Advertising Methodology - (3) Understanding of business strategy and brand

The old adage of “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” is an important one. We’ll come back to that, but we’ll start with a new adage, “you can’t advertise what you don’t know”. What does that mean? Start at the top. Understand what the company is all about:

• What’s the overall business strategy? For instance, Porter’s generic strategies include: Cost Leadership, Differentiation, & Segmentation
• What is the brand all about? What are the marketing and brand plans, and how do they align with the business plan? What do Senior Management believe the company stands for? What does the company stand for in its constituents' eyes (customers, employees, suppliers, etc.) and how do they believe the company supports the brand promise?

Get to know that, and you're over the first hurdle to creating great advertising that works.

Saving the company. Slashing GM's Brands and Sub-brands.

The Chevrolet line goes from the Aveo (starting at about $12k), to the Malibu ($26k+), to the Express passenger van ($33k+), to Avalanche truck ($36k+), to the Corvette ($106k+). Also, you'll find some really ugly things in there too like the "HHR" and the "HHR Panel" ($19k+). Remind me again ... what does the Chevy brand stand for?

If I were in GM's shoes, I'd redefine each of my master brands with a big butcher knife. I'd be really clear about what each of them mean. Then I'd cut the snot out of their sub-brands that don't support that. For instance:

• Chevrolet = Affordable cars, whether you're a young kid buying a first car, or a family buying a practical car.
• Axe the Avalance truck, HHR, Equinox, Traverse, Cargo Van, Passenger Vans, Suburban, Tahoe, Colorado, Silverado, Avalanche, Equinox, Traverse, and ...
• I might be left with the Cobalt, the Aveo, the Malibu, and the Impala. I might include one family-sized SUV/ Crossover, like a modified Trailblazer, or a redesigned (and good) mini-van that could reasonably compete against the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, and the Kia Sedona (I don't think GM even makes a mini-van anymore. All you'd have to do is look at any school drop-off zone between 8:30 and 9:00am to get an understanding of the importance of a mini-van).
  
• I'd cut down the options on those - for instance the Cobalt would only come in a 4 door model. (The two door model would only be available as a Pontiac ... and Pontiac would only sell the two door model.)
  
• I may even axe the legendary Corvette. At a minimum I'd change it dramatically so that it fit into the brand mold of "affordable". It might be sporty and affordable, which would mean dumbing it down a lot. Alternatively, I might toss it over to the Cadillac label.

Chevrolet would drop from a confusing 32 vehicle line-up to a sensible 5 to 7 vehicle line.

Let's pick apart the Pontiacs. They currently have 12 models.

• Pontiac - Sporty fun, performance cars.
• Axe the G3, the Vibe, the G5 Coupe (too similar to the G6 coupe), the G6 Sedan, Torrent (an SUV in the Pontiac line - blech),
• You'd be left with the G8 (a sporty sedan), G6 Convertible, G6 Coupe, and the Solstice. I'm on the fence on an SUV/Crossover on this line. Maybe the Torrent could make sense, but not in its current format.

Pontiac had 12 models ... now they have 4 or 5.

The 3 Buick's would die. Why bother with them. 3 models down to zero!

Cadillac currently has 14 models. 14! Are they nuts. What is a Cadillac when you have 14 versions of the darn thing.

• Cadillac - "You've made it." People will notice you've made it.
  
• Axe the SRX Crossover (it's just ugly and isn't premium enough), the Esclade EXT (buy a truck if you want a truck), the Esclade (which competes with the Esclade ESV), the DTS (it competes against the better looking STS, and isn't premium enough), the XLR convertible (don't worry, there's another model that will be kept)
  
• Keep the STS V6 only ($47k+), the CTS-V ($60k+), the STS -V ($84k+), maybe the Escalade ESV & Hybrid (SUVs) ($65k), and the convertible XLR-V ($106k+)
• I might even swap the Corvette into the Cadillac line up and dump the XLR line.
  

Cadillac would drop from 14 models to 5 or 6.

A quick slash at their other brands ...

• GMC = Trucks. They currently have 21 different models. I'd slash that to 7 or 8, including: a large passenger van, a cargo van, a smallish SUV, a large SUV, a small pickup, a mid-size pickup, and a large pickup. There may be more options in this line, including 2 or 4 door cabs on the larger truck.
• Hummer = GONE. (3 models down to 0)
  
• Saab = GONE. (6 models down to 0)
  
• Saturn = Technology leader. The brand would become the "Smart" or "Mini" for GM. They currently have 8 vehicles. That would be slashed to 2 to 3, along the lines of a 2-seat zippy fun electric commuter, a 4-seat zippy fun hybrid, and a flying car (just kidding on that one ... but if GM wanted to play, Saturn would be the "play" brand).
  

Total ... GM started with something around 100 vehicle brands. I'd have them down to about 28. On top of that, each sub-brand would have its own standard power train, and those would at a minimum be hybrids. Power trains could be shared across product lines. For instance the 4-door Chevy Cobalt could use the same power train as the Pontiac G6. GM could limit the engines if necessary to allow the brands to be differentiated.

Recognizing that the dealerships want to be able to sell a variety of different vehicles so that they can attract a variety of customers, there are options available to make things work for them. If you look at how Mini is sold by BMW in Canada, there are many BMW dealers who carve off a piece of their showroom and make it an entirely stand-alone Mini dealership. GM dealers could do a similar thing with their big and ancient showrooms. Throw up some glass walls, and make "boutiques". In a given dealership, one boutique would sell Chevy cars, another would sell GM trucks, and another might sell the Saturn line.

There are lots of advantages to this slash and burn practice:

• Focuses the brand. The general result of focusing the brand is that you end up selling more. So, production may not go down at all. GM's production and sales may actually go up!
  
• Reduces cost dramatically. You don't have to design, engineer, repair, and warranty the dramaticly huge number of product variations. It would be cheaper and easier to build, sell, and service cars. This strategy wouldn't make GM the low cost producer. The reality is that they still have lots of legacy costs, and are competing against startups from Korea and elsewhere with lower cost structures. But, it goes a long way to helping them survive.
  

What do you know, there are Michael Porter's business strategies showing up again. Focus and Cost Leadership.

There you go President Obama. :^)

Saving the company. What should GM do with its Brands and Sub-brands?

• Is the problem with GM that they've screwed themselves over by giving up way too much to their unions over the years? Yes, partly I'm sure it is.
• Is the problem with GM that they're costs are out of line with their selling prices, and consequently they just aren't making a dime on any car they produce? Yes, partly I'm sure it is.
• Is the problem with GM mostly that GM has screwed up their brands? ABSOLUTELY.

Let's look at some of GM's North American brands, and take a shot at what they should mean: (it should be noted that they have several others serving the rest of the world)

• Chevrolet - Affordable cars, whether you're a young person buying a first car, or a family buying a practical car.
  
• Pontiac - Sporty fun, performance cars.
  
• Cadillac - "You've made it." People will notice you've made it.
  
• GMC - Trucks
  
• Buick - Um... what does that stand for? I think it is supposed to come somewhere between the "affordable" and "you've made it" lines.
  
• Hummer - "I'm an idiot" ... whoops I meant to say rough and tough upper class.
  
• Saab - "You've made it ... and you have European taste". (Sounds a lot like Cadillac)
  
• Saturn - Modern, affordable cars for young people or families. (Sounds a lot like Chevrolet)
  

Now, the interesting thing is that when you plug away at each of those brands there are glaring exceptions to how they have managed the sub-brands in each of those products. For instance, the Chevy line has something like 32 vehicles in it. It is like everytime someone from an Executive to a Janitor thought "Hey, what if we made a ...", they went ahead and made it. Think about the expense of designing, producing, and building each one of those models.

Does Chevy stand for an Aveo? It is a cheap "first" car. It would seem to me that Chevy does stand for that. What about a Cobalt? Yes again. A Malibu? Yes - that's a good affordable family car. How about the Cargo Van, Tahoe, Colorado, Silverado, Avalanche, Equinox, Traverse, and ... HHR (yuck). I can't imagine that Chevrolet really stands for any of those.

I'll pick on GM's SUV line-up for a moment. I feel bad doing this ... it is too easy.
Here's what GM makes for SUVs:

• Chevy HHR ($19k+)
• Saturn Vue ($23k+)
• Chevy Equinox ($25k+)
• Pontiac Torrent ($25k+)
• Saturn VUE Hybrid ($28k+)
• Chevy TrailBlazer ($29k+)
• Saturn Outlook ($31k+)
• GMC Envoy ($31k+)
• Hummer H3T ($31k+)
• Buick Enclave ($35k+)
• Chevy Avalanche ($36k+)
• GMC Envoy Denali ($37k+)
• Chevy Tahoe ($37k+)
• GMC Yukon ($38k+)
• Cadillac SRX V6 ($41k+)
• ... Etc. There are 34 of the damn things! Topping out with the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid at $74k+

Pickup trucks? 14 models across their brands.
Crossovers? 13 models.
Vans? 12 models (and you can't tell me that there is any significant difference between the Chevy Savana Passenger 2500 ($30k+) and the Chevy Express Passenger ($30k+)).

And they wonder why they're in trouble.

What should GM do? GM should tightly define each of their brands, and then slash and burn the sub-brands to ensure that the line-up of vehicles closely matches their master brand.

GM's withering ways.

In the good old days - and I am talking about the 1950s here - GM targeted brands to different segments, and it distinguished each of its brands for that purpose. The brands had shared components but completely unique styling. The branding created a clear upgrade path throughout a consumer's life. You'd start with an affordable Chevy, and then as you became more affluent, you'd move to a Pontiac, a Buick, an Oldsmobile, and ultimately a Cadillac.

Around the 80s, the GM and its peers screwed up. They decided that they'd fool the idiot consumer and start selling the same car with different labels. The Chevy Citation (my family had one), the Oldsmobile Omega, and the Pontiac Phoenix were all almost identical. Similarly in the mid-90s when GM upgraded its popular Chevy Cavalier model, they introduced the new Cavalier and the Pontiac Sunfire. Again, nearly identical. I had a taxi driver tell me once that his opinion was that GM intended the Cavalier for men, and the Sunfire for women. Whatever, it was still a bad choice to make virtually identical cars.

But, perhaps the best example of GM's worst branding practice was the introduction of the Cimarron. Their hope was that they could attract younger buyers to the Cadillac brand (hmmm ... everything Cadillac doesn't stand for). The Cimarron was based on the same platform as the Chevrolet Cavalier, Buick Skyhawk, Oldsmobile Firenza, Pontiac J2000, etc.. Out of the gate Cadillac only had a four-cylinder engine and minimal styling differences from the considerably cheaper Cavalier. Yet it was almost twice as expensive at the Cavalier!

Has GM learned? Apparently not. All you have to do is look at their line up of SUVs and Trucks to see that they are as confused as ever.

Over the next couple of days I'm going to review the GM brands and suggest a major strategy shift that would lead them back to profitability and success.

(Here's a hint ... Look at the strategy of the 50s to restore their prominence in 2010 and on. Narrow the focus of each brand, and then slash and narrow the focus of each sub-brand.)

Narrowed Focus

It's been a few days since I posted. Apologies to everyone who follows this regularly. Thanks for following me as a matter of fact!

I've been busy working on a web tourism marketing report for a client, so I haven't had a chance to get to my blog or site.

Yesterday ... I updated Market GoGo.com.
Now I'm only focusing on three things:

• Brand Audits,
• Web Marketing (advertising, sales, & service), and
  
• Marketing Project Management.

Now, the site still needs to be made to look better and do more things ... but that's all just part of the ongoing maturity process for the site. While my focus is on the business and brand strategy behind Brand Audits, Web Marketing, and Marketing Project Management, I'll admit I'm no artist or technical wiz in terms of actually putting a site together. So, part of updating MarketGoGo.com is the journey of learning more about how a website actually goes together.

What is Market GoGo?

Market GoGo is a specialized Marketing Consultancy, based in Calgary. Market GoGo focuses on a few things that will help you to make your company more successful. Those things are strategic in nature, and focus on things that many companies just don't have the experience or the depth to do. Those things are:

• Brand Audit: A review of the "personality" of your company or a particular "brand" your company represents. It covers a wide swath of customer interactions and experiences with your brand from brand standards (signage, lettering, colors, etc.), to advertising, to customer service representatives, to your website, to your positioning statement, and so on. The goal of a Brand Audit is to help you understand your brand's assets and customer perceptions and subsequently to make decision and changes that will ultimately help you to drive more sales.
• Web Marketing and Advertising strategies: Web Marketing is all about doing five things as part of your Web Portfolio: Get prospective customers to your website, Convert prospects to customers, Up-sell and cross-sell to customers, Provide online service to customers, and Get customers to come back to buy from you again. This portfolio runs the gamut from bidding on Google text ads, to banner ads served by Advertising Networks, to mapping the web sales process flow, to researching customer behaviour on your website through analytics and customer research, to opt-in email marketing, and on, and on, and on!
• Project Management of your Strategic Marketing Projects: Marketing Project Management ensures that projects are delivered on-time and on-scope by the "delivery partner" (e.g. an IT Development Team or a Product Development Team). The Marketing Project Plan also ensures that the Marketing specific tasks - such as Communication and Advertising - are put in place at the right time.
• RFP Response for your B2B opportunity: Writing an RFP response is an arduous task. It is also one that you may not get to do enough, and consequently you aren't practiced in crafting a great response that will catch the attention of the team that both crafted the RFP and will review your response. Your response should get you noticed, and get you to the "next step" in the negotiating process.
• Aligning your Contact Center's Behavior with your brand: Most Contact Centers or Call Centers focus on technologies and practices that will drive cost-cutting through their business. For example, the use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems has been lauded by the Call Center industry as a great way to cut costs. But just find a customer who REALLY likes dealing with an IVR. Wouldn't you like your Call Centre's behavior and technology to provide the appropriate brand experience that your customers expect? That's the goal of Market GoGo's Contact Centre Strategy Approach.

Contact Market GoGo to find out more about how we can help you with your Branding and Marketing.

Trends for 2009: #5. Simple Strategies ... Back to the Basics

When times were good things were easy. It was easy to get a new customer. Consequently, it was easy to ignore a customer, since there was always at least one (and likely many more) new customers waiting to take their place.

2009 brings an entirely different playing field. As an example, I heard an interview on the radio in late 2008 of a couple of Realtors. It appears that they are actually having to learn how to market and sell again. In their "good old days" all they needed was a listing and potential buyers would flock to the property to participate in a bidding war. Those glory days are long gone.

What are the basic strategies to focus on in 2009?

• Branding - What is your brand promise? How does your company support it? (Does your company support it?)
• Retail Ads - To paraphrase David Ogilvy, a good ad is one that sells your product. 2009 is not the time for airy fairy branding ads. 2009 is the time for simple and honest ads that educate people about the value of your product and scream out at them to take action.
• Customer Retention - The cheapest customer to sell to is an existing customer. It is time to revisit and work your current customers to remind them that you are a low-risk and well-known value for them (of course, I'm expecting that you really are). Reselling, upselling, and cross-selling are all ways that you can make ends meet (and maybe even eke out a profit) in 2009.
• Customer Satisfaction - It is almost like hearing the same message twice. If you are going to revisit your current customers, then you better ensure that they are happy with your product or service, and make real steps to bolster your customer satisfaction.
• Real Return on Investment - Projects you undertake in 2009 better have real and demonstrable ROI (and they better have it fast). The Accountants will be watching every project nickle like hawks (except, of course, their own International GAAP projects which will likely be "non-discretionary", unlike keeping their company in business which is, of course, discretionary ... ooops, did I write that out loud).

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

What went wrong with the Big 3?

What went wrong with the "Big 3"? If you think of any company being made of three core functions:

1. Marketing - Determining the target market, determining what products the target wants, communication with the target, and ensuring that they live up to their Brand Promises,
2. Finance - Determining how to pay for the inputs, ensuring that the outputs are produced as efficiently as possible, and making sure that there is enough money in the bank to keep things running, and
   
3. Operations - Producing products that meets the needs of the Marketing Team, and doing so in a way to keep the Finance team happy.

Then, where did the Big 3 go wrong?

1. Marketing - They had no Brand Promise. What does GM stand for? Big cars? Little cars? Big trucks? Cheap? Luxury? They are trying to be everything to everyone. Taking on the Luxury German market and the low-cost Kia market. Yuck. Stuck in the middle. They stink, and thier products suck. Why would I buy a "luxury" Cadillac that was based on the same platform as the "work horse" GM truck? The Big 3 lost a grip on who their target market was, what they wanted, and how to reach them.
   
2. Finance - Was no one watching the books? It is disheartening that in light of recent financial scandals like Enron, and with all the subsequent "SOx" and Governance oversight that is supposed to be in place, that NO ONE from these Big 3 was sounding the horn louder and sooner that they were all headed for bankruptcy. Who is at fault here? The Finance teams in these companies should have hit the big red button several years ago. Surely it was evident that costs were spiralling out of control.
   
3. Operations - Are the unions to blame? They clearly need to share the blame. Mind you, some MORON in the Finance department must have agreed to the ridiculous contracts that the unions have negotiated over the years. Also, the MORONS in Marketing continue to get the Operations team to build products that their market might have wanted 3-10 years ago, but doesn't give a rats ass about now. So, as long as the Operations teams are building out the automobiles that they are told to, and doing it under the agreement of the Finance team, I'd have to think that they should carry less of the weight. That said, responsible Unions and Management teams should be constantly working together to figure out the most efficient and practical way to produce.

My verdict ... The auto sector has to be "bailed out" simply to prevent them from bringing down the entire economy. However, conditions on them being allowed to receive bail-outs should include:

• Bail-outs should be either high-interest loans (they are risky after all), or equity
• Executives should be forced to resign (with no golden parachutes) and should be replaced with people with real vision
• Each company and each sub-brand should have to put a REAL marketing plan in place with a real brand position. Overlapping brands should be eliminated. (E.g. Big-ass Chrysler SUVs and Big-ass Jeeps? Big-ass Chrysler cars and Big-ass Dodge Cars? GM, Pontiac, Buick, and Cadillac? GM Trucks, Cadillac SUVs, and Hummer?)

I'm no expert on Finance matters, so I won't comment on those, except to say that the classic Porter strategies state that these companies should either be low-cost, differentiated, or niche. The automobile market is mass-market, so they had better all be thinking Low-Cost. To review ...

Low Cost: The low cost leader gains competitive advantage by being able to produce at the lowest cost. You can sell things for the same price and have more profit, or more cash to do battle with, or win a price war and still make a profit.

There's my rant for today. If you are from one of the Big-3, and want help doing a Brand Audit in order to get on track with your marketing plans, don't hesitate to contact Market GoGo.

Have you seen Hancock?

Hancock was released earlier this year and is out on video now. In summary it is a story about a down-on-his-luck superhero who has fallen way out of favor with the public. That's one way to look at it. I was more intrigued by the Branding theme in the movie. Really, the superhero in this movie is the Marketer!

As a quick overview:

• Hancock is loathed by the public
• Hancock is "discovered" by a PR consultant
• PR consultant recognizes that Hancock's brand is way out of line
• PR consultant works with Hancock to revitalize the brand
• Hancock is golden!

Want to be a Marketing Super Hero? I recommend two things you need to do to start that:

1. Watch the movie.
2. Do a Brand Audit of your own company, product, or service to find a path to becoming golden.

The biggest mistake you can make doing a Brand Audit

... is to do it yourself. Perhaps a bigger mistake is to let your Advertising Agency do it for you. Why?

• When you do your Brand Audit yourself you are much too close to your own reality to understand the brand perception reality. You come into the audit with a preconceived notion of what your brand stands for and how you believe your customers should perceive the brand. If you are executing the audit and interpreting the results, you are much more likely to miss the "big picture" that the Brand Audit presents.

• When your Advertising Agency does a Brand Audit they only look at a very narrow slice of what your Brand represents. Typically that comes down to your Brand standards - the colors, shapes, fonts, etc. that you use in your logo and ads. Hopefully they will stretch and try to determine what your brand means. But, your brand is like an iceberg. Only the top 10% is represented by the brand standards. The remaining 90% that your Advertising Agency will typically miss includes the perception and experience your customers have with your product or service, the interactions your customers have with people representing your company, review of your brand plan and your marketing plan, and so forth. There's a lot. You will want a holistic view to make sure that you get the "big picture".
  

For similar reasons, if you were in your company's Finance Department you would not be allowed to audit yourself, and similarly if you used outside accountants they would not be allowed to perform an audit of themselves. That analogy holds true for a Brand Manager performing a Brand Audit.

A Brand Manager's responsibility as part of a Brand Audit is to believe in the process, oversee the project, understand the results, and take action to improve brand perception. By improving the brand perception you will improve sales and profitability.

If you are a Brand Manager, you need to select a company who can help you plan, execute, and interpret a Brand Audit. That may mean bringing in a 3rd party to help you out, or ensuring that your Advertising Agency brings in a 3rd party to help them out. Then sit back, enjoy the ride, and take in the scenery along the way, so that you have a fresh view of your brand and can make the right "big picture" decisions.

Contact Market GoGo to find out more about how we can help you with your Brand Audit.

What is Market GoGo?

Market GoGo is a specialized Marketing Consultancy, based in Calgary. Market GoGo focuses on a few things that will help you to make your company more successful. Those things are strategic in nature, and focus on things that many companies just don't have the experience or the depth to do. Those things are:

• Brand Audit: A review of the "personality" of your company or a particular "brand" your company represents. It covers a wide swath of customer interactions and experiences with your brand from brand standards (signage, lettering, colors, etc.), to advertising, to customer service representatives, to your website, to your positioning statement, and so on. The goal of a Brand Audit is to help you understand your brand's assets and customer perceptions and subsequently to make decision and changes that will ultimately help you to drive more sales.
• Web Marketing and Advertising strategies: Web Marketing is all about doing five things as part of your Web Portfolio: Get prospective customers to your website, Convert prospects to customers, Up-sell and cross-sell to customers, Provide online service to customers, and Get customers to come back to buy from you again. This portfolio runs the gamut from bidding on Google text ads, to banner ads served by Advertising Networks, to mapping the web sales process flow, to researching customer behaviour on your website through analytics and customer research, to opt-in email marketing, and on, and on, and on!
• Project Management of your Strategic Marketing Projects: Marketing Project Management ensures that projects are delivered on-time and on-scope by the "delivery partner" (e.g. an IT Development Team or a Product Development Team). The Marketing Project Plan also ensures that the Marketing specific tasks - such as Communication and Advertising - are put in place at the right time.
• RFP Response for your B2B opportunity: Writing an RFP response is an arduous task. It is also one that you may not get to do enough, and consequently you aren't practiced in crafting a great response that will catch the attention of the team that both crafted the RFP and will review your response. Your response should get you noticed, and get you to the "next step" in the negotiating process.
• Aligning your Contact Center's Behavior with your brand: Most Contact Centers or Call Centers focus on technologies and practices that will drive cost-cutting through their business. For example, the use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems has been lauded by the Call Center industry as a great way to cut costs. But just find a customer who REALLY likes dealing with an IVR. Wouldn't you like your Call Centre's behavior and technology to provide the appropriate brand experience that your customers expect? That's the goal of Market GoGo's Contact Centre Strategy Approach.

Contact Market GoGo to find out more about how we can help you with your Branding and Marketing.

Brand Audit Sprints

I was inspired by a blog by Neal Stewart this week. In short, he did a great job of quick brand audit for Cracker Jack. Based on that, I am going to follow in his footsteps, and do a quick weekly brand audit of a company.

How will this Brand Audit Sprint be different than a regular Brand Audit?

1. First and foremost, where a real Brand Audit would take several weeks to do right, my goal is that these Brand Audits should only take a few hours.
   
2. Also, where a real Brand Audit would include substantial market research, these will rely solely on the social element of the web to provide me user reviews, etc., and consequently give me an indication of the perception of the brand.
   
3. Finally, where a real Brand Audit would require substantial face time with a company's Marketing Department and several of their front-line operations teams, this Brand Audit will only be based on my guesstimates of the company's Marketing Plan and Brand plans.

The outline for the audit will start out as:

• Select a Brand and take or find photos of it in use. Purpose = a Visual "record" of the product.
• Learn about the Company's Strategy by figuring out what I can from publicly available documents (e.g. Annual Reports, etc. from their website). Purpose = a background on what the Brand should reflect.
  
• Analyze Porter's 5 Forces (really briefly). Purpose = A snapshot of Competitors, Substitutes, Suppliers, Customers, Potential for New Entrants
• Research public perception of the Brand & Direct Competitors using the Internet. Purpose = a cheap (and likely poor) substitue for real research
• Review Brand Identity Standards by taking a closer look at the product, it's packaging, it's web-site, and it's advertising. Purpose = a "Guesstimate" at the brand book for the Brand.
• Review Brand Expression at Touch Points: Test out the Brand's 1-800 number, their email, instore, help, etc.. Purpose = Understanding of how Brand is engrained in employees, e-contacts, etc.
• Review Advertising & Promotion including YouTube, Press Releases, any other media campaign I can easily find. In addition I will look for commentary on the Brand's advertising from Marketing and Advertising sites. Purpose = Understanding of how the brand is advertised.
• Evaluate Brand Positioning and Differentiators. Purpose = Understand what "word" the brand owns, and how it supports that differentiation.
• Review brand extensions. Look at how the Brand is used (or misused) on extensions. Purpose = A guess at how and why the company has stretched the Brand assets.
• Summary & Recommendation: After looking at all of that, I will provide my summary and recommendation. Purpose = A bit of satisfaction at a dive into a brand.

"Check this space" frequently to see how the Brand Audit Sprint experiment works out!

Bad Call Centers

I used to have the worst job in the world. I designed IVR and CTI systems. If you don't know what that means, try this for a scenario ...

I called this frickin 1-800 number for my insurance company and got one of those darn automated systems. It wanted me to tell it what I wanted. After several failed attempts I told it that I wanted it to F-off. That didn't work. Then it asked me for my policy number. I read it in. It got it wrong. I tried again. It got it wrong. Finally it transferred me over to a real person. That's what I wanted right from the start. A real person.

Yah - IVR and CTI are those cold systems that make call centers and contact centers run. And, they are the systems that everyone hates. Even the people who created them hate them. The first thing all of us do is attempt to zero out.

At a party, the best way to end a discussion is to tell people that you create IVR and CTI systems. Typically an Internal Auditor or a Colorectal Surgeon will have better luck starting an interesting conversation than an IVR and CTI consultant.

But, I have seen the light. What do I mean?
Improving a call center or contact center is not actually about shaving a second off each call. While operations personnel in a call center believe that it is, the Marketing department knows better. Improvement in a call center is all about synchronizing the experience at the customer touch-point with the brand's promise.

The process to synchronize a Call Center's operations with a Marketing Department's brand aspirations starts with a mini brand audit, and ends with a road-map for improvement. The road-map provides a call center an appropriate technology, process, training, and "people" plan that will empower the call center to deliver on the brand promise. It also involved educating Finance, IT, HR, and other departments along the way about the need to align the brand promise, and the cost and (even bigger) benefits of doing so.

The road-map can include IVR, CTI, and other technologies. However, it will specify the brand alignment that is critical for success. In the end, you can have your branding and save some seconds too.

I was reading a great blog and LinkedIn question today by Patrick Byers. In it he posed the question "Will the economy kill creativity?"

My answer to that ...

The economy may not kill creativity, but it will beat it around for a while.

It is time for the accountants to do battle with the marketers. For the past 15 years or more the Accountants have had to dream up projects to suck the life out of companies (SOX, Y2K, etc.). Meanwhile, Marketers have been able to run rampant with poorly performing ad campaigns and nary a concern for their own brand. It didn’t matter. The economy was so strong and people were so crazy about spending every last dime and then some (a lot of some apparently), that no marketer could do wrong.

Now it’s time for the Accountants to have their revenge! Over the next year or more every Marketing effort will be pecked to death and creativity will die.

So - it is time for Marketers to “start again” and do some navel gazing to make sure they are doing the right thing. The right place to start is to clearly understand your brand and to be able to own a word in the consumer’s mind with respect to your brand. From there, you can start again on your marketing plan, and ultimately some great and successful marketing projects.

What will you do for the next 18 months?

According to the latest buzz from our world leaders, this economic "crisis" will end in 18 months. The CBC reports:

The global financial crisis will be overcome by mid-2010, say leaders from the 21 member countries attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru.

The leaders issued the optimistic forecast at the end of their two-day summit in the Peruvian capital.

"We are convinced that we can overcome this crisis in a period of 18 months," the leaders said in the statement. "We have already taken urgent and extraordinary steps to stabilize our financial sectors and strengthen economic growth."

The words of confidence were added early Sunday to a joint declaration that APEC leaders originally issued Saturday.

One delegate, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the changes were made at the request of the summit's host, Peruvian President Alan Garcia.

All very interesting. I wonder if it is at all credible. What is credible is that the dip and sway in the economy has put Accounting departments all over the world back in charge of the corporate controls. That means that if you are in a Marketing position, you are really going to have to watch your activities to ensure that they are providing great payback.

Where does that start? I think it starts at the top of your Marketing mission - ensuring you have a solid brand. To do that starts with really understanding your brand and how you stack up against your competitors. One way to achieve this is through a Brand Audit.

• The goal of a Brand Audit is to put a line in the sand with respect to "getting" where you are with your brand, and where you need to take it.
• Flowing from this you can set your Marketing Strategy, Advertising Tactics, and so on.

Another thing it means is that every project you take on will need to be successful. That means that Project Management will take on an entirely more important role. You need to be sure that you have:

• A great business case,
• A solid project plan,
• A skilled and coordinated team executing on the plan, and
• An inspiring Go-To-Market communication plan.

You have 18 months to take a breather and get the important stuff done. I hope you just enjoyed that breather. That 18 months needs to start Monday morning.