Does Your Brand Name Transfer Successfully to the Global Export Markets?

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Local versus Global. If you are considering launching your product or service on the international market you’ve probably invested significant amounts of time, effort and resources to date in developing your offering or solution.

 

Have you invested comparable effort in the foundations, planning and development strategy for your brand or even the name for your brand?

 

When it comes to brands or sub-brands, the name is one of the most important elements in its proposition. A name is often the first act of public branding and helps establish the tone for your product or service which is even more important if you plan trading on an international market. Being a distinctive, different, memorable yet familiar name takes you miles closer to the sale.

 

You might think naming your brand is very easy and in some instances there are “happy accidents” that work brilliantly, but they are largely in the minority. In the commercial world your brand’s name can have a very strategic impact on your business, particularly if its use is for a global market and this often stretches far beyond casual observation or the aurally pleasing.

   

Typically brand names fall into the following categories:

• Evocative: Names that evoke a relevant vivid image

• Personification: Many brands take their names from real or myth

• Descriptive: Names that describe a product benefit or function

• Neologisms or Madeup Names: Completely made-up words

• Founders’ Names: Using the names of real people

• Geography: Many brands are named after regions and landmarks

• Alliteration & Rhyme: Names that are fun to say and are memorable

• Foreign Word: Adoption of a word from another language

• Acronym & Initialism: A name made of initials

 

The Irish market is becoming increasingly multicultural and leveraging your growth through the internet can effectively make your market borderless, depending on what you sell. These factors cumulatively demand considerably more strategic thinking if you want successful target market penetration on a larger scale, rather then just your local catchment area.

 

Global giant Kraft Foods, who arguably have the marketing budget to make any brand name well known, recently invested considerable effort behind the naming of their new global snacking division.

  

Kraft

  

The name selected, ‘Mondeléz’ (pronounced mohn-dah-LEEZ), is the result of suggestions garnered from thousands of Kraft employees around the world. It was created from two separate submissions, one from North America and the other from a European employee. Kraft executives explain that the Mondelēz name is a portmanteau that communicates the idea of a “delicious world” through the Latin word for “world” (Monde) and “delēz,” which is a “fanciful expression of “delicious.”

  

According to CEO Irene Rosenfeld “for the new global snacks company, they wanted to find a new name that could serve as an umbrella for our iconic brands, reinforce the truly global nature of this business and build on our higher purpose – to ‘make today delicious.’ Mondelēz perfectly captures the idea of a ‘delicious world’ and will serve as a solid foundation for the strong relationships we want to create with our consumers, customers, employees and shareholders”.

 

On the other hand large Chinese brands are finding it increasingly difficult to break into western markets because of the lack of understanding, by western consumers, to the meanings and pronunciation of ethnic brand names.

 

Li Ning Logo

 

Referred to as ‘silent dragons’, companies, such as Li-Ning, a sporting clothing company, have huge brand value in their home markets but are failing to impact globally. Li-Ning even re-named its brand after the towering Chinese basketball player who made headlines at the Beijing Olympics but to no avail. Western audiences have simply not responded to a name that carries little meaning in their own market.

 

Equally Irish names might have resonance to Irish consumers but how would some of them fare in international markets? Could global consumers pronounce them easily or understand what they mean? Can they transcend cultural barriers? These factors can have a very significant bearing on your brand even being noticed, not to mention recall amongst your target audience.

 

Connemara Logo

  

Connemara Seafoods,  Ireland’s premier seafood cultivator, processor and exporter have been exporting very successfully to the global markets for decades now. The brand name, Connemara, now has a high recognition value amongst its target market but they have consistently invested in their brand over the years to achieve these results. Their brand is very firmly rooted in their Irish geographic location with is Class A Waters off the West Coast of Ireland, the consistent premium quality of their product ranges, their multi-award winning reputation, highly regarded leadging edge expertise and the value of the family provenance with decades of specialist knowledge.

 

Certain types of Irish products and services have very successfully developed powerful and highly recognized brand names on the global markets particularly in the areas of food, beverages, alcohol, glass wear, foot wear and fashion. Indeed some of our best known brands are leaders in their categories e.g. Guinness, Jameson, Dubarry, Kerry Group, Baileys and Waterford Crystal to name a few.

 

If you are re-branding or considering a new name for your product or service for a global, or even local market, then please don’t treat it as an after thought. Give it the strategic input it deserves at the beginning to avoid the biggest pitfalls and you’ll reap the rewards into the future.

 

Key name selection criteria for a global market include:

• Fit with the brand proposition

• Be relevant for all target audiences

• Be distinctive, different and memorable

• Future-proofed for the life of the brand

• Linguistically and culturally acceptable and appropriate

• Appropriate if translated into other languages or cultures

• Easy to spell, pronounce and refer

• Registerable and protectable as a trademark and URL

• Approvable by the requisite regulatory authorities

 

Set clear and consistent objectives and criteria for your name selection and be unwavering in benchmarking potential name against those criteria. Don’t be tempted to choose your brand name subjectively!

 

• Consider, who is the target audience for your product or service and exactly who are you trying to appeal to?

 

• What meaning will your brand name convey to your ideal customer and will it help shape the desired identity of your brand?

 

• How does the brand name fit with positioning strategy of your product or service?

 

• What is the role of your brand name within your company’s overall brand strategy?

 

• Is your current brand conveying the desired meaning to your customers or do you need a re-branding strategy?      

Strategies to Successfully Penetrate Your Brand Into Irish Households

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Early examples of branded goods “placement” in television shows, films and print date back nearly one hundred years so it’s clearly not a recent phenomenon. However Irish law has only permitted product placement since September 2011.

 

As a strategy for gaining your target audience’s attention is now arguably far more effective then traditional TV advertising breaks during and between programmes.

 

Consumers now have total control over what and when they view their content due to the mass market proliferation of digital video recorders. Viewers can fast forward and totally avoid watching your big budget TV advert at the click of a button. Unavoidably this consumer viewing change has had a significant impact on advertising success, not to mention loss of revenue for broadcasters.

 

Product placement has been used very successfully leveraged in American cinema and television, with brands achieving high profile visibility and targeted audience attention in a “captured environment” for many years now. Big brands have very successfully integrated product placement as a key part of their brand strategy with increasingly sophisticated visibility, which has both aligned their brand with the relevant celebrity, VIP or film/TV show genre.

 

Think closer to home with the huge success of the James Bond franchise where automobile companies such as Aston Martin and BMW may have invested substantial sums for their brands placement in the James Bond movies.

  

2006 Aston Martin Dbs James Bond Casino Royale Daniel Craig

 

Not only have they benefited from mass exposure to a targeted audience but their brands have become synonymous with one of the best known characters in film history. Their brand’s identity, and what it stands for, are now inextricably intertwined with those of the character of James Bond – suave, sophisticated, intelligent, worldly wise, a challenger and a thrill-seeker.

  

James Bond Bmw

 

It’s worth noting that BMW is now the world’s best selling luxury vehicle brand, outselling Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Lexus.

 

While this is a much more overt example of product placement, equally it can be very subtle and understated too with the glimpse of a branded drinks can or bottle on a table, a billboard advertisement in the background of a scene, all of which are proven to have a subliminal impact on the viewer.

  

Film Billboard Ads

 

Brands in Ireland have been quick to take advantage of the new laws allowing product placement on national TV. Kraft Food’s Kenco coffee is now the “preferred” coffee of choice for presenters of TV3’s Morning Show and Midday, with branded mugs firmly in the hands of all on screen, albeit at an investment of €250,000 per year to Kraft Foods.

 

Kenco Tv3 

   

RTE have embraced product placement to the extent of writing it into the plot of Ireland’s most watched soap. Faircity’s Christie is now the proud owner of Carrickstown’s first Spar corner shop. This brand placement came complete with an official store-launch for the characters of Dublin’s famous fictional community! 

 

Spar Faircity

 

The product placement of the Spar brand in a show like Faircity is regarded as a winning strategy for all concerned. Spar get huge exposure beamed into the homes of their target audience multiple times a week, the audience see the brand in life like associations they can relate to in their own lives and referenced or indirectly endorsed by their favourite characters numerous times throughout each episode.

 

The producers and writers of the show benefit from a real-world authenticity that Spar’s involvement brings to their fictional town, and of course RTE are delighted with the revenue stream that the three-year €900,000 sponsorship and marketing investment by BWG bring to the broadcaster.

 

While the fees invested by Kraft and BWG may be far outside the range of smaller brands, the choice to place your brand on Irish television should be a real consideration as part of your brand strategy.

 

The subtle placement of products for much smaller fees can still create a large impression on your target audience with 42% of Irish television viewers claiming to “often notice products or brands that appear in TV programmes”. 

  

Campbells Soup Placement 

 

While still in its infancy on this side of the pond, the placement of brands on Irish television shows is still something of a talking point or novelty among Irish viewers. This suggests that there could be double impact for first-mover brands who integrate this form of advertising into their brand strategy. 

  

Apple House

 

It’s also worth noting too that it’s not always about the money. Apple topped the US charts for movie product placement in 2011. Unlike other brands however, Apple do not pay for product placement but rather provide the products themselves as a means of payment for displaying them in television shows, films, and print.

 

Ipad Modern Family

 

This form of product placement, a bartering of products or services for brand exposure, could offer huge opportunities to smaller or medium size companies looking to gain a larger national profile for their brand.

 

• Can your brand leverage the new possibilities offered by product placement in the Irish market?

 

• Does your brand’s identity and strategy align with that of existing Irish television shows and their target audiences?

 

• Does your brand have a positioning strategy in place?

     

What do you think of Coca-Cola’s cinematic product placement history shown in this infographic courtesy of “anyclip”?

  

 Coke Placement Infographic   

8 Top Tips for Building Your Brand Impact on Facebook Timeline

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Now that Facebook has rolled out their Timeline format to all business page users it’s a prime opportunity to capitalize on all the benefits the new layout offers your brand.

 

1. Your Cover Image:

Facebook’s cover image really enables a business/brand to capture its audience’s attention and make a strong impression with immediate impact. For brands this offers an opportunity to communicate your brand’s personality in an imaginative way and really leverage your core brand message. 

However, remember to read the Facebook guidelines when customizing your cover imagery. You can use this space to let your audience know what you are about but you cannot include promotional writing or a call to action on the cover photo. In short your cover image requires some more creative thinking to grab your key target markets attention while reaffirming your core brand message in a somewhat more subtle way. Cover images should be 851 x 315 pixels. Profile thumbnails should be 180 x 180 pixels

  

Mcdonalds Cover Image

 

2. Get Visual:

The new layout reduces the visibility of text posts but really highlights image and video content. For some businesses this may mean you need to change the way you post your brand information on Facebook.

The huge popularity of imagery orientated social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram confirm the mass attraction and powerful impact of visual content so start getting great visual content onto your timeline and raise the profile of your brand (products or services) through imagery where ever possible. A note of caution, make sure your selected imagery is relevant to, or congruent with your core brand message and your audiences interests.

  

Starbucks Cover Image

 

3. Directly Reach Your Audience:

The new timeline allows your customers to talk directly to you using private messages and most importantly it allows you to respond. It is critical that you have someone checking your Facebook page frequently to make a timely response. A query ignored could be a sale lost or worse still, compromise your brand.

   

Coca Cola Highlighted Post

 

4. Milestone Your Brand:

While your brand may have only recently joined Facebook, its story may have begun years ago. The new Milestone feature allows you to go back through the years, prior to you joining, and add landmark information and visuals, such as the year you were founded, significant new developments, the look of your brand through the years etc. This enables you to really share your brand’s story and build strong imagery communicating your brand’s development.

    

 Tiffany Milestone Image

  

5. Highlight What’s Important:

While it is important to post regularly on your page, some posts may be more important than others and require greater exposure. You can now ‘pin’ posts, which means that that post will remain at the top of your Facebook timeline for the entire week. Other posts can be ‘highlighted’ which means they are given wider display space and therefore stand out more.

If you have a special offer, top tips, important news or an impending event, pinning it or highlighting it commands great visual impact thereby saving you the need to make multiple posts just to gain your audience’s attention.

  

Starbucks Pinned Post

 

6. Benchmark Your Brand:

While your administrator can view your page insights and find out how many visitors the page receives, the new timeline also allows you to view some insights from your competitors’ pages. Simply go to their page, click their ‘likes’ and you will see some basic insights regarding their visitor analytics.

   

7. Monitor and Control the Conversation:

While it is important that your customers can post on your wall and create a conversation around your brand, it is equally important that what they post is appropriate. Deleting negative comments is never advised but the new timeline allows you to approve posts before they are displayed on your company’s Facebook wall.

   

8. Attention to Apps:

Landing page welcome apps no longer apply to the timeline but Facebook has provided the space to feature apps on your page. If your brand has a Youtube channel app, a competition app, etc the new Timeline enables you to display them on the top of your page.

 

We have already looked at how social media mistakes can damage your brand, however, managed correctly the role social media can play in shaping your brand’s identity, raising its online profile and enhancing customer engagement is undeniable.

   

• Does your brand’s Facebook page make the most of all the new features?

   

• Do you have a social networking strategy to help build your brand?

   

• Are your social media profiles fully utilized to support your brand communication strategy?

   

 

    

 

Maximizing Profitability: Training Your Employees To Be Brand Champions

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In Ireland, possibly more so than in any other European country, a company’s reputation is the foundation from which strong brands evolve. We may be known for our talkers but the result of all this chatter can have a significant impact on Irish businesses where a restricted market size often means that word-of-mouth endorsement, or criticism from customers can make or break the reputation of a business, particularly in the early years. 

 

I have spoken before about the impact a leader can have on shaping their company’s brand and developing the brand image from the inside out.  One of the strongest ways a leader can develop their brand is through their selection of employees and how they inspire their employees to become genuine brand champions or custodians of their brand.

 

While marketing plays a strong role in shaping the external identity of the brand, employees are a critical asset that cannot be overlooked in creating a strong brand and positive reputation for your company.

   

Employee Brand Champion

  

Your employees not only spread your brand message with your customers, but also through their friends and family, and publicly on their online networks. Your employees are involved in the core of your business so their opinions on your company/brand(s) are very important.

 

How do you make sure your employees are spreading the right brand message? What can you do to influence how your employees impact on your brand? The key is to turn their role in the company from being standard employees to becoming highly informed brand champions or brand ambassadors.

 

Whether your business offering is as tangible as selling a car or as intangible as selling insurance over the phone, the service the customer receives during those few minutes of interaction with your company employee (the human extension of your brand) will strongly shape his or her impression of your brand.

 

 Customer Brand Champions

  

Every positive experience, or negative interaction for that matter, that occurs between your frontline staff and your customer establishes trust and credibility, bolstering your company’s brand reputation or equally undermining it too if badly represented.

 

When your customer then shares this positive (or negative) experience with their friends and family they are inadvertently advertising your brand and helping shape your brand image. Never forget, referral is one of the strongest and most trusted forms of brand endorsement, and never more so then in this world of instant viral communication.

 

Developing brand champions begins with ensuring that your employee’s brand training and internal cultural experience of your brand, and the image it aspires to create, is fully aligned with your company’s brand strategy.

 

Right now, if you asked each of your employees, from those in your accounts department to your frontline staff, to stand up and give a short pitch about your business would they all be able to say the same thing?

 

Does their impression of your business brand match that which you believe or have set out to achieve? They must really live and believe your brand to authentically share your brand message with the outside world. If your own employees cannot fully articulate what your company’s brand is all about, the do’s and don’ts of how they interact and what your brand stands for, then how can they be expected to communicate your brand effectively to your customers?

  

Building Your Brand

 

Leading a company with a powerful team of brand champions is essential to the success of your brand and ultimately the profitability of your business. In short it must be incorporated into your overall brand building strategy if you want to be a market leader. Doing so will not only strengthen your brand and company reputation but it will also:

 

1. Increase Motivation: A workforce that believes in what they do and what the company is striving to accomplish will naturally be motivated to achieve their goals and therefore productivity and profitability will increase.

 

2. Increase Word-of-Mouth Promotion: An employee who truly believes in your brand is more likely to naturally share their enthusiasm with family and friends and will be an advocate for your brand even outside normal work hours.

 

3. Improve Service: an employee who really believes in your brand will embrace a sense of ownership in their work and the service they provide, which will result in a greatly improved customer experience.

 

4. Reduce Employee Turn-over: a brand champion who believes in your brand will also be less likely to leave a position in which they are motivated and satisfied with their work. In fact if employees speak highly and openly about your brand, your company has a better chance of increasing retention rates and attracting new high performing, talent.

 

If you want your employees to become brand ambassadors then get them onboard, share and educate them in your brand vision. Make sure they really understand at a fundamental level what your brand is all about. Explain to them how important they are in the process of building the company brand.

 

A positive brand image leads to loyal customers, strong referral sources and solid internal growth. Bottom line: Take care of your employees and they in turn will take care of your brand. They are your strongest brand advocates, but they can’t champion your brand effectively if they don’t understand it or buy into it.

 

• Do your employees know and understand your main brand message and what your brand’s image is?

 

• Do they know how your brand is positioned relative to similar brands on the market?

 

• Are your employee’s impressions of the brand aligned with that of the company?

 

• Most importantly, does your company have a clear brand strategy that can be articulated to and through your employees?

 

Feel free to get in touch. We’d love to hear your thoughts and would be delighted to answer any questions asked.