Importance of Branding: What’s in a Name?
Branding is perhaps the most important facet of any business–beyond product, distribution, pricing, or location. A company’s brand is its definition in the world, the name that identifies it to itself and the marketplace. A model may be beautiful, but without a name, she’s just “that girl in that picture.” Where would Norma Jean be without Marilyn Monroe, or who would imagine Coca-Cola as just a soft-drink manufacturer? A brand provides a concrete descriptor to customers and competitors alike, a name for a product or service to distinguish it from anything else. Bob may run a hobby shop, but trying to advertise as “The hobby shop a guy named Bob runs down the street a ways” is financial suicide. Each customer will have to describe the shop, who Bob is, and what the shop does every time someone asks about it. This makes the process of recommending a good hobby shop too much work for the average customer, and far too much work for a user looking for hobby shops on the Internet. A customer looking up Bob’s hobby shop will have an easier time of it if he or she knows to refer to it as “Bob’s House of Hobbies,” and the customer can then refer others to Bob’s hobby shop by name, increasing the potential advertising exponentially.
Developing a brand involves more than just picking a catchy name and placing an ad in the newspaper–a brand is more than a unique string of letters denoting a particular product; a successful brand is a mnemonic trigger that makes a consumer feel a certain way when the brand is thought of. For those who drink cola-flavored soft drinks, which is more appealing on a hot day: a cold cola soda, or an ice-cold Coke? Coca-Cola has spent 100 years developing their particular brand of cola-flavored soda as a refreshing beverage and a seminal representation of a market segment. Coca-Cola has used a combination of direct marketing, give-away techniques, and multi-product cross-branding to achieve maximum brand recognition and visibility in not only its immediately competitive market, but in markets as diverse as Coca-Cola branded race cars and housewares.
Brand loyalty is an integral part of building a brand, as consumers usually have a choice of products in the same market segment, and so a successful company will come up with a way to keep consumers re-buying their product or coming back to their location rather than going to a competitor. These brand loyalty-building efforts may come in the form of coupons, incentives such as many grocery chains’ technique of “grocery discount cards” or “loss leaders,” meant to draw consumers into the store, where they will hopefully buy products along with the discounted fare at a higher profit ratio. In exchange for these discounts and grocery cards, many companies collect information about buying habits and average spending amounts, the better to tailor advertisements and better-focus future promotional efforts. Once a consumer is hooked, brand loyalty tends to result in higher sales volume, as well as loyal customers being less sensitive to price changes of their favorite brands (within reason, of course), as well as less sensitive to competitors’ incentives. Studies have shown that it takes 5 times as much money to gain a customer as it does to retain one. That’s 5 times as much money as could have been spent on other things.
A brand is who your company is, and what it is selling–it is as important as naming a baby, and should require the same amount of effort to develop it, but if done well, can mature into a successful and profitable adult.
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The Consulting Industry: a Path Paved With Gold and Potholes
So you’re fresh out of Business School and you’re thinking about joining that “Big-5” firm that has offered you a ridiculously high-salary, the option to travel to different cities and even countries routinely and fancy vellum business cards with your name is bold print. Could life get any better? Yes and No.
As a professional that has worked in the Consulting Industry, specifically the Management Consulting Industry for over nine years, the life of a professional consultant is a life paved with financial, career and travel rewards not normally available through traditional means of employment.
If you’re a single person, I would be hard pressed to find a better job as your career in consulting will take you to countless cities and even countries across the globe. You will routinely encounter brilliant people in your line of work as well as people of different cultures, religions and ethnicities. Depending on the length of your engagement, you’ll never stay in a single location long enough to grow tired of the surroundings. BUT, if you’re a person in a relationship, I can’t think of a worst profession to call a career. The strains of travel and being apart from your loved one(s) can only lead to discord in your relationship. This is obviously a generalization for I’ve personally known many professionals in happy relationships but it is a risk worth considering.
Are you the adventurous type? Then consulting will provide you with many an opportunity for adventure. Consulting will afford you opportunities to travel to locales you may have never thought you would have traveled to before; London, New York, Paris and Beijing being four locations where travel to is typical. Then again, during the onset of your career you should expect to visit not-so glamorous locations such as Butte, Montana or even Lincoln, Nebraska (no offense). If you like the idea of staying in a single city, single office and just stability in general; consulting may not be the life for you. You are paid that ridiculously high salary because Fortune 500 companies expect you to come to them. Travel is part and parcel to this career, so get used to it.
Do you like repetition? Getting comfortable with the same routine at work so much that you can do it with your eyes closed? If you’re answer is “Yes”, then turn around now, don’t pass “Go” and don’t collect $200.00…this ain’t the job for you! Consulting demands a lot of its practitioners, the main trait being ambition and the desire for bigger and more complex challenges. This career isn’t for the meek nor timid but rather for the over achiever looking for rapid movement up the corporate ladder. If this is you, then you’re chosen your career wisely.
All in all, a career in the Consulting Industry is a fruitful career. Even if you find yourself growing tired of the job after a few years, you’re work history and talent will be sought after by many other companies for Corporate America understands the trials and tribulations associated with the career and values any professional with such experience.
If you’ve read this article and have decided to finally sign that offer letter and next-day air it back to the home office; then welcome to the world of 60-hour work weeks, constantly eating out and a different hotel bed every month…enjoy the ride.
By: Alfred GarciaEdited By: Michael C. Podlesny
Network Marketing Opportunities That Work
Network marketing opportunities that work not only exist, but are also doing quite well for themselves and their representatives. Some people will no doubt scoff at the notion. It’s understandable considering the number of businesses that pose as reputable top notch network marketing opportunities.
To give you a better idea of what network marketing is and what it isn’t, let’s look at some of the basics of network marketing. Network marketing isn’t an industry in and of itself. It’s a method of distribution for various products and services.
Network marketing organizations rely on their representatives to promote and sell the company product or service. This saves the company the huge expense of marketing themselves.
Also, because network marketing allows reps to recruit and train their own sales team, they receive a portion of the revenue generated by their sales team.
When most people hear the terms network marketing or multi-level marketing, they tend to immediately think “oh no…! Not another pyramid scheme.” It’s good to have a basic understanding of the fundamental difference between the two.
Point blank, pyramid schemes are illegal. Besides that however, pyramid schemes don’t rely on the sale of a product or service. Instead, these organizations focus heavily on recruiting and provide give little or no value to the new recruit aside for the promise of big bucks.
So, if the business opportunity you’re looking at doesn’t have a clearly defined product or service, or relies heavily on fancy recruiting systems to “do all the work for you”, it’s most likely an just another attempt to dazzle you with lots of hype.
Believe me, I speak from personal experience. “Everything that glitters, ain’t gold.” Use good judgment, and be sure to do the proper background research before you spend your hard earn money on a potential business opportunity.
Network marketing opportunities are a legitimate means to provide some additional income at low cost and limited risk.