April 2001

Building the Newspaper Brand

Building and properly managing brand equity is a top priority for newspapers. The key first step is to assess the Brand's particular strengths and weaknesses objectively.

According to Kevin Keller, professor and author of Strategic Brand Management, the world's strongest brands share ten attributes:

1. The brand excels at delivering benefits customers truly desire.
2. The brand stays relevant.
3. The pricing strategy is based on consumer's perceptions of value.
4. The brand is properly positioned.
5. The brand is consistent.
6. The brand portfolio and hierarchy make sense.
7. The brand makes use of and coordinates a full repertoire of marketing activities to build equity.
8. The brand's managers understand what the brand means to the consumers.
9. The brand is given proper support and that support is maintained over the long run.
10. The company monitors sources of brand equity.

Several of these traits tie in well with strategic consumer research Belden Associates has been conducting:

1. What are the benefits customers truly desire?
2. What are the consumer's perceptions of value?
3. What does the brand mean to the consumer?

Important consumer benefits identified in recent research include:

• Content
• Convenience
• Credibility
• Customer service

Content opportunity topics to expand and promote include:

• Community/neighborhood news
• Education and schools
• Health and fitness
• Environment
• Families and parenting

The Newspaper Brand

The Brand is a pattern of attributes that may be tangible or invisible, rational or emotional. The consumer's perceived value is directly related to the brand. Successful branding increases the perceived value.

Recent Belden research has identified characteristics that contribute to reader perception of value. Respondents are read a list of characteristics and asked to do two things: First, rate them for importance ranked by " what you want from a newspaper," and; next, rate the local newspaper on how well these characteristics describe it. The characteristics are analyzed independently and also as patterns of brand elements, images that fall into related patterns using factor analysis.

Although the results and the brand elements are different and vary by market, these are the apparently universal brand elements from recent studies:

• The Credible brand element
• The Personally Pertinent brand element
• The Useful brand element