5 tips for successful branding

Last Thursday, I attended the 3rd edition of the Media Parade together with some 450 other marketeers and branding specialists from all horizons (check #mediaparade). 

An inspiring event with one motto: "Never Stop Asking Questions". 

Keynote speaker, Jean-Noël Kapferer, took the floor for a session about brand management to answer the first question of the day: "What do successful brands have in common?" I've summarized his observations in 5 points of advice :

1. Start slowly, take your time and be patient

2. Target communities, not segments 

3. Think in term of tribal marketing and search direct contact

4. Create 'Occasions to Savor' instead of 'Opportunities to See'

5. Disrupt the traditional models with an alternative distribution channel

A summary in tweets:

Why I'm Not Following You Back

A short blog post to explain why I'm not always following back:
1. you don't tweet or have/spread (interesting) content - it seems hard but I'm sure you can understand
2. obviously, you wanna sell me something - even if I'm a marketeer... I'm in the first place a consumer (in search of interesting content/ content curation)
3. it's always about you

I don't agree with specialists who declare that you have to follow back every person who subscribes to your tweets. Some people are on twitter to catch news about specific content, like my boyfriend for example. He never tweets.

Other people are interested in many topics but always tweet about one item that doesn't matters to you AT ALL. What will be the point to follow them back? One example: I follow some stand-up comedians and  quotes specialists. I totally understand that these people don't follow me back. In my eyes, social media helps me to stay up-to-date about specific topics I'm interested in. The fact that some specialists comment and retweet my (own) content is a major plus. But what I like the most is to help other people and sources to get attention. Even if sometimes I think: I should have written that!!! :-)

You Are What You Tweet

A personal infographic about my twitterstyle. It seems like I'm a workaholic but that's not true. I'm not obsessed, just passionated :-) Thanks to visual.ly

Digital Clouds

Spotted on twitter: Tagxedo a very easy way to make word clouds. I'm always in search of tools that turn data into smart and/or attractive visuals to spice up my presentations (both at work and for this blog). I'm a user of Wordle but Tagxedo offers many more possibilities: embedding, word filtering, upload of docs/url,... Click on the pictures to have a better view:

Twitter profile page:

{if it was a painting} The Migration of Information

And what about my blog?

My blog, a way to start a conversation...

5 Belgian Tweetable Truths about Smartphones & Tablets: Part 3

Third and last part of my 5 Tweetable Truths about the adoption of mobile devices in my little country. Still based on what I've heard at the last Media Session organized by the GRP (see previous posts). This chapter focuses on the difference between Belgian men and women. With some extra data -like socio-demographics and purchase intentions - in some slides. Up to you to be creative with these pieces of extra information. Feel free to steal this presentation from Slideshare and to spread the knowledge :-)

5 tweetable findings tablets and smartphones in Belgium: part 3

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5 Belgian Tweetable Truths about Smartphones & Tablets: Part 2

Five new tweetable truths about mobile devices in Belgium. The presentation below also summarizes notes I took at the last Media Session organized by the GRP - a group of media specialists from agencies, publishing houses, market research agencies. Four speakers talked about Mobile Internet in Belgium and the Influence on Search. I was mainly interested in the Global Survey Mobile Study by Havas Media and the research Me, My Smartphone and Brands by Space.

5 tweetable findings on tablets and smartphones in Belgium: part 2

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5 Belgian Tweetable Truths about Smartphones & Tablets

I have absolutely no doubts about the rise of mobile internet usage and the tablet/smartphone penetration in Belgium. Mobile Internet is still too pricy - the prices are too high in comparison to our neighbouring countries France and the Netherlands - but telecom players are finally adapting their strategies to seduce "the average Belgian consumer".

Reason enough to follow the last Media Session organized by the GRP - a group of media specialists from agencies, publishing houses, market research agencies. Four speakers talked about Mobile Internet in Belgium and the Influence on Search. It was really nice to get a quantitative point of view on Belgian tablet and smartphone usage by Huges Rey (Havas Media - study Global Survey Mobile) on the one hand, and qualitative insights about smartphone owners and their expectations by Françoise Gehin (Space - study Me, My Smartphone and Brands) on the other.

Below you can find 5 tweetable findings I heard on this seminar. Feel free to steal and spread. Although most of these make (common) sense, it is sometimes good to have recent proof about this fast evolving market.

5 tweetable findings on tablets and smartphones in Belgium

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Magazines are sales tools: Flair pumps case

One of the main complaints of advertisers is "the effect of magazines on sales can't be measured". Together with: "Magazines are slow in building traffic". Well, thanks to the Flemish Flair readers I have recent proof that these statements are not true. If done in a good way. (Knowing your audience).

Flair pumps

Flair is a weekly aimed at young women (15-35 y.o.) who like getting fun out of life. The typical Flair-reader likes: affordable luxury. So yes, she can combine luxury brands with cheaper (fashion and beauty) brands. Today there was a special offer in the magazine with a coupon for Flair-branded pumps for 15€. It's the second time that retailer Torfs chose Flair as a favored partner (as a kind of seasonal launch for the new collections?). 

The results? Some sales points were out of stock this afternoon. According to some tweets I have read, there was (is?) a stock of at least 20,000 pairs.

On the 'twitterprofile' of Wouter Torfs, CEO of Schoenen Torfs, you can read that this CEO is passionate about rebuilding his company as a community. And he's using communities, in this case, the community of the Flair-lovers, to make the match on a commercial level. Well done! 

I surrendered for the @flair @torfs Mkt Campaign

The Gender Battle on Twitter

Great infographic about Gender Differences on Twitter by HubSpot Blog. Analytics are less boring in this way. It seems that women have won the battle in Twitterland. 

Poème absurde sur l'oiseau bleu

twitter, c'est la certitude de ne pas s'emmerder quand on est en panne de loisirs

twitter, c'est beaucoup moi moi moi, pas de nous et un peu de toi

mais twitter, c'est aussi une source d'information inépuisable

un repère de poètes et de pirates

les pieds sur terre ou la tête dans les étoiles