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.

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

With the Super Bowl looming just around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit the “Grand-Daddy of Today’s Super Bowl Extravaganzas”–Apple’s “1984” commercial.

Folks in our business tend to view “1984” with an almost religious reverence. They’ll say “This is the spot that made Apple the major player it is today!”

While I hate to rain on a good story, this is a bit of revisionist history.

While most would agree that piece of advertising was brilliant in just about every sense of the word, the spot reflected who Apple is now, not who Apple was then. In 1984 (and for several years afterward), MacIntosh was derided as a “toy” computer that wasn’t practical for business purposes, despite sporting cool new features like the mouse and the graphic user interface, Hardly any software was created for it. It was grossly underpowered. And it was way more expensive than IBM’s or Compaq’s rival PCs.

Truth be told, it wasn’t until the rise of the desktop publishing era later in the decade that the Mac found its niche.

It’s important to note that while Apple initially didn’t deliver on the promise of “1984,” over time it definitely did. The spot was pure aspiration. It was a line in the sand, a gauntlet thrown down, a true “vision statement” for the company and the brand. The spot basically communicated, “Apple is the company that produces technology products built around the user’s needs. Apple stands for technology you WANT to use.”

In many ways, the vision of Apple from the mid-80s, given its products’ capabilities, was quite audacious. It is precisely this audaciousness that can keep an organization and a brand moving in the right direction.

The aspirational aspect of building a brand should never be underrated.

And on a strictly personal note, go Niners.

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Would Twitter be as useful or popular if it didn’t restrict your messages to 140 characters? Would Groupon’s emails receive a better open rate if its audience didn’t know the offers were for 50% off? Would Southwest Airlines attract more business travelers if it served three-course meals during its flights? Would Jackson Pollock have sold more paintings if he did the occasional still life?

My answer to each of the above questions: not so much.

In each case, the marketer’s limitation serves a marketing purpose. It keeps the marketer from falling into the trap of being “everything to everyone.” It lets them hyper-concentrate on its marketing “sweet spot.” It helps the marketer occupy an important niche. The limitation is a key component in how its users view the marketer’s product, and in fact, is one of the reasons the audience finds it so useful and desirable.

In essence, these organizations’ limitations have become some of their biggest advantages.

Back to the Twitter example, there’s already a platform that allows for unlimited social conversation. It’s called email. Could you imagine the folly of “following” hundreds or thousands of Twitter voices via email?

While the limitations of the marketers mentioned here are more or less “self-imposed,” what about marketers who have their limitations thrust upon them? The mom-and-pop that’s forced to compete with a Big Box Store? The retail shop who doesn’t have the space to carry an exhaustive inventory? The small-market service business that’s competing against well-stocked big city firms for both business and talent?

I guarantee, within each limitation is a kernel of a pre-emptive advantage. It is incumbent on the marketer to recognize that kernel, and rather than paper it over, embrace it. Put it on steroids. Make sure everyone who does business with you recognizes that you’ve embraced your “limitation” and used it to provide something no other competitor can deliver.

After all, you’ll never be able to get a burger at Starbuck’s.

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Dumb question, right? When you think “Harley Davidson,” chances are you think “authentic biker,” or “classic road cycles” or even “loud,” “tattoos and leather” or “badass.” Not exactly the same images that come to mind when you think of a cute pink and white scooter.

The Cadillac Cimarron. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

While there may be universal agreement that a Harley scooter wouldn’t do much to solidify the Harley brand, brands are making just that kind of mistake everyday. A few examples? Dial soap launching a deodorant. A-1 Steak Sauce coming out with a chicken glaze. PanAm putting its name on hotels. And does anybody remember the Cadillac Cimmaron?

All these decisions were greenlighted by really smart people, backed by impeccable research and sound marketing principles. In a nutshell, these brand extensions were viewed as a way to borrow the equity of a well established brand to “buy” a significant portion of a “related” market, and to inexpensively build incremental sales. Make the most of your brand, and give people more reason to think of it.

In practice, you trade in your reputation (another word for brand) in exchange for a short-term boost of awareness or profit. Unfortunately, many times the price to be paid for that short-term gain is a diluted brand than quickly loses its cache. The poster child example of this is Yahoo!, which went from being the dominant search engine of the 1990s with a market cap of $114 billion, to a I-have-no-idea-what-they-are-now company who’s had six top executives in six years and is now worth less than 1/6th of its high value (with less than 10% of the market share of Google).

So how do you go about determining whether your proposed brand extension will be the next Diet Coke or the next Xerox Computer?

We’ve found that brand equity is a two-way street. More often than not, a successful line extension doesn’t just “borrow” equity from the brand, it also “adds to it.”

The key that often determines a successful extension vs. an exercise in futility is this: does the proposed line extension jibe with “the real business we’re in.” This goes beyond the functional aspects of a product to more of the “problem” the brand solves well in the minds of your most ardent supporters. For Coke, for example, if you’re “real business” (Brand Vision) is “refreshing the masses,” then yeah, a new product that serves that purpose stands a good chance of success, and of not only “borrowing” equity from the brand, but also adding to it. Likewise, if you’re McDonald’s and your “real business” is ‘providing a variety of fast, taste-pleasing meals in a clean and friendly environment, then Chicken McNuggets or McRib sandwiches make sense. If, on the other hand, you are Dial soap, your real “business” in the minds of consumers is most likely “clean,’”not “defeats perspiration.” And if you’re A-1, your real business is “adding flavor to cheap cuts of beef.”

Looking at brand extensions through the “what business we’re really in” lens even helps explain outliers such as Apple or Virgin. Apple’s “real business” was not building and selling computers, it was in creating elegant, user-friendly cutting edge technology. Which perfectly describes the iPhone, iPod and iPad, as well as the Mac. And for Virgin? Their ”real business” could be described as “turning mundane, low-interest unimaginative markets on their ears.” Rings true for Virgin Airlines, Virgin Mobile, and even the original Virgin Music Centres.

The key to all this is to understand what your brand means to your customers, how they see it, and what “problem” your brand elegantly solves for them.

Lose sight of that, and you could end up with another Levi’s shoes.

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The Musée du Louvre in Paris houses over 35,000 pieces of art from pre-history through the Medieval and Renaissance eras on through the works of the 19th century Impressionists. It is widely regarded as the most inclusive collection of drawings, sculptures, paintings, objets d’art and archaeological finds in the world.

Yet inevitably, when someone thinks of the Louvre, she is most likely to think of one particular piece: The Mona Lisa.

What is it that has made Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th century portrait of the wife of his good friend Francesco del Giocondo overshadow tens of thousands of breath-taking works of art? Because at some point, someone in authority at the Louvre decided to make the Mona Lisa the center of the Louvre experience.

While museum curators might argue there are 34,999 other reasons to visit the Louvre, it is the Mona Lisa that gets visitors through the turnstiles. The Mona Lisa makes the Louvre accessible.

One could spend literally days exploring the different galleries, grounds and exhibitions at the museum. Not many of the museum’s 15,000 daily visitors would have the patience or interest to do that. But the fact that they can see the Mona Lisa gives them reason to go, even if they spend only a few hours at the museum. The Mona Lisa represents a touchstone for the whole Louvre experience.

So what is the touchstone of your customers’ experience with you? Like the Louvre, you may be able to list several reasons for customers to engage with you. But what is the one that is your touchstone? The one thing that sticks with them after the experience has ended? The one that comes up in conversations they may have after the fact? The one that piques the interest of people who may know nothing about you?

Is your touchstone something within the product or service itself? Or is it in the way it is delivered or supported? Of all the features you have to offer customers, which one is the most meaningful, and offers the most value, to them?

Here’s the important part: once you figure out what your touchstone is, emphasize this above all else. Don’t succumb to the “there are a lot of other great things about us” trap. Sure, some of them may seem very appealing, just as the Venus de Milo or The Thinker would be appealing to museum goers.

But never forget, it’s the Mona Lisa that gets people to pull the trigger.

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The generally accepted wisdom about innovation goes something like this: an inventor begins with a particular problem in mind (for Edison, as an example, it might have been “I’m looking for a way to light up a room.”). Then, through trial and error, he tries a multitude of possible solutions that don’t yield much in the way of results. Then suddenly, a Eureka! moment—a flash that seemingly comes out of nowhere that provides the solution to the exact problem we were trying to solve.

The truth is, innovation rarely works like that. Jonah Lehrer, in his book Imagine describes how very often great inventors don’t really “invent” from scratch at all; often what the most successful inventors do is find surprising new applications for what’s already available to them. The “innovative” part is not to invent new technologies, but rather to find new uses for existing technologies.

That’s what Gutenberg did when he brought his wine press skills into book printing. What the Wright Brothers did when they applied their knowledge of bicycle mechanics to make airplanes. And what the Apple team did when they brought their extensive experience in operating systems, digital files and data management to develop the iPod.

In essence, Apple’s engineers didn’t start our saying “We’re looking to develop a product that will render the Discman obsolete.” It was more likely they said “With all we know about computers and the digital world, what other product possibilities or consumer markets can we get into?”

Interestingly enough, the approach the inventor takes to create something new and exciting works in business as well. An organization with a strong Brand Vision (which represents the ONE meaningful, unique and true thing the organization aspires to be remembered for) is adept at keeping the consumer’s “greater purpose” in mind.

The Brand Vision reflects the ultimate solution for the consumer. It’s understanding, for example, that a customer isn’t purchasing furniture, she’s purchasing a beautiful room that reflects her good taste. So the organization can use its knowledge, expertise and connections to further this ultimate goal for the customer, perhaps through free interior design classes, in-home design consultations, a take-it-home-and-try-it policy, or simply by helping access the latest insider news.

In short, you don’t have to be an “Edison-type” to be innovate. You just need to be in line with understanding what the consumer is hoping to accomplish or feel when she purchases your product or service.

Happy innovating!

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When you publish 12 months of blog posts, some are going to stick out. As we bid adieu to 2011, we thought we’d use our final post of the year to revisit a handful of our favorite posts from the past year.

To succeed in Social Media, think like a B-to-B marketer.

To be a successful business-to-business marketer, you need to spend time building relationships with your potential customers. And guess what. That’s what social media can help you do.

The first janitor in space.

Does everyone in your organization—from the C-suite to the folks who mop floors at the end of the day—understand your company’s Brand Vision? Do they have permission to find their own special way to make it come to life?

Win by addressing customer pain points.

Often times, the marketer that wins in the marketplace is the one that does the best job anticipating and addressing customer “pain points.”

Five Steps to Reputation Management.

With so much being published about you and your company online, how do you go about managing it?

Who is your competition?

Used to be that was an obvious question. But with online search playing a more and more important role, you might have competition you never considered before.

It’s (Im)possible.

For all the “achievable” goals your organization might have in this next year, it pays to have at least one that, on the surface, might seem impossible. Here’s why.

Three words that will supercharge your Brand Vision.

Once you find a way to make yourself stand out in the marketplace, how do you ensure everyone gets it? These three words will take you a long way.

We hope you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year. And we look forward to sharing our thoughts, observations (as well as the occasional rant) with you in 2012. Peace out.

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admin On Clients, On Customers, Ramblings, Social Media, customer experience, strategy B-to-B Marketing, brand vision, No Matter What, Relationship Management, Reputation Managment

“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?

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Pretty obvious question, you say?

Once upon a time, naming your competition was pretty simple. Your competitors were the businesses in your market area that sold the same sort of products or services as you. But thanks to the Internet (more specifically Google), all that’s changed.

Now your competition isn’t so much who you say it is. It’s who Google says it is.

When your key word search terms are entered, who shows up? Is it the “usual suspects” you’ve been going toe-to-toe with for quite some time? Or are there new “competitors” (online or offline) that show up in the search?

Whichever is the case, before you can figure out how to take on your competition, you first have to know who they are.

For the sake of simplicity, here are four different types of competitors it pays to consider:

1. Brick-and-Mortar Competition
These are the competitors you have a pretty good handle on. They’re the ones you compete with on a fairly regular basis. If you’re Staples, your brick-and-mortar competitors are mom-and-pop stationery stores, as well as chains such as OfficeMax and OfficeDepot. Chances are you know these guys pretty well, and you’ve gotten quite adept at competing head-to-head.

2. Competition That Ranks For Your Keywords
Thanks to the Internet, it’s not just local companies you need to worry about. You also have to be aware of your search competitors – the businesses that are stealing customers by ranking for the keywords you want to be found for. The Internet doesn’t care if Jenny’s Book Emporium is run out of her parent’s basement in Nogales, AZ. If Jenny’s ranking higher on the page for your search terms than you are, tough luck. There’s a pretty good shot she’s going to steal some business that under other circumstances would likely come your way.

Let’s go back to our Staples example.

If you’re Staples and you want to rank for “hanging file folders,” your competition isn’t just the brick and mortar guys. You’re also up against Amazon, The Container Store, Walmart, Sam’s Club and who-knows-else. There doesn’t need to be a physical location within 200 miles of your storefront. If their website is showing up above yours (or comparable to yours) in the search results, they’re a direct competitor.

3. Competitors Whose Social Media Pages Rank For Your Keywords
Like most organizations, you’ve probably got a website. You might even have a Facebook page. Maybe even a LinkedIn business page. But what about the competitors who are seemingly everywhere in Social Media? They blog, they contribute to industry forums, they comment on articles. They post videos on YouTube and photos on Picasa. Keep in mind that Google indexes each and every one of these pages. And the more dynamic the content (the more frequently it is updated), the higher it will generally rank, usually against the very words you’re hoping to be found with.

This is a whole new category of “search competitor”: those who get in through the side door while everyone is trying to push through the front. This is a big reason why it’s so important to have a meaningful presence in as many social platforms as you can manage, and why all digital assets related to your brand need to be optimized for search.

4. “Share of Buzz” Competitors
Thanks to social media, there’s another class of nagging competitor to think about – the ones who are winning in the “Share of Voice” battle. These are the businesses that sell similar products or services as you but who seem to be involved in every social conversation out there. People are tweeting their stuff, sharing their links on Facebook, talking up their promotions and referencing their videos or SlideShare presentations in conversations all across the web.

Bottom line, your competitors are no longer just the names you’ve always known; your competition is anyone who gets themselves in front of your customer’s line of sight.

Once you’re aware of the volume of competition you truly have, you can take action to come out on top. Yes, a big part of that is to focus on a sound SEO strategy (more on that here). And it’s also important to have a meaningful presence across several platforms. But more than that, it is important that you truly understand the value your customers consistently say they receive from you that is unique and meaningful. And turn that value proposition into a Brand Vision that is reflected throughout your organization and your communications.

Just as you compete with your local brick-and-mortar types by being uniquely “you,” so too can you successfully compete with virtual entities—as long as you narrowly focus on what you do best.

Heck, you might even show up in your competition’s searches and steal a few sales from them.

If you’d like to read more about competing with search engine competition, I recommend checking out this thoughtful blog post from TopRank.

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In this “micro-post,” we give an “attaboy” to a marketer that’s done a fantastic job figuring out “what business they’re really in.” That marketer is the electronics retailer Best Buy.

If I were to ask “what business is Best Buy in,” you might be tempted to talk about “what they do” rather than “who they are.” You could talk about how they carry the latest technology, have well-versed sales and support people, and even note how they have a liberal return/exchange policy. But all this would be missing one key component—understanding what holds a customer back from buying.

Talk to anyone who’s about to part with hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to get the “next big thing,” and you’ll hear one over-riding concern: the fear that what’s “new” today will be obsolete tomorrow. That’s the way it goes with technology. And most times, that investment you put out for the latest and greatest is gone with the wind.

Best Buy obviously gets this.

This television spot cites an initiative called the “Buy Back Program.” Essentially when your new doo-dad gets outdated, Best Buy will buy it back when you trade up to get the new stuff.

Technophobia may have met its match.

A marketing exec I know once compared obstacles to purchase to the baggage on an airport carousel. The buyer isn’t going anywhere until all the bags are removed.

Best Buy just removed a huge steamer trunk.

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