Branding

The most important job any business owner has

September 6, 2012

You know…sometimes we make things so much more complicated than they need to be.  Do you want to own or work for a company with longevity, a strong reputation and customers who are your best advertising?

Then follow this advice from The Little Blue Book of Advertising.  But I warn you…the simplicity of the advice is also what makes it so stinking difficult.

“Taking care of your brand (building it, managing it, protecting it, and yes, if necessary, reviving it) is the single most important job you’ve got. Whether you’re the president of the company, the EVP of marketing, or the newest employee in the advertising agency’s design department.

Your brand will last longer than any of your jobs. It’s even likely to last longer than your company. So taking care of your brand is also a smart career move–if you take care of your brand, it’ll take care of you. No one ever made the cover of Forbes magazine by getting a raise. But the covers and pages of the business press are filled with people who championed a great brand.

What’s the easiest way to take care of your brand? Take care of your customer. Know who she is. What he wants. How she uses–and thinks about–your product, service, brand.

It’s that simple. And that hard.”

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Why do the hard work of building a brand?

August 20, 2012

Let’s assume the following is true:

• Your brand is not your logo but instead it is the essence (heart, true north, reason for being) of your organization.
• A business either builds a brand of distinction or has to compete based on price
• A brand isn’t easy or common.  Most companies don’t have the courage to have a real one.
• A strong brand lets you focus on your sweet spot customers and let the others pass you by

All pretty good reasons for creating a brand. But building a brand is hard work.  It’s expensive, in terms of time, focus and even money. It requires the attention of your entire company — from the part-time janitor to the CEO and everyone in between.

Is it worth it?

Check out this post over at the Brand Establishment.  They make a pretty compelling argument that along with the benefits I listed above…a brand’s ROI includes:

• Increased customer loyalty
• Minimized negative effects of a crisis
• Better marketing and co-branding partners

I’m not saying it will be easy to build a brand.  But, when done right — it’s a game changer.   And that should be worth the effort and the risk.

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Why your brand is dead in the water

August 14, 2012

Here’s how most brand evolve.  The organization’s leadership huddles up at a corporate retreat (or if it’s a start-up, around the kitchen table) and decide on a tagline and maybe a logo.

The tagline becomes the battle cry of the brand and they’re off to the races.

Or worse yet…the organization hires an agency who claims to “do branding” and after a little deliberation, the ads have the new tagline and logo and voila, the brand is launched.

Fast forward 6 months or maybe a year.  The tagline and the brand are limping along.  No one really uses them anymore.  And if they do, they think of it as the “theme of the month” and assume it will just go away over time.  And it does.

There are many reasons why a brand fails….but the biggest one in my opinion is that the employees are not properly engaged and connected to the brand.  Without a huge investment of time, energy and some money — the brand remains a superficial cloak that can easily be pulled off or shrugged off when it gets to be a challenge.

Your employees are the key to a brand’s long term success.  It’s that simple.

When we are asked to develop a brand for a client, we require the step we have dubbed “seeding the brand” which is the whole idea of introducing the brand promise to the employees and letting them take ownership of it — deciding how to deliver the promise, how to remove the barriers to keeping the promise and how to keep the brand alive inside the organization.

If a client won’t agree to implementing that stage of the process, we won’t do their brand work.  No ifs, ands or buts. Why? Because it won’t work without that step. And I don’t believe we should take their money if we can’t deliver success.

Discovering and then building a brand takes a village.  And you have to start by including your own villagers.

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Any brand can become talkable

July 28, 2012

Are you talkable?

On this blog, we often explore the importance of brand and the power of word of mouth. It seems that many business owners/leaders believe that you can just plan on something being spread by word of mouth and voila, it happens. (Sort of like planning for a video to go viral).

The reality is — to become a brand that is worthy of being talked about is hard work.

It’s about being very purposeful in every little detail of your business.

That’s why I love this video series by John Moore from Brand Autopsy.  John’s listed a bunch of attributes (29 to date) of a talkable brand — like believable, measurable, and emotional to mention a few.  And he’s done a video for each “able” that makes your brand talkable.

The videos are part education, part entertainment and part inspiration.  I think you’ll enjoy the short (less than 4 minutes each) offerings.

Check out the series (click here) and then come back and tell me which of the “ables” you think your business has already mastered.

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Hello? Is there a human inside?

July 11, 2012

Honestly — haven’t you felt that way more than once when you’ve dealt with a business?

Either their marketing materials are so full of corporate speak that you can’t figure out what the heck they’re talking about or the service you get is lackluster at best and that’s being kind.

As consumers continue to get more jaded coupled with the fact that every business has plenty of competition out there — what consumers want and need from us is to know that we’re human.  They don’t expect perfection.  They just want to know that you’re real, that you care and that you’re not blowing smoke up their skirt.  That’s how they are going to choose.  They’re going to pick the company they like the best and they can’t like you if you are invisible to them.

So the question becomes — how do you show your human side?  How do you give your customers and prospects a sense of who you are and what matters to you?  If you and your brand are playful — how do you reveal that?  If you have a deep passion for what you do, where does that show up?

I don’t think too many businesses ask themselves those kinds of questions.  But we need to.  We need to actually make a connection long before the cash register rings.  Depending on your business — you might be able to do that in a one-to-one way.  But for most organizations, that won’t cover it.  They need to find a mass produced way of being real.

Yup — a mass produced way of being real.  How?

Here are two great examples.  One is the note from the company CEO that comes inside every package of Cold-EEZE.  The second is a grocery bag from Capital Market. (Hat tip to Tom Narak for sharing the grocery bag photo with me)

 

Can’t you just hear their voices?  Can’t you feel their spirit and don’t you have a sense of what it would be like to interact with them?  I don’t know about you, but I want go to that grocery store.  I’d expect to be completely delighted by the experience.

I can hear you now.  “But Drew, those are consumer products.  In the B-to-B world, we can’t do things like that.”  I call bull on that.  Yes, you can.  Every company has a spirit.  We can call it your brand or your true north or your core reason for being.  But it’s there.  And it’s your job, no… your responsibility to show it to us.

All of us, every consumer on the planet, desperately wants to know if there’s a human inside.

Show us.

 

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What can content marketing do for your business?

May 22, 2012

Content marketing.  It seems like everyone’s talking about it. But what exactly is it and what can it do for your business?

Odds are, if you’re doing any marketing at all — you’re at least accidentally dabbling in content marketing.

First — it goes by many names.  Some people call it custom publishing or branded content.  Other people slap the label of social or digital marketing on.  And all of those names are accurate.

Content marketing is a broad term for any marketing technique that creates and distributes valuable, helpful and relevant information that demonstrates that you know your stuff.  These tactics draw the attention of people who are already your customers or could be your customers and they consume, share, and value the content.

The ultimate goal of content marketing is to create a sense of trust and comfort that will lead to someone making an initial purchase, making an additional purchase or referring you to someone who’s ready to make a purchase.

There are other benefits as well.  It’s a powerful way to establish yourself as an expert, to shorten the sales cycle, to impact SEO results and depending on your business – to educate, entertain, and inspire your audience.

I found an infographic from Visual.ly that I think does an excellent job of not only demonstrating many of the different possibilities when it comes to content marketing — but also gives you a sense of which tactics deliver what outcomes.

Check it out! (click here to download larger version)

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When you set the bar — better keep your eye on it

March 20, 2012

In almost every category, there’s a champion.

Apple, Harley Davidson and of course…Disney. Each of these brands set the bar. They’ve defined excellence and their competitors struggle to catch up.

They are the gold standard.

An enviable position to be sure. Or is it?

Last week, we spent our Spring Break in Orlando.  If you’re a regular reader — you know this is not new territory for me.  In fact, I’ve been to Walt Disney World at least once a year since it opened in 1971.  It’s a magical place for me and no one is more pro Disney than me.

One of the elements of Disney that I love the most is their commitment to customer service.  They call it Disney friendly and it is something to behold.  (They even have an institute dedicated to teaching it to others)  We love catching Disney cast members creating what we’ve deemed “a Disney moment.”  A kid licks the ice cream right out of his cone.  A cast member runs and gets him a new cone.  A room is not ready when promised.  A cast member gives the entire party free passes to the parks.  A reservation is messed up.  Cast members send up a beautiful chocolate Mickey.

But lately — we’ve noticed fewer and fewer Disney moments.  In fact, we’ve noticed that Disney cast members are behaving more and more like ordinary employees.  I don’t know if it’s because they’re running leaner on staff or if they’ve cut back on the training — but somewhere along the way, some of the cast members have forgotten that while it’s a regular work day for them, it’s a dream of a lifetime day for the guest in front of them.

Seems like the bar is slipping a little.  At the same time, Disney’s competitors, chiefly Universal Studios and Sea World are stepping up their game.  We crossed over to the dark side and visited Universal Studios (we wanted to see the Harry Potter park) this trip.  I don’t know if they stole Disney’s best employees or just their best training program — but the Universal employees couldn’t have been more exceptional.  They were delivering “disney moments” left and right.  The theme parks were nothing extraordinary — Disney still has them beat there, but from an experience point of view — the little guys have been learning from the champ and are starting to clean their clock.

What’s the marketing lesson in all of this for us?

If you are the market leader and you’ve defined excellence — you have everything to lose.  You cannot sit on your laurels.  You need to find ways to keep the passion for delivering that excellence alive and well in your employees.  You have not only set the bar but you’ve set your customer’s expectations.

I’m no longer surprised by Disney moments… I expect them.  And while I still enjoy seeing them, they’re a given for me.  So when they are not there — it is a deficit that I notice.  And it is a deficit that gets talked about.  (Bad word of mouth)

If you’re not the market leader — the lesson is — keep pushing.  The guy in the front of the pack may grow weary or hit some sort of bump that will allow you to surge ahead of them.  Don’t assume you can’t have that lead position.  When you over-deliver, it is a surprise and delights your customers.  And it will get talked about.  (Good word of mouth)

If you set the bar — mind the bar.  It’s yours to keep or lose.  And how that plays out is completely up to you.

 

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What is the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement?

February 20, 2012

This seems to be a question that torments organizations of all kinds and size.

What is the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement?

Here’s how we explain it to clients:

Your mission is what you do best every single day, and your vision is what the future will be like because you deliver on that mission so brilliantly every day.

Each one should be no more than 10 words apiece.  No long paragraphs, no lengthy missives.  Not 3 things or 5 things.

10 words for each.

Can you do it?

 

 

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Mercedes uses visual storytelling

October 2, 2011

Mercedes Benz released this print ad series earlier this year and as it often goes, it is just starting to get some viral buzz.

It’s a great example of story telling and connecting with your customers.  It’s a visual version of the Mac versus PC TV spots that we all loved.

Interestingly, the copy on all three ads is the same.  I’m curious — what do you think of the series and what do you think they were trying to accomplish with the campaign?

I’m trying to decide…. are these ads more about Mercedes drivers or the brand?  What say you?

Mercedes Benz Left and Right Brain ad #1

Mercedes Benz Left and Right Brain ad #2

Mercedes Benz Left and Right Brain ad #3

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Is your business really different?

September 25, 2011

It may be the greatest of all business cliches — you have to differentiate yourself.  I’ve said it myself more than once.  While it is certainly true… many businesses struggle with how to bring the idea to life.

And even when a business believes they have achieved that level of uniqueness — their customers can’t see or describe the difference.

Many marketing books push you to be different but very few tell you how.

That’s what’s fascinating about Youngme Moon’s best selling book Different. (click here to buy it*) It was just released in paperback and I finally got around to reading it.

The book’s basic premise is that we humans subscribe to a herd mentality and tend to categorize everything into little boxes.  Which is originally unique is quickly copied and becomes the norm.

So, if that’s how we are wired — how do we ever truly stand out from our competition?

Moon offers three ways to disrupt this herding pattern.

Reversal: The first way to be different is to use the “reversal” concept. Back when you hadn’t yet heard of Google, the online portal kingpin was Yahoo. Yahoo’s home page was crammed with news, stats, photos and links.

If you wanted to compete with them — you’d most likely be trying to fit even more features on your homepage, not less. That’s how things were done. But Google decided to look at it in a new way. They completely redesigned the search engine experience for billions around the world by having nothing on the home page but the search box.

They reversed the norm.

Breakaway: What breakaway brands do better than anybody else is leverage this fact by asking you to replace one mental model with another.

Kimberley-Clark created an entirely new marketplace by creating the “Pull-Up”. It’s a cross between underwear and a diaper. It’s still just a diaper put on a different way. But they completely remove the stigma of wearing diapers past the age two, and parents are now routinely keeping the kids in these “Pull-Ups” beyond the age of four.

Hostile: This method takes some courage.  It’s basically when a brand takes its most significant weakness and accents it.  A hostile brand  “doesn’t lay down the welcome mat, they lay down a gauntlet.”

It isn’t marketing, it’s anti-marketing. Mini is the perfect example of this. It took it’s biggest possible wart, and made it even bigger. All of its advertising seems to say “it’s even smaller than you think.” In one famous example of this type of branding executed flawlessly, Mini put one of its cars on top of an SUV and drove it around a busy downtown core for all to see. Where you were used to seeing a ski rack, you saw an entire car.

The book has plenty of examples to learn from and will definitely get you thinking about your organization in a new way.  It’s well worth the read.

*Yup, an affiliate link.

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