Is Brand Publishing Right for You?
你的品牌適合出版嗎?
分享者/李雨蓁
原文網址：http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/07/is-brand-publishing-right-for-you.html
我在本周與一個品牌團隊進行了一次有趣的討論，是關於創造內容，如諮詢、技巧、訣竅和擁有什麼。 市場總監立志創造自己的品牌。有一個例子可以說明－幫寶適。他們的網站稱為“Pampers Village”，已建置許多有關嬰兒護理的內容和工具：根據專家小組的建議，桌面「小工具」會定期地告訴你的寶寶的成長情況。
但我不確定這個方向是否正確。 為了幫助我們找出最佳的方案，我建議提出以下問題：
1. 光是分類和品牌的趣味性就夠了嗎？
思考一下，你是否願意瀏覽該品牌的線上雜誌？ 有了幫寶適，嬰兒護理就是一個高度情感的區域。 因為孕婦和新手媽媽對嬰兒護理是資訊永遠無法滿足。 而在品牌方面，幫寶適是一個非常值得信賴的權威，幫寶適在行銷端使用了幾十年專家的背書。
相反地，一些品牌和類別會因為內容的豐富度不足或是不夠吸引人而選擇不公開資訊。像是， 我喜歡Hellmann的蛋黃醬。 不過，我並不想讀他們的雜誌。 現在，我猜想你可以提供建議對食物和烹飪，而不是提供Hellmann品牌的訊息。 但這樣真的可以賣出更多的蛋黃醬嗎（刺激銷售量） ...
... 這給我們帶來了第二個問題。
2. 這將如何幫助你賣出更多的東西？
在我們的書中，一切都應該幫你提升銷售量。 只是說，身為一個品牌出版商會讓人們因受到幫助而備感溫暖，反而看不清品牌的缺點。 對於幫寶適而言，他們知道每位媽媽購買他們產品的階段只有幾年時間而已。 因此，幫寶適必須要讓她們能夠提早購買，而且要每星期都購買。Pampers Village就是這種方法的延伸。 在如此複雜的數據基礎下，行銷的核心就要瞄準嬰兒的成長階段，像是樣品、優惠券。 它有助於讓準媽媽們早日做好準備， 而其方式就是不斷提醒她們每星期購買幫寶適。
另一種有效的品牌出版方法就是生活方式品牌，其中的內容可以是加強聲望以及成為「會員制俱樂部的成員之一」。 以Nespresso咖啡為例，這是一個以成員為基礎的品牌。 他們充滿質感的雜誌，讓閱讀變得有趣....
.... 我們的第三個問題也就因此應運而生。
3. 你有沒有足夠的現金和人力將把它做好？
身為一個出版商就是一個巨大的承諾。 因為一旦開始，就必須持續向前。 當和Jordans Cereals工作時，我們建議要有一個人專門負責部落格、電子報和Twitter的更新。 而且，Rachel 花了很多時間做在取得他們的信任。 Innocent冰沙有一個大約15位具有創造力成員的團隊，他們寫下所有令人驚艷的包裝並將之複製在每一瓶上，這就是一種出版的形式。
現在，你真的願意？ 你是否準備好組成團隊，花費金錢來成為品牌的出版者，並且把它做好？
如果所有上述情況你的回答為“yes”，就能夠出版。 如果沒有，你可能當編輯者會比較好。 例如：你可以從其他的部落格編譯相關的內容， 並連結與其他出版商來推廣你的品牌。 像是Hellmann's就可能是在生活用品網站中食品部分的一個主要贊助商。
I had an interesting discussion with a brand team this week about creating content, such as advice, tips, tricks and what have you. The marketing director aspired to create his own branded content. An example of this approach would be Pampers. Their website is called "Pampers Village", and has loads of content and tools about baby care: advice from expert panels, a desktop "widget" that tells you what your baby-to-be is up to week by week.
But I wasn't sure this was the right way to go. To help us figure out the best way forward, I suggested the following questions:
1. Is the category and brand interesting enough?
A way of thinking about this is whether you'd want to browse the brand's online magazine. With Pampers, baby care is a highly emotional area. Expectant and new mums have an insatiable appetite for information. And on the brand side, Pampers is a highly trusted authority, who for decades has used expert endorsement as part of its marketing.
In contrast, some brands and categories just don't lend themselves to being a content publisher. I love Hellmann's mayonnaise. But I don't want to read their magazine. Now, you could give advice about food and cooking I suppose, rather than info on the Hellmann's brand. But then is that really going to sell and more mayo...
... which brings us to the second question.
2. How will this help you SMS (sell more stuff)?
In our book, everything should help you sell more stuff. Just saying that being a brand publisher will help make people feel warm and fuzzy about your brand aint good enough. For Pampers, they know they only have mums for a few years. So, they have to get them early, and keep them buying every week. At the heart of doing this is a highly sophisticated data-base marketing approach, targeting coupons and samples at key baby life-stages. Pampers Village is an extension of this. It helps get expectant mums signed up early. And its a way to keep reminding them to buy Pampers every week.
The other way brand publishing works well is for lifestyle brands, where the content can reinforce a sense of prestige and being "a member of an exclusive club". This is literally the case with Nespresso, which is a member-based brand. Their magazine is very high quality, and actually makes interesting reading....
.... which brings us to the third question.
3. Do you have the cash and people to do it well?
Being a publisher is a huge commitment. Because once you've started, you need keep going. When working with Jordans Cereals, we recommended having a person pretty much full time to write the blog, email newsletters and Twitter updates. And, all credit to them, this is what Rachel spends a lot of her time doing. On a much bigger scale, innocent smoothies have an in-house team of about 15 creative people to write all that amazing pack copy on every bottle, a form of publishing.
Now, are you really up for this? Are you prepared to staff up and spend cash to be a publisher, and do it well?
If you answer "yes" to all the above, get publishing. If not, you may be better off being an "editor" of content. You can compile relevant content from other blogs for example. And link up with other publishers to promote your brand. For example, Hellmann's could be a key sponsor of the food section of the Good Living website.
