The Marketing Blender

How to Ruin your Public Image in 37 minutes

This past weekend, one of the major unions that staffs the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) walked off the job late at night with almost no notice, shutting down the city’s transit system and leaving thousands of commuters stranded.

The strike was ended by government legislation in just 2 days. The damage to the union's image will last much, much longer.

The sudden strike was a PR blunder of epic proportions by a union that had so carefully managed its image in the weeks leading up to the strike, and serves as a lesson for businesses in all industries – goodwill built through positive PR is fragile, especially in its early days.

A little background – the union in question is made up of members who drive and maintain the TTC’s buses and subways. In the weeks leading up the contract negotiations with the city of Toronto, the union had taken great pains to buff up its public image by selecting two very clever key messages:

First, it focused its positive PR efforts on the people of the union, highlighting the stories of the drivers who get up at 4 am to help get people to work, and the maintenance staff who work overnight to keep riders safe. This was a safe choice – instead of a pro-union stance that might alienate some people, they focused on telling the stories of real people to humanize their side of the contract negotiation. It’s easy to dislike a union, if that’s your view. It’s harder to dislike a person you haven’t met.

Simultaneously, they floated stories about the abuse that some of these union employees face from irate passengers, which drew attention to a central issue in the contract debate – benefits for workers injured on the job. Again, this was good messaging – it’s tough to disagree with the notion of fairness.

They even launched their own website – worthamillion.ca – where they were progressive enough to allow comments from visitors (negative and positive). They even had union members reply to some of the more negatve comments to clarify the union’s position on certain matters.

And they made a much publicized promise to the citizens of Toronto – the union would give 48 hours notice of any job action so that the public (the very people the union needs on their side) would be well prepared to make alternate arrangements.

The Union's communications were on message, relatively clear, and helped to further their position in advance of the contract talks, which (as all talks of this nature do) were coming down to the wire.

And then, in an inexplicable public relations blunder, they threw all of that goodwill (and money) away in the space of 37 minutes on a warm April evening.

After their own members voted against the most recent contract tabled by the city despite an endorsement of the deal from union leadership, the union was notified at 11:23pm on Friday that a strike would begin at midnight. By 11:30pm, some passengers were notified over the loudspeaker system in the subway stations. But for the thousands of Friday night partiers enjoying themselves and counting on the union employees to get them home, and the shift workers who rely on the system to get to their jobs, there would be no 48 hours notice as promised - only 37 minutes.

And then the worst of it – Union leadership turtled. The head of the union was nowhere to be seen on TV or Radio in the midst of this chaotic scene. The union was silent.

The website that so effectively told the stories of union employees was taken down – presumably by the union itself.

On Saturday morning, no picket lines could be found anywhere across the city.

Outside of a terse statement that talked about ensuring the safety of employees, the Union said nothing.

The result – an entire weekend of news coverage dedicated to showing how the citizens of Toronto were angry and offended at the union for breaking their much publicized promise. The Union’s side of the story was never told, because they had stopped talking.

All of that careful messaging and goodwill, tossed aside in a span of 37 minutes. The long term damage to the union’s reputation remains to be seen.

The moral - your brand can survive the odd bump in the road when it has established roots in the market and a long favourable history on its side. But emerging brands buoyed by recent PR wins and good messaging are fragile, and must be handled with care. One slip and alot of work can go out the window.

It’s the Little Things…

The genuinely good attitude of the call centre rep when you call with a
routine question, that makes you feel that they actually care about their
job and their brand.   

Or the consistently good advice and treatment you get in a particular store,
that makes you feel that you really are a “valued customer”.

These are examples of the silent, unseen events that drive brand loyalty and
have the potential to turn clients into advocates for your brand.   

So why are many companies managing these activities out of their organizations?

Modern day brand management, especially on a mass scale, doesn’t do very well with these creative little variances. We like to put policies and procedures in place to keep the customer experience as consistent as possible. We want the phone answered with a specific phrase, or a standardized greeting used in our stores.   

But in driving this kind of “regulation” into the brand, we’re also stamping out some of those creative, silent, often unseen behaviours that make a huge difference in brand loyalty.

We time call centre employees to the point that they rush through calls to land on the top of some scoresheet somewhere that ranks employee performance by call times. Only, clients aren’t even aware of call times – they just want the phone answered, to be treated well, and not to be hurried.

We standardize service down to a scoresheet that asks whether the employee greeted you in a specific way or offered you a receipt. I’m sure some of the brands I deal with greet me in a standard way – but I haven’t noticed it and it sure hasn’t made a difference in my loyalty to the brand.

The next time you survey your customers, how about asking them one simple question -- The last time you called or visited us, did we meet your expectations and treat you like a real person?

Managing brands and brand image is not always about instituting rules and regulations. Its about establishing parameters for behaviour, and then giving your people some room to go the extra mile.

You’d be surprised how many of your employees will.

It’s an Incremental World

For all of the big thinking that goes on in some businesses, and for all of the books and experts that tell you to seize a great market opportunity when it comes along by betting big, you see surprisingly little of this kind of aggressive marketing in your day to day life.

In fact, much of the business world measures success in relatively small, incremental gains.

Some corporations delight when revenue moves up 5% vs 2% in the same quarter last year. Or, they throw a party when they drive market share up by 10 basis points.

When a company offers an employee a 6% increase, it’s considered a “big raise” because inflation is only running at 2%.

Measuring Everything

Since we measure absolutely everything we need to know (and many things we don’t) we get fixated on comparing numbers, making relatively small gains seems like real improvements.

Which begs the questions, just what is success anyway? Is it a relative measure, comparing today’s performance against the past?

Or is it a measure of what you could have done had you not set incremental targets – a measure of you vs the world, instead of you vs yourself 12 months ago.

Incremental Thinking Goes Out the Window when things get Bad…

It’s interesting that incremental thinking disappears when things get desperate. Apple was in lousy shape a few years ago, so any incremental measures they had were useless to them. As a brand and a company they were in a downward spiral.

Once the quarter over quarter incremental gains no longer mattered, they had nothing to lose -- so they made some big bets, and they changed the course of music with the iPod as well as reinventing themselves in the computer space.

Do you think when the iPod was launching, Apple was worrying about a 2% increase in revenues? Nope. they had their eyes on a much bigger prize.

The Moral of the Story…

I recognize that companies need to show incremental gains to demonstrate to shareholders that the company is heading in the right direction. But marketing departments (and companies in general) need to take their eyes off the percentages every now and again and think about what they could accomplish if they bet big on the right opportunity.

10 Questions to Ask (...to grow your business)

It's not about having the answers, it's about asking the right questions.

Too often, we don't learn as much as we can about an aspect of our business, because we assume we already know it inside out. Or, we subconciously decide that we don't want any new information on something we already presume to understand.

Good leaders and good marketers are constantly asking questions, not giving answers. In that spirit, here are some questions you should ask to help grow your local business:

• Ask one client what first led them to do business with you

• Ask one ex client what led them to do business elsewhere

• Ask your web team what your conversion rate is, and then ask them how it could be improved by .25% in the next 10 days

• Ask your marketing/advertising agency how much revenue their last campaign for you generated (just to see if they know)

• Ask a fellow business owner/marketer in a related industry what the single most successful tactic they used they in the last few months

• Ask a local journalist if there is anything you can do to help them write a story about a problem that your clients face (and preferably, one that your product or service solves)

• Ask an employee for an idea

• Ask a client for an idea

• Ask about local speaking opportunities

• Ask for a referral

Building your PR Skills

Once upon a time, PR and Marketing were distinct functions.

Today, the lines are blurred.

For marketers, marketing departments, and business owners, PR is becoming an indispensable weapon in the battle for awareness, and ultimately sales. As a result, marketers with PR skills are more valuable to employers and are more effective in promoting their businesses.

Some reasons for the rise of PR as a marketing tool:

• Everybody’s a journalist – there are 112 million blogs online, and the number of reputable news sources that are “online only” has also increased dramatically in recent years.

• TV Ratings are down – your audience is more fragmented than ever, as people turn to their favourite Internet sites for entertainment more than they are tuning in to prime time network TV.

• Nobody trusts advertising – the credibility of advertising has fallen in recent years, as people are increasingly suspicious of the claims they see in paid marketing.

• Nobody sees advertising – well, “nobody” is an overstatement but with the vast number of messages consumers are exposed to every day, it’s getting much much harder to break through the clutter.

PR represents a good solution for some of the challenges noted above:

• If "everyone’s" a journalist, your ability to reach them with good story ideas and positive messages about your brand and your products will determine how much positive coverage you generate in blogs and through traditional news sources

• If TV Ratings are down, go where your target market is by getting stories about your brand in the right online publications

• If nobody trusts advertising, the third party credibility that comes with positive publicity presents a great opportunity to bolster the trust factor that consumers will assign to messages from your company

• While it's true that breaking through the clutter is much harder these days, it's much easier when readers/viewers are finding your message as part of their daily routine of seeking out information on their favourite sites or through trusted news sources         

As PR and Marketing continue to converge, maintaining skills on both sides of the fence is becoming increasingly important for marketers. I would strongly advise marketers who are short on PR experience to get some - it will make you more effective in delivering your message to the market, and can provide a boost to your career/business.

Missing the Low Hanging Fruit in Customer Loyalty

I recently leased a new Saturn Aura, and yesterday it was due for its first oil change. I had never before leased a car and have never owned a Saturn before this one. So this was the first time I'd ever been in for service at my local Saturn dealer.

The experience was decidely mediocre.

In a classic case of missing the low hanging fruit when it comes to generating customer loyalty, I was processed much like someone at the deli counter in the grocery store. The folks working behind the service counter didn't seem too interested in me being there, and I actually can't recall them saying much more than a word or two to me the entire time I was there.

What a missed opportunity. Here I was, a freshly minted customer still enjoying driving around in my new car. And when I show up for my first service experience at the dealership that sold me the car (and could sell me others in the future), the experience is brutally ordinary.

Here's what I propose. When a new customer brings their car in for service for the first time at a dealership, a message pops up on the screen for the service rep that reads as follows:

“The person standing in front of you is a new customer. The next 5 minutes are critical to giving them a reason to come back here for service again and again, and maybe buy their next car here. Right now, their relationship with us is entirely in your hands. Make a difference to this customer in the next 5 minutes.”

Evidently, they didn't have that little pop-up at Saturn.

Leveraging Brand Equity in Tough Times

  When the tough times arrive (some would say they’re already here), your brand equity is your greatest asset. But how do you leverage it when your entire industry might be feeling the pinch of slower economic times?

Here are 3 keys to making the most of the credibility that you’ve built for your business:

Communicate! – Talk to your clients when times get tough.

I know that marketing budgets get squeezed when times are tight, and it can be tougher to get your message out to the market. But at the very least, you should be communicating with your existing clients – frequently.

Don’t disappear when the going gets tough. Reinforce your brand message and offer ideas and strategies for clients to prosper in slower times.

Your competitors are more prone than ever to doing irrational things as they face pressures of their own. For example, they may sell their product or service at a deep discount that you dare not match. At times like this, your brand message needs to come through loud and clear so that you have a leg to stand on when others get desperate.

Inform – This is critical in “high trust” businesses (think real estate agents, financial or insurance advisors, lawyers, marketing consultants, and so on).

Change creates an insatiable appetite for information among clients, and the brand that provides it will be afforded expert status in the market, potentially gaining a huge advantage in the short term, and establishing a solid foundation for long term success.

For example, homeowners are carefully watching the value of their property right now, and are looking for guidance and information more than ever. As a real estate agent, be the one to give it to them, good or bad. Ditch the “friendly service” message in your ads and be the local expert who’s on top of the situation, the one who really knows what’s going on. Get in the local media, and talk to community leaders. You’ll only add to your brand equity, and if you’re a mid-pack player right now this shakeup could be the opening you need to become a top-tier agent. This applies in a variety of industries.

Deliver – It’s tempting to cut corners or trim costs when business slows, but you absolutely must preserve your brand experience.

When looking for a 10% cost reduction, businesses often cut the one thing out of their business model that makes them standout, and that their existing clients consider a key element of the brand experience. The logic for the cut is that none of the competition are doing it, so why not cut it. Of course, the fact that none of your competitors are doing it is the reason you shouldn't cut it when "it" is a unique part of your brand experience!

When the market around you slows down, your strength is in your brand. Leverage it, and whatever you do, don't damage your brand by seeking short term cost reductions in the worst possible place - your brand experience.

The Cost of Imperfection

How much did it cost you today because you were imperfect?

You know that your website/blog/product/packaging/etc. isn’t perfect. There are a few things you would like to do to make it better. But, there are also competing priorities, and you can’t do everything, so you learn to live with those little imperfections while dealing with bigger, more pressing issues.

Have you ever put anything back on the shelf in the grocery store because it wasn’t perfect?

You know, you pick up a can of soup, but you realize the back half of the label is ripped off, or the can is dented…so you put it back on the shelf and grab another. If it’s the last one, you might forget about buying soup altogether, or perhaps choose a similar product from another brand that isn’t dented.

So...when you’re the consumer, a small imperfection can lead you to abandon a planned purchase.

But...when you’re the marketer, you live with imperfection because you have other pressing issues to deal with.

But what's more pressing than sales?

Managing Complaints in Cyberspace

When a customer complains to a big company with a big brand, there is typically a team of people responsible for resolving the client’s complaint. When the same customer posts a negative comment about a brand somewhere on the Internet, visible to you and every potential customer on the planet, most companies do nothing.

Why?

Companies invest in customer service departments for two reasons:

• Defending their market share - they don’t want to lose business because of a bad client experience




• Defending their brand image - they want to diffuse a bad situation before the customer goes out and tells 10 friends who tell 10 more, and so on

This reactive "complaint department" model is no longer effective in defending your brand image, as so much of the conversation between customers is now online.

This reveals an interesting paradox about the way companies allocate resources. Call them with a complaint and they’ll have a team of people working to help you (well, the good brands will.) But post something online for everyone to see for all eternity, and most companies won’t do a thing about it.

Why not? Those negative comments are popping up in Google searches every time someone looks for the brand online – isn’t that far worse than someone who tells ten friends who tell ten more?

Personally, I use Google to check for “dirt” on a company that I am planning to deal with for the first time especially if I haven’t heard of them before. I’ll use searches like “Name of Company Scam” or “Name of Company complaints” to dig up negative information on the brand, just to see if there might be a reason not to deal with them.

As Andy Sernovitz asks over at the "Damn I wish I'd Thought of That" blog, why don’t companies invest in hiring what I could call a “clean up crew”? Get a group of students together to scout the Internet for negative mentions of your brand, then see what you can do about managing those potentially damaging comments.

And for those who would say there’s nothing you can do, I disagree:

• If you’ve been bashed on a message board over a bad customer experience, post something yourself that apologizes for the bad experience and give the client a way to contact you. Don’t go overboard here because you’ve only heard one side of the story so far, but the fact that you care enough about your image to post a reply will help to mitigate the negative post. When potential clients stumble across the client’s rant through a Google search, they’ll also see your reply, helping to balance the story.




• If you’ve been wrongly accused of something, share information that helps to balance the negative point of view, or outright prove it wrong, but don’t be confrontational about it.




• Compile some stats on why you’re getting bashed – if a common theme emerges, post some robust information about the issue on your website and link to it in response to negative mentions of your brand online.

Complaints have moved online - isn't it time companies started putting some resources behind proactive image management instead of reactive complaint management?

Real Estate Marketing Madness

It's March on the outskirts of Toronto, which means my mailbox is crammed with marketing materials from local real estate agents trying to get my business in the busy Spring real estate market. I've received 10 flyers in the last week alone.

And like every year, I see examples of agents who have wasted their money on ineffective marketing tactics that simply aren't going to work.

A quick sidebar for our American readers -- the real estate agents here in Canada are still enjoying record years when it comes to the housing market. And while there are some spots in the US where real estate values are falling, the challenge facing agents are the same on many levels -- to convince those who are thinking of moving to list their home with you.

It's the "convincing" part where most agents fall short.

After sifting through the flyers, I've developed some thoughts that are specific to improving real estate marketing but would be applicable to any business where the client is being asked to make a significant, high dollar purchase:

Build Trust - If you're going to get 5% of the value of my home as a commission, I'll need to trust you first. And you don't build trust by telling me your trustworthy, or that you're good.

Own the Information Advantage - To build trust, one option is to own the expert position. Share information freely with the local market (and the local media) about where the market is headed, and whether it differs from the national picture. Anyone thinking of moving craves information - how much are other homes selling for, how long they've been on the market, and so on.

Any dollar spent on marketing that doesn't work towards building trust among potential buyers is a dollar wasted because it doesn't get you closer to a sale.

While we're at it, here are some phrases I'm tired of seeing in real estate ads, and that generally don't work:

A trusted professional. Trusted? By whom? Prove it.

I get results! Good for you! Show me.

Free Home Evaluation with this coupon - I'm sure some appointments are made thanks to the free evaluation premise, but can we lose the coupon idea? Don't cheapen the experience by pretending that the unaddressed piece of paper that EVERYONE got in the mail is actually required to get a home evaluation.

Marketing messages I'd like to see more of from real estate agents:

The choice for families - Parents often worry the most about moving their kids, and what the local schools are like, etc. If you could position yourself as an expert in this area through your marketing and the client experience, you'd build a huge advantage for yourself. (Build trust as a credible source of information for families, and you're on your way...)

Your Condo Market Expert -  Know everything there is to know about maintenance fees, the makeup of certain condo buildings (demographics, etc). Position yourself as the leader in this category. (Again, building trust through shared knowledge)

25 years of serving the community - Experience is perceived as an advantage in real estate, and if you can make a claim to a long service history in a particular community, you should.

In a wide open market like real estate, where there tend to be dozens or literally hundreds of competitors in each community, positioning is critical. And proving your position goes a long way towards building your profile in the market, and building trust among potential clients.