Posts Tagged brand identity
What’s Your “Brand Experience” Like?
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Touchpoints on September 29, 2011
When it comes to buying and using a product or service, we’ve all had really good and really bad experiences. Chances are we’ll go back wherever the experience has been good and never darken the halls again where it’s been bad.
My wife and I recently went through the process of buying a new car, something I’d typically place on the list just below getting my eye poked with a sharp stick in terms of fun things to do. After much research and hand wrangling, we settled on a Hyundai. I can’t speak for all Hyundai dealerships, but ours represented the Hyundai brand extremely well and made the overall experience — dare I say — “enjoyable.” The net: I have no problem going back to the Hyundai brand (assuming the car performs as expected) — and that particular dealership — in the future. There wasn’t any one thing that made this brand engagement work well, but rather a bunch of small things conspiring together to provide an excellent brand experience. Small things like the way the salesperson interacted with us. His product knowledge. The comfort and confidence we felt as we set about negotiating price. The dealership facilities. The features and value of the car itself. The iciness of the cup of water I was provided. Etc.
A couple of weeks later we received a detailed survey about our experience, with questions probing all manner of our interaction with the dealership and the Hyundai product. Clearly, Hyundai’s mission is to continue to improve the complete brand experience by defining and correcting the specific areas where they under-perform relative to their brand touchpoint management plan. As a challenger brand (but for not much longer, I suspect), Hyundai needs to continue to leverage strengths and shore up weaknesses — just like any successful brand.
Which brings me to you and the brand experience with which you are providing your customers and prospects. Do you know precisely what it is? Are you systematically assessing the experience your customers and prospects have with your brand(s)? Do you have a touchpoint management plan which prescribes, specifically and in measureable terms, how your touchpoints — interactions — are to be delivered relative to your brand identity? Do you know which touchpoints carry the greatest weight in keeping a customer or moving a prospect to become one?
The connection between delivering an exceptional brand experience and growing your business is obvious, no matter what business you’re in. So, specifically what are you doing about it?
Employee Training for Brand Touchpoint Delivery
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Touchpoints on April 15, 2011
Last week my wife and I traveled to visit my daughter at college. Stopping at a Dairy Queen about half way for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up is part of the routine. One of DQ’s signatures is, of course, The Blizzard, and I’m a big fan. A Blizzard, for those unenlightened few, is simply a cup of soft vanilla ice cream hand-blended with your choice of ingredients like Oreo cookies, M&M candies, Reeses candies, etc.
No doubt, DQ has identified at least a few important brand touchpoints for employees to deliver during their preparation of this brand-defining, flagship product: complete blending of ingredients, clean presentation of the cool treat, and a warm smile. It’s likely there are others, but I imagine these are the very basics.
On this particular visit, our DQ server completely failed to deliver on those basics, which left me with a less-than-stellar impression about that DQ location specifically, but also a bit of tarnish on the DQ brand overall. The product was virtually un-blended and the rim, upper inside, and outside of the cup were splattered with ingredients. It was an unappealling mess.
Clearly, the employee had not been properly trained on the nuances of making and presenting a perfect rendition of The Blizzard. It made me wonder what else he hadn’t been trained to properly do. That’s a problem of local franchise management to be sure, but also for corporate management who is charged with defining and managing delivery of the DQ brand identity. I mentally compared this experience with the obvious care my local Starbucks barista takes in preparing a perfect cup of coffee and it occured to me who’s paying closer attention to important brand-defining touchpoints, and who’s likely more sucessful as a business.
Are your employees completely steeped in your brand identity and the brand touchpoints required to properly deliver that identity to your customers? Are you sure?
Starbucks Gets the Value of Brand Touchpoints
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Touchpoints on April 8, 2011
Starbucks knows a thing or hundred about clicking with its customers. Not only have they mastered the art of serving coffee to the masses, but they also pour a consistent brand experience with every single cup.
But it hasn’t been easy.
Starbucks celebrated its 40th anniversary on March 30, but as recent as 2008 (before the recession), reaching that milestone was very much in jeopardy.
Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, has a new book just out, Onward: How Starbucks Fought For Its Life Without Losing Its Soul. I haven’t read it yet, but the title promises an inside look at the extraordinary emphasis Schultz placed on getting back to the soul of the Starbucks brand when he returned to lead the company in 2008, after turning over day-to-day operations control in 2000.
No doubt, the company continued to flourish through the first half of the 2000′s. By 2006, company stock touched $40 and locations swelled to more than 12,000 worldwide. But a funny thing happened on the way to this success: Starbucks apparently forgot their brand identity — the soul that made them distinctively, uniquely Starbucks among the increasing tide of competitors. Store traffic dropped. Spending per customer declined. Same store sales comps stumbled. And the stock price fell into the single digits. Staff was let go, and many stores were shuttered. As 2007 was winding down, things didn’t look so good for Starbucks.
The problems were many, including growing too fast, poor employee training, not monitoring costs, and operational shortcuts. The net effect was disenfranchised Starbucks loyalists. Lots of them.
(Re-)enter Howard Schultz. In early 2008, he told a gathering of employees at Starbucks headquarters, “We have to find and bring the soul of our company back, find our voice.” Yahtzee!
For years, Starbucks enjoyed a distinctive voice, and the rewards of speaking with it. They did the heavy lifting of crafting a strategic brand identity, and then implementing that identity throughout the hundreds of brand touchpoints that defined the Starbucks brand experience.
However, from 2000 until early 2008, they failed to live up to that brand identity and nearly paid for it.
So, what’s the lesson for us mere mortals in the business world? Do the work of crafting a distinctive brand identity, and then deliver that identity by actively managing the brand touchpoints that drive business. And stick to it.
Brand Touchpoints Drive Your Brand Image
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Touchpoints on April 4, 2011
Visited a local italian restaurant not long ago. Good food and good service, which was to be expected for the mid-range prices they were charging. What wasn’t expected, though, were the folding tables and chairs (think church potluck supper decor and you have it). This little disconnect made me pay closer attention to everything else about the place – the tableware, wall decorations, lighting — all of it. I’m not certain the image the restaurant owners were trying to create, but I don’t think it was “Wednesday night church supper.”
The image for all brands — yours and mine — is formed as a direct result of the experience folks out there in the real world have as they engage with the brand. Brand touchpoints.
Some business owners and brand managers have sweated over every conceivable brand touchpoint to ensure they’re in sync with the brand identity they’ve strategically crafted. They’ve identified them, prioritized them based on their affect on brand image, and then actively manage them to ensure they’re properly delivered.
Most, like my restaurant friends, have done only a superficial job, focusing on the obvious touchpoints of product, advertising, and customer service at the expense of not considering all the other possible, perhaps just-as-important, touchpoints. The result is a disconnect between the desired brand identity and actual brand image being formed.
If you haven’t created a formal brand identity and don’t actively manage your important brand touchpoints in support of that identity, then you’ve lost control of the brand image that your target audiences will form about you. Simply, brand touchpoints drive your brands. And your business.
So, what are you doing about it?
Who Are The Faces Of Your Brand?
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Touchpoints on October 11, 2010
Who are the people that represent your brand out there in the real world?
Your sales force? Without a doubt.
Customer service reps? Absolutely.
Service providers? Yep.
Anybody having direct customer contact? Of course, yes.
Certainly, you’ve empowered these employees to deliver their respective brand touchpoints in a way that supports your brand identity — they know what to say and how to act.
No doubt, there are other employees working for your company who are not on the front lines. When these behind-the-scene workers were trained, I’m guessing they were presented with only on the barest elements of your brand identity, if at any all. True?
Remember the Butterfly Effect?
Could some of these behind the scene employees actually be the butterfly who’s seemingly insignificant actions result in dramatic consequences? Can you really ever know until perhaps it’s too late?
The driver of the branded delivery truck, wrecklessly and obnoxiously weaving through traffic. The auto mechanic carelessly forgetting to tighten the battery terminal after re-connecting it. The rude parking lot attendant at the hospital. The administrative assistant who spells the customer’s name wrong. The stocking clerk ignoring a customer in need of assistance.
I could keep going, but so can you, I’m sure.
While you can’t possibly micro-manage the actions of every employee, you can ensure that each is fully aware of exactly how they, too, should meet your expectations for delivering their respective brand touchpoints so they’re in sync with your brand identity. The culture of conviction, passion, and commitment that you instill in your front line ambassadors should take root with your behind the scenes employees as well.
Because you just never know who the face of your brand will be in a given situation, and what affect that face will ultimately have on whether you win or lose business.