Tag: differentiation

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

The Seattle Freeze: How customer service differs by city

Posted on by Red Slice

There are lists for the best cities to start a business and  the best place to be a pet.

But when I tried to find a list of “Best cities for good customer service” you know what I found? Zip. Nada. Survey geeks, get on this. Would be useful to know.

Why, you ask? Because I recently moved from Seattle back to the San Francisco Bay Area and I’ve had a massive epiphany about how customer service differs from region to region.

We’ve always inherently known this by which cities have the friendliest people. Having grown up in both Queens, New York and Columbus, Ohio, I saw first-hand how people carry certain stereotypes based on city. Most people tend to think Midwesterners are kind, honest, friendly and that New Yorkers are brash, loud and rude. There are some kernels of truths in this, but I’ve also seen the exact opposite. I guess when you’re classifying “good” versus “bad” customer service it also depends on the vibe with which you personally are most comfortable.  Personally, I like directness when it’s helpful to my decisions. I hate passive aggressiveness or saccharin sweetness because I view it as fake.

Lately, I’ve seen in sharp contrast the differences between customer service in Seattle versus San Francisco. And I’ve had this discussion with numerous people so I know it’s not just all in my own head!

I really liked living in Seattle. Truly. But one thing that always bothered me was the customer service quality in restaurants, shops, and supermarkets. To me, the service mantra seems to be one of tense tolerance rather than true customer appreciation.

This attitude can make a customer feel like you’re “bothering” them. When asking a waiter for Splenda instead of sugar, I could sense the “Really? Are you going to be that kind of customer?” Or walking into a boutique and asking for recommendations and being told, in a “well, duh” tone of voice, “It kind of just depends on what you like.”

I swear these are not one-offs. I had this experience over and over again, no matter how kind, patient or little trouble I tried to be. It actually seemed to get worse the nicer I tried to be – maybe that was irritating!

Some folks attribute this to a phenomenon known as the Seattle Freeze. Won’t explain it here, but check the link. When I learned of this about two years into my residence there, it was like something clicked. “Yes! That’s it! That’s what the strange under-the-surface tension is!” People in Seattle are indeed fun and kind – and I have a ton of great friends back there that I miss terribly and to whom I mean no offense. But customer service in Seattle often made me feel like I was in the movie Mean Girls or something: rolls of eyes, looks of slight annoyance or standoffishness and always wrapped with an exterior of passive-aggression and faux helpfulness  – so I suspect that when the tape was played back, I wouldn’t be able to really prove any specific wrongdoing. “What? I did what she asked and even smiled!” would be the defense, I’m sure. One of the best descriptions I’ve seen: The attitude is “have a nice day, somewhere else”.

Am I paranoid? Ridiculous? Maybe. But again, I’ve spoken to many folks who admitted the exact same feeling. Customer service reps seem to do as little as possible for you. There is no engagement, no connection. Just spend your money so I can get back to the more important thing I was doing before you arrived, seems to be the message.

Contrast this to where I am now. It’s been like releasing a huge breath I’ve been holding in for so long. Look, I’m not a Chatty Cathy and I like expediency when checking out or ordering food more than the next guy. But engage, smile, ask me something about my dog or my scarf. I feel like I’m surrounded by a hundred new friends every time I explore a new café or check out a new boutique. Maybe it’s the sunshine and abundance of Vitamin D or something, but people seem genuinely happy to help and it shows when they serve customers. Even if they may hate their job – or you – you might never know it.

Am I generalizing? Heck, yes, but really not by much. I’ve had more baristas, clerks, waiters and even office receptionists offer me a delightful experience in the month I’ve been back than in my 4+ years in Seattle. Up there, it was not hard to have your business stand out with friendly, engaging customer service – the bar was set pretty low. Here? There are so many positive vibes that if I have a bad customer service experience, it stands out as the exception, not the rule.

So what’s the point of this rant for you? No, it’s not to bash my former home which I still adore fondly. It’s to prove that you need to be aware of your competition across every vector and find ways to stand out. What is the customer experience for your target audience like among your competition? Ask people, do research, conduct a survey. If you live in a city known for dreadful customer service, this could be the easiest way to stand out from the pack.

By over delivering in an area of low expectations, you can really set your brand apart. Tweet this!

Photo Credit: themyndset.com

What do you think of customer service in your city (or Seattle!) How do you use customer service as a key differentiator? Please share in the Comments.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

4 things that selling tea in Chinatown can teach you about a successful website

Posted on by Red Slice

Guest post by Seth Leonard who trains and mentors people who want to build dynamic, successful websites. 

I recently started exploring the diverse and tasty world of tea.

Luckily, I live in Berkeley, right across the water from San Francisco’s Chinatown, filled with tea shops.

So when I visited this amazing neighborhood in search of tea, I visited most of the shops. But I only chose to buy from one of them. Why? Because this shop did things differently. And you can employ the exact same tactics they used in their store with your website, turning your visitors into loyal fans and customers.

Starting with…

Provide An Entry Point

The shop I bought from, Vital Tea Leaf, offered free tea tastings. Now, this was important not because it got me to enter the store, which I was going to do anyway, but because it gave me an entry point for my experience within the store.

With each of the other shops I visited, all I could really do was smell the various jars of tea. Being a complete newbie, I didn’t know what I was smelling, or even what questions I should be asking the staff. I was intimidated and unsure where to start. So I left.

The free tastings at Vital, however, gave me somewhere to start. I didn’t need to come up with the right question, or demonstrate any knowledge. All I had to do was sit down and drink some tea. At the very least, I could talk about what I tasted.

You should be doing the same thing with your website: providing an entry point. Visitors are going to come to your site, unsure of what you offer, and unsure of where to start. Figure out how to demonstrate the value you provide in an easy, accessible way.

Then give them a reason to interact with you. Give them something to consume, to comment on, or ask you about. (Tweet this!) Figure out a way that makes it easy for them to enter into a conversation with you. 

Engage

Once I was seated at the tea tasting table, Royal (his real name), my host, worked to engage with me. He didn’t ask me what my favorite tea was, or even tell me what his favorite tea was. He asked about where I was from and we talked about Chinatown.

Royal was friendly and excited to talk to me, as well as the other people doing tastings. He would serve various teas and look on with curiosity as to how we would react. He wanted to hear our opinions. He gave us tips on brewing tea that later made me feel more knowledgeable and comfortable in making a purchasing decision.

Your website is about more than selling (when I say selling, it could be a product, service, or content you want people to see). Your website is about engaging with your audience, and giving them a reason to be there other than to buy. (Tweet this!) It’s about empowering them with the knowledge to make a decision about their next step.

People want an experience. They want to feel a part of something. Open your website up to your visitor. Be curious about them and hear what they have to say.

Give them a seat at the table, something to discuss, and then listen. Give them an experience. Engage.

Offer Social Proof

The free tastings at Vital meant that there were always people in the shop. Watching us laugh and nod our heads at the tasting counter only encouraged more people to join us. Just as it
was reassuring for me to see others interact with Royal before I sat down, my presence helped other people to join the group.

Sometimes it helps to think of your website as a party. You want to arrive when there are already guests there. And you want to see that those people are having a good time. It lets you know that you’re not making a mistake by being there.

One of the values of engaging with your website audience is that it shows others that there is a buzz going on. Visitors become more likely to add a comment after they see that a discussion has already started. They’re more likely to explore your site, knowing others have already found value in it.

So whether it’s displaying your comment count, Twitter follower numbers, or testimonials from past clients, find a way to offer some social proof that you’ve got something valuable to offer. (Tweet this!)

Don’t Be Pushy With Sales

Royal never once asked me if I’d like to buy any tea, even the ones I obviously liked. He probably could have at the end, and I wouldn’t have minded. And perhaps he lost some sales to others who started by looking for free tea, but who would have bought if he had asked.

What Royal did, however, was give me confidence in what I was buying. The more I knew, the more I tasted, and the more I trusted the source, the more likely I was to buy.

I walked in to Chinatown looking to buy. I just needed to find the right experience that would make me comfortable in doing so.

Your website audience is the same. They are looking for a solution. They wouldn’t be at your website if they weren’t. They want to invest in something. You just need to give them the confidence to do so. (Tweet this!)

Empower them. Give them an entry point. Engage with them. Offer some value, offer some social proof. And don’t be overly pushy.

After that, they’ll be more than happy to give you their attention, and maybe even their money.

Thanks Seth! Do you have any real world purchasing experiences that have led you to think differently about your website?  Tweet me @redslice or share with us on Facebook.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Your assignment: Wake up and smell the coffee

Posted on by Red Slice

Today, I’m giving you a homework assignment.

Many clients look at me sideways when I ask, “What are your brand differentiators?” They are not sure why they are better, smarter, faster, cheaper, hipper than their competition. Or they struggle because “Well, I offer coaching services just like ten billion other coaches. Nothing I can say or do makes that different.”

Ah, but yes you can.

Sometimes our differences are not in the “what’ we sell, but “how” we sell it – the experience we offer. That is the root of brand strategy.  Sure, you want to offer unique products or services. And if you want to avoid competing solely on price, you better ensure your quality appeals to your target audience as well.

Continue reading “Your assignment: Wake up and smell the coffee”

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

A high-end dive? Uneeda Burger

Posted on by Red Slice

I’m constantly amazed at how successful restaurants use brand experience to tell a story with everything they have: decor, menu, design, staff. Many of them really get it.  I mean, you can get a hamburger nearly anywhere these days, but Uneeda Burger in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood creates a welcome experience of a “premium roadside burger shack” that I’ve been craving.

The brainchild of Chef Scott Staples, whose other local favorites include a high-end bistro (Restaurant Zoe) and a fine gastropub (Quinn’s), Uneeda is playful, authentic and super fresh.  How does one open up yet another burger joint amidst options ranging from McDonald’s to the classic 50’s-styled greasy drive-in, Dick’s to the experimental and futuristic build your own burger vibe Lunchbox Laboratory.

Some ways Uneeda differentiates:

  • Decor: With an old gasoline station-type sign out front, and an outside patio framed by wooden beams, you might not give this place a second glance driving by. It’s got a very “last rest stop for 100 miles” feel to it. When you step in, wooden tables, floor and counters greet you in a very Western-evocative setting. You can alsmost hear the cowboy boots kicking up dist as they clomp, clomp, clomp over to the counter to order.
  • Design: The Uneeda logo mimics lettering from an old fashioned Western hot-iron brand, combining think block letters and scrip. It instantly conveys casual, farm-fresh and even a bit of rebellion, in my opinion. They also use detailed illustrations like you’d find in a old school book or almanac.
  • Menu: But anything but a dive bar menu awaits on the chalk board above the cashier. Burgers are made with all-natural beef or you can sub-out 100% Wagyu (Kobe) grass-fed beef for additional coin. They tout locally sourced beef, chicken and veggie options as well. Premium toppings run the gamut from Gruyere to portobello mushrooms to manchego cheese to carmelized onions to roasted chili relish to watercress. You an also order salads, sandwiches and soups. And hand-dipped shakes and “artisinal sodas” stand alongside standard beverage staples. They also offer craft beers and wine.
  • Staff: You order at the counter and your food is then brought out to you. But the behind-the-counter staff is as friendly as the table servers you’d find at Staples’ sit-down dining establishments. They know all about the food, can make recommendations – and our gal even let us know that another Uneeda Burger would be opening up in Seattle soon.  They cross-sell and interact with customers just as a table server would, which differentiates them from your basic fast-food joint.

Just goes to show that you don’t necessarily have to be selling something no one’s ever sold before. You just have to put your unique brand spin on it and communicate that differentiation through  every customer touchpoint. People will notice.

What customer touchpoints do you focus on to stand out from your competition? What is your unique edge in a crowded market? Post a comments and get some link-love back to your site!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Why me? Why NOT me?

Posted on by Red Slice

In our personal lives, we ask the first question a lot: Why did this tragic event happen to me? Why do I have to suffer fools? Why does it always rain when I forget my umbrella?

But as professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs and executives, we bring this same attitude to work with us:

Why would anyone publish my book?

Why would anyone buy this product?

Why would new clients sign on with me?

Who am I to change the way companies buy software?

Why would I start a business based on passion instead of profit?

Here’s my question back to ‘ya: Why not you?

I have always felt this question deeply on the personal side. After all, why should you NOT be the one in the car accident/struck down with an illness/caught in  the rain? I suffered a brain aneurysm and almost died and not once did I ask, “Why me?” What makes me so special that it should be someone else suffering instead of me? Asking “Why me?” seems to me an incredibly selfish and fruitless waste of time.

What if you upended the question and asked “Why not you?” Just think about that. Why shouldn’t you make money pursuing your passion? Why shouldn’t you be the one to transform the way cupcakes are made? Why shouldn’t you publish your great story for others to read? Why shouldn’t you offer a unique service that no one has ever done before? Why shouldn’t you create a racy brand in a boring category? WHY. NOT. YOU?

Asking “Why not?”  instead of  “Why?” instantly changes the conversation. It goes from self-doubt to birthright; from impossible to completely realistic; from “I could never…” to “Damn straight, I will!”

Take the chance. When others say, “Who are you to change things?,” say, “Why shouldn’t I be the change maker?” When the industry seems to demand that all the players look and sound alike, ask, “Why shouldn’t we build a unique, quirky brand?” Southwest Airlines, Apple, Virgin America, MOO, DRY Soda – all of these companies had execs who didn’t ask, “Who are we to rock the boat and create such a radically different brand?” They had execs who created the brand they believed in and asked, “Why the hell not?”

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

St Germain: The Virgin America of liqueurs?

Posted on by Red Slice

Guest post by Red Slice intern, Suzi An

How often do you hear about Elderflower liqueur? I’m not sure I knew what Elderflower was until last week. Which is unfortunate because that’s from what St. Germain is made. My first experience with fancy liqueur was at the beginning of the year when a bartender at Via Tribunali placed a small glass of something in front of me.

“What is that?” I ask.

“It’s St. Germain,” says Andrew.

I dunk my nose just below the rim of the glass and began to sniff.

“Why does it smell like lychee?” At this point, I’m confused but intrigued by the sweet smelling liqueur.

It wasn’t until last month that our paths crossed once again. But this time, I saw the actual bottle. Have you seen this thing? It is possibly the most elegant bottle of alcohol I have ever seen. It’s a tall, heavy glass bottle with six sides and a color scheme of navy blue, gold, and if you look closely, light turquoise. Even the cap is elegant and refined. I then proceeded to read the little booklet that was attached to its neck that relayed the story of St. Germain. Think about a French man riding his bicycle in the Alps to gather the delicate flower by hand. He then rides his bicycle down to the local market. There are only 40 to 50 of these men who make it possible for the rare liqueur to be made in a given year; hence why St. Germain is rare and a bit pricey. I flip the page and that’s when the sassiness began:

“To put this into context, we can safely say that no men, bohémien or otherwise, will be wandering the hillsides of Poland this spring gathering wild potatoes for your vodka. Likewise, we know of no Bavarians planning to scour the German countryside in search of exotic native hops and barley for your beer.” I love that they are so confident in their brand because they know it takes much effort to make such a rare liqueur. Furthermore, they are proud of their brand because of the craftsmanship aspect of it. You can tell by their word choice. Again, brand communicated verbally is just as important as anything visual.

“Neither passionfruit nor pear, grapefruit nor lemon, the sublime taste of St. Germain hints at each of these and yet none of them exactly. It is a flavor as subtle and delicate as it is captivating. A little like asking a humminghbird to describe the flavor of its favorite nectar. Très curieux indeed, n’est-ce pas?” Very curious, indeed, is it not?

Very curious. Beyond curious. I’m fascinated. The reason why I say St. Germain is the Virgin America of liqueurs is because of the sassiness and the experience they promise. Virgin America flies to limited places, St. Germain has limited quantities of their liqueur. Virgin America promises to make flying fun, St. Germain promises to make you feel sassy and sophisticated. Virgin America’s tone is that of St. Germain. Both are fun and snippy.

In the same booklet, there are pages of recipes that contain even more fun little surprises than the brand story. For example, at the end of the directions for the Sangria Flora, it says, “Serve in an iced-filled glass, then telephone your physician and regale him with stories of your exemplary fruit consumption.” I chuckled as I read that. As I closed the little booklet, it was as if a whimsical soirée had come to an end. I wanted to go back and read through the whole thing like a party I just didn’t want to leave. I wanted to feel like I was enjoying a warm summer night eating delicious French food with my closest friends, as we dine by the dim lights hanging from the trees around us. My experience with St. Germain is not about the liqueur; it’s about the brand, the story of how it came to be, the way it interacts with me, and the way the brand makes me feel. I don’t think I could say that about any other alcohol brand.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Why I’m a walking billboard for Dave’s Killer Bread

Posted on by Red Slice

Guest blog post by Red Slice intern, Suzi An.

It’s 2 a.m and my boyfriend and I decide to do some late night grocery shopping. Normally, I shop at Whole Foods where I buy the same brand of whole-wheat sunflower bread. But because they close at 10 p.m., I ended up walking down the street to QFC.

“Suz, come look at this.” Roger is awkwardly holding a loaf of bread with bold colors on the packaging.

“What is that? That’s not my normal loaf of bread,” I say. I shrug my shoulders and continue to walk down the bread aisle looking for my sunflower bread.

“Suz. Come read this!” Fussy and defeated, I walk back towards him.

I grab the bright yellow bag from him and begin to read: I was a four-time loser before I realized I was in the wrong game. 15 years in prison is a pretty tough way to find oneself, but I have no regrets… Immediately I am hooked. Who is this guy spilling his life story on a loaf of bread? I continue reading and realize that this guy created his whole brand on his incredibly story. He was in and out of prison for drugs, assault, and robbery until he realized he needed to change his life: A whole lot of suffering has transformed an ex-con into an honest man who is doing his best to make the world a better place…one loaf of bread at a time. My heart sunk. I turn the bread around and see “Just say no to bread on drugs!” and I cannot believe how clever and fantastic this is. I see that the specific loaf that Roger had grabbed was called GOOD SEED. How cute. A loaf of bread named after Dave’s change. Ultimately, it is Dave’s story, a story that is personal and inspiring, that will make his business and brand successful. And the best part, his products live up to his brand promise. Heavenly Texture and Saintly Flavor. His bread is probably the most texturally pleasing bread I have ever tasted in my life. I practically devour the entire loaf in three days. I am beyond obsessed. As a strong supporter of the green movement and sustainable eating, Dave had won me over with his organic bread, compostable bags, the wind farms, and only providing the Northwest with his mouth-watering bread. He believes everyone deserves a second chance, so most of his employees are ex-cons as well. Dave, can you be anymore fabulous?!

I follow Dave on Twitter and I try to see him at almost every festival where he is present. I recently saw him at the Bite of Seattle where I bought six loaves of bread, a T-shirt, a coloring book, and had the opportunity to meet the guy behind the brand. I feel like a giddy ten-year-old girl! The only words that came out of my mouth were, “I am a huge fan and I eat your bread on a daily basis!” Really? How did I become a “bread groupie”? At least once a week, I tweet “How can I get on Dave’s PR team?” I have yet to receive a response but they seem to reply to everything else I tweet about them.

It’s brands like Dave’s that reaches out to interact with their customers, creates relationships, and has a clear vision of what it wants the brand to do that will be more than successful. I am proud to be a consumer of his bread and will follow Dave wherever he goes. So when can I start?

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Why saving money on branding can cost you

Posted on by Red Slice

We’ve all seen it – and maybe done it. We spend money on lawyers or accountants to build our business the right way, but when it comes to something like a logo or a website, we think, “Why, my neighbor’s teenage niece knows how to use Illustrator! Maybe she can do my logo for free.” Or, “I just need to get a simple website up. Let me just slap together a DIY template and get the page up and running.”

While these are steps you may need to take initially to get your business off the ground and money coming in the door, skimping on a well-thought-out and intentional brand strategy long-term can cost you way more in sales later on. This fundamental mistake is what inspired me to write my book.

Branding does not have to be some big expensive effort that only large companies can afford. If you run a small business, you need to spend time thinking about and conveying your brand as well – at whatever budget you have to spend.  Brand is more than just your logo or website – it’s your essence, your core. It’s the experience people have with you, the impression you leave in their minds. So you need to really think about what you want that impression to be and ensure that you communicate it consistently in three important ways: visually, verbally and experientially. Only with consistent exposure to your brand promise in every touchpoint will customers connect with you and become rabid fans, thus increasing your profits long-term.

And while brand is more than the visual identity, your design look is still a key part of it. Buyers make decisions subconsciously and need to be attracted to your look and feel first before they will learn enough to buy from you. Just like dating, your appearance does not define who you are but it does factor in to initial first impressions. So why do so many entrepreneurs try to cut corners on the very first thing that potential customers will see?

Hiring unqualified people or designers who don’t ask you anything about your value proposition, differentiators, or target audience is not the way to save money. I talk to many people that threw away money because their brand strategy was not baked yet. Good design is a skill: it’s a skill that involves taking a message and communicating it visually, not just creating a pretty picture. You will lose more in lost sales by getting this part wrong than you will save on cutting corners.

And guess what? That brand strategy will do more than just inform your visual identity. It will serve as a compass for other marketing investments: partners, advertising, events. Basically any decision your company makes will be a smarter one if you start with the brand strategy first and use it as a compass. This helps you avoid throwing away money on what I call “random acts of marketing” and ensures that you only invest in activities that move your business forward.

If you need to save money, the best thing entrepreneurs can do is to first sit down and create a clear, strong brand strategy before any marketing, design or development takes place. This entails defining who you are, what you represent, what feelings you want to evoke, what value you provide, how you price things, who your ideal audience is, and how to best reach them. This requires sitting down and answering some key questions. People that don’t do this first and launch into creating a website or investing in marketing programs are just throwing their money away. When you have no destination, every road looks like it leads somewhere.

Know thy audience and thy brand strategy and you will know the best design options, communication vehicles and marketing tactics in which to invest. Translation: only pay for things that will move you forward and give you a return on your investment. Saving $1000 and then ultimately losing $10,000 in sales opportunities because you didn’t connect with your target customer does not seem like a good investment strategy to me.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

What you can learn from Virgin America

Posted on by Red Slice

OK, I have a major brand crush on Virgin America. Huge. I swoon when I see their logo at the airport, thrill when I’m able to fly them on quick trips down to San Francisco, and dream about hanging with Richard Branson over cocktails sometime. I talk about them a lot in my new book, Branding Basics for Small Business: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget.

There’s a lot you can learn about branding effectively from Virgin America (and Virgin in general for that matter.) And these are lessons you can apply to your own business, regardless of your size or budget. You may not be as big as they are, but you sure as heck can practice these principles to better connect with customers and stand out from the competition.

1) Keep your mission simple, concise and relevant: “Make flying fun again.” Boom. That says it all. And every decisions they make, big or small, is tested against this simple mantra. How inspiring is this for employees? How deliciously irresistible is this to frustrated and road-weary travelers? How different from the other airlines who tout generic, irrelevant platitudes like “best customer service” or “biggest value”? This mission has meaning and even just the wording tells you a little bit about their personality and the type of customer they want to attract. They are not just after those who can afford first-class or private jets who may not share the same flying frustrations as the rest of us. They are FOR the rest of us! Their mission is crisp, clean but still specific enough to their actual products and services. Is your mission something you can actually act on that will guide all of your decisions, or is it some lofty, esoteric statement that is not relevant to customers or employees?

2) Little things mean a lot: They extend their brand into everything from their color scheme that extends to the ticket counters and the airplane cabin to the cheeky wording of their standard airport signs (“While impressive, if your bag is bigger than 24” X 16” X 10”, it must be checked”) to their clever in-flight safety video. Rather than a stiff actor giving me the same instructions we’ve started to tune out on every other flight, Virgin America shows a stylized animated video with all sorts of crazy characters – even a bull calmly reading a magazine next to an anxious bullfighter. The company’s sassy, humorous tone carries over to the script as well: “For the 0.0001% of you who’ve never operated a seat belt before, here’s how it works.” These are simple things (and stuff they need to spend money on to produce anyway), but Virgin makes the most of every single solitary customer touchpoint in order to convey their brand and make their target customers fall in love with them. What opportunities are you wasting to really surprise and delight your target audience? Perhaps well-worded email opt-out policies (If you’d like to unsubscribe, we’d really miss you!) or a memorable voicemail message (We’re out helping our clients be superheroes today) or even a branded email signature can really make a difference. Such hidden delights will surprise and enchant and get people telling others about you, like I’m doing here. Just ensure that these flourishes match who you really are in your DNA and what your brand is all about. If your brand audience is more conservative and formal than playful and snarky, then don’t try to go there.

3) Deliver on your promise: Virgin America directs all its brand efforts on convincing me they will make flying fun again. But if I didn’t experience their confident and polished employees, rapid check-in kiosk process, glorious discount prices, or the private TV’s at every seat that also allow me to order food at any time with my credit card – not just when they decide I should eat – then we’d have a problem. They would not be delivering on their mission and would then suffer from a brand identity crisis. Are you living up to what you are promising to customers? If you say customer care is your number one priority, do I get rapid response to my support issues and easy access to a live person? If your colors and website are all slick, modern and progressive but you only offer the same-old, same-old, what am I to think? It’s worse to go out there and talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk – worse than not promising it in the first place. Don’t just slap a coat of brand paint on your business. Make a promise and ensure your operations, employees, and customer experiences are set up to deliver on it.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Does anyone really care about “brand?”

Posted on by Red Slice

No matter how many heads I get nodding about the importance of brand or how many people “get it,” I still feel like brand strategy is the “nice-to-have” while people get on with the business of selling products and services. And really, how can I fault a company that is successful in spite of itself? Many companies know they need to sit down and map out their brand strategy, but few make it a priority. Donald Trump knows he has a bad haircut but he could care less – he’s still a bazillionaire.

When I wrote Branding Basics for Small Business, I tried to put in all my stories and experiences over the years of many of those battles and successes.  But at the end of the day, if a company blows out it’s sales number each and every quarter, does anyone really care if the company stands for something, has a clear message or a differentiated personality? Do the shareholders really mind that one person thinks the company does this, but another person thinks the company does something completely different? Do they care that the firm is touting one message, look and feel on their website but look like a completely different company when you see their ads? Do they mind that the firm touts customer service above all else, but the infrastructure and processes are not set up to deliver?

Do they care as long as the company keeps making money?

The analytical part of me says, “You can’t argue with success, so they must be doing something right. Their customers obviously want the product.” The brand strategist in me, though, says, “That has to be short-lived. Something outside of their control is causing the success and whenever it stops, they will not know what to do as they will not have a strong brand to fall back on.” I also think to myself that this is the reason there is such commercial clutter out there in the marketplace: companies that don’t care enough about their brand or messages are just throwing things out into the world to see what sticks. They figure, “As long as we hit the mark 10 times out of 100, that is okay with us because those 10 times will make our numbers for the year.”

That is the difference between quantity and quality. And I for one would rather live in a world full of quality. One where 2 messages are enough to get a target customer to act versus 5-7.  Think about that. If every company knew their brand and their target audience so well and could laser-focus their marketing efforts, what a more streamlined, quieter world this would be. How much more relevant to their particular target audience would they be? And how much less noise would the rest of us have to hear?

Enjoy the silence for a moment. At least in your own imagination.

Seth Godin wrote a post today about structuring your day around 5 hours of work instead of 8 or 10 and seeing how much more effective you could be. I love that idea. Sometimes more is just…well, more. Not better, not more relevant, not more productive. Just more.