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Women Entrepreneurs Can Create Better and Successful Brands

July 17, 2019 No Comments

The word ‘entrepreneur’ is derived from the French word ‘entreprenerd’ which means ‘to undertake. Anyone who undertakes the responsibility of running a business venture, giving it time, value and money are regarded as a successful entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is an attempt to create value through recognition of business opportunity. It is a milestone defining the opportunity for who so ever chooses this path- be it a male or female. Entrepreneurship clearly defies the laws of gender and has got much more to do with how and where one utilizes the opportunity instead of a gender-based label.

However, there has been the emergence of many studies and researches that were done specifically to find out the ultimate results on “who rules the business better” among men and women. As per the research conducted by Centre of Entrepreneurs- “Women entrepreneurs are more likely to work towards controlled, profitable growth with relatively little interest in merely positioning themselves for the lucrative exit.”

And What The Data Says?

Women have the edge in terms of taking calculated risks if the research done by Centre of Entrepreneurship is to be believed which says 87 per cent of women see themselves as financial risk takers as compared to 73 per cent of men. Another finding by the same research institute says that 47 per cent of women are keen to start a new business within the next three years as compared to only 18 per cent of men. One major reason for these attributes can be that women had to break many barriers, shatter many pre-conceived notions before acquiring this position which they hold currently in the business world. This is why women tend to take home a lot of study and homework as compared to men.

It is a fact that more than 75 per cent of business is male-dominated worldwide but when it comes to more effective leadership, women dominate this chart as per a data analysis was done by Fitsmallbusiness.com. The data analysis says that women have a larger appetite for growth and when all statistics are compared, women actually outperform their male counterparts.

Creation of Jobs

Another solid measure to analyse the success of a business is the rate of job creation. Female-owned firms are way ahead in terms of creating jobs and stimulating the economy when compared to male-owned firms. A longitudinal study conducted by Dow Jones Venture Source found that the firms having three to four female executives have a higher success rate compared to those having one or two female executives.

Not just by comparing various studies, if we go by the basic nature also, women have been multitasking all through their lives for the kind of society we live in. They have been managing the households and basic domestic chores without the blink of an eye, and ever since women took over the business world, they started excelling in that front too. This, in general, makes women more well-organized and delegated. Women are also blessed with a brilliant sense of nurturing relationships, higher emotional quotient, and a dash of empathy. So, the business relationships are built on understanding, trust, and compassion which are truly long lasting, one of the keys for business success.

The Bottom Line

Labelling women as better entrepreneurs in terms of creating better brands might be proven through certain researches and statistics however the word entrepreneur cannot be labelled with the gender tag. These statistics show a bright picture of female entrepreneurs and definitely bring out the true facts but the most governing factor in terms of being a successful an entrepreneur is not your gender alone, but how you grab the opportunity and make the most of it. Anyone who possesses the skillsets of initiating an idea with wider knowledge, and a willingness to take risks with adaptability and an optimistic outlook will make a successful entrepreneur, whatever the gender may be because, in the end, a better leader would be the one who not only ensures his/her own growth but also of the team and the brand. Women are doing a great job though!

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By Moonmoon Bhagchandka

Sourced from Entrepreneur India

In News

The Most Successful Brands Focus on Users — Not Buyers

March 27, 2018 No Comments

By Mark Bonchek and Vivek Bapat

What makes a brand successful in the digital age? A joint study by SAP, Siegel+Gale, and Shift Thinking suggests that digital brands don’t just do things differently; they also think differently. Where traditional brands focus on positioning their brands in the minds of their customers, digital brands focus on positioning their brands in the lives of their customers. Furthermore, they engage customers more as users than as buyers, shifting their investments from pre-purchase promotion and sales to post-purchase renewal and advocacy.

As part of our study, we conducted an online survey of more than 5,000 U.S. consumers and asked them about 50 different brands, both digital and traditional. We asked them about their perception, usage, preference, and advocacy for the brands. We also supplemented the survey with well-known brand rankings, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and an analysis of their marketing expenditures and strategies.

We found distinct differences between legacy/traditional brands and newcomer/digital brands. For example, consider the following “brand twins” – pairs of legacy and newcomer brands that compete in the same industry. In every case, the legacy brand rated higher on the statement “Is a brand that people look up to.” But the newcomer brands all rated higher on the statement “Makes my life easier.”

Airbnb vs. Hilton/Marriott
Dollar Shave vs. Gillette
Red Bull vs. Coca-Cola
Venmo vs. American Express/Visa
Tesla vs. BMW

There were similar differences in how people’s brand perceptions are formed and reinforced. Respondents were more likely to hear about legacy brands through advertising and traditional media, compared to digital brands which are more often discovered via social media and direct word of mouth.

Overall, we found two distinct clusters, which we have categorized as purchase brands and usage brands:

Purchase brands focus on creating demand to buy the product, while usage brands focus on creating demand for the use of the product. Consider the makeup department of a department store. The whole focus is getting you to buy the product with samples and professional makeovers. By contrast, Sephora and Ulta provide instruction, community, and services to help people feel confident in being able to use the makeup themselves when they get home.
Purchase brands emphasize promotion; usage brands emphasize advocacy. Vail Resorts remade their entire marketing strategy with a program called EpicMix. It’s a social network for skiers that uses gamification, performance data, and photos as social currencies that skiers want to share with their friends. Most other ski resorts focus on promoting their snow-making abilities and giving discounts on lift tickets.
Purchase brands worry about what they say to customers; usage brands worry about what customers say to each other. For example, where traditional hotels put more emphasis on the content in their advertising, Airbnb puts a greater emphasis on the content generated and shared by hosts and guests about their experiences.
Purchase brands try to shape what people think about the brand along the path to purchase; usage brands influence how people experience the brand at every touchpoint. Apple Stores are an example of this shift, from the removal of a checkout area at the front of the store to the prominence of the Genius Bar. Where other stores are focused on making a purchase, Apple Stores are about having an experience.

The simple view would be that traditional brands are purchase brands and digital brands are usage brands. But there are exceptions, including brands like Visa, FedEx, Lego, and Costco, which exhibit many of the characteristics of usage brands. We suspect that the nature of their products, culture, and business model leads them to more of a usage mentality. They think of customers less as one-time buyers and more as users or members with an ongoing relationship.

The difference between purchase and usage brands can be seen through the lens of the “moments of truth” method that has become a cornerstone of customer experience design. Purchase brands focus on the “moments of truth” that happen before the transaction, such as researching, shopping, and buying the product. By contrast, usage brands focus on the moments of truth that happen after the transaction, whether in delivery, service, education, or sharing.

The benefits of shifting from purchase to usage are reinforced by our research. Survey respondents show more loyalty to usage brands. They had stronger advocacy in the form of spontaneous recommendations to others. And they showed a higher preference for usage brands over competitors, not just in making the purchase but in a willingness to pay a premium in price. On average, the usage brands were willing to pay a 7% premium, were 8% less likely to switch, and were more than twice as likely to make a spontaneous recommendation of the brand.

Golf coaches have long known what marketers are figuring out: the best way to hit the ball is to focus on the swing and follow-through.

Companies looking to exploit the branding potential unlocked by core digital technologies need to make the shift in their engagement with customers – from purchase to usage. These changes fundamentally require rethinking strategy, organization, investment, and measurement. In many organizations, marketing comes after product development. But a usage mindset requires a closer relationship between marketing and product development because the brand and experience are increasingly one and the same. Typically at purchase brands, customer service and loyalty take a back seat to marketing campaigns and lead generation. Usage brands, by contrast, elevate customer service and loyalty from resource-starved cost-centers to key drivers of growth and profitability.

The role and investments in advertising must also change to shift toward a usage model. Purchase brands try to create differentiation in brand perception in the hope it will influence consideration and purchase. But usage brands are focused on how their products will make a customer’s life better. The role of advertising for a usage brand becomes getting useful content and experiences into the hands of customers. The message becomes “Look how we can make your life better now, before you’ve even spent any money with us. Just think how much more we can do if you become a customer and use our product or service.”

The shift from purchase to usage has implications for measurement as well. Ad impressions are valuable, but what matters most is engagement. Usage brands look at engagement through a much wider aperture. They recognize that some of the most meaningful activity happens outside the sales funnel. Do people find the content created by the brand to be relevant and useful? Are people actually using the product? Are people spontaneously talking about the brand or product? A usage brand marketer would rather have a five-star rating in their online reviews than win an advertising award at Cannes.

More broadly, the shift from purchase to usage suggests that we need to rethink how we measure brand equity. We’ve all seen the annual brand ratings put out by the top firms. But they measure how much a brand is worth to investors more than consumers. Furthermore, their focus is on how people perceive the brand rather than how they experience the brand. Companies that get too focused on winning in the ratings will find themselves ultimately losing in the marketplace.

Although our survey emphasized B2C brands, we believe the Purchase and Usage mindsets are equally, or even more, relevant for B2B brands. Business solutions tend to have longer life cycles than consumer products and there is an even greater opportunity to deliver value outside the sales funnel. In addition, many B2B companies are moving to cloud-based services with membership and subscription-based business models. With these models, the purchase is just the beginning of a long-term relationship. The economics are driven primarily by renewals rather than by initial purchase. In turn, renewal rates are driven not by what buyers think about the brand, but what users experience of the product or service. The key is to think about prospects not as buyers, but as future users.

Feature Image Credit: Ilka & Franz/Getty Images

By Mark Bonchek and Vivek Bapat

Mark Bonchek is the Founder and CEO (Chief Epiphany Officer) of Shift Thinking. He works with leaders and organizations to update their thinking for a digital age. Sign up for the Shift newsletter and follow Mark on Twitter at @MarkBonchek.

Vivek Bapat is the SVP and Head of Marketing and Communications Strategy at SAP. He partners with senior business leaders and global influencers to develop brand, content, customer and employee engagement strategies with impact. Follow him on Twitter @vivek_bapat.

Source from Harvard Business Review

In News

The Top 8 Attributes of the World’s Most Successful Brands

November 6, 2017 No Comments

By Paul Suggett

In many respects, a brand’s characteristics are much like those of people or animals. Some people are very confident, or even arrogant, and so are many of the brands you’ve heard of. For example, Nike has a lot of confident swagger (Just Do It), whereas Dollar Shave Club borders on the absurdly arrogant (Our Blades Are F**king Great). Some animals are known to be very loyal or reliable, and so too are certain brands. Amazon has built a fantastic reputation with its fiercely consumer-friendly customer service department, and it’s one of the many reasons the online giant has grown in leaps and bounds.

However, successful brands are also more complex than that. They are not one-dimensional and have a wide range of attributes that become part of a well-rounded, and well-loved, brand experience. Here are the top eight, in no particular order.

Really Knowing Their Audience

Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty — Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. http://www.gettyimages.com/license/143134495

In fact, they don’t just know them…they understand them. It’s easy to get lost in a sea of marketing jargon like demographics, behaviorism, and average HHI (Household Income). But at the end of the day, successful brands completely understand their audience on an emotional level. They are not just numbers on a chart in a PowerPoint slide. They are people, with names, dreams, and histories.

When Dove launched its “campaign for real beauty,” it really understood what women were going through. These impossible standards of beauty portrayed by the media, and the unrealistic expectations that society imposed upon them, were punishing the audience. Dove came out and said, “hey, we get it, and we support you.” The ad showing how a supermodel in an outdoor ad goes from average to outstanding through makeup, lighting, and Photoshop became a viral sensation. It touched a nerve, and that is knowing your audience.

Standing for Something

Nike Just Do It. http://www.gettyimages.com/license/527518908

This does not mean a brand must support one of the latest political movement, or be out there stumping for a certain cause or charity. It simply means that the brand puts itself firmly behind an idea, or ideal. In the case of one of the biggest brands, Nike, it stands for determination. Nike tells you to “Just Do It,” and all of its marketing materials revolve around that idea.

The ability to overcome the pain and the obstacles and push yourself to the limits, and beyond. With Dove, the ideal is real beauty. Dove’s advertising gets behind real women, celebrating the female form in its many incarnations. With Apple, it’s simplicity (or at least, it used to be). A brand should clearly define what it stands for in its advertising, marketing, and public relations materials. If it stands for too many things, they will all get lost in the clutter.

The Ability to Pivot Quickly

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. http://www.gettyimages.com/license/450831354

A great brand must be nimble. That can be a problem when the brand grows, because the more cogs there are in the machine, the more it gets slowed down. When a brand is in its infancy, it’s easy to move quickly and respond to change. When a brand becomes the size of Microsoft or Amazon, it’s like asking a massive ocean liner to turn around in a few seconds.

However, some large brands have kept their ability to pivot, thanks largely to a streamlined approval process, no micromanagement, and the implementation of social media. Consider the famous Oreo tweet that went out during the Super Bowl blackout; “you can always dunk in the dark.” That was a quick response to a major problem, and people are still talking about it. Then look at a brand like Blockbuster. All the signs were there that it needs to adjust to the rapidly changing digital entertainment landscape. But it dug in and stood its ground. While Netflix dominated, and Amazon jumped on digital media delivery, more and more blockbuster stores started closing. It did not pivot in time. And it died.

Passion and Ambition

Apple's Steve Jobs — Apple’s Steve Jobs. http://www.gettyimages.com/license/690815

The greatest brands ooze passion from every pore. You get excited when you engage with them, and become a brand advocate. You want to wear their brand, or post about it on Facebook and Twitter. Passionate brands are proactive, and the people in charge of the brand are usually driven to the point of obsession.

Look at Steve Jobs and Apple. This was a man who insisted on a specific Pantone color for the case of the Apple Mac, which was almost indistinguishable from the stock color available. It cost many thousands to make that change, but he knew what he wanted, and what the consumer wanted. Steve also refused to put the iPad through focus groups. Again, he knew what people wanted, but realized it would take a few months to get used to the idea.

Brands that do not have this passion are not as fun to engage with. When was the last time you talked about the great things happening with Dell, or IBM? And sadly, Dell used to be in this zone. “Dude, You’re Getting a Dell” was exciting and helped make Dell a household name. Never lose the passion. It will sink the brand.

Consistency Through Thick and Thin

It can be tough to be a truly consistent brand, especially when everything is changing around you. It can be a lot easier to simply go with the flow, abandon the consistency, and hope things work out for the best. But a brand that remains consistent to its core values will thrive throughout the constantly evolving landscape. Customers who know they can rely on a brand to be there for them will reward that brand with their loyalty.

Coca-Cola is a great example of both sides of the argument. Once, they ditched their formula and brand to try and stay on top of Pepsi (which was number two in the marketplace). New Coke was a disaster, and Pepsi reaped the rewards. Coke’s loyal customers felt betrayed. Now, Coca-Cola is a model of consistency. It knows what it is, what it isn’t, and what to do to keep its message of “sharing and inclusion” top of mind. Lose your consistency, your customers will feel thrown by it. They’ll try something else, and they may not ever come back.

6: Being Genuinely Interesting and Engaging

Great brands don’t have to work overtime to get a consumer’s interest (or at least, it doesn’t look like hard work). A truly interesting brand will demand attention. You know this yourself just by looking at the brands you follow on social media. What names are on the list? More than likely, they have something interesting to say, and they say it often. Go to Instagram and take a look at the following brands: Letterfolk; Staples; AirBnB; Starbucks; ShakeShack; Nike; Mac Cosmetics; National Geographic; FedEx (yes…FedEx).

The last one on the list should make every brand sit up and take notice. FedEx does a very dull job; it delivers packages. And yet through a genuine desire to entertain and engage the audience, FedEx has almost 74 thousand followers on Instagram. FedEx is not posting pictures of brown boxes, or schedules, or people receiving packages. Instead, the Instagram channel is filled with beautiful shots of planes, trucks in the wilderness, incredible scenery, and people of different cities. The people at FedEx know what’s interesting and they are promoting it. If a package delivery service can get that kind of engagement, anyone can. You just have to tap into something people want to see.

7: Relevancy in an Ever-Changing World

Lego Batman. http://www.gettyimages.com/license/634445388

It’s been said over and over again; now, more than ever, brands are engaged in a battle for cultural relevancy. Big brands can become dinosaurs, or they can thrive. Small brands can get crushed underfoot, or they can be as small and indestructible as a diamond. It’s all about how relevant that brand is in the current climate. Perhaps one of the greatest brands to pass the relevancy test is Lego. Think about how popular (or not) Lego was 20 years ago. It was a household name, sure, but it was a plastic building toy about to get wiped about the rapidly growing video game industry. Lego adapted.

It bought into huge film and TV franchises, like Star Wars, Batman, Harry Potter, and even Ghostbusters. It created brick and mortar stores that were an experience for kids and adults alike. It became a staple in Disneyland and in malls around the world. It created multiple product lines, like Bionicle, Ninjago, and City. And then, the master stroke, Lego got into the movie-making business. And by hiring some of the best talent in the entertainment industry (Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks), its movies became massive hits. Lego knows relevancy, and it’s bigger than it has ever been at a time when toy stores are going under. How can your brand remain relevant today? What can it do to really connect?

8: Authenticity and Humanity

Target Spot the Dog. http://www.gettyimages.com/license/835672972

Consumers hate fakes and phonies, and when a brand tries and fails to connect on a real, human level, it suffers the consequences. Ironically, Dove has recently come under fire for feeling insincere by continuing its quest to pursue real beauty. The bottles of many shapes and sizes, to represent the many shapes and sizes of its female customers, was a complete disconnect. The consensus from the audience was that this felt like a marketing stunt; something fake and contrived that was designed to get viral hits rather than genuinely connecting to their audience.

“It’s straight-up off-brand,” said Samantha Skey, president of digital media company She Knows Media. “It’s a change in tone for Dove, from ads that are almost painfully sincere and earnest, to something that could literally be a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit. Unless you’re trying to mock everything you stand for, I’m not sure why you would do this.” This was followed by an ad that showed a black woman taking off her clothed to reveal a white woman beneath. While Dove says it was taken out of context, it was another example of Dove missing the mark, and losing its genuine appeal.

However, a brand that continues to be praised for its authenticity is Target. It knows what it is, it knows its customer base, and it continues to treat them with respect. It’s not afraid to poke fun at itself, or admit when it makes a mistake. Because of this, brand loyalty for Target is stronger than it’s ever been.