The Power of Branding

1/1/2002

Throughout my tenure as ACI President, I have stressed the importance of our Strategic Goals and I always use them as the guideline for prioritizing the focus of ACI. There are five goals, but one of them is especially important in today’s competitive environment: Member Value. This goal provides that "ACI membership will be increasingly valued by a broader segment of the Industry workforce." I believe that one way to accomplish this is through what those in marketing call "branding."

Many of you may have heard of "branding" as part of a business marketing strategy. But how can this hot topic relate to member value at ACI? First, let’s define this concept with some help from Marketing Partners, Inc.:
BRANDING = All the interactions a member has with an organization
+ All communications and imagery associated with the organization.

Tarek Khan of Master Builders, Inc., stated it this way in a presentation to our Board of Direction at the March 2001 convention in Philadelphia:
A brand is an identifiable entity that makes specific promises of value.

Tarek went on to clarify that these "identifiable entities" are able to readily separate, in the minds of customers, the products and services they represent from other similar or comparable items. He concluded that ACI needs to define and continually strengthen its brand.

People become loyal to a brand because they know what to expect. By continuing to expand and add depth to the ACI brand, I believe we can dramatically reinforce member value. Branding for ACI would be a conscious and ongoing process of making a promise of value to ACI members, and then consistently delivering on that promise.

According to Tarek, a key to delivering on the promise of a brand is known as "brand alignment." For ACI, this means that everyone in the organization understands the membership experience and realizes that they are part of the ACI brand whenever they relate with members. In this sense, member value becomes more than consistency and quality in our products and services. It embodies the positive emotional experience associated with obtaining and using those products and services. And of course, it is human nature to repeatedly seek positive emotional experiences!

So how does ACI walk this talk? We need to think outside our traditional box and explore new ways of creating memorable experiences as we deliver consistent quality. In this ever-expanding era of technological capacity, we can use new "e-techniques" to serve our market in innovative and paradigm-shifting ways. But can we create an "e-experience" that can be as emotionally satisfying as a traditional one? I believe that the potential power of the Internet is amazing, if it’s used correctly.

Khaled Awad of ACI’s Marketing Committee gave some specific "do’s and don’ts" of Internet marketing in his presentation at the March convention, "Leveraging the Power of Internet Branding." In his presentation, Khaled quoted the vice president of Saatchi & Saatchi, a premier advertising firm: "Companies that grasp the power of the Internet and its relationship building capability will discover an accelerated path to prosperity. Branding is being redefined online. We are moving beyond representing a brand to experiencing it." These exciting possibilities are ripe for the picking, and we are in a position right now to take advantage of them.

There is an immense buffet of new technology that allows us to reach out and truly interact with individual members and customers. However, the key factor for success, regardless of the medium, is still the same: do what you say you will do, and exceed expectations in the process. Howard Rockett, CEO of Burkhead & Winslow, says that "a brand has to instantly explode into the mind of the exposed target." Are you ready to help ACI expand this friendly fire in 2002? I’m looking for a few good men and women and I think I’m in just the right place!

Daniel L. Baker,
President,
American Concrete Institute

Back to Past-Presidents' Memo List