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Leveraging Events for Brand Buildinge
By Michael Alan Hamlin
October 25,2004
Events are powerful yet cost efficient
brand building tools. They are powerful in part because they are
focused. First, they provide focused content that is relevant and
has impact in practical and important ways. For example, BayanTrade
recently conducted a conference for its suppliers. Since most suppliers
are small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), the speakers for
the conference spoke on issues related to SME concerns; specifically,
business development strategy and leadership.
The second way events are focused
is that they can very efficiently target a specific market niche.
In the BayanTrade example, the conference focused on suppliers.
This is an important market for BayanTrade, a sourcing and procurement
services provider. It is in BayanTrade's interest to build the capacity
of suppliers to reliably fulfill the needs of buyers. One way BayanTrade
does this is to design meetings exclusively for suppliers.
BayanTrade's supplier conference
was a cost efficient method of communicating in a relevant and impactful
way with this key constituency. It was cost efficient because BayanTrade
focused demand generation for the conference exclusively on SMEs;
more precisely, on SMEs within its supplier community. As a result,
BayanTrade did not have to use valuable resources - time, money,
and people - communicating with anyone but suppliers it wanted to
attend the event.
Approximately 200 SME representatives
attended the conference. So in one day, BayanTrade was able to see
and interact in a meaningful way a large number of people. If the
company attempted to set meetings with each of these individuals
and meet with them one-on-one, just the process of actually meeting
each individual would take one to three months. Of course, time
would also have to be spent setting and traveling to each of the
meetings as well. So the supplier conference was very efficient
in the use of strategic resources.
Effective brand building events don't
have to be customized meetings like BayanTrade's supplier conference,
however. Event sponsorship is another way to leverage events for
brand building. Consider BayanTrade in another example. Every year
the Philippine Institute of Supply Management (PISM) conducts an
annual conference called Supply Link. BayanTrade usually sponsors
this meeting.
There are a number of good reasons
for doing so. First, PISM is actually an association whose members
are supply chain and procurement specialists and executives employed
by large firms. These individuals and their firms represent the
other side of BayanTrade's value proposition: buyers. In sponsoring
Supply Link, BayanTrade raises its awareness among this key constituency,
and builds goodwill. An added benefit of sponsorship is the opportunity
to exhibit its services to the participants.
Frequently sponsors are also integrated
into the event program itself. For example, BusinessWeek provides
major sponsors of its CEO Forum the opportunity to participate in
the panel discussions that principally make up this meeting. Well-known
multinational brands such as FedEx, Agilent Technologies, and Fidelity
Investments find this an attractive value proposition because Forum
participants are senior executives in other well-known firms that
make important buying decisions. As a result, they spend tens of
thousands of dollars sponsoring meetings like the Forum.
According to brand expert David A.
Aaker, event sponsorships help build brands in several important
ways. For example, the event provides an important experience for
the sponsor's customers. CEO Forum sponsors provide the opportunity
to their customers to attend the meeting and hobnob with present
and former heads-of-state, top celebrity CEOs, and management gurus.
And the sponsor's clients are treated like celebrity CEOs themselves,
enhancing the goodwill generated. Depending on the meeting, sponsorship
can also be leveraged to demonstrate new products and services.
FedEx could do this by providing courier services for free to Forum
participants during the conference.
Sponsorships provide enhanced awareness
to key constituencies through the meeting marketing and communications
effort, as well as other forms of communication such as onsite collateral.
When a prestigious event like the CEO Forum is sponsored, it also
provides benefits of association. In this case, with a global media
brand, top celebrity CEOs, and management experts attending and
presenting at the meeting. When key customers value the opportunity
to participate in an event and establish new relationships of their
own, a special bond can develop that generates long-term benefits
for the sponsor.
Finally, events also help to mobilize
the organization by instilling pride within. This is particularly
true for sporting events, such as Formula One racing and the Olympics.
It is also true for other exclusive events, such as Citibank's sponsorship
of the New York Philharmonic's tours of key Asian cities. Employees
also take pride in sponsoring talks by respected public figures,
concerts by popular musicians, and seminars by respected academics
and experts.
The bottom line is this: if you are
looking for a cost efficient, high-impact communication campaign
with the intent to build business, you should be looking at events.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing
Asian Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and
he is currently at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing
of Asian Professionals into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2004 Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights
Reserved.
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