How Steve Jobs Made Apple Different

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At the risk of re-posting just another glowing memorial for the accomplishments of Steve Jobs, I read something today about him that really resonates with my core beliefs. Being different is profoundly significant.

In a short article published on bnet.com, Margaret Heffernan outlined six lessons that she identified in Steve Job’s approach to business that heavily contributed to his success. It’s a good read.

In a point entitled “Style IS Content”, she begins the article by introducing what could be Jobs’ greatest success and certainly his biggest challenge – to lead a tech company to be just as focused on creating enriching user experiences as on extending the borders of electronic discovery.

Everything about Apple products and their interaction with customers from their visual appeal, physical design, usability, stylish promotion and support was cultivated to add a level of unique value technology alone can’t even approach. Instead of simply being used as a tool to accomplish a task, they have become an enabling expression of the lifestyle their owners aspire to lead.

That’s what makes Apple so different. Their brand so powerful. And Steve Jobs so visionary. Style, brand and uniqueness IS content. It’s not just extra, it actually is what customers want. It’s what they’ll buy. A lot.

Read the article “6 Lessons We Could Learn From Steve Jobs” for yourself.

When you’re ready to bring that type of value to your brand communications, contact me by e-mail or by phone at 903-534-5220.

Winning Strategies for a Sluggish Economy

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I’ve personally experienced the results of a company going into “survival mode” during an economic downturn. It begins with the “everyone’s got to tighten their belt” speech. Expense reports are put under the microscope and a moratorium is placed on purchasing sticky notes.

What comes next is always predictable. All of the brand developing activities that generate new business, and many that keep current customers happy, are deemed to be too costly when all you want to do is survive. So the company cuts back. Revenue dwindles. Margins shrink. Black ink turns to red, and heads begin to roll.

Winners can see the downturn coming, and they don’t panic. They view slow economic periods as a chance to gain focus and return to their roots. By defining and magnifying their difference, they see a chance to take market share from their competitors.

If you understand the principle of faith, then this is the time to use it. You will have to resist the urge to reduce your branding budget and step out on that proverbial limb. It is critical, however, that you maximize how your brand development money is used.

When examining how your branding dollars are spent, ask yourself these three questions:

· How does this help me gain and keep customers?

· What happens if I stop doing this?

· How can this be improved upon?

Every function and every person in your organization should be focused on gaining and keeping customers. Your quality control inspector becomes your first line of customer service by preventing warranty claims and returns. Your accountant who sends out invoices can’t afford to make a mistake and miss-bill a client. Your maintenance personnel keep the plant running efficiently so you can keep your pricing attractive to the customers. Branding must be a company-wide mindset.

Of course these three questions apply to your web site, advertising, sales promotion, and all of the areas that you normally associate with marketing and communicating your brand. You can read the full article, Winning Strategies for a Sluggish Economy, here.

Or, if you’d like to talk to us about maximizing your branding dollar, contact us today by e-mail or by phone at 903-534-5220.

Why It's Bad To Be Normal

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When we were all in high school who didn’t try to fit in? Wear the right clothes? Listen to the right music? Even use the right vocabulary? No one wanted to be the oddball. But recently I’m beginning to recognize more and more advantages in uniqueness.

Take for instance the packed new restaurant featuring an exotic flavor pallet not previously available locally. Better yet, consider hugely popular TV shows like Monk, Dirty Jobs or CSI-Miami created around interestingly unique characters, situations and environments. In every case, it’s the differences that establish the appeal.

Similarly, business seems to be designed to reward uniqueness too. What company wants to be known for following “normal” instead of “best” practices? Delivering “average” instead of “outstanding” customer service? Hiring “ordinary” versus “exceptional” employees?

An article recently authored by Steve Tobak and published on BNET.com cites 10 reasons it’s bad to be normal.

Here are his categories:
Best practices, customer satisfaction, recruiting, product specs and features, R&D, market share, leaders, vendors, growth rate and sales people.

It’s a quick read and I think everyone will clearly recognize that in many areas of business, average is just not acceptable.

So what about marketing communications? Why are so many companies satisfied to use the same short-term product and feature promotions, all-inclusive, vague copy generalities or purely literal visual imagery employed by many others to try to set themselves apart.

The result is competitive camouflage. The loss of the ability to set yourself apart from your competitors. And it makes achieving higher than average performance in the areas mentioned in the BNET.com article much harder.

But the camouflage can be removed. There is a better way to develop your marketing communications.

Watch our short video about the issue of competitive camouflage or read our article about communications mistakes that hide companies from potential customers.

Or to talk to someone about helping you create better than average communications, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Why "Selling Value" is BAD

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Don’t you love it when you discover other people who believe some of the same things you do? Especially when they are more widely known and speak on a larger stage. Don’t you just want to say, “See, I told you.”

Well, that’s sorta what happened to me recently. But it didn’t start that way. I was reading a BNET.com article titled “Why Selling Value Is A Bad Idea” by Geoffrey James, and almost immediately I was thinking I should strangle this guy.

He made the claim that “selling value” was just another way to “sell price” and we all know selling price is a failed strategy. He equated selling value with offering more for the same price or basically a discount on a higher level of benefit. More for less. Selling price.

At this point I started arguing that value involves significantly more than just a better set of features for the same price. It also includes the idea of how you do what you do differently than your competitors.

And then it happened…in his next statement James declared that the better alternative to selling value was “selling uniqueness.” He went from idiot to genius in one sentence.

He explained that you do this by answering questions like:

How can my offering uniquely help my prospects improve their revenue?
How can my offering uniquely help my prospects reduce costs?
How can my offering uniquely help my prospects improve quality?
How can my offering uniquely help my prospects improve delivery performance?
How can my offering uniquely help my prospects reduce their exposure to risk and liability?

Finally, he made the point that by developing a way to quantify the negative impact of their problems, presenting how your solution uniquely answers those issues and illustrating the financial return those differences could generate, you put yourself in a very strong position to succeed.

There you have it. I couldn’t have said it better myself. The only change I typically make when talking about this subject is to refer to that uniqueness as your brand.

Read Geoffrey James’ full article. Read what I wrote in my blog post about how a brand separates you from competitors.

To talk to someone about helping you sell your uniqueness or build a brand, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Don't Leave Your Brand To Competitors.

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The whole idea behind building a brand is that you are intentionally creating a positive expectation for your products and services in the minds of customers, prospects, employees and other marketplace participants.

That requires the communication and fulfillment of a clear, focused brand promise for an extended period of time. Introduced with impact. Reinforced consistently. And delivered with reliability.

But this doesn't happen by chance. Why? Because there are a number of factors working against you. We’ll consider four and start with the first and most obvious:

FACTOR 1: your competitors are against it

Your competitors are against you developing any sort of positive reputation or momentum in the marketplace. That impedes their efforts to grow and prosper. So even if they never directly attack you or dispute your claims of specific benefit, they are seldom opposed to generating a little doubt and distraction by always leading the discussion away from your strengths and toward your weaknesses.

Your uniqueness will certainly not be a topic of emphasis. Your core brand promise will not be reinforced. And your case for credibility will be questioned and minimized.

If you leave your brand reputation in the hands of your rivals, the most you can hope for is second best, and that's if you're lucky.

Read about the other three factors working against your brand’s positive development now.

To talk to someone about helping you create an intentional brand development plan, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Can Good Social Media Be Bad For Your Brand?

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The old statement “The more things change, the more they stay the same” still applies at least in some ways to the relatively new issues of social media brand development.

How? Because just like in traditional media, campaign creativity, popularity and even professional recognition don’t always equate to increased revenue or market share gains.

In a recent article published on the Advertising Age website, marketing communications veteran Al Ries reported that two social media campaigns for Burger King had recently been named as among the 10 best in the last decade by the One Club for Art and Copy in New York.

Unfortunately, he also went on to explain that Burger King’s percentage gains in sales in the past decade ranked them behind Wendy’s, Carls Jr, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s and Whataburger. Not only are they falling behind the other national chains, they are losing ground to a number of smaller hamburger chains as well.

Ries does not deny that Burger King’s social media campaigns deserved the awards they received. In and of themselves, they are quite engaging. As is the case with much of their traditional marketing communications which has also won numerous awards through the years. All this recognized work is very well done.

But the point is, entertainment value does not equate to sales. It doesn’t make potential customers prefer Burger King hamburgers more than other brands or motivate them to actually make a purchase.

Ries also makes another important observation. He describes how social media has dramatically expanded the audience a brand can reach and engage, citing examples of the globalization of music, movies, sports and even ideas. This can be both good and bad.

The value of a larger audience is obvious, but the danger of a more connected world is a globalization of thought. A bigger concentration of generalized or average expectations where every option seems about the same because competing brands all try to satisfy the desires of the masses.

As a result, rivals find themselves trying to win greater attention with more effort focused on entertainment and less on substance. At one point Ries makes the statement that social media can actually make bad marketing strategy fail faster.

Going viral isn’t always good, especially when the message being carried is negative. Or even if it’s just inconsistent with messages being delivered through other communication channels. That builds confusion and makes standing out from the average expectation of customer options more difficult.

The solution Ries recommends is simple. Focus on a simple message that is clear, direct, distinct and consistent. In a world becoming increasingly more monolithic, create a brand that is laser sharp and refreshingly different.

Because different can do more than entertain. It can build preference and motivation. Employed consistently in both traditional and social media, it can build interest, engagement, demand and sales.

Read Al Ries full article on the Advertising Age website.

To talk to someone about helping you convey your brand difference through both traditional and social media, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Gorilla Glass: A Brand With Real Strength

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I’ll admit most everyone knows what WD40 is. But it’s been around for 60 years. And it was invented when fewer products were introduced in any given year. A name like that would be a liability to a new product these days.

With hundreds of new products seemingly introduced every month, brand names like WD40 don’t do anything to help their audience recognize or remember what they have to offer. Or why the solution they deliver is any better than any other option.

In contrast, Corning recently started mass media marketing a product called Gorilla Glass to raise awareness and preference for the brand now found in a wide range of consumer electronics. Even before reading or hearing a single marketing message, I’ll bet you can figure out the value this brand is promising.



Combine the name with strong visual imagery of gorillas using these products in a variety of business and leisure environments where the animals aren’t normally expected and you have a great example of brand marketing at its best.

A recent post on BRANDCHANNEL.com shows several examples of the introductory ads and product demonstrations used to launch this product. Read the full article.

It’s worth a few minutes of your time to review this story. When you can illustrate your brand difference with one simple, memorable symbol that everyone can understand, you start with a marketing advantage of priceless value.

If you want to talk to someone about developing this type of brand strategy for your new product, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Chipotle: Spanish For Burrito Brand Success

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When you look at everything stacked against it, the growth and profitability of the "fast-casual", ethnic eatery Chipotle Mexican Grill is another great lesson in brand marketing success.

Facing an environment characterized by rising unemployment, fewer dining-out customers, high concentrations of competitive restaurants and aggressive meal discounting by lower-end chains, the fact that Chipotle sales grew at all in 2010 is surprising. That their net income grew by close to 40% is remarkable.

In an article recently published on BNET.com, author David Phillips notes that rather than follow the markdown pricing and constant menu rotation of promotion-driven restaurants, Chipotle made a conscious decision to focus on sustaining its distinct food quality and customer experience. Their plan was to deliver maximum value for the customer's dollar.

It's a brand promise they put into words and actions every day. Employees are taught to honor the company mission statement "Food With Integrity" which involves serving food with an eye toward sustainability, great taste and high nutrition. And customers have responded by increasing both visits and dollars spent per visit.

Outbound and in-store marketing communications are designed to entertain and educate, featuring information about natural ingredients, support for local growers, healthy diets and fresh, zesty flavor to give potential customers substantial reasons to expect a uniquely enjoyable experience every time they visit Chipotle.

A true example of positive brand development and profit margin protection, the article details the company's continuing efforts to communicate its unique value and give customers and potential customers a way to further engage the brand.

Read more about Chipotle's exceptional approach and the results in the full article.

To talk to someone about helping you build a stronger brand, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

Competitive Mistake #1: Following The Crowd

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You would think that as business gets more and more competitive, business managers would realize they need to create a bigger distinction than ever between themselves and their rivals.

Unfortunately, we observe far too many brands and companies unknowingly engaged in marketing practices that camouflage the defining difference between themselves and others.

The fact is there are many challenges to good marketing. And if you’re not careful, the very tools you could be using to set yourself apart may actually be applying the camouflage that’s hiding your greatest value.

Over the next few months we'll look at 10 common brand communication mistakes that can prevent potential business from recognizing you as a unique and credible solution provider. Here's the first:

Mistake 1: Following the crowd

Do you talk about the same set of features, use the same type of photography, give the same kind of examples and make the same exact media choices as your competitors? If so, you can't expect your audience to perceive your brand or company as significantly different or better than anyone else.

You look the same. Sound the same. Are the same for all practical purposes. And without a recognizable difference to motivate a change of behavior, your audience will continue to purchase the same brand they always have.

But there is a way to change the conversation from a comparison of indiscernible details and low prices to one of recognizable differences and lasting value? It’s by leaving the crowd behind and establishing your own brand clearly and distinctly.

To talk to someone about helping you remove the competitive camouflage and developing a difference-making brand for your business, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.

To read about the other 9 brand communication mistakes that can camouflage you from customers, click here.

Social Media: More Than Fans, It’s Feedback

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In the early days of Facebook, getting fans was the name of the game, but sheer numbers alone is no longer the measure of social media effectiveness – it's engagement.

Similar to the old comparison between “awareness” and “preference”, the value of having someone “like” you or becoming a “fan" once and never giving you another thought is far less important than developing an ongoing two-way dialog with them even if only occasionally.

In a recent article published online by Advertising Age, Irina Slutsky makes the point that what generates the most positive influence for marketers is not the total number of fans they have collected but what percentage of them they can encourage to become actively connected.

The article lists three ways to make Facebook participation more valuable.

1. Seeding Content - introduce ideas on subjects where you have a significant body of expertise so readers have the opportunity to recognize an issue they want to address and begin to view you as a resource to a solution. Such as healthy recipes from a food manufacturer, answers to common financial questions from a bank or even photos of interior design ideas from an architect.

2. Starting Conversations - connect one user to another so that the experience of visiting your page is beneficial and the expectation generated for future visits is positive as well. For example, posting user-submitted hairstyle questions for other users and staff hairstylists to address. Or it might be requesting and allowing comments on the best user pet stories on a veterinarian's page.

3. Get Creative - use this low-risk tool of user-interest exploration to build simple interactions that encourage more interest and trust over time. This could be a bridal boutique requesting their customers submit wedding photos featuring dresses purchased from the shop. Or a restaurant encouraging fans to help name a new entree being added to the menu.

Obviously there has to be an effort made in the beginning to build the user base to some reasonable size before starting to develop interactions, but the point here is that the value of Facebook and other similar social media tools is social interaction more than audience size.

And the best strategy of all is to use these social interactions to introduce, connect and continuously remind users of the core promise and value your brand offers. To reinforce what you are doing elsewhere and not to compete with it.

Read the entire article for yourself.

And if you're ready to begin building greater user engagement with your brand, contact us today by e-mail or phone 903-534-5220.