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Branding with BAT - a Communitech P2P Presentation

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:23:36 -0800

Just returning from a trip to the North - where I visited Communitech in Waterloo, Canada. While there I had the opportunity to present on Brand in front of nearly 50 local marketers and agency execs in a monthly Peer-to-Peer workshop sponsored by my hosts.

I received a number of requests to post the preso - but due to the sensitive nature of some of the slides, have decided to post a summary here instead:

Topic: Branding with BAT

Case Study One: Best Practices (SuccessFactors)

Get the Technology Right
SuccessFactors spent a great deal of time and capital on building a product offering that disrupted the marketplace. They considered both the strongest entry point, and how to strategically grow share. When the approached my firm - they were ready to transform into a marketing and sales machine, because they had the product right.
Stay Focused On Values
SuccessFactor's CEO established clear and well-defined values from the beginning. These values were clearly articulated to us, and carried through to their purchase by SAP 5 years later.
Strong and Well-Aligned Leadership
The SuccessFactors team was well aligned coming into the process - debate was open and insightful on the offering and the brand, but with a clear sense of Core Purpose and end goals.
Listen to Customers
One of the most important exercises SuccessFactors engaged in, both during the Brand Synthesis process and after, was the pursuit of the Customer voice - they did not assume to know what the customer wanted, they asked, repeatedly and at multiple levels (buyer, decision maker, end-user).
Be Consistent
Decide and commit. Test the results. If they show room for improvement, change. That's performance-based results and it's the SuccessFactors way.

Case Study Two: Pitfalls to Avoid (Anonymous Client)

Leadership clearly not vested with authority
Executive teams that are not well aligned, that do not place their fate in their leaders hands, and that are afraid of change just are not good candidates for a rebranding process.
Vague, Loosely Defined Objectives
When an executive team cannot clearly articulate a tangible and concrete objective for a rebranding exercise - then there's no place to begin. We have to understand what you want to achieve, and have a way to measure success. Otherwise, success is subjective and easily susceptible to changing interests, stakeholders, and whims.
Lack of knowledge about customers, or desire to center branding around them
When an executive team does not have first hand experience working with customers and understanding their needs, when they are laser focused only on what they do, and not what their customers need, and when they have no interest in creating dialogue with their customers - run away.
Lack of commitment
Decide and commit. Test and modify. If a client can't decide and won't commit - you'll spin in revisions, water down the best ideas, and go over time and over budget - every time.
Reliance on subjective, personal decision making
The whole point of Brand Synthesis is to create a strong Brand Platform to measure marketing programs against. There's no room for "like" "don't like" in this criteria... Rather the measurement of success needs to be "achieves" "does not achieve" and ultimately "meets" or "does not meet" objectives.

Case Study Three: When it's right, it sticks (Eloqua)

Executive Investment is KEY
Any branding exercise without a companies key stakeholders is doomed. The marketing leadership is not enough. The CEO, founder, and sales leadership are key to success. Period.
Base values around the Company NOT individuals
In our exercise with Eloqua, we started the first day off with a corporate vales exercise - and the results were all over the map - mostly aligned with the individuals in the room. By the end of the second day, when we conducted the exercise again, the team (8 execs) uniformly aligned around a singular value set.
Seek External Validation
In addition to customer interviews, Eloqua used BAT to conduct extensive user-testing of their value propositions and key branding elements. As a result the CMO could confidently present the board with a brand clearly aligned with their Brand Platform and well received by their target audience.
Commit and Execute
Eloqua and BAT developed a comprehensive strategic roll-out plan that considered a multi-channel integrated marketing program, their product, their office space, the partner programs, etc. The result was that when the brand rolled out, Eloqua was able to quickly swap to the new brand and positioning in a matter of days instead of weeks or months.
It takes time and patience
The results of the brand roll out developed over the course of 3 quarters. The first two quarters saw a dramatic up-tick in lead-gen. The third quarter after roll-out yielded a record quarter for sales. The tangible results took 9 months. The effects, however, are lasting. Eloqua's brand has remained stable for three years, and plans for an IPO were recently announced.

BtoB: Still Breathing

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:23:36 -0700

Have you heard the news? One of the top ad agencies in the world has declared that BtoB is dead. Over, finished, done, kaput, no more. Which we find interesting because there still seem to be a large number of companies, call them businesses if you will, that are selling both products and services to other businesses. That stalwart of commerce seems to be alive and if not thriving in this economy, it does not appear that it is quite time to call for last rights.

So we must ask why the big pronouncement that BtoB is finished? Well it makes for a good ad, that’s one answer. I did read the whole long page of copy that had been purchased in Fortune. The answer proffered by our friends putting forth the news is that with the advent of mobile technology the existence of the “firm” has changed and therefore the entire logic of business to business sales must shift as well. We must now, as the ad says, start thinking about the individual and focus our sales to that single being.

Really? Because John Q. VP of Big Company now uses an iPhone we should focus the sales effort on his particular interest as a private citizen, not as the VP of Big Company? We think maybe the emperor is running around without any clothes on and it is time someone mentioned that!

We agree that the line between private life and work life is not as clear as it once was. People now have the ability to work from everywhere, to be on call all the time, and to be thinking about work when perhaps they should be taking a break. But that doesn’t mean they are less focused on the interest of the “firm.” Indeed it is quite the opposite; they are hyper-focused on who they are within their company, what their performance goals are, and how they fulfill the requirements of their role as a part of that business.

Big agencies have long focused on glitz over substance, wanting to wow with the campaign and imagery without any meaning behind the ad, and without only a loose connection to the goals of the company. Now they want to tell you to ignore the logic of speaking to a business sale in the context of that business and instead appeal to the individual personality. Well good luck trying to sell widgets to a multi-national company by trying to appeal to the individual and personal buying desires of all twenty people who will be involved in that decision.

We read the ad. We wanted to know how they were going to support the statement that BtoB was over. And we are here to tell you that the emperor is about to get a nasty sunburn.

Business matters. Companies matter. When you go to sell to Big Company you had better be sure you understand what Big Company needs, what the decision makers need in the context of their role, and how a business to business relationship is unique in the world of advertising, marketing and sales.

Challenging Assumptions about Living in the Digital Age

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:00:32 -0700

You would think being named The Brand, Art and Technology Studio, and having a portfolio of clients who are technology leaders we would be inclined to embrace all things digital and the predominant behaviors associated therewith. You would be wrong.

At BAT we certainly don’t eschew the latest and greatest gadgets, systems and communication means, but we approach them inquisitively, answering the most basic business question before we adopt: does this help me increase my efficiency and do my job better? Because we love our clients we also often ask: can this help Awesome Company meet their goals?

Not infrequently the answer to both questions is, “it can’t.” Like the shiny new toy you opened on Christmas morning, it was the most fabulous thing you had ever owned for about a week and then you went back to playing with the stuff that kept you entertained for the previous 11 months.

There are times when something new comes along that really can improve how we work, live and play, and there is plenty of technology that can’t be ignored because it has become a part of how society functions. The goal of this series is to take a look at some of those technologies and evolving social behaviors and challenge common assumptions about how things have to be.

Challenge Number One: is multitasking really a great way to get a lot done at once? Or, is it a complicated way to make us feel more efficient while we get more done poorly? I think you can guess where I’m headed.

During the last two decades many of us have proudly held as a badge of super-worker/parent/partner that fact that we are constantly multitasking.

- I’m commuting while on a conference call!

- I’m in the staff meeting responding to e-mail!

- I have four screens open and am answering a call while texting!

And how well did any of that work out? The reality we all know is that when we check our mail on a call we often have to say, “I’m sorry can you repeat that?” Now, for some of us who enjoy the chaos of juggling ten things at once we have brain science confirming our fears: multitasking not only does not work, it may actually be causing long-term cognitive damage.

A 2009 study showed impaired short-term memory functions, decreased ability to form long-term memories and a behavioral increase in the inability to filter out irrelevancy when trying to comprehend new material. (Put your phone down and read this paragraph again).

We have more we have to get done in the office/home/life so we respond by trying to do more all at once, the result is we get less done because we aren’t focused and we may be damaging our cognitive functioning permanently - OUCH!

I started working on this over a month ago. I would write a little here, a little there while I waited for a download or while I was on hold. Then I started writing it again this morning; two hours later I was done.

It isn’t a shiny new phrase but it sure does work: sometimes less is more!

During the last two decades many of us have proudly held as a badge of super-worker/parent/partner that fact that we are constantly multitasking.

- I’m commuting while on a conference call!

- I’m in the staff meeting responding to e-mail!

- I have four screens open and am answering a call while texting!

It isn’t a shiny new phrase but it sure does work: sometimes less is more!

Social Media, Blogs, Landing Pages, Website – What comes first?

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:38:23 -0700

The answer is simple – you need to start with a website. If you don’t have a website you don’t have a home. Regardless of how many channels your business communicates in, every prospect, every consumer, needs a tangible touch point to connect with before trusting you with their business.

The difference is that your website needs to become much more than brochure-ware – it needs to become the nexus point for all of your communication channels. Of course, you need to catalogue what you do, who you are, and who uses your products and services – but you also need to provide a reason to believe – a reason to engage with you.

The key here is content – in a variety of forms. You need to tell stories about how people use your products and services. You must speak to the "pain" or reasons why someone needs your services, and you need to provide guidance for the best-practices in using your services. In an ideal world, your website becomes the hub for all of these communication channels as you speak in different voices to different audiences across different mediums.

Practically here’s a quick breakdown:

Website – Validation, what we do , who we are – the hub.
Blog – Thought leadership, opinions, our point of view across topics and people
Facebook – Why build customer communities on expensive platforms when you can build one for free where your customers are ready congregate, and where data shows people are spending a significant amount of both work and personal time.
LinkedIn – The best recruiting tool you can use.
Twitter – Bite sized bits… But needs to be relevant. Corporate tweets should be all about news and events. Thought-Leadership needs to be connected to your people, your visionaries.
Marketing Automation – The best way to measure conversion through directed campaigns and landing page conversions – nurture your leads to drive business.
SEO – no brainer. If you’re doing the above well, you’re doing SEO
SEM – Once your organic efforts flat-line, there’s nothing like SEM to give you a boost

The rest… advertising, events, PR – they’re all important. But if you don’t have a place to point them, with a relevant and compelling way to engage, then you’re throwing money and more importantly leads, down the drain. First priority – start with your website website.

The Flexible Office

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:38:23 -0700

If you could fast forward from the 1950’s to today chances are good that you would recognize very little of the
demands of working life, family life, and family structure. The way these elements have evolved has required an enormous amount of flexibility and adaptation, but the demands of these inter-relationships verge on pushing us to bend to the breaking point.

The world today provides incredible tools for managing our working lives and our personal lives, literally letting us
connect from anywhere and everywhere, but the structure and demands of our lives have not allowed us the related flexibility to work from anywhere or everywhere.

Download the rest of this article as PDF.

Search engine Optimization Today

Sat, 08 May 2010 17:58:44 -0700

Running a business today is, at its core, not fundamentally different than running a business thirty years ago, fifty years ago, or even one hundred years ago. You need to offer something that someone else needs, at a price they are willing to pay, and in a way to gets them to come back for more and/or recommend you to others.

What has changed in this landscape is how you communicate what it is that you are trying to sell. Communication systems have changed throughout the years and businesses have always adapted to new means of getting the message out. What is unprecedented about the time we are living in, is the vast audience you can reach through the communication channels now open.

Download the rest of this article as PDF.

Content is King - Part 2

Sat, 01 May 2010 12:13:53 -0700

Installment Two: The three biggest content mistakes MOST companies make.

So you're convinced of the importance of content—and now you're ready to identify what to do about. A good place to start is to identify bad habits and key obstacles. This article provides insight into the three worst content practices found at most B2B (and consumer) companies around the world.

1) The belly-button problem
Most marketing content is reflective of what companies know the most about, speaking directly to their own products and services in micro-detail. This is a great way to lose all but the most motivated and informed prospects, as you’re making the prospect connect the dots for themselves.

Download the rest of this article as PDF.

Insights into choosing the right CMS

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:21:49 -0700

Choosing the right content management system doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With strategic planning you can find the right system fairly quickly. Over the past year I have worked closely with five different CMS solutions, for six different clients. While all of these systems shared many features and all of them performed well on the server, no single CMS would have been the right choice for all of these clients.

Start by asking yourself the most basic of all questions: what is the content that I need to manage? Content can be anything from media files and static web pages on a server to customer data, inventory, etc.. The goal here isn’t so much to make a comprehensive list of features, as much as it is to identify the core reasons for choosing your CMS.

Download the rest of this article as PDF.

Content is King - Part 1

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:00:00 -0700

A POV series focusing on–you guessed it–why content matters more than ever. This series of BAT POVs will explore why you should care about content, common mistakes made in developing content, and some basic steps you can take to craft a content strategy that puts your customer front and center to help you drive more and better qualified leads, convert opportunities and nurture loyalty.

Installment One: So your content sucks–why should you care?

All to often in marketing engagements of almost any kind, content is viewed as a tactical requirement – not as a strategic differentiator. Examples are prolific, across websites, tradeshow booths and our email inboxes – we are flooded with marketing speak designed to appeal to our emotions or tell us in minute detail about the function and benefit of a multitude of products and services. Even the most finely crafted visual experiences often lack relevant, contextual and meaningful content to back them up.

Download the rest of this article as PDF.