Bob Rogers Travel Selects Three Deuce for Brand Development

I'm happy to announce that Bob Rogers Travel has selected Three Deuce Branding to lead positioning and strategic development.

Bob Rogers Travel creates memories that last a lifetime by planning meaningful student group travel opportunities to destinations throughout the nation and world. Celebrating its 30^th anniversary, the company specializes in performance tours for music ensembles and was named the nation’s top producer for Disney Performing Arts in 2011.

Visit their website at BobRogersTravel.com.

Resolutions for a Brand New Year

With 2012 just around the corner, I offer an update of a past feature: A list of resolutions that may come in handy as you and your team build your brand(s) in the coming year and beyond:

1. I will live my brand vision every day. And if I don’t have a brand vision – one that clearly defines what we stand for, how we serve, and why we’re different – I’ll make it my top priority to create one.

2. I will craft bold strategies. Recall the words of Harvard’s Michael Porter: “Strategy is about choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.”

3. I will execute with discipline, courage and passion.

4. I will set clear objectives and measure results diligently.

5. I will manage my brand as a complete experience, guided by the knowledge that what we do always trumps what we say.

6. I will treat my customers and/or consumers with the respect they deserve – meaning they are not data points, “eyeballs,” or a means to reaching sales goals. I will extend this same respect to co-workers, vendors, colleagues, and other partners.

7. I will learn more about all available communications and experience options. When selecting between them, I will choose long term over short term, and substance over style.

8. I will listen more and read more.

9. I will communicate and lead more effectively.

10. I will use my brand to improve lives – to make the world a better place in some way.

Any resolutions that you’d add to this list? Feel free to add your thoughts in the Comments section.

Here’s hoping your 2012 is your best year yet, both personally and professionally.

Make a Real Guarantee

A few weeks back in this space, we discussed "Reasons to Believe." We defined RTBs as persuasive facts that support the promise you make, the story you tell, or the difference you claim.

Reasons to Believe are particularly critical in this era of eroding consumer trust. These days, you should assume distrust. That's because consumers have been disappointed so many times in the past – lousy customer service, bait-n-switch, golden parachutes for incompetent execs, you name it.

Reasons to Believe build credibility, assuage fears, and overcome objections in advance. They ease the consumer's mind before she opens her pocketbook. And the more RTBs you can provide, the better.

Today I'd like to explore a particular kind of RTB – the guarantee. Guarantees are arguably the most potent Reason to Believe, because they minimize or eliminate the consumer's downside.

Trouble is, many guarantees aren't constructed properly. For example, the following is the entire Holiday Inn Hospitality Promise, as presented on the little placard in the bathroom the last time I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express:

"Making your stay a complete success is our goal. Just let our Manager on Duty or front desk staff know if any part of your stay isn't satisfactory. We promise to make it right or you won't pay for that part of your stay."

"For that part of your stay?" What on earth does that mean? If the heater goes out in the middle of the night, what is "that part of my stay" worth? And who decides?

Holiday Inn is on the right track, but the payoff isn't there. If it's not clear to the consumer just what the recourse is, the entire guarantee is rendered ineffective.

Men's Wearhouse faces a similar conundrum. I'll give them high marks for consistency; by now, most of us can recite their familiar advertising sign-off: "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it."

But it turns out their guarantee lacks meat. If you visit the Men's Wearhouse website, there's a list of what they call "guarantees." But these are really closer to a set of vague philosophies and promises. If there's anything that indicates what happens if you aren't satisfied, it's not readily available.

If you're serious about standing behind your products or services, you'll want to offer a more ironclad guarantee. Some of the hallmarks of a strong guarantee:

It cuts through the clutter. It's bold enough that it makes a strong selling claim. Take the famous guarantee of L.L. Bean: "Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise." Can't get much bolder – or more clear – than that.

It actually reassures. It speaks to areas of the greatest concern for consumers, and it offers peace of mind and confidence.

It involves risk by the company. As Doug Hall writes in his book, Jump Start Your Business Brain, "The power of your guarantee is directly linked to the level of risk you and your company are perceived to be taking."

So if you're looking to present a potent and persuasive guarantee, where do you start? I recommend visiting the "Three C's":

Your company: What do you deliver as part of your product or service bundle that would lend itself to a guarantee? Where are you exceptional? Where could you be?

Your consumers: If you know your consumers well – and you do, right? – you should know where their concerns and pain points are. What guarantee would speak directly to these concerns?

Your competitors: Study their claims and policies. I'd guess you'll find that, from one competitor to the next, they all kind of run together. What guarantee could you offer that would cut through the clutter and make people take notice?

So what's stopping you? If you're serious about earning consumer trust, you could do much worse than offer a powerful guarantee. Get started today.

A version of this post appeared in the American City Business Journals column "That Branding Thing" on December 11, 2009, and appears here with permission.

The Long Haul

After a recent presentation, an audience member asked for my opinion on the most common misconception about branding.

It was an easy question to answer. It's the idea that branding is an initiative – something that requires a brief investment of attention and time, and can then be moved down the priority list. Branding is not a marathon, this way of thinking suggests; it's a sprint.

In the 12 years I've been consulting, I haven't seen much change in this misguided thinking. Certainly, it was more pronounced during the dot-com boom of the late '90s ("Let's all race to the IPO!"). But even today, a disturbingly large number of business leaders still think branding is a matter of genius strokes, sudden behavioral shifts and instant results.

It's difficult to win the game if you completely misunderstand the rules.

A better approach is offered by Jim Collins in his terrific 2001 book, Good to Great. I just had occasion to re-read it, and it carries my highest recommendation. If you're unfamiliar, Good to Great reveals the findings of an extensive study in which companies that exhibited strong performance over many years were compared with others in the same industry that did not achieve and sustain such results.

A key idea in Good to Great is the "Flywheel Concept." As Collins articulates it:

"… The good-to-great transformations never happened in one fell swoop. There was no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no wrenching revolution. Good to great comes about by a cumulative process – step by step, action by action, decision by decision, turn by turn of the flywheel – that adds up to sustained and spectacular results."

Later, he adds simply, "There was no miracle moment."

I don't have Collins' mountains of data, but I contend that the same principle holds true in branding. Branding is many little things, and a few big ones, done consistently well and in harmony with a core idea.

Put your consumer hat on. You are no doubt very loyal to a few brands, and much less loyal to most others. What makes the difference? I contend that brands earn your loyalty because they consistently meet or exceed your needs. They deliver, not just once or occasionally, but repeatedly over time.

Of course, most organizations aren't set up to build brands for the long-term. So what can you do to get and stay on the path?

Define your brand vision. Beyond the numerical objectives, what do you want your brand to stand for? How do you want to serve? How do you seek to make the world a better place? To the extent that you define who you serve and how, you will have a common goal around which the organization can align.

Take the strategic long view. In the current economic environment, much thinking has become reactionary and focused on the short-term. Instead, ask: What would you do if you had five or ten years to achieve your brand goals? (It may take you that long anyways.) What would the result be if you focused on doing the right things, instead of the quick, easy or urgent things?

Think "consistent," not "shiny." Your brand is often defined by organizational and cultural factors. These are difficult to change. It's much easier to tinker with the "shiny objects" – a new website, a revamped logo. You'll have something to point to, but have you driven change? Your goal is to provide a consistently outstanding and meaningful experience – and that will require some heavier lifting than simply changing the tagline.

Change the dashboard. We often manage by backward-looking measures – those metrics that tell us what has already happened, but not necessarily what will happen. Even an uptick in sales doesn't mean you'll sustain that growth. Instead, look to measures like consumer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals – these are better indicators that you're doing the things that matter.

A version of this post appeared in the American City Business Journals column "That Branding Thing" on November 13, 2009, and appears here with permission.

Why Should I Believe You?

Why should I believe you?

If you're not asking that question – from the standpoint of your consumers or clients, both current and prospective – you should be. And for a simple reason: They probably don't.

Consumers are jaded. They're tired of being promised one thing and getting another. They've been repulsed by the Enrons of the world. They've watched CEOs receive multi-million dollar bonuses for effectively running their companies into the ground. They've been burned by shady car salesmen.

When consumer trust is betrayed, it affects all of us. You may be the most honest, ethical businessperson in the history of commerce. But you're fighting an uphill battle to earn the trust of the market.

But why should you believe me? Check the numbers: In his blog, The Brand Bubble, Young & Rubicam's John Gerzema notes that the measured level of trust in a wide range of product and service categories dropped by 10% or more in 2008 alone. In 1997, the Y&R Brand Asset Valuator said 52% of consumers considered all brands to be trustworthy; today, that number hovers around 20%.

So what are we, as brand-builders, to do?

We must build, and communicate, our Reasons to Believe. RTBs are persuasive facts that support the promise you make, the story you tell, or the difference you claim. They build credibility, they assuage fear and they overcome objections in advance. And the more Reasons to Believe you provide, the better.

In general, there are five categories of RTBs that you can apply in your messaging:

History – Have you been in business longer than your competitors? Have you pioneered a unique solution or knowledge base? Have you won awards for the excellence of your work? Don't be shy; let the world know.

Demonstration – Why do TV ads so often rely on side-by-side comparisons? Why do ladies in aprons crowd the aisles of your local grocery store, offering samples of their products? Because if you witness the absorbency of the paper towel, or taste that delicious salsa, you're more likely to be convinced of its superiority.

I've often heard B2B or service marketers protest that they can't demo their wares, and I could not disagree more. White papers, speaking gigs, blogs and the like all provide prospects with a taste of your thinking before they buy. This very column, in fact, is a kind of demo.

Logic Chain – Why do you do things the way you do? Are there elements of your business model, or ingredients in your product, that would lead a prospect to say, "That makes sense"? Lay out the logic in clear, simple terms.

The Three Likes – An old adage states that consumers respond best to advertising with three kinds of people: "People like me, people I like and people I want to be like." These also apply to RTBs. If you're a services marketer, gather as many testimonials and case studies as you can; prospects will recognize "people like me". If you're a landscaper, get approval to share the names of your most successful and prominent clients ("people I want to be like").

Guarantees – In an era of eroding trust, there are few things more potent than an iron-clad guarantee. Take the famous guarantee of L.L. Bean: "Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise." And they back it up. What's the boldest guarantee you could offer? What's stopping you from offering it?

Of course, the above all focus on messaging. And while powerful, they ignore the most critical RTB of all: Performance. In other words, keep your promises. If you say you're going to do something, do it. Or do a little better. To the extent that you delight those you serve, they'll tend to tell their friends and colleagues how wonderful you are. And that's more potent than any ad you might run.

A version of this post appeared in the American City Business Journals column "That Branding Thing" on October 16, 2009, and appears here with permission.

A Tale of Two Airlines

So I've got some time to kill here in the Charlotte airport. The Delta counter agent just refused to put me on an earlier flight back home, even though that flight had open seats. The reason? My original ticket involved a connection, and I wanted to switch to a direct flight, and "the computer won't let me make that change." So I'll get home 4 hours later than I could have, based on some curious policy.

And that reminds me of a story.

A few weeks ago, my father told me of a terrific experience he had with Southwest Airlines. After booking a flight, he saw a better price advertised on an identical route. He called Southwest and asked if they would honor the new, lower price. Sure, they replied; just go to the website and follow the steps to make the change. My father replied that he's not the most web-savvy gentleman in the Midwest. So the customer service rep actually stayed on the phone with him to walk him through the online changes, remaining courteous and patient all the while. Dad, as is his wont, then called her supervisor with his thanks.

Days later, the following happened to me:

I called Delta to make a same-day change from a later flight to an earlier flight. Nothing too unusual there, except that, for whatever reason, the customer service rep also elected to cancel the next 2 legs on that ticket. This was never discussed in any way. So I didn't find out until days later, when I arrived at O'Hare for the next leg, that my ticket had been canceled.

Fine. When you're dealing with humans, there will be human error. But errors can be fixed, right?

Apparently not. I called the customer service number, and the rep told me that she could put me back on the original flight, but at an additional cost of $600+. I told her I didn't understand why I should be meant to pay, when the mistake was not mine, and she got a little belligerent.

I asked her for what possible reason I would arrive at O'Hare if I had previously intended to cancel that flight; her response: "I don't know you, you don't know me."

I asked what right the original rep had to cancel the remainder of my ticket, when we never discussed it at all; her response: "If you didn't want the rest of your ticket canceled, you should have said so."

This is what 600,000 lifetime miles with Delta gets you.

When the rep wouldn't transfer me to her supervisor, I called another Delta service number. This next rep was much more helpful, but the total time of the two calls (40+ minutes) caused me to miss the next flight, which in turn almost made me late for the client event to which I was headed.

That would be the end of the story, but for this:

Afterwards, when I wrote a formal letter of complaint to Delta, their method of resolution was a $100 voucher for future travel. However, as I also informed them in my complaint, when the first rep cancelled and re-issued my ticket, I was charged $91 that I should not have been charged. Put another way, Delta estimates the cost of their error, and the trouble it caused me, to be exactly NINE DOLLARS.

This is not just a venting session (though I'll admit a mild level of catharsis). There's a lesson here for all of us.

The difference between Southwest and Delta could be the difference between your brand and your competitor's - in either direction. There are policy and personal decisions that are shaping your brand experience, even as I write this. Front-line staff are making dozens (or hundreds, or thousands) of daily choices that define your brand in the minds of your customers.

How do you know those decisions are the right ones?

Inspect your brand from top to bottom. Turn over every stone. Find those policies, decisions and moments that may be driving your customers away.

Then fix them.

Less Can Be More

A young brand manager faces his vice-president of marketing, ready to present the first strategic plan he has ever created. He is nervous, but also confident in the fact that he has done a thorough job. The two fat binders that sit on the veep's desk are proof of this.

The brand manager launches into his spiel. His presentation is a dazzling, overstuffed collection of words and pictures. Charts follow graphs. Data tables precede other, more complex data tables. At one point, the young man sets a world record for "most words crammed into a single PowerPoint slide, ever."

The meeting, which was meant to be a half-hour in length, crosses the 60-minute mark. But the brand manager forges ahead, certain that his boss is impressed by the flurry of information. (The veep's body language is apparently not registering.)

Finally, the young man concludes his presentation. He takes a deep breath and asks his superior if he has any questions. There is a pause.

"Just two," comes the reply. "What does this all mean? And what the hell should we do now?"

The brand manager had made an all-too-common mistake. He gathered a boatload of facts, but failed to find the story in them. He failed to simplify.

More years ago than I care to mention, I was the brand manager in this tale. And that afternoon's events taught me one of the most profound lessons of my business career: Namely, that simplicity is critical to most brand successes.

I'm not saying that some business challenges aren't complex. But the ability to simplify, to clarify, to find a simple, compelling thread, is often what separates a great brand leader from the rest.

It's not enough to just generate data. Certainly, the more good information you have, the better your decisions should be. But once that data is gathered, it's your task, as a brand leader, to make sense of it all – and then to make clear what must happen next. That's what strategy is.

You don't build brands by yourself. The sales team, the purchasing department, your customer service reps, your agency partners – all of these (and many more) will have a hand in the success or failure of your initiatives. So when you simplify, these partners are better able to help you.

Specifically, simplicity results in:

Ease of understanding – When you can clearly communicate what needs to happen and why, others can quickly grasp it (and share it with others, as they often must).

Focused execution – Simplicity enables your team to prioritize, and to make better decisions against these priorities.

Greater motivation – Confusion is not an energizer. To the extent that you can make clear the vision and the key action steps, your team will be more motivated to turn them into reality.

Later in my career, I once attended a company meeting in which the president presented, to his 80 employees, a corporate strategic plan with 19 key strategies. Nineteen! People can't remember that many ideas, let alone do 19 things well. And there is no scenario in which 19 strategies should have equal priority. The president had failed to choose and to clarify.

These days, I strive to define a client's entire brand strategy on a single page. Sure, there may be dozens of pages of support behind it, but at the end of it all, the core brand strategy must be that concise if I want my clients to act on it.

I challenge you to do the same. If you can capture your current situation, your desired future, and the steps from here to there on a single page, you've done a good job of simplifying. (No cheating – 12-point type or larger only!)

In closing, I leave you with something else my VP stated on that fateful afternoon: "If you can't simplify it… you haven't understood it."

Want to bring your brand to a higher level of clarity and simplicity? Find out how we can help at www.ThreeDeuce.com.

A version of this post appeared in the Business Courier of Cincinnati column "That Branding Thing" on September 18, 2009, and appears here with permission.

Cincinnati Chamber event - Oct. 8 - "Finding Difference in the Sameness Era"

Members of the Cincinnati Chamber, I will be the guest speaker at the Oct. 8 Sales & Marketing Luncheon. The topic: "Finding Difference in the Sameness Era."

We'll answer the question, "When it seems like every brand is the same in a crowded market, how can mine stand out?" We'll explore:

* 5 focused areas to help you define your brand's difference

* 6 key reminders to help you create and live your difference for years to come

* Real-world examples from brands big & small

I'd love to see your smiling face there. For more info and to sign up, please click this link.

A Simple Time-Saving Tip

For many of us, our time is our true inventory. So we need to manage and invest it carefully. Late last year, I wrote a post on this topic, "Respect Your Time in 2009." Today's post is a follow-up of sorts; I'd like to share a simple time-saver that's worked for me.

When you open a company, your contact information magically (and surprisingly quickly) ends up on all kinds of direct-mail and calling lists. To the extent that you elevate your company's profile - for instance, by appearances in the local press - this problem is compounded.

Recently, in response to a wave of cold-calls, I changed the recorded message on my business voice-mail to say, in part:

"...If you would like your call returned, please leave your name, number and the reason for your call..."

I used to respond to every voice-mail message, until it became clear that there was a reason that some people ignored my instructions to leave a reason for their call. About 90% of the time, such callers were salespeople who were simply dialing for dollars. They didn't know the first thing about me or my company, so they were trying to sell me something I didn't need. In other words, they were going to waste my time. The other 10% of the time, it was a networker or job-seeker with really lousy listening skills (not a great way to begin the relationship).

Now, when I receive these vague, mysterious messages - "Hi, Matthew, this is Joe Dokes. Can you call me back at 555-1234? Thanks." - I simply delete and move on.

This small change to my voice-mail has saved me time and nuisance; perhaps it will work for you as well.

Your time is valuable. Respect it. And don't tolerate those who don't.

Dirty Salesman Tricks

Last week I received an email from a guy I had never met or heard of. The full body of the email was as follows:

I had a note in my calendar to contact you in August. Are you still the appropriate contact for media relations?

Note his choice of words, clearly meant to suggest to me (or to the administrative assistant that might handle email in a larger firm) that a prior conversation had taken place.

I thought I smelled a Dirty Salesman Trick, and I was right. I replied to his email, noting that none of this rang a bell, and asking whether we had talked in the past. No, he confessed, he was simply trying to arrange a product demo.

I won't be responding, because our limited interaction to date indicates this guy can't be trusted.

Open the conversation any way you like. But open honestly.