At some point in the life of your brand, an event will occur that negatively impacts your brand.
Sometimes such events will be mistakes or bad decisions on your part. At other times, things that are beyond your control will happen in the external environment.
In any case, it is essential to deal with these negative events in a positive, proactive and constructive manner to maintain the health of your brand.
The four steps to managing negative events in the life of your brand are:
1. Assess whether or not the event can be undone and weigh all the costs and consequences involved in undoing or reversing the event
2. If the situation cannot be undone then accept it quickly and do not dwell on it
3. Act quickly to minimize the damage and actively manage the fallout
4. Create a plan to capitalize on the new opportunities presented
Bad events happen in the life of a brand. Don't allow your brands to falter and lose their footing when bad things happen. Accept the things you can't change, move on as best you can and look for the new opportunities that are created.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Monday, June 12, 2006
Symptoms of an unhealthy brand
I'm compiling notes for an upcoming white paper on branding and thought I'd share a portion with you in advance.
Some warning signs of an unhealthy brand are:
* Your brand's sources of equity have vanished
* Through the course of natural evolution and growth of your organization, certain brands in your portfolio no longer foster the organizational mission or fit in with overall business strategy
* The investments you make in your brand cannot be justified based upon the level of revenue and profit that brand returns to your organization
* Nobody within your organization can seem to succinctly articulate your brand's core values or concisely state its unique selling proposition
* Your brand is promising more than your organization can consistently deliver
* Your brand has gotten a bad reputation and new, unwanted associations have been made by consumers
* Your brand's identity seems dated or old-fashioned
* Competing brands now hold the leadership positions in the category
* Your brand is not reaching out to new, younger consumers and your brand is aging right along with your customers
* The promises of value your brand makes no longer resonate or remain relevant
* Your market has moved beyond your brand
* Your brand managers are at least second or third generation managers who were not in your organization or near the brand when the brand was created
* You do not understand who your brand's most valuable customers are or why they choose your brand
* Sales are slumping and so are profits
If you recognize any of these warning signs, it might be time to take a closer look at your brand or perform a brand audit to help ensure your brand's health and longevity.
Some warning signs of an unhealthy brand are:
* Your brand's sources of equity have vanished
* Through the course of natural evolution and growth of your organization, certain brands in your portfolio no longer foster the organizational mission or fit in with overall business strategy
* The investments you make in your brand cannot be justified based upon the level of revenue and profit that brand returns to your organization
* Nobody within your organization can seem to succinctly articulate your brand's core values or concisely state its unique selling proposition
* Your brand is promising more than your organization can consistently deliver
* Your brand has gotten a bad reputation and new, unwanted associations have been made by consumers
* Your brand's identity seems dated or old-fashioned
* Competing brands now hold the leadership positions in the category
* Your brand is not reaching out to new, younger consumers and your brand is aging right along with your customers
* The promises of value your brand makes no longer resonate or remain relevant
* Your market has moved beyond your brand
* Your brand managers are at least second or third generation managers who were not in your organization or near the brand when the brand was created
* You do not understand who your brand's most valuable customers are or why they choose your brand
* Sales are slumping and so are profits
If you recognize any of these warning signs, it might be time to take a closer look at your brand or perform a brand audit to help ensure your brand's health and longevity.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
CRM systems and your brand
One of the best quotes I've seen or heard lately with regard to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems that were all the branding rage just a couple years ago comes from Shaun Smith in his article, "Ten ways to screw up your brand" over at BrandChannel.com.
Shaun says that many organizations use CRM systems "...as blunt instruments to stalk, rather than woo, the customer."
He is so right.
Instead of learning more about customers in order to offer them value that is of known interest to them, too many brands merely use the knowledge gleaned from consumers to pummel them with offer after offer in the hope that they simply just buy more stuff.
Let's not forget the "relationship" in Customer Relationship Management. Making an offer does not constitute fostering a relationship.
Shaun says that many organizations use CRM systems "...as blunt instruments to stalk, rather than woo, the customer."
He is so right.
Instead of learning more about customers in order to offer them value that is of known interest to them, too many brands merely use the knowledge gleaned from consumers to pummel them with offer after offer in the hope that they simply just buy more stuff.
Let's not forget the "relationship" in Customer Relationship Management. Making an offer does not constitute fostering a relationship.
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