Trends at the Swiss Brand Congress
More than 300 brand decision-makers attended the Swiss Brand Congress in Zurich. Over the past few years, the congress has become the leading gathering for brand decision-makers in Switzerland.
The contributions on the topic of "brand" were just as diverse as the participants. The congress was attended by small B2B companies, large branded companies, agencies and associations. The range of forums included practical case studies of successful brand management, the latest scientific findings on brand perception and how to turn your own employees into valuable brand ambassadors. The organizer Stephan Feige, management consultancy htp St. Gallen, emphasized that brand management is once again an important topic after the crisis and that companies are once again looking to the future.
Social media in modern brand management
The topic of social media was omnipresent and was discussed at practically all forums - this is hardly surprising when you consider that new offerings are constantly being added to the market and media interest has once again increased significantly compared to last year. In addition, current figures show that two thirds of the largest Swiss companies already actively maintain social media accounts. Facebook is the most intensively used platform, but only 22% of companies have a social media strategy.
Sascha Lobo, guru of the social media scene, advised companies to take a relaxed approach when dealing with the digital public. Three principles are decisive for successful communication: simplicity in the sense of precise and concise messages, sympathetic communication and arousing interest through an attractive, relevant and news-oriented topic setting. It was mentioned several times that negative statements are also part of the "image of a brand on the Internet". It is therefore not a question of presenting a permanent fair-weather period, but of providing companies and customers with an interactive communication platform that contributes to the sovereignty and credibility of a brand.
Patrick Möschler, Head of Social Media at Swisscom, was delighted with the importance attached to the topic in his company. CEO Carsten Schloter is continuously expanding social media activities. The company already has 30 employees working on brand management on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and profiles on Xing and LinkedIn are being planned. Ole Rauch, Head of Marketing at Swiss Olympics, impressively describes the change in strategy from print (association magazine) to social media community. The reasons for the change were as follows: Saving finances, enabling interaction with readers, generating new audiences (mainly young people), immediate accessibility, web is also an archive, building a community and image factors. However, it should be borne in mind with this change that readers 50+ are lost, the texts are shorter and the costs can be reduced in the short term. However, with 27,000 newsletter subscribers, 15,000 Facebook fans and 30,000 to 40,000 visitors to the website, those responsible are satisfied with the changeover.
Sustainability is treated "sustainably"
Daniel Meyer, CEO of Kraft Foods Switzerland, and Ralph Huggel, Country Manager Switzerland at Chiquita, emphasized that anyone who thinks that responsible action is merely a trendy topic of recent years is mistaken. It is rather the case that their companies have been implementing sustainability concepts for many years, but that communication is only now really getting underway as public interest has increased. Meyer rejects the idea that the term sustainability is suffering from inflation. The term is indeed often used, but there is no other term for it. Meyer also believes that if every company, from production to the end customer, worked on sustainability, it would be a win-win situation for everyone.
Sustainability using the example of "Chiquita"
What exactly does sustainability mean in the context of brand management? A sustainable attitude in the areas of the environment, agriculture, labor and human rights as well as trade union freedom and anchoring these in the corporate and brand concept favors a positive image transfer to the brand. The principle in Chiquita's sustainability strategy is "cooperation instead of confrontation" and means for practical implementation: it is not worth arguing with environmental associations, trade unions and social institutions. However, active cooperation can be worthwhile for both parties. For example: As an environmental organization, the Rainforest Alliance has not only pushed for improvements, but has also designed the system of improvements itself. Chiquita's concrete goal is to become the global leader in the fruit industry as a sustainable large-scale producer. Following the 1993 certifications with the Rainforest Alliance, a logo supplement was used to communicate the sustainable cooperation with Rainforest. In addition to television advertising and PR advertorials, active communication was pursued from 2005 onwards. Since then, there have been 40 million contacts worldwide in connection with the collaboration with Rainforest.
Who organizes the "Day of the Brand"?
Promarca, the management consultancy htp St. Gallen, the European Sponsoring Exchange (ESB) and the University of St. Gallen are jointly launching the Brand Day. Anastasia Li-Treyer, Director of Promarca, formulates the tasks of the Swiss Brand Congress as follows: "The aim is to inspire people who have an affinity with brands and their environment. In a country like Switzerland, which is poor in raw materials, knowledge, innovation and creativity ensure prosperity. These are all factors that characterize branded products and therefore branded companies. A good reason to use the "Brand Day" to provide information about the contribution of brand companies to Switzerland as a business location, to create transparency with regard to specific Swiss framework conditions and, thanks to the Swiss Brand Congress, to learn about the latest scientific developments". Sinikka Jenni
