My favorite coffee shop (and coffee shop brand) in Bangkok…Mascotte The Coffee Corner

I don’t hang out in Starbucks or any other Bangkok cooffee shops, as I really don’t think their coffee and general “branding ambience”  is worth the high altitude prices they ask for their cups.

Mascotte The Coffee Corner

There is one (and, yes, there is only ONE at this time) that can get me to part with my hard earned baht for a latte or cappuccino, and that is Mascotte The Coffee Corner. The owner, a Dutchman named Martien Vlemmix, has truly created a unique little oasis of Dutch “coffeeness” with a retro jazz theme right here in Southeast Asia on Charoennakorn Road Soi 15/1 . Throw in an electic menu of breakfast through dinner Dutch and Thai specialties, background jazz music and vocals from the 30′s up to Dave Brubeck in the 60′s all reinforced with floor to ceiling photos of jazz greats  and you have a truly unique “branding ambience.” And that makes me for one, willing to stop, order and savor in a place that has gone over and above making itself different and special. Oh, and did I mention my most favorite thing about the “Corner” aside from the creativeness and effort that has gone into making it more than just a “coffee shop?” It’s their My Dutch Grandmother’s brand hot chocolate, prepared according to what Martien swears is his grandmother’s original recipe that he enjoyed as a boy growing up in Holland. He says it’s legit, but that doesn’t matter to me. It’s delicious, so when I’ve maxed out on his lattes, I can shift easily to a hot chocolate and enjoy the sounds, the faces on the walls, great food if I’m hungry and feel that I’m having a special experience….not just a Starbucks corporate moment. It’s different. It’s special. You should try it….Mascotte The Coffee Corner.

Talk about leveraging your brand…in a good way!

We all know what “cause-related” marketing is and we’ve seen marketers who, maybe not so subtly, associate themselves with a widely respected or revered entity to ethically gain a bit of positive rub-off.

Well, Ping Golf, a family owned and run business in Phoenix, Arizona, and one of the market leaders in all things golf from clubs to bags to everything else, avoids all the ethical traps in that. They have just a wonderful program (I certainly don’t describe it as “marketing”) that they don’t promote, in fact they keep it almost secret, and that powers the Ping brand to levels any company would covet.

You see, Ping gives EVERY wounded U.S. military veteran upon discharge from their hospital a free full set of golf clubs, a bag and golf lessons to help get them physically active and participating (in life) again. Oh, forgot to mention, Ping does this FREE…no charge, just the company’s heartfelt thanks and recognition for the vets who have given a lot more than a gammier putt.

Now this program is not just a one timer or an urban legend rumor. It’s verified by Snopes, so check it out. Ping doesn’t promote the program on their website, although they do promote highly discounted “military” rebate offers there. I guess that’s because they correctly see those as “marketing” actions targeting a certain target audience.

Not so for the free clubs, bag and lessons to those wounded vets. I hazard a guess a guess that this is the first time you’ve heard of this Ping effort. No press release, no ads, no website or Facebook posts. They just do it! And that’s what makes it soooo powerful. For those of us who unintentionally become aware of it, we shout it from the rooftops (well maybe from my blog top, but certainly via word of mouth too).

Today I write this post, have tweeted it twice and told some of my friends verbally. That’s not much, but I’ve got on my mental hard drive now and it can’t be erased. Multiply me by the literally thousands who “accidently” find out about it every year, then add the widespread and constantly growing circles of the wounded vet recipients themselves , and you can see how under the radar viral this thing is.

I’m sure Ping realizes their brand benefits from this program, even though it is not promoted. But what I’m equally sure about is they don’t really care about that part of it at all. What they care about is the fact they’re making a positive difference in wounded vets interrupted lives.

AND THAT MAKES ME REALLY LIKE PING … AND I DON’T EVEN PLAY GOLF. THINK ABOUT IT.

Karsten Solheim    http://phoenix.about.com/od/attractionsandevents/ss/PING.htm

www.ping.com/

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/ping.asp

Polaroid just may be resurrecting their brand.

The Polaroid Fotobar Store

Cruising through the latest news from the ongoing 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, or CES for you non-geekies, I came upon the Techlicious 2013 Best of CES Awards on their blog. And cruising a bit further I came upon this new retail offering from Polaroid, the Polaroid Fotorbar concept (shown here on the left).

It’s a pretty cool idea, as it fills the void between just sending your digital images around the web (which almost all of us can sort of do) and seriously manipulating them and applying them in applications that are non-digital in nature; think a lampshade…ok, not a lampshade but a giant wall poster or complex art form you just invent, you creative devil you!

Polaroid plans to open ten of these “stores” (I guess that’s what you’d call them) in 2013, with the first in Delray Beach/Palm Beach , Florida, come February.

Polaroid as almost anyone knows, yes “anyone” young or older, was the company that invented instant photography (well, actually it took about 60 seconds). They swept the market, made a ton of money and then went to sleep as digital photography snuck up and mugged them. Then followed bankruptcy….TWICE…and the company and brand almost disappeared.

But now they may become relevant (and successful) again. That’s what makes this new Fotobar retail concept so cool. Talk about leveraging their brand against compelling areas of opportunity. First off, the Fotorbar offering is taking your digital photos BEYOND a screen….putting them on something and having them live on after you press “delete.”

Secondly, this concept may well expand Polaroid’s brand and interest in same among that older audience that may have actually known (and forgot) about them. Sure, the young folk are all digital and some play with these shots now, but the older gang is mostly limited to shooting their pics, showing their friends on their phones and/or downloading to a “Family Reunion” folder on their laptops or tablets. Now, they can be encouraged and get in person help to do lots more with them in a store (or kiosk perhaps) near them…why do you think the first Fotobar is in senior-stocked South Florida?

It’s always hard to predict with certainty new idea market success, but this one’s got the look of a winner. Perhaps, Polaroid as a brand will ride again…after a 40 year hiatus!

 

7 Natural advantages SME’s have, including the emotional connections of their Brand.

John Jantsch

Just read a great post on John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing blog. In it John, whose site I love and who is called by many, the World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Expert, lays out seven natural advantages that SME’s have and that they should exploit in every facet of their business.

Now, I’m not going to re-post the entire blog content or list here. You can check it out yourself. It is well worth your effort.

I am going to call your attention to one specific advantage on the list, that John labels “Leading Purpose.” He expands on that, in part, by explaining ”Small business is personal. Markets are hungry for businesses that allow them to connect to something beyond the products and services.“

That is so true today, and I guess, may have been true since our ancestors were trading pelts, because in those days “commercial trading” interactions were pretty much up close and personal. The buyers and sellers were not encumbered by the distancing and interruptions of email, text messages and other technology “advances”. They knew who was on the opposite side of the transaction, and had a “feel” for their trustworthiness and quality of goods. In today’s modern age that is most often missing upfront.

If you as an SME marketer don’t have a going-in personal, emotional connection with a prospective customer, you start off from the disadvantaged position of being just another vendor…and that forces to compete on generic attributes like price (ugh!).

But you don’t have to be going in “emotionally naked” in the Customer Connection Department. Make sure you have thought carefully about your Brand Essence (see my earlier 6 November post) and developed a compelling U.S.P. (also here earlier 23 November) … and reflect and use them in all your marketing communications….right from the “git go” (1960′s slang, meaning “at the start”).

The other six advantages John Jantsch has identified for SME’s are almost automatic. Don’t neglect the emotional aspect of connecting (he calls “Leading Purpose”). It’s inherently in your business…use it!

If you would like to have a no-pressure conversation about how to use your business’s “Leading Purpose,” just contact me: Mike@smebrandleverage.com.

Introducing the most misunderstood and misused term in advertising: “U.S.P.”(Unique Selling Proposition).

NOTE: This is the third in a series of four posts,outlining my view as to what is involved in developing powerful, branded marketing communications. Post #1(October 17) below provided an overview. Post #2 November 6) explained the “what” and the “why” of the Brand Essence. This Post #3 presents the U.S.P. or Unique Selling Proposition. It will be followed by, last but not least, Post #4 on the role of the Individual Sales Messages.

Perhaps no advertising term has been so indiscriminately and consistently (yes, I said CONSISTENTLY!) misused as U.S.P. or Unique Selling Proposition. Defined by Rosser Reeves, legendary Chairman of Ted Bates agency, in his 1961 seminal advertising book, Reality in Advertising (only $153.00 USED on Amazon), U.S.P. has become recognized worldwide as something that effective marketing communications must have. Unfortunately, most practitioners of advertising, then and now, have only a very dim idea of what a U.S.P. really is and how to arrive at one.

Reeves had developed the U.S.P. based on years and millions of dollars spent researching the effectiveness of Bates and competitive agencies’ advertisements. He effectively (and concisely) captured all that learning into what was the ideal selling concept, or what made an advertisement or campaign WORK.

Even in 1961 Reeves observed that U.S.P “is the most misused series of letters in advertising. Applied loosely and without understanding to slogans, headlines, visuals and more —in fact to most anything that advertising creators consider slightly different   from what they find in their competitors’ advertisements.”

U.S.P. — The Definition

Actually, and what I hope to sort out here, is that U.S.P. is a PRECISE term, and in Reeves words, “deserves a precise definition.” That definition has three parts, from which interestingly the acronym U.S.P. is derived. Imagine that!

PROPOSITION: Each communication must make a proposition to the customer. By “proposition” this means, buy this and you will get this specific benefit.

UNIQUE: The proposition must be one that competition cannot or does not offer. It can be a unique feature or benefit but, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT, it can be derived from the uniqueness of the brand itself. This latter consideration is especially relevant in today’s crowded and many times over-regulated advertising field, where many brands within a category essentially do the same thing. Many marketers give up and say, “There’s nothing unique about my offering, so I’ll just say what it does.” Remember, there is always the possibility of being unique, as long as the BRAND’s uniqueness is capitalized upon.

SELLING: The proposition must be capable “selling” new customers to come to a product or service, or convincing existing ones to remain loyal, even in the face of new competitive entreaties.

Do you want a U.S.P. or not?

So you see, every brand CAN have a U.S.P., and by doing so can have more effective marketing. Unfortunately, most SME’s either have some distorted perception of what they think is their U.S.P, which in fact is really just an execution variation on what their competition is already doing. Or, they don’t even try to develop an ownable U.S.P. These SME’s without a U.S.P. could be described in the words of Jay Abraham, a marketing consultant self described as “the most expensive and successful marketing consultant on the planet”, who gave an excellent description of these U.S.P.-less brands as being …“only ‘me too’, rudderless, nondescript, unappealing businesses that feed solely upon the sheer momentum of the marketplace. There’s nothing unique; there’s nothing distinct. They promise no great value, benefit, or service—just ‘buy from us’ for no justifiable, rational reason.”

Door #1 —Do you want your business to be successful? Brand it and get a powerful U.S.P.

Door #2 — Do you want your marketing results to just depend on the “momentum of the marketplace?” Good luck; you’ll need it.

If you want me to help you open Door #1, contact me mike@SMEbrandleverage.com.

Door #1 —Do you want your business to be successful? Brand it and get a powerful U.S.P.

Door #2 — Do you want your marketing results to just depend on the “momentum of the marketplace?” Best of luck.

If you want me to help you open Door #1, contact me mike@SMEbrandleverage.com.

Emotion Rears Its Pretty Head, Even on LinkedIn

Fast Company’s got a nice piece by Jonathan Lister on a LinkedIn study that supports the idea that advertisers can more effectively connect with their audiences by marketing, at least in part, to their emotions.

Lister reports that the LinkedIn “Mind Set Divide” study found that “people are driven by a deep well of emotion when using professional networks. Maybe it’s less obvious than what you might see on personal networks, but it’s no less powerful.”

Here’s a link to the article http://goo.gl/6HTSj .

And just because I couldn’t resist, here’s a link to my LinkedIn profile th.linkedin.com/in/mikehensgen .

What the hell is a “Brand Essence” and why do I need one?

NOTE: This is the second in a series of four posts, outlining my view as to what is involved in developing powerful, branded marketing communications. Post #1(October 17) below provided an overview. This Post #2 will explain the “what” and the “why” of the Brand Essence. It will be followed by two subsequent posts, presenting the Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.) and Individual Sales Messages.

Sometimes when I talk to SME marketers and mention “Brand Essence,” they get a strange look on their faces. I can tell they don’t know what I’m talking about, but usually, out of politeness or, not wanting to seem ill-informed, they play along.

Oh, they may have heard of or know (think they do) something about a “U.S.P.” Other marketing communication terms that many times comes flying in from left field are “Positioning,” “Mindmap” and “Brandscape.” And recently in a meeting, an SME marketer sprung “U.B.A.” on me. I had never heard of it, nor had Google or Bing. Seems it’s an acronym for “Unique Buyer Acquisition,” or something along those lines. Of course, as we talked about it, it came out that it really is pretty close to “U.S.P.”, but in this person’s mind it was very different and “U.S.P.” was “old school.” I’ll explain a bit more about “U.S.P.” in a subsequent post, but right now let’s leave it that there is a lot of free-floating terminology out there in Branding World. No wonder some SME marketers are confused.

That’s why I’m going to explain “Brand Essence,” perhaps for the 10,000^th time … that’s part of my expertise and my knowledge equity. I like to doing it and it should help some SME marketers reading this blog.

BRAND ESSENCE … WHAT IS IT?

A “Brand Essence,” many times overlooked, is the required foundation for consistent, long term marketing communications with a competitive advantage. It must fully recognize the target audiences’ emotional underpinnings and how those emotional chords are tied to and interact with their more rational perspectives. Too many SME’s neglect doing this required emotional homework and go right to “making ads,”  focusing on their rational offers and rushing right behind that to visuals and type size.

FIRST, DEFINE THE TARGET AUDIENCES

But even before starting actual development a “Brand Essence,”  there needs be rigorous defining of the target audience. Who are these people? What drives their potential connection to our brand? How is it different from that connection to our competitors’ brands?

Once you’ve done your Target Audience work, it’s time for the “Brand Essence.” Remember, it is the foundation of all that will follow an amalgam of the brand’s rational and emotional components. From it will be drawn via the required “U.S.P.”, the selling messages and communication tactics ranging from TV commercials to Facebook pages to customer sales presentation and other materials.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

I think the process for generating the “Brand Essence,” is relatively simple, but not easy. Some significant mind-work should be involved, combined with a decent measure of creativity and open minded willingness.

.And this is the point where I and my consultancy, SME Brand Leverage, come in. The process we use draws on my more than 40 years of building brands. We conduct a session that is both collaborative (the clients and I TOGETHER, no sitting on the sidelines, please) and dynamic (we share and interact for anywhere from a half to a full day …yes, there are bathroom breaks). Remember that after all, it is your brand…you have to help build it.

In this session we interrogate the brand, disassembling all its pieces from its rational  features (“28 flavors”, “guaranteed 24 hour delivery”) through how that benefits a customer (“wide variety of choices”, “last minute timing”)  to how that makes them feel (puts me in control,” “less worries about last minute order”). Then we re-assemble them all up into one “Brand Essence”, balancing them as appropriate. It is here that you can either decide ON JUDGMENT which one works best OR should market research be used to evaluate alternatives.

Of course, you still need a U.S.P. and sales messages. Preparing those will be covered in future posts, and will have to wait till next week.

Next week’s post: “The U.S.P. A most powerful business-building tool.”

New survey confirms power of “emotional” in brand loyalty … SME’s, YOU BETTER BE PAYING ATTENTION!

Brand Keys, a New York company that specializes in brand and customer-loyalty consulting, just released its 2012 edition of its top 100 “Loyalty Leaders” list.  The composition and rankings of this year’s list leaders reflects the continuous effects of the rapid pace of technological change and customer response to it.

“There are 21 brands in the top 100 for 2012 that did not appear in 2011,” said Robert Passikoff, Founder and President of Brand Keys, “including four of the brands in the top 10.” A copy of the report, which is the 16th from Brand Keys that ranks brands on customer loyalty, can be downloaded here.

Now, on a list of highest brand loyalty leaders, the composition and rankings can change, based on a variety of internal and external factors. However, one thing that remains constant is just what got them here (that is, on the list), and that is (drum roll please) the EMOTIONAL component of their brands. Or as Passikoff puts it, “Brand loyalty has always been primarily driven by emotional engagement … that connection is everything.”

 Now, Robert is a guy who ought to know, since he’s been conducting this particular brand loyalty measure for over 16 years, and of course doing a lot more a lot longer than just that. In fact, I was an associate of his at a major New York agency, more years ago than I’m sure either one of us would like to admit. I’m familiar with his work. As they say about a famous NBA basketball player, “He’s the real deal.”

Which brings me to what this means for all you SME’s out there. You have GOT to leverage the emotional sides of your brands to drive loyalty among your customers/audience. The EMOTIONAL component of your brands is critical, whether they are B2B or B2C, high or low tech, services or products, anything. It is what will get you brand loyalty, and that will get you:

1. Repeat business.
2. Pricing leverage.
3. Favorable word of mouth.
4. Forgiveness for your screw ups (sometimes).

OK, so what’s the plan for developing effective BRANDED MARKETING communications?

NOTE: This is the first in a series of four posts, outlining my view as to what is involved in developing powerful, branded marketing communications. Post #1 below provides an overview. It will be followed by three subsequent posts presenting the separate components: Brand Essence, Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.) and Individual Sales Messages.

POST # 1 … Notice in the above headline it is BRANDED MARKETING communications; not “branded communications”, not “marketing communications”. The logic for that is that just a “branded” effort may well communicate a sense of the brand, but without the critical underpinnings of “marketing,” whatever it is you’re selling….you probably won’t. The other side of the same coin, just “marketing communications,” ties back to what this whole blog is all about and what I believe is missing in most SME communications efforts today…the branding connection (especially to some of the emotional components). I guess, arguably, a price list is a marketing communication, BUT … you get the picture.

So let’s explore what a SME needs to do to develop its effective branded marketing communications campaign.

Define the BRAND ESSENCE

Define your brand, its essence or soul if you will. This is a statement, reflecting an amalgam of rational and emotional aspects that will attract customers, make them comfortable with the brand and support their continued closeness to it. It is NOT a tagline, advertising claim, whatever. It is a statement that attempts to capture exactly what the brand is “all about.” It will be used as almost a template to insure that future derived communications are consonant (that’s the same as “in tune,” for those that had a problem with 9^th grade English) with what the brand stands for. This statement or template is called the “Brand Essence”.

Generate the UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (U.S.P.)

The U.S.P. is the most borrowed, incorrectly used and just plain abused advertising term ever developed. It was posited by Ted Bates agency Chairman Rosser Reeves in 1961. I’ll explain much more about it in forthcoming Post #3. Suffice it to say it is an encapsulation of the optimum selling idea; one that can differentiate the brand and attract people to it. It can be used as an advertising tagline or claim, but usually not. Its better use is to serve as a standard or if you will, a benchmark, against which all advertising executions, copy and even individual selling messages are reviewed to insure they are working as hard as possible and having maximum impact.

Distill Individual SALES MESSAGES

Now we’re down to the fun part and one where everyone from Marketing to Sales to Government Affairs can play. Depending on the objectives that branded marketing communications are meant to achieve (or, let’s admit it, even just influence), potentially hundreds of valid individual sales messages can be generated and used, when and where appropriate in the course of business. Most of these should be pretty much in line with the U.S.P. and Brand Essence, but there can be outliers that serve short term tactical needs. Look for more on this … how to generate them, how to prioritize them and more in coming Post #4.

Ok, so there you have it, just how you can generate powerful BRANDED MARKETING communications (remember now, that’s both “Branded” and “Marketing”). Stay tuned and I’ll explain more in detail for each of the three key areas. Who knows? Maybe someday I can help you in person. Just let me know… mike@SMEbrandleverage.com.

 

Kids’ Brains React More Positively to Fast Food Logos Than Those of FedEx or BMW. Well, duh!

Medical Daily http://www.medicaldaily.com/  reports a study conducted by researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Kansas Medical Center found that logos from fast-fooders are branded into the minds of children at an early age.

The study, showed children 60 logos from popular food brands, like Rice Krispies and KFC and 60 logos from popular non-food brands, like BMW and FedEx. The children were aged between 10 and 14. Then, using a functional MRI scanner, which measures blood flow to different areas in the brain, they watched the brains of these children react to the different logos.

When showed images of fast food companies, the parts of the brain that control pleasure and appetite lit up. The brains did not do the same when showed images from companies not associated with food. (Hmmmm, I guess those were brands like FedEx and BMW.)

So far so good, but then the article reports “researchers are concerned that marketers for these companies (the fast fooders) are tapping into the reward portions of the brain long before children develop self-control. In addition, most of the foods marketed to children are high in caloric content, sugars, fat and sodium.

This little segue follows nicely the Medical Daily article’s  two opening paragraphs, referencing rampant growth (pardon my word selection) in child obesity since 1980.

I hope we can all see where this is going.

Strong brands and their communications targeting relevant audiences do a good job of establishing brand awareness among those who actually might buy their products. It is proven by research. It is also proven in the research that brands that are irrelevant to the researched target audience, 10-14 year olds, actually sink below the waves and don’t register or are forgotten.

But don’t let those issues of relevancy get in the way. Fast food is bad for children. Fast brands are remembered and pleasurable to 10-14 year old children (so I would bet are xBox, Apple iPod, Justin Bieber and others). Sooooo, we need to take (legal, governmental, you put a name on it) action to PROTECT them from the brand meanies that get them fat. Cigarettes, motorcycle helmets, etc. …some of those regulations make sense, but until those 10 year olds start driving BMW’s and FedExing a lot, I don’t think this research and where it’s headed is 1) valid (potentially false hypothesis), 2) useful ( no fast food = skinny kids?) and 3) should be actionable (“keep the government’s hands off my fries”).

Read the complete article http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/12318/20120925/fast-food-logos-imprinted-childrens-brains.htm#gokIA3QOTUVStIK5.99 .