• “Trust built to grease the skids for a transaction isn’t trust.” — Doug Levy, CEO of MEplusYOU, and co-author of Can’t Buy Me Like (see my write-up on the book)

Brands need to cultivate authentic relationships with people.

• “Leaders should trust and track [their people's efforts] – without ‘track,’ you only have hope and hope is not a strategy.” – Nick Sarillo, President of Nick’s Pizza Pub and author of A Slice of the Pie

This reminds me of Ronald Reagan’s famous advice:  ”trust but verify.”

• “Everyone has a circle of trust and as leaders we need to invite people inside.” — Ryan Estis, Chief Experience Officer, Ryan Estis & Associates

Do you see a theme here?  Trust is critical to leaders, whether they’re brands or people — and it takes a concerted effort to build it.

• “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention – we’re suffering from ‘infobesity.’” —  Aric Nissen, former marketing lead at Famous Dave’s and Dairy Queen

 Our minds consume more data than we can absorb — this creates a tremendous challenge for marketers.

• “Marketers are like bulldozers; community managers are like magnets.” – one of the panelists in the Community Manager session (sorry I didn’t catch which one)

While I think “bulldozer” might be hyperbole, the idea of attracting people to your brand being more effective than shouting about your brand through media is so right.

One point that didn’t make the edit is development of an exit plan.  I see too many companies start their engagement in a social media channel with a big splash only to then neglect their efforts when something else captures their attention or when other business demands distract them.  Given how quickly things evolve in the social media space, it’s expected that bigger and better opportunities will arise — and sometimes you’ll want to move on.   But you don’t want to alienate the communities or users you’ve attracted, or leave your presence in any social media looking like a ghost town — they’re still brand touchpoints after all.  It’s important that you shut down your accounts (or discontinue using them) and release communities of followers with great care.  Be sure to publish a final message explaining your exit and thanking your readers/contributors/followers for their participation — and let them know where/how they can engage with you going forward.

Please take a look at my column, Social Media Smarts, and let me know what you think.  And if you are a QSR owner, operator, or company executive with an issue or idea about brand-building, complete the question form on the QSR Magazine site and I may address it in an upcoming column.

Change takes many forms:  a competitor introduces a breakthrough innovation, new company leaders replace established ones, new channels emerge, a customer or key strategic partner shuts down, a new technology becomes available.  All of these have the potential to significantly disrupt your business and future prospects for growth.

Progressive companies don’t just allow these changes to happen.  They anticipate change, prepare for it, and channel its transformational power.  Companies that thrive through change seem to have two things:

1.  Commitment to a clearly articulated purpose.  A lot has been said about how a strong, socially-oriented brand purpose can help a company form valuable bonds with customers, create new business models, and accelerate growth (one of my favorite points of view is Jim Stengel’s as presented in his book Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies) — so I won’t pile on here.  But it’s important to acknowledge the clarifying and focusing power of purpose amidst great change.

Because of its commitment to providing the “freedom to fly,” Southwest Airlines has survived the forces of change that have led to its rivals’ downfalls – including the economic recession and severe resource limitations.  While others responded to these changes by charging customers baggage fees, Southwest stayed focused on its purpose of democratizing the flying experience and decided against a similar move.  The airline’s continued profitability can be attributed in part to this decision.  In fact, CEO Gary Kelly recently said that company calculates it would lose $1 billion a year if it started charging for bags.   That’s how purpose works — it helps keep you focused and makes the right choices clearer.

2.  Strong stakeholder brand alignment.  Thriving in change actually requires two dimensions of stakeholder brand alignment:  horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal alignment applies across your entire stakeholder ecosystem — from internal stakeholders (executives and employees) to external ones (suppliers, distributors, agencies, etc.)  All stakeholders need to share one common understanding of your brand and your business.

IKEA has done an exceptional job of cultivating horizontal stakeholder alignment with methods including “The IKEA Way” or IWAY, which sets out a clear list of operating standards for its thousands of global suppliers.  IWAY specifies a code of conduct that distinguishes IKEA, from its guiding principles to environmental practices to employee working conditions.  The horizontal brand alignment at IKEA produces agility (ability to implement changes quickly and with less resistance) and innovation (unique products and more efficient processes).  The company has used these advantages to counter the changes in customer behavior and e-commerce that have destroyed other big box retailers.

In addition to alignment across stakeholders, vertical brand alignment within each stakeholder is critical.  That is, people’s heads, hearts, and hands and feet must be aligned and on-brand.  People must understand in their heads what your brand stands for, they must be inspired in their hearts to support and nurture it, and they must be equipped and empowered to take “on-brand” actions with their hands and feet.

Zappos demonstrates the power of the vertical dimension of brand alignment.   I think it’s safe to say that Zappos employees have the head knowledge of and heart passion for the Zappos brand, since every new employee goes through extensive customer service training and is offered an incentive to leave the company if they don’t share its values.  The company drives that alignment into employees’ hands and feet through policies and procedures including pointing customers to competitive sites if Zappos’ is out of stock and acknowledging special customers with personal messages and gifts. Because every employee is fully engaged, Zappos delivers a consistent, cohesive, and compelling customer experience that serves as a powerful moat of protection from encroachment by new subscription services like JustFab.

Change is like a high wind on a mountain.  It is unpredictable and inevitable, and often comes on without much warning.  Commitment to a clearly articulated purpose and strong brand stakeholder alignment are like the gear and protection an experienced hiker always has on hand.  So, yes, change happens – but that shouldn’t stop you from summiting the highest of mountains.

related posts:

• fantastic breakthroughs, frustrating failures
• explicit assumptions
• lesson from kodak

The article suggested Costco customers are pragmatic and deal-driven (“People who can spend [$40,000] on a piece of jewelry aren’t usually the sort to accessorize at Costco.  Yet some are the type who can’t resist a good deal.“) — and not too discriminating.  One customer reported “Costco’s diamonds were above and beyond what we could afford elsewhere…For the price we paid, I don’t care where it came from.”  But apparently another (Tiffany’s?) shopper makes purchase decisions with other considerations in mind, saying “she thought about shopping for rings at Costco, but ‘I was concerned everyone would ask where we got the ring.‘”

An industry analyst provided a succinct contrast between the two brands’ customer experiences.  “If you want someone to present the diamond on a pretty cushion and have the box from a prestigious brand, then you’re paying a premium for that experience. Or you can have someone swipe your credit card, hand you a diamond, and tell you to get out. Your choice.”

The article’s final note acknowledged that the brand value is based on far more than the product alone.  ”Costco rings don’t come with perks such as free cleanings, and they’re packaged in a red and beige box instead of the genteel Tiffany blue. Costco doesn’t even resize rings for customers. But it does sell bouquets and corsages in bulk.”

I love that we live in a world where two such different brands co-exist — and each can thrive!

-  the book:  Can’t Buy Me Like:  How Authentic Customer Connections Drive Superior Results – a salty read about marketing in the “Relationship Era”

-  the brains:  Bob Garfield  provoked and entertained advertisers for years in his Ad Age column and he continues to the stir the pot now as co-host of NPR’s On the Media.  Doug Levy is the founder and CEO of MEplusYOU (formerly imc2), an agency whose clients include P&G and Coke.  The combination of their perspectives has produced an insightful commentary on today’s marketing landscape with case studies that demonstrate how to create authentic customer relationships.

-  the best bits:  In explaining the transition from the “Consumer Era” of mass marketing to the “Relationship Era” that trades on the currency of consumer trust, loyalty, and pride, the book offers some loaded soundbites:

• “It’s better to be admired than ad mired.” – Instead of spending on media, leverage your stakeholder communities to gain more influence and traction.
• “Campaigns [imply] not only a time limit, but a martial sense of seeking to conquer an army of consumers.  [Instead] we call them ignitions, sparking the interests of like-minded people in a common cause.” – Marketing isn’t about conquering, it’s about inspiring, engaging, and enabling.
• “You don’t dictate an image; you own a point of view.” – You need to have a clear purpose and then project it with care, credibility, and congruence to the outside world, with the goal of developing relationships with like-minded people.
• “The Facebook Like [is] a unit of currency.”  It signals the start of a relationship but it is not the culmination of one.

-   the brand story:  I loved the case study about how P&G brought to life the purpose behind the Secret brand.

The brand’s commitment to “helping women to be more fearless” led it to Lindsey Van, a ski jumper who was banned from participating in an event not sanctioned for women at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.  Secret took on her cause and produced a video, “Let Her Jump!”, which not only inspired hundreds of thousands of people, but also spiked product sales – and probably played a role in the International Olympic Committee’s decision to include ski jumping for women in the 2014 Winter Games.

When I asked Bob about why he thought the effort was so effective, he said, “It was a cause, a movement — not a campaign.”  He also explained that it represented an important departure from the typical use of celebrities.  “Celebrities are usually hired to endorse a product and viewers can see right through that transaction. But in this case, Secret endorsed the athlete.”

This is a totally different way of thinking about the role of brands in culture.  And it’s the perfect example of what brands must do to thrive in a world where people don’t want to be sold to.

-   the bottom line:  Can’t Buy Me Like convincingly issues a manifesto to marketers: “In the Relationship Era, your every action, and inaction, is advertising.”

(This write-up is part of a Post2Post Virtual Book Tour – check out other write-ups by Renee Hopkins, David Berkowitz, and Jay Ehret.)

other brand book bites:

• Monster Loyalty by Jackie Huba

If you don’t operate out of a retail space, you may wonder how you can bring your brand to life and engage your target community.   The pop up shop from Keep A Breast Foundation provides an excellent model for how to create a memorable,  motivating brand experience.   Take a look:

Brand Experience Brief: Keep A Breast Foundation Pop Up Shop (by Denise Lee Yohn) from Denise Lee Yohn on Vimeo.

other brand experience briefs:

• Caffe Bene
• LEGO
• Therapie Boutique Retail Fashion Truck

Before I get into what can be learned from this unfortunate story, here’s a bit of background:  In India, entire families too poor to afford a car usually crowd onto a single motor scooter and take to the streets in what would be a comedic scene if it weren’t so dangerous.  A decade ago, Tata Motors’s chairman Ratan Tata decided to make a “people’s car” that would appeal to these poor Indian families.  It was heralded as one of the greatest – and most disruptive — innovations in the auto industry since the Model-T.

Fast forward today, though, and the company has sold under 250,000 Nanos since deliveries began in 2009, and sales in March were off by 86% from a year earlier, according to a recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek article. The piece, entitled “Tata’s Nano, the World’s Cheapest Car, Is Sputtering,” blamed the lackluster sales to the car being “too cheap—at least for consumers who don’t want to be associated with a low-end ride.”  It explained that the company is planning to add improvements including innovative doors, automatic transmission, and a diesel engine to try to invigorate interest in the model.  These moves would also increase the price to be comparable to rival cars.

Hearing this, I was concerned that the company might have misdiagnosed the Nano’s problems, since decreasing its differentiation and raising its prices would suck the life out of, not breathe new life into, the brand.  So I reached out to Dain Dunston, co-author of “Nanovation: How a Little Car Can Teach the World to Think Big and Act Bold.”

The book, published in 2011, remains an inspiring and instructive read, with its eight transferable rules for driving innovation in any business.  But in light of the current status of Nano, I was curious to hear how Dain would characterize what went wrong.  There were problems, he explained, on two fronts:  business model and customer.

Business model – Apparently Tata might have designed an innovative product, but it overlooked the need to innovate in its channel strategy as well.  According to Dain:

“The target market knew how to buy scooters but they didn’t know how to buy cars. In India the two processes are completely different and it appears that many people were simply intimidated to go into a car dealership. Tata doesn’t sell scooters and appears to have underestimated this issue. [Also] their dealer network is almost entirely urban and they didn’t really have a way to reach out to small towns and villages, where much of the real target market lived.”

Customer — Tata made two mis-steps here.  First, the company designed for what it thought its customers should have, instead of figuring out what they really wanted:

“Because of the secrecy surrounding the project — the engineers couldn’t even tell their families what they were working on — they never really got out with the families on the scooters to find out what they really wanted. They never spent the days riding on the saddles with them as they went through their days. For an earlier vehicle, a micro-truck called the Ace, engineers went out and rode thousands of miles with owners of small trucks and auto rickshaws to learn what really motivated them. As a result, the Ace was and continues to be a big seller.”

And second, it didn’t understand the cultural drivers of customers’ brand perceptions:

“Because of the intense perception of class position in India, it turns out that many poor people would rather buy a used, higher-end car than buy a Nano, which would mark them as poor (unless they were Bollywood stars buying them for fun).”

Given these assessments, it seems that Tata might be looking at the wrong solutions to revive the business.  Instead of defaulting to product changes that may or may not stimulate enough demand to offset higher prices, perhaps the company would be better off revisiting its initial vision and developing an entire brand experience that is disruptive.

It could start with researching the full range of needs (rational and emotional) of its target customers and developing a channel strategy that meets their shopping and purchasing requirements.  It could also launch a marketing campaign that counters the poor customer image.  Dain’s parenthetical comment about Bollywood stars may actually hold a seed of an idea.  Perhaps it could spark the Indian version of the Leo-DiCaprio-drives-a-Prius phenomenon and make Nano’s design and cheap price cool and aspirational.

Widening the innovation perspective to include sales, distribution, and marketing should enable Tata to realize the full potential of a brand that had once held such great promise.

A broader lesson about disruptive innovations can be derived from Dain’s final remarks:

“In the end, the passion to solve a great social problem and the ingenuity and elegance of the solution were no match for not understanding what the customer really wanted.” (emphasis mine)

related:

• What Makes a Product Innovative
• Ten Commandments of Digital Health
• Marketing as Product and Profit

• appeal to emotions:

“Sentiment is essential to your advertising, as it is to your product,” Gerety’s agency N.W. Ayer wrote to De Beers, “for the emotional connotation of the diamond is the one competitive advantage which no other product can claim or dispute.”

•  reframe the competition:

They needed to convince people that their smaller sized diamonds were just as desirable as bigger ones.  So the ads included a box labeled “How to Buy a Diamond” which instructed customers to “Ask about color, clarity, and cutting — for these determine a diamond’s quality, contribute to its beauty and value. Choose a fine stone, and you’ll always be proud of it, no matter what its size.” (The final “c” stood for carats.)

• anchor your price:

With the line “Isn’t two months’ salary a small price to pay for something that lasts forever?” De Beers set a reference point by which customers could think about the price of its product in a way that increased its perceived value.

related:

• the power of defaults
• nothing more than feelings
• think of ads as movie trailers