- Make sure you have a brand promise and that it’s relevant
- Tell your internal team the promise
- Make sure your products/services are true to the promise (eg. Rolex promise with Timex delivery)
- Align all customer touch points to deliver the promise better everyday (including people, facilities, technology, pricing, communications)
- Recruit people who are happy to deliver the promise
- Regularly measure how you are doing in terms of promise delivery (customer feedback and mystery shoppers)
- Reward and recognise team members who deliver the promise
- Train those who don’t and suggest to those who really can’t that they find another field (yes fire them)
- Now you’re ready to advertise (advertising, pr, d-mail, sponsorships and events, digital)
- Be fair and honest with your teams, your customers and your community
Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’
10 ways to gain more market share for your service brand
Saturday 24th July, 2010
What’s in a name? Everything
Tuesday 20th July, 2010
Recently, I went for a lunchtime bite at an establishment in St. James. This particular store sells both bakery items and cuisine. I had no idea that they also had linguistic delights.
I purchased a slice of lasagne then moved to the cashier from whom I would get the drink. I looked at the “fridge” behind her to select from the array. Instead of the usual fizzy stuff, I felt for something healthy. I asked the lady, “What flavour juices do you have?” She looked at the “fridge” while speaking to me.
“We have Mauby, Orange and Mar…Mar…” Her fumbling surprised me for a moment.
“Mandarin”
“Mmmm” I thought, because I loooooove that flavour. I however looked at the juice on display in the “fridge” and understood her momentary dismay. There on the label, instead of “Jeff’s Mandarin” was “Jeff’s Margarine”.
I was compelled to share this ‘find’ with my colleagues at the office. The laughter was instantaneous for every one, along with the disbelief as they saw the bottle. So inconceivable was this error that it could not have been a case of wrong spelling at all. It must obviously have been the Russian immigrant working at Jeff’s plant who speaks little English that got the labels mixed up. This is of course assuming that Jeff also manufactures margarine. Let’s hope.
So, how was the juice? Honestly, I can’t recall really. Whenever I look back, it’s almost as though my brain simulates the texture and taste of butter in my memory. Though this was not the case, certainly that error on the label has affected my opinion of Jeff’s juice in a negative way. Jeff’s brand image has been compromised, for me at least. It just goes to show, product is one thing, communication is everything.
Marketing lesson from an Optometrist
Monday 10th May, 2010
I visited the Optometrist yesterday to have my spectacles adjusted. The exercise took only a few minutes. I was in and out quickly and it cost me nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And I got a new case to replace my grungy old one, also at the same price. And this retailer, Optometrist Today, was not even the original supplier.
Can you imagine how many people I will tell about this experience apart from blogging about it? This behaviour is rare. Very rare. The way this story would normally go is as follows; “Did you buy it here? No? Sorry then, we don’t adjust frames that we did not sell” or “That would cost you $150 which is our minimum charge assuming you don’t need any parts.” Instead the Optometrist, and yes I was seen by the man himself, just fixed my problem and made my weekend.
How can your ad agency, tyre shop, neighbourhood waterhole or utility company learn from the good Optometrist? What are they seeing that the rest of us are not? We see costs, they see investment.
And I know already where my next pair of glasses is coming from.
How can we make the pan more marketable?
Wednesday 7th April, 2010
T&T's Steeldrum, the Pan. Courtesy Trinbagopan.com.
Pan needs a big idea. Like when Peter Ueberroth made the 1984 Olympics the TV games, raising close to a billion US dollars from broadcast rights. Previous to 1984, others focused on stadium seats to be the main supply of revenue.
So we need a big idea. Ueberroth changed the “product distribution” from the stadium seat to the living room couch.
What if we went on a massive YouTube thrust where we put steel bands in worldview and simultaneously start a conversation with the world? Blogging and building a communities interested in tuning, arranging, organising, building teams and all the other great stuff that steelbands do. This will mean steelband people learning some new skills. Skills that are no harder than what they do now. Of course steelbands will also be able to sell their recordings and take bookings.
Or what if we did something crazy like stopping Panorama for a 3 year test period and get steelbands back playing in their community blockos and across T&T. What if we could promise the movement the same level of government subvention to be distributed to its membership as it determines.
Stopping Panorama might be a biggest big idea. It removes the focus on 8 minutes of music and places it back on the instrument and its power to delight well beyond 8 minutes. Do pan people have the belly for this big idea?
Googling our advertising to oblivion
Saturday 3rd April, 2010
For some of us, Google can be the enemy of creative thinking. Or at least original, from the depths of your soul thinking. It’s so easy to search any topic and get 1000 answers.
The alternative is so much more difficult and painful even; original ideas from our minds and hearts or from the courier’s, the mailman’s, the accountant’s or the receptionist’s. If you dig far enough and keep at it, the answer always comes. But that’s so much harder than Googling or Shutterstocking.
Unfortunately, Google is not anyone’s private domain. You can get so much from it and so can everyone else. So we need to return to life BG (Before Google). When we had to fashion a campaign from a blank note pad, pencil and a few lost souls with a positioning statement. Because isn’t the point of advertising to be fresh, interesting and engaging?
Our goal should be to be the one that others search.
Here comes another Doubles blog. Duck!
Friday 2nd April, 2010
It had to happen and it has. Now you can get meat in your doubles. And fittingly it has arrived in the capital of doubles, Curepe. (Debe is the capital of everything else indofried). This Curepe vendor sells doubles with chicken, duck, shrimp, goat, beef and they apologised for being out of conch.
I had a duck doubles. And it was brilliant. It evoked feelings of a Caura River lime with the cook hitting the sweet spot on this day. No short cuts because “it’s only doubles”. Rather curry duck to die for. And a la Maracas bake and shark, a superfluity of dressings and topping to enhance the experience.
I had Doubles with goat in the Fatima fete this year. I thought it was a Fete thing. It’s now become a street thing. And at twelve dollars a pop (duck doubles), not bad in terms of value.
Baked doubles can’t be far away.
10 ways to gain more market share for your service brand
Saturday 24th July, 2010What’s in a name? Everything
Tuesday 20th July, 2010Recently, I went for a lunchtime bite at an establishment in St. James. This particular store sells both bakery items and cuisine. I had no idea that they also had linguistic delights.
I purchased a slice of lasagne then moved to the cashier from whom I would get the drink. I looked at the “fridge” behind her to select from the array. Instead of the usual fizzy stuff, I felt for something healthy. I asked the lady, “What flavour juices do you have?” She looked at the “fridge” while speaking to me.
“We have Mauby, Orange and Mar…Mar…” Her fumbling surprised me for a moment.
“Mandarin”
“Mmmm” I thought, because I loooooove that flavour. I however looked at the juice on display in the “fridge” and understood her momentary dismay. There on the label, instead of “Jeff’s Mandarin” was “Jeff’s Margarine”.
I was compelled to share this ‘find’ with my colleagues at the office. The laughter was instantaneous for every one, along with the disbelief as they saw the bottle. So inconceivable was this error that it could not have been a case of wrong spelling at all. It must obviously have been the Russian immigrant working at Jeff’s plant who speaks little English that got the labels mixed up. This is of course assuming that Jeff also manufactures margarine. Let’s hope.
So, how was the juice? Honestly, I can’t recall really. Whenever I look back, it’s almost as though my brain simulates the texture and taste of butter in my memory. Though this was not the case, certainly that error on the label has affected my opinion of Jeff’s juice in a negative way. Jeff’s brand image has been compromised, for me at least. It just goes to show, product is one thing, communication is everything.
Marketing lesson from an Optometrist
Monday 10th May, 2010I visited the Optometrist yesterday to have my spectacles adjusted. The exercise took only a few minutes. I was in and out quickly and it cost me nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. And I got a new case to replace my grungy old one, also at the same price. And this retailer, Optometrist Today, was not even the original supplier.
Can you imagine how many people I will tell about this experience apart from blogging about it? This behaviour is rare. Very rare. The way this story would normally go is as follows; “Did you buy it here? No? Sorry then, we don’t adjust frames that we did not sell” or “That would cost you $150 which is our minimum charge assuming you don’t need any parts.” Instead the Optometrist, and yes I was seen by the man himself, just fixed my problem and made my weekend.
How can your ad agency, tyre shop, neighbourhood waterhole or utility company learn from the good Optometrist? What are they seeing that the rest of us are not? We see costs, they see investment.
And I know already where my next pair of glasses is coming from.
How can we make the pan more marketable?
Wednesday 7th April, 2010T&T's Steeldrum, the Pan. Courtesy Trinbagopan.com.
Pan needs a big idea. Like when Peter Ueberroth made the 1984 Olympics the TV games, raising close to a billion US dollars from broadcast rights. Previous to 1984, others focused on stadium seats to be the main supply of revenue.
So we need a big idea. Ueberroth changed the “product distribution” from the stadium seat to the living room couch.
What if we went on a massive YouTube thrust where we put steel bands in worldview and simultaneously start a conversation with the world? Blogging and building a communities interested in tuning, arranging, organising, building teams and all the other great stuff that steelbands do. This will mean steelband people learning some new skills. Skills that are no harder than what they do now. Of course steelbands will also be able to sell their recordings and take bookings.
Or what if we did something crazy like stopping Panorama for a 3 year test period and get steelbands back playing in their community blockos and across T&T. What if we could promise the movement the same level of government subvention to be distributed to its membership as it determines.
Stopping Panorama might be a biggest big idea. It removes the focus on 8 minutes of music and places it back on the instrument and its power to delight well beyond 8 minutes. Do pan people have the belly for this big idea?
Googling our advertising to oblivion
Saturday 3rd April, 2010For some of us, Google can be the enemy of creative thinking. Or at least original, from the depths of your soul thinking. It’s so easy to search any topic and get 1000 answers.
The alternative is so much more difficult and painful even; original ideas from our minds and hearts or from the courier’s, the mailman’s, the accountant’s or the receptionist’s. If you dig far enough and keep at it, the answer always comes. But that’s so much harder than Googling or Shutterstocking.
Unfortunately, Google is not anyone’s private domain. You can get so much from it and so can everyone else. So we need to return to life BG (Before Google). When we had to fashion a campaign from a blank note pad, pencil and a few lost souls with a positioning statement. Because isn’t the point of advertising to be fresh, interesting and engaging?
Our goal should be to be the one that others search.
Here comes another Doubles blog. Duck!
Friday 2nd April, 2010It had to happen and it has. Now you can get meat in your doubles. And fittingly it has arrived in the capital of doubles, Curepe. (Debe is the capital of everything else indofried). This Curepe vendor sells doubles with chicken, duck, shrimp, goat, beef and they apologised for being out of conch.
I had a duck doubles. And it was brilliant. It evoked feelings of a Caura River lime with the cook hitting the sweet spot on this day. No short cuts because “it’s only doubles”. Rather curry duck to die for. And a la Maracas bake and shark, a superfluity of dressings and topping to enhance the experience.
I had Doubles with goat in the Fatima fete this year. I thought it was a Fete thing. It’s now become a street thing. And at twelve dollars a pop (duck doubles), not bad in terms of value.
Baked doubles can’t be far away.
