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A friend of mine recently brought a partnership between Mercy Corps and Wal-Mart to my attention. She was concerned about the partnership because the missions of both organizations seem fundamentally misaligned. Here are my comments on this specific partnership: Partnerships only works when the brands involved are marching towards the same goal. While Mercy Corps’…
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An individual’s brand can be just as important as a corporate one. Most corporations start with an idea of what they want their brand to be and build off of that. The issue is that goals and reality rarely coincide in the market. We end up instead with out-of-touch executives and ineffective corporate hierarchies. My…
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The fact of the matter is that there is no consistent standard with which to measure brand equity. By brand equity, I mean the power of a brand, not it’s market value. If my terms have been confusing to anyone, I apologize. Brand equity, as Rodger’s article put it so well, is like a mysterious…
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The question is whether your brand is a clearly structured asset to the company, or a confusing jumble of antiquated internal corporate practices. In many cases, a company’s brand develops over time by pure accident and can, over time, become more of a liability than an asset. Compare this with a clearly defined and managed…
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Most brands start out distinguishing themselves based on products and unique service offerings. As the market develops, there are fewer ways to differentiate product lines. Features become ubiquitous across brands and most are forced down the dark road of competing on price alone. This, however, is just one possible fate for developing markets. The other…
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Guerrilla marketing is the wave of the future. I have given you information about what it is and even showed you a video about how effective it can be. I do know, however, that you are waiting for my explanation of why guerrilla marketing is so important. Customers seek out your advertisements Think about that…
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The easiest way to think about guerrilla marketing is to compare it to guerrilla warfare. It’s a small-scale endeavor focused on gaining ground against the enemy in small steps. The advantage is that you are leveraging your knowledge of the region (which the enemy does not share) to attack their weak points. For marketing purposes,…
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Every store advertises sales and discounts in today’s market. But how much value does a discount or clearance rack actually have? I currently work in a store that sells luxury goods. Our clearance items are 40-60% off and, for the next few days, we give an additional 20% off. The big numbers and “Save Now”…
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A little while ago, I mentioned a new perspective I had on product categorization and marketing as it applies to retail. This is a brief summary of the new ideas I have to build anticipation for a soon-to-come series on the same topic. Divide products into two categories: luxury goods and necessities. I define necessities…