If you have not taken advantage of the 'weakened' economy to revisit your corporate identity and messaging, now might be a good time. I've been following Abercrombie & Fitch over the last 10 months as a case study in over-estimating brand value. I still hope their strategy pans out in the long-run as they stick to their guns. But my sense is, they do not have a clear guage on how strong or weak their brand may be. Especially as people downsize and demand more for their dollar. Abercrombie has tons of substitute product competition. When times are good, it's easy to get lax in brand identity and the quality of your product/service. What stands out in bad times are the weak. While I may not be the target audience, it's difficult to know the difference (in a few words) between Abercrombie, their sister brand Hollister, and Aeropostale. All I know is Abercrombie is more expensive.

So, with this in mind, I offer 5 tips for improving (and validating) your brand message:

1) Stop using words from within the organization. When working at a company, you become ingrained in their language. And it's typically techie speak. Or functional terms. Ask yourself, what does that mean to our customers and more importantly, what is in it for them.

2) Have you validated or re-validated your value? (Sidenote: do NOT use the word 'value' in your messages. It's watered down because it is overused and value is different for everybody). I worked with a client on their brand identity. I asked "Why do customers work with you instead of the competition". They delivered a series of 10 benefits; however, they had not actually asked the customers. It was their internal thinking. I proceeded to interview (by phone) their key customers to discover only a few of those benefits were real. In the process, we learned another key benefit the company totally overlooked. Armed with this new information, we were able to solidify how my client solved their customers problem better than the competition and articulate from the customer's perspective.

Another thing happens when you do this work: You discover if you have slipped over time with something that was a benefit and is no longer valid. Or where competition is beating you.

3) Stop writing by committee. Brainstorming, innovating, new ideas are all GREAT with input from all functions of an organization. Creating brand identity and messaging does not. I repeat DOES NOT. The more people involved with messages and design, the more watered down the idea. Marketing's job is to keep an outside perspective and bring that into the organization. I've seen great ideas become vanilla with too many chefs. And chefs that tripped over themselves trying to sound so smart and academic, when really, the customer had no idea what the fancy words meant. Push back when it gets to this point.

4) Get your point across in 12 seconds. If someone comes to your website and doesn't 'get-it' right away, they will not waste time trying to figure you out.

5) True test: Get open feedback. Don't be afraid to ask someone outside of your organization (doesn't even have to be a customer) whether they understand your message right away. I know it hurts when someone says "I don't get it" after you spend so much time crafting a design or message. But sometimes all that time you spend looking at something takes your eye off a first impression. You don't see it because you know what it is supposed to say.

I know other marketers have been in this place before. For those of you non-marketers, think of these tips the next time you insist on voting for a logo.

Would love to hear your comments.
Jackie

Are you tired of the hysteria of articles claiming that Twitter is such a must-have tool for your survival on Earth? I didn't say that. James Carlini said it in his blog post at Midwest Business.com.  Here is a further excerpt:

"Did I offend those social media experts who are claiming to be world-renown Twitter experts? With the tool (let alone the concept) only being around for a couple years at best, I’m surprised at so many people claiming guru status when Twitter has yet to find its full potential. Are some universities thinking of offering a doctorate in social media tools?"
 
Fired up yet? I am as his comments are a bit short sighted. It is a marketers job to understand how consumers/customers are getting information. How do they want to communicate or whether they want to communicate.

First, is Twitter a fad? Twitter.com may go away since I still wonder about a true revenue model. However, the technology is here to stay. Take Facebook's purchase of FriendFeed as an example. If people are communicating, marketers need to be there to understand the utility. Facebook even snuck up on businesses who have, ever since, been trying to hire those who understand the community and how to use it.

Second, do Twitter experts exist? Well, yes. In as much as we know about the value of Twitter today, marketers can help companies understand the value and determine whether the tactic fits in their 'toolbox'. Twitter will evolve in form and utility over time. I would want to align with the marketers who have been in the trenches in order to capitalize on the technology when it becomes relevant for my business.

As a marketing consultant and professor, I would not be doing my clients or students justice if I did not keep up on the latest of everything. More importantly is my ability to use that information to determine whether it fits the client's objectives and reaches their target market.

Twitter is NOT for right for every business. I also don't think I would refer Carlini to help with marketing strategies to anyone soon.

You don't have to agree with me, but wondering what do you think?

I recently had a meeting with a fast-growing B2B company who asked for my suggestion on selling add-on services to clients.  The conversation went a bit like this:

Me: What are you doing now?
Response: They send some emails, engage in social marketing, and are thinking about new mobile technology. Me: What do you do with your emails?
Response: We send notices about new products but it doesn’t work so well.
Me: What do you do for your sales and client service teams?
Response: They have resources to sell anything to their clients.

Me: Ah. Do you do segmentation for them to determine the right product for the right client?
Response: No, but that’s a good idea.
Me: That should be your first step.

Marketers love fancy tactics and new media, which is great, but sometimes forget about the sales teams. I think this is beause they are treated as silos in many organizations and perhaps marketing assumes what sales needs. But the fact is, if your marketing strategies and tactics are not assisting sales in some way, you should pack up your marketing bag and go home.

Having started my career in Business Development, I know first-hand what is valuable and what is garbage. A few years back a senior marketing executive with a large CPG company told me, “We don’t like sales involved in marketing because sales people don’t think out of the box”. Really?  And how effective are those out-of-the-box ideas at helping sales people generate revenue? I remember the wasted material we had at Frito-Lay on these cute ideas. Much of those great ideas ended up in wasteland. At another company (which I won’t name), I had several disagreements with my corporate marketing counterparts on the value of their ‘fancy ideas’. At the risk of being the naysayer, sometimes I would let it go and these ‘cool’ ideas were implemented. Guess what? The sales people would tell me in confidence, “What is that stuff? How much did we waste on that”? Thankfully, more attention is currently being placed on sales and marketing alignment.

Think about this: Utopia would be if a company had a live sales person able to go one-on-one with every customer and prospect. Since this isn’t financially realistic, companies need marketing to assist the process and break-down barriers.

What’s the point of this? My first recommendation to the B2B Company above was this: Good old target marketing with your client service team. Use the non-sexy marketing analytics first to help your client service team profile, segment and target the best client to the best product. Next, determine where the client is in the sales cycle from awareness to conviction and create talking points and offers matched to each step. This assists sales by providing focus and the best opportunity. You also become relevant to the client because you’ve done your homework by pinpointing a product/service they actually may need. Less noise in the communication. Then, using this information, marketers can help sales teams understand how to more effectively target prospects with this profile information.

Not rocket science, just a call out to marketers to ask yourself how every dollar you spend is assisting the sales process.

Let me know what you think.

Jackie

All the world is a Twitter…or not. Whether you Tweet or don’t, I’m sure everyone knows of Twitter. People love it or hate it. I think hate it because they have not found the utility of how it fits in their lives. To the question ‘how effective is Twitter’, Brandweek posted an article citing a disconnect between marketers and the general public http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/digital/e3i00860fac3d23b30e71ca0d4c13545ce3#3 . Naturally, marketers can see the value, but people in general not so much. This is not so much a surprise to me as I suggested in an earlier blog-post that Twitter’s real value is more B2B marketing vs. B2C. Coincidentally, B2B magazine’s July 20^th issue states 70% of B2B marketers use Twitter vs 46% of B2C marketers.

So why go on about this? Because as in all things marketing, everything starts with your target market. Your customer. Should a company Twitter? Only if your customers are on Twitter and value that communication tool. If your target market is ‘innovators’ or marketers, chances are you can reach them on Twitter. If your target market is High School or college students, maybe not so much (note that even more studies are out showing those age groups are still not all a Twitter). I am actually glad this debate rages on because, as a marketer, I find the statistics very useful. And I love watching the media’s use of blowing things out of proportion (i.e. ‘Twitter is over’)

I think Twitter is a fabulous learning tool and a great way to follow thought leaders. Now, if they can find a revenue generating model, it may be here to stay. Maybe they can sell the technology like Google sells their search ability?

What do you think?
Jackie

I attend the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) in Chicago this week and discovered something interesting. Not surprising, but a theme. And that theme was numbers. Math, measurement, and analytics.

The first year of OMS in Chicago three years ago, the theme focused on the user experience. Web usability, email marketability, engagement...etc. Some discussions of measurement. This year, every session, and every speaker discussed applications for measurement, scoring, segmentation, even cohorts. I felt like I was back at The NPD Group discussing research operations.

This theme has been widely supported for those keeping up with marketing news. C-level's demanding ...<< MORE >>

I am compelled to comment on an article in Marketing Charts ‘Social Media Generates Hype; Fails to Deliver Marketing Punch’ because comments in the article underscore the problems organizations have harnessing the power of social media.

Some excerpts:

* Despite its popularity, socnet platforms - including Facebook, Twitter and the like - have failed to demonstrate prowess as marketing tools, and possibly never will.
* “Obviously, a lot of people are using social media, but they are not explicitly turning to it for marketing purposes, or for finding out what products to buy.
* “[Twitter is] more of a media ...<< MORE >>

“So, I’m not sure I get all this blog, Twitter, and Facebook stuff. How do I use it?” is a question I have been asked very often lately, to which I respond “well isn’t that the question of the day”. You’re in a cave if you have not heard enough and too much about Twitter, especially as a marketer. (As a side-note, should Web 2.0 at this point be Web 2.5?)

If you are in my shoes, how do you respond to the question? The first question back should ALWAYS be 'What are your objectives'. Then, how can social media tools help you as part of your integrated marketing plan.  Many people miss that first part. If you do not start there you’ll end up chasing tactics with no purpose. Then later your company thinks ‘Gee, that didn’t really do anything. Did we measure it’? How can you measure something that didn’t have an objective to start?

In a prior post I discuss how marketing is too tactical; and, I read with interest articles about companies scrambling to get into social media only to claim ‘it’s not working’. Chase tactics, you’ll chase your tail. Chase objectives and you’ll move the organization. So here are some suggestions for incorporating social media:

One: Ask yourself, what am I trying to achieve? Feedback? Word of mouth? Referrals? Top-of-mind? Lead-Gen?

Second: Can social media help you in your marketing ‘toolkit’ to get there?

Third: Shape your social media tactic to get there. For instance, if an objective is to stay Top-of-Mind, write a blog and push it out to your network/prospects. But don’t cry if people don’t start calling. A blog for purposes of staying top-of-mind is not lead generation. However, if your goal is lead gen then your blog and/social media tactics would take different variation including some type of offer. But if you do that, don’t cry if people say you’re ‘too salesy’. Well, that is the subtle purpose of lead generation.

Fourth: Rome wasn’t built in a day (but it is one of my favorite cities). It takes time to build a relationship. Social media is basically one big relationship (and helps word of mouth marketing).  

What do you think?
Jackie

A follow-up to a prior post about Abercrombie & Fitch’s brand pricing strategy for the holiday season: In a nut-shell, Abercrombie was not going to play the game of deep discounting like their competitors. They were hoping to gain long-term brand impact by maintaining their prices. I had many comments on that blog-post. Most agreed the short-term hit would help their long-term brand image.

In the Wall Street Journal on February 14^th (happy belated Valentines’ day) is the article ‘Abercrombie Profit Drops 68%’. They had to reduce prices as much as 90% in January to clear inventory’. That isn't really a surprise. Unless they were really obtuse, they had to know that would happen in this economy. The WSJ article goes on to say Abercrombie’s CEO referred to the fourth quarter as ‘a nightmare that included unprecedented promotional activity by other retailers’.  HUH? While I applauded his guts to hold firm, what planet was he on not to expect this short-term hit? When managing for long-term profit, you can expect a hit in volume.

This will sound so text-bookie, but a review of three factors that influence the demand curve, or shifts in demand, simplifies the issue: 1) Consumer Tastes. Let’s assume that didn’t change. 2) Available substitutes. They were beat here with many choices. 3) Consumer Income. Hmmmm. This is a no-brainer as consumers traded down.

I’m no financial genius but I'm sure they realized when managing for long-term profit, you can expect a hit in volume. The long-term strategy makes sense if consumers find  value in the brand. I wonder if they considered that before stocking the shelves with holiday inventory. Maybe they were hopeful. Maybe they had their head in the sand. Maybe it’s just the ‘Brand Bubble’…(more on that later).

Would love to hear your comments.

Jackie

 I feel compelled to comment on one of the misses of the Superbowl. That expensive, glitzy, funny, SoBe half-time commercial. Remember it? The guys dancing around in boxers and turning into lizards. Makes one want to run out and grab a SoBe? Not really. I still don't know why I should buy SoBe. What makes it better than Naked Juice (that's a plug for John) or just water for gosh sakes. I asked my college students about it.  Reaction: It was hilarious. So funny. Great commercial. So, I ask, "Do you drink SoBe"? A resounding "No, it's terrible". I prod, "Will that commercial make you want to try it again"? Again 100% said "No way". Classic example of a blown opportunity where a myopic marketing department would have been better served explaining what makes SoBe different or great or just why someone would want to try it. Differentiation.

I teach differentiation in Marketing 301 (aka 101). It should be the foundation of ANY company or brand marketing and communication. And it's not a new concept, right? I think classic CPG companies get it. Most others, maybe not so much. Try this: Go to your company's website. Then go to a handful of your competitor's websites. On the homepage, do you see how you are different? Does everyone say the same thing? Can you even find a solid positioning or differentiation on the homepage? And an you figure it out in 12 to 15 seconds? Don't think a customer or prospect will waste time trying to figure it out. If you can say, "Yes, we do this well, you may be in the minority".

I realize how difficult it is to get inside the head of a customer and discover why they buy from your organization or why they buy your product. Clients I work with easily discuss their features and what they think to be benefits. But it's difficult to get their arms around the one unique "Whats in it for me" factor for customers. The WIFM. I helped a client do inexpensive research to figure this out and what clients said was different than what the company thought to be their differentiation.

When you realize the one thing that is relevant with customers, get a great writer to put it in words and communicate it all the time. Be consistent and make sure your customers and prospects know it. Make sure your employees know it. Push back on your web firm or the creative department who would rather make this subtle. Then measure it please. And continually validate that you are delivering.

I'm passionate about this topic and process. Would love to know your thoughts or help if you need it.

Jackie

I made an observation this holiday season which I’m sure many others have as well. Email special offers GALORE. Lots of them. Often. And they get better everyday. First 20% off. Then 30% off. Then 50% off. And today…60% off. Wow. The interesting thing to me is how it has been the same story across many retailers, these three being ones I shop regularly: Banana Republic, J. Crew, New York and Company, and Victoria Secret. (Being somewhat clothing obsessed this is focused on clothing retailers).

This situation is not a surprise this year. The media told us to expect deep discounting. Retailers announced it themselves. All retailers but one: Abercrombie & Fitch. I was surprised to read in the Wall Street Journal a while ago:  Abercrombie Fights Discount Tide Clothing Retailer Accepts Lower Sales in Its Strategy to Protect Margins and Hip Reputation. This is a rather bold move when the economy suggests otherwise. Imagine being the CEO making the call. The economy is down, consumer discretionary income is shrinking, and our competition will be out in full force discounting to drive sales. Short-term decision making would scream the need to follow-suite to maintain share and move inventory. I applaud Abercrombie for holding ground on the profit line. We know the business principal that in the short-term, you cannot grow market share and profit at the same time (not including a decline in CGS). At Frito-Lay I had to know which ‘mode’ we were in: Profit mode, or share mode and determine my pricing/promotion strategy.

I will be very interested to see the long-term impact on the Abercrombie Brand. Consumers become accustomed to promotional discount strategies which decreases brand value over time. I no longer pay full price at J. Crew or Banana Republic, two of my favorite stores. I know their clothes will ALWAYS go on sale. I had this discussion with some friends who do the same. Abercrombie surely is taking a hit in sales in the short-term; but this will be a great case study over time to see if the strategy pays-off in profit and strength of the brand. How well do they know their customers? Naturally, hindsight will make the CEO lauded or chastised. And the only unfortunate issue for me is that my niece wants Abercrombie clothes for Christmas. So of course I paid…full price.

What do you think of the Abercrombie & Fitch strategy?