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FREE Webinar on 5/1/09

April 29, 2009

On Friday, May 1, 2009 at 9:00 AM MDT, Tricycle Brand Development is hosting a free 60 minute webinar called “Don’t Get Left Behind :: How great brands stay relevant in an ever changing world”.

6 Simple Steps to Irrelevance

April 24, 2009

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

As a follow-up to "5 Ways to Kill Your Brand", here are six ways to create an irrelevant brand:

• Continuing to spend money on marketing that doesn’t work.
• Going to market with an outdated look and poor first impressions.
• Being boring and uninteresting.
• Flitting from one tactic to the next; hoping that each new tactic is a magic pill.
• Getting out-hustled by inferior competition.
• Tolerating poor performance from sales teams.

These kinds of mistakes are always unacceptable - but even more so when trying to inspire a marketplace that is confused, fatigued and not in the mood to buy stuff that they don’t need.  

5 Ways to Kill Your Brand

April 21, 2009

Image by Christine ™ via Flickr

There was a time when a heavy dose of advertising and a good Spin Doctor could mask the truth about a brand.  Today, transparency is the rule; whether a company likes it or not.  Failure travels faster than ever due to hyper-connected employees and customers, social media platforms, and a populace sensitive to value and fairness.

With these elements in mind, here are 5 ways to kill your brand:

1. Lie and/or cover-up.  Humans have been doing this since Adam and Eve, yet it still happens.  The bottom line is this – great brands don’t have to lie.  As we have said before, the true purpose of a marketer is to reveal the truth about a brand, not cover it up.
2. Cheese on cheese.  Consumers expect a little promotion – and maybe even a little interruption.  But we also expect to find a burger underneath the cheese.  If we are enticed to try a product only to be disappointed, we now have the tools to tell thousands of people.  In addition, we are much more well informed as consumers than we used to be – so don’t treat us like we are stupid.
3. Silence.  One of the worst things a company can do is to ignore criticism.  Take a negative review for example.  There are really two responses: 1) validate it and try to fix it, or 2) challenge it.  This is even more true with internal issues such as employee feedback.  Regarding #2, the customer is NOT always right – and some customers are simply abusive.  So challenge them in the arena of transparency and you will be supported by your fans.
4. Lazy Marketing.  I already ranted about this in a video over on my BrandMilitia blog – but it is worth repeating.  Lazy marketing (poor design, poor messaging, poor execution, etc) sends the message that you really don’t care about your brand.  Lazy marketing can take a potentially great product or service and make it look unattractive and mediocre in a hurry.
5. Confuse your audience.  Mindshare is expensive real estate.  Considering this, it is remarkable how many companies lose their place in the minds of their audience.  This happens because of lazy marketing, poorly executed roll-outs, confusing segmentation, complicated promotions (i.e. cell phone rebates!), poorly communicating value/purpose, and much more. At some point, the audience just says “it’s not worth it”and moves on.

Death is rarely instantaneous with any of these mistakes.  It usually is a slow process; often with other symptoms like high executive and/or employee turn-over, or falling value of your business.  Or the need to ask for a government bail-out.

Capitalism dictates that some brands are supposed to die, but it doesn’t have to be for any of these reasons.  That’s because every one of these issues can be prevented.  Some of the prevention comes from having the right culture, while some of it comes from simply understanding the realities of your brand and the marketplace. 

So keep it simple, stay true to what you really are, and pay attention to the details.

Going Dutch

April 9, 2009

Dutch Brothers sells coffee in uniquely designed drive-thru kiosks.  On the surface, there is nothing extraordinarily  unique about them.  In fact, if not for having a location on the way to my office, I’m not sure I would have ever tried them.  Just as much as coffee is a habit, so is where you buy it.  But I did stop in at that location, then another one, then another one.  After awhile, I had been to all of the Boise-area locations – to the point of going out of my way to swing by a location.  The question is “why?”.  What would cause me to change my buying habits, tell others … and feature Dutch Brothers in a case study?

Let’s break it down …

1. The coffee doesn’t suck.  I’m not much of a coffee snob.  For me, coffee is either good or bad.  And Dutch Bros has good coffee.  In short, they met initial minimum expectations.  The lesson for brands is to not over-think the commodity part of your business.  Dutch Bros doesn’t talk about “green” farming, grinding their own beans, the science of coffee, etc.  While these things are potentially interesting, they are only enhancements to the commodity.  The end result for Starbucks, Tully’s, Thomas Hammer, and dozens of local shops is that they all have pretty good coffee, so coffee can’t be the differentiater. 
2. They have social employees.  For retail businesses, your true brand is established by the interaction between your employees and your customers.  Dutch Bros nails this perfectly.  Every location has friendly employees, but that’s almost a commodity as well.  Dutch Bros goes a step further by hiring personalities.  These are not corporate drones just going through the motions.  Dutch Bros employees are all unique individuals with their own styles.  It should also be noted that they are attractive, hip, and funny.  It’s like buying coffee from the “Cool Kids”.  They also very accessible; treating each customer like they are one of the Cool Kids as well. 
3. It is easy to buy from them.  This starts with Simple Math – each item is a round number – i.e. $2.50.  The kicker is that tax is included.  Not only does this feel like they are doing you a favor, it makes it easy to do the math in your head (or to give exact change).  The menu is simple.  They have some interesting names, but not a lot of complexity. I can’t verify this until I swing by there later today, but I think they also just call it “small”, “medium”, or “large”.  What a unique concept – talking in the customer’s language!  They have simple promotions – easy punch-cards, easy specials, etc. Finally, they have the dual drive through.  More kiosks are doing this, but Dutch Bros was the first I’ve seen.

There was a final element for me – let’s call it “confirmation”.  When I first visited a Dutch Bros, I asked the coolest person I know (my business partner John Hardesty) if he had tried them.  He said that he had; stating that the coffee was good and the service was awesome (essentially #1 and #2 above).  He also mentioned that he knew the local franchisee and that he was a cool guy as well.  This locked it in for me. 

Another test of a great retail brand is the “tattoo”.  I haven’t seen anyone one with an actual Dutch Bros tattoo (if you have seen one, send me a pic!), but I have seen lots of t-shirts, bumper stickers, and laptop stickers.

The Dutch Brothers case study is an essence a branding report card.  Take a look at your brand and see how you score.  Bonus points if your customers tattoo your logo on their bodies!

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