Is the promise of future work enough to make up for lower prices at the outset of the relationship?

Each and every step you take to engage your prospect should be with an eye toward developing a relationship in the future, and not just in the moment. All too often, however, the future is not as clear as it might seem, and promises made by a client may not be fulfilled. Promises are only words. They cannot be taken to the bank. The decision-maker could change, a new product by another vendor could replace yours, or the prospect’s business could change, thereby eliminating the need for your product. There are a million reasons your client may fail to live up to the promise.

You’ve got to protect each order at the time you’re negotiating it. You’re promoting a complete package that includes service, availability, and reliability—all at a price that’s fair both to yourself and to your customer. Sure, you’ll have some customers who’ll use you for your pricing only and don’t want the extras that your sales efforts bring, but basing your business solely on its pricing structure does not allow for a relationship or loyalty to develop.

Tell your client that your pricing, which is based on the requirements stated in the bid package you were sent, is firm. If a price reduction for this order is sought in exchange for some promise of future business, make that future happen now. Ask for a firm commitment for the next order as part of this one and base your total price on the larger amount. Alternatively, tell your customer that a credit to his next order will be given if it is placed in a timely fashion. Just remember: It’s not an order until it’s an order.

Recently, I’ve found myself scratching my head over this.  As more and more of my agency peers express frustration with their clients’ lack of appreciation for creativity in marketing – apparently, brand managers increasingly define “creative” as “not strategic” – I’ve started wondering if maybe they have a point.  Is “creative” a bad word, a mere euphemism for any ideas that are lacking effective strategy?

In the end, I refused to give in to the cult of blame, reflective of a growing agency trend where we point our fingers at clients or the industry structure every time we don’t get what we want.

Creative is creative, strategy is strategy and vegetables are vegetables. We all know what they are. Creative includes an overriding concept as well as the design and artistic execution. Strategy is the plan of action to get a campaign or message noticed by a desired audience. When developed in tandem and executed correctly, the potential results are greater.

The issue here isn’t whether or not the word “creative” is being misconstrued or used to imply a lack of strategic sense. The problem is that agencies, anxious to have things our own way, try to force fit arguments and issues that simply don’t work. We seem, on some levels, unwilling to adapt.   For example, agencies insist that creative is the key to engaging the audience.  They’ve lost site of – or refuse to acknowledge – that we no longer own the word “engagement” in any sense.  Agencies have never presented creative as a means to engagement – at least not in the sense that the term “engagement” is more often used in today’s social media environment. Creative doesn’t engage the same way that Twitter does. However, using social media to draw attention to campaign creative is a component of strategy.  Clients get that, but many agencies, including the ones that claim to provide social media services, won’t let that reality sink in.

Another example of agencies’ unwillingness to adapt: our continued push for brand campaigns in a quick-results environment. The last year was bad for most everyone – the recession slashed budgets and many agencies starved. In an effort to generate income and secure retainer dollars, many pushed the importance of brand awareness (what some clients see as “creative” further defined as “long-term” or “having vague results”). When that didn’t work, agencies moaned that they were being commoditized. What’s missing here is the client POV – long term branding isn’t what most marketing directors are being challenged with. Their CEOs and CFO’s are saying “generate revenue this quater.” They want to keep their jobs, so their interest is in capturing low-hanging fruit and generating a short-term ROI. Until the recession is really over and budgets get back to normal, every presentation is going to be met with the question “so what’s the ROI?”

The problem with “creative” is that agencies want to push art and branding, and clients want results right now. An online display campaign generates low click thru levels (my blog on this: http://bit.ly/hYIm0), and we say “Who cares? You got great brand exposure!” as though long-term creative without short-term result is going to appease anybody right now.

Creative is fine, it’s necessary, and everyone knows what it means. It’s the agency attitude that needs to adjust.

You know all you need to know about social networking. It’s neither exotic nor foreign, and as for complicated – like most things in life, it’s as complicated or as simple as you make it out to be.

Nancy Marmolejo of Viva Visibility (http://vivavisibilityblog.com/) once told me that social networking is like all the rubber chicken dinners you’ve ever had to attend in your career.  That comparison really stuck with me and I like to share it with others (giving generous credit to Nancy, of course.) Remember the last networking event you went to? What steps did you take, from start to finish, to network?

Well, first you showed up for the event.  You signed up and attended. Did you sign up as “hotchick69″? No, you signed up as Mary McPherson or whatever your name is. You put down your name, your company name, your phone number, keeping it simple so anyone looking for you after the event could find you easily.

Next, you put your best foot forwarded. You didn’t show up in your sweats or jeans. You put on a nice suit. You combed your hair. You arrived on time and with your best manners waiting.

When you attend a rubber chicken dinner, do you grab a glass of wine and sit in the corner all evening without speaking to anyone? Of course not! You greet people you know. You make small talk. Whether it’s commenting on the weather, complimenting someone on their outfit, or saying hello to someone sitting by herself, you connected with people.

As the evening wears on, you may find yourself more drawn to some folks than others. There’s a natural business click. You sell widgets, she markets widgets, and the guy over there with the polka dot tie buys widgets.  At some point you all realize you’re all in the widget business. Business cards are exchanged.

The next day, you drop the widget buyer an email, give the widget marketer a call, and you agree to meet for lunch next week. Over the course of a few meetings, phone calls and emails, you help each other out. The widget buyer also needs gadgets, so you give him the phone number for Gary at the gadget company.  And the widget marketer does a small project for you; you like her work, so you recommend her to someone who needs help selling widgets.

I’ve just traced for you the usual course of events through a typical networking event. It doesn’t matter if you go to Rotary Club meetings or the American Marketing Association conference, and it doesn’t matter if you ate the chicken, the fish or the steak. What matters are the people involved, the way we make connections, broker contacts, and most importantly share of our time with others to build business relationships.

That, in essence, is networking.

Social networking is the very same thing – facilitated by the computer. Instead of blocking out an evening and meeting a set group of people in one location, you can meet many people all over the world.

Sign up for a few of the social networking sites. Choose ones you feel comfortable with. There is no one “right” site to be on. The “right” site is the one you think you will use.

Choose a user name that reflects you or your company or brand image. Choose a professional photo or logo. Complete your profile. Instead of linking over to your website home page, create a unique page to introduce who you are, what you do, and a few warm bits and pieces about yourself.  On my website, I reveal the – gasp – startling fact that I love vanilla and don’t like chocolate too much.  You’d be surprised at how that little warm touch point gets people talking. Choose interesting factoids to share that are simple and neutral.

Make friends, connect and follow. Post a few times. Share links or information if relevant.

The worst thing you can do is immediately jump in with your sales pitch.  Just as you wouldn’t run around the networking event willy-nilly pushing business cards into people’s hands, so too pushing out your marketing messages as soon as you connect with people only turns off followers. Take it slowly. Like real relationships (which virtual ones are).
People tend to treat social networking like ‘marketing’ – an activity to pound out their messages over and over again. It’s exactly the opposite. Like any networking activity, it is about building up a relationship.

What do relationships require to form? All relationships need a common ground upon which to communicate. That common ground may be widgets, gadgets, or a whole host of interests, but there must be a common interest.

Next, one must spend time with the other parties in the relationship – not talking, but listening. Commenting, encouraging, uplifting, sharing.  Who is the better friend – the one always talking about herself, or the one who asks you how you are doing today, and really cares about the answer?

Social networking isn’t just about being online. It’s not about having a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter account, a You Tube channel. It’s about building relationships among your customers and followers, about listening more than speaking.

Social network marketing can be a powerful channel, but it’s also easily abused. Before jumping into a social media strategy, think about networking in general.  Social media makes it easy to connect with customers. Without the heartburn of a badly cooked dinner.

There’s a major difference between stretching the truth and outright lying—and anyone who tells you that salespeople can be successful without stretching the truth a bit is, well, outright lying. And anyone who outright lies to sell anything—even the idea that salespeople never need to stretch the truth—will inevitably get caught in his or her own trap.

Case in point: A few years back, my organization was competing with another company—our only real competitor—for a large order for an item my company had manufactured for years. But suddenly, a third company arrived on the scene. Their sales manager bid for the work that we knew should be ours, telling the customer that although his company had never made the item before, their manufacturing department had created samples that had passed independent laboratory testing and were ready to be produced. He also offered much faster delivery at a substantially lower cost. The customer bought this guy’s story, got what they wanted faster, and saved a bundle of cash. All was well with their world…until the bottom dropped out. It turned out the sales manager from the other company had outright lied. His company had neither produced nor tested any of these units. His scheme was to obtain the order first and then produce the product. Ultimately, the product they produced failed miserably. The buyer won the resulting court case, and we supplied our product as a replacement—and at a higher price than our original quote.

In the end, these bold sorts of lies will come back to haunt you more often than not. Salespeople live and die by their reputation, and nothing will tear down a reputation faster than getting caught in a lie. That being said, there will be times when a little manipulation of the truth is unavoidable. In a perfect world—one with no competition—it’d be great to tell the customer the truth at all times and let the chips fall where they may. But the world’s not perfect. Competition does exist, and if the customer’s decision comes down to some minor point, then stretching the truth is just a necessary part of sales survival.

Some people may argue that a lie is a lie, no matter how you look at it—that “stretching the truth” is merely a euphemism. But anyone who’s read Dante’s Inferno knows that hell has a lot of levels, and not all sins are equal. The difference between stretching the truth and outright lying is that stretching the truth retains some level of honesty, and can be explained away rather easily in the event you are questioned. For example, suppose a potential customer has already indicated that he’s satisfied with your price, but he’s concerned that you won’t be able to deliver on time. He needs a sample in two weeks, and you know it probably won’t be done in less than three; so, you tell your client that you’re confident you can ship product in two weeks to obtain the order. If you end up shipping it late, it’d be fairly easy to provide a rational excuse to cover yourself—after all, you only have to buy yourself a little extra time. Besides, a good stretch of the truth can even serve as motivation: Tell the factory that story, and it’s very possible they may speed things up and find a way to make good on your promise.

Of course, while embellishing the truth can be justified, a good salesperson knows when not to do it. The previous delivery scenario, for instance, becomes a much different story if the product is needed before Christmas for a holiday sale, but the delivery can’t possibly arrive until after the new year.

Your need to stretch the truth will diminish over time as relationships with customers mature. You’ll know their timelines and sensibilities, and be better able to anticipate their needs—allowing you to rely on pure honesty more often. But there will always be situations that force you to stretch the truth. Find the line between embellishment and lying, and use it judiciously.

Over the past decade, luxury marketers have invested millions to grow customer base through expanding their retail store network and creating differentiated product lines to capture increase share of existing customers’ wallets and to appeal to younger, new customers. Most successfully increased their audience and frequency of purchase cycle amongst existing heavy owners. And the growth invigorated and motivated corporate executives to continue on the mission to expand and capitalize.  But, no one had a crystal ball.

In 2009, the gears of luxury goods growth are grinding, with sales declines in major double digits: Tiffany: (-16%), Richemont (parent to Cartier and Montblanc): (–16%), Saks: (–15%), Neiman: (–23%), Swiss watch exports to US: (–40%).

Executives are strategizing quickly for ideas to stimulate sales, gain share of market, and how to weather the storm of the American recessionary crisis.  They are looking to growth in overseas markets and a plan for surviving in America.

Meanwhile the American woman, who is acting CFO of her family, is more critical than ever about her purchases as her concerns about the economy, unemployment, our nation’s deficit, and the future for her children are growing daily. Female consumers influence 85% of all purchase decisions and are responsible for $7 trillion in spending. Purchases that seem frivolous are clashing with her concerns. The luxury goods consumer may be less enamored with her Jimmy Choo shoes, LV bags, David Yurman jewelry, Cartier watches, and large carat diamonds and gemstones.

Luxury brand marketers get flexible and ready to play her way. Be ready to clearly define and refine your marketing strategy to survive, and be ready for the rebound!

Define Your Brand’s Core Consumer Communication Message:

• What won’t matter any longer is your history and heritage – that’s a given but not a reason to call her to action. Brands that have long established histories of craftsmanship and heritage are realizing that is just not enough of a reason to gain her shrinking disposable income. Resting on the past is a sure way to stay successful in the past.
• The price-value ratio is more important to her than ever.  If you have a premium product, find a simple communication message justifying your retail price. Why is it I should spend more for your brand? What is it you will deliver to me in this purchase? Why do my family or I deserve it? Whether it is design superiority that speaks to her heart, or lasting materials that will never wear with time.
• Superior Customer Service must be your brand’s everyday working philosophy.  Treat her with appreciation for her past loyalty/ purchases.  Offer her special value offers on VIP in-store events, gift with purchase. Or simply thank her for her loyalty via email or letter. Offer her advice regarding style and design choices, industry trend information, etc.  Use this general industry content on your website as your service. Ask for her opinions and assure she is pleased with the service she received during the purchase process. I call it “CSS” or “Customer Service Squared.” Essentially whatever you have been doing step it up! Get everyone in your company to think about the final end consumer of your goods. How do you answer emails? How do you train sales people who deal with the end consumer? What feedback do you get through your website?  How do you reply? And who manages this in your company? It cannot be an admin assistant. Executives get involved now.
• To craft the right message, you must know your core customer in greater detail than ever. Engage her and speak to her with a message that resonates at this time. She is playing her game and will still want products in her life that make her feel good. Be sure she feels your brand fits her now. Do your research and don’t assume her attitudes today are the same as they were a year ago. Keep delving deeper into your research. Use your website and social media sites to engage with her and hear what is on her mind.
• Define your pro-social, philanthropic donations as it relates to her purchase. Gone is the day that companies need to keep every margin point or turn it back to a retail partner. Today it is about saying as a brand and corporation that you believe in the need to give back to a cause that makes sense. If your product is related to children or targets women of childbearing age/inclination, a children’s charity makes sense. Be sure that you explain why that cause was selected and meaningful to your brand. Make it personal and real or she will perceive that it is meant to just sell a product. Dawn and their donation to Wildlife preservation is gaining attention in grocery stores. The Cartier Love Bracelet has raised $4.5 million for 24 global charities.

Communication Vehicles for The Message:

• Multi- Platform Programs that are creative and out of the box, taking your media plans beyond traditional advertising vehicles is critical today.
• Selecting the right platform means you know where to reach her. Research her habits, talk to her friends and know where she plays.
• Your message must extend to your website, online tactical plans, social media consistency messaging, screening what consumers speak about your brand, and always measuring ROI on these activities.
• Assign your internal Brand Manager or internal PR manager to be your key “Brand Blogger” – this person needs to dedicate time everyday to sending content to your social media sites, updates to your website (be sure you have an admin feature to your website!)

Deliver the Promise with Your Products:

• How many times has a CEO blamed the marketing message or marketing plan when a product lacked the anticipated sales results? And marketing professionals defended with stats and ROI analyses and the “if I only had more budget.”
• In the words of the watch world’s iconic business mogul Mr. Nicholas Hayek Sr., “Great brands start with product and end with product and every step in the success of a brand is the product.”
• If the product in its design, quality and experience does not hold up to the promise of the messaging, you wasted a lot of time and money. And that customer will never be back. Be sure the most important relationship in your company exists between EVP of product development and marketing CMO. It is never too early for that partnership to assure the messaging and delivery of product meet expectations.
• Consider in this economy a “sub” brand or “mini” brand.  Make it available at the same channels of trade, a new product line that “fits” your brand DNA but also can be seen as an appropriate giftable price point. See Coach Poppy collection. Editors at a recent event of top luxury fashion magazines were looking for products under $100. One major publication is assuring that products in their gift guide will offer a discount on one key item to their readership.  Products should be related but new and have the ability to tap into a younger demographic. Jewelry brands think cell phone charms and women’s accessories. Leather brands; think small wallets and Kindle Covers.

Stay focused and consistent. Integrate your marketing team into the solutions.  The focused navigators, those that have the inherent strength to be flexible and adaptable, will be the lux brands of today and tomorrow.

Managing these relationships is where brand management becomes an art much more than a science. Yes, you could create enterprise metrics and measures that demonstrate the brand effect to the bottom line—and you should do this no matter what, as we’ve discussed. The challenge for brand management in this situation is to demonstrate how the brand creates relevance and value for the influential manager and his or her business unit and bottom line.

The first thing you have to do is work with the manager to define “brand”—meaning brand as a core operation, not graphics, logos, or marketing—so you know you’re talking about the same thing. If, even after this discussion, the manager fails to get on board, a somewhat naughty but effective response is to ask that the dissenting manager rebrand his or her business unit and stop doing business under your brand if he or she doesn’t want to pay for the privilege (if you allocate brand expense) or doesn’t believe in the brand’s effectiveness. If this person really believes the brand has no value to his or her group, then he or she should be up for the challenge—but chances are he or she will see the light.

I don’t think many marketers really understand the power of the Internet and everything it can do to help both build a market and bring that market closer to their brand. So the best answer I can give to this question is, learn. Learning about the online space is the best way to leverage it. And by “learn,” I don’t mean watch the evening news on TV or eavesdrop on co-workers when they talk about who they’ve reconnected with on Facebook. I mean really get to know the Net. Read up on it. Surf. See how other brands handle their online campaigns. Talk to an agency that gets it and see what they know. Whatever it takes, marketers who really expect to make an impact with new or existing audiences can’t just skate by with the bare minimum of Net know-how; they need to really get it to get the most out of it.

But I’m sure you want something tangible. Nothing sucks more than a book that only talks in generalities. So even though there’s no single way for every brand to take advantage of the Internet – how you work into your overall marketing strategy will depend on your unique needs, budget, audience, and situation – here is a run-though of some important specifics.

The Site

Clearly, if there’s one element that deserves significant attention, it’s the brand’s Web site – the home base for any marketing effort and the first place consumers will turn when they want to find information about your brand. The trick is to create a site that reflects the brand while maximizing retention and encouraging return visits. That said, sites may be visited by large numbers of people and it’ll be impossible to please every one of them – which is why it’s especially important for marketers to understand who their audience is. Marketers must make certain that the retention techniques they put in place speak directly to their core demographic to ensure that the highest possible number of people within their target market come back regularly. There are many ways to do this, but the real keys to increasing brand loyalty on the Web are the same online as they are offline: striking the best balance of quality customer service, value, and product selection.

Encouraging users to return to a site begins with strong design that both reflects of the brand and is organized in a way that makes content easy to locate. An attractive design gives users a sense that the site is established and professional, and that a solid, legitimate company is behind it. At the same time, quality design specifically geared toward the target audience will help to establish the brand personality through images, color, and general layout. Successful site layout will accomplish the following:

• Make the purposes of the site clear, letting the visitor know what they can expect to find there.
• Promote the brand.
• Provide easy access to information.
• Lead the user to specific areas of interest or areas that the site owner wants them to see.
• Provide an attractive, aesthetically pleasing environment for the user.

Similarly, navigation requires careful consideration during site development; content on the Web is presented in a manner unlike any other media. Most media tend to be fairly linear. Sunday newspapers have different sections, and news is found by turning from one page to the next. Television is similar – a show is selected, and the viewer watches, scene by scene, in the order that those scenes are presented. Web sites are quite different. Aside from the interactivity that the Web provides, Web sites allow visitors to review information in a non-linear fashion, jumping from one page to another in any order they wish to find the information in which they are most interested.

Unfortunately, though, the information that visitors are most interested in isn’t always the information you want them to see, which is information related to sales. Because of the non-linear nature of the Web, marketers have a dual responsibility when it comes to site organization:

• Creating a navigation and hierarchy of content that makes finding information easy for site visitors.
• Serving information in such a way that visitors are led to pages that the site’s owners most want them to view.

Finally, marketers must take advantage of social-media tools – such as blogs, ratings, reviews, polls, comments, avatars, Wikis, social networks, and more – to keep users engaged. The Web is no longer a brand-to-consumer one-way street when it comes to information. Using these social media tools, marketers can create an online environment in which the market becomes more interactive with the brand and in which consumers can even become more interactive with each other – all of which facilitates a more secure community of users and heightened brand loyalty.

Using the Net to Build and Know Your Audience

With the popularization of social media, the Net has transformed from an advertising medium into a global conversation – a platform for exchanging ideas. It’s energized people across practically every demographic boundary to interact with each other and with the brands they’re in contact with. Marketers can use these tools to better understand consumers’ frame of mind, keeping a pulse on how the market perceives their brand and what new buzzwords are gaining popularity.

The blogosphere is a particularly valuable resource for gaining these insights, as are product reviews on retail sites. Consumers are eager to discuss their feelings and experiences with particular brands. Indeed, various research firms claim that as much as 30 percent of all consumers don’t feel that the shopping process is complete until they have left a review on a Web site. Marketers should stay constantly aware of online market sentiments as they relate to their brand, making changes in product of strategy based on new information they uncover.

At the same time that the Web acts as global forum, intermingling demographic categories, it also gives marketers a powerful vehicle to pinpoint particular audiences with measurable precision. The word “measurable” is key – one of the most valuable aspects of the Internet is how easily almost any marketing campaign can be tracked and measured for cost-efficiency. It’s impossible in this limited space to review all the opportunities for driving measurable traffic that the Web offers, but marketers should consider at least some of the following:

• E-mail blast campaigns: Whether it’s company news or information your customers can use, e-mail blasts speak to each user directly and can play a big role in building brand awareness and pushing new and returning visitors to your site, with open rates and click-through rates easily measured. Personally, I haven’t found a good list provider yet, so I’d recommend either growing a list organically or working through consumer-based print publications, which usually offer blast services to the subscriber base.
• Pay-per-click advertising: Google may not have invented this, but they sure as hell did perfect it. Offering one of the best arguments for abandoning print advertising, PPC ads allow marketers to target specific Web users by placing ads on specific sites or by having them appear when surfers search for particular keywords. Best of all, you only pay for the clicks you get, so budgets are controlled and waste is minimized.
• Streaming video: Did someone say TV? Who needs television when users can get video content on demand through any one of a million sites? Video can capture attention more powerfully than any other medium, and while streaming Web video hasn’t replaced television yet, it’s starting to show signs that it could soon reign as the new king. One of my favorite statistics from eMarketer is that among viewers who already had a favorable opinion of a brand, consideration to purchase rose by 61 percent after a viewing an online video of the brand in question. Even more amazing is that consideration also rose by 21 percent among viewers who had pre-existing unfavorable opinions about the brand. ’Nuff said!
• Building your network through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., and continuing to interact on a regular basis.  But don’t be too quick to sell – there’s nothing wrong with letting your network know what you or your company is all about, but temper that information with useful content that people can actually use.  Provide links to interesting articles, personal anecdotes and responses to others people’s postings. Use the computer to show your human side.

Lastly, while I’ve really only skimmed the tip of the proverbial iceberg, I don’t think any discussion about the best ways to leverage the online space would be complete without talking about measuring traffic. Analytics tools like Google Analytics track and measure site usage, including the average length of time people spend on your site, how many people come back regularly, which pages are the least and most popular, the average number of pages people see per visit, geographic locations of all visitors, and so on. If the saying is true that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, then with the right tracking program and a real understanding of how to use the information it collects, marketers can be downright lethal.

I’ll start by going on the record: I’ve never been a fan of PETA.  As an ordinary, politically-minded citizen, I’ve never bought into their hard-line tactics.  Back in the day, I thought that their habits of throwing blood on people who choose to wear legally purchased fur was reprehensible, and every time they appeared on the news it made me want to eat a Whopper simply out of spite.

As a branding guy, on the other hand, I could appreciate what they had achieved – they stirred my emotions.  Bottom line was that they were never going to get me as a card carrying member no matter what tactics they used; I’m simply not their target demo.  But they were legitimate, they had a purpose, and they clearly believed in their cause – for each time they got my blood boiling in anger, there was someone else with different sensibilities who opened up their checkbook or joined the picket line.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, at least we understood them.  Over the years, though, as they (like every other organization), find themselves competing for attention in an increasingly frenetic world, they’ve grabbed at easy headlines, turning themselves into buffoons along the way.  At the very best its called their credibility into question; at the very worst, their sanity.  Take a look at some of their most recent causes:

• A movement to rename fish as “sea kittens” in the hope that we think twice before eating them.
• Promoting increased use of tofu by infusing it with George Clooney’s sweat, and marketing it as Clofu
• Their most recent battle: the Obama fly swatting, shown below:

Is this the same PETA that once struck fear in their hearts of carnivores everywhere?  No, that PETA’s long gone, replaced by this newer version that more closely resembles an issue of The Onion or Cracked Magazine.

I’m sure someone, somewhere, will show me that donations to their cause have never been higher, membership is up, and other key measurements are looking good.  That might be the case – the world has never lacked for fanatics.  But on a more universal scale, their brand has lost its value.

PR, whether online or offline, is one of the most effective ways of communicating a message and building a brand.  It’s powerful, it’s believable,  but it’s not just about grabbing a headline.  Anyone can do that.  Charles Manson did it, as did Bernie Madoff, the Craigslist Killer and the management of Lehman Brothers.  They all received great exposure, if “great exposure” is measured in column inches alone.  But look at their brands – tarnished beyond repair.  PETA has been using PR to accelerate their trip to irrelevance.  Protecting the rights of flies?  How can anyone take them seriously?  It hurts their overall cause.  But it’s a lesson other brands can learn from.

Brands need to stay true to who they are and what they want to achieve. There’s nothing wrong with grabbing the low hanging fruit in return for short-terms gains, and there’s nothing wrong with taking a few calculated chances.  But there needs to be a long term strategy behind it.  Brand building is the process of building trust, of letting your audience know what you stand for, and it’s a process that never ends.  The biggest factor of building trust is consistency – fulfilling your promises time and time again, standing by your message one instance after another until consumers know that your brand can be counted on.  Every action taken by the brand becomes part of the equation, so every action needs to be considered carefully.  This has never been more true today, when social media has caught the eye of brands everywhere, many of which are suddenly rushing to be the next big viral sensation.  Stop.  Slow down.  Consider your overall strategy and make sure that the results will fit your message and continue building trust.  Consider the lesson of PETA: they may still be around and in the news, but they’ll never be the same, and their strategy has diminished their relevance considerably.

The most recent issue of Brandweek (6/13) reported on how the Trident brand was getting back into the TV advertising world with a new campaign.  The new tagline, “a Little Piece of Happy” , hits on the common human truth that the small things in life matter.  As we wait to read about the next bailout from Washington or the uncovering of Major League Baseball’s next poster child for steroid use, it is good to see something so simple that will bring a smile to your face.  As a brand guy, sure I would love to see the product play some kind of role in the ads – but I think the overall message is spot on and delivers just what the American public needs right now.  In particular, the “Go Dad” (shown below) and “Daisy” ads are fifteen second executions that directly deliver on the tagline.

The Trident website (http://www.tridentgum.com/alittlepieceofhappy/#) takes it to another level with some interesting things to explore; be sure to check out the laugh button and the “Good Job at Work” space.  In our book Perspectives on Marketing, Jay and I discuss the importance of a brand’s personality being reflected in the work output (question #31) – it is my opinion that Trident has proven that “good things do come in small packages”.  This is a personality we can all use a little more of these days, thanks Trident.

I’ve been simply floored by some of the negative reviews I’ve read for GM’s new TV spot, “Reinvented” (shown below).  If leaving negative reviews is simply a convenient way for shareholders to vent their frustration, fine – I don’t agree with using online ratings that way, but at least I can understand their feelings. Outside of that, when viewed purely in the vacuum of advertising, GM’s approach is a refreshing, inspiring example of transparent communication.

The polar opposite of the increasingly annoying “FreeCreditReport.com” ads, which mislead viewers into believing anything on their site is actually free (you first need to enroll in a fairly costly Triple Advantage program), the GM spot is at once contrite, self-abasing, motivational and honest. GM has done what no other marketer has done since Dudley Moore in his comedy movie classic “Crazy People”: they’ve leveled with America.

Immediately laying their cards on the table, the voice over (with a tone that is neither morose nor exuberant), begins by acknowledging that no company wants to be in GM’s current situation. Rather than ignore their financial crisis, they open with it, laying the groundwork for an honest dialog. The spot then goes on to accept responsibility for their own failures, explain how they intend to grow from this point, and provide a positve, almost hopeful message, ending with the powerful line “the only chapter we’re focused on is chapter one.” 

It’s only 60 seconds of advertising positive compared to months of endless media  negative, but it’s a start, and it works.  It makes you want to root for them to get it together and succeed.

It’s the ultimate example of brand building at its finest. Banks, AIG and others who have been thrust into public scorn could take a lesson from GM.  Brands are about trust, and trust has its foundation in honesty. Consumers have access to way too much information for marketers to believe they can simply ignore problems and they’ll eventually go away. It doesn’t work like that – at least not anymore.  The economic problems of the last year have cast a long shadow on many companies, seriously damaging trust equity. Silly jingles don’t fix that. Neither do jokes, special offers, rebates, digital Facebook gifts, or going media dark and hoping consumers forget.  There’s only one way to regain trust in a brand, and that’s to be honest with your audience.

Kudos to GM for producing an excellent example of what real branding is all about.