Is the quest for search engine optimization making your brand “generic?”

By Steve Fodor

Is it more important for your brand to be found by search engines, or to portray your brand in a way that makes it stand out? The answer, of course, is both. But the quest for writing SEO-friendly headlines and content may be diminishing your brand’s unique position and point of view.

The foundation of successful marketing communications is telling a compelling story about your brand based on information about the consumer. It’s about understanding the emotional experience the consumer or end-user is seeking, and then crafting a story about how your brand delivers an experience that no other competing brand can match.

In today’s data-driven, online media environment, storytelling and consumer information is often interpreted as meaning “cookie data” rather than understanding and responding to the emotional experience a consumer is seeking. Copywriters and content creators are challenged with creating headlines and content comprised of SEO-powered words, often at the expense of creative storytelling.

No one knew how to tell a brand story based on emotional appeal better than advertising legend David Ogilvy, in my humble opinion. Consider some of his more exceptional brand storytelling efforts. “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.” With that headline, Rolls-Royce owned the experience of “uncompromising luxury and quality” without having to pound a list of SEO-powered benefit words into the readers’ heads. The readers reach the conclusion about the brand themselves. For SEO purposes, that ad for Rolls-Royce might need to say, “Luxury cars, exceptional quality from Rolls-Royce.” That might make the message more SEO-friendly, but the story loses a lot of its appeal. Or take Dove Soap. “Darling, I’m having the most extraordinary experience” was the headline of a Dove soap ad from Ogilvy. That tells an emotionally-driven, experiential brand story in a much more interesting way than, “Germ-free, moisturizing soap for sensitive skin,” which is probably how someone would do an online search.

Some in the business of marketing content creation believe the “art” of crafting a brand message has been lost because of today’s online, data-driven media environment. The quest for search engine optimization has forced developers of marketing messages to focus on keywords and cookie data rather than creative storytelling, often portraying brands in more “generic” ways. Perhaps. But the true art of branding and storytelling is balancing creativity and consumer-based content creation with the rules of being found online. A task that’s much easier said than done. After all, if it doesn’t sell, it ain’t creative.

Advertising Creative Credit:David Ogilvy

The New Four “Ps” of Marketing

By Brad Smith

Remember from Marketing 101 the basics of the marketing craft – the Four Ps?

Product, Price, Promotion and Place (distribution)? I hope they still teach this. They’re as relevant today as they ever were.

But time marches on. Enter the age of technology and its impact on the third P. (That’s Promotion for those of you keeping score at home). With the almighty website as the hub of all things promotional, a whole new set of four Ps is taking shape.

Platforms – PC, Phone and Pad

What technologies will prospects and customers use to access your website in the future? While no one knows when, it’s pretty clear that there are two new emerging platforms that are likely to outpace the Personal Computer in the not too distant future – the Phone and the Pad.

Some reports say that over half of the Internet access will be from smart phones by 2015. Some say 2013. Some people say next year. Then there are the new pads, or tablet computers, a new space all of the major computer manufacturers are jumping into fast.

So what’s the savvy company to do? Invest now in the reconstruction of the crown jewel of their marketing ─ their website ─ to maximize visitor experience in all three major platforms. Why wait? Every visitor to your website who can’t read it on their Droid or iPhone is a lost prospect. They’ve branded you as “old” and they probably won’t be back.

For starters, make sure your site can resize for smaller screens by using “Cascading Style Sheets” (CSS) programming. Depending on the platform, the CSS will resize elements within your site and display your page accordingly. Things you want easily seen, like your navigation buttons, are automatically resized to maximize navigation legibility and functionality on all three platforms.

If your platform of choice has an “i” in front of it, as in iPad or IPhone, forget about picking up Flash technology. Reason enough not to use it on your website. Programming and code can replace much of the wow-factor of Flash (as well as some other alternatives).

There’s much more to consider (isn’t there always?). But the whole point is to prepare your marketing efforts now to work well for you for the longest time period possible.

Don’t Procrastinate. Be a Player in your industry. Envision the Possiblities that new technologies can give your company. All by all means, Profit from the new 4Ps.

Flickr Photo Credit: issyeyre