Brand Personalities: Are you talking to me?

As a well-known restaurateur and voracious networker in Kathmandu, I received many letters every week from very respected acquaintances, diplomats and business people whom we met on the expat 'social circuit'.

Usually these were impeccably written notes on beautifully textured weighted paper, some headed up with a colourful logo and all concluding with a carefully considered signature. Each one was very thoughtful and gave a very good perception of the sender.

What you do is not the same as what you think you do.
However there was one thing - the most important element in forming a great 'first impression'  - that many of these correspondents fell down on which consequently undid all the good work they invested in their brand. I am of course talking about that piece of paper we set aside when reading a letter - the envelope it came in.

All too often the shabbiness and lack of care that went into the envelope and address label was surprisingly poor. After setting the perfect tone about their personal - or business - brand, they made the mistake of handing it over to a poorly trained PA or messenger to send out on their behalf. These were busy people after all; far too important for such a trivial task! This ensured that certain details were overlooked. For example, this assistant would innocently stick it in a cheap, badly made envelope. As for the 'label', the secretary's trick was to print my name and address on a piece of A4 paper and cut out what resembled a square with a pair of scissors before sticking it on the front with a dab of Prit Stick glue. There, perfect. 

The surreal thing was, and this is no exaggeration, on more than a few occasions it was then delivered by a chauffeur who would arrive in a big car only for my staff to see it addressed to (sic) 'Mr. Tomas', 'mr. Kirloy' or worse still, 'mr. Tomas Kirloys' (since the restaurant was called Kilroy's of Kathmandu' I can only assume they thought the 's' was part of my surname.) Inside, I found my name was spelled perfectly. 

At the time it made me laugh, but it also taught me a hugely valuable lesson: your brand is not what you think you portray, but what other people and businesses perceive it to be.

So while you're opening up your new box of restaurant business cards, ask yourself if the chef's cooking is as consistent as the printer's guillotine. Or while your Twitter account is responding in minutes (or seconds) to every rant or reservation enquiry, is your website allowing people to contact you calmly and rationally before they have to resort to Twitter.

With the best will in the world, you can try to micromanage every aspect of your brand's presentation, but you can't control the subjective response your brand receives. You can however influence that perception. And that requires real instinct and feel for what works in each channel. 

The same brand can have multiple personalities across a range of channels. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but it does work as long as these messages are kept consistent

Apple is a great example of this where it's brand presentation is very corporate during their quarterly Earnings Conference Call, very innovation-led during the CEO's annual WWDC Keynote and very much emotionally charged in its product and end-user positioning. Different messages aimed at different audiences who connect through different channels. And let's not forget the millions of brand iterations created by fans. They may not be 'on brand', but they resonate more acutely than perhaps the brand can by itself.

If you need your brand to appear more corporate in one channel (for the Bank Manager perhaps) and perhaps more 'folksy' in another (I'm thinking your Customers here), this is possible as long as:

  • everyone in your organisation knows the difference between the two.
  • everyone in your organisation knows why you require that positioning.
  • those messages are kept separate and kept consistent.
  • that those messages do not dilute the brand as a whole, but serve to create a stronger presence with different stakeholders.

Knowing which parts of your brand integrity you can control and which should be allowed to grow organically are the key to building a strong presence that appeals to the widest possible audience.

Brand iterations created by fans may not be 'on brand', but they resonate more acutely.

Is your marketing strategy in your employee's pocket?

In case you're wondering why I believe Social Business to be absolutely crucial to your marketing strategy, just think about this: In the very near future (think months), Social Business will just be referred to as Business, simply because everyone will be doing it as a normal course of their communication strategy.

Apple's iPhone is a great example to illustrate what I mean.

Steve Jobs was laughed at for predicting the end of physical buttons back in 2007.

When it first came out, the handset was referred to by the industry as a 'Smartphone'. As more competitors rushed to catch up, the smartphone became more universal. Along with Samsung Galaxy's, Nokias and Androids, today they are just referred to as 'phones'. (Funnily enough the old style mobiles are now called 'Feature Phones'. How ironic.)

Don't believe me?...

Today, most phones sold in the UK look like this:

So what does all this mean for your business? Well just remember that pretty much every chef, every waiter and every manager in your business has one of these in their pocket. 

As do most of your customers. 

Now THAT is a massive opportunity that Social Networking can give your business. You can't run from it, so you'd better embrace it before everyone else does.

What are you waiting for?

Apple's Latest Acquisition Puts Them Inside the Building

Mitch Joel writing for the Harvard Business Review highlights a little-known story that Apple just bought a small start-up last week for $20M called wifiSLAM. Basically they provide GPS for indoors and it is thought this will help Apple to augment the shopping experience in or near Apple Stores (initially) as you walk around the Mall.

The interesting thing here is that we as consumers, are willing to share our most private data with stores and brands that we wouldn't want shared with security firms or government agencies.
And what that might look like:
"This aisle by aisle, real-time ability to flip offers, while getting a better understanding of how foot traffic flows, where consumers stop and engage is going to affect everything from pricing to shelf space to how end-cap placements are sold."
Apple might suck at Social Media, but they're at the leading edge of Social Business.

Take three tablets...

Here's an iPad ad that screams "Wild!"... "Bright!"... "Together!"

Meanwhile on his commute home "...every evening, at exactly 6:07 District Manager Thomas M. Wilkes" does this on his Dell XPS...

Or in meetings, this young hipster executive daydreams of escaping a world full of spreadsheets on his Microsoft Surface Pro...

Which lifestyle do you aspire to?

Bonus: And can you guess which tablet has the biggest market share in unit sales?