“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress” - Charles Kettering
Brands that are built on fear, are failing quicker than ever. Those that are set in their ways and refuse change are already dead. The funeral is just a detail. Trends such as time compression are erasing the lines of what we once called “natural” change. Industry control freaks are having to face a very scary proposition because all bets are off.
We are living in the most am·big·u·oustime: Now open to more than one interpretation.
Consider that the average consumer is in contact with over a thousand products daily. When customers go shopping the number expands to over 35,000 products and brands. Now add the human factor. The human mind experiences an average of 50,000 thoughts each day. This overflow of information and sensory experiences are eroding what we once considered in marketing the immutable laws.
“Stability is a dead fish floating downstream. The only kind of stability we know in this country is change.” – Henry Ford
To succeed in this crowded marketplace, we must be open to ambiguity. Knowing that there is no longer one right answer. Those days are gone. It’s time to embrace change. The easiest way to get started is to reverse our perception:
Reward failure and Adopt change.
As humans we have always survived by adaptation and breaking habits that were no longer conducive for survival. It’s now time for brands to do the same. Change can be a wonderful thing.
Jim Collins in Good to Great, clearly spelled out the attributes of great leaders. Level 5 leaders, as Collins calls them, exemplify a seemingly incongruous mix of personal humility and professional will.
Humility + Will = Level 5
“Level 5 Leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, humble and fearless,” Collins explains. They don’t allow their egos to interfere with their primary focus on the larger goal of building a great company. Collins clarifies that Level 5 leaders are usually highly ambitious, but their ambition is directed for the good of the institution, not themselves.
At Zappos, you won’t find any sacrosanct corner offices reserved for the higher ups. Zappos executives are fondly referred to as “Monkeys” and sit in what is aptly named “Monkey Row.” Here, CEO Tony Hsieh sits in an open cubicle among other executives, and encourages his employees to throw peanut shells on the floor of his workspace. Hsieh sends a subtle yet clear message that he’s not more important than anyone else in the company.
Collins further explains, “The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.” Aligned with this core principle, Hsieh openly advertises his email address and encourages people to drop him a message. You might be skeptical, thinking that your message would go unanswered, lost in a flood of emails. Hsieh, however, means what he says and stands by his word.
How can a CEO of a billion dollar company be so responsive? According to Collins, it’s because Level 5 leaders have a “ferocious resolve” to do whatever it takes to make the company great. And by his very nature, Hsieh embodies the perfect balance between personal humility and professional will, leading Zappos’s transformation into the great company it is today.
Your best customers are your Brand Lovers. Understanding the needs of your Brand Lovers and serving them better than anyone else is critical if you want to outmaneuver the competition and grow a long-term sustainable business.
Here are five reasons why your Brand Lovers are so important:
1. Your Brand Lovers choose you more often than your competitors. To most Mac users, there’s no alternative competitor to choose from.
2. Your Brand Lovers spread the word about your brand and create new customers for you. Basically, your best customers are the source of your word-of-mouth stream.
3. Your Brand Lovers are by nature loyal customers. Customer loyalty is a better determinant of profitability than mass appeal. (Again, just ask Apple.)
4. Focusing on your Brand Lovers and cultivating customer loyalty can help you double your return on assets (ROA).
5. Similarly, serving your best customers can lead to explosive return on investment (ROI). Example: When Apple opened their retail stores they expected to generate $1,000/square foot. They actually generated $4,000/square foot.
Ultimately, your Brand Lovers drive the profitability of your business. A Brand Model helps you attract more profitable customers.
“Brand Jordan exists because of what Phil Knight created
before I ever came along.” – Michael Jordan
The year was 1984, and Michael hesitantly took a flight to Portland, Oregon. It was the day that he would meet Nike Founder Phil Knight for the first time. Neither of them could imagine what the next 20+ years would bring.
Realizing that nothing of value comes without hard work, the partnership between Jordan and Nike was born. The idea was so big that it created something no one could have envisioned. By committing to their shared values, Nike and Jordan created an amazing brand that has endured.
The end is determined by the starting conditions. The outcome of our plans follows its own design and patterns. What vision do you see emerging for your Brand?
Can you imagine a day at the office where you might be asked to shave the head of your co-worker? Or better yet, how about taking a razor to the mane of your CEO? Leave it to the folks at Zappos to create not just a day, but an annual event called the Bald & Blue Head Shaving Day.
Social grooming is a means through which animals, including humans, who live in proximity can bond, build and reinforce social relationships. CEO Tony Hsieh explained that what originally started out as a dare evolved into a fun team building activity. Now every year, Zapponians line up and get groomed, all in the name of team spirit.
The benefits? Research has shown that social grooming is positively associated with relationship satisfaction and trust. For Zappos, relationships built on trust are the bedrock of their organization.
Watch this short clip on social grooming, the Zappos way.
What drives your business? Most executives and entrepreneurs would say sales or revenue.
But where do those sales come from? Customers, right?
Now, are all customers created equal? Of course not. Most customers will remain indifferent to your brand. They will buy from you on occasion—when it’s most convenient—and shop elsewhere when it’s not.
Amazingly, most businesses cater to these nomadic customers. Most executives think mass appeal and believe an untargeted marketing plan that casts the widest net will generate the most sales.
In the short run, they might be right. The fickle, nomadic customer might jump at a great promotion. But they will jump at your competitor’s great promotion just as quickly.
If you try to build your business around these fickle customers, the only way you can show increased profits on your balance sheet is to increase your growth curve. For retailers, this means continually opening more stores. Ultimately, this is not a sustainable model and profits erode over time as your market gets saturated.
The key to growing a profitable business is to build it around the needs and wants of your best customers. We call this special breed of customers Brand Lovers. Focus on serving your Brand Lovers and you’ll naturally attract more of them.
All great businesses—big and small—have Brand Lovers. All great brands learn to cater to and serve their Brand Lovers better than anyone else.
If your Brand Lovers represent your most profitable customers, why would you try to serve anyone else?
Focus on your Brand Lovers as the core of your business. Talk to them. Listen to them. Learn from them. Try to understand them. Co-create your business around their needs. The rewards for doing so will translate to the bottom line. Guaranteed.
Today brands are faced with a new challenge, mainly that of clutter. In a cluttered marketplace of indistinguishable brands, developing a strong position in the heart of the customer is extremely challenging. Brands that don’t actively work to differentiate are generally defined and controlled by their competition.
In the world of Branding, you either grow or die—branding, category leadership, market share, relevance, there’s no in-between.
In most cases, the winner of this game for the customer’s heart takes all, leaving the rest of the competition struggling for minor market share. In order to develop a strong position in the marketplace, CMO’s have to understand three key ingredients for developing brand dominance:
The subtleties of fine food preparation and service suffer from bigness and the all-seeing eye of the proprietor.
- Stanley Marcus
Dining at Trader Vic’s, Stanley Marcus was presented with wet towels by a waiter exclaiming, “Hot towels!” But, they weren’t hot, they were cold.
Trader Vic’s was a pioneer in the American restaurant industry and one of the first to offer the Japanese oshibori (the hot towels) at the end of the meal.
But, expansion without attention to detail reduced the quality of the service and food. It became more important to go through the motions than make sure the original purpose was behind them. As long as the waiter exclaimed, “Hot towels,” his manager was happy.
Settling for going through the motions will dilute the brand and can even kill it.
Is there something your company is doing that lost touch with its original purpose?
Jobs are everywhere. We clock in and clock out, putting in the bare minimum just to get the work done. Sometimes though, we find a career where we have a deeper vested interest in our work, motivated by achievement and advancement. Yet if we’re lucky, we’ll eventually find our calling where work becomes our life mission, and our life mission becomes work.
Online retailer Zappos is on a mission to inspire their family of employees to a higher calling. Since the beginning, they weren’t satisfied hiring people just looking for a job to pay the bills. Under their visionary leader Tony Hsieh, the company made a bold organizational move in 1994, relocating their headquarters from San Francisco to Las Vegas, to align themselves with people looking for a career.
Hsieh wrote in Inc. Magazine, “We were having a hard time finding good customer service people in San Francisco. Las Vegas has a lot of call centers and lots of people who want to do customer service as a career.”
Zappos embraces a singular vision—to provide the best customer service—and attracts people who share this passion. But the folks at Zappos aren’t satisfied knowing that their employees are committed to a career in customer service. They constantly strive to inspire their employees to find their true calling—to find personal meaning in their work guided by a higher purpose.
To achieve this, Zappos employs a full-time on-site personal coach, Dr. Vik, who invites employees to take a seat on the royal “throne” for a one-on-one consultation. He regularly tells his guests, “You are worth a billion dollars. Come have a seat and take your life to the next level!” With Dr. Vik’s guidance, employees are empowered to reach their full potential across their work and personal lives.
How many companies employ a full-time personal coach? Most businesses would view this as an unnecessary expense and immediately reject the idea.
Yet Zappos understands that a company’s employees—their people—are a reflection of the brand itself. When employees find their true calling, work is greatly satisfying and meaningful. Their enthusiasm and passion is infectious. And the customers are first to take notice.
Jim Collins in Good to Great, clearly spelled out the attributes of great leaders. Level 5 leaders, as Collins calls them, exemplify a seemingly incongruous mix of personal humility and professional will.
