{"id":342,"date":"2013-03-06T14:56:04","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T19:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=342"},"modified":"2016-11-04T14:58:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T18:58:44","slug":"a-reason-for-branding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"A REASON FOR BRANDING"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_video admin_label=”Video” src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/8dE9yNNgTuI” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

PRESS PLAY >> NOW TO VIEW KEN\u2019S WELCOME MESSAGE.<\/p>\n

I was watching television a couple days ago when a new Sears appliance spot came on\u2026and it was really creative and broke through the clutter.\u00a0 Frankly, I\u2019ve been pretty impressed with the creativity in Sears commercials for several months now and have to give their advertising team credit for making a valiant effort to get the store back on its feet. (Can\u2019t say the same for its sister store Kmart, however.)<\/p>\n

\"sears-appliance-spot-1-133\"Unfortunately, I don\u2019t believe any advertising\u2014no matter how creative or well placed it is\u2014can make up for the lack of a meaningful brand strategy.\u00a0 Despite all of the aggressive ads, Sears simply isn\u2019t a factor to the consumer anymore.\u00a0 In many of the groups that I present to or work with, I ask the question \u201cHow many of you have shopped or considered shopping at Sears over the past 6 months?\u201d\u00a0 The answer is almost universally a resounding \u201cNone!\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe, but what was once the #1 retailer in America is no longer a factor for most customers these days.\u00a0 If you wonder why this happened, I suggest considering what Dr. Len Berry of Texas A&M wrote many years ago about what successful store have in common.\u00a0 The number one trait that the hot stores shared then\u2014and now\u2014is that they have a reason for being.\u00a0 And that reason is not just because there are other retailers who offer the same merchandise and services in a similar box.\u00a0 It\u2019s a real reason for existing and for being firmly entrenched into the shopping lists of many consumers.\u00a0 Ask yourself (unless you work there) if Sears disappeared tomorrow, would you really miss them?\u00a0 Would you wonder where you were going to shop for appliances, tools, paint, automotive supplies and service?\u00a0 All of these were distinguishable strengths that Sears once maintained in the marketplaces.\u00a0 They not only were top of mind, but they were almost synonymous with these categories in their heyday.<\/p>\n

The problem is that Sears forgot what its brand was really all about way back when they tried their \u201cSofter Side\u201d and other failed formats.\u00a0 It forgot why people shopped them and ignored what the competition was doing in their own backyards with the categories I mentioned above.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With all the negativity surrounding JCP these days, I suspect that despite some really creative print and broadcast advertising, they have moved away from what has made them a factor with customers in the past and their once loyal shoppers aren\u2019t rejecting them.\u00a0 They simply are not considering because they have no reason to.<\/p>\n

The first step in an effective brand strategy is to determine what your value is to your target customer and how will you differentiate your store or product from the competition.\u00a0 It is not just running a great ad or campaign.\u00a0 It\u2019s providing a reason for being everyday.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_video admin_label=”Video” src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/8dE9yNNgTuI” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] PRESS PLAY >> NOW TO VIEW KEN\u2019S WELCOME MESSAGE. I was watching television a couple days ago when a new Sears appliance spot came on\u2026and it was really creative and broke through the clutter.\u00a0 Frankly, I\u2019ve been pretty impressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}