Marketing Strategy

In an ever-changing business landscape, companies must maintain the right mix of relevancy and differentiation. Doing so ensures longevity and success. Brand strategy or planning enables companies to adjust to shifts in the market while remaining consistent with their vision, brand identity, core values, and “personality.”

Marketing strategy is managed by EM’s business development division. Marketing strategy is centered on a simple technique designed to establish and/or grow a business.

What is a brand? Brand /n/ 1. A unique symbol, name, sound or identifying mark, which represents a product, an individual or organization's story. 2. A distinct story, purpose or experience, which physically and emotionally engages consumers with a good or service.

A well established story or brand and respective line extensions is a company's most valuable asset. In addition to providing a competitive advantage, a well established brand maximizes earnings. Determining where brand value resides and aligning business operations to retain value is our goal. To reach that end, EPiC Measures (EM) provides the services listed below.

Using EM’s BrandNu Business Profiler™, a brand is created or refined, which enables clients to:

• Increase profitability and the long-term value of a brand
• Create marketing plans that make “financial cents”
  
• Create processes and/or pinpoint resources that define or reinforce a brand experience
• Align marketing strategies with brand values and attributes thereby supporting sales and driving demand for a brand
  
• Increase brand consistency across all channels especially operations, human resources, and customer service and vendor and partner relations
  
• Foster relationships in a way that increases employee and customer retention and brand satisfaction
• Set and allocate budgets to support brand initiatives including talent recruitment, promotions, operations, and investing

Brand Management

Successful brand management requires a multi-disciplinary approach, which involves financial, legal, marketing, communications, and administrative skills. At EM, easy to follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) are created or revised to ensure reoccurring needs reflect a brand. The flexibility to meet new and unforeseen challenges in a way that encourages creativity, synergy as well as fiscal and social responsibility is maintained.

So that a business remains on the path of sustainable growth, account mangers are empowered to use a next practice approach to address situations companies face. Collaborating with a network of expert partners to form a full-service team is one way EM adds value.

Brand management services include, but are not limited to the following:

• Identify and secure partners, sponsors or image-makers that accurately reflect a brand
  
• Develop or increase brand awareness consistent with the company's core values plus short and long term goals
• Manage the planning and execution of projects to ensure timely, cost effective completion
• Evaluate branding activities/events and pinpoint ways to improve each effort
• Establish or administer alliances where expertise, technology or intellectual property is leveraged to expand product offerings, functionality and/or market reach

Business Communications

EM account managers ensure the brand integrity of internal and external information such that content accurately reflect a company’s vision and mission. Business communication services entail creating, copyediting, proofreading, copy writing or distributing the following types of content:

• Collateral Materials: ads, brochures, flyers, business cards and letterhead *
  
• Publications: Web sites, blogs, articles, newsletters, and reports
• Corporate Correspondence: letters, memos, agendas, e-mail, press releases
• Proposals: business or marketing
• Audio-Visual Presentations: PowerPoint, videos, social media campaigns, and film/TV scripts

Company or industry-specific style sheets are created or used to ensure that messages foster clarity, trust, and stated themes. Messages are also tempered to address employee, customer and public relations or reputation management.

Preferred EM communications style guides are as follows:

APA Style
Associated Press Stylebook
How 11: A Handbook for Office Professionals
How to Write Great Copy
The Business Writer's Companion
The Business Writer's Handbook
The Copywriter's Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells
The Elements of Style
The Gregg Reference Manual

*Clients may utilize a corporate identity designer of choice. Otherwise, artwork to include logos and symbol creation is outsourced.

Leadership Training

Typically marketing officers, brand managers or PR agents are employed to focus on a company's external marketing efforts. Although managing marketing efforts such as advertising, promotions, and sales are essential, doing so outside of established brand promises is counterproductive.

The BrandNu Seminar Series™ enables business leaders, marketers, and others to launch campaigns that are properly aligned with a well-defined brand. One aspect of the seminar series is showing seminar participants how to look at the seven facets of business as extensions of a brand and how to structure each function to support brand promises. In addition to implementing business curriculum, managers and leaders learn how to organize, strategies, negotiate, and team build.

Upon completion of a marketing strategy seminar for example, participants will be able to:

• Identify the seven facets of business
• Determine the difference between marketing and branding
• Create or redefine a brand promise for each facet of business, i.e., company departments/divisions
• Align internal and external processes with brand promises
• Pinpoint products that enhance the brand experience
• Develop a business plan and/or marketing strategies, which coincide with brand promises

Contact Us for EM's 2011-2012 training schedule.