Branding

You need to read You, Inc!

March 18, 2007

Harry Beckwith gets it.  Marketing.  Branding.  Communications.  Relationships.  Not only does he get it — he helps his readers get it.

Short, concise 1-4 page chapters.  Each one punctuated with a summary lesson/thought.  Compelling stories.  And not just marketing lessons.  Plenty of people lessons too.

Harry’s most recent book, You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself was just released.  It’s as good as the rest (see links at the bottom of the post.) of his offerings but a little different.  The earlier books took a more global, company-wide perspective.  This book shrinks the focus down to the reader. 

If you want to:

• Communicate more clearly
• Sell more — for the right reasons
• Advance your professional stature and value
• Improve your presentations skills and results
• Find more satisfaction from your work life

then you need to read this book. 

Beckwith is a master storyteller who never leaves the reader hanging.  Together with his wife Christine (a much celebrated pro in her own right) he outlines very simple truths that  can have a significant impact on your  life. Professional or otherwise.

I’ve read some great business books already in ’07.  This one tops the list. 

Harry’s other books:

• What Clients Love
• Selling the Invisible
• The Invisible Touch

No business library should be without the complete set.

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Is your brand acid-test proof?

March 18, 2007

I love (and try to live by) the famous quote "character is what we do when no one is watching."

I believe branding follows the same path.  For decades, we (marketers) have been trying to craft and control all of our marketing messages.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  Consistency is critical to marketing success.  That’s us standing tall and saying "here’s our story and our promise." 

We need to know and believe in that story.  We need our employees to know and believe in the story.  But that’s only half the equation.

What happens when "no one is watching" is the other half.  It’s the grace under pressure.  It’s the acid test of your brand.

It’s the instinctual response to any situation.  Especially sticky ones. 

• How does your organization respond when a reporter shows up asking invasive questions
• What do you do when the homeless man takes up residence in your lobby
• A competitor leaks a story that implies you are unethical
• Misuse of your product results in a man’s death
• You discover that something you own holds the key to another company’s success…or failure
• What do you say when a former employee solicits a current customer
• How does your employee manage an angry customer who is making a scene?
• What’s the next step when you accidentally get copied on an e-mail from an employee lambasting you

This is where the "our brand is our logo and our tagline" philosophy falls flat.   That version of branding is skin deep.  And skin deep will not hold together when there is no brainstorming time or strategy bullet point in the marketing plan.

Is your brand deep enough?  Would you survive the acid test?  Would you and all your peers react in the same way to the situations above?  Or do you only have a skin-deep brand?

 

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Five minute sex tips?

March 17, 2007

                                    

                           

One of the "learn more" about my readers exercises I routinely do is to examine the words that people enter into Google or other search engines to navigate to Drew’s Marketing Minute.  Most of them are what you’d expect, but some of them just crack me up, so I thought I’d share.

I just have to say…some of them must be so disappointed when they arrive at a branding & marketing blog!

• Five minute sex tips  (I can hear this guy cursing up a storm — who cares about marketing!  I’m down to 4 minutes!)
• Kemp‘s maple ice cream
• Plumbing (wow…I can hear the water overflowing out of the toilet and he’s now engrossed in some post!)
• How to say lipstick on a pig in Italian (Why would you want to??)
• Sex for money
• Junkett custard
• How do you spell posse (wouldn’t dictionary.com have been easier?)
• Family guy phone ringtone

My point is two-fold.  First — just to share a good laugh with you on the weekend.  But second and more seriously — if you aren’t trying to learn more about your readers and what they  want to talk about, you are missing a serious opportunity. 

For every five minute sex tip entry, I saw plenty of  branding, employee loyalty, market plans, authentic voice, copywriting entries.  That does my heart good.  it means I’m doing my job.

But obviously I am going to have to throw in a sex tip now and then!  Who knew?   

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What’s memorable about you? (part two)

March 16, 2007

A few days ago, I asked:

If you had a client/customer who took their business to a competitor for a year or two and then decided to come back…how would they complete this sentence… 

"Do you guys still….."

What do you do for/with your clients that is so memorable that even 2 years later, they’d hope it was still part of your company’s culture?

I know the kinds of things that went through your brain — we deliver on time, on budget.  We partner with our clients.  We are accessible. Etc. etc. etc.

And you’d think that those are the things that matter.  After all, they’re the big things. 

But they are also the expected things.  Our clients have every right to expect that we’ll deliver a quality product on budget and on time. 

What they don’t expect but grow to to love are the little extras.  Those gestures that say "we’re glad you’re with us.  Something special happens here." 

At McLellan Marketing Group, that extra something comes in the shape (and flavor) of M&M cookies.  Warm from the oven. Every meeting at our place. Every time.   To add a little branding lesson into the treat, we only use  M&Ms that match the colors in our logo.

The scenario I painted above happened to us recently.  A client left and then decided to come back. As we set up our first re-meeting at the MMG headquarters — the client asked, "Do you still bake the cookies?"

She was pretty happy when I said yes.

CK talks about how the little things make a big difference.  Check it out!   

And — find a way to be memorable.

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Drew sucks!

March 16, 2007

Actually…

DrewSucks.com
DrewSucks.net
DrewReallySucks.com
DrewIsAJerk.com
DrewDoesn’tKnowSquat.com
ThatDrewisACompleteMoron.com

Any marketing strategy that J&J employs must be smart for all of us, eh?

Apparently the folks at Johnson & Johnson thought it would be wise to adopt the best offense is a good defense mentality when it came to their product Splenda.  They’ve spent countless hours and dollars securing every possible anti-Splenda domain name they could think of.

Seriously…this is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.  This isn’t smart marketing. This is paranoia.

Surely we’ve all learned that in today’s citizen-driven communications, if people want to create a forum to say good or bad things about a company or product — they will. No matter how many domain names you own.

A hat tip and thanks to Roberta over at Copywriting Maven for calling this to my attention.

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What’s memorable about you? (part one)

March 12, 2007

If you had a client/customer who took their business to a competitor for a year or two and then decided to come back…how would they complete this sentence… 

"Do you guys still….."

What do you do for/with your clients that is so memorable that even 2 years later, they’d hope it was still part of your company’s culture?

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All about Apple

March 11, 2007

It occurred to me today how often I have written about Apple.  Now granted — I love the Mac.  I wouldn’t use a PC if you gave me one for free. But I’m not letting my brand bias my blog.  (Try saying that 5 times fast!)

One of the truths about elite brands is that they create buzz.  Look at how many opportunities for buzz Apple created that I grabbed onto:

Steve Jobs — $400 million  smart  (the free publicity gained by the iPhone announcement)

Hey raving fans, STOP promoting my product! (Apple lawyers trip over themselves, letting semantics get in the way of promoting the iPod)

Fortune 500 Corporate blog review series: Apple  (A study of corporate blogs and Apple’s place in that mix)

Want to create an Apple-sized buzz? (Inc. com’s study of how Apple creates buzz)

Should I launch this product?  (My thoughts on the iPhone launch)

Hey Goliath, I think you’re going down! (the Zune versus iPod discussion)

That’s a post about Apple at least once a month!  How many companies do you know that can/do create that sort of positive buzz?

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Sampler platter marketing?

March 10, 2007

Last night, I ate at a restaurant called Buddakan.  It’s offers modern Asian cuisine and since I was part of a large group (15) they served everything family style.  But their version of family style was lots and lots of small sampler sized items.  Everyone got to try a little of everything, but no one felt "stuck" eating just one thing.

Which got me thinking.  First about my agency brothren and sisters:

How good are we, as agencies, at offering clients that option?  Do you offer a "sampler platter" of marketing tactics or must a new client sign on for the whole kit n’ kaboodle?  Can a prospect take you on a test drive?

For the non-agency readers: 

How about you?  Does anyone in your industry offer a bite of this and a bite of that so the customer can determine the best option?  If no one is doing it, is it worth trying?

I wonder if this strategy isn’t a reasonable one for a business whose price of entry scares off otherwise viable prospects.  What do you think?

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Steve Jobs – $400 million smart

March 10, 2007

The front page of US Today’s Money section offers Apple a big pat on the back for their iPhone launch in January.

The article quotes a Harvard Business School professor who says that Apple has generated over $400 million in free publicity and Peter Sealey is later quoted, calling Steve Jobs is the best marketing CEO in the business.

Citing the 80% market share that the iPod enjoys (which now generates 50% of Apple’s revenues) the article goes on to list the high points of what they deem the Apple marketing manual.

• Make innovative products
• Keep it simple
• Create truly memorable ads
• Find an enemy
• Offer surprises
• Put on a show

Just listen to that string of words:  Innovative. Simple. Memorable.  Hero (my edit). Surprises. Show.

Wow.  (Not like a Microsoft wow…a real wow!)

What do you think?  Which item on this list do you think most businesses are best at?  Worst?

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In lead generation – branding matters

March 7, 2007

It’s sort of a duh, isn’t it?

If someone knows who you are, they are more likely to listen and be influenced by you.  We covered that in the Don’t talk to strangers post.  And yet, there are many out there who will tell you — branding doesn’t matter.  Just go out there and sell. 

RainToday.com‘s new research report What’s Working In Lead Generation sides with me on this one.  (Or maybe it is the other way around?)
 

The numbers tell the story.  Those companies that have are better known have greater success in chasing new business.  As we talked about in the first segment of this series, the research shows that companies are gearing up to be more aggressive out there. 

So reality check here.  Your competitors are going to be making more noise in the market place.  If they are also ahead of you in terms of brand recognition, you’ve got some serious trouble on your hands.  What can you do about it?

• You can be brave enough to brand.  Be willing to be something significant to some, rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
• You can teach your employees about your brand.
• You can teach your current customers about your brand.
• You can introduce your brand to potential customers.

And then you’re ready to learn more from the research document.  More insights from the report are on the way….

Note:  The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next several days with you.  In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

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