Decisions, Choices and Branding

Business like life is made up of decisions and choices. How you make them determines whether you'll be successful or not, as well as the level of your success... or failure.  Decisions and choices that aren't based on any foundational principles or values don't have much chance of getting us or our organizations where we or our organizations want to be.  This is mainly because we probably aren't sure where we want to be or how we'd like to (or should) get there.

So where does branding come into all of this?  Well, I believe at the beginning.  By clearly defining your brand you will also be clarifying your purpose, the fundamental things you believe in and what you and your organization value most.  Once you can stand on this foundation, making decisions becomes simple (I didn't say easy).  You'll be able to see the past, present and future through new eyes... and others (colleagues, employees, clients, vendors, prospects, media, investors, your spouse, etc.) will be able to see you and/or your organization through those same new eyes. You'll know what (and who) fits and what doesn't.  It's like your mother told you, just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Define your brand and make better decisions.

How to talk to customers when times have changed

Here's a good article from HBR on how to talk to customers (when you don't know what to say). It equates talking with clients in the current economic downturn filled with layoffs and belt tightening to a personal situation when a friend has lost a loved one. Sometimes you just don't know what to say.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/02/what_to_say_to_customers_when.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-WEEKLY_HOTLIST-_-FEB_2009-_-HOTLIST0224

I've been telling my clients for months now that the things their clients cared about just a short time ago are not the same today. The message still comes from your brand's core strength but it needs to be communicated in a new way that takes into account the new behaviors and attitudes as well as the changing strength of various touchpoints/media. I also have been chanting as my mantra that this is not the time to stop or greatly reduce your marketing. It's time to make it more efficient, yes. But to just take the tact of cutting the marketing budget without a strategy to make it more efficient (and effective) by honing your communications by taking the steps outline above is just increasing the speed of your downward spiral.

Be responsible, but be responsible in an intelligent way.

Stay focused.

--Charles

The Times They Are A Changin'

In his blogpost, We Are Actively Dismantling Your Trusted Marketing Strategies, Brian Massey explains that,

"The culture, the strategies, and the beliefs that your business has relied on for the past 20 years are being actively dismantled."

I think that in many ways Brian has it right. As we shift power away from the Boomer Generation that thrived on hype and mass marketing we find control of defining what a brand means largely in the hands of the "new" consumer. Enter the era of conversational marketing where the words humility, simplicity and authenticity rule.

The truly interesting thing about all this that Brian points out is that the parts still work, they just need to be put together in a different form.

"TV is not an effective way to communicate, video is."

"Radio is not an effective way to communicate, the human voice is."

"Print is not an effective way to communicate, words and images are."

"Web sites are not an effective way to communicate, solving problems is."

All of this relates to my last post on listening first and always. Understand your audience (those that are important to you as well as those that are important to them) then say something powerful. They will do the rest.

As Shakespeare said, "To thine own self be true."

Be real,

--Charles

Brands on Twitter... ban or embrace?

First, let me say that "I Love Mashable." OK, now that I've gotten that out of the way on with the blog post.

Social media is about conversations. As the title of Robert Scoble's book, "Naked Conversations" implies, transparency is a key to the effectiveness of social media. This article from Mashable makes the argument that people have relationships with people therefore brand only twitter sites are just plain wrong.

http://mashable.com/2008/12/12/twitter-brands/

I agree and disagree. I agree that having a human face to a brand makes a brand more real. However, I also believe you can have a relationship with a brand. See the New Coke story for example. Taste didn't matter, the relationship with what came to be known as classic Coke was so strong that Coke killed the better tasting product. Twitter brand sites need to be careful though. Cold, marketspeak on Twitter is just plain wrong. I don't say ban it, but just know you won't be successful if you don't have real conversations.

Be real,

--Charles

Branding Is About Better Decision Making

From conversations I've had recently, I've come to the conclusion that most people still believe that managing a business is very different than branding and marketing a business.

I disagree vehemently to this way of thinking. Management and Marketing are in a real way the same thing.

To manage a business you have to understand it. You have to organize it and make sure each piece is doing what it needs to do to reach goals that accomplish the company's mission.

On the other hand, to discover a company's brand you have to find the intersection of what prospects, customers, management, employees, alliances, vendors and all the other audiences want from or value in the company.

So if you first take the time to discover your brand, you'll be able to more clearly make decisions regarding how to organize your business correctly, which people to hire, what processes to put in place, which technology to purchase, what vendors to work with, etc., etc... and you'll also be a more efficient and effective marketer because you'll be focused on communicating what you do best that the customer values most.

To build a better business that can meet the current economic challenges start with your brand.

Stay Focused,

--Charles

Lay-a-way for a New Generation

Saw this from DirectDispatch that Lay-a-ways are back in vogue now that credit is crunched.

http://blog.hagginmarketing.com/?p=874

I think lay-a-ways fit both today's economy and today's dominant generation. If hype is out and genuineness and authenticity are in, Lay-a-ways making a comeback just makes sense. It's a way to get what you want in a more "real" way than sliding plastic. But from a branding perspective, a lot of negative brand equity has to be cleared away to make lay-a-ways cool. Do you think the current economic pressures people are feeling are enough to overcome the stigma? I'm not so sure.

Be real,

--Charles

Identity and Corporate Strategy

Interesting research from HBS via Booz's Strategy + Business.

http://www.strategy-business.com/re/recentresearch/re00048

This somewhat validates what I do for a living. I help corporate leaders use their brand to make decisions about all facets of their organizations... including technology. In other words your identity (your brand) is the source of energy from which everything else flows in your organization. It doesn't mean you stay static, it means you stay true to your purpose while always looking for ways to better fulfill that purpose.

Sometimes I really like reading research.

--Charles

Crisis + Creativity = Opportunity?

Interesting article from Wharton about folks who are making it happen in spite of everything. Proving that innovation, creativity and common sense can still succeed. Got the itch to start something? There shouldn't be much competition for a while. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/special_section.cfm?specialID=78

Go for it!

--Charles

Designing offices for the four work modes can boost productivity by more than 20 per cent

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1385fe50-ac1e-11dd-aa46-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

When I read this article in the Financial Times, I found it interesting that Gensler, the international architecture and interior design firm, has identified 4 work modes that more or less correlate with the 4 basic personality types. Hmmm. I like it - that is, I like the concept, not necessarily the way Edelman PR has implemented it in their London offices. I'm not much into "lights decorated with small paper drawings of Japanese erotica." That goes more to values than personality, I guess.

If education were this flexible in its approach would we see a 20% boost in learning?! In most of education, business and in life things end up being about understanding yourself, understanding others and then adapting to communicate in the way the other person (or organization) can best understand. This doesn't mean you shouldn't want to have a consistent brand. It just means you need to tailor how you communicate your brand's one thing to your different audience segments. From the personality side, one of my favorite books in this area is The Platinum Rule by Tony Alessandra. He says that it's not the Golden Rule that says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" that builds productive relationships but the Platinum Rule that states, "Do unto others as they would have done unto them." Another book from more of the brand side of the equation is The Experience Economy by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore who look at the 4 realms of Experience. Adapting-to-connect works in relationships and in the type of environment you provide in the workplace as well.

What should change at your office?

--Charles

The next 5000 days of the Web: One Machine - We are the ONE

A talk by Kevin Kelly, a futurist of the highest degree, recently caught my attention. He talks of what the next 5000 days of the web will bring. My view of the implications, if Mr. Kelly is correct, are both exciting and disturbing. From one perspective, the world and every person in it will be like a part of a huge parallel computer. Progress... positive change would be instantaneous continuously. However, without a clear set of global values, the opposite could also be true. The concept of marketing would truly be holistic. Everyone would be forced to live their brand because there would be no where to hide the "truth" about you, your organization, your product/service. Complete transparency. So what I preach to my clients today about defining their one thing and let everything they do internally and externally flow from that may not be a bad idea.

Take a look, think about it and let me know what you're thinking. You might as well, I'll know everything about you in 5000 days.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

My head hurts thinking about it. I'm getting some Tylenol.

Stay focused,

--Charles

Inbound Marketing Summit with Seth Godin and David Meerman Scott

Mark Campanale with Triumverate Environmental (check out his blog http://triumvirateenvironmental.blogspot.com/ ) recently attended the Inbound Marketing Summit. While there he posted some comments about how great it was. I trust Mark so I went to the Inbound Marketing Summit website and watched several videos of the various presentations. Wow, this is good stuff. There is so much to get out of these presentations. Business owners, marketing professionals... everybody needs to understand what Albert Einstein put so well, "We can't solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

Watch and learn.
(Seth Godin)
http://bit.ly/3abO0x or
http://www.inboundmarketingsummit.com/blog/bid/7187/Seth-Godin-Transform-Your-Marketing-Keynote-Presentation-Video

(David Meerman Scott)
http://blip.tv/play/Ac+xLI71bA or http://www.inboundmarketingsummit.com/blog/bid/7001/David-Meerman-Scott-The-New-Rules-of-Marketing-PR-Keynote-Presentation-Video

So, did you learn anything?

--Charles

Marketing - It's Personal

Jim Stengel, formerly head of Marketing at P&G, has started his own firm focused on what I'm calling "purpose-driven" marketing. It's all about the relationship with the customer/client/consumer.Take a look at his speech at the 4A's conference: http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=595383937
Here's his blurb launching his new venture:"Jim Stengel, outgoing global marketing chief at Procter & Gamble, is setting up Jim Stengel LLC, which is promoting a new way of selling based on the concept of "purpose." For example, the company's Pampers brand has been focused on the purpose of developing healthy, happy babies, not just keeping bottoms dry, he explained."

Stay on purpose,
--Charles

FAO is no longer the ghost of Christmas Past

Have you heard? FAO Schwarz, the toy store left for dead after filing chapter 11 and closing all of its stores 5 years ago, is back. Why? It's all about the BRAND!

Check out this interview with David Niggli, president and chief merchandising officer to learn how to revive any great brand on life support. Go back to the core of what made your brand great to begin with.

http://hubmagazine.com/html/2008/nov_dec/fao.html

Stay Focused,

--Charles