Communicating Brand Value

From Adobe Research: Results from the Adobe 2012 Mobile Consumer Survey show that consumers are using their smartphones and tablet devices to connect with brands in a variety of ways, but there is significant room for improvement in the user experience.
In March 2012, Adobe surveyed more than 1,200 mobile users in the United States to learn what mobile devices they use, how they interact with websites and applications, and what they want most out of their mobile experiences.

A study from the Custom Content Council/Content Wise reveals the following:

As other forms of content marketing evolve, it appears that printed custom publications (which were the original form of content marketing decades ago) are evolving as well, toward a more substantial, richer magazine format with greater page counts and circulation, and lower frequency.

The Custom Content Council with Roper Affairs released the preliminary results of a CMO and Consumer Attitude study on custom content marketing.  The original study was performed in 2006.

Here are the highlights of the 2011 study:

Branded Video Leads Pack in Growth of Distribution Channels

While print still captures the majority of money spent on custom media – $23.6 billion – the combination of electronic, video, and other forms reached an all-time high spend of $16.6 billion in 2011, with 52% of marketers saying they now use branded video. Eighty-seven percent of companies use print to convey content, followed closely by web sites at 82%.

Every now and then, we like to feature great custom marketing content from our friend Joe Pulizzi, a leading author, speaker and strategist for content marketing.

In the Beginning, It Wasn’t Content Marketing Back in 2001, I started selling content marketing services as part of Penton Media’s custom media division.

It is becoming more evident that content marketing is the key to marketing strategies. More emphasis is being put on branded/customer content that engages existing and potential customers.

Check out Jeff Fletcher, DCP’s Editor for the Giant’s and A’s magazine, on Chronicle Live - Comcast Sports Net Bay Area (CSNBA) after the San Francisco Giant’s game tonight (7/26/11). Jeff should be airing on CSNBA at approximately 7:30 – 7:45. Jeff has covered major league baseball since 1997 and most recently as a national writer for AOL FanHouse prior to his current position as DCP’s sports writer. If you miss the show, check back at diablomag.com/tv.

Media and marketing strategies are like a jigsaw puzzle – for the picture to be complete you need all the right pieces to fit together. But, for a lot of retail brands hoping to create customer loyalty and up-selling opportunities, there’s an important piece of the puzzle that’s missing.

They need a marketing vehicle that connects their e-commerce web sites, social media pages, blogs, premium clubs, and traditional advertising.

I am talking about a digital brand magazine packed with entertaining lifestyle content that attracts customer attention, associates the brand with the satisfaction of customer interests, and leads loyal customers to more purchases.

Here are three companies using variations on this concept to influence customers:

• A flip book from New Era Caps
• A microsite Sherwin Williams Paints
• A flip book from grocery chain Hannaford

Custom brand content can be packaged in digital magazines, custom apps, print magazines, microsites, and a variety of other formats. It’s all custom media and it helps your brand to become the best source of information on the lifestyle interests of your best customers and prospects.

When you’re competing for business, especially against companies with more established brands, you know that you have to differentiate your company. Typically, you hire extremely knowledgeable and helpful staff to provide premier service since that is a distinction that consumers quickly recognize and value. Your top-notch employees help guide consumers to make intelligent choices (such as purchasing your products and services) and they inspire those consumers to come back in the future, rather than shifting to your competitors. That’s the historical scenario.

Today, a prospective customer's first impression of your business is more likely to be with your website rather than with your employees. So how do you provide that same superior service on the Web? That’s where content marketing comes into play. Content marketing is how you can take your company’s expertise and make it easily accessible to prospective customers online through advice, tips, downloadable whitepapers, etc. Content marketing is also how you get more people to visit your website instead of your competitors’ websites, since relevant content is the best way to boost your search rank.

Read this case study by Newt Barrett, How Content Marketing by SW Florida Insurance Agency Clobbers a Billion Dollar Competitor--it's a perfect example of how to win clients by providing customer service through content marketing. It showcases a content marketing strategy that genuinely benefits customers. You’ll see the creative, timely, relevant information that Gulfshore Insurance provides front and center on their homepage.

Then take a look at your website from the perspective of a prospective customer. Are you providing them with a valuable service that they can’t get from your competitors? What types of valuable content marketing are your competitors providing? I think this is an important exercise we all should perform on a regular basis.

And don't forget, DCP can help you implement an effective content marketing strategy.

Take a look at this very interesting whitepaper, Leveraging Loyalty to Transform Publishing, produced by the CMO Council and InfoPrint Solutions. It addresses “The Impact of Relevance in Publishing and Advertising.”

I recommend downloading this 12-page whitepaper that includes the detailed findings about what people want from their magazines. It confirms what we all believe is most essential—relevance.

Here's some info pulled from the first page of the whitepaper.

“To get a clear picture of what opportunities might exist for publications transformation, the CMO Council asked consumers what they wanted from their magazine experience.

The audit revealed that consumers do not want to give up their cherished print publications, and further that their experiences within these preferred pages has shaped and molded their buying decisions.

In a world where the internet threatens to change the face of loyalty—offering new and exciting real-time connections—magazines seem to be the one constant that consumers are not ready to relinquish. According to our survey:

92 percent plan to stick to print when it comes to their magazine consumption

Only 24 percent intend to eventually switch over to some form of e-reader device

The real message consumers want to send to publishers is keep the content relevant, be it editorial, advertorial, or advertising. But, well placed, content rich and even personalized advertising will lead to new opportunities (and even renewed opportunities) for profitable customer engagements."

Click here to download the whitepaper and read the detailed findings of the online consumer survey.