Your brand is out of control!

June 8, 2011

When you look in the mirror, do you see what they see?

Businesses big and small expend huge resources (proportionally) to build a brand they’re proud of and can live up to.

Remember, our definition of a brand is a promise you make that differentiates and creates an image in my mind in terms of what it will be like to work with you/your product or service.

We help clients create/discover their brand and then weave them into the culture of their organizations so that everyone knows and is keeping the promise.  But what happens once you release the brand out into the wild?

It quickly gets out of control — that’s what happens.  At least it is now out of YOUR control.  (For this discussion — your brand could  mean your personal brand, a corporate brand or even a specific product’s brand.)

How you want people to interpret your efforts and how it actually plays out are two different things.  Sometimes they’re in alignment but maybe the words are different and sometimes they’re light years apart.  How does that happen?

People.  Pesky human beings.  Who all have their own way of looking at things.

What got me thinking about this today was a blog post by Liz Strauss from yesterday.  She asked...what soundbyte do people use to describe you? It’s a brand question.

What Liz is getting at is — you either consciously or unconsciously go to a lot of effort to build a brand.  But then I get to observe, interact and ultimately decide what all of that means to me.  In most cases, it is not WHAT you do, it’s HOW you do it.  That’s how I describe what you’re all about.

Let me give you an example.  In 2008, I was humbled to be named one of the bronze level winners of the Personal Brand Awards (started by Personal Branding guru Dan Schawbel) — an honor that recognizes people who have created remarkable personal brands.  In the descriptions of the winners, here’s how I was described:

Why he won: Drew is most notably the nicest guy on the internet. Aside from being one of the most recognized and respected authorities on marketing and branding online, he is a savvy networker. Since personal branding is all about giving before receiving and not putting yourself first, Drew has become known as a connector and friend to all. For all of this, we would like to present him a bronze personal brand award!

Read that first sentence again.  The nicest guy on the internet.  First…a very flattering description.  But in relation to this blog post — I would have never described myself or expected to be described that way.  Smart marketing & branding guy — sure.  That’s what I do day in and day out — write about marketing and branding.  I am a c0-creator of the Age of Conversation books (with Gavin Heaton) and Bloggers Social (with CK Kerley and Lori Magno) so maybe a community guy or a collaborator.  But the panel of judges examined the sum total of my brand… and they decided (because that’s how brands work) that I’m a giver/nice guy.

I’m not telling you all of this to toot my own horn.  After all, you too get to examine the sum total of my brand and decide what it means to YOU.  I am using myself as the example because as a branding guy…. I preach this stuff every day.  And yet how my own brand was perceived still surprised me a little.  I’m proud to be considered a nice guy but even I got caught up in the what (co-creator, marketing and branding) and didn’t remember that it’s the how/why that sticks with people.

When you read Liz’s post, she gives some examples of the soundbytes she’s talking about.  I think you’ll see that it’s not the what (marketing/branding) but the how or why (nice guy) that gets noticed.

So….your brand is out of your control.  It’s in the hands, minds and hearts of your consumers.  What would your soundbyte be?  (And how close it is to what you’d want it to be?)

 

 

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Do you have a crisis communications plan?

June 6, 2011

 

…You need a crisis communications plan

If you own your business, you probably have all kinds of insurance. You’ve protected your building, your equipment and depending on your field, you might have errors and omissions, liability or other insurances as well.

But 95% of you are missing one of the most vital insurances of all. This safety net could literally prevent the ruin of your organization. It’s a crisis communications plan.

Just like you can’t anticipate a fire or theft, you can’t possibly know when you’re going to face an accident, C-level misconduct, or misuse of your product that results in a death, tragedy or other news garnering disaster.

There are five must do’s for effective crisis communication planning. Be sure, as you draft your plan, to include all five aspects.

Be prepared: In today’s 24/7 world with continuous news channels, blogs, Twitter and other on demand media sources – you can’t afford not to be ready long before disaster strikes. Within minutes of the 2010 accidental death of the SeaWorld trainer – the news was already being shared on Twitter and YouTube videos were being uploaded. You do not have time to huddle up once the crisis has hit.

Listen and monitor: One of the best ways to prevent a wide scale communications crisis is to nip it in the bud. By identifying potential problems before or immediately after they surface, often you can mitigate a great deal of the damage. Create strategic listening posts that allow you to monitor what is being said about your company, your leadership, your products and your industry. This shouldn’t just be about monitoring social media. With so much of mainstream media producing content for the web – you need to keep a watchful eye on them as well.

Be human and be humane: It’s easy to get defensive and hide behind “no comment” or your lawyers. But when tragic strikes – your audiences (employees, community, customers, etc.) want to see and hear from you. They don’t expect you to be perfect, but they do expect you to genuinely care about what happened and how it impacts them. They want to hear from a real person who is being honest and forthright with them.

Over communicate: This is good advice in almost any situation but it’s critical at a time of crisis. You need to be very present, you need to offer regular updates and you need to repeat the same information in a wide variety of formats, media and potentially, time zones. Even if you don’t have anything new to report – don’t be dormant for too long. It makes people worry and wonder.

Create community: One of the best things you can do is to create a community of supporters and fans. That way, when you’re under fire, you’ll have a legion of people who will stand with you and help you fight off the attack. With the shift to “everyone can produce content” this becomes a vital part of your plan. You want lots of people singing your praises if/when you hit a bump in the road.

We’re going to dig into each of these five over the next couple weeks.  I’m really hoping that you tune in and take some action.

Unfortunately, most of you will disregard this advice and not put a crisis communications plan in place. And even more tragic – several of you, down the road, will sorely wish that you had.

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Are you built to sell?

June 1, 2011

Whether you are a business owner, a consultant or a W-2 employee — you want to be able to sell off what you have of value.

• For the owner, it’s probably the business itself.
• The consultant wants to evolve into having product to sell, so they aren’t just selling their time.
• And the employee wants to sell his services — either to re-sell and demonstrate value to his current employer or be sought after by a new employer.

Although it was written with the business owner in mind, the book Built to Sell by John Warrillow speaks to all three circumstances.  (click here to buy the book*)  Absolutely every business owner should read this book but so should anyone doing business today.

A few key insights from the book for all of us…regardless of job title:

#1: If you remain a generalist, you will only be able to charge generalist prices and you’ll compete with everyone for their business.  Specialists command higher prices and are sought after — rather than having to chase down their potential customers.

#2: Let process and technology systemize your business and create the consistency that your customers can come to count on.

#3: Package what you sell and make it something that needs to be re-purchased/used often.

#4:  Say no.  Define who you want as a customer (or boss) and say no to the rest.  Don’t settle, don’t compromise and don’t spread yourself too thin.

The book is a fast, enjoyable read.  It’s written in the business parable style that many authors like Steve Farber, Patrick Lencioni and others have done so well.  And…you get more than the story.  John’s built an implementation guide with plenty of how to’s into the back of the book so you can get right to work on making yourself/your business ready for the next sale!

So — jump into the comments section and let’s talk about how to make ourselves more sellable.  What are you going to do first?

 

*Yup, it’s an affiliate link.  And yes, someone (publisher or the author) sent me the book to read.  As you know, I get books in the mail every day.  I only share the ones I think you’ll find valuable.   Otherwise, you’d think I sucked.

Related articles

• John Warrillow on Selling Your Company (blogs.forbes.com)
• Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You (smallbizsurvival.com)
• Top 8 Books Every Small Business Owner Should Read (businessinsider.com)

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Run your race

May 27, 2011

This post is a result of a perfect storm of events.

• My only child graduates from high school this weekend
• I watched the movie Secretariat again
• Personally and professionally of late — it’s been difficult

Stay with me through the personal parts — I promise, there is a message for you in this post.

Let’s start with the movie.  Secretariat isn’t just about a horse.  It’s about leadership, it’s about life and it’s about whether or not you choose to go all in.   These are topics that have been on my mind a great deal lately — because of all three events I mentioned.

There’s a scene early in the movie when Secretariat’s owner, Penny Chenery is at the brink of total financial disaster.  She believes Secretariat is something special but if she’s wrong, she places her entire family in ruins.  She comes up with a creative solution but the risks (she has to guarantee that the horse will win the Triple Crown, which hadn’t been done in about 25 years) are staggering.

Here’s what she says in her personal moment of truth.  “We will win if we can and live with it if we can’t, but you never know how far you can go unless you run.  You have to run your race.  I don’t care how many times they say it can’t be done. I will not live the rest of my life in regret and no matter what happens, we are going to live rejoicing every day.”

You have to run your race.  Or you will never know how far you can go.

Penny Chenery chose to go all in.  Because it was the only way she knew how to do it.  Secretariat went on to win the Triple Crown and in fact, he broke records at each of the three tracks and won his final race by an astonishing 31 lengths.  Today, he is still regarded as the greatest racehorse of all time.  All because Penny Chenery had the courage to run her race and let him run his.

I imagine that Penny Chenery spent many nights staring into the dark night, unable to sleep and wondering what the hell she was doing.  That’s the reality of owning a business and, truth be told, of just being a human being that no one really talks about.

There are plenty of great aspects to both but it can be lonely.  And it can be scary.  Usually, there’s no one out on that limb but you.  And sometimes, in the quiet of the night, when no one is looking — you close your eyes and wonder “what the hell am I doing?”

Those doubting questions come faster and louder when you’re weary or feeling like the next hill might be the one that’s just too high to climb.  It would be so easy to just stop climbing.  Maybe even sit and rest awhile.  But then you’ll never know.

You have to run your race.  Or you will never know how far you can go.

I’ve always been an all in sort of guy.  It’s the only way I know how to do it.  The hills before me will level out over time.  They always do.  I just have to be patient enough and have enough faith to keep climbing.  It won’t always be difficult.

One of the hills that has been a pleasure to climb is that I’ve spent the last two weeks literally watching my daughter Kelsey grow up before my eyes as I scanned photos, editing videos and prepared all the fixings for her graduation.  I’ve re-lived her moments of triumph like when her class voted to give her the school’s most coveted award and her personal defeats when things didn’t go the way she/we wanted them to.  Her four year old giggles still tickle my soul and the sum total of who she has become fills my heart.

In those videos and photos, she lived out her dreams of the moment — whether that meant dancing with Minnie Mouse in a parade or performing at the Iowa High School Speech Association‘s All State event.   One of the things I have always admired about Kelsey is that she goes for it.  It doesn’t matter the odds or the challenge — if it matters to her, she takes the risk.  She’s much more brave than I ever was at her age.

Maybe she already knows what it’s taken me 40 some years and a movie about a racehorse to be able to articulate.

You have to run your race.  Or you will never know how far you can go.

That’s my hope for her this graduation weekend.  That she never forgets to run her race.  That she will not  live any bit of her life in regret and no matter what happens, that she lives rejoicing every day.  Because I know how far she can go.

How about you?

I think it’s so easy to let life weigh you down or pile obstacles in your path.  Are you doing something that matters enough to you that you need to go all in?  Are you running your race?  Have you let yourself get stuck in a rut personally or professionally that is holding you back?   Have fear or doubts crept in and tied you down?

I don’t claim to have all the answers.  Heck…I just told you, I want to sit down and rest right now too.  But, here’s what I prescribe for both of us.

Watch the movie. In the final scene, Secretariat takes the lead at the Belmont and never looks back.  I can’t watch it without tearing up.  It is the ultimate visualization of living your life to its finest moment — this remarkable creature was doing what he was meant to do better than anyone else.  That horse wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stand in his way — he was so alive and so full of rejoicing that he flew.

If you’ve opted to sit down and rest — get up.  Get up and find what matters enough.

Run your race.  Find out just how far you can go.

 

 

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How does a seasonal business sell year round?

May 26, 2011

A guest post by Isabella York

 

 

Within most any business, there is a peak and a slow season. The truth is that there are times when a customer wants to buy all of our stock, and a time when we just want to move units out of our storage space. When seasons and trends come to pass, so does the flow of customers.

If you have a business that is expected to make the lion’s share of sales over two months of every year, it is a constant marketing strategy game, getting creative with concepts and ways to use your products, and coming up with methods to stimulate profit for the whole year.

Here are a few things we need to note to keep our seasonal business thriving all year round:

Plan ahead: Kevin Fraley of Printworks talked to the Wells Fargo Business Insights Series about planning months, even years, in advance when it comes to business. Anticipation of the inflow of income during the season highs and the strategy to keep moving units in the slow seasons will ensure that the business stays active year round. Like the Boy Scouts, preparation in a seasonal business is the key to success.

Slash prices in the off season in a creative way: Offer a sale they can’t refuse, and make it interesting. Off season sales at unexpected times, like Christmas in July, when people are craving the chill and comfort of the holiday season, or Halloween costumes to celebrate an iconic horror movie’s redistribution in a digitally re-mastered version, are consistently popular and strike a happy image in the customer’s mind. Use popular television shows, movies or albums to tie in your stock, and hear the cash register ringing all year long

Manage your online reputation: These days, the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to market your company is to do it online. Create, manage and take care of your online reputation for an easy way to connect to the customer on a 24/7 basis. Create a fan page on Facebook and offer deals and steals on the page; connect with past and potential customers while on the site. Check online review sites and offer explanations to customer complaints on these review sites, as most of them give the merchant the option to do so.

Offer your business in a new light: Michael Jones of Chicago’s In Bloom Floral & Events knew his summer was going to be a hard one due to the seasonality of his flower shop, so he created another way of getting his customers inside his store during the off peak season. He opened up an art gallery in his store space, creating more interest in his other offerings by getting people inside to see his items. He drew them in using art, and showcased his flowers as well.

Ride the highs and the lows of your seasonal business by working the unexpected, and planning ahead. Creativity with a lot of planning will get you ahead, and thriving year round, all the whilekeeping your business in tune with the trends.

Isabella York has been in the business world her entire life.  Having seen business cycles ebb and flow, she knows a thing or two about developing strategies for changing demands, however her job with a purveyor of Artificial Christmas Trees and Christmas Trees has catapulted this skill set to a new level.

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Viva the underdog!

May 24, 2011

 

…a blast from our past…it’s Underdog

Most of our clients at McLellan Marketing Group could be classified as underdogs.  Call them challenger brands, the little guy or the rising star — but odds are, they have a Goliath or two in their path.

We love helping them topple the big guys and steal their thunder.  In fact, we believe that it’s a market ADVANTAGE not to be the biggest.  Yup…. being an underdog is a plus in our book.

Why?  In today’s world of constant change, it’s a lot easier to win the hearts and minds of buyers if you’re nimble, not bound by layers of corporate and committee decision making and you can wear your heart on your sleeve.  Market leaders don’t actually want to engage in a fight and they hate scrappy little guys who take them off their well prescribed path.  That’s how you beat them — you make them play your game.

Here’s the unspoken truth of underdog marketing.  You don’t have to actually destroy the industry leader — you just need to take a good sized piece of his pie.  In fact, you don’t, in most cases, want to be the leader.   Why wear the target on your back?  It’s more fun to be the challenger — the one who can break some rules, change the game… and create love affairs with your customers.

That’s why I was eager to read Stephen Denny’s book Killing Giants (click here to buy*)  Denny interviewed 70 “giant killers” and tells their story in his new book which outlines some powerful techniques for knocking the big guys down a peg or two.

The book presents 10 strategies that businesses can adopt to overcome a market leader. The strategies run from taking advantage of the speed and agility of being small to the willingness to take on some risks that the big boys can’t stomach.

He’s structured the book well — each chapter is divided into the strategy, the stories and the take aways.  My only “complaint” is that Denny’s underdogs are what many of us would consider to be giants in their own right — like Adobe or Hersey’s Krackel.  But it’s a good reminder that even large organizations like Hershey can be an underdog and have to think differently.  The techniques they used translate just fine to a local bank or CPA.  So don’t dismiss the book just because many of the examples are national brands you recognize.

I think you’ll find the book gets you fired up to go out there and take on a giant or two!

 

 

*Yup, it’s an affiliate link.  Also — Stephen sent me a copy of his book to review. You know me well enough to know I only review books I think you’ll find valuable. (I get several every day…so I am pretty choosey.)

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Customer surveys: Tell them what you heard

May 20, 2011

…Close the loop on customer surveys

Last month, I wrote a post which suggested that you stop guessing what your customers were thinking and instead (dramatic pause for novel thought) you just asked them.   I offered up several different ways you could “survey” your customers from traditional surveys to secret shopping and advisory boards.

But… what I forgot to mention was this:

When you ask your customers (or employees, or vendors) for their opinion or assessments – be sure you close the loop by telling what you learned.  Let them share in the insights you gained AND tell them what you are going to do with this new knowledge.

Let’s say that one of the key pieces of feedback you got was that when your customers couldn’t get a hold of their normal account rep, they didn’t know who else they could talk to if there was a problem.

One way to handle that would be to create a contact sheet (headshot, name, title, phone number, cell phone number, e-mail, etc.) of the entire team that works on the client.  Write a letter, explaining that this was something you learned during the survey, so you’re sharing this contact sheet with them in case they were one of the people who wasn’t sure who to reach out to if there was trouble.

It doesn’t have to be fancy or formal.  A letter from your CEO with these elements would also work just great.

• Thank you for participating in our survey if you did
• Here were the things you loved the most (share the good news too!)
• Here are the top 3 things we learned we could improve upon
• Here is how we’re going to address those items
• Again, thank you.  If you have more feedback, please feel free to call me.

You could also write a story for your newsletter or put it on your blog, website or Facebook fan page.  No matter what method — be sure you close the loop and let them know that you appreciated their time and that they were heard.

P.S.  The other plus of closing the loop is that it reinforces the message that you care about their opinion, you listen when they offer feedback and you are always trying to get even better.

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Recognize yourself in this video?

May 19, 2011

If so, shame on you!  Whether you’re the client or the agency guy — you know better.

While this is obviously over the top, I think we all know that it hits a little close to home.  The work and the audience deserves better.  (Email subscribers – click here to view video.)

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Stop giving it away

May 17, 2011

….Are you giving away your expertise?

“Actually, I get paid to do that.”  I hear this every day in a client’s story as they lament a prospect expecting to get their thinking for free.

I say this every day in my own head too.  And, I’m betting you mutter it under your breath as well.

And yet, most people struggle with finding the words to tell yet another “prospect” that what they’re asking for isn’t free.  It’s actually the most rare of fruit that only comes from years of experience, study, real life trials and walking through the fire with a lot of clients.

You wouldn’t call a plumber and expect him to come to your house and diagnose and fix your problem for free – and yet every day, professionals, especially professionals of the creative class (doctors, lawyers, business coaches, marketing professionals, accountants and other knowledge based workers) are being asked to do that very thing.

If you’re a professional who draws on complex bodies of knowledge and experience to solve specific problems – you’ve probably faced this issue.  So how do you keep from having this recurring problem impact your business?

Actually – it’s a marketing issue.  And here are some ways to communicate away the situation.

Stop giving it away: This first suggestion is certainly the simplest in theory and the hardest in practice.  If you keep rewarding the bad behavior, you will just get more of it.  When someone asks you to share your expertise for free, you need to have a practiced and comfortable answer.

That answer should be based on your organization, your brand and your comfort level.  It should respectfully and clearly explain that your advice is not free, in fact that’s how you make your living.

Set the expectation early on: Long before someone ever gets you into a meeting – you need to establish the rules.  On your website, in your brochure, as a part of your “get to know us” PowerPoint – spell it out.  Be very clear that your thinking time/expertise is delivered for a fee.

You don’t have to list prices if you don’t want to get that specific.  Avoid being too nice and push yourself to be blatant that there will be a cost.

Don’t run after them: If they balk at being charged or try to get you to reduce your fee, be polite but stand firm.  (This requires being fair when you set your pricing to begin with).  If they walk away – let them.

I know this is tough when you really want the project – but they have just told you what value they’re going to assign to your years of experience.  Is that really a client you want?

Give it away but with intent and purpose: One way to demonstrate the value of what you sell is to give it away. (I’m not contradicting myself, I promise!)  So go ahead and give it away to a non-profit or a start up you’re sponsoring. (like our adopt a charity program)

Use that generosity to set the contrast for prospects.  “Now as you may know, we did this same sort of XYZ plan for charity 123, but naturally, in that case, we actually donated our expertise.”

Next time you find yourself grumbling about this problem, remember – you ‘re actually the one giving it away.  And only you can keep it from happening down the road.

Addendum:  Someone just shared this post with me from Kevin Dugan.  He’s ranting about the “can I buy you coffee and pick your brain” call, much in alignment with the post above.  See — it is something we’re all facing.

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Apple is the most valuable brand

May 15, 2011

 

In 2010, global technology brand Apple surpassed Google to become the most valuable brand in the world, according to “Brandz Top 100″ from Millward Brown and Optimor. Apple increased in value by 84% to $153.3 billion.

 

 

 

Interestingly, technology companies took four of the top five places, including the first three, on this year’s list. They include 2009’s top brand Google coming in second with a value of about $111.5 billion (down 2%), IBM falling from second to third even as its value rose 17% to $110.8 billion, McDonald’s jumping from number six to number four as its value grew 23% to $81 billion, and Microsoft slipping from number four to number five, with 2% growth to $78.2 billion.

Take that HP Slate and Lenovo’s IdeaPad.

 

Related articles

• The 29 Most Valuable Brands In The World (businessinsider.com)
• BrandZ global report puts Apple at #1 most valuable brand for the first time (tuaw.com)

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