How to make your customers into raving fans

25/11 2010

We all dream of building successful brands like Apple or Nike. Few pull it off.

We call ourselves professionals, so shouldn’t we do better? Especially since mankind obviously has had a clear understanding of the power of a brand for thousands of years. A quick glance at the christian cross, or the muslim crescent, is proof enough.

An embarrasing question comes to mind:
Can today’s brand managers learn from the ancient religous sages?

To find the answer we have to turn to neuroscience, or more specifically, a fMRI-scanner. Thanks to this piece of equipment we can gather data of exactly what goes on inside our heads when we look att pictures of famous brands – and compare these with those of diehard religious people when they’re exposed to spiritual symbols. And here’s the earth-trembling news:

The neuro-patterns are exactly the same.

Clearly, we’re missing something obvious, but what? Because here we are, in the beginning of the 21st century, trying to find the holy grail of advertising. We go to universities to learn the theories, we manage focus groups to figure out how people think and react, and we constantly look for more effective ways to connect with our audiencies. Yet the answer is both simple and old-fashioned.

It all comes down to telling a good story.

Whether you want to build a strong brand or start a new religion you have to start with a compelling plot.

Here are a few pointers:

First, you need a character your audience can relate to. Correction: you need to be a character. This will create identification.

Second, you must decide on a goal that’s both tough and inspiring – so bold in fact, that your success/failure ratio is 50-50. Now you have a vision, a direction and a strategy. At this point you should have butterflies in your stomach, or something is wrong.

To make things even worse, enter a fierce antagonist. The sole purpose of this character is to prevent you from reaching your goal, because the antagonist’s motives are exactly the opposite of your own. This will lead to conflict and suspense.

Now you’re in the heat of the action, which in turn, will create lots of feelings. Don’t be afraid, feelings are great, they are nature’s way of getting things done. Now, not later.

Suddenly your goal seems even more distant and you start to realise that you need help. That’s why you need a flag (think christian crusaders), on which you print a visually strong symbol. Because this quest of yours will be a hardship, and in the midst of the battle you need to let others know what side you’re on, so they instantly can decide whether they want to take part of your vision or not.

If done cogently, you could soon have a whole army of raving fans by your side, always prepared to act on a wink, a nod or a flick of the wrist.

For every step you take, every battle won, the myth grows larger and deeper, and your image as a hero builds up.

You will without doubt face defeats. This is the crux of storytelling: You’re part of a story. A story needs action. And action is built by a number of small setbacks followed by the sweet smell of victory.

Never give up. Don’t fear opposition. Don’t run from conflict. Don’t fear the fear. They are your best friends. If you lose them you don’t have a story.

No story, no hero.

No hero, no brand.

That’s all to it, really.

All good writers know this, of course. But you’re a businessman. If you’re like most businessmen you were taught to make brand decisions based on core values, not stories.

Here’s a tip from The School of Hard Knocks:

Forget core values. They don’t lead to anything. They have no conflict, no suspense, no interaction. All they’re saying is »I’m perfect!«. And that’s pompous bullshit to the average consumer.

If you want to build a successful brand, my best advice is to study how the great religions are sold to the world, or how the entertainment industry works. We are, after all, in the storytelling industry.

Stories are sticky. Stories unite people, make them interact and engage with each other. Stories create a sense of belonging, just as they’ve done since man learned to walk upright.

Now, what’s your story?

Per Robert Öhlin
works as brand strategist,
creative consultant, author and lecturer.
Mail: pr.ohlin@luckyman.se
Blog: www.minegoestoeleven.com

3 comments

Bo Bäckman: Segment of behaviour and urge.

18/11 2010

The Process: Define the segment (What?). Identify and find the most appropriate target group in the customer database and on the market (Who?). Reach in selective, effective media (Where?). Influence by understanding the drivers (Why? – With a ‘Wow! This is for me!’).
In short:  “What? To whom? Where? Why? (And Wow!)”.

Different segmentation parameters:
• Behaviour – What you do.
• Urge – What you desire.

Analysis:
You need a survey with information about brand penetration and loyalty together with values, activities, interests and target group information. This is often available in your tracking studies or can be found in cost effective open surveys.

Cluster analysis – splits the market in clusters that are exclusive. A customer can only belong to one cluster/segment. Internally the clusters are homogenous, externally as different as possible from the other clusters.

Chaid – forms a prioritized tree of wishes, preferences. First the kitchen is prioritized then the living room. …… This way we can find priorities and segment the priorities. Prioritizations are often correlated with willingness to pay. This way profitability is built in to the segmentation.

RU – segmentation (R=Revenue U=Urge). It is based on taking many different values (general and product specific) correlating them with loyalty and thus identify the drivers. These drivers are then transformed into a continuous variable and “sliced” into (often) 3-4 segments based on tradeoffs between urge – spending. The rationale is of course that it is more profitable to acquire a new customer that spends more and to serve and protect your own profitable customers.

Factor analysis – finds the patterns in what the markets wants and allows the customer to have more than one “wish” at a time. You might like a large kitchen but you might as well have a smaller kitchen and a dining area when you need a new home.

Output: Of course there will be a lot of tables, a lot of statistical factors that need to be interpreted, transformed into actionable conclusions/recommendations.

Example: Phone Behaviour.

The phone operators make money on traffic.  Many of the new applications are provided by the mobile manufacturers through outside innovators. The applications generate traffic. The basic for the operator is to measure behaviour – how much do people spend on their mobile. Below is behaviour segmentation based on spending. The largest segment is “The silent Majority” –they spend very little on their mobile. Less than 20 euro per month. That´s where the challenge is – to make the Silent Majority heard and listened to. The smallest segment today is those who use many applications/services.

Source: Orvesto Sweden. 16 000 interviews. Open survey.

Urge.

Maybe there is no such thing as a pure need (if we ignore drugs). There is often an urge present that shows as preferences for different concepts – brands. Life Style Magazines is an urge product. Superbrands are urgedriven. Below an example for Amelia – one of the leading Life Style Magazines in Sweden. An RU-segmentation (Revenue and Urge)

Drivers/Anti drivers for Amelia:

Drivers – City Pulse: Enjoy shopping, follow trends in fashion, active to change their life, Want inspiration, responsible – personally and to the environment.

Anti Drivers – The small world: Don´t want change, avoid the city, hesitant to fashion, need confirmation of their life style

Segments: Spending on Life Style magazines and have City Pulse Drivers. Consumer Base: Women 15 – 79 years.

High spenders – 3.6%: The Core segment: High spenders with the right Drivers.

Medium spenders – 4.3%: Probably need a price incentive. The drivers are right

Low  spenders – 7.6%: Like to read about their drivers but not to pay

Never – 9.7%: Forget theese. They probably have an attitude towards glossy magazines but might well read with a scorn.

Bo Bäckman

3 comments

Consistency Warning

11/11 2009

Today, most firms want to build a strong brand. Most firms also realize that a brand is a set of associations in the mind of the customer – and that this set develops over time while the customer accumulates experience from the brand. In other words, it is assumed, correctly, that a customer will encounter one particular brand many times and that each such encounter adds information to what the brand represents.

In the light of this, it is not surprising that many firms make serious attempts to manage the signals they send about the brand. And the most common strategy is to think about the signals in terms of a consistency-over-time paradigm: each new encounter with the brand should fit with what is already known from previous encounters. Thus, there should be no deviations in the signals and no main surprises. This way of thinking materializes in many different ways, but it can be seen perhaps most clearly with regard to the management of the logotype – which, in the typical case, is subject to strict policies stating that the same graphic representation should be used every time the customer may encounter it. Variation in shape and colours, for example, is not allowed. The same thinking can also be seen in many service firms’ brand building efforts, particularly in retail chains: the employees’ behaviour and appearance in encounters with customers are becoming increasingly standardized and carefully scripted. Smiles, eye contact, nods within 15 seconds, always wear a black top, never display tattoos – these are some examples from existing service policies. Such activities, then, ensure that the customer will be exposed to the same brand signals every time the brand is encountered.

Many firms, however, want also something else – loyal customers. And many firms are successful in their relationship marketing efforts, in the sense that many customers are indeed existing customers who are coming back. This may suggest that the consistency-over-time paradigm promotes brand loyalty. Well, it may be so – at least in the case of moderate brand loyalty.

Yet consider the case of the customer who is indeed coming back repeatedly and who is also encountering the brand in the same way each time. In the beginning, the customer will quickly feel familiar with this brand. But when the customer continues to come back, again and again, the brand will become very predictable if it always appears in a consistent way. And this is when problems can arise, particularly if the ambition is to build a strong brand (and now we are talking about a really strong brand).

The problem is this: really strong brands, which are characterized not only by customers who come back, but also by a strong emotional and attitudinal customer-brand relationship, are typically not predictable. In contrast, it seems as if unpredictability over time is a key characteristic of the really strong brand. Think about it in terms of, for example, football clubs, which have a well documented ability to develop strong commitment among fans: the clubs are typically not at all predictable in terms of the outcomes of games, the performance of specific players, the transfer of players during one season etc. Indeed, why would you want to follow your favourite team if you know exactly what would happen? Think about it also in terms of strong brands such as Apple, Google, and Harley-Davidson – it is not so easy to figure out their next moves in the marketplace. And think about entertainment products, such as novels and movies, in which the story is the core product: the really absorbing products in this category would hardly provide a predictable story. Think about it in terms of another really strong “brand”, namely God. Read the Bible and try to figure about why God is sometimes good and sometimes almost evil vis-à-vis various characters in the story – this is indeed a difficult task. Finally, particularly if you want to develop a strong personal relationship with customers, think about another person who you find very interesting and exciting – and with whom you want to interact repeatedly. Is this person highly predictable? Would he or she behave in a highly consistent way each time you meet? I bet the answer is no.

Magnus Söderlund
Professor in marketing, Stockholm School of Economics
Magnus.soderlund@hhs.se

No comments

Bo Bäckman: Correlations – the drivers towards a Superbrand

4/11 2009

This is the first article in a series of very short articles. The Brand is in the eye of the beholder and an eye is coloured by values, interests and activities that drive perception, action.

• Drive what you notice. Over one day you are reached by many messages that want to be transformed into perceptions/ actions in your head. Consumers have (fortunately) a filter that filters and sorts the messages very quickly. A brand that aligns with values will break through the barriers easier.

• … Drive what you want to show others in order to be accepted, to belong. It can be a brand but also an Icon – the T-shirt with your favourite footballer.

• … Drive what you do. Your values (or religion) tell you that you should give to charity and your perception of what proportion (if any) your contribution will reach the intended group will often determine what you do. The all important “Trust”

• … Drive what you are prepared to pay for. If not in accordance with your values you are not willing to pay more but might consider a purchase if there is a price offer.

Interests, activities – not only values matter.

• Interests and activities unite people and spread brands – personally and today often on the net.

• You share your interests with other interested. You want to show your products. You discuss the new products – the new features and thus the interested are early adopters and ambassadors. An ambassador sees to being informed early. Very often on the net.

• Activities you often do together and share experience, the new features, failures. In an activity, in social media group there is often someone that is looked up to and whose opinion matters more than others. This person can be outside of the group and a celebrity/Icon whose endorsement makes a brand a Superbrand that you can share with a superstar. But often it is an insider that has an influence because of knowledge, experience, persuasion power and status. Today often a blogger/twitter.

Analysis:

• You need a survey with information about brand penetration and loyalty together with values, activities and interests. This is often available in your tracking studies or can be found in cost effective open surveys.

• Technology: Correlation, Answer tree, Chaid, Factor analysis, Triangulation. These technologies can be found in SPSS, Open Office (freeware) among others.

• Output: Of course there will be a lot of tables, a lot of statistical factors that need to be interpreted, transformed into actionable conclusions/recommendations.  Example Triangulation below.

A few examples from Sweden
(Source: Orvesto, Research International.16 000 interviews)

BMW is driven by a strong interest in cars and an interest in money/investment (in order to be able to pay). They also have an outgoing life style – like to be seen in their BMW and enjoy good food/wine. Plus they are negative towards government subsidies –“I have earned my money through hard work “.  All this of course diminishes the size of the target group to about 1, 5 % of the population that owns their own car – not a company car. But the penetration of BMW is more than 3 times higher in this drive chain than among “ordinary” car buyers.  Socioeconomically they are found in many parts of the life cycle but almost 40 % amongst DINK and retired. “Now I can afford and enjoy a BMW”. For Toyota the drivers are quite the opposite: the more outgoing you are the less the propensity to buy a Toyota. But the potential is much higher as Toyotas drive chain attracts a wider target group.

Heineken beer is driven by an intense interest in movies and computer games plus being very active in sports like tennis, motor boating and team games.  They are not coach potatoes watching TV but active with games – games on the computer and games with physical activities (which means an attraction to if mountain climbing as in the commercials). 70% are single or before family life.

The loyalty and profitability for the mobile operator 3 is driven by a technology interest combined with interest in videos and video games. But also an urge to be challenged, to fight for something. That´s where 3 started in Sweden and to a large extent the drivers are the same today. But sociodemographics are slowly changing from the very young to the more mature life cycles.

Bo Bäckman

No comments

From information to operational knowledge in brand research. The role of analysis.

4/11 2009

”Market research is today much of presenting instead of providing operational knowledge that supports marketing decisions. What is missing is often the analysis. In a series of very short articles Bo Bäckman (bo.backman@gmail.com) will try to show the possibilities of analysis in brand development.

The 360⁰ articles to follow:

1. Correlations – the drivers towards a Superbrand
2. Patterns – segments of behaviour need and urge.
3. Elasticity –  values, traits that drive willingness to pay
4. Trends – what trends are sustainable and profitable and which present a threat
5. Predictions – the flows in the customer base. Life expectancy for a customer.
6. Market presence – in the right media, in the right distribution channels.
7. Gaps – what gaps are there in market that can be filled with future Superbrands?
8. Fusion – soft attitudinal data from marketing research fused with hard behavioural data in the customer database.

Bo Bäckman was part owner, Executive director of Testologen – today Research Internationals media research arm in Sweden. Started, operated and developed B2B Research and is now an independent international consultant.

No comments