Category Archives: Branding

Brand alignment and positioning is an essential practice beyond marketing

Instantly Align Stakeholders with Edutainment

04 Tuesday Oct 2016

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Edutainment style video makes it easy to get your ducks in a row.

Edutainment style video makes it easy to get your ducks in a row.

Herding cats. Boiling the ocean. Kicking whales down the beach. Aligning employees and customers to the brand.

Easy to say. Tough to do. And it’s not just a job for HR, Training, or Organizational Development alone. Marketing and brand have untapped power in this arena.

Alignment is a topic of endless discussion, with no definitive solution. But organizations spend billions on it because at the end of the rainbow is a legendary pot of ROI. You’ve heard it all before: Employees who are aligned with customer and company goals automatically collaborate better. They make better, customer-driven decisions that ultimately cut management costs and raise revenues, engagement, and retention.  In essence, aligned employees make it their mission to close the gaps between customer and company.

Excuses, Excuses

So why do organizations continue to communicate differently with employees and customers using Internal Communication and External Communication, respectively? It ultimately costs more money, causes unnecessary complexity, and inherently tells two different stories or evokes separate motivations, or at least presents different postures.

There are some types of internal communications that customers don’t want to be bothered with. But on the other hand, there is a litany of excuses not to use the same communications for others that promote transparency. The bottom line is many organizations don’t know how to be truly customer-driven. So they default by adapting the internal story of (profit focus) “you have a sales quota to meet” to the external story (customer focus) “trust that we’ll do the right thing for you, our customer.”

Among the “good reasons” internal communications need to be different from external, we’ve heard:

  • The internal story and external stories are just different
  • If customers knew how messed up we are on the inside they’d flee
  • It’s too technical for consumers to understand
  • How we do things internally is no one’s business but ours

… there are probably at least 100 more

The Payoff

Transparency builds trust with every stakeholder so, think of alignment as one complete story. The internal folks need the whole story. External stakeholders (distributors, customers/consumers) many times don’t need to hear the details, but should be entitled to hear the entire story as they become closer to the brand.

Imagine a poster with big headline type and smaller body type, graphics illustrating various details, and maybe even some smaller caption type. Employees and customers should all see the same poster. An employee, who works near the poster every day, sees all the details and words clearly … although it’s good for him to read the large headline type every day as he walks in the door. The consumer is passing by on the sidewalk. She can clearly read the headline and sees the same graphics the employee sees. As the she becomes a customer, she moves closer and begins to see more of the same detail that the employee sees. There’s nothing written on the back of the poster, hidden from the consumer or customer. Everything is transparent and therefore everyone is working on the same issues: how to make life better for customers.

Using different versions of the same marketing and educational assets for all stakeholders makes life simple for marketers and reduces skepticism among customers. Combining education and entertainment allows it to be multi-facing, showing ideal interactions and true sentiments. In fact it can turn the tables for a selling monologue to a buying dialog because you’re feeding both sides verbal and non-verbal information they need to do business.

Edutainment: A Tool for Alignment and Engagement

Financial Literacy Blog Post Image 2Edutainment is particularly well suited to high-involvement products and services and web applications like videos, interactive infographics, and gamification. It presents the same information in different levels of depth and focus aligning all stakeholders simultaneously. Wrapping education in well-produced assets can present an approachable brand personality with a customer-driven mission in real-life context. This is where the rubber meets the road; where customers see how employees should behave, and employees see how customers react. Brands that have a lock on this are famous: Apple, Southwest airlines, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, and Amazon. Some lump it all under “culture.” But how is the culture created and sustained?

Aligning through a stream of multi-facing assets—especially those with an appropriate sense of humor—creates brand transparency. They automatically align, reduce marketing friction and management costs, and accelerate innovation.

GroPartners Consulting creates edutainment assets for several industries, including financial, insurance, and retirement products and services.

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For more perspective on bridging strategy and execution, including practical tools and processes for brand operationalization, get a copy of Getting There From Here: Bridging Strategy and Execution, by Greg French, founder of GroPartners Consulting. E-book at iBooks or hard copy from Amazon.com.

http://amzn.to/1Jcli0A

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Extreme Branded Entertainment

04 Tuesday Oct 2016

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Brands are getting close to out-and-out owning music entertainers. What’s next?

In a promotional age more complex than any time in history, brands continue to look for ways to capture consumers at the visceral level. This is a tall order in societies like ours that splinter out consumers into ever-narrowing segments conditioned to deflect promotional messages as a default behavior.

In contrast, the music industry’s heritage is built on understanding and appealing to values, attitudes, interests and lifestyle. Music genres span every taste for every mood. So it’s no wonder that over the years, brands and bands have enjoyed a cozy fit: brands provide the money, bands provide the cache and association with lifestyles and values. Think Jimmy Buffett and you instantly taste the salted rim of a seaside margarita (Sandals Resorts?). Think Pink and you might get the urge to work out till you drop (Under Armour?).

A June 2016 Huffington Post blog packages the symbiosis well, citing three factors that attract brands to sponsor bands:

  • Compelling content
  • Cultural relevance
  • Authentic connection

Bands Forced to “Sell Out”

The balance between the non-conformist, no “sell-out” image of bands, and the opposite commercially-driven essence of brands has always been tricky business, but recently has become totally one-sided. As reported in a NY Times article, streaming music services have crushed the revenue structure of the music business, leaving bands with only touring and brand sponsorships to put fuel in the bus and pay for new guitar strings.

Now deprived of revenues formerly generated by record sales, music entertainers are broke without sponsorships. Brands have poured buckets of money into live music sponsorships to the point they’re literally taking over the show. For example, an entire tour of Lady Gaga shows actually integrated Doritos product placement on stage and around the event. So where does all this lead? It seems as if brands are getting pretty close to out-and-out owning music entertainers.

Pure Branded Entertainment

That scenario might not be too far off the trend. Since consumers drench themselves in music every day and position it as a mood identity device in their lives, what better way to entrench in consumer value systems than for brands to develop bands and solo artists of their own that write and perform songs projecting the values created by the brand. Not to suggest Mickey D’s Fat Pack or The Viagras as band names, but rather real bands with real names and real music and lyrics that never (or rarely) mention the brand name. The difference between this concept and blatantly sponsored bands of today is that the band/entertainer would be developed from the ground up by the brand that owns exclusive sponsorship rights. The music, lyrics, and image would project the brand’s values and image (Brad Paisley and Dove Men?). The original “values-aligned” music could be leveraged (instead of licensed) for brand advertising, events, videos, internal morale and alignment, and many more applications limited only by the boundaries of creativity. A hit song could mean a boon for the brand. And vice versa. If the music is good, does it make any difference how it’s funded?

Would the market buy into this kind of low profile “brand-backed band?” What do you think?

 

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For more perspective on bridging strategy and execution, including practical tools and processes for brand operationalization, get a copy of Getting There From Here: Bridging Strategy and Execution, by Greg French, founder of GroPartners Consulting. E-book at iBooks or hard copy from Amazon.com.

http://amzn.to/1Jcli0A

Color Creatively Inside the DOL Rule

22 Thursday Sep 2016

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The Department of Labor (DOL) recently finalized the rules that address conflicts of interest by financial advisers in providing retirement advice to consumers. The rule describes the kinds of communications that would constitute investment advice and types of relationships in which those communications would trigger fiduciary investment advice responsibilities. These communications are referred to as “covered investment advice.” But there are types of communications not covered that offer huge opportunity for innovation in capturing customer mind share.

The DOL rules have sent life insurance and retirement marketers into a panic to calculate where the line is drawn in their conversations that could trigger fiduciary responsibility. And the urgency is justified: The penalties for breaching fiduciary duty include restoring all losses incurred during the fiduciary relationship.

Green Light for Education

One of the types of communication that does not trigger fiduciary responsibilities is education, because ostensibly educational content does not provide recommendations, but only knowledge. The Department of Labor believes that “education about retirement savings and general financial and investment information is beneficial and helpful to plans, plan participants, and IRA owners, (as long as) the content doesn’t broach a level of recommendation as defined in the final rule.” So education sounds like the new champion of financial marketing, right?

There’s only one rub: Education doesn’t exactly sizzle with excitement or entice with engagement.

Edutainment: An Engaging Tool for Financial Marketing

Edutainment can improve engagement for financial education.

Edutainment can improve engagement for financial education.

Learning through entertainment dates back to Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack that amused and instructed colonists with its mix of maxims, weather forecasts, math lessons and puzzles.  The term “edutainment” was coined by The Walt Disney Company in 1948 to introduce the True Life Adventure series. In the 1990’s Bill Nye The Science Guy was immortalized by his quirky and fun TV show that became a modern-day model for edutainment. And in the 2000’s even brainiac physicists like Brian Greene were able to convey concepts as complex as String Theory to the masses with his “edutaining” mini-series.

Today, though edutainment is used widely in applications targeting early learners in kindergarten and elementary school, it isn’t fully leveraged in adult learning, especially in the financial industry. Maybe it’s because the financial industry has been driven to solemnity by regulation.  Maybe because it has a reputation for gravitas.  Maybe it’s time for a change.

Today, web video has opened up an insatiable channel for video on demand and programming limited only by the imagination. The convergence of this technology breakthrough, the DOL endorsement of education as a strategy to delay triggers, and the public’s growing appetite for “alternative” content, clearly cry for innovation.

The application of “edutainment” is one innovative and engaging way to leverage these trends. Creative content strategies such as this can help retirement product and service brands prosper throughout the DOL rule era by helping producers snap out of panic and get comfortable with doing business as usual, with a few modifications.

Adding interactive layers to entertaining videos enable a “create your own adventure” platform. Likewise, using guided path learning strategies with video and animation can provide deep engagement and effective learning.

A couple new video content formats along these lines include:

  • Short-form video series focusing on individual typical consumer financial situations within various stage/life style segments. How do they deal with it? How would viewers differ in their approach. How are decisions made and what is the model for the adviser to act in the customer’s best interest?
  • Brand sponsored dramatic comedy (“dramedy”) web video series starring life-stage specific cast with a central theme around financial crises, decisions, and resolution. Real life financial situations aren’t neatly bundled into categories. Instead, they are a complex combination of personalities, habits, early learnings, past behaviors, and events. A faux reality series like this could engage at the entertainment level, identify with consumers at the situational level, and provide real solutions by example of success.

Edutainment ideas for financial literacy are endless. In fact, this approach could be an entire cultural initiative for financial brands wanting to build intimate relationships with consumers before crossing the fiduciary threshold. The bottom line is getting your stakeholders to realize it’s pretty simple. They just have to do the right thing for the customer. Only now they’ll have a bit more “CYA” work to do in the process.

GroPartners Consulting video edutainment platform addresses these opportunities with subject matter expertise in financial products and services, relevant wit, and cinematic quality.

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For more perspective on bridging strategy and execution, including practical tools and processes for brand operationalization, get a copy of Getting There From Here: Bridging Strategy and Execution, by Greg French, founder of GroPartners Consulting. E-book at iBooks or hard copy from Amazon.com.

http://amzn.to/1Jcli0A

‘Edutainment’ is the New Financial Marketing

08 Thursday Sep 2016

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Last week I asked a colleague familiar with the financial industry a simple question: What’s the difference between financial literacy and financial education? Her first reaction was, “Oh, that’s pretty clear…” Then after a few seconds of thought, she conceded that the distinction wasn’t so clear.

She’s not alone. The difference between the two is somewhat murky, though simple. Financial literacy is the level of understanding about basic financial concepts an individual has accumulated. Financial Education is intervention intended to boost the level of financial literacy.

The New Rule of Engagement

At the June meeting of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC), a joint committee comprised of representatives from 19 government departments, Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez stated, “The onus has shifted to consumers to make critical decisions for retirement security. Education has not kept up.”

He went on to cite a global survey of financial literacy in which the US ranks 14th behind Singapore and the Czech Republic. Even worse, a survey by George Washington University found that only 14% of Americans passed the test for basic financial literacy covering fundamental topics such as inflation, compound interest, and financial diversification. More than 70% passed the same test in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden…more than 60% in Canada.

Among people with self-directed plans, about half report not feeling very confident in their ability to make good investment decisions. Fewer than half of women report that they are mostly or very confident that they will make the right investment choices. Lew concluded, “This lack of confidence points to the need for both good financial education and sound investment advice.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor (DOL) is working on new rules to govern the unfair practices of many financial advisers in double-dipping fees and commissions. When you combine the pervasive, chronic financial ignorance in the US with the absence of standards and ethics for financial advisers, consumers lose.

Department of the Treasury Secretary Jack Lew addressed new DOL Conflict of Interest Rules directed at fiduciaries (financial advisers) calling them, “an important step towards ensuring…Americans who are increasingly responsible for their own retirement planning can get that advice and trust it, knowing it’s in their best interest.” The new Rule emphasizes the importance of education to help Americans manage their investments and plan for their futures.

Transforming Selling to Buying

Edutainment can improve engagement for financial education.

Edutainment can improve engagement in financial education.

Life and retirement brands have a great opportunity to gain consumer trust through educational intervention. If the focus is first placed on growing relationships though educating prospects, financial brands can postpone triggering fiduciary responsibilities until the prospect is ready to buy.  Smart life and retirement companies are becoming increasingly innovative with financial education that leads to elevated financial literacy. Sales results can be elevated by first intervening with consumer financial education at the critical point of category interest (AIDA model), helping consumers make informed buying decisions, rather than just being sold.

GroPartners Consulting Financial Marketing provides financial clients with expertise and guidance in producing highly engaging financial education programs. Our experience and scope includes interactive videos, life-stage targeted “edutainment” series, and web and digital tools and assets designed to elevate financial literacy.

 

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For more perspective on bridging strategy and execution, including practical tools and processes for brand operationalization, get a copy of Getting There From Here: Bridging Strategy and Execution, by Greg French, founder of GroPartners Consulting. E-book at iBooks or hard copy from Amazon.com.

http://amzn.to/1Jcli0A

 

Cause-Driven Business: Galvanizing the Value Chain

10 Tuesday May 2016

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HumanPic1What do you think of when you hear the term cause-driven marketing? Is it about charity? Marketing? Brand? Or a company? The hazy cloud around this type of positioning makes me pause, considering that the basic function of marketing is pretty clear: activities involved in bringing products, service, or ideas to market. In essence, meeting demand with supply. So what does “cause driven” have to do with demand and supply?

I’ve worked in the marketing and promotion business for more than 30 years, and though everything is different, nothing has changed. Since the days of Darrin Stephens and Don Draper (or Draper Daniels, as it were), the promotional “P” of the marketing mix has scorched a path of skepticism between consumers and cause. Even as sustainability and cause- or purpose-driven campaigns trend higher, there seem to be only a few organizations that use these labels as little more than an emotional corkscrew to open consumer pocketbooks. And the organizational commitments often seem to fade as fast as the campaigns themselves. In my experience, weak credibility is often the consequence of attempting to position marketing as philanthropy.

All this said, the few organizations that base their corporate visions and values on a focused humanitarian purpose truly enrich society in ways that exponentially improve the quality of life for creatures of Planet Earth. In my opinion, the brands owned by these organizations earn their right to profitability every day in a way that deserves longevity. And today’s new millennial mind set contributes a very effective “BS filter” to help police exploitation of real causes. This blogpost presents some important distinctions between the different types of cause-driven efforts; distinctions that can make the difference between exploitation and salvation.

Type 1: Cause-driven campaigns

These are marketing campaigns for goods and services in almost any category that donate a portion of their profits (in money or resources and/or supplies) to a cause, such as a charity.

Type 2: Cause-based organizations

In contrast to campaigns, cause-based organizations directly tackle a social problem with a donor-funded business model. Saha Global (http://www. http://sahaglobal.org) for example, began by enabling Ghana’s women—traditionally the ones in the home who are in charge of water—to become entrepreneurs through a training and monitoring program. Saha Global programs like this one teach the Ghana women how to collect and purify water by hand, and then sell the potable product at an affordable price. It addresses the issue of scarcity of potable water for villages while providing income for the women entrepreneurs.

Type 3:  Cause-driven brands

Brands that are driven by cause focus on developing commercialized products, services, or programs to help solve issues that benefit society. Examples can be found in biological pest control (biocontrols) or crop protection product companies who research, develop, and manufacture natural solutions to keep insects and weeds from reducing food production of farmland or threatening public health. Considering that the earth will need to produce as much food in the first 50 years of this millennium as it did in the last 10,000 years, and the threats of vector disease such as the Zika virus, biocontrols are a big deal to everyone. Add to this many centuries of chemical pesticides stripping soil of nutrients and accumulating toxic residue that can end up in the food chain, and you’ve got a bona fide cause within a for-profit business model.

Another example of a cause-driven brand is Toms Shoes (http://www.toms.com/improving-lives). Toms Shoes is a unique socially conscious shoe company with a mission to improve the conditions of children living in poverty. There are no complicated formulas, simply for every pair of shoes purchased, Tom’s donates a second pair to a child on in need.

CAUSE-DRIVEN2A conspicuous distinction of cause-driven brands is that they don’t focus on only cause-driven marketing, but operate on a commercial cause-driven business model. There’s a huge difference. A true cause-driven brand exists to serve its selected humanitarian issue by applying specific commercial solutions to targeted facets of that issue and thus leverage the economics of mass consumption to serve the cause. Unlike campaigns that come and go, donations that are ad hoc, or non-profits that directly address a humanitarian cause as their main course of activity, the cause-driven business model unites commercial and humanitarian motives. Rather than manufacture need, as in the case of the vast majority of brand marketing—or ask for handouts as in the case of cause-based organizations—cause-driven brands tackle existing humanitarian issues continuously as a part of their pursuit of profitability.

The cause-driven brand perspective can help unite and galvanize the entire value chain. The participants in the value chain—consisting of manufacturers, distributors, processors, retailers, and consumers that bring value to one another—can all focus on a purpose of greater good as common ground. This facilitates commerce among them all while solving real world problems.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if every commercial brand operated this way? Let us know your thoughts.

 

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For more perspective on bridging strategy and execution, including practical tools and processes for brand operationalization, get a copy of Getting There From Here: Bridging Strategy and Execution, by Greg French, founder of GroPartners Consulting. E-book at iBooks or hard copy from Amazon.com.

http://amzn.to/1Jcli0A

Bridging Strategy and Execution for Better Business Results

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by in Alignment, Branding, Measurement, Messaging

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It takes both to succeed

Many organizations are very good at developing brand and marketing strategies that have the potential to produce excellent business results. But often these strategies become diluted or even derailed due to misaligned execution. Other organizations are experts at flawless execution of strategies that may not align with actual customer behaviors and organizational goals. The reality is that it takes both to succeed. And that requires a holistic approach, connecting internal and external components to create a symbiotic brand.

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My new book is available now at http://amzn.to/1vh6ATG

When marketers fail, it is generally tied to their inability to connect strategy with in-market execution. My new book, “Getting There from Here: Bridging Strategy and Execution,” takes on the task of not only outlining how critical it is to bridge this gap but also identifying the rewards on the other side: operational excellence and in-market impact. It is an excellent reference for perspective and processes that help bridge expectations, experiences, and behaviors among all brand stakeholders at every touchpoint.

Visit http://amzn.to/1yK9DTG to download a copy. Whatever your goals, it will help you get there from here by giving you tools and processes to effectively bridge strategy and execution for better business results.

Getting There from Here: Bridging Strategy and Execution

Page 15:     The power of the bridge between strategy and execution

Page 59:     The RAPPORT Process; a master process and language that helps align every level of your organization

Page 125:   How to conduct an effective Strategic Summit

Page 42:     How to know a good vision statement when you see one

Page 116:   How to build a metrics bridge dashboard

Page 17:     The true relationship of brand and marketing

Page 21:     Harnessing the relationship between business, brand, and innovation

Page 34:     Finding strategic alignment control points

Page 53:     How to be sure you’re selecting the right opportunities

Page 56:     When estimating can be better than counting

I’d love to hear from you how this book helped improve your business results. Post your comments here or email me gregf@gropartnersconsulting.com.

GroPartners Consulting

Webisode “Infotainment”: Can it Boost Your (B2B) Brand Profitability?

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by in Alignment, Branding, Social Media and Branding

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A creatively relevant story about people’s lives can lead to stronger brand relationships…even in B2B.

Over the past decade, content marketing has become the staple best practice for strengthening brand relationships. Blogs (like this one), white paper marketing, book authorship, branded documentaries, and one of the most intriguing and creative forms—branded webisodes—provide today’s marketer with an expanded palette of options to deepen and broaden customer relationships. The use of Webisodes—part of a trend called branded entertainment—is growing because marketers are compelled to find new methods to reach consumers in an era when traditional media are losing personal engagement time to the Internet. Webisode formats can range from a previews/trailers; a promotional series, part of a collection of shorts, or conversely, segments of a long form piece such as a TV series.

In any of the above formats, effective webisodes:

  • Use entertainment and video storytelling to engage stakeholders
    Television and movies taught us that visual storytelling is the “killer app” for engagement. Done well, ironic humor and humanitarian appeal are especially effective approaches.
  • Emotionalize the brand
    Emotion adds dimension more powerful and motivating than even logic to any relationship.
  • Relate to issues first
    Focusing on issues or cause (social, life stage, cultural, moral, political, or other lightning rods) tap into people’s mind at a visceral level in contrast to sales approaches that trigger emotional barriers.
  • Promote buying v selling
    When people “buy in” to a cause or an issue, selling isn’t needed to make a transaction.

Historic analogies

As my mom used to say, “Everything’s different but nothing has changed.” Blogs are really just reincarnations of the company newsletter with one big difference: WordPress and other digital blogging tools make it easier for anyone with a computer to be a publisher. White papers are still one of the best tools for thought leadership positioning. The difference here is digital creation and access. And webisodes are very much like early radio and TV serials, sponsored, owned, and produced by advertisers and their agencies instead of by producers and networks. The difference is the medium: broadcast versus the internet, the latter providing some game-changing advantages.

Media trending toward web video

It’s no longer news that web video is taking a bite out of TV viewership. Nielsen’s (television audience research) most recent study indicates that viewing by 18-24-year-olds dropped by a little more than 4-and-a-half hours per week. http://bit.ly/1p7nVvc That’s equivalent to roughly 40 minutes per day.

At the same time, YouTube now reports that:

  • YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any single cable network
  • More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth
  • 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • YouTube is localized in 61 countries and across 61 languages

My purpose in citing these stats isn’t to diminish TV advertising. It’s still the 800-pound gorilla to beat. But rather, my point is to emphasize that webisode marketing done right—with focused objectives, cogent strategies, and the right metrics attached—can now create a serious competitive advantage with clear ROI. For many brands that either can’t afford TV time or don’t fit into the TV advertising model (such as B2B), webisodes can present a green field of opportunity.

Can webisodes deliver real business results?

Many media historians portray our current period as the “post-broadcast era,” implying that audiences are sharing more of their video consumption with the web and media other than broadcast. Not to say that web entertainment will replace broadcast or cable TV. That would be like doomsters of the 1940’s and ‘50s who presaged TV replacing radio.  And though it probably won’t displace TV, web video does contribute to an ever-fragmenting, increasingly complex media landscape in which consumers have so much choice that traditional media-driven marketing it is neither practical nor effective. That’s why content-driven marketing provides a sorely needed solution. It creates valuable, targeted content to repurpose in as many media as possible.

On the flip side, in order to get views, web video needs to be supported with targeted search marketing, SEO techniques, social media, and traditional promotion. This support allows audiences to discover what’s important to them, in a compelling format, on demand—when they have a specific heightened need or interest. Webisodes fit this solution profile like a glove, versus dubiously relevant promotional content force fed as an inline component of entertainment programming (aka TV).

Early webisodes

On October 6, 2006, rapper Sean Combs (aka P. Diddy) debuted DiddyTV, sponsored by Burger King. Today, YouTube shows the first webisode garnering more than 993,000 views and 70,000 subscribers while building a social web brand community for a cultural niche. Not bad for an inexpensive webisode series. However, if you look deeper into the comments and thumbs down click counts, you might see a balanced story.

The following year, Mini Cooper launched Starsky & Hutch/Dukes of Hazzard webisode spoof “Hammer & Coop.” The effort, which centered around a six-episode web series, generated 1.5 million views and consumer interest that eventually translated into 800 vehicle sales (at least that’s the official report). But Mini didn’t just entertain visitors, it also presented a Mini web configuration tool to bring visitors closer to buying. The official report is: “Three hundred seven thousand unique visitors went directly to Hammerandcoop.com and spent an average of six minutes viewing the videos. Another 722,000 connected there through miniusa.com. Of the 722,000, 355,000 of them configured a Mini (by model, engine and extras); 22,000 people saved their configurations; and 2,400 of those sent them to dealers. Min reports that data represented about a 33% conversion rate that translated to about 800 vehicle sales.” http://adage.com/article/madisonvine-case-study/initial-results-mini-s-hammer-coop-effort/116193/

While I see a couple holes in the metrics strategy (from what I can tell, the 307,000 hammerandcoop.com visitors weren’t directly connected to configuring a car or the resulting sales funnel), this early example of webisode infotainment broke new ground for the medium. Bottom line: Mini Cooper sales were down 4% Q1 2007 YOY. However, US Mini Cooper annual sales hit their highest historic point to date in 2008, at 54,077 units. http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/mini-cooper-sales-figures.html It gives pause for thought.

Webisodes for B2B

What about for business to business brands? Blendtec makes blending technology for home, manufacturing, and foodservice.  They launched their webisode series “Will it Blend” (www.willitblend.com) in 2007, featuring its founder, Tom Dickson, in a wacky role as a lab technician attempting to grind up everything from cubic zirconium “diamonds” to iPhones in Blendtec brand blenders. YouTube shows more than 6.7 million views on the “diamond blend” show including more than 16,000 likes and only 2013 thumbs down.

 

AnotherB2B example is an animated production by Lawson, a provider of software and service solutions in the manufacturing, distribution, maintenance and service sector industries. This webisode provides a good competitive positioning tool, effectively promoting Lawson’s “Simpler is Better” brand. It’s no slouch for such a nichey industrial target at more than 89,000 views. I’d like to see a metrics bridge that connects these views to results in a shift in positioning, revenues, and/or margins.

 

Business-to-business brands can use content marketing—including webisodes—to exploit market niches with a fresh approach to engaging their customers, limited only by imagination and, of course, budget. Unlike broadcast TV, web presence is free, so the only cost in getting a series on the web is production, which can be managed incrementally with theme, creative development, and production values, which new technology has made dramatically more efficient.

But wait. TV has built-in audiences (that’s what you pay the stations and networks for). With webisodes, you’ll have to generate the audiences yourself (you knew there had to be a catch). This “detail” has been the primary barrier in the success of many web videos.

What’s the right objective for webisodes?

Social media and advertising can get pretty expensive in the quest to promote your webisodes for customer acquisition. So why not start by using them to improve the lifetime value of your current customers? One excellent use for webisodes is cross selling lines to existing customers. Webisodes can provide context (relevant issues and situations that uncover real needs) in dramatic, comedic, or simply interesting ways (how to, etc.). This leads the customer to buy into a larger brand context and a larger solution set. With effective funneling surrounding the webisodes, it’s possible to tightly track ROI on existing or past customers.

A proven ROI formula?

Despite a few days of exhaustive research on the web, I haven’t been able to identify any recent B2B webisode examples. Maybe that’s because there’s not yet a tried and true formula that links webisodes to ROI. GroPartners is now engaged with one of our clients in an effort to do just that. We’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, if you have any additional information on webisodes that you’d like to share on my blogpost, please leave a comment (link top of page). I’d love to post it.

GroPartners Consulting

The Absolute Necessity of Strategic Alignment

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Alignment, Branding

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ex1=ex2The gaps between strategy and execution are very real and at the heart of why so many business growth plans fail. Communication, alignment, staff attrition, “agendas,” and a hundred other factors contribute to breaches between strategic leadership and the ultimate actions of the tacticians who execute the plans.

A common challenge among organizations is how to identify these myriad gaps, define directives that fill them, and align leaders on making them happen…all while remaining aligned with the core purpose of the organization (aka brand vision). Addressing this challenge requires a business process that spans a 360-degree view of the organization and its environment on every front, including external forces such as suppliers, distributors and customers. This process can be the catalyst that brings the business model to life.

An ideal solution might be found in a well-defined, repeatable process that strives to make the lives of all the organization’s stakeholders better at once. By aligning common goals of all the organization’s stakeholders and corporate goals, core skills, talent, and assets, the process would guide operations to satisfy the ‘ultimate equation:’ Customer Expectations = Customer Experience. That means aligning employees, leaders, partners/distribution channels, operations, and others with customer goals in a holistic business process.

Oh yeah, and it has to be simple.

Aligning coverFor more on how to ensure your organization is strategically aligned, download my white paper, “Aligning the Stars: A Powerful Process for Strategic Alignment.“  

I’d love to hear your feedback on it.

GroPartners Consulting

The Sad State of Corporate Vision Statements

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by in Branding

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shutterstock_94813702In their book, “Built to Last, Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,” Collins and Porras found “companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to the changing world. The dynamics of preserving the core while stimulating progress is the reason that companies such as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Merck, Sony, Motorola, and Nordstrom became elite institutions able to renew themselves and achieve superior long-term performance.” Collins and Porras found that these companies, and those like them, have outperformed the general stock market by a factor of 12 since 1925.

How Corporate Vision fits with Corporate Objectives

Corporate vision is what provides a long view; a plumb line to reference in all decision making. If the vision is aimed at the greater good, all business objectives will be guided by those tenets and act as guidelines within which the business must operate. Consequently, business objectives should always be subject to the boundaries of the vision. That means the vision should be carefully thought through at the highest levels of the organization and articulated with crystal clarity. Often a facilitator skilled in this area is needed to offer perspective.

What makes for a terrific (or horrific) corporate vision?

Vision statements should not be long or complicated. Too many times I’ve walked into company lobbies to see a plaque on the wall with three paragraphs of “mice-type” under a bold headline “Our Vision.”

What makes for a great corporate vision? I decided to reach out to a few leading brands to provide examples of solid vision statements that bridged the gap between business and customer objectives. Instead of clear vision, what I found (for the most part) were horrifyingly ham-fisted collections of words thrown together into heaps of nonsense.  Few of them were well written. And the meaning of them was often even worse.

Let’s Grade Some Vision Statements

Keep in mind that a good vision statement is one that balances the health of the business, the customer relationship, and the greater good of society.

HP: A++

“Human Progress”
(http://hpbrandcenter.com/strategy_overview.html)

This one blows my mind. I don’t believe I have heard two words together that have resonated more deeply. Like chest-rumbling summer thunder in the distance, these words communicate on a visceral level. The HP Brand Strategy website continues, “Brand strategy is the connection between our business goals, our marketing tactics and our company’s soul — turning theories and ideas into tangible actions that build the brand we want customers and other audiences to experience when they think of HP.” Wow. These guys get it.

Virgin Atlantic: B

“Our vision is to contribute to creating happy and fulfilling lives which are also sustainable.”
(source: http://www.virgin.com/people-and-planet/our-vision)

This vision statement is directionally valid because it speaks to improving the quality of life of people, and not the company. In order for a corporate vision statement to endure just about any external force, it should speak to what it’s endeavoring to do for the world, not just for itself. With this sustaining energy, the brand can transform to adapt to anything in the future because it’s not product based, market based, or even industry based. It’s about making people’s lives better, no matter what business they’re on. Virgin started as a record store. Now it has more than 50 branded companies in businesses as diverse as space travel, wine, and charities. To founder Richard Branson, it’s all about the experience – making people happy with sustainable living. I must admit, though, it could be a little more focused, and better written.

Pearson Education: F-

“To fulfil the educational needs across a spectrum of individuals with reliable experience and technology.”
(source: http://www.pearsoneducationservices.com/visionmission.php)

Even if you could forgive the spelling error (it was published on their website), the syntax indicates that Pearson’s target is a segment of people with reliable experience and technology. I don’t think that’s what they really meant. It’s one thing to get the purpose and focus of the vision statement wrong – it’s a whole different level of brand neglect to post something this important on a corporate website with incorrect spelling and syntax errors. And OMG, from an education company? Seriously?

Microsoft C+

“Create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of Internet services across a world of devices.”
(source: Seattle Times, blog by Benjamin J. Romano, September 8, 2008)

(delivered by COO Kevin Turner at a buzz event, circa 2008)
Updated from the former original Bill Gates and Paul Allen vision of, “A computer on every desk,” neither of these statements are very altruistic in their service to mankind. But then again, I guess Gates was pretty good at separating his philanthropy from his juggernauts, waiting until after the corporate rat race was behind him to get all humane and everything.

B-  Walmart:

To promote ownership of Walmart’s ethical culture to all stakeholders globally.‘
(source: http://www.ask.com/question/wal-mart-s-vision-statement)

This is less of a vision statement than an internal cultural objective. At any rate, I didn’t downgrade this one too much because it speaks to ethical treatment of stakeholders and not to its own capitalistic interests and because it’s supported by values of being fair, having integrity, respecting others and embracing diversity.

Get the picture?

The vision should be in the service of people first while balanced with the corporate health. That’s what makes brands sustainable. And that’s why you’ve got to start with a really grounded vision before you can focus your corporate goals, objectives, and strategies. Take a look at your vision, does it pass the “vision test?”

  • Speaks to how the brand will make life better for people
  • Implies how the brand will sustain its business continuity and economics
  • Is short enough for every employee and customer to internalize and evangelize

What’s your idea of a great corporate vision? I’ll grade it for you 😉

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What Does “Operationalizing the Brand” Really Mean?

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Branding, Measurement

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Buzz words. Oy. Our breed is the worst. Branding, story-telling, metrics, alignment. OMG. Half of us can’t even agree on what personas are.

So now “operationalizing the brand” is a buzz phrase that’s sweeping the marketing community. But what does it really mean?

Operationalizing the brand (it took me a few tries to be able to say it without sounding like a complete moron) is about aligning employees’ actions, business processes, and investments to provide customers with what they expect from the brand, within the constraints of business objectives (revenues/margins). It involves setting and meeting customer expectations from the inside of the organization out to customers. It’s about getting employees to understand and truly believe what they are doing every day makes a difference in achieving the same, ideal customer experience. It all comes down to people and metrics.

Surprisingly the concept of operationalization originated not from business, but from physics — an analysis of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Without straying into the intellectual abyss of physics, the general idea is that any concept (like brand value) is actually defined by the measurement operations that you use to quantify it. So the effectiveness of your strategy comes down to your system of metrics that connect strategy to execution and back (numbers that show how closely aligned all internal stakeholder actions are with what customers want).

It’s a continuum that feeds strategy with consumer/customer data that helps shape business strategies and execution. These data not only feed marketing approaches, but product development, operations, HR, finance, business development and other critical areas. It’s all driven by customer behavioral and perception data.

The metrics can be between business operations, between the operations and marketing and/or the customer, etc. But my favorite is connecting brand investments to business objectives. I like it because everyone thinks it’s so difficult, but it’s as simple as selecting a business objective you want to use as a baseline, and then creating a metrics trail from brand investments back to the business objectives. GroPartners loves to do this.

In my first-ever v-blog, I reduce the concept of operationalization to everyday business functions. After you watch the video, click the “comment” button at the top of the blog and share your thoughts.

To begin your road to operationalization, start by assessing the alignment among your internal stakeholders (employees) and your brand vision, mission, values, and value proposition. Matching these data against customer perceptions will give you a quantified idea of how much opportunity you have to strengthen the brand and grow. If you need some help with this, contact your brand strategy consultant, or GroPartners.

Special thanks to Julie Lindwall and Steve Italiano for lending their superior video production talents that made this edition possible.

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