Marketing Home Products

Why Your Brand is Your Promise

You know the story. When two or more businesspeople care about each other and want to work together…they start a company. When it comes to naming it, there can be some discrepancy, but eventually a name is decided upon. Then comes the logo and a tagline. Then a customer base. And as the business grows, it develops more than a name…it develops a brand.

It’s true for us in the home and building channel: Our brand is our promise. It’s our personality and reputation. It’s how we do business and how we come across on the phone, online or in a conference room. It’s even how our employees behave out of the office.

Your logo, employees, activities, press releases, Web site copy, tagline and tweets are all parts of your company’s personality that should convey a consistent message.

Remember that it’s not just about posting a mission statement all over the place. Mission statements are great, but should serve as words to live by in order for their messages to receive merit.

A great way to start? Introduce employees to the company handbook from the get-go to give them a clear understanding of the company culture. From there, everything and everyone should promote the company with these set values and goals in mind.

It’s not an easy task, but if your organization’s members perform and communicate in ways that are aligned with your brand promise, customers will notice that consistent personality. You have the opportunity to be labeled in a good way: reliable, genuine and true.

What does your company stand for, and how are its messages carried out? Share your thoughts here, or tweet me @stevekleber.

Recently, K&A created a “Marketing to Hispanic Americans White Paper” in order to define the group that is continuing to grow in influence in the home and commercial building products sector. Our goals were to get to know this audience – not just demographically – but to understand their perceptions and behaviors to make home products’ marketing programs more relevant and efficient, and thereby, more successful, for our client partners.

As our team embarked upon this research, the question “are Hispanic Americans a race or ethnic group” frequently arose. After much discussion, we settled on the latter, and further defined this group:

“ . . .  with origins in Latin America and Spain and for which are often divided into sub-groups including Mexican Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, Cuban Americans, Dominican Americans, Central Americans and South Americans, among others.”

Recently, I came across an article in MediaPost (one of my favorite publications for research information), written by Juan Tornoe who authors the blog “Hispanic Trending,” which spoke to our agency debate about the identity of Hispanic Americans.

“The Latino community is nothing short of a genetic kaleidoscope,” he said in the article “What Race Are Hispanics?”

He further pointed out that even the U.S. Census Bureau states “Hispanics can be of any race, any ancestry, any country of origin.” And that the most important thing to remember is that by identifying Hispanic Americans as an ethnic group doesn’t pigeonhole them as a particular race, or set of standards that they can’t move away from, yet “defines a particular outlook in life, a state of mind, a way to interpret and respond to outside situations and stimuli.”

The bottom line is that Hispanic Americans are a diverse ethnic group of individuals with similar heritages, state of minds and outlooks on life. Despite the race versus ethnic group debate, they continue to be a vital component of the success equation for home and building products manufacturers and marketers.

For more information about Marketing to Hispanic Americans, e-mail Steve Kleber at sk@kleberandassociates.com or tweet him at @stevekleber for a complimentary, advance copy. Click here to view Tornoe’s complete MediaPost article “What Race Are Hispanics?”

The major forces that shape our societies—from politics and environmental developments to financial meltdowns—have a major impact on changes in consumer behavior. First, here’s a brief definition…

Macro trends are the broad forces of change that create the future context of today’s world. They represent the sudden appearance and ongoing progress of emerging global phenomena such as market motivators and consumer values. Understanding and utilizing macro trends—and determining their significance to current challenges—is deemed a prerequisite for excelling in business by allowing us to strategically anticipate and adapt to change, while alerting us to the threats and opportunities in the future home and commercial building products business environment.

So what are the most important macro trends for the next 12-18 months? The current top 12 global macro trends, which look beyond the current recession, as defined by Swiss business school IMD and as reported by the Trend Watching Report include:

1.  Economic Power Shifting
The focus of economic power is shifting to Asia and BRIC in terms of investment and output, away from the outdated “Triad” markets of the 1980s and 1990s. The question is how independent the BRIC markets will be in driving global growth and what the role of the Triad will be.

2. Shifting Market Landscape
While developed countries will remain the largest consumer and industrial markets, the rise of a massive global “middle class” in rapidly developing economies (RDEs) will shift the demand landscape radically. The competition for these markets will be intense, but which competitors will succeed?

3. Changing Geopolitical and Security Landscape
Globalization is driving new dimensions of power beyond military might including economics, resources and technology. However, the new global landscape is not stable: risks and nationalism are rising.

4. Fracturing Global Social Fabric
Globally, the population is becoming older, more urban, more Asian and more mobile. At the same time, traditional social structures are fragmenting, shifting notions of personal identity. With demands for greater inclusion by previously isolated segments of society, divides—and associated tensions—are increasing.

5. Growing Stakeholder Demands on Business
More stakeholders—public and private—are actively demanding transparency and accountability from business. Corporations are seen as part of society’s problems. Can they also become critical contributors to required solutions?

6. Changing Consumer Landscape
In more diverse and mobile societies and economies, new consumer groups are emerging. Consumer segmentation now requires new lenses, as new sources of similarity and difference emerge. Consumers increasingly demand more involvement in and customization of consumption experiences.

7. Changing Industry Landscape
Business models must become more flexible. Power is shifting along the value chain and the competition to create and capture value—and profits—is intensifying. The emergence of BRIC multinationals means more intense competition. Flexibility and innovation are critical to avoid being “stuck in the middle.”

8. Changing Nature of Capital
Global financial flows are accelerating, with Asia increasingly funding the deficit spending of the U.S., partly, Europe, leading to global systemic risks now being realized as the current credit crunch redefines the global financial system. New power brokers are emerging, reshaping market dynamics and potentially raising tensions.

9. Changing Labor Landscape
A raging global war for talent for both skilled and “low cost” jobs is increasing. Asia is increasingly important for all types of skills. Partnering and outsourcing is on the rise within and across borders.

10. Growing Pressure on Natural Resources
Basic resources are under threat, including water, energy, food and habitats/climate. Consumption of critical resources is outpacing the rate that the planet can sustain. Public and institutional activism is rising, demanding action.

11. Changing Technology Landscape
A global technology revolution is gaining pace, crossing national borders and scientific disciplines. New technologies, including biotechnology and nanotechnology, will reshape industries and our daily lives.

12.  Changing Economics of Information and Knowledge
Exploding connectivity and channels for information are making knowledge creation a global imperative. Networking is critical! Gaining an advantage in and protecting knowledge is difficult to achieve—and even more difficult to sustain.

Stay tuned for more information about green marketplace trends that look at some of the newer opportunities in the next 12-18 months now that ‘eco awareness’ has been embraced by sizable parts of the global middle classes.