Welcome to our short blog looking at Best of Global Brands . Part 2/ 4 Part blog. Part 1 focused on some of the key distinguishing features common to all, or most of the top global brands. Technology First , Sustainability, Brands who encouraged and participated in ongoing Business to Consumer dialogue Brands who are distinctive, coherent and participative. In this blog - Part 2 - we shall look at the Biggest Risers in the report as well as Brand RELEVANCE as a factor of Brand Strenght. Not too surprisingly amid Covid Lockdowns in 2020 the biggest risers were identified as Amazon, Spotify and Netflix with growth rates of 60%, 52% and 41% respectively. These fastest risers outperformed other brands on three key BRAND STRENGHTS 1. Empathy 2. Agility 3. Affinity Microsoft has displayed empathy as a brand where leadership continually "connects the core of the business to customer needs through a deep sense of empathy" Interbrand Report 2020 Another top rising brand is Amazon. Amazon invested over $28 billion on R&D in 2018 " making agility exponential ". Between category changing iconic moves and daily one to one interactions Amazon has successfully shifted all of our expectations for speedy and efficient fulfilment and delivery. It is also interesting to note that 50% + of worlds top growing brands have SUBSCRIPTION MODEL BUSINESSES Interbrand Report 2020 Not too surprisingly either in 2020 there was a huge uptake in Brands that CONNECT us. Brands involved in communications and social media experienced bumper months in 2020 globally with Zoom coming in at (#100) , Youtube (#30) and Instagram (#19). These brands were included in the rankings as top global brands for the first time ever. Changes in consumers lifestyles , working arrangements led to a much higher uptake in technologies that enabled working remotely , e-events. e-conferencing with revenues at Zoom up 270% in the first half 2020.

Looking at global best brands and their marketing strategies can be an effective way of gaining insight on what's working what's not in marketing and branding today. What exactly are they doing so well in these turbulent and fast changing times? It proves interesting because very often elements of their best practice strategies can be incorporated into the marketing and branding activities of other less well known, less global, prehaps less successful brands, small scale & start up businesses to improve, engage more gain increased trust and grow. The Interbrand Best Global Brand Report 2020 makes for a fascinating read. The report identifies the Top 100 Best Global Brands featuring many well known and iconic brands. Apple, Amazon. Google , Microsoft , Samsung, Coca- Cola, Toyota, Mercedes, McDonalds and Disney are listed in the Top 10 followed by BMW, Intel, Facebook, IBM, Nike, Cisco and Louis Vitton. So what lessons can we take-away from this report which may be helpful and valuable when crafting your own marketing and branding plans..... Well for starters strong resilient brands became much stronger in 2020 due to Covid. Reading through the report it quickly becomes obvious that key to most, if not all of these great brands is their focus on technology to innovate and grow. " Technology First Brands Dominate " Interbrand Report 2020 A further factor of importance is the issue of SUSTAINABILITY . Going forward this issue can no longer be an optional side thought it has to be a top priority now for all brands hoping to succeed. The rapidly changing consumer - business relationship is highlighted and viewed now as a relationship based on a set of shared values. Consumers now engage with brands not as " unconditional faithful customers but as active constituents, collaborators " Interbrand Best Global Brands 2020. Creating powerful engagement is important to the top 100 Global brands. Key to their engagement success is being DISTINCTIVE, COHERENT, PARTCIPATIVE. According to S Nadella CEO Microsoft " Brands need to listen more, talk less and be decisive when the time comes ". Great quote and something for brands and businesses to really consider. Other key factors for Brand Success include fostering a dialogue between the brand and consumers, constituents , inviting co-operation and creating a real following. Small acts displaying empathy , gratitude and vulnerability are now as important for the brands as iconic moves that solve unmet customer needs. There is so much more contained within the report that we plan to blog about it over the coming weeks in a four part series. In the meantime the key takeaways for me were the importance of technology & sustainability in building brands and the recognition that brand relevance, brand trust and empathy are becoming even more critical components of successful brand building than ever before. Mary Morgan MMII MBS Mary Morgan Marketing Mary Morgan is a Master in Business Graduate from Dublin Business School Ireland with extensive corporate experience in Sales, Business Development & Marketing at Multinational Companies - Baxter Healthcare ,Janssen Cilag, United drug - as well as consultancy experience working with Irish micro, small and SME's. Mary also delivers marketing and business lectures on a part time basis, previously in WIT, Griffith College Dublin and currently at Dublin City University LS. She currently offers business and marketing consulting services, experiential marketing event management, online workshops and talks. Follow on facebook.com/marymorganmarketing, linkedin and IG www.marymorganmarketing.ie

ECommerce represents a significant opportunity for ALL businesses. Whereas before the market for startups and small businesses was very often limited to a local area, immediate neighbourhood, town, city or country there is now real potential for SME's , small µo businesses to reach some of the over 2 Billion online shoppers, make a real connection and a sale. " Global Ecommerce Market $4.8 Trillion 2021 " Source.....Forbes 2021 Marketing has traditionally concerned itself with the CUSTOMER, their needs & wants, satisfying those needs and wants. That was drummed into us all at marketing colleges and it still holds true even in this day of fast speedy transactions with very often no physical contact along the journey. So at all times the CUSTOMER and their experience both on and offline with your brand and business is CRUCIAL. Plenty of research and stats showing how customers will abandon a business or brand if website is too slow too tricky to navigate, too complex to read . Customers today want a SEAMLESS experience across all devices - tablet, desktop, mobile - they want SIMPLICITY and they want it FAST. Continue to research who your customers are, where they are, their needs, wants and concerns. Address those needs wants concerns. Market Research Data must be analysed continually to improve the customer experience CX and the product or services offerings. For small businesses and startups without a marketing research budget important information can be gained from simply analyzing data from social media platforms, your website, review platforms and online marketplaces.

Loyalt Brand Loyalty Its a well known fact that .....Acquiring new customers is a much more costly exercise than retaining existing customers. Much has been written previously on Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) but keeping it simple so we will just explore some easy ways to ensure customers remain LOYAL to your brand & your business. Lifelong loyal customers are valuable to any business & should be treated as such. Simple but effective measures include Loyalty programmes, discount offerings, free gifts can be a great way to recognise and reward them for their continued loyalty to your brand. Research regularly what your customer cares about , their changing needs and wants and how best your brand , products and services can match up. Remember to analyse the data too. A SMILE goes a really long way in offline customer service, costs nothing & makes the bearer feel good too! Online respond promptly across your social media channels, engage regularily and make sure you are responding to good and not so good reviews. Exceptional Customer Service is great for brand loyalty. Customer experience CX both on and offline is just so important that it has to be a top priority - customers want speedy & efficient service, fast delivery, reduced shipping or free shipping costs, quality products and helpful responses to their concerns or queries. If they are not getting these essentials they tend to go elsewhere, fast. No one expects any business to get everything right spot on all of the time and customers do tend to be very forgiving if their concerns are responded to and an effort, however small is made to rectify or improve. A recent study from Salesforce particularily relevant... 80% customers said Customer Experience as important to them as the product & 57% go elsewhere if they do not get it ********************** Other important measures include an effective communications programme both on and offline, managing content effectively, ensuring brand messages and values are consistent across all channels with ongoing research and analysis. These measures will be each explored in more detail in separate upcoming blogs. Mary Morgan www.marymorganmarketing.ie

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