Friday, November 17, 2017

Five Thanksgiving #BrandTips

How is your brand celebrating Thanksgiving? Do you have a brand strategy to thank your customers, clients, guests, or other stakeholders? Does Thanksgiving even fall on your brand marketing calendar? If you care about your customers and other stakeholders – and you should during the holiday season – here are five Thanksgiving Brand Tips.

[1] Send email thanks to customers, clients, guests, and other stakeholders
When was the last time you sent strategic email communications to your customers and other stakeholders? If your brand is like many others, it was last week, yesterday, or today. Your email strategy probably includes a distribution calendar of regularly-scheduled emails. But when was the last time you sent an email that simply said, “Thank you?” If you cannot remember the last time, then it’s definitely time to send this type of email.

[2] Offer holiday discounts
No matter what industry your brand lives in, it would be easy to offer a themed holiday discount. A turkey-themed discount or a pumpkin-themed discount might appeal to your customers. Or, perhaps, your brand might offer a discount that lasts for the months of November and December. Be creative, be memorable, and put yourself in your customers’ shoes.

[3] Launch a new product
While people shop and travel during the November and December holiday season, if your product is widely-used, a new product may become big news. Apple often launches its new products in September, but consider the buzz if new iPhones were launched the week before Thanksgiving. If they were, new iPhones would be the “must-have” gifts for the holidays. (Often, they are despite the September launch.) Customers look to their favorite brands to make their lives easier, and especially during the holidays, they would welcome new and easy.

[4] Promote a co-branded partnership
If your brand establishes a partnership during the year, promote it during the holiday season to thank the partner for its collaboration. You can include a combined logo or both brand logos and both brand mission statements in your marketing communications, such as, emails, annual reports, newsletters, etc. In addition, testimonials from both brands’ Presidents speaking about the partnership could also be included.

[5] Offer a BOGO
Are you familiar with the concept of BOGO, or buy-one-get-one? Especially for the holiday season, you could offer a special product or service for free or discounted if something specific is purchased. For example, if you’re a make-up brand and a lipstick is purchased, you could offer a free lip gloss in a matching color. If you’re a hotel brand and three nights are reserved, you could throw in a free dinner of a certain value at your high-end restaurant. And lastly, if you’re a law firm brand and a client is charged for ten hours of legal service, you could throw in two hours of free service.

So, are you now convinced that Thanksgiving offers many opportunities to simultaneously build brand equity while thanking your many stakeholders? Chime in and share your brand’s Thanksgiving plans.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Does Your Brand Show Gratitude?

Did you watch the 2017 World Series? It was the 113th World Series and the best-of-seven playoff between the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League champion Houston Astros. Even if you weren’t a Dodgers or Astros fan, you had to get caught up in the excitement! There were many firsts and new records set, and a team won the World Series for the first time in its history. 

But, for brand marketing professionals, the most significant aspect of the 2017 World Series happened after the last at-bat and the winning team’s parade.

Did you see the full-page ad that appeared in the Houston Chronicle on November 5, 2017, following the Astros’ victory? The Los Angeles Dodgers ended their amazing 2017 season with a full-page ad featuring their congratulations to the Houston Astros. Even though the World Series came down to one game, all players demonstrated good sportsmanship on the field.

The Dodgers ad posed the question, does your brand show gratitude? If yes, what action or actions do you take to thank your customers and fans? Do you offer discounts, coupons, VIP shopping days, strategic partnerships, or something else? Consider how Amazon shows gratitude to its Amazon Prime subscribers with its Amazon Prime shopping days. And what about this, does your brand thank its competitors? Has your brand ever placed an ad to thank your biggest competitor?

An ad can be a very powerful marketing tool, because it can be remembered for years. I vividly recall one of my favorite ads for Apple featuring Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog and the “Think Different” tagline. View the ad here on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BbNTRhInLor/.

Will Astros fans remember this full-page ad if the two teams meet again in next year’s Fall Classic? Perhaps, the Dodgers marketing department had that goal in mind.


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To read more about the 2017 World Series, check out this link on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_World_Series


Image Credit: Houston Chronicle