Monthly Archives: June 2012

Doing The Right Thing (An Example From An ‘Evil’ Brand)

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McDonald’s to many people is the epi­tome of all that is evil (mass pro­duced food, per­cent­age of fat to meat, pester power etc.), but then again, it’s part of our every­day soci­ety. The recent explan­a­tion why their bur­gers look so appet­ising in ads, com­pared to the harsh real­ity of some­thing a lot more under­whelm­ing, opened up a whole new world of brand/​audience interaction*.

McDon­alds’ Canada can be said to ‘do the right thing’ by hav­ing a web­site where cus­tom­ers can post any ques­tion for McDonald’s to dir­ectly respond. Ok, we guess the ques­tions are pre-​monitored, but what this does is open an hon­est dia­logue to address con­sumers concerns/​fears and look to build an image that rep­res­ents hon­esty, trans­par­ency and integ­rity.

McDonald’s answer­ing these ques­tions, that we all think, instead of ignor­ing, is an import­ant example to high­light a brand look­ing to build loy­alty, respect and cred­ib­il­ity with its cus­tom­ers. This can also be said of any busi­ness that oper­ates in an hon­est and open way. The com­pan­ies that make a dif­fer­ence and suc­ceed are those that make their ideas real and stand for what is true. When you believe you are ‘doing the right thing,’ you then offer real value.

When you do things the right way, it becomes a lot more man­age­able to speak-​out and make a dif­fer­ence to your marketplace.

When you have a truth on our side, there is a straight­for­ward­ness, a con­fid­ence that comes within. Dalai Lama

* If you want to know why the bur­gers look so much bet­ter in the ads, the ‘shot’ bur­ger must show all the ingredi­ents (so all rel­ish and gar­nish is vis­ible) and the bun is tilted so it looks big­ger. A bit of Pho­toshop to delete any blem­ishes at the end and you have your per­fect burger.

Why ‘Selling’ Gets You Nowhere

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I don’t know if you too have been indund­ated with calls recently regard­ing mis­selling of PPI (Pay­ment Pro­tec­tion Insur­ance) and how you can eas­ily claim thou­sands of pounds back. It made us think with the num­ber of calls being made, does any­one like being sold too?

Cus­tom­ers do not want to be ‘sold’ any­thing. Rather, they want their hopes, needs and wants catered for.

For any product or ser­vice you offer, hav­ing a ‘don’t sell to me’ ethic can begin to change the whole dynamic. Here’s some examples:

  • If you own a res­taur­ant, don’t sell me din­ner, sell me a great night out without any guilt
  • If you are a printer, don’t sell me print, sell me as many dif­fer­ent tan­gible ways for people to say ‘wow’
  • If you are a per­sonal trainer don’t sell me train­ing pack­ages, sell me self-​confidence
  • If you own a busi­ness centre don’t sell me office space, sell me an oppor­tun­ity to build cred­ib­il­ity, pride and accomplishments
  • If you run a net­work­ing group, sell me busi­ness friendships

What this dis­cip­line does is encour­age you to look at the world through the eyes of oth­ers. As you can see from the above examples, the whole focus is to offer emo­tional bene­fits as opposed to product features.

We all want hap­pier, health­ier and bet­ter lives, so rather than focus solely on the ‘sale’ the whole stance needs to be on the ‘cus­tomer needs.’ It can make a huge difference.

How To Win With The First Impression

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Ok, this isn’t a trip back to the 1980s, but some things that were per­tin­ent then (if you’ve watched Amer­ican Psy­cho) and still import­ant is the per­cep­tion you por­tray from your busi­ness card.

A busi­ness card remains a staple of any busi­ness, since the printer was inven­ted. After any net­work­ing event, it’s always inter­est­ing to see the pleth­ora of styles and mes­sages on dis­play. Rather than going into detail for what it should look like, the key is to cre­ate a pos­it­ive first impres­sion that pos­i­tions and pro­jects your brand in a favour­able way (a huge opportunity).

A way to think about your card is to cre­ate a mini-​brochure that explains who you are and what bene­fits you provide. For instance, there’s noth­ing worse than a ‘blank’ side, what about an offer or inform­a­tion that you’re provid­ing to your audi­ences that invites inter­activ­ity (and to also build your database).

To build your social media pres­ence, invite people to ‘fol­low’ you on Twit­ter and ‘like’ you on Face­book. By includ­ing these fur­ther options to inter­act with you goes bey­ond the email and web address, it can help build your com­munity and main­tain ongo­ing interaction.

Keep away from adding the QR codes, that’s so 2010!! and even try­ing to be too clever. We have to hold our hands up here, we went for an uncon­ven­tional size a couple of years ago and the end res­ult was that they couldn’t fit into everyone’s wallets.

Always ask your­self, ‘what mes­sage am I por­tray­ing?’ It’s import­ant to stand out from the crowd, but never think that a 85mm x 55mm size is limiting.

Any­way, back to open­ing para­graph of the 1980s, when status and ego was king. This video is 2 minutes of being uncom­fort­able but awe­some. Please don’t think we’d endorse this chap as a busi­ness mentor! Enjoy …

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How to build your brand story and create a massively positive perception

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What do you do that is so dif­fer­ent from every­one else, when there are so many of us in business?

Every brand needs to por­tray a story that is easy to remem­ber and enga­ging for your audi­ences and customers.

To find out the nine ways for you to build a pos­it­ive per­cep­tion and make your brand stand out against your com­pet­i­tion, click the image at the top of the page, or click here and the pdf guide will be down­loaded to you in a mat­ter of seconds.

These are key areas to build cred­ib­il­ity and a rap­port with those around you. We hope you find it use­ful. Be inter­est­ing to hear what you think.

Consistency is key

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“The secret of suc­cess is con­sist­ency of purpose.” - Ben­jamin Disraeli

One of the most import­ant things to remem­ber is to main­tain con­sist­ency in all your brand com­mu­nic­a­tions, which instils con­fid­ence in those you work with on a reg­u­lar basis. Here are a few things that you need to consider.

The key is con­sist­ent deliv­ery in everything that you do. Ensure that your mes­sages are clear in terms of present­a­tion and cus­tomer ser­vice. Addi­tion­ally, main­tain con­sist­ency through­out all media plat­forms such as email foot­ers, web­site, bro­chures, sta­tion­ary and signage.

All inform­a­tion needs to be coordin­ated in everything that you por­tray. i.e. using the same font, logo in products and mes­sages you send out to your audi­ences. Thus, show­ing com­mit­ment will help to build recognition.

“There must be con­sist­ency in direction.” – W. Edwards Deming

People need to be made aware of you and your brand. Make it clear that you are com­mit­ted and con­scien­tious in all your efforts so they are able to under­stand what your com­pany does and what you want to be remembered for.

Keep up to date and stay con­sist­ent so you are able to test, mon­itor and meas­ure dif­fer­ent media plat­forms to determ­ine what works best for your company.

Being con­sist­ent has an end res­ult of:

recog­ni­tion + famili­ar­ity = trust

Con­sist­ency is not just about how you look but estab­lish­ing your­self in your mar­ket, build­ing respect and credibility.