Voice of the Customer

In the Four Steps to the Epiphany – Successful Strategies for Products that Win book by Steve Blank, he talks a lot about the customers. I fact, he probably writes the word customer more than the word product. He knows that without finding and marketing to appropriate customer groups, even the best products are destined to fail. Blank walks through several aspects of engaging customers to include:

• The customer discovery model
• Discovery
• Validation
• And Creation
• Additionally, he includes a comprehensive customer development checklist

This book is a great reference and guide for any entrepreneur who is trying to launch a business or product. Companies are doomed to fail without finding their tribe of devoted customers. And once you have those customers, it’s important not to let the brand voice dominate the voice of your best brand advocates: your customers. To drive home this point, I recommend checking out Jason Maynard’s article for Entrepreneur Magazine called, When Your Customers Are Talking, Quiet Your Brand Voice and Listen.

Logo & Brand Identity- A.D. White

I am posting this overview of A.D. White’s brand identity with two big caveats:

• A.D. White’s brand is still developing. It might look differently in a year.
• This isn’t the structure for all Authors. It is the structure today based on the decisions he has made thus far. If you are an author with a different structure, do what works best for you.

This is a 5-ish minute screencast overview of A.D. White’s logo(s) and brand identity:

5 Outdoor or Stunt Ads

Outdoor ads have a long tradition in marketing. There are entire sites dedicated to unearthing vintage ads and collectors who buy up old signage. Most of us recognize billboards and outdoor signage as a part of our memories and current everyday lives. I have found some very creative outdoor ads for you, some that may cross over into a slightly different genre and be considered more of an advertising “stunt.” I hope you enjoy and learn from these great examples:

“Carbon Cloud”

Link to Ad: http://www.adsoftheworld.com/collection/climate_change_awareness#showdelta=23

• Firm: Ogilvy, Beijing, China
• Company: World Wildlife Federation (WWF)
• Title: Black Cloud
• Event Date: January 2007

Objective: Show people how much carbon is released into the air for only one day of driving. Additionally, the WWF received a lot of press/news coverage in China and gained many new volunteers because of the balloon stunt.

Target Market: Young commuters (Millennials and Gen X) who understand their environmental impact but need concrete tips and facts on how to change their behaviors.

Action: Convince drivers to refrain from driving one day per week to reduce carbon emissions.

Value Proposition: By reducing the number of days you drive, you will reduce the amount of pollution in the air. Drive less, breath better.

 

“Exam in Progress: Please Talk”

Link to Ad: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/papyrus_dont_be_silent

• Firm: TBWA\Manchester, UK
• Company: Papyrus
• Title: Don’t be Silent
• Publish/Event Date: April 2017

Objective: Papyrus, a mostly paper and stationery company, decided to use their name to help bring attention to stress and anxiety among students.

Target Market: Students who bottle up their stress and anxiety during exam/finals time each year.

Action: Papyrus urges students to talk about their stress rather than remaining silent. They posted these flyers around schools with information at the bottom of each on how to seek help.

Value Proposition: Companies who extend goodwill and help are remembered as “good” companies. For a student who isn’t stressed, it’s a sweet gesture. To a student who uses the referenced resources, Papyrus will forever be a name they trust.

 

“Prius Launch”

Link to Ad: https://www.effie.org/case_database/case/NA_2011_5329

• Firm: Saatchi & Saatchi LA
• Company: Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.
• Title: Harmony Installations
• Publish/Event Date: 2011
• Awards: Effie-2011 BRONZE MEDIA INNOVATION

Objective: Relaunch the Prius brand as a “mainstream” environmental alternative in a down market.

Target Market: Expand their demographic to be wider than just the “environmental crowd.” Market to all car consumers by proving a commitment to their local businesses and communities.

Action: Allow consumers to interact with the lovely displays and widen their demographic through the interactive traveling show that looked more like art and less like a car ad.

Value Proposition: To the consumer, this approach said, “Prius isn’t just a car brand, it’s a commitment to a lifestyle and Prius is committed to that lifestyle beyond just the car.”

 

“This is not a billboard.”

Link to Ad: https://www.effie.org/case_database/case/ME_2017_E-1617-529

• Firm: MullenLowe Mediahub U.S. *Lead Agency
• Company: Royal Caribbean International
• Title: #ComeSeekLive
• Publish/Event Date: 2017
• Awards: Effie- 2017 Silver

Objective: Combine digital outdoor advertising boards with a new technology, Periscope, that allows specific preselected passengers of the Royal Caribbean to show live adventures aboard the cruise ship.

Target Market: Adults in New York City who were considering a vacation and who had never considered a cruise as an option. Reportedly, due to these ads, Royal Caribbean saw a 19% increase in bookings from New York from passengers who had never previously cruised.

Action: Passers-by of these live billboards had a hard time looking away. The real-time feed showed beautiful blue water, fun in the sun, and it was easy to relate to the selected “influencers” who were broadcasting from the cruise.

Value Proposition: The value to the consumer was a real-life glimpse into what a Royal Caribbean cruise was like. Many people view cruises in a certain stereotypical light, but the live feed to the New York billboards showed a younger, more fun and adventurous side of cruising.

 

“Cardinals have flown away.”

Link to Ad: https://www.effie.org/case_database/case/NA_2007_33

• Firm: Schupp Company, Inc. *Lead Agency
• Company: KTRS
• Title: Missing Birds
• Publish/Event Date: 2007
• Awards: Effie- 2007 SILVER MEDIA IDEA

Objective: Creatively get the point across that the broadcast of the Cardinals baseball games would be moving to a different station after 52 years at a different station.

Target Market: Adult men (and some women) in St. Louis who typically listen to baseball games while driving in their cars.

Action: The Cardinals on the billboards physically “flew” to a different sign to signify that they had moved to a 550 KTRS radio station. This creatively informed the consumer to tune into a new station.

Value Proposition: The value to the consumer is they were informed of the change in the station in a clever and fun way.

 

**Cover Photo Credit: http://www.vintageadoftheweek.com/1971-mercury-cougar-xr-7-billboard/ follow them for a vintage ad of the week**

Your Brand= Your People

I’ve been at the Bersin Impact 2018 conference this week. In fact, I’m typing this from my hotel room in Hollywood, FL. I’ve been surrounded by amazing business leaders and HR professionals from around the globe talking about human capital trends. This isn’t the kind of stuff you might remember from your mother’s glory days in “personnel”. The lines of where HR starts and the business starts are continually blurred (as they should be). HR is not external to the business; people ARE business.

Deloitte has identified the overarching human capital trend for 2018 as “the rise of the social enterprise”. Gone are the days where CEOs of your favorite brands can remain silent on social issues that affect both their customers and employees. A major player and role model in this trend is Unilever. You may or may not recognize the company name, but you will certainly recognize their brands like: Magnum, Helmans, Dove, Lipton, Ben&Jerry’s, Nexxus, Ponds, and V05 just to name a few.

This morning’s key note speaker and Unilever’s CHRO extraordinaire was Leena Nair. Her message was very clear about a company’s responsibility to be a change agent for good in both the lives of their employees and their consumers. Here are some of the key take-away points from her presentation that relate to both people and brand:

• Create a culture where your employees feel like they can be their authentic selves at work and they will be your best brand ambassadors. You can see examples of this in Unilever’s sponsorship of Pride, diversity/inclusion in Dove commercial, etc.
• One of Leena’s first slides articulated: “Brands with purpose grow faster, companies with purpose last, and people with purpose thrive”.
• Leaders have responsibilities to further brand and purpose internally and externally.

• Millions of people apply to Unilever and even if they aren’t hired, the company has a duty to respect each as a human and consumer by giving them feedback/response to their application. Maintaining a positive experience with Unilever.

I immediately started following Leena and other Unilever leaders on social media. I can’t wait to learn more about what Unilever does next as a socially responsible enterprise. And because I love supporting good companies, I’ll keep buying my Nexxus shampoo and eating plenty of Ben&Jerry’s. Marketing at its finest!

*All photos were taken by me and are either from Leena Nair’s presentation at the conference or the Deloitte/Bersin sessions.