Turn Lost Opportunity Cost Into New Business Opportunity

The fact that most all businesses have competition, creates an imperative for businesses to market in order to create customers. It is the CEO's job to define the company's strategic position and research has proven that the three leading companies in any industry are more profitable and attribute 80% of the company's success to strategic direction. It is a fact that if there is no distinguishable advantage to choose your company over a competitor, the only deciding factor will be price. So, how do you start?

1. Begin by listening to your customers
2. Understand the game first and then determine your game plan and position on the field: Study the competition, trends, available market share, opportunities to grow business with existing customers, find an under served area in the marketplace
3. Find your company's unique voice or position and build a marketing strategy around leveraging that uniqueness; once this is done, determine tactically how to reach the market
4. Brand first: in other words get ready. Plan second: we need to determine who we are aiming to reach. These steps are necessary to ignite your business: Fire your message to the marketplace.

The return on investment will be realized in a very short period of time in a number of ways:

• Strategic direction removes the guess work which translates to less wasted marketing budget spend
• A voice of differentiation will get heard and will open up selling opportunities
• Knowing what it takes to lead the market with your differentiation and creating a game plan provides sharp focus; that focus will guarantee you hit more bulls eyes

Wasted marketing budget spend equates to "lost opportunity cost." Turn that lost opportunity cost into new business opportunity. To calculate what lost opportunity is costing your business, contact Kelly Borth at kborth@greencrest.com.

Developing Internal Brand Ambassadors

In a world where a company's greatest asset is its people, isn't it time to look a little closer at our internal brands?

Many organizations go through the time and expense of a brand discovery process and successfully launch external marketing campaigns only to discover that the experience they promised their customer isn't delivered internally. Once this occurs, they have most likely lost that customer and, in turn, hurt the brand they worked so hard to discover and communicate.

Living the brand is definitely the more difficult part of the brand process and it is out of the control of any single individual. Communicating the importance of delivering the experience and giving the organization's brand top priority is the CEO's job, but the delivery of the experience can only be realized through the staff who touch the customers once they have transitioned from wanting the experience they read about and saw in the marketing materials.

Even the best-laid advertising plans can only take a company brand so far--it is usually the customer experience that creates the kind of energy and world-of-mouth referrals necessary to sustain a brand. So, what does it take to create Internal Brand Ambassadors who ensure the brand promise is delivered upon each and every day? Three words--communication, training and tools. Internal brand adoption is a top-down initiative. Senior management must engage the team in believing in the brand, understanding the importance of the brand promise and delivering the experience. The message must be delivered to employees in a way in which they not only start to understand their role in executing the brand, but actually start to internalize it and live it. On-going recognition and rewarding those who exemplify the brand is of utmost importance. A critical element in building a brand-driven business is the employees; without their believe, guidance, ownership and participation, it is truly an impossible task.

Customers' Ultimate Level of Satisfaction Results from the Combination of Two Factors:

I ran across this most remarkable summary in reading "Satisfaction," a book authored by Chris Denvoe and James D. Powers IV. I had to share it, in that it is the best summary I have run across to date. Enjoy...

Customers' ultimate level of satisfaction results from the combination of two factors:

• The process imposed by management, and
• The personal interaction that takes place between employees and customers.

Management can do everything within its power to establish processes designed to maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction, but all its efforts will evaporate like a mirage in the desert if a customer encounters a rude employee charged with carrying out this process.

Of course, the converse is also true.

Even the best employee, regardless of his or her personality, will find it difficult to salvage a customer experience sabotaged by poor processes.

Think about it... It is something we encounter all to frequently, isn't it?

Perfectly Stated

Your mission is to be . .Your vision is to become . . .Your brand is who you are and what you do differently.

Tips for Building Brand Culture

• Make sure senior executives are walking the talk
• Make sure the brand and its message are consistent over time—innovate and update brand, but do not change the essence
• Have a relevance and differentiated promise so that employees know what each brand stands for, why it is special, understand what brand it trying to achieve and their role in bringing the promise to life
• Always focus on customers and their needs
• Consistently conduct needs-based segmentation
• Maintain frequent and consistent brand communication
• Align the organization around all brand-building efforts
• Set up metrics, measure consistently and make improvements based on results
  Have every employee go through a “mission and medallion” ceremony to explain the purpose, value and meaning of organization
• Give employees tools to be brand ambassadors: define benefits, strategy, personality, identity standards, and Intranet site to house all information
• Hold organization-wide brand meetings
• Link profit sharing to brand building and ask employees to create a plan for how they will live the brand
• Regularly measure employee morale

Brands That Over Deliver

A collegue of mine at Cohn Marketing www.cohnmarketing.com posted a Tweet requesting stories on brands that over deliver. In spirit of finding companies who are doing things right, I thought I would share my experience with Omni Hotel in Chicago. It was clear from the moment I arrived that this team was well-trained on providing the ultimate customer experience. I was greeted by name. Prior to my arrival the hotel had asked me about my preferences which were confirmed upon check-in. I had a corner room with a view, Internet access and my preferred wine in the room available for purchase. Everyone in the hotel made an effort to greet me and assist me throughout my stay. It was so remarkable that others in my group also noticed the level of service and we began a conversation around how outstanding our experience had been from restaurant servers to meeting room assistants. We shared our feedback with the hotel manager and we all proclaimed that the next time we had an opportunity we would stay in another Omni Hotel. Great job Omni! Internal brand adoption really does make a difference to the bottom line.

Brand Busters!

Do you ever wonder how some companies get to be leading brands? This is something that goes through my head daily. A recent experience I had with 1-800-Flowers is an example of a bad brand experience caused by shallow execution. I sent flowers to someone who just had a baby. There was a limited selection for that life experience, but I found something and ordered online. Normally I am sending flowers out of state. With this experience, I was sending them to someone in town, so I had the unique opportunity to witness what was sent. Needlesstosay, I was appalled by the size and quality of what was sent. I was embarrassed to say the least. The confirmation of delivery I received via email allowed me to provide feedback. When I did, I received a message that I would get a credit on my next order. I replied back that apparently, they did not read my message, because I did not intend to ever order from them again. Again, I received the same "standard" credit message that I received the first time. So, again, I replied, only to get the same standard credit message the third time. That is a great example of shallow execution and a company that will never truly learn why its customers disengage due to a bad brand experience. Do you have similar experiences to share?