Brand Journalism - a topic for the Steem Blockchain?
Writing about marketing and communications
Dear Steemians, this is a test to find out if there are still guys reading posts and a test whether business topics work. Around comms that might be needed also to push this blockchain a bit to the next level - I actually gave up a bit writing about such topics, but hey - let us give this another try!
Here comes my third post in the serial about brand journalism - the first ones are from over 2 years ago. Hope you enjoy!
Brand journalism, content marketing and storytelling - Are these just ephemeral marketing hypes of the communication industry in the 21st century?
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Absolutely not! There are a number of examples from the past that showcase how businesses have managed to firmly anchor their brands in consumers’ memories, through storytelling or adding extra value for their customers. Please read what one of my team members compiled. This is Traditional Brand Journalism - not from 2017 but from the last century.
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Recipes as value add
In 1891 a pharmacist from Bielefeld in Germany introduced a new baking soda. His innovative idea was the packaging size. In contrast to his competitors he offered practical small packages, which exactly matched the 500 grams of flour required – a blessing for the housewife. The rapid success of these baking soda sachets was equally down to the delicious, easy-to-prepare recipes that were printed on their packaging. In this way, the pharmacist established himself as an expert for baked goods amongst his customers. He also won their trust in his brand. If people followed the recipes, the cake would always turn out as hoped. The pharmacist from Bielefeld was in fact Dr. Oetker! With this ingenious service initiative, Oetker managed to evolve his small pharmacy business into one of Germany’s largest family-owned corporations, with a turnover of 11 billion Euros.
From tyres to travel guides
Michelin, the French producer of tyres, devised a special service for their customers back in 1900. André and Édouard Michelin developed a directory of garages for French car drivers – less than 3,000 at the time – and so the first Michelin Guide was born. Originally limited to France, with a circulation of 35,000 copies, the success story of the renowned hotel and restaurant guide began.
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The travel book also offered tips on how to use the car and tyres and listed the names of garages, battery charging stations and petrol stations. Today, the Red Michelin and Green Michelin have become internationally established travel guides that are used worldwide by tourists as a qualified source of information. With an online edition, numerous international issues and the awarding of the renowned Michelin stars, the tyre producer has managed to establish their customer service initiative as a brand of its own in the competitive travel industry.
Making records
After failing in his hunt for a golden plover during a shooting party, Sir Hugh Beaver, general manager of the Irish Guinness brewery, was involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe: a plover or a grouse. On realising that there were no reference books to help settle such an argument, he had the idea of combining beer consumers’ passion for betting with a compilation of records. As a result, he commissioned the first edition of The Guinness Book of Records. Over the years the compilation of records grew in popularity and the registered trademark was later sold to the Jim Pattison Group in 2008. Today, other businesses use Guinness World Records to promote their own brands, with extensive coverage on the Internet, TV shows and in books, as well as via social media channels. That is how a hunting defeat turned into one of the world’s most popular brands, with 98 per cent brand recognition in the English-speaking world.
As these three examples demonstrate, brand journalism is not an invention of the 21st century. It has been around, in some form or another, for over 100 years, and contributed to the impressive growth of a number of brands. Regardless of its label, whether such an initiative is successful will depend on the brilliant idea and also on the stamina implementing it. Being unique, original and addressing customer needs will always create a platform for success.
Traditional Brand Journalism is still valid for all marketing experts and should be used for future campaigns.
I pusblished this on my personal blog years ago - a blog that got killed by criminals unfortunately.
Read my first post on the serial about the importance of brand journalism
Read my second post on the serial about the fundamental of brand journalism
Photo sources: Wikipedia, my former company site where I used to write a lot and Pixabay. All are CC0 Public Domain, Free for commercial use, No attribution required
Brand journalism will be around for a very looong time. As long as it works and brings results for brands it is here to stay. The story of Dr. Oetker is a great example of how creativity can make a huge difference.
I also appreciate that you took the time to put together a great post. Not many people on this platform talk about marketing so it's always nice to see informative and quality material.
Thanks a lot for this feedback, very much appreciated
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If you talk about Michelin and it's guide, I had some funny adventure at Schwarzreiter in Munich ;)
Tell us more
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Wanted to go with my Godfather there, as he goes to 3 stars Michelin restaurants on his travels. As this is supposed to be one of the top 2 in Munich we booked a table on their site. We arrived there and it was not that special, no special menu, no wine menu associated with the dinner package. Usually on 3 stars restaurants you book a menu.
I asked the waiter for the wine menu and he brought another menu. It was the real thing. I said why did they not gave us this at first. Than they said it was an error that we received the second menu. Their system is faulty and did not book us on the side of the restaurant with the star chef and 3 stars. We were in the plain hotel restaurant. So we did not stay... we landed at Augustiner am Platzl which was a total fail. Would nobody recommend that hole.
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Cool story - Ending at Augustiner am Platzl sounds adventurous
Interesting information... I didn't know that was how Dr. Oetker got started. I love reading well written blogs that are of interest to me!
Great - a miracle happened, a comment with a message, thanks so much my dear!
You must not be hanging out with the right people! My posts are filled with meaningful comments! Come join in anytime! You will meet lots of Engagers! 😃
Hmmm, yeah I also got some engagement but honestly it faded a lot - am here nearly three years but feel it never been that calm - i am also guilty as i have hardly time to engage as much as I did befoe but i keep on trying :-)
You know I totally give you credit for leading me to Steem. I can't begin to thank you enough for those Facebook posts encouraging all of us from TSU to take a look at Steem. Sending you some ENGAGE Tokens. !ENGAGE 50
Oh - I was not 100% aware it was me to lead you here - many came but many also did not really understand Steem and are active on very strange platforms.
The strange platform people will wish they had come here at some point in the future! 😉
Here are your
ENGAGE
tokens!To view or trade
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go to steem-engine.com.To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
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