Archive for the 'Brand Relevance' Category
Bill Zabit, veteran branding expert joins Liquid as EVP.
Industry veteran with plenty of talent and experience.
Bill has been the president and CEO of both private and publicly traded companies, and has held a variety of senior executive positions in communications, branding and marketing. He was also a partner in a big-four accounting firm and a principal and national practice leader for one of the largest global business consultancies. Bill has also worked as an advisor and strategist to several of the most prominent companies in the world.
Bill understands Madison Avenue and Wall Street.
His impressive background in both business and marketing makes him well-suited for the role he’s taking at Liquid. He founded, built and developed multiple companies, one of which was a fully integrated agency delivering strategic consulting and creative client services in branding, advertising, PR, corporate communications, marketing communications, investment relations and employee communications to a marquee list of multinational clients. Within five years, the agency was named one of Inc Magazine’s fastest growing companies – going from three employees in one office to 100 employees in seven offices across the U.S. Zabit sold the company to a publicly listed Internet and marketing company in 1998. He then transitioned to the role of president for the buying entity. While he was president, the company went from OTC to NASDAQ listed, and the stock climbed from $6 per share to $48 per share in one year with the company’s market cap reaching a billion dollars.
A career that includes Emmy nominations and lots of awards.
Zabit has earned more than 100 awards of excellence including two Emmy nominations as a director and writer. He has been quoted on a variety of topics by the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC television news and national radio.
Although he doesn’t brag, he has plenty of reasons to do so.
Not one to brag, Bill will rarely talk about the three times he was invited to the White House as a communication strategist and advisor to the Clinton Administration. Or on stage with Paul McCartney. Needless to say, we’re very excited that Bill has decided to join our company and help us continue to provide valuable services to clients worldwide.
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Want to become an amazing brand? Build a culture of innovation.
Companies like Zappos and Apple are well known for being innovative. Employees at these companies are passionate about their jobs, committed to their brands…and ultimately help churn out one innovative product or service after another. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Actually, the importance of building a vibrant corporate culture is quickly becoming a hot topic in boardrooms all over the country…even all over the globe. Business leaders are realizing that people make the difference in their ability to be competitive and innovative. But how does this happen? How do you mobilize an entire organization to make powerful innovation-inspiring business decisions quarter after quarter? Make it your culture. Culture change isn’t easy, but the enormous return on making an investment in it is no less than shocking. Join the discussion on June 8 and learn why culture is the best tool for creating value.
This webinar will provide great insights into culture change.
We invite you to attend a webinar by Josh Levine, our Director of Internal Branding and get some valuable insights into what it takes to build and maintain a culture of innovation within your company. Sponsored by Microsoft and delivered through DMI (The Design Management’s Institute) as part of their Design Lecture Series, the webinar will take place on June 8 at 1:00PM EST. Learn more.
As a friend of Liquid you can take advantage of a special discounted rate.
Liquid Agency has negotiated a special discounted rate, which we are making available to any of our clients, partners and vendors. If you are not a DMI member, the rate is $125, but by using the following form you will be able to attend for only $85 – which is the same rate you would get if you are a DMI member. Download the form here.
About Josh Levine:
For more than a decade, brand strategist and noted industry expert Josh Levine has helped global brands engage consumers and empower employees. As Director of Internal Branding at Liquid, he helps organizations live their brand by designing and building culture-change programs.
Learn more about Josh Levine and his role at Liquid here.
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Insights from the Brand Summit
Building Brand Culture
Part of a series of Best Practices from the Liquid Brand Summit 2011
This article captures the findings from a session about Brand Culture facilitated by Robert Richman from Zappos Insights at the Liquid Brand Summit 2011. The Brand Summit brought together more than 100 professionals to discuss the latest ideas about branding and marketing. More articles will follow.
TOPIC:
Building Brand Culture.
Today’s leading brands large and small have one thing in common: they have a strong culture. Growing companies often ask themselves: how can we grow and sustain the culture that makes us successful? Amazon recently purchased Zappos.com. Why? One key reason: because of their culture and potential to innovate the customer experience on the web and “WOW” them. What are the ingredients for the kind of brand culture that will fuel your company’s sales, create customer loyalty and attract the right people to work with? Here are some of the findings from the discussion facilitated by Robert Richman on this topic.
TOP BEST PRACTICE:
People are your greatest asset.
When it comes to creating culture, people are your greatest asset. Companies exist in a world today where everyone — employees, customers and partners — talks about who and what they are, all the time. That’s why people and what they think and feel matter now more than ever before. The look of a company’s advertising, design of the web site, coolness of its mobile apps are all important, but not as important as the voice and the actions of its people. Building a strong brand culture, then, starts with the people. The culture isn’t “owned” by the marketing team, it’s owned by the entire company — from the CEO to the customer service rep and everyone in between. And companies that nurture a distinct brand culture in the workplace will become a distinctive brand in the marketplace. Focus on developing your people and relationships and everything else will follow.
OTHER FINDINGS:
Marry marketing and HR.
Because people are the starting point, the connection between the leadership in marketing and the leadership in HR is pivotal to brand culture success. The two have to work in concert to ensure the entire company is in alignment and pulling in the same direction.
Hire to your culture.
Hire people to your culture rather than trying to fit your culture to an individual. Even if you have to pass up a rock star sales person who could affect the bottom line, it’s more important in the long run to protect the integrity of the brand culture by making sure the people who come on board are ones who truly fit in.
Teach them and they will lead.
If people are to propagate brand culture, they have to first understand the vision, history, philosophy and values of the company. To do this, some brands today are implementing new-hire training programs that are as long as four-weeks. Even then, the training doesn’t stop at the hiring door. An ongoing program that keeps people aligned and focused on the brand’s values is crucial to sustaining culture in the long term.
Alignment trumps values.
The core values that speak to what a company is are meaningless unless they’re put into practice and everyone is on the same page. Unfortunately, most companies post their values on a plaque that hangs forgotten in the hall. What good is that? If management doesn’t commit to the values and they aren’t resonating with employees, they might as well be thrown away. Culture grows when companies find ways to bring life to their core values in every aspect of what they do. What’s most important, though, is the alignment of those values throughout the company, from the CEO through the ranks. Strong culture comes about when there is a through–line, a common understanding and drive that runs through all departments.
Go forth and co–create.
Companies that have strong culture, build it from the ground up. When people co-create the brand culture, they have a stake it in. The culture becomes more authentic. sticky.
Embrace frustration.
When it comes to building brand culture, frustration is powerful. Why? Because frustration shows that someone — an employee, customer or partner — sees the potential for what’s possible but they’re feeling dissatisfaction because the company isn’t achieving it. Companies that embrace frustration can use it to gauge how aligned their teams really are and then take action to bring the focus back to the brand culture.
VIDEO:
An interview with Robert Richman.
Immediately after the summit, we had an opportunity to sit with Robert Richman and ask him a few more questions on the topic of Brand Culture. Here’s what he had to say.
…
About Robert Richman:
Robert Richman lives in Las Vegas, where he works for Zappos Insights, an off-shoot of Zappos.com that was started by CEO Tony Hsieh to show other companies how to create a workplace people love and a service customers rave about. Robert began his career in 1996 creating sites for U.S. Senators and co-founding the web strategy company Articulated Impact. He co-wrote the business plan for a new online venture from the Tony Robbins companies and has developed digital media strategies for The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard Magazine, and The National Leadership Institute. When Tony met Rob, he asked him to re-launch the Zappos Insights program – then a small web site with a staff of one. Rob has grown the program to a 12-person company, offering a range of experiences and services to educate companies about culture and to give insight into “what” and “how” Zappos.com has built such an amazing culture and brand.
Marty will talk about design and innovation at this year’s DMI conference.
What is Design/Management Europe 15?
This conference is organized by the Design Management Institute (DMI) – an international organization that seeks to heighten the awareness of design as an essential part of business strategy. Some of the most inspiring design leaders in the European community will lead the presentations. The conference will include two-days of discussions about the evolving value of design and ways to promote it throughout organizations. During interactive sessions and breakouts, attendees will be exposed to the latest thinking on how design delivers value, and will gain insight on how to inspire and persuade others to explore what it can bring them. View the schedule.
…
Marty Neumeier
Marty has been invited to speak at this event about new and inspiring values of design. Aside from being the Director of Transformation at Liquid Agency, Marty is a respected author who has written a series of three “whiteboard overview” books, titled THE BRAND GAP, ZAG, and THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY. ZAG was recently named one of “The Top 100 Business Books of All Time.” Marty is also a highly sought after speaker who delivers workshops and seminars all around the world.
How do you redeem the discount?
We have negotiated an exclusive 20% discount for Liquid friends and clients. To take advantage of the special discounted rate, email Patricia Olshan at: polshan@dmi.org and mention Liquid Agency. Seating is limited so act now to reserve your spot.
Making a brand relevant…again. The fine art of revitalization.
When and how do you start a revitalization effort?
Strong, established brands can lose vitality because of a lot of different reasons: Shifts in the corporate structure and/or ownership can be distracting; Audiences and their habits can change making it challenging to remain relevant; Products and services can become obsolete or tarnished over time; The competitive landscape can become more challenging…etc. Brands that were once popular can slide into obscurity, and their value seriously diminish.
Just look at recent efforts from AOL, Yahoo and MySpace who are all trying to revamp their brands. And, outside of the internet/social media space, look at GM – which has emerged from bankruptcy to become the biggest IPO in US history. GM recently beat Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC with a profit of $2.16 billion in Q3 2010 – and now the company is investing to be the first major U.S. automaker to design and manufacture electric motors.
So….what are the tell-tale signs for a revitalization effort?
How does one go about the task of reinvigorating a brand whose luster has faded?
How do brands stay relevant with their audiences?
Join us at the Liquid Brand Summit to discuss this.
On March 1, 2011 we will be discussing this very topic at the upcoming Liquid Brand Summit in Palo Alto with Rosabel Tao, Sr. VP from MySpace – a brand that has seen its traffic and member numbers dwindle due to Facebook’s growth, and has recently admitted that it’s looking to sell off the troubled social network. “News Corp is assessing a number of possibilities including a sale, a merger and a spinout [sic]. The process has just started,” Tao said in a recent interview.
In the meanwhile…we’d love to hear your thoughts about the best strategies and tactics for keeping a brand fresh, transforming relationships with consumers, and creating experiences that build relevance and loyalty.
Your thoughts and ideas are welcome.
1 commentOrganic Drivetrain
In a survey by Liquid Agency (formerly Neutron) and Stanford University, 1500 business leaders were asked to rank their top ten biggest problems. Their number-one problem? “Balancing long-term goals with short-term demands.” In large corporations, the phrase “short-term demands” is code for “shareholder demands.”
The solution to this conundrum is sustainable earnings. A CEO who can deliver solid shareholder returns quarter after quarter can afford the luxury of pursuing a long-term vision.
When you ask any CEO what keeps him or her up at night, the answer is usually shareholder value. And when you ask what drives shareholder value, the answer is usually earnings growth. But what drives earnings growth? Innovation, of course! Okay, but what drives innovation? Working backwards, the engine for non-stop innovation is company culture. It takes a culture of innovation to turn innovation into a core competency, so that successful new businesses, products, and services, are more than a matter of chance. But what drives culture? The answer here is company vision.
Without a bold, beguiling vision, there’s no rallying point for culture.
These links represent a drivetrain for organic growth. If you want sustainable earnings at the back end, you need to invest in the links at the front end—vision, culture, and innovation. These are the investments that can generate profits year after year, not just quarter after quarter. Download slide set.
Celebrity endorsement: The road to fame or the road to shame?
Sometimes celebrity partnerships work out very well. And sometimes they can be a disaster.
For example, In 2004 Glaceau VitaminWater recruited the rapper 50 Cent to help promote the brand. He created his own VitaminWater flavor and sales of the brand skyrocketed among young consumers. Nike’s relationship with Michael Jordan is the stuff of legend. And Priceline has done well with William Shatner for over a decade; and lately Dr. Dre is using his own brand to help promote HP’s Envy notebooks. These partnerships have worked out very well.
Of course, that’s not always the case. Tiger Woods’ personal issues became a fiasco for several brands – while allegations of drug use by Kate Moss led to Chanel, Burberry and H&M terminating their relationship with the model.
Do the benefits of working with celebrities outweigh the risks? Can a troubled celebrity seriously damage a brand that is being endorsed by them? What can brands do to protect themselves from negative publicity generated by celebrities associated with the brand? What’s the best way to structure such relationships? Which brands have done this well? When do brands drop the relationship and how?
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Please post your comments!!!
3 commentsIncorporating Consumer Branding Models into B2B Brand Marketing
The latest Silicon Valley Brand Forum was hosted by Symantec at their beautiful Executive Briefing Center in Mountain View. The event addressed questions such as: Should Silicon Valley companies try to adopt the techniques used by consumer brands? What can tech marketers learn from companies like P&G and RJ Reynolds to make our own brand management more effective? What strategies are transferable and which aren’t?
Here’s a summary of the event’s highlights:
The Silicon Valley Brand Forum
The Silicon Valley Brand Forum was formed by Kevin Heney, who welcomed the participants and reminded the audience that the SVBF was established 10 years ago – at a time when tech companies believed that all they needed was technology. Tech brands have learned that technology innovation alone is not enough in today’s world, and now branding has become essential to create differentiation and to get traction.
Brands can use extensions and create verbs to build brands.
John Maver, from Maver Inc. is a former P&G veteran and Tide Brand Manager. He opened his presentation by shocking the crowd by saying that many B2B CEOs do not believe in “branding”. According to John, B2B CEOs believe that branding holds value only in B2C companies. According to John, B2B CEOs believe that the sales person is the brand…and all they need to sell is a set of data sheets.
John suggests that the brand is way more than sharing data sheets. John thinks that there must be an emotional experience with the product…and here are a few ways he said this can be achieved:
Extend the life cycle: Find a different use for the product
Create line extensions: “to go” version, liquid form, powder.
Establish a “persona”: Name/brand is recognized as objects (TiVO)
Become a verb: “I’m going to google it.”
Borrow some equity: Join forces with complimentary brands
Inventing a new identity that spans three brands.
Lisa Dardis Harrup, Symantec’s Director of Brand Strategy, introduced the new Symantec brand identity. The new design incorporates all 3 of Symantec’s brands: Norton, Veritas/Verisign, and Symantec. These three brands are brought together with a “circle check” symbol, representing both security and trust. This project was implemented from beginning to end in under a year’s time. Challenges include selling it internally, overcoming silos, and establishing the end result as a signet recognized and respected. Before the launch, intensive testing was done, and the new brand was very well received both internally and externally.
Panel Discussion
Greg Sieck, a 25 year veteran branding and marketing expert led the panel discussion part of the event. The panel members were:
Larry Vincent, Strategic Leader from Siegel + Gale
Martin Olivero, Senior Director of Brand and Design at Symantec
Allen Olivo, who has served as a Senior VP at various tech companies.
Overall, the panelists agreed that the key to a successful relationship with customers lies in fulfilling customers expectations with the brand. Dell was mentioned as example of a brand that has lost its “core”. Faulty motherboards, SEC investigations and mismanagement have damaged trust in Dells brand.
The panelists suggested that brands should find out what their customers think of them, and initiate an open dialog. This feedback is essential to building a brand. Think more about creating Customer Delight than simply selling products.
This shift in conversation allows the relationship to be built on what a brand does and why it matters: Establish a value system and make sure that your company and/or brand does not lose it’s way. Find out what is more important for your organization: Is it the engineering or the customer point of view?
In B2B business there are often long sales cycles which make it tough to adjust to short term problems – Build a plan to make it happen – optimize you budget & build on successful areas. If your organization is flexible and tells a story it will be much more prominent in the market place – a story travels.
Making sure that the Brand Strategy and Brand Promise permeate the whole organization is crucial in order to creating the collective awareness needed to succeed.
1 commentBrand ManageCamp 2010: Fresh thinking starts here.
Last week a few of us went to Las Vegas to attend Brand ManageCamp, where Marty Neumeier, our Director of Transformation was one of the featured speakers. The event was very well attended, with over 300 branding professionals who came from cities across the country – and also quite a few from outside the US (We met one attendee that flew in all the way from Qatar!). I wanted to compliment Len Herstein for putting together an extremely well organized, inspirational and very successful event. The line up of speakers was outstanding and the topics extremely relevant. It was a pleasure being there as an attendee – and Marty was also very pleased in terms of his experience as a presenter.
Here are some highlights from the presentations we were able to attend:
Andy Stefanovich
Andy, who has co-authored more than 24 books on branding an marketing, started the day and “woke” everybody up with an energetic presentation on “Inspiration” as a brand differentiator. Andy encourages people to take risks, be provocative in a positive context, be passionate, and create an inspirational culture within the work environment.
David Meerman Scott
David presented ideas from his book “New Rules of Marketing and PR”. According to David, “It’s all happening in real time…bloggers pick up stories and then the machinery starts and it has a life of its own.” He recommends having a “real time mindset” and using the same media form to respond, so you have a chance to stay on top and put out the fire. David believes that companies need to start planning in much faster cycles – and make decision in real-time or they will not have any chance at shaping the buzz.
David Aaker
Without question one of the most respected authorities in branding, David explained that first movers define a category and subsequently have an opportunity to “own it” – giving them a huge advantage. According to David, the first mover is not always the pioneer, it’s more important that the brand is authentic and sets up barriers to the competition with a set of clear brand/ product values. According to his research, first movers “own” a market for a very long time and profit highly. One of his most memorable examples was the Chrysler minivan, first introduced in 1983 as a new product segment, it dominated the market (45%) for a long time. Finding a neglected customer base can also be a great entry into new and highly profitable markets for products and services.
Bob Gilbreath
The author of “The Next Evolution of Marketing”, touched upon some of the same points made by David Aaker – but he had a slightly different approach. Bob suggested that brands should consider “unique actions” to create special relationships with their customers – he called this practice “Makerting Meaning”. For example, during the recession Hyundai started a campaign where they would take the car back if the buyer lost their job – no questions asked. Sales rose 20%. Another example involved the “Samsung power stations” at airports – and we all know how helpful that can be for all of our gadgets. Bob suggests that with these “unique actions” a brand can create special relationships – and that creates strong brands.
Jackie Huba
Jackie is a noted author and consultant, and she delivered one of the best presentations of the day (at least, in my opinion). We all know the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Jackie spoke about the “5th P”: Participation. She shared the story of “Makers Mark” (www.makersmark.com), describing how they are creating their own evangelists. She also mentioned Harley Davidson (www.harley-davidson.com), of course. Both of these brands have created once-a-year events bringing together their entire evangelist tribe…so they can all celebrate the brand while doing something good for a worthwhile cause. She also pointed out how these brand fans create their own shared symbols. Take the hand claw symbol used by Lady Gaga fans, for example. Lady Gaga calls her fans “little monsters” (therefore the little monster claw).
Don Schultz
Don teaches Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, and he opened up his presentation with 2 essential questions: How much should I invest in my brand? How much return will I get? The room got pretty quiet very fast. You’d think that someone would have known the answer, but the 300 people in attendance did not. He blasted out the follow up question: How the hell do you want to sell it to your CFO? The answer, according to Don, is to determine the customer’s financial value and to redefine Marketing Budgets as “Investments in Customers”. Getting everything to look the same is way less important than getting all the brand’s messages, opportunities and incentives aligned in order to reach the customers and impact the marketplace. Analyzing this will help answer how much should I spend, what media should I buy, and how long will it take for returns on investments. You are now ready for your CFO.
Jeffrey Hayzett
The former CMO of Eastman Kodak gave a very colorful presentation. He shared his insights on Kodak campaign that were successful and those that were not-so-successful. Jeffrey believes that “if you’re gonna fail, fail fast and cheap”. What has helped him succeed in his quest to turn Kodak around has been to “jump over corporate walls” and complexity, and simply taking the necessary risks if they are justifiable. Again, we heard the importance of real time marketing. Like others, Jeffrey emphasized that “no time can be lost – even if this means bending the rules to succeed”. He recommended a culture that promotes the idea that no one would be killed if they make a mistake. Be brave and be bold. I felt he truly represented this philosophy – and really enjoyed his presentation.
Marty Neumeier
Marty’s speech included highlights from both his bestsellers, ZAG as well as The Designful Company. He started his presentation mentioning the fact that during this economic downturn Apple has increased its profits 6-fold. Steve Jobs response to the recession was: “we intend to keep innovating.” This is exactly in line with one of Marty’s favorite mantras: “IF YOU WANNA INNOVATE, YOU GOTTA DESIGN”. According to Marty, the prevalent approach is to define a problem and start implementing a solution. To truly innovate, he believes that a crucial step is required: to design. Marty invites brands to experiment with possible solutions, be creative, work as a team from several parts of the company, implement small solutions, evaluate how well they work, improve and reflect results. In today’s highly competitive and cluttered market it is very tough to stand out. Marty suggests that in order to be successful, it is necessary to be radically different. In his language “when everybody Zigs, you should ZAG”. He mentioned the Aeron chair from Herman Miller. The Aeron chair took a radical new approach, creating more of a “sitting machine” than a chair. During tests, people did not respond positive to the looks at all, but once they sat on it, the overall response was “WOW”. A complete new chair category was born and the Aeron became the most successful product ever created by Herman Miller.
Aaron Magness
Aaron was the final speaker of the day, and he delivered a lot of interesting information about what made Zappos.com so successful (Amazon bought Zappos in 2009 for almost $1 Billion). Aaron talked about the huge growth that Zappos have had, and how it mainly happened through word of mouth, fueled by their outstanding customer service. He mentioned that one of the drivers for expanding their product range beyond shoes was that they noticed people searching for other product categories in their site search. Paying close attention to what is important to your customers is key to long term success. He also talked about the fact that “people make the company” and Aaron stressed how important it is to hire the right people and – the need to act quickly – if they don’t work out.
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For more information we suggest visiting the Brand ManageCamp blog.
Turning customers into brand advocates: What’s the secret?
Some brands create such strong customer communities that they are practically cults.
Apple, the Grateful Dead, and Harley Davidson are a few good examples. The customers for these brands become part of a tribe – with its own culture and sense of belonging. The brands that succeed in creating such a strong connection among its customers and employees benefit from exceptionally high levels of loyalty, to the extent their customers rarely practice brand-switching – instead, they actually promote the brand actively – and often try to convert others into becoming “brand believers”.
I am curious to see if anyone has any thoughts on how do companies create such strong affection for their brands that their customers are compelled to become active brand champions? Does this phenomenon happen on its own…or is there a secret to help it along? If so, what are the programs that are put in place? How are they run? What are the strategies and tactics that turn average customers into brand advocate superheroes? On the other hand, in your experience what have brands tried that simply does not work?
Your thoughts and ideas are welcome. We look forward to hearing from you!!!
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