Blue Events, the market leader in the field of marketing conferences, has decided to expand the portfolio with a new project: Brand Management. The premiere edition, subtitled Brand as a goal or a tool? kicked off the series of annual meetings of brand managers and other professionals engaged in brand development and management. Meeting of more than three hundred professionals, who believe that brand is much more than just a graphic symbol, took place in Slovanský Dům in Prague. Stars of the program were not only global marketing guru Jim Stengel, but also a dozen of those who are managing successful brands on the Czech market from different positions. Owners and CEOs of companies and representatives of marketing and brand management shared their knowledge.
The first morning session was opened by Oliver Koll, Strategic Insights Director, Europanel and his Recipes for brand growth. Based on a Europe-wide panel of households he showed a typical formula for the growth of brands in FMCG market. The key point here is that the frequency of purchase is not the main source of growth, it is the growing number of shoppers. Winning brands are distinguished by an increase in product range, focus on distribution, innovations and new products. Oliver Koll paid special attention to the price top brands, which are both niche brands, as well as big brands with significant market share. Expensive brands innovate and thus successfully justify their higher prices:
"Customers are happy to pay more for their confidence, communication and innovation. If shoppers do not see differences between brands of one category, the decide only on the basis of price."
Possibilities for developing the international brand Forbes on the Czech media market were drawn by its editor in chief Petr Šimůnek. The world's strongest and oldest business magazine entered the Czech market in 2011 and today it has around 110 thousand readers per month. Even in the demanding Czech media market, Forbes managed to push through, thanks to the clear concept that can be summed up as: success, money, inspiration and life is rich. "We have programmed positive attitude and that sets us apart. We are not saving on essence, we are bringing quality content."
Hannu Kasi, Country Managing Director, ABB CR explained How to localize a global brand. He stressed that the brand is an indispensable strategic concept also on industrial and B2B markets.
"ABB is an international manufacturer of industrial robots and technologies for power and automation to enable energy and engineering industry customers to improve performance. ABB brand must simultaneously create a clearly recognizable face of diverse projects in different countries, and also at the same time to adapt to local conditions. We have six elementary clear and understandable values that permeate everything we do."
Keynote speaker Jim Stengel in his brilliant, highly inspirational show, introduced How the winning brands behave. Among other things, he introduced the concept of AHA !, a recipe for success consisting of the following key ingredients:
A: Ambitious Purpose (ambitious meaning of the brand)
H: Human Insight (deep understanding of human needs and desires)
A: Always There (always be available, maximum availability in both real and digital world)
!: Organizational Energy (lots of energy, which is not only generated by the company's managers but also systematically channeled to go forward and improve)
Companies that want to succeed should embrace the concept of AHA! , inspire their staff with it and implement it so that they worked with it every day.
"Brands with higher ideals are stored in the higher brain hemispheres. Ask therefore, if your brand meaningfully affects the world. ... .. Companies that communicate their deeper meaning/ higher sense are gaining customers up to three times faster than the competition. Organizations grow when they strive for a premium product. Why only several leaders follow the rule of ambitious purpose, when we know that it works? Because they have little emotional energy. If you want to follow your ideals and serve the world as well as customers, you must align with your ideals, encourage others in the team and implement them!"
The afternoon part Stories of successful Czech brands was started by Jannis Samaras, co-owner of Kofola – the typical AHA! company according to the terminology of Jim Stengel. He stressed the crucial role brand managers play in the life of the company, "Vision and values are the foundation of every brand. Leaders imprint in their brands, brands are personal expressions of their creators. The owner of the company must find a suitable creator that resonates with the brand, has the same mindset and values."
The soft feminine presentation of Michaela McClelland, Global Brand & Business Development Director, PRECIOSA Lighting introduced the traditional Czech brand Preciosa. Its essence attributes are rare, precise and human: "The tradition of Czech crystal and global operations of the North-Bohemian Preciosa is based on the world uniqueness of materials (sand and glass), perfect traditional workmanship, and above all a personal approach and love to glass. Our brand is always associated with people."
Jiří Kašpárek, Marketing Manager, Tatra Trucks, charted the history of this traditional brand that has existed since 1919. Its potential has remained untapped for many years, lost in the complicated process of privatization and subsequent changes in corporate ownership structure. In 2013 Czech shareholders took over the Tatra and started restructuring and development of new product lines. The traditional brand is regaining a chance to be an international icon again. And how is it achieved? "Tatra will always be a market niche using variations of its technical concepts, especially the chassis. We focus on product communication, we produce specials eg. for transporting gas pipes or military vehicles. Tatra’s fans are fascinated by durability, robustness and security of movement in the field. Tatra will take you further!"
ZOOT #fuckitwhynot an interactive performance involving the audience was brought by Ladislav Trpák, Chief Gardener, ZOOT. In omnichannel selling of fashion ZOOT wants mainly to sell pleasure to people. Yet the company understands very well that it needs not only functional technologies and systems, but also enthusiastic collaborators. The annual turnover of half a billion indicates that it makes sense: "All the great products and services have a soul. Set out a vision and create a safe environment where people can make mistakes. Create a team that will radiate the brand. Have breakfast together. Walk barefoot. Celebrate, always find a reason to. Let the teams mutually inspire. How do you know you're doing well? When your brand is alive! ZOOT is not a job, it's love!"
Two-part final discussion panel Focus on strategy and digital marketing was introduced and led by Jan Binar, President of AKA. The first part of the discussion titled Brand as a pillar of corporate strategy moderated by Jan Klimeš, Customer Experience, KPMG gathered panelists Richard Galovič, Managing Director, Favorit Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Hejkal, Business Unit Manager, Stock Plzeň - Božkov and Barbora Polachová, marketing manager, Uber . Their discussion confirmed and further enriched what has been said by previous speakers in the conference program. They emphasized the need to improve the customer experience and create a long-term stable and positive relation with the brand. Personalization is an important success factor and brands need to adapt to different consumer situations, too.
The second part of the panel was covering the highly topical theme How to build a brand in the era of digital marketing? It was led by Miroslav Král, Managing Partner, MarketUP. He presented a completely new research of Google, according to which the mobile phone becomes the main medium for communicating brands and also the personalized tool to consume information according to preference. The average person checks his smartphone about 150 times a day and spends with it 170 minutes in average. Google is developing the concept of "micro moments marketing," whose main stages are: see - think - do - care. For each of these stages marketer must determine the content and form so that the brand was always "at hand" in the process.
Martin Drábek, Marketing Manager of Czech Basketball Federation, Petr Houzar, Agency Sales Manager, Google Czech Republic and Jakub Chomát, Product Manager Heavy Tools Eastern Europe, Hilti ČR showed on specific examples that this is not just a theory or case studies of the most advanced markets. Digital marketing tools can be used even in companies that are more traditional in character.
The conference Brand Management 2015 is a part of a portfolio of marketing conferences organized by Blue Events. It was devoted mainly to issues of brand strategy and stressed that it is especially important to know why we do it. In the coming months it will be followed by a series of other professional events, presenting in detail how to do it. We would particularly recommend the conference Mobile Marketing 2015, which will take place on November 25, 2015 at NTL in Prague.
Media Contact:
Aneta Zímová, Blue Events
Tel .: +420 222 749 841, e-mail: aneta.zimova@blueevents.eu