Your Market(ing) Has a Blind Spot

It's embarrassing to admit it has been almost two years since my last post. I'm now inspired, and I can't promise what will or won't come of it. The world of marketing continues to evolve at vapor speed. Two years ago Instagram was just catching on. The notion of native content was foreign to most of us. And we still talked about the "awareness-interest-evaluation-trial-adoption" funnel. This model was old then, and today it's prehistoric. Recent history (and in the discipline of marketing that means about a year) dictates we should be more concerned about the multimodal, multi-path, customer journey and not just getting our awareness (or number of FB likes) up.

There's no correlation between awareness and market share. It's just the first stage in the "customer choice chain". And they will make many of them all along their path to purchase. Few companies (mine included) have conducted rigorous analysis of customer choices across segments and markets, and what we can do to earn that choice. Part of the sweet spot in all of this is finding the "values fit" between your brand and your customers' needs. Doing that well can turn that choice into conviction and that's what moves the needle.

So, on this first post in two years (the first of many more to come) I challenge you:
- How do you pay attention to what your customers are telling you about their values?
- How do you capture that intel to earn your customers' choice?

Check out this great example from #converse that shows how they did it.
Brand connections are found in all the right, and sometimes very strange places.
http://onforb.es/27FakjE

A New Brand Promise in Subtle Change in Job Titles

This morning was week two in a row of east coast travel, on Delta Airlines, and probably the seventh or eighth week this year alone on the same 8am departure from San Diego to Atlanta, to then connect to points east. So I know this was the first time I've heard a subtle difference in how the Delta team working the flight refers to themselves.

"Stewardess" went away at least a couple decades ago, to be replaced by "flight attendant" when referring to the team of safety and hospitality-trained pros who work the flights. Attend to the flights. Attend to the needs of passengers. Passive, responsive, attentive, if you take the meaning of the word at face value.

On our first Delta flight today, the lead "attendant", Marsha, referred to she and her colleagues as "flight servers". Not an unintentional reference for sure. Think about it. Servers are proactive, they ancitipate needs, know your preferences if you travel enough (what kind of sweetener you like in your coffee, ice/no ice), and do what they do with a personal individual touch that goes beyond just attending to needs. Think the famous examples like Ritz-Carlton, or Intrawest.

One word in a job title a company culture doesn't make, but in this case it really sent a message about Delta's focus. And I know everyone has horror stories about Delta or (insert-airline-name-here) but it seemed a legitimate attempt to set themselves apart in an industry that is wringing every last nickel out of customers while actually decreasing service. Even though our departure was delayed by a minor maintenance issue that put us at risk of missing a connection, Marsha made those same standard announcements we can all recite, but with a little more sincerity and appreciation in her voice than most.

Marsha is one of the best in the business and worked hard today to ask the pronounciation and spelling of my last name. She wanted to "add you to my list" which made me feel like there might be some future benefit to me as a traveller for making that list, even if it's just a smile and acknowledgement.

Words are powerful. Think about how you use them in creating and conveying a culture in your business.

Strong brands know it's as much about what you won't do, as what you will.

Lately I've had more conversations than ever with people launching a new business and creating a new brand, or trying to revive and reposition a tired brand. I'm taking it as a sign of our improving economy. And I love the dialogue because so many people, some very successful in business, see "brand" as a marketing thing. It's the logo, right? Or it's the color of their website, that matches the color on their business card. Or it's just that we need a new company story, right? That's the easy part - that's just the skin you show the world.

Brand is as much about what you don't do, as it is what you do.

In her amazing first book, "Different", that many of you have read, Youngme Moon calls the competitive marketplace today a "blur of similarity". Here's the deal I think... when things are tough and we all get scared, we look around the businesses we are in at who's doing what well and gravitate to "our version" of that same place and believe we'll be successful too. Take what's working and tweak it. This "me too" approach might work for a while, but it's not going to blow the doors off. And it's not really a new business.

Having a new idea is hard work.
What customer need is out there that you can fill? What problem or challenge do people have that your product or service can solve?
Simple is good.

If done right, creating the brand around your business idea will be about how it lives, not what colors you employ. ... If you are a quick serve cafe all about healthy refueling, what food will you absolutely not serve? ... If your business is all about human contact and personal service, what should your telephone system not do?

There are tons of great new business ideas out there. In this crazy world customers have more needs, and more specific ones than ever before. Those businesses with the guts to live their big ideas will win. And they will be the same ones who know that it's as much about what they leave out of their offering as it is what they add to it.