BrandDigital | BrandSimple: The Blog

Do you know the best way to get white lime deposits off a stone wall? Fill in the ever-widening hole around a pipe leading to the air conditioning unit? Get mice from settling permanently into your garage? I do. Well, actually, the folks at my local Ace Hardware store in rural New York do. I’ve become a regular Saturday morning customer and I have yet to stump them with my questions. They’re always happy to answer and, better yet, patiently explain to this city slicker how to go about personally administering whatever new house and garden ailments arise.

I bring this up, not because I want to brag about my knowledge of muric acid as a stone wall cleaner, but because as a surveyor and conveyor of all things brands, it’s become increasingly clear that in this digital marketplace it’s often the personal touch that can differentiate a brand from its competition. That’s right, human interaction. In a recent article in Forbes Online, I write more about the companies like Ace that get this point, and those trying to achieve the right balance between real and virtual branding. Take a read. And in the meantime, if you have a problem with mice in your garage, take a ride to your local Ace Hardware store. They’ll know what to do.

photo courtesy of OldOnliner via Flickr

It was with great interest that I read a recent article in the New York Times about how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are turning away from tradtional PR to spread news of their newly-hatched companies and turning straight to the tactics likely to make them richer entrepreneurs – digital technology and, in particular, the technology that facilitates word-of-mouth. You don’t have to be an entrepreneur, or even a Silicon Valley resident to understand the innate capabilities of digital technology to spread news, be it good or bad, truth or heresay. The reason for my great interest in this Times article was how it echoed the sentiments in a piece I just wrote for this week’s print edition of Brandweek magazine about GM’s “Reinvention” campaign. In it I explain that while this once-mighty brand set forth its new promise to become a more efficient company in a series of television ads, this top-down pronouncement isn’t going win any friends or influence people. It’s only when people start tweeting, blogging and spreading their experiences under the digital magnifying glass that proof of its promise will be validated – and credible.

Most of us have heard about Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs – you know, the need to gratify hunger, thirst, shelter before moving up to less elemental things. But a hierarchy of human needs relative to our digital life? Absolutely. People divide online pursuits into several tiers, the bottom, or most elemental, being the utilitarian stuff like checking emails, looking up addresses, chatting with friends, and the higher tiers being the more diversionary, like watching favorite shows on Hulu. It’s become apparent to me and many other branding professionals that when trying to engage people online, it’s critical to understand where they are on this hierarchy of digital behavior. In my most recent article in Forbes Online, I explain in greater detail why timing in marketing messages is everything and what some of the best brands are doing – with very gratifying results.

(Image courtesy of Shannonpatrick17 via Flickr)

(image courtesy of M. Keefe via Flickr)

Tweeting, texting, posting , poking – we all know that social networking helps us keep in touch with what’s going on out there. It’s been my observation that many companies are using the same digital tactics and techniques to help its employees keep in touch with what’s going on in there – inside the organization, that is. As brands become increasingly “humanized” by digital technology that both connects everyone and makes everything transparent, smart companies are helping their employees better understand “who” their brand is, and what it represents to consumers by setting up internal social networking programs. To see how this works, and what leadership teams at Best Buy, Schwab, and Wells Fargo are doing, take a look at my
recent article in Forbes online.

Does goodness pay? If a company makes a “goodness” dimension central to its business strategy it certainly does. In a recent article in Forbes, I wrote about the fact that doing good will be increasingly important to companies as they try to differentiate their brands going forward. With consumers weighing not simply value, but corporate values into their purchase decisions, companies will be required to set themselves apart on factors that go beyond taste, or speed, or comfort. In fact, at Landor we’ve recently set up a practice dedicated to helping our clients align what we call “Brand Citizenship” with their business objectives. In other words, getting a return on their goodness investments. Charity used to begin at home. Today, it also begins with smart companies who understand that consumers are looking to them to help solve some of the economic, social, and environmental issues of the world. Companies who also understand that the return on their good efforts will do a good job of differentiating them from their competition and a good job of helping the bottom line.

(image found on Google)

How much did social networking have to do with the fact that we watched Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president of the United States? From this voter’s perspective, a lot. Yes, it helped that there was a former Facebook member on the Obama staff, but more than this are the millions of Facebookers, voters all, who understand that social media sites now play two critical roles in their lives. First, it’s a way for them to keep track of their friends, virtual and otherwise, the initial reason for the existence of Facebook and the others. But more germane to politics and inaugurations, social media has become a way, if not the way, to spread and vet opinions about everything from music, to sports, cars, clothing, movies and political candidates. It’s the way a fast-growing and increasingly older number of people stay plugged in to what’s important. According to David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Internet and Technology at Fortune magazine, Twitter and its tweeting are miniscule in their influence compared to the burgeoning communication power of Facebook. As he told me, “For anyone to dismiss it as a digital diversion for the younger set is a big, big mistake.” The net-net for brands is that anything with this much consumer engagement can – and will – be turned into a platform for consumer buying decisions. Ask brand Obama. He’ll tell you it’s branding change you’d better believe in.

What makes digital content go viral? In a year during which both a truly awesome presidential election and truly awful financial crisis held sway, there was no dearth of online video, both reality and parody. Some of it people watched and passed along with abandon. Some they just watched and abandoned. As a perpetual student of digital behavior, it’s fascinating for me to see what strikes a common chord and goes on to make the viral hit list, and what just dies on the online vine. From a marketing point of view, in many cases the most virally catchy stuff is the result of brilliant creative thinking and execution. Not expensive, mind you, just strategically innovative, like the Burger King Flame campaign aimed at adolescent-minded guys for whom the idea of a meat-scented body spray is pretty sizzling. Keeping the creative bar high in the contest for online eyeballs is definitely one way to assure your content will catch on. The other, I have to admit, is just plain luck. In many cases, dumb luck. Take a look at our colleagues at Sterling Cooper, and you’ll see what I mean. (In the meantime, if I were you, I’d opt for brilliant creative.)

The characters of Mad Men continue their discussion on how to advertise Noodle City.

When one brand takes over or merges with another it can often take weeks, if not months, to put the appropriate branding signals into place. But in these fast-changing economic times, Barclays needed to send a quick, powerful branding signal to the market that it was a viable and credible banking institution, replacing the Lehman’s branding overnight.

The dust from Wall Street’s implosion will not be settling any time soon. But being the realist I am (I didn’t say optimist) I know that the air will clear at some point and, that when it does, any brand formerly known as a Wall Street brand is going to have to take serious action with regard to its identity. Being the realistic branding professional I am I know that the solution to a Wall Street-related brand identity crisis is not a matter of geographic relocation, funding a popular charity, image spinning, or a change of signage. The root of this branding crisis goes far, far below the surface. In fact, it’s nothing less than a crisis of confidence and trust. And when consumers lose confidence in a brand, when they stop trusting it, there is no amount of cosmetic change that will help them regain their trust. The solution to this type of rebranding effort involves nothing less than how the brand behaves which means an inside-out, bottom-up-top-down response.
For any brand in this situation, I recommend a short-term plan and a longer term plan, the short-term plan being similar to what happens when a brand is directly responsible for a highly unfortunate event. In this case, the brand in question immediately pulls its marketing from all media channels. It focuses on the daily operation of its business. It doesn’t worry about its image but, rather, about the well-being of those lives it has affected.
Longer term there are a few key steps I would recommend for any brand that doesn’t want the negative associations of Wall Street tarnishing its name as it moves forward. First, I would think about how to best address public concerns about your brand’s role, perceived or real, in the imbroglio. Your job is to rebuild trust. To do so, you must establish what you want your brand to stand for in the minds of consumers and ensure that everyone in your organization understands what this is and their role in bringing it to life. In this transparent digital world, where everyone can see everything, where nothing is immune from a character impugning YouTube video, you cannot promise and spin. You must promise and act – across the board – in ways that authentically and without question support your position. More than this, your brand voice, a literal and figurative component of being the brand you say you are, must also be devoid of spin and slickness. Your messages must be jargon-free, simple and understandable. To paraphrase Warren Buffet, these days you can be damn sure consumers won’t invest in anything they can’t understand.
Just as it’s time to go back to Finance 101, it’s time to go back to Branding 101. Be clear about you want your brand to represent and represent it simply, clearly and honestly. To succeed for the long term, I advise that you look at the long term. To do this, invest time and thought in what it will realistically and tangibly take to rebuild consumers’ confidence in your brand’s role in their financial future.