My focus in 2012 has been, as always, on quality rather than quantity. I want to provide my readers with useful and practical articles that will help them in their everyday job as Marketers.

Below is a list of the BrandUniq’s most popular posts for 2012. In case you missed them, make sure you check them out:

Developing an Effective Marketing Strategy: Key Issues to Be Addressed. A sound strategy is the foundation of every successful brand. This article lists the key points to be addressed in a strategic document.

How To Write A Strategic Marketing Plan. The marketing plan is the yearly to do list, based on the medium and long term strategic objectives. This article is a summary of what needs to be included in the document.

Brand Positioning Resource Page. Positioning and differentiation are two very important concepts in Brand Management. This collection of articles provides some insights on how to build a strong brand through meaningful differentiation.

The Importance of Branding. A strong brand is the most important asset a business owns. This article explains why.

Understanding Objectives, Strategy and Tactics. These are major components of any strategic plan. They are also some of the most confusing even for experienced Marketing professionals.

I wish all my readers Happy Holidays and a prosperous 2013!

Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder of Chobani Yogurt (photo courtesy of inc.com)

I recently read the story of Chobani, the  famous brand of Greek-style yogurt.

The company founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish emigrant, arrived in the US to study English and ended up building a company that has become the category leader with $600 million in revenue.

What an inspiring story!

What’s really fascinating is the courage,  passion, marketing instincts and simple strategic approach the owner used to succeed in a highly competitive segment.

A true entrepreneur.

Since I deal exclusively with new entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses, I was privileged to get an inside look at how their business is run, and what it takes to compete against the big corporations. Based on my personal observations and the latest economic trends I believe the business model of tomorrow is based on entrepreneurship.

Here  are my top five reasons why:

Determination To Succeed

It’s not easy to start and grow a business. Many of us studied and worked hard to build a successful career in the corporate world. The steady income, a fairly predictable work schedule, good benefits-those are strong reasons that hold people back from starting on their own.

Successful entrepreneurs have the courage to make drastic changes to their careers without looking back. They are risk takers and doers who usually start from the bottom. Their determination and desire to succeed leads to bold and quick decisions, and the ability to make changes when needed.

Efficient Decision-Making Process

The ability to make quick decisions is a natural advantage that entrepreneurs have over the big corporations.

The competitive landscape changes fast. New trends are emerging overnight, and consumer loyalty is shrinking. Decisions such as launching a new product, kill an unprofitable category, refocus their market approach or entering a new market have to be made and implemented quickly in order to keep up with the competition.

While big corporations struggle to find their path to respond to demanding shareholders, entrepreneurs are the ones generating new ideas and building their brands faster. And this is a key competitive advantage in tomorrow’s fast-paced business environment.

True Customer-Focused Approach

The pressure public companies face to meet the profit expectations lead to sometimes irrational decisions: rapid expansion into non-core categories and markets, poor product quality control, and implementation of automated services that eliminates any form of human interaction.

Most entrepreneurs know that maintaining a personal connection with the consumer is what’s keeping their business running. And a better quality product combined with the more personal nature of the service makes for a very strong differentiation strategy.

“Small” is Back

This has nothing to do with the famous advertising campaign for Volkswagen Beetle. It has to do with globalization, the economic reality that is affecting what and where we shop.

There are strong signs that consumers are very willing to support the independent, small local business. Shoppers prefer the better quality product, personalized options and more human way of doing businesses versus dealing with faceless, profit-driven corporations run by Wall Street.

Local manufacturing will also make a comeback, as more consumers prefer to support local economies and buy products made locally.

Changes in Labour Market

Youth unemployment is at an all-time high. In some parts of the world one in two young adults can’t find work. Gone are the days of good paying “employee-for-life” type jobs.

In the developed economies the biggest cost of doing business is labour. In order to remain competitive big companies are offering new hires lower wages and less benefits.

Many young professionals realize that they will have to make it on their own in order to earn a decent living. That’s how entrepreneurship is born.

Although most family-owned businesses struggle to compete with big box stores and multinationals, consumers are on their side. With the proper emphasis of their competitive advantages they will succeed.

What do you think the future of business will look like? I am very interested in your thoughts and predictions in the Comments section below.

Additional ( interesting) reading:

How Turkish ‘Dairy Boy’ Hamdi Ulukaya Started $600 Million Chobani

How Fage Lost the Greek-Yogurt War

Independent We Stand-A Movement of Independently-Owned Businesses

My regular readers know that the focus of this blog is strategic marketing and brand management.

If your job involves crafting the marketing strategy for new and existing brands then hopefully the strategic planning page I put together will come in handy. It includes articles that address strategic planning topics such as:

• crafting your medium to long term strategic plan
• writing the yearly marketing plan
• performing an effective SWOT analysis
• setting up your yearly marketing budget

and many more.

You can visit the page here.

I am open to suggestions on how to make this page even more resourceful. Enjoy and share!

In part 1 of this article I talked about the “non-professional” challenges of a newcomer looking for a job in a new country.

Now that we have the fundamentals covered, it’s time to begin the job hunt.

I will start with the number one professional challenge most newcomers face.

The Biggest Hurdle

No employer will admit it, but all newcomers know it.

The first job is usually the most difficult to get for one single reason: lack of work experience in that country. It’s a chicken and egg situation: you need experience to get a job, however nobody is giving you a chance because you don’t have the experience.

I am still not sure what  the “lack of experience” meant in my case, a Marketer looking for a job in Canada. I think is has more to do with what I mentioned in the previous article: the ability to integrate in a team, and embrace a different culture.

There are a few ways to overcome this:

Volunteering

Many businesses are in desperate need of Marketing help. Since you volunteer, any “risk” associated with bringing you on board is eliminated. It’s a win-win situation: you get the experience you need, they get free Marketing help.

As an immigrant, volunteering solves only half the issue. You still need a job to feed your family, so you have to find a balance between offering your help for free and looking for a paying job.

Work for free

Another strategy you can try is to offer your services for free, ideally for a limited period of time (usually 3 months). In return you should get employer’s commitment that, if everything goes well, you will be offered a paying job.

Again, the idea here is to eliminate employer risk of hiring you. If at the end of the 3 months you will have to part ways with your employer at least you gained the much-needed experience. Same challenge here: you will still need a paying job to cover the living costs.

Get a job below your qualifications

That’s the most common strategy newcomers are forced to adopt  including myself. It’s also the one that generates most frustration and dissatisfaction. The key here is to maintain a positive attitude and do your job well. You never know whom you will meet, that will change your career for the better.

I worked for about 3 month in a store, in a position below my qualifications. Although I had my own frustration and disillusions  overall it was a positive experience. I met a lot of nice people, and was able to transfer some of the skills to the next Marketing  jobs.

Have a Top-Notch Resume (or CV)

North Americans call it resume. In other parts of the worlds it’s the curriculum vitae (CV). Employers spend on average 10 seconds scanning it. So you have a very limited time to make a first good impression.

Make sure you adapt your resume to the specific format of the job market you want to penetrate. For example, in some countries the CV will include personal information such as date of birth, military status, etc.

In North America any personal information except the name and contact info has to be left out.

You should be able to find a lot of valuable resources about how to create a resume. In Canada, governmental settlement agencies offer free consultations on how to write your resume for successful job search. Make sure you identify and take advantage of all these tools in your target country before you begin your job hunt.

One other important thing: make sure you customize your resume for each particular Marketing position you apply to.

Remember: you have less then 10 seconds to position yourself as the Marketer they need. Study the job description and re-write your skills to answer each particular requirement, even if you have to improvise. I am not saying you should lie in your resume, just be creative.

If you are looking for a job in Canada, below are some resource pages you might find useful:

How to Create your Canadian Resume

Employment information

Finding a Job: Explore All Options

There is no universal recipe for finding a job. If you talk to ten peolple you will hear ten different stories about how they found their jobs. Most common methods include:

• job sites (such as workopolis.com, moster.ca for Canada)
• newspaper ads
• recruitment agencies
• networking
• referrals
• free internship
• social media

These methods are valid for finding any job, and I am not going to review all of them. My only advice: don’t focus on a single method, try them all if you can. You never know what works for you.

Back in the days when I was looking for a job social media was non-existent. I found my first marketing job through Workopolis, the second one through Monster, and the third through a recruitment agency. As you can see, I used three different tools to land a job.

Social Media Helps

Searching for a marketing job in the social media era is easier. Make a list of companies you want to work for, and follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Engage in conversation, make yourself noticed.

You can leverage the explosion of social media in a few ways:

• offer companies free Marketing advice (even constructive criticism) on their Marketing materials and strategy. The good thing about social media is you don’t need any formal invitation to express your opinion.
• Start a Marketing blog (in your adoptive country’s language) is a great way to build credibility and network with potential employers.
• Ask for an informal interview through Twitter. Make it clear that only purpose of this interview is to learn more about the company, from the company itself. In some cases, this strategy might land you the job you want.

I will leave you with a funny video showing a Canadian employee’s first day at the new USA office:

I will continue to write about what it takes to have a successful Marketing career. Join the e-mail lists at the bottom of this post to receive the updates.

The goal of this blog is to help marketers build strong and differentiated brands.

I spent the last couple of weeks creating the brand positioning resource page. Here you will find a collection of articles relating to this very important concept in brand management.

To visit the page, click here.

More resource pages to follow.

Enjoy!

*This is a guest post by Deron Hogans.

In my eyes, a brand is a company’s most powerful and valuable asset. It’s how the consumer identifies a company. It’s what they connect with. It’s the personality and the image. In the business of brand building, we are always looking for new ways to connect with consumers, deeper levels to tie the brand experience with their own.

We develop values for our brands and try to align them with the consumers’.

The human experience is one that is personal, social and societal. These are just a few of the levels brands can connect with consumers, the latter being more appropriate for political purposes. But these levels of the human experience all tie into one experience that can encompass each of the three mentioned and more: a cultural experience.

Brands appropriately developed to create a cultural experience or have a deep cultural impact can offer many opportunities to the products and companies they represent. Whether these brands write themselves into the DNA of a culture, foster a culture of their own or both, brands that establish a cultural connection can build a solid foundation on which to stand and make longevity an attainable goal.

When I think about companies that have achieved a deep cultural connection, two brands come to mind: Jones Soda Co. and Nike.

Jones Soda Co. has injected itself into the veins of a subculture of hipsters, creators and innovators by making those attributes apart of the brand itself. Consumers can submit photos of them to the Jones Soda Co. and create bottles with logos that feature their own designs and photography, with the best work eventually making its way to national distributors.

This taps into the spirit of creativity that can be found amongst creative minds and artistic communities. Jones Soda Co. has become a part of that culture.

Nike, however, has not only embedded itself in sports culture, but has also created a culture of its own. By aligning itself with the likes of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi and many others, Nike began to represent a standard of excellence for athletes.

In the midst of this alignment, Nike’s products began to represent the essence of winning, being a champion. Their signature lines became some of the most sought after athletic footwear products on the market, eventually giving emboldening what we now know as modern sneaker culture.

Complex Magazine recently named Michael Jordan as the most influential figure in sneaker culture, and it’s no coincidence that Nike’s commitment to innovation and excellence in product design and development stands behind his shoes’ success.

These two brands are benefiting from making an investment in culture and will be for a long time to come. As brands look for more ways to connect with consumers on a deeper level, culture will stand as one of the best ways to do so.

Culture is something that you will find anywhere you find humanity, and the brands that become a part of it or create their own become a part of a never-ending narrative.

Deron Hogans is a graduating student from Georgetown University’s school of Communication, Culture, and Technology currently working in New York for the global marketing consultancy, EffectiveBrands. His expertise includes brand management, positioning, and strategy development as well as corporate communications. He can be reached via e-mail at deron.dmv@gmail.com and various social networks.

LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/deronhogansjr 
Twitter: @DeronHogansJr

Do you have a passion for Marketing strategy and Brand Management?

Are you willing to share your Marketing knowledge and experience with fellow Marketers from around the world?

Do you need a platform to express your thoughts and opinions?

If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes”, and you would like to be featured as a guest writer on the BrandUniq blog I would like to hear from you.

I encourage Marketers from all industries and markets across the world to share their experiences that we can all benefit from. I am especially intrigued by your experiences in emerging markets such as China, Vietnam, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America as well as more established ones such as Western Europe and North America.

What I am Looking For:

• Unique articles (not published anywhere else) from beginner, intermediate and experienced Marketers
• Tips, opinions, and advice on Marketing Strategy and Brand Management issues
• The article must be minimum 350 words in length
• In return I will give you you a byline and include links back to your blogs, website or any other web presence in return for your article.

I am also open to writing articles for your website or blog as well, in case you are interested.

I encourage you to  get in touch with me via this blog,  e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. I want to give you a platform so you can share your knowledge and points of view with us!

I am happy to let you know that this blog has an official Facebook page. I know I am only 8 years late but it finally happened.

I have to admit I don’t dedicate a lot of time to social media (brand management takes most of my work day, my growing family keeps me busy at home). I also find socializing via computers a little “artificial”.

That being said I made some great connections via Twitter, LinkedIn and the BrandUniq blog. I hope Facebook will allow me to “meet” more interesting people and learn new things.

What will you find on BrandUniq’s Facebook page? Mostly video links (interviews with great Marketers, commercials I find interesting), as well other information I find worth sharing with you.

But most importantly, feel free to use this page to get in touch with me. I look forward to receiving your comments, ideas, suggestions and opinions.

If you would like to visit the new page (and hopefully “Like” it) please see below:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/BrandUniq-Simpler-Marketing/494821243877644

See you on Facebook.

Michael

I’ve been fortunate enough to see  a few countries on different continents during my personal and business travels. I always end up comparing the place I visit to the one I call home, Canada, and reflect on how lucky I am to live in such a great country.

It’s difficult to rank what I like best about this vast land: the ethnic and cultural diversity, the respect that people show for each other, the tolerance and acceptance, its peacefulness and natural beauty. Or maybe the fact that so many immigrants that land at the airport with just two suitcases and many hopes and dreams end up fulfilling many of them.

An older gentlemen who was visiting Canada from Europe once told me: “It’s amazing to see people of so many races living together peacefully here in Canada, while in other countries people of the same ethnicity don’t seem to get along at all “. His words always come to mind when I watch the news and see what’s happening around us.

If you had to use a single word to describe what makes Canada different from the rest of the world, what would that word be? Post your answer in the Comments section below.

Happy 145th birthday Canada!

Dr. Emily R. Coleman, the President of Competitive Advantage Marketing asked me to write a guest post about the impact of social media on Brand Management. You can read the full article here.