Your customers don’t make rational buying decisions. Actually, nobody does. We do the best we can with the information we have.
Even with critical purchase decisions we still make compromises. It’s because we’re human. Our brains just don’t have the memory capacity or computational ability to evaluate all the relevant information in an industry to make highly logical decisions. Instead we look for cues and signals to identify the product and services that will best fit our needs.
Understanding the limitations of our decision-making leads to a hard truth: We don’t evaluate brands fairly.
Actually, we rarely even consider all the options available to us. We pick a short list of 2 to 6 brands to consider, and then enter into the buying process.
This poses a question for your business: Is your brand even being considered?
If you’re brand isn’t top of mind, chances are it isn’t a serious contender. The challenge is to rise above all the options in your industry, and stand out as a credible brand that your customers want to evaluate.
Features and benefits come second
The challenge for many B2B companies is they differentiate their brands on 3 primary dimensions:
Service
Price
Features
These dimensions may be highly relevant in the final decision making process, but they’re useless if you don’t make your customers’ short list.
In this era of Google and social media, we are inundated with information. We use the tools available to us to get informed, and discover our options. The challenge for your customers is to isolate which brands they should evaluate more carefully.
Capture your customers’ attention quickly
The elevator pitch has long been used as a tool to capture a prospect’s attention. In 20 seconds or less, the time it takes to ride an elevator, make a compelling pitch. The pitch must create a positive first impression, explain who you are and articulate your value proposition.
You can’t say much in 20 seconds. Basically you’ll be able to explain to the prospect who you are, what you do and why they should care. A couple of paragraphs at the most. But your words are only a fraction of the message you deliver. Your body language, your clothing, your personality and your charisma all influence your prospect – probably more so than your words. Your prospect takes in the whole experience, and makes a gut reaction whether to grant you another minute or not.
The elevator pitch is a good measuring stick to evaluate your branding and marketing efforts. The difference is your company has a lot more touch points: search position, website, social media, referrals, centers of influence, the media and your employees. Regardless of where your customers engage your brand, they will make split-second judgments. They’ll judge with their eyes, their minds and their hearts.
Your customers quickly take in all the information available to them, and make an assessment: is this a company we should consider? If you don’t pass this test then you don’t even make the short list. And if you don’t make the short list … well you get the idea.
Why? This is the most important question to answer in any rebranding or renaming project. Why? Why are you doing it?
If you can’t give a succinct, authentic and sharable message, stop. Don’t pass go. Don’t collect $200. You’ve got to get your story right before you do anything else.
It’s easy to get caught up in the creative work and implementation work of a rebranding project. It’s fun creating a new identity. It’s fun coming up with ways to announce and share the new brand. It’s fun thinking about what the new brand could be. But all that is secondary.
Why did you start the rebranding project in the first place?
Any major change to the façade of a business creates uncertainty. People generally don’t like change. It’s unsettling. And rebranding is a very visible change to the business. The most effective way to dispel the uncertainty and rumors is to be frank and blunt about why you’re changing the brand.
As you build the story of why you are rebranding, consider:
Why the brand change, and what is it all about?
Why is the change important for the firm?
Why is the new brand better than the old one?
Why do your staff, management and executives want to support the brand change?
Why is it important for your customers?
Why is it important for your suppliers, vendors and partners?
These are the questions you’ll be answering both internally and externally when you roll out the new brand. And if you don’t overtly answer these questions, people will make their own assumptions.
Once you’ve polished your story, launch the new brand inside your organization. Get your team’s feedback. Get their buy in. If they have doubts or questions, it’s better to hear it from them than your customers. Use your team to perfect the story, perfect the reasons behind the rebranding, and get them on board and excited about the change.
It’s essential to get your organization behind the rebranding, because your team will be your frontline storytellers. If they don’t get it, no one will. If they’re not excited about it, your customers won’t be either. If they have doubts, your competitors will hear about them and spread those doubts for all to hear.
Once it’s time to launch the new brand and announce it to the world, you’ll be ready to run. Not only will you be able to answer clearly and authentically why your company changed its brand, but you’ll also have the support and encouragement of your entire organization. Everyone will sing from the same song sheet, and you’ll be able to get your customers, suppliers and even competitors interested in your new brand.
“Did you know the Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012?”
Since the start of the year the doomsday chatter has been in full force. The sentiment has gone beyond the crazies to the mainstream.
The end of the Maya calendar is triggering the discussion. The Maya calendar ends on the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2012. And the doomsdayers have long viewed the Maya calendar as a prophecy for the end of the world. Even Hollywood told us so in the movie 2012.
I’m going to say this now, bollocks!
I know, I know. Any rational person knows the world isn’t going to end, because of a Mayan prophecy. It’s just a fun piece of trivia to discuss and bandy about. But the discussion is too negative. Rather than talking about the end of the world, let’s change the conversation.
Every year we celebrate the New Year on December 31st. We don’t cry, “The year is ending!” We celebrate. We celebrate the end of a period, and the start of a new one. The Mayans weren’t any different. This is the end of an old calendar, and the start of a new one.
New Years, birthdays and anniversaries are all moments of change. They’re opportunities to reflect on where we’ve come from, and where we’re heading. And they are moments we can share with friends, family and colleagues.
2012 can be a pivotal year.
January 25 is the anniversary of the start of the uprising in Egypt. The Egyptian people were spurred to action based on what they witnessed in Tunisia. The Tunisians ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, 2011 after 23 years of power. The Egyptians wanted similar change, and they too stood up and forced Hosni Mubarak from power on February 11, 2011.
The Arab Spring was but one story line of 2011. There was the Occupy Movement, the financial crises in Europe, natural disasters and more. And most of these stories are still playing out.
We don’t have time or energy to be talking about the end of the world. There’s too much at stake. There’s too much we need to see through to the finish.
Don’t let history pass you by. As you move through 2012 take opportunities to slow down and observe the world we’re living in. We’re living in a period of massive change – maybe even a renaissance. It’s time to celebrate where we’ve come from, and where we’re heading.
The next time you hear someone mention the Mayan calendar, correct them. The world isn’t ending, it’s only just beginning.
Your customers aren’t going to buy from you unless they like and trust you. It’s that simple. If they don’t like you, they’ll look for alternatives. If they don’t trust you, they’ll never buy.
Even common consumer products like Coca-Cola, Tide and Heinz Ketchup have like and trust. Consumers identify with theses brands. They like what the products deliver, and they trust they’ll get a consistent experience. Even though these products are very accessible and easy to buy, the brands are the differentiating factor. Brands form a relationship that drives consumers to choose them over generic, low-cost options.
Like and trust are the building blocks of the buying process. The more complex a product or service, the more important like and trust becomes. But this is where a marketing disconnect arises. Most B2B marketing initiatives focus on creating awareness versus making the brand more likable and trustable.
Awareness doesn’t drive sales
It’s a myth that increasing brand awareness will increase sales. For example, 1,000 cold calls won’t generate 1,000 new customers. Customers don’t buy simply because they know your name.
During the Dotcom craze companies spent small fortunes on advertising with the hope that awareness would drive revenue. It didn’t. According to Kirk Cheyfitz in his book Thinking Inside the Box, Pets.com generated $619,000 in revenue in 2009, but spent $11.8 million on advertising. $1.2 million of that ad budget went to a Super Bowl commercial. All the awareness they created wasn’t enough to drive sales or save the business.
Awareness is still the number one go-to activity for marketing. Companies are investing to increase their search rank, or working to get thousands of followers in social media. They’re running radio and TV advertising spots, attending tradeshows, and trying to get media coverage through a publicist or PR firm. These activities are all very useful, but only after a strong brand foundation is laid.
Focus on the relationship
Brand awareness is important, but it’s irrelevant if your customers don’t like you and trust you.
You can manage and grow your client relationships in 3 ways:
1. Simple Clarity. Clear, concise communication builds credibility. When your customers clearly understand who you are and what you do, it helps them categorize you and know when to call on your expertise.
2. Be Generous. Take a genuine interest in your customers, as well as the broader community. How can you help them even when they’re not buying? We live in the digital age. It’s very easy to create and share valuable content. That’s a great starting point. Invest in giving back online, and then scale it to the real world.
3. Innovate and invest in your expertise. We live in a crowded world with a lot of choice. How is your brand different? How is it better? Your innovations and expertise are core assets of your business. Invest in them to not only better serve your customers, but to push your industry forward.
Awareness comes second
The biggest problem with driving awareness is your customers are skeptical. For the past 50 years companies have been bombarding the public with advertisements and promotions vying for their attention and money. People are reasonably skeptical.
Before investing in promoting your brand to the masses, make sure you have a strong brand foundation. If you aren’t promoting something of substance, it’s a waste. Focus your attention on making your brand more likable and trustable first, and then share those stories with the world.
Until very recently where you worked said a lot about your business and your brand. In the 80′s it was unacceptable to say you worked from home, because it suggested the business was small and unreliable.
Corporate headquarters were built to make a statement. The Chrysler Building in New York, the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Scotia Plaza in Toronto are all very visible landmarks demonstrating the power, success and stability of the companies that built them.
Landmark buildings don’t carry the same meaning anymore. The Internet and globalization has changed our expectations of brands. In the pre-Internet era the size, location and beauty of a building was a heuristic for a brand’s credibility. The building stood as a very visible sign of a firm’s success and wealth. Not anymore. Buildings don’t carry the same influence, because customers use new tools like Google, Twitter, YouTube and websites to assess and evaluate brands.
The Web democratized talent
You can buy amazing products from big companies and small companies alike. You can work with people face-to-face, over the phone or online.
Services can be delivered almost anywhere in the world. The old paradigm was to hire service providers in your own backyard, but now you can hire a company in Manila, Madrid or Montreal. The choice is yours. The question is not where the business is based, but what it’s capable of delivering.
The global availability of talent and resources changes the branding game. If customers don’t see your office building, they have to look for other cues to assess your brand. And the most logical place to look is online: Google, social media, YouTube and websites.
Craft expertise moments
When your customers are looking for information, how do you help them? What information do you provide? What experiences do you create that demonstrate your business’s strengths and capabilities?
Your job is to feed the Web with content and experiences that help your customers understand who you are, what you do and who you serve. Your brand’s digital footprint should distinguish it from the competition by not only revealing your knowledge, but also your personality and values. A brand’s digital footprint is the new office tower.
Think of your digital content as a distinctive, office tower like the Transamerica Pyramid. The Transamerica Pyramid stands out as a landmark on the San Francisco skyline. It helps position Transamerica’s brand and brand personality.
Even though Aegon acquired Transamerica in 1999, the building still has very strong brand associations with the original company. That’s the power of a well-crafted brand, and you too can achieve that distinctive position through the branded experiences you create online.
Expertise is available everywhere
The volume of content online is overwhelming. You can find service providers and products from around the globe. The challenge is standing out and demonstrating your expertise in a very crowded world.
The old rules of branding are quickly falling apart, but you can predict your customers’ needs: they want information. So feed it to them. Build a magnificent tower with your digital brand.
Social media communities may be the “in thing,” but are you really sure you want one for your brand?
It’s easy to see the successes brands like Starbucks and Deloitte are having with social media. Starbucks has over 26 million likes on Facebook, and Deloitte has over 81,000. Executives and marketers see these very active and successful groups and think, “I want that.”
I hear it too. My LinkedIn Group, Sticky Branding, has close to 18,000 members. We launched it in May 2010 with 5 members, my team. Within a year it passed 10,000 members, at 18 months it had 17,000 members, and the group keeps growing week-over-week. People see the success we’re having with our social media group, and want to replicate it.
It’s a natural reaction to want what others have, but before you dive in ask why. Why do you want a social media community? What will it contribute to your brand? What type of return do you want to achieve?
Don’t do it for the sales
If you want a social media community to generate more leads, more sales or more revenue, stop right there. There are far faster and easier ways to increase awareness and generate leads.
Social media communities are perceived as excellent demand creation platforms, but that’s not accurate. Having tens-of-thousands of followers doesn’t mean you can market to them. Actually, it’s unlikely you can get tens-of-thousands of followers if the purpose of your community is to market to them. Customers see right through these groups and move on.
Do it for the relationships
The value of a community is in its people. It’s in the connections, the relationships and the opportunities to learn and share with others. It’s in the opportunities to organize and work with a disparate group of people to do something greater than yourself.
The Occupy Movement is an excellent example of a community organized around a shared belief. Groups of people came together in cities around the world to let politicians and the public at large know things have to change. Most people who participated in these movements didn’t know each other when they started, but they shared a set of values that brought them together.
Communities are drawn together out of shared values, shared experiences or shared interests. They come together to learn, to connect, or to do something impactful.
Do you really want to organize and lead?
The relationships are fun and meaningful, but does the effort of building and scaling a community really make sense for your brand?
The Sticky Branding LinkedIn group had less than 600 members for the first nine months. It was hard work inviting one person at a time to the group, and engaging them in conversation. And the work hasn’t ended. The group requires ongoing moderation to keep it functioning well.
We didn’t create the group as a lead generation platform. We didn’t think that was a worthwhile use of our time, or an authentic reason for engaging others in a social media setting. Rather we wanted to connect with like-minded people with a shared interest in creating remarkable, sticky brands. And that’s the value. The group grows, because the topic and the shared ideas resonate. We learn from smart people, get ideas and have opportunities to network and meet people we otherwise would never encounter.
In return we have seen opportunities come from the group, but the real value has been to participate in a community greater than ourselves.
What do you think?
What experiences have you had from social media communities? What value do they bring to brands?
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Posted by Jeremy Miller 
Why? This is the most important question to answer in any rebranding or renaming project. Why? Why are you doing it?
