June 10th, 2009
I’m all for great branding, as you can see in one of my previous posts, Simple Branding. Branding should look, sound and feel good. It should be cool, catchy and let people know quickly what your brand is all about. But, there is another critical branding component that will make or break your brand. I call it The UN-Brand.
The UN-Brand is what evolves from your brand, rather unintentionally. It’s the culture, personality and tenor of your brand. It’s what people are left with after an encounter with your company, its people and your service. It speaks just as loudly as your masthead or logo, even more so. It can make or break your brand.
How you treat your customers, your brand voice, enthusiasm for your product, services and clients, how your employees and customers are valued, and other intangibles make up your UN-Brand. They are the unwritten, unspoken qualities that exude from your brand. It’s what people are saying about you once you walk away or after you’ve performed a service. It’s more than customer service. The UN-Brand develops from within and comes from the core values that your company and Brand actually embrace and embody. It’s the “how” behind the “what” of your brand. It’s the character of your company and how you get the job done that makes up your UN-Brand.
Your UN-Brand will reveal itself on its own. I’ve witnessed this with my own brand. My area of expertise is Strategic Communications and Relationship Building skills, specifically, Social Media, Business Communications, and Interpersonal Interactions. I teach and train people how to communicate effectively, position and promote their brand, attract customers and get great results. If you look at comments from customers and clients who interact with me, you’ll hear words like: dynamic, inspiring, joyful, open-hearted, motivating, insightful, authentic, transparent, and compelling. Not much to do with the what of my brand but a lot about how I get the job done.
Another great example of UN-Branding in action is the SAS Corporation. SAS is the definitive leader in analysis and business software. They are known worldwide for excellence in analytics. They’re also known for some amazing things that have nothing to do with their brand that clearly set them apart from other companies. SAS is known for how well they treat their employees.
I would argue that it is probably one of the biggest reasons that their products are great and they have such wide success without being a publicly traded company. In an article by 60 Minutes called “Working the Good Life“, you find that the company has only 3% turnover, offers employees a 90% discount to the company owned country club, has in-house social workers to help employees with problems and so much more. They’ve developed a culture of creativity, innovation and results through treating people as if they are a valued, trusted resource.
Some of the intangible qualities that make up the UN-Brand
- Trust
- Transparency
- Authenticity
- Empathy
- Outlook and Attitude
- Creativity
- Culture
- Community Involvement
- Charisma
How to develop a great UN-Brand
Ask yourself the following questions to develop a great presence.
- How do we want to be perceived by customers, suppliers, vendors and employees?
- What are our Core Values?
- How do we want employees and customers to feel as a result of a business relationship or employment with our company?
Allow these three questions to be the platform of developing your mission and vision statements for your company and your brand.
The ends do not justify the means. Attention to how we grow is just as important as the growth. I challenge people to consider how they want to be perceived in the marketplace and think of those intangible qualities that go beyond efficiency and numbers. Allow that desired perception to guide your brand as well. While numbers and results are critically important, none of it matters if you, your company or employees have poor interactions, communication and encounters with clients and customers.
Brands and companies are made up of living, breathing people who are interacting with other people to provide a product or service. How your customers feel about the service along with the service itself keeps them coming back. By attention to the how everything gets done, your desired perception and how you want people to, UN-Brand
Tags: about, authenticity, brand, branding, business, business communications, commenters, communicating, communication, communications, core values, creativity, customer service, desire, encounter, feelings, follower, inspiration, intangibles, interaction, interactions, interpersonal interactions, job, life, masthead, media, media business, motivator, perception, personalities, personality, platforms, productivity, promotions, relationship, social, strategic communications, tenor, transparency, Value, walks, words
Posted in branding, business, featured | 4 Comments »
June 10th, 2009
Recently during NY Internet Week I had the pleasure of having dinner with Brian Solis [@briansolis] (among others) where Nicole Jordan [@nicolejordan] joined us. Nicole began speaking about how she has resorted to calling what she does as ‘integrated communications‘. Brian proceeded to say that that’s just another way of saying ‘public relations’. He should know more than anyone else as he wrote ‘Putting The Public Back In Public Relations.’ The question that came out of our conversation is this: Is it time to stop calling it PR and call it anything else?
Public relations, integrated communications, holistic branding- they all speak about conveying your core values in a message for others. When you ask most people what they think of the word PR many will tell you ’spin’ or press release. As a communications professional you will need to use spin in crisis situations but not all the time. And yes, you will need to send out press releases but these two tactics do not make a public relations professional.
“There is no doubt in my mind that eventually all PR agencies and consultants will follow suit and transform from publicity firms into New Media communications and marketing organizations rich with in house or contracted content producers, digital sociologists, research librarians, community managers, digital architects, connectors, and industry experts/strategists.” ~Brian Solis. It may not be long until all PR professionals are new media agents just as he predicts.
Social media has changed the discipline of communications forever. Instead of corporations talking at you, they’re now attempting to talk with you. Social media is now used professionally by many different corporations successfully- Dell, Whole Foods, Ford, Pepsi, among others. Some have had social media backlash against them (Motrin) while others use social media as a shiny new toy (Skittles). In order for social media tactics to ring true you must weave them in at the base level to reflect your core values.
This is how social media has returned public relations to its roots.
The stigma of the word ‘PR’ may be so great that we may need to stop focusing on what we are called and focus on what we do. What do we stand for? How is that being reflected in what we do? What can we offer others? This is the key.
Gone are the days where you can use a channel of communications to say ‘look at me’. If you can’t use those same channels to say ‘look, it’s me, i’m here for you’ then you’re toast. People get right away when someone isn’t being genuine. We have too much stimulus and not enough time in today’s world. For you to stand out from the crowd you must be true to what you stand for and only want to help those who align with you.
It doesn’t matter what you call it- PR, public relations, integrated communications, holistic branding. What matters is that you make sure your client’s communications are synced across every single platform (design, branding, marketing, advertising, social media, etc).
The hucksters and the spin-doctors have ruined the good name of PR by taking the focus off of the public and putting it on themselves. It’s not about me me me or you you you. It’s about us us us.
Doing business at all costs is no longer viable. Doing business at the best costs is the new modus operandi. Regardless of what you call the discipline the ones who will get ahead will be those who can align their values with their customers. And that’s the truth.
Tags: attempts, benefit, brand, branding, business, communicating, communication, communications, community managers, consumers, content producers, conversation, conversations, core values, crisis situations, design, designers, doubt in my mind, Facebook, follower, industry experts, integrated communications, integrity, interaction, interactions, internet week, marketing, media, motrin, networking, new media communications, nicole jordan, organization, pepsi, platforms, pr agencies, pr professionals, productivity, reflection, research librarians, skittles, social, social media, sociologists, solis, strategists, technology, twitter, Value, whole foods, words
Posted in branding, business, featured, social media | No Comments »
April 12th, 2009
© Will Lion
“We don’t think of social as a destination. We think of social as a dimension.” ~Ari Balogh, Yahoo! Chief Technology Officer commenting on how Yahoo! will make services associated with social networking part of the fabric of their existing sites and not just another service. (Source: NYT, Bits)
Social Media is hype. People don’t understand it. Companies are scared of it. For what? They’re only a bunch of silly programs that are touted as the next big thing, just like email and the internet and computers and the telephone and the television and radio and countless others.
So why is Social Media causing such a stir among people AND companies? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: advantage, benefit, best communications, business, communicating, communication, communications, communications platform, consumer, consumer decisions, consumers, email, Facebook, fingertips, focus groups, functionality, god, grouping, holy grail, hype, influencer, internet cam, knowledge, life, lifetime, linkedin, listening, marketing, media, mediums, mentions, network, networking, nielsen ratings, place where people, platforms, productivity, reading, science, silly programs, social, social medium, technology, Television, traditional avenues, traditional paradigm, uphill battle, wealth of knowledge, word of mouth, words, Yahoo
Posted in featured, social media | 8 Comments »
April 8th, 2009
© Will Lion
Consumers seek meaning and a brand they can trust. They are busy at work on Web 2.0 platforms creating ways to cut through the noise in search of products and services that resonate with integrity and transparency; in a word, authenticity. That quest for authenticity is a call to action for any company intending to be relevant in the 21st century.” | Sohrab Vossoughi, Business Week
Branding is an art not a science. What may work for one company may not for another. The most important thing is to engage and listen to your customer. The following is a brand checklist that every brand (personal and professional) should go over before doing business. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 21st century, advantage, aggregation, attribute, authenticity, benefit, brand, branding, business, business vision, communicating, communication, communications, company values, competitor, consumer, consumers, design, designers, differential, doing business, functionality, goals, integrity, interaction, interactions, knowledge, life, listening, marketing, media, platforms, productivity, reading, science, screwdriver, screws, social, technology, transparency, Value, viewpoint, words
Posted in branding, featured | 2 Comments »
January 16th, 2009
http://www.will-lion.com/digitalbites
“I don’t think brand as “broadcaster” is going away anytime soon, but I do think the exciting challenge which lies ahead of us is to figure out what tactics actually work in the “brand as facilitator” category” -David Armano. WHAT IS A BRAND WORTH? This was a question that was inevitably sparked by my one-on-one chat with my infinitely wise friend Carl Gucciardi about Freemium Marketing. Upon moving the conversation to Twitter this back and forth arose between myself and @AdInfinitum:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: benefit, brand, branding, broadcaster, business, chat, communicating, communication, communications, competitor, concerts, consciousness, conversation, corporate practices, david armano, decentralized conversastions, es, evangelists, event, freemium, friends, gay, goals, good stuff, hero, homonyms, lesbian, life, marketing, mentions, models, multitude, new media, niche, noun, Paris, perception, plans, platforms, present, product customers, productivity, reality, relevant questions, reply, responsibility, signs, social experiment, social media, social network, social networking, strategy, tagline, Television, The L-Word, twitter, video, Web 2.0, Whatever X.0, wise friend
Posted in featured, social media | 20 Comments »
The UN-Brand
I’m all for great branding, as you can see in one of my previous posts, Simple Branding. Branding should look, sound and feel good. It should be cool, catchy and let people know quickly what your brand is all about. But, there is another critical branding component that will make or break your brand. I call it The UN-Brand.
The UN-Brand is what evolves from your brand, rather unintentionally. It’s the culture, personality and tenor of your brand. It’s what people are left with after an encounter with your company, its people and your service. It speaks just as loudly as your masthead or logo, even more so. It can make or break your brand.
How you treat your customers, your brand voice, enthusiasm for your product, services and clients, how your employees and customers are valued, and other intangibles make up your UN-Brand. They are the unwritten, unspoken qualities that exude from your brand. It’s what people are saying about you once you walk away or after you’ve performed a service. It’s more than customer service. The UN-Brand develops from within and comes from the core values that your company and Brand actually embrace and embody. It’s the “how” behind the “what” of your brand. It’s the character of your company and how you get the job done that makes up your UN-Brand.
Your UN-Brand will reveal itself on its own. I’ve witnessed this with my own brand. My area of expertise is Strategic Communications and Relationship Building skills, specifically, Social Media, Business Communications, and Interpersonal Interactions. I teach and train people how to communicate effectively, position and promote their brand, attract customers and get great results. If you look at comments from customers and clients who interact with me, you’ll hear words like: dynamic, inspiring, joyful, open-hearted, motivating, insightful, authentic, transparent, and compelling. Not much to do with the what of my brand but a lot about how I get the job done.
Another great example of UN-Branding in action is the SAS Corporation. SAS is the definitive leader in analysis and business software. They are known worldwide for excellence in analytics. They’re also known for some amazing things that have nothing to do with their brand that clearly set them apart from other companies. SAS is known for how well they treat their employees.
I would argue that it is probably one of the biggest reasons that their products are great and they have such wide success without being a publicly traded company. In an article by 60 Minutes called “Working the Good Life“, you find that the company has only 3% turnover, offers employees a 90% discount to the company owned country club, has in-house social workers to help employees with problems and so much more. They’ve developed a culture of creativity, innovation and results through treating people as if they are a valued, trusted resource.
Some of the intangible qualities that make up the UN-Brand
How to develop a great UN-Brand
Ask yourself the following questions to develop a great presence.
Allow these three questions to be the platform of developing your mission and vision statements for your company and your brand.
The ends do not justify the means. Attention to how we grow is just as important as the growth. I challenge people to consider how they want to be perceived in the marketplace and think of those intangible qualities that go beyond efficiency and numbers. Allow that desired perception to guide your brand as well. While numbers and results are critically important, none of it matters if you, your company or employees have poor interactions, communication and encounters with clients and customers.
Brands and companies are made up of living, breathing people who are interacting with other people to provide a product or service. How your customers feel about the service along with the service itself keeps them coming back. By attention to the how everything gets done, your desired perception and how you want people to, UN-Brand
Tags: about, authenticity, brand, branding, business, business communications, commenters, communicating, communication, communications, core values, creativity, customer service, desire, encounter, feelings, follower, inspiration, intangibles, interaction, interactions, interpersonal interactions, job, life, masthead, media, media business, motivator, perception, personalities, personality, platforms, productivity, promotions, relationship, social, strategic communications, tenor, transparency, Value, walks, words
Posted in branding, business, featured | 4 Comments »