Brand Your Promises

When you run a business, you are bound to make some form of promises to your (potential) customers. Whether you offer a rebate, better service, or a particular product, if you make a statement you owe it to your brand to stick to it. Even if it costs you a little extra money to keep these promises, it will pay off in the form of long term customers.

Recently, I’ve run into a problem in this area with a major phone provider. I contacted their business services department because I was interested in switching providers. The company I am switching to is rumored to be the best of all wireless-evils available in Canada, and being thoroughly fed up with the level of service I’ve been exposed to for the past four years, I decided it was time for a change.

Business services started out promising. I enjoyed speaking to the same rep every time I called in, and I had the option of emailing this individual as well. I felt there was some accountability and was thrilled about having some offers in writing. I preferred this option over dealing with conventional customer service, where every time you call offers and promises are changed depending on the knowledge or whim of the rep on the phone. Besides, regular customer service likely has most of their call center in Bangalore anyways. You can say what you like about outsourcing, but it does not take away my opinion that certain services do suffer dramatically when you expose part of a business to substandard language skills, and enormous cultural differences.

To make a long story short, my initial contact with my new wireless provider amounted to a spontaneous $100 rebate offer for switching, and a few other perks. No expiry date was mentioned in the email offering this. However, when I was ready to go ahead and purchase a $400 phone, as well as commit to a three year plan, the $100 rebate was suddenly no longer available. Allegedly, there was some mystical expiry date to the offer, which was never mentioned. Instead of fighting the issue, I decided to first call conventional customer service. After two failed attempts, where someone claimed a voice plan I wanted is not available, I finally spoke to someone within North America, who was competent enough to honor the $100 rebate after all. Of course I had to close the deal before it would be gone again by the next time I’d call.

How Service Reflects on Your Brand

What does this story tell you about this company’s brand? The start was promising, but then the business services rep started to crawl back on her initial offers, in a rather rude way too, I was less than impressed. Even if there would have been an expiry date, the fact she forgot to mention it means the company should take responsibility for the promise. Simply saying to a potential customer that she ‘lost a great opportunity already’ is not the most productive statement to reign in another three-year contract.

Although you may think customer service is not part of your brand, it actually should be. Consistency, keeping promises and maintaining great service reflects on your brand. In this case, I was dealing with Canada’s “most reliable network”. Take a guess at how reliable I still think this company is..

I recently ran into a wall of disbelief when I announced to be developing a new business. Friends know me as a writer and communications/marketing strategist, so this new idea came as a shock. To me it was interesting to see that I had branded myself sufficiently well to cause this reaction. People have associated me with pen and paper for years, and I will probably (thankfully) never shake that “brand image”. However, it does open a new area of potential problems: how does one market a new business while operating under an existing label?

So far, all I can say is “start fresh”. Provided your new business has nothing to do with the old. If the two are grossly unrelated, you will likely not be able to use your existing reputation to attract clients for your newest venture. This puts you at square one anyways, and associating one company with the other will only cause confusion.

Another issue I already eluded to is the possible loss of credibility with existing clients. They sometimes assume that because you are taking on a “side job”, your current business is not doing too well, i.e. you may not really be as “good as you seem”. While your entrepreneurial spirit and energy should be applauded, we are as a society accustomed to assume the worst when people take on extra work. On the flip side, you may be considered so good at designing t-shirts that nobody can believe you are actually capable of doing anything else. Starting a restaurant may not appear as logical to your clients as it does to you.

My opinion, as a marketing strategist, is to determine which company relies most on you personally for its brand recognition. For example; my copy writing/marketing practice heavily relies on my name and personal reputation. Luckily, because my new venture is in the retail industry, I can build a new brand for it and do not need to rely on the existing one.

Now, to satisfy some of your curiosity and throw in another branding lesson; what am I selling? I am selling products that satisfy an environmentally conscious life style, to consumers who value 100% hand-made items, from 100% natural materials…
And who doesn’t want to save the planet these days?

I am still working on the launch, but once it is up and running I will keep you posted on my branding progress!

Until next time,

Christine

www.ChristineBuske.com

Any elephant in its niche (think AT&T, Compaq, Quiznos, etc) will also hire the Rolls Royce of marketing agencies. In other words, the agency with 500 employees where representatives, not teams, from each company meet and discuss the project at hand.

What is the problem? You may, or may not, ask. The problem is that, as a business, you have no control or grip over the attention your project is getting, or who is working on it. You will not even know if a monkey is taking care of the creative design. Although most agencies employ good writers, it is not uncommon for a project to be edited by non-editors or pass by an account manager who “revamps” the logo design.

The point I am trying to make is simple:

When marketing and branding, you have to make sure you know what is going on. This is where the small business owner has an advantage over the large conglomerate. Small businesses cannot afford Rolls Royce, whether real or in the marketing world. This automatically forces you to consider hiring individual professionals or small agencies that charge close to the industry minimums.

Like Kevin Levi commented in his article on awe publicity, large companies may have hired the “best” marketing firm, but not the one that has given the project the most amount of thought. Just because something cost a lot of money to produce, does not mean it is any good. Yes, we need to keep those people who do amazing GC work employed, but I prefer to keep them working more in movies than in advertising. I also agree consumers have become more sophisticated, and perhaps do need to be “awed” in order for them to remember the ad. But like Kevin said, it does not mean they will remember the product, or even know why they should buy brand X instead of brand Y.

When you go out to get your marketing and advertising taken care of, don’t be sad when you cannot afford to hire the big guns. Make sure you hire someone who knows what he/she is doing, charges according to industry standards and can guarantee you the writer, designer or creative director is not a monkey.

While I am advocating hiring freelancers and small advertising agencies here, keep in mind that while “you get what you pay for” does not always hold at the high end of the price scale, it is more often true for the low end. Anyone charging less than market value is likely going to deliver the same.

Cheers!
Christine Buske

Copywriting & Advertising
www.ChristineBuske.com

Elevator pitches are not just for individuals employed by large companies who have to come up with a useful thing to say when riding the elevator with a CEO. It is imperative that you come up with something significant to say, to anyone! You never know who would be a next client or customer, and it all depends on how you say it.

This became blatantly clear when I attended a large convention last week. It was the second year I went, and while last year I was not fully convinced yet of what I could do for these people, this year I had a perfect pitch in mind.

I’ll actually tell you what I said, and how I could have said it if I wanted a 0% response:

I’m, surprise surprise, a copywriter. Simply saying “I’m a writer”, or even “I’m a copywriter” would not turn too many heads. Trust me, I experimented with this approach just to see what would happen. Some people would look disappointed, because I was neither an investor, nor a potential employee, nor a potential client. Only some would ask “what do you do then?” giving me the chance to elaborate.

Although I am a copywriter, that is not what I do for my clients. I don’t just write copy: I create results. I develop successful marketing strategies, cut back on marketing expenses and improve their business.

What did evoke a response, and is essentially the exact same thing was the following “elevator pitch” using the knowledge of what I do, instead of what I am:

“I am in the business of increasing a company’s ROI on their current marketing strategy, and help companies identify which strategy is best suited for them so they can achieve better results on a lower investment.”

This little line took about five seconds to spit out, and the interest it created was phenomenal. What company does not want to increase their return on investment?

This brings me to the promised article on tag lines: Tag lines/slogans (from now onwards I’ll call it tag line) are like short elevator pitches. They have to be well crafted to create a response, otherwise it’s best to just not say anything at all.

The ingredients for a successful tag line are:

• Be relevant
• Be memorable
• Add value to your brand

All are easier said than done: a cliche is memorable, but not the route you want to take. Especially because cliches also tend not to be relevant. Above all, a tag line has to add value, i.e. it has to say something about your product or business.
As an example, I saw a very good one walking down the street today:

“Software for safer health care”

The company/brand was called “solutions” and I have never heard of them before. However, with recent patient data going missing in some hospitals in the area and a general concern for data safety I would definitely give them a call if I were to be in that field.

Another great tag line is for a church called “the meeting house”. It is frequented mainly by a younger crowd, and they work hard at differentiating themselves from a traditional church. Their tag line is:

“a church for people who aren’t into church”.

Both tag lines say everything you will need to know about their business in a few words. They are also sticky (I remembered both several hours later), and relevant.

Now, how would you build your own successful tag line?

The lazy strategy is to get a professional. If you are determined to do it yourself, try the following strategy:

Try to write down the benefit of your product/service for your clients. If there is more than one, write down as many as you can think of and try to summarize it the best you can.

What is the main benefit of your service/product?
For example: if you provide financial consulting services, your clients may benefit by having more disposable income due to your knowledge of tax laws or investment strategies.

How will clients gain, and in what area, from your business?

Will they be richer? Happier? Better looking? You can’t be everything to everyone, so find your niche and figure out exactly what you are offering your clients. Designers and people in the furniture industry may consider that they are making their clients house into their home, a place of refuge from everyday life. A dentist may make his clients smile more, and a financial planner may help you be more efficient with your spending.

Correctly identifying what it exactly is you do, is half the battle.

Now, start writing down all words that somehow relate to your business or product. A really good writer will be able to create a tag line with terms that have seemingly nothing to do with your business, but create a fantastic response because of their unexpected relevance and creativity. However, if this is not what you do for a living, don’t break your pen over it.

Once you have the relevant terms and actual benefits down on paper, you can start creating combinations of the two. Create as many as you can, read them out loud to yourself and friends and then decide which one seems to have what it takes.

Every business is unique, and as a result there is no set “rule book” to creating a winning tag line or marketing strategy. Careful analysis of your business and what sets you apart from your competitors will however put you on the right track to developing tag lines and marketing content that is relevant and effective.

Christine Buske

I’d like to take this opportunity and point out a few of this site’s benefits I’ve noticed when looking at their services. Here is my review of SiteProPlus:

When loading the website it looks like yet another hosting company offering web design services. However, after a second or so it is impossible to miss the “free design” promise on the home page. SiteProPlus offers to design your site for free, without any obligation to the client. This means that you do not actually have to host the site with them if you change your mind after seeing the site. I can see this solution being beneficial for busy professionals who need a presence of the Internet and want a well designed site without any hassle.

Of course SiteProPlus recoups its design costs through the hosting plans, which no doubt many of the people who receive a free site design will chose to go with. The plans are relatively competitive, given the services they offer.

On the SiteProPlus website you can also browse through sample websites they have already designed for their customers. Although the sites look professional and the diversity in designs is encouraging, I have to admit that with a little time and effort most people will be able to accomplish similar results with content management software or by purchasing a site template from one of the many template retailers online.

The whole idea of course is that SiteProPlus clients are people who either do not feel confident doing it themselves, or don’t have the time for it. While a specialized design company will likely be able to give you a more sophisticated site, the dramatically higher cost associated with that will make a free custom design from SiteProPlus a very attractive alternative. This is especially the case if you are busy, designing websites is not your hobby and you also need a good hosting plan. The only catch? SiteProPlus is based on a content management system, so moving your site from their hosting service to another is not easy. Basically you can count on having to host your site with them, and give up the design if you decide to move.

It’s a nice strategy for targeting entry level clients who like the idea of a free design and will likely default to the hosting service as well, making it a profitable initiative for SiteProPlus too. Whether that’s a sustainable model in the hyper-competitive web design and hosting industry is hard to say.

Most small business owners have a habit of doing everything themselves, even though that is not really a good idea. Most successful people will say the same thing I am about to say: focus on what you are good at, and have someone else do the tasks you are less than talented in. If designing your website does not float your boat, then spend those hours actually doing business, and let a company such as SiteProPlus take on the rest.

Christine Buske

While Danielle already clearly showed the benefits of a catchy tagline, I’d like to draw your attention to slogans-gone-bad. I’m not even mentioning the offensive ones that draw bad press and publicly back-fire, but I am talking about the slogan that may even seem good, but is not bringing you the business and name recognition it could.

Does it Stick?

If you already have a slogan/tagline or you are working on one, write it down on a white piece of paper. Don’t use letterhead or anything that can identify your company. Then look at it and write down (on the back side) what types of services or businesses this slogan can be used for.

To illustrate this exercise, consider the following line:
“Your Health is Our Business”

I can think of hundreds of businesses that could be printing this line on their product, such as spa’s, sauna’s, whirlpool companies, supplement manufacturers, doctors, hospitals, and even gyms. These are really just a few examples, because you could even imagine seeing this line on back massagers and any other product you put on or in your body that is not blatantly harmful. Note that I am not actually aware of any companies using this line, I just made it up and I am not aware of any trademarks related to it.

To make this exercise more powerful, ask your family and friends to comment on the types of businesses and products they think of when seeing your slogan and expand on the list you started.

The tagline I mentioned is not horrible, it could even be considered a little catchy. The problem with it is that it is not sticky: it doesn’t associate itself perfectly with one product line or a feeling your product should elicit with the customer.

A classic example of a targeted slogan is “have a break, have a KitKat”. Who doesn’t immediately recognize it? It also attaches the KitKat to a positive feeling: having a break.

The Roads Down Slogan-Ville

A great tagline can make a product more valuable, and more relevant. In other words: strengthen your brand and boost brand recognition. Now, although I may have given you the idea that a successful slogan has to include your product name, or any other identifier that makes it relate only to your product line, this is not 100% true. The lines of what does and does not work are a bit fuzzy, and while the more specific your slogan relates to your product or service, a line that does not include your name but somehow elicits a positive feeling (psychological effect) on your customers is just as profitable.

For example: “when you care enough to send the very best”. This is a line you will recognize from the Hallmark product line, and while it does not specify the brand name, it does communicate the brand: quality. Hallmark does not offer greeting cards, it offers quality greeting cards for people with good taste, and the tagline perfectly fits that brand image.

Strong slogans can thus be categorized in two general groups:

• The ones that “stick” exclusively to one product or brand, like “Great Art in Eden Park”, the tagline for the Cincinnati Art Museum.
• The second group includes lines that do not directly identify the product, but identify the feeling you get from that product, like “I’m lovin’ it”, which is of course the McDonalds tagline. Whether or not you love it is up to debate, but the line does create a very nice and fuzzy feeling.

Now, there is some bad news with the slogans that elicit a feeling or emotional response: they tend to work best when the business name itself is already very well known. It is not surprising that companies like Hallmark and McDonalds use these emotional pulls to draw in customers. They can also work for smaller businesses who have less brand recognition, but a catchy line that incorporates your name or product somehow does tend to “stick” better with potential customers who do not already know you. KitKat actually brings the best of both worlds together: it includes the brand name, and tries to associate it with a positive feeling.

The type of slogan appropriate for your business depends a bit on your products, brand, business type and marketing campaign. I would suggest different lines to a contractor who plans to print the line on all their trucks that I would suggest to an interior designer who just plans to use business cards and flyers as a marketing tool.

I will discuss developing an effective slogan in more detail in one of my next articles!

When I was a little girl my teacher told my mother I should never go to University, I had misspelled the word “table”. Fact is, I misspelled this word once only, and it happened in Holland when I was eleven years old. I never misspelled it again, moved to North America years later and became a writer. I’d call it ironic that I’ve done exactly everything everyone has told me I couldn’t, or shouldn’t. Thankfully I never listened to bad advice, I finished University, made writing part of my career and approached life from a different angle.

I have a point with this little tid-bit of personal history: you were likely told you couldn’t do something and proved those people wrong yourself. Perhaps you started that business people told you to forget about, or you changed careers. Whatever it is, it worked out for the better right?

People are not out to give you bad advice, but people are afraid of change, they are weary of individuals who march against the stream, who do something outrageous and wonderful. Yet, it is the outrageous who go places. Take Google for example; I’m sure the guys behind it got their fair share of disapproval.

The iPod is another great example of this concept. Having said that though, would the iPod be (almost) as widely used as TVs without great marketing? Nope… definitely not. So what does make one product stand out more than another?

Simple: Words.

I’m a writer, and that makes me biased. Nevertheless, I have seen what a good overhaul of a marketing campaign can do for a company, and how much of that relies on reworking the existing copy. Especially if your marketing budget is on a diet, you can set yourself (and your product!) apart by being verbally savvy. You could literally publish plain white brochures with a laser printer and still be successful, provided you are smart with your word-choice.

Just remember though, just because most people can spell, does not mean they can write! If you are taking on the marketing challenge alone, make sure you read up on a few copy writing techniques before you jump in.

As of today, I am the latest addition to the Small Business Branding writing team, and I am looking forward to helping you improve your marketing strategies and empower your advertising copy!