by Emman Domingo
MANILA – If you are aiming to make a huge salesforce for your brands, develop a word-of-mouth about it. But this comes with a price: immerse in the lives, needs and motivations of your consumers.
This simple lesson was the core of the Brand Boot Camp held last October 22-23 at SMX Aura.
Whether you’re a newbie or a veteran entrepreneur, one can surely learn a thing or two from the two-day conference initiated by Acumen Brand Strategy and Consultancy, a brand consulting group of seasoned marketers; Salt & Light Ventures, one of the top organizers of learning events for managers and leaders; and IPG Mediabrands, one of the biggest global marketing and advertising holdings companies.
Famed Wharton School marketing professor and New York Times bestselling author Jonah Berger kicked off the series of talks. He discussed how brands can go from being the most-talked about to nothing but a speck in the market universe.
He introduced STEPPS, the principles he wrote in his Book, ‘Contagious: What to Catch On’. The six-letter acronym stands for Social Currency, Triggers, Emotions, Public, Practical Value, and Stories.
It aims to enlighten brand managers, owners and proprietors on how to effectively provide their customers with prestige (the I’m In, I belong) feel, know the right trigger for them to buy, evoke the right emotions for a brand experience to go viral, sustain product relevance and tell the private good stories to public.
Reinforcing this talk, Albette Buddahim of IPG Mediabrands presented case studies to which Berger’s STEPPS apply.
The exploration of people and culture has become a new effective research tool in acquiring deeper insights into a brand’s target market. This was what Pauline Fermin, Managing Director of Acumen, emphasized as way of introduction to consumer insight.
It was followed by a series of breakout sessions by Chelet Tanjuatco, Barbara Young and Gold Tanotco among others, expounding on consumer portraits of Millenials, Teens, Gen X and Y, Moms and Silver generations.
The first day of the conference ended with Compare and Contrast of generations and Brand Love Stories lead by Fermin.
The Breakout Sessions, led by Young, Daniels, Benjie Jimenez, Nadine Cariño, Chelet Tanjuatco Glenn Glinoga to name a few, during day two took a deeper approach to the participants’ specific industries and markets.
Streams tackling product experience, price and place and communication strategy planning as well as measurement of brand building effectiveness provided the attendees with hands-on learning experience.
After all, brand effectiveness’ is not always gauged by ads, but by how a common customer remembers one’s product.
“There’s a greater need for brands to be very deliberate in their strategy to be able to cut through the clutter and stand the test of time”, explains Fermin.
This might not, as well, be culled from a slew of experience in the marketing field. It all starts with the question: why do consumers prefer my brand and ends with: What’s the top-of-the-mind thing people can remember when my brand is not around?
