Brands must deliver what they promise

A key tenet of my view on brand success is that is is vital that a brand delivers what it promises.

There is an excellent article in Forbes.com (written by Kerry Bodin at Forrester) about how brands need to carefully match what they promise in their communications with what they are capable of delivering.

The article talks about two airline ads:

A United Airlines ad run a couple of years ago showing a dad (depicted as a cartoon character) being transformed into an unreal world where he slays dragons, receives a crown from 2 beautiful girls, etc. The implicit promise being - "You're going to feel like a king on our airline" - is one that United has had trouble living up to. 

There is clearly a massive gap between the promise and the reality. 

In contrast a recent JetBlue ad pokes fun at airlines competitors by imposing buggage fees on unsuspecting New York taxi passengers who rapidly become irate. The ads explicit message is - "if you  would't take it on the ground, don't take it in the air" - also has a promise behind it.

This approach is totally in-sync with what the airline delivers.

It isn't complicated. Check-out the PDD™ 

• If you over-promise it will result in disappointed consumers - who may not buy again.
• If you deliver what you promise then you are more likely to have happy consumers who will buy again.
• The winning approach however is to over-deliver your promise in a way that delights consumers. Delighted consumers are more likely to buy again and even tell their friends. This is a powerful way to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

The Forbes article goes onto explain that brand organisations should map out their consumers' journeys and design ways to deliver at every stage. 

This echoes my thoughts on what I call the path to advocacy framework.

Why not use it and collaborate with the appropriate leaders in your organisation to ensure that great brand experiences are designed for each stage of the path; and that the whole organisation is focused on delivering and delighting.

Experience is the next Corporate Battleground

This is the type of headline I love. 


"Customer Experience: The Next corporate Battleground".


Absolutely.


Brand organisations are starting to catch-on that it isn't enough anymore to focus all effort on traditional marketing. 


As the article says, they need to build an experience so extraordinary that it differentiates them from their competitors and inspires people to become advocates...


To do that they need to build an operation that delivers fabulous brand experiences at every stage of what I call the path to purchase.


The article mentions Apple and Zappos. Two brands organisations that dominate all articles about successful organisations that get it.


Take a look at my previous posts on what these organisations do to win.


Zappos focus on WOWing consumers
Apple understand the importance of in-store delivery and delight.

Apple, Disney and Google are top experience brands

I borrowed the idea for this chart from the recently published Best Brand experiences study (Jack Morton).


It highlights the different types of brand experiences that can influence a consumer.


It matches fairly closely the experiences I write about on the path to advocacy:


Notice - discovery experience
Choose - digital experience
Buy - shopping experience
Use - product  experience
Loyal - customer experience
Fan - community experience


The key point is that brand organisations need to consider the experiences they are delivering at all touchpoints. They then have to ensure that they are consistent, differentiating and ideally delightful.


That is how brands win consumer loyalty and advocacy.


Check out the  study to see why the following brands appear in the top ten

1. Apple
2. Disney
3. Google
4. Microsoft
5. Mercedes
6. Coca-Cola
7. Sony and IKEA
8. BMW
9. Amazon
10. Louis Vuitton

Also check my previous posts showing which brands win in other similare studies: 

Beyond Philosophy: Most admired customer experience - Apple, Amazon and Zappos
Nunwood: Top 100 brand for customer experience (UK) - Amazon, John Lewis and Virgin

What kills loyalty?

In a recent article Business Insider suggested 20 ways to kill loyalty. It admits to appearing negative but does provide a useful perspective - and check-list of what brand organisations have to avoid.


To me they the list is fairly obvious and a little repetitive, that said, the last point: 'a failed promise is a loyalty killer' is the deal breaker.


To be a successful brand you have to deliver the promises you are making (via brand communications). That is how you build loyalty, a key stage on the path to advocacy.


It is also important to remember that there are a number of different types of loyal customers [check-out Inertia, Transactional and Fanatical loyalists article], so for some consumers it is also important to find ways to delight them. 


That's how you build brand fans who are likely to advocate you and, as we all know, advocacy is the most powerful form of communication. 


Zappos know how to do this. They have a list of core values that everyone working there has to live and breathe. Top of the list is WOW through customer service.

Working out how to do delight/WOW isn't always obvious or easy but when you get it right, like Zappos, you will build a very successful business. 

Nissan force a test drive and deliver a powerful brand experience

One of the most powerful ways to deliver a compelling brand experience is force potential consumers to use (key stage of Path to Advocacy) the brand.

I came across this idea by Arabian Automobiles (exclusive Nissan distributors in Dubai) at creamglobal.com.

It is very simple.

Block in SUV vehicles with a Nissan Patrol leaving keys and a note encouraging them to move the Nissan.

Once the Nissan starts up a message tells them what is going on and suggests that the driver goes for a spin.

As a result of 7 out of 10 people signed-up for a test drive.

What a great idea that will drive usage and get talked about.

Fans drive a brands success

Mario Vellandi wrote an excellent article about a book by Kate Newlin called Passion Brands.

It sounds like a must read.

One of Kate’s definitions of a Passion Brand is:

"A product that creates such personal enthusiasm that purchasers badge themselves with it through conversation, apparel, continuous repeat purchase."

These are what I refer to as FANS on the path to advocacy.

Marino does a great job apprising the 7 drivers of Passion Brands.

Here they are:

1. Adopt and Promote a Shared Worldview...a brand identity based on a worldview, rather than a demographic, will attract a larger and more culturally diverse customer base.
2. Use Design as a Differentiator and Lovemark..think Apple, Porsche, and Flip video cameras
3. Hire Passionate Employees...are more likely to positively talk about their work and affiliated brands with other people including family, friends, and the growing circle of online acquaintances.
4. Engage Customers and Become More Personal..understand how ineffective advertising has become.. most brands have to become a little more humanistic and/or personal in all touchpoints to stand out. [and drive advocacy]
5. Democratize the Brand...allowing folks to customizing the product/service.
6. Use Backstories and Arcs.. stories describe how such excellence came to be.
7. Brand the Buzz... stimulates word-of-mouth and sales.

Powerful stuff.

If a brand can create consumers like these it is going to win.

In my view a key is to deliver brand experiences that are personal. The best deliver meaningful emotion through the use of human contact. Get this right and you’ll build a sustainable competitive advantage that is hard to copy.

Marketing cycle to advocacy

In the old days marketers used linear funnels to help them plan marketing that aimed to move consumers through the funnel from awareness through various other stages to purchase.

The AIDA model - Attention, Interest, Desire and Action - being one of the most well known.

The power of consumers and the growth of the internet has forced marketers to change their thinking.

Mckinsey's last year started talking about the 'consumer decision journey' and Forrester Research have recently stated talking about the 'customer life cycle'.

Now it's my turn.

Above is my new 'cycle to advocacy'.

It is simply the path to advocacy framework I have been using for the past 2 years, but drawn in a cycle.

The stages are the same and its purpose the same....to provide a framework that enables marketers to work out:

• What brand experiences they want to deliver their consumers at each stage
• How to get the whole brand organisation (marketing, sales service, etc) to focus on collaborating to delight consumers in a way that gets them to buy again and become brand advocates.

If you are keen improve how your organisation builds brand experiences that will drive sales, loyalty and advocacy I recommend you check-out all three approaches.

Customer experience is the new brand

I found a great article at Stage Two that quotes Dustin Hoffman...

“Customer experience is the new brand.”

“I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of brand; the one is formed by the entire experience of a customer’s interaction. That experience gets branded into his or her memory and leaks into the buzz of modern culture. If you can’t make a good customer experience from start to finish, you’ve failed to generate brand value that will attract customers to come back for repeat business and tell their friends to come back, too. That’s how good customer experience directly affects the bottom line.”

It echoes precisely my view on the importance of delivering a winning brand experience and the affect it has on loyalty, advocacy and the bottom line.

I LOVE IT.

I strongly recommend you take note... and if you want to build a better brand experience for your consumers start by looking at the path to advocacy shown above and work-out how your brand can improve delivery at all stages.

Untangling brands and experiences

Untangling brand and customer experience, in 10 minutes or less from Brandon Schauer on Vimeo.

I came across this fabulous 9 minute video on Jay Steele's blog.

It is really helpful for anyone, like me, who is interested in working out how brand organisations should go about building an operation that consistently delivers it's consumers with winning brand experiences.

This video goes some way to help untangle different aspects of brand experience stuff like: brand promise, brand messaging, customer experience, advertising, role of employees, etc.

Why is brand experience important? Because when they get it right it ultimately drives loyalty, advocacy and therefore long-term sustainable profitably.

If that interests you (which it should!) it is worth investing a little time looking at the video.

Then have a look at my Path to Advocacy model and think about how you should be focusing effort not just on traditional marketing but on delivering experience on every touchpoint that delight consumers

Brands organisations must resist pressures from the demands of short-sighted share-holders

This is a great article by Customer Think about Tony Heish’s (CEO Zappos) decision to sell to Amazon.

It cuts to the heart of what this blog is all about.

Heish faced a dilemma that all CEOs face:

Either; bow to short-term share holder financial pressure...
Or; maintain Zappo’s commitment (and investment) to delivering brand experiences that delight consumers.

Zappo’s has a great reputation. [See my previous posting about their commitment to a culture and values that focused on WOWing consumers’ through service.]

To protect Zappo’s hard earned reputation Heish sold to Amazon [Another great brand experience organisation.]

It was really smart move.

The article quotes Heish’s rationale:

“...Some board members had always viewed our company culture as a pet project — “Tony’s social experiments,” they called it. I disagreed. I believe that getting the culture right is the most important thing a company can do. But the board took the conventional view — namely, that a business should focus on profitability first and then use the profits to do nice things for its employees.

... (I thought) better service would translate into lots of repeat customers, which would mean low marketing expenses, long-term profits, and fast growth.”

I totally agree.

It is simple. Delight your consumer and they will reward you with long-term loyalty, advocacy and more sells.

Zappo’s net sales were up almost 50 percent in first quarter of 2010...evidence that Heish got it right.

If you work at a brand organisation it would be really good idea to look at how you are delivering brand experiences across the path to advocacy and see how you can replicate Zappo’s success.

P&G places greater focus on packaging and announces a ‘design thinking’ approach

Buy is a critical stage of the path to advocacy. This is when the consumer is in-store selecting which brand they want to buy – or the consumers' ‘first moment of truth, as P&G calls it.

There is an interesting article in AdAge in which P&G has announced that all marketing ideas now have to show they work at the shelf.

This is smart.

Packaging is one of the most influential touchpoints. Moreover, Nielson Bases research for P&G revealed that it is a key driver of awareness.

That is why P&G are putting design thinking at the centre of their multi-functional brand-building teams.

The challenges they face are known by all brand organisations:

• Big retailers are restricting use of displays and point-of-purchase advertising.
• Retailers and consumers are also pressuring brands to make their packages smaller and thereby more sustainable.

This means the role of the package is much more important so BIGGER ideas are critical - because when retailers see big ideas they tend to give brands more space.

P&G have asked their communications agencies to vet ideas first in store, because that often can be the most challenging environment to communicate an idea.

My advice is to follow this approach, but also make sure your packaging is informative and consistent with what the brand is all about.

Oh yes, and one last thing....don’t change it too often.

Waitrose must not park this issue

I was very surprised to read that a number of Waitrose customers are getting agitated about their customer service failings [see BNet.com article]

The problem stems from the fact that they have been heavily penalised for parking for longer than the permitted 2 hours.... then, when they approach Waitrose, they get a response from the customer service department saying that car parking and this grievance is outsourced to Britannia Parking.

Big mistake.

Why?

Firstly because this is not how people expect Waitrose to behalf (Waitrose were ranked 2nd on the UK Customer Service Index).

Secondly because if it continues to be handled inadequately it could get out of hand. We see time and again how this type of story can build momentum, given the infectious and potentially dangerous power of social media, and that it may well escalate dramatically if it starts to be re-tweeted on Twitter [see lessons from Dominoes].

That would be a shame because in almost every other aspect of their business they deliver brand experiences that delight. A key success driver on the path to advocacy

Waitrose should quickly review this issue, their approach to car parking, and manage it smarter before it gets out of hand.

A brand's actions speak louder than their (advertising) words

Most parents out there will recognise the phase:"Actions speak louder than words." It is something we might say when the kids promise they will behave..but then don’t!

It reminds me of the way too many brands behave.

You know the drill...

...you see see a nice glossy TV ad with a message promising that brand blah cares about their customers... then experience first-hand the misery of trying to speak with an overseas outsourced call centre.

...you are dealing with a brand organisation that states on their website, internal posters, etc, that customer service excellence is one of their corporate values - but their front desk staff behave like they don’t give a damn.

This is business suicide because when a brand says one thing and does another, consumers get hacked-off.

For me it is simple.

Brand organisations must consider the brand experiences they deliver at every consumer touchpoint (maybe using the path to advocacy framework), and break-down silos to ensure they promise, deliver and delight consumers - because that's how to drive loyalty and maybe even advocacy (two success drivers)

“Actions speak louder than words” should be the mantra of every brand organisations.

Do you need Superman to build a winning brand experience?

I think Seth Rocks, which is why I read and reference his blog a fair bit.

He recently talked about a book that pointed out that comics work because the readers’ imagination fills the gaps in-between the frames.

He then suggests that marketing works in exactly the same way.

He is absolutely right. (Of course.)

He says:

“Marketing is what happens in between the overt acts of the marketer. Yes you made a package and yes you designed a uniform and yes you ran an ad... but the consumer's take on what you did is driven by what happened out of the corner of her eye, in the dead spaces, in the moments when you let your guard down.”

That is why it is vital to ensure you are delivering a consistent brand experience at every stage of the consumers’ path to advocacy.

To do that every part of the brand organisation has to be involved.

Get it wrong (via poor customer service, a rubbish web-site, etc) and you’ll turn-off consumers...they stop buying and tell their mates about how crap your brand is.

Get it right...and ideally WOW them...and they may buy again and recommend you to their mates.

It may require some superhuman time and effort to build winning brand experiences but it is worth it.

I suggest you get the right people in a room....think about the brand experiences consumers are currently having (use the path to advocacy framework)...and make them better.

This is a proven way to build your business.

Brand usage – the opportunity

“Never, in the history of the consumer, have so many known so little about so much.”

I can’t remember where I heard this Winston Churchill misquote, but it sums-up the reality of the consumers' world today.

Think about it…everyone has a mobile phone, most have a computer and quite a few have some cool new must-have gadget they could not live without……but nearly all haven’t a clue what they are fully capable.

Is that a problem for the consumer?

Well, no.

Is it an opportunity brands?

Errr.. yes.

All brands want to increase usage frequency - as it drives loyalty, advocacy and sales volume.

To encourage consumers to increase usage it is imperative to deliver great brand experiences from the second ‘moment of truth.’

The question is how?

There are three vectors that need to be right in all categories:

First, when a consumer first opens the packaging.

• Don’t used difficult to open packaging (avoid shrink plastic moulding)
• Make sure the packaging adds to the pleasure of ownership (think iPod)

Then, the first time they use/consume the brand.

• Make sure the brand delivers what has been promised.
• Ensure instructions are jargon free and easy to follow.

Lastly, every time they subsequently use the brand.

• Have a relevant re-contacting strategy (I get frequent emails from Cannon telling me about some clever feature that will help me get more out of my camera).
• Build a fabulous customer service department (I had a delightful experience when I called Toshiba's help line to get guidance on how to tune my new TV)
• Make sure the packaging will last.
• Promote different usage occasions (my kids eat cereal when they get hungry between meals, not just for breakfast)

If you want to win in at this stage– the usage stage of the path to advocacy is not generally a focus for brand organisations - my strong recommendation is to gather the marketing, sales, customer service, etc, and consider how you can deliver brand experiences during this stage that will delight the consumer.

If you get it right you will gain increased frequency, drive advocacy and ultimately build sales.

Worth the effort don’t you think?

If you can think of any other examples let me know.

Tesco badge improved my buying brand experience

I shop in Tesco’s occasionally.

I am not a fan but it is convenient, and their range and prices are okay.

I recently noticed that their staff are wearing badges showing their names, roles and the year they ‘joined the team.’

I liked it.

It made me smile.

It’s a subtle thing but I think it makes my relationship with the staff a little bit more human. I think that makes me a little more likely to become a fan..the last step on path to advocacy.

Branded retailers should spend more time looking at how to make the buying brand experience a little more human, rather than install more of those dam self-service machines.

This sort of idea it isn’t complicated but can make a difference.

Brand Experiences to get a brand Chosen

Choose is the second stage of the Path to Advocacy and is about the process that the consumer goes through when choosing which brand(s) they are likely to buy.

This stage is about getting your brand onto the consumers’ short-list.

This used to be all about traditional media - using high impact, coverage, frequency, recency, etc. However, the internet now means i) consumers are very interconnected with each other, and ii) the way they behave and use media has changed. They don’t trust traditional media in the same way, they research differently (usually on-line) and actively seek relevant opinion/advice of others (e.g. friends & family and/or independent experts).

To succeed today brand owners must deeply understand their target consumers’ behaviours, particularly:

a) How and where consumers are getting information about brands

b) The consumers’ motivations for choosing. (These can be driven by functional needs e.g. specification, colour, price, etc and their emotional needs.)

The start point for marketers is making sure their brand is providing the right (usually functional) information, at the right time, in the right place. Effective ways to do this is include sampling or a good internet strategy (e.g. search, brand website, etc).

The other critical requirement is about making the brand relevant to the target consumers’ lives. It is where PR (Virgin, Marks & Spencer, Agent Provocateur), experiential (Electrolux), social media (Dell, Wispa, T-Mobile) and advocacy can play a big part.

Has the power of TV eroded?

This engaging film has been created by ThinkBox to promote the power of TV.

It cleverly highlights some of the famous TV tag-lines from the UK in the 80s and 90s. It ends with the line: ‘Funny how thirty seconds can last a lifetime.’

It works for me because I can very easily conjure-up all these old ads in my mind when I hear their tag-lines.

However, the world has changed so much and how people, particularly the young, consume media has changed dramatically. I therefore wonder whether my kids will remember any of the campaigns they are currently exposed to when they have grown-up. I doubt it.

When I first started in the media and communications business at Saatchi & Saatchi, the model was simple. A brand built sales by delivering sufficient levels of consumer awareness. In those days TV was king.

These days it is a lot more complicated. To compete brands have to deliver relevant and engaging consumer brand experiences across an array of touchpoints. Digital (in its broadest sense) is now king.

My advice to brand organisations is to look at their consumers’ journey [maybe using the PDD and Path to Advocacy frameworks] and identify the types of brand experiences that need to be delivered to delight consumers.

It is worth the investment in time and resource because getting it right will drive loyalty and maybe even get your brand talked about.

So, back to the original question: “has the power of TV eroded?”

Yes and no.

No.... TV ads viewed in the traditional way is not as effective as it used to be [see research by Forrester for the Association of National Advertisers].

Yes....TV films consumed via screens (TV, computer, mobile, etc) can be extremely effective when part of an integrated brand experience strategy.

While I’m on the subject of old TV ads, here are some of my favourites: British Airways 'Global'; BASF 'Dear John'; Heineken ‘Majorca’ :