Monday, June 28, 2010

Does the Internet threaten brands?


Although the Internet offers small companies a global platform it also provides new challenges to Intellectual Property according to a recent report.
The report by patent and trademark attorneys Marks & Clerk highlights concerns by brand owners across a number of infringement opportunities that have become possible due to the Internet, are difficult to police and where law in the digital space has yet to catch up. IP issues that undermine legitimate brands operate at a number of levels.  

The Internet has provided new distribution channels for counterfeit goods with leading auction sites playing an important role. It is no longer the case of buying something that had 'fallen of the back of a lorry' or 'from a man in the pub', instead a degree of apparent legitimacy is bestowed thanks to the branding of the channel itself. At another level editorial content is freely stolen and images used outside of the company control. Of course getting widespread publication of attributed editorial is a good brand building thing, but being plagiarized to promote rival products or counterfeit goods is another matter entirely.

According to the report, "63 per cent believe that search-advertising such as Google AdWords is unacceptable when businesses bid on the name of a rival’s trade mark" and "Almost 7 in 10 (69 per cent) predict that social media will become the “next big threat” to brand owners in protecting their brands online". So the threat is not just from counterfeiters and forgers, but from otherwise legitimate competitors using the Internet to ride on the back of their rivals investment in marketing.

Then of course there are disgruntled customers and users who can exploit the Internet to not just air a grievance but conduct campaigns and rally support.  Social media has been extolled as a channel for companies to converse with their customers but for most b-2-b businesses it is very early days. Some - a few - have embraced sites like Facebook, while others won't even entertain the idea. Marks and Clerk's report notes, "With Facebook reportedly having the world’s ‘third largest population’ – more than 400 million users, compared to a population of just over 300 million in the US – it is little wonder we are seeing increasing protectionism and nervousness from brand owners.” 

From our experience in social media it is difficult to point to concrete benefits either, except getting picked on search and generating useful links. This will be the subject of a future blog.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Are blogs changing PR?


An interview carried by iMedia Connection – ‘Steve Rubel on how blogs are changing the face of PR’- brings forward a debate of the technical possibilities versus their relevance to the target market and the interest, uptake and commitment of clients to participate. The figures seem compelling. According to emarketer "Once a haven for techies, there are now blogs for everything from celebrity gossip to political commentary to the most mundane personal minutiae. By 2012, more than 145 million people - or 67% of the US Internet population - will be reading blogs at least once per month." 

They reckon 12% of US internet users, some 25 million write blogs. Surprisingly more than 100 million internet users, more than 50% are also blog readers. Big numbers then. Consider now some unofficial statistics from our own research in PR activity in the UK industrial market. Whilst the most active portal web sites carry news free of charge and archive thousands of stories, a sampling revealed that the vast majority were generated by relatively few companies or their PR agencies. The larger group of companies submitted very few stories. Some just one token story before presumably losing interest or running out of news. 

Talking to other PR people confirmed that news output from their clients was hardly prolific. Most needed quite a good portfolio of clients to make their PR business work. In our experience many clients don’t even think they have any news and a key task of a PR professional is teasing out stories in the first place. Then few have any people in-house that can write anything about their business sufficient to interest and editor, let alone a reader. 

But blogs demand a far bigger commitment by company personnel as there is both an immediacy and inside knowledge that the traditional PR practitioners will find difficult to embrace. For example not just getting the story, but getting client approval introduces a delaying factor. The blog is more of a personal view and works against the secrecy culture many clients have. 

Only recently a PR professional was lamenting a decision by a client to stop all case studies and third party endorsement stories as they did not want their competitors to know. We all have clients like that – great stories are blocked because the credibility associated with their blue chip customer cannot be mentioned. So the challenge is getting not only the commitment to write a blog, even if ghost written by an agency but also the openness to actually reveal the sort of compelling inside news content people want to read.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Feature v Benefits



All too often businesses promote product features while customers are actually seeking benefits.

For many products, particularly those utilising new technologies, it is the new features that are most loudly proclaimed. The problem of marketing a product by focussing on features is that it presumes your target audience - your prospects have sufficient insight to translate a particular feature into something that is of benefit to them. Features are often seen as selling points, or specification clauses used to exclude rival products that do not enjoy that particular feature. I strongly suspect that feature-rich products such as smart phones, digital cameras, remote control devices actually cause confusion to prospects that just want to make a phone call, take a photograph or turn on the TV. A quick glance at many control surfaces or keyboards will often confirm by patterns of wear and dirt which keys are actually used and how many neglected. A feature is a statement of fact and making a potential customer work hard to figure out how it might benefit them is not going to help sell the product.

Prospective customers should not be made to do all the work. Many will be looking beyond features to issues such as value, reliability, availability and ease of use. Those TV manuals that arrive in 50 languages and in in several volumes show scant regard for targeting the user who only wants his language and is embarrassed by the paper wasted on the rest, but then discovers the hand book describes endless features that have curiosity value and no obvious benefit to the buyer. When marketing products, promoting benefits will be far more beneficial. It requires knowing  your target audience and presenting features in terms of benefits that will make their life easier, their businesses more efficient, their bills reduced - not clever technological functionality they cannot used to their benefit. In short it is 'what's in it for them', not look at how clever we are. If you need help in taking a fresh look at your business and products then a technical marketing specialist can bring this perspective and create compelling content that delivers results.
 

Friday, June 04, 2010

How will content be consumed in future?


In the last few days there have been a number of related announcements from different sources  that in their different ways point to a new future for content  and how it will be read. Who can have failed to notice the UK launch of the Apple iPad splashed across billboards, on TV and in the press - a device designed for online consumption of content from books and news to Internet and e-mail. 

This week Technical Marketing client, print giant Polestar Group plc announced, "Polestar is launching a service to enable its customers to publish their printed publications on the new Apple iPad, iPhone and online. Polestar Digital Editions – powered by award-winning YUDU technology – enables files received by Polestar for print purposes to be converted to online publication simultaneously across all platforms." In the same week, trade journal Automation sent their 'voucher copy' not by post, but by e-mail using this very technology. Meanwhile in Management Today in an article titled 'Yesterday's News, Today's new hope' the whole issue of charging v free content is examined.

Whatever the future - the devices, the software, free or subscription it is content itself that is essential. For b-2-b  enterprises anxious to keep their name in the news then a partner like Technical Marketing Ltd will become even more essential as this new future unfolds.