Instant association, also known as pre-emptive persuasion, is a process of establishing a link in the customer’s mind between your product or service and the emotional gratification they are seeking. When the need or desire surfaces with a potential customer, your company name is the link in their mind.

A successful brand is the most valuable resource a company has. In fact, many brand authorities speculate that brands are so valuable that companies will include a “statement of value” addendum to their balance sheets to include intangibles such as the value of their brands. 

Brands are used as external cues to qualify for prestige, taste, design, value and so forth. In other words, consumers associate the value of a product with the brand. For example, the value of Coca-cola, Kodak, Nike, Sony, and Toyota is indisputable. One estimate of the value of Coca-cola, the world’s most valuable brand, places it at over $68.7 Million. (See video chart below and video for resources.) In doing some research online, I came across Bloomberg Businessweek “The 100 Best Global Brands 2009” (http://feedroom.businessweek.com/?fr_story=d848bd8c8fdfad532b8b4e43e4c5781f7acd5ce8) and Interbrand that published the 100 Best Global Brands. (http://www.interbrand.com/best_global_brands.aspx) 


Both web sites state that the top brands endured, even though 2009 was a tough year. They managed to weather the storm admirably. Coca-cola managed to rank #1. The companies that made the list all had one thing in common-trust. Consumers took issues with companies online and the top companies handled negative publicity instantly and responded online quickly to complaints, issues, etc. 

 


Here is The Top 10 out of the 100 Best Global Brands listed. To view all 100, visit:
 http://www.interbrand.com/best_global_brands.aspx). 

Brand Origin ($m)Value Change (+/-)

1. Coca Cola United States $68, 734 +3%
2. IBM United States $60,211 +2%
3. Microsoft United States $56, 647 -4%
4. GE United States $47,777 -10%
5. Nokia Finland $34,864 -3%
6. McDonald's United States $32,275 +4%
7. Google United States $31,980 +25%
8. Toyota Japan $31,330 -8%
9. Intel United States $30,636 -2%
10. Disney United States $28,447 -3%

Trust is now at the center of every company’s marketing strategy. How does your brand create value to a customer? Why do certain brands have more value than others? Naturally, companies with such strong brands strive to use those brands globally. Leverage your personal brand: What's the least expensive, yet most effective form of marketing? Word-of-mouth referrals from friends, family, customers, of course! 

We're all busy and are working faster and harder for the instant recognition. Honestly, we forget to recommend even those companies we know, like and trust. So, to get more referrals, you need to get those you know to remember you and keep talking about you-despite & during their hectic day-to-day busy schedules. 

So what do you do to try to achieve your brand recognition and instant association? First - a consistency of ad copy will go a long way. It is a proven fact that it takes 5 to 7 exposures to a print or online ad before someone may look further. If you change your ad copy every time you post it, people will not identify with your ad. 

If you use the same ad in many different places, people will start to identify with it, and may ultimately take a further look. But that of course raises a dilemma. How do you know if you have a good ad that will draw, or one that needs to be changed? 

Some great instant brand association examples would be:

 • When we need a soft tissue, we think Kleenex®, and the emotional gratification would be a soft tissue that will help us with a runny nose. 
• When we are looking for an action sport name and hear the saying, “Just Do It,” we recall Nike, and the emotional gratification may be that we take action and get it done. 
• When we hear the saying, “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate,” we recall Allstate Insurance Company, and the emotional gratification may be feeling safe with this insurance. 
• When we need to use bleach, we recall Clorox®, and the emotional gratification would be that we know it is a great disinfectant and will get the area clean. 
• If we need a good window cleaner, we recall Windex®, and the emotional gratification is that we know it cleans the windows effectively and we will have clean windows. 
• If we need an aspirin, we think “Bayer® Works Wonders” – Bayer® Aspirin, and the emotional gratification may be that we remember hearing that aspirin also keeps the doctor away as a reducer to heart attacks. 
• If we hear, “How do you Spell Relief?” we think ROLAIDS®, and the emotional gratification is relief of stomach pain and aches. The customer can read any emotional gratification through a perceived message. In each of the seven examples above, there is a direct link with the emotional gratification sought by the customer. They can rely on the product in their perceived mind. 

When customers identify your product or company name with an emotional gratification response, the brand name becomes the name of the product type in the minds of customers. Think of FedEx®, UPS®, Kleenex®, Xerox®, and Jell-O®. All these names are brands, but the names are interchangeable with the product. 

In order to establish an instant association or pre-emptive persuasion, my company has branded one of our services as being the resource center for marketing seminars. We provide free monthly seminars on a consistent and systematic basis. When our local customers hear marketing strategy seminars, they think of EXHIB-IT! Their emotional gratification is that they have a professional development seminar they can attend on a consistent basis to help grow their business without the hassle of being sold to while here. We have marketed and provided a systematic delivery of free monthly seminars and have speakers booked well into late spring 2012. 

DJ Heckes
Author & CEO 
EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts 
www.exhib-it.com 
Full BRAIN Marketing 
www.fullbrainmarketing.com

Leadership positioning, also known as prestige identification, is used if your products are the best, most respected, or if you are the proven sales leader. 

Before your customers can get to know you, it's important to first know yourself and your company's vision and mission in the marketplace. In today's highly hyper-competitive environment, it isn't enough to simply say, "I own an exhibit business." You must define the type of exhibit business you own. Are you a walk in business for everyone with wall to wall exhibit choices and information that can easily be identified and the same products purchased at other exhibit businesses? Or do you specialize in unique products or services, thus attracting those people who demand more than what they can purchase on the Internet that are unique and not readily available at other locations or maybe it is the added value they see and feel? 

Having distinct product attributes can deliver a promise of some special status. In the customer’s mind, you must be able to make a legitimate claim to being number one in some important aspect and deliver that promise. 

A good example of this would be if you are a hospital claiming that you are number one in the state. You may have a large billboard and many printed materials supporting this statement, but can you prove the claim with statistics or award recognition? Basic principles must be applied when making marketing messages about “being number one” and it is the responsibility of the person doing the advertising to conduct truthful and non-deceptive advertising. 

Back in the early days, I had a marketing statement that listed us as the “Largest Rental Exhibit Provider in New Mexico.” I had a competitor challenge me on this. When I first opened my business, I did a competitive analysis of what was offered in New Mexico and EXHIB-IT! was, in fact, the largest rental provider in the state. We actually had over fifty exhibit rentals and could rent at any given time without having to go our manufacturer or other sources to provide the rental products. Support claims made to build credibility and market those results. 

To be sure you are a thought leader and forward thinker in your industry, research these things in your own industry to define who you are in the market place. 

• Describe how your industry has changed in the last 5 years. 
• Describe the changes you expect to see in the next 12 months in your industry. 
• Describe the changes you expect to see in the next 5 years in your industry. 
• Become familiar and up to date about any regulations on marketing in your industry. 
• Describe the perceived standards of customer service in your industry. 
• Describe the perceived standards of technology in your industry. 
• Describe the perceived standards of product quality in your industry. 
• Describe the perceived standards in sales & marketing in your industry. 
• How does your business compare to these industry standards? 
• Customer Service? 
• Technology? 
• Product Quality?
• Sales & Marketing? 
 • What are businesses in your industry required to guarantee? 

 When you are done reviewing this data, and then conclude with: 

• List 3 things that you can not confidently guarantee today, that you would love to be able to guarantee and focus on this. 
• What is the one thing, if you could guarantee it that would make you the market leader? (For example, a news agent that guarantees      to sell you a winning lottery ticket every time?) 
• In an ideal world, what would you like your customers to see as the main point of difference between you and your competitors? 

Now you are ready to write your company’s unique selling proposition, also known as USP, that has a guarantee, or more than one guarantee, that also delivers a compelling reason to do business with your company with some type of guarantee or experience based on the customer feedback you receive from listening. Once this has been accomplished, be sure the entire company has the same buy in to the guarantee and the message is communicated from the owner, managers, to the face-to-face employees who engage with the customers on a daily basis. 

DJ Heckes, 
Author & CEO EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts
www.exhib-it.com 
Full BRAIN Marketing 
www.fullbrainmarketing.com 

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Once there is competition, customers have a choice. Once customers have a choice, companies need to consider, “Why should they buy from us?” In today’s environment, hyper-competition comes into play. 

Hyper-competition stems from customers wanting the products or services faster, cheaper, and in their way. This fundamental quantitative and qualitative shift in competition requires a company to change on an unprecedented scale. A company must constantly reinvent more efficient organizational strategies to be at the forefront of the leading edge. The competitive rules of the game are in such flux that only the most adaptive and agile companies will survive. 

A sustainable competitive advantage is the focal point of a company’s strategy. This focus allows the maintenance and improvement of a company’s competitive position in the market, and it truly is the leading edge company. 

Leadership Positioning – On the Edge! 
When leadership positioning and instant association are understood, it’s time to establish your competitive edge advantage. To do this, determine what the competition is doing in the same marketplace and what their competitive strengths and weaknesses are. 

Getting started with competitive advantage research: 

• Who are the competitors? List five to ten who do the best job of attracting the customers you want to attract. 
• What threats do the competitors pose? 
• What are the profiles of the competitors? (i.e., an in-depth description of the competitor’s background, finances, products, market segments, facilities, staff, and strategies) 
• What are their objectives? • What strategies are the competitors pursuing and how successful are these strategies? 
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors? 
• How do their prices compare to yours? 
• How are they doing overall in the market share? (i.e., percentage or portion of the total available market share or market segment) 
• How do you plan to compete with your competitors?
• Do the competitors offer better quality products and/or services? 
• How are you uniquely suited to compete with the competitors? 
• What customer needs and preferences are you competing to meet? 
• What are the similarities and differences between the competitors’ products and/or services and yours? 
• How are the competitors likely to respond to any changes in the way you do business? 

You can probably think of many more pieces of information about the competitors that would be useful. However, an important challenge in competitor analysis is working out how to obtain competitor information that is reliable, up to date, and available legally! 

Step 1: Identify main competitors and compile questions when undertaking competitor analysis 

How do you stack up against your competition? Know and understand main competitors. Secondly, how effective are the competitors in the marketplace and what is your competitive standing in the target markets? Once you can answer these things about the main competitors, you can determine how to compete better. 

Step 2: Evaluate the competitions’ positioning as well as their major strengths and weaknesses 

Put this on a grid and evaluate on a consistent basis, whatever that may be for your company. If you have an annual strategic plan, then do this annually. If you are analyzing data quarterly, then evaluate quarterly. 

Step 3: Determine your company’s competitive effectiveness and decide where you rank among the competitors listed in Step 1 

When evaluating your own business, be brutally honest about weaknesses and list the strengths that are perceived as strengths by the marketplace. It may be surprising to see how much more insight this evaluation of your business will provide after an inside reality check on your own business is performed. 

To be a successful company, the inside reality MUST match the outside perception of potential customers. Competitive analysis is an important part of the overall strategic planning process. Why should you bother to analyze competitors? Some businesses think it is best to ignore the competition and get on with their own plans of running their company. Other companies become obsessed with tracking the actions of competitors (often using underhanded or illegal methods). Some businesses are happy simply to track the competition, copy their moves, and react to changes. Do you know as much about the competition as they might know regarding your company? 

Competitor analysis has several important roles in your overall strategic planning:

• Helps owners and managers understand their competitive advantages and disadvantages. 
• Helps generate a true understanding of competitors’ past and present, and (most importantly) an educated guess toward their future strategies. 
• Provides an informed basis to develop competitive strategies to achieve an advantage for future growth. 
• Helps forecast the returns that may be made from future investments. (i.e., How will competitors respond to a new product or pricing strategy?) 

When I first went into business, it was important to me, as the founder and CEO to differentiate our business from the competition. In the beginning, it was easy, but as years have passed and we have developed a brand identity and won many national awards, I have watched competitors go after the same awards, say the same things, and copy our innovation. A very dear business friend of mine, Matt Rix of Mattrixx.com, once said, “It’s always safer and easier to be in the number two position in your industry. This is because you can follow and copy what has already been successful without assuming the risk of potential failure.” 

The downside of this is that you will never be able to capture or control a market share by being a follower. Followers are never leaders. You have the choice to be the innovator or the follower but you cannot be both. It took me a long time to realize what this meant. 

What he was saying was that being the innovator is great in the mind-set of our potential customers, but our competition can sit back and watch how we innovate and see what works and what does not and then copy what we do without taking the risk. Always look to be the innovator, even though being a risk taker can be stressful at times. Seek to be, and to be known as, the business others copy. 

 DJ Heckes, 
Author & CEO EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts 
www.exhib-it.com 
Full BRAIN Marketing
www.fullbrainmarketing.com  

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Last week’s blog discussed Leading Your Company and Your People to a Higher Place. EXHIB-IT! believes in developing a culture where our company manages and grows our business through investing the time to mentor employees to build a strong sustainable company to compete in this fast-paced competitive environment. 

This does not happen overnight. As stated before, to create a high performance team takes focus, drive and a lot of work, but the pay off is valuable to the company and to the employees. Having internal working relationships with a positive focus on an outcome is key. Working relationships that do work are characterized by open and respectful communication that builds accountability and trust. These three characteristics go hand in hand. 

Many companies think there is not much you can do to improve the quality of communication, accountability or trust within a company and it is accepted to let things be status quo. People either possess the qualities of accountability or trust or they do not, right? Wrong. You can make a difference. 

These principles of working relationships are the framework within which our company’s managers and employees relate to each other on the job. Without these basic principles, confusion about what an employee should or should not be doing arises. The five basic principles for working relationships were discussed in last week’s blog. http://www.fullbrainmarketing.com/_blog/blog/ 

If anything is identified through the five principles of working relationships to work on to gain better communication and understanding, try using what we do at EXHIB-IT!, the Problem Resolution System. 

1. The Problem Resolution System. In personal development arena, accountability to change and grow lies squarely on the employee’s own shoulders. As manager can suggest options and offer guidance and support, but employee must make the commitment and be willing and able to change. If personal development issue, requires level of empathy and sensitivity by manager. Be direct, but combine directness with caring and a lot of room for employee to show their weakness yet still maintain dignity. Demand excellence, but provide unconditional acceptance and kindness. Look at employees as “work in progress” and be able to invest yourself in their development. 
• Identify issue or problem to be addressed. State it directly and clearly.
• Get acknowledgment of the issue and need to address it. If manager raising issue, employee must willingly “admit” issue  exists and that something needs to be done about it. If employee is one who brings up issue to table – congratulations! Your  relationship is on right track. 
• Discuss the ideas you both may have about what is underlying the issue. Employee talks first. When employee done,  acknowledge and respond to what they said and add any insights you may have. 
• Get employee’s commitment to deal with the issue. This is the second decision point for employee (first is to acknowledge  issue). Without agreement, there cannot be movement forward! Refer to Primary Aim to see how this contributes to what employee  wants for themselves. Motivation is self-initiated.
• Create a plan to deal with the issue. Use Key Frustrations process to reveal true nature and impact of problem and uncover a  systems approach to resolving it. Whether a “systems solution” or “personal development plan” have employee document plan in  writing and give it to your manager for review. Plan is to include overall result aimed for, benchmarks or specific steps for  achieving result(s), reporting loops, standards that describe how benchmarks will be done, time frames that define exactly when  each benchmark will be complete, and consequences for failure to keep commitment to improve the situation. Written plan is vital.  Without it, ability to follow up will be compromised. If plan cannot be completed within scope of meeting, either have employee  continue working on it on his own, or schedule additional time to work on it together. (Work on separate sheet of paper for this  area.) 
• Get employee’s commitment to implementing the plan. This is employee’s final decision point of meeting. If he/she won’t make  commitment, either the issue will NOT be resolved or another alternative must be brought to the table. Do not leave unresolved. 
• Follow up on the plan. After meeting over and written plan complete, follow up with employee within short time to discuss how  progress is coming. 
• Re-evaluate the employee’s performance and results. *Determine if plan is effective and if desired results are being achieved.  Is plan being followed? How is employee responding to it? Employee attaining on consistent basis the agreed upon standards?  Teaching employees skill of systemic and results-oriented thinking and problem solving not only makes them more valuable and  productive, but also gives them a strategy they can use in many areas of their lives. Creating a motivational environment where  people can learn what it takes to become a more effective person, not just a more effective worker. 

 2. Self-Perception Enhancement. People yearn to feel good about themselves and need more messages to help get in touch about reality about what is wonderful about themselves. People need to develop a healthy mistrust of their negative conclusions. Learn and practice “self-perception enhancement” techniques to reinforce employee’s positive perceptions of himself or herself. *Four ways to do. 
• Offer employees unconditional acceptance. No matter what they do, you will always value and support them. Behavior may not  be acceptable at times but can change behavior. Essential qualities are constant that I honor and respect. 
• Insist on excellence. If employees know this, sends message that “I am capable of it and I’m too good a person to settle for  less.” 
• Define and enforce standards. Standards enable understanding exactly how they are being evaluated and what kinds of  behavior are both acceptable and unacceptable. Provides a sense of security and independence. 
• Praise employees’ positive attributes rather than performance or results. Tell employees you appreciate them for not only  work they do, but for person they are made that result possible. Give specific feedback and not generalized feedback and focus on  attributes they possess to achieve the dramatic results. Also pass along positive feedback from others including coworkers,  clients, etc. Effects of low self-esteem produce self-defeating behavior people resort to when they do not value themselves,  consciously or unconsciously. “Cynical attitude” are most often seen in people who, deep inside, do not value themselves. Maybe  never taught. People with prevailing negative tendencies will rarely reach their fullest potential and will find ways to sabotage their  own and company’s performance causing results in business to suffer. People with prevailing view of themselves as positive can  be counted on to do their best and face new and challenging situations with confidence, courage and optimism and make kind of  contribution that helps company and themselves grow and flourish. 

 3. Bringing Mentoring to Your People.
 • Adapt the systems in this process to your business. Use tools developed in your company and strongly advise against leaving  anything out of the model provided. • Set the due date for implementing Employee Development Meetings. Be consistent and  maintain meetings. May phase into company-wide. 
• Train Managers. This is critical to success of implementation of this process and business. Every manager must implement it in  the same way, week after week, year after year, until you decide to change it. It is a system in your business, part of the inviolable  rules of your game. 
• Conduct first Employee Development Meeting with all employees. Mangers conduct this first meeting when employees are first  hired. Managers conduct meeting with existing employees that report to them. 
• Conduct regular, ongoing Employee Development Meetings with all employees. Schedule weekly, bi-weekly or monthly  employee development meetings. Most cases, weekly suggested but may be too often for field sales personnel. 

 4. Everyone Wins. By adopting “manager as mentor” model, agendas and techniques for Employee Development, you can free your people to move beyond their limitations and help them grow to be their absolute best. All of these benefits will come back many-fold to you and your managers, as well as employees. Your company will distinguish itself as a place where people at every level want to work, not where they have to work. 

DJ Heckes, Author & CEO 
EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts 
www.exhib-it.com 
Full BRAIN Marketing
www.fullbrainmarketing.com 

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The importance of becoming a company that develops a culture where employers can manage and grow their business through their employees is becoming a necessity in today’s hyper competitive environment. 

Creating a high performance team takes focus, drive and a lot of work, but the pay off is valuable to a business. Having internal working relationships that work is key. Working relationships that do work are characterized by open and respectful communication, accountability and trust. These three characteristics go hand in hand. 

To look at things at the 32,000 foot level for your business, these three areas make up the livelihood of a great company with great employees. 

People - The culture of your business 
This represents all people directly or indirectly involved in the consumption of your product and/or service. They are an important part of the extended marketing mix. Employees and other consumers often add significant value to the total product and/or service you are offering. 

Process - The “How to” that makes you successful 
The procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activities by which your products and/or services are consumed should be maintained in a customer relations management (CRM) program. This enables a business to document the processes that are an essential element of your overall marketing strategy. The reason: customers may be contacted systematically for different touch points needed along the closure process and after the sale or transaction to keep them coming back. 

Physical Evidence - The ability to “walk the talk” 
This is the ability and environment in which the product and/or service is delivered. This represents both tangible goods that help to communicate and perform the service and intangible experience of existing customers. It is also the ability of the business to relay that customer’s satisfaction to potential customers. 

Many companies think there is not much you can do to improve the quality of communication, accountability or trust in an organization. People either possess these qualities or they do not, right? Wrong. You can make a difference. 

The principles of working relationships are the framework within which managers and employees relate to each other on the job. Without these basic principles, people can be confused about what they should or should not be doing. There are five basic principles for working relationships. 

1. Management by Agreement – worked out systems and use systems. 
2. Management by Exception – If system does not work, bring to Management attn and figure out if modify or implement new system 
3. Guidelines for working interactions – two kinds of relationships. Manager with reporting employee or employee-to-employee       relationship. Help understand employee-to-employee relationship should be like. Work with each other without feeling like being attacked or have to call in a manager. 
4. Guidelines for effective delegation. 
5. Guidelines for effective regulation. – Communication between people is imperfect. Sometimes requirements of task can change between time delegated or completed. Have to have steps of reporting loops where you continue to keep in communication with each other about project. 

This is the beginning of having a successful communication channel within one’s company. The next step would be to have consistent weekly staff meetings with reporting looks and to have a quarterly companywide meeting to develop a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement and threats) and measure against this SWOT analysis quarterly. At EXHIB-IT! we have quarterly business meetings that allow opportunity for our staff to work on teambuilding exercises for professional growth and we also celebrate successes and share challenges along the way to measure against our original SWOT analysis. 

DJ Heckes, CEO 
EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts 
www.exhib-it.com 
Author, Full BRAIN Marketing 
www.fullbrainmarketing.com 


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Using CIA marketing strategies in your business is like using counterintelligence information to determine your next move, similar to the game of chess discussed earlier. Acquiring the information you need may feel like being a secret agent. You must learn what you can about the competition without wasting your time being obsessive about it. The basis of espionage has not changed much over the years, but the methods used have been modified. Using CIA marketing strategies is the key to a company’s success in today’s environment. You will learn from this endeavor what a competitor is doing well and not doing well and then measure that against your own company’s performance.

Have a Competitive Intelligence Plan in Place 

Having a competitive intelligence plan in place helps you know what others are saying about you or your company for positioning strategy and keeps you abreast of the surrounding environment. While I am not recommending you become a spy, I am recommending knowing what the competition is doing and then doing it better! 

Many businesses get trapped in the day-to-day management of their companies without an awareness of their surroundings. Remember, unexpected moves by a competitor will affect your entire marketing strategy and can even threaten overall business growth. For example, a grocery store that has done well for years, serviced customer needs, known their demographic audience, and grown at a consistent growth rate in the market share may feel comfortable with their market share. Then, because they failed to carry out their CIA, a new competitor opened across the street offering fresher fruit and lower prices. Because there was no counter plan in place, business is lost due to the new competition.

Are you familiar with competitive intelligence and how it can help your company grow? Competitive intelligence is purposeful and coordinated monitoring of the competition, wherever and whoever they may be within a specific marketplace. Competitors are those you consider to be “rivals” in business and whom you compete with for market share in your state, region, or nation. Strategically gain knowledge of your competitor’s plans and plan your business strategy to countervail their plans. This requires both tactical and creative analysis, distribution of the information, and calculation of business decisions from the information and analysis.  

When gathering competitive intelligence, I recommend going about it ethically. Many companies do not necessarily practice competitive intelligence, but try to run their business marketing strategy based on lies. Competitive intelligence is based on truth and fair business practice. 

DJ Heckes, CEO & Author 
Full BRAIN Marketing 
www.fullbrainmarketing.com 


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