Brand Central Station

by Mike Bawden
President & CEO; Brand Central Station

There was a recent article that appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer about Procter & Gamble and the financial impact it appears their re-focused charitable efforts are having on the company. (Read it here)

This story caught my eye for two reasons: First, only P&G could pull off a global good-will effort like this. And it’s interesting to read about the groundwork they are laying for a variety of their consumer brands in emerging and developing markets. In addition to the awareness and market-building efforts, P&G’s philanthropic program also enhances the value of the company in the eyes of shareholders who are becoming focused on results beyond the bottom line when evaluating their equity holdings.

But the second reason this article was of interest is that it was sent to me by a client.

This is a company not of hundreds of thousands of employees and billions of dollars in sales but of just over one hundred employees and sales that are, shall we say, significantly less than anything in P&G’s portfolio. Yet we’ve managed to work with this client and establish a national connection to a leading health association (The American Diabetes Association) and put together a corporate social responsibility program that will achieve the same kind of awareness and market-building objectives P&G is striving for on a global scale.

For many marketers, whether they’re inside an agency, working from home or cloistered away in a marketing department somewhere, the marketing strategies and actions of the mega-brands (P&G, Pepsi, AB/Interbev, etc.) can all seem out of reach. The fact is, though, their not … and marketers who don’t seem to understand that are destined to live out their professional lives doing more of the same and wondering why they’re not getting better results than they did the year before.

I’ve written about corporate social responsibility programs before. They’re interesting to put together and, done right, can not only have an impact on your company or brand’s growth; they can re-energize your employee base and help build long-term equity in your brand’s value. That can mean better margins on the sale of products to retailers or consumers and, just as important, it can mean better multiples if you decide to sell your business to an investor group or acquiring company.

Doing the right thing, the right way can be a tremendous benefit to your company.

More on this at another time.

… and what it’s not.

The Media Orchard blog has an interesting post about brands and branding.  They take on Jeff Bezo’s comment that “a brand for a company is like a reputation for a person.”  And rightly so.  As the Baradels’ team at the Orchard point out, branding is a little more complex than that.

Instead, they say, branding is much more:

Branding is all about personification — giving human traits to things that aren’t human … Branding communicates the continuity of a company’s business model — to shareholders, to customers, to employees. It says, “This is the kind of person we are — if we were actually a person.”

But here’s the hard truth to the matter:

Corporations are not human. And that’s a good thing, because if they were human, they would be sociopaths. This isn’t a cheap shot. A sociopath is a person who is interested only in their personal needs and desires. By definition, corporations are designed expressly to serve the interests of their shareholders — and only those interests.

Now, these are important facts to bring up when discussing brands and branding, but they only tell part of the story.

(more…)

No, we’re not talking about Presidential politics or economic meltdowns.  We’ll leave that for the straight news.  What’s interesting to note is that according to a recent study by by Boston public relations company Schneider Associates; Mintel International, the London division of Chicago research company Mintel; and Chicago research company Information Resources Inc., 2008 was so full of distractions that not many new products or innovations are on the tops of consumers’ minds.

Check out the video summary of the study here.

(more…)

Laura Ries offers some worthwhile evaluations of celebrity endorsements enjoyed by Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  You don’t have to be a political wonk to enjoy her post.

From a marketing perspective, many of the lessons taught through this endorsement excercise carry over to consumer products and services.  A celebrity endorsement isn’t worth that much if the celebrity doesn’t really understand the “what” and “why” of the brand he or she is endorsing. 

One-dimensional product pitchmen, even if they’re well-known sports or entertainment celebrities, can elicit the same response Laura has about Cheer’s star Ted Danson: “Does anyone care what Ted Danson has to say? I don’t think so.”

When I heard the news about last night’s Grammy Awards, I was shocked.  Herbie Hancock won Album of the Year for his tribute to Joni Mitchell and made a point of thanking Miles Davis, John Coltrane among others.  It was a fitting tribute and a well-deserved honor for Hancock.

I’m a jazz fan (huge) and was pleased to see us get one over on all the other genres in the musical world.  After all, two AotY Grammies in 50 years is hardly a Patriot-style dynasty now, is it? 

Hancock ended his acceptance speech with a little tip of the hat to Barack Obama by claiming “Yes, We Can” to close.  And that’s when the announcer came on and explained that Barack Obama had won his second Grammy, beating out Bill Clinton in the “spoken word” category. (more…)

Developing a corporate vision sounds like some kind of creative exercise, doesn’t it? Well, in one sense it is. After all, the project essentially asks all participants to think of their company in the future and to discuss it openly.

But while there’s probably some value (however little) in sharing “blue sky” dreams about a company with co-workers – we prefer to take a much more measured and deliberate approach. This approach is specifically designed to help employees achieve greater inter-dependence; assist managers in day-to-day decision making; grant customers greater emotional ownership in the brand; and give vendors an opportunity to succeed by making the company more successful.
We begin the visioning process with research. After all, the best clues as to what the future holds for a brand is to understand its journey to the present. This research process uncovers all sorts of insights behind innovations, traditions, customs and practices that help define the brand for what it is. (more…)

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working with a client on matters concerning their “corporate vision.” It’s all a part of the brand development process outlined in our BrandCrafting blog – but the point I wanted to relate here is that this client (and many others, I assume) needed to understand the relationship between “vision” and “value” before he would move ahead with this project.

It’s not as obvious as it sounds, I think.

Creating a “corporate vision” sounds pretty loose and fluffy. Not a lot of implied value and plenty of “naval gazing” (as my dad would have called it). But to easily dismiss the visioning process is to close out real opportunity to formulate consensus among corporate management when it comes to setting a direction and a general plan for growth and development.

Personally, I opted for “vision” work like this years ago. As a cultural historian of sorts, I can see plenty of examples where things worked better when there was clarity of vision at the top. As a result, I’ve always worked with clients to help them identify their own personal version of success – and that’s the trick.

By getting clients to define where they want to be it becomes much easier to talk in concrete terms about potential stumbling blocks like budgets, deadlines and obligations for success. Arrangements are easier to make with vendors if the company has a clear idea of what kind of products it’s going to produce. Prospect lists are culled more easily once there are some rules in place that will help qualify and quantify sales leads.

But even though a clear vision can impact operations and customer relationships, its biggest impact is on the perceived value of the brand. Exactly how that value is imparted on the brand may surprise you.

Brand value improves not due to the boldness or uniqueness of the vision, but rather because everyone involved in adding value to the brand is informed and in agreement on how the brand will be successful. The lesson is simple and obvious: if everyone works together to make the brand what they agree it should be, the brand will be more successful than the alternative (of not working together).

There is another aspect of “vision” work that I enjoy. You see, when you develop a corporate vision, you have to take the time to make sure you understand how each constituency (i.e. market) will interpret and value that vision. As a result, the messages created to convey the vision (and its related values) are developed and targeted to specific markets and through specific media channels. The “promise making” part of brand equity building becomes much more precise and deliberate.

The result of all this sharing and communicating is the clarification of the “mission” so often overlooked by employees today, from the rank-and-file to the C-level executives. The corporate mission statement – once a bastion of bad grammar, convoluted buzz words and jargon – can now be distilled to one simple phrase:

“Live up to the promises we make and turn our vision of the future into a reality.”

It’s a clear and simple challenge that requires a fresh start every day. And with a healthy investment in a clear and succinct “visioning” process in place, mission statements don’t come much easier to understand than that.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Strategic Planning, Corporate Vision, Brand, Brand Equity, Branding

Why do we get the inspiration for innovation? I think it may be part of the human condition – that we’re always trying to make things better. Sometimes it’s a personal challenge to see if we can outdo what’s been “done” before. Other times, it’s a more practical reaction to a need expressed by someone we care for … a customer, a co-worker, a family member.

My concern, however, is that sometimes we seem to innovate without thinking about the consequences.

Look back on “breakthroughs” like New Coke, the Apple Newton, the DeLorean and others and the effect of innovation on brand value is pretty obvious. But innovations inside the enterprise can have just as dramatic impact on the brand without all the public whoopla that typically follows a new product introduction or a brand extension.

The innovation process
Inside the organization, innovation typically emerges in the persona of a “champion” (one of those unfortunate 90′s, corporate buzzwords that has stuck with us). Whether it’s a change to internal processes or a strategy for entry into a new market, the champion begins the campaign process in an attempt to create a breakthrough that could impact the company.

In the best case scenarios, the champion has taken time out to evaluate the various business issues surrounding the innovation. Is it something customers need? Is it likely to fit within the business’ production capabilities? Does it open up an under-performing market? The answers are likely to be a mix of positives and negatives.

Sometimes, however, the negatives go unheard.

In her HBJ article on “When Bad Ideas Won’t Die”, Isabelle Royer writes that bad ideas often result from “a fervent and widespread belief among managers in the inevitability of their projects’ ultimate success. This sentiment typically originates, naturally enough, with a project’s champion; it then spreads throughout the organization … reinforcing itself each step of the way.”

Innovations require more than just a great idea, however. The viability of the innovation must be reviewed and reaffirmed at each step in the development process. And for those companies who don’t innovate (either themselves or their products) on a regular basis, a development process may be completely absent.

Paul Graham (bio), one of the co-creators of ViaWeb, provides some insights into how to spot winning ideas. He suggests the following:

1. Make sure your idea is something people will pay for.

2. Don’t go with the first idea that comes to mind.

3. Don’t be timid when it comes to taking your idea to the market.

The relationship between innovation and brand value
It’s important to understand how innovation can effect the perceived value of your brand. Done right, innovations can keep your brand fresh and relevent to those people who already know and understand it. Innovation can also open your brand to new market opportunities.

So how do you take advantage of them? Go back to what built your brand’s value in the first place – stay on message.

In fact, it’s the need to stay on message that most often vexes brands. The natural tendency is to brag about the innovation – and why not? It’s new. It may be newsworthy. But what happens, in many cases, is that brands foresake everything to tout their new development.

This matters because in a marketplace of millions of messages, your brand needs to stand as tall as it possibly can – and the only way to do that is to use the awareness, knowledge and goodwill it’s accumulated over the life of your external marketing efforts. Taking off on a new message, look and feature/benefit could (in a worse-case scenario) be no more than an unintentional “launch” of a new or competitive product in the market.

In cases where brands introduce more significant innovations to their product or service/support package, a brand re-alignment or re-positioning might be in order. This is a significant change with very real (and measurable) implications to the bottom line and should not be taken casually.

Connecting the innovation to the brand
Most innovations are, in some way, related to how the brand currently relates to its customers and those people who interact with the brand on a regular basis. The most important thing to do when introducing the innovation, then, is to understand how these relationships will be impacted and plan accordingly.

In short, you have to establish clear and obvious connections between the innovation and the brand.

You might find it helpful to break the brand and the innovation down into their core/basic values and then look for the overlap. Those overlapping values are your points of strength – harmony between the innovation and the brand – and will give you the foundation you need for your external and internal messaging efforts (whether they consist of advertising, PR, conferences, etc.).

For grins, you might want to check out some of these innovations that did little, if any good, for their brands. Go here, here and check out a book on the subject.

Later.

This information is (c) 2005, Brand Central Station, all rights reserved. If you are interested in receiving news and analysis directly from BCS, please log onto our website.

I used to be sold on Gateway computers.

For years, I used to buy their top-of-the-line products, make sure I had comprehensive warranty coverage, provide positive feedback to employees whenever possible and vehemently defend the company whenever my computer-savvy friends would disparage them.

In short, I was a cash cow for Gateway.

Then began the ordeal that has been the past fourteen months. Around the first of last year, I made a fairly significant purchase of Gateway products – a big, desktop station and sleek laptop for the office and a Media Center for my wife. The Media Center purchase was critical – the snazzy, all-in-one unit was for my wife’s use. It seemed perfect: easy-to-use, not a lot of parts, wireless and, best of all, you could watch tv on it while you worked.

Almost immediately, I had problems. The delivery of the desktop system was going to take a while but, somehow, no one in billing had been told that so I started receiving charge statements and demand letters for payment before the system had even arrived at my home. Every time I’d get the problem straightened out, some new third-party collection service would get in on the act and foul everything up. We straightened everything out once I had all the equipment and wrote a check to wipe out the balance (on which they continued charging interest for two months until someone in charge managed to rectify the situation).

Shortly after the snags were worked on concerning the purchase, things started to go wrong with the equipment. First, the desktop station failed on me, literally days after loading the last of my 500+ CD collection onto it. A mild set-back, I was disappointed when I was told I would have to install the new hard drive myself.

Soon after that, the Media Center started to have problems. The monitor started to flicker and the speakers made random pops and groans. A quick trip to the Gateway Country Store seemed to solve the problem, though. Gateway’s service policy had come through for me before and did again this time. Their reputation, although bruised in my eyes, was still in tact.

All that was about to change.

I rue the day Gateway decided to close their retail locations. Sure, I understand why – but what most people don’t know is that when the Gateway Country Stores closed, I’m convinced a “stupid” virus must have been released inside the company’s CRM (customer relationship management) system. Coinciding with that was a decision made by both my laptop and the rouge Media Center that they would work together to test the limits of the lemon law in my state.

It’s been nearly a year now and hardly a month goes by when my wife and I haven’t made two or three phone calls to Gateway’s tech support. The people are great: nice, sincere, well-meaning … the same qualities I enjoyed in the employees at the Gateway Country Store. But it’s the little things (along with my computers’ continued misbehavior) that have just about bankrupt my reserve of Gateway Brand Equity.

For example:

1. How can you send a computer in for service and have it arrive back at your home, packed exactly the way you sent it, with no documentation and none of the repairs performed?
2. Why does the automatic receptionist for the tech support line require you to enter the serial number of the equipment you’re calling about and then the live operator have to ask for the same serial number when he/she answers the phone?
3. Why does the company give you three or four reference numbers (e.g. invoice number, account number, serial number, incident report number) but when the tech support person looks up each number, they are unable to find a record of your last call?
4. Why do the tech support people ask for your phone number every time you call in – after you’ve given them the serial number on your computer and they’ve confirmed your account information?
5. Why don’t tech support people call you back when you get disconnected, knowing that if you wind up calling tech support again, you’re likely to get someone completely new and have to start all over again?

The list could go on and on, but I won’t let it. See, I like the people at Gateway and I know it’s not all their fault. The problem is inside. Really inside. Like inside the way they try to meet service customers’ expectations and needs.

And that’s my point.

If you want to build long-term brand equity, you have to remember that what you say (we call it promise making) is only part of the equation. The tough part is meeting the expectations you’ve set (that’s the part we call promise keeping).

That means taking a closer look at every point where customers interact with your brand – from product development to customer support. And don’t just look at your people and how they’re trained. Look at the systems they rely on to meet customer expectations and build brand value.

If you do that, you could raise an entire herd of cash cows of your very own.

Later.

This information is (c) 2005, Brand Central Station, all rights reserved. If you are interested in receiving news and analysis directly from BCS, please log onto our website.