Last week, I spoke to a Brand Management class of MBA students at the University of South Florida where we had a lively discussion about how long it takes for branding to work. I had stated in my presentation that many companies, especially retailers, fail to establish their brands because they are looking for immediate results (sales) as soon as they start their marketing efforts behind the brand strategy. So often what happens is that the company or store will spend months with consultants and/or agencies. developing a strategy within the organization Then they will budget an aggressive amount of advertising and marketing funds to launch the new strategy, much of which is upfront to “really hit the ground running”. After a couple months or so, they are quick to pull the plug—or at least go into hibernation marketing-wise—because they are not seeing an immediate return on their advertising investment.

This sort of reminds me of the 15-minute dating services that you may have seen on some of the news magazine programs recently. You know, this is where about 15 single guys and 15 single ladies sign up for a night of a dating blitz where they each get 15 minutes at a table together, then the bell goes off and they all scatter (like musical chairs participants) to another table and another Mr. or Ms. Right and start all over again. They do this all night and then hope that they get a subsequent, more quality, date with the one they liked best. One thing is for sure, these are not relationship workshops. “Whiz bam, thank you Ma’am” is more like it. Retailers today think about marketing and branding in the same way. Build a multi-media campaign, blitz the airways over a few weeks and then watch the customers pour in with their cash to make a purchase and, of course, become loyal shoppers who want to sign up immediately for your CRM card and carefully thought-out e-mailings targeted for their need and likes.

Well, as I told the students that night, it just doesn’t work that way. Branding is building a meaningful relationship with your customers and potential customers. And it just doesn’t happen in a couple 30-second or 16-page by-chance encounters. It takes time and it takes consistency for the relationship to develop. It also takes internal development (kind of like getting the right clothes or make-up for that dating session) to ensure that the organization understands what kind of relationship you expect them to have with the customer. Some of the most successful brands have kept the same brand strategy, with revisions to keep up with the times and changing competition, for many years to insure a loyal customer base and relationship. Sure the communications have to be freshened up with new messages and new creative, but the strategy (if sound) must be nurtured in all aspects of the business if you want to keep a positive relationship with the customer.

Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research, spoke recently at the Global Retail Marketing Summit in St. Petersburg, FL about the importance of building a relationship. In fact, he said, “The future is all about Relationships.” The key he said was to enhance TRUST with your customers if you are going to succeed. We have to “de-commoditize” continuously if we are going to stay ahead of the competition by constantly exceeding customer expectations. The importance of keeping at it everlastingly (as N.W. Ayer once said) will strengthen our brands and keep the entire organization on track.

As I get ready to go to Alaska for two weeks of relationship building with my wife, Sandi (and to celebrate our 40th Anniversary), I am more convinced than ever that to build a brand or a relationship, one must be committed to it, have a passion for it, and work hard at it…everyday.

Click below to view my interview on Media Talk last week.

PLAY THIS 30 SECOND VIDEO NOW.
John Costello is one of the top marketers in the U.S. and has made his mark at Home Deport, Sears, and Yahoo and is now President—Consumer & Retailer at Pay By Touch. The new company uses technology to use fingerprints, among other things, to identify customer shopping behaviors and preferences. Well, John certainly left his fingerprint on the recent Global Retail Marketing Association’s inaugural Summit at St. Petersburg Beach. A common thread throughout the excellent presentations at this meeting was the skyrocketing growth of technology, especially mobile media (cell phones), for retailers and service providers in today’s marketing programs.

One of the points John made, however, really resonated with me and my passion to get everyone in the organization involved with the brand strategy. He recommended that today’s successful marketing organizations should be organized by objective rather than by function as has been the norm for years. Instead of having VP’s of Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Creative, etc., the marketing organization leaders should be determined by the Who (most important customer segments), the What (differentiates the brand vs. competition), and the How (integrated marketing and advertising). To accomplish this, the former VP’s would now take on the rolls such as VP-Customer Intelligence and Insights (Who), VP-Brand and Product Marketing (What) and VP-Integrated Marketing Communications (How).

I think it’s about time that this type of thinking becomes the norm in our organizations where the brand should drive not just the marketing functions, but the entire organization. The operations need to be clued in to the brand strategy and organized so that the place where the customer gets his/her brand impression (the store) is consistent to the message. Human Resources needs to be set in finding people who will live up to the brand – whether it’s at the store or behind the scenes, IT needs to provide the technology and systems to stay up with the brand strategy and a technology savvy customer and employee base. The CEO has to become the Brand Champion who sets the pace, ensuring that the message is integrated into all decisions going forward. In short, it’s everyone’s job and it should be organized around the brand not around a chart of functions.

Until we get over the silos that currently hinder the effectiveness of today’s organizations and truly understand that the brand is the DNA that makes up the store, product or service’s reason for being, I’m afraid branding will continue to be simply a marketing function—for those who want to see their market share dwindle in the future.

For more information about the GRMA Summit, go to www.globalretailmarketing.com . Kudo’s to Sonny Nardulli and Stephanie Fischer on bringing a great forum for progressive thinkers to the retail industry.

View the 40 second video first.
Last week, my former employer, Circuit City, announced a new wave of cost cutting efforts where by 3,400 employees would be fired and replaced by lower-paid workers in order to become more competitive with other electronics retailers. However, being competitive doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have the lowest cost efficiencies and lower sale prices,. To me, this is just another step in becoming less of a factor in their category and a guarantee that the market share will continue to erode.

Back in the mid-90’s, Circuit City was the number one choice by American consumers for their electronics and appliance purchases. At that time, we conducted over 3000 interviews with consumers and determined that, in fact, most of them preferred the CC format in providing knowledgeable salespeople and helpful service while maintaining competitive pricing. Just a couple years ago, while working in that category again on the agency side, I consistently read a lot of research indicating that customers, especially females (who now have a say in over 80% of electronics purchases), still had a lot of questions when it came to making technology purchases and would appreciate someone more than a cashier when deciding on what to buy.

The discontinuance of commission salespeople accelerated CC’s move toward self-service and the latest move should put them right there with Wal-Mart who doesn’t promise to be anything more than a low price source. I can’t help but think of The Container Store where they have not only one of the most loyal employee groups, but also one of the highest paid. Consistently rated one of the best places to work in the country, The Container Store has made selling basic “stuff” exciting and it all happens at the store level. I recall hearing the companies’ founders, Kip Tindell and Garrett Boone, say that the key was keeping and paying the best employees. They insisted that a great employee could do more work than three so-so employees and they could pay them twice as much and still be cost effective.

Branding is much more than just a low price. It starts with a great strategy and then having people in the store (who are the brand to the customer) who are motivated and excited about the store and the merchandise they sell. With this latest move, I’m sure that the quality of service at a store that used to promote it was “where service is state of the art” will become not only non-existent, but also a detriment to future share growth. No wonder more electronics buyers (note I did not say “shoppers”) are going on-line or to the warehouse stores to get what they want.

It forecasts a continuance of Circuit City’s lagging sales and diminished market share trends, and I don’t think even having Jim Nantz (who, by the way, did the play by play of the Florida Gators’ championship win) in their commercials will motivate the customers to come back or the employees to do a great job.

As the New Year quickly gets moving and Wal-Mart reorganizes its marketing, (No, I am not going to talk about the changes that every advertising and retail publication has covered in every little detail>), it’s time to look for some new ideas in strengthening our brands.

With the Super Bowl finally drawing near, I was thinking about how all the bowl games are now branded and the stadiums also sport commercial names. It’s ironic that the “big game” is going to be played in Dolphin Stadium, formerly known as ProPlayer Stadium, former known as Joe Robbie Stadium. For building awareness, paying several million dollars to put your name on the stadium is not a bad idea. Well, unless, you were the Astros who played in Enron Stadium. The team got better. The stadium changed names for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I was intrigued last summer while waiting to arrive at our gate at London’s Heathrow airport. All the jet ways were labeled HSBC. I’m sure some travelers thought this stood for Heathrow’s Super Baggage Corridors rather than one of the world’s largest banks, which must need more awareness around the world. However, as I sat there I was curious about the idea of using these usually bland jet ways as a branding device and thought that this is really good real estate to build awareness and recognition for international travelers and business people. (By the way, the letters stand for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in case you were wondering.) All I knew about them is that they handle the finance offers for a lot of retailers, like Levitz, so that you don’t have to pay for that sofa until 2010.

Shortly thereafter, I was flying into JFK airport in New York and low and behold their jet ways were HSBC sponsored as well. As a matter of fact, it seemed like I was now seeing HSBC wherever I looked in the city. A growing company using innovative ways to gain higher brand recognition. I started thinking, wouldn’t it make sense for Macy’s to have their names on all the jet ways at LaGuardia or Newark? What about American Tourister or TravelPro luggage at other airports, or maybe they could sponsor the baggage wagons that come out to unload the planes. Speaking of planes, we’ve seen the Shamu version of some Southwest Airlines planes sponsored by Sea Worlkd; why not have each plan sponsored (much like the busses in some metro areas)? We could fly in the Target plane to Minneapolis, or the Home Depot 737 to Atlanta. Maybe a Neiman Marcus jet to Dallas. I know that Frontier Airlines was going to sponsor their airsick bags and plastic ware. So many branding opportunities…

I was always impressed by the Target logo in the end zones right between the goal posts at NFL stadiums. I thought the Sports Authority logos at courtside and rink side at many venues made good sense. Branding isn’t just another great ad or commercial, it’s using available venues to further enhance not just awareness, but also the personality of the brand. So many retailers are stuck on running weekly circulars, price and item TV spots, and a “vigorous” website. Circuit City ran an ad this week for it’s Firedog computer services. It was great because it promoted the fact that the company was giving a donation to America’s firefighters to support their important role in the communities. Enhanced the brand and said we are more than just the next big deal on an HD big screen TV.
Building a relationship with your customers is what branding is all about. It’s not just another ad in the paper or name on the jetway.

By the way, learn branding ideas from 18 experts, including yours truly, in the valuable book, Marketing Magic. Cover price is $19.99, but it’s only $10 if you order it online through my website at www.kenbanks.com.

The Good News and The Bad News…From Bentonville

It’s the holiday selling season and there’s a lot of news in retail, especially from the center of the retail world in Arkansas. While there are many other stores to talk about, let’s take a look at two stories worth considering.

First the good news. Thanksgiving has come and gone and by now the 40 pounds of newsprint that landed in my driveway has made its way to the recycle bin. Of all the ads and inserts in my paper, I couldn’t help but read one from cover to cover. It had the best photography, the right gift items, and probably the best prices. No it wasn’t Target (as good as their ads always are). Penney’s spent a lot, but looked like everyone else. Nordstrom, Macy’s and Dillards looked like—well, like department stores. The best of the batch, in my opinion, was a slick-looking 16-page standard insert from none other than Sam’s Club. Great photography, heavy, quality stock, terrific items, subtle prices with not so subtle savings. Made me want to read every bit of copy and check every price. While you could argue was this vehicle incongruous with a warehouse club store, you couldn’t argue with the creativity and the savings. Of course, Costco, as always, didn’t run any advertising, but Sam’s set the pace with this circular and I suspect resulted in far better performance than their parent discount chain.

Which brings me to the bad news (unless you’re Target or Kmart). First, as a consumer, I didn’t feel the presence of Wal-Mart at all during the Thanksgiving week. I saw more of the spots from the union trying to break down the conditions of working for the world’s largest retailer than I did from the store. Usually, a dominant player, I didn’t even see a Wal-Mart preprint and the television was transparent. Maybe the new marketing gurus from Chrysler and Frito-Lay had them running ads in Real Simple or Field and Stream magazinea. The lack of any presence by the largest retailer makes you wonder what’s happening in Bentonville. Obviously, from the sales results, consumers felt the same way.

To me it’s another example of this store trying to act like a packaged goods or automotive marketer and forgetting the sense of urgency that retail demands. The fact that they took their eye off the ball to conduct an 8-month agency review (who needed that anyway??), then selected one that really has no retail experience, then fired the key marketing exec from Chrysler and her assistant and then unbelievably started the agency review all over again. Something stinks here. Now they are going to waste another 8 months and countless marketing energy by renewing the search (oh, to be an agency search consultant!) I went into a Wal-Mart this weekend and I think they were as well merchandised as ever. The big difference was that there were no lines at the registers and that really worries me. How blind can they be to their problems? The great brand is in jeopardy.

We will have to see how the Holidays finish for sales, but I hope the news at your company and home is all good . Happy Holidays…