Abiah.com, Christian Organization and Ministry Brand Development

How secure are your customer relationships?

My husband and I go out to eat fairly often (at least once a week and often several times) and we're pretty tolerant people since we've worked in hospitality.  We'll forgive service breakdowns...we'll even give you another chance if your food is only so-so.

We just got back from our favorite restaurant.  This place is our favorite for several reasons:  great food, reasonable prices, and a decent location.  The service is only so-so. 

We will often eat at this place once a week and then again on Saturday.  When the place was on his route home we would often get takeout there on Friday nights.  Heck...there have been times when we've eaten there Saturday afternoon and gone back for takeout that night.

You'd think that this place would treat us really well since we're there all the time.

Uh-uh.

Each time we go in we have one of two servers.  They both act like they've never seen us before.

Contrast this to our favorite breakfast place. 

We only eat there a couple of times a month but when we do we get a big hello from at least one member of the staff, often from several of them.  Some of the servers will even ask me how my friend is (a girlfriend and I meet there for breakfast occassionally).  They remember that I drink Diet Coke in the morning and ask me if that's what I want.  I have been known to have the occassional tea if it's freezing out.

Frankly if the first place lost their chef I'd never go back.

Have we complained?  No.  But the service isn't bad...it just isn't anything to write home about.  It doesn't set the place apart.

Times are tough for the average small business and they're not going to get any easier.

What are you doing to develop relationships with your customers...The real relationships where people feel good about giving you their hard-earned money? Are you creating a buying experience that defines and grows your brand?

How deep is the bond with your customers?

I was reading USAToday and drinking my morning Diet Coke while waiting for my incredibly slow 10 year old HP printer to crank out a document when I saw this article about Coke's huge profit increase.  24% increase.  Wow.  How many of us would love that?

But they only sell fizzy, brown, sweet water right?  So what is it about Coke that keeps people buying it?  Even when we know it's not particularly good for us?  AND when it's more expensive than other brands?  Logic would tell you to buy something else...to drink WATER...

One of the biggest reasons I think Coke sells like it does is because of the emotional bond its customers have with it.

My first exposure to Coke was when I was a kid.  We didn't keep soda in the house so it was a real treat when we had it.  Then as I got older and started hanging out with my friends we would drink Cokes.

My brain (and apparently the brains of many others) links great times with Coke...party with Coke...fun with Coke. 

My favorite Uncle always drank Pepsi.  He was a second father to me...one of those legendary eccentric people who even my friends loved...even HE couldn't get me to switch to Pepsi.  Now THAT'S brand loyalty!

So what are you doing to develop that kind of passion about your brand?  Are you linking your product and service to clients' hearts and minds so your brand becomes such a part of their lives they can't live without you?

What brands (besides yours of course) do you love so much you can't part with them?

Show your clients and staff some love

Last night I finished reading Tim Sanders' great book, Love is the Killer App.

I know the book came out in 2002...but hey...at least I finally read it! 

The book really is a great read but I could feel my still-jaded-corporate-heart saying things like "can you imagine what would happen if you actually acted like that?" 

I have to be honest...I really WAS a lovecat in my corporate days.  And I was proud of it.  I wasn't quite as committed to it as Sanders.   It's easy to let life and those negative life vampires drain the passion and joy right out of you.  As a matter of fact, a study was done that showed that negative experiences impact us 5 times more than positive experiences.  So you really have to work hard at not being worn out by negative people and your organization has to be committed to celebrating the lovecats in its midst.

I've been kicking myself for days over how I let negative people and negative situations win when I allow them to take away my natural lovecat impulses.  I've made a promise that I'm going to fight back.  With love of course.  Read that book and make the commitment too.  Don't let them win.

And think about how you can show your clients and staff some love on Valentine's Day.  Ideally you'd be a lovecat every day but you've got to start somewhere right?  So Valentine's Day is a good excuse.

At the very least you can send an email note to your contact list.  You can send everyone a free ecard from Hallmark.com. Or if you're feeling really frisky send them greetings from Pillsbury's Dancin' Doughboy which is a personal fave of mine.

A handwritten note is really special and makes you standout as a true lovecat because it takes extra time to do and because no one does that anymore.  Don't want to do cards?  Do postcards instead.

On his blog, Sanders recommends giving your customers pre-loaded iPod Shuffles.  What a great idea and certainly money well spent on those special clients.  Don't load it with blah-blah about your company.  Load it with love songs or if you know the person has a favorite genre, load it up with that.  BTW, if you're planning on sending one to your favorite brand strategy blogger (ahem) anything Motown would be a good choice : - )

And what about your staff?  Those are the folks who show the love to your customers every day.  They're your Brand Ambassadors.  They deserve tons of love from you. 

So what are you going to do to show clients and staff the love this week?

Integrity in marketing messages

A recent article on MarketingProfs raises and discusses the concept of ROMI -- return on marketing integrity.

As people more and more resist advertising and embrace strategies to limit their exposure to it (from caller ID and Do Not Call lists, to reducing your junk mail, and Tivo), advertisers often seem to ratchet up the hype volume.

But the article on MarketingProfs raises an interesting point:  How do you protect your reputation and integrity as a company and as a brand while working to get your message across?

That is something that all brand builders and business leaders struggle with and I wrestle with that as I wear the hats of brand strategist and copywriter. 

I despise hype and don't want to use it in copy.  At Abiah, we believe that if you do an excellent job of clearly identtifying the target market, we'll do a better job of speaking to them and getting the message to them.

Are we too naive?  We don't think so.  But often the process of seeing returns is slow.  People on both sides of the coin --  clients and the marketers who serve them -- can suffer from "instantgratification-itis".

As marketers, brand builders, and leaders, how do we deal with that?  How do we also protect our integrity as professionals and the integrity of the clients we design and write for?

Care to share your thoughts?

Is your brand ready for live chat?

As a subscriber to Ari Galper's Unlock the Game newsletter, I'm familiar with live chat and his feature and with Live Person. 

Here's an article that discusses it, but in a nutshell, the company whose site you're visiting is aware you're there and they can see what page you've been on and how long you've been there.  The business rep can then insert him / herself into your web visit and ask if you need any help or want more information.

I'm really on the fence about this. 

In a way, I think that's incredibly creepy.  One of the things I love about the Web is its anonymity.  I love being able to research stuff without somebody bugging me.  I do want you to have an obvious link to your contact form so I can get more information when I'm ready for it. 

We've talked about adding an IM feature to the Abiah site.  That I'm completely OK with.  It's nice for people to have the option of getting their questions answered immediately and it gives us the benefit of getting involved in their research process and potentially keeping them from visiting the competition and forgetting about us (I forget where I've been sometimes).

Of course if you adopt something like IM or Live Person then you've got to recognize that as an additional opportunity to extend your brand's messaging.  If you don't plan how you're going to select and train the people who will use it or think through how you'd approach someone yourself then I think you're making a big mistake and you run a significant risk of scaring people away.

Any of you have any experience with it?  Is live chat something you're thinking about at your place?  What about as a consumer...do you like the idea or does it creep you out like it does me?

What a little sandwich shop can teach you about branding

Last week my husband and I went to Philadelphia so I can get my hair cut.  That's right.  I drive an hour to get my hair cut because I can't find a decent stylist anywhere near where we live.

We make a day of it by shopping, eating, and wandering around.

Friday's trip solidified why Philadelphia is a great town and why there's so much for the average brand builder to learn there.

We went to Reading Terminal Market and decided to eat at a place we've been to before:  Tony DiNic's.  This place has the most incredible roast pork sandwiches you've ever tasted.

We ate our sandwiches (which were fabulous as usual) and when the waitress asked if everything was OK (we had eaten everything but the wax paper lining the baskets our sandwiches came in so the answer was obvious), Lou told her that they needed to open a place down the shore because there's nothing like it there.  She then asked where we lived, what we were in town for, and complimented me on my haircut. 

Her responses came across as very genuine and naturally friendly and as we left, we talked about how we've never had the same experience at even our regular haunts.  She helped make our lunch a great overall experience with the few minutes of authentic interaction she shared. 

There are about 80 merchants at the market, many are sandwich / food places like Tony's.  The Market is special for many reasons including the many different products for sale in one place, but it's "that certain something" that makes eating at Tony's so great. 

While you can incorporate time in your employee training to focus on customer service skills, you have to work hard to hire people who have the natural personality to make service seem effortless.  Forcing people to state the same dull comments to people makes them feel like robots and makes the customer feel as though the employee is insincere.  It hurts you more than helps.

Take lessons from Tony DiNic's.  Deliver the finest product possible.  Charge a fair price for the value you deliver.  Hire people who are naturally service oriented and don't force them to recite stupid scripts.  Encourage them to be themselves and interact with customers.

You'll create a brand that's definitely noteworthy.  One that gets talked about and that engages customers to become your marketing team.

And on your next trip to Philly, make sure you experience the lessons first hand.

Keeping up with Generation Jones

Thank goodness The War's over.  Watching Ken Burns' 7-part series was exhausting -- and not just because it kept me up way past my bedtine.  It was heartwrenching to hear the soldiers' tales of battle and sacrifice, the stories of those at home and how they dealt with the waiting and wondering about their loved ones, and to watch actual combat footage that showed battles our family members had been in.

As last night's episode came to an end it showed home movies of the first of the Baby Boomers in the arms of their joyful parents.

Born in 1962, I was sometimes included in the range of dates for Baby Boomers and sometimes included in the range for Generation X.  I only sortof felt like a part of Boomers, but I knew I didn't feel like a GenX-er.  Now I know why...

'Cause I'm not either of them.  I'm part of Generation Jones.  A relatively new name for that slice of the post-War baby boom that bleeds into the start of Generation X.  We're the ones born between 1954 and 1964 or '65. 

This group is finally being studied and recognized as the special group they are.  We're older but not really old and we certainly don't think of ourselves as old.  We represent the fastest growing segment of people who are online and embracing new technology.  A large segment of us are those "early adopters" that advertisers love.  And there are lots of us.  Some 35 million or so.

I feel so vindicated. 

Where does this group fit in your target market?  Are they part of the core or in one of the outer rings?  Here are some sites to learn more about me...I mean US... 

Baby Boomers and brand loyalty

A recent article in AAA World magazine talked about baby boomer brand loyalty to their insurance provider (72% are likely to retain their current insurance provider) compared to other products / services purchased by this segment.  Only 24% would stick with their computer maker (I'm one of the 76% likely to change!).

Getting insurance is such a monumental hassle that I wonder if shear frustration has anything to do with that number.  Still, there's lots of room for growth there.  Retaining just 5% of your current customer base could lower costs and raise profits pretty well.

The article also discussed how uninformed the average insurance consumer is about their coverage. 

Yes, I think the consumer has a responsibility to review what they're signing before they sign and to make sure they understand what's covered and what's not; but I also think that insurance agencies and agents who take the extra step to help people understand their coverages could go a long way to cultivate customer loyalty and generate referrals from those customers.

What do you think?

What emotions does your brand evoke?

I took an extra day off last week and met a friend in Hershey, PA.  She had invited me to go to a Toby Keith concert with her.  I like him and had never seen him, and I was long overdue for a road trip, so I jumped at the chance to go.

We decided we'd visit Chocolate World since we'd be there with time to kill.  It was a fun, silly excursion with my longtime friend who is also my former roommate and co-worker.

What Hershey bills as a tour of the chocolate making process isn't really a tour so much as an explanation of the process.  It's still very interesting.

When the ride (you're in cars like an amusement ride) is over, after you get your free sample (yum!), you exit through their store of course. 

It's a monument to consumerism and chocolate gluttony and I started thinking about our love of all things Hershey. 

There are certainly better quality chocolates out there.  Cadbury and Lindt immediately come to mind as excellent choices.

Yet, when we're in front of the candy display and need our fix, we continue to reach for Hershey (it has just over 30% of the chocolate market while M&M / Mars has just under 30%).  Why is that?

I think it has to do with the fact that most Americans are introduced to chocolate as children and it's typically a happy moment when we're given some.  Since Hershey is one of the dominant players on the scene, the chances of us being given a Hershey's product were pretty good.  The link is then made between happiness and Hershey's product. 

Hershey themselves recognized this when they began an ad campaig declaring that "Hershey's is happiness."

The strongest brand relationships are forged at the emotional level.

Consumers who have strong positive feelings about your brand will forgive the occassional mis-step.  They buy more and buy more often.  They tend to recommend you to others.

In the case of brands like Hershey, they will even spend money on things like logo'd items that then increase the reach of your marketing message while making you money.

Have you thought about the emotions connected to your brand?  How can you grow those emotional ties?

Will psychographic differences in markets change your strategy?

Interesting article yesterday on AdAge.com that talked about the iPhone and its impact on brands and message delivery. 

The article and the issues it discussed made me think about some other things I've been reading and wondering about. 

There's no doubt that movement to technology like the iPhone impacts advertising and marketing because people are only going to tolerate messages that are seen as highly desirable to them.  They'll want a simple way of opting out when you fall out of favor with them.  The small size will certainly impact copy and images, so writers and designers will need to consider the medium and its impact on the message maybe more than they did.

Then there are the issues raised by a survey I saw in one of the dozen or so newsletters and alerts I subscribe to.  The survey showed that "young people" (no definition of the age range) don't read the newspaper and don't follow the news.  That probably doesn't shock those of us Boomers and X-ers who have tried to have conversations with "young people" on issues typically covered in the newspaper.

But what I'm wondering is how this will impact advertising and marketing.  As those "young people" move to independence (and hopefully someday they will!) and become consumers of product and service segments their parents buy now, smart marketers will make the shift to get their messages in these portable electronic formats.

So are you thinking about this?  Are you investigating how to modify your messages and communicate with this group?