Web Presence

An English major wouldn’t choose an online school that featured a web site or brochure with grammatical errors and misspelled words, so if you’re interested in marketing why would you choose a school you’ve never heard of? Granted a school’s ability to advertise itself to potential students relies on the amount of money it has in its budget for marketing purposes, but at the very least a good marketing school should have some sort of web presence beyond the school’s home page.

A school that has a presence on social networking sites is also easier for you to research as you will have the ability to read more about what current students and alumni have to say about their educational experiences at the institute. A school with a good web presence will also look better on a resume as employers are more likely to have heard of the school and to know what kind of education it provides.

Success Stories

If at all possible, try to find out some information about graduates of certain online schools to see what types of careers they end up with and what kind of companies they work for. The best online marketing schools are the ones where students go on to have success in the marketing field, working with companies and brands that you have heard of. By evaluating the marketing strength of the companies where graduates from a certain school work you start to get a sense of what kind of education you might receive from that school or how well they prepare their graduates for working in an evolving field such as marketing.

Educational Needs

In order to be successful as an online marketing student you have to be completely honest about your educational goals and needs and pick the best strategy for fulfilling them. While studying online can give you the freedom to complete your degree in your spare time it also requires a great deal of self-discipline and focus. Some students may find they need online courses with more structure where virtual classes are held at specific times, while other students may prefer programs that allow them to complete coursework whenever they have the opportunity to do so.

When considering online schools you should pay close attention to how the classes are modeled and what types of educational resources are utilized. The best online schools give students a multi-media education with videos, interactive educational modules and topical discussion forums. Your education should reflect your future career so if you want to pursue a job in a specific field, such as social media marketing, choose the online school that has the best curriculum regarding social media.

Mixing Online and Offline Courses

Students already attending school for marketing may have the option of taking some of their courses online through the school they already attend or another magnet program. It’s also possible for students to take graduate level courses online while finishing up an undergraduate degree at a university, community college or business school in order to complete a master’s degree quickly. Online courses can also be used to complete additional graduation requirements, such as math, science and English courses needed for a bachelor’s degree. Find the schools that make it easy for you to transfer the credits you receive online or look for schools that offer a mix of on campus and off campus courses.

Guest post by Stella Waldorf from www.onlineschools.org.

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Authentic brands are not about marketing. They are not products. They live inside the company. And they are held and enacted of the people, by the people and for the people!

Just like the Declaration of Independence created the foundation of a nation, so does your brand act as the foundation of your company. Its principles are the framework for thought and action by everyone in the company. Without it there is no consistency, no alignment between what you say and what you do, no synchronicity between who you are inside and the way you present yourself outside.

You may ask—“well isn’t that the same as culture?” The answer is yes and no. Authentic brands are in many ways the identity of the company culture. They help that culture become visible. They also embody the values and purpose of the company, giving all these things a face and a voice that can be seen and heard by everyone the company touches. But especially your employees. As the people who most keenly impact the day-to-day beliefs and actions of the company it is constantly amazing how little they are considered when brand is discussed.

It is employees who show the brand to be true or not. Authentic brands live or die with the people in the organization. If they don’t believe the brand, if they don’t feel it is their cause, no campaign or change program on earth will help it succeed. Authentic brands feel natural. There is no need to “educate” the employees—they feel it immediately. There is no need to launch the “new” brand on your unsuspecting customers—they have known it for years. When you are doing it day in and day out, saying it becomes almost superfluous.

This is exactly why you should want to find your authentic brand. Just imagine a brand that is enduring, that lasts beyond the next ad cycle, that is sustaining and sustainable, that feeds the soul of your company and makes the whole stronger. Imagine a brand that doesn’t cause disharmony inside your company, that doesn’t cause friction with the way you already do things.

This is an authentic brand!

Read the full Michael Hogan’s manifesto: We Need a New Word for Brand (600kb PDF file).

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The experts cited understanding of Customer/Target frequently. This mirrors the finding in this report that metrics and brand research are key tools. Communication and Creative effectiveness were also frequently mentioned as critical aspects of successful branding.

These open-ended responses provide a useful counterpoint to the other findings in this report. They reflect the classic tenets of branding and marketing, which are focused on knowing the customer, maintaining a consistent brand in the marketplace, and delivering winning content and creative.

study says.

Here is the list of the top 10 aspects of successful branding, as resulted from the study:

1. Consistency (36.0%)
2. Understanding of Customer/Target (18.2%)
3. Message/Communication (14.7%)
4. Creative/Design/Brand ID (12.8%)
5. Relevance (12.4%)
6. Differentiation/Uniqueness (12.0%)
7. Key Stakeholder Buy-In (10.9%)
8. Positioning (9.7%)
9. Clarity (8.9%)
10. Connection to Customer/Target (8.9%)

Read the study here.

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Mr. Wreden takes ambitious steps in explaining the significance of “sustainability” in customer relationships and the value of measuring marketing spending to establish accountability and profitability. Sustainability is critical, since by some estimates 80-95 per cent of products fail to become brands, he writes. Sustainability is also important because more than two-thirds of purchases are one-off buys. Only a brand focused on sustainability will take the steps that lead to second, third or even a lifetime of purchases.

ProfitBrand amplifies this concept, known in direct-marketing circles as the true value of a brand: “A brand is not built by acquiring customers; it is built by keeping them,” he writes. “Most competitive product advantages can be duplicated. The one advantage that cannot be duplicated is customer relationships.” Branding strategies that aim to make a company No. 1 in the market, for example, are doomed to failure, Mr. Wreden argues. That’s because brand sustainability can be achieved only on the basis of relationships formed on customer terms, not company terms.

Read the full review of the book here. (free registration required).

Other leading business books selected by the editors at Strategy + Business in marketing categories include:

• All Marketers Are Liars : The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, by Seth Godin
• Brand Hijack : Marketing Without Marketing, by Alex Wipperfürth
• How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, by Gerald Zaltman

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Before the list itself, is worth mentioning that the list is problematic, in terms of there might be some blogs that are not exclusively discussing branding subjects (it all depends on the blog authors tagging their blogs with the term) on one hand or some others that are more visible branding blogs that are not present in the top (as their authors never signed up with technorati), on the other hand.

All in all, it is an interesting list of blogs, if you’re looking for more information or resources on the matter.
1. gapingvoid
2. Johnnie Moore’s Weblog
3. Thinking by Peter Davidson
4. The Social Customer Manifesto
5. Media Culpa
6. everyhuman
7. Influx
8. superchefblog
9. Piaras Kelly PR
10. IF
11. Advertising/Design Goodness
12. Emergence Marketing
13. Brand Infection
14. Cherryflava
15. 360east
16. brandXpress Blog
17. Jane Genova: Speechwriter Ghostwriter
18. Media Orchard
19. Jefte.net
20. Marketing Usabile
21. Shotgun Marketing Blog
22. Casual Fridays
23. My Name is Kate
24. The Brand Builder Blog
25 Day Care For Your Brain

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As the number of blogs has grown, more consumers are keeping Web diaries dedicated exclusively to their favorite brands. While most of them are written without the consent of the companies that own the brands, some companies are starting to pay attention to blogs, using them as a kind of informal network of consumer opinion.

For these bloggers, intertwining their personal stories and commentaries gives them a stake in defining the brand’s image while linking them with fans of similar mind across the country.

They feel like they own the brand, that it’s theirs, Jackie Huba, author of the book Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force said of the bloggers. They feel they’re doing the world a service, she said.

For readers, these blogs, help them make decisions about what to buy. And according to a survey released this spring by Yankelovich, a marketing firm based in Chapel Hill, N.C., a third of all consumers would prefer to receive product information from friends and specialists rather than from advertising.

The brand blogs also give consumers information that companies do not necessarily publicize on their Web sites.

Steve Rubel, of New York, whose blog Micro Persuasion, follows the impact of blogs on public relations, argues that companies should embrace the in-depth customer feedback the blogs offer.

It’s a 24/7 focus group that’s transparent and out in the open,[...] the opportunity here is for companies to find their brand ambassadors. 

Read the full NYTimes article: Brand Blogs Capture the Attention of Some Companies

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it’s primary objective is to preserve and display specimens of American Package design and branding from the early decades of the 20th century. The secondary objective is to establish a community for those interested in such endeavor.

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