What if there was a dramatic, game-changing advancement looming from within or around your industry?  A dramatic new innovation?  An entirely new market approach that made yours obsolete?  Is there? Could there possibly be?

What if your market position as the industry’s (insert your distinctive position here) weren’t completely bullet-proof?  Is your brand, your intellectual property, your product or service, your primary point of distinction susceptible to being (easily) copied?

What if demand for your specific product or service dropped off dramatically?  What would the conceivable reasons be?  How would you respond?

If someone put a gun to your head and demanded you increase sales and/or market share this year — irregardless of market realities — what would you do, specifically?

Over the past few decades, Kodak has been hit by competitive challenges from Japan and by the dramatic emergence of digital technology which they actually pioneered — but couldn’t keep pace with.  Serious game changers for a historically strong, globally dominant brand.

As you stare 2012 in the face, a complete 360 degree look might be in order.

Of course, there’s still that little thing of the Mayan calendar…

All well and good, but how exactly do you go about defining a true USP?

You’ve already done the heavy lifting if you strategically developed your brand identity – the plan for how your brand lives, breathes, and succeeds.  Two vital components of a brand identity are the value proposition and positioning statement.  These work hand in hand, the value proposition presenting the specific (and hopefully unique) benefit that will be derived by using your product or service, and the positioning statement laying out your decisive advantage over competitive solutions.  Together, they form the reason someone should use your brand based on appreciable points of difference.  If you haven’t formalized your brand identity, start there.  The process forces a thoughtful assessment of what you really are and where you really fit from a brand standpoint.  As you craft the brand identity, keep the concept of a truely differentiated brand experience at the top of the list of requirements. 

Being unique also means you need to stop trying to be all things to all people.  We’re all guilty of this, and you’ll probably believe you’re walking away from potentially valuable business.  While true for the short term, the more important long term benefit is that your brand will become acknowledged for one thing — one valued difference — and those appreciating that difference will flock to your brand alone, grateful for having been given a distinctive reason.      

Everything can be differentiated (even commodities), and opportunities for true, appreciable differentiation can be found in many areas: product or service attributes, new uses, packaging, support services, simplification, manufacturing process,  brand heritage, distribution channels, customer service/warranty policies, selection, and many others.      

For inspiration, several noted marketers have published books on brand differentiation and the Unique Selling Proposition.  Check out “Differentiate Or Die” by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin, and Seth Godin’s “The Purple Cow” to start. 

A lot has been written, but few marketers heed the call for real differentiation and developing a true Unique Selling Proposition.  There’s business waiting to be gained for those that do.

Bombarded with so many choices, tossed at them in so many ways, potential customers are desperately seeking a reason to justify one competitive solution over another.  Yet most marketers fail to deliver a truely differentiated branding effort for their product or service.  Instead, they offer up a similar-but-slightly-different feature/benefit story, seemingly trying to be all things to as many people as possible while in actuality setting their brand to sail on an already cluttered sea of competitive sameness.  

Granted, true differentiation is hard work, but isn’t it worth the effort?

What’s the true difference in comparable healthcare services?  Banks?  Cement brands?  Bottled water?  Competitive software solutions?   Sports shoes?  Activated carbon?  Your brand versus your competitors’? 

(Hint: true differentiation does not lie simply in the cleverness of a great ad campaign, pricing, selection, quality, or customer service.)

Noted marketer and Harvard professor Ted Levitt wrote in his 1991 book, Thinking About Management, “Differentiation is one of the most important stratgic and tactical activities in which companies must constantly engage.”  Hmmm.  Me thinks this man speaketh the truth.  So, what about it?

Long Live The Unique Selling Proposition

Any advertising or marketing professional worth his or her salt remembers Rosser Reeves as the man who formalized the concept of  the “Unique Selling Proposition” in his 1960-published book, Reality in Advertising.  According to Reeves, in order for their USP to be effective, advertisers were required to focus on the single genuine differentiating reason to buy their product or service.  While it still resonates today, many marketers for some reason fail to apply this sage counsel to their branding efforts.

I’ve personally wrestled with identifying and clarifying the USP for many of the brands I’ve worked with in the past, so I know firsthand that it ain’t as easy as Reeves makes it sound.  But it’s ultimately a matter of the success or failure of your brand that you do it.  And do it well.  

In 2001 (and updated in 2008), marketer and author Jack Trout published Differentiate or Die, an excellent read on the need and ways for true differentiation.  He acknowledges that, in our modern era of reverse engineering, lasting product differentiation is tough.  And patent protection only goes so far.  Still, differentiation with the product or service itself is the first thing to consider.  As Trout puts it, “improve, update, or reinvent.”  Improve or add meaningful features – or completely reinvent – to provide a genuine, appreciable point of difference. 

Operating more efficiently and effectively than your competitors is not typically a viable long-term differentiating strategy either, though many brands focus on better customer service, improved communications, etc.  The problem is, though you may enjoy short term gains, competitors will eventually level the playing field.

The key is finding the point of difference that’s uniquely yours compared to whatever your competitors are doing (and you DO have at least one), and doggedly pursue it.  This difference must be genuine, and it must be something of true value to your prospects.  Strategically, this is brand positioning – part of the larger process of crafting a finely honed, sharply defined brand identity.  

In future posts we’ll will offer suggestions for discovering the true point of difference for your brand.  In the meantime, look inward to your brand and outward to the marketing environment and begin thinking about opportunities for true brand differentiation.  Your business depends on it.

For years I referred to what I did for a living as “Marketing Communications.”  That is, communications activities that specifically supported the marketing efforts of a client’s product or service, differing from “Corporate Communications,” which delved into internal communications, PR, financial reporting, etc. 

More properly, the term I should have been using is “Brand Communications,” embracing a more encompassing recognition of the role of “brand identity,” and the role communications plays in delivering and reinforcing that identity to marketing audiences.      

The brand identity is the strategic platform developed to define what the brand stands for, what its value is to customers and prospects, and the decisive differences and advantages over competitive offerings.  Think of it as a distinctive set of fingerprints – brandprints — that can only be associated with your particular brand.  (Do you have a formalized brand identity for each of your brands?  If not, check out more details here.)  At its core, this should remain constant for the individual products or services that will be marketed under the brand identity.  

Now comes the brand communications part, and there’s two primary areas to consider here: 

CONTENT is what you say. 

It’s the messaging that comes directly out of the brand identity platform.  It conveys why the product or service is better, different, of value, etc.  The content should be consistently delivered and reinforced in the next part of the equation, contact.  

CONTACT is what you do. 

It’s the delivery of the content through your brand touchpoints — those significant and seemingly insignificant ways folks engage with the brand.  It could be sales pitches, advertising, social media, trade shows, the receptionist, invoices, delivery personnel, community goodwill, sponsorships, public relations, packaging, etc.  Each and every point of contact should be carefully considered, ensuring the desired content is delivered as prescribed in the brand identity.

Collectively, it’s ”Brand-Centric Communications.”  But that’s too mind-numbing to say.  Let’s just leave it at “Brand Communications.”  Ultimately, the goal is to sell more of your “stuff,” but from a more strategically-considered brand platform.  Are you there?

Guess what?  Social media marketing isn’t going away.  And, as more folks like you and me use it for different marketing applications and push the definition of best practices, it will continue to evolve for a long time to come.

Time to get with the program.          

Perhaps you dipped your toe into this new world by setting up a personal Facebook page or Twitter or LinkedIn account.  After seeing what all the noise was about, maybe you decided it was a complete waste of time – and certainly not worthy of a serious business application.  If that’s the case, it’s time to think again. 

The simple truth is, with a strategic planning approach and some basic knowledge of the various platforms available, social media marketing can easily be an effective communications tool to help you sell more of your “stuff” — whatever the stuff your business sells is.  

To help you form a more complete understanding of what social media marketing can do for your business — whether it’s to build your brand through a whole new set of brand touchpoints, generate qualified sales leads, facilitate product research and development, or one or more of several other business roles for social media marketing — a couple of social media marketing know-how guys put their heads together and wrote a terrific book:  No Bullshit Social Media – The All Business, No Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing.  Good stuff in here to get you grounded on why and how you should consider diving into the social media marketing world right now.         

Many of your customers, prospects, influencers — and your competitors — are effectively using social media right now to engage with brands and swap information and experiences.  Isn’t it past time you embraced this business-critical tool as part of your own brand touchpoint management plan as well?

Each and every morning on the African plains, an antelope awakens knowing he must run faster than the lion in order to survive.  And each and every morning on the African plains, a lion awakens knowing he must run faster than the antelope in order to survive.

Not sure who said it, but no doubt it was someone who operated in a competitive business environment.

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Perhaps a better view of brand identity is this: a strategically-crafted blueprint for how you want your brand to be perceived among your customers, prospects, influencers, vendors, employees, and other stakeholders.  It includes not only the graphic identity but also many other components as noted below and on this previous Touchpointers blog post.

Components of brand identity

Brand communications is the presentation of this carefully crafted identity to your markeplaces, resulting in the formation of a brand image that drives sales.  Brand communications isn’t just advertising, social media marketing, website, public relations, trade shows, etc.  It’s also the more subtle ways your brand identity takes root like the professionalism of your delivery and set up personnel, the helpfulness of customer care reps, the ease of navigating your phone system, the clarity of user documentation, and many other types of brand interactions — touchpoints — that can positively or negatively reinforce the formation of your brand image.  There’s more to read about brand communications here.         

Brand identity is strategic; it takes time and careful consideration to develop a brand identity that differentiates and resonates.  Brand communications is tactical; it takes place over time (years), working  to create your brand image and drive sales.  Many businesses jump into brand communications without first crafting their brand identity, which harkens the old-but-true cliche, “without a map any road will get you there.”    

Sure, a great looking logo is cool.  But have you crafted a complete brand identity and brand communications program?  Today would be the best day to get started.

Late this summer I was the central character in an unexpected medical situation which ultimately involved my primary care physician, a hospital, surgeon, anesthesiologist, and specialist – each coming from a different practice under the mega-healthcare brand which dominates my local healthcare community.  I’m fine now, and am told I will continue to be so.  

The pre-testing, required surgical procedure, resulting hospital stay and related nursing care, and follow-up visits with the various doctors involved all went well.  From a branding standpoint from this highly invested observer, all services and brand touchpoints were exceptionally well delivered.  As a result, I would not think twice about using this same “team” again if my own personal situation depended on it, or in recommending each and every one to a needy friend or family member. 

A few weeks after I arrived home, the billing statements began showing up.  This is where things went awry for one of the service providers, and it’s this comparatively benign area — not their core service of providing a high level of medical care (which they did very well) – that has now caused me to re-think the favorable brand image I’d already formed as a result of my previous interactions with the practice. 

The fundamental issues dealt with billing payment terms and the aggressiveness with which the practice’s accounts receivable folks followed up – including a letter threatening to turn the account over to collections because full payment had not been made (less than 40 days after I received their first billing statement).    

My call to the “financial counselor” identified in the offending letter yielded this gem: ”You’re actually 61 days past due because we start counting from the date we first receive payment from the insurance company, which in your case, was nearly one month before we sent you the initial statement.”

Huh?  So, by the time I received the first statment indicating the amount I would owe, I was already 30 days “past due” according to their calculations?  “Yes,” she said.  And is there an alternative to you turning this over to a collection agency if I cannot pay the full amount right now?  “No,” I was definitively told.

Hmm…  I would certainly recommend this practice purely on the shoulders of their medical ability.  But now the brand image I’d formed of them has changed as a direct result of their obnoxiously aggressive collections practices.  And it’s that necessary business function that I’ll bet garnered the least brand planning consideration when the founding physicians were forming their venture.  

What’s a potentially critical yet unconsidered touchpoint for your brand?  I’ll bet there’s at least one, and it might be time to do some digging to find out what it is before it costs you business.

Where to start?  Much of this process is good common sense. 

First, recognize that you likely have three different kinds of brand audiences, and your interactions with each may vary:

1. Prospects
2. Customers
3. Influencers: a more encompassing group of people who can somehow weigh in on the relative benefits, value, features, purchase-worthiness of your brand.  They include everyone from internal employees to outside sales reps, retailers, the press, existing or previous customers, bloggers and reviewers, and many others.

Secondly, recognize there are at least three stages to someone ultimately buying and using your brand, and each one contains different levels of brand interaction:

1. Pre-Purchase stage where prospects seek any and all evaluative information available.  Consider all interactions that build awareness, convey differentiation, create a brand connection, and drive purchase consideration.  Brand audiences here are prospects, inflluencers, and even existing customers (repeat sales/upselling).
2. Purchase stage where prospects become customers and seek validation.  Consider all transactional and communications interactions from order placement through delivery and set up.  Brand audiences here are prospects.
3. Post-Purchase stage where customers use the brand and seek validation for a potential repeat engagement.  Consider all follow-up activities and programs here, including loyalty programs, warranty performance, product quality, etc.  Brand audiences here are  customers and influencers.

Finally, recognize that brand interactions are likely company-wide, so consider the various operating departments and functions within your company and the types of brand interactions conducted within each.  Finance (billing, credit terms, etc.), customer service (warranty service, touble shooting, etc.), R&D (product trials, market input, etc.), and most likely many others — you get the drift.     

Now, (take a deep breath here), map out your complete brand marketing process – from initial product development through post-sale follow up.  Think through every single known actual and potential point of contact while keeping the different brand audiences and the different purchase stages in mind relative to the different operating finctions of the company.  Identify everything, from emails to phone calls to website, to packaging, to user documentation, advertising, etc.  Solicit the assistance of the various departments within the company.    

With the internal audit completed, it’s now time to conduct external research to probe customers, prospects and influencers about the buying/using/re-purchasing processes with which they engage the brand on their own terms.  The goal here is to completely define the myriad of interactions that make up the brand relationship and their relative role in creating customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

With the internal and external audits complete, you now should have a pretty clear picture of the various brand touchpoints.  Next, we’ll kick around ways to prioritize each relative to the role they play in moving prospects to customers, and customers to lifelong fanatics.  Yipee!

My wife and I recently went through the process of buying a new car, something I’d typically place on the list just below getting my eye poked with a sharp stick in terms of fun things to do.  After much research and hand wrangling, we settled on a Hyundai.  I can’t speak for all Hyundai dealerships, but ours represented the Hyundai brand extremely well and made the overall experience — dare I say — “enjoyable.”  The net: I have no problem going back to the Hyundai brand (assuming the car performs as expected) — and that particular dealership — in the future.  There wasn’t any one thing that made this brand engagement work well, but rather a bunch of small things conspiring together to provide an excellent brand experience.  Small things like the way the salesperson interacted with us.  His product knowledge.  The comfort and confidence we felt as we set about negotiating price.  The dealership facilities.  The features and value of the car itself.  The iciness of the cup of water I was provided.  Etc. 

A couple of weeks later we received a detailed survey about our experience, with questions probing all manner of our interaction with the dealership and the Hyundai product.  Clearly, Hyundai’s mission is to continue to improve the complete brand experience by defining and correcting the specific areas where they under-perform relative to their brand touchpoint management plan.  As a challenger brand (but for not much longer, I suspect), Hyundai needs to continue to leverage strengths and shore up weaknesses — just like any successful brand.    

Which brings me to you and the brand experience with which you are providing your customers and prospects.  Do you know precisely what it is?  Are you systematically assessing the experience your customers and prospects have with your brand(s)?  Do you have a touchpoint management plan which prescribes, specifically and in measureable terms, how your touchpoints — interactions — are to be delivered relative to your brand identity?  Do you know which touchpoints carry the greatest weight in keeping a customer or moving a prospect to become one?  

The connection between delivering an exceptional brand experience and growing your business is obvious, no matter what business you’re in.  So, specifically what are you doing about it?