May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Can you tell your brand story in the shadows? (video)

This video from Britain’s Got Talent is making the rounds in email links and Facebook posts, but I wanted to share it with you here. It tells a powerful story – without words, without faces or expressions. The story is told through dance and shadow ~ and maybe a little puppetry. Take a few minutes to watch the video. Feel your emotions and think about how your brand story can emotionally connect with an audience if they couldn’t even see your brand!

Hat tips to: my wife, Mark Kindley and Bob Scheier for putting me onto this video.

Filed Under: brand story telling, branding, brandtelling, visual thinking Tagged With: , , ,
April 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Is your brand hard or soft?

English: Macro photograph of coca-cola bubbles...When we think about brand storytelling, hard and soft are not the first descriptors that come to mind. But these two categories often make a huge impression in a customer’s or prospect’s mind.

A hard brand isn’t necessarily solid or tough, but it may be perceived as selling “hard goods” or having some type of physical presence. A soft brand isn’t necessarily fluid or yielding, but it may be perceived as selling “soft goods” or services.

It’s actually rather difficult to pin down exactly, but I’ll bet you have an immediate response when I ask the following:

IBM ~ HARD or soft?
Microsoft ~ HARD or soft?
Coca Cola ~ HARD or soft?
Pepsi ~ HARD or soft?
BMW ~ HARD or soft?
Mercedes ~ HARD or soft?
United Airlines ~ HARD or soft?
Vigin Airlines ~ HARD or soft?
Sears ~ HARD or soft?

What did you think? For me, IBM, Pepsi, BMW and United Airlines are all “hard” brands. They possess some quality of what I perceive of as a hard brand. Microsoft, Coca Cola, Mercedes and Virgin Airlines are all “soft” brands in my mind.

Sears is interesting. They did such a good job with their “Softer Side of Sears” campaign that I am not sure how I associate them ~ perhaps as both a hard and soft brand depending on context.

You can see from my perceptions, and perhaps your own, that hard and soft are completely subjective. Why, for example, do I consider Coca Cola to be a “soft” brand and Pepsi to be a “hard” brand? Both manufacture similar products, but I perceive the Coca Cola brand story to be softer than the Pepsi brand story.

Now, the BIG question: is it better to be a hard brand or a soft brand?

The answer depends entirely on your objective. Hard brands bring the perception of strength and solidity, while soft brands bring the perception of grace and fluidity. The one thing that I can say with great certainty is that once you have answered whether your brand should be perceived as hard or soft ~ or some significant combination of the two ~ you MUST strive for consistency in your messages.

What does that look like? Take a page from the leaders:

IBM is building a “Smarter Planet” not an “Easier Planet.” They are focused on a strong, goal that falls withing the definition of what a hard brand should do for its customers.

BMW is building the “Ultimate Driving Machine” not a “Fun Riding Car.” They are focused on absolute perfection of engineering when it comes to automobiles.

It’s not easy to determine that you are going to be a hard or a soft brand ~ but often that perception may already be in the minds of your stakeholders. And should you choose to change that perception  as Sears did, you must do so in a clear way that differentiates you from others in your category.

So, is your brand hard or soft?

 

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Filed Under: B2B Marketing, brand story telling, branding, brandtelling Tagged With: , , , ,
April 23, 2013 by 4 Comments

Brandtelling is Killer Content Marketing

award-imageContent once again proves to be king when it comes to establishing thought leadership, generating demand and nurturing sales leads. What I discuss here at Brandtelling is the way that brand storytelling can help companies make real connections with customers, prospects, employees and the community they share.

Today I am proud to announce that our friends at DemandGen agree and have awarded Communication Strategy Group and client Logicalis US with a 2013 Killer Content Award at the B2B Content2Conversion Conference held at the TimesCenter in New York City this week.

We have pioneered the use of Brandtelling, or brand storytelling, to help clients share their story through an approach grounded in informational and educational content. Receiving this award is a validation of our approach and the significant return on investment we provide to our clients.

B2B Brand Storytelling Content Marketing Campaign

Our client, Logicalis US, wanted to increase its HP sales and pipeline in a series of strategic product and solution categories. After consulting with them, we decided to create a unique thought leadership campaign that delivered a varied set of marketing messages in a creative and effective manner.

As its foundation, the package included an eight-page microsite with six targeted technology-specific messages, seamlessly blending HP technical content with Logicalis’ cloud, communications and collaboration and data center solutions and skill set information. Traffic was driven to the microsite by a series of six customer-facing emails and a call-to-action that offered a free downloadable e-Book to attract prospective clients to the site and capture their names and emails as they requested the eBook download. The eBook, “Elements of Design: How the Data Center of Today Can Be the Data Center for Tomorrow,” is strictly a thought-leadership piece without a sales-focused agenda, making it something of value to clients for them to download, read and share throughout their organizations.

Prospective customers who requested more information and signed up to download the eBook were contacted via a telephone outreach campaign, setting appointments for salespeople to talk with interested parties and move to the next stage in the sales cycle.

The highly-successful campaign was credited with enabling Logicalis to significantly expand its pipeline for HP-related business, providing prospective clients a fresh look at new technology from HP and delivering valuable insights into the myriad ways clients can transform their data centers for the future in a non-threatening, non-sales-oriented format.

You can see more about the campaign as well as the emails, microsite and eBook here:  http://www.communicationstrategygroup.com/logicalis-campaign/

Collaboration & Partnership

The award also represents a true collaboration. CSG Editorial Services Director Mark Kindley developed the content for what became a dynamic eBook. Account Manager Karen Franse and I developed the microsite and email series. Designer Heather Pidduck at Logicalis developed the strong graphic design for the entire project.

Please let me know what you think. How have you collaborated with your clients for mutual success?

Filed Under: brand story telling, brandtelling, customers Tagged With: , , , , , ,
April 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

How to Grow Sales for Free

MarketingMadeSimpleLogo-193x300Word of mouth is generally considered to be the most powerful form of marketing on Earth today.  But we find that it is poorly understood, because most of us look at it from the lens of our experiences – particularly B2B demand generation.

Why is it so important to learn the principles of Word of Mouth marketing? Simply said, it’s very low cost, even free. But it’s also a lot of hard work.  And it can be very counter-intuitive.

Take the example of a lead capture form. In B2B demand generation, you’re encouraged to keep the form as simple as possible and use progressive profiling to capture additional information during multiple visits. Many experts advise you to reduce the “friction” in your forms. This ensures a large percentage of visitors will fill out your form.

But in Word of Mouth marketing, you’re not looking for a lot of people to opt in – instead you’re trying to uncover highly passionate people.  That means you may want to create a complex form that requires an hour to complete. By raising a barrier, you screen out those without passion.

Another key concept of Word of Mouth is this: Become fans of your fans. You want to champion your fans. Fans are the key to Word of Mouth, so you need to motivate them.

Perhaps the best way to explain Word of Mouth marketing is to share a success story.

The Word of Mouth marketing firm Brains on Fire worked with the State of South Carolina in a project to reduce teen smoking. Other states were running TV ads, but when the ads stopped, smoking went back up.  The goal was to develop something more sustainable. (Brains on Fire Courageous President Robbin Phillips was a guest of mine on Marketing Made Simple TV)

The project was named Rage against the Haze. (Note: That name was selected by the kids.) Let me simply share the story as told eloquently by Brains on Fire.

Rage against the Haze

Backdrop

When the state of South Carolina received their Tobacco Settlement stipend, it became the responsibility of the state to create an awareness campaign for teens about the dangers of tobacco use. And do it in Big Tobacco’s back yard (not an easy task).

Other states were pumping their settlement funds into huge media campaigns with in-your-face TV ads. But once the ads quit running, the teen smoking rates went back up (SOURCE: American Cancer Society).

Purpose

  • To spread awareness of the dangers of tobacco use
  • To cause a 5% decrease in youth smoking rates in South Carolina
  • To create something so powerful, it would survive budget cuts

Action

Instead of trying to engineer a media campaign, we created something much more sustainable. We gave the reins to the teens and helped them develop a youth-led movement. So, we hand-picked 92 teens who we knew could champion the cause. They played a key role in the development of everything – from the name and identity, to the proprietary curriculum that we penned. We trained and armed them with the tools to spread the word, and then sent them on their way to find other “ViralMentalists™.”

To help, we conducted weekend retreats, statewide tours, Festi-Viral events led by the teens in different cities across the state. We created an interactive website where they could check in with each other, and a RAGE store where they could get SWAG – but only if they were out spreading the word and could prove it.

We sparked and shaped the movement. But the teens are the ones that owned and grew it.

Success

  • 16.9% drop in youth tobacco use rates, surpassing the 5% goal – one of the highest in the nation. That’s with no mass media. And no tax increase on cigarettes.
  • There are 6,000+ active ViralMentalists Raging Against the Haze.
  • The smoking rate drop is unprecedented since SC has the cheapest cigarette prices in the nation. The rest of the US funded television and school campaigns from a $206 billion settlement — none of which was ever implemented by the state of South Carolina. And the budget did get hit by a bus. But RAGE lives on and continues to grow.
  • The RAGE movement has earned a WOMMIE Award, a National ADDY and a 2008 gold EFFIE Award.

Word of Mouth marketing is incredibly powerful, but you have to take risks, like putting teenagers in charge.  You have to pick your champions careful – passion far more important than popularity.  And you have to let your champions lead.

“We sparked and shaped the movement. But the teens are the ones that owned and grew it.”

Filed Under: brand story telling, branding, brandtelling
March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Are you balancing your brand story?

Simple laboratory scales for balancing tubes

Over at at MSPMentor.com, the ultimate guide to managed services and the leading global destination for managed service providers, an interesting post has led to a thought-provoking discussion. Entrepreneur, editor, publisher and friend,  has opined on work/life balance, his experiences and a timeline of recent accomplishments and events. The discussion continues into the comments.

Take a moment, read the post and think about how you’re balancing your brand, your personal brand. Are things in balance? Should they be? What could you do differently?

You can read Joe’s post here.

Let me know what you learn.

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