Taglines are like strings. They connect a brand (which can have a corporate image, and sometimes a separate consumer-facing image) directly to its users. It’s like a personal commitment or promise. For those reasons, a tagline must be meaningful, relevant, sincere, and long-standing.
We’re in the Age of Consumerism, and choices abound. Where there are choices, and there are environmental, societal, political, economic tensions influencing consumer decision-making filters, there are the makings of volatile markets. Loyalty slides under the bewitching scent of (temporarily) lower rates, (quasi) cash back, and (puny) rewards. It pays to cultivate loyalty when so many can be convinced to jump ship.
When looking for ways to build credibility with your consumers, it’s important to remember the details in end-to-end processes and the intrinsic value potential they hold when executed properly. That means purposefully delivering relevant messages in Thank-You response pages, Contact Us forms, and the like. Sometimes those tactical exchanges leave a consumer feeling very transactional instead of meaningful.
Blogging can be like a virtual front porch in a traditional Southern home. Everyone is welcome, there’s plenty to enjoy, laughs to share and strong opinions to trade. Unspoken etiquette requires you to be civil when you’re being honest, be receptive to your neighbor, and share what you know. You can join the nice folks down the street and offer your influence, or you can host your own get-together and shape the conversations a little more strongly.
True partnerships between organizations (clients) and consultants (3rd parties) depend on lots of leg work, collaboration, communication, trust, and a deep understanding – of one anothers roles, of the final objective. Consultants can support client goals by helping them master internal reluctance or reticence.
Possessing – demonstrating! – strength of character can be an iterative and seemingly elusive endeavor fraught with temptations. Rising above the temptations to cast aspersions and judgment, both in life and work, can offer a measure of freedom unlike any other. Can you see beneath the surface?
A strong tagline is a great opportunity to be relevant, to resonate, to express a RTB. Choosing a tagline indisriminately or in response to an event or occasion rather than as an intentional, purposeful statement of brand essence and direction is a very bad idea. Just ask Winn-Dixie.
Site design or redesign time provides your organization with a tremendous opportunity. Embrace an affirmation. Suggest a new direction. Deliver increased function, or enhanced operability. Change perceptions, attract new audiences. Should you do this all with flash and flare? Or style and grace? Is there a middle path?
How can hospitals, and other veritable institutions and industries, leverage consumer interest and adoption of user-generated content for their own purposes?
Successful organizations are a composite of skills, abilities, and characteristics. They are also a melded group of individuals bearing a variety of perceptions, viewpoints, and filters. Exceptional organizations are those that leverage the strengths of some to balance the weakeness of others. As with child-rearing, recognizing that one group shouldn’t be forced to wear the shoes of another but rather wear their own shoes with comfort and confidence, good companies will hold fast to mavericks and recognize the value they have the potential to provide the organization.
Considering Web 2.0 as a strategy and a business effect. It’s making headlines, but is it making money?
As managers, our obligation to building strong teams and advancing the career aspirations of others is tied to our ability to understand their skills, drivers, personal styles, and information processing. When serving on a team charged with growing a business, the importance of trust, respect, and responsibility to our peers is equally important, if not greater. Our aptitude for achieving those qualities may be partially tied to the filters (and barriers) we use with each individual.
While it may take more time, and a greater degree of involvement and effort, it’s my hope that some potential partner out there approaches vendor relations (dare I say, partnerships?) with a discerning eye, an attentive and inquiring ear, and a tuned intuition. Leave the interview screeners at the office, let’s talk business.
To be effective and competitive, organizations must analyze the breaks in service levels, determine how to message (and support) integrated start-to-finish care. Today’s consumer has evolved (it will only get more entrenched) to expect “all included” and “all under one roof” care. If you don’t do a good job at educating them about your “one stop shopping,” they might go elsewhere. Consider this, if you had one healthcare dollar, would you want to split it different ways?
Gone are the days when tacit misdirection was acceptible. Consumer expectations necessitate ownership, accountability, and quality customer service when a product doesn’t measure up. Under no circumstances should the words “isolated incident” bounce around your grey matter; if it happened and the company is truly culpable (if only of not crystalizing product limitations or requirements), then you must disarm the viral bomb before it has a chance to start its countdown.
Ever heard of the Net Promoter Score (NPS)? It’s a metric used to determine the likelihood or propensity that a consumer would recommend a particular product or service favorably to someone(s) they valued. Next time you think about conducting a been there/done that client satisfaction call (whereas the structure of the call essentially guarantees you’re going to hear client peeves that are totally related to their immediate problem, and in little way a true reflection upon how your product/service is valued), think about asking just one question instead: “Would you recommend us?” Interestingly, our company has found quarterly ratings to be approx middle of the road, with substantially higher ratings when the question of recommendation (NPS) is raised.
The path to bungled launches and bungled attempts was kaiboshed with an uncoordinated, half-hearted brand support system. Without the full, unfailing, and well-communicated support of internal stakeholders and influencers, you could be sabotaging your brand before consumers ever have a chance to become indifferent or apathetic.
Today’s e-revolution is arguably fueled by many combustables. Maslow would attest that our Love/Belonging and Esteem needs predispose us to seek social forums. Consumer trends experts would say that our climate of personalization and self-control, as well as the search for authenticity inspire us to create our own content and rate what we find from others. Under any theory, any forward-thinking company (regardless of sector) should evaluate the landscape of modern technologies reaching consumer audiences and formulate strong strategies for guiding communications, fostering a branded experience, and driving affinity.
