Yes, a destination brand. You can visit this one-company town and tour its design center or stay in the American Club, which was originally a boarding house and recreational hub for workers at the turn of the century, and now offers it guests four-star lodging amenities or comfortable lodging amenities. Visitors can also indulge with a stop at the spa or play golf on one of Kohler’s three championship quality layouts.

Kohler isn’t the first or likely the last brand to extend beyond the core product range and dabble in hospitality. Call it mixing business and pleasure or whatever you prefer, we call it smart marketing – a brand becomes even more endearing when you can physically interact with it. Of course, it takes years to build the affinity (see list below).

While touring the design center just adjacent to Kohler’s international headquarters and manufacturing plant, one can wander through and dream about adding the latest in kitchen and bath products to their homes. Capitalizing on this experience, Kohler smartly provides guests with a clipboard and product list for taking notes or product numbers for future purchases.

Another reason we find the destination brand a wise move for powerful brands is the diversification of business. The PGA Championship (one of golf’s four major championships) was recently hosted on Kohler’s Whistling Straits course just north of town; this event, along with everyday play on the course, is a major economic driver for the area. While still mired in one of the worst financial meltdowns in history, golfers are still forking over more than $400 for a round of golf on the Straits – no golden commode included. Throw in two more courses and the American Club and we’d venture to say this side business is helping keep the company profitable during the housing downturn.

Other destination brands we like (industry-related and not related at all):

• Hershey – Hershey, Pa.
• Viking – Greenwood, Miss.
• BMW – Munich, Germany
• John Deere (IMRE client) – Moline, IL
• Guinness – Dublin

Please post a comment and let us know about your favorites brands. Would you go as far as to travel to visit their headquarters?

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Frequently the planning and subsequent budget building process starts with a look back. Ok, what did we spend for campaign X?  Sell sheets cost X, a microsite cost X, photography cost X, etc… I have been caught more than once saying, “past is prologue”, so I do believe that a look in the rear view mirror is warranted. However, I would encourage anyone going through the planning process to stop and really think about their customers and the world they live in. Consider how they, and their peers, consume information all the while being mindful to not fall into the trap of underestimating the cultural acuity of their customers. If planning is occurring without these considerations, is it relevant? Consider the following.

Any attempt to quantify the impact that social platforms have had on the way individuals consume, manipulate and exchange media would sound like a cliché. So a few hard facts:

• Facebook just reached 500 million users and over half of the users log in everyday.  Users utilizing mobile devices post twice as often as those who don’t
• Twitter has nearly 200 million users (who tweet 65 million times a day) with upwards of 300,000 new users signing up each day
• Foursquare, while new to the mix, recently added over 100,000 new users in just 10 days

These numbers are compelling to say the least. From a CPM perspective the utilization social marketing provides clearly makes financial sense. However, the real opportunity lies in the ability to truly socialize with consumers through a much deeper engagement than traditional marketing components could ever deliver.

What to make of all of this? Customers are humans, influenced by things going on around them, whether that’s at home or the workplace.  Beginning the planning process with that basic thought as a guiding principle creates an opportunity to “reboot” the planning process and bake in relevance.

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• Housing starts continue to rise
• Some positive house price reports
• Inflation remains flat
• The financial market remains calm

All this promising reporting makes me wonder if we’re ready to return to an active housing market. Have we learned anything during the crunch that we should be applying to better ourselves, become stronger, more efficient, and more profitable?

For building products manufacturers, the economic pressure of the past two plus years has changed the distribution partners in a number of outlets and capabilities or services being provided. This can be a cause for concern, or an opportunity for the manufacturers if they are prepared. With updated technology and services, the manufacturers can move one step closer to the builders, remodelers, contractors, and DIYers to form stronger relationships. The “multiplication of efforts” argument for distribution is being challenged by those manufacturers that have looked at how they do business, how their business can be done better, and who is making the change to improve success moving forward. Many of these improvements are occurring within their channel programs; specifically, they are conducting third party audits of the following programs:

• Lead generation and fulfillment
• Co-op advertising
• Loyalty

Have you taken inventory of these programs to determine how you can improve them to increase engagement and conversion to sales?

When was the last time you looked critically at your lead program? Ten years ago, twenty years ago, or longer? It’s unusual for any organization to forego a review of process or program for a period greater than three years. Are your lead sources current and complete? Reader service is dead and social networking is producing big numbers of well-qualified leads; are you connected? Trade show attendance is declining, so lead qualification and conversion is even more important to justify this big investment. The sales force, from corporate management to the field reps, need be trained and given a proper incentive to engage and convert these sales leads. Poor leads, plus poor follow-up, produces limited conversion to sales, which accelerates the lack of performance throughout the lead program. Completing a thorough, unbiased audit of your lead program will provide you with much needed insight to update and improve one of your fundamental sales generation tools.

The same critical look of the co-op advertising and loyalty programs will help your company be more competitive and capture greater share of sales as the market improves. Co-op advertising is typically a large budgeted expense that is significantly under utilized by the sales team, distributors, and customers because:

• The program does not reflect local market needs
• The people responsible for using the program have limited training or experience in using it effectively
• The administrative costs are too high for all involved

Even though accounting may like it when the co-op advertising fund is under utilized and helps bolster the bottom line at the end of the year, the top and bottom lines suffer from the lack of related sales. A complete audit of the co-op advertising program can identify the means by which the program can address the local market needs. It can show all parties involved how to best develop and deliver these programs so they help drive sales. The recommendations from an impartial audit can demonstrate new and better ways to make the program easier and more effective in converting the investment into direct sales.

Loyalty programs during the recession have taken a big hit, as it is difficult to remain loyal and engaged when you’re simply looking for work. With the market improving, now is a great time to help your customers and prospects get back on their feet through a simple and effective loyalty program. These programs have changed significantly the past two years with the increased involvement of the web and social networks. These new channels of communication give loyalty programs more access to customers – trade and consumer – outstanding speed, impressive flexibility, and measurement that will make the C-suite happy. New loyalty programs now include stronger, more effective loyalist tasks and assignments that expand the program of “refer a friend” to far greater lengths and return on investment. Pepsi is a good example of how they’ve updated their loyalty program to reflect the times. They’re using location-based marketing.

The use of a third party to conduct these audits and make recommendations is critical to real success. You need an unbiased eye and ear to review the internal and external processes, insights, and results. Conversations with your distributors and builders will yield more open and honest opinions of your programs and create ideas for other programs that may work better. The secret to success (and more reasonable costs) is to work with a vendor that specializes in the home and building industry. They know the marketing, sales, and distribution model, how they all work together, and the importance of a strong channel marketing program. Home and building specialists have the practical experience and credibility you need for success.

If the Eye on the Economy is right, you’re about to get busy again. Are you ready to be more effective and profitable this time around?

• Housing Market Collects a Rebound
• Is the Stock Market a Good Indicator of Housing Recovery?
• Are Strategic Defaults Going to Drown the Housing Market?
• Social Marketing: The Overlooked Victim of the Housing Crash
• One Step Back and Two Steps Forward: Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

Now I’m pretty sure he was aware of the impending decision, and I’ve been told the former Reed employees are receiving generous severance packages. Nonetheless, reading an email of your job’s demise while on the road attending an industry event  is a brutal thing to experience and a difficult thing to watch. Seeing Reed unravel through hallway conversations, email, Facebook and Twitter during the day left me reflecting on how publishing companies have influenced the industry and me.

During my twenty-plus year career in the home and building business, I have been privileged to work with some of the best people in our industry. Many of them happen to be leaders from publications that serve builders and remodelers. When I was tasked with building and leading the remodeling business for Andersen Windows, our agency account executive, Deb St. John, introduced me to Peter Miller of Hanley Wood and said, “It is my goal to make you as well respected as Peter within the remodeling industry.” Peter, a publisher of information, was so well liked and respected because he took the time to engage and be a part of industry he served. As a result, Peter became an expert in the remodeling industry. I’m not certain Peter could hammer, saw, or design anything around his house or yours. I do know Peter helped give remodeling the respect it deserved by becoming a voice for the remodeling market and remodelers.

No sooner did Peter Miller opt for early retirement than Dean Horowitz, now formerly of Reed, showed up on the scene. Dean is an idea guy. The NAHB Remodelers Council wanted to publish a new magazine, so Dean worked with the leaders of the Council to create Professional Remodeler. The Internet was becoming formidable, so he built HousingZone.com. Demonstration is critical to teaching and learning in the construction industry; Dean built the Show Village at IBS. But the most important thing Dean did for his publishing company was create a team that understood new and big ideas are important to his clients, their agencies, and the industry.

From BoschAppliances

This leads me back to the floor at KBIS wondering who will be inspiring the industry to embrace big ideas? Is it a publishing company or its publisher? Is it a manufacturer or a service provider? Is it one of the great people that has been forced to leave their jobs? I don’t know. I’m certain of a couple of things. First, any building products manufacturer or publishing company will be well-served by the people Reed left behind. Second, another leader within the building industry will emerge who will challenge the industry, so we can all do more moving forward.

• Industry Insider: The Future of Remodeling

Do you feel like you’re getting squeezed by high and low-end competitors? It’s probably true. You can send your complaints to the attention of the “good enough revolution.” Better yet, you might call it the “no frills zone.”

(© furiousgeorge81 / Flickr)

There’s demand, and discretionary income, for the iPad. However, most are okay “settling” for the Kindle. As James Surowiecki, writer for The New Yorker, pointed out, despite the Apple’s of the world, many companies are succeeding selling things that aren’t bad and cost a lot less – see Flip, IKEA, Ford and H&M.

When it comes to technology, the low-end is at an all-time high. Cheap and simple toys (maybe tool is more appropriate) can be found everywhere. Why? Equal parts, economic restraints and increased demand.

Does this well-priced adequacy strategy apply to the building trades? Hard to say – it depends on the product. Generally speaking, adequate doesn’t fly. Building professionals demand quality but product manufacturers compete for their business on price. Good product engineering has created low-cost, alternatives. Siding, flooring, insulation and other building materials are good examples. The exception? Try tools and equipment. You can go high or low – whatever gets the job done.

For most, it’s hard to get out of the “middle” of the market. You’re competing against companies of all shapes and sizes. But for most, the middle is where they belong. This doesn’t mean mediocrity; it just presents more challenges and opportunities. Like competitor assets, market conditions, customer consumption habits, distribution, etc. What’s the solution? Take advantage of all the resources that are available. Content is king and the Internet is one big publisher. Increase your visibility and your market share by educating and engaging your customers. It’s alot like Survivor – Outwit. Outplay. Outlast.

What’s your take? Can you name building materials or home products where quality can be sacrificed for price without consequence?

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• Self Absorption – Think about the last time you got trapped by a conversation dominator at a cocktail party. More than a few brands today still insist on being the dominators in the conversations with their consumers. However, the willingness of a brand to consistently listen has the potential to build greater equity with its consumers in the near term. The social Web provides an outstanding platform from which to listen. There are several well-known online services that allow you to tap into conversations. These results tend to be overwhelming to say the least. I find you are best served if you have a skilled social marketing professional interpret the data in order to get to the key findings and implications of what is occurring.

• Not Seeing the Forest For The Trees - It’s easy to get excited about new advertising creative. A new ad, a product launch or a promotion, these are all integral parts of building a brand. It’s important to keep the end goal in mind – sustained engagement. It’s more than an ad placed or a release put over the wire. It’s about staying committed to the big picture.

• Close-Mindedness – How many times have you heard “this is how we do it” or “this is how it has always been done?” Maintaining an open mind and willingness to try something new and engage in new ways, not only reaffirms the vigor of a brand, but also assures that the brand stays relevant to the times. Ideas come from many different places. Certainly the Web gives us access to an abundance of possible resources. Some resources that I draw inspiration from are Contagious, Springwise and Trendsetters.com.

Hopefully this perspective will help you approach your marketing challenges and opportunities. In the meantime here is a tool to keep yourself in check in your own life.

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The recent history of the home and building industry is partly to blame. Rewind the clock five years, virtual eons in Internet years. In 2005 the home and building industry was just beginning to realize the full impact of the mass retailer model. Centuries old wholesale distribution networks were in disarray. Manufacturers were no longer the most powerful entity in the channel. The Big Boxes were calling the shots. And speculative real estate was taking off like a rocket. Housing starts began to escalate.

Who had time to notice that high-speed Internet had become a household essential? That streaming video was becoming the norm? That blogs, RSS and forums were seriously eroding magazine market share? Our world was focused on building brands and driving awareness. Reach and frequency. TRP’s. Realigning channels of distribution. Supporting product introductions. Just sell baby!

Two more years of extraordinary prosperity and then the market collapsed. In a single year, housing starts plummeted from an all time high of 2.6 million to less than 500,000. Budgets and staff were cut reciprocally. CFOs were asking their President’s, “Do we really need to advertise?” “What can we cut?” “Shouldn’t you be running sales promotions?”

The boom and bust economy has been a smoke screen for some companies. Intent on retooling their bottom line, the head-honchos have focused on staff reductions and tired sales and marketing gimmicks aimed at generating immediate sales. And who can blame them? They have missed a fundamental shift in market dynamics that is essential to survival in this new conversation economy.

pic from jacobtyler.com

During this same period, marketing managers were tasked to do more with less. We hardly had time to process the multitude of e-mails we were receiving, much less figure out what a retweet was. We all struggled to understand the implications of social media.

So many of us were focused on the channels themselves instead of understanding the value of the conversations occurring in them. We sensed the way consumers were making decisions about brands was changing. We heard the horror stories about educated consumers that knew more about our products than our dealers. We began to see that consumers expected a response to their tweet to our customer relations department.

I have a unique vantage point in that I get to talk to H&B marketing decision makers across the country. Everyone is wrestling with the enormity and complexity of what we now call social marketing. And, in the midst of dramatic budget and staffing shortfalls, most will tell you they’ve had to muster the nerve to explain to their CEO that they need funding for a Facebook page or Web site optimization only to receive a blank response. And most are beginning to realize that this is so much more than a communications initiative.

The companies that have embraced social marketing, and have wrapped their consumer facing operations around these powerful tools, are taking share at an exponential rate. They have torn down traditional barriers to honest, transparent relationships with their customers, and they have measurable results to prove that it is working.

Too many companies still don’t get it. They view social media as a passing fad and don’t understand the implications of doing business the same old way. You see them going out of business on a regular basis. If you are in this boat, don’t give up. Do yourself a favor, seek out educational tools to help educate your senior management team.

• Social Media Marketing School with Dan Zarrella
• Social Marketing Stars: Timothy Dahl
• Social Marketing Stars: Imad Naffa
• Are You Ready for a Healthy Housing Market?
• 34 Minutes Well Spent: Social Media Policy Webinar

AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Watching the Olympics on television is fascinating. You listen to the commentators explain how important, or even critical, it is for the athletes to be in the right position during the events. The figure skaters must coordinate their hands, feet, and bodies to assure the success of a spin or a jump. The skiers speeding down the mogul hill need to keep their knees and hands in the proper position. Even the curlers know that the position of the stones is paramount to winning. The importance of proper positioning is just as important for your business, which begs the question, “Are you positioned for success?”

Within the home and building industry, sustainability is the fastest growth segment in a slow growing market. Do you know or understand the position of your company within the sustainability market? The sustainability market place is slated to grow 146% by 2013. In real dollars, this is growth from $52 billion to more than $128 billion. This is nothing to sneeze at. Do you know how your competitors are positioned within the market? What does the market think of your company in the context of sustainability? Where is the opportunity for your company to succeed? Knowing where your business stands within this highly scrutinized industry may mean the difference between a good year or another down year.

http://www.mspmentor.net

Social networking will have a strong impact on your business in the near future. Is your business positioned to take advantage of this sea change or will it wash ashore? The ability of manufacturers and service providers to engage directly with their customers – trade and consumer – and influence their decision making will change your business. You need to decide if your business is positioned to succeed or fail with social networking. Is your business dependent on the relationships your distributors have with your customers? Do you pay a premium because of these relationships? With social networking, you can begin to engage these customers directly, gain first person insight, and reduce your risk of dependence on your distributors.

Finally, it may be time look at the position of your business within the category you historically serve. Is there an opportunity to re-position yourself to reflect new capabilities, services, and products? Has the market landscape changed to the point where your business may be able to differentiate itself based on this change?

At the end of the day, how you position your company defines your business, what’s makes it unique or important or valuable, and why your customers should buy from you. So, “Are you positioned for success?”

• Forge Through the Disarray of Distribution to Get Closer to Your Customer
• One Step Back and Two Steps Forward: Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

We sat down with Chris Denney, vice president and creative director of IMRE, to gain insight into his experience building brands – both B2B and B2C. Chris began his career as a photographer, working with top agencies and clients and learning to tell their stories through imagery and advertising. He moved to the marketing and corporate world when he began his branding career at Men’s Health, which was experiencing explosive growth around the world. Next came a stint at Time Warner where he helped brands like Ford, Trane and Andersen Windows find their voice. Now at IMRE, Chris specializes in B2B brand development and appreciates the authenticity that comes with the territory.

BI: How many brands have you worked with and/or helped develop?

CD: I’ve worked with many brands on different levels but helped at least 15 brand from the ground up.  I get extremely excited when we work through the branding process.  If you’re rebranding or even just reexamining, you get to the core of what the brand is about and start understanding things like personality and vision.  You envision how a brand can speak about itself at its root and then ideas are born from true understanding, not assumptions.

BI: How do you define a brand?

CD: To me, a brand is a vision. It is holistic and needs to be looked at holistically. It’s embodied in the vision of what the company or service wants to provide. Underneath vision falls personality; what’s the brand’s promise and what does it stand for? The vision, personality and promise are all embodied in a positioning that informs what goes out to the marketplace and makes up who you are and what you stand for.

A brand is not a communications strategy or a logo; it is not a color palette or a singular CEO. It’s an entity, a force of what it wants to accomplish, and it could be as simple as making widgets and as complex as making airplanes.

BI: What do you see as the key components of a brand?

CD: I have found that a key component is for a brand to be honest and transparent.  The emotional part is the hardest; telling yourself “this is what I do well, this is not what I do well,” “this is what I stand for and this is what I do not stand for,” “this is what I want to deliver and promise and this is what I don’t, etc.”  It’s about having the ability to put a mirror to your brand and put it out there, and then reflect on the core values of a company and the products/services it delivers.

Exclusive-executive-resumes.com

BI: How would a company recognize the need for rebranding?

BI: What steps are involved in rebranding?

CD: Everything varies depending on the company and the brand.  However, if you look holistically at rebranding there are three modes of intrinsic and extrinsic activity.  First, you need to look intrinsically at where your brand stands.  Discover what affects your business, like the strengths and weaknesses of your competitive set, the state of the industry and industry forecasting.  You really need to look at what the company thinks of itself, identify its challenges, explore the “feet on the street,” and understand the state of the C-Suite.  Then, look at where they all converge.

From there you go into extrinsic mode and start to formulate assertions and messaging triggers that get tested.  Go to customers and focus groups; ask questions like, “Is this who you think we are?  How does this feel to you?”  Also, gauge how the assertions resonate internally.  If everything’s done properly up to this point, including all of the research, you’ll start to get really great insight.  Gather all of that feedback, bring it back to the three pillars – vision, personality and promise – and then create the brand positioning, the messaging and then the creative.

BI: What makes a rebrand successful?

CD: Success vitally depends on insight and approval from the top down, including all key stakeholders.  It will fail if there’s no buy-in from the C-Suite at the very beginning to act as ambassadors, and the sales force should be very much involved for most B2B companies.

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What do you consider the latest headline – A top story in your daily e-newsletter? A viral re-Tweet?  The current cover feature of your favorite trade magazine?  The news cycle is evolving and ultimately changing the way that you, your customers and your competitors are consuming the latest industry news.  The rules have changed.

According to a recent Hanley Wood emonitoring report, 96% of residential builders, contractors, remodelers and architects use the Internet to keep up to date on industry news and trends.  With the “digital news cycle” growing among the building industry, it now takes more than traditional news sources to stay on top of what’s happening.

Whether supplementing or displacing your traditional news usage with Internet news sources, we have a few tools that will help you stay on top of it all in real time.

Google Reader is a news aggregator of sorts that helps keep you up to date, simplify your reading experience, and discover news and new content. The tool consistently searches your favorite news sites and blogs for fresh content and displays everything in one convenient place.  If your colleagues are slow to adapt to the changing news cycle, share your favorite items with them through your Google Reader public page. By clicking the sharing icon on any item – the news article, blog post or whatever the content – it will instantly appear on your public page for their reading pleasure.

What else is cool?

• Add a customizable clip to your personal website’s sidebar to display your most recent shared news
• Download the Google Reader gadget to iGoogle to view update streams
• Applicable with any mobile phone browser, access Google Reader in the palm of your hand
• Google Reader keeps track of what you’ve already read, so don’t waste time searching for only new content

When it comes to sharing and receiving news updates, Twitter lists provide customizable channels for whom you’re following and who’s following you on Twitter. In a nutshell, it organizes your Twitter contacts, allowing you to create groups. What does this mean for news consumption? You can cut through the clutter and create lists specific to one topic, one industry, etc. Take it one step further and inform your list contacts that you’ve created a particular group that should limit all posts to news.

What else is cool?

• Following a user is not necessary to add them to a list
• Just like regular Twitter hash tags, you can @mention any Twitter List; just add a forward slash “/” followed by the list name (ex. @<username>/<listname>)

If you haven’t already created Google Alerts for your company, products, competitors, etc., that’s a first step to taking advantage of Google News. Taking it one very useful step forward are Google News custom sections, which allow you to receive news customized to your interests; for example, Solar Energy. When you visit the Google News Custom sections directory, a list of News sections appears with the option to add them to your particular news updates.  If you can’t find a section, create one.

What else is cool?

• A search capability allows you to easily look for an existing section; if you find one of interest, preview the section and add it to your News front page
• Ratings display a level of interest from users, so at a glance you can see if the section will be at all helpful; rate the sections you track and/or preview as well
• The Local News section tracks stories from and about a particular city or region

Lazyfeed is another aggregator of live content constantly being updated on the Internet. Based on your topics of interest, Lazyfeed will create a personal “monitor” that features each topic as a tile that updates itself automatically. When more topics are added, thus making it difficult to watch only “new news,” Lazyfeed simplifies your view with its Treadmill mode; this automatically moves updated news to the top of the screen.

What else is cool?

• When there’s new content on a topic, the tile will turn yellow for quick reference
• Pressing a tile will magnify it to show the live update page for the topic
• All contents are sorted by time and the latest contents are always at the top

We’d be remiss to not mention the value of RSS feeds and e-newsletter subscriptions. As online media outlets update news content, RSS feeds will alert you immediately; subscriptions to e-newsletters put you on the recipient list of the latest from industry insiders.

Still too much news consumption at once? Set your homepage to an industry Web site that posts news and updates regularly so each time you open your browser you catch the latest stream.

There are a number of methods and tools to help you consume news.  Find out what works best for you and stick with.  As new resources are introduced, test them by supplementing your current sources.  If you don’t like it, go back to what works.  Keep it simple and make it easy on yourself.  What do you use to stay up with the industry news?

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