All Posts By

BJ Bueno & Scott Jeffrey

The Organic Brand

How Misperception Can Hurt Your Business

Whether you’re a health nut or hate the thought of eating anything green, you’ve no doubt noticed a growing awareness of organic foods. What was once reserved only for the specialty health food stores catering to the granola community are now intermingled on the average supermarket shelves with products like Sweet N’ Lo, Diet Sprite, and Crest toothpaste.

What’s your perception of organic foods? What facial expressions do you think you’ll find if you ask a random sample of average people how they feel about organic foods? For many, the assumption is that an organic item might be healthy, but it is invariably less tasty. Actually, the assumption is generally that organic food tastes like crap.

Do you know what it actually means for a product to be “organic?” Despite common perception, a product holding the United States Department of Agriculture stamp of organic approval tells you nothing about the taste of the product. Here’s what it means from the USDA website: “Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled ‘organic,’ a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards.”

Essentially, organic foods don’t have pesticides or chemicals in them. Organic foods can still have sugar (organic sugar), milk (organic milk), or any other ingredient that might contribute to the taste of the product. Don’t believe it? Try Paul Newman Organics’ version of Oreos. I was amazed too—they’re just as good!!!

Remember what we discussed a few issues ago? We said that what a person perceives is that person’s reality and perception is unique for each individual. We each hold different perceptual filters based on factors like beliefs, values, behaviors, experiences and senses. The organic food industry has a unique branding opportunity for raising the awareness of organic foods for the organic farmers.

Misperception can hurt your brand, especially when it starts from within the industry. The current perception says: Organic = Tastes Like Crap. This reality should send a signal to everyone in the industry to communicate more clearly to the customer. Fortunate for the organic industry, increased awareness for disease-free, healthy living will continue to drive sales despite the poor brand image. As a consequence of good quality, tasty organic products, word-of-mouth will continue to increase the awareness of this misperception. The newspaper industry, however, doesn’t afford this luxury.

Intel Corporation was faced with a similar challenge because no one had any awareness of what the Intel processing chip was—or did. Intel sells a computer chip. Ask most people to locate the Intel chip in an open computer and they’ll shrug their shoulders. most people can’t even show you what “Intel inside.” Yet, customers want their computers to say, “Intel Inside.” Simple. Intel did an amazing job of building a brand outside the computer box.

The newspaper industry faces a similar problem. The perception is misaligned. Readers are transitioning into different mediums. Newer mediums like the Internet, PDAs, cell phones, interactive TV have positioned newspaper as old and old fashion, slow and all the other nice names I am sure you know more than I. As and outsider to the newspaper industry, I see numerous opportunities to build powerful, meaningful brands. Today, more than ever, people are interested in meaningful interactions, and are no longer in search for “stuff,” but for experiences.

The newspaper industry has just started to discover itself outside of a physical product. This endeavor is not about building something that is not there, but like the Organic movement, just embracing what you are already. It takes courage to break the mold of an industry because there are many conventions to overcome. For example, the newspaper is inside of the brand, not the brand inside of the newspaper. Someone has to have the courage to break away from past and build for the future.

Onward!

Where to go from here
January 10, 2012 by

Ten Reasons to Focus on Your Best Customers

Your best customers are your Brand Lovers. Understanding the needs of your Brand Lovers and serving them better than anyone else is critical if you want to outmaneuver the competition and grow a long-term sustainable business.

Here are ten reasons why your Brand Lovers are so important:

1. Your Brand Lovers choose you more often than your competitors. To most Mac users, there’s no alternative competitor to choose from.

2. Your Brand Lovers spread the word about your brand and create new customers for you. Basically, your best customers are the source of your word-of-mouth stream.

3. Your Brand Lovers are by nature loyal customers. Customer loyalty is a better determinant of profitability than mass appeal. (Again, just ask Apple.)

4. Focusing on your Brand Lovers and cultivating customer loyalty can help you double your return on assets (ROA).

5. Similarly, serving your best customers can lead to explosive return on investment (ROI). Example: When Apple opened their retail stores they expected to generate $1,000/square foot. They actually generated $4,000/square foot.

Ultimately, your Brand Lovers drive the profitability of your business.

6. In The Loyalty Effect, Frederick Reichheld explains how a 5% increase in customer loyalty can increase a company’s profitability by 40 to 95%.

7. Think about what would happen if you turned just 10% of your occasional customers into Brand Lovers. For large enterprises, this shift represents billions in additional revenue and radically higher profit margins.

Need more reasons?

8. By focusing on your Brand Lovers, your cost of acquiring a new customer decreases.

9. Your marketing effectiveness soars as a result of building a stronger brand presence focused around the needs of your best customers.

10. By focusing on your Brand Lovers you can build a powerful brand that stands for something meaningful to your special customers. This gives you clear differentiation and helps you organically attract more of your most profitable customers.

The bottom line is that serving your best customers is the surest way to grow a profitable business—in any economic climate.

February 28, 2010 by

The 7 Principles of Why We Talk

So how do you produce authentic word-of-mouth? You work hard to create amazing experiences for your customers—experiences worth talking about. Here are seven principles to help you better understand your customers’ World of Talk:

1 – The Principle of Integrity: They know that you know that they know

People know you have an intention and that you know that they know you have an intention. What this means from an advertising standpoint is they know you are trying to sell them a product, and they know that you know that they know you’re trying to persuade them. Unless you are very adept at meeting their needs, you’re going to encounter an impenetrable barrier. Don’t think you can deceive them into believing they’re not being coerced into buying a product. Even if you think the advertising is solid, they’re still going to know. People are much better at detecting deception than they are at being the deceiver.

2 – The Principle of Status: People share what makes them look good

Both negative and positive information reflect positively on the person conveying the information, as both are useful to decision-making. Negative information is perhaps more useful because it is perceived as being highly diagnostic. Supplying accurate information benefits the conveyer, as it confers status upon the conveyor. Supplying inaccurate information quickly erodes the reputation of the conveyer.

3 – The Principle of Cool: Ride in front of the “Cool Wave” or wipe out

In the Hypersonic Word-of-Mouth World, the search for cool is quickly focusing on The Ignored. This means if you see something cool today, you can almost bet it’s on its way out and something else will be cool very soon. But remember, in not-too-much-time, that won’t be cool either. Pogs—the milkcap game that originated in the 1920s—reemerged and was all the rage in the early ‘90s, but has now all but disappeared. Technological advances in communication shorten the cycles of “cool.” Listen to your customer. In order to be on top, you must know what’s cool before it becomes cool. Just like a wave, if you jump too late, you’re not going to catch it.

4 – The Principle of Groups: Small groups—the critical few—dictate the large

Customers can be broken down into two subgroups: the trivial many and the critical few. Avoid focusing on the trivial many and find out who comprises your brand’s critical few. They are the ones who truly influence their subcultures. The same principle that applies to individuals applies to groups—you need the influence of many small groups to create a movement.
A small group of particular importance is teenagers. Do not ignore them because they don’t fall within your target demographic; when you’re not looking, they will eat you alive. They are more Internet-savvy than their parents. They know how to access information, and their parents rely on their opinions about purchasing decisions because teens know how to get around on the Internet. In many respects, teens are both the gatekeeper and the bridge to influencing your customer.

5 – The Principle of Influence: Everyone is influential—especially on the Internet

Connectivity changed the landscape of influence. Everyone is able to influence people in some way, on some subject. No one can affect people’s decisions in every category. Those who provide more useful input gain more status, and are more likely to be listened to. Knowledge is power, especially on the Internet, where normal social cues like body expressions and facial reactions are not in place. As a result, anyone can say what he or she is thinking. Comments are judged by their accuracy and value rather than the person’s background.

6 – The Principle of Meaning: People talk about what’s meaningful to them

Listen carefully to the critical few to find out what they care about, and give them something to talk about. If you can find ways to amuse them, surprise them, or give them information that will give them esteem among their peers, they will talk. Everyone else will follow.

7 – The Principle of Surprise: People love to share what surprised them

Never underestimate the power of surprise. Let the consumer discover the best thing about you instead of hearing you shout it from the rooftops.

The above is an excerpt from Why We Talk: The Truth Behind Word-of-Mouth. (c) 2007 by Bolivar J. Bueno.

March 27, 2009 by