Brand Australia – trying to be all things to all people
$20 Million. That's what's up for grabs to design the next "branding" campaign for Australia. The trade minister, Simon Crean told us that it needs to position us as a place to live, a place to invest, a place to study, a place that is more than just natural beauty. (pic by Ernieski)
First this:SIMON CREAN: Building brand Australia has an unashamedly commercial focus which will help promote Australia as a great place to live, a great country in which to do business, a great place to invest. Building brand Australia is also about Australia reaching out to the world; it's another sign that we're not turning inwards, going down the path of mandatory buy Australia campaigns.
Than this: "Australian trade minister Simon Crean announced a $20 million plan today as a means to 're-brand' Australia with a new tourism tagline and logo to reboost diminishing interest in the country as a tourist destination"
He admires the New Zealand campaign: "100% Natural". The CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum is a little cautious (and rightfully so) about what a new brand might look like and realistically achieve. He says:
We often look to the great success of 100 per cent Pure New Zealand, though New Zealand in a way is almost mono-destinational and mono-product. Everything can be encapsulated in that.
Exactly. They are promoting NZ as a tourist destination. That's it. And that's the problem with this brief, IMHO.
You can't be all things to all people. What do we want to do? Appeal to tourists? They don't give a rip about the investment opportunity. Do we want to appeal to investors? Why would they care that this is a great place to study? Or fish? Or go to the beach?
You want to do it right? Three audiences. Three dreams, three campaigns. Not one. With that many spin doctors around, is there no one to help the politicians with this?
What I would do online if I were you
That is, if you haven't done it already. I probably don't have to convince anyone that as a business today you have to be online; the question is more likely what you should do, and how much of it. There are hundreds, and hundreds of people online giving you all different advice, which in some way makes it harder, rather than easier to determine what you should do.
So why are you reading this instead? Possibly because you've read some other posts I've written and decided to come back, or you know me personally and decided to follow this blog. In either case, the fact that I have your attention is a demonstration of what you can achieve online without spending a dollar.
Just a reminder why you should do this....
Most of all, your competitors do it badly - I can almost guarantee that your competitors don't do half of the things they could be doing online. The vast majority of businesses still see marketing (and therefore their website) as a "set and forget" kind of thing. There's an immediate opportunity. Look at your competitors and see what they do badly.
Top things to do
Invest time in content - the more you've thought about your niche, and how you position yourself away from others, the better. This means that you can use SPECIFIC key words in your content and page titles that will help people understand your differentiation, and search engines find you. Make sure people can find the information they may be looking for FAST. Don't be gimmicky; people are in a hurry.
Invest money in design - create an online presence that makes you look bigger than you are, and is a window to you and your brand. If you do have some money to spend, spend it on someone who can help you with design. Why would you go through all the effort to get someone to your site, to present them with an image of you that is crap? YOUR NOT A DESIGNER, AND THEY'RE NOT THAT EXPENSIVE.
Make a blog a key page of your site, so you have your own media outlet. It is STILL the way to give your prospects and customers value that they won't get from your competitors. If you're looking for ideas for online PR in particular, Read David Meerman Scott's "The New Rules of Marketing and PR".
Get active in social media - If you are in B2B make sure you are on LinkedIn. If networking is the lifeblood of most B2B marketing, than you have to invest time in continuously building your network online. A LinkedIn account with two contacts is useless. A LinkedIn account with 50 or 100 is starting to get pretty powerful.
Start a Twitter account and use it wisely; contrary to popular believe, your customers won't give a toss if you're stuck in an airport, you've just divorced or if you're playing with your kids. (Yes, all of these have come through in my Twitter stream of professional contacts) What you DO want to do is use it to follow your customers, (if you can), post links back to your blog, or to other sites your customers might be interested in. Or to promote a special, only to your web followers. Your Facebook page can be automatically updated with your Twitter update too.
Experiment with Google pay per click advertising, BUT spend the time researching the best possible keywords, the same keywords you have used right throughout your website content. If you have extra cash, use an agency. In Melbourne, I'd use Salsa
Be as local and specific as you can, and use the phrases that describe your specific niche and your local market as much as you can.
It's going to take time -Whatever you do, online or off, it is going to take time and as the saying goes, the best time to start is yesterday, but today is the second best option.So, what are you waiting for?
Did I miss anything?
The winners are…..(Australia only)
Ok, this was hard.Before I announce the winners, I'd like to acknowledge the contribution of all participants in helping me focus this blog. Thank you very much and I'm sorry there could only be three winners.
The winners are:
- Jen Clark
- Scott Middleton
- Mandy
Congratulations, thanks HP for donating your wireless HP officejet pro 8500 a909.
I'll contact you via email to get your delivery addresses.
This was fun.
For all you micro/small business owners, here is something for you (Australia only)
Ok, this is something a little different. I've got the opportunity to run a simple competition and have you win a pretty cool prize; one of three all-in-one wireless scan/copy/fax/printer units, the wireless HP officejet pro 8500 a909, RRP around AU$499.
(Since you're winning this, and not paying for it, it shouldn't matter, but it did get a pretty flattering review here; lots of features, environmentally friendly etc, etc)
Clearly, the good people representing HP believe that there are enough small business/micro business readers of this blog, and that you would value the opportunity to win a free all in one printer, so who am I to argue.
Now for the fun. We're not going to make this complex; write in the comment space below and tell me what the top three topics are that you think I should write more blog posts about, and most importantly tell me why. I'll select the top three and each will get one of these wireless all in one gadgets. Can't be too hard. I'll notify the winners by email and they'll get delivery directly to their doorstep.
Closes in exactly one week - 11 July 09.
Good luck!
The storyline and Chinese whispers
Articulating why someone should choose you or your product over someone else’s is hard.
We have an endless array of tools to distribute the story, but often the weakness is not where we tell the story, but how well we tell it. Unless you run a pure online business, (where you get to control the message at least to the point where others start to talk about you) you probably have people in your employ to tell the story. Either on the telephone or in person, someone is selling your products or services for you, and telling the story.
The sales force are your story tellers - Individuals, who often work largely autonomously, often hired because they are “hunters”; people with the ability to go out there and with little more than their own drive and skills open doors and meet quota. Their individualism, and ability to get things done with limited support is celebrated.
And there is the dilemma. Managers sweat over the precise wording of the value proposition, positioning the brand away from the competitors, highlighting their leadership in their niche. They carefully craft language to connect with the audience.
Then it is handed over to the sales team, and a game of Chinese whispers starts. The story is often interpreted in as many different ways as there are sales people.
So the questions is does it matter, and if it does, what can you do about it?
Does it matter? - I think it does. In most markets today, differentiation is hard enough to achieve. So whatever that differentiation is, articulating the story effectively can be the difference between success and failure. How complete is the story told, how passionately, how it is made relevant to the customer.
What can you do about it? – make sure there is broad agreement that the story is the best it can be. If there are sales people who don’t buy in to it, deal with it in one way or another. If it is because your story doesn’t stack up, adjust. If it is because someone can’t or won’t get on board, you’ve got another problem. It’s in everyone’s interest to help sales people tell the story in the best possible way. An investment in ongoing, two way communication with the front line will not only help you get the story out, it will also give you the feedback you need to adjust when the market changes.
Why not use the same tools you might use externally, (like the web, video, podcasts) to engage your sales team. If you invest the time to listen, you also have the right to expect people to pay attention when you ask something in return.
In the end, customers will determine what your brand is, and they will determine whether your story stands up. But amplifying your story consistently will have an impact. What else would you do, or have you done?
Food for thought – differentiating in a commodity market
A quick story about fresh food and little Aussie battlers.
In Australia the groceries business is largely controlled by two players, Coles and Woolworths. There are many things wrong with that. For example, you can imagine the negotiating power these guys wield over their suppliers. Or their motivation to give you the best products possible.
As a consumer, I care mostly about the quality of what I buy and the price I pay for that quality. Woolworth and Coles are falling over themselves to tell me that they are fresh food people (just like me, the recently told me in an ad). But I don't see it.
Then we discovered (through word of mouth) that there is a crowd called Aussie Farmers Direct, who decided that there may just be an alternative to dancing to the tunes of the big boys. 
They believed that there was room in the market for an old fashioned milkman, who delivers not only milk but juice, bread and fresh vegetables. We've started using this service and now get a weekly delivery of all the stuff that you need to get fresh. The only proviso is that they select the fruit and veg that go into the box, but if you like variety, that's ok. At pretty much the same price as the supermarket, but at superior quality.
Who would have thought that while they are taking the last remaining bit of service out of the supermarkets (they now want you to scan your own stuff), there is a good business in home delivering high quality produce?
So what are the magic marketing ingredients?
Good model – cut out the middle man, direct to the consumer
Good positioning - "Helping the Australian farmer" - "The Milkman is back"
Differentiated offering – home delivery, no more lugging the heaviest part of your groceries
Quality – no more good-looking but crappy tasting fruit and veg..
Word of mouth promotion – as a result of all of the above
Who says you can't differentiate in a commodity market?
Youtube tells you what part of your video people like
I haven't used Youtube very much, but I suspect I will use video more and more in the future as it will become increasingly popular in B2B marketing.
My use to date has been to post little video's of my kids. I had a bit of fun and dubbed "Dance little lady, dance" by Tina Charles over a video of my (then) 3 yo dancing. It's had about 3,000 views (because of the title, I presume).
I had a look at it again last night, and I noticed some options to the right of the screen for "video owners" one of which was "insights". I clicked and got to a dashboard of analysis tools:
The next thing I clicked on what the "hotspots" button, which allowed me to see which part of my video people found more interesting than others:
Imagine how this can help you improve your communication over time? It tells you what people like with their actions, without having to provide any feedback. It allows you to continually improve your video, based on what people like and don't like. I must be dreaming. Awesome.
Social media in B2B – who is reviewing your product?
If there is one thing unique about B2B purchasing, it is the time and resources people devote to evaluating a potential purchase.
Now imagine you are launching a new product. A good launch is one of those rare moments when you can get the media's attention and a good launch will probably play a significant role in your products' success. So you target the right media, you write compelling stories hoping they get picked up by those hard to reach technology writers. If you represent a big brand, you're company may even advertise in the media you are hoping to get favourable reviews from them...
But of course they are not "the media" anymore. There are an increasing number of "other" media outlets. The people that create this "other" media tend to write out of passion or to demonstrate their thought leadership and generally share a couple of important characteristics:
- They don't get paid by a media company that relies on advertising
- They are often very passionate
- They are often not generalist "technology" writers but people with a very narrow interest/specialization
They are free to write what they like, they are likely to know what they are talking about, and they probably have a narrow group of readers who are equally focused and who are looking for unbiased, knowledgeable critique.
A real world example
Here is an example of such a product review by Stephen Few, from Perceptual Edge, a consultancy assisting companies "design simple information displays for effective analysis and communication."
The blog post is called " Xcelsius Present – Fast Track to Nowhere"; a 1,700 word review of the latest version of Excelsius from Business Objects. Now, I have no idea if he is right or wrong, but this is a little piece of the conclusion:
"Business Objects is a leading business intelligence vendor (based on sales), but its products consistently demonstrate that they don't understand analytics and haven't a clue about data visualization. A vendor that claims to be the best, which Business Objects unabashedly claims (just like every other major BI vendor), should be ashamed of selling such moronic products."
Ouch. Not exactly what you're hoping for. But the difference with traditional media is that it doesn't stop there. The conversation is about to start.
44 comments and a great discussion
There are 44 comments posted, and it is a lively discussion including an exchange with what appears to be a representative from Business Objects (although not identified as such). Either way, good on them for participating, as it provides potential buyers of the product not just one take on the product, but many.
Now Google "excelsius review, business objects".
So just before you start to believe that social media is just about Twitter, (and I don't blame you) it is the fragmentation of media and the increasing number of very narrow, niche blogs, wiki's etc that increasingly will come to the top of the search results when potential customers do their product evaluation. Search "excelsius review, business objects" and the review by Stephen Few is on the first search page, just under ZDNet. If I was in the market to buy, I'd probably read it. Rightly or wrongly.
So what can you do?
Without pretending to write a strategy, here are a few simple things you could do.
- Know who the people are outside the "traditional media" that publish on your subject.
- Engage with them. Maybe give them an opportunity to preview your product and ask questions. It won't mean you'll get a positive review, but you might just be able to ensure there is no misunderstanding about your product (which there seems to in this particular example)
- Participate in the discussion, using not only the comment section of their blog, but also your own. (What do you mean, you're company doesn't have a blog?)
What else would you do?
Merry Christmas everyone, and a peaceful and safe 2009
There are always plenty of things to worry about, but for the next few days I hope you enjoy the simple pleasure of spending time with friends and/or family.
Let's make it a cracking 2009. Merry Christmas.
“unsubscribe” – when we hit the “off” switch
I just read a blog post by a well respected author making a couple of good points about email marketing and the importance of the subject line and signature.
Good information, but the post was 1,400 words long without sub-headings. So I thought I post a comment, generally supportive but making a point about the importance of being brief in email marketing and effective use of headings.
But I didn't. I unsubscribed. Does that make sense, or was that the right thing to do? Probably not. He made a good point after all and I should have given him the feedback he deserved. Fact is, I don't always do what is logical and right. Nor do our customers.
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