My Marketing/Branding Favs Over 2 Years July 1, 2009
Posted by Bruce Temkin in Branding, CMO advice, Customer experience, EBD #2: Reinforce The Brand With Every Interaction.add a comment
In a continuation of the look back at my first two years of blogging, today I’m listing some of my…
Favorite Marketing/Branding Posts
From my perspective, brands aren’t color palettes or logos. They’re not tag lines or advertising campaigns. They’re an organization’s raison d’être. Here’s how I describe branding:
True brands are more than just marketing slogans, they’re the fabric that aligns all employees with customers in the pursuit of a common cause.
- Brands Are Dying; Deal With It (3/6/08). It’s time for companies to reinvigorate their brands.
- My First 8 Steps As A New CMO (9/13/08). I was pleasantly surprised by the enormous readership of this post which outlines how CMOs can get started.
- JetBlue’s “Happy Jetting” Is More Than Empty Promises (5/8/08). JetBlue showcases some basic principles of brand building.
- Ford (Finally) Turns Employees Into Brand Ambassadors (4/16/08). It’s critical to get your employees on board (and engaged with) any marketing efforts.
- CMOs: Start Building (Real) Loyalty (4/3/09). Highlights different research that can help CMOs build loyalty.
- 6 Steps For The President To Revive “Brand USA” (11/3/08). Even the USA has a branding problem.
- Marketing Lessons From An Ex-Marine (12/20/08). Find out how marketers can apply a Marine approach called BRASS.
- John Hancock Repositioning Provides Lesson About Empty Promises (4/24/08). Advertising should be used to reinforce branding, not create it.
- Firms Need Some Soul Searching (9/25/07). An important lesson from Aretha Franklin.
- Don’t Let Profits Replace Purpose (8/13/07). Brands are much more than color palettes and logos, they represent a company’s reason for being. Many companies have lost site of that.
The bottom line: Most organizations need to re-establish their raison d’être.
CMOs: Start Building (Real) Loyalty April 3, 2009
Posted by Bruce Temkin in Branding, CMO advice, Customer experience.Tags: Hamish Pringle
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As I’ve mentioned before, brands are dying. While there are some exceptions (Zappos, Apple, Southwest Airlines, etc.), firms just aren’t developing strong brands. Why does it matter? Because weak brands can’t build strong loyalty.
People often say that prices are being driven down by customers empowered with information. But I don’t really buy it. Price competition is being driven by the lack of strong brands. Here’s what I said about brands in an earlier post:
True brands are more than just marketing slogans, they’re the fabric that aligns all employees with customers in the pursuit of a common cause.
I just completed an analysis of what consumers want from different companies in 12 different industries. It turns out that good customer services was preferred more frequently than low prices across every industry.
But my research isn’t the only source of insight about the importance of strong brands. Here are a few recent studies that I’ve read…
1. Emotional Advertising Lowers Price Sensitivity
In a new book called “Brand Immortality,” Hamish Pringle, Director General of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, shows that emotional advertising is much more powerful than rational, hard-selling ads. Here’s an excerpt:
What the data show us is that emotional campaigns are almost twice as likely to generate large profit gains than rational ones… It turns out that emotional campaigns… excel in one noteworthy area: reducing price sensitivity, and hence strengthening the ability of brands to secure a premium in the marketplace.
2. Advertising Price Is Not Very Effective
In a recent post called Time Is More Valuable Than Money, I discussed research that shows how advertising that mentions time drives more sales than ads that mention price. Here’s some of the research from Stanford:
Because a person’s experience with a product tends to foster feelings of personal connection with it, referring to time typically leads to more favorable attitudes-and to more purchases
3. Loyalty Programs Must Build Attitudinal Loyalty
An article in AdAge called Redesigning Loyalty Programs to Last Beyond the Next Purchase discusses the difference between behavioral loyalty (temporary) and attitudinal loyalty (which is lasting). According to the authors:
Behavioral loyalty might be described as consumers doing what you want them to do, while attitudinal loyalty involves consumers believing what you want them to… As a result, loyalty programs that provide only economic benefits may be appropriate in some instances but may actually conflict with brand-building efforts that ultimately attempt to create attitudinal loyalty.
The bottom line: Don’t let your brand go to waste!
Eight Steps For CMOs In A Recession March 1, 2009
Posted by Bruce Temkin in CMO advice, Customer experience.Tags: John Quelch
3 comments
While reading a post by Harvard Business School professor John Quelch called How CMOs Should Function in a Recession, I realized that my previous advice to new CMOs was extremely relevant to all CMOs in this economic environment. So here are the 8 steps I had outlined for new CMOs with some commentary about how to think about each one in a recession:
- Re-establish our brand. As companies eliminate some activities to match their slowing revenues, its very possible for those cut backs to cripple their brand. CMO’s need to make sure that their organization’s core brand promise is well defined and understood, and that it plays a prominent role in how the executive team makes trade-offs.
- Put our agency work out to bid. Just about all agencies are hurting in this environment, and would rather have low margin work than no work at all. Given the need to cut back, CMO’s should consider renegotiating all of their agency deals. It’s a great environment for dialogues about doing more with less.
- Refine our target segments. In this economic environment, firms need to become even more selective about the customers they are targeting; otherwise they’ll poorly serve everyone. CMOs need to proactively define the key segments and refine the company’s value propositions for each one.
- Increase investment in customer insight. It may be hard to argue for more investment anywhere in this environment, but getting a better understanding of target customers is extremely important; especially as customer needs are shifting. CMOs should make sure that their companies maintain a strong understanding of customers.
- Build-up employee brand advocates. Many companies are reducing their workforce, but the success of the company is based on the remaining employees. So it’s more important than ever to engage employees in the strategy and objectives of the brand; difficult times can create the opportunity for open communications.
- Prioritize digital channels. Without any money to waste, firms need to focus on the most cost-effective opportunities like digital channels. CMOs need to take full advantage of their online marketing opportunities. Having said that, there might also be some bargains available in non-digital media as well.
- Improve usability of everything. This is more true now than ever. Poor usability is like a veneer that turns valuable assets into worthless annoyances. For a fairly modest investment, companies can improve critical experiences form online purchases to mailed statements. CMOs need to push for usability improvements that can capture value from existing interaction platforms.
- Get people asking three questions. This advice remains universal. CMO’s should continue to shift people’s thinking from inside-out to outside-in. How? By getting people to regularly ask the 3 questions of a concept called “Scenario Design:” Who are your target users? What are their goals? How can we help them achieve those goals?
The bottom line: CMOs should treat this time like they’re in a new job.
Marketing Lessons From An Ex-Marine December 20, 2008
Posted by Bruce Temkin in Branding, CMO advice, Customer experience.1 comment so far
When Marines get rifle lessons, they learn the acronym BRASS: Breathe, Relax, Aim, Squeeze, Shoot. Casey Jones, who has been both a Marine and VP-global marketing at Dell, discusses how those military lesson make sense when it comes to marketing. No surprise: he thinks marketers do a lot of shooting without aiming. Jones offers a lot of good advice, including this:
Breathe: Set aside time every week to focus on what your brand is communicating. Relax: Remember that the brand will not fail if you pause for a moment to focus. It may fail, however, if you continue to waste marketing shots that are off-target.
He also recommends that all messaging briefs contain these four elements:
- A clear definition of the target audience
- A clear statement of the audience’s current mental and emotional perceptions of your brand.
- A short statement of the “desired” perceptual state — one that is reasonable given your budget.
- A clear list of the minimum points you must communicate in order to achieve your goal.
The bottom line: Don’t forget to breathe, relax, and aim.
Walgreens’ New CMO Seems On Track December 5, 2008
Posted by Bruce Temkin in CMO advice, Customer experience, Executive leadership.Tags: Kim Feil, Walgreens
2 comments
I just read an interview with Walgreens’ new CMO, Kim Feil. Here are some quotes from her in the article:
No drug retailer has a clear and distinctive position from the consumer’s perspective… we are all known for being a great pharmacy and for being convenient… Those are the cost of entry.
I believe that the fundamental caring that our organization has for people is something that will be one of the most distinguishing characteristics in defining who Walgreens is.
I want to see us elevate the Walgreens brand to… be consumers’ first choice for remedy and relief, including finding their beacon of health and personal wellness at Walgreens.
My take: Feil seems to have the right perspective. How am I evaluating her? By looking at how effectively she’s following my 8 steps for a new CMO. In this short interview, she’s demonstrated a bias towards three of those steps: Re-establishing the brand, increasing investment in customer insight, and building-up employee brand advocates. Nice job!
The bottom line: You can’t go wrong focusing on customers and employees.
8 Pieces Of Advice For RadioShack’s New CMO October 3, 2008
Posted by Bruce Temkin in CMO advice, Customer experience, Executive leadership.Tags: Lee Applbaum, RadioShack
2 comments
Lee Applbaum has just been named as the new CMO for RadioShack. Congratulations Mr. Applbaum, you’ve got a lot of opportunities to improve!
As I mentioned in a recent post that talks about Radio Shack’s efforts to reformat its stores, the retailer does very poorly with customer experience. As a matter of fact, Radio Shack came in at the bottom of the 27 retailers in Forrester’s Customer Experience Index. That’s right, dead last. During other research, we found flaws in areas like Radio Shack’s in-store shopping experience and its Web-store cross-channel experience.
So here’s my advice to Applbaum: Take a look at My First 8 Steps As A New CMO. As I think about the situation at Radio Shack, all 8 items in that post make sense. Hopefully the RadioShack leadership team views their efforts as part of a long-term journey; evolving through the five stages defined in The Customer Experience Journey. To guide the company’s evolution, Applbaum should also introduce the entire leadership team to The 6 Laws Of Customer Experience.
The bottom line: When it comes to customer experience, Radio Shack has much to gain and little to lose.
My First 8 Steps As A New CMO September 13, 2008
Posted by Bruce Temkin in CMO advice, Customer experience, Executive leadership.Tags: Chief Marketing Officer, CMO
6 comments
A lot of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are changing jobs. Over the past few months, companies with new CMOs include: Blockbuster, Domino’s Pizza, KMART, Cheesecake Factory, Sears, Monster, Hertz, Heineken, PepsiCo, Booz & Company, Target, Barclaycard US, Omni Hotels, and T-Mobile.
Since there are so many new CMOs, I thought I’d offer some advice on how to get going in the role. So here are the first 8 steps that I’d take as a new CMO:
- Re-establish our brand. Many companies have lost site of who they really are; they’ve lost their souls. One of my first steps will be to redefine our brand attributes through a process of internal interviews/workshops (to uncover what we believe) and customer testing (to see how we’re perceived).
- Put our agency work out to bid. Let’s face it, even the best agencies can get complacent. So I’d put all of our agencies (advertising, interactive, PR, etc) on notice that they’ll need to compete to keep our business. This should help drive innovation, get the “A” teams assigned to our account, and cut some costs.
- Refine our target segments. Most companies don’t know which segments are most important or they haven’t truly focused on some key segments. So I’d kick-off an effort to figure out the segments that can provide us with the highest lifetime value and examine what drives the purchase decisions of those segments.
- Increase investment in customer insight. In all of my work with large organizations, I’ve never heard anyone say “we spent too much on customer insight.” That’s because most companies spend too little in this area. I’d find a way to do more customer research, including ethnographic field studies, to make sure that we truly understand our customers’ needs, interests, and desires.
- Build-up employee brand advocates. One of my 6 rules of customer experience is that unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers. So if we want to engage our customers, we need to start with our employees. I’d plan to spend up to 50% of my time working on employee communications and outreach; and build up internal brand advocates.
- Prioritize digital channels. Even if our company has focused on digital marketing channels, we are probably not moving as fast as we could be; especially if any of our target markets are younger consumers. I’d look to do more with online channels and weave together our online and offline campaigns.
- Improve usability of everything. I’ve evaluated the usability of 100’s of Websites as well as a bunch of phone, Web, store, IVR, and cross-channel experiences. And there are always a lot of problems. So I’d champion efforts to make sure that it’s much easier for customers to do business with us in every channel.
- Get people asking three questions. I’d make our company more customer-centric; shifting people’s thinking from inside-out to outside-in. How? By getting as many people as possible to regularly ask the 3 questions of a concept called “Scenario Design:” Who are your target users? What are their goals? How can we help them achieve those goals?
The bottom line: CMOs have a lot of opportunity to make a difference.
Ford (Finally) Turns Employees Into Brand Ambassadors April 26, 2008
Posted by Bruce Temkin in Branding, CMO advice, Customer experience, EBD #2: Reinforce The Brand With Every Interaction, EBD #3: Treat Customer Experience As A Competence.Tags: Ford
3 comments
I just read a BrandWeek article called Ford Asks Employees, Dealers to Spread Ad Message that talks about Ford’s new campaign called “Drive one” which includes a push for employees and dealers to spread the word. Jim Farley group vp-marketing and communications for Ford explains it this way:
The whole idea behind this campaign is not fancy ads. It’s talking to the customer, who talks to a friend. It’s the only chance we have to break the apathy.
My take: As I talked about in my previous post about John Hancock, advertising alone can’t dramatically change a company’s positioning. It takes a shift in how you interact with customers. That means you need to get employees involved (and for car makers, it means dealers as well). So this approach makes absolute sense. Yet, something is wrong.
The fact that Ford is making such a big deal out of this approach means that it’s an unusual occurance. So the car maker does NOT regularly engage employees and dealers in its advertising efforts. That’s a problem. Employees and the entire front line need to be developed into ambassadors for any campaign. And if they can’t promote it, then that’s probably a good sign that the campaign is not a good one.
When I interviewed the CMO for JetBlue several years ago, she told me that she spent half of her time communicating the brand message internally. Sounds like a good benchmark.
The bottom line: CMOs need to become CMMOs, Chief Marketing And Motivational Officers.
