The Starbucks Experience

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Everyone is familiar with the Starbucks story. The eponymous American coffee chain has been part of peoples’ lives for years now. Among other things, the company has been recognized as one of the world’s most admired companies by Fortune magazine. And this has been reflected in the value placed in the company by its shareholders: since 1992, its stock has risen by an astounding 5,000 percent.
The genius of the company’s success lies in its proven ability to create personalized customer experiences, secure customer loyalty, stimulate business growth, generate profits, and energize employees – all at the same time.

 WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK
The Starbucks Experience discusses the unique blend of “home-brewed” ingenuity and people-driven philosophies that are behind Starbucks’ success. Author Dr Joseph Michelli gained access to Starbucks personnel and resources and discovered that the company’s success is driven by those who work there – the “partners” – and the special experience they create for each and every customer.
Dr Michelli makes use of real-life insider stories, eye-opening anecdotes, and step-by-step strategies to condense Starbucks’ working philosophies into five key principles in order to enable readers to learn from the best – and be the best.

PRINCIPLE 1: MAKE IT YOUR OWN

Business leaders want their employees to be fully engaged in the work they do instead of simply going through the motions. Senior management must find ways to get its partners to fully engage their passions and talents every day, while ensuring that individual partners’ differences are blended into a good uniform experience for its customers.
It can admittedly be very awkward to find a balance between these two vital – yet sometimes divergent – leadership responsibilities. Through its principle of Make It Your Own, however, Starbucks has managed to create a model that encourages partners at all levels to pour their creative energy and dedication into their jobs and inspire customers in legendary ways.

This structure is known as the “Five Ways of Being” and is encapsulated in a pamphlet known as the Green Apron Book:

Be welcoming

At Starbucks, “being welcoming” is an essential way to get the customer’s visit off to a positive start, and is also the foundation for producing a warm and comfortable environment. It lets partners forge bonds with customers.

“Being welcoming”, at its essence, is defined as “offering everyone a sense of belonging”. Partners should do all they can to create a place where people feel that they are a priority and where their day can be brightened, at least for a moment.

Welcoming people by name and remembering them from visit to visit is a small thing, but it counts very much. People fear just being another member of the herd; they want to have their uniqueness recognized.

Be genuine

At Starbucks, being genuine means to “connect, discover, and respond”. Focusing on these three elements in each customer interaction forms a quality relationship.

Connect. Legendary service comes from a desire and effort to exceed what the customer expects. Customers have repeatedly shared experiences of Starbucks partners making a connection well beyond some formulaic greeting. Individual staff uniqueness gives them a special way to connect with others.

Discover. Business success requires the discovery of each person’s needs and individual situation. Discovery is essential to developing a unique and genuine bond. The special qualities and needs of each customer must be determined.

Respond. A lot of businesses do manage to achieve the first two elements, but they don’t always act on what they learn. Starbucks employees not only listen to their customers, but also take action immediately based on what they hear and learn from these experiences for future customer interactions.

Be considerate

Starbucks partners look beyond their needs and consider the needs of others – customers, potential customers, critics, co-workers, other shareholders, and even the environment – in sum, the entire universe of people and things Starbucks affects.

At the corporate level, “being considerate” means exploring the long-term well-being of partners and those individuals whose lives the partners touch – while being mindful of the earth’s ability to sustain the demands placed on it.

Thoughtfulness should become a part of a company’s culture. Leaders should place a priority on consideration and encourage their staff to put their own twist on the concept.

Be knowledgeable

What does being knowledgeable mean in this context? Starbucks partners are always encouraged to love what they do and share it with others.

Partners are encouraged to enhance their expertise in coffee and customer service. Value is always added to partners’ efforts when they gain work-related knowledge. In addition, as they become more informed, their value to the business, self-confidence, and the impact they have on others all increase.

Starbucks upper management also offers formal training opportunities to develop their knowledge of coffee that can lead to personal insights for customers, and also give out incentives for partners to undertake such training.

Be involved

This means nothing less than active participation in the store, in the company, and in the community – a “yes, I will” attitude where breakthrough products and service are created. There must be a move away from a “bare minimum is OK” mentality.

Partners look around the store for clues on how to make the customer experiences and the business better and to improve the manner in which customer needs are served.

The management makes it a point to listen and respond to the ideas and suggestions of partners – as a result, partners frequently take responsibility for suggesting and championing new product ideas based on the inputs from their customers.

Lastly, there is community involvement, which can take many forms – from creating a community meeting place to staff volunteering in community-related activities, all of which are encouraged and supported by Starbucks leadership.

PRINCIPLE 2: EVERYTHING MATTERS


All business is detail. When details are overlooked or missed, even the most patient customers can be frustrated and costly errors can occur. What’s more, only a handful of unhappy customers bring their complaints to management – the rest simply bring their dollars elsewhere, and share their grievances with family members, friends, and acquaintances. (People are more likely to talk about unpleasant experiences than pleasant ones.)
Leaders have to understand that they must take care of both the “below-deck” (unseen aspects) and the “above-deck” (customer-facing) components of the customer experience. In the world of business, everything truly does matter.

 A small detail can sometimes make the difference between success and failure. Something as simple as a little 7-cent valve did more than its share towards making Starbucks a publicly traded company.

Important details live in both that which is seen and that which is unseen by the customer.

There is absolutely no way to hide poor quality in anything. Hide it though some may try, it always becomes evident in the end.

Store environment, product quality, training (doesn’t need to be boring, conventional or mundane), the development of a playful culture (a playful and positive work environment produces vital and engaged staff members), and a social conscience all matter a great deal.

The “Starbucks sensation” is driven not just by the quality of its products, but by the entire atmosphere surrounding the purchase of its coffee, the openness of its store space, interesting menu boards, the shape of its counter, and other things besides.

The art of retailing coffee – and indeed many other things as well – goes way beyond product. The details of the total experience matter, from napkins to coffee bags, store-fronts to window seats.

Details affect the emotional connection (the “felt sense”) that others have with you and your store or product.

People should go out and ask what details customers notice about their businesses, in order to know exactly what to focus on (this doesn’t mean however that whatever’s invisible to the customers can be neglected, of course).

Acknowledge the importance of everything, celebrate all the details, and play – have fun while working hard to make sure that everything is as good as you can make it!

Lastly, not only does everything matter; everyone matters as well.

PRINCIPLE 3: SURPRISE AND DELIGHT
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This idea behind the importance of this principle is hardly a new one. As early back as 1912, the Rueckheim brothers, who are behind the successful candy brand Cracker Jack, already knew that adding a surprise to each package would dramatically increase the appeal of their product.

 In that vein, delight is the caramelized popcorn – the basic product that your customers get – while surprise is the prize they get! Customers want the predictable and the consistent, while hoping for an occasional positive twist or added value thrown in.

Nowadays, people have a certain anticipation for something special with just about every purchasing experience, or hope they will get surprised, even in the most mundane experiences.

Today’s customers are far more discerning than ever before and far harder to please than any others who came before them.

To make matters worse, they have developed an insatiable appetite for what is unique and amazing in just about everything they buy. Most consumers have such a high threshold for the cutting-edge and the most up-to-date that they thumb their noses at almost everything that doesn’t qualify as such.

The most effective events are natural and spontaneous, not artificial or forced. Look first for a need, and then step in and fill it in the most genuine and spontaneous way possible.

Surprise can result from as simple a series of events as offering a little guidance, and then stepping in and getting out of the way and watching (and learning) as people search for the things that bring them joy.

Your efforts to surprise others are a contagious force. Look for genuine opportunities to do the positively unexpected. This creates a “ripple effect” that will have customers talking and not only will help bring people to the store, but will also serve to spread good word about your product quality and level of service. And, customers often end up surprising the store staff and/or one another as well!

Customer delight comes from surprise as well as predictability. You should ensure that your customers rely on you and your staff to provide both products and experiences at a consistently high level of quality. The occasional surprise will only serve to sweeten the pot and bring people back for more.

When breakdowns occur, businesses can still delight customers by making things right. You can and should view breakdowns as unexpected (and not entirely unwelcome) opportunities to improve your customer experience.

Delight is the result of an unwavering commitment to creating a comfortable and trusted relationship. If extra time and energy has been invested in delighting others and not simply satisfying them, you will be rewarded with nothing less than extraordinary results.

PRINCIPLE 4: EMBRACE RESISTANCE
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It was once noted that a person only profits from praise when he values criticism, and Starbucks management has taken this to heart. Valuing criticism is a major part of the Starbucks puzzle.
Embracing resistance involves a complex set of skills that can enable businesses and individuals to create business and relationship opportunities when confronted with irritation, skepticism, and/or wariness.
This principle requires leaders to distinguish between customers who want their concerns to be resolved and those individuals who just can’t seem to stop complaining or seem to find it impossible to be satisfied. Embracing resistance is more than simply placating these groups; it focuses on learning from those individuals who don’t always make it easy to listen.

 It’s important to realize that nothing in nature grows without facing limiting forces, and businesses are no different. Therefore it’s best to learn to live with such challenges – and even use them to your advantage.

To work with resistance effectively, you must distinguish between those people who really do want their concerns resolved and those who simply want to complain.

For some concerns, listening is all that is required. It offers space for commentary and constructive discussion.

For other types of resistance, direct action is required; management should know when listening is simply not enough.

While it’s natural to want to avoid complicating the issue and avoid contact with one’s detractors altogether, quite a lot can be gained by welcoming these people to the early stages of problem-focused discussions. Their grievances can thus be voiced and their inputs incorporated early on – when doing so matters most.

If and when the concerns of critics are allayed, these people can and often do become your most ardent supporters.

It’s vital to correct misinformation as swiftly and rapidly as you can. Misinformation has a way of spreading and becoming even more complex and convoluted as it is spread, and the further this goes the harder and costlier it is to deal with.

If and when errors are made, it’s important to take direct, unequivocal responsibility and follow this up with corrective action.

PRINCIPLE 5: LEAVE YOUR MARK


We all end up leaving some mark on the world. What varies – and what is most important – is whether that mark is positive or negative. Do we give back more than we take, or do we take more than we give?
This is particularly significant in the world of business, where managers’ actions have profound effects on individuals and societies. Some leaders are content with hitting the firm’s product goals and cut corners on everything from employee benefits to capital expenses. Others believe that an important part of their business success is linked to the powerful and positive impact they have on their communities.
Successful leaders realize that a key component of their success is leaving a powerful and positive mark in the communities in which their businesses operate.

Many business executives initially decide to be good corporate citizens because they hope it will improve their business.

Almost all who sustain this type of commitment do so because it becomes patently obvious that this is the right way – indeed, the only way – to do business.

People want to do business with, work for, invest in, and patronize socially conscious companies.

The most talented and qualified applicants increasingly consider a company’s ethics and community support when selecting an employer.

Employee morale is three times higher in those companies where community development is an integral part of the business model than in their less-involved counterparts.

When employees’ work environments match their personal values, they become far more productive than employees whose work environments don’t match what they value or uphold.

By participating in community-based activities, employees are given the chance to build leadership skills and grow as teams.

The value of a business’s brand is 100 percent linked to the trust people place in the company to do what it says it will do.

Corporate social responsibility shouldn’t be seen as a passing fad or fancy. Instead, it should be valued as the way global business really gets done.

We can all be the change we want to see in the world!

The Art of The Start

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You have the idea of a lifetime and yet you do not know where and how to begin. It is a dilemma shared by entrepreneurs everywhere - what does it take to turn a great idea into action?

 Author Guy Kawasaki brings two decades of business experience to offer a definitive guide for anyone who dreams of starting anything. Whether you are thinking of starting a start-up Internet operation or a church group, The Art of the Start will provide you with everything you need to know from raising money to fostering a community.

Chapter 1: The Art of Starting

There are five important things an entrepreneur must accomplish:
1- Make Meaning.
The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning. Meaning is not about money, fame or power. Instead, meaning is about making the world a better place, increasing the quality of life, righting a wrong and preventing good from ending.
2- Make Mantra.
Instead of a mission statement, take your meaning and make your own mantra. A mantra is defined as a sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation, or incantations such as an invocation of god or a magic spell. Examples of mantras include Disney’s “Fun family entertainment”, and Nike’s “Authentic athletic performance.”
3- Get Going.
Start creating your product or service and commence delivering to your customers. Forget about writing long business plans or creating complicated financial projections. Instead build your prototype and launch your website.
4- Define Your Business Model.
Define your customers and their needs. Come up with a sales mechanism that will earn you more money than what you are spending.
5- Weave a Mat (Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks) . Compile a list of the milestones you need to meet, assumptions that are built into your business model, and the tasks you need to accomplish to create your organization.

Chapter 2: The Art of Positioning


With the right positioning, you should be able to see clearly why the organization was started, why it should be patronized by customers, and why good people should choose to work for the organization.
Before you begin dwelling into the art of positioning, you must first answer the question, “What do you do?” You must be able to provide an answer that not only seizes the high ground but shows exactly how your organization differs from its competitors. It is only then that you can communicate this powerful message to your chosen market.
Seize the High Ground

Good positioning must have the following qualities:
1- Positive.

2- Customer-centric.

3- Empowering to your employees.

4- Self-explanatory.

5- Targets the intended customer.

6- Must show the core competencies of your organization.

7- Relevant to your core competencies and to the core needs of your customers.

8- Long-lasting.

9- Different from your competitors.

10- Other Positioning Tips:
Position your product or service in the most personal manner you can.

You must choose a remarkable name for your organization, product or service.

Use plain words that are easy to understand when describing what your company can do for your customers. Avoid technical or insider jargon.

Offer concrete points instead of mere overused adjectives when distinguishing your products to competitors. Instead of calling your system safe, say that your system has never been hacked.

ensure that each member of your organization understands your company’s positioning.

Chapter 3: The Art of Pitching

For an entrepreneur, pitching is almost as important as breathing. Not only is pitching a great tool for raising money, it is essential for reaching agreements. Needless to say, agreements are common to any entrepreneur’s daily life.
Here are some tips to help you make a perfect pitch:
1- Explain Yourself in the First Minute.
Every single time you make your pitch, take in mind that your audience is waiting for you to answer one question: “What does your organization do?” The next time you make a pitch, make sure that you answer that question in the very first minute.
2- Answer the Little Man.
Picture a little man sitting on your shoulder the next time you are giving a presentation. Imagine the little man whispering, “So what?” in your ear every time you make a point. Always answer the little man’s question. To make it even better, right after you answer the so-what question, move into “For instance…” and provide a real-world use or scenario.
3- Know Your Audience.
Do your research before any meeting starts. Find out who you would be pitching to and learn what’s important to your audience. You must also visit the organization’s website and gather core information about the people you would be speaking to.
4- Observe the 10/20/30 Rule.
Use the following the next time you are giving a presentation: ten slides, 20 minutes, 30-point font text. The 10 slides that are necessary for a pitch to investors are:
Title slide

Problem

Solution

Business model

Underlying magic

Marketing and sales

Competition

Management team

Financial projections and key metrics

Current status, accomplishments, timeline and use of funds
5- Set the Stage.
Remember that everything and anything that goes wrong would be your fault. Therefore, you must be prepared. Make sure you bring your own projector and your own written materials. It might even be advisable to bring two laptops (both with your loaded presentation) and a memory card with a copy of your presentation just in case.
6- Let One Person do the Talking.
In a pitch, it would be advisable for the CEO to do 80% of the talking. As for the rest of the team, one or two slides that pertain to their expertise are more than enough.
7- Pitch Constantly.
The best way to achieve familiarity is to keep doing your pitch over and over again. Try out your pitch in front of your employees, relatives and friends.

Chapter 4: The Art of Writing a Business Plan

An entrepreneur will soon discover that a business plan is not really as important as most people deem it should be. However, the fact remains that most investors, recruits, potential board makers and decision makers expect a business plan and will not rest until they are given one.

1- Focus on the Executive Summary

When writing a business plan, use the ten slides that are necessary for a pitch to investors (previous chapter) and use them as your framework. Instead of a title slide, provide an executive summary. Remember that this executive summary is the most important part of your business plan.
An executive summary is a concise and clear description of the problem you wish to solve. It also states how you wish to solve the problem, your business model and the underlying magic of your product or service. Remember, your executive summary will determine whether or not people will read the rest of your business plan.
Keep It Clean

Here are other tips you should use when creating your business plan:
Do not exceed twenty pages. The shorter your plan is, the more likely it is to be read.

Only one person should write the entire business plan.

Use staples to bind the plan. Forget about leather, embossed portfolios.

Simplify financial projections to two pages. After all, it is simply impossible to know how much you’ll spend on office items in your fourth year of operations.

Include key metrics. Remember, the number of customers you have, locations and resellers are important to your investors.

Provide the right numbers. Your cash flow statement for the first five years is very important.

Chapter 5: The Art of Bootstrapping

Most people are surprised to learn that industry giants Microsoft and eBay are two companies that started with a bootstrap model. A bootstrappable business model has:
Low up-front capital requirements.

Short (under a month) sales cycles.

Short (under a month) payment terms.

Recurring revenue.

Word of mouth advertising.

Bootstrapping might mean passing up profitable sales that may take a long time to collect or stretching your payments for everything you buy. This might mean a decline in “paper” profits but for a bootstrapper, paper profits are not as important as cash flow management.

Ship, Then Test
If you are bootstrapping, you obviously are not sitting on a pile of money. Therefore, it is imperative that you get your product or service to the market immediately. When using this philosophy, you are opting to fix the problems of your product later rather than now.
The good news is, with this method, you will receive immediate cash flow and feedback from the real world. Unfortunately, this method might also tarnish your image if there are quality problems.
It is not easy to make this decision. If you feel that you would allow the people you love to use the product or service as it is right now, then it might be correct to ship it. If you are running out of money, it might also be advisable to ship the product and deal with the consequences later.
Bootstrapping Tips

Here are other things to consider when you are on a bootstrapper’s model:
Forget the “Proven” Team. When you’re bootstrapping you must almost always go for what’s affordable. Keep this in mind when you are choosing your team. Forget about hiring well-known industry veterans who would cost you an arm and a leg on wages alone. Instead, choose young inexperienced people with moldable talent and endless energy.

Focus on Function, Not Form. Do not focus on form when it comes to spending money. If you need proper accounting, you don’t need to hire a big name firm. You also don’t need to buy $700 office chairs when cheaper ones would do.

Go Direct. Take the opportunity to sell directly to your customers. Only use resellers once you have ensured that your product and service is bug-free. Remember, you have to establish your product on your own.

Position against the Leader. As a bootstrapper, positioning against the market leader or going against accepted ways of doing things might be the smartest thing to do.

Understaff and Outsource. Overstaffing can cause you a multitude of problems. It is better to understaff and outsource. Do not outsource research and development, marketing and sales. Instead, outsource your payroll management.

Build a Board. A board of directors is always a source of good guidance and superb direction. You don’t need to worry about your lack of capital to attract high-quality board members. If your products are innovative enough, the board members will come.

Sweat the Big stuff. Save on office space, furniture, computers, and office equipment. However, make sure you spend enough on product development, sales, billing and collection.

Execute. The failure to execute can be disastrous to a bootstrapper. To be able to execute, you must be able to:

Set and communicate goals.

Measure progress.

Establish a single point of accountability.

Reward the achievers.

Follow through until an issue is done or irrelevant.

Heed reality.

Establish a culture of execution.

Chapter 6: The Art of Recruiting

Recruiting good people is one of the most enjoyable and yet most critical tasks that you must face as an entrepreneur.
When recruiting, you must look beyond race, color, education and work experience. Instead you should focus on three factors:
Can the candidate do what you need?

Does the candidate believe in your meaning?

Does that candidate have the strengths you need?

Recruitment Tips:
Hire people better than you.

Remember that there are very few A players out there. Don’t make the mistake of disqualifying A prospects because of gender, race, sexual orientation or age.

Ignore the following factors: experience in a big, successful organization, experience in a failed organization, educational background, experience in the same industry, experience in the same function, and functional weakness. They are unimportant.

It is best to hire candidates who possess major strengths even if they have major weaknesses.

Chapter 7: The Art of Raising Capital

A start-up business is usually on a constant look-out for capital from outside investors. Investors include venture capitalists, foundations, friends and family members.
Although pitching plays a major role when you are trying to raise capital, the realities of your organization are so much more important. You must offer a product or service that is meaningful and long-lasting.
Here are some tips you can use when raising capital:
Build a Business. The best way to get investors is to build a business immediately. How do you build a business without money? Have a bootstrapper model.

Get an Intro. Have current investors, lawyers, accountants, other entrepreneurs and professors introduce you to investors. This way, they will learn about you from sources they respect.

Clean Up Your Act. Get rid of obvious flaws in your system. Flaws often occur in your intellectual property, capital structure, management team, stock offerings and regulatory compliance.

Disclose Everything. Don’t attempt to hide problems that can not be cleaned up immediately. Do not allow anything to damage your credibility.

Acknowledge, or Create, an Enemy. Believe it or not, investors do not want to hear that your organization has no existing competitors. This only tells them that there is no existing market out there for your service, or that you are too stupid to use Google.

Don’t Use Old Lies. Here are some examples of lies start-ups tell investors. Refrain from using them and be prepared to come up with new ones:

“Our projection is conservative.”

“All we have to do is get 1 percent of the market.”

“P&G is too old to be a threat.”

“Several investors are already in due diligence.”

“Key employees will join as soon as we get funded.”

Chapter 8: The Art of Partnering

Partnerships - a word that is actually more complicated than it sounds. Although good partnering can increase cash flow, accelerate revenue and reduce costs, a bad partnership can very well mean the other way around.
Here are some tips that can help you master the art of partnering:
Partner for “Spreadsheet” Reasons. Partnering can accelerate your entry into a new area, open up new distribution channels, speed up product development and reduce your costs.

Define Deliverables and Objectives. These include additional revenues, reduced costs, new products and services, new customers, new markets, etc.

Ensure that the Middles and Bottoms Like the Deal. It is not enough that upper management believe that the partnership is a good idea. Make sure that the partnership is understood by all the members of the organization. Everyone must contribute to make a partnership work.

Find Internal Champions. Choose one person from each organization to become an internal champion. Ensure that the main goal of the chosen champions is to achieve success. Nothing but the partnership counts.

Cut Win-Win Deals. Both partners have to win. Do not enter into win-lose partnerships.

Wait to Legislate. Don’t ask for legal advice too early. Legal experts will always give you more reasons not to go through the deal. Agree on business terms on your own before you bring in your lawyers.

Put an “Out” Clause in the Deal. The assurance that both parties won’t be trapped into a partnership that is not working actually promotes longevity.

Chapter 9: The Art of Branding

The classic Ps of marketing (product, place, price and promotion) pretty much sums up the art of branding. Some people add prayer to the list, but the author prefers proselytization which is the art of converting others to your belief or doctrine.
For today’s start-ups, proselytization is the core of branding. You must be able to create something contagious that would make people enthusiastic and eager to try your product or service. You must be able to make other people spread the word around.
Create a Contagion

The secret to branding is aligning with a product or service that is already gold or enhancing your product and service until it becomes gold. You must be able to create or find products and services that are contagious. Contagious products and services are:
Cool.

Effective.

Distinctive.

Disruptive.

Emotive.

Deep.

Indulgent.

Supported.

Branding Tips



Lower the Barriers to Adoption. You have to make your product or service simple and yet effective. You must flatten the learning curve. Your customers must be able to get basic functionality right almost immediately.

Recruit Evangelists. Evangelists are people who believe in your company and what you do. Take advantage of the customers who wish to help you and your business. Assign them tasks and expect them to get done. Provide them the tools they need to evangelize.

Foster a Community. Identify and recruit customers who are enthusiastic about what you do. Hire someone whose sole task is to foster a community. Integrate the presence of your community in all your sales and marketing tools. Allow members to use your building for their events and conferences.

Achieve Humanness. Target the young and don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself. Feature your customers and help the underprivileged.

Focus on Publicity. To attract publicity, create something grand and get them into the hands of people. Make friends even with reporters from publications you have never heard of. Additionally, make sure you maintain good relations with the press all year round.

Chapter 10: The Art of Rainmaking

A rainmaker is a person who generates large quantities of business. The first step of rainmaking in a start-up business is to get the very first version of the product or service out to the market. After you do this, you must observe where your product or service will sell the most.
The second step of rainmaking is to be able to sell the product or service well. Remember, as a start-up, people are not aware of your products and services. You must overcome resistance.
Here are some tips you can use to master the art of rainmaking:

Pick the right lead generation method.


Find the key influencer. Ignore titles. They really don’t mean much.


Be nice to secretaries and administrative aids.


Make your prospect talks. This way, they’ll be able to tell you what you need to do to close the deal.


Ask customers to test drive your products and services.


Give your customers a slow and easy adoption curve.


Do not be fazed when you are rejected.

Chapter 11: The Art of Being a Mensch

Mensch is a Yiddish term for an ethical and admirable person. In some cultures, it is considered the highest form of praise. To be a mensh, you must help people, do what’s right and contribute to society.
Here are some tips on becoming a mensch:
Help people who can not help you back.

Observe the spirit of agreements, pay for what you get and focus on what is important.

Help society by giving money, time, expertise and emotional support.

Made to Stick

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What sticks?

Whether you’re a CEO or a full-time mom, you’ve got ideas that you need to communicate: a new product coming to market, a strategy you want to sell your boss, values you are trying to instil in your children. But it’s hard – fiendishly so – to transform the way people think and act.
Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas – businesspeople, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others – struggle to make their ideas “stick.”
Why You Need This Book
Made to Stick is a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures): the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of the “Mother Teresa Effect”; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.


In this book, you’ll learn the six key qualities of an idea that is made to stick: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotional, and Stories – the SUCCESs framework.


Principle 1: Simplicity


How do we find the essential core of our ideas? A successful defense lawyer says, “If you argue ten points, even if each is a good point, when they get back to the jury room they won’t remember any.”
To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize. Saying something short is not the mission – sound bites are not the ideal. Proverbs are the ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound. The Golden Rule is the ultimate model of simplicity: a one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.
“Finding the core” means stripping an idea down to its most critical essence. To get to the core, we’ve got to weed out superfluous and tangential elements. But that’s the easy part. The hard part is weeding out ideas that may be really important but just aren’t the most important idea.
The Army Commander’s Intent forces its officers to highlight the most important goal of an operation. The value of the Intent comes from its singularity. You can’t have five North Stars, you can’t have five “most important goals,” and you can’t have five Commander’s Intents.
Finding the core is analogous to writing the Commander’s Intent – it’s about discarding a lot of great insights in order to let the most important insight shine. The French aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupery once offered a definition of engineering elegance: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
A designer of simple ideas should aspire to the same goal: knowing how much can be wrung out of an idea before it begins to lose its essence.
 
Principle 2: Unexpectedness

How do we get our audience to pay attention to our ideas, and how do we maintain their interest when we need time to get the ideas across? We can use surprise – an emotion whose function is to increase alertness and cause focus – to grab people’s attention. And for our idea to endure, we must generate interest and curiosity.

Nordstrom is a department store known for outstanding customer service. That extra service comes at a price: Nordstrom can be an expensive place to shop. Yet many people are willing to pay higher prices precisely because Nordstrom makes shopping so much more pleasant.
Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, in their book Built to Last, describe stories told at Nordstrom about unexpected service by employees, who are known within the firm as “Nordies”:
The Nordie who ironed a new shirt for a customer who needed it for a meeting that afternoon;
The Nordie who cheerfully gift wrapped products a customer bought at Macy’s;
The Nordie who warmed customers’ cars in winter while they finished shopping;
The Nordie who made a last-minute delivery of party clothes to a frantic hostess;
And even the Nordie who refunded money for a set of tire chains – although Nordstrom doesn’t sell tire chains.
  
Principle 3: Concreteness

Jane Elliot, an elementary-school teacher in Iowa, found herself trying to explain Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death to her classroom of third-graders. She aimed to make prejudice tangible to her students. At the start of class, she divided the students into two groups: brown-eyed kids and blue-eyed kids. The groups were separated. She made a shocking announcement that the brown-eyed kids were superior to blue-eyed kids.

 Elliot was shocked at how quickly the class was transformed. She watched those kids turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating third-graders. Even their performance on academic tasks changed.
Elliot’s simulation made prejudice concrete – brutally concrete. It also had an enduring impact on the students’ lives. She turned prejudice into an experience.
How do we make our ideas clear? We must explain our ideas in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information. This is where so much business communication goes awry. Mission statements, synergies, strategies, visions – they are often ambiguous to the point of being meaningless. Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images, because our brains are wired to remember concrete data.

Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience.
  
Principle 4: Credibility

How do we get people to believe our ideas? We’ve got to find a source of credibility to draw on. Sometimes the wellsprings are dry, Barry Marshall discovered in his quest to cure the ulcer. Drawing on external credibility didn’t work. The endorsement of his supervisors and his institution in Perth didn’t seem to be enough.
Drawing on internal credibility didn’t work either – his careful marshalling of data and detail still didn’t help him clear the bar. In the end, what he did was draw on the audience’s credibility – he essentially “modelled” a testable credential by gulping a glass of bacteria. The implicit challenge was: See for yourself – if you drink this gunk, you’ll get an ulcer, just like I did.
It’s not always obvious which wellspring of credibility we should draw from. What Marshall showed so brilliantly was perseverance – knowing when it was time to draw on a different well.
 
It’s inspirational to know that a medical genius like Marshall had to climb over the same hurdles with his idea as we’ll have to climb with ours – and to see that he eventually prevailed, to the benefit of us all.
    
Principle 5: Emotional

Dan Syrek is the nation’s leading researcher on litter. In the 1980s, Syrek and his Sacramento-based organization were hired by the state of Texas. Syrek knew that what Texas needed to do was reach people who weren’t inclined to shed tears over roadside trash. Designing an antilitter campaign based on self-interest wasn’t likely to work with this group. They called their target market Bubba.
Syrek knew that the best way to change Bubba’s behaviour was to convince him that people like him did not litter. Based on his research, the Texas Department of Transportation approved a campaign built around the slogan “Don’t Mess with Texas.”

The campaign was an instant success. Within a few months of the launch, an astonishing 73 percent of Texans polled could recall the message and identify it as an antilitter message. Within one year, litter had declined 29 percent.
How can we make people care about our ideas? We get them to take off their Analytical Hats. We create empathy for specific individuals. We show how our ideas are associated with things that people already care about. We appeal to their self-interest, but we also appeal to their identities – not only to the people they are right now, but also to the people they would like to be.
           
Principle 6: Stories

In the late 1990s, the fast-food giant Subway launched a campaign to tout the healthiness of a new line of sandwiches. It was focused on the remarkable story of a college student named Jared Fogle.
Jared had a serious weight problem. By his junior year in college, he had ballooned to 425 pounds. After three months of the “Subway diet,” as he called it, he stepped on the scale. It read 330 pounds. He had dropped almost 100 pounds in three months by eating at Subway.
Despite the hurdles - an initial refusal of Subway’s marketing director to unveil the tale of Jared since in his experience, “fast foods can’t do healthy”; the director’s initial decision to focus on the taste of Subway’s sandwiches; and problems regarding who would pay for the Jared commercials - the campaign was a stunning success.
The Jared story has a morsel of simulation value. Even skinny people who aren’t interested in dieting will be inspired by Jared’s tale. He fought big odds and prevailed through perseverance. And this is the second major payoff that stories provide: inspiration. Inspiration drives action, as does simulation.
Note how well the Jared story does on the Success checklist:
It’s simple: Eat subs and lose weight. (It may be oversimplified, frankly, since the meatball sub with extra mayo won’t help you lose weight.)

It’s unexpected: A guy lost a ton of weight by eating fast food! This story violates our schema of fast food, a schema that’s more consistent with the picture of a fat Jared than a skinny Jared.

It’s concrete: Think of the oversized pants, the massive loss of girth, the diet composed of particular sandwiches. It’s much more like an Aesop fable than an abstraction.

It’s credible: It has the same kind of antiauthority truthfulness that we saw with the Pam Laffin antismoking campaign. The guy who wore 60-inch pants is giving us diet advice!

It’s emotional: We care about an individual, Jared, than about a mass. And it taps into profound areas of Maslow’s hierarchy – it’s about a guy who reached his potential with the help of a sub shop.

It’s a story: Our protagonist overcomes big odds to triumph. It inspires the rest of us to do the same.

Stories naturally embody most of the SUCCESs framework. Stories are almost always Concrete. Most of them have Emotional and Unexpected elements. The hardest part of using stories effectively is making sure that they’re Simple – that they reflect your core message. It’s not enough to tell a great story; the story has to reflect your agenda. You don’t want a general lining up his troops before battle to tell a Connection plot story.
Stories have the amazing dual power to simulate and to inspire. And most of the time we don’t even have to use much creativity to harness these powers – we just need to be ready to spot the good ones that life generates every day.

Making Strategies Stick: Three Principles

The trick to talking strategy is making strategic ideas sticky. Here are a few tips for making your strategy stick with people:
Be concrete. The beauty of concrete language – language that is specific and sensory – is that everyone understands your message in a similar way.

Say something unexpected. If a strategy is common sense, don’t waste your time communicating it. (If it’s common sense, why bother?) It’s critical, though, for leaders to identify the uncommon sense in their strategies. What’s new about the strategy? What’s different?

Tell stories. A good story is better than an abstract strategy statement. Remember, you can reconstruct the moral from the story, but you can’t reconstruct the story from the moral.

Final Words

Regardless of your level of “natural creativity,” this book will show you how a little focused effort can make almost any idea stickier, and a sticky idea is an idea that is more likely to make a difference.

All you need to do is understand the six principles of powerful ideas!

1- Find Unresolved Problems

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How do you know which product and market to focus on?

When you look for a new market opportunity, who do you talk to?

How do you look for your next great product idea?

When looking for new opportunities, do you call your best customer, ask your salespeople what they need or talk to people currently shopping for a product like yours? If so, it is unlikely you will produce an extraordinary opportunity!
Finding unresolved market problems is the key to developing products that are Resonators? You know, the ones that are back-ordered for six months after launch, the products that command a premium price, with customers camping out at midnight to have the chance to buy one when the store opens. Products that seem to "sell themselves".
Was your last product a resonator? Or did it require "clever messaging" "sexy slogans" or a sales contest with a price discount?
Only 10% of products become resonators? Why? Because most companies build products from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. Inside out products come from the R&D Lab, Engineering, Product Development, the board room, or inside the shower as someone prepares for work. Outside in products are developed to solve market problems.
Our research over the last 15 years, working with more than 3,500 companies, found 70% or more of new products or new product decisions were made without market data. That's right, nearly 3 out of 4 products are the result of guessing or assuming!
Where should you be looking for market data? The answer may surprise you, but asking your current customers is the last place you should go. Here's why.
Your market is comprised of three distinct buyer types:
Potential Customers

People who have problems your product could solve,
 but are not shopping for solutions.
Evaluators

People who know they have a problem and are actively shopping, may have asked you for a proposal, but have not bought anything from you.
Customers

People who have problems your distinctive competence solves, have shopped and engaged with you by purchasing your solution.
As you can see, focusing on the total market, beginning with potential customers, represents the greatest opportunity. And, you'll receive some of the best unresolved problems from this group (with some additional information from the Evaluators group).
Why not current customers? Your existing customers do play a role in finding unresolved problems, but they have already defined you for what they perceive you can and cannot provide and therefore will filter their comments and concerns in relation to this experience.
How do you know if your team is building/launching products from the inside out?
If you see or hear any of the following, you may be tuned out to finding unresolved market problems:
“We need to create a need in the minds of our buyers…”

“We need better sell sheets that educate our customers”

“Our customers need training to understand the value our product (service) provides”

“Our sales team just needs to learn how to overcome objections to our product”

“Our new products are incremental improvements to existing products so no learning is involved”

“We need to run a sale on our new product because we have excess inventory”
If you are nodding your head here, rest assured you're not alone! Over 90% of companies observe this at some point.
What can you do to get Tuned In?
1- Interview your market with an open mind

2- Treat buyers like market experts

3- Remember, you are asking and listening NOT SELLING!

4- Meet buyers on their own turf (whenever possible)

5- Don’t talk about your company , products or services, just listen

6- Aling team member and performance objectives to understanding unresolved market problems

7- Use open ended questions

8- Open-ended questions require elaboration and often uncover the "golden nugget" problems that can become resonators. To get you started, here are a few suggestions.
What was your biggest challenge last week?

What is your most important priority this week?

What do you think about on your commute to work each day?

What do you think about on your commute home from work?

If there was a product or service that could help you the most, what would it do?

Is there a current process or a product that adds difficulty to your job?

What do you see as your biggest challenge over the next 12 months?

If we could take away your biggest headache, what would it be?

What do your internal and or external customers complain about?

If you owned a company that designs product solutions, what would you want me to invent for you?

Once you find possible unresolved problems, some drill-down questions include:
How does that make you feel?

What do you see as next steps to resolve this?

Can you tell me more about…

Why?

Why?

Words of caution

If a buyer cannot answer your open-ended questions, either they don't understand what you are asking or don’t really want to answer. Try giving a little explanation, or reframing the question. If the answer is still vague, you may want to ask yourself why? It may be personal or a topic your subject doesn't want to explore, or they may not have adequate training or experience to answer. Some organizations implement policies that forbid the disclosure of data perceived to be proprietary, is this the problem here? You could also try framing your question in relation to the market and not the organization of the person you are interviewing.

Six Rules of Brand Revitalization

Six Rules for Brand Revitalization

By Larry Light
Brands do not die natural deaths. However, brands can be murdered through mismanagement. Some brands are beyond hope -- but others can be revitalized.
Of course, it's not easy. But it is well worth the effort. We at Arcature developed the following principles and practices over the years while working with a variety of clients in a variety of businesses. They're also practices we applied during my tenure as global CMO of McDonald's from 2002 to 2005.

For a brand to be successfully revitalized, everyone needs to be on the same page. Then they must follow the six rules of brand revitalization listed here. This "Plan to Win," as we call it, is built around the eight P's: purpose, promise, people, product, place, price, promotion and performance.

Rule 1: Refocus the organization
Refocusing the organization begins with redefining the brand and business purpose and goals. The brand purpose should be aspirational. At McDonald's, where I held the post of global CMO, we defined the long-term ambition "to be our customer's favorite place and way to eat and drink." For the first three years, the primary focus was on becoming the "favorite place and way to eat." As Jim Cantalupo, McDonald's CEO, liked to say, we would "be bigger by being better." How would we accomplish that?

Rule 2: Restore brand relevance
The brand promise is an articulation of the relevant and differentiating experience that the brand will deliver to every customer, every time. Brand revitalization means defining where you want the brand to be and then deciding how to get there.
Over the years, the essence of the McDonald's brand was the perception that it was an affordable, convenient brand for families with kids. There were those who said that equity could not and should not be changed. But McDonald's set out to change people's perceptions and go from appealing to the child in your heart to appealing to those with a young-adult spirit at heart.

Rule 3: Reinvent the brand experience
To revitalize a brand, we need to bring the redefined brand promise to life. This is what the five action P's are all about. The five action P's are people, product, place, price and promotion.

People come first. Building employee commitment to the new direction, employee confidence, and organizational and employee capabilities are critical factors that influence future success.
And it's imperative to inspire those in the organization to believe that the new brand future will happen and that they can help. At McDonald's a new on-boarding communication was created called "Learnin' it. Livin' it. Lovin' it."

Product is the next P. Products and services are the tangible evidence of the truth of the promise. When we redefine the promise, product and service renovation and innovation are imperative.
A disciplined approach to brand extension can revitalize and strengthen a brand. McDonald's extended its product range to include products such as salads, yogurt parfaits and coffee. The Crest revitalizations included extensions beyond cavity prevention to include tartar control, whitening, breath freshening, dental floss, mouthwash, tooth whiteners and toothbrushes.

The place is the face of the brand. Whether a store, a website, a retail display, a kiosk or wherever the "place" may be, the experience must be consistent with the intended brand direction. For example, McDonald's embarked on a very ambitious retail reimaging program. It also updated the brand website.

Price comes next. The launch of the McDonald's Dollar Menu created an everyday-low-price list of items and enabled the brand to significantly reduce marketing emphasis on on-and-off discounting. Overemphasis on deals and discounts builds deal loyalty rather real loyalty.

Promotion comes next. In September 2003, a new global campaign was launched in 119 countries. The common signature theme was "I'm lovin' it," supported by a distinctive set of five musical notes. The character of the communications was designed to reflect the new young-adult spirit of the brand. The following year, McDonald's adopted its first global packaging approach. It's the longest-running theme in the history of the brand.
Whether advertising, special events, public relations, online, cause marketing, sponsorships, Olympics, World Cup or other forms of communication, the goal was to be consistent with the new McDonald's brand promise. Disconnected, monthly promotional messages and tactics destroy brands.

Rule 4: Reinforce a results culture
Measuring and managing performance is the eighth P. The McDonald's Plan to Win included three-year, measurable milestones.
Creating a results culture means it is important to produce the right results the right way. A balanced brand-business scorecard should include measurable elements such as brand familiarity, brand reputation, employee pride, customer-perceived value, brand loyalty, sales, share and profit.

Rule 5: Rebuild brand trust
In this skeptical, demanding, uncertain world, trust is a must. As part of revitalizing a brand, rebuilding trust is critical. Investment in rebuilding trust is an important, challenging marketing imperative. There is demand for more openness, more social responsibility and more integrity. Over the years McDonald's invested in building trust -- Ronald McDonald House, environmental responsibility, commitment to employee diversity, local community activities. As the concern with healthful living has grown, so has McDonald's commitment to providing appropriate choices -- for example, salads, apple slices, yogurt parfait, water, juices and milk.

Rule 6: Realize global alignment
The power of alignment is awesome. During brand revitalization, we often talk about the need to get everyone on the same page. But we rarely, if ever, define the page we want everyone to be on. That's the purpose of the one-page Plan to Win, the one-page document that summarizes the eight P's and the desired outcomes.
Brand revitalization needs the courage and perspective of strong leaders. Jim Cantalupo was a decisive, committed leader providing clear direction and priorities. Charlie Bell, chief operating officer, was not only a great communicator, his positive attitude was infectious. They were the leaders who led the creation and launch of the far-reaching McDonald's Plan to Win. The vision and positive momentum initiated by Cantalupo and Bell continues to produce results even in a difficult economic environment.

7- Create a Resonator

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res - o - na - tor [rez-uh-ney-ter]

- noun
1. the perfect solution to a specific problem
2. a product or service so powerful it sells itself
3. an offering that connects to what your market values most
4. an idea people immediately understand has value to them

6- Establish Authentic Connections

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How do we tell our buyers that we solved their problems so they buy from us?

I have created a great new product, now what?

How do I not waste money on "marketing"?
Authenticity beats “messages” every time! By living in your buyer’s world you create deep connections; empathy for them as people and not just as an account number in some database.
Leaders should start by asking their internal teams or departments if there is a consistent, powerful voice out to the market. One method your customers will use to gauge authenticity is to ask the same question about your product to their salesperson, customer service representative, technical support person and others. If they do not hear a consistent message there is an interruption. If the interruption is large enough, you have potentially severed the most important part of the business relationship, which is trust.
You have to communicate with buyers that you have the perfect solution to their problems. We often hear “well, isn’t that what we are already doing with our ads, website, and sales brochures?” The answer is both yes and no. While establishing an authentic connection is a form of marketing communications, it's not the same as the command-and-control, one-way advertising approach most organizations practice.
Tuned out companies have to buy their way in with expensive marketing campaigns or beg their way in with large PR retainers.
How do you know if your organization is tuned out when telling buyers about the perfect solution to their problems? Ask the following questions:
1- Is my organization currently participating in a PR campaign?

2- As a percentage of the overall advertising budget, is the print ad budget the largest item?

3- Does our website speak to a specific buyer persona, or is everyone a potential customer?

4- Does our marketing communications use the words “we”, “us” and “our” more than “you”, “your” or words that speak to specific buyer personas?

5- Does our marketing focus on what we want to say rather than what buyers want to hear?

At this point, we often hear comments like “we have always advertised in the XXXX trade journal, we would be conspicuously absent if we pulled our ad” Or “we have always attended the YYYY trade show, it’s a key opportunity to sell new products to our market” To these comments, think about the following:
In the last ninety days how many times have you seen a print ad in a trade journal and acted on it because it was a perfect solution to a problem you had?

In the last year, how many times have you attended a trade show trying to find a solution to a problem you had?

In the last 30 days, how many times have you, or someone who works for you, done a Google search to find a solution to a problem you had?

If you are like the vast majority of people we know, your answer to questions 1 & 2 is “I have not.”
In recent surveys, we found between 5% - 20% use print ads and trade shows to solve problems. However, 80% - 100% said they use web search engines like Google to find solutions to problems.

If you are spending big dollars on print ads, trade shows and direct mail, while your potential buyers are searching for you on the web, how's that working for you?

5- Articulate Powerful Ideas

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How do we establish memorable concepts that speak to the problems buyers have?

How do you clearly speak to your buyers in a way they immediately "get it"?


What are your buyers looking for?
 
What do you want your buyers to believe?


Articulating powerful ideas is not about creating a "catchy slogan" or hiring an expensive ad agency to "make it sexy". It is knowing what you want your buyers to believe. And, knowing what your buyers are looking for.
How do organization know if they are articulating powerful ideas? They ask questions and analyze the answers.
Do potential buyers see your product as a solution that solves their problem?

Can you describe what your product does in one or two sentences (in terms of problem and solution)?

Can your Sales, Marketing, Product Management and Customer Service, independently, describe the product in the same way?

Unlike most advertising, articulating powerful ideas starts with your buyer's problems (not your goals for the product). For example:
“1,000 songs in your pocket” Apple iPod
“When it absolutely, positively, has to get there overnight” FedEx

4- Create Breakthrough Experiences

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How do we build a competitive advantage?

Have you ever tried to buy your own product?
Do you know what it is like to use your product?
Have you ever called your own customer service line to get help for your product?
There are five common parts to the overall product experience someone has with your product or service.
1- Discovery

Do buyers eagerly consume your marketing material or is it created using hype and "spin" (full of flexible, scalable, and other gobbledygook phrases)?
2- Using

Is your product intuitive and easy to use?
3- Service

Is your after-sale service a positive referral source for your organization and or is it out-sourced to uninformed third-parties who report meaningless metrics of satisfaction like tickets closed per hour per customer service representative.
4- Packaging

Does the packaging compliment the total experience or hinder it?
5- Buying

Is the product easy to buy?

How do you know if your team is focused on the total experience?
Listen carefully to the conversations around the office about customers. Do you hear:
"Our customers are such a pain; they call instead of reading the manual."
"Customer satisfaction surveys? Why? We know our customers are happy."
"The freight company is so brutal; our products often arrive broken or incomplete."
"Our salespeople sell on price, don't we offer more than the lowest price?"
"Our sales order form is so hard to read, the customers call me to place orders."
"Our billing did not match what the salesperson entered on the invoice."
How do you get focused on the total customer experience?
Measure what matters to the customer, not the Finance Department

Conduct customer satisfaction surveys and post results in all departments

Develop action plans to improve the 5 lowest scores

Tie survey results to cross-functional goals and compensation

Compare new data to old to look for trends

3- Quantify the Impact

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How do we know when we have a potential winner?

Do you have a process to determine if an idea will become a breakthrough product?

Do you leave success to luck, hope or chance?

When you have a new product idea do you ask friends, family members, buddies on the golf course or current customers if they think it will be a hit?

There are three important criteria to consider when you measure the potential market for your product:
1- Is the problem urgent?

2- Is the problem pervasive?

3- Are buyers willing to pay to have this problem solved (and if so how much)?

Quantifying this information is a critical and often overlooked step that should be performed before you develop any product or service. Or, go ahead and roll the dice... about 10% of the time, companies are "lucky" and launch a product that connects.
Once you have found an unresolved problem and created buyer personas, it’s time to conduct qualitative research. Quantifying the impact will help build a business case for your new product and it is critical not to skip this step (as many people do).
How do you know if your team has quantified the opportunity and not just jumped into development? Show me the data!
1- Is this problem urgent or “not a big deal”?

2- Is there a large enough number of buyers who have the unresolved problem your product solves?

3- Are they willing to pay for your solution?

"Show me the data, and show me the money!" Be extra careful here as people have all kinds of problems but this doesn't mean they are willing to pay to have them solved.
Where can you get this information?
Your market: first, your potential customers, then people who are evaluating your current product, and last, your current customers

Public information sources

Specialist research reports

Surveys

Telemarketers

You should also conduct an acid test prior to moving forward to ensure you completely solved the problem. An acid test simply requires you to show a prototype of your product to potential buyers (on paper is fine). Do this one-on-one, not in a focus group and just describe what it does (don't tell them the benefits). Ask what problem they think it solves, how would they benefit from using it and what impact would it have on them, their family or their company.
Next, ask them to place existing products from other companies that solve a similar problem on an Impact Continuum Scale (below). Then have them put your new product on the scale.
Low Impact -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- High Impact
This information gives you a good idea of how potential buyers see your product's value, which in turn gives you information about pricing.
The common mistake companies make in pricing the perfect solution to a buyer's unresolved problem is undervaluing that solution. Review the other product solutions your buyers mentioned. Focus on the perceived value of your solution (as market leading organizations do), not a cost plus model that adds little, if anything, to shareholder value. How high an impact did your product score on the Impact Continuum Scale?
Should I write a business proposal?
Research shows 70% of new businesses and products are introduced without a business proposal. It should not surprise anyone on the board of directors at these organizations to learn that 3 out of 4 new products launched are gone from the market within 12 months.
What should a business proposal include?
Detailed explanation of the problem you are solving

Who are your buyer personas and how many of them are out there?

What product or service will you create to solve their problem?

How does your product or service impact buyers?

How will buyers quantify the value?

What will it take to convert prospects into customers?

2- Understand Buyer Personas

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How do we identify who will buy our offering?

When you build and market your products, do you have a targeted buyer you know intimately?
Do you speak directly to them in all your communication?
Do you have "catchy jingles" and "sexy messaging" targeted to "anyone with money"?
Tuned in organizations understand the best way to develop and launch products or services that resonate is to identify the unresolved problems of a particular group of people; a buyer persona.

A persona is a short biography of the typical customer; not just a job description but a person description. It typically notes the buyer’s background, daily activities, and how they deal with their current set of problems. The more experience you have in your market, the more obvious the personas become.
By grouping buyers into distinct groups, by understanding the problems these groups have and how you can solve them, and then documenting everything you know about each buyer persona, your hard work to create just the right message becomes much easier.

 But many companies do not create buyer personas. Instead, without a targeted group of buyers with specific unresolved needs, they flounder. They see everyone as a possible customer and their marketing expenditures, as a percentage of total revenue, are much higher than tuned in organizations. Some do segment their market, but unfortunately it’s often based on their own egotistical view from inside the organization, not looking from the outside in.
How do you get started building buyer personas? Try the following:
1- Get out of the office interview your market

2- Put yourself into your buyer's world as much as possible

3- Name your buyer persona(s)

4- Develop a written document on each persona

5- Share persona documents across your organization

Still not sure you need to develop buyer personas? If you are developing and launching products without a specific buyer group in mind, what happens when you ask/observe the following:
What group of buyers is this the perfect solution for? If the answer is "I don't know"or some vague category like "small businesses" there's no need to ask any more questions!

1- Can you show me the description of the typical buyer this product was designed to help?

2- Do you hear "if our product just had ________, it would sell better”?

3- Are Marketing and Product Management arguing about who, and/or how, to write the marketing message for the product or service?

4- Do your marketing materials communicate simple answers to the questions buyers are asking in the words they use when describing their problems?

5- Is the necessary information to design or launch a product written down or just in someone’s head?

6- Do you know who else influences the buying decision of this product?

7- If you receive blank stares, “I’m not sure” or “no” we recommend you focus on developing buyer personas.

Implementing Your Brand Strategy

Developing Your Brand Strategy - 6 Week Course



Developing a brand strategy can be one of the most difficult steps in the marketing plan process. It's often the element that causes most businesses the biggest challenge, but it's a vital step in creating the company identity.

Your brand identity will be repeatedly communicated, in multiple ways with frequency and consistency throughout the life of your business.



To begin the development of your brands strategy you must have an understanding of these four marketing components:

1-Primary Target Customer and/or Client.
2-Competition
3-Product and Service Mix
4-Unique Selling Proposition

By identifying these components of your marketing plan you have created the basis for crafting your brand strategy. An effective branding process will create a unique identity that differentiates you from the competition. That is why it's often deemed as the heart of a competitive strategy.

If you are ready to begin the development of your brand strategy, but need guidance and feedback the Brand Course is just for you. In this 6 week course we will explore the following:
Week 1 - What is Branding?

Week 2 - Define Your Brand

Week 3 - Determine Your Objectives

Week 4 - Focusing on Your Target Audience

Week 5 - Exploring and Defining Brand Barriers

Week 6 - Brand Packaging

How it Works

Each week you will receive a new lesson and assignment to complete. When you have completed the assignment post it in the Marketing Forum. I will review each lesson and coach you through the 6 weeks, by the time you have completed the 6th week you will have created your Brand Strategy. Sign up below to get started today.

1-Determining Your Brand's Objectives

Critical to effective brand management is the clear definition of the brand's audience and the objectives that the brand needs to achieve.
What are the objectives that you hope to achieve with your brand?
Your brand should be comprised of the company personality, image, core competencies and characteristics. The impressions that you make as well as the words people will use to describe your company to others, are the basic framework of your brand.
With a strong brand you build credibility, have more influence on your market, and motivate customers and clients to purchase from you.If done correctly your company will be looked at as a leader not a follower.
To determine your brand objectives ask yourself the following question:
What is it that you want your brand to do for your company?

What do you want others to know and say about your products or services?
Sample objectives may include:
Being recognized by receiving a specific award

Picking up a certain number of choice projects

Gaining a specific number of new clients in the next year

Positioning your company as an industry leader in the next five months

You will find that by defining your objectives with specifictimelinesit is easier to develop a plan of action to achieve those objectives. By defining your objectives you are able to map out a plan on how to achieve those objectives. Say for example your objective is to position your company as an industry leader. How can you go about doing this? You could:
Have members of your team speak at Trade Shows

Schedule lectures at professional group gatherings within your industry

Write and publish articles in newspapers, magazines, or online media

Once you've determined your objectives the next step is to build and develop your brand strategy by listing out how, when, and what you are going to do to accomplish and meet your those brand objectives.
Use the questions above to determine your brand objectives. List each objective and map out how you plan to accomplish and succeed in meeting those objectives. Don't stop there! Once you've finished take time to list out what you can do in the this month or this quarter to meet that objective. Be specific and schedule those action items in your business calendar.


2-Focusing on your Target Audience


Your value proposition must be relevant to your target market. This means your target market must be clearly defined. It's not uncommon for a business to have to refocus and revisit their targeting, especially if it was not clearly identified in the beginning stages of business.
It is necessary to find the right balance when defining your target market in a way that causes your audience to recognize that you are talking specifically to them. This often requires companies to narrow down their target market.
Why is Your Target Market Important in Branding?
It does not matter what your Brand mission is identifying and gaining the devotion of your target audience is the necessary means to reaching those objectives.
To achieve your brand marketing goals it is important that you know your target market inside and out. This requires conducting a market analysis. This market analysis must be as in-depth as possible providing you will all the data you need to reach your target effectively. By knowing your target audience you will be more confident in the steps to take to connect with that audience.

The power of your brand relies on the ability to focus. That is why defining your target market will help to strengthen your brand's effectiveness.
There are two steps in Lesson four of the Developing Your Brand's Strategy course. The first is to conduct and informal market analysis of your target market and the second is to write a target audience definition for your company. The instructions below will walk you through the process of completing both of these steps.


3-Conduct Your Informal Market Analysis


The following questions will help you assess your market analysis. Make your study as complete as possible. Use the Internet to conduct research. You can also read news stories that are related to your target market. This will help you to narrow down your target by interest, demographic, and common trends.
Who is your target audience?

Where is your target audience located?

What do they think about your current brand?

What would you like them to think about your brand?

How will you attract them to your products or services?

Who else is competing for their loyalty and devotion?

Are you targeting business or consumer sectors?
Write Your Target Market Description

Using the questions below write a target market description. Be as specific as you like. The more specific the better.

4-Discover and Crush Your Brand Barriers

Second draft a statement on the type of relationship you would like to have with your clients.

When creating your brand strategy for a product or service it is important to perform a careful analysis to determine principal barriers that you may come in contact with. These barriers are also known as market conditions that can keep your product or service from achieving success.
For example they could include the following:
Competition

Timing

Financing

Location

Lack of Demand

In order to be prepared to face these obstacles or barriers it is important to spend time doing a careful analysis of your product or service. This analysis will assist you not only in the development of your brand, but also in the positioning of your product or service.
A careful and thorough analysis will assist you in answering the following questions:
Do you have a niche market? What problem does your product or service solve or need?

How should you determine the price of your product or service?

Who are your potential customers and where can you find them?

Who are your biggest competitors? What can you do better than them?

How should you advertise? Where will you find your target market? Will you use new media or traditional media?

Now that you have your questions where do you start your market analysis research? Starting your research is actually easier than you think, but it will take time. You will need to dedicate hours to this research in order for it to be useful and effective.

Let's start by visiting some very popular Internet websites that you can use for your market research:
Is there a great demand for your product or service? Find out by using Overture's keyword suggestion tool. By typing in key terms you can see how often your product or service is searched for on the Internet.
Who are your competitors? Investigate them online by using the Profusion Tool. This search tools enables you to drill down to your search topic and even has the ability to notify you when your competitor change or updates their website.
Keep informed on current market conditions and trends in your vertical market by subscribing to trade publications, news alerts, and electronic newsletters. There are several directories available, but you can get started with the few listed below:
EzineLocator

NewsDirectory

KnowThis Publication Directory

Google News Alerts

Who makes up your target market? What are their statistics and economic position? Where are they located? You can find this information by viewing industry surveys and research documents. Get started by using the following resources:
Annual Survey of Small and Medium Size Business

NUA Internet Surveys

Forrester Research

National Association for the Self Employed

National Foundation of Women Business Owners

Fortune Small Business

National Federation of Independent Business

Use the resources and questions above to analyze your market and discover any brand barriers you may come up against. I have no doubt that you will find at least one barrier. When you've located that barrier develop a plan to crush it and move it out of your way so that you can move forward towards success in marketing your business.

5- Continuity: Creating An Image Greater Than The Parts


Let's face it. Every industry loves it's own proprietary language and the world of marketing communications is no different. Today, marketing and advertising is all about branding, but in its early days it was known as positioning and a key element in the effort to establish a marketing identity - regardless of what you call it - is something called continuity. What exactly is that? It's the strategy and process of coordinating all the elements of a marketing message to achieve a consistent, memorable, overall look and feel for a company, service, or product.

 Sounds impressive, doesn't it? It's really all about making sure that everything you do as a company has a coordinated look and feel about it. Graphically, that means creating a standard logo, selecting a corporate color (or colors), a particular typeface, even a photo or illustration style. Content-wise, it means determining key points for your marketing messages that clearly, concisely, and compellingly elucidate your unique selling proposition (there's another one of those industry terms that falls in and out of fashion on a regular basis).


This is not as simple as it sounds. It requires an unfaltering, dedicated effort up and down your marketing chain to avoid going "off message". Time and time again I have seen engineering departments grab logos and typestyles and use them with haphazard abandon on everything from data sheets to PowerPoint presentations. I've seen sales people ignore mandates from the home office and routinely put out their own marketing pieces with not a shred of semblance to the carefully crafted look painstakingly created by their own marketing department. The result is always the same - a dilution of the company's identity and often a related drop in market share in response to the lack of an effective, unified marketing message. That, in turn, requires a needless squandering of precious marketing resources to reestablish the company's former brand awareness in the marketplace.
It doesn't have to be that way. A little discipline and a lot of vigilance can head off these potential image drainers and nip them in the bud before they become a real problem. By paying attention to continuity, your company can reap a multitude of benefits - heightened market visibility, enviable awareness among potential customers, and a more effective use of your marketing budget, yielding the biggest bang for your buck. Overall, a keen eye toward continuity helps you achieve levels of image and branding efficiency unavailable to practitioners of hit-or-miss marketing with little or no image consistency between messages and media.


6- It starts with your corporate identity.

I never cease to be amazed at how casually some companies treat their identity. There's no shortage of firms that use two, three, even four versions of their logo on a regular basis, with no particular rhyme or reason. The same goes for corporate colors - often a victim of one or more employee's personal taste ("I HATE that color, I'm going to use green instead...I think it looks better"). This dilution of image is made even easier by the proliferation of PowerPoint and other tools used by more and more employees. If this is happening to your company, I have three words of advice: STOP IT. NOW.
The longer this practice is allowed to continue, the more it will cost your company. In time, money, image awareness and, ultimately, in market share.
How do you combat this insidious problem? By establishing company-wide standards and maintaining them. Issue a simple style sheet that everyone can understand and follow and then enforce it. That means establishing a corporate color (or colors), a particular typestyle (especially one that is duplicated in computer fonts) and creating a logo that works well in 4-color (the process colors used by printers to print in full color), 2-color (usually black and a particular shade of a color from the Pantone Matching System, identified by a PMS number), and black and white printing. If you create high and low resolution files in these three versions and make them available to the people most likely to need them, you will go a long way toward unifying your image out in the marketplace.

7- And follows through in your message.

Now that you've got your company look under control, it's time to work on your message. This often starts with a mission - or for the more esoteric entrepreneur, a vision - statement. Sure, many of these typically contain a lot of over-heated rhetoric designed to make the board of directors warm and fuzzy, but they CAN be valuable. While others may be long on hyperbolic language and short on real meaning, work to make yours meaningful, concise, actionable, and unique. Be ruthless. Is this who we really are? Is this what we really want to be? Does this really set us apart? Once you've honed your statement to accurately reflect what your company is and what it stands for, it will enable you to create a meaningful slogan or tagline to be used in your marketing messages. Avoid the trite and contrived. "The Leader in (blank)" has been done before. Trust me.

A good tagline will inform every message that follows. It will help flavor copy written for your sales literature, web site, advertising, even internal messaging. It will make generating consistent, focused text easier because it will help set the tone and form the basis of the message. And that message, aided by the consistent visual combination of logo, color, and typestyle - wielded with ruthless discipline -- all combine to create a powerful, memorable marketing impression.



That, my friends, is the power of continuity. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote "consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." He was wrong. Consistency, otherwise known as continuity, is the most potent weapon of great marketing minds.



_______________________________________________________________

James D. Schakenbach is President/Managing Partner of SCT Group Inc., a high technology marketing communications agency.

Brand Packaging: Are You Reflecting the Right Company Image?

Branding is your identity in the marketplace, is yours saying what it should? Your company image is all about the appearance of your packaging. What is your company image saying to the marketplace?


It's important to realize that packaging always either has a negative or positive influence on the purchaser. A negative impression can detour a potential customer, just as a positive reaction can influence a customer to buy. A time to pay special attention to your packaging is when you are in the launch of a "new" brand. If you've already built a strong brand that others recognize often people may not pay as close attention to the packaging.
How can you package your brand so that it is an integral part of your business and represents a strong identity? Keep in mind that I am not speaking of packaging has only a box that contains a product, but as a vehicle that reflects your company's brand and image. Packaging can be judged and represented by the following common business tools:
1-business cards and stationery
2-web site
3-answering system
4-email address

What image are you putting across with these business tools that you use everyday? What are they saying about your company? Take a few moments and lets look at each one of these.

What are your business cards and stationery saying? Are they saying we are strong, we are confident, and we can succeed in helping you? Or does it reflect an image that says we are flimsy, our dynamics are minimal, and we will try but we cannot guarantee continuity?
What does your web site say about your company? Does it reflect professionalism, clarity, and show them that you respect and care about them? Or does your web site confuse viewers, project an untrustworthy image of your company and ultimately drive potential customers away?
What does your answering system and call return policy say about your company? Does it say we are here to help, eager for you business and will do what it takes? Or is it putting across the message that you are too busy to cater to new clientele, don't care about their needs, and wish they would just quit calling?
What does your email address say about your company? Does it suggest your role in the company, is it easy to remember, and does it something about you and your business? Or does it project a meaningless or generic emptiness? If you are using the email address hotbabe4u@hotmail.com for your business dealings................it's time to change!!!!!
As you can see all these things speak volumes about your image and they either strengthen or weaken your brand. Your image is all in the packaging. Would potential clients take a second look or is your message getting lost? If you thought these things were not worth the investment or didn't matter, you were wrong. Clients and customers will make assessments of your company based on these things and while not always conscious, that customer appraisal says much about your business, your attitude and your priorities.

What Role Does Your Logo Play in Your Branding Strategy?

When I speak about branding it's not uncommon for people to mistake their logo as their "branding". Your logo is only one piece of your branding strategy. Your logo is a symbol that can provide consumers with instant and powerful brand recognition of your business and the services or products that you offer.
Before beginning the process of logo creation be sure that you have developed your brand strategy. Why? Your logo is like a small ad for your company, without the strategy behind it a logo can put across the wrong message and in return weaken your strategy. You want to keep your brand message consistent to help increase consumer recognition.
How do you know when you are ready to move to the process of having your logo created?
The mission of your logo is to portray the values and goals of your company. Make sure that these are clearly established before venturing out to find a logo designer.

Be clear about the message you want your brand to convey so that your logo can clearly reflect that message. You must have a strong association between your brand and your logo. Remember it is only one piece of your branding strategy.

Your logo should reflect professionalism and growth no matter how small your company is.

If you are designing your logo in-house to save money be sure to market-test your efforts.

Make sure that the logo you select is not dated but can be used effectively year after year. Keep in mind it is how consumers will recognize your company.

The conclusion of the role your logo plays in your branding strategy can be summed up in the following statement.
Confident branding and a strong branding strategy uses design to communicate a message that attracts the target audience that you want to attract - a message that creates confidence in your brand while differentiating between you and your competitors. Does your logo fulfill this mission? If your answer is no it may be time to consider strengthening your brand strategy and looking at a new logo to re-position your company.
How To Write a Slogan that Sticks

When you think of slogans, what comes to mind? What brand can you recite a slogan for immediately?
Take for example the following slogans that have made their way into the memory of thousands:
Just Do It - Nike

This Buds for You - Budweiser

Have it Your Way! - Burger King

We Bring Good Things to Light - GE

We'll Leave the Light on For Ya! - Motel 6

Zoom! Zoom! - Mazda

Use the six components below to test your slogan and make sure it has what it takes to make it stick.

Make it Memorable

Your slogan must be memorable. Make it easy to remember, something they want to brand in their memory and possibly even repeat to others. Take for example the above slogans, when you first heard them what was it that made them stick with you?
Key Benefits

Your slogan must contain a key benefit of the product or service. Give them a reason to remember it.
Differentiate Your Brand

It must differentiate your brand. Does it bring out the character of the product or services that sets it apart from your competitors?
Solidify the Brand

It must recall the brand name otherwise who cares who remembers it. The brand can be depicted in the words you use or in the image of your logo.
Rhythm and Rhyme

Create rhythm and rhyme. Does it rhyme? Does it have a ring to it? The rhythm of the tagline will help to stick in the memories of those that read it or hear it.
Warm and Fuzzy Effect

Make it warm and fuzzy. Does your slogan leave people feeling warm and fuzzy? Does it bring a smile to their face or perhaps even a little chuckle? A slogan is more likely to stick in the minds of others if it imparts a positive feeling or emotion.