Connect your corporate identity triggers to your brand

Sole proprietors or marketing executives in corporations bring their personal preferences to the brand party. Unfortunately, this isn't always the best thing for the company.

There's no question that the like or dislike of a brand is a subjective situation. Burger King ads continue to drive me around the bend with their lack of brand consistency. But then again, I'm not their audience. They are trying to deliver to young men (neither of which I am). I am concerned that they think young men are stupid, but I'm sure they have some research to prove their point.

But liking or disliking a brand's colours, for example, may affect whether customers will give them their business (which is why Burger King is suffering from closing franchises in Canada and has been for years). So when sole proprietors or marketing executives start to take the brand personally, they are setting themselves up for failure.

Let's remember, first of all, that brand is not just your logo and tagline. It's everything that touches your customer. And that's where your corporate identity triggers come in.

Corporate identity triggers are those values that your existing customers speak about when they refer you to others. They are those values that your internal staff recognize as your unique difference. If you are a new business, your corporate identity triggers can be found from your most successful competitor.

These words and phrases - the corporate identity triggers - can take brand development out of the world of owner/executive subjectivity and into a more objective place.

For objectivity to work, there has to be a process in place. Processes make the accountants happy so it can also lessen your push-pull with the money people who don't understand why you'd spend money on re-engineering or polishing your brand.

Processes also give you next steps, in a logical fashion. For many, brand development appears a slap-dash, "I liked this colour that day" sort of thing. But there is a psychology behind brand development and to get there, your corporate identity triggers are your guide.

If your business isn't performing the way you thought it would, it may be your brand has disconnected from your customer. Or from your internal staff, which can be an even bigger problem.

Marketers and their creativity have led many down the garden path into a swamp. But with a tested process in hand, that garden path could lead to success.

The economics of marketing - shrink it at your peril

There's loads of research saying if you cut your marketing budget during tough economic times you won't survive with the strength you could if you just towed the line. And yet, there's more businesses cutting their marketing budgets than there are businesses getting smarter about how they spend their money.

I've had the pleasure of dashing about presenting Marketing Bootcamp for Small Business - Your recession survival toolkit to a number of organizations over the last month. The session discusses the importance of not cutting your marketing budget and shares important information about how to get the most bang for your buck. I've met some pretty terrific small business people who are suffering cutbacks and, in most cases, they've felt they have no choice but to cut their marketing budget.

The key thing to remember: If you cut your marketing budget, you are effectively lowering the amount you talk to your customer. At the very least, you are lessening the quality of the conversation. And if you aren't talking to them, someone else is.

This is why companies with their marketing budget intact, even during recessionary times, grow larger and stronger while other businesses close or panic. It's all about continuing the conversation.

Small businesses waste an extraordinary amount of money in their marketing. And they don't understand that marketing is actually a revenue stream - not an expense line (accountants will argue this, but it's simply true that marketing is the top of your sales funnel - without it there's no support for your sales force and no mechanism for relationship development with prospective customers). For many small businesses, marketing is simply a necessary evil that is the first thing to go when money is short.

In my book, Muddled, meager and messy - Marketing performance repair manual for small business there's information about how to make better use of the money you have. In cases where you get smarter, you can actually pare back your spend because you're getting more results.

The media has done a bang-up job of putting recession fear into every business person's heart. Take that fear and turn it into smarter business. Every marketing tactic should be able to be defined by the relationship it builds with your customers. If there's no relationship definition, you should reconsider the tactic.

Bottom line: If you have to cut your marketing budget you'd better get smarter about using the money you have. Heck, even if you don't have to cut your marketing budget, you should get smarter because customers are going to become more discriminating in their purchases.

Don't we love a disaster

With the year drawing to a close, I thought I would look back at the stats for my blogs over the year. The blog about the disasters of Wendy's and Burger King's marketing was, by far, the most popular. And popular around the world.

Most of the readers found the blog through a Google search. Have Wendy's and Burger King become the equivalent of rubbernecking a car crash? As North Americans, we have a morbid fascination with disasters and these two fast-food joints are definitely the prize winners for disastrous branding and marketing.

I re-read the blog to see if there had been any changes to the situation since writing about them in January. To my surprise, the brand-scarring I mentioned in the blog had been eliminated. The evil papier mache King head seems to be gone and the idiots in red braids seem to also have left the building. And thank goodness for it.

Wendy's brand has become more stable and likable again. Burger King is still a mangled mess, but at least they aren't scaring people anymore. (Well, they do scare me but that's a different thing. What scares me is that someone is out there making money off this mess and pretending they know something about marketing)

Needless to say, ill-conceived marketing ploys will be more painful for companies during the recession. Lack of consistency and follow-up will affect business bottom-line in a more pronounced fashion. With a tighter hold on their wallets, consumers and businesses will be making more thoughtful decisions about where they spend their money. Emotions induced by marketing messages will have more power to create a strong customer base.

Tight credit and closely held wallets won't make people stop using their emotions when they make buying decisions. They'll just get better at rationalizing the purchases. So mind your marketing and how it affects your customer.

Best wishes to all for a prosperous 2009.

Recession means get smarter

The economic news throughout the world has recently become a big threat to small business. Lending has tightened, customers are holding their funds close to their chest. For many businesses, the next order of business is to cut costs. AIC, a mutual fund company cut their staff by 20% this week. In the article it is mentioned that this isn't as big a deal as it appears because most of the staff cuts were to IT and marketing.

And there's the rub. So often, the first that gets cut in a recession is the marketing team and the marketing budget. And without either of these, how do you get your message out?

Recessionary times are about being smarter with your money. Quite frankly, in my book being smart all the time makes the most sense but so many business people and even in-house marketing teams take the money for granted in the good times.

So how do you use your money wisely?

First, get to really know your audience. Mass marketing isn't economical if you sell a niche product or your audience represents a specific market. Find ways to fine-tune your delivery mechanisms. Stop talking to the people who will never be your customer. To use an example from last week's blog, if you are selling something that costs $30,000 stop talking to neighbourhoods with high unemployment or low incomes. You may have to get out of your office and actually sell your message in person.

Second, stop buying message delivery systems just because they seem inexpensive. If you spend $125 to reach no one who responds it is actually more expensive than spending $250 to reach those who will. Of course, you can only spend what you can afford, but if you resist the urge to spend that $125 that seems so inexpensive you can add that to next month's budget and actually reach people who care.

Third, and while I've come to hate this expression, think outside of the box. Be creative in how you reach your audience and how you spend your money. For some US readers, this could mean thinking about getting a Canadian marketing team to craft your messages. The difference between the Canadian and US dollar right now means you get more for your money. But it doesn't mean to resort to your nephew to do your creative development just because he happens to have a design program on his computer.

The companies that stay in the customers' minds during a recession are the ones who survive and grow more quickly after the recession ends. Which it will. It always does.

Be careful how you say good-bye

Companies expend a great deal of time and money protecting their brand in the public, but for many companies it is their internal behaviours that are the most dangerous. How new staff are greeted, and existing staff let go, have multitudes of impact on the perception of the brand.

A recent example is, of course, the automotive industry in Ontario. The lay-offs abound and some brand damage has been delivered to General Motors and Ford, among others. The important thing here is these companies put effort into minimizing the public effects of the lay-offs as best they can with great buy-out packages, paid new training for laid-off workers, minimizing impact through attrition and negotiating support with the government.

A disgruntled laid-off or dismissed employee has a huge impact on the brand. They all have families that are part of the experience, feeling the anger, humiliation and fear right along with the worker. And all those family members have extended families and friends that hear about the issues. All told, one worker can impact the brand attitude with over 50 people.

Companies in the financial services industry have varying levels of attention to how they treat workers. Many of these companies in Canada are out-sourcing support departments. (The financial services industry in the U.S. is just another story all together) How these out-sourcings are handled impacts the brand.

A positive example is Sun Life Financial. They undertook to save costs against their budget by outsourcing their cafeteria, fitness staff and print departments. There was fear among the employees as the negotiations took place, but Sun Life Financial minimized the impact with regular communication and assurances of protection for existing employees. When the outsourcing was implemented, the staff in each department were offered the opportunity to stay, have benefits and keep their seniority.

A not so great example is the out-sourcing of the mail room at Aviva Canada. The staff were informed of the negotiations last November and were promised protection. Suddenly just before Labour Day, a meeting of the mail room staff was called and they were all informed the department had been outsourced and their jobs at Aviva Canada would end in four days. So much for even an act of courtesy like two-weeks notice. Sure, they gave them a buy-out package including the two-weeks in lieu of notice (required by law), but these people were suddenly out of work - after understanding they would be protected. The next day, the outsourcing company, Pitney Bowes, arrived and offered the staff their jobs back, but at $10,000 a year less, with no seniority, no accumulated holidays and a three-month probation period. And they had one-day to decide if they would commit to this new job.

Aviva Canada was most pointed in informing the mail room staff that they would now be considered outside employees and would be treated as such if they should apply for a job with Aviva in the future. This after some of the staff had been with the company for nine years.

Now a couple of nasty brand things happened here. Aviva Canada's brand got nailed as being untrustworthy, secretive and uncaring. Pitney Bowes gets nailed as being cheap, uncaring and advantage-takers. It's not about the money and the 30% cut in pay most of the workers experienced, it is about decency and dignity. Giving these people only one day to decide if their future was tied to an advantage-taking company or tied to unemployment in a potential recession, fear would certainly win out. Perhaps this is good business strategy - trained workers at 30% lower cost - but it isn't even close to good brand strategy.

And if these companies think for one moment that the staff of the mail room didn't share their experience with their families, they are not thinking clearly. And what the family members do with the information - well, the company has no control over that.

Next week - be careful how you say hello. Yet another brand damaging experience.

The cost of creative - in dollars & sense

Great marketing is driven by great creative - the words and pictures that engage the consumer. It evokes emotion, whether good or bad. And emotion is the key driver in 90% of purchases in our modern times.

Before the 1970s, features and benefits helped the customer make the buying decision. Now the decision is based on how they feel about the product or service. Does it make them feel good? Is it easy to see "What's in it for me?"

Creative that doesn't engage the consumer or, heaven forbid, causes a negative reaction is, at best, a waste of time and money and at worst, damages the relationship between the company and their customer.

Great creative isn't cheap. It's a rare thing when the perfect creative answer happens in the first hour of work. But don't be fooled that you need to pay $250/hour or more for creative that really works for your customer.

Quick case in point - Microsoft (you knew I was going to there). The Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates partnership on what was supposed to be Microsoft's venture into being "cool" is a fiasco. And certainly didn't come cheap. Why would they even try to be cool? Well, because Apple looks cool, sounds cool and is slowly chipping away at the PC world. But Apple is cool without obviously trying. Microsoft is rather like your great uncle who wears plaid pants and sock with his sandels. You can give your uncle a great, funky haircut and new clothes - but he'll never be cool. He doesn't talk cool or walk cool.

Somewhere along the way, the creative team on the Microsoft fiasco forgot that the success of Seinfeld, the show, was based on the interaction of the characters not on the simple presence of Jerry Seinfeld. It was an ensemble success. If you change one element, it no longer has the appeal. Seinfeld himself was never the key element. He was simply the glue that held it all together. And worse news, Seinfeld is old news.

I have the utmost respect for Bill Gates, his philanthropic work and how he has taken Microsoft to the edges of world domination. But I simply have no respect for the idea that Bill Gates can act or even look comfortable on screen.

Big lesson here? Don't try to be something you're not, even if the highly paid creative team thinks they are on to a new direction. Use common sense. And no matter how you look at it, $10 million for an "old news" performer to kibbutz about everything except the product is bad, bad, bad.

But fortunately for Microsoft, all the brew-ha-ha over the Seinfeld fiasco allowed their Mojave Experiment campaign to basically fly under the radar. Whose brainchild is this? The creative team obviously recognized that Windows Vista is a behemoth of negativity. But trying to disguise it as a new operating system called Mojave is just emphasizing how really negatively consumers feel. If Microsoft accepts the consumer view that Vista is the devil in disguise, then seriously make headway in changing the consumer attitude. And not through an ill-conceived television campaign. Deal with the issues that make consumers angry. Deal with the megalomaniacal behaviour that made the decision to design Vista so you have to spend a ton of money replacing your older programs with new versions that work with Vista. And how about more testing before release so you don't fry people's brains with ridiculous errors and constant updates to the product? If you bought a refrigerator and then discovered you had to re-wire your house to use it and it only remembers how to stay cold with constant adjustment - well, you'd just return it and probably not buying anything from that company again. This concept isn't rocket science.

And contrary to what Apple would have you believe, their operating system is not without its own bugs. They may not have the blue screen of death, but they have the ever spinning wheel which, if you watch it long enough, probably hypnotizes you into believing they are a direct descent of the gods.

Enough with trashing poor, poor Microsoft. (Although if you folks at Microsoft can hear me, maybe next time hired folks who are a little less "cutting edge" and a little more "common sense")

To bring it all back into the world of small business, your creative should engage your customer in a positive way. Keep it neat and tidy (no over-designed grunge please). Catch their eye and give them a reason to spend a minute with your message. Don't embellish (you'll get caught), don't lie (you'll get fined), and don't think that amateur creative doesn't damage your brand. It does.

Listen to your customer - navel gazing part II

It's too easy to become self-absorbed as a business owner. And once you start spending time looking at your navel, you stop listening to your customers.

Case in point (once again) is Canadian Tire. Earlier I wrote about their perfectly dreadful website and now they have canceled production and delivery of their catalogue, which forces people to go to their perfectly dreadful website.

The Canadian Tire catalogue is an icon to Canadian baby boomers. It had an extended shelf life in bathrooms all over the country. And now, no doubt thanks to a hip and happenin' marketing team, this icon is no more. Was there an actual review of customer behaviour?

I can accept there is a cost savings on making this decision. Printing is costly. Distribution perhaps even more so. But hiding this motivation under the environmental wonderment of saving trees is almost pathetic.

For decades, Canadian Tire customers have used the catalogue to stream-line their purchase behaviours. They would browse the catalogue at their leisure (making them more susceptible to the marketing messages) and discover items to buy they didn't even know they wanted. And there is nothing leisurely or even intuitive about the Canadian Tire website. So kiss those add-on sales good-bye.

Why did Canadian Tire stop listening? First they ended the great TV commercials with the lovingly annoying Canadian Tire couple, now they are eliminating the catalogue. Both of which were strong representations of the brand. There was a hew and cry, even in Marketing Magazine, about the end of the TV campaign. That campaign had garnered enough recognition that it had reached the often unattainable heights of being mocked by comedians. And the death of the catalogue has been mourned in Canadian Workshop magazine (which no doubt is the biggest demographic of Canadian Tire shoppers).

So now that the rant is finished, how does this pertain to your business?

Listening to your customers and knowing when something is working for them is paramount to success. Just because you have become bored with your marketing tactics doesn't mean your audience isn't reacting to them. And there is no point in trying to become something other than what your customers want you to be. If Canadian Tire is trying to appeal to a younger audience with these changes, well they have lost their minds. Visit a Canadian Tire and see how many young people are there, other than their ill-trained, ill-informed part-time staff. So not only are young people not their audience but they are alienating their solid baby boomer audience. And good heavens, baby boomers have most of the disposable income in this country!

So the lesson here:

1. Talk to your customers. Find out what they like and don't like. And use that information as a guide.

2. Don't let your personal feelings about being bored with your campaign be the deciding factor in whether to continue.

3. Understand that mocking by comedians is the highest compliment to the strategy there is. Comedians won't mock something unless it has had enough audience hits they are guaranteed 90% of their audience will know what they are talking about. I spoke with some folks from AIG Assurance the other day. We talked about the mocking of their insurance for seniors - they actually track how many times they are mocked and they love it! Kudos to them.

4. Don't cancel a marketing program that is working. You may think that the hew and cry is valuable because it creates chatter, but negative chatter can destroy your business.

And for Canadian Tire, for pete's sake, you could have saved money by making the catalogue by-request-only. Which would have given you a pretty solid database to really pinpoint behaviours and characteristics of your audience. Maybe think next time.

Your business in one sentence or less

Marketing folks and advertising salespeople will both tell you that you need to deliver your message to your customer a minimum of five times before the customer will act on your offer. What sometimes is missed in this discussion is that it needs to be the same message five times.

So, without boring your audience to tears with the repetition, how do you get space in the frontal lobe of their brain?

That's where a great tagline fits in.

A great tagline defines your business in one sentence or less. A great tagline is also arguably the most difficult part of developing your marketing strategy.

A great tagline has rhythm. It defines your business in a way your target customer can relate to. It also doesn't try to be all things to all people. And a great tagline immediately tells your customers "what's it in for me".

Burger King has one of the great taglines - Have it your way. If there was ever something that spoke to "what's in it for me", it's this one. (Pity they can't get their act together on their strategies...even a great tagline can't save you if you flip flop all over the place with your strategies.)

The value of a great tagline is in its ability to be on everything you do to market your business. It should be on your business cards, brochures, print ads, signage and...well, you get the idea. If your tagline is well done, then all these "hits" on your customer will help you develop space in their brain.

How do you get a great tagline and how do you know when it's great?

You can, of course, hire a professional. Writing great taglines is a serious skill. When you think about how many business owners can't describe their business in 30 seconds or less, you can imagine how hard it is to actually come up with something in one sentence or less.

Another option, and one of my favourites, is to have a tagline party. Silly? Yes, maybe. But I have found wonderful taglines evolve from many brains bouncing ideas around. Get some friends, customers or staff together and throw all ideas into play. No idea is too silly. From silly ideas come great taglines. After a couple hours of eating, drinking and making merry, pick two ideas and massage them into final examples. Then test each of them to find which one relates well with your customers.

I'm not saying a tagline party will work for everyone. And you should bounce your final ideas off a professional to make sure they are all the things you think they are. A professional can help you polish your tagline into a bright shining example of clever marketing.

Many business owners think that a tagline is only for the "big guys" but a great tagline is a lifeline for new and small businesses.