The Eyelet.

Occasionally a brand brings its philanthropic endeavors to the forefront so much so that the lines between their brand purpose and promise get blurred – but that’s a good thing (see my previous blog post “A Brand Strategy Framework Addressing  Associates and Prospects Alike” for explanations of brand purpose and promise). A primary pillar in TOM’s Shoes brand is that they donate one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes sold. Providing footwear to needy kids across the world so that their daily existence can be just a little bit more tolerable is a pretty lofty purpose. Such complete integration of the brand’s purpose is unusual and very difficult for established brands to incorporate. However, established brands often have cause-related marketing efforts, and while not synonymous with a brand purpose, they do bring the brand and company to a higher calling and reason to exist.

Integrated “Cause” into the Brand

One of our clients, Wendy’s, has a couple initiatives born out of causes that were very near and dear to founder Dave Thomas’s heart. Many people that have come into contact with the Wendy’s brand knows of  its commitment to adoption and the Dave Thomas Foundation. Many high school athletes across the country are also aware of the Wendy’s High School Heisman program which recognizes well-rounded young men and woman who excel in learning, performing, and leading in the classroom, on the athletic field and in their community. Reaching out to these up-and-coming leaders isn’t just good community relations, it’s good business. Please check out our video that talks about Wendy’s program and the new website supporting its efforts:

Click here to view the recently redesigned Wendy’s High School Heisman site.

Many agencies, depending on their level of strategic engagement, often have their own approach to creating a brand framework for their clients. Since we at Mlicki give equal emphasis to our clients’ associates as we do their customers, our framework has two dimensions – one is more outwardly focused and the other more inwardly focused. However, especially in a service brand environment, the two are not mutually exclusive. They strongly influence one another, and each of the four components spills over from a primary sphere of influence to a secondary one. The following is the Mlicki brand framework which we utilize in formulating brand strategy for our clients:

Positioning and Personality are more outwardly focused – they address the end-user audience (client or consumer) and they are typically the most widely understood and utilized components in marketing communications strategies.

- Positioning charts out a unique space and audience in the market for your brand or product (what it provides, for whom and why it’s better/different).

- Personality is the soul and human-like characteristics of the brand (the tone and voice).

These are pretty easily understood and widely used so I won’t spend any more time on them. Our other two components are not as commonly harnessed and could use some more explanation:

- Promise is the brand experience each and every field and support level associate should be striving to deliver to customers and prospects every day. It’s the reason customers are motivated to use your product or service. The brand promise isn’t as widely used, at least consciously, by nearly as many brands as the aforementioned components.

- Purpose is why the brand and its supporting company exist. It motivates and connects your employees and stake-holders emotionally to the brand and company.

A brand’s purpose isn’t nearly as intuitive as the other components. It’s not the obvious tangible objective of the organization. It’s not about delivering an above market return to shareholders. It’s not even about consistently providing your product or service -that’s the promise. It’s about a higher calling – a greater good. At Mlicki, we occasionally employ an exercise to uncover a brand’s purpose we call “A World Without ______”. What would the world be missing if your brand or company no longer existed? If Apple didn’t exist, would the world miss out on more intuitive user-friendly technological equipment and devices? Probably not – somebody would quickly fill the resulting void. But we would miss out on a forward looking company that brings technological advances to the masses unforeseen by others in order to make life easier and more enjoyable beyond imagination.

These four components create a brand architecture that not only addresses the consumer or prospective customer, but is also the first step in engaging the brand’s associate base. In an increasingly service based society, making sure you associates are fully enlisted, engaged and are faithfully delivering the brand experience should be a key component to any marketing plan. To learn more  about our brand strategy framework or how to engage your associate base, please leave a comment.

We often work with our clients to help them determine the proper hierarchy within their brand architecture. What exactly does this mean? Many brands, B2B and B2C alike, have a family of brands under which they market their portfolio of products and services. How these brands are structured to work with one another is an important strategic component in their marketing communications. The role the parent brand has in the marketing communications tactics (like print ads, packaging, merchandising, etc.) could, and generally does, have significant impact in the consumer’s perceptions of that specific product and service. For example, if a new electronic automobile, say the “Charge” was to be introduced in the US market, wouldn’t the consuming public have a different collective perception if this car was introduced as a new division of GM but with ties to GM being very understated versus introducing it under its current Chevrolet badge? The overall image of the parent brand plays a huge role in the decision to whether or not products or services should be marketed separate from the parent brand or in conjunction with it (and to what extent).

Back in the 90’s, Al Reis wrote a book called “Focus” whose main premise was to keep a brand’s positioning tightly and specifically defined and if market dynamics force a significant change or if there’s an opportunity that is beyond that market definition, a different brand should be created to exploit that new market or opportunity. To a degree, this theory flew in the face of the prevailing attitude and practice of the preceding decade where “product extensions” were all the rage and pretty much ran amuck. SO how do you know what the relationships should be between your master brand and your various product and services brands? Here’s a quick guide: Read more

When I finished my second stint of college in 1996, I needed a part-time job to pay the rent while I looked for my “career” position (which ended up being field marketing for Boston Market). I applied to Borders (RIP) and was surprised, but eventually impressed, by a battery of questions on their application. I was required to complete a quiz that delved into my knowledge of various genres of literature. The message was clear – if you want to work here, you better know and love books and literature.

Living the Brand at The Front Line
A previous boss and mentor of mine would have referred to this as “living the brand.” In the retail and restaurant categories, as well as other industries where customer service is crucial to sales and brand loyalty, all your associates, especially your front line, need to be engaged in the brand they represent and everything that brand stands for. Much later in my career while I was working to turn-around an ailing sports-related retail brand, I attempted to work with the VP of HR in the front-of-house employee application process to include questions that measured the applicant’s engagement in key spectator sports (the ones our patrons cared most about). My position was this – if you just wanted a paycheck, and didn’t really care about sports, then you probably shouldn’t work for us. I didn’t put it in such blunt terms, but that was the gist.

Living the Brand in the Home Office
This applies to the home office support folks too. Even if they don’t ever come face-to-face with a real customer, they’re supporting the people who do and are creating programs and processes for the field associates who do deal with customers. In my previous example, how can the brand be faithfully delivered at the customer experience level if the home office isn’t also on board with the brand purpose, promise and positioning? That sports-related brand suffered from about 10 years of brand disengagement at the home office level and it trickled down, no – it gushed dow — to the store level. The home office closed themselves off from the brand and now two-thirds of their locations closed down with them.

Restaurants that Get it Right
A couple of my favorite restaurant companies get it right. Cameron Mitchell is a nationally recognized restauranteur based here in Columbus that specializes in upscale casual concepts. He and his support staff focus on one of the crucial brand delivery components which would seems obvious for a retail setting but is often overlooked – take care of your associate and they will in turn take proper care of your customers. Cameron Mitchell Restaurants recognize that their associates are their primary customer. In addition to competitive wages and a strong training program, they infuse their associates with brand knowledge and values which in turn empowers them to faithfully deliver the targeted brand experience. By-the-way, it’s been working quite well. A couple years ago they sold two of their main concepts to Ruth’s Chris for quite a handsome chunk of change.

Another restaurant concept, whom I’ve mentioned in a prior blog post, has spent a lot of time and resources on getting their culture set appropriately so that as they can actively engage their associates and keep their brand experience consistent as they grow – and they are growing aggressively. Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers has a simple mantra – “One Love”, which is shorthand for their brand promise of quickly and energetically serving the best, fresh hot chicken fingers you can get anywhere. And they do it very well. How else can a concept who only serves three other food products other than chicken fingers (slaw, Texas Toast and crinkle-cut fries) be so successful? They realize the importance of engaged associates to be able to consistently deliver the best chicken fingers around. In fact they get it to the point that internal communications is the responsibility of marketing. Not HR like most places.

What Should Associates Know About the Brand?
We, at Mlicki, believe there are three crucial components to a brand for which your associates should have a clear understanding:

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In a conversation with one of our clients in the A/E/C industry a week or two ago, I commented on the remarkably ineffective naming practices of most engineering firms. It seems everywhere I turn, I run into a collection of letters masquerading as an engineering practice — RJN, FJM, H+L, G.E.C. The list goes on. I have to believe the majority of these brand names just sort of run together for prospects and clients. Going a bit further, it would seem almost completely unlikely that any could really be top-of-mind for a specific skill set or service offering.

90% of Engineering Company Names are Indistinguishable
So, with my curiosity peaked. I decided to take a closer look. I asked an intern to review the names of all 500 A/E firms listed in ENR, and classify them by naming convention. Not surprisingly, the results were unremarkable: Read more