Welcome to our Beloved Brands blog. I started to write various marketing stories in September of 2011, just as social media started to take off. I had no idea anyone would read our blog. Within a few months, things took off. Millions have read our blog. We share everything we know to help you learn about marketing. I believe that knowledge is power and we want you to use that knowledge to empower yourself to achieve the extraordinary.
Brand positioning
Learn how to figure out brand positioning
To find your ideal brand positioning statement, you want to find the space that is most motivating to consumers. And, find the space that is most ownable for your brand. Our brand positioning statement process starts with a defined consumer target your brand will serve. Then, we focus on the emotional and functional benefits that differentiate your brand. Further, we use support points to help differentiate your brand from competitors.
Marketing Plans
Learn how to write marketing plans
A strategic marketing plan gets everyone on the same page, including senior management, sales, product development, customer service and your agency partners. So, we have a one-page brand plan to help. That way, everyone drives against the same vision, key issues, strategies, and tactics. Throughout this article, I will show how to write a marketing plan, with a few marketing plan examples. And, we have a marketing plan template you can purchase.
Brand strategy
Learn how to write a brand strategy roadmap
Every brand should have a brand strategy roadmap that includes the vision, purpose, values, key issues, strategies, and tactics. As well, our roadmap layers in the brand idea to deliver a consistent brand across the five consumer touchpoints.
Brand concepts
Learn how to figure out brand concepts
Only a fool would start writing a brand concept without doing the necessary homework. I will show you how to write a brand concept that uses the brand idea, consumer insights, functional and emotional consumer benefits, and support points. Our brand concept process can also work for product concepts. Furthermore, I will provide a few different brand concept examples. Think of your brand concept as you would a 30 second TV ad or a digital billboard. Most importantly, stay focused on your most essential messages. If you start with a blank piece of paper, you will end up with a random chance at success.
Creative Briefs
Learn how to write creative briefs
I wish everyone would stop writing ugly creative briefs. Most importantly, the creative brief is a crucial way for brand leaders to control the strategy. On the other hand, make sure you give freedom on execution to the experts who execute. Too many marketers have this backward, preferring to give freedom on strategy with various possible strategic options layered within the creative brief. Then, they attempt to try to control the creative outcome by writing a long list of tangled mandatories. We will use our creative brief template to show you how to write every line of the creative brief.
Brand Funnels
Learn how to work with brand funnels
A classic brand funnel would measure awareness, familiarity, consider, purchase, repeat, and loyal. They tell you where your brand is now, and when analyzed with intelligence, brand funnels can provide hints as to where you can go next. The brand funnel analysis can help you determine where your brand sits on the brand love curve, as it moves through five stages: unknown, indifferent, like it, love it, and onto the beloved brand status.
Brand profit
Learn how to figure out brand profit
While good marketers can run brands and marketing programs, great marketers can drive their brand’s P&L and deliver growth and profit for their brands. Here are eight ways the Brand Leader can drive profits: 1) premium pricing 2) trading the consumer up or down 3) lower product cost 4) efficient marketing costs 5) stealing other users 6) getting current users to use more 7) enter new categories 8) create new Uses for your brand.
Marketing Career
Learn how to manage your marketing career
In a classic marketing team, the four key roles are Assistant Brand Manager up to Brand Manager then up to Marketing Director, and on to the VP/CMO role. For each role, our game plan has five factors of success, which your boss will need to see in the you before they are willing to promote you to the next level. The list is cumulative, in that once you can demonstrate one of the success factors, you will need to keep improving on that skill at every level. Early on, it is all about trying and repeating every new task. As you move up in your marketing career, you need to keep working on tweaking, improving, and perfecting.
Beloved Brands is the playbook to keep at your fingertips
Our readers tell us they reach for Beloved Brands a few times each week as a reference toolkit to help them with the day-to-day management of their brand.
To start, we will challenge you with questions that get you to think differently about your brand strategy. Then, we take you through our process for defining your brand positioning. We will open your mind to new possibilities for how you see you can differentiate your brand. And, we use examples of brand positioning statements to bring the learning to life.
Next, we will show you how to write a brand plan that everyone can follow. Make sure all stakeholders know precisely how they can contribute to your brand’s success.
Moreover, we will show you how to run the creative execution process, show you how to write an inspiring brief, and make decisions to find both smart and breakthrough work.
Finally, you will learn new methods to analyze the performance of your brand with a deep-dive business review.
Above all, over 90% of our Amazon reviews receive five-star ratings. As a result, Beloved Brands has spent numerous weeks as a #1 bestseller in brand management.
Search for any topic on our Beloved Brands website
Marketing Stories
Take a look through our other marketing stories
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How to use marketing execution to manage the customer journey
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John Lewis Christmas ad for 2021 plays it safe with a predictable story
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How to use your pricing strategy to drive brand growth
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Entrepreneurs thrive when they act like a blowfish, not a whale
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What you can learn from the best Apple Advertising of all time
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Can you believe they are launching a new Coke Zero?
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Before writing a creative brief, make sure you have done your homework on developing a winning brand communications strategy that combines the work of your
Innovation Leadership: The marketer’s role in driving innovation
When it comes to innovation, you will likely work with a product innovation team, who are peers that could be filled with other marketers, scientists,
Wrigley’s ad captures how we want to see our post-pandemic life
The new Wrigley’s ad really jumps off the screen. It’s been all over Facebook and Twitter, on the morning news, and sent around through email
How to sell to independent customers who don’t want your help
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Marketing Excellence: The skills that marketers need to succeed
If you have a marketing excellence program for your brand management team, the focus should be on the marketing skills related to strategic thinking, brand
Tesla case study: How intense desire creates and solves many problems
Elon Musk runs the Tesla brand like Steve Jobs ran Apple. Our Tesla case study will show how Elon Musk has used hype marketing straight
