Re: Branding

From: Kristin Zhivago <kristin_at_zhivago.com>
Date: Thu 27 Feb 2003 20:27:22 -0600

Reading all of the discussions about branding gives me a feeling of deja
vu. I started to develop a new way of looking at branding back in the
mid-90's to give marketers a simple, but powerful way to 1) explain
branding to their CEO so he/she understood how to properly support it, and
2) stop all the silly arguments about branding.

Ask ten CEOs what branding is, and you'll get 10 different answers. Ask 10
marketers, for that matter, and the same thing will happen, as we've been
witnessing. And, even if a marketer has a strong sense of what a brand is,
it's almost impossible, using the normal "branding," "positioning," etc.
arguments, to get the CEO to support branding efforts.

Here's the basic idea: Your brand is the promise you KEEP, not the one you
make.

Anyone can promise anything, but your actual behavior is what will become
your brand. Your behavior equals the customer's experience equals what
customers say when asked about you. If you make great laptops, but your
service sucks, that's what people will say when asked "How do you like your
Sony Vaio?"

You have 5 tools with which you can KEEP your promises: Products, People,
Policies, Processes, and Principles. These are things over which your CEO
(and you, helping him/her) has control.

How do you know what your promise should be? You ask customers what they
are hoping to get from a company like yours. There are "implied" promises
that just "go with" your industry--i.e., the food you're selling will not
make people sick; airlines follow safety procedures so the plane only
reaches the ground when it's supposed to, etc.

But beyond that, there are other *specific* promises that customers wish
companies like yours would keep. Find out what those promises are (ask
current and potential customers), then take a realistic look at your
products, people, policies, processes, and principles, and see which of
those promises you can keep better than anyone in the business.

Prime example: FedEx ("when it absolutely, positively has to be there
overnight"). People were tired of wondering if their stuff got somewhere on
time (or at all, for that matter), when delivered by the US Post Office.
FedEx understood that, and their first real promise spoke specifically to
that need.

I hope this is helpful.

I just finished the draft of a book which covers this subject (and others)
in detail; if you'd like me to send you a notice when it becomes available,
send me an email with "book" in the subject line.

Kristin Z

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Kristin Zhivago kristin_at_zhivago.com
Editor, Revenue Journal
Editor, Marketing Technology
http://www.zhivago.com
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Received on Thu Feb 27 2003 - 20:27:22 CST