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The Media is Now the Least-Trusted Institution Globally

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So, which citizens trust their media the most? And the least?

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Let’s start with the USA. The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust in the U.S. has suffered the largest-ever-recorded drop in the survey’s history among the general population. Trust among the general population fell nine points to 43, placing it in the lower quarter of the 28-country Trust Index. It is now the lowest of the 28 countries surveyed, below Russia and South Africa.

The collapse of trust in the U.S. is driven by a staggering lack of faith in government, which fell 14 points to 33 percent among the general population, and 30 points to 33 percent among the informed public. The remaining institutions of business, media and NGOs also experienced declines of 10 to 20 points. These decreases have all but eliminated last year’s 21-point trust gap between the general population and informed public in the U.S.

“The United States is enduring an unprecedented crisis of trust,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman. “This is the first time that a massive drop in trust has not been linked to a pressing economic issue or catastrophe like the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In fact, it’s the ultimate irony that it’s happening at a time of prosperity, with the stock market and employment rates in the U.S. at record highs. The root cause of this fall is the lack of objective facts and rational discourse.”

Conversely, China finds itself atop the Trust Index for both the general population (74) and the informed public (83). Institutions within China saw significant increases in trust led by government, which jumped eight points to 84 percent among the general population, and three points to 89 percent within the informed public. Joining China at the top of the Trust Index are India, Indonesia, UAE and Singapore.

For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally. In 22 of the 28 countries surveyed it is now distrusted. The demise of confidence in the Fourth Estate is driven primarily by a significant drop in trust in platforms, notably search engines and social media. Sixty-three percent of respondents say they do not know how to tell good journalism from rumour or falsehoods or if a piece of news was produced by a respected media organisation. The lack of faith in media has also led to an inability to identify the truth (59 percent), trust government leaders (56 percent) and trust business (42 percent).

This year saw a revival of faith in experts and decline in peers. Technical (63 percent) and academic (61 percent) experts distanced themselves as the most credible spokesperson from “a person like yourself,” which dropped six points to an all-time low of 54 percent.

“In a world where facts are under siege, credentialed sources are proving more important than ever,” said Stephen Kehoe, Global chair, Reputation. “There are credibility problems for both platforms and sources. People’s trust in them is collapsing, leaving a vacuum and an opportunity for bona fide experts to fill.”

Business is now expected to be an agent of change. The employer is the new safe house in global governance, with 72 percent of respondents saying that they trust their own company. And 64 percent believe a company can take actions that both increase profits and improve economic and social conditions in the community where it operates.

This past year saw CEO credibility rise sharply by seven points to 44 percent after a number of high-profile business leaders voiced their positions on the issues of the day. Nearly two-thirds of respondents say they want CEOs to take the lead on policy change instead of waiting for government, which now ranks significantly below business in trust in 20 markets. This show of faith comes with new expectations; building trust (69 percent) is now the No. 1 job for CEOs, surpassing producing high-quality products and services (68 percent).

“Silence is a tax on the truth,” said Edelman. “Trust is only going to be regained when the truth moves back to centre stage. Institutions must answer the public’s call for providing factually accurate, timely information and joining the public debate. Media cannot do it alone because of political and financial constraints. Every institution must contribute to the education of the populace.”

Other key findings from the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer include:

  • Technology (75 percent) remains the most trusted industry sector followed by Education (70 percent), professional services (68 percent) and transportation (67 percent). Financial services (54 percent) was once again the least trusted sector along with consumer packaged goods (60 percent) and automotive (62 percent).
  • Companies headquartered in Canada (68 percent), Switzerland (66 percent), Sweden (65 percent) and Australia (63 percent) are most trusted. The least trusted country brands are Mexico (32 percent), India (32 percent), Brazil (34 percent) and China (36 percent). Trust in brand U.S. (50 percent) dropped five points, the biggest decline of the countries surveyed.
  • Nearly seven in 10 respondents worry about fake news and false information being used as a weapon.
  • Exactly half of those surveyed indicate that they interact with mainstream media less than once a week, while 25 percent said they read no media at all because it is too upsetting. And the majority of respondents believe that news organizations are overly focused on attracting large audiences (66 percent), breaking news (65 percent) and politics (59 percent).

It’s a brave new world, and we as marketers must realise that placing any marketing cash with distrusted media outlets could mean a very big waste of our advertising spending power.

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Influencers are Losing Interest in Snapchat, and Are Using Other Ways to Reach Their Fans

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Snapchat seems to be sliding down the list of prefered ways for influencers to reach their fans. A new report had shown that not one influencer surveyed chose snapchat as their favourite platform.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

New research released today by Carusele and TapInfluence uncovered some surprising results about how influencers feel about various platforms heading into 2018.

Of the 790 influencers surveyed, none answered Snapchat to the question, “What is your favourite channel to use for branded content?”

Personal blogs were the favourite of 36% of respondents, followed closely by Instagram at 35% and Facebook at 12%. Twitter (9%), Pinterest (6%) and YouTube (1%) also received votes.

Even when asked to name their second favourite choice, Snapchat collected fewer than 1% of the responses, while Facebook ranked first at 26% and Instagram second at 25%.

“Two things are clear from this part of our survey,” said Jim Tobin, president of Carusele. “The first is that blogs aren’t going anywhere, which I think is a good thing for both brands and influencers. And second, Instagram’s moves over the last year or two have really outmanoeuvred Snapchat, which had been a hot platform for creators two years ago.”

Influencers also plan to be in the space for the long haul, with 97% of influencers surveyed planning to continue their work “as long as I’m able.” This despite fewer than half surveyed reporting working full time in the vocation (46%) while 24% work full time elsewhere and 13% part time elsewhere. The balance report being full time parents or caregivers.

“Our earlier research legitimised influencer marketing as a sales driver. This new research supports the fact that it remains a viable career option for content creators,” said Promise Phelon, CEO of TapInfluence.

Carusele won the 2017 Small Agency of the Year Award at the Shorty Awards. It utilises a hand-crafted network of content producers to produce premium influencer campaigns for leading brands and retailers.  TapInfluence is an influencer marketplace connecting brands with social media influencers. And if they say that Snapchat is no longer cool, then it probably isn’t.

 

 

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Is Your Brand Crushworthy? Here are 5 Actions to Take to Make Sure It Is

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By Sunny Bonnell

One of the most important things you can do to succeed in business is to uncover how you stand out from all of your competitors. But how do you know if you’ve built a brand that’s crushworthy? And, how do you get your audience’s attention? If there’s one question I get every time I speak to potential branding clients, it’s how to evoke cult-like loyalty and carve out a meaningful place in the minds of their customer.

Here are a few tips that might just help you do so.

1. Go from ordinary to extraordinary.

Just like every superhero, every company and business has its own origin story. The tale of how you came to be is different from every other company out there, so make it your differentiator. For example, Johnny Cupcakes created the world’s first t-shirt bakery inspiring legions of fans to wait outside for days at a time to get his limited edition t-shirts. He got his start selling t-shirts out of an old, beat up Toyota Camry. Take every ordinary thing you’re doing and figure out how to make it extraordinary. It’s a sure way to attract people to your company.

2. Do your research.

As you launch a company, it’s important to make sure that you do some market research and that you look into similar companies who are offering similar services as you. Finding your own niche in the market is crucial. You need to figure out why those companies’ customers would switch over to you instead and what exactly you offer that they don’t. Study trends. Do shop-alongs. Get a focus lab together. Talk to people. Be aware of what’s going on in the market to ensure you stay ahead of the game.

3. Make your brand cohesive and consistent.

Everything you produce represents your brand – it isn’t just about making sure that your logo looks good or your website rocks. You also need to make sure that you train your staff well and that they understand the ethos of your brand. Everyone you work with should understand your unique business philosophy that underpins your company and your branding, whether that’s originality, warmth, edginess or novelty. You should make sure that this cohesiveness and understanding runs through all elements of your company, top to bottom.

4. Invest in your efforts.

You can’t build a crushworthy brand by throwing pennies at it. In fact, you need significant amounts of money to not only build a brand but to market it and make it stick over time. Startup brands we work with often invest $150,000 to $300,000 to just get their brand off the ground. These are usually funded startups and they’ve done their research. Making something crushworthy takes more than just a great idea. One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make is invest all their money in product development and then pinch pennies when it comes to their branding. Don’t be that company.

5. Give it personality.

Finally, give your brand a distinct personality. Very few people enjoy working with companies that seem huge, vague and faceless. Make sure that your social media accounts reflect who you are. If you’re a funny company, be funny on social media. A great example of this is the last Blockbuster. At Motto, we encourage our clients to show their personality through their brands. Remember that great branding is the best way to make sure that you stand out from all your competitors.

Feature Image: Johnny Cupcakes store. CREDIT: Getty Images

By Sunny Bonnell

Co-founder, Motto

Sourced from Inc.

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Why brand advertisers are shifting to attention-based metrics

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By Jessica Goodfellow

After a troubling year for digital advertising the world’s biggest brands are cautiously re-embracing programmatic. Although, they are now turning to attention-based metrics to better ensure brand safety and overall return on investment (ROI).

This was the consensus shared from attendees at The Drum’s recent Programmatic Punch event. Speaking on Thursday (9 November), participants in a panel that explored the growth of programmatic across apps, mobile and video said this shift towards more inventory quality assurances has been prompted in part by Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Marc Pritchard’s keynote speech earlier this year, in which he called for greater transparency in the digital supply chain, which he called “murky at best, fraudulent at worst”.

Now that media buying using programmatic technology accounts for 72% of display advertising spend in the UK, publishers, agencies and big brands are beginning to rethink the tendency to “race to the bottom” when approaching programmatic by simply chasing views or clicks.

What’s more, the walled gardens of the internet each have different standards for what denotes a ‘view’, with Facebook counting a view as three-seconds or more versus YouTube’s 30-seconds.

Facebook said last month that it doesn’t believe there is value in a one-size-fits-all currency when it comes to video viewability, instead preferring to offer advertisers flexibility to trade and buy video in a way that drives value for their business.

While Facebook’s argument is that some clients buy as cheaply as possible where other more luxury clients care about view duration, this only works to further muddy the waters of viewability, according to panel participants.

Which is where attention-based metrics come in. In traditional CPM (cost per thousand) buys, all impressions are valued equally, e.g. an impression that lasts one second on a viewer’s screen is valued the same as an impression that lasts 30 seconds. Attention-based metrics breaks that model down in order to allow advertisers to trade on how long someone watched and was engaged with their ad.

“Completed view doesn’t tell you too much, how many people are paying attention for a second, two seconds? That is the big opportunity moving forward – moving into an attention economy,” said Jon Hook, vice-president EMEA of brands and agencies at AdColony.

“That tech is there so it is up to advertisers to demand that from their partners,” he added.

In line with this, the Financial Times (FT) developed a new cost-per-hour (CPH) metric which is designed to attach value only to impressions lasting more than five seconds whilst the user is engaged with the page and, therefore, to deliver greater brand impact for each dollar of advertising spend.

CPH was informed by research which showed that brand awareness, uplift and association all increase the longer an ad is in view.

While attention-based metrics is not a new concept, adoption rates have been slow. However, Aurelia Noel, global digital partner at Carat, revealed that there is a demand for this fledgling type of trading from “more mature advertisers”, naming Diageo, Mondelez and Heineken as examples of the type of brands who are recognising the difference between viewability and attention.

“At end of the day this year was the year of brand safety and viewability…In video especially, a lot of inventory still cant be tracked, neither by IAS or others. Outside of just changing the way we measure our campaigns, we also need to change the way we plan and manage our campaigns,” Noel added.

Responding to this, Clementina Piazza, programmatic director of Integral Ad Science (IAS), said video is a “very tricky area” to agree on standards, and that in-app is “even trickier”.

“It is about time [we brought] all of those available solutions together and understanding what are the limitations of the available solution and how the interpreting solution can react to those. It is an IAS technology challenge but also a challenge overall with regards to how many environments support it,” Piazza said.

Noel also believes that advertisers are not harnessing ‘moments’ – that is when is the best time to connect with a customer.

“Even when we have the right moments, the creative falls short because we are not taking advantage of creative optimisation, whether in display or video,” she added.

By Jessica Goodfellow

The Drum’s media reporter covering everything from publishing, TV, social media, radio and technology.

All by Jessica

Sourced from THEDRUM

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Marketing to millennials: Should brands spend money?

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By Shawn Lim

As social media increasingly becomes the tool of choice for millennials, is it sensible for brands and marketers to base their marketing strategy around user-generated content on these platforms and not invest any money into their strategy?

According to Rohit Sharma, founder and chief executive of Pokkt, a mobile video advertising and app monetisation platform for game developers, he tells The Drum that even though the millennial generation is extremely plugged into social, many companies are plunging headfirst into social without understanding that social simply cannot function as a standalone strategy as it must be incorporated as part of an integrated strategy.

“It is akin to functioning with tunnel vision, or with blinkers on – you end up overlooking other channels that could deliver greater reach, engagement, and which ultimately drive the bottom line,” he adds.

Sharma believes that social is prized for how easily it lends itself to native and while there are channels that might do this just as well, or even better. For example, he says by engaging the user in a mini-game within a game, in-game advertising is the perfect example of native, with a far higher guarantee that the user will actually see and interact with content, instead of simply scrolling past as they might do on a social feed. “Furthermore, the nature of the games in question often allow for short, predictable breaks – easy spaces for advertisers to communicate their message without being annoying or interruptive,” he adds.

However, there are some brands who buck the trend by putting their trust into social media. Take GlampingCity for example, a company that combines glamour and camping for people who want a hotel-style accommodation, but with the feel of outdoor camping.

Its entry into Singapore was initially met with scepticism, but the trend slowly caught on when the company started posting picturesque photos on its Instagram page, taken by its staff and local social media influencers that it collaborates with.

Aside from its Instagram page and a website, GlampingCity does not have any budget allocated for ad spend and marketing strategy, according to founder Ryan Lam, adding that glamping caught on fast in Singapore through word of mouth and social media because people were posting about their experiences with it.

Lam, who was speaking to The Drum on the sidelines of the 2017 ACI Asia Business Summit in Singapore, also reveals that 50% of the photos on the company’s Instagram page is from his own team. “This business is very new, so we have not approached anyone (influencer) yet, all of our collaborations and partnerships, it all came naturally. I spent zero dollars on marketing. I only spent on logistics. The publicity came naturally.”

“I don’t plan to pay influencers, the genuine ones, maybe, not those that are looking to do it for their own benefit,” he adds.

Bart Mroz, co-founder and CEO of Sumo Heavy, a ecommerce consulting company, tells The Drum that he agrees with GlampingCity’s social media heavy strategy as he feels that social should be a main priority for the production, distribution and syndication of content when it comes to marketing to millennials as they are changing the ways brands market.

Brands like Sephora and Nike, have also been successful in marketing to millennials by using Instagram to post visually stunning photos that clearly reflects brand identity and draws users in, according to Mroz, noting that Nike has become the 19th most followed account and the fifth most used hashtag, while Sephora has increased its engagement rate and now boasts nearly 13 million followers.

Mroz however, adds that in order to effectively use social media, brands still need to put money into these platforms. “You won’t see the needle move much if you don’t invest. Marketers need to shift their spending from traditional channels like TV, print, and PPC to social media. For example, Facebook and Instagram are both strong channels because of their high engagement rates, robust targeting options, and popularity with this demographic.”

Noting that 41% of millennials use Facebook every day, which makes it still the number one marketing channel, and that Instagram and Snapchat are catching up because the platforms are very different in style and have features that attracting more millennials, Mroz says: “Therefore, brands should still focus on Facebook, but pay much more attention to platforms like Instagram and Snapchat to better engage with this target audience in the long-run.”

Feature Image: Ryan Lam, founder of GlampingCity. Photo by: Institute on Consumer Insights

By Shawn Lim

Shawn Lim is a reporter at The Drum, covering industry news around the Asia Pacific region with a focus on Singapore and Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, he has worked across photography, video and online, covering a range of subjects including current affairs and sports.

Before Game of Thrones, he was a huge Breaking Bad fan. He does CrossFit and yoga to stay healthy.

Sourced from THEDRUM

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A Winning Brand Requires Telling a Never-Ending Story About Your Business

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By Charles Franklin

By now, most of us realize the importance of branding for a business. It helps current and prospective customers identify your product or service. Branding also helps establish your business’ presence in a crowded world. Few books explore the “why” behind this logic, however. That’s where A Winning Brand: How to build a Powerful, Personal Brand in Today’s Modern, Digital World begins. The book explores the reasons every business (and really every person) needs to invest in sharing the best version of its brand with the world.

What is A Winning Brand About?

The wisdom behind A Winning Brand came to Kraig Kleeman at one of the lowest points in his life. He was experiencing a medical crisis and struggling through the relationships in his life. At the time, Kleeman didn’t have a social media presence.

His luck would change when he changed his strategy. Kleeman transformed into a new brand, “The World’s Greatest Cold Caller”, leveraging his skill in cold calling. As he started to promote the value behind his new brand, people took notice. They started calling him “The World’s Greatest Cold Caller” and Kleeman never looked back. The more value he offered as a sales consultant, the more clients he had. The more clients he had, the more they told others. He had successfully become a winning brand.

This cycle of success is what every business should strive for. Many businesses, however, miss the mark. They focus too much on why their brand doesn’t work. They don’t consider the value that people derive from that brand. The value people derive from your brand is the key asset, not the fancy graphics or pretty colors. That is the point Kleeman is making. Business owners need to invest in value before they consider any other aspect of the brand.

The value of your brand is created when you understand the two most important parts of a brand, the promise and the customer’s perspective. Kleeman’s book starts the process to help readers add even more value to their planning

Kleeman, known as The World’s Greatest Cold Caller, is a sales consultant, author, speaker, and the host of Kraig Kleeman TV, a YouTube channel featuring sales instruction. Known for his love of rock and clothing featuring a peace sign, he created a unique brand and sales system, which serves as the foundation of his techniques today. Kleeman’s system, the Must-React system, has been credited with helping sales professionals earn millions in revenue. Kleeman also used his skills to develop a million-dollar company, Express Direct, from scratch.

What Was Best About A Winning Brand?

A Winning Brand is a great read that really reinforces the need for reflection and experimentation with your branding. Many business owners assume that branding is a once-and-done process. It’s not. Branding, as Kleeman emphasizes, again and again, is a story, an evolving story. Evolving with that story requires reflection and bold experimentation. Without reflection and experimentation, your brand is at risk of losing relevance, value, and ultimately, profit.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

“A Winning Brand” dismisses the assumption that you have to be a certain type of person to have a brand. Kleeman would disagree with this perceived barrier. We all have a brand and we establish (or destroy) that brand with our everyday actions. To address this reality, the book does a great job of helping to connect personal branding goals with the social media channels — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. — most appropriate to amplify them. This approach could be extended a bit further, however into other aspects of the business. For example, what kind of customer service, etc. best amplifies a personal brand?

Why Read A Winning Brand?

If you are a business owner in the first stages of creating your brand or in the process of refreshing your brand, A Winning Brand covers the essential planning questions you need to address. Once you’ve completed planning for your brand, A Winning Brand also details social media strategies (particularly on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) for transforming those plans into a functional strategy. Learning to build a winning brand position for your business (or your own personal brand) is one of the key takeaways from this book. It is not enough to build a brand, Kleeman’s book suggests. Branding in the always-connected, always-moving world requires a balance between evolving your brand’s message for your audience and staying true to the values that you want to follow for the life of your brand.

By Charles Franklin

Sourced from Small Business TRENDS

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Facebook follows Google to enable advertisers to evaluate their campaigns with new cross-platform ad tool

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By Taruka Srivastav.

Facebook has introduced Facebook Cross-Platform Brand Lift in the US and UK which along with Nielsen Total Brand Effect with Lift will help advertisers optimize their Facebook and TV campaigns using actionable results according to a blog post.

The platform will see Facebook will match rival Google which launched Brand Lift for TV some years back in order to help marketers understand how YouTube campaigns can impact metrics such as awareness.

Facebook’s advertising partners who are expanding from digital advertising into cross-media campaigns will be able to leverage Facebook Cross-Platform Brand Lift solution.

Margo Arton, senior director of Ad Effectiveness at BuzzFeed said: “Now that Buzzfeed has begun to diversify our media strategies to include both Television and Digital, having the option to leverage solutions such as Facebook’s Cross-Platform Brand Lift and Nielsen Total Brand Effect with Lift presents a great opportunity.”

“We look forward to using cross-platform brand lift measurement to both receive valuable insights about our multi-media campaign performance in a single reporting surface, and also to optimize campaign elements such as spend and creative across both platforms.”

Facebook cited an example of household brand Shark’s campaign which was deemed a success as measured by Nielsen Total Brand Effect with Lift.

Ajay Kapoor, VP, Digital Transformation & Strategy, SharkNinja said: “We proved that Facebook video ads are a natural complement to TV campaigns. We experienced better brand results among people who saw ads on both versus just TV or Facebook alone. We saw the ‘better together’ impact first-hand. Facebook and TV are powerful individually, but deliver a stronger message to our audience when used in tandem.”

Facebook recently introduced more ways to help marketers re-engage offline audiences.

By Taruka Srivastav

Sourced from THEDRUM

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5 Brand Strategies Your Small Business Can Learn from Luxury Brands

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By Hanna Fitz,

For years luxury brands have mesmerized us with highly desirable products and services. They inspire us to dream bigger and leave us desiring more. You can learn so much about attracting ideal clients from these dream building brands.

I had a client (let’s call the brand was called “Arnanda”) this client had on their list On the outside, it seemed that this client was a success but this client was struggling financially to reach more high-end clients and make a profit.

On the other hand, another one of my clients from Italy, who had worked as a consultant for Salvatore Ferragamo and Roberto Cavalii had understood the power of branding and leveraging luxury positioning. This client was able to scale their business fast and grow internationally leveraging some of the most powerful strategies that luxury brands use to drive up desire and demand.

You can create a unique positioning for your brand in the market, by applying some of these proven strategies to attract your ideal clients, earn more for your services and grow your business.

Your brand does not have to be super high-end for these strategies to work. It can be applied to almost any business to leverage a unique positioning. Here are five powerful strategies from the luxury market that you can use today:

#1 Rethink Your Category

The temptation may be strong to follow the positioning strategies of all the other experts in your niche. However, you can learn so much from French Luxury Bakery Ladurée. Though a bakery, Ladurée has taken on the style: look and feel, of a beauty and fashion brand. They even refer to the brand as Maison Ladurée, a term typically used in luxury fashion brands.

This gives the brand a distinct style and has helped positioned it as more than just a bakery, it offers a lifestyle experience, true Parisian luxury and beauty.

US brand Apple has used the same strategy to differentiate it’s brand from other technology brands. Apple is all about creativity and style and with the appointment of former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, as it’s Vice President of Retail, the brand is showing a stronger commitment to making tech, very fashionable.

Think outside the box borrowing the style and positioning strategy of brands that inspire you outside of your category to create an experience that is distinct, new and unforgettable for your ideal clients. This type of approach will help you create a unique selling proposition and also enable you to charge a premium price for your services, as your clients will not be able to get the same experience anywhere else. Remember a luxury brand does not seek to be different from its competitors, it seeks to be different, full stop.

#2 Distinct Brand Personality

During my time in Milan as a consultant, it really gave me a closer look behind the scenes of how luxury fashion brands, which are all competing for high-end clients are not competing for the same client. Versace is focused on the rock n roll, free spirit, rebellious and sexually provocative women, while Giorgio Armani is focused on the sophisticated yet understated woman. The brands had different values and styles. One brand is focused on “the dress on the woman” and the other, “the woman in the dress”.

Within the same market, the two brands were able to capture two different types of buyers by developing a distinct brand DNA that was reflected through their advertising, product design and of course carefully selecting which celebrities were wearing their product (Lady Gaga for Versace and Kate Blanchett for Armani).

As an expert, crafting a distinct brand DNA is key to sending a clear message of who your ideal client is and subconscious signals for them to find you. Everyone has a type and your clients will be the people who identify with your brand style and values.

#3 Compelling Visuals

Every luxury brand knows that creating a unique brand experience and attracting the right clients, comes down to aesthetics and triggering the right emotions through high-impact visuals. We connect with and remember the things we see. This is why Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Dolce and Gabbana spend millions of dollars on in-store design, website, photography and video.

These are all touch points; the places and things that your ideal client will come in contact with when they encounter your brand. Luxury brand intelligently using codes within all the visual aspects of their brand to magnetize clients and create high perceived value.

These visuals turn non-essential products into must-haves. Have you ever noticed how no one is smiling in the Louis Vuitton print ads (go ahead and Google it)? That’s code for inaccessible and a level of unattainability that is part of the exclusive nature of luxury. There are ways of placing powerful emotional and sub-conscious codes that trigger the desire for your brand.

As an expert, imagine powerfully combining strong visuals with your very essential service of actually transforming people’s lives? You would be able to attract your clients with greater ease and create a more successful business.

One of my coaching clients recently posted this on our Facebook group about how her new brand image has impacted her business. It is worthwhile investing in creating a high-quality brand image because your ideal clients will be attracted to you.

#4 Craftsmanship and Exclusivity

Luxury brands pay attention to the details. What separates most high-end brands from the mass market is that the products are high quality, at times handmade by highly-skilled artisans and even customized to meet the client’s individual expectations.

In addition to being highly crafted, these brands create a “high lust factor” by limiting supply. Take Hermes for instance, you can’t just waltz into the store and buy a Birkin Bag, you need to be offered one by your sales rep after making a few other purchases in the store. You need to be a client and at times there is a six-month waiting list for their products.

In the coaching industry, while you are offering a service, there is an opportunity to create a differentiated experience through your product development by making some services very high touch and very exclusive. It is a good idea to create products that larger groups of people get access, so that many people get to know you and your work, but also create referral only or very exclusive high-end products that are available for a limited time or by application only.

#5 Unusual Partnership

Why on earth would luxury brands like Balmain, Kenzo and Alexander Wang collaborate with a fast fashion company like H & M? This is a strategy that many luxury brands have found useful for two reasons; to stay relevant and to reach younger upcoming buyers of luxury.

You see more than any other industry, luxury brands look to the future. Who will be buying our products in 5 or even 10 years and start creating the exposure to the brand, so that these new buyers can move through the funnel of their more high-end lines. It’s like wetting their appetite, because once you go luxury you never go back.

I helped a luxury award-winning hotel create a strategic partnership with a luxury jewelry company because they were serving the same clients even though they were operating in different industries.

As an expert, you can find unusual collaborations that can create maximum exposure for your brand to reach your ideal clients and the people who will become your client in the future. Try to think outside of the box and think about other brands outside your own industry that your clients are using or following, and build new usual relationships that both you and your partners can benefit from.

If you would like to learn more on how to use compelling luxury strategies to get more high-end clients, watch my free masterclass video training, “Create Your High-end Brand Using These 5 Luxury Brand Strategies.”

Click here to watch this free training.

By Hanna Fitz,

Sourced from Huffington Post

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Google warns a thousand brands over bad ads

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By John Glenday.

Google is to take direct action against approximately 1,000 online publishers which it has identified as being responsible for the use of ‘highly annoying, misleading or harmful’ ads as it steps up efforts to protect its reputation.

The move will see brands such as Forbes, The Los Angeles Times; and The Independent issued with an email warning them that their advertising falls foul of the Better Ads Standard, established by a coalition of advertisers, media channels and technology firms; together with a link to its Ad Experience Report from where they can test their sites to see which ads must be removed.

Google is taking a lead role in the campaign having already pledged to bar bad ads from its Chrome browser from early next year, meaning browsers can use the web without fear of stumbling upon irksome popups, autoplay videos with sound and too many simultaneous adverts.

Google’s director of product management, Scott Spencer said: “We are doing this so they have ample time to change their ad experiences so there are no violations or concerns about anything. We provide the tool that’s just telling people what’s happening on their site and many publishers want to do the right thing, but some might not even know that there are annoying ads on their site.”

The Better Ads Standard is composed of Facebook, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, The Washington Post, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, GroupM and the Association of National Advertisers among others.

Google removed no less than 1.7bn ‘bad ads’ in 2016 but has struggled to put a lid on advertising fraud.

By John Glenday

Sourced from THE DRUM

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Identity Marketing Backfires: Don’t Tell a Consumer What they Like

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By MediaStreet Staff Writers

When choosy parents choose Folláin jam and sports fans who call themselves sports fans subscribe to SkySports, identity marketing is hard at work. But what happens when this type of advertising misses the mark?

According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, when a person’s sense of ownership and freedom is threatened they are less likely to respond positively to identity marketing campaigns.

“While people may be drawn to brands that fit their identity, they are also more likely to desire a sense of ownership and freedom in how they express that identity. Identity marketing that explicitly links a person’s identity with a brand purchase may actually undermine that sense of freedom and backfire,” write authors Amit Bhattacharjee (Dartmouth College), Jonah Berger (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), and Geeta Menon (New York University).

The researchers ran a series of five studies that compared two types of identity marketing, messages that simply referenced consumer identity or messages that explicitly tied consumer identity to a brand purchase. Participants were first asked to answer questions about the importance of a given identity in their overall life. They then viewed an advertisement for a brand that appealed to that specific identity. The advertisement used a headline that either referenced the identity or explicitly linked it to a brand. Participants then rated their likelihood to purchase a product from within the brand.

Study results showed that explicit identity marketing messages backfired with consumers who cared about the specific identity and resulted in a lower likelihood to purchase the product. This information may help brands understand why some people react negatively to products used in important areas of their lives.

“Contrary to the traditional thinking about identity marketing, our research shows that people who care deeply about an identity are not receptive to messages that explicitly communicate how a brand fits with their lifestyle,” the authors conclude. “In fact, to restore their sense of freedom, some people may avoid purchasing a product that otherwise appeals to them and fits with who they are.”

There you go marketers. You can suggest your product to your customer using their identity, but not tell your customer that if they are a certain type of person that they will buy it for sure. Humans: we hate being told what to do.

 

 

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