June 12, 2013

People. People. People.

I was up in Karratha, Western Australia a few weeks ago at the kind invitation of the local business network and chamber of commerce.

It was great to get among people in such a remote region and talk about brand. And one issue clearly resonated – the relationship between building a brand and the people of the organisation.

Brand is the result of the promises you keep and those promises are mostly kept by the people of the organisation, and that’s good news and bad news.

In Karratha, it can make things tough. It’s a transient and expensive workforce up there, so hiring the right people takes on a whole new complexity. Even if you find them they might only be there a few months before they move on. And if you look for the people who are sticking around you might not be able to find the attributes you care about and that will make them a fit.

If the right people are critical to building the brand (and they are), then how do you navigate those realities, realities that I am sure play out to varying degrees for organisations in many environments.

Let’s start with getting the right people. There is a huge diversity of values out there, and people pretty much come with the ones they come with. It’s the ones you need them to come with that is the critical question that every organisation has to answer.

Do they need to have the customer service gene – just wanting to help people.

Do they need to have the perseverance gene – stick with something until it is done.

Do they need to have the curious gene – always looking around at new things.

Or whatever it is for your organisation.

If people to hire are thin on the ground, get really focused on one or two key things you need them to have and always hire the right fit with slightly lesser skills over the skilled-up person who doesn’t really fit.

You can train skills. You can’t train fit.

You can train people how to deliver service in keeping with your organisation, what to say when they answer the phone, what the policies and procedures are. But you can’t train them to care about it and really want to do it. Same goes for most other attributes.

So you get the right people and then they leave.

It can feel like the end of things as you know it, especially in small organisations where the person is often seen as integral.

The sad truth is that no matter how great someone is, how amazing they are, how great the fit is – no one is irreplaceable and people will leave.

In the example we were discussing in Karratha, the people in question were in customer relationship roles. It’s certainly hard to build and maintain good relationships with your customers if the person they are used to working with keeps leaving.

You’re not going to change the environment – it is what it is, and having the right person who cares about providing customer service is probably more important than having someone who doesn’t care just because they’ll be around.

Here communication is key.

Keep your customers in the loop. Explain what the company is doing to ensure they continue to get the level of service they’ve come to expect – whatever that is.

Have protocols in place to make sure that when people leave, important information doesn’t leave with them.

This is one area where SMEs have a huge advantage over big corporates. It’s quite a bit easier to find a few hundred people who share whatever DNA you need them to have, compared to the thousands a large corporate has to find.

Filed Under: Alignment, Brand and Promises, Organisation Development
May 29, 2013

What is a Brand?

I am a Brand.

I am much more than a logo, name or marketing campaign.

I am sometimes a verb (when used on cattle), more often a noun.

You can find me somewhere between a feeling and the organisation.

I can be a promise, a principle, a point of engagement, an organising system, a way to align what we do.

I make what we care about visible.

In the end I am a result (of the promises we keep).

I am a Brand.

Filed Under: Brand and Promises
May 14, 2013

Brand, Leadership and Saying No

The role of leaders within an organisation in building the brand can’t be understated. I quite simply have never seen a strong and resilient brand result if it is not driven and supported by the leadership of the organisation.

And when I say leadership, I mean literally the CEO, GM, owner, founder, etc, but also other people within the organisation who lead in various ways.

So how do leaders drive and support the brand?

Most obviously (but not most often done), they state what it stands for – what the purpose is, and then they keep talking about it. That’s the defining driver of any brand.

They set the example and the tone for the values of the organisation by what they do and how they do it, which in turn shapes how the organisation does things and delivers on their purpose.

Both those are all critically important. But here is the most important role leadership plays in building a brand: They say no.

They say we will not do things that way.
They say we won’t trade what we care about for short-term gain.
They say we won’t blindly follow that trend.
They say no to a merger that would destroy the culture.
They say no.

By way of example, Southwest Airlines is a low-cost carrier in the US which was founded with the mission “to make air travel as affordable as taking the bus”.

The airline is renowned for its low ticket prices, no assigned seating and friendly staff. Whenever founding CEO Herb Kelleher was approached by a staff member with a suggestion, Kelleher’s response was always to ask “How will that make flying more affordable for our customers?”

If the answer was it doesn’t, then the answer was no. And the result was one of the best performing and strongest brands in aviation history, with passionate staff, loyal customers and 40 consecutive years of profitability.

Filed Under: Brand and Promises
May 2, 2013

Myer are idiots

As part of their stumbling non-apology for the stupid, thoughtless comments by a chief executive who frankly should have known better, Myer stated the following:

“As a business however, we remain sensitive to imposts on the consumer by the Government, for whatever purpose, as this adds to negative consumer sentiment and that adversely impacts sales, profit and jobs.”

I can think of a few things that will create more “negative consumer sentiment that will adversely impact sales, profit and jobs…” stupid statements like that!

For a leader to make such callous statements in a public forum (and I don’t care if you are at a private event, NOTHING is private these days) – to say that the cost something of profound social importance to so many Australians would come at the expense of sales in his store, shows just how out of touch he and by association his company are with the customers and employees they claim to care so much about.

Your brand is the result of everything you do, and leadership on what is important to the company is one of the most important “to dos” of a chief executive. And if I was an employee or customer of Myer the message that came through loud and clear is that what is most important is money.

And while I understand being profitable is necessary, it is a result not a goal, which is the irony here. Because by making money the issue he has pretty effectively assured that I will think long and hard before I give his company any more of mine.

 

 

Filed Under: Brand and Promises, Communications Tagged:
May 1, 2013

Brand of the people, by the people

Great brands are built by people. But not just any people. They have to be the right people. Right for who? Right for your organisation. And that will be a different mix depending on what you care about and what you do (pretty much in that order).

The connection between building a brand and the people of an organisation is an area that gets scant coverage when compared to the column yards dedicated to the marketing approach to brand ‘creation’.

People are the backbone of any brand. It is the people who deliver the services, develop the products, deal with the customers, collaborate with partners and generally make the myriad of actions and decisions that are the real brand building blocks.

So how do you know who are your ‘right’ people?

In the end it comes down to shared values. Caring about the same thing. The right people for Macquarie Bank are very different from the right people for Zappos and not merely because one is a finance institution and the other sells shoes online.

Too many organisations are focused on hiring skills, not people. And the problem with that approach is too often those skills end up leaving (or being fired) because the people who have them don’t fit in. Or as I often say, people too often get hired for what they can do and fired because of who they are.

So how do you know who are your “right” people?

It starts with knowing what your core values are. The real ones. The ones that drive how you do things around your place. If you’re not sure, try thinking of them as non-negotiables. What wouldn’t you trade? What are your absolutes – those things that are probably a competitive disadvantage sometimes.

In his bestselling book Good to Great, Jim Collins says:

“The main point … is not just about assembling the right team – that’s nothing new. The main point is to FIRST get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it. The second key point is the degree of sheer rigor needed in people decisions in order to take a company from good to great.”

This illustrates exactly where the ‘outside in, create it’ approach to brand is doomed to fail. You can’t say ‘now we are going to be this’ and expect that the people of the organisation will accept that or even be able to support it. Unless it is aligned with what people care about and believe is important, the most likely reaction will be ‘I don’t think so…’.

So, who are your ‘right’ people?

Filed Under: Bob, Brand and Promises, Organisation Development Tagged: ,
April 20, 2013

The Expectations Vacuum

In the absence of expectations being set about what I can or can’t do, it is perfectly reasonable that you as the customer or other stakeholder will apply your own expectations to the situation.

But here’s the problem with that.

It dooms me to fail.

Because there is no way that I can know what your expectations are unless you tell me (which is unlikely) and even if I ask you, chances are you won’t be able to tell me anyway (pesky little things, they only reveal themselves when disappointed).

So my only choice is to be clear about the expectations I set. At least then you can choose to accept them or not.

This is the opportunity and the failing for most of us. We set expectations badly and then get upset when things don’t happen the way we want them to.

And yes, while some of it is human nature – after all something about being specific about what you can and can’t do just feels a bit unseemly, there is not much unseemlier than being part of the resulting conversations when the expectations I didn’t set bump up against the ones you didn’t tell me you had.

Here are some of the really stupid reasons that I’ve heard over the years about why expectations weren’t set:

  • If we are too specific then they will hold us to it.
  • If we say what we will do our competition will just one up us.
  • If we say what we will do customers might decide to go somewhere else.
  • They have to tell us what they want and then we’ll do it.
  • They will just expect us to do what they want no matter what we say.

And plenty more along those lines…

But underneath all the justifications often lies the fact that many businesses have never stopped to really think about what they can and can’t, will and won’t do. And if you haven’t done that there isn’t much chance you can clearly set an expectation around it.

Of course the customer or other party in all this isn’t off the hook. If you don’t ask about something you expect and confirm that’s what will happen, then you share part of the blame when it doesn’t.

But in general, the onus does lie with me as the person who is providing the service, product, or whatever. I have to say what I can and can’t, will and won’t do. And I have to reflect my values and my purpose in doing that. I have to think about my customers when I do it. I have to think about my own business and employees when I do it.

Because when it comes right down to it, whatever the expectations you set, being able to meet them is the most important thing – for your business and your brand.

Filed Under: Brand and Promises, Communications, Customer Experience
April 20, 2013

Let’s not Talk about Personal Brand

After one too many tweets appeared in my stream using the terms personal brand and personal “branding” I’d had about as much as I could take and tweeted the following:

“Need a twitter filter to auto delete tweets using the term “personal branding” – unless you have a hot piece of metal in hand just stop it.”

I’m not going to rehash previous blogs for SmartCompany on this topic (which you can find here), they pretty much cover everything I have to say on this tired old topic.

Instead I’d like everyone to just stop. So, let’s not talk about personal brand.

Let’s give it all a rest and get off the treadmill of manufactured public personas.

Let’s get back to interacting with each other as people not as “brands”.

Let’s have a conversation not share elevator pitches.

Let’s talk about how we can work together on something great instead of how we can leverage our “brands” for greater value.

Let’s focus on doing what we say we will do and keeping our promises.

Let’s spend more time thinking about who we are today – faults and all, rather than marching relentlessly towards some future aspiration of who we should be.

Because in the over-manufactured, over-thought, just over it thing that personal brand seems to have become there is less and less room to be who you are. And that’s the biggest joke of all – because when it comes down to it, that’s all your personal brand is. It is who you are.

So let’s talk about that. And let’s not talk about personal brand.

Filed Under: Brand and Promises
April 20, 2013

The Consumer is not in Control

While reading an article about the recent promise fail by Domino’s, I saw the following:

“Phil McDonald, the Brisbane managing director of advertising agency George Patterson Y&R, said the fallout was another example of the consumer being in control.

“Marketers own the brand but they aren’t always in control,” Mr McDonald said.

“When you’re in control, you can run the traditional teaser campaign and things that interest you are going to be more relevant, but when the consumer’s in control, that’s not the case.”

I’ll get back to the whole Domino’s fail in a minute but WHAT ABSOLUTE RUBBISH! (caps intentional because, yes, I am yelling).

First. Marketing doesn’t and shouldn’t “own the brand” unless you want a recipe for disaster. Brand is the result of the promises you keep and the things you do – all of them. Marketing is in charge of only a very small percentage of that and the idea that that small percentage is where the “brand” lives is one of the biggest and most destructive lies in business. A lie that is largely perpetuated by those with the most to gain from it.

Second. The consumer is not in control unless you as an organisation decide to abdicate all those things you do to them.

So now back to what Domino’s did. Effectively they hyped up a promise into something they could never keep.

By saying ”Get ready for our biggest announcement in 20 years #gamechanger,” Domino’s set themselves up to fail. No consumers made them fail to change the game, they did that all by themselves.

No consumer was responsible for the decision that led to the campaign.

No consumer looked at their current toppings and pizza size and decided that adding a few and changing from round to square was worth that level of hyperbole.

No consumer made the CEO jump on board to continue the hype.

No consumer suggested that they confuse genuine innovation in their business with a marketing campaign with the shelf life of pepperoni and cheese.

Social media doesn’t put the consumer in control of your organisation or your marketing any more than a football fan’s attendance to a game puts them in control of the outcome on the field. They are still spectators reacting to the actions and decisions of the players.

When organisations forget they are in control, when they play to the crowd rather than keeping their eye on the ball and game at hand, it is inevitable they will make mistakes, make bad decisions and break promises.

Domino’s earned the wrath of customers and commentators alike for no other reason than they didn’t think about the promise they were making and, as a result, made one they couldn’t keep.

The social media reaction was just the spectators yelling from the stands.

Filed Under: Communications, Customer Experience
April 20, 2013

Show me your Passion

If you are starting a new business, I think the key ingredient to success, more than funding, more than ideas, more than planning and strategy, is passion.

If you don’t have that you’ll never get past the grind. And, even more importantly in the early days, your passion is pretty much what you have to rely on to engage and inspire the people around you.

So what is passion? It’s like the old saying goes – I have no idea but I’ll know when I see it. That’s the key. You can’t just tell me about your passion, you’ve got to show me.

There is plenty of hype out there. People can talk up a storm and it all seems quite passionate, but then you scratch the surface and underneath it just doesn’t hold up.

  • “We are passionate about service.” But systematically put up barriers to having to speak to them.
  • “We are passionate about quality.” But there isn’t a quality system in place and the defect rates are through the roof.
  • “We are passionate about innovation.” But don’t invest in time for new ideas.
  • “We are passionate about [insert your favourite here].” But despite our words nothing we do supports it.

You have a better chance of people believing your passion if it is visible. Too many businesses start up and don’t embed whatever their passion is into the fabric of their operations. And then a few years down the track they wonder why people don’t “believe” them, why they can’t get “traction”.

It’s hard work to make your passion visible and weave it into your business. It takes time and effort and thought. But isn’t that how it should be, after all, the Latin origin of the word passion means to submit.

That’s the thing about passion, even though it’s a feeling, we willingly follow it when we see it.

There are many great “passionatas” throughout history, who led companies, countries, ideas, whole movements. They wore their passion on their sleeves and yes, they suffered for it and often died for it. We can learn much from them about the true meaning of passion.

Thankfully the stakes are not usually that high for the business down the block, but the truth remains no matter what your endeavour you’ve got to show your passion, not just talk about it.

Filed Under: Alignment, Brand and Promises, Organisation Development
April 20, 2013

Everyone is not your Customer

I’ve recently had a number of conversations with people where my brand advice to them ended with the following statement:

Everyone is not your customer.

It should be obvious and some companies do get it. Too many don’t.

There are plenty of ways you can start to look at who is your customer or not and it usually begins with my caring on some level about what you care about. Don’t try to please everyone. Pick something to stand for that you care about – low prices, or cool design, or the environment, or organic, or Australian made, or …

Look at any strong and resilient brand. They all share a crystal clear knowledge about what they care about and who their potential customer is.

If you don’t know who your customer is stop everything and figure it out. I mean that. Do it right now. Because for every hour you don’t know you are wasting resources trying to get to the wrong people.

  • Where do they live?
  • What do they like to do?
  • How old are they?
  • Are they married, single, have kids?
  • Are they male or female or both?
  • Are they little kids or teenagers?
  • Are they party animals or home bodies?
  • Do they live in a house or an apartment or a commune?
  • Do they have a car?

Keep asking questions until you have a picture.

Everyone is not your customer.

Filed Under: Brand and Promises, Customer Experience
«Older Posts