What makes a great brand?

1. They have a purpose; and this purpose inspires action.
2. They have a simple idea and stick to it through trends and changes.
3. They are driven by people - customers, employees, and stakeholders.
4. They grow because of legends; stories told by the people that drive the brand.
5. They are high-integrity organizations that are naturally transparent.
6. They respect heritage, but embrace the future - as such, they are always relevant.

Notice that these are age-old rules of branding.  In other words, great ad campaigns don’t create great brands.  New tools like social media don’t create great brands.  Great brands are born of integrity, great ideas, and- most of all - great people.

Part 2 of ‘The FREE Transaction’

Profiting from your FREE efforts

“I never turn down a meeting” is a common phrase we hear from our business partner, Justin Foster. The meeting may never be turned down but we are judicious about how long that meeting may run. When you are in the business of consulting and brand development, golden bits of wisdom seem to trickle out into your conversation with those around you; free advice if you will.

However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Where it becomes a problem is when you can’t control the outcome or feel that you are being hustled for information. From marketers to the doctors, professionals are constantly hit up for advice and direction.

Plain and simple, whether they’re paying for it or your are giving it away for free … they are all transactions. The best thing to do is take control of the transaction; make it work for you.

Homework

The best gauge of someone’s determination is to see how they respond to a challenge. The world is full of people with good intentions and ideas seem to flow freely, but the number of people who are willing to do something about it is a very small fraction of those people.

Recently, I had lunch with a guy who had quite a concept, I was intrigued by his zeal and his desire to see it turn into something. But zeal and desire have a hard time paying the bills when starting up a new venture, work has to be the key ingredient.

Before our lunch was over, he asked me what I could do to help him turn it into something. My response could have been that I’d go back and do some competitive market analysis, or outline his concept and look for flaws, or pass the general idea around to my network and let them beat it up … but instead I gave him some homework. I told him to go back and write out 4 or 5 paragraphs on what the core idea of his concept was and what made his idea unique from what was out there already.

Within a week he was back with his write-up and a new appreciation for what it was going to take to get this thing off of the ground. The experience of putting his thoughts on paper convinced him that he would have to make some changes in his career to make it happen … and he seemed ok with that. That’s a good start.

Homework can vary from industry to industry. But in any regard, it adds value and depth to what before was just free advice, it acts as a barometer for one’s intentions; if it returns completed there’s something else to talk about, to move forward with.

No Strings Attached

I posed a question to Brian Gardner, the creator of the Revolution wordpress themes, about how starting out by producing free content for the open-source WordPress development platform could end up as a profitable career? Is it possible to make something for free without any expectations for a return and have it end up profiting you?

Brian says, “Yes, developing free WordPress themes for the community definitely made a difference in my business – it led to exposure, which in turn landed me the opportunity to create designs for high profile sites such as the Blog Herald and Daily Blog Tips. What began as a hobby, when I first started and offered free themes, now has become my full source of income.”

The key is controlling where you spend your time when it comes to giving away your time and efforts. In Brian’s case, his reputation as a top-tier web developer through his original efforts providing free content to the community of bloggers, has enabled him to become one of only a few developers who have produced a product that people will gladly pay for in a market (WordPress themes) where the majority of the offerings are free.

In other markets it may be as simple as contributing your time to a cause you align with, offering to sit on a board of directors, or a myriad of other opportunities to give of yourself while opening yourself or your company up for more visibility.

Just remember, your audience can smell insincerity a mile away. It is critical to find ways to give without it smelling like cheese; the successful transactions will be based on your transparency and your ability to maintain the relationships generated through your free efforts.

Audience Herding

Transactions are produced when we enable behavior. Whether monetary, or an opportunity to educate, you can control the path of that transaction.

Be patient, monetary transactions can emerge from well-developed relationships.

Distribute your digital content.

Ensure that your audience has access to you and your content.

For a couple bucks you can get a leader card made up, like the one above, that allows you to get your online content into the hands of those you meet. Keep the card simple in design; blank lines and simple URLs.

The reason behind this, it gives you an opportunity to fill in the blanks, hand out relevant links to content you’ve written to those you meet up with. It also provides you with a blank canvas for writing in simple homework for people to do.

Because the content on the card is personal and more relevant to the person receiving it, they are more likely to hold onto it and do something with it.

Most entrepreneurs can look back into the growth of their venture and can relate with doing work for free or what seemed like for free … if they’re anything like me, their past is strewn with uncounted hours donated to the pro-bono gods in hopes of gaining recognition, visibility or access to a great client pool.

Most efforts that fall into this ‘refinement’ process as a business owner aren’t looked upon with fondness or with a realization that it actually paid off … it rarely does without some forethought and planning.

One of the most challenging things to do when you are struggling to improve your client pool is to turn down work. We have all either heard or used the excuses before:

“We’re new at this, we need to come in lower than the more-experienced players.”

“They want us to work at a discounted rate … but it will provide us with some potential visibility with their clientèle.”

“He says he’ll give us 25% of the profits! We just need to work ‘with’ him to get it off the ground.”

The bottom line is, when you reduce your rate or pro-actively offer a discount for any of the reasons related to the above examples, it can greatly affect your brand. How? - You control how you and your company are perceived. If you tell people that you are aware that you shouldn’t be paid as much as your competition, then they’ll take you at your word and will expect to pay a reduced rate. Their level of trust can be diminished because you have set yourself up as not-as-experienced, no proven track record or potentially questionable results.

Misconceptions

Inexperience Means Less-Pay

I was talking with one the most talented illustrators I know a while back and throughout our conversation he kept discounting his offering based on his lack of experience in the marketplace. I explained to him that people weren’t going to hire him because of his business operations necessarily; the demand was placed upon his skill as an illustrator … and when it came to that, there was no visible difference between him and a 10-year veteran. In fact, the client wouldn’t know any different unless he was to bring it up!

Often, our inexperiences are viewed as ‘the telltale heart’; as loud and glaringly obvious to our clients as they seem to us. In truth, our clients want something done well, for a good price and on time; if you can hack it, your experience may be inconsequential. Your self-esteem plays a big role in how you portray your brand to your audience.

Divided We are Poor, Together we Make Money

I’ve started two companies in business incubators; places where you can get your company off the ground on a tighter budget; low rent, glorified cubicles, surrounded by other start-ups.

A common scenario is for another start-up to try and get your start-up to join forces and revel in the rewards of your dual effort. There are very few instances where this pays off.

After all, you should be working toward making a profit from your efforts, working for free toward someone else’s goal won’t further your cause.

How can this scenario succeed? Become a broker for their cause and vise versa. When you have the opportunity to push someone their way, do it; and make sure that both parties know who made the connection. The natural response will be to reciprocate by pushing opportunities your way. And if you find that the love isn’t being sent your way, move on. No harm done.

For the same amount of effort it would take to conjure up a single strategic partnership with another company or individual, you can make ten times the number of introductions that may end up in potential paying opportunities for those around you. The return on your investment is better, longer-lasting relationships and potential for them to return the favor.

Next: Profiting from your FREE efforts [...]

One of the steps in branding is understanding the reality of the situation. Frequently, this is just removing the gap between what you think you are and what you really are. We call this the “RQ” or “Reality Quotient”. However, sometimes the reality is that a brand is broken. It could be a bad reputation. It could be outdated products or services. It could be low employee morale. Or it could be that some unintended disaster happens.

The initial reactions from corporate marketers is to use advertising to “fix” a brand. This may work in some cases, but advertising will draw extra attention to a brand that simply doesn’t need more time in the harsh light. Creating more customers to experience a brand that is broken just makes the situation worse. Example: When Bridgestone/Firestone had the issue with tires on Ford Explorers, the used advertising to try to reassure a nervous public. The results - a further drop in sales. If you have truly fixed your brand, then advertising can be a medium to tell your new story.

So how do you fix a broken brand?

1. Deal with reality. As mentioned above, this could be a lot of different things. That said, we believe that the most common ailment of a brand is that it simply doesn’t have a core - or has drifted far away from its original simple idea. Either way, a company needs to determine and define why it exists; “soul searching” just like a person does. Another aspect of reality is more tangible. Brands and business models out of alignment with market conditions are likely to fail. In other words, these brands have lost their relevance. Think typewriter manufacturers.
2. Start internally. Tens of thousands of business people have read Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” - many of them work for or own broken or damaged brands. The first principle in this great book is one of the solutions to fixing a broken brand. This principle is “the right people”. Once you understand the reality of your situation, you have to get the Right People. This starts by getting rid of the wrong people. People who don’t think there is a problem; don’t want to change; don’t believe. The Right People will work hard, provide ideas, recruit others - and most of all, convince friends that your brand has truly changed.
3. Re-build your customer base. This really is the same as getting the Right People. Like the above, this often means “firing” some customers. However, the majority of this step is going out and aligning your brand with customers who have the same brand core that you do. This is essentially the same step of creating customer evangelists that was so perfectly articulated by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell in their book of the same name. This concept isn’t just for interesting or innovative brands. It is how broken brands heal themselves.

Assuming that all 3 of the above steps (not just one or two) are successfully implemented, the next step is to tell truthful and transparent stories from you, your employees, and most critically, your customers. These stories can be told through PR, advertising, or direct through your web-site and social networking (both your company’s and your employee’s). Further, make sure that new customers have a way to tell stories about their experience. This will have the single biggest impact on changing perception in the marketplace.

What are some real life examples of brands that recovered from being “broken”. We posed this question on LinkedIn and got some excellent and insightful responses:

Black and Decker. Company was getting killed by the competition but still had good quality products. They owned the Dewalt tool name and used it as a way to revive the company. Michael Ptasienski

Coke - recovered after issues with New Coke introduction; Apple was turned around after Steve Jobs returned. Ford recovered after the Edsel, however the U.S. auto industry has had a tough time dealing with overseas competitors. Harley Davidson is another one. Rai Chowdhary.

Apple Computers is an excellent example. They were becoming irrelevant in the personal computer market. The iPod and iTunes products made them a relevant brand again. Combine that with their “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” and their PC market share has made a come back as well. Leexan Hong.

Add Samsung as a company that went from nowhere with shoddy product to very strong prominence and awareness and top market share from the mid nineties to the current day. Gerry Corbett

Marks and Spencer were in the doldrums a few years back but reinvented themselves successfully. Simon Shah

I would add Kodak to this list for recent great brand turnarounds. Rick Sauter

Skoda is such a great example! If you’re looking for an example of brand that recovered from a disaster, then isn’t Johnson & Johnson tylenol tragedy a casebook example. I seem to remember it popping up again and again in my PR studies!!! Another example from the UK might also be Marks and Spencer. They were in all kinds of trouble a while ago but seemed to have turned themselves around, particularly with strong marketing campaigns for their clothes and food ranges (badged “M&S”) and opening a range of smaller convenience food stores located in clever places like petrol and service stations, train stations, etc. I would also perhaps add Nintendo to that list. Great example of changing their business model by going after new kinds of customers with the launch of the Wii and DS - not just turned their own brand around, but is also challenging the rest of the games industry. Tracy Playle

Skoda - Czech car manufacturer - one of the most remarkable turn around - from car with legendary jokes to most wanted car in UK. Kresimir Macan

Beyond resumes or LinkedIn profiles, we are all responsible for owning our own individual brands.  This leads to job security, new revenue opportunities, and a brand separate (and possibly bigger) than any organization you work for or own.

Here are the 5 Keys to Personal Branding:

1. Find your core - Find out who you are and be true to it.  Example:  Simon Cowell
2. Develop your identity - Create you own style and use it as a differentiator.  Example: Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck.
3. Select the right tools - Use the right on-line and off-line tools to expand your brand.  Example: Barack Obama
4. Communicate effectively - Ensure that people understand your story every time you tell it.  Example: Donald Trump
5. Measure results - Set goals and prove that you reached them.  Example:  Tiger Woods

What does this all mean?  Something we call the “4 Rs” of branding:

Reality - You will know exactly who you are - and so will your audience.

Reputation - What you say will match exactly what your audience will experience.

Recognition - You will not only be known in your community; you will be recognized as a thought leader.

Relevance - This is a blend of all of the above - and the true test of a long-term brand.

Obviously, the term “brand” has evolved over the years.  What started as a badge or emblem became something more abstract; largely based on how people feel about a particular entity.   Considering word-of-mouth accelerators like blogs and social networking, product reviews, etc,  “brand” is going through another evolution where brands are defined by the perceptions of the masses; what we have referred to in the past as “people-driven brands”.  

In modern terms, “brand” is the blending of 3 elements:

1. Reality - This is comprised of two parts.  1) That you understand what you really are and 2) That your audience “gets it”; that they are fully connected with your value proposition, offerings, etc.  The most critical part is the first one.  One of the biggest issue with brands is the potentially massive gap between what a company thinks they are and what they really are.  Examples:  AOL, Qwest, GM.
   
2. Recognition - This is good ol’ fashioned name recognition; the “I’ve heard of you” test.  Recognition comes from advertising, PR, and word-of-mouth.  It is the most tactical of the 3 elements of brand, because it is the one area that companies have the most control over. Recognition still matters, although it is becoming less valuable in terms of advertising.  Examples:  GEICO, Yahoo, United Airlines
   
3. Reputation - This is the first and most important element of a brand.  It is the area of brand most defined by the customer experience.  As such, companies do have control over it, but too often minimize the importance of it.  Let’s put it this way - what has more influence - a commercial from a company?  Or feedback from a friend who has experienced a brand?    Example:  Google, Harley, and Apple.

All of the above adds up to the proof of your brand - relevance.  This just means people are talking about you; that you are fresh and real and modern.

Good stuff from the Trump University. Here are the 10 Brand Commandments written by Donald E. Sexton of Colombia University.

The Ten Commandments of Branding

1. Establish a Clear Brand Position
2. Build Your Brand on an Emotional Benefit
3. Build Your Brand as Early as Possible
4. Be Consistent Over Time and Over Markets
5. Make Sure All Your Employees Know Your Brand Position
6. Make Sure All Your Products and Services Embody Your Brand
7. Make Sure All Your Customers Know Your Brand Position
8. Don’t Dilute Your Brand
9. Always Monitor Your Brand
10. Maintain Your Brand as Your Organization’s Most Valuable Asset

Most marketing decisions are made under duress.   A pending launch.  Entering a new market.  Or the greatest pressure, trying grow out of a slump. 

Any decisions made under duress are bound to create mistakes.  In the case of marketing, I think the biggest mistake is surrendering to tangibility.  In the pressure cooker, it is easy to fall back to The List of marketing tactics.  The tangibility of the list makes us feel like we are doing something; and it is something we can show The Boss.  But if you live by The List, you will die by The List.  Because The List makes what you are doing a commodity; it drops you below peer level.

Another mistake is to immediately go into blitz mode; to do some sort of promotion to create a bump in sales.  Unfortunately, this usually means discounting - which (unless you are Walmart) creates no long term adoption from your audience.

I don’t expect the pressure cooker of being a marketing executive to change.  But there are things we can do to manage the pressure:

1. Look inward - focus on your existing customers first.
2. Don’t over-think it - stay true to the original idea or core of the business.
3. Listen - to your customers, employees, yourself.
4. Focus on the customer experience.  It is the one branding activity that you have the most control over.

Final thought … you have to delegate.  Not necessarily to your employees, but your customers.  Essentially, turn your marketing over to them.  This starts by being transparent about where you are taking the company’s brand.  This allows you to work on the big picture stuff like your core, identity, and interaction.  This makes you more valuable to your company, while also recognizing that your customers are collectively way smarter than you.

Here is some awesome dialogue from Mark Oberkirch on the definition and function of “marketing”. For what it is worth, I agree with him. Although I’m not sure if “marketing” is the best term for the type of growth success that Mark is talking about. I prefer to call that “branding” - but that is just splitting hairs on my part.

Marketing Is Not A Tax You Pay For Being Unremarkable at Like It Matters

While watching the #1 North Carolina Tarhills fend off the #6 Duke Blue Devils this weekend in college basketball I got to thinking about the ranking system. Teams work so hard to get to #1. They train all off-season to prepare. They work hard throughout the season. Never give-up. Take one competitor at a time. And slowly rise to the top if they continue to do those things. And win of course.

But once they get to the top they are the easiest target for an upset.  And all of a sudden … now that you’re #1 in the world at what you do … you have people rooting for you to screw up and fall apart. They can’t believe that hard work and talent can get you that far. It must be luck.

Is it like that in business? Do people root for Under Armor a little bit more because they know Nike is the 800lb beast? Does that local coffee shop get a little more business then Starbucks just because they’re #2 or #3?

Or do companies fall under pressure like many #1 teams? Do they like being #2 or #3 because it means they can sit back and coast a little bit more? Do companies get tired and beat up as the #1 seed for weeks, months, years? Do business like to remain the underdog?

Just like with sports, building a good brand requires a lot of work. It’s a constant day-to-day grind. You have to always improve. Take each day as a new day that requires your full attention. And remember the reasons why you want to be at the top. Hopefully is has something to do with creating a Heroic Brand. Otherwise it’s going to be a hard battle and you will lose lots of people in the process.