I’m studying for my Marketing class and don’t understand how to answer this. Can you help me study?

Background

What is a Brand?

At the most basic level, a brand allows the organization to share the values and meaning of the product/services with the customers. A brand is the idea or image that represents a company or their products; it’s what people think of when they see the name, logo, slogan, or a particular design scheme. For customers, brands can simplify choice and give them confidence in the quality. Brands are built on the product or service itself and they can also show the organization their effectiveness in marketing efforts. The act of promoting the brand is called branding. Branding is how the brand is marketed to the public in order to separate a company or product/service from the competition.

Please review the videos below to learn more about brands and branding:

What is a Brand? (4:03 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLlPC_alT (Links to an external site.)

What is branding? (4:50 minutes) What is Branding? (Links to an external site.)

Building a Strong Brand

One of the major questions that new business start-ups have is “how can I create a successful brand?” It is important that the business owner creates a core message for their brand. In 2017, Fortune Magazine featured Airbnb as what they considered to be one of the Breakthrough Brands of the year due to their success in growing the kind of recognition from consumers that historically has taken brands decades to create. Please read the article below about the process Airbnb went through when determining their core message and creating their brand.

Some questions to consider while you read could include:

• What can happen to a brand if their core message doesn’t resonate with potential customers?
• Why is it crucial to ensure, as an owner, that you determine what your brand stands for?

How Airbnb Found a Mission—And a Brand (2092 words) (scroll down past the video)

http://fortune.com/airbnb-travel-mission-brand/ (Links to an external site.)

Some strategies Airbnb used that helped them in building a strong brand included building their core message based off their purpose, conducting interviews and doing research to determine what was important to their target audience, bringing in experts who understood different aspects of their market, and creating opportunities for consumers to engage with their rebranding. You may want to keep strategies like these in mind when trying to create your own brand.

Communication Principles and Advertising Media

Communication through advertising could be described simply as a source, which relays a message via a medium to a receiver. In this case, the advertiser would be the source, the message is the advertisement, the medium would be the form of media used, and the receiver is the consumer. Something that can get in the way of this communication is “noise.” Noise refers to anything that interferes with the way the message is received and can include external sources like current consumer trends or internal sources like a consumer’s personal opinions. If noise gets in the way and the message is not received as it was intended, then the communication is considered ineffective.

As consumers, we look at different advertising and we have an instant reaction. Our initial reaction may persuade us to make a purchase, not purchase or investigate a little more. Advertising messages can be conveyed through a variety of media. Some of the main types of media in advertising are print, broadcast and outdoor advertising. Print advertising includes: magazines, brochures, newspapers and fliers. Broadcast advertising includes the Internet, radio and television. Outdoor advertising includes flags, banners, buildings and billboards. Television has long been the go-to advertising medium for many brands. Please review the below article and consider what you believe to be the most effective advertising medium.

Why TV Is Still the Most Effective Advertising Medium (774 words)

http://www.adweek.com/tv-video/why-tv-still-most-effective-advertising-medium-165247/ (Links to an external site.)

With advancements in technology, advertising has been required to change. The future of television advertising could be considered uncertain with the emergence of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon TV. Please read the below article and consider where you would advertise if you were looking to break into media marketing.

Dear TV: We Love You. You’re Perfect. Now Change. (But Not Too Much.) (375 words) Although you are encouraged to read the entire article, read at least until the heading “Data.”

http://adage.com/article/media/future-tv-advertising/303565/ (Links to an external site.)

Prompt

Assume that you’re on the marketing team for a company that wants to manufacture running shoes. With so many similar products already out there, how will you make yours stand out? For this discussion, come up with a core message (like Airbnb’s “Belong Anywhere”) that you think would work well to reach consumers and make them interested in your product. In determining your message you may want to ask friends or family about what running shoes mean to them, look up other successful ad campaigns for inspiration, or try to draw off current social trends. Write down your thoughts about why you think your message would be successful and include your process for how you came up with it.

Don’t forget to include citations to support your work.

Your initial and reply posts should work to develop a group understanding of this topic. Challenge each other. Build on each other. Always be respectful but discuss this and figure it out together.

Reply Requirements

Per the Due Dates and Participation Requirements for this course, you must submit your main post of 150+ words with at least two IWG citations and references. Two 50+ word peer responses are required as your follow up posts. Responses can be addressed to both your initial thread and other threads but must be your own words (no copy and paste), each reply unique (no repeating something you already said), and substantial in nature. Remember that part of the discussion grade is submitting on time (20%) and using proper grammar, spelling, etc. (20% per post).

First reply:

Good evening. In the world of business there are so many people that conduct the same businesses. In St, Louis there are many beauty salons, boutiques ( storefront and online), graphic t-shirts, etc. This never stops the next person from starting the same type of business. This only make them strive harder to set themselves apart through their brand. Running shoes are no different. When branding a business that is similar to many other you have to make sure your core brand message offer anything different from your competitors, are simple, easy to understand and compelling,and resonate with your target audience (Frederiksen, 2018).

I would love for the core message to tell a story (Frederiksen, 2018). Whether it is a brand or person, everything and everyone has a story. As I converse with people that I know ask the why they wear running shoes? What they look for in a running shoe? Where they wear running shoes to? These are everyday people so I would definitely want something that is for and by the people.

My core message would be “Guiding your feet every step of the way.

Reference

Frederiksen, L (2018, May 14). Elements of a Successful Brand 8: Messaging. Retrieved from: https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/elements-of-…

Second reply:

Natalie Green

Yesterday

Nov 4 at 5:05pm

When thinking of how to stand out as a company making running shoes when there’s so many brands out there already, the slogan has to be perfect to grab the consumers eyes. Creating cohesive and effective messaging is one of the biggest challenges many companies face.When working with a client, one of the very first places we start is to take a look at their messaging. We’re looking for consistency. When done right, everyone in the company should be singing from the same hymnal on who the company is, what they do, and most importantly how their clients/customers benefit from using them (more on that last one in a moment) (Davis, 2018).The core message I thought of was, “ Run anywhere while running on clouds.” The running on clouds is from most shoes incorporating memory foam into the soles and how light it feels to step on the memory foam. Also I had to think about what could make us different from Nike or Sketchers. Nike is a well known brand and well known for “Just do it” it’s simple but they’ve created that for them as a brand to be known for that. I wanted something that was catchy or easy to remember and that’s when I thought of “run anywhere while running on clouds”. It was one of the first slogans/core messages I thought of when thinking about running shoes.

Works Cited

Davis, W. (2018, June 14). The 5 Key Components of a Core Messaging Document. Retrieved from Right Source: https://www.rightsourcemarketing.com/content-marke…