PhaseTwo Strategies for growing business

Question #2: What kind of brand are you building?

This is the second follow-up to an earlier post I made before Thanksgiving.  In that earlier post, I offered three questions that you should ponder over the holiday break.  The purpose of these three questions is to help you think more strategically about your business and create a clearly articulated vision that will guide your activities going forward.  As a reminder, the three questions were:

1. What kind of business do I want to build?
2. What kind of brand do I want to have? 
3. What kind of company do I want to run? 

Why these three questions, you ask?  Because I believe these are the three most important elements of any business -- from initial conception to maturity.  Every strategy you create and every decision you make about your business will eventually boil down to one of these three questions.  They will guide everything you do, so the answers to these questions are VERY IMPORTANT  (in my humble opinion).

In my earlier post, I promised to elaborate more on how to effectively answer each of these questions.  Recently, I posted about the first question:  about your BUSINESS.  That's the first place to start.  If you haven't read it, you should.  

This post will focus on the second question:  

What kind of BRAND do you want to have?

Some would argue that this is the most important of the three questions.  While I won't go so far as to say that (because I believe that these three questions work in conjunction and are quite interdependent), I will say that it is an important enough question to make the top 3 -- that's for sure.  Hmmm...maybe I'll rethink that.  If you were to put a gun to my head and force me to choose only one of the three questions, this might be the one I choose.  Why?  Well, for those of us who believe in the power of brand equity, the answer is very clear (I have always said that I would take a great brand over a great patent any day).  For those who think that "brand" is just something soft & squishy for the "marketing people" to worry about, then this question may not make a lot of sense.  Hopefully, I can convert some of these people by the end of this post.  

Before answering this question, here are some keys to help guide you to the best answer possible:  

#1:  Think from a customer perspective

My definition of a brand is firmly rooted in customer perception.  One of the great injustices in business is the fact that you don't define your brand.  Your customers do.  Therefore, in order to answer this question about your brand, you have to think from your customer's perspective.  This little exercise will help: 

Just like how I asked you to use your imagination to answer the first question -- about your BUSINESS -- I'll ask you to do the same here.  For this question, I want to imagine that you are sitting in a coffee shop, catching up on some reading when you overhear a couple of people at the next table mention your company (or your product or your brand).  You quickly perk up and go into full eavesdropping mode.  As you listen, they start a full conversation about your brand.  You're dying to hear what they say.  But don't tell me what you think they will say today.  Tell me, instead, what you want them to say? What do you want to hear?  Think hard about this and write down everything you would like to overhear.  These comments will serve as the foundation of your answer to this question.  

#2: Think about your brand in relation to your competition

This is an easy thing to overlook when designing your brand -- it's easy to put on blinders to the world when you're consumed by your company.  But I would encourage you, when designing your brand, fully understand your competition.  If the goals for your brand are exactly like those of your competition, then you're going to have a tough time competing.  

Take a moment and go back to that coffee shop.  Now pretend that one of the people talking about your brand asks the other, "But how do they compare to [competitor's product]?"  Go through this exercise for each of the brands/products that you consider as competition.  Make sure you understand how your customers will discuss your brand in relation to your competition.  And make sure your brand goals differentiate against those competitors.  Here is a simple story from Malcolm Gladwell's book OUTLIERS which is a good example of what I am talking about.

Gladwell tells a story about Louis Borgenicht -- a Jewish immigrant in NYC in the early 1900's -- who built a successful garment business from nothing.  Here is how Louis describes his early thinking about his brand goals. 

From my study of the market, I knew that only three men were making children's dresses in 1890.  One was an East Side tailor near me, who made only to order, while the other two turned out an expensive product with which I had no desire at all to compete.  I wanted to make "popular price" stuff--wash dresses, silks, and woolens.  It was my goal to produce dresses that the great mass of the people could afford, dresses that would -- from the business angle -- sell equally well to both large and small, city and country stores....my dresses would save mothers endless work, the materials and sewing were as good and probably better than anything that could be done at home, the price was right for quick disposal.  

I love this story for it's simplicity and its focus on differentiation.  Keep this story in mind when answering this question.  

#3 -- Personify your brand

Brand personification is a good exercise for anyone designing a brand goal and identity.  I wrote a post about it a while back and you can read it here.  Long-story-short -- to personify your brand ask yourself, "If my brand were a person or character, who would it be and why?"  This exercise helps you better understand and communicate your brand.  The other thing this exercise does it help to define the feelings that your brand will elicit.  

#4 -- Make your brand mean something

All the great brands MEAN something.  They stand for something bigger than their products.  The Nike brand doesn't stand for sneakers -- it stands for winning and athletic success at the highest level.   Disney never stood for cartoons -- it stood for family entertainment.  Ben & Jerry's doesn't just stand for ice cream...you get the point.  I wrote an earlier post about this concept that you can read here.  The point is, when you think about your brand, think about what it will stand for.  If it doesn't stand for something --find something for which it will stand.  

#5 -- Use the same guidelines as with Question #1

Just like when answering the first question -- about your BUSINESS -- use these guidelines when answering this question:

1. Project a long-term goal (Think about your brand 30-years from now)
2. Be clear and concise  (Keep your answer between 1-3 sentences)

But unlike your answer to the first question, the answer to this BRAND question will NOT incorporate business terms.  

 

So, those are the major points that you should consider when answering this second question.  When you go to actually answer the question, I recommend starting your answer in one of the following ways:

1. I want my brand to be known for...
2. I want my brand to be known as...
3. When they think about my brand, I want customers to...

I want my brand to be known for creating the highest quality, most indulgent desserts in the world.  

I want my brand to be known as the one place where the average American man can find a complete, sharp, professional wardrobe without worrying about spending a fortune.

When they think about my brand, I want my customers to be think about getting the easiest photographic experience possible.  I don't want them to feel intimidated by our equipment.  I want them to feel that our products were made with them in mind.  

Again, you get the point.  

Just like with the first question, take time answering this question.  When you have something you're happy with, say it out loud a few times.  Imagine yourself repeating it in front of an auditorium filled with your customers.  Does it feel right?  Does it get you excited?  Will it get them excited?  If so, write it down and keep it on your desk.  If it feels the same then next morning when you read it, then go with it.  Post it on your wall and let it guide your brand strategy.  Nice work. 

You're getting there...more to come.  

DS

Impact Marketing #4 - Great quote from Geek Squad founder

I recently read a great quote from Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad (which was purchased by Best Buy in '02).  I thought the quote was the epitome of the concept of Impact Marketing.  He said:

"Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable."  

This might be a common quote that I just hadn't heard before (sounds like something Seth Godin would say), but I will give credit to Robert because he brought it to my attention first.  In case you don't know about the Geek Squad, it is a service company which provides in-home, in-store or over-the-phone service for everyday consumers in need of technical help with everyday consumer electronics.  Can't figure out how to hook up your TIVO?  Call the Geek Squad.  You get the point.  

Robert Stephens founded the Geek Squad after dropping out of art school.  While designing the Geek Squad business, he spent a great deal of time and energy designing the brand and its image.  He knew that a well designed brand -- which includes the name of the company -- would: 

(1) Instantaneously communicate the brand and its product to potential customers; and 

(2) Differentiate itself against competition.  

His design for Geek Squad achieved both goals very effectively.  He started with the name, Geek Squad.  This conjured exactly the image he wanted to achieve and made an impact on everyone who heard it.  How couldn't it -- the company's name was Geek Squad.  It's fun and interesting.  You can't help but smile when you hear it.   All the other competitors probably had names like, "Support Tech" or "Tech-perts."  Geek Squad stood out.  As the company grew, they expanded the brand image to cover everything from the company uniforms, to employee titles (agents, dispatchers, etc), to their Geek mobiles.  

The point here is Robert's quote and his execution on it.  When you create a business -- shoot for remarkable.  Anything less will, at best, cost you a lot of advertising dollars.  At worst, it will leave you broke wishing you had created something remarkable...

DS

PS -- Here's a fun video on the Geek Squad's history.  

Interesting post from Seth Godin - Gravity vs Evolution

I thought this was a very interesting post by Set Godin the other day regarding the marketing challenges of certain products.  He uses the analogy of marketing the scientific principal of gravity versus marketing the principal of evolution.  Marketing gravity is easy.  Marketing evolution is hard.  He explains why in this post.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/gravity-is-just.html

The other thing he misses in this post, however, is the impact of religion on the marketing of evolution.  Religious beliefs are held with an enormous amount of passion and not defined by rational thought.  Therefore, if you are trying to market something that challenges a previously held religious belief -- you've got A LOT of work to do.  

None-the-less, I thought Seth's article was good and something to think about for any marketing pro...

DS

Impact Marketing #3 - HEMA department store

Here is a fun e-commerce campaign I recently ran across.  It's from HEMA (a Dutch department store chain with 150 locations).  They put together a very fun and memorable little application.  I'm not sure how effective it is in generating purchases on their online store, but it certainly is effective in generating interest and producing a fun, whimsical brand image for HEMA.  

To see it, click on the link below.  You can't order anything, but just wait a couple of seconds and watch.  (Make sure your sound is turned up).

 http://producten.hema.nl/ 

Cheers!

DS

Impact Marketing #2 - Will it Blend by Blendtec

Here you go...another episode of Impact Marketing.  This is where I feature a company that has created a very IMPACTFUL brand, market position or marketing campaign.  By "Impactful" I mean, something you remember long after you see/hear about it.  Something you tell others about.  In short, something that stands above all the other noise in the world and makes an Impact.  

This week's example is Will It Blend by Blendtec -- a small blender company who has created a series of fun, viral Web 2.0 infomercials shown on YouTube.  Their videos are just impactful enough to drive an ENORMOUS amount of views.  They have produced almost 100 videos blending all kinds of great stuff -- from golf balls to diamonds to the new iPhone 3G (see below).  These videos generate anywhere from 400K to 5.8MM views (the iPhone video is #1 right now)!!  Incredible.  What I love about Blendtec, however, is that they figured out how to a create a hugely impactful Web 2.0 property -- and they did it in the name of commerce.  Their goal was to sell blenders.  Most impactful Web 2.0 properties/phenoms are done for fun or for entertainment.  Blendtec found a way to create a phenomenom which helped them sell blenders.  And I've heard through the grapevine that they have done just that.  I don't know their exact sales numbers, but I am sure they would shock me.  

Anyway, here is the iPhone video.  The rest you can find on YouTube.  

For all of you looking for Impact Marketing ideas -- spend some time with Will it Blend...Have fun!

DS

Lesson from MAD MEN -- Your brand has to MEAN something!

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to catch up on AMC's 

MAD MEN via Netflix.  I was a late starter with this series, even though everyone told me how great it was.  Well, better late than never, I guess.  Anyway, I watched an episode late last night that I thought was particularly spectacular, especially as it relates to branding a product/business.  The episode was called "The Wheel" (from Season 1).

In case you don't know MAD MEN (you should), it's a really wonderful drama set in the big, ego-driven world of Madison Ave during the 1960s.  It's a VERY well written, acted and produced drama.  Occasionally, there are some fun, interesting lessons about the business of advertising and branding as well.  The episode I watched last night was one of those times.  

The episode climaxes with Don Draper, the show's main character, pitching to a pair Kodak executives in order to win the account for their new slide projector (groundbreaking technology).  The Kodak executives were clearly engineers, enamored by the technology behind the "Wheel" (the circular slide tray on top of the projector).  In his pitch, Don urges the Kodak executives to look beyond the technology and create an emotional connection with consumers.  I've embedded the scene here -- it's definitely worth a watch...

A great scene and a great message for anyone involved with creating, developing and managing a brand.  Your brand is not about your technology, your product, your logo, your website -- or anything like that.  Your brand is...THE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR CUSTOMERS.  It's what your customers think about when they think about your company or product.  More importantly, it's how they feel about it.

This means that your brand has to MEAN something.  It has to stand for something and it shouldn't be afraid to take a stance.  Everything you do as a business must reflect this stance and fight for it.  From your product design, to your store layout, to your marketing material and charitable contributions.  Everything should flow from this brand meaning.  Only then will you be able to fully connect with your potential customers.  

All the great brands understand this.  So if you want to build a great brand, bookmark this video and watch it every few months.  It will help keep you focused on the most important thing for your business...your brand.      

DS

ps -- I recently wrote about a good, fun exercise for developing your brand.  You can read about it here.

pss -- The other thing I liked about this scene from MAD MEN is it shows the powerful intersection between engineering and branding.  It's at this interaction where business is borne and made.  For a business generalist like myself, this is a very beautiful thing...  

DS

President Barack Obama -- Welcome back to the American brand

Obviously, I'm not a political blogger.  I'm a business blogger.  However, it's impossible to ignore the power of last night's election.  Never before have I (like many Americans) felt as emotionally invested in a presidential election.  And never have I been so proud and/or excited about the outcome.  Just like us all, I have been consuming all types of  coverage today (forget being productive -- I've watched Obama's acceptance speech 3 times!) and have read a bunch of good stuff.  One of my favorite blog posts came from a VC.  I think he made some great points.  I won't try to recap everything I've read/heard, I just wanted to add another point of value.  

For me, one of the best things about the election of Barack Obama is the impact it will have on America's brand.  Our brand has taken an absolute beating during the past 8 years -- both internally and externally.  The world has lost faith in America.  The Bush administration has proved the the old saying, "It takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but only a day to tear it down."  They have effectively torn down in 8 years what has taken 200 to build.  And I don't believe that our brand has much support internally, either.  I haven't seen any studies, but I image that over the last few years, Americans aren't as proud of our country as they have in the past.  Certainly, our recent/current financial situation has driven the internal sentiment down even further.   

So, for me, this election represents a tremendous opportunity for us to rebuild the American brand.  This is tied not only to Barack as a leader, but also to his election as a symbol.  Just the fact that we elected an African American helps our brand.  Here's what it says to the world:

Americans recognized they were in a bad situation.  They recognized that they had serious problems.  And instead of remaining stubborn, arrogant and closed-minded, they had the courage to look beyond race, creed, background, etc and make an intelligent, open decision.  They elected an African American President.  A minority.  A man who was not born into wealth, was raised by a single mother, and who built a life for himself through education, dedication and persistence.  They elected the American Dream.  A country whose system supports this kind of story and whose people enable it HAS to be a great place.

Now, isn't this they kind of thing you'd like to overhear at a pub in England, or a cafe in Spain, or on a train in Japan?  Yeah, me too.  It also says that we, as a people, did NOT agree with the actions and behaviors of the Bush administration.  This is very important.  We needed the world to know that.  

I'm happy to have our brand personified by Barack Obama.  I like the thought of his ideals, qualities and characteristics representing our country.  I actually feel like making a business analogy between Obama and Bush.  For me, the Bush administration represented an "Industrial Age" administration -- closed; controlled; riddled with large, powerful bullies.  But Obama represents everything we like about the Web 2.0 age -- open, collaborative, progressive, connected.  Instead of those words that described our brand during the Bush era, Obama can drive our brand to be known as "progressive", "intelligent", "collaborative", "resilient",  "optimistic", "opportunity", etc.  

So, for me, this election wasn't about tax policy, healthcare, or even the economy.  For me, this election was about the American brand.  I think we made a great choice, America.  We've elected the right leader.  Now let's do our part to support him, keep fighting and rebuild our brand...

DS

ps -- if you're interested to see how the world feels about our choice, check out this cool site.

Brands that personify the candidates...

See below for an interesting article (see more here).  It is very interesting as it relates to my recent post regarding Personifying your Brand.  This study took the idea of Personifying a Brand and went in the other direction by asking what brands best "personify" our beloved presidential candidates and their running mates.  Fun stuff...

DS Analyze This! Branded Candidates According to the 2008 Presidential ImagePower Survey by Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland, James Bond and Jack Bauer (TV 24) would be heading into the final stretch of the U.S. presidential campaigns this month. The poll of likely voters sheds light, says the study, on various aspects of the nominees' identities by associating them with familiar brands across categories. For example, in the eyes of the public, Obama is associated with BMW, Target, and Google, while McCain is aligned with Ford, Walmart, and AOL. Brand Association (Consumer Perception of Brand & Candidate Similarity) Brand Candidate Obama Biden McCain Palin Coffee Starbucks Starbucks Starbucks Starbucks Car BMW Ford Ford Ford Computer platform Mac/PC PC PC PC Retailer Target Target Walmart Walmart Search engine google AOL AOL Google Fast Food McDonalds McDonalds McDonalds Wendy's Magazine People BusinessWeek BusinessWeek People Fictional character James Bond Bond/Bauer Jack Bauer James Bond Source: Landor Associates/Penn, Schoen & Bertland, October 2008

Personify your Brand -- a good exercise for creating brand strategy

One of the major focuses of my consulting practice is helping companies generate a high-level brand strategy.  It always surprises me to see so few companies actually spend any time thinking strategically about their brand.  Sure, every company understands that “brand is important.”  I hear, “Oh year, we want to have a strong brand.”  Some understand the concept of “brand equity” (even though it’s very intangible) and can understand that Nike and Apple have built strong brands.  However, much to my dismay, very few early stage companies really spent any time creating a brand strategy (and no, creating a logo is NOT the same as creating a brand strategy).  I would argue that a solid brand strategy is one of, if not, the MOST important strategic initiative for any business.  Here’s why:

You communicate with your customers via your brand.  When customers think of your company, your products, your services -- they think of your brand.  In the eyes of your customers, your brand IS your company.

In short, a good brand strategy should drive most of the business decisions you make  -- especially those that are customer-facing.  Your branding strategy will drive your product strategy, your distribution strategy, your marketing strategy, and maybe even your organizational strategy.  Building a solid brand strategy is essential for growing a sustainable business.  

So, without turning this post into a full-blown branding strategy assignment, I would like to offer an exercise that I find very useful for helping a company develop a brand identity.  A company's brand identity is essentially the goal for the brand.  It describes what you want your brand to stand for, what you want it to mean, what feelings/emotions you want your customers to think of when they come across your brand.  It is the starting point for any brand strategy initiative.  

The exercise I will describe here is called, Personifying your Brand.  I use this exercise with companies that haven’t really set clear goals for their brand or can’t really articulate what it is they are trying to achieve with their brand.  This exercise helps you understand your brand.  

The exercise is actually borne from an exercise used by film and stage directors when helping actors “get into character.”  With each new role, actors must find a way to “become” their characters.  In order to do this, the actors and the director need to fully understand exactly who each character is -- what drives them, what are their likes/dislikes, etc.  Only then can the actors “inhabit” their characters and convince the audience that they ARE those characters.  We do the same thing with brands.  

Personifying your brand is an exercise which simply attempts to get companies to fully understand the “character” of their brand.  It does this by forcing executives to think about their brand as if it were a person (or character).  Very simply, the exercise starts with the question:

If your brand were a person or character, who would it be? 

OR MORE OFTEN

If your brand were a person or character, who would you want it to be?  

I understand this sounds like a simple question, but it’s amazing how hard it is for some companies to answer.  They have never given much thought to their brand -- especially from this perspective.  However, thinking of your brand as a person or character is a great way of getting to know your brand -- just like those actors looking to understand their new roles.  

Also, I’m not trying to say that I’m the first one to look at brands in this way.  Brand personification happens all the  time.  In fact, literal brand personification happens all the time.  The Marlboro man was one of the earliest and most powerful examples of this.  Any company that uses spokespeople is attempting to personify their brand in some way (think Michael Jordan and Nike).  My favorite recent example is Apple’s MacBook campaign.  With this campaign, Apple did a great job of personifying their brand with the young, hip, intelligent, funny, creative, 20-something male character.  This character totally embodies the brand image that Apple is looking to project.  But

 Apple didn’t stop there -- they went a step further.  They actually personified Microsoft’s brand as well -- to Apple’s advantage!  It was a brilliant campaign that has led to a large amount of PC converters.  And it was all driven by the concept of Brand Personification.    

As you move through the Personifying your Brand exercise, you will start to answer the initial question -- what person or character you want your brand to be personified by.  This can be anyone -- famous, not famous, characters from movies, your sister, cartoon characters, animals, etc.  Be creative and come up with a bunch of options.  It is important, however, to understand WHY you are choosing the people you are choosing.  Understand what each person represents -- for example, if you choose Cameron Diaz understand what connotations she inspires in the minds of the general public (or better yet, your cusomters).  Cameron represents healthy, happy, fun, very California.  In contrast, if you choose Robert Dinero, understand why.  He represents seriousness, professional, tough, intimidating.  During this exercise, write down all the words that you are using to describe these people.  

The next phase of this exercise is another exercise called 100 Questions.  It's simple.  In order to get a deeper understanding of "who" your brand is, create a list of 100 Questions that describe the brand's personality.  Questions like:

• What kind of car does he/she drive? 
• What magazines does he/she read? 
• What are his/her favorite sports?  To play?  To watch? 
• What are his/her favorite alcoholic beverages? 
• Etc 

 Some of you may be thinking that this doesn't sound like a very serious business process.  In many ways, it's not.  It's a fun exercise, but I believe it has serious results.  The better you understand your brand, the easier it will be to create strategies for developing that brand and the easier it will be to communicate your brand to all the stakeholders in it (customers, vendors, employees, etc).  

By the time you finish these "Personification" exercises, you should have an intimate relationship with your brand.  Which is something all companies should have.  Now all you have to do is apply that brand identity to a series of strategies that will make your brand a real competitive advantage for your company...

Happy Personifying!   

DS

  

Impact Marketing #1 - I Hate Steven Singer

Someday, when I write my first book on marketing, I think I'm going to title it, IMPACT MARKETING (I'm still working on the subtitle). The book will outline what it takes to create a truly impactful marketing strategy and campaign. An impactful marketing campaign is one that leaves your potential customer with a strong reason to pay attention to your brand/product. It's a sticky execution which your potential customer will remember for days, weeks, even years after seeing or hearing it. It should be something that pushes your brand above the noise. Helps your brand stand out. It should NOT look like your competitor's campaign, it should NOT be boring, it should NOT be safe. What's the point in spending $$ on marketing if no one is going to remember it? I know this sounds like I'm promoting "shock" marketing...and, well...in some cases, I am. The important think about an IMAPCT MARKETING campaign is that it is different. Before approving any marketing strategy or material, every executive needs to ask themselves -- Is this campaign impactful enough?

So, in honor of my upcoming marketing book, I am going to start offering weekly nominations of good IMPACT MARKETING examples.

My first nomination (there is no significance to being first) is Steven Singer Jewelers -- a normal, run-of-the mill jewelry business from Philly. There is really nothing special about Singer's product offering -- he sells jewelry, mainly diamond rings. There are many other stores in Philly which do the same thing. However, over the past 20 years, Mr. Singer has been able to build the most successful jewelry brand in his market, almost exclusively through an innovative marketing strategy. It's actually a strategy that should have been featured in the book, BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY for it's innovative take on the jewelry market.

Before getting into the specifics of Steven Singer's Impact Marketing campaign, it's important to understand what I like most about this story -- Steven Singer's courage to challenge the entrenched, age-old strategies that dominated the jewelry business.

To understand this innovation, imagine for a second that you are the owner of a new diamond jewelry business. Tell me who your target customer is. Tell me to whom you will direct your marketing programs. That's easy, right? Women. Especially 25-35 year old women who are most likely approaching an engagement. No problem.

Not surprisingly, 99% of the country's jewelers would agree with you. But Mr. Singer thought otherwise. He spent some time looking at the world and decided that the best way to create an impact in his market was to redefine his target customer. He understood that while women were the eventual recipients of his product, it was the MEN who were actually making the purchase. He decided to take a risk and commit his brand and marketing strategies toward young, frat-minded men. That's right, he marketed his jewelry business to young men. It was a very courageous strategy that became even more courageous (and impactful!) in its execution.

Mr. Singer created a marketing strategy based on the premise that men hated Steven Singer because their women loved him...and his beautiful, expensive jewelry. The basis of his new marketing campaign was entitled I HATE STEVEN SINGER. That's right, he created a campaign which promoted the fact that people hate him and his business. The entire campaign was (and still is) fun, funny and at times, shocking. He created an entertaining website at (www.ihatestevensinger.com) which is completely targeted at young men looking for engagement rings. The content on the website actually encourages men to not get engaged. It shows men how awful it is to be married and offers strategies for pushing off the engagement decision. It's easy to see why his potential customers love it. He started marketing on male-oriented radio shows and in similar print advertising. He also sponsored events like Battle of the Babes and the World's Largest Bubble Bath. He is even the longest running advertiser on the Howard Stern show. The execution of his strategy was very, very focused. Once he made his strategic decision, he didn't look back.

In hindsight, Steven Singer's strategy sounds like an obvious move. It sounds easy for any reasonably smart business person -- shift your marketing toward the buyers of your product. At the time, however, his ideas were considered insane. Promoting jewelry with a message based on something other than quality and luxury was absolutely nuts. He started marketing women's jewelry to young men who didn't know a 2-carat diamond from a baseball diamond. I'm sure Mr. Singer was the laughing stock of the Philly jewelry association. In short, to do what he did was not easy. It took courage to make a full commitment to this marketing decision. But it worked. Young men from all over now go to Steven Singer and his website to buy not only their engagement rings, but their subsequent jewelry purchases as well.

While Steven Singer's marketing campaign seems rather unsophisticated when compared to the slick, big-budget corporate campaigns featured in business school cases, it was more successful from a branding and ROI standpoint than the majority of these fancy campaigns. The price of a campaign is not what matters. Nor is the number of MBA graduates designing the campaign. When push comes to shove, the only thing that matters is its impact on your potential customers.

Congratulations to Mr. Singer for receiving our first IMPACT MARKETING nomination...

DS