Who Am I ?

Brands that have never had to take a long hard introspective look inside themselves often trade what they know, the same way they know how to trade it, often to who they know. At some level there needs to an element of marketing to enable accelerated growth outside the slow and steady word of mouth. But this is where many business don’t know what to do. After all the perfect, most effective marketing strategy is probably not in their set of core competencies.

Brands need an awareness of self. They need to know why people respond to them and often an extraction is required, not quite as delicate and involved as Leonardo DiCaprio performing and Inception of the mind, but an extraction nonetheless. Extracted information then needs to be analysed and the most concise, clear version of ‘who you are’ (as opposed to what you do) needs to standup and take the front line. It needs to be authentic to what you deliver while also serving the wants and needs of your customers.

In late 2010 Maria Slade for the NZ Herald reported:

Brand plans for small firms 
The founder of a franchised network of marketing executives says the concept offers small businesses a "virtual marketing department" at a fraction of the cost of hiring their own.

Mathematician and former Saatchi and Saatchi advertising specialist Paul Wilkes set up the Volom network to target what he saw as a gap in the marketing efforts of New Zealand small to medium enterprises' (SMEs).  They often had no marketing plan at all or conducted sporadic promotional initiatives, he said. "We're talking businesses that have a turnover of $20 million to $30 million a year that don't have any thinking around their marketing activity."

Any firm without its own marketing department was a potential client. So far, Volom had a network of 12 marketing specialists around the country who ran their own franchised businesses. Volom marketers formulated an initial plan and brand strategy for each client at a cost of $10-14,000, then worked on a monthly retainer of $125 an hour for a set number of hours.

The franchise had a network of suppliers to draw on and did traditional activities such as logos, advertising and website design as well as project work.

Wilkes once spent a day interviewing prospective sales directors for an interior fit-out client. For exporter Abbex International he set up a deal exporting Steinlager to Tahiti, which included dealing with brewer Lion Nathan and organising a distributor in French Polynesia.  Abbex owner Greg Abbott said the Steinlager deal required know-how and time.

"Paul has the marketing expertise to be able to deal with these large corporates. He knows what they want to hear."

With a degree in applied mathematics and a post-graduate diploma in statistics, Wilkes fell into marketing. After working for Clear Communications, Telstra and Saatchi and Saatchi, he had experience in the client and agency side of the industry, he said.  Advertising agencies did not have the same focus on marketing strategy. "I like to think things through logically, which is not really a strength of anyone in the creative industry."

But Sven Baker, group chief executive of design and branding consultancy Designworks, said this was exactly what it did for SME clients. "We provide a high level of competency around marketing strategy." The agency offered two or three tiers of work with some designed to be more economical for smaller companies.  Rob Bree, who operates as The Marketing Guy, said the concept of an independent marketing consultant was not new. But he agreed marketing was not second nature to most Kiwi SMEs.

"It's slowly dawning on them that the way to grow your business isn't just through products and services but brands"...

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Marketers will always be able to steer you in the right direction by way of numbers and analysis and a creative should be able to conceive an idea that gets you noticed. However ensuring this idea has the essence of ‘who you are’ will ensure brand alignment. This is crucial for longevity and building trust as this is what makes you ‘real’ and authentic. It is not just about the direction you are going but more how you travel that road and who you pickup along the way.

This I think needs further elaboration. Stay tuned...

In the meantime... A Steinlager pure Ad. Their brand position? Well, coming from New Zealand they can take the moral high ground on everything ‘pure’... unless Evian come out with Evian Pure Pilsner.