Want to Uncover Hidden Brand Insights? – Create Some FRICTION!

I’m sure you’ve faced this situation as a client or agency leader.  Your gut tells you that a golden nugget of an insight which might inspire a stellar marketing strategy is buried in front of your eyes.  But, finding that nugget can be a real challenge.  So, that’s why I tell my clients …. “let’s generate some FRICTION.”  We do that in the Brand Workshops that I’ve discussed  in previous newsletters.

Insights can be discovered when people unknowingly think out loud, contradict themselves or challenge others.  They might say something at the beginning of a workshop – perhaps thinking it’s something they should say to look smart – and then say something later in the session that contradicts what they said before.  Participants might debate each other, or even shout insults at one another.  FRICTION.

I have constantly witnessed this dynamic since facilitating my first Brand Workshop 15 years ago when twelve executives from various departments and regions of a multi-national company were gathered in one room for 8 hours.  Initially, the group was taken through exercises that dissected the company’s health, mission, vision, and points of differentiation as EACH individual member understood it to be.  Major disagreements emerged from the onset.  However, through additional exercises  we generated more FRICTION to ultimately produce some shared vision that all understood and conditionally embraced  – and which could be validated by research.  It isn’t an easy process, but in most cases the participants do reach common ground.

By gently mining those contradictions and contentious verbal exchanges, you can gradually move towards consensus building and some real ‘out of the box’ thinking.  Strategic ideas and direction often emerge when FRICTION contributes to the formulation of business concepts that might not have been overtly recognized or understood at the beginning of the melee. 

Is there disagreement on your senior team about the company’s health, mission, vision, and points of differentiation?  Do your key executives all know and subscribe to the same set of core values for your brand?  Do you sense major disconnects every time you meet with them?  If so, you may want to recommend creating some FRICTION that can help solidify direction, understanding, and even uncover that nugget which inspires a successful brand strategy.

When Necessity Becomes the Mother of Re-invention.

 Even beloved brands can lose their luster, and in most cases it can be attributed to one thing – complacency.  A brand sitting on top of its category can start taking success for granted.  It stops innovating, loses its soul by not focusing on cultural strengths, core values, and delivery of the expected ‘brand experience.’  The result is predictable; earnings and shares value start to plummet.

A great article in Inc. Magazine tells the story of how Starbucks started losing its leadership position and how CEO Howard Schultz returned to the company and put Starbucks on a trajectory to regain category leadership.  He lamented that Starbucks had become a fat-and-happy company that forgot how to innovate …"playing defense instead of trying to score.”  As ‘re-inventor-in-chief’, his main goal was to return the company to one that not only sold fresh brewed coffee, but also served as a ‘third place’ between home and work that was not simply transactional.  What guided Starbucks back to leadership?

• Research to inform the brand.  Listen to customers and employees for that critically important feedback that helps fix the problems, leverage strengths, and orchestrates renewed success.

• Executive introspection.  Gather key executives and dig deep to identify how the brand is doing operationally – good and bad – with regard to product innovation and delivering excellent service.

• Invest in employees and community.  Provide renewed training and motivation to boost morale so that store managers and baristas alike provide a unique, consistent brand experience.  And, use the brand’s scale for good and maintain a socio-corporate conscience.

• Innovate and re-invent.  Guided by research, gut and serendipity, expand and introduce new product lines into new markets and delivery systems. Set the bar for utilization of digital technologies and social media techniques that put you on the top of the category.

Starbucks has returned to its position of supremacy.  By re-employing disruptive reinvention, it has introduced new products, reinvigorated staff, modernized technology, and runs a shrewder operation –  all of which have turned the company around in a rebirth as impressive as Apple's.

Internal Branding Increases Profits and Brand Success.

Have you ever wondered what role your employees play in your brand’s success? We have the answer: A Whole Lot.  Every successful brand starts with motivated and inspired employees.  

No other recent brand success embodies this philosophy more than Delta Air Lines. On January 21, Delta reported annual 2013 profits of $2.7 billion – a profit stated after each of its 80,000 employees receives a profit sharing check worth approximately 8% of their yearly salary on Valentine’s Day.  Two days after announcing the profit, Air Transport World named Delta its ATW 2014 Global Airline of the Year.  ATW cited several selection criteria including consistent high standards of customer service and excellent employee relations. 

Delta’s internal branding program was key in this success.  It was no easy journey for Delta after its merger with Northwest.  By early 2011, cultures were still clashing, customer satisfaction metrics had plummeted, key facilities were tattered, and service fragmented.  Delta’s current CEO, Richard Anderson, directed the company to revisit the core brand values Delta’s founder, C.E. Woolman, introduced in 1928 during the airline’s infancy.  Today – with over $4 billion invested in technology improvements, facility rebuilding, and customer service training for all its client-facing staff – the results are stellar.

Can an internal branding program benefit your company?  It’s very important to look at the internal side of the brand before going to market with a brand promise, and there are numerous considerations and steps that should be taken, for example:

• Explore the company culture and health in an Executive Brand Workshop
• Employee market research
• Identification of core values
• Development of key messages
• Brand handbook development
• Internal messaging systems
• Internal guerilla tactics
• Creating an internal brand champion team

A Rebranding Success Story

Messiah Village – a large and well respected continuing care retirement community – felt it needed to conduct a serious examination of its business model with an eye towards growing the scope of its rehabilitation, support and off-campus services, and modernizing its image to stay current with trends in seniors marketing. 

An all-day brand workshop served to initiate this process; the management team dug deep to identify what should stay the same, and what new opportunities should be pursued.  The session revealed significant agreement on core values, but several serious divides as to how Messiah Village could evolve as a business going forward.  One area of disagreement: to what extent would Messiah Village’s religious affiliation impede its ability to reach new secular prospects?

Research was conducted to test the assumptions generated during the brand workshop.  Many concerns were debunked.  For example, most prospects felt that, if the religious aspect were not ‘front and center,’ it would not have a negative impact.  In fact, the faith-based affiliation was viewed by some as a positive – being a non-profit made the community more desirable and reliable. 

Based on the research and supported by the core values identified in the brand workshop, a new business model, brand architecture and brand identity were developed.  Messiah Village transitioned to become MessiahLifeways.  The focus of its marketing strategy shifted from being print-heavy to one primarily driven online by a comprehensive website that integrated 4 business units under one single portal, the introduction of e-marketing, resident populated blogs, and other social media tactics.

What started with one brand workshop led to a new, contemporized and highly relevant brand. In only 18 months since its launch, MessiahLifeways has expanded from one market serving 925 people to three markets serving over 2000 with campus and community-based residential, support and enrichment services.  A success story indeed!