When I struggle to find a way to say something...perfectly...I usually turn to people far more brilliant than myself. In this case, I am struck by something Peter Drucker said long ago: "Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got." The challenge for marketers is, we are typically tasked with synthesizing that company culture into a value or promise we deliver through a brand. And, this is also true of country cultures. Attempting to brand, differentiate, promote and elevate perceptions of any destination is so often beholden to this idea of "working with that you've got," yet there are some standouts in positioning a GeoBrand. To showcase these achievements and best practices, the CMO Council will launch the GeoBranding Center, dedicated to the marketing of countries, destinations, places of origin, attractions, venues and locations worldwide.

Through this new thought leadership center, we are launching two GeoBranding campaigns, both tightly woven around how major global events shape the brand and perception of a nation, in this case, South Africa. With the "BENCHMARKING THE BUZZ ON BRAND SOUTH AFRICA" initiative, we will track, monitor and analyze the levels of impact and shift social media and online buzz around the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa has on the brand of South Africa.

We are also asking the creative minds out there to get hyper-creative...in fact we are asking people to "Get Wildly Creative About South Africa" and use new, inventive and highly creative ways to showcase South Africa as the nation readiest to stand in the glare of the global spotlight. If you know any insanely creative and talented designers, creative artists or aspiring creative directors, designers and developers, please recommend this people-inspired advertising contest. We are looking for entries from all over the world, bring new creative talent into the Zooppa-powered online community. The contest kicks off on March 15 and will close May 14...so there is time. You can direct people to either the CMO Council site, or to the Get Wildly Creative Facebook Fan Page.

Finally, if you yourself are a destination marketer, get in touch! We are compiling the best of the best when it comes to showcasing nation, country, city, location and geobranding on a new website that is due to launch this month. We'd love to hear from you and get you and your destination on the site!

Until next month,

Make your corporate newsroom more efficient: establish an automated online newsfeed

By Brian Walton for Marketwire

The online corporate newsroom has evolved dramatically in the past few years. What was once a relatively static page with a chronological list of press releases and a couple of links to editorial coverage is now an interactive platform of news divided by specific topics and product categories; images, videos, white papers and other multimedia assets; communities and message boards; and links to countless other resources.

This "content evolution" has led to higher newsroom search engine rankings and increased number of visitors, but also greater pressure to deliver the ultimate user experience to visiting media, analysts, investors and customers. How does a web marketer modernize the corporate newsroom (and keep content diverse and fresh) in a time of tight budgets and short staff?

A cost-effective, resource-friendly solution is technical integration with your company's newswire service. After all, the newswire distributes content to the masses, and a logical next-step would be a distribution mechanism to the corporate newsroom.

Most companies, however, use their newswire partner primarily to distribute their releases to various publics, and, in a separate step, pass those same releases to their internal web team for posting on their corporate newsroom. Depending on a number of variables (volume of releases, multimedia assets associated with each release, IT resources and availability, etc.), this procedure can either be relatively simple or a complete headache. Many companies experience difficulties in getting news posted in a timely manner. Occasionally, the press releases that are sent over the "wire" aren't identical to the ones posted in the newsroom. Even if a company has a clear process for posting press releases, it's usually a manual process requiring several parties working in tandem.

Working with your newswire provider to automate the corporate newsfeed can help eradicate many of these problems, and streamline the entire process.

How does an automated online newsfeed work?

• First, the newswire must create a private "feed" of company news.
  
  o The feed usually includes everything contained in the press release in neatly organized sections that include the headline, sub-head, body and contact information.
  
  o The feed can also include meta-data, such as keyword tags and other descriptive information, which can be a major component in "parsing" news on the corporate website.
  
  o Additionally, the feed includes all assets distributed with the release, such as multimedia content, hyperlinks and attachments.
• Once the feed is created, the company must then set up their content management system (CMS) to "consume" the newsfeed information in real-time, send the press release pieces to their appropriate sections on the newsroom and format and stylize those pieces according to the look and feel of the corporate website.
• Once everything is live, any press release that is distributed will automatically post to the corporate newsroom. If designed accordingly, supplemental multimedia assets will all be parsed to their appropriate locations.

A private feed from the newswire can significantly minimize delays in getting fresh content posted to the corporate newsroom. What once required the coordination of both the web and PR teams is a now fully automated process that is immediate, accurate and consistent.

An additional benefit to the newsfeed is the "parsing" of press releases to specific categories. Many corporate newsrooms simply list releases in chronological order. This may not be an issue if the company does not distribute a large volume of releases, or if releases are of the same topic. But a large multinational company with several business units and hundreds of products may be under-serving their media, investor and consumer visitors by only providing a single, consolidated list of press releases. Sifting through dozens of releases looking for a particular one can be a tedious process -- you want your audience to be able to find the information they are looking for quickly and simply. If the website's search function doesn't perform intuitively, it may leave the user even more frustrated and, possibly, without the information they were seeking.

With the right configuration, a private feed from a newswire service can tag releases with keywords and other data, dictated by the company's PR or communications team, thereby ensuring that each release is properly routed to the most appropriate section within the corporate newsroom.

There are several ways to integrate a corporate newsroom with a company's newswire partner, all of which lead to automated, consistent and real-time posting of press releases and supplemental content in an organized fashion. While the process to establish a newsfeed - and configure the newsroom to accept it - may require some upfront commitment from internal teams, the automated system allows web marketers to tend to higher priority projects. Communications teams will feel confident that content demands of their constituents are met. Visitors can easily find updated information -- news, videos and images -- in a clean, continuously updated and centralized location.

Brian Walton is the Regional Sales Director for Marketwire, a a leading newswire service offering press release distribution, media contact management, multimedia and media monitoring services for communications professionals.

The New Rules of Winning in The Public Sector Marketing: Strategic Procurement Positioning

Imperatives to Win in Fiercely-Competitive Government Marketing 2.0 Environment

By Gal S. Borenstein

The competitive procurement ground is shifting. Today's buyer is more tech-savvy than ever, and as result selling to the government is fundamentally changing. In the war for survival and growth, only those who adapt with new strategies will survive long enough to see a promising tomorrow.

Government buyers today are more media-savvy. In addition, so are your competitors. They are regularly looking at sites online (yours and others) to see if your stated capabilities match your past and present performance. Every day, potential buyers are sizing up companies to see who understands their current challenges and whether you might have the ability to potentially service their next major contract. Standard press releases and financial reporting statements, while they may keep the stock price intact, tend to not resonate with this new breed of buyer. That ink-jetted brochure which use to suffice and look cost-effective from year's past, may be instead "bankrupting" your brand image as necessary in today's competitive marketplace.

The official rules of marketing and being relevant to be able to win in the public sector space are changing, and so are the un-official ones. Together, they signal the need for innovation and action. Increased investments in new business development strategies and tactics are required. Now more than ever is the time to position your company and solution well in advance of the next RFP.

Strategic Procurement Positioning
So what's an organization to do? How do you re-orient your B&P investments and resources to prepare for battle in this new-rules environment? The short answer: Strategic Procurement Positioning.

Savvy contractors are realizing that no matter how big or small, new or old, they can build a procurement-specific image and eliminate perception gaps created by old-rules, strategies and tactics. Building a customer-focused communications and awareness campaign that proactively positions the strategic value needed to win, builds a new "brand" that can immediately begin to position an organization early in the procurement cycle and serve as a unifying theme through the proposal and oral presentation stages.

Procurement Positioning: Building a Value Brand
Building a winning position is now more mission critical than ever. Consider these points as cornerstones when evaluating your current positioning needs:

• From sub to prime: Many companies are ready, or forced to be ready, to consider bidding as a prime contractor. Establishing your past performance, delivery and support capabilities is vital to be perceived as a credible supplier as well as attract qualified business partners necessary in supporting a bid. Awareness, perception and reinforcement must be developed early in the business development cycle and adapted over time as necessary
• Targeting a new agency: Skills, experience and capabilities that were once considered critical by one government agency may be less important to another. Recasting and repositioning core skill sets and capabilities to better align with the customer's plans, challenges and mission requirements should be a first step in a high quality business development process and positioning campaign.
• Expanding to a new market: What was relevant to one market, such as size and depth of experience, may be almost irrelevant in another which places a premium on speed, flexibility and customization of service and support. From imagery to word choice, buyers will quickly conclude whether you "get it" and understand their world.
• Supporting your prime: A savvy subcontractor who establishes and reinforces a position of strength, innovation and quality can be a "force-multiplier" for one, or several primes that have included it in their proposal. Helping your prime win will produce more opportunities to play.

To implement a shift in brand strategy, today's winners must reorient their tactics and invest in early stage positioning. Tactically, there are three main challenges companies face when developing positioning strategies:

• Challenge 1: Perception. Companies must face the reality of how they are perceived. Many struggle with strategically aligning themselves in the market and creating their distinct and unique value proposition to shape outside perception. Being ill-equipped from a business perception point of view and without a supportive procurement awareness campaign, you are doomed to look like a guy who wore the wrong suit to the wrong job interview. Using targeted focus groups, interviews and Black-hat strategy teams can help sharpen the lens to gather insights for managing and driving perception.
• Challenge 2: Relevancy. Demonstrating your company's expertise to the target audience and having to break through the competition to be regarded as a thought-leader in the industry represents a unique new challenge. Beyond standard marketing tactics, the world of Web 2.0 and social media offers new and extended opportunities. Buyers are increasingly using these alternative mediums to research solution options and sources. If your company isn't in the discussion, you are likely to be perceived in a less positive manner from both a value proposition and competitive perspective.
• Challenge 3: Awareness. Having a brand that is easily defined and uniquely memorable as a means to reinforce value positioning among key stakeholders is a strategic must have. Remember, your brand is the aggregate perception of things you say, your image and your "virtual behavior" (friendliness of your Web site, phone receptionist, etc.). In other words, does your brand image match what your target customer needs to think of you? Does your public brand align with your procurement brand?

Developing a leading position based on best value requires focusing on current perceptions and positioning within the market place while becoming a subject-matter expert and thought-leader. Using a structured business development process that includes careful market segmentation and thorough competitive research is a great source for the building of procurement positioning campaign elements. A Black Hat team can be used to identify creatively how competitors are most likely to position themselves -- and you! These "outputs" offer the coordinates for targeting your messages, tactics and actions for greatest effect.

While elements of the procurement positioning campaign are being defined, the company's brand personality is also defined, established and supported using the coordinates of your capture plan and competitive positioning. This messaging is leveraged and integrated across the multiple media channels today's government buyers use.

A key strategy to increase a company's chances of winning a must-win procurement campaign involves targeting specific government objectives. While most companies have some form of marketing and public relations functions to keep their public image, products and services visible, must-wins offer an opportunity to customize a set of marketing tactics specifically addressing the opportunity with either local, state or federal governments. The must-win campaign will often utilize many of the same media outlets and marketing tactics but focuses on the dynamics of the specific target, not the general market.

Today's government procurement cycles often span longer periods of time and must integrate the traditional and new marketing tools over the entire contract proposal cycle. From brochures to company experts speaking at events, winning today is about staying on message across all communication vehicles, awareness channels and marketing tactics.

Procurement positioning campaigns keep your messages and solution values in front of the decision makers across what can often be a longer process of consideration and through a wide range of communication channels. The most effective must-win procurement campaigns begin early and tightly integrate all elements of the message. For example, in a must-win deal, one competitor may be a clear market share leader but continually fails to emerge as a thought leader. Meanwhile, another competitor may continually offer invaluable expertise and an inspiring value proposition in a clear, concise and sustained way.

In order to market their position in the government arena successfully, companies need to focus on continuing to be shown as experts and thought leaders. Even though incumbents to a government contract are most likely to retain the next contract, it is important to continue to prove the worth and positioning of a company as a continued thought leader using differentiators to distinguish its models from the competition.

Conclusion
Winning government procurement strategies and tactics requires re-thinking. Investing in increased business development activities, to adjust to the new rules, demands careful consideration. While many may be relying on past year's strategies to defend existing market share and contracts previously won under the old rules, others are aggressively taking advantage of the changes occurring in government procurement by leveraging the new rules of engagement and marketing in order to drive business.

The clock is ticking as the window for competitive positioning closes and the next RFP looms. Will you be dragging your tired old image and baggage with you while competitors move to take advantage of the new rules?

Procurement positioning is fast emerging as an imperative to winning. Winners, win because they adapt and do the things it takes to win. It is time to adapt to the new-rules and leverage them to your advantage.

Gal S. Borenstein is the founder and CEO of The Borenstein Group, an integrated marketing and communications firm specializing in supporting public sector marketers and business-to-business organizations with integrated marketing services.