What are you selling?

If nothing, then you are not in business. If only commodities, then you won’t be in business for long.

“But wait,” you say “I am a service provider. I don’t sell commodities. So I guess I’m safe.”

Sorry. A service alone is still a commodity. In the brave new world of social business, anything is a commodity to the extent to which it is a) a transaction that consists only of the exchange of a good or service for money, and b) reproducible in every important way.

So a service which is repeated over . . . → Read More: The Social Market: Relationships, Stories, and Desire]]> Share/Bookmark

What are you selling?

If nothing, then you are not in business. If only commodities, then you won’t be in business for long.

“But wait,” you say “I am a service provider. I don’t sell commodities. So I guess I’m safe.”

Sorry. A service alone is still a commodity. In the brave new world of social business, anything is a commodity to the extent to which it is a) a transaction that consists only of the exchange of a good or service for money, and b) reproducible in every important way.

So a service which is repeated over and over again, where the narrative arc ends completely when money changes hands, and which can be replicated by any competent professional the world over, is a commodity. And commodities have no place in the social marketplace.

The antonym of ‘commodity’ in this paradigm, is ‘experience’.

An experience in the context of social business, begins before the customer comes into direct contact with the business, and lasts long after the core transaction has taken place. And each experience is unique.

An experience is the product of a unique interaction between equal players. In the social market, the focus is on the unique relationship between the buyer, the seller, and the environment. That particular relationship cannot be reproduced and is becoming the new USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Social tools, especially those focusing on place (like FourSquare or Facebook Places) create the opportunity to customize interactions for both the buyer and the seller.

An experience is a story. The traditional models of acquisition and retention are losing their definition. Through digital social channels, we become aware of brands long before we click a link or walk through their doors. We are made aware of them through the conversations of those we trust, through targeted ads, and through the directed stream of data that flows around us. Sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and the shaped offerings and reviews from sites like Amazon provide a near-global conversation about brands, which those brands can participate in, but not control. At mid-transaction, the story continues as business and consumer exchange information, and successful businesses attempt to create a remarkable experience with each visit or purchase. Then after the sale, the digital threads connecting consumer and business remain sticky and elastic. Follow-up, follow-through, return-incentives, and CRM all lose their distinct post-purchase roles and flow backwards and forwards to sustain the relationship and the experience of the brand for as long as possible.

In the social market, desire becomes more nuanced. In 20th century marketing, brands would try to speak to our desires for acceptance, status, fulfillment. But the whole experience had a tawdry one-night-stand feel to it. As soon as you purchased that object of desire: the house, the nicer car, the bigger TV, something akin to post-coital depression set in until the credit-fueled dance of desire started again, focused on a new fetish. In the social market, the seductions still continue, but there is nuance and a deeper commitment. Apple probably understands this better than any other brand. The combination of beautiful objects and a tribal-cliquey sense of being part of a special community is masterfully handled by Apple. Our desires remain, and brands will still seek to fulfill them, but the pace must be slower. The nature of the fulfillment must be richer. As Apple knows, it can’t just be about stuff any more. And I think it is just the beginning. There are deeper and more subtle desires that brands can connect with and act as partners in fulfilling: the sense of belonging, the sense of making a real difference in our communities and globally, a spiritual dimension… In my memory, the Body Shop perhaps best understood and exploited (not necessarily in a bad sense) this. But they were before their time. Lululemon is close. But there will be many more: successful businesses will find ways to act as partners in shared stories that address our needs and desires, and weave together the social, the commercial, the emotional and spiritual into extended, and profitable, shared experiences.

The experience must be truthful. If there is one thing for which tolerance is evaporating rapidly, it is deception in the market. And sustainable relationships and real experiences cannot be built on lies. It will be interesting to watch as the marketing, PR, and branding universe adjusts to the truth that whatever else consumers will demand, it is… the truth. Punishment for deception will be swift and many times fatal, as the social networks (including many of the consumer rating sites like TripAdvisor or Yelp mentioned above) spread bad news at a speed with a reach we have not seen before.

I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

IBM conducted face to face interviews with more than 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries and 19 industries. This study, entitled From Stretched to Strengthened is part of an ongoing work called the C-Suite research program, interviewing 15,000 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CHROs and CSCOs.

Over the next few days I will be exploring different facets of the CMO study;  it has . . . → Read More: 2011 IBM Study: What Keeps Your CMO Awake At Night?]]> Share/Bookmark

This morning, (October 11, 2011) IBM (TSX: IBM:US)  released a valuable study into the pressures, stresses, and some successes of corporate Chief Marketing Officers trying to come to terms with the rapidly shifting ground-rules in their worlds.

IBM conducted face to face interviews with more than 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries and 19 industries. This study, entitled From Stretched to Strengthened is part of an ongoing work called the C-Suite research program, interviewing 15,000 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CHROs and CSCOs.

Over the next few days I will be exploring different facets of the CMO study;  it has significant implications for corporate communication. At the heart of the study is the leitmotif that there is a “critical and permanent shift” in the way businesses communicate to and with their customers.

Customer Intimacy is Crucial

The keystone insight is that organizations must turn from addressing the crowd (market segments, demographics, populations) to addressing the individual.

As consumers, we no longer trust the one [corporate] voice that addresses the many. World War II and the  Cold War probably started the questioning that continued through Naomi Klein’s No Logo, and brought us to the social world today. We don’t trust it, and we no longer even hear it.  That one voice has been drowned out by the millions of myriad voices addressing each other through social networks. The challenge for the corporate world, which its very name defines  as not-individual, is to engage in conversation with each individual in its existing or potential customer base. The central challenge: how do you do that?

The ROI of a Conversation

Not only is the corporate world struggling to come to terms with these simultaneous individual conversations, the CMO’s in this study are also challenged to provide ROI numbers their CEO’s and shareholders are demanding. The irony of this is that while social networks atomize the marketplace, they simultaneously provide more public data than we have ever had. Blog comments, web traffic analytics, customer review sites, and in so many other ways consumers are voluntarily (an often unknowingly as well) providing feedback and other purchase and experience data. Never has the conversation about your business been more public and more open to analysis. When you combine this with POS (point of sale) and order tracking data many businesses now have available to them, the potential to connect the dots is huge. The serious challenge underlying this is to find common systems that can speak to each other, without compromising privacy where it matters.

A personal side-bar:

For the last two months I have been posting on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook about my hunt to find my next smartphone. I have been using Blackberries for years, and am not sure of RIM’s future. In my tweets and posts I have asked lots of questions and mentioned both Blackberry, RIM, and Android by name many times. Now. You would think that any corporate marketing team would be monitoring the public portions of my social stream (and there are many) for mentions of their products or issues of interest to them. Not that I can see. I have never had a response or query after any posts. Well, I did have one, because I am a huge fan of Xobni, I did mention them. They responded in hours.

In response to IBM’s study I upped the ante on my experiment and posted this on Twitter:

“#smartphone decision down to this: #samsung #android or #rim #torch #bb? From #telus.”

There are enough hashtags in there to pretty much smack anyone who’s paying attention in the face. Let’s see what happens. [Update: after 4 days, not a word]

Big Blue Gets It

I have to say that as I read the 61 pages that constitute the main part of the study, I was impressed, not with the data, but with the questions and the synthesis.

The questions around ROI and delivering value to empowered customers are important. What struck me most however, was the attempt to grapple with an issue on the corporate level, that we can’t even get small to medium sized enterprises to accept: developing a one-to-one relationship with your customers through the full buying cycle is probably the number one marketing challenge of the next several years. I would expect smaller businesses, that have a more obvious need for the loyalty of a smaller customer base, to jump all over this. Not so. In walk Big Blue and the corporate subjects of this study, and flat out own the question. Whatever happened to ‘small, nimble, and responsive’?

My message to clients these days is simple: “You don’t see the value of engaging social networks? That’s fine, because your customers and your competitors do. And they are managing the conversation just fine without you.”

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

I have a client who owns a cooking school, and for whom I am helping write website content. Her customers are mostly women, between the ages of 35 to 70. They hear about her cooking classes from friends who are current or past students, and they usually attend in pairs or groups. Here is a conversation we had:

Me: I see your web designer has included a Twitter icon on your banner. Are you planning on using Twitter as a communication tool?

My client: Yes, I was planning on using Twitter. My web . . . → Read More: If You Must Tweet, Choose Your Tweeter Wisely]]> Share/Bookmark

Guest post by Maeve Maguire

I have a client who owns a cooking school, and for whom I am helping write website content. Her customers are mostly women, between the ages of 35 to 70. They hear about her cooking classes from friends who are current or past students, and they usually attend in pairs or groups. Here is a conversation we had:

Me: I see your web designer has included a Twitter icon on your banner. Are you planning on using Twitter as a communication tool?

My client: Yes, I was planning on using Twitter. My web designer says he can write tweets for me. He uses software that enables him to pre-plan and book tweets so that he can write, say, two weeks’ worth of tweets in an evening.

Yikes.

Does anyone else feel uncomfortable with this arrangement? My client is willing to hand over her company communications to her web designer—whose expertise is in web design, not communication or cooking—and pay for the service. What bothered me most is she isn’t the first client to tell me this.

It got me thinking: The goal is to get more customers and earn money to achieve financial freedom which improves the quality of your physical, emotional, and spiritual life (or similar), yes? Can Twitter, and other social media, lead my clients to this goal?

Peter Shankman spells out the answer to my question in his (refreshingly) irascible article called, Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A “Social Media Expert. He writes, “We’re making the same mistakes we made in the DotCom era, where everyone thought that just adding the term .com to your corporate logo made you instantly credible. It didn’t.” In other words, including Twitter and Facebook in your communication strategy may be trendy, but it also may waste your time and money.

Shankman reminds us (in capital letters, to leave no doubt of his conviction) what good business is, “IT’S ABOUT GENERATING REVENUE THROUGH SOLID MARKETING AND STELLAR CUSTOMER SERVICE.” Then, in case anyone with a Twitter account or Facebook business page didn’t feel foolish enough already, he adds, “JUST LIKE IT’S BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.”

He goes on to remind us that transparency, relevance, and excellent writing are what make marketing great. And, when you’ve nailed down a brilliant brand message, you deliver it in a way your customer can receive it. He says, “If you’re tweeting all your discounts, and none of your customers are on Twitter, then you sir, are an idiot.”

Social media works…for some businesses. Ask your customers if they use social media to learn about your service. If they do, only then consult a communications professional for advice on how to apply it to your business.

Twitter isn’t rocket science (you can learn how to use it, and the “pre-planning” tools, in five minutes), but if you use it, know that it takes time to do it well. If you choose to outsource this job, hire an individual who understands your market and your brand, and who knows how to tweet—in that order.

Read Shankman’s full article at http://www.businessinsider.com/why-i-will-never-ever-hire-a-social-media-expert-2011-5.

Maeve Maguire is a writer who specializes in online communications. She has been writing website content, technical documents, and marketing collateral for over 10 years for companies based in Canada and the UK. Learn more about Maeve’s writing services at www.describewriting.com, or read her blog about life in the Cowichan Valley at www.cowichandale.com.

Message from Clemens:

Want to become a Twitter ‘Power User’? Can you see the value of harnessing Twitter to fuel social media marketing for your business? Join Clemens Rettich for his 6-session online Twitter BootCamp.

Which stage of cultural awareness are you at? If you are at the most integrated stage, you not only acknowledge the differences and frames of perception, but you are able to move between them fluidly.  Read more…

Does your blog keep readers reading past the . . . → Read More: On Message: The Best of Business Communication – April 16]]> Share/Bookmark

Each week I bring together a few articles that add value to our work of becoming better communicators in business. Short on time? Watch for the *Must Read* where I think you’ll get the best bang for your reading buck!

Stages of Cross Cultural Awareness

Which stage of cultural awareness are you at? If you are at the most integrated stage, you not only acknowledge the differences and frames of perception, but you are able to move between them fluidly.  Read more…

8 Strategic Blog Home Pages that Draw Readers Deeper

Does your blog keep readers reading past the first page they land on? I know my blog could use a lot of work that way! This article does a great job of illustrating some very effective ways to keep people clicking!  Read more…

5 Tactics to Win Over the Other Side

Need to persuade someone when it really matters? Read this description of how actor Kevin Spacey nailed the subtle points like dress and picking key stories to make his point. Persuasion is a complex form of communication. These tips will make you more effective if you follow them. Read more…

How to Succeed in Business Writing: Don’t Be Dickens

Do you know how to write really effective business copy? If not, this article provides some really solid suggestions you can use right now. What do you think of the author’s assertion that humour has no place in business writing at all? Read more…

3 Reasons Why Branding is Critical for Every Small Business *Must Read*

Have you gone through a formal branding process? If you haven’t you don’t have full control of your business. It’s that simple. This article provides 3 very compelling reasons why you need to take full control of your brand. Read more…

Don’t Rely On Facebook For Your Social Media Marketing *Must Read*

Too often, social media is all invitation, no party. John Jantsch nails it again in an excellent article that puts the whole social media strategy field back into context. It’s about the brand. Nothing more, nothing less. And the ‘house’ of that brand is your website and/or blog. Get that house in order, or spin your wheels. Read more…

A 3-Step Process For Creating Lifetime Customer Relationships *Must Read*

Want to know the real way to build a social media base? This is one of the most succinct, elegant, and practical articles on the topic I have read yet. The main ingredient? Stop using social media to build your core social media base. Go have a cup of coffee with someone. Read more…

The Anatomy of a Referral: Leveraging Social Media to Grow Your Business

If your social media work is not yielding any immediate leads or referrals maybe the problem isn’t Twitter or Facebook. It may be you just don’t know how to use the tools yet. Read more…

Google Builds Social Web by Stealth

Forget Apple vs. PC. A MUCH bigger war is the one brewing between Facebook & Google. Both are looking for the holy grail of search + social to become the ultimate ‘referral engine’. Learn what Google is up to.   Read more…

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through social media strategies and management-level workshops. Want powerful brand development? Try my online 15-week coaching program.

Most business owners who have some understanding of branding already know this. But here is another reason you are not fully in control of your brand: it is also the product of your environment. You are part of a brand ecosystem.

Don’t believe me? Think about Japan. Are you old enough to remember when “Made in Japan” was not a good thing? And yes, I mean long before the Toyota fiasco. How about now? Japanese exports are perceived as premium products.

Wine, electronics, cars, clothing, the list goes on. How . . . → Read More: The Canadian Brand Ecosystem]]> Share/Bookmark

You don’t own your brand. Your customers do.

Most business owners who have some understanding of branding already know this. But here is another reason you are not fully in control of your brand: it is also the product of your environment. You are part of a brand ecosystem.

Don’t believe me? Think about Japan. Are you old enough to remember when “Made in Japan” was not a good thing? And yes, I mean long before the Toyota fiasco. How about now? Japanese exports are perceived as premium products.

Wine, electronics, cars, clothing, the list goes on. How many product brands get a huge boost by simply leveraging their country of origin? German engineering: that has a resonance even before you say BMW or Mercedes.

I’m Canadian. What does the Canadian brand add to my brand? How does where I live shape people’s perceptions of my brand before they have even met me?

A recent article by Canadian Business does a good job of spelling this out. As a Canadian business, here are some of the values you can add to your brand simply because of your postal code (yes, the one with letters in it!):

• Our banking system is remarkable. Who’d have thought Canadian banks would ever be sexy? But it’s true. When you do business internationally now, the relative strength of the Canadian banking system is something others remark on. That creates an opportunity for a Canadian brand to continue the conversation by underscoring the prudence and conservatism that gives typical Canadian businesses a lower risk profile. Typically we are not loud, we just get the job done.
• Reliable yes, dull no. The Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics demonstrated that not only can we put on a heck of a show, but we can score resoundingly when competition is at its fiercest. This tough-to-duplicate demonstration of understated but brilliant performance was a huge boost to the Canadian brand. In an International Brand Index, Canada went from 12th in 2006, to number 1 in 2010. The message for Canadian businesses to their partners? Don’t mistake reserve for passivity: we can be fiercely competitive. Canadians just let results speak for themselves.
• We are gracious hosts. The Olympics set the stage, but the cheque got signed when China granted Canada Approved Destination status. The combination of natural beauty, multiculturalism, and a live-and-let-live attitude (the same one that attracts Hollywood stars to our major cities because we don’t hound them to death) is irresistible. The message for business? We understand the value of relationships and of going the extra mile to understand our suppliers, customers, and even our competitors. We just get it.
• RIM, Cirque de Soleil, Four Seasons Hotels, McCain Foods. What do all of these brands have in common? Outside of Canada they are not generally known to be Canadian brands. While this may be a challenge from some perspectives, from others it carries an interesting message: we show up, we don’t bring baggage, we get the job done. The colonialist, nationalist, or imperialist baggage that some European, Asian, or American businesses sometimes have to distance themselves from, we are largely free of. The Canadian business message is one many brands covet: we solve problems and fulfill needs successfully because that is the only thing we are here to do. We have honed our product and service delivery chops in a multicultural environment and next to a competitive giant. We listen, we understand, and we get to work.

The biggest strengths that Canadian brands bring to the table are best described in another article: Stages of Cross Cultural Awareness from the Culture and Language Learning blog. In the article, the highest stage of cross-cultural awareness is described as being “aware of our own cultural filters and begin[ing] to adapt our perceptions and behaviors. Through repeated exposure to or education about other cultures, we develop a deeper understanding of a culture’s unique traits, values and norms. People in this stage can shift communication style and behaviors to effectively and appropriately interact with diverse cultures.” Or as Jeannette Hanna, branding expert, and co–author of Ikonica: A Field Guide to Canada’s Brandscape, says “That ability to ‘when in Rome, act like a Roman’ — that chameleon quality — is a huge advantage.”

Those abilities, to get the job done, to be quietly but fiercely competitive, and the ability to deeply understand our partners and customers to the point where we can shift and change with cultural expectations and norms, make Canadians the ultimate world business partners.

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? Do you have an international workforce? I help organizations improve communication through coaching, seminars, and workshops. Contact me here.

Great brands can also be evocative.

The word evocative comes from the Latin evocare, which means to call out. Calling out not in the sense of calling out loud, but in the sense of calling out to. Something that is evocative calls out to you.

A great brand should evoke an emotional . . . → Read More: The Evocative Brand]]> Share/Bookmark

Listening to Steve Reich’s composition Music for 18 Musicians the other day, I was struck by its power to consistently evoke a certain mood for me and how I sometimes seek those moods out. Most of us have pieces of music that consistently evoke an emotional response.

Great brands can also be evocative.

The word evocative comes from the Latin evocare, which means to call out. Calling out not in the sense of calling out loud, but in the sense of calling out to. Something that is evocative calls out to you.

A great brand should evoke an emotional response. Even in the most traditional marketing terms ‘a call to action’ that works is a key component of any promotional tactic. Great brands evoke action or at least the desire to act (affordability is often an issue here!) When I think about truly great brands they don’t have that clunky mechanical feel of driving me towards some purchase decision. They evoke an emotion. Like music you love heard faintly, they make you want to ‘turn it up’.

Personally evocative brands for me include the author and chef Anthony Bourdain, New York City, Audi, Baccarat crystal, Amarone wines, Omega watches, Apple, Lee Valley, Campagnolo… All of these brands call out some emotional response from me because I associate them with a positive memory, experience, or ideal.

Brands that evoke a response in us are not necessarily ‘best in class’, and in some cases not even particularly unique. But like music we love (like the haunting, melancholy, beautifully designed Music for 18 Musicians for me), they evoke an emotional response that we seek to experience.

Here is a short list of what defines an evocative brand for me:

• Time. Unfortunately there is no substitute for this one. Many of the brands that resonate most deeply have been around since our childhoods. The music analogy works here too. Watch the crowd at a big wedding reception. Nothing gets them to their feet like a tune from their collective childhoods. Forget the newest song that is getting millions of downloads on Itunes. Give us the old stuff.
• Premium placement. It’s pretty hard to evoke an emotional response to discount sales or ‘roll-backs’. Brands that sustain a premium placement evoke emotions of desire, nostalgia, comfort, and confidence. We believe we will feel better and even be better by associating with these brands. I am not saying this is a good thing. I agree with much of Naomi Klein’s critique of this in No Logo. But the power of these emotions is undeniable.
• Relentless consistency. There is no such thing as ‘sometimes evocative’. You either have it or you don’t. No one cares if you once had it. Relentless consistency is part of the DNA of an evocative brand. Automobile manufacturing is a sector where this is often tested. Read the stories of Audi or Toyota to see how tough the battle to ‘come back’ can be.
• Timelessness. This is a function of style & design. It describes that sweet spot that lies somewhere beyond fashionable, is never trendy, but also never dowdy, dated, or common. Whoever is piloting the brand cannot be tone-deaf. The brand has to change subtly with time but never lose its essence (consider what Chanel has done over the years). When you fail to do that you risk having to fight for your life the way brands like Burberry or Waterford Wedgewood are.

Here are six lessons any business can learn from those evocative brands:

1. Start it right. Set yourself up as the premium service or product provider in your market from the outset. If you have to use a penetration pricing strategy to get set up and put food on the table, get out of it as quickly as possible.
2. Aim higher. Set service and quality expectations consistent with the best in your market, and then exceed those expectations.
3. Pace yourself. Set modest but steady growth expectations. Every day will be a challenge as you try to deliver great service to your existing customers while also working to grow your business. Reasonable growth expectations will make that challenge easier.
4. Filter by price. You can pace yourself (#3) by limiting time spent on new business development, or by limiting the number of customers. One great way to do the latter is to simply charge more. This will focus growth on the segment that is consistent with your premium model. Done right it will also increase your profit margins and enable you to better take care of those premium customers (that premium pricing positive feedback loop is another article…)
5. Please the few. Just like music or food, what attracts one person to a brand will not attract another. While a few evocative brands are remarkably broad in their appeal, most focus on a very specific customer. Dr. Martens and Manolo Blahnik are both evocative shoe brands, but they are very different.
6. Build a team. Sustainable brilliance in business is almost impossible to do alone. Evocative brands are created when everyone involved plays to their strengths, doing only what they are remarkable at. You cannot lead, manage, operate, market, and deliver, all at premium levels, all by yourself. Remarkable brands are built by remarkable teams of all-stars.

I work with professionals, business owners, and key managers to build remarkable brands. To find out how I can help you align all the areas of your business to achieve that goal, contact me at clemens@clemensrettich.com

If your business disappeared tomorrow, would anybody miss you?

No one wants to close their doors. But let’s imagine the unthinkable: how would your customers respond if you had to close up shop?

I can think of two scenarios…

Scenario one: you disappear and no one notices… That would be a disaster, but what would it tell you? Maybe it tells you that whatever needs your service or product fulfilled, those needs could be fulfilled by someone else. What you had to offer in the end was just a commodity, and all commodities are replaceable.