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Cognitive Marketing - Bulletproof your Brand PromiseWednesday 30th April 2008 We have already established that the Cognitive dimension is the dominant zone which the financial decision maker inhabits. Consequently, we as financial marketers need to appeal to the needs of the 'thinker', re-enforcing the brand promise with proof points or 'reasons to believe', that are grounded in fact to substantiate our claims. It is vital that these proof points are validated and I would like to use one of Strand Financial's clients, Vision Critical, to illustrate my point.
In the recently published Business Money Annual Review 2007, Editor Bob Lefroy comments: "It was a master stroke (Close Invoice Finance) being first to the party with the revolutionary IDeal discounting product, one that makes use of Vision Critical's real time reconciliation systems. It allows greater exposure levels with much lower administration costs making the product a ferocious competitor in term of flexibility, cost and service.
The figures reflect this. Factoring business is down overall but just look at the discounting numbers with sales and advances up 31% and client numbers up 25%. Average loan size is up 5%, operational efficiency measured by the client/officer ratio has improved 50% since 2002."
This contained a wide range of proof points. Within the space of a few paragraphs, we learn that:
1. Vision Critical works with BLUE-CHIP CLIENTS, such as Close Invoice Finance.
2. The level of third-party ENDORSEMENT is two-fold, that of the respected editor of the leading industry trade magazine and that of the CEO of Close Invoice Finance.
3. The Ideal product was FIRST to market with Vision Critical's innovative technology.
4. An aggressive MARKET LEADERSHIP position established by messaging such as 'master stroke', 'first to the party' and 'ferocious competitor'.
5. The client demonstrates SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE, as evidenced by the 'revolutionary' product reference (n.b. this approach can also be applied to patents, unique processes, industry secrets and guarantees).
6. The entire proposition is supported by HARD FACTS, unequivocal evidence of customer advantage - 'sales and advances up 31%', 'client numbers up 25%', 'Average loan size is up 5%', 'operational efficiency measured by the client/officer ratio has improved 50%.'
7. There has been sustainable improvement demonstrated by BEFORE AND AFTER COMPARISONS - 'improved 50% since 2002'.
Create Your Own Space is about making bold, unique promises that truly matter to people. Think about bulletproofing your brand with powerful proof points.
The Natural OrderTuesday 29th April 2008 The order of Space-States is defined by the degree of involvement required in order to make a purchasing decision. Financial markets tend to work with high-involvement decision-making that supports the 'natural' order of Cognitive (Thinking), Connective (Feeling) and Conative (Doing) dimensions. Generally, the prospective client will be seeking assurance about the finance provider and the product in order to feel the level of trust to complete a purchasing decision. In the first instance, The purchaser is driven by the need to gather information (Cognitive State), so they can feel assured (Connective State), before they are comfortable to complete (Conative State) the transaction. This is applied to complex, high-risk, infrequent transactions characterised by decisions for acquiring financial services products. The fashion industry operates in a similar dimension, yet with the dominant emotional bias, the order and emphasis changes to create a Connective - Cognitive - Conative decision-making pathway. Low-purchasing decisions for may be Conative - Cognitive - Connective in the case of daily purchases of staple consumer goods or Conative - Connective - Cognitive in the case of an impulse purchase. Space-StatesMonday 28th April 2008 The ways in which financial customers respond to marketing communications has been subjected to rigorous scrutiny and refined over decades. As early as 1923, Daniel Starch, said that to be effective: "an advertisement must be seen, read, believed, remembered and acted upon" E.K. Strong espoused the AIDA principle: "attention, interest, desire, action." Lavidge and Steiner produced the Hierarchy of Effects in 1961: "awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, action" and, in the same year, Russell Colley launched his theory of "unawareness, awareness, comprehension, conviction, action". Of these, I find it surprising that marketers still talk about the AIDA principle, as if it is cast in stone. It is, in contemporary terms, a very simplistic model. Cognitive (Thinking) Connective (Feeling) Conative (Doing) All-Asset Finance ConferenceFriday 25th April 2008 I am greatly looking forward to addressing The Fifth Business Money All-Asset Finance Conference at the CBI Conference Centre next Tuesday. It is perhaps ironic that the audience have unrivalled experience at handling a multiplicity of assets and that our business at Strand Financial is concerned with just one - and an intangible one at that! However, I take comfort from this quote from John Stewart, former CEO of Quaker, who once famously remarked, "If this business were split up, I would give you the land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and trademarks, and I would fare better than you."
In fact, there are clear similarities between the management of brands and Asset Based Lending. The key is to understand the underlying sources of value intimately and manage them closely like any asset. The key factor for success for individual brands within this sector is connected directly with the ability to differentiate at every level. The SPACE Model - Strategy, Positioning, Architecture, Communications and Engagement - shows the way in which brands in this sector can achieve this distinctive approach. I look forward to sharing some 'Brands New Thinking' with this expert audience consisting of leading CEOs and company directors.
Getting EmotionalThursday 24th April 2008 Trust is a word used a great deal in financial services. Like reputation, trust is something that is hard earned and easily lost. Building trust is an essential part of feeling an emotional connection with a brand and this comes from positive shared experiences with the brand over time. The 4Rs show how heartshare can be won: Remarkable - The brand is unique, making an intense impact on the client Reputational - The brand is in some way admirable and the association builds customer esteem Relevant - The brand stands for something important and pertinent in the eyes of the customer - providing a solution to a problem or creating an opportunity Real - The brand connects with the customer on multiple levels across several senses Mindshare is accomplished through defining a shared core brand essence and relevant Unique Value Propositions. Heartshare can only be achieved when the values and beliefs that support that brand promise
permeate the company at every level from hiring criteria, training to organisational culture. Ultimately, values cannot be imposed; they have to be inherent within the business. Purpose cannot be manufactured; it must be felt like a cause. And if that sounds hard, so it should. Because it is.
Great ReceptionWednesday 23rd April 2008 Writing about the receptionist story yesterday really got me thinking. Why is it that some financial institutions, who claim to be customer-centric, continue to have the most junior, most poorly trained, lowest paid employee on reception? Or, worse still, a poorly briefed temp? What would happen to the client experience if the whole corporate structure was turned on its head and you had one of your most senior, highest paid employees to fulfil the role of 'First Impressions Director'? Someone who lives and breathes the Core Essence of the brand, who makes an accomplished Elevator Pitch, who knows the Unique Value Propositions of the business.
Sounds ridiculous? This extreme move would make more than a statement. Something along the lines that "If that's reception, what's the rest of the business like?" Maybe those firms would outperform their competitors by a significant margin by winning and retaining more clients through offering a superior service at the first, most significant and highest traffic customer touchpoint they have. Maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to allow you to create your own space in a way that deepens the customer experience and is highly viral.
BR - Brand RealisationTuesday 22nd April 2008 I was talking with a PR hack last week, who reminded me of what must amount to the most audacious pitch of all time. So the story goes, an advertising agency was invited to pitch for the British Rail account, as it had just come up for tender. The incumbent agency was expected to win and the agency quoted here was something of a 'wildcard' inclusion. When the BR team arrived at the agency, they did not receive the customary polite greeting. Instead, they were were met by a disinterested receptionist sitting at her desk, filing her nails and smoking a cigarette. She then made the entire executive team wait until she had finished reading the newspaper, before pointing them dismissively in the direction of a waiting room that was full of dirty cups and rubbish. The tea provided was undrinkable.
As legend has it, they were made to wait for at least twenty minutes and just as they got up to leave, the ad agency MD came in bold as brass and said: “This is how your customers perceive British Rail's service. We intend to change that for you.” They then opened the doors of the boardroom to reveal their vision of the future of BR. The agency was hired immediately and started work that week.
Once again, the unreasonable, disruptive and bold move won the day. Some might call it high risk, the biggest risk would have been to play it safe!
The Unreasonable ManMonday 21st April 2008 I thought that I would start the week with a rallying cry.
I read a quote this week by George Bernard Shaw which said: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man."
It follows that the only progressive business strategy is to 'Create Your Own Space'. It's time to start being unreasonable!
Re-inventing Banking BrandsFriday 18th April 2008 Today, banks and their agencies are most intent on communicating stability. In the current climate, you actually have to engineer two vectors - one of stability and one of change - simultaneously.
Madonna was a classic example. She engineered transformations. She was hot on trends as they were just breaking and brought them to the masses. If she stayed the same, people would move on.
Banks can't simply stabilise as an endgame or else they'll disappear. Banks that effect change are the only ones that really get noticed in the marketplace. Much in the same way, Madonna does not ask her fans what she should do next; she has an idea and implements it. And then, when her fans have caught up with her, she invents again - without their help.
Brand re-invention is a vital part of what we do for clients and brand repositioning of your brand is necessary when one or more of the following conditions exist: A) Its meaning has become cloudy or confused Assured Branding SuccessThursday 17th April 2008 Emotional connection to insurance brands is extremely low, according to a study by Interbrand: "Less than one in five consumers say that their insurance brand has never disappointed them. (The top brand on this measure disappointed two thirds of its customers at some time. All brands below the top eight on this measure disappointed over 90% of their customers.)" With the introduction of comparison sites such as GoComapare.com and Confused.com, price is inevitably becoming heightened as the major point of difference in the insurance industry. The winners in this market are those that create their own space through strong brand differentiation. They will achieve this: Living with Tombstones!Wednesday 16th April 2008 Spike Milligan has on his "I Told You I was Ill". I'm talking of course about tombstones, which will probably be the death of creative directors everywhere. So-called because of its black border and heavy black print, the tombstone ad provides "bare bones" information about a deal. Frequently placed by investment bankers in a public offering of a security, it gives basic details about the issue and, in order of importance, the underwriting groups involved in the deal. Other industries, including our own asset based lending industry, have long adopted this form of notice to inform intermediaries of the types of deal that they have completed. The trouble with tombstones is that they quite literally kill creativity. With rising media costs, our challenge as a financial marketing agency must be to resist the standard tombstone ad style to maximise the value and impact of the space - instead, bringing a strongly differentiated personality to each ad that reflects the brand essence and the creativity that made the deals possible in the first place. Now, promoting ABL in such a vibrant and creative way would be an epitaph to the overdraft! Life's A PitchMonday 14th April 2008 Being unique in the marketplace is THE imperative financial marketing strategy for today. Uniqueness is effectively the make-or-break virtue in this era of hypercompetition. You're in an lift. The CEO of your hottest prospect is also in the lift and recognises you. He says, "I'm curious, tell me what you do again? You're at a networking event. You just happen to run into a prospect in an industry you know well. "Great to meet you. I've seen you at these events before but haven't got round to speaking to you. Tell me some more about yourself!" Why is it that so many senior financial executives struggle when they are are asked to say what they do in typical situations such as those described above? After all, they are experts in their field of business, yet they clam up or say something that simply is not going to be differentiated enough to be memorable. The only way to avoid those missed opportunities is to have a carefully crafted 30 second elevator pitch ready and waiting.
Imagine that what you are doing is like writing a trailer for a movie blockbuster - it has to grab your attention and make you excited enough to want to learn more. Here is one very famous example of the elevator pitch trailer:
"Space, the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds... to seek out new life... and new civilizations... To boldly go where no man has gone before!" On a more serious note, I have developed a PowerPitch, based on the 4Rs. Answer the following questions and you are well on the way to creating a memorable and compelling elevator pitch that will set you apart from the crowd and win you more and better business. It answers four basic questions, and it invites the listener to say, "Tell me more."
Question 1: What does your company do that's different to your competitors? (Remarkable) Question 2: Who does your company do it for? (Reputational) Question 3: What problem do I solve? (Relevant) Question 4: Why do they care? Or, What's in it for them? (Real) "Only [brand] delivers [Q1] to the [target] market, working with companies such as [Q2] to [Q3], which enables them to [Q4]." It's far more than a mission statement, it's understanding your business in a way that gets people excited, involved, and thinking. Apply the template above to your business, adapt it for your needs. You'll be amazed at the positive results. Don't Research, ProsearchFriday 11th April 2008 Market research needs to abandon its pretensions that the consumer has predictive powers as a guide to the future. Experienced researchers recognise that many consumers can be future-blind and apathetic until stimulated into taking action and being shown new space. However, this trend is being challenged in terms of Internet use where the consumer is making free choice, driving market space in networking and community environments. Using the 'brand-past' as a guide to future action may help the consumer recognise our advertising in a tracking study, but the findings will only condemn us to merely repeat the past. Market research may re-enforce what we already know, it may even give us Œcolour¹ in terms of consumer attitudes and perceptions but it won¹t shift markets. Only the adoption of new thinking can do that. So far the financial services industry has been unable to tap into the trends with sufficient impact or thought velocity. When the future was an extension of the present, it was reasonable to assume that what worked today would also work next year. That assumption must now be cast aside. During times of change, it can almost be guaranteed that what used to work well in the past will not work at all next time around. The old approaches are at best simply too incremental. Research and analysis will tell you only what has been; at best what is. It cannot predict the future, nor will it help you to see today what you can be tomorrow. To create the future, you have to engage with possibility. To this end, a new kind of research 'Prosearch' is a vital step in helping you Create Your Own Space. Because to Create Your Own Space, there must be a view as to how customer needs will change (insight), what the new opportunities may be (imagination), what these opportunities could look and feel like (illumination) and how the organisation should adapt to realise them (implementation). Private Equity Needs Brand EquityThursday 10th April 2008 Private Equity has been on the sharp end of some pretty hard hitting press of late. The trouble is that it starts to hurt after a while. Taunts of secrecy, the perennial fat cat arguments and a high profile tax row haven't helped the cause. Unfortunately, the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association have faced a hard time too, with a very public walk out by Peter Linthwaite following criticism by MPs, Unions and members. The problem that the industry faces is, to an extent, of its own making. Instead of focusing strategically on things that it can control, such as having an incredibly positive effect on the economy, the industry has taken a tactical defensive stance. City AM featured an article saying, 'We've nothing to hide' and classic quotes in the national media such as 'To suggest we are asset strippers is ludicrous' and 'we are not about destroying value', implies the exact opposite. Industry-level PR is not cutting it and there is consequently an incredible opportunity for an individual brand that's brave enough to grasp the nettle. The brand that is first to stress Corporate Social Responsibility, Transparency and Job Creation is THE brand that will create its own space. Dialogue Email - A Two Way StreetTuesday 08th April 2008 Even HTML marketing emails from legitimate companies are feeling more and more like spam. I now only read emails from companies I already do business with. It's not that these emails are not creative or have poor content, the reality is that I do not have time to read each and every one. I am not alone. Those who thrive in this economic climate need to stop pushing messages at customers and work at building their core essence to create unique value propositions; engaging with them through multiple channels, integrating their brand into customer's daily operations and gaining peer to peer referral. Here are some suggestions to get your emails read: A) Conduct an online survey on your web site to identify what specific individuals are interested in and to stimulate business conversations. Make the email simple check box answers. It's about creating two way dialogue, not standing on a soap-box. Publish the results. Product vs Brand DifferentiationMonday 07th April 2008 To achieve long-term success in today's customer-driven marketplace we first need to differentiate our differentiation strategies!
Product differentiation is increasingly difficult within a tightly knit financial sector, and even when done legitimately is not necessarily beneficial to the brand. Much of the focus within the banking sector, for example, is on differentiation at product level in order to drive short-term tactical initiatives. This has, in some notable instances, led to poor decision-making, compromising on financial and operational risk to meet sales targets. Only by adopting and implementing brand level differentiation can companies create their own space. In this way, they:
Remain authentic and true to their core essence Consistently deliver on their Unique Value Proposition (UVP) Deliver superior customer service thanks to passionate brand ambassadors Engage with customers on a deeply emotional level The Dialogue BriefFriday 04th April 2008 "What are we trying to communicate?" is a staple dimension of every creative brief template. Traditional marketing efforts were founded on this tried-and-tested format and are still prevalent within the industry. Now we're moving into an age of business conversations using a rich Brand Thesaurus, should we not start to challenge this outdated one-way messaging concept? We have. The world is changing, marketing is changing, today, more than ever, consumers, your customers are in control. Stop talking at people and start some involving business conversations. "What do our customers want to talk about (to us and to others)?" Become a Collaboration StationThursday 03rd April 2008 A great deal is spoken today in marketing circles about creating communities. A customer's sense of community linked directly to your brand, re-enforces top of mind status with customers and leads to a deeper level of engagement. For a community to be adopted by customers, a need to connect with other customers in the context of the brand¹s consumption is vital. Such interaction with fellow brand users include: Sharing - User group forums, seminars and events where knowledge, data and technical information can be stored and shared easily are very powerful ways of developing dialogue within communities. Validation - Members of brand communities often display a strong desire to be validated or accepted by fellow members, gaining esteem through association. Typically, this is focused on a strongly differentiated attribute and a sense of what is 'cool', whether this is engendered by technology or style. Personality - Members of the Apple computer brand community feel a strong sense of expressing their personality by espousing all things Apple and by so doing (vocally and passionately) rejecting the market leader Microsoft. Esotericism - This refers to the doctrines or practices of esoteric knowledge, that which is specialised or advanced in nature, available only to a narrow circle of "enlightened", "initiated", or highly educated people. The style of your community should therefore be brought in line with your core essence and the nature of the segments / individuals that your brand wants to target. Mind Your LanguageWednesday 02nd April 2008 I read a great blog today by Claire Weekes, Editor of B2B marketing, which highlights the need to Create Your Own Space through language. Claire states that practically every press release she receives seems to contain the words: ‘dynamic’, ‘exciting’, ‘groundbreaking’, ‘maximising’, ‘market leader’ and ‘innovative’. According to the dictionary, being innovative is about “producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before”. Claire rightly points out that "This is kind of ironic given that the word seems to crop up in just about every other press release. It’s like whoever is writing a release just plonks the word in when they can’t think what else to put there. Very innovative!"
"And in the past month alone, I must have been contacted by the “market leaders” of at least five different email marketing specialist companies. I’m no mathematician, but that doesn’t quite seem to add up."
It’s time to Create Your Own Space by using language more innovatively (see what I did there!). The way in which to achieve a differentiated position is to develop the Core Essence, Brand Pillars, Elevator Pitch and Unique Value Proposition (UVP). This can only be pulled through to Engagement once you have your own Brand Thesaurus, a unified language set to be applied by everyone across the entire organisation from reception to C-level. For a brand to become successful, the Brand Thesaurus does not start and finish with the ubiquitous press release or marketing collateral but must be cascaded into every business conversation - internally and externally. |
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