Posts Tagged brand
What is “A Brand?”
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Image, Brand Touchpoints on September 20, 2010
This question was recently posed to a LinkedIn group to which I belong.
Not surprisingly, the responses were varied and, depending on one’s perspective, correct. If ever there was a loosey-goosey marketing term, “brand” is probably it.
The question got me thinking, and I submit the answer lies in one or more of three key areas, depending on who you’re asking:
- The Brand Identity: this strategic platform is developed by internal company management and answers the questions, “what do we want this brand to be when it grows up, and what are the steps we need to take to ensure it happens?” To these brand stakeholders, this is “A Brand.”
- Delivery of Brand Touchpoints: how the various brand interactions with target audiences (customers, prospects, influencers) are delivered will affect what those audiences actually believe about the brand, regardless of what was planned in the Brand Identity. Delivery of the touchpoints should be in sync with the brand identity platform. To those responsible for delivering these touchpoints, this is “A Brand.”
- Formation of the Brand Image: As target audiences interact with the brand touchpoints, they form an impression about the brand — good or bad — depending on their individual experience with the touchpoint(s). To those creating an opinion as a result of these experiences, this is “A Brand.”
“A Brand” is a both process and a result.
It’s an interesting question to post to an Internet social group, but the more important question is what, specifically, is your brand? What’s your brand identity? How synchronized are the delivery of your brand touchpoints with this identity? What’s your brand image being formed this very minute by your target audiences?
Now, those are good questions to answer, aren’t they?
What is a “Brand Touchpoint?”
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Touchpoints on August 12, 2010
A year ago, I purchased a new Onkyo a/v receiver. Before making my purchase, I visited several product review websites and online retail sites, looked through various home theater magazines, and even stopped by some good old brick and mortar retailers to thoroughly check out the landscape. I made a short list of product candidates, then set about finding the best pricing. I believed the Onkyo product I eventually bought offered the best feature set for the price, plus I’d owned an Onkyo stereo receiver for the past 25 years and never had trouble so I had no problem deciding to buy another of their products.
A couple of months ago, my new receiver began faultering. I checked the Onkyo website for local authorized repair centers and also confirmed my unit was still under warranty. The warranty service was completed and the receiver worked fine for a few weeks until it faultered once again. Frustrated, I once again sent the unit in for warranty service and, once again, the receiver was repaired. It worked fine until a week or two later when the same problem occurred yet again. I contacted Onkyo directly and was informed that, under the terms of the warranty, if a unit continued to faulter after three warranty repairs, Onkyo would replace the product. So, off my reciever went for the third repair. Within a week, the problem presented itself again and I once again contacted Onkyo to arrange for a replacement. They sent me a pre-paid carton via which I was to return the unit, which I dutifully did. A few days later, a brand new (and upgraded) receiver was delivered to my doorstep.
So far, it’s working beautifully and I expect it to continue to do so in spite of the fluke I experienced with the faulty unit.
During this process, I counted nearly 30 individual interactions I had with the Onkyo brand — brand touchpoints. Everything from online reviews and recommendations, to articles and advertising, to the retailer I experienced as I made my purchase, to my previous experience with product quality, to the product feature set, to the Onkyo website, to the authorized service center, to the warranty, to the customer service rep who processed my warranty claim, to the return shipping box I received — and more.
Each and every one helping me to form an image about the brand that would lead me to become even more loyal than I already might have been, or drive me away (perhaps forever) to one of the many competitive brands I likely could be just as happy with.
As my experience with Onkyo suggests, brand touchpoints can usually be grouped into four interrelated but distinctive customer activity sets:
- Pre-purchase touchpoints
- During-purchase touchpoints
- Post-purchase touchpoints
- Influencing touchpoints
Successful management of these brand touchpoints requires that you:
- Identify all of them you can think of for your brand, considering the four basic sets
- Prioritize them relative to their importance in supporting the creation of brand loyalty
- Develop an operational standard for how the touchpoint should be delivered
- Manage and assess the delivery of them accross the brand organization to ensure the standard is met
This process should be tied into developing your brand identity – your plan for what you want your target audiences to take away from interactions with your brand. How well you perform on managing the delivery of your touchpoints will determine what kind of brand image is actually formed by those audiences.
Why all the trouble? Because, in spite of what you say or do, how your customers and prospects interact with your brand leads to the formation of their image about your brand which determines whether or not they’ll do business with you the first time, or ever again. I’d say that’s worth the trouble.
What You Could Learn From Costco
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity on August 10, 2010
I like going to Costco. Free food samples, good prices on good products, a frequently changing selection, interesting people-watching, and the occasional I’ve-got-to-get-this-today-because-I-know-it-won’t-be-here-tomorrow deal. I’ve bought eyeglasses at Costco. Discounted movie tickets and spa packages. And wine and fresh flowers, too.
It’s big. It’s not too crowded (except on weekends). And there’s something very “I’ve just robbed the bank”-ish about walking out with a 52 pound bag of dog food and having paid what a 25 pound bag would cost at a regular grocery store.
There are at least a dozen other reasons to like Costco. And, for me, it all fits into a singular image of this: selection (not the widest but enough for me most of the time) and value in a no-frills-but-enjoyable shopping experience.
I suspect most loyal Costo customers have the same image. And I suspect the good folks at Costco planned for this image to take root by very deliberately mapping out their brand identity platform, and then executing it to near perfection through their various brand touchpoints.
By developing their brand identity, Costco management also clearly defined several things they are not. Service is not their strong point. Neither is product selection. Elegant ambience is another thing Costo leaves to other retailers. A limited number of locations is ok by them. Product displays are a secondary consideration to functional stocking logistics. All these possible negatives, and more, are just fine with Costco. Because none of them are a part of the brand identity they developed.
Though Costco is unabashedly not all things to all people, they somehow manage to accomodate a very large number of disparate customer groups.
Simply, Costco operates in a manner which is completely synchronized with their strategically-developed brand identity. Their customers come to Costco for the right reasons — the reasons Costco itself has identified and communicated via their brand touch points – and rarely leave disillusioned. And business is good at Costco.
Yes, your business is completely different from Costco’s. But you can take away at least this from the Costco model: it’s ok to remain true to your brand identity and eschew the notion of being all things to all people. It’s not a bad way to run a successful business, as the folks at Costco know.
Your Audience Will Only Catch One Brand Message
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Messaging on August 9, 2010
An ad agency creative director friend of mine shares the story of participating in a client meeting for an important new brand launch. Like many clients, this one had many equally important selling points they insisted needed to be communicated to their audiences.
My friend sat quietly taking notes as the discussion continued around him. When the subject turned to creative execution of the brand messaging platform, he grabbed an armload of ping pong balls — perhaps a dozen, each of which he had been quietly noting with one of the selling points that had been discussed – and gently lobbed the entire armload to the client to catch.
The client caught one ball with one message noted. And he was lucky to catch any at all given the sudden deluge.
Completing the metaphor, my friend suggested that today’s far flung marketing world requires a client focus on one singular message, reinforced time and again in all brand touch points. Because realistically, audiences will only catch and hold onto one message about the brand that’s tossed to them.
And, though I wasn’t there to confirm, it’s unlikely the ball caught by the client represented the single above-all-most-important message the client would have chosen to communicate. No doubt, the client would have agreed it a more controlled practice to cull the balls down to the primary message desired, and then toss only that ball out for the audience to catch.
You, too, have many things that need to be said about your brand. Culling it down to the one most important ball isn’t easy, but it’s the way to ensure your audiences catch what you want them to.
I’ve written before about brand positioning and value proposition – two elements of a brand platform that provide focus for your brand messaging and a standard for how you deliver your brand touch points to reinforce that messaging focus. Nail these and you’ll be in the game in no time.
Miscues During The Sale Can Ruin Your Day
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Touchpoints on August 5, 2010
The brand communications have worked as designed: the advertising, pr, trade shows, sales presentations, packaging, etc. have all brought the prospect to the brink of becoming a customer. The cash register is about to ring and the cork popped.
But then something goes awry. That just-about-to-be-new-customer walks away. Quite possibly forever.
What happened?
Could be any number of things, but the first place to look is at the various interactions that took place during the actual process of making the sale.
In reviewing how you interact with prospects and customers, consider the four categories of activities or brand touchpoints:
- Pre-purchase touchpoints: interactions like advertising and sales presentations that drive brand awareness, differentiation, connection, and consideration
- Purchase touchpoints: interactions that take place during the closing process that drive confidence and validation of the purchase
- Post-purchase touchpoints: follow-up interactions that take place after the sale is completed that drive loyalty, advocacy, and cross/up-selling opportunities
- Influencing touchpoints: interactions that make an indirect impression
If the sale fell apart at the last minute, obviously ask the prospect what happened. Based on the response, dial into the second of these categories of interactions, the Purchase Touchpoints. Depending on your business, here are some things at which to to look closely to see where a problem may exist:
- Sales personnel
- Contract/Bid/Proposal
- Transactional forms and documents: order form, order confirmation, etc.
- Warranty/Guarantee
- Packaging
- Shipping/delivery services
- Production scheduling/delivery timeline
- Checkout procedures
- Engineering services
- etc.
Odds are, you’ll uncover something the close-but-no-cigar-customer took offense with. If not, move on to the broader list of touch points, including those behind the scene influencing touch points. Consider and evaluate every interaction. If you’ve prepared a brand touchpoint management plan, you would have identified, prioritized, and developed a delivery standard for the various interactions that drive your sales. It should be comparatively easy to evaluate the actual delivery of the touchpoints against the standard and make corrections accordingly. If you don’t have a plan, now’s a good time to prepare one.
Once you’ve figured out the problem you can manage a solution so it won’t happen again. And that will make your day.