In this excerpt from his book 'Creating Customer Connections: How to Make Customer Service a Profit Center For Your Company,' Jack Burke identifies the critical aspects of establishing a corporate culture and how any 'branding' initiative starts at this level.
'Branding' has been a buzzword for more than a decade. Yet no one, from experts to business owners, can seem to define it. I maintain that this stems from the basics of corporate culture. If you don't know who you are, how can you define it for others?
In Columbia there's an isolated, pre-Columbian civilization known as the Kogi. The Kogi are thinkers with a very complex and rich intellectual structure. They believe that the universe was first an intellectual life force, known as Aluna. Creation, in turn, was brought about through the thinking and imagination of Aluna. They define Aluna as memory and possibility. In other words, first came an idea, then the process of thinking through all the possibilities of that idea, and finally a plan.
Unfortunately, when it comes to marketing, actions come before thinking all too often. Perhaps were all to blame. After all, speed is the essence, action is king. Be pro-active. Beat the competition. A bad campaign is better than no campaign. Meet the deadline. The faster, the better.
The gurus of marketing expound on the hows and the whats. Heres how to market in the yellow pages, heres what to do to build your image. Seldom do we hear anyone delve into the definition of our image who we really are.
DEFINING YOUR CORPORATE CHARACTER
Our formative years are lessons in developing character. We learn from our parents, our teachers, and our churches. Many of us were involved in Scouting, where we first learned the attributes of character, and then proceeded to build that character through action. First we were taught the ideal, then we were given a plan.
Direct mail specialist Herschell Gordon Lewis talks about staying in character with your image. He often cites the example that the image of Albert Einstein doesnt project the slogan, 'Have I got a great deal for you!' One of the best examples of uncharacteristic marketing involved banks giving away gadgets for opening an account. In my mind, that created a carnival-like hucksterism that just didnt compute with the staid, conservative, stable image of banks. It was sort of like a used car dealer giving away tickets to the opera. Neither is in character with the image.
It would be easy at this point to say, 'So what is your image?' But how many businesses can really answer that question? How many corporate meetings have ever been held to determine the essence of the corporate image? Too few, in my opinion.
If you look closely at most businesses, marketing is a hodgepodge of good ideas with no cohesion with the character of the business: ad campaigns, promotional giveaways, community alliances, sporting sponsorships, telephone advertising, stationery, company logos, signage. How often do all of these components work together to reflect the corporate image?
THE 'RED' STOP SIGN
Defining your image need not be a dilemma. Just wave the RED flag: Research, Evaluate, Determine. Ive found the RED stop sign analogy extremely helpful in nearly every business, as well as personal, situation. Like a red light traffic signal, it reminds me to stop, Research the situation, Evaluate the data, and Determine a course of action.
Since Ive been known to jump into projects based on gut-level emotions, the RED stop sign has proven to be a tremendously valuable safeguard. Sometimes it can prevent ill-conceived actions; other times it can help mitigate the loss and sometimes even turn it around. Whatever the situation, we all need a RED stop sign at times.
RESEARCH
Heres a little test that anyone can undertake. Ask each of your employees, including yourself, to define the image of your company anonymously. Id suggest a format of one or two sentences, followed by five or six descriptive words. For instance, an employee of an insurance agency might reply:
'Our company has an image of stable reliability. Words that apply to our company are: friendly, experienced, stable, security, reliability.'
Compile all the replies, except yours. List any of the descriptive words that are found more than once and create a list from the most frequently used word to the least. Group the descriptive sentences that seem to be similar, again from the most common to the least.
Now compare this list with yours. If you have better than a 50% match, congratulations, you have the essentials of a defined image. On the other hand, if the comparison looks like two different entities, you need to work on defining your corporate persona.
If youre brave, repeat this project with 10 of your best clients. I mention bravery because it takes courage to face the truth. In many cases, your clients will have a totally different image. Somewhere in the middle lies your true image, which you must reconcile with your marketing program.
EVALUATE
Armed with the data from your survey and the components of your current marketing program, its time for some serious evaluation.
A mission statement is the perfect starting point. If you have one, how does it relate to the results of your survey? If you dont have one, go back to the basics of developing a mission statement before proceeding further. A mission statement (what your business plans to accomplish) and the definition of your corporate image arent identical, but they must work together. The main question is whether your corporate image dovetails with accomplishing the mission.
If your mission statement centers on providing quality service, but your image conveys high volume at the lowest cost, you might need to address this dichotomy. If your mission is long-term stability, but your marketing emphasis and direction changes constantly you get the idea. The two must be compatible.
Its time to evaluate your overall marketing components. Dont start with your latest advertising campaign. Save that for last. Begin at the beginning, as if you were a start-up business.
Take my company, Sound Marketing, as an example. We chose our name to represent audio productions used in marketing, training, and education. Sound as a noun reflected the audio aspect; as an adjective it meant healthy, reliable, good. Since education and training can be construed as both internal and external marketing, we decided on Sound Marketing as a name that reflected both our image and our mission.
We wanted a logo that reflected our commitment to corporate structure, with a sense of artistic freedom. We selected an award-winning designer of music album covers, rather than a traditional graphic artist. This artist designed an 'S' logo that intimated perpetual motion and creativity, coupled with a conventional block-style print. The result: a logo that reinforces our image visually. Weve made only one change over the years: from a bit-too-conservative gray to a more vibrant blue.
This story reinforces the need to start your evaluation process with the basics: your logo, your print style, your signage, your office decor. Do they reflect the real corporate you? From there, evaluate your brochures, newsletters, flyers, direct mail pieces, yellow page ads, and finally your print and media advertising. At each point, visualize your corporate image and ask if it fits with that image. You might be surprised at how frequently your image diverges from your marketing.
Review your operational mannerisms, from the value added benefits you supply your clients, to the operator answering the phone and your sales approach. If your image is that of a friend to your clients, how frequently do you contact them? A friend would occasionally stop by to visit. Do you make 'Howdy' calls or visits?
Do you convey an image of organization and efficiency, but have sales personnel who have to sit on their briefcases to close them? Do you portray yourself as a caring, service-oriented firm, but have a receptionist with a tendency toward moody brusqueness? Do you market 'full-service,' but fail to maintain convenient hours? Do you position your firm as an advisor to the leaders of business, but fail to belong to the Rotary or other organization where such leaders congregate?
DETERMINE
With your research and evaluation complete, its time to make a determination. Easier said than done. If youre lucky, you might only need some fine tuning to your image or marketing. More often than not, youll find vast disparity. What do you do?
I typically recommend sticking to your image and changing your marketing. However, theres an exception (as always). Refer to the results of the survey of your 10 best clients. Does their image of you coincide with yours? If it doesnt, you might consider changing your image. Remember that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. Their image of you leads them to do business with you. In other words, it works. Since these are your preferred clients, you might want to adapt your image to meet theirs.
Once youve locked down the image, go down the marketing list to identify differences. Rate each item 1-10 (one being the least important, 10 being the most). Starting with the 10s and working down, discuss and decide what changes you can make to bring the marketing in line with the image.
The Determination section defines your actions: what you must do, whos responsible for doing it, and when itll be accomplished. Now youre on track to market your organization effectively because your marketing will represent, polish, and build the image youre trying to maintain.
A PROCESS, NOT A PROJECT
Everything weve discussed is an ongoing process, not a one-time project. Depending on the circumstances of your organization, compare your marketing with your image periodically. Never go beyond a year without a full review.