Stories By REL

Does this brand make me look fat?

By Mark True

Buick did it with Tiger Woods. Las Vegas did it with families. Each tried to be something they’re not. And nobody in the room stood up and said NO.

In the past eight years, Buick’s market share has dropped from 2.8 percent to 1 percent according to this IStockAnalyst.com article, so Tiger’s not doing much for the brand. The writer suggests that General Motors "stop wasting money paying Tiger Woods to endorse a brand that the demographic Tiger appeals to wouldn’t be caught dead in." Despite ending the sentence with a preposition, it’s dead on. (Whoops!) The problem is that most people don’t believe that Tiger drives a Buick.

A few years back, Las Vegas tried to become the Disney alternative by appealing to families. There is still a place for families in Vegas and they make up about 10 percent of the visitors, but it’s not a key demographic for the brand. By focusing on plain old getting in trouble, Vegas seems a lot more comfortable.    

These kinds of tactics seem to be borne of personal decisions, not brand-based decisions. I’m just guessing here, but I bet someone high up at Buick was a Tiger Woods fan, and wanted their brand to be associated with his, no matter what it looked like. I heard recently that the "Vegas for families" brand was the idea of a former mayor. (Check out the current mayor’s idea here. At least its on brand!)

When these kinds of brand busters come up, someone in the room needs to speak up, tell the truth and warn them what’s about to happen. It doesn’t have to be a marketing consultant: if the brand has been shared with the employees, and the employees have been empowered to manage the brand, any employee should be able to say "hey, this doesn’t fit the brand."

Receptionists and customer service representatives, for example, are in a unique position to identify early warning signs when there’s a disconnect at the brand level. Sales staff can usually spot the early signs of cracks in the brand, as can the folks who handle returns or distributor relations. By the time the marketing director, the VP of sales or the CEO see it, it’s probably too late.

So, the next time someone is trying on a new brand that doesn’t fit, and they ask "does this brand make me look fat?" tell them the truth. If they don’t ask, tell them anyway!

Technorati Tags: Tiger Woods, Las Vegas, General Motors, Buick, employees

5 comments August 5th, 2008

Brands don’t eliminate decisions

By Mark True

I’m hard core about maintaining brand standards - operational and visual. Consistent customer experience is what makes a brand a brand. If the experience keeps changing, the customer doesn’t know what to think, there is no promise.

The folks over at Usernomics, however, make a great point in this post about brand vs. usability.

"brand guidelines are not the brand, they just help to give it some consistency."

The post discusses usability issues on the web and, among other useful tips, suggest that the web be considered right up front, with the creative brief.

When those considerations aren’t included with the paper’s blank, we as marketers have to be willing to adjust the brand guidelines in the interest of the brand, not the brand guidelines.

• If you have a gradient in your logo and you now need to create polo shirts, either figure out how to recreate the gradient in stitches or create an alternate version of the logo, and add it to your guidelines. 
• If Eras is your standard body copy font, identify which web font will complement it for web applications, and add it to your guidelines.
• If aqua marine is your primary color and the vinyl sign company doesn’t have a matching vinyl, pick one that’s close, and add it to your guidelines.

Guidelines are only guidelines. They can be adjusted. Usernomics says it best: "If the issue is significant, you should disobey the guidelines in as consistent a manner as possible."

Brands help you make decisions, they don’t eliminate all your decisions!

Technorati Tags: Usernomics, brand guidelines, usability, creative brief

1 comment July 31st, 2008

Music is powerful, if you get out of the way

By Mark True

It’s been a while since the death of Earle Hagen, the writer and reported performer of the Andy Griffith Show theme song (though his performance is in some dispute). The song - called "The Fishin’ Hole" - is one of the most recognizable pieces of theme music in the USA and other places where the show is in constant reruns. It’s also an example of the power of music. If done correctly, music is a key element to invite people into a story. Who hasn’t had an experience that returns over and over when we here the music associated with it.

Used with great care, music (and sound) can resonate for a very long time, if you get out of the way let it happen. Think Southwest Airlines’ "ding", Chevrolet’s "See the U-S-A in a Chevrolet" song or  Alka Seltzer’s "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz…oh what a relief it is."

I believe marketers and the creatives serving marketers often grow bored - or insane - hearing the music played over and over during the development of the piece it accompanies, be it a video, a radio or television commercial or some other audio piece. The same happens for graphic designers who tire of seeing the same photography, an editor, the same interview and a copywriter, the same copy. If the idea is on brand - helping the organization demonstrate its difference, invitation and relevance - it should stand the test of time…if we get out of the way.

About 15 years ago, a seed company client agreed to utilize a custom piece of music to cut through the clutter on its radio advertising. The brand didn’t have the resources to compete with the market leaders using television commercials, but realized the value of great music to set the brand apart on the radio. My mentor, Steve Moon, and I eagerly sat down one afternoon to "whip out a song." After only a few silent minutes, we both realized this was way above our pay grade. Fortunately, through a friend of Steve’s, we found an accomplished Nashville songwriter (I can’t, for the life of me, remember his name) and, after hearing a rough cut of the song, headed for Music City.

It was fascinating to watch a piece of music come together - with the musicians working from nothing more than a few marks on a paper which, I later found out, was "the Nashville method" of songwriting. The effort was much more collaborative than orchestrated, with each musician adding his riffs on a different track for the producer to meld together long after the instruments were put away.

The finished piece was upbeat, akin to the popular "Are you ready for some football?" theme song for Monday Night Football. It demonstrated attitude, just like the upstart brand we were marketing. It was definitely on-brand! We couldn’t hear it enough, and returned to Iowa to then proudly present it to the client, as if we had plucked every string, pounded every drum and warbled every note.

The client loved it as well. And in the coming months, the music was played often in our advertising and used as session openers throughout a three-day sales meeting for the seed company. It got people moving and their heart pumping, just in time for the new sales season.

The ad schedule wasn’t strong, but customers got to hear the music enough to connect it with the brand. The client, on the other hand, heard it all the time, and grew tired of it. The initial excitement died and, eventually, the client fired us to go to a larger agency, noting that they’d get less service and pay more for it. The next sales season came along and a new, much more amateur theme song graced the company’s radio advertising.

We don’t know if the client grew tired of professional music or, as is often the case when a new marketing manager or agency gets involved, someone wanted to put their own mark on the work, prove their value and change things up a bit. It would have been nice to see if the music could have become a big part of the brand.  

I’m glad Andy Griffith didn’t get bored with "The Fishin’ Hole.    

Technorati Tags: Andy Griffith Show, theme music, graphic designers, editor, copywriter, "The Fishin’ Hole

4 comments July 25th, 2008

Place branding: you CAN get there from here

By Mark True

In my last post, I said communities usually fall short in the execution stage of their "rebranding" efforts. After the logo and tagline is put into place, they expect hordes of new residents, new businesses, new visitors to come running down main street…but nothing happens. I suggested it takes a lot of cash to make the changes often associated with focusing on a D.I.R.T.Y. (different, inviting, relevant, trutfhful, yours) brand.

In this post, I suggest the more truth in the brand, the less money it cost to strategically manage the brand. 

Case in point: when we put a group of Adams County, Iowa, residents through the paces of a Brand Discernment Process, it soon became evident that energy and a creative spirit permeated the county seat town of Corning, and had the promise of reaching out into the rest of the county. We discovered that Adams County is an active, creative and enthusiastic community that converts energy and enthusiasm into a quality of life that is desirable, engaging and unique. The county was poised to take advantage of a growing creative class and the desire for creative communities, particularly those that also offered the bonus of small-town Iowa values.

The school system, the health care system, the recreational opportunities, retail community and the people demonstrate originality in everything they do. We helped them identify all of the creative components of their brand — from the artists in residence program and the newly formed art center to the renovation of the historic opera house and the preservation of a historical Icarian community site. We saw the creative environment and culture at the local hospital and experienced the creativity and energy of local retailers, local restaurants and the local theater that still shows first-run movies on a daily basis. We documented the opportunities provided by the local NASCAR race track and the energetic people who had returned to Adams County from elsewhere in Iowa and in the nation to reinvigorate the creative spirit of Adams County.

The available budget limited our assignment to creating a brand mark and a website. A tagline and an emotional wave also emerged from the process, as did numerous ideas to demonstrate the creative side of the county. In collaboration with the citizens involved in the Brand Discernment Process, we put together no-cost and low-cost ways to demonstrate the creative side of the county; to integrate the senior center with the senior high school; to connect the race track with the local state park; to connect the movie theater with metropolitan areas of Des Moines, Kansas City and Omaha; to highlight local businesses that created new experiences and to bring out the artist in citizens throughout the county to create unconventional art throughout the countryside.

Things are happening, slowly, in Adams County. In a matter of weeks, a team of volunteers populated their new website. A new restaurant opened in the spring and the owner started blogging to share his story. Sure, they are facing challenges - a couple of businesses have closed recently - but they’re facing those challenges with a positive attitude and a strategic vision. As that vision spreads, expect changes in the AC.

Technorati Tags: logo and tagline, Adams County, Iowa, Corning, brand mark, website

Add comment July 23rd, 2008

Place branding: you can’t get there from here

By Mark True

In the past year or so, I’ve been less and less attracted to the brand machinations of McDonalds and Starbucks and more fascinated by the stumblings of cities, counties and regions as they try to "brand" themselves. There are plenty of consultants in this market who, in my opinion, are selling a bill of goods - or at least a very expensive logo and taglines to community reps assigned to oversee the effort. In my recent post at the Des Moines Register blog, I point out the problem - fear of offending someone - and blame the client and the agencies for not pushing harder for a brand that is different, inviting, relevant, truthful and yours.

Another shortfall is usually the execution of the strategy - if there IS a strategy. More often than not, the "brand management" effort is no more than a communications program designed to tell everyone what they’re doing. There’s little to demonstrate the brand. That takes extra effort, it takes getting all the stakeholders on board and rowing in the same direction.

It takes courage to stand up and say "we’re this and we’re not that!" because some people want to be "that".

In my home town of Carlisle, Iowa, some undefined portion of the community has adopted "The Natural Choice" as its tag line, but there’s been no effort to actually demonstrate that we’re the natural choice. There’s a new, cutting-edge natural home development in town, and we have a really nice bike trail (and the city leaders are trying to fund expansion of the trails) but that’s about it. We allow burning of yard waste. The police cars in town guzzle the same fossil fuels as the rest of us. As far as I know, our municipal electrical company creates electricity in a conventional manner. None of those facts, however, demonstrate that we’re the natural choice for anything.

Shouldn’t the "natural choice" run hybrid police vehicles? Prohibit burning of yard waste? Incorporate wind energy into our electric utility?  We have a number of community-wide events but there’s nothing centered on the bike path, nothing that features natural crafts or green building concepts. We’re not known for hosting outdoor education events or human-powered contests. A private group is creating a unique natural preserve but it’s progressing very slowly with little visible public support. The moneyed residents of our community have not stood up to offer financial support and, other than our mayor, few others have raised their hand in moral support of "natural" choices. If it IS happening behind the scenes, that’s another problem altogether!

We’re not uncommon. While many communities are telling their residents and others that they’re brand is different, few are actually being different! Example: In this story about Fulton, Illinois, the brand committee member says they might "try to come up with a new tagline and, maybe, a new logo", but doesn’t hint at any underlying strategy to use the knowledge to achieve the goal.

In small communities, it often takes cash to do even the little things that begin to demonstrate different, inviting, relevant, truthful brands that can be owned by everyone. Tearing down old buildings, painting murals, converting to new technologies, fixing the sidewalks, developing new attractions, cleaning up yards, converting buildings to new uses, supporting emerging industries, publicly recognizing brand leaders and even getting everybody together to brainstorm ways to enhance what they’re already doing takes time and money and energy that can be in short supply. These communities struggle to pay for the gas in the police cars or pick up the trash, and there’s plenty of competition for development funds at the state level. When a community is blessed by the presence of a wealthy family or successful businesses, they are often being approached by every non-profit group in the community seeking donations for their own programming.

So, what can small communities and regions do to begin demonstrating their brand? I’ll outline a few ideas in my next post.

5 comments July 22nd, 2008

New Walmart logo creates more questions than answers

By Mark True

Walmart recently committed one of the most common brand management mistakes made by marketers of all size: The world’s largest retailer recently introduced a new logo and the move created more questions than answers.

The theme of this Business Week story is buried at the end, with the following quote by Corebrand’s Andrew Bogucki:

 "Will the logo help purge brand baggage? Will it make them cool? Not really. New lettering and imagery will no doubt liven up Walmart’s look. But the company will have to keep delivering on (CEO H. Lee) Scott’s lofty environmental goals and rethink its labor practices to refresh the public’s perception of the big-box retailer."

Like many organizations with a new leader, the first thing that changes is the logo. It’s an easy way to signal change, but it’s also a crutch that, if left in place without any rehab of the brand experience itself, only allows the brand to atrophy. (How’s that for an overdone medical metaphor?)

Instead introducing a new logo, wouldn’t it have been better for Walmart to put more time, effort and money into the brand experience? How about it if they tried the following:

• Spend more money on keeping the floor clean and bright?
• Keep the parking lots picked up and the trash cans outside the entrances clean?
• Pay the employees better so they don’t share their woes - or the amount of time until the end of their shift - with the customers?
• Encourage employees throughout the store to smile! (see the item above)
• Recruit and hire people that are happy, engaging and likely to share their happiness with those around them?
• Cross-train staff so that they can be quickly redeployed to handle cash registers when lines get long?
• Eliminate a bunch of checkout lanes so it doesn’t look so bad when they’re unstaffed!

Okay, so these ideas look pretty obvious, and the bottom-liners at Walmart are likely to dismiss them because they don’t fit the low-cost model that’s made them the largest retailer in the world. They’ve been successful by lowering expectations as they lower the price. Besides, it’s easier to introduce a new logo than actually arm your employees to represent the brand better.

I understand Walmart realities, but I’m hopeful that 1.) there might be an up-and-coming brand warrior within the ranks of Walmart who might be willing to step up to the plate and initiate REAL change that enhances the brand, and 2.) somewhere out there is someone - or a group of someones - who CAN see the opportunities to address their own brand at a deeper level and can create brand experiences that hold off advances by Walmart into their own community.

Technorati Tags: Walmart, brand management mistakes, logo, new leader, new logo

6 comments July 7th, 2008

It’s NOT the economy, stupid!

By Mark True

Small business owners aren’t buying the doom and gloom spewing from the mass media. They’re taking charge and making things happen.

What are you doing today?

• Making new connections with people who can tell your story?
• Talking with customers to learn what’s on their minds?
• Listening to customers to identify new opportunities?
• Meeting with employees to see who needs additional training or motivation?
• Looking around your business to see if your brand drives everything you do?
• Digging into [tag]competitor websites{\tag] and related blogs to discover new opportunities?

Or are you watching the mass media?

Flickr photo by Tishay

Technorati Tags: mass media, taking charge

1 comment July 2nd, 2008

Somebody had to say it!

By Mark True

A cliché is a cliché because it’s used over and over and over and, eventually, it doesn’t mean much. Such is the case with quality, trust and innovation as brand attributes. And the guys over at Branding Strategy Insider call it like it is in this post about the worthless brand attributes.

If I hear "we’re about quality, trust and innovation" once more, I think I’ll puke.

There are many other relevant brand attributes available to organizations willing to take a few minutes to look around.

What about fast? In the go-go world of 2008, getting something done faster than the next guy has opportunity written all over it. Wouldn’t you like to go to a bank that has a speedy drive through? Wouldn’t you buy - and pay more - from a furniture manufacturer that delivers in two weeks? How about a car-buying experience that takes less than 30 minutes? And get this: speed - as long as it maintains an acceptable level of quality - often demonstrates innovation better than any ad campaign or tag line!

What about convenient? The convenience store is an American institution for a very good reason: we want things fast and just around the corner! I don’t mean to pick on banks, but don’t you believe that a 24-hour bank - even a 24-hour bank drive-through - would be a huge success?  What about a county government office that stayed open until 7 p.m., or allowed a would-be business owner or car owner to complete everything they needed online, 24 hours a day? How much extra do you think business travelers would pay to be picked up at work and driven to the airport before their flight? In an inconvenient world, convenience can be synonymous with quality.

What about responsive? Wouldn’t a doctor’s office, services firm or a construction contractor who calls back within 30 minutes garner huge brand loyalty? How about a customer service center that doesn’t require you to enter an account number before they ask you for an account number? How about answering "I don’t know" and then getting back to the customer quickly with the answer when you do know? Being responsive gets a brand on the road to establishing trust! 

And what about  passionate, educated, friendly, cool, green, elegant, fun, connected, dependable, creative, family-friendly, humble, courageous, wacky, cheap, memorable, or a million other attributes. Surely you can find one that fits you better than quality, trust and innovation.

Flickr photo by Куртис Перри

Technorati Tags: quality, trust, innovation, brand attributes

Add comment June 30th, 2008

Don’t abdicate your brand

By Mark True

My first draft of this post featured another rhetorical question that begged a political answer that I didn’t want to address in a blog about telling great brand-based stories. So, I’ll skip the question and make it an instructional post. 

Don’t do this!  On the heals of my last post, which encouraged self-directed branding, I’m disappointed that a group of high-tech businesses in Massachusetts would look to the government to take care of business.  The sector:

• is responsible for 331,000 jobs,
• has the largest economic impact of any state industry,
• can draw young people like flies to the urban excitement of Boston,
• is in the backyard of several leading high-tech universities, and
• has to be making gobs of money.

With all this in its favor, the sector is "at risk of being significantly diminished in the decades ahead without greater industry-university collaboration and targeted state investment." The details are in the article, so please read it and learn how NOT to manage your brand. 

Don’t get me wrong: I believe forming partnerships and collaboration are good for business, but asking government to take on the brand management tasks of business is a waste of effort, in my opinion. In fact, I’d say that MassInsight is abdicating its brand by trying to bring everybody together and get someone else to pay for it. Any one of the companies in the sector, I suspect, has the ability to invest in the industry, take a leadership position and get the lion’s share of the benefit while helping the rest of the sector at the same time. That sounds like a win-win situation to me.   

One of the report recommendations, for example, is creation of a Talent Development Bank to expand connections between the tech industry and college campuses. Why wouldn’t one of the companies do that for themselves, make a call to MIT and say "let’s make this happen?" Why not lead the way for the rest of the industry? Why not create a category of one?

I’ve given this same advice to regional marketing groups in the state of Iowa several times. After working with them in our Brand Discernment Process, it became apparent that these regional groups can do well by discovering what’s different, inviting and relevant about their area of the state, and then working hard to communicate that truth and provide opportunities the citizens to take ownership of that brand. The Iowa Department of Economic Development may have some resources that will support that brand, but they can’t be the ONLY resource a group uses. It has to start locally!

The high-tech leaders could learn something by reading this Business West article to see how it’s done. The article was published in Western Massachusetts!

Technorati Tags: branding, partnerships, collaboration, brand management, MassInsight

Add comment June 25th, 2008

I want YOU…to be a brand warrior, too!

By Mark True

I once gave a brand presentation to a professional communications group, and talked to a veteran communicator after the meeting. ”We’re all about brand,” he said, proudly. He worked for one of the large, very visible insurance companies in Des Moines, so I asked him if he felt his company’s brand was different, inviting, relevant, and truthful, and if he and his co-workers knew how to live the brand daily. His eyes narrowed slightly and his brow creased when he realized the answer. He told me, “You’re right. We aren’t about brand”. His chinned dropped and the smile left his face when, after discussing it a bit more, he discovered his insurance company employer was about brand identity, not brand management.

As he walked away, I felt bad. I realized that I didn’t help him. I didn’t encourage him. I knew he wasn’t in the leadership postion to dictate change, but I also know I didn’t arm him to become a brand warrior inside his company.

I didn’t tell him to become subversive, to go on the offensive! That’s what it takes to move organizations down the road to being a great brand. As a brand warrior in a consulting position, all I can do is train people to be brand warriors and arm them with the tools to take the battle to the marketplace. I’m more of a brand mercenary, I guess. And I’m looking for other brand warriors.

Here’s what I should have told him:

Start gathering intelligence – Make sure you’re getting out into your organization, listening to co-workers including executives and the front-line staff. If you’re a large corporation, travel to other offices, participate in different task forces and groups. Watch and listen how sales people engage customers on the trade show floor. Listen to the production staff talk to each other. Review the mission/vision/values statements and annual reports and advertising. Begin to define your organization’s brand. If it’s already been articulated, learn it. And document everything! (If you want to make this a formal process, we’re equipped to help you do that.)

Infiltrate the front lines – Start conversations with the executives, the front-line staff, the sales team and the production crew. Talk with the guy in the mail room and the person at the front desk. Begin to actively refine your organization’s brand promise and get it down on paper. Build relationships with those who are in a position to easily communicate it.

Initiate probing attacks – Try the brand promise out on co-workers, on managers, on customers. See if it’s comfortable with everybody, if they can live it. If you get push back, probe a little deeper. See if it’s because that specific employee can’t live up to the brand or if the company can’t live up to the brand. Only by using it in conversation and communication will you determine if the brand fits, if it’s authentic and believable in the marketplace.

Be a leader – Once you’ve determined that the brand that fits, start using it to drive your communications and to drive your behavior. Lead the way, and get noticed. When others notice, share your story, your findings and encourage them to take it to heart. Hold others accountable when their actions conflict with the brand – even those above you on the organizational chart. This is how to build your personal brand. Let people know that you’re a brand warrior!

And be ready to bold if the brand is not embraced by others. If your organization doesn’t want you, others do.

Technorati Tags: brand, live the brand, brand identity, brand management, leadership, mission/vision/values statements, annual reports, advertising, communications, personal brand, brand warrior

Add comment June 19th, 2008