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ANSWER
By Piet Levy//Staff Writer

RIGH

plevy@ama.org

German engineering company Siemens AG was making tens of billions of dollars through a multitude of business units, but its brand awareness was low in its biggest market, the United Statesthat is, until marketers found a solution.

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CREATING THE BRAND IDENTITY

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ts a story that Tom Haas, CMO of Siemens Corp. in Washington shares often. In 2001, four years before Klaus Kleinfeld became CEO of Siemens Corp.s Munich, Germany-based parent, global engineering company Siemens AG, Kleinfeld moved to the United States to become Siemens Corp.s chief operating officer. At customs at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the agent asked Kleinfeld who his U.S. employer was and Kleinfeld said, Siemens, very proudly, coming from Germany where its a household name, Hass recalls. The agent replied: Thats a great company. I buy their furniture all the time. He mistook the now-164-year-old Siemens, one of the 50 biggest companies in the world, according to Fortune, with more than $100 billion in revenue in 2010 and approximately 336,000 employees in 190 countries, for a furniture brand called Seamans. Klaus was beside himself, Haas says. How could somebody not know who Siemens was? Doubly distressing was the fact that this was a common misconception in the United States, Siemens largest market (U.S. revenue was $19.9 billion for fiscal year 2010, according to the company). You might think it would be embarrassing for Haas to recount an anecdote that demonstrates how a multibillion-dollar global conglomerate can be mistaken for an old Long-Island-based furniture brand. But Haas loves to share the Kleinfeld story because that exchange with the customs agent was the catalyst for the companys renewed focus on marketing, which resulted in a multifaceted global branding effort called Answers. Launched in 2007, Answers unified Siemens diverse unitswhich design and manufacture products ranging from trains to diagnostic imaging systems to wind turbinesinto one brand identity. It provided a strategic point of reference that we are engineers who work on solving the toughest problems and answering the toughest questions, Haas says. Through advertising, online marketing and events, Answers has boosted Siemens brand awareness, search engine inquiries and website visits, and has moved on to promote the companys sustainability initiatives as Siemens looks to broaden its reach in the U.S. market.

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Formulating the Response

Its tough for a B-to-B behemoth like Siemens to forge a cohesive brand identity that encompasses all of its units. Each client or potential client often is exposed only to the facet of the business that directly applies to his needs, but a unified brand identity and brand messaging can make the company that much stronger. Take IBM and General Electric, two global conglomeratesand Siemens competitorsthat have managed to forge unified identities despite their disparate business units. Compared with those brands,

Siemens was being sort of out-marketed in many ways, certainly on a budgetary level, but just in terms of weaving a cohesive message together, says Sean Rimler, global marketing director at Ogilvy & Mather New York, who oversees the Siemens account. The goal for Siemens was to establish who we are, what we are about and what we look like, Rimler says. Answers is Siemens version of IBMs Smarter and GEs Imagination. Siemens, at its heart, is an engineering company and needs to convey that it finds solutions to challenging problems, Rimler says. Rather than centering Siemens brand identity around Solutions which Haas deemed an overused term that wouldnt provide Siemens with a distinct enough identitythe Ogilvy and Siemens teams settled on Answers. Haas says that he also liked that Answers could translate well into almost any language, an important point for the global company. Answers launched as a pilot initiative in the United States in late 2007 and a year later was implemented in 80% of Siemens markets, primarily through print ads in business publications, banners on business media sites and TV ads during Sunday morning news shows, and on cable news networks and airport billboards, Rimler says. (Four years later, that same media mix is still in play, although Siemens has substituted general banner ads, which werent generating very high click-through rates, with strategically placed website ad takeovers, such as one executed on WashingtonPost.com this spring, Haas says.) One 2007 print ad (above) promoting Siemens diagnostic imaging solutions for hospitals says: How can disease be detected before it strikes? The Siemens answer: Early detection and prevention. Siemens is combining state-of-the-art laboratory diagnostics with imaging technologies with the goal of allowing disease detection at the earliest stages. Molecular medicine will also contribute to this goal, particularly for diseases like cancer or Alzheimers. And advances in healthcare IT will make healthcare systems more efficientand even enable more specific care for patients. While the ads copy is emblematic of the Answers campaigns informative, solutions-focused angle, the imagerya photo taken from above of children running from a schoolexemplifies what would become a consistent aesthetic approach used in all of Siemens print advertising in the campaigns early days. Getting multiple marketing departments across business units and markets aligned around Answers initially took up the lions share of the Answers teams attention. It was an enormous feat to get everybody to have matching luggage, Rimler says. Ogilvy created templates that illustrated ad layouts and copy style. Ogilvy outposts around the world did workshops with local Siemens marketers and the main Ogilvy Answers team dropped into some local markets to offer storytelling guidance.

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2011
Siemens global marketing team worked to create a two-way dialogue between different departments to better ensure buy-in. These businesses were all very independent and autonomous, Haas says. Its not saying: Were corporate; were responsible for the brand. Follow these directives. It was about getting everyone at the table so they understand were supporting their objectives. on its YouTube channel emphasizing Siemens impact on local economies, such as the 2009 construction of a new factory in the rural town of Hutchinson, Kan., and the 2007, $30 million expansion of a manufacturing plant in Norwood, Ohio. The localized marketing approach was so effective that Siemens has created similar messaging tailored to other markets such as China and South America, Rimler says. The team also carried the more localized, emotional approach into Siemens TV advertising, Rimler says. A 2009 spot features crisp, cinematic images of U.S.-based wind turbines, factories, hospitals, the countryside and city skylines. The spots narration, spoken over a soft orchestral score, says that somewhere in America, theres a home by the sea powered by the wind on the plains; theres a hospital where technology has a healing touch and credits Siemens 69,000 U.S. employees for making these innovations possible. Thats a far cry from a more technically oriented TV spot just one year earlier that featured an aggressive, movie-trailer-like score and narration that asked questions such as, How can you manufacture customized products at affordable prices? illustrating solutions with animation and written captions. The print advertising has evolved, too. Gone are the staged wide shots that Rimler says gave the campaign a cohesive visual perspective but were too impersonal. Now print ads feature candid photos that are more intimate in scope. And the ads engineering-focused language has been replaced by a comparatively more heartfelt narrative. Recall the copy from the 2007 print ad promoting Siemens diagnostic imaging solutions that emphasized molecular medicine and advances in healthcare IT. A 2011 ad (above) for the same solutions set reads: When diseases are caught early, they make less of an impact on everyone. With Siemens advanced diagnostic technology, doctors can accurately identify these dangers earlier. So patients get the treatment they need sooner. The ad features a photo of a person being screened by a Siemens device at a hospital. Answers also benefitted from an increase in its U.S. ad budget, from $30.2 million in 2008 to $37.8 million in 2009 (excluding Internet spending), according to The Nielsen Co. That jumpstarted us at a time other companies had been cutting back [on advertising spend], Haas says. GE, for instance, reduced its U.S. ad budget (excluding Internet) by 11% at that time, according to Nielsen.

Designing Better Answers

An internal study in 2008 suggested that Siemens brand awareness had increased, but it also implied that there was still some confusion about Siemens business, even in the United States, Rimler says. Once they had established the branding template worldwide, the Answers team began working to make Answers a clearer response to the marketplaces questions about Siemens offerings. In 2009, Ogilvy engaged in an 18-month interview process in which it spoke with nearly 50 Siemens executives and business leaders, as

We decided to focus more on answers. What we tried to do is inject more humanity, more emotions, into the executions.
SEAN RIMLER, Ogilvy & Mather New York
well as 100 customers and prospects. From these discussions, Ogilvy evolved the Answers strategy to engage Siemens audience on a deeper level. In the earliest days, questions were given almost as much relevance as answers in the Answers campaigns ads and messaging, Rimler says. We decided to focus more on answers. What we tried to do is inject more humanity, more emotions, into the executions. In fall 2009, the team rolled out the next phase of the Answers campaign in the U.S. called Somewhere in America, Answers attempt to assure prospects that doing business with the company would have an impact on the U.S. economy during the economic crisis, Haas says. Marketers began making short documentaries that appeared on the Siemens website and

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Responding to New Questions

Seeking to keep its messaging fresh and to better showcase another selling point, Siemens evolved Answers again in fall 2010 to emphasize sustainability, an ongoing hot topic in the business world that, based on Siemens research, was becoming a more crucial consideration for purchase, Haas says.
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Siemens boasts that it is the worlds largest provider of environmentally friendly technologies, claiming that 33% of its revenue stems from the sale of green products and solutions. To reflect the companys sustainable mindset, Ogilvy pitched the new Answers phase in May 2010 as Answers that Last. We wanted a platform that would help with storytelling and wanted something that would foster a sense of excitement, Rimler says. One print ad, distributed this year, told the story of a power-generating substation that Siemens built thats underneath Roosevelt Park in Anaheim, Calif. Also, based on feedback that Haas received that demonstrated that some of Siemens clients and prospects favor events and face-to-face engagement over traditional advertising, in 2010 Siemens launched road tours to market the companys sustainable solutions, Haas says. One tour promoted Siemens smart-grid technologies and their environmental benefits over other electrical grids used to power utilities, technology providers and municipalities. The tour, which stopped in nine cities in North America, was enclosed inside an Earth-like dome. Inside, visitors could attend presentations about smart-grid technologies, engage with interactive, educational panels and watch 360-degree video presentations projected onto the domes interior. Marketers also created a special website for the tour that included white papers, videos and details about Siemens smart-grid solutions.

Addressing Controversy
While company executives deny any correlation, Siemens answers branding initiative was launched on the heels of a corporate crisis. in november 2006, a little less than a year before answers launched, german prosecutors announced that they were investigating Munich-based Siemens ag for allegedly using slush funds and bribes to secure public works projects. the investigations spread to multiple countries, as did media reports. While he was not accused of any wrongdoing, klaus kleinfeld, Siemens ags CeO when the alleged scandal unfolded, announced his resignation in april 2007, stating that the company needed "clarity about its leadership." in December 2008, Siemens agreed to pay $1.6 billion to american and european authorities to settle the charges. Bill Stabile, senior director of brand and marketing communications at Washingtonbased Siemens Corp., says that the answers campaign already was in development when the investigations were announced. While we knew about the global compliance issues, we did not associate this with the campaign we were developing, Stabile says. the campaign was based on a real opportunity to raise the profile of Siemens in providing solutions that addressed the tough challenges of the world and, of course, the U.S. While the answers campaign wasnt launched as a result of the controversy, we were concerned and did not want the compliance question to impact our campaign launch, Stabile says, but we also had no idea when the compliance news would break and how it would come about. So we separated the decision on launching the campaign from the anticipation about what might happen in the news, opting to proceed with answers fall 2007 launch in the United States.

Staying the Course

Theres enough evidence to suggest that Answers has been the answer that Siemens needs, Haas says. Siemens conducted another internal study in 2010 to measure progress from 2008 and found that brand awareness had increased over the two-year period, Haas says. Thanks in part to Answers, page views at Siemens U.S. website rose from an average of 200,000 monthly views from May to August 2010 to 700,000 views in April 2011. Search referrals for Siemens on Google also are up, reaching approximately 125,000 referrals in April 2011, the last month recorded as of deadline, which is south of the peak of 175,000 in November 2010 but still a positive result, according to the company. Given the B-to-B companys long sales cycles, the Answers campaign has yet to prove its impact on Siemens bottom line. Siemens revenue dipped for the second year in a row in fiscal year 2010, from 76.7 billion down to 76 billion. Haas says the sales drop is a result of an order backlog stemming back to orders placed during the recession, when spending was cut for many organizations, but he expects U.S. revenue to rise for fiscal year 2011. Bob Lamons, president of B-to-B branding agency Industribrand in Houston and author of The Case for B2B Branding, says that with a clear brand identity, Siemens has the potential to grow its revenue in the long run. Its up to Siemens marketers to find ways to solidify Siemens position as the company that has the answers to address its clients needs. Brand expectations take a long time to establish, Lamons says. Siemens is a smart company. The more and more it reinforces [Answers], ultimately, someday people may say Siemens is the smartest company. m

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