By Suzanne Tulien, Principal & Co-Founder, The Brand Ascension Group

I am writing this with sad news. Another one of my newly experienced, ‘fav’ brands I was so excited about has fallen from grace. Oh, and it sooooooo didn’t have to be this way!!!

A few articles ago I wrote about a new up and coming brand in the airline industry, and how excited I was about their model, the overall experience, and it’s savvy potential in a decaying airline service business. They were definitely creating their own ‘Blue Ocean’ (re: Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne) in the marketplace.

And then,…we flew them again (optimal word; AGAIN).

With a fairly limited flight schedule, I was so excited that this regional airline flew to the destination we were planning for my husband’s birthday week. A reasonably priced, non-stop, fun, easy flight with XM Radio, a meal AND snacks, $3 wine and $1 dollar beers, not to mention a farewell mint candy and a smile delivered by the flight crew as you step off the plane.

I told all my friends. I touted the brand in my workshops while covering the importance of creating powerful differentiators, and I wrote about my experience flying them. It’s not so much the embarrassment for ‘jumping the gun’ and actually believing they were different and telling ‘the world’, but the pain of realizing it was only a or a ‘one-off’ experience and then KNOWING that it didn’t have to go there!

In brief, here’s what happened.

There were three in our travel party. As we were getting settled in our seats (two on the right, one on the left with an aisle in between), our stewardess interrupted the hum of passengers settling in by announcing on the overly loud intercom that we will not be receiving a meal as this city was not a ‘catering destination,’ in her short, sassy, memorized shtick. I was confused as we were served a meal and snacks the last time we flew from this same city just a few months ago. Disappointment #1.  

Our travel buddy neglected to grab a set of individually packaged headphones from a wicker basket at the ticket counter (for listening to the onboard XM Radio) and politely asked the stewardess for an extra pair. She abruptly replied, ‘you were supposed to get yours before you boarded the plane, I doubt I have any onboard for you,’ as she whizzed by slamming the overhead bins closed. We started to feel like elementary school children being scolded by the bus driver. Disappointment #2.

Once airborne and beyond 10,000 feet, our stewardess began her beverage service. We were close to the front of the plane and one of the first to be served. As she pushed the cart down the isle and asked us our beverage preference, we noticed that her short, sassy comments were not few and far between. When she approached our buddy and asked for his order, this is what our friend recounted, ‘I was dozing lightly and had my ear phones in and the ‘flight attendant’ asked if I wanted something to drink. I had a little trouble pulling out the head phones (3 seconds) and when I did she said ‘I’m not your wife, I can’t read your mind.’ She didn’t yell at me but delivered a tone to show cue me that she was frustrated with my delay in responding…Yikes! Did that really happen? Thank goodness our friend was mildly tempered and held back his reaction to the comment. Disappointment #3.

Disappointment #4 -  A ‘no go’ on the candy mint farewell treat. A big deal? In the scheme of things, no, but when it comes to creating a memorable brand experience that caters to small but meaningful emotional connections, then I would argue that YES, it is a big deal. As Americans, we are lucky to have the array of choices that we do in everything we seek to purchase. It is the brand’s job to carve out a unique position in our minds and emotions to the point of basing our buying decisions on these emotional connections.

In a the most recent annual survey (2007 Brand Marketers Report by Interbrand)  on brands and branding by experts from top global brands, what was cited as the most critical aspect of successful branding? CONSISTENCY! Hands down! At 36%! Marketing and Advertising rated at less than 1% (.8%),
and Innovation rated only 18.2%.

This article is really about missed opportunity, inconsistency, and cognitive dissonance of the brand. This airline has a great concept, super differentiating behaviors, and much appreciated amenities that no longer permeate the airline industry; all lost in a single experience – a moment in time forever embedded in the minds of the customers. The customer question becomes, ‘How do I trust my experience with this brand? What will I receive next time? When prices and schedules are the same (commodity), which brand do I choose?”

Questions for the brand are:

1)      What are the true costs of inconsistencies in the brand’s behaviors?

2)      Do our employees understand, live and embody the brand values?

3)      What investment do we make in our people to assure the brand is articulated correctly and consistently to our market?

4)      What systems and processes can we put in place to assure proper cognitive resonance of the brand with our customers?

Brands with consciousness become mega-brands. Brand consciousness consists of being fully aware of who and what the brand stands for; not just today, or the first 6 months of business, but everyday, in every behavior, through every process. It starts internally with defining the brand’s DNA, integrating it into the culture, systems and processes, and leadership. It’s not rocket science, just tenacity, due diligence, and a passion for the brand.

So, will I fly this brand again? Probably. But I won’t be seeking it out, ranting and raving about it or using it as an example of what powerful brands can do to differentiate themselves. No, as of this moment, they have unfortunately transpired into a commodity, lumped into a blur with every other airline in my mind. Another promising idea that didn’t consistently fly…sadly, another one bites the dust.

Don’t let your brand go there!

Suzanne Tulien is Principal and Co-Founder of the Brand Ascension Group, LLC. She is brand consultant, award-winning graphic designer, a certified trainer and certified in Accelerated Learning Methodologies. She is author of The 6 Myths of Branding, and co-author of Megapreneur. She regularly writes article on branding for entrepreneurs and is published in a variety of publications. www.BrandAscension.com, info@brandascension.com, 719.265.1707.

Learn how conscious branding practices can capture and sustain valuable market share in any economic situation …By Suzanne Tulien, Co-founder of the Brand Ascension Group  

How many of you are conscious of the state of our current economy? How many of you have started tightening the purse strings to prepare for rising prices, slow sales, and a tough ride ahead? 

Business owners are already searching for ways to reduce the impact of the impending “R” word (RECESSION, there, I said it!). But there are many companies who have done the “due diligence” within their brand building strategies to ensure and support withstanding almost any kind of economic condition (barring national disasters!). 

But before you start feeling like you need to invest in a family-sized bottle of Tums® finish reading this article and look for ways you can take on board the ideas. 

Consider the following scenario with one of our clients – a premiere tanning salon who embarked on a branding initiative about 2.5 years ago. They were a dual store location of about 12 employees, and feeling the crunch of high gas prices, finding it to harder to retain young employees (“Y” generation), and implementing marketing campaigns with minimal return on their investments. Finally a big whammy, they were plagued with a profound “commodity mindset” from their targeted audience.  Enter: The Brand Ascension Group. Hearing their dilemma we immediately quiz them on their current brand. With questions like: (among others)

1. Do you and your employees truly understand what your brand stands for?
2. Do you have a set of core values for the brand that everyone in your company is aware of and understands?
3. Do you have a unique culture that fosters positive, memorable behaviors that differentiate you from your competitors?
4. Do you regularly ask your customers for feedback on your standards of performance?
5. Do your employees have the authority to “break the rules” to make a situation “right” for the customer?
6. Do you benchmark your employees’ behaviors against leading practices of highly successful brands?
7. Do you have a specific and unique ‘brand vocabulary’ that creates distinction with your brand?
8. Do you have a Brand Promise that your employees commit to and continually deliver on?
9. Do you understand and leverage all your key differentiators to your competitive advantage?

 …..among other questions.  

After lots of ‘deer in headlights’ and ‘no’ responses throughout this revealing interrogation (we had fun with it, really!), we recommended the immediate huddle of their core team into a highly intensive, interactive invention process to define, create, and build their Brand’s DNA from scratch. They were game, and after two full days of ideation, collaboration and precise selection, the team emerged from the process proud parents of a brand new brand! They built it, now they own it! 

To make a long story shorter, we continued to consult with them throughout the year and guide them on how they would go about ‘operationalizing’ the new brand DNA into every facet of their operation so they could begin living and embodying it (across a ‘brand scorecard’; employees, customers, financial, and through their systems and processes). 

From the Brand DNA process their team flushed out a very compelling and distinctive ‘Brand Platform’: SIMPLY MIND-BLOWING EXPERIENCE, which became the essence of their brand’s ‘way of being’ from that point on. 

I remember this phone call from one of the owners: “Hey, Suzanne, I had to call you and let you know what I’ve noticed since we developed our Brand Platform from the DNA session. The first thing we did was make a critical decision to let go of two of our employees who just weren’t willing to ‘step up’ the brand’s experience and what a relief to all the other employees who are taking on the new brand like wildfire!  And, I noticed something yesterday that was so interesting! As I was walking through our retail portion of the store I overheard one of our employees challenging another to create a ‘mind-blowing experience’ for the next customer who walks in the door! They are really having a blast inventing ways to impress and take care of our customers, it’s incredible to watch!” 

Fast forward 1 ½  years. Just a few weeks ago we connected with this client once again to check in on how the brand development was going. And as if the flood gates had opened, she burst out with a list of things they have been implementing with their employees, their processes, and customers. All of which have positively impacted their bottom line! And each of these changes was highly relevant to the attributes of their Brand DNA (core values, style, differentiators and standards). 

The industry overall has been in a virtual “slump” the last few years and with the “recession” mindset eroding any hope of new client enrollment into their services. However; our client has reportedly increased their per customer transaction 35%-50%, adding much needed cash flow to their bottom line. How’d they do it?  They achieved this increase by being much more conscious of their behaviors, how they interact and communicate with each other, as a team culture, and with their customers. All this redesign was possible because of the work they did to define, create, and build their brand’s core DNA…from the inside out. 

Here’s my point. When an entrepreneur makes the decision to build their brand, it has to mean more than developing a logo, business cards or develop a marketing campaign. The process of branding has to start INTERNALLY with your core purpose in mind of how you want your employees and customers to perceive you. If you don’t actively define and manage that perception, your customers will! 

And when you take the time to develop your authentic brand, put a ‘stake in the ground’ and COMMIT to behaving consistently that way, then you will build trusting relationships with your team and your customers. So when your customers need/want your product or service, and when they have a choice of who to do business with….the choice will be obvious for them…YOU of course! Gain and retain market share now by building your brand’s DNA! 

(For more information on how you and your team can experience improved business performance just like our tanning salon client go to: www.BrandDNAProducts.com. We’re now offering this same brand-building methodology in a highly interactive and accelerated on-line course environment utilizing the latest web-based technology You too can experience phenomenal results through our progressive methodology. 

© All Rights Reserved. Suzanne Tulien and Carol Chapman are Principals in The Brand Ascension Group LLC a leading-edge, multi-faceted, experiential consulting and training firm that partners with organizations in elevating their brands.  Through their innovative Brand Elevation™ methodology, they help clients capitalize on the power of human perception and engage them in conscious internal and external branding practices to propel and sustain the growth of their businesses.  They can be reached at www.BrandAscension.com. 719.265.1707; 719.748.2290. 

Do you have a promise that articulates your company’s value proposition and exemplifies the behavioral experience you to commit to deliver at every interaction? Have you thought about your brand promise? What do you commit to deliver to your customers…to your employees?

Being crystal clear and delivering relentlessly on your brand promise can set you apart from the competition. It can make the difference between you being perceived a commodity and excelling above that commodity. It can set the stage for your employees to continuously work to deliver on a commitment that no one else can deliver on as well or as fanatically as your brand.

Delivering on your brand promise is crucial to your success. According to the experts, the single most important aspect of successful branding is CONSISTENCY…showing up the same way every time, walking your talk and being true to what you stand for. 

So what are you waiting for? Make sure you have a Brand Promise and deliver on it consistently.

What can really make your brand stand out from the crowd consistently?—is it the “hard stuff” (your products and services, price points, advertising and promotional campaigns) or perhaps the “soft-stuff” (your values, company culture, customer relationship practices, etc.)?  Remember the one major auto manufacturer that came out with an “employee discount” promotion for the entire world.  Well, within a few weeks or less just about every other competitor duplicated and promoted the same campaign. That was easy to copy and no longer made the originating auto-manufacturer of that oh so clever promotion stand out from the crowd. Not to mention, it probably didn’t help their balance sheet either!

So, maybe the answer to the million dollar question is the soft-stuff: your values, your distinct personality and culture as a brand and how you show up; who you hire, how you hire and how your employees behave, treat your customers and treat one another; your internal processes and the strategies you employ—all the internal stuff that drives the engine of your business! Some people say the soft stuff is too touchy, feely and can’t differentiate a business. That’s hog-wash!

Let’s just focus on values for a moment. Many brands tout company values and guiding principles. Some are great at walking their talk; others are just mediocre at best in practicing their values. In a study conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Aspen Institue of corporations in 30 countires and five regions, it was reported  that top performing companies consciously connect values and operations. They found something interesting: how a how a brand delivers on its values influences two strategic business areas of relationships and reputation. Furthermore, companies that reported superior financial results emphasized their values. They were also more successful in linking values to the way they run their companies. A significantly greater number reported that their management practices were effective in fostering values that influence the cultures they created and how they delivered on their brands, customer relationships, business growth and financial performance.

Hmm? Maybe it’s time to stand out from the crowd by working on the soft stuff!

Is customer service everything you need to build an authentic brand?  What about customer appreciation?  One is the result of the other…right?  So, if you deliver great customer service then this should result in Customer Appreciation?  Well, that’s NOT necessarily so…wish it could be that simple, but not in today’s world. With the current competitive climate great customer service just isn’t enough. So, why focus on customer appreciation?  Well, if you want to retain a customer for life, a strong bonded relationship must be developed….between your brand and your customer.  This bonded relationship, which creates customer appreciation, is the heart and soul of your authentic brand. What creates that bond is how you and your employees collectively behave at every customer touch point and how you collectively live up to what you promise to deliver to your customers.  ‘Authentic Brands’ are built by conscious design, not by default!   Think about who you are and how you want to show up. Make sure your employees understand the linger feeling you want to leave your customers. Is it friendly, warm and engaging? If, so, do they genuinely care by showing eye contact, listening intently and engaging in sincere dialogue to understand their needs rather than treating them as just another transaction? This type of behavior is authentic. You can’t fake it!  Here’s a quick story.  I was on the phone recently with the new prescription drug company of my healthcare provider. I have had nothing but disappointment in the past in dealing with healthcare providers.  I wasn’t quite sure how to refill my prescriptions through their online service so I could save on the cost.  So I called and asked “Do I have to have my doctor rewrite the prescriptions all over again?  Can’t you just contact the former provider to give you the information?”  I already had a preconceived notion about what I could expect and was cringing! To my surprise, the customer representative immediately picked up on my slight displeasure. There must have something in my voice! She said, “unfortunately we can’t just have them transferred…due to federal regulation, but I will call your doctor’s office and get the information. Please allow me a moment and I’ll take care of the details for you.”  She put me on hold and came back on the line 3 times within a 5 minute period to assure me she was working on it. She then confirmed my prescriptions and said “Ms. Chapman, the prescription you require will be mailed to you within 5 days.  If you need something sooner, I can certainly arrange that.  I said, “That’s perfect timing.” I was ecstatic. I didn’t have to jump through hoops.  She then said, “in the future, all you have to do is call us directly or visit our website and we’ll take care of it for you right away. Here’s my number, if I’m not available, just leave me a message and I’ll return your call promptly!”  I was absolutely certain this was going to be a hassle, but instead I was delighted by the representative’s concern for my situation. I was so appreciative. She genuinely cared. Since then, I have continued to call this representative every time I need something. I’ve developed quite a bonded relationship. The point here is how do you want your employees to show up and deliver on your brand?  What behaviors and standards do you have in place that set you apart from your competition and create the ULTIMATE in CUSTOMER APPRECIATION? Make sure your employees are trained in these standards with consistent policies and practices in place for them to deliver consistently and seamlessly with your customers at every touch point. Lastly, make sure your employees are sensitive to pick up on the slightest cues and are empowered to take the initiative to do whatever it takes to “Wow” your customers. Did you know? A shift in customer retention by as little as 5% can account for more than 20% improvement in profits, and in certain industries can account for as much as 50%-100%.  Remember, powerful brands are not built by default.  They are the result of a deliberate and conscious process starting from the Inside Out.Sign up for Ignite Your Business Brand DNA! A Step-by-step Program to Skyrocket the Growth of Your Business: Define It, Create It, Build It, PROFIT! Discover your unique business brand DNA of values, style, standards and differentiators. Leverage this blueprint to engage and motivate your employees to create consistent “Wow” experiences that win customers for life and grow your business exponentially! Go to www.BrandDNAProducts.com.

Before we get too deep into the New Year, we’d like to challenge you with another question. Do you know what percentage of your revenues is repeat business? If your answer is no, then how will you grow your business? Did you know it takes 5-7 times more money, time and effort to attract a new customer versus retain and upsell an existing customer?

According to Fred Reichheld, author of Loyalty Rules, and Bain Fellow (Bain & Company, Inc.) and Founder of Bain’s Loyalty practice, “an increase in customer retention of 5% increases profits 25%-100%.” So, what are you doing with your business brand to retain your customers? How are you consistent? Do you show up the same way every time walking your talk? How are you distinctive? What makes you decidedly different from your competition? How are you relevant to your market? Do you connect with your customers’ and employees’ values and needs yet are true to your values and needs as a brand? Check out more about Consistent, Relevant and Distinctive in our Ignite Your Business Brand DNA to Skyrocket Your Growth.

We invite you to share your success practices. We also want you to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and share your experiences of being loyal to other brands. Thanks in advance for sharing!