Vision Graphics Inc. Connect Magazine Nov/Dec 2013

Vision Graphics Inc. Engaging Marketing Minds

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Vol 3, Issue 6, November/December 2013

WHERE HAVE ALL THE ICONS GONE? Building your brand in the new age of marketing INSIDE Tapping into your sixth sense Understanding the human brand Got content marketing?

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publisher ’s letter

Balancing Act O

ne of the emerging themes in our country is the singular focus of the individual.

Whether we are watching Miley Cyrus, Tiger Woods or any steroid-induced athlete, the trend is disappointing. Many of these people who become consumed with their own success suffer embarrassment or a tremendous fall from grace.

We operate in a capitalist economy, and while making money is important, it should not be the be-all and end-all of our existence. In other words, if money and our selfish needs are at the center of everything we do, we probably are lacking balance in the rest of our lives.

It is no different for companies and their corresponding brands. In other words, it is important that a brand stand for much more than just making money. If you consider the most iconic brands over time, it is clear they represented certain values beyond economic gain. In turn, brands that stand for more than money end up being the most valuable.

CONTENTS 03 Publisher’s Letter Balancing Act

04 The Inbox

Success depends on trust and building relationships that can be integrated across all of the channels we have today.

06 Where Have All the Icons Gone?

Our current issue is pretty special to us because our features tap into the values embodied in great brands. Our cover article – “Where Have All the Icons Gone?” – acts as a reminder of what is important and what is memorable. Sacrificing everything else for your selfish needs is not healthy and it certainly isn’t iconic.

It is not hard to believe that many brands are being commoditized because they are being overexposed and marketers are relentlessly pursuing short-term validation. Maybe – just maybe – iconic brands are so because they are rooted in sincere values.

Or maybe, the most iconic brands were shepherded by marketers who had a “Sixth Sense.” As our second feature suggests, these marketers are not married to the short-term goal of the almighty buck. They have an intrinsic ambition to serve their communities and connect more deeply.

Striving for iconic status was probably never the goal for the icons of the past like Led Zeppelin, Bill Gates or even Gandhi. They became renowned because they did something they loved for the people they cared for. Our belief is that brands operate the very same way.

So, while our brand may yet be iconic, we certainly hope that our efforts are iconic-like.

This magazine continues to act as our sixth sense and we are thrilled to bring it to you each time. Enjoy the read and maintain your balance.

14 From Where I Sit

Warmest regards,

Building your brand in the new age of marketing

10 Sixth Sense Identifying and cultivating the intangible trait that leads to marketing success

The Relational Capital Group’s Chris Malone on understanding the human brand

15 Got Content Marketing?

Study outlines most effective content marketing vehicles

Publisher

Mark Steputis mark.steputis@visiongraphics-inc.com

Managing Editor

Michele McCreath michele.mccreath@visiongraphics-inc.com

Art Direction

Tyson Polzkill Brent Cashman

Mark Steputis Publisher

Connect is published bimonthly copyright 2013. All rights reserved For more information contact Michele McCreath at michele.mccreath@visiongraphics-inc.com Vision Graphics Inc. – connect • November/December 2013

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The

Inbox

Know thy customer, 4

November/December 2013 • connect – Vision Graphics Inc.

How much do you really know about your customers? Well, according to a recent survey by Yesmail Interactive, maybe less than you think. The “Customer Lifecycle Engagement: Imperatives for Midsize-to-large Companies” study showed that four out of five companies don’t understand their customers beyond basic demographics.

Other findings showed that less than half of marketers use data from sources that provide better targeting, including web browsing history and online behavior (41 percent), social data (38 percent) and third-party behavioral and attitudinal data (36 percent).

BOOK REC

People describe their relationships with brands in a deeply personal way. We hate The Human our banks. We love our smartphones. And we believe the cable company is out to Brand: get us. But what’s really going on in our brains when we make these judgments?

Customer loyalty expert Chris Malone and leading social psychologist Susan How We Relate Fiske set out to find the answers. In “The Human Brand: How We Relate to People, Products, and Companies,” they uncovered that our perceptions arise to People, from spontaneous judgments on warmth and competence, the same two factors that also determine our impressions of people.

Products, and Malone and Fiske show that we see companies and brands the same way Companies we automatically perceive, judge and behave toward one another. As a result, to achieve sustained success,

By Chris Malone & Susan Fiske

they say companies must forge genuine relationships with their customers. And as customers, we have a right to expect relational accountability from the companies and brands we support.

“The Human Brand” is essential reading for understanding how and why we make the choices we do, and what it takes for companies and brands to earn and keep our loyalty in the digital age.

To market or not to market…

If you can see it, you will believe it. That seems to be true when it comes to defining the link between marketing activities and business goals for senior management and key stockholders. According to Forrester Research’s “B2B Marketing Measurement Needs an MBA,” 86 percent of marketers agreed that link is well defined in their organizations, while 72 percent said their respective company’s leadership sees marketing’s impact on business. Interestingly, only 45 percent feel confident they know which metrics and business outcomes matter most to key stakeholders.

The social media conundrum While marketers keep allocating resources for the promise of social media returns, too many still are struggling to show its impact. According to “The CMO Survey” by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, 49 percent of CMOs have not been able to show that social media has made a difference, and 36 percent have a good sense of the qualitative, but not the quantitative impact.

Only 15 percent have proven the quantitative impact of their social endeavors. Yet, despite the disparity, the study found that marketers are expected to increase social media expenditures from 6.6 percent to 15.8 percent over the next five years.

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The percent of Americans who own a smartphone today, according to comScore’s “July 2013 U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Market Share” report. The latest data also found that Apple ranked as the top OEM with

40.4 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Samsung (24.1), HTC (8 percent), Motorola (6.9 percent) and LG (6.8 percent).

“Consumers are living in a cross-device world. They’re jumping across PCs, smartphones and tablets to complete an activity, and therefore, marketing efforts need to reflect cross-device consumer behavior.”

– Kurt Hawks, general manager of Greystripe, on why cross-device advertising and marketing demands more media spend Vision Graphics Inc. – connect • November/December 2013

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE ICONS GONE? T

hey are perhaps the grandest example of classic rock. In an era defined by a diverse set of musical interests (rock, disco, punk), even today, more than 40 years since Led Zeppelin’s self-titled album vaulted the English band into the mythical

stratosphere of rock stalwarts, the band stands as an iconic brand like no other.

Building your brand in the new age of marketing

Skewed virtuosic guitar sounds. Vocal pyrotechniques. A stolidity of beat and bass that orchestrated like a keyboard. Album covers that kept fans talking. The music and aura of Led Zeppelin – guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham – is everywhere still, its amazing body of work forever inspiring a new generation of musicians and fans.

In many ways, it seems as if the brand of Led Zeppelin is even more iconic today. And it makes you wonder. Where are today’s prolific brands? In a new landscape driven by the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, has how we communicate and market today made building sustainable, iconic brands o rin impossible? Are we taking the mystery out of marketing? alle P J. Andrea “Andy” Coville doesn’t think so. While building an iconic brand today ael h c is harder than in generations’ past, the CEO of global public relations and comMi By munications agency Brodeur Partners doesn’t think it’s impossible, but it sure is hard. “Authenticity doesn’t come naturally to a lot of organizations. Marketing has trafficked successfully in façade for centuries. And façade is still necessary, to some extent. Do you really want to know everything about, say, your heart surgeon and how he spends his free time?”

Coville prefers the ultra-professional façade. Sure, we all want authenticity, which not only entails revealing the practical value of what an organization offers, but also the way it is trying

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Where have all the icons gone?

Web or Anywhere Else,” says too many people think branding is about identity and awareness, but it isn’t.

Frankel says neither of those do anything to build real trust or revenues. “My definition is that branding is about ‘getting your prospects to perceive you as the only solution to their problem.’ You don’t have to be the only solution; they just have to perceive that nobody else will solve their problems.”

Marketing experts like Frankel believe that the world’s “disposable” mindset is why many brands rise and fall so quickly. When the public is given nothing to invest in, they don’t. “The way we communicate would actually enhance a well-built brand,” says Frankel, a regular contributor on programs such as “NBC Nightly News” and “Fox News.” “But because some confuse media, graphics, identity and awareness for branding, the job never gets done. It’s a ‘garbage in, garbage out’ thing.”

Make no mistake about it – there have been myriad iconic-like brands that have been created over the years. A recent Ad Age report shows that some of the biggest and most popular brands today are ones that have been around for a while, including Apple, McDon– Branding Expert & Author Rob Frankel ald’s, Microsoft, Samsung, Toyota, GE, IBM and Coca-Cola, to name a handful.

“The same brands that existed before Iconic brand status ultimately is possible because everybody this generation are the most iconic, which is why this generation’s wants to join a tribe. “Whether you’re a college student signing up for brands seem so temporary,” Frankel says. “As evidence, look at a sorority, or like me, a mother doing half-marathons for causes that how many retro brands are being exhumed. It’s happening because are dear to my heart, you’ll never outgrow the need to belong,” Coville this generation has no idea of why brands are created or how to says. “You always yearn to be connected. You just yearn to connect nurture them. Our grandfathers and great grandfathers built brands to different things over time. Connection creates community, and in to represent the value they stood for. Their descendants have no community you find meaning. Brands that present that opportunity for such experience.” connection, community and meaning will be relevant. And with time, they might just become iconic.”

15 minutes and out…

Roger Beahm doesn’t subscribe to the “15 minutes of fame” theory. In fact, the professor of marketing and executive director of the School of Not your father’s brand Ask Rob Frankel about the notion of building iconic brands today, and Business Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University says then step back. The noted branding expert and author of the book, the theory is a myth. Beahm believes it takes multiple exposures to “The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build a Big Time Brand on the build awareness and brand knowledge. to connect from social, sensory and values perspectives. Today’s customers want to know: If we buy into your brand, who do we become?

What will we feel? What will our action say? Can we trust you are what you present yourself to be?

Authenticity is moving entire categories. For example, many young adults are shunning façades and buying their clothes at flea markets and thrift stores. They have gone back to woodsman beards and craft beer versus macrobrews. “Perhaps these are façades as well, but they are headed in the right direction – toward authenticity,” Coville says. “Older adults are also more mindful of the temptations of status-seeking consumerism. They realize that if they’re just, say, going hiking, an economy hotel will be fine.”

““Our Our grandfathers and great grandfathers built brands to represent the value they stood for. Their descendants have no such experience.”

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Before joining the academic ranks, Beahm worked in marketing/ brand management at Procter & Gamble and the Clorox Company, and ran his own advertising/marketing agency, and consulting firm. In a dynamic market where communication is changing daily, Beahm says it’s not about how well or quickly you market your wares, it’s still all about the product and/or service.

“Building iconic brands is not a function of the media, it’s a function of the product. How well the product informs and satisfies customers’ needs in the long run is what makes a brand iconic. If you’re not able to deliver on that, you’re not able to get the funds to spend on media. Branding is more than media. It includes your brand name, logo and any icons, graphics [etc.] you might associate with your brand. It includes the product features, benefits and positioning. All affect how we perceive a brand.”

The bottom line is that a brand must be immersed into pop culture.

Beahm says that means you must build broad unaided awareness, have significant volume and market share, create strong emotional connections with the target audience and garner respect among your peers.

So, what does it take to reach iconic status today? Coville refers back to authenticity. Take Bruce Springsteen, who while having reached iconic status decades ago still continues to add swarms of new fans spanning every generation. “He is not only standing the test of time, he is passing new tests with every show. He’s the real deal, and he has earned his iconic status through his authenticity. He believes in what he does and it shows. You can catch so many other performers and brands just going through the motions. When you do, you can’t help but wonder about their authenticity and it breaks the spell. Why are they here? Do they want to be here?”

Coville says the variables that drive a great brand are measurable.

Once measured, they can be adjusted. And once adjusted, the variables will help the brand make a bigger impact. The main variables of brand relevance are its functional benefits, sensory appeal, social meaning and values. “Too many brands rely too heavily on their functional benefits as if logic alone drove customers to action. Logic is highly overrated. If it weren’t, everybody would go out and buy whatever car J.D. Power or Consumer Reports rated as best value. We wouldn’t even have Mustangs.”

Building iconic status today means making your brand stand for something, Coville says. “The goal is not buzz or eyeballs, or hits or likes. It’s relevance, which is more substantial. When a brand is relevant, people want to connect to it.”

Branding expert and author Rob Frankel knows a thing or two about branding. He believes branding is not about getting your targets to choose you over your competition – it’s about getting your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problems.

Following are his 10 laws for branding success:

LAW NO. 1 Brands are not about you. Brands are about them.

LAW NO. 2 If the branding is wrong, so is everything else.

LAW NO. 3 Advertising grabs their minds. Branding gets their hearts.

LAW NO. 4 Build from your strengths.

LAW NO. 5 If you can’t articulate it, neither can anyone else.

LAW NO. 6 The success of a brand varies directly with the ability to accept the mantle of leadership.

LAW NO. 7 The stronger your brand, the less susceptible you are to pricing issues and competition.

LAW NO. 8 The brand begins in the business plan.

LAW NO. 9 Advertising is not branding. Branding is branding.

Advertising raises the awareness of the brand you create.

LAW NO. 10 There is no such thing as co-branding.

Vision Graphics Inc. – connect • November/December 2013

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SIXTH SENSE Identifying and cultivating the intangible trait that leads to marketing success

By Graham Garrison

F

rom the start, the vibe and response to this marketing campaign was different. In spring 2013, Dove introduced a video called “Real Beauty Sketches,” showing an FBI-trained fo-

rensic artist drawing women based on their own perceptions, and

then another sketch based on that of a stranger who’d only briefly met one of the women but was asked to describe her. The sketches were put side by side and shown to the women and, in almost every case, revealed that the women had been harsher describing their appearance than the stranger’s observations.

The video hit a nerve. Within 10 days, the viral video had 660,000 shares on Facebook, according to Adweek. Within a month, it had garnered more than 114 million total views. Business Insider said it was the most viral ad video of all time.

The marketers took a unique approach, with an intuitive sense of what the audience wanted to hear. You could call it a “sixth sense.” And it’s not just a complement to creating a marketing campaign – it’s crucial.

“The sixth sense is important because it’s what allows us to push our ideas from good to great,” says Theresa McDonnell, executive VP, chief consumer strategist for Kaplow, a marketing and communications firm. “It makes room for risk, and therefore, great reward. It pushes the envelope and opens consumers up to new possibilities.”

But is this ability innate? Can it be developed?

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Sixth Sense The measure of memorable Effective marketing campaigns sometimes can just mean being in the right place at the right time, but more often involve exhaustive research, polls, customer comments and the analytics to spit out numbers and data marketers can use.

Those are the kindle, but often it’s the intangible “sixth sense” that provides the spark.

“The sixth marketing sense is how the most memorable and effective marketing campaigns come to life,” McDonnell says. “It doesn’t rely solely on analytics. In fact, it sometimes goes against conventional wisdom. If a campaign gives me goosebumps and some butterflies in my stomach, then I know we’ve nailed it.”

For example, when Kaplow first partnered with Skype to launch the brand in the United States, the first five senses – including all the research and analytics – were telling the team to focus on the new technology. “However, the sixth sense is what led to them using real consumer stories to introduce a new behavior,” McDonnell says. “It was changing people’s lives by allowing them to communicate face to face even while they were thousands of miles apart. What could have been misunderstood as a complicated technology story quickly became a household name and new consumer behavior adapted by millions of people from children and grandparents to celebrities, teachers and of course marketers.”

“I believe very few people have a sixth sense. Just like any other talent. … A large part of the skill has to do with being in touch with your emotions.”

– Raj Raghunathan, Ph.D., Professor, University of Texas McCombs School of Business

Unspoken needs Raj Raghunathan, Ph.D., a professor with the department of marketing at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, says the sixth sense can be quantified to some extent through market research, but that the problem is that not all marketing decisions can be tested at all times.

Sometimes, a firm may need to figure out what product “look” or “color scheme” to go with, or what particular marketing mix variables (price, promotion, etc.) to go with because of time pressure or because of budget constraints. They may not have the time or resources to conduct market research. “Further, market research may also have a lot of limitations and flaws,” Raghunathan says. “For example, directly asking customers what they want and like may not yield desirable results because they may not know what they want.”

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In an article for Psychology Today, Raghunathan examined a study that New York City officials asked anthropologist William Whyte to conduct regarding what citizens wanted out of building public spaces like city parks.

The answers Whyte received for parks were similar – a pond, animals, places to see nature at its finest and get away from other people. But in actuality, people tend to gather in crowds at the popular features in parks.

This tells us two things about human nature, Raghunathan wrote: “First, we are social animals. Second, we often don’t know what we really want.”

Intuition is important because ultimately, the customers themselves may not have a good idea of what they want. “Thus, you need to get behind their brain, so to speak, to figure out the hidden needs and wants,” says Raghunathan.

“The sixth sense is important because it’s what allows us to push our ideas from good to great. It makes room for risk and, therefore, great reward.

It pushes the envelope and opens consumers up to new possibilities.”

– Theresa McDonnell, Executive VP, Chief Consumer Strategist, Kaplow

3 ways to find your

SIXTH SENSE

No.1 GET BEHIND THEIR BRAIN Believe it or not, customers may not have a good idea of what they want. Raj Raghunathan, Ph.D., a professor with the department of marketing at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, says you must get behind their brain, so to speak, to figure out the hidden needs and wants.

No.2 NOTICE THE DETAILS Growing your sixth sense Unfortunately, this sixth sense comes in varying degrees in marketing. Some call it a rare commodity. “I believe very few people have a sixth sense,” Raghunathan says. “Just like any other talent. Very few people are at the genius level in terms of music, sport or any other dimension.”

Most marketers would agree that the sixth sense essentially is a skill. And like any other skill, it can be taught. “A large part of the skill has to do with being in touch with your emotions,” Raghunathan says. “When you recognize what you like and what you don’t, and you are able to articulate the reasons for your likes and dislikes, you will be better able to tune into others’ likes and dislikes and their reasons for them. Thus, such “intra-psychic” intelligence is critical to having your fingers on the customers’ pulse.”

McDonnell says marketers are innately curious and very observant, and should use those traits to their advantage. “We often notice details other people don’t – nuances in consumer behavior, patterns in our everyday lives. Insights for marketing campaigns are often born this way. I don’t think that can be taught.”

Still, McDonnell believes the sense can be developed. “We are always evolving and maturing as we learn from our professional experiences.

With that, we learn to trust the sixth sense and gain confidence to apply it more liberally.”

McDonnell is skeptical that a brand can be successful without using the sixth sense, especially today when consumers are inundated with messages. “The sixth sense is disruptive, surprising and captivating. The brands that do it best are getting the most buzz.”

Theresa McDonnell, executive VP, chief consumer strategist for marketing and communications firm Kaplow, says successful marketers often notice details that others don’t.

It’s about finding the nuances in consumer behavior and the patterns in our everyday lives.

No.3 ARTICULATE YOUR EMOTIONS Raghunathan says when you recognize what you like and what you don’t, and you are able to articulate the reasons for your likes and dislikes, you will be better able to tune into others’ likes and dislikes and their reasons for them.

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Q&A: Interview with Chris Malone

From Where I Sit...

The Relational Capital Group’s Chris Malone on understanding the human brand

C

hris Malone spends his days helping his clients measure, manage and strengthen the relationships that drive their business performance.

Over the years, as a marketing veteran for the likes of Choice Hotels, ARAMARK, Coca-Cola, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Procter & Gamble, he has had a firsthand look at business models that beget trust. Today, he is the chief advisory officer of The Relational Capital Group and co-author of “The Human Brand: How We Relate to People, Products, and Companies.”

What’s the secret to building trust with your customers?

When customers see you as their ally in accomplishing their goals, the value of your products and services grows substantially.

One of the most valuable aspects of trust-based customer relationships is that they can be expanded. Once you have demonstrated your reliability and expertise in one area, existing customers are much more likely to give you a chance to help them address needs they have in other areas. By taking the time to learn about their goals, passions and struggles (customer GPS), you can find opportunities to broaden customer relationships with additional products and services that drive revenue and profitability.

Is there a key to delivering value?

Once you understand your customers’ goals, passions and struggles, you simply demonstrate how you can help address them. When customers see you as their ally in accomplishing their goals, the value of your products and services grows substantially. They become less vulnerable to price-based competition.

Define the art of creating trust.

Social psychologists have deduced that in their struggle for survival, primitive humans were forced to develop a kind of genius for making two specific kinds of judgments quickly and accurately: “What are the intentions of other people toward me?” and “How capable are they of carrying out those intentions?” In the academic world, these two categories of perception are

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known as warmth and competence. These perceptions are the drivers for all human trust, and we are merely the latest in a line of thousands of generations that have inherited this time-tested ability.

Our research on more than 45 companies over the past three years has shown that customer trust and loyalty is created precisely the same way – on the basis of warmth and competence.

Is there one formula that works best?

The simplest and most reliable way to demonstrate warmth and competence to customers is something we call “The Principle of Worthy Intentions.” Simply put, it involves putting the best interests of your customers ahead of your own in the short term, so trusting relationships can be developed that will deliver consistent growth and profitability in the medium and long term. This practice is so rare today that customers have become very cynical and distrustful of their suppliers, leading to shallow, transactional relationships.

What business model works best today?

Some of today’s most dynamic and sustainable companies are using business models that balance the use of technology with oneto-one human contact with customers, ensuring they are able to convey both warmth and competence. Zappos and Apple are both great examples of this.

Before You Go

Got content marketing?

Study outlines most effective content marketing vehicles When it comes to content marketing, today’s most successful marketers stand fully behind the concept of creating and curating relevant and valuable content for their customers. In fact, according to iMakeNews’ “Content Marketing Survey,” 90 percent of today’s marketers said the strategy continues to be a high to medium priority. Following are the most effective vehicles for distributing content:

51 % 44 % 42 % 42 %

Social media

Websites

Email blasts

Newsletters

Vision Graphics Inc. – connect • November/December 2013

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