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Solve Tensions and Transform Customers into Heroes

Solve tensioons and transform customers into the heroes of their own journeys.

Nobody buys anything for the sake of having it.

Purchases always solve problems. And, problems are always driven by deeper needs. In between the problems and the deeper needs are tensions. These tensions are value-driven: in other words, they are driven by wanting the world to be one way and not another.

Each value has two poles: a positive and a negative (e.g., clean/dirty, love/hate, freedom/suppression, etc.).1 It is the battle between these two poles—because moving towards the negative is always a possibility—that creates tension in customers’ lives. It’s these tensions that companies should seek to solve.

A company’s goal should be to create offerings that move the customer closer to the positive end of the value spectrum. By doing so, the customer associates positive movement in their lives with the brand.

Different companies can solve similar problems in people’s lives. It’s the way in which they uniquely reduce the tension that differentiates one brand from another.

Consistently giving customers tools to overcome tensions reinforces behaviors. Reinforcing behaviors is what makes customers develop a relationship with a brand and makes them likely to consider that brand first when making a new purchase. Reinforced behaviors lead to purchases.

When an ad falls flat, it’s usually because it has nothing to do with tensions or it solves a problem that the customers don’t associate with the brand—it isn’t linked to a reinforced behavior. It may be visually appealing; it might even be clever enough to win an award. But, just being visually appealing or clever doesn’t drive purchase. The lack of effectiveness results in companies constantly switching directions. And when they constantly change directions, they lack the consistency required to create reinforcement.

Companies that don’t solve a tension have weak brands. Companies with strong brands consistently help customers overcome tensions and become the heroes in their own journeys.

The best way we’ve found to uncover these tensions is to talk to your customers: specifically your Brand Lovers—the customers that love you the most. These customers love you because you help them in their lives over and over again. As a result, they have a better perspective of what you can do when you’re at your best than your average customer does.

Once you understand these tensions, you can more clearly express your ability to solve problems and more easily reinforce desired behaviors to a larger customer base.

And, that makes your brand pretty irresistible.

_______________________

January 18, 2019 by

Authentic Branding:
How to Create a Brand Customers and Employees Love

Authentic Branding Diagram

While revolution must be led from the top, it rarely starts at the top. The spirit of revolution already exists in the hearts and minds of motivated employees and loyal customers. It shows up in the individual stories that employees tell about the work they do. And it shows up in the individual stories that customers tell about the products they love. Often a leader need only act as a kind of managing editor, shaping the stories to align with a shared vision.Marty Neumeier1

Despite what many agencies still claim, brands aren’t logos or taglines and they can’t be made or changed with a single ad campaign.

A brand is a living entity with three elements: vision, culture, and customer. These elements influence each other and collectively create a perception about the company. That perception is the brand.

There’s more than one way to create a brand. But, we think there’s only one way to create a brand that will be relevant now and in the future. And, that’s creating an Authentic Brand.

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December 21, 2018 by

The State of Cult Branding

We are thrilled to tackle an opportunity-packed topic that impacts every industry.

Because the topic of Cult Branding is so humanistic, we tried something new:

We built a Google Slides version of the insights so you can present it to your team along with a worksheet to jumpstart your next 30-minute brainstorm.

Click on through to see The 7 Rules of Cult Branding and gain actionable insights from Apple to Ikea to SouthWest Airlines. Discover how Cult Brands are already changing what your customers think is possible.

Remember, these insights are opportunities waiting to happen. Read, and then act!

P.S.
Feel free to download the presentation and make it your own.

December 7, 2018 by

Have We Forgotten How to Say Thank You?

Google “How to Say Thank You” and you’ll get 2.18 billion results. Most are instructional. It’s surprising that something we learned to do as children has that many search results.

Somewhere in between childhood and adulthood, we forgot how to say thank you and, most importantly, mean it.

This is especially true in business where the market often forces companies to focus on short-term transactions rather than long-term relationships. When customers hear a “thank you” in business, it’s usually the result of a company policy instead of something genuine.

Saying something and meaning it comes across a lot differently than when you just go through the motions of saying it.If you don’t mean it: it’s just words. When you mean it, the words carry emotion. It’s the difference between someone faking a smile and a child opening up that gift they’ve wanted for months on Christmas morning.

Over a decade ago, a sales associate at Cole Haan sent me a handwritten thank you note. Thousands of transactions between then and now, and I’ve yet to receive another personal letter from any company that wasn’t mailed with a purchase. Recently, this thoughtful gesture came to mind when I received a beautifully wrapped scatola misteriosa from an upscale boutique, reminding me just how impactful personalized surprises can be. To this day, when I’m looking for something new, I check to see if Cole Haan has something I like first. And, guess what: my last clothing purchase was from Cole Haan.

All it took to make me consider Cole Haan first was a handwritten letter that took no longer than a couple of minutes to write. But, it was genuine. And, the sales associate had to look online to figure out how to thank me.

At its heart, saying “thank you” is about caring for customers. Customers want to matter and they want to engage with brands.

Yet, most companies are missing the chance to engage with their customers beyond trite responses to happy customers and copy-and-paste legalese for angry customers.

This is a big missed opportunity. But, it’s not an opportunity that can be feigned. It can only be done with caring. And, a good start is creating a culture that cares enough to genuinely say, “Thank you.”

November 30, 2018 by

The Mall Isn’t Dead

The mall isn’t dead, but it needs a makeover.

The current model of the mall is broken. It no longer serves the purpose it once did: for adults, it’s no longer convenient; for teens, it seems too much like something uncool from their parents’ generation to make them want to hang out there.

Inconvenience

Decades ago, having an Athlete’s Foot a few doors down from a Foot Locker wasn’t a bad thing: it gave people more options. Now, with a culture that feels time-starved and that has been taught that you shouldn’t have to go to more than one place to find what you want, having to go to two stores that are interchangeable from a customer-perspective seems like an unnecessary burden and turns the mall into a poor customer experience.

And, when you multiply that by all the cases in the mall where that’s the same–stores selling seemingly the same things–and the mall becomes a beacon of wasted time and a symbol of inconvenience. It’s like a big box retailer putting half the black dresses on the first floor and the other half on the second floor, at the opposite end of the building.

Uncoolness

With teens increasingly turning away from malls, malls are becoming places that no longer contain positive memories of childhood. This will become an increasing issue if nothing changes: there won’t be any nostalgia to bring them back.

The model of the mall hasn’t changed in a long time: it was dated before most teenagers were born–in two years no teenager will have been born before there was an iPhone. It’s a remnant of their parents’ childhood that isn’t even relevant for most of their parents anymore. The mall has become horribly uncool.

Resurrecting The Mall

To become relevant again, the mall as a whole needs to focus on serving the customer, it has to be destination-worthy, and the mall itself has to be a brand.

The mall can no longer allow retailers in based on whether or not they can pay rent. Instead, the mall needs a curator that selects stores based on whether or not they contribute to the overall mall serving the customer better.

In the new model, having two stores selling the same brands of sneakers or two stores selling similar styles of clothing wouldn’t make the cut: they inconvenience the customer.

And, shopping must be easy: a woman’s shoe store shouldn’t be at the opposite end of the mall as a store selling dresses.

The stores must be selected to make the whole experience convenient for the customer and inspire them.

Food courts passing out samples of Bourbon chicken are outdated. With a culture that’s becoming increasingly obsessed with food, the same care in selecting stores must be applied to selecting food vendors: they must be places people want to eat instead of just being there.

Malls must also provide more than a shopping experience: they must be cool to teenagers. They need to be built to be shared in an online, social world.

The mall should be like a mini-neighborhood where people can get all their shopping done, go to a favorite restaurant, and hang out.

The power of the mall of the future is in its curation. Without curation, the mall is just clutter to today’s consumer. With curation, the mall can regain its identity and again become an essential part of culture.

November 16, 2018 by

How to Create Powerful Brand Rituals

“Before I can tell you the story, you have to try the shot.” – Fred Mossler Co-Founder Zappos.

You mean the one with the scorpion in it?

“Yeah and you should shoot it together, you definitely don’t want to eat the scorpion alone.” – Fred

“BJ, The Scorpion Shot is so popular, that we are now vertically integrating scorpions into our business model.” – Tony Hsieh Zappos CEO

We are celebrating Nacho Daddy’s 5 Year Anniversary in Las Vegas.

Fascinated by all things culture, I am naturally intrigued by the story and the sense of community that taking this shot provides.

Gulp! It’s gone, scorpion and all.

Soon after we are sitting in the middle of T-Mobile Arena where the biggest show in Vegas is about to go off, the Knights take the ice, and the crowd goes wild. Maybe it’s the tequila or the scorpion, but I am vibrating even though I have no clue about the game of hockey, but I understand people can feel the energy and it is electric.

Brand Rituals are All Around Us

Separating Oreo’s and dunking it in milk, or Breaking a KitKat into halves and eating it on a break, Popping the cap of the Pringles tube or if you want to get fancy The Stella Artois’ 9-step pouring ritual. These brand rituals play a crucial role in building a sense of belonging and community around the brands.

Rituals offer consumers the chance to interact with a brand. Because people want more than just consumption – they appreciate experiences.

Over the years I have observed different strategies that work towards creating powerful and emotional experiences. Here are a few questions to consider when building your plan:

Can you create and experience specific to your audience?

How can it be specific to your brand?

Ritualize Your Brand

Our job is to explore the elements of your brand that lend themselves to becoming ritualized. How might you make your product or service part of the daily lives of your customers? Is it even possible?

How might you use brand rituals to create a greater sense of “team” and “family” with your employees, and to fuel their passions for supporting the brand?

Creating a ritual around your brand, whether it’s focused internally or externally, is one of the most useful tools you have to engage people and it’s one of the critical components necessary for building a successful cult brand.

Onward!

November 2, 2018 by

Narrow Your Brand Focus

A brand becomes stronger when you narrow the focus.
Al Ries and Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.

Keeping a brand on course is one of the most critical and difficult challenges executives face. A narrow brand focus will help keep your brand aligned with your core business and in tune with your best customers. Below are four questions that can help your organization stay focused on what is most important for the brand.

Why do we exist?

Beyond making money, it is essential to know what purpose your brand serves. Knowing what problems your brand helps solve for its customers is key to building a strong, profitable brand.

What values and beliefs unify our employees and our customers?

Recruiting a high-performance team is vital to your organization’s ability to deliver on its brand promise. Knowing the core values that resonate deep within your organization and with your Brand Lovers is essential for attracting passionate employees and creating customers who love your brand. The more you understand what your brand stands for, the better you will be at drawing in people who love working for you and enjoy doing business with you.

How do we measure success?

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. Having a brand promise of what success looks like allows your organization to remain focus on the big picture.

What is holding us back?

Making progress toward the brand promise of a brand is not easy. It does not come without sacrifice and a lot of hard work. To be successful, you have to let go of the norms and embrace discomfort. The solutions that worked to get the brand where it is today will not ensure success in the future.

Now that you’re in the final stretch of 2018, have you done a thorough, top-to-bottom progress evaluation on your brand? Where are the big misses? What’s behind or underneath the numbers? What needs to be done differently?

Which of these challenges will you take into consideration as you plan for 2019?  Pick one or two to bring to your next executive session.

Onward!

October 19, 2018 by

How to Create a Vision and Build a Roadmap for Success

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—“ said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,’”Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Organizations that last know where they’re going. They know how they want people to perceive their business and they know what they want to achieve.

In short, they have a strong vision.

Creating a strong vision is a key to long-term success: it gives you clarity on what you should and shouldn’t do for the continuing health and prosperity of the company.

The vision, however, is only one of the keys to success, you must also have a purpose that drives the vision; and, you must have missions, strategies, and tactics to achieve your vision.

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September 22, 2018 by

Embrace Discomfort, Create Change

If something is comfortable, it won’t lead to progress.

Growth was seen as an endless series of daily choices and decisions in each of which one can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.Abraham H. Maslow1

If you’re comfortable, you’re not growing. It’s the uncomfortable things that make us grow.

The same is true of business: companies that embrace discomfort as a regular part of business life are more likely to achieve their goals and move closer and closer to fulfilling their company vision than those that don’t.

Companies that stay comfortable—which feels great in the moment—end up losing in the long run, which doesn’t feel so great.

Discomfort is a prerequisite for change.

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August 31, 2018 by