competitiveness or why awards matter

Almost every medium and large company from relatively competitive industry have a section on their website called "Awards and Prizes".

Awards are a seriously exportable fact regarding the quality of your company & of its products and they can be leveraged in all kinds of marketing communication.

These corporate competitions are typically organized by research companies, media groups, event organizers, non-profit associations or various other organizations.

I consider competitions to come as a big break for international marketing. Basically, you cling your company's name to that of a regional, reliable sectoral authority that helps transport your name overseas.

Awards mean external, independent evaluation and recognition of your company's value and excellence in a specific domain. Equally, they are beneficial internally, as winning is a reward for your employees who contributed at this achievement.

Participating, being judged a finalist or becoming a winner sends a strong message about your company to the market, in terms of attitude and trust: 

"We think that we are better than our competitors, that our products are innovative, that we work at best practice level, that we are financially strong and stable, or that we exceed our clients' expectations."

What's also great about submitting an entry in industry / corporate competitions is the extensive attention and media coverage they usually get. Your company will gain brand exposure with without spending any PR effort

So, participating in Award events is a great marketing move, which impacts your company in terms of:

• Positioning
• Credibility
• Share of voice in media
• Brand reinforcement
• International recognition
• Competitiveness
• Staff motivation.

The marketer's job is to find out which are the preeminent, relevant competitions organized by big institutions which everyone will recognize. Surely, you might want to ignore the kind of awards you can buy. The next step is to understand the criteria against which the candidature will be judged, to write a compelling essay for submission, sustainable by facts, figures and testimonials, to meet the deadlines and, eventually, to keep their fingers crossed.