Why Branding Is Still Important

May 2nd, 2011

I received an email this morning that included six prominent social media logos along with the logo of the sender. It took me a moment to determine who actually sent it, which I found a bit annoying. But it also got me thinking that as the number of marketing channels we use to interact with our customers proliferates, how important it is that we don’t lose our brand identity along the way. I’m not just talking about our logo or clever tagline, although these are significant parts of the equation, I’m referring to the totality of our various publics’ connections to our company.

Your brand, after all, is everything that creates a perception with your audience of who and what you are, and it resides only in their minds. It’s the sum of what they know and feel about your products, services and values. It evolves with every touch your customer experiences, from the voice on your company’s phone, the look of your Web site, your promotional messages, the professionalism of your salespeople and, of course, the performance of your products.

You’ve heard it repeatedly: People make purchasing decisions based on their perceptions of the company and its products. And typically they prefer doing business with people and companies they know, like and trust. So if they recognize your brand (know), have a positive perception of what you’re all about (like) and have no reason to doubt what you say (trust), you’re in the running.

The more positively your customers perceive your brand image, the greater your brand equity. And brand equity is real. Just ask megabrands like McDonald’s whose former CEO once commented “If every asset we own, every building, every piece of equipment were destroyed in a terrible natural disaster, we would be able to borrow all of the money to replace it very quickly because of the value of our brand. The brand is more valuable than the totality of all of these assets.”

Unfortunately, many companies don’t have a well thought out brand strategy. Instead, they allow their brand image to develop haphazardly. This is extremely dangerous. Equally alarming is the inconsistency of brand messaging that often runs through the various channels we use to interact with our customers. How consistent are your brand messages? Consider just some of the possibilities:

• Personal sales
• Direct marketing
• Customer service
• Technical support
• All forms of advertising
• Public relations
• Sales promotion
• Internet sites
• Social media
• Product placement

It’s vital to your brand equity that the customer has a clear, consistent image of your enterprise. That’s where brand strategy comes in. When we work with clients to develop these strategies, we begin by asking the client a series of questions including: “What is the purpose of your company?” Once we get past the boilerplate mission statement answer that usually sounds something like: “To be the leading supplier of widgets to the XYZ industry, return value to our shareholders, respect our employees, be clean, reverent and brave…” we drill down to help the client define themselves in terms of value to their customers. Then we move on to differentiation, company values and more.

Only when we’ve worked through these and other critical foundation issues are we ready to discuss brand names, logos, taglines and promotional messages. As well as how many social media logos to include in their emails.

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Intellect & Emotion

April 25th, 2011

Having once been the Marketing Director for a regional advertising agency, I’m keenly aware of the distrust some people have of all forms of marketing communications. Among other charges, advertising people are accused of being more concerned with image and appearance than the facts about a product or service.

Consider the way advertising people are traditionally portrayed in popular culture. In the 1947 film The Hucksters, an advertiser dramatizes his view that any advertising that gets people’s attention is worthwhile, by spitting on a conference table. “You find it disgusting,” he tells his staff, “but you’ll remember it!”

In the 1990 film Crazy People, a Creative Director revolutionizes the advertising industry by writing ads that tell the “unvarnished truth” about his client’s products (“Volvo: they’re boxy, but they’re good”, and for a Greek travel agency: “Forget Paris. The French can be annoying. Come to Greece. We’re nicer.”).

Ironically, the current TV series, Mad Men, that purports to present the advertising business as it existed in the heyday of the 1960s, is taken to task by critics who find the program’s content substandard, yet admit that it has great appeal only because of its retro style.

I’m not a TV critic, so I won’t weigh in on Mad Men. However, when it comes to advertising I’m confident in saying that the role of marketing communications is to make a product, service or company as appealing as honestly possible. And while it’s true that some practitioners push the boundaries, good advertising is, in fact, about image and emotional appeal as well as the content – and rightly so. The fact is, people make purchasing decisions every day for emotional rather than rational reasons. Then they use the facts to justify their decisions.

As marketing people it’s important to recognize the emotional appeal of our products and services. Just as important, we must be certain that there is substance behind the emotional hook. Because if a product doesn’t live up to the emotional response it generates, buyers will ultimately reject it.

Assuming your product delivers good value and lives up to its promises, how do you tap into the right emotional appeal? As always, it comes down to understanding your audience. What is it that they really want from your product? And what is the emotional trigger that links the product to their desires?

If you sell burglar alarms, for example, your customers are likely concerned about their safety and protecting their possessions. The obvious emotional trigger, then, is fear. For other products the emotional appeal may involve such issues as status, self-image or sex.

Hallmark greeting cards is the hands down leader in showcasing everyday situations we can all relate to. Who among us hasn’t missed someone who is far away or wanted to tell friends and loved ones how much we care about them? And who wouldn’t be moved when discovering that a stoic Dad kept all of the Father’s Day cards sent him over the years.

How about your products and your brand? Are you tapping into the emotions of your potential customers? Or are you relying strictly on the facts? You need both substance and emotion. Intellect and heart. Together they can make your message far more powerful.

Norman J. Vallone helps businesses achieve their goals by advising, training and empowering them to strategically market their products and services. You can contact him via email: njv@njvallone.com or by calling 937-272-2051.

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The Marketing Power Of The Millennials

February 1st, 2011

Much is written about the impact of the Millennial Generation (Generation Y) on the workforce. Admittedly, observers and writers tend to generalize about these Echo Boomers’ sense of entitlement, the consequences of being raised by “helicopter parents” and other issues. Nonetheless, the attitudes and expectations of these new kids in the cubicles must be acknowledged, even if at odds with prevailing corporate culture.

According to those who study such things, including Pew Research and Lifecourse Associates, these are some of the signature traits of this generation:

• Their opinions have always been as valuable as those of their parents and other authority figures, so they expect you to listen and give weight to what they say, despite their lack of experience.
• In their world, there are no “failures” or “losers.” Everybody is a winner; some just win more than others. After all, everyone gets a trophy just for playing the game.
• Mom and Dad are always there for them to fall back on.
• Computers, the Internet, cell phones and social media are a fundamental part of life, not simply technology tools. And they are always on.
• Opinions and decisions are made through collaboration with “friends” – often online or via mobile devices, not through study, reflection, analysis, processing and formulation.
• If they don’t get what they want from the workplace they’ll move on. Possibly after Mom & Dad give you a call to straighten you out.

For many CEOs, particularly those of the Baby Boomer generation, much of this is perplexing. The most common CEO profile, after all, (and, yes, this is another generalization) is that of a highly competitive, goal-oriented individualist. These leaders typically gather input from others – even if only to make them feel included – analyze it and then make their own decisions. Making decisions by truly collaborating with others is not their natural inclination.

Which brings us to the marketing potential of social media and the Millennials – both as employees and as customers. Many senior executives struggle with social media because it is diametrically opposed to the ways companies have traditionally promoted their products and services. However, it’s a perfect fit for Millennials.

Social media is not about telling and selling. It’s about building community and trust over time. Millennials have grown up with a strong sense of collaboration and thrive in a collegial and social environment in which their opinions matter. If they truly believe in your organization, products and services they can help build trust in your brand.

In practice this means making sure you integrate social media throughout your marketing strategies and not treat it as a stand-alone activity. It also means utilizing those employees most proficient and comfortable with new media, many of whom will be part of the Millennial Generation.

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Do Your Customers Feel The Love?

January 4th, 2011

Why do people buy whatever it is you sell? Well, we know that our customers go through a time-honored series of steps when they make a buying decision, and the first of these is recognizing a felt need. The word felt is significant because we all (or at least those of us not living in a continuous state of denial) realize that much of what we “need” is really something we simply “want.” The great thing about a free society, of course, is that we alone get to determine the difference between our “wants” and “needs.”

Having justified the need to ourselves, we move into the next phase of the buying process in which we more specifically define the object of our desire. “OK,” we tell ourselves, “I need to get from point “A” to point “B” and it’s too far to walk, so I need some other means of transportation.” We consider the alternatives: public busses, taxicabs, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles. Then we likely do some research to help us narrow our choices. This may include asking the opinions of trusted friends, family and colleagues; searching online or, for even (gasp) visiting the library.

Once we’ve decided on a car as a solution we’ll do some more research to determine the best option. Should we get a minivan? An SUV? Maybe a convertible sports car? And from which dealer shall we purchase? There will be many logical reasons for our final decision. We’ll sift the facts and figures and come to a final buying decision.

Now, many will argue that this is a very reasonable and fact-based approach to making this determination. I won’t argue that point. However, when it comes to the final choice it will almost always be based on emotion. Sure, we weigh all of the facts and we try to make the most reasonable choice. But in the end it comes down to how it feels.

If we choose the sports car, we do so because we FEEL we deserve to have a little fun. If we choose a bare-bones compact we do so because it makes us FEEL socially responsible, frugal and practical. Choosing a minivan usually makes us FEEL like we’re a responsible parent, and so on.

It’s no different in the business-to-business arena. Many years ago when data processing was strictly the province of huge, centralized, mainframe computers (yes, back at the dawn of time there were no PCs) you could buy your computer system from companies like RCA, Wang and SCM. The 800 lb. gorilla in the industry, of course, was IBM. They had more installations, people and experience than anyone else. So if you were responsible for making the multi-million dollar purchase decision for your company, you’d dutifully go through the requisite research and analysis. Then you’d likely ask yourself the most important question: “What happens to me if I make the wrong decision?” Realizing that one’s career was on the line, most purchasers opted to select the company with the strongest track record and reputation. Hence the emergence of an oft-heard phrase: “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.”

You can argue that the above represents a very logical decision, but the motivation was clearly an emotional one called “fear.” Fact is we all make our buying decisions for emotional reasons and then we use intellectual arguments to justify the purchase. Couple this with the well-accepted concept that people tend to buy from those they know, like and trust, and you, Mr. or Ms. CEO or business owner, should ask yourself a simple but incredibly important question: “How do my customers FEEL about my company, our products and our services?”

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Are You Naughty Or Nice?

December 16th, 2010

Just in time for the 2010 holiday shopping season Consumer Reports (consumerreports.com), the venerable watchdog for the American shopper, published a list of “nice” retailers and another list of “naughty” ones. The criteria that determined on which list a company fell had to do with return and exchange policies. As most of us know, these policies vary greatly from one merchant to another. Some retailers, such as Kohl’s have very liberal policies that make it easier for their customers to do business with them. In fact, it’s a marketing strategy they’ve been leveraging of late in their advertising. Other retailers? Not so much.

At the top of the “naughty” list is Macy’s (macys.com), the Cincinnati-based, national department store chain. According to Consumer Reports, not only does Macy’s have strict policies on in-store returns, but they also apply flat-rate return shipping charges for online purchases. Contrast this with top-of-the-“nice”-list Zappos (zappos.com) that has a “no questions asked” policy and no charge for return shipping.

No doubt many retailers would argue that they need some degree of protection against theft and fraud, which is why they institute return and exchange policies. However, these merchants must also consider what these policies – and any savings that result from them – may be costing them in consumer good will.

But there’s a bigger picture to all of this. Whether your enterprise is business-to-consumer or business-to-business, how easy or difficult are you making it for customers to do business with you? How many barriers have you built into your organization? Would you do business with someone like you? Maybe you’d better find out.

For example, it makes no difference whether you have a bricks-and-mortar facility, are online, or both. People come to you to solve some sort of problem, or to fulfill some other need. Do you make it easy for them to find what they need? Or do you make them jump through a series of hoops? In a physical plant, this calls for well-thought-out, easy to see signage. It also helps if employees know the facility intimately, and look out for customers who need a little extra help finding things.

On a Web site, it means designing navigation that is intuitive and obvious, not hidden amongst an endless array of pull down menus, pop-ups, animations and other clutter. By the way, does your landing page tell visitors precisely what you offer? Or must they figure it out for themselves?

And how about making a purchase? If you’re a retail store, do you force your customers to wait in endless lines only to find that the checkout grinds to a halt because the scanner won’t recognize a UPC symbol? If you’re an online realtor, are there redundancies in your checkout process that drive your customers up the wall? If they have discounts coming or shipping and taxes to be added, do they have to wait until they’ve already submitted the order to learn what their total cost is? Worse yet, do you subject them to a time limit to complete their transaction, so they may have to start all over again if it takes too long to find the security code on their credit card?

I won’t even go into the many sins committed against customers by automated telephone systems, outsourced “customer support” or badly trained customer service personnel.

Knowing that it’s harder than ever to find and retain good customers, I urge you to please take a good look at your operation and do all you can to make sure your customer would place you firmly on the “nice” list.

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Respect The Professionals

December 6th, 2010

The first car I owned was a well used (read “very old”) Ford sedan. Being young and having little money, I constantly worked on the car to keep it road worthy. The good news was that, with just a few hand tools and a dwell meter, I could keep the old buggy tuned up.

Today it takes much more than a screwdriver and a feeler gauge to keep modern vehicles rolling. It takes sophisticated computerized equipment and, more importantly, service providers who are highly skilled, well trained and experienced. That’s why most of the business leaders I know don’t hesitate to take their cars to qualified service people. After all, these executives don’t have the time, training or tools to do it themselves. Clearly, they recognize the value these experts provide. It’s a shame that some of these same people fail to see the similar value in their internal marketing staff or outside marketing services providers.

This issue came into focus for me recently when I had conversations with a number of marketing people at a continuing education function. Some I talked with work within corporate entities, others work for marketing services companies and a few – like me – are independent business consultants. The most repeated complaints are:

• “They hired me for my expertise, then they disregard my advice and go with a gut feeling or the latest popular business book tactic. It’s like hiring a master chef and then changing her recipes.”

• “He asked me to develop a strategic marketing plan but he really only wants a ‘quick fix’ to kick up sales this quarter and ignores the long-term issues.”

• “My boss doesn’t understand the difference between marketing and advertising. He thinks we can solve everything with a new advertising campaign. Then he uses an intern to set up social media sites with no input from Marketing and no discernable strategy.”

• “My client gets his marketing advice from his wife and children. None of them have any marketing education or experience. They don’t even represent our target market. But he’ll frequently take their opinions over mine.”

• “I guess my biggest gripe is that our management is willing to accept inferior promotional materials rather than invest in quality. The stuff we hand out, send to prospects or publish on our Web site looks like a Jr. High School project, rather than professional marketing communications. And we’re supposed to be the leaders in our field.”

In some ways these issues have been with us for decades. The common thread is that many executives simply don’t know enough about marketing to appreciate the value it can bring to their enterprise. These folks tend to view “marketing” as an expense line on the income statement, rather than an investment in the future. It also doesn’t help that a number of people who carry marketing titles have neither the experience nor knowledge to create meaningful strategic programs, thereby reinforcing the distrust of management.

So what’s a CEO to do? My advice is this: Whether you personally have a good grasp of the principals of marketing or not, hire the very best people you can and heed their advice. Don’t hire a Michelangelo and then let an amateur touch up his or her work. Likewise, your key marketing people – both internal and external – should be seasoned, proven professionals. Let them be the ones to find the bright young talents that will help create and execute your marketing strategies.

Finally, the next time you feel like overriding the advice of your marketing staff, pop the hood of your brand new luxury sedan and take a good look. Do you really want to start tinkering with the engine? Or would you rather rely on the experts?

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We’re all on the Marketing Team

December 1st, 2010

“All those whose jobs involve marketing please sit down,” I said to a group of employees in a company with which I recently worked. There was no marketing department, as such, so only the sales people sat down. All of the others remained standing. Then I asked if any of them ever had contact with a customer. If so, they could sit down. Almost everyone did. “Congratulations!” I told them, “You‘re in marketing.”

Amazingly, this scene could easily be repeated in many organizations. The fact is marketing is every employee’s responsibility. Not just those who have marketing titles. Anyone who comes in contact – even tangentially – with a potential customer including those who answer the telephone, accounting, admin, operations and management, is in the position to win or lose business every day. And even in the best of times none of us can afford to ignore the opportunity for a sale.

So why do employees not see themselves as part of the marketing effort? Usually because no one ever told them they are. In fact, management quite regularly neglects to make it clear that the principal source of the organization’s income is obtained through successful marketing. To put it more bluntly, no employee can receive a paycheck unless money is generated by the successful exchange of value with a customer or, in the case of non-profits, the donors and grantors.

So what can you do to make sure your employees get the message? It really comes down to a few very important steps every business owner or CEO should initiate.

1)    Strategic planning: Yes, you really must spend a few days away from the business developing sound strategies. Once again, this does not have to be an exhaustive tome the size of War & Peace, but rather a simple, clearly defined set of objectives, strategies and action steps tested against the company’s mission and values.

2)    Once the plan is complete, you need to hold meetings with every employee within your organization. They need to understand, first hand, the enterprise’s mission, vision, objectives, strategies and action items.

3)    Most importantly, they need to understand precisely what their role is in achieving these ends. For most it comes down to accepting the fact that we are all engaged in building and maintaining customer relationships with every opportunity we get. This includes such simple acts as:

  • Treating the customer politely and with sincerity
  • Solving customer problems quickly and to the customer’s satisfaction
  • When taking an order, suggesting any additional items that will enhance the transaction for the customer
  • Sharing knowledge about the product, services or a customer’s specific application
  • Listening positively and then promptly responding to any customer concerns
  • Being aware of and communicating facts about inventory, delivery, special promotions, etc.
  • Never taking the attitude that “it’s not my job”
  • Checking in with top customers periodically just to see how they are doing and if there is any way you can be of service

Of course none of this is possible unless you enable your people with adequate training, communications and the authority to resolve customer problems.

Now look around your organization. Is everyone focused on satisfying the customer? Does each employee understand his or her role in achieving the company’s marketing objectives? If not, it’s time to exercise your leadership skills by teaching and showing them what being a team player really means.

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Speaking to the Digital Generation

September 1st, 2010

Savvy marketers know how important it is to truly understand their customers. With such knowledge they can tailor and position their products and services to meet the target market’s wants and needs. From a communications perspective, it’s equally important to use language and references that these audiences understand and to which they can relate. That’s why smart copywriters and designers use words and images that appeal specifically to the audience’s lifestyles, buying power, age and other defining characteristics.

This issue becomes even more complex when you consider the differences among the various generations of consumers. Depending on your offerings, you may be targeting anywhere from one to six generational groups ranging from The Greatest Generation (World War II era) and Baby Boomers, to Millennials and Gen Z (the Internet or Digital Generation).

Each has its own characteristics. And with each new generation comes the challenge of crafting marketing messages that will appeal to their unique perspectives. That’s why the annual Beloit College Mindset List is a valuable reference for any marketing person.

Each summer for the past 12 years, Wisconsin’s Beloit College prepares its list of cultural references unique to the current generation of incoming students. This year’s List reminds Beloit’s faculty of the environment that shaped the Class of 2014. Knowing this, of course, is particularly important for instructors who are trying to make academic concepts relevant to their students.

If your company markets goods and services to an audience that includes members of the Class of 2014, it would serve you well to take a look at the complete list, which you’ll find at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/. Here are a few excerpts:

• Few in the class know how to write in cursive
• Email is just too slow and they seldom use snail mail
• Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High
• They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.
• Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine
• A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet
• Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry
• Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways
• Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess
• Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars
• Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive
• Nirvana is on the classic oldies station
• They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day

Clearly it’s helpful for those who teach to review this list and make sure their anecdotes, examples and other words of wisdom contain references to which the students can relate. Just as marketing professionals can use these facts to make their messages more appealing to the Digital Generation.

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August 9th, 2010

“I hate marketing!” she wrote. Her email came in response to one of my previous blog entries. She went on to say that her business was in trouble and she didn’t know what to do. So I offered to meet over lunch and discuss her situation.

She proceeded to tell me about her once successful business services company and how, in recent years, she had tried to build up another business that had long been in her family. The latter effort had not been very successful, and forced her to neglect her own company, which she now wanted to reinvigorate.

As I listened she explained that her company once dominated the local business market, but now new competitors and new ways of dealing with the issues her services address have made her situation much more difficult. She hated that she now had to market her products instead of relying on customer loyalty and new business referrals that have dried up.

My sense was that she was a good, honorable person ¬– a bit naïve, perhaps – and thoroughly bewildered by what she was experiencing. I could also see that it wasn’t really “marketing” she hated. It was the changes in her marketing environment and her fear of change that was troubling her.

Her services were once in demand by local businesses that were then expanding into new areas, and needed her expertise to move forward. Today, her primary service is available online and through other channels at a much lower cost. She rightfully points out that these products are not up to the standards that she is capable of providing. My guess, however, is that these competing services are “good enough” for the organizations that use them, which is something she has a hard time accepting. Further, the local market for her services is much smaller than in the past, a fact that she acknowledges.

“I can’t afford to hire you,” she told me, “although I know I need a new plan.” I told her I understood, and told her the steps I thought she should take to work on the problem herself, beginning with these three:

1. Because she doesn’t want to change the way she practices her services, I suggested that she should research the market to determine if there are still enough customers out there who are willing to pay for what she offers.

2. If, as I suspect, she learns that the market no longer values her services in the same way, she needs to get a handle on what the market is willing to pay for, how much they are willing to pay and how they want it delivered.

3. Based on what she learns, she must decide if she is willing to make the necessary changes to, again, make her business successful.

The fact is, many businesses of all sizes periodically face the hard truth that what they offer is no longer relevant, or that the markets they once successfully served are no longer the same. After all, we only exist to fulfill the needs of our customers. If what we offer is no longer of value to those customers, we need to do some serious soul-searching. Then we need to either figure out how to apply our capabilities in new ways that mesh with the needs of our customers, or find an altogether new role to play on the business stage.

None of this is easy. Very few of us eagerly embrace change, especially to something we’ve put our heart into for many years. However, as far as business is concerned, you can’t argue with Darwin: We must evolve or we shall surely perish.

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What Do You Look For In A Service Provider?

July 30th, 2010

A recently released survey by Columbus-based research company, Ad-ology (www.ad-ology.net), provides insights into what C-level marketing people look for in companies they hire to supply support services. Although this survey focuses on marketing service providers, I think the message is significant for any organization, regardless of the products or services you provide.

According to CEO, C. Lee Smith, Ad-ology Research is used by over 2,000 advertising agencies, media companies, and corporate marketing departments across North America. This nationwide survey involved 347 chief marketers of businesses with over $2 million in annual sales. Among the study’s key findings:

The top three goals for the marketing departments in these companies are:
• Grow or retain market share
• Lower costs and improve go-to-market efficiencies
• Improve customer insight and retention

Do these sound familiar? How do they align with your organization’s marketing goals?

The next question deals with the criteria a company uses when selecting a new service company. The top 5 factors are:
• Creative capabilities (48.2%)
• Quality of previous work (46.6%)
• Understanding our customers (44.8%)
• Industry experience (43.9%)
• Responsiveness (41.1%)

There are no big surprises here. Creativity, quality of work and experience are almost always top-of-mind when selecting an advertising agency, PR firm or other marketing service provider. And a service company of any kind that isn’t responsive to the client’s needs isn’t likely to be employed very long.

One of the most intriguing – and far-reaching ¬– findings, however, is the response to the question “What are your biggest sources of frustration or aggravation with your providers?” The top 5 complaints are:
• More reactive than proactive (35.3%)
• Poor communication (33.1%)
• Don’t understand our business (31.9%)
• Lack of strategic thinking (28.5%)
• Insufficient creativity/originality (23.6%)

Building on these responses, the survey asked what one piece of advice the businesses would give to their service providers. A few of their verbatim comments:

• Over communicate.
• Talk less and listen more.
• Do a better job with the upfront strategic messaging part.
• Act as a partner, not only a provider.
• Know our markets.
• Know our industry and be willing to offer suggestions not previously considered.
• Simply respond in a timely and professional manner.
• Talk in plain language and not technical jargon.
• Be nice.

For me, the takeaway is this: Whether we peddle products or services, we’re all in the business of satisfying and building relationships with our customers. This means listening to their needs, understanding their businesses, and actively and creatively thinking of ways to help them be more successful. It also means consistently delivering on time, on target and on budget. Oh yes, and being nice never hurts, either.

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