Brand Management

Here at NSA when we talk about brand management, we're talking about managing the tangible and intangible characteristics of your business brand. By now, you've developed a brand identity, which your goals help to support and sustain. However, once your product/service/company enters the marketplace, it's noticeably harder to control how that brand is perceived by others.

If your business is truly dedicated to providing a quality customer experience, you need to trust them with your brand. Brand management is less about holding your brand's hand out in the world, and more about listening and learning from your customers' experience to guide your brand appropriately away from dangerous situations.

If you uphold a culture of transparency, that is, your product/service/company does what it says it does, your brand will thrive. If it doesn't, repairing the trust of your customers will take more than clever marketing.

In basic terms, Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the practice of giving your business full control over your online search results. As the internet grows and technology progresses, protecting your good name may feel like a daunting task. To combat negative press, ripoff reports, social media attacks, forum posts, and other negative search results pertaining to your name or business, you need a leader in online reputation management with time-tested results.

At NSA we know that search results can make or break your business. Having top search results for your name or brand helps insulate you from attacks and bad press, and that is what ORM is all about. It is proven that 90% of people do not search past the first search page for any given query. To insulate you from attacks that show up in these listings, NSA helps build diverse properties to dominate the first page of major search engines with nothing but positive information individualized for each client. NSA uses innovative and tested methods to guarantee the best results in the reputation management business.

Brand management is consciously providing a product with an identity that is understood on all levels. This means both internally and externally and includes customers, employees, suppliers, and vendors. Understanding the niche in which the product resides gives it a relevant differentiated benefit (RDB). This translates into the purchase of that product over that of a competitor.  Good branding begins with knowing what makes the product special and exploiting its advantages. Branding may be for a specific product or could cover an entire corporate image

NSA will help you be sure you are also monitoring and managing what your employees think, feel and say about your brand. They are often the first touch point a user has with your brand - if they're not excited about it, chances are your customers won't be either. Listening to your employees can also provide you with great intelligence and help create an open and collaborative environment. It isn't just enough to listen - you must also take action when needed. Ignoring critical issues about products or services can result in legal issues.

With NSA brand management is the philosophy and core behind all business development. The rallying cry defines and makes for both an internal and external image/presence. Constantly refining the rallying cry is part of brand management. Branding is the arena that puts the "big picture" perspective into focus and determines where your business takes and makes its future.

Brand Identity in Web Context

The Web is becoming the primary vehicle for marketing, sales, fulfillment, and support. It presents new and unique marketing challenges for companies. It impacts corporate identity and brand even if the company is not a "dot.com." Web sites add real value when they solve customer problems and do it better than anything else does.

The Web is also becoming the principal way customers experience your company. The importance of the Web as an alternative to a physical presence cannot be overemphasized since 80% of customer retention relies on such access. Web site loyalty is growing to where 55% of users have established a preference for certain web sites. Web sites allow for comparison shopping, convenience, and pricing alternatives. They are becoming the battleground where brand loyalty gets won or loss.

Establishing loyalty and preference is the reason for branding. Timing is everything on the Web. Those companies that are first with their web sites lock in a market position and loyalty that is often difficult to unseat.

The Web is different from traditional branding challenges because:

• No one controls who visits it or when.
• It facilitates sophisticated and extensive comparison shopping.
• It bears the burden of creating an experience that pulls visitors through the consumption cycle.
• It becomes crucial if it is the only opportunity or preferred methodology for establishing brand and company identity.

The Web experience is becoming the message and the brand. Today customers expect and want the whole experience. After interaction with the Web, the feeling the customer comes away with is directly related to how well the your business understands what the customer wants and how responsive its your website is in fulfilling the customer's needs.

The Internet creates awareness, provides information, gives imagery, and provides for direct trial experiences. Users have a fascination for it that competes with traditional advertising on radio, television, and special events. Currently, there is a shift in the popularity of various mass communications vehicles. There is a consumer preference for data that supports product claims. Consumers are increasingly relying on the Web for product information.

Page views are the key measure. Focus should be on increasing page views on your site. This presents new advertising and commerce opportunities with each page viewed by showing viewers products they like. Web site viewer retention can be enhanced by adding more services users want. There is also a tradeoff between giving advertisers a spot on your homepage thereby "paying" for traffic or being powered by your own reputation through effective branding that eliminates the need for banner ads. Brand building may be a simple matter of acquiring other sites and their associated viewers for increasing audience reach.

The Branding Mindset

Brand management is moving from being pure image to being reputation based on facts. The game plan now becomes understanding the components of  your brand's core assets and selecting what will be communicated. At NSA this means taking the time to identify what those core assets are and then making a branding campaign based on optimizing allocated budget.

The Web is a dynamic, interactive medium that is creating new standards in communications. Its speed, imagery, and precision are redefining visual communications as a very powerful experience. Viewing a web site is no longer just a matter of numbers and letters on a computer screen.

The Web is an imperative in the branding game. Marketing's growing dependency on the Web means learning to be savvy on it. Compelling web sites project a sense of community where customer relations are the emphasis during any transaction or interaction. Visuals become all important when making product and service promotions.

NSA is your secret weapon for the renaissance of your brand utilizing technology to communicate your message. Creating the experience of a revitalized brand means building a category and leadership position and getting to market as quickly as possible. When you go public with your message, it is important to do it first, right, simply, and cost effectively. With NSA, your brand management will not be a finite process, but rather an ongoing, ever-evolving strategy.