Building a Brand Worth Something Is Easy. But It’s Hard.

Too often, as advertising people in transportation/trucking/logistics, we’re asked to ‘create a brand,’ which in the context of the request usually means ‘fashion us into a company that people will want to buy from/work for/invest in more than the other guys, without us changing anything about how we treat customers/employees/investors.’

It’s at these times when the fun work of this profession starts, leading with a discussion of how a ‘brand’ is more than a visual mark or stated position placed in an ad. Diving into the essence of a company means looking at it realistically – warts and all – and discussing whether ‘what they want to be’ matches ‘who they are,’ and all points in between. Unfortunately, a lot of companies have large deltas in between the two. Fortunately, their heads and hearts are generally pointed in the same direction, so it’s just a matter of helping them recognize opportunities to bring the two together.

What we do from an output standpoint isn’t trivial for sure … we need to help communicate both the vision and the supporting action … but the real change and growth of a brand comes from within, in every interaction with a customer/employee/investor. Our magic is making that goal or end point tangible so that everyone – internal or external – can see that what the company is doing adheres to a unique value, position and philosophy.

On the surface it’s easy. And often in execution, it’s fairly streamlined and painless, too. As mentioned, it’s not that companies don’t know their market position or where they want to be from a brand standpoint. It’s simply that they haven’t created that tangible ‘calling card’ and more importantly, haven’t identified the actions big and small that happen daily which support that positioning.

Commitment takes but a second to decide upon. ‘Staying committed’ is the hard part. In other words, living the brand is where the challenge lies, and it’s everlasting. But companies that can clearly define brand have a much easier time because they seek customers that match their business intentions, hire around their culture, and partner with investors who see their businesses in the same light as they do.

Branding is not so much an exercise as it is a 24/7 marathon. The more clearly you define what your goals are and what you stand for, the easier it is to run.

So if you want to better position yourself, certainly hire someone from the outside to help (Gee, I don’t know … maybe someone like www.mammoth5.com for example). They will give you perspective you can’t see, even if it’s painful. Remember, your position is your position whether you agree or not. But also share your hopes and dreams and work with them as a partner in business transformation. They’ll help you see opportunities. And those opportunities big and small are what will lead you to the market perception you want.

But it can’t just be a logo or ad. Your part of the bargain is to make sure everything and everyone in your business is pointed at the same shared brand identity.

Want to read a bit more? Here’s a great quick read from Medium about branding.

LinkedIn Usage Statistics – 2014

Confident that your potential customers aren’t using LinkedIn, so you’re avoiding it. Avoid at your own peril. Other social network statistics to come shortly, but below is an image from a recent Pew Research study.

Key in this information are the education and earnings levels. Although thirty-ish percentiles may seem low, this is a study of all American online adults. In other words, cluster this data around the demographic audience of your target customers and these stats go up significantly.

Or in other other words, B2B companies, such as those in logistics and transportation should have a dedicated effort around LinkedIn as at least one of their target social connecting points.

3 Questions from Supply Chain Companies about Marketing. 3 Answers.

We’ve received a few questions and comments over the past weeks. Keep them coming to info@mammoth5.com. In no particular order, here they are (paraphrased for brevity’s sake):

Q: How do I get my management team to see that I need to do more marketing to support sales?
A: First, clarify marketing and make sure you have a common definition. To some it may mean pure sales support. To others, it may mean media and advertising. You’ll only make progress if your mental pictures align. From there, the best way to communicate a marketing need is to show it. Go through your sales process, but as a prospect. Document their journey, where and how they see you in the process, in both meetings and in their own independent research. Have management do the same if they can. You’ll see gaps and inconsistencies that may not ‘seem’ that important until you walk a mile in your prospects’ shoes.

Q: Should I do social media?
A: You should participate in social media. ‘Do’ is precisely what you should not do. More to come on this later, but quickly, social media is a commitment. It needs a strategy and vision and a large amount of diligence. More importantly, it needs an understanding that to be successful, you need to give as much as you expect to get. Your goal is generating interest and illustrating expertise. Help people solve their problems, but don’t make them feel it’s a quid pro quo proposition. Like anything, being a resource has value which will ultimately come back around to you. Don’t force it. Don’t just ‘do’ it. Participate in it, for sure.

Q: Where do I start?
A: Question for a question … where are you now? Not every situation is the same, so each company will have a different answer to this question. The best way to understand your needs is to start as your prospect as discussed above. This will help you fill gaps in a much-changing process of sales in business-to-business sector, such as logistics. But be aware that this is gap filling. There is tremendous value in cleaning up the things that are peripheral to the sales process in this first stage, but beyond that there is additional opportunity. For that, you may need to dig a little deeper. Look at your industry, but also look into other B2B verticals or get some help. Phase one is about maintaining competitiveness by not having influencing factors work against you. Phase two is about creating action and defining and differentiating heavily.

B2B Marketing/Sales Alignment Impact on Trucking and Logistics

Alignment – or rather lack of alignment – between sales and marketing is common in many organizations, trucking and transportation or otherwise. In fact, it’s not uncommon for separate departments to be set up which never talk to each other or have ‘frosty’ relationships at best.

As the inside of organizations become more transparent on purpose or not (five minutes of Googling can tell a prospect everything they want to know about your company that you might not want them to know), the connection between marketing and sales is tightening out of necessity.

When the two are aligned, they help one another, greasing the wheels for sales efforts and helping craft a picture of a company that follows a narrative to be carried by your sales team to the finish line.

Some evidence of the power comes from a recent 2015 B2B trend article from business2community.com:

Marketing and Sales have historically had a somewhat contentious relationship, at least in many organizations. But as B2B buyer behaviors have changed, the need for increased alignment and closed-loop communication between marketing and sales teams is absolutely critical. Many company leaders cite alignment as an ongoing priority, but in 2015 it will become more mission-critical than ever — and rightfully so. According to SiriusDecisions, B2B organizations with tightly aligned marketing and sales achieved 24% faster revenue growth and 27% faster profit growth over a three-year period.

Don’t have a marketing department? You’re not alone, but that doesn’t mean you’re immune, either. A lack of marketing support for your sales team will become more apparent as competitors refine their sales/marketing messages and align their efforts in a more organized manner. Those with a full-circle effort will put more and more distance between their less organized competitors (hopefully not you).

On the surface, organizing and aligning such efforts may seem daunting (as in, thinking of how to connect social media and mobile marketing with your sales effort). But in reality, technology has created opportunities to manage and conduct dynamic marketing with a fraction of the resources previously needed. The key is recognizing (a) that quality is critical and can’t be exchanged for token efforts and (b) it must be sustainable and match the resources you want to put behind it. (Too many companies jump on a bandwagon they can’t keep properly rolling.)

So what to do? We’ll cover that more in this space, but a good start is to simply start procuring your own services. ‘Remove yourself’ from the company or have someone else you trust go through your buying cycle from discovery to close to see where you’re exposed because of lack of sales and marketing alignment. And use someone who matches the demographic profile of your prospect (ie: don’t have a 30 year sales veteran go through the process if a younger, 10 year procurement veteran is a better representation of your buyer.)

Be honest about it, because your prospects will not be looking through your rose-colored glasses when they do the same. From there, you’ll at least be able to start thinking about gaps in your marketing and sales program and where you may need to seek professional help to re-craft and bring them together.

B2B Marketing Outlook for 2015

A generalized survey with indicators for the B2B world on the whole, KO Marketing’s findings are applicable to opportunities available to trucking and logistics companies looking to compete more aggressively for business in the coming year.

Key charts are below. Both from KO Marketing.

Software Solutions Utilized by Respondents for B2B Marketing:

Allocation of 2015 Demand-Generation Spending