by the Department of Health.
It has met with opposition from the British Brands Group (BBG), a non-profit organisation set up in 1994 to represent brand members on regulatory and commercial issues.
John Noble, director of BBG, claimed plain packaging was “bad news for consumers and markets”.
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