Who's Minding Your Brand Perception Gap?

Many companies large and small spend a boat load of money on outbound marketing communications that tells prospects and customers why they are better than the competition.

However, when the company's brand promise isn't aligned with market reality, it causes a brand perception gap. The bigger the gap, the less likely it is that your prospects will buy the first time or that your past and current customers will buy again.

In many ways, it is better to lose a sale to a potential first time buyer than to lose a customer. This is because the negative word of mouth (WOM) originating from a disgruntled customer can spread like wild fire and that WOM may be the very reason you couldn't close the deal with that first time prospect - it's a vicious cycle. 

• If your marketing communications say that you make the highest quality widgets on the market, they better be pretty friggin' good.

• If you offer a "no questions asked guarantee", there better not be any hurdles put in place for getting a refund.

• If you claim that customer service is your top priority, your phones better be answered promptly by a helpful, knowledgeable and courteous customer service rep.

• If you advertise that you will beat any advertised price, beat the price or watch potential customers beat a path for the door. 

No matter how match money you throw at it, a false brand promise will never be true.

But what if you've been honest in communicating your brand promise, are truly dedicated to creating a positive customer experience, but negative perceptions exist that ypou don't know about that may may be impacting your bottom line. What you don't know will hurt you.

• It's hard to find information on your web site - and the lengthy download forms are a pain in keester.

• You are unaware of  the one rude telesales rep that is causing customers to hang up in frustration.

• Product instructions are poorly written and confusing to follow.

• Your customers consider your product/service acceptable for the price point, but wish it had a particlar feature(s) to make them consider your product/service amazing. 

• Loyal, repeat customers don't feel special and wonder why there is no "frequent buyer" program in place.

These are not issues that would generally prompt a customer to write a complaint letter, but may be just enough for them to delay a purchase, check out your competition or not be your strongest brand evangelist. None of these scenarios are acceptable in this competitive and tenuous economy.

So what to do? To paraphrase Chicago Mayory Richard J. Daley, "Survey early and survey often". There are several inexpensive online survey tools such as Survey Monkey that make it easy for you to take the pulse of your customers and prospects on a regular basis to find out what they really think about your offering and what you can do to improve it.

Online surveys more than opinion polls. They are guerilla R&D that is invaluable for meeting and exceeding the customer expectations set by your brand promise. Back to Huey Long...

• Survey Early - Meaning early in the customer relationship - Which is immediately after the first purchase. "Thanks for your business. How do you like our widget?

• Survey Frequently -  Touch base several times during the year. "How's that widget working out? Is there a way we can make it better?

Keep your surveys short (5-6 questions) and ask the tough questions that you need to know. Since the online survey can be anonymous, you will get more honest responces when compared to a telephone survey. Also, offer an incentive to complete the survey - A Starbucks gift card or a discount coupon for the next widget purchase.

Social media is another way to contact polls and increase engagement. People like to be part a company's decision process. However, due to the public nature Facebook or LinkedIn poll, the questions need to be fairly benign. For example:

We're thinking about adding a new frozen yogurt flavor. Which one do like best:

a) Boysenberry
b) Bacon
c) Boysenberry/Bacon Swirl

Does you company have a brand perception gap?
Find it. Measure it. Fix it.

Oooh, Oooh That Smell..The Smell That Brands You.

When most of us think of product branding, we usually think of logos, tag lines and value propositions. 

But branding can be a multi-sensory experience. In fact, some of the best branding smells.  

Case in point is Play-Doh, which cleverly launched a cologne with its recognizable scent as part of a 50th birthday promotion.  Now who doesn't recognize that smell? 

If you're a baby boomer like me, the smell of Play-Doh ranks up with the smell of mimeographed test papers as one of the most recognizable fragrances in my memory banks.

Now you expect products from Old Spice to Obsession to have a signature scent, but not a type of modeling clay. Which in some ways makes it that much stronger as a branding attribute. 

Another product with a unique scent that comes to my mind is the topical antiseptic and pain reliever Bactine.

Nothing else you can spray on a kid's skinned knee smells quite like it.  And maybe to generations of moms and kids, that scent means the boo-boo is going to feel better and go away, which is the essence of the Bactine brand experience.

Coppertone's "Don't be a Paleface campaign is a classic. It doesn't hurt that Coppertone products have a signature scent. You could be on the beach at Coney Island on the 4th of July and pick out all the Coppertone users. 

If you were a teen with acne in the 50's and 60's you probably slathered on the opaque white Noxzema before bed in the hope you would go to sleep as Marcel Marceau and go to homeroom looking like Frankie Avalon or Sandra Dee. 

Today, there's a lot of store-brand knock-offs in blue jars. But give someone a blindfold and whiff, and they'll say, "Noxzema!"

Perhaps the fact that these products have been on the market for a half-century is a testament to the fact that brand longevity is sometimes more than logos, labels and slogans.

  

LinkedIn Group Owner: Are You an Absentee Landlord?

There are many benefits to setting up a LinkedIn Group on a specific topic. Especially if you want to establish leadership in a particular category.

In fact, a properly managed LinkedIn Group can actually serve as a thought leader launch pad  - and it doesn't cost anything but a
little time.

 

Because by investing a little time in developing quality content that is not self-serving and carefully building a community of like-minded and interested parties, you can achieve the following:

• Build your corporate or personal brand
• Drive traffic to your web site
• Cultivate leads and build alliances
• Encourage business and career referrals
• Expand you professional network
• Help others via advice and sharing of expertise
• Communicate directly when needed

Despite these marketing advantages (I purposely did not say social media advantages, as this is all part of an integrated marketing mix) far too many would be thought leaders and corporate social media wonks set up a LinkedIn group or several groups and then walk away. Why is this?

• Lack of time. Or more accurately, Lack of time management
• Change of personnel with no hand-off of responsibilities
• Lack of strategic focus "That topic is boring, let's just start another group!" - Actually starting a sub group would probably be better.
• It doesn't cost anything so what do we lose?

Ah, just because setting up a LinkedIn Group doesn't cost money, doesn't mean that being the absentee landlord of a branded social media property won't cost you big time. Here's how:

• If the LinkedIn group is connected with you or your organization, it is a reflection upon you or your organization 
• Lack of recent content means you have nothing to say and no one else cares
• Letting others hijack your group for their own promotional messages will dilute your message and turn off your community
• Unmoderated bullying and inappropriate language will drive away followers and also make it appear that you condone such abusive posts
• In other words, an unmoderated forum can be like a house full of latch-key kids 

So if you are going to set up a LinkedIn Group, get the most out of it - Don't be an absentee landlord.

• Moderate all posts that are abusive or self-promotional. Block those who are habitual offenders - You community will thank you
• Provide useful non-promotional content on a regular basis, be a resource
• Share article links, presentations, etc.
• Send periodic direct messages to your group
• Join other groups and invite those members to join yours
• Have as many qualified stake holders in your company join your group and post as possible 
• Use the polling feature to get the pulse of your group and to encourage dialog

If you for some reason can't, manage, moderate and participate in your LinkedIn Group, shut it down and move on. Not doing so can have a  negative impact on your personal and corporate brand reputation in the long run.

What do you think about absentee landlords on LinkedIn and unmoderated forums? I welcome your comments.

Four Sloppy Social Media Habits

Despite the potential of social media, the amount of time needed to manage a social media campaign across multiple platforms combined with increasing pressure to deliver results, are causing many social media practitioners to fall into some sloppy habits.

In my opinion, these are the four most common:

1) Hot Potato Posting - This is most prevalent on Twitter and consists of re-tweeting content or links with out any original commentary or set up as to why the re-tweeter believes the original post is worthy of your attention, whether he or she agrees with the original post or if he or she would like you to weigh in on the subject. 


The main reason why there is no color commentary attached to the re-tweet is because the original link was never opened and read in it entirety. But not to worry, your twitter stream is looking good!

So instead of quickly lobbing over someone else's tweet as if it were a hot potato, read it through and add your own two cents to reflect your point of view and personality.

2) Scheduled Posting - Tools such as Tweet Deck and Hoot Suite have their place in streamlining the process of posting planned content across multiple platforms. However, there is the risk of  these tools being  used as crutch, resulting in redundant content being posted on multiple social media accounts.  What's more, over dependence on schedulers may also take away from the time spent on real time posts and replies that help sustain dialog and engagement. This is the heart of social media.

3) Content Scraping - I addressed this in detail in a previous blog post, but as a writer I really dislike the Paper.Li content curator. I would much rather see communicators write and edit their own newsletters without having a robot making it appear that they are experts in a chosen category.

Being a guru ain't what it used to be! That's why I delete any email that has a subject line "The (name of newsletter) is out!"

4) Promiscuous Friending - The amount of friends and followers is the metric that many executives and clients obsess about. But it should always be about quality not quantity.

Aggressive recruiting tactics such as open contests, begging for likes, etc. may get the numbers up, but who are these people? Will they ever engage with your brand or use your product or service?

Let's get back to marketing basics: Building a relevant social media following is no different than building a targeted mailing list. Demographics, geography and interests all come into play.

So, if you own a pizzeria in Hoboken and half of your Facebook followers are in Guam, what's the point?

That's it for now. Admittedly, I've been guilty of #1 from time to time. Are there any other sloppy social media habits that you would add to this list?