4 ways
to build buzz for your brand
Marketing
Intelligence / Joanna L. Krotz
It's not easy being a baby.
Raising the profile of a just-launched brand has always been a challenge.
But
nowadays, as customers lean toward tried-and-true products, building buzz for a
brand-new business takes real smarts, creativity and persistence.
What
is a brand? It's the promise you make to customers. It's the "emotional
connections that create feelings of loyalty to a product or a company,"
says Jim Bolton at Ridge Associates, a coaching firm in
To
get customers to notice your infant brand quickly and affordably, you must stay
focused. Don't chase after huge or unlikely prospects right away. Don't
squander time and resources by broadcasting mixed messages. Keep it simple.
Make sure your marketing material has a recognizable identity, with a
consistent logo, palette and tag lines.
Then,
check out these four cost-effective branding strategies suggested by marketing
experts and successful entrepreneurs.
1. Get inside the customer's mind.
Most
new business owners research their target buyers. So you likely know something
about your customer demographics, such as income and age. That's good, but it's
hardly enough.
In
this climate, you need a serious fix on what will propel people to buy so you
can gear your messages accordingly. "What need will
you fill for the customer?" asks Scott Gold, chief executive officer of
The Brand Consultancy in
2. Get endorsements that ring the right bells.
Expert
or third-party endorsements can mean a movie star, a banker or a tech wizard.
If you have invested in characterizing target customers, coming up with
personalities who will fuel buzz should be a snap. The hard part may be getting
access. You might need special marketing to reach them.
For
example,
Backstage
charges corporations $5,000 to $10,000 (depending on how exclusive the access)
to attend behind-the-scenes gatherings at TV award shows and other celebrity
events. Marketers get an opportunity to meet and chat with stars before or
after the show. In turn, celebrities get free gift bags filled with sometimes
very fancy and expensive samples. The idea is that stars will not only wear or
try the products, but they'll be seen doing so — which will boost the company's
image and sales.
Hooking
up with Backstage allowed Azzaro to present her
fashions one-on-one to various celebs. Soon,
"Friends" star Courteney Cox and pop singer Nelly Furtado were
photographed wearing My-Tee tops. That viral marketing led to stories about
My-Tee in media like InStyle.com, the Los Angeles Daily News, Essence and more.
Azzaro got known, fast.
3. Get the attention of hot prospects.
Find
the industry seminars or annual shows that attract your top-of-the-line
customers. Then spend what it takes to design a snazzy booth. Or, sign up for
media coaching and pay a speechwriter and design team to develop newsworthy
presentations. Or, hire a marketing firm to create a memorable way to
demonstrate your product. You want to make a standout impression at the
high-profile show.
In
2000, when New Yorker Robin Blum launched In My Book, which markets greeting
cards that are also bookmarks, she found it a challenge because the combination
was a new concept.
Since
her target customers included the multiple markets of booksellers and
stationers, Blum decided to exhibit at the two best-known trade shows in those
fields: the National Stationery Show in New York that year, and BookExpo 2000, held in Chicago. Blum also paid for ads that
featured her logo in show publications and sent free samples and literature to
every publishing, library and gift publication she could find.
That
netted some terrific product reviews from trade media. In addition, Blum
commissioned a big backdrop painting for her exhibition booth, which
transformed it into the stoop of an antiquarian bookshop. That made her booth a
must-stop destination on the show floor.
All
of it, she says, led to "excellent results, though not volume, which takes
time." Today, she's mailing updated catalogs to the wider audience of
booksellers, librarians and gift and card retailers that appear at the shows.
(For
information on getting sales leads, see this bCentral product. For information on
developing sales leads through e-mail marketing, see bCentral List Builder.)
4. Get public relations pros to open markets.
Your
products don't have to instantly make people attractive, guarantee weight loss
or offer the promise of eternal youth to benefit from press attention.
Let's
say, for example, you invented a clever improvement for a medical diagnostic
imaging machine — clearly neither a killer app nor anything of broad public
interest. But your PR agent garners reviews in the medical journals read by the
imaging community. That generates sales calls from hospitals and medical
centers. It also provokes interest from potential investors and partners.
In
fact, there's a great range of small, local or industry press and media
coverage that can boost business. But you could benefit from the expertise of a
public relations agency to do the legwork and the pitching for media placement.
That's
the lesson learned by Jamey Bennett, who was co-founder of LendingTree.com
before selling out to partner Douglas Lebda in 2000.
After a stint as an "entrepreneur-in-residence" at a venture capital
firm, Bennett decided to start another company.
Bennett's
latest enterprise, LightWedge, which he founded in
2001, markets an innovative personal reading light, made from an optical-grade
acrylic lens powered by AAA batteries. You hold the see-through light flat on
the page and read through it. He began selling the $35 lights in July 2002 and
says he's grossed $1 million within six months.
"I've
been using PR exclusively to get the word out," says Bennett, who credits
his
In
addition, he says, "I'm using PR to explore niche markets via trade
publications." He makes a point of asking every customer how he uses the
light and whether he knows other people interested in LightWedge.
That's the way Bennett discovered the astronomy market. An astronomer bought a
light so he could read charts without blocking night-sky stars. Likewise, the
PR team places stories in sailing, boating and aviation trade press, all of
which Bennett has opened as niche markets.
A
good PR agency can come up with a hook or positioning that works for editors in
that field. Bennett advises entrepreneurs to choose a small agency so you
become a key client. Make sure you interview a few agencies before signing on.
Retainers typically run $3,000 to $5,000 a month, but you might try a
fee-for-project probationary period until you're sure of the fit.
Buzz
and word-of-mouth marketing is a cheap and effective way to get out your message.
Figure out what it will take to start customers talking about your brand. That
way, every customer turns into a brand ambassador.
For more marketing and management advice, visit the Web
site for Joanna's company, Muse2Muse Productions.