Firebrand

The last post on Fido’s graphic rebranding reminded me of the importance of having your brand ideals and personailty traits come through your graphics, while still appealing to the target market you are trying to covet. In the marketing industry I here the term “branding” to mean the graphics of a brand; this is a mix up of the chicken and the egg. The brand is the people, energy, and collective personality of a company. The graphics are only a reflection of those.

Creating the graphics and communications of the brand to look like what you want to be, and not what you are looks disingenuous and awkward. ‘Lipstick on a pig’ is the trendy phrase that comes to mind. Customers can smell the dishonesty from a mile away, and their purchases will be transactional and not relationship based. We react to brands as we react to people because humans are hard wired for relationships. A company trying to be something else through it’s graphics is like that guy who puts on a suit once in a blue moon, and feels awkward the entire time. He just isn’t himself, and doesn’t get good reactions from people.

I don’t want to discourage companies from trying to reach to where they want to be through their graphics. Graphics are a great start, but are only the beginning and not the end. You have to make that shift from the grass roots up. Have the personality you are trying to create for your company as a strategic vision for your upper management. Hire people that fit that mold on all levels of the organization. Decorate your office space to reflect that personality. Have company activities and retreats around that personality. Make it well known; put it on the front of internal report covers and letter heads.

It is very measurable. Ask people that haven’t worked with your brand what their impressions of the personality is. Record the words they use and see what words come up multiple times. If those words are the words are what you want to be described as, then you have reached your goal.

Entrepreneurs have it alot easier. Make a document of how you want this company to look, feel and be percieved before you start. Companies like Virgin, Dyson and Apple have such a strong brand personality because they have the Richard Bransons, James Dysons, and Steve Jobs who know the meaning of brand. The make sure that personality penetrates every aspect of the company so the the people in the company don’t need to worry about staying on message: they are the message.

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an industrial designer that works with large brands everyday designing displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

A common mistake that brands make when growth starts to flatten they try to continue their innitial growth by expanding into other market segments with the same brand. Big mistake, you end up crowding out the customers that made you successful in the first place. You also loose the character that made your brand successful You don’t see Ferrarri making an entry level sub-compact.

In real terms, some customers cost more in service dollars than they generate in sales margin. This is the type of person who talks to the sales person forever before buying their 27″ TV. In the design consulting space we call these customer’s grinders; they will want that little bit extra out of you until you think you can give no more. This is why market share is not a good measure of success. Increasing your market share comes at the expense of attracting more low value and negative value customers. Personally you wouldn’t take a job that would be more work and responsibility and yet less pay, but our business’s do exactly that when they try to attract everyone under the sun. You should work to your capacity, but let someone else have the customers you can’t afford to have. Maybe with a different business model they will be able to make these customers profitable.

So how do you avoid the people that call the help line 5 times in the first week of owning their computer? How do not attract the client who revises the spec 3 times before cancelling their order?

Fire the grinders. While you cant deny anyone service, or not live up to your commitments, you can identify and cut off avenues and product offerings that art attracting low value and negative value customers. Approach this avenue with caution; the big three automakers lowered their investment in compact trucks years ago. Now the large trucks sales are suffering because of the lack of second time truck buyers upgrading their S-10s to Silverados.

Target market segments that you identify are valuable. With todays market intelligence technology, you should easily be able to identify what groups of your customers are  most profitable. If you are in a business to business industry than you already know which of your accounts are the most profitable. After you know who these people are, than you know where your first advertising dollars should be spent.

You serve the ones you want to retain. Charles Schwab awnser’s it’s best customers calls within 15 seconds, while other customers have to wait 10 – 15 minutes. Give your top tier of client another level of service. For example, air line’s frequent flyer’s clubs. When researching my university thesis industrial design, I was able to tour Air Canada’s Maple Leaf lounge which they offer to frequent flyers and first class passengers, two groups you bet they want to retain and expand.

Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of trying to over expand. I can appreciate that you need to grow, but grow by finding new ways to service your customers. They will be even more loyal.

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an industrial designer that works with large brands everyday designing displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

FireBrand is based on the principle of creating brands on fire. So what is a brand on fire? Simply put a brand on fire is a brand that goes over the tipping point where customers come to the brand. Note that is is a brief introduction, and every point will be expanded on in future posts.

A normal brand has to go to it’s customers through a marketing strategy. For business to business companies that means salespeople, and advertising for consumer companies. Both can be an extremely annoying interruption to the customer. Those marketing strategies jump from trend to trend, and are inconsistent. Purchase decisions are based on top of mind, and price. All the value propositions are extrinsic to the user: cost, value, features, buy in, switching costs, ect. The customer has no only a transactional or business relationship with the brand, with no emotional investment. They take nothing away from the relationship than the value of the purchase, and give even less back. They have no loyalty. The companies compete in a commodity market, and are subject to the cruel rules of supply and demand.

A brand on fire changes all of that. A brand on fire is a brand where the customers come to the brand. Advertising turns into communications: a two way street. Marketing dollars go further because customers seek out information about the product. The brand is consistent, and there is a common personality and a synergy between all the elements of the brand: product, graphics, copy, distribution channels, packaging, ect. Users of the product buy for intrinsic reasons; the buying decision is emotionally fulfilling and the there is less buyers remorse, and therefore returns. The customers are extremely loyal, because they belong to the brand’s community. The products from a brand on fire are not subject to supply and demand because customers will actually perceive higher value in the higher price. They will assume they are getting more than their money’s worth.

How does your brand become a brand on fire? The principles are simple, but the implementation is complex. The tactics are based on writins of thought leaders such as Seth Godin, Matthew Ragas, BJ Bueno, and David Aaker, and more. At its core, your brand must connect with every customer as a person would connect to another person, then you must create a culture around your brand.

I would love to see every brand become a brand on fire. Brands on fire benefit the world; they make people proud of purchases, and the brands connect like minded people throughout the world. A brand on fire’s products live longer and produce more value through its lifecycle because it is more often resold.

Set your brand on fire. What are you waiting for? Oh yeah: me to show you how. Tune back in or subscribe via RSS and I will try to give you the matches to get your fire started, but you have to provide the fuel.