Many companies can, quite easily, describe their brand and what it stands for.  These descriptions, however, can become too long to be effective.  Is it possible to describe your brand in less than a minute? What about 30 seconds? In a post discussing the importance of keeping your “elevator pitch” short and sweet, Michael Gass provides a few tips for selling your most valuable assets here.

I gave my two cents a couple months ago when asked to be a guest blogger on 1-to-1 Media. Here’s my take on the challenge:

The Right Elevator Pitch Gives Your Brand a Lift

The average elevator ride is 30 seconds. Even in the Empire State Building it is possible to ride from the lobby to the 80th floor in 45 seconds. That’s plenty of time to send a quick message on your iPhone or finish half of the overpriced, large nonfat, no whip, caramel latte. But is it enough time to deliver a strong, concise brand pitch to a potential business partner? It should be.

Whether you’re trying to promote your brand, interest a customer in your services, or grab the attention of a reporter, having a strong elevator pitch is critical to a company’s success. Like its name implies, an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time it takes to share an elevator ride with a prospect. For this reason it’s important to not think of your pitch as a traditional speech resulting in a signed contract and round of applause. Instead, it serves as an engaging jumpstart for an ongoing dialogue of indefinite length. Then, the quality of your compelling content can close the deal for you.

Below are five tips for creating an effective elevator hook:

Include the three pitch essentials:
It must contain the benefit that is most important to your audience, be specifically tailored to meet the needs and solve the pain points for your audience, and contain emotional appeal, since emotion is often remembered even when intellectual information and facts have been forgotten.

Determine your unique selling proposition:
Competition is inevitable for every company. Separating your brand from the pack is what creates the bulk of the hook. “I own a marketing company” doesn’t hold a candle to “I own a marketing company that has more than 20 years of proven success in positioning homebuilding and remodeling products as industry leaders.” Don’t be afraid to let them know how and why you are different, and why your unique capabilities will turn into an opportunity for them.

Embrace simplicity:
Avoid the Walt Whitman approach to writing and keep it simple. Time is precious, both yours and your audience’s, so respect that and only hit the highlights.

Keep it fresh:
Even after the perfect pitch is developed, your job is not over. Savvy businesses grow and change, and your pitch must follow suit. As your audience’s needs and expectations change, make sure you change the way you speak about your business. The language of your pitch, your approach, and what you choose to highlight for a particular audience must change over time.

Practice makes perfect:
The perfect concise, emotional, unique, and simple pitch is created. Congratulations! Now it’s time to practice it. Distribute the pitch to your entire team. It’s a great brand refresher for everyone. Since each pitch should be unique, memorizing the pitch is often not the best approach, but knowing the key messages inside and out ensures brand consistency and effectiveness.

This form of pitch is an ace in your pocket, and one of the most versatile messaging tools a company can have. Next time you find yourself in an elevator with a prospective client, instead of passing the time idling, you will be ready.

December 10, 2009:
Elle Decor Editor in Chief Margaret Russell was in town to promote her new book “Style and Substance” at the Ralph Lauren Boutique inside Lenox Square Mall.

Elle Decor Editor in Chief Margaret Russell, Steve and Jamie Kleber

Photography credit: Ben Rose Photography

Marketing Home Products in a Changing Marketing Landscape

As we all know, planning season is upon us…and what better way to prepare for our 2010 marketing plans then to identify the home products marketing trends for the upcoming year?

At K&A, we explored the latest and greatest marketing trends for 2010 and came up with our favorite five.

1.  Word of Mouth Marketing
Customers will leave you if they don’t see the difference between you and the other guy. And in today’s chaotic marketplace, this will continue to grow. That’s why word-of-mouth marketing, especially tech-based and mobile communications, will be more important in 2010 then ever before.

2. Social Responsibility
Being eco-friendly has gone mainstream. Customers buy from brands that are making a difference in the world; and as more and more young consumers–one of the biggest advocate groups of ‘being green’– enter the marketplace, you will continue to see corporate social responsibility gain momentum in 2010.

3. Customer Insight and Implementation
Tomorrow’s customers want a say in the development, improvement and branding process. Companies that create discussion forums and blogs on the company Web site, establish a presence on social media sites like twitter and Facebook, or use platforms like UserVoice or Get Satisfaction for customer feedback, allow customers greater input in the process and more trust in the brand.

4. Personal Branding
With the growth in use of social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as blogs, the lines between professional and personal have become blurred. Social media tools have become a professional’s online resume, portfolio and personality, all in one. In 2010, expect to see more personal branding that defines who you are and what role you play in your company.

5. Authenticity
Authentic branding will continue to increase in popularity in 2010. Customers want to know who they’re dealing with, buying from and what the company stands for. Customers have been and will continue to seek transparent and honest communications from brands they can trust.

For more insight into our top five marketing trend picks for 2010, tweet me at @stevekleber.

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The marketing and communications world has changed more in the past five years than it has in the last 20. Due to technology and the explosive popularity of social media, today’s home product marketers and public relations practitioners must walk a fine line between new and traditional mediums when communicating with their target audiences. As such, social media marketing tends to fall under the umbrella of public relations, vastly changing the role of modern-day PR professionals.

Despite the challenges of creating a balance between shifting job responsibilities and time spent on social media versus traditional communications, PR professionals actually have the upper hand in the new wave of communications. As more and more customers flock to social media for news, interaction, sharing, dialogue and engagement, PR professionals have enhanced opportunities to connect with the audiences they have spent their entire careers trying to reach. How exciting!

And as skilled, professional communicators, public relations practitioners are the most qualified group of individuals to handle social media marketing for your businesses. They are strategic, well versed in your company’s key messages, and trained to deal with a variety of internal and external audiences including the media and your important customer audiences. They operate within a strict code of ethics and understand the importance of the distribution of immediate and relevant information to a variety of target audiences – all within a tight time frame.

If you’re in public relations, embrace the change. Remember that social media puts the focus back where it should be – on the public. And if you are a home products business owner or executive, remember to leave social media up to the experts, not the interns!

How Marketing Home Products Benefits from Integrated Efforts

Is it PR, or is it advertising? Or marketing? Or communications?

At Kleber & Associates, we combine these efforts into what’s called Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). When marketing home products, one must be cohesive and thorough.

Because the landscape of communication has changed (think texting, Twitter and iPhones), so has the way we do business.

Integrated Marketing Communications doesn’t have a universal definition, but its overall gist is a holistic approach to marketing in which all aspects of communication come together to form cohesive and unified messages. IMC is designed to align stakeholders in such a way that they feel everything is connected…from PR to advertising to promotion and direct marketing.

Consider our “Four P’s of Integrated Marketing Communication”:

• Plan: Like any strategy, you and your team should designate specific goals and tactics as you prepare to integrate your marketing efforts.
• Participate: Try to strip away titles like “PR-like object” or “creative execution.” All members of your team should be focused on one thing: what’s best for the audience. Therefore, you should all be thinking of ways to effectively overlay all promotions, advertising, PR and marketing.
• Pass On: Keep everyone informed. All the time. Share information in a way that keeps all of the team in the loop.
• Promote: Sell back the results of integration by promoting the metrics of its success.

When planned and executed well, IMC fosters cooperation, lower costs, better internal communication, personal growth and innovation. As your team collaborates to blend traditional PR efforts with traditional advertising and social media, your team has the chance to learn more, sharpen their skills and think more strategically. Not to mention the time and money saved when it comes to printing duplicates and e-mail threads!

Stakeholders appreciate it, too. Imagine receiving a clear set of messages with one voice that encompasses your entire campaign.

MMC Learning puts it nicely:

“IMC wraps communications around customers and helps them move through the various stages of the buying process. The organization simultaneously consolidates its image, develops a dialogue and nurtures its relationship with customers.”

In the end, it’s really all about togetherness. And doesn’t that sound nice?

Strategies to Appeal to Current and Prospective Customers

A solid customer base is the backbone of any thriving business. It’s essential that companies effectively tap into their pool of dedicated customers and identify prospective customers’ motivations and purchasing habits to successfully achieve market share growth.

Below are strategies to market home products by reaching your niche audiences, while increasing sales and market share.

Leverage Current Customers to Propel Sales
You’ve already established a strong customer base. They’ve bought from you in the past or are current customers sustaining your sales. Now, what are you going to do to maintain them as current and future customers?

• Instead of sending information out to customers, create a distribution channel where your customers can access your company information when and how they want.
• Offer customer referral promotions and incentives. You can develop a club for high-value customers where they can access discounts on your products or services or retrieve monetary rewards for new customer referrals.
• Provide ways for customers to comment about your company’s products and/or services. Research from MarketingSherpa found that 58 percent of consumers prefer Web sites with peer-written product reviews.
• Create a Facebook business page or Facebook group where customers can interact online.

Giving your customers a voice allows them the opportunity to become influential brand evangelists.

Be at the Forefront of Emerging Demographics
Aside from your existing customer base, it’s important to be knowledgeable about emerging, lucrative demographic groups as they have the potential to alter your business.

Take for example the newest generation to influence the home and commercial building products industry—the tech-savvy Millennials or Generation Y. This group is quickly becoming of first-time homebuyer age, and for those of us in the home and building industry, this is the group to watch closely.

The immigrant population is another vast and influential demographic group that needs to be watched closely by our industry. According to an analysis of census figures released in 2008, racial and ethnic minorities account for 43 percent of Americans under the age of 20, a strong indicator of America’s changing makeup.

Think Strategically, Target Accordingly
Whether you’re marketing to your existing customer base or potential customers, you need to know your target audiences. Ask yourself:

• What is this group like? What defines them?
• What are their likes/dislikes?
• What are their motivating factors to buy?
• How do they buy?
• How do they want to be reached?
• How can my brand target and attract them to increase sales and market share?

The key to marketing home products successfully—whether operating in an economic downturn or not—is reaching out to your customers the way they want to be targeted and in the places they are comfortable.

News search engines have made it more important than ever to optimize your press releases for universal search. Outlined below are important steps to take.

If you’re targeting journalists, keep in mind that 98 percent of them use the Web daily as part of their search for news, while 73 percent of them use it to find press releases.

If your goal is to put your news in the hands of the public, optimized press releases utilizing targeted keywords and links can reach the millions of Americans using news search engines.

1.  Keyword Determination
Decide which keywords or search terms pertain to your specific company. Think about words users would type to find your pages and brainstorm keyword categories that address your customers’ wants.

2.  Keyword Analysis
Next, compile the keywords for review of traffic potential, competition and other factors. Use tools like Trellian’s free search term suggestion tool, Google AdWords keyword tool, Google Trends and Wordtracker’s free keyword suggestion tool. Each provides different benefits—age and gender breakdown, season spikes, trends over upcoming months and daily/yearly search figures—so it’s best to use several simultaneously.

3. Keyword Implementation
Once you’ve determined the best keywords, implement them in press releases. Build your campaign around things like company/description, product/service and news/benefit.

Be careful not to overload your materials with keywords. After all, the primary objective of a press release is to announce news. But the general rule of thumb for keyword density is approximately five to 10 percent of the written work or five keyword uses per page.

4. Include Links
Links are a great way to include a destination for readers seeking related content. You can also include a link that redirects to a unique landing page of your site so it can provide readers with additional information and be tracked as a result of the optimized press release.

5.  Select Newswire Distribution Provider
Now that you’re ready to distribute and release your optimized press release, it’s time to choose an authorized newswire service. News search engines aggregate thousands of news sources including major press release distributors like PR Newswire, Business Wire, PR Web and Marketwire.

6.  Measurement
Last, but certainly not least, measure the success of the keyword campaign. Depending on your Web site software, you can measure your site’s traffic and unique landing page visitors. If you don’t have any Web site traffic measurement in place, try Google Analytics, which provides a fairly thorough indication of your traffic. Yahoo Site Explorer can also track the number of inlinks to your Web site for free.

Press Release Optimization as Part of a Larger Focus

Optimized press releases are only part of a marketing campaign. Both journalists and consumers search for news about a company through company Web sites, traditional news sources, direct contact from professionals and advertising in addition to search engines.

According to an article in MediaPost, “Today’s luxury industries are confronting a convergence of two trends:

1. Boomers entering a life stage when traditional materialistic values become less important, and
2. A recessionary economy that for many has decimated prospects for retirement.”

So, what does this mean for the luxury home market and how do today’s luxury marketers prevail in this down economy?

MediaPost lists four strategies to aid today’s marketers:

1.  Build communities around your products. The legendary Harley Davidson has always commanded higher prices than foreign motorcycles partly because of HOG (Harley Owners Group), a network providing powerful referential reinforcement.

2.  Differentiate with values that address emerging Boomer needs to seek higher purpose in lifestyle choices. A watch is more than a watch when acquired as a future heirloom for a grandchild.

3.  Make an unassailable quality and durability case. Most Boomers have been burned by shoddy products that seemed like a good deal but broke after purchase. Boomers believe the adage: You get what you pay for.

4.  Consider tiered pricing. Just as airlines such as Frontier are unveiling tiered ticket prices in coach class, luxury-class products can be offered to consumers as good, better and best (not cheap, cheaper, cheapest), without compromising brand stature or differentiation.

For more information on marketing to Boomers and the emerging Ruppies population, click here to download K&A’s free Ruppies White Paper. For more information about luxury marketing click here.

Clients Want More of it, PR Pros Agree

According to a recent survey of 520 international public relations professionals conducted by the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), as reported by MediaPost, clients are asking their public relations agencies to measure in more effective and targeted ways.

In fact, client demand for measurement of online communications increased from 29 percent in 2008 to 41 percent in 2009 online, according to the survey.

• 88 percent of PR practitioners believe measurement is an integral part of the public relations process
• 77 percent currently track their programs
• An overwhelming majority of professional communicators taking part in the survey said measuring the ROI on communications is an achievable goal

Yet the survey also found that PR professionals still don’t agree on the best measurement tools and methodologies to use — a debate that continues within the profession.

The survey identified two schools of thought: the output measurers that use clippings and advertising value equivalencies (AVE), and the outcome measurers who prefer more cerebral measures such as internal reviews and opinion polls.

While there are pros and cons of each measurement camp, it’s important for clients and their agencies to accurately measure the public relations program against its measurable objective(s).

Rather than judging the success of the campaign based on media impressions solely, why not value the earned media coverage on shifting opinion, awareness or sales and market share?

While the number of clips and AVE calculations remain the lasting favorites, the good news is that an increasing amount of PR practitioners are turning to internal reviews, benchmarking, the use of specialist media evaluation tools, focus groups and opinion polling.

What measurement camp do you fall in? And why? Tweet me @stevekleber.

No longer simply regarded as an industry buzzword, social media continues to escalate in popularity among both corporate marketers and agencies as a cost-effective and invaluable marketing strategy. The latest hype – using Facebook, Twittter, LinkedIn and blogs – also impacts marketing home products.

Everyone is Doing It . . .
A survey from Forrester Research found that more than 50 percent of marketers said they will be increasing their spending on social media marketing in the coming months.

Virtually every marketer surveyed (145 global interactive marketers) said they used social media as part of their integrated marketing campaigns.

Why Social Media Marketing?
Online communication is increasing at an exponential rate, verging on becoming mainstream. A recent Netpop Research report, “Media Shifts to Social,” found that 105 million Americans contribute to social media. Other key findings, according to the report, included data such as:

• Social networking has grown 93 percent since 2006
• Seven million Americans are “heavy” social media contributors (six+ activities) who connect with 248 people on a ‘one to many’ basis in a typical week
• Fifty-four percent of micro-bloggers post or “tweet” daily

That said, social media has enormous potential and despite popular belief, it’s not just for kids or college students. According to a study by TNS Compete and the Consumer Electronics Association, “Greying Gadgets: How Older Americans by Shop for and Use Consumer Electronics”:

• Seventy-seven percent of 50-somethings, 71 percent of 60-somethings and 52 percent of 70-somethings have used a search engine in the past week
• Twenty percent of 50-somethings have used a social networking site in the past week
• Twenty-four percent of those 70+ have watched an online video in the past week

Value of Social Media Marketing to Your Brand
Whatever your marketing objectives in the home and building channel, social media lends itself to a huge audience with vast potential. Even better, social media marketing can be relatively inexpensive, providing a lucrative marketing strategy with a high return on your marketing investment. Consider your marketing goals and determine which social media tool is best for your brand.

Below are the top ten ways a social media marketing strategy can benefit your company.

1. Generates brand awareness
2. Manages brand reputation
3. Allows for targeted, niche marketing
4. Promotes products, services and breaking news
5. Fosters customer loyalty
6. Networks with customers
7. Seeks/creates media opportunities
8. Supports/launches viral marketing campaigns
9. Enhances company impact at events
10. Provides venues to monitor your competition, industry trends, etc.