The Quisenblog

Think for a moment about all the different types of “experiences” a typical consumer might have with your brand.

She might see a commercial on TV. She might read a press article that mentions you. She might see your product on the shelf at retail. She might read a post in her Facebook news feed from a friend. She might run across your brand while conducting an unrelated web search, or on a third-party website (such as Amazon). She might receive an electronic coupon at the point-of-sale. She might even hear your name mentioned in a news story (let’s hope it’s not for the wrong reasons). Or, she might proactively seek out what previous customers have to say about you on Yelp. Or she could do her own Google search.

Wow, that’s a ton of touchpoints.

With so many ways for consumers to get “exposed” to you (and the 5,000 other marketers they’ll run across today), does that make it more likely she’ll purchase from you? Or is it just a bunch of clutter that confuses matters, and makes it harder to break through?

Tough question.

The best definition of a “brand” I have heard is “the sum of everything you know, hear, believe, feel and experience about a particular product or company.” If we accept this definition, then we can see how every way your brand “touches” your consumer or prospect contributes to your “brand” in their view.

So how do you make sure that the customer hears a consistent narrative across all these possible touchpoints?

While there is no controlling everything that’s said/written/shared/experienced about you, there is one powerful tool you have at your disposal:

Walking the talk.

Find out what your most devoted fans love about you. Why they’d never leave you. Why they feel you can’t be replaced. (This is your “talk”.) Then take that one thing, and amplify it every way you can throughout your value chain. And live by it, no matter what. (This is the “walk” part.)

If you conclude your competitive difference is that you offer the best service, see what you can do to kick it up a notch. For everyone, everytime, whether they are a customer or not. No phone trees. No “let me talk to my supervisor.” No “that’s not our policy.”

Southwest AIrlines found that fans flocked to them because they were the “low fare airline.” So they found dozens of ways to amplify and demonstrate that, from offering ridiculous “super saver” fares, to not charging for bags, to not offering food service, to having the industry’s simplest frequent flyer program, to keeping their planes in the air 20% more than competing airlines (cutting downtime).

By uncompromisingly walking the talk, you are creating consistent perceptions, experiences and stories that are passed forward. These are the “tidbits” that go into formulating your “brand” in consumers’ minds. The more consistent you are, the more consistent the stories will be, and the more consistent your brand narrative will be.

And yes, the more you’ll break through the morass of clutter out there.

Posted by Mickey

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mickey On Clients, On Customers, customer experience brand defined, brand formation, brand narrative, brand vision, consistent messaging, Southwest Airlines

Got room on your list for one more resolution for the upcoming year? If you’re a marketer, you won’t go wrong picking one of these:

1) Think mobile. Already, it is reported that more than 40% of smart phone owners have made a purchase by using their smart phone. In fact, about half of them made the purchase while in the store. The mobile phenomenon is just getting bigger. By 2014, it is predicted more people will access the Internet via smart phones and tablets than with all other computers combined. So if your web site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll miss a lot of web traffic.

Use 2012 to shore up your mobile interface. Optimize for the 4-inch screen. Make the experience rewarding for your visitors. Don’t make them scroll or endlessly click to open more pages. Forget Flash. Make your site clean, readable and well-organized.

2) Get serious about online video. Be honest. Would you rather plod through a bunch of IKEA assembly instructions, or watch a video of someone putting the piece together? It is this preference that has propelled YouTube into being the #2 search engine in the world (and the #3 most-visited site). People aren’t just going there for cat videos anymore. With more than 40 hours of video being uploaded EVERY MINUTE, there’s a staggering array of all types of content hosted on YouTube. Internet viewing is up over 35% this year (with mobile viewing up even more). The average American web user spends 7 hours a month on YouTube (stats from Pixability). Videos with key word-rich titles and descriptions work wonders with getting you found on Google and other search engines. And—going back to resolution #1—YouTube is already optimized for mobile, so your videos are available to a much wider market.

3) Plan ahead for the Election season from hell. This year, with the Citizen’s United ruling in the books, money will be pouring into political campaigns like never before. And probably 99.99% of it is going to be spent in the same mass media (TV primarily) that you’re planning to use to reach YOUR audience.

Chances are, Q-4 air time is going to be a scarce commodity. Darned expensive, too. So make 2012 the year to think tactically. Traditionally, it is thought you must make 12 mass media impressions on a subject to incite action. Challenge yourself to cut that number in half. Create edgier commercials. Reach your audience in unexpected ways. Make sure your online efforts complement what you are doing offline. Make sure the communications all grow from the same “brand narrative.” Speaking of which…

4) Integrate, integrate, integrate. Sounds obvious. Yet recent studies show only about 17% of businesses feel they do an “adequate” job of integrating their social media into their overall marketing mix (source: eMarketer.com). Understand how you can best use the platforms available to you. Don’t slide into the habit of “dumping” content on as many social media pages as you can. Have a content strategy for each platform, and stick to it.

5) Focus on what works. The last few years have been more than a little overwhelming when it comes to new opportunities in the way of engagement platforms (Google+ is but one of the latest examples). It’s easy to get the feeling that if you’re not on board with the latest and greatest, you’re falling behind.

In 2012, take a trip up to the 10,000 foot level and decide what’s really working for you. Forget the pundits. What works for YOU? Find the platforms that produce, and stick to them. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but also, be careful not to spread yourself too thin. If you’re going to invest your time and resources into a platform, do it right. Then make sure it delivers.

So go ahead, pick a resolution. And revisit it every month or so just to see how you’re doing. And with a little planning, you can count on a killer 2012.

Happy Holidays one and all, and thanks for reading in 2011!

Posted by Mickey

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mickey Creative, Media, Mobile Marketing, New Media, On Clients, Social Media, customer experience, strategy 2012 election, brand narrative, marketing integration, Mobile Marketing, new years, online video, resolutions

“No. Matter. What.”

When Southwest Airlines dedicated themselves to being “THE low-fare airline,” they didn’t address it by saying “we’ll cut costs wherever it’s feasible.” They said they were THE low-fare airline—no matter what. So whenever someone from within the organization presented a business case that the airline could attract more business travelers by having wider seats, or by serving hot meals or by allowing business passengers to pre-board, instead of looking for a way to implement these initiatves cheaply, they dismissed these ideas all together. Because they got in the way of them being THE low-fare airline—no matter what.

When Nordstrom dedicated themselves to providing out-of-this-world customer service, they didn’t put a lot of “ifs” or “excepts” into it. Want to return something without a receipt? No problem. Want to return it after it’s obviously been worn a time or two? Still no problem. Want to return it, even though you don’t even know for sure it was bought there? Chances are they’ll take it. And do it with a smile. (There’s one urban legend that a man actually returned tire chains for a refund, even though Nordstroms never carried tire chains.)

Without a doubt, “No matter what” will cost you money. It may cost you some sales. It may cost you some customers. It may force you to eat some expenses. But if your brand vision is truly meaningful to your customers, and if you’re delivering it uniquely as no other organization can, that doesn’t matter. You just built and owned a valuable niche in your industry. And while others may try to copy your success, they will fail, because they’ll waffle on the “no matter what.”

One of the biggest challenges in implementing what could be a break-through Brand Vision is getting the whole organization, from the C-suite down to the street level, to buy into it and “live it” in their day-to-day transactions.

“No matter what” creates a narrative for your organization that everyone can relate to and re-tell. It eliminates wiggle room for interpreting your Brand Vision. It puts it on steroids, and eliminates the need for case-by-case interpretation. If I’m a sales clerk at Nordstroms, and I know my charge is to offer “uncompromised service, no matter what” I suddenly have permission to do whatever it takes to create a great customer story, without having to run it upstairs or refer to a policy manual.

Would your business look differently, or operate differently, if you added “no matter what” to the end of your brand vision?

Posted by Mickey

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mickey Creative, On Clients, On Customers, Ramblings, customer experience, strategy brand narrative, brand stories, brand vision, marketing case studies, Nordstroms, Southwest Airlines

Tang was a horrible product. It was an awful-tasting, expensive, nutrient-deficient powdery “drink substance” developed by General Foods as an alternative morning beverage back in the late 1950s that suffered from poor sales for the first several years after its launch.

Then something interesting happened. In 1965, General Foods somehow convinced NASA to include Tang on its manned Gemini space flights. Overnight, Tang was no longer a weird-tasting breakfast drink. It was what the astronauts drank.

And kids couldn’t get enough of it. They literally begged their moms to purchase the stuff. And proudly paraded it out of their lunchboxes.

You see, back in 1965, every kid wanted to be an astronaut. And if she couldn’t be in the Gemini capsule there at Cape Canaveral, at least she could have the ‘astro beverage’ in her Yogi Bear lunchbox!

This is just one example of how a simple story can create a whole mythology for a brand. It is the narrative of the brand that people connect with, that makes the purchase more “personal” and says something about them. This narrative is what helps people define a brand for themselves, and whether or not it belongs as part of their “personal brand.”

What does it take to make a compelling story for a brand? The first rule is to be authentic. If your cookies really aren’t made by elves in trees, then don’t try to convince us that they are. If your product was created by a bunch of guys in white coats in a chemistry lab, don’t try to have us buy a story that the recipe was handed down from some Italian grandma’s kitchen.

Take an inventory of what part of your “story” is different enough to make people notice. Then ask if it can be extrapolated to be associated with some sort of benefit. Even a seemingly irrelevant detail of your brand’s history or early beginnings could be the rough material to build a story from.

The most compelling stories are those that are both simple and timeless. In the early ‘70s, when automakers were falling all over one another claiming to get the best gas mileage, Volvo built a brand story around safety. While many outerwear manufacturers were focused on cutting costs by shipping production overseas, Timberland proudly crafted a story of how their products were built by generations of real craftsmen here in the U.S. The Body Shop used only natural ingredients with no animal testing in its beauty products. Suddenly the product is not just something to wear, or drive, or eat. it is a status symbol of sorts. A way to express your own personal values.

In the end, that’s exactly what brands are: the stories and experiences consumers associate with them.

Posted by Mickey

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mickey On Clients, Ramblings brand narrative, Gemini space flights, General Foods, NASA, personal brand, Tang, The Body Shop, Timberland, Volvo

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The Social Media Manifesto.
Tuesday: Social Media and business.
Wednesday: Your Social Media strategy: What are you hoping to achieve?
Thursday: Social Marketing turns the Media Funnel upside down.
Friday: Action steps for getting your business started in Social Media—today.

(This is the fifth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

Trying to simplify the act of developing a Social Media strategy into a bite-sized blog post is sort of like trying to explain the Declaration of Independence in a 140 character Tweet. Something’s going to get left out.

So rather than attempt to be a comprehensive “how-to” post about Social Media strategy, we intend this as more of a “view from the mountain top” of things to consider when developing a Social Marketing strategy.

In a basic sense, developing a strategy for Social Media is much like developing a strategy for any other marketing endeavor. The intent is to create a “road map” you can follow that encompasses goals, audience definition, budget, tactics and content. And then, defining the metrics by which you’ll be able to discern whether or not your program was a success.

Let’s be clear here that Social Media by itself is not a strategy. Social Media amplifies your strategy. It provides a more natural, non-intrusive, organic way to demonstrate your core values to your audience, and allow them to share ownership of the brand.

Here are seven basic questions you’ll want to consider when developing a Social Media strategy:

1. What you are hoping to achieve? Are you hoping to find new customers? Re-activate inactive customers? Get customers you already have to try something new or change behavior? Use it for customer service? For feedback? To evaluate new product ideas or concepts? Then decide on metrics: How will you know if the program has been successful?
2. What level of involvement do you (the brand) intend to have? Will you employ a passive model of “listening” to gather intelligence? Or are you willing to adopt a more aggressive “hub and spoke” model where there is active interchange between followers and between you and followers?
3. Which platforms meet the goals you have set and the involvement level you have determined? If all you want to do is listen, you may be able to get by with using Google Alerts, Technorati (to see what people are bookmarking) and RSS feeds (to subscribe to blogs/newsletter from thought leaders and influencers). For customer service, you may wish to integrate a real-time platform like Twitter. For community building, you may wish to use a social networking site like Facebook, LinkedIn or Ning. And if you want to build your own platform, you may wish to build your own microsite(s) and drive traffic with Search Engine Optimization, paid search (key words) and perhaps even banner ads. The key is to set your goal first, then decide on which platforms will help you get there.
4. What is the narrative, or “story” you wish to convey? What do you want your audience to think after having engaged with you? How do you want them to describe the organization? Make sure the content you develop is consistent with that. Just like a good 30-second TV spot, every 140-character Twitter post, YouTube video or Facebook blurb contributes to the overall brand narrative.
5. How will you build an audience or community? Effective communities are started with passionate users/customers. Who are your influencers? How will you find them, and what will it take to involve them? (Some of our posts to come may give you some ideas.)
6. What will keep your audience engaged? The key is to stay relevant. Emailing a 10% off coupon may attract a lot of attention the first time you do it, but it is important to recognize this act as a conversation-starter. What are you going to do to follow that up?
7. What’s next? Monitor and adjust. The beauty of Social Media is that you can see reaction in real time. So if you’re not getting the information feedback you’re looking for, try something new. If you find one platform is outperforming others by a wide margin, put your emphasis and attention there. Try to understand what content drives engagement, and focus on what that next layer of content might look like.

At its best, Social Media can help you identify your most passionate users and engage them in meaningful discussion. Social Media strategies can be simple or complicated. It all depends on the goals you have and the level of involvement you feel comfortable with.

The important thing is to have a strategy.

As always, we look forward to your feedback on this series. If you’re not currently receiving the Quisenblog, you can subscribe here.

Posted by Mickey

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Mickey Social Media audience engagement, brand involvement, brand narrative, social media platforms, successful campaign, user involvement