The first college football game I attended was Harvard-Yale at the Yale Bowl in New Haven.  I was maybe 10 or 11 at the time, and I remember people tailgating, seeing “Handsome Dan” the Yale bulldog mascot, watching the bands perform, looking at real live college cheerleaders, and using what I thought was a very cool men’s urinal (a marble wall with a horizontal pipe trickling water across the top and a trough drain along the floor). 

Years later, I graduated from Auburn University.  The game-day experience at Auburn was different from what I remembered at the Yale-Harvard game: a much larger stadium with many more fans, folks dressed in all manner of orange and blue, RVs showing up on the Wednesday before a home game, Aubie the costumed mascot and Tiger the golden eagle, the traditional pre-kick-off buildup chant of “War Eagle!” and much more. 

When it comes to branding, college football gets it.  Or, at least many schools get it.  Close attention is paid to every touchpoint: tv exposure, school colors, licensed merchandise, the traditions unique to each team, tailgating procedures, the marching bands’ presentation, pre-game ceremonies, etc.  Each  game-day experience is a tighty defined, highly orchestrated series of events.  A carefully crafted and executed brand identity, delivered as experiences; brand touchpoints for that particular school.  The result of their delivery is the formation or reinforcement of an image by those experiencing the touchpoints — whether it be live or on television.     

As you watch some college football this season, what concepts can you borrow for your business team’s branding playbook?  Probably a lot.  Because really, their delivering a football game-day experience is not that much different from your delivering a sales game-day experience.

One more thought:  “War Eagle!”

Interesting article in the September 6th print edition of Fortune Magazine about former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld.  The article about Fuld was interesting enough, but the sidebar about the Lehman bankruptcy fees being racked up floored me: $918,000,000 paid so far to 30 law firms, advisers, banks, and consulting firms to settle the mess.  Nearly $1 billion, and (presumably) counting! 

It amazes me how these firms are assured of getting paid, unlike the many good-faith creditors involved who’ll likely get zilch or less.  The amounts are astronomical ($212,000,000 alone paid to Weil Gotshal, lead bankruptcy attorney) given what they’re trying to do which is… what?  Ensure all the creditors get paid back?  Ha! 

I’ve seen it many times before, having been an unsecured creditor (like most of us in business are) in other banckruptcies and getting nadda.  The logic of it all sickens me: the court appoints a bankruptcy team to secure as much cash as possible in order that creditor claims can be settled.  I assume because these bankruptcy professionals are highly skilled (at what?), the court guarantees they’ll be paid handsomely.  In fact, they’re the only folks who are absolutely sure to be paid.  Yes, secured creditors will get something, but most likely not their 100 percent, unlike the bankruptcy team.  Then, as if anything would be left, the unsecured creditors will get their cents on the dollar.

It’s an imperfect system at best, and something else at worst.  But it is the system.

I’m in the wrong business.

More often than not, it seems people simply associate “Brand Identity” with the graphic identity of the brand — the logo, graphic design system, and perhaps the slogan.  While that’s part of it, there’s more to the story.  

Your brand identity is the DNA of your brand.  It defines how your brand lives and breathes.  It prescribes what you want your brand to look and feel like.  How you want customers and prospects to experience it.  And how your brand-related employees should conduct their day-to-day activities as they work to support the brand. 

Ultimately, your brand identity has everything to do with your ability to sell more of your stuff.     

Key brand identity building steps and elements are these:

Competitive and Opportunities Assessment:  Fundamentally, your prospects are seeking a solution to a problem; that’s why they’re shopping.  Beyond the solution you provide, how else can the problem be solved and by whom?  What makes these alternatives better or worse than your brand offering?  Do prospects need the kind of solution you and your direct competitors provide, or are there other approaches they can consider?  What makes those solutions different than yours?  Why are they more or less effective?  A thorough and objective competitive assessment is critical to illuminate the competitive brandscape.  Much of this can be accomplished with secondary research, but primary research tools might be considered here as well.  

Brand Vision & Values Statement:  Just like asking yourself what you want your kid to be when she grows up, consider a long view for your brand.  What values and standards do you want your brand (and related decisions) to unwaveringly reflect, no matter what?  You likely have a vision and values statement for your overall business.  You should have one for your brand(s) as well, as this will define the foundation and boundaries from and within which you’ll operate the brand.  Consider the competitive and market environment as well as your own organization, and be honest and realistic.

Value Proposition and Positioning: A value proposition is simply the promise of a brand benefit, expressed on a functional, emotional, or self-expressive level.  Positioning is expressing a decisive advantage over competitive solutions.  Together, they form the distinctive reasons why prospects should use your brand instead of someone else’s.   Both of these are developed in the context of the competitive and market environment, and within the framework of the brand vision and values statement.  The objective here is to differentiate your brand from other solution providers, and to do it in a clear and highly compelling way.  Don’t try to be all things to all people when you craft this so long as you focus on attracting the best prospects for your brand, to your brand.  Something to consider is the differences in your target audiences: to ensure relevance, you’ll likely need to tweak your brand value proposition and position for your different audiences.     

Brand Messaging Platform:  Here is where you’ll take the brand value proposition and positioning and identify the specific messaging and support points which will be actively communicated to your target audiences.  Sticking to this platform over time will ensure the messages take root among your target audiences. 

Brand Touchpoint Management:  Identify all the possible ways your brand will interact with your target audiences; there will likely be hundreds.  Next prioritize these based on the role they play in selling your stuff.   Finally, manage the delivery of these important touchpoints.  First, by defining the standard for how those touchpoints should be delivered relative to the brand vision and values and the value proposition and positioning.  Second, by educating those responsible for their delivery about your expectations and the performance standard.  And, finally, by constantly monitoring the actual delivery to ensure it’s meeting that standard.   

More than a logo, for sure.  But well worth the time and effort.

Depending on your business, you’ll have many types of front line and behind the scenes employees:

• Sales force
• Factory workers
• R&D staff
• Marketing personnel
• Admin folks
• Customer service reps
• Delivery workers
• IT wizards
• Legal and accounting
• and many others 

Step back and consider this: could any individual performing one of these functions — front line or behind the scenes — cost us business in any conceivable way?  Conversely, beyond the obvious candidates, can any individuals performing one of these functions somehow gain us more business?   

The answer is likely yes to both.

All employees should be viewed as ambassadors of your brand identity – that strategic platform you and your team have slaved over which defines what your brand is and how it should be presented to your target audiences.  Each holds a certain degree of power in how your brand identity is actually presented to the market.  So it’s imparative that each be trained about the details of your brand identity and know what your expectations are for delivering their respective brand touchpoints.  It’s not just their successfully performing their job tasks, it’s about their doing so in complete alignment with your brand identity. 

A sales clerk who couldn’t be bothered to assist a shopper.  A delivery driver who recklessly weaves in and out of rush hour traffic.  A poorly written correspondence.  An inaccurate invoice.  A customer service rep who blatanly comes across as making his 999th call of the day.  A service technician who leaves a mess.  An inattentive — or overly so — restaurant server.  A welder who misses just a couple here and there.   And on and on. 

These poorly delivered brand touchpoints can cost you business initially, or eventually. 

Right now, today: actively inform your employees about what your brand identity is and their role in carrying it out, and then proactively manage their efforts in delivering the brand touchpoints that support that identity.  

View your employees this way and you’ll be viewing a healthier P&L in no time.

But our objective back then was the same as it’s been for nearly 30 years since: deliver qualified prospects to the client’s doorstep.  But how this is done is different now than back in the days of Ronald Reagan, Hill Street Blues, 18 cent stamps, and Rick Springfield rocking out ”Jessie’s Girl.”    

This collective “how” falls into a bucket known as “Pre-Purchase Brand Touchpoints” — all those interactions prospects have with your brand before they ever decide to do business with you.  And you’ll be well-served to proactively manage the brand touchpoints that are taking place in this dynamic environment. 

First, identify all the various ways you reach out to prospects, or they reach out to you.  Here’s a few to think about:

• Company or brand website
• Radio, tv, out-of-home, online, print, and mobile advertising
• Public relations
• Direct mail and email marketing
• Trade shows and other events
• Social media, word-of-mouth, brand reputation
• Cold-calling (is this even still viable in this day of prevalent social media?)
• Internet user forums
• Sales literature
• Uniforms and appearance
• SEM
• POP materials
• Phone greeting and auto-attendant process
• Service and Delivery vehicles (and drivers)
• Receptionist and reception area
• Supply chain
• Physical property (store, office, etc.)
• Corporate stationery
• etc.

Second, like with all of your brand touchpoints, prioritize them relative to the role they play in leading to your selling more of your stuff (think of the old AIDA formula above).  Some touchpoints are more important than others, and which is which may not be as obvious as you think.  Ideally, research specific to your business will illuminate these. 

What emphasis you place on various touchpoints also depends on where your target audience is in the buying process and what you need to accomplish during that stage:

1. If prospects are trying to become initially aware of various alternatives to meet their need, touchpoints that reinforce brand awareness should be emphasized.
2. Next, if prospects are trying to differentiate among various alternatives and value propositions, touchpoints that drive home your points of difference should be emphasized.
3. Prospects will narrow down possible alternatives and determine which are best suited to meet their need.  Your touchpoints that drive relevance and value should be emphasized here.
4. Finally, a selection will be made.  Touchpoints that reinforce your brand value and relevance should be emphasized.  

The reality is that a lot of folks are going through varying stages of this basic process at the any time, so you need to plan for this with an expansive view.  Developing a plan to actively manage the important interactions throughout this entire pre-purchase process will help to ensure that the resulting brand experience is aligned with your brand identity.  It will help qualify prospects along the way, and drive them to your cash register.  

Admittedly, I’ve over-simplified here.  Many companies do not consider this extensive view of their pre-purchase brand touchpoints.  So, if you do, won’t you have a decided advantage?

A brilliant moment, and brilliant brand touchpoint execution by T-Mobile’s advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, London in Jaunary, 2009.

But do you know what yours is?  Are you proactively managing it?

Think about your personal brand image: it’s formed by your family, friends and associates as a direct result of how you conduct yourself in their presence, and by the things they see and hear about you directly and indirectly. 

It’s the same for business brands.  Customers and prospects will form an impression — an image — about your brand based on their direct and indirect experiences with it.  These experiences are your brand touchpoints — individual instances of interactions with your brand that lead to the formation of an image of the brand. 

A couple of weeks ago, a local heating & air conditioning company service truck almost ran me off the road.  I swore to myself I’d never do business with that company, given the driver’s carelessness which I assumed would carry over into how they serviced my system. 

Like many, my image of BP was completly changed as a result of the cavalier attitude of that company’s leadership during the gulf oil disaster.

While BP or the local heating & air company can’t tell me what image I should have about them, they can control how they deliver their brand touchpoints which lead to the formation of a brand image by people like you and me.

How you deliver your brand touchpoints is prescribed as a component of your brand identity – a strategic platform which is created to define how you want your brand to be presented to the world.  This includes:

• Vision and values statement where you define your core, unshakable view and values for the brand   
• Value proposition where you define the benefits of your brand on multiple levels
• Brand positioning platform where you define how you’re decisively different from your competitors
• Brand messaging where you define the core brand messages you’ll actively reinforce to your audiences
• Brand touchpoint plan where you identify, prioritize, and then proactively manage the various brand interactions so they’re aligned with and reinforce the brand identity

The final step is to maintain a constant pulse on your brand image.  Depending on your business this may involve monitoring social media sites and reviews, conducting formal research, utilizing sales personnel to report on the word on the street, and many other tactics. 

If you have a handle on how you want your audiences to view your brand compared to what the actual brand image is, and if you have an effective management plan to ensure the delivery of your brand touchpoints are consistently aligned with that desired view, then you’re in tall cotton, my friend.

To fly high, a kite must constantly fight against the wind.

Not sure who to attribute that quote to, but I like it.  It pertains to life, to business, and to branding.  A constant, difficult battle, with the goal of flying higher.

Onwards and upwards, folks.

In the world of brand touchpoints, there’s a special category of equally important interactions, although they’re less direct.  Influencing touchpoints are the interactions with your brand that indirectly drive business to or away. 

An annual report usually isn’t used as a tool directly in the sales process, but prospects might review this document to gain a sense of stability, progress, leadership, etc.  Or not.

Referrals, reviews, testimonials, and other word of mouth and social media interactions are influencing touchpoints.  So are your event sponsorships, speaking engagements, community involvement, and goodwill. 

Each of these touchpoints — and more — are indirect brand interactions that don’t actively promote your brand messaging, but still serve a vital role in supporting your brand identity and pushing the formation of a brand image.  And, in many instances, these interactions are not something that can be effectively controlled or managed.

What you can do, however, is carefully craft your brand identity (which includes identifying the standard by which all of the brand brand touchpoints you identify should be delivered) and then actively manage this brand identity to promote the formation of the desired brand image by your target audiences. 

For example, by providing the level of service, product quality, pricing, product features and benefits, warranty service, packaging, etc. that is prescribed within your brand identity platform, you cultivate positive associations that will carry over into your influencing brand touchpoints like consumer reviews, event sponsorships, community involvement, and the others you’ve defined in your touchpoint management list. 

You wouldn’t stand up and actively discuss why one should buy your brand during a local United Way fundraiser, but the associations listeners have about your brand will follow you up to the podium.

The prevalence of social media tools widely being used now enables customers to become active brand advocates — for or against – with non-users.  Product reviews, user testimonials and recommendations, forums and blogs: each and all have become major elements of the indirect selling process for b-to-c and b-to-b brands. 

Each and all are driven by how the brand performs on its other touchpoints.

Identifying, prioritizing, and managing all of your brand touchpoints is simply the best way to stay on top of things, whether you have direct control or not.

The Offending Cap

Though my wife would surely disagree, I’m generally a mild-mannered guy.  There are few things that get under my skin, but one that does is a toothpaste cap that has to be snapped to close (see picture).  

What focus groups and test market results proved this would be a good idea and much-appreciated improvement to the good old screw-top? 

By the time I can secure the cap firmly back into place, I’ve usually made a mess at the top of the toothpaste tube.  Sadly, my college degree and years of experience wrangling toothpaste caps don’t qualify me to snap the damn thing closed without toothpaste oozing out the top in the process.  And, because I’m lazy and the faucet may be a full 18 inches away, I can’t be bothered to rinse off the mess, which further compounds the problem the next time I use the toothpaste. 

As a result, I’ve sworn off any toothpaste that comes in a snap-top, which seems to be most of the Colgate® products.  I don’t care how much brighter my teeth would be or how many more cavities I could be avoiding, I’ll buy a competitive brand. 

I’ve found that taking a stand like this can be fraught with peril since toothpastes are usually packaged in a sealed box and I can’t tell for sure what I’m about to buy.  Occasionally, I’ve bought what I thought was a sure bet for a screw top (Crest®) only to be surprised with my nemesis snap-top.

Another product I’ve recently sworn off is Heinz® Sweet Relish in the clear plastic squeeze bottle.  Not sure how it worked so well for the folks at Heinz that they decided to proceed to market, but whenever I squeeze, all I get is the relish juice.    

A simple touchpoint.  A brand experience resulting in a sworn allegiance — against the brand — until they change their ways.

Have you thought through the seemingly innocent touchpoints that can drive business away?  Take it from my experience with toothpaste and relish, it’s often the smallest details that can make a difference.