PIONEERS OF THE BRAND DNA SYSTEMSM
The Real Value of a Brand Advocate Build and leverage advocates for your brand to boost sales exponentially! Are you a brand advocate? Are you someone that will go to great lengths to let others know how much you love a particular brand? Do you tell your friends and family, your colleagues and business associates, and even people you just met? Many of us have favorite brands, sometimes they can be far and few between and when we find them we’re truly enamored with and want others to experience them.
What Is a Brand Advocate? A brand advocate continues to do business with you regularly, spends more than other customers and is one of your biggest champions. They’re passionate about your brand, what you stand for, and tell others because they believe in your brand. They even go as far as speaking praises about your employees. Advocates for your brand feel inspired because they have connected to it on an emotional and even visceral level. Your brand makes them feel special and a part of something bigger and better than themselves. And, they go to great lengths to promote your brand to others, even purchasing your products as gifts and sharing their experiences on Facebook®, Twitter®, customer review sites, and other social media platforms. Now, that’s a true brand advocate!
Increasing Brand Advocates Can Reduce Your Marketing Expenses Companies spend significant amounts of money on traditional marketing efforts each year. Those funds may get customers in the door, but the missing component is that it doesn’t necessarily build loyalty nor does it turn them into brand advocates. Studies show that marketing to acquire new customers is five to seven times more expensive than nurturing your existing customers. Inspiring your existing customers to return and do business with you creates even greater pay‐ offs such as increased sales from them and from those they refer to you. And let’s not forget the tremendous amount of goodwill that is created for your brand through an advocate’s word of mouth marketing to their circle of influence that in turn elevates awareness leading to increased brand value. 1 | P a g e ©The Brand Ascension Group, LLC | www.BrandAscension.com 1410 Chesham Circle | Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907 | +1 719.265.1707 | +1 719.748.2290
PIONEERS OF THE BRAND DNA SYSTEMSM
What’s the Real Value of a Brand Advocate? In a recent white paper entitled, “What’s a Brand Advocate Worth?” by Zuberance, a “brand advocate’s recommendations are the #1 influencer of billions of dollars in purchases from cars to computers, hotel rooms, movies, enterprise software, and more…” Research conducted by Deloitte in 2009 and reported in “A new breed of brand advocates” demonstrates that the longer a customer does business with you the greater the profitability to your brand. The Deloitte study showed that a brand advocate spends two times as much as an ordinary customer. Zuberance used the Deloitte findings to estimate the total value of a brand advocate to be at least five times or more of the value of an ordinary customer comprising: Twice the value as an ordinary customer (Spend Value), plus The advocate’s referrals has at least three times the value (Advocacy Value) Zuberance’s research reported even higher examples of up to seven times Source: Zuberance.com more value than average customers in three industries: hotels, restaurants, and enterprise software. The data is very compelling and shows that brand advocates have significantly more influence in driving top‐line growth than your traditional paid advertising and marketing methods. That’s remarkable when you consider all the ways an advocate can drive growth for your business. Consumers are more likely to buy based on a trusted referral versus an advertisement. Another recent study was conducted by Inspiration Blvd, LLC and reported in Forbes. The research found a new paradigm emerging in businesses—that consumers are drawn to brands based on their Inspiration Factors. This is driven by the emotional bond they have to a brand and how the company is perceived to make the world a better place for others. One common outcome of Inspiration Blvd’s research was that every Most Inspiring Company that made the list had the ability to enlist and unleash a cadre of enthusiastic advocates to carry out its organizational mission. The research also uncovered how higher levels of Inspiration affect earnings: 2 | P a g e ©The Brand Ascension Group, LLC | www.BrandAscension.com 1410 Chesham Circle | Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907 | +1 719.265.1707 | +1 719.748.2290
PIONEERS OF THE BRAND DNA SYSTEMSM
50% of the brands recognized by consumers as inspiring outperformed the S&P 500 by an average of 45% and as much as 95% year over year.
And as a whole, these brands outpaced the S&P by 11% over a 5 year period, 2005‐ 2009.
Talk about the enormous ‘return on inspiration’, (RO‐I), and its correlation to overall business performance! And earlier research through Fred Reichheld (Bain & Company) “The One Number You Need to Grow,” and Satmetrix published in Harvard Business Review, December 2003 showed a strong correlation between higher levels of year‐to‐year revenue growth with a greater number of consumers who recommended a brand. Riechheld referred to them as “net promoters”—yep, brand advocates! The data clearly indicates that building brand advocacy is a no‐brainer because of the return on your investment. So, with all the compelling research available in the market, why haven’t more companies learned from and studied the companies that utilize this powerful lever to inspire customers to become their no‐cost sales force? This is a huge untapped opportunity for so many companies. Granted, creating brand advocates doesn’t happen overnight. It takes careful thought, commitment, and resources.
How to Build Advocates for Your Brand Here are four actionable ideas to begin building and capitalizing on advocates for your brand. 1. Be authentic. This is one of the key principles of Inspiration Blvd’s research that all companies on the Most Inspiring List share. Know what you stand for; make sure your employees know what you stand for, define, create and build your brand’s DNA: Values, Style, Differentiators, Standards, Brand Platform and Promise. Create and reinforce a culture of authenticity through every facet of your business in how you treat and show up for your employees and customers. 2. Gather feedback from your customers and employees. Assess how they perceive your brand. a. Based on Fred Reichheld’s research, ask the question, “Do you recommend our brand, products/services, and company to others?” With a simple response scale of “Yes, No, or Don’t Know”, you can determine your net promoter score by subtracting every “No” and “Don’t Know” from the total number of “Yes’s”. A few pointers: 3 | P a g e ©The Brand Ascension Group, LLC | www.BrandAscension.com 1410 Chesham Circle | Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907 | +1 719.265.1707 | +1 719.748.2290
PIONEERS OF THE BRAND DNA SYSTEMSM
i. If the answer is “Yes”, ask follow‐up questions to assess how often and in what situations. ii. If the answers are “No” or “Don’t Know”, ask for specifics or suggestions on how you can improve their experience and gain their recommendation. b. Develop a process for customers to provide formal and informal feedback regularly so you keep a pulse on advocacy. Keep it simple. 3. Create community among all stakeholders. Look for ways to inspire stakeholders to believe and talk about your brand; catalyze conversation and create buzz, connect and engage them through online and offline networks: a. Consider social games, as a way to draw people to your brand. Zynga has several popular games on Facebook such as ‘Farmville’, ‘Mafia Wars’ and recently added ‘Car Town’. To the point, this level of social gaming has benefited Facebook by creating community. b. Show how your brand improves the lives of others or makes the world a better place. People want to feel a part of something special. When they do, they want to share it with others. 4. Be people‐centric—nurture, nurture, nurture your customers, employees and other key stakeholders. Look for creative ways to reward and reinforce the brand experience and show genuine appreciation. a. 94% of customers want to be loyal (companies just give them reasons not to) – leverage the feedback process, and create a distinctive customer nurturing and appreciation program to turn them into brand advocates. b. Study brands like Southwest Airlines on how they nurture their employees and involve your employees in creating ways to reinforce and reaffirm the brand. Empowered employees allows agility in your brand to respond quickly and effectively to the needs create delight and increase advocacy. And remember be vigilant in showing up authentically. Manage the integrity, intent and experience behind your brand. Take it in bite‐size pieces and include your employees to create and inspire advocates to proactively generate more business for you, boosting revenues and overall value exponentially. Follow these simple steps to create and sustain DEMAND FOR YOUR BRAND! About the Author ‐‐ Carol is committed to organizations who want to achieve transformational and sustainable brand success through strategic, internal branding practices. As co‐developer of The Brand DNA System™ methodology, she has helped numerous clients create consistent, relevant and distinctive experiences that inspire, motivate and engage employees to deliver memorable customer experiences.
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PIONEERS OF THE BRAND DNA SYSTEMSM
For 30 years, Carol has cultivated extensive global experience and proven success in leading businesses through significant challenges. Her experience spans a variety of industries including hospitality/hotels and other service related, cable, media, government contractors, government—local, state and municipal, high technology, professional services, financial services—banking and insurance and healthcare. Specific accomplishments include guiding businesses through rapid change, brand development/alignment and revitalization, branded service training, organization development, performance capability, compensation and benefits, employee engagement and service enhancement, talent acquisition, leadership assessment and development, and mergers and acquisitions. She has developed brand scorecards for managing business metrics and performance and reward programs to create a clear line‐of‐sight for employees. This has resulted in laser‐focus at the individual level that drive team, unit and brand performance aligned with business/brand goals. She has a passion for branding, where she believes everyone in an organization is responsible for understanding and delivering “on‐brand” experiences. Having held several executive management and strategic HR roles, including Vice President of Human Resources—Asia Pacific for the largest hotel company in the world – Six Continents Hotels (currently Inter‐ Continental Hotels Group), she has learned that the most successful and sustainable brand organizations harness the energies of their people to bring their brands to life through the power of this most critical asset. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin/in/chapmancarol; Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CarolChapman
5 | P a g e ©The Brand Ascension Group, LLC | www.BrandAscension.com 1410 Chesham Circle | Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907 | +1 719.265.1707 | +1 719.748.2290