In reality, your brand name is the perception of your company's personality - and literally, your reputation.

If prospects have a good perception of your brand, they trust your brand, and are more likely to be receptive to your sales message.

However, if prospects have a negative perception of your brand, good luck trying to convince them to buy!

Good perception, good reception. For this reason, making a strong,
positive, first impression can be critical for any B-to-B brand. And, our
first impressions of a business brand, as with our first impressions of a new acquaintance, will usually stick with us a long time.

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Think of any powerful brand name and you immediately link that brand
to a personality trait that is intrinsic to your perception of that company.

For many of us, IBM means Big Blue. Microsoft means software docs.
GE brings good things to life. Dell Computer means affordable PCs. HP means quality printers.

Do you know what your prospects think of your brand name? Are you aware what their perceptions are of your company, product or service? Have you ever asked your customers how they rate your brand?

Even a simple brand study survey can provide valuable insights about any brand. Knowing both the strengths and weaknesses of your brand can help you better position your company or product against your competitors.

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Still, Vanceril was the #1 prescribed inhaled-corticosteroid product for
asthma sufferers. At the time, annual sales totaled US$40 million when the company asked their ad agency for help.

Schering-Plough asked the agency to develop a physician promotion program to protect the Vanceril pharmaceutical brand from a new asthma inhaler drug that had been launched, was heavily advertised, and was being detailed to doctors by an aggressive sales rep force.

Vanceril was loosing 1% of market share every month to the new kid on the block!

The new product wasn't better than Vanceril. The new product's marketing was superior! And that was costing Schering-Plough plenty.

Action:
The "Steroid Security" campaign I helped create for Vanceril was a complete re-branding and re-launch of the product.

Building on the product's unsurpassed 12-year safety and efficancy record, I helped the agency develop a campaign to remind physicians about the product's strengths that had made it the #1 brand.

In order to compete with the newly launched competitor, I re-designed
the Vanceril brand logo as a gold-plated name plate protecting gold-plated lungs with "steroid security".

The new simple, easy-to-understand message was wrapped in a powerfully memorable and eye-catching graphic image, and expressed by a tag line that made physicians recall all the good things Vanceril had done for their patients.

Left: The new Vanceril branding message
was delivered to physicians by multiple
waves of dimensional direct mail, and in
numerous medical journal ads.

Results:
The Vanceril marketing campaign was credited with saving the
brand by re-invigorating the brand name and re-capturing sales.

After the "Steroid Security" re-branding campaign had reminded physicians why they liked Vanceril, product sales strengthened. The new campaign had convinced physicians to stick with the older "tried-and-true" product.

Directly after this re-branding campaign, prescriptions for Vanceril had not only stopped eroding, but the market loss trend was completely reversed!

A few years later, Schering-Plough's annual sales of Vanceril had grown to US$60 million -- an increase of 50% over the "pre-branding" sales level!

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These are the strategic ingredients we use for building a strong, healthy, vibrant and growing brand:

	Recognized brand "personality" within your markets
	Clearly understood position that differentiates from your competitors
	Solutions-oriented message
	Consistent, easily recognizable brand identity
	Positive recall of your brand's message.

Companies that successfully combine all these elements can begin building a solid brand as these qualities attract prospects to become customers.

As customers experience positive outcomes using your product or service they can provide the most valuable brand-building marketing available - positive word-of-mouth!

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There's nothing better than having industry professionals say great things about your product or service! Nothing beats an endorsement, and that's what your company gets when someone decides to share their positive impressions about your brand with their friends and colleagues!

Companies that reap positive word-of-mouth about their brand have hit pay dirt!

Nothing is more powerful in marketing than a credible testimonial. It's been proven over decades that companies that use customer testimonials and case studies to verify how well their product or service performs are tapping the most potent quality found in powerhouse brands - TRUST!

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Every technical marketer wants their brand to be trusted and accepted in the marketplace. Trust is the key to marketing success.

With trust comes acceptance as an expert provider of business solutions.

When a business-to-business brand becomes preferred as a legitimate technical solution, life gets so much sweeter!

It may take years for a brand to slowly build up a reputation as an effective technical solution, or industry expert. But once attained, brand preference makes everything easier!

Leading brands find it easier to get distribution, more dealers want their lines, they can demand and receive premium pricing, they receive greater media coverage, they can more easily recruit new talent, and their executives are more frequently quoted as industry "experts."

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Most brands will never be the industry leader. But regardless of the revenue it generates, no brand will thrive and grow unless it is marketed with insight and nurtured carefully so that it matures and comes to represent to customers and prospects a quality business purchase or partnership that helps them solve their problems.

Fortunately, you don't have to be the leading brand in order to have an growing and profitable brand!

This is true in every industry, and every market.

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For example, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)
lists over 50 companies that produce various 'wiring devices.'

When I directed the brand launch for Cooper Wiring Devices, I tracked these competitors very closely. However, only nine of these 50 companies market product lines in more than ten NEMA wiring devices subcategories.

And of these, only five companies really dominate wiring devices sales with broad offerings of 25 to 30 different product line categories. That means the vast majority of these electrical marketers are focused on very specific niches.

Over 80% of the 'wiring devices' companies are smaller, yet successful, niche marketers.

This is good news if you manage sales or marketing for a smaller technical company; it's proof that a niche can make you very successful!

Fact is, the vast majority of technical marketers are smaller companies with a niche focus.

Many of these smaller players (perhaps your company included) have superior technologies, outstanding products, and high-quality services.

Most smaller technical companies are founded by, owned by, or managed by very talented technical professionals. A majority of all technical companies with a B-to-B focus are engineering-driven, science-driven, or R&D-driven. Their reason for being is the patent, the design, the circuit, the software, or the innovation that someone created in the hopes of accomplishing some type of improvement.

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"If you build it, they will come . . ."
Great line for a baseball movie, but a lousy marketing strategy!

Plenty of talented inventors have built the proverbial better mouse trap.
Most found few takers despite the benefits and improvements of their ideas.

Why do so many creative and inventive ideas fizzle financially?

Ineffective or inconsistent marketing, and poor branding, are key reasons for the disappointing sales results at many smaller technical companies.

Often, a company's brilliant technology management team will hire very sharp technology managers who hire very smart technology specialists, and together they develop a marvelous new product. Great!

Then, when the R&D tech team feel their baby is ready to spring on the world, a senior technology sales executive is often made responsible to create a product launch.

Even substantial companies spend millions of dollars in product development without developing a marketing plan, or a branding strategy because of their heavy emphasis on technology skill sets.

In our experience, we've found this approach to be flawed.

I have helped successfully launch and build technical brands for global pharmaceutical giants like Glaxo, Schering-Plough, and Lederle Laboratories, and global industrial manufacturers including Cooper Wiring Devices, a division of a Fortune 400 manufacturer, and Sulzer Metco, a global division of a major Swiss technical marketing group.

And I have also created branding programs for small privately-held companies like regional commercial trucker, Alton, and medical laser maker Cynosure, as well as pre-IPO Physician Computer Network.

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If your company is facing tough challenges to your current marketing and sales efforts...

tap into Carazo Communication's extensive experience building stronger B-to-B brands for
technical marketers...