I’ve been spend a bit of time reading on the topic of branding. I just finished Scott Deming’s “The Brand That Cried Wolf”. Here are a few of the quotes and stories that I liked the most.

Advertising as Awareness (p. 8)

Marketing as a System of uniting Businesses and Customers (p. 9)

Branding is the Process of Creating Authentically Unique, Emotional Experiences That Yield Evangelists (p.10)

In truth, branding is the creation and support of a powerful perception image of someone or something based on a unique, emotional experiences – so powerful that the perception or image becomes a belief. Therefore, I argue that the formula for professional and personal success lies in our ability to create the most powerful, emotional, memorable brand based on these unique experiences. (p. 10)

Be careful what you promise. When you make a promise, you create expectations. When you exceed expectations, you create a brand. (p. 29)

When individuals and companies don’t deliver on their brand promise, they fail like the hare (Tortoise and the Hare) in the story you just read and the young shepherd  in “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. I call these companies Wolf Brands, like the title story you read in the Introduction, because they make proclamations and promises that fall flat. In so doing, they fail to unite the two aspect of their brand just described. Not only do they not deliver on their brand promise, they fail to create or maintain uniqueness in their brand category. (p. 30)

Verizon Story (p. 67-69)

Ben & Jerry even wrote a book: Double Dip: Lead With Your Values And Make Money detailing, among other things, their belief that the finest business in the world will, in the future, be evaluated by their values, not their products or services. This make sense in a number of ways. For example, we know that products are getting better and better. By and large, everything from detergent to cell phones does it’s job. So what distinguishes one company from another? It’s not the product that becomes the differentiator, it’s the company, what it stands for, and how it treats is employees and citizens. In the case of Ben & Jerry’s these values largely define who they are. (p. 79)

Interestingly enough (according to the 2006 Retail Consumer Dissatisfaction Study, conducted by Verde Group and the Baker Retailing Initiative  at Worton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania), a sort of telephone game phenomenon occurs when people start talking about their negative experiences. As the stories spread, people who are not directly involved in the experience  hear embellished versions of the actual event. With anti-evangelism the ripples (as in a rock tossed into a pond, and the ripples that result) don’t get smaller as they move out away from the origin of the story; they get bigger! “Almost half of those surveyed, 48%, reported they have avoided a store in the past because of someone else’s experience.” Contrast that with the percentage of people who actually had the negative experience and reported they would not likely return to shop at the location again: 33 percent! These are numbers everyone should consider each and every time they have the opportunity to create a positively memorable experience. It’s especially important, given the fact that you typically  won’t have any idea that you’ve created an anit-evangelist. That’s because you count on your customers to report their negative experiences to you. And the fact is, they don’t. (p. 125-126)

The Method Method: Seven Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-up Turn an Industry Upside Down

I recently finished this. Here are a few of the quotes I liked:

Innovation:

“In order for an innovation to be truly innovative, people have to use it. A lot of people. As (Green) innovators, nothing is more frustrating to us than hearing about an innovative new product only a few privileged people can get their hands on. That’s not innovation. That’s obscurity. Which is to say, technology and creativity aren’t the most important components of innovation – adoption is.” (p. 98)

Private Label: 

“Gone are the days when the private label was considered an inferior choice. The Great Recession has forced a shift in consumer thinking toward cheap chic – the idea that it’s hip to be frugal – which has shattered negative consumer stereotypes of private label goods. Today’s private label competes against national brands on both price and differentiation.” (p. 160)

Needs/Wants/Desires:

“The desire to feel cool by buying a top-of-the-line convertible is not satisfied by just buying the car and parking it in the driveway. It’s fully realized when you actually go out and drive it with the top down! Bottom line: It’s not the product that fulfills the desire, it’s the experience of using it. Now in order to really get people to desire your product, you need to create a great experience. What’s a great experience? It’s one that’s memorable, remarkable, or unexpected in some way. It’s what keeps people coming back to you instead of your competitors.” (p. 184-185)

Customer Experience:

“If you look at which consumer product companies are really winning today, you’ll see they’re all great at product execution – Apple, Dyson, Nike, BMW, just to name a few. The world is shifting toward favoring organizations that are fluent at creating truly great products, particularly products that deliver consumer experiences as he meaningful differentiator…Everything starts with creating a killer product, after that everything flows naturally.

“I wish more money and time was spent on designing an exceptional product, and less on trying to psychologically manipulate perceptions through expensive advertising.” Phil Kotler, professor of marketing, Kellogg School of Management” (p. 188)

Expectations:

“Our belief was that if we created a product that exceeded expectations, people would talk about it and drive word-of-mouth. Because Method could never win the advertising battle by shouting louder, we needed the product to shout for us. Too many companies create products with the assumption that a healthy marketing budget will ensure success. But we believe you should go into a new product development process with the assumption there will be no marketing support and that the product needs to be special and differentiated enough to stand on its own. Marketing should be the rocket fuel to propel a great product, not the Hail Mary for a mediocre product.” (p. 190)

Product Experience:

“Think about it: design a better product and what do you have? One good product. Design a better experience, however, and you’ve got a platform for countless products. This is, in part, why Method has been able to grow so quickly, disrupting each new category with the same strategy. Product experience is about being refreshing to consumers. It’s about looking for areas where we can be distinct.” (p. 193)

The Method Method can be purchased at Amazon.

I was really looking forward to jumping into the book. The first 2/3 to 3/4 had really great thoughts and challenges that I was able to really start to employ (or at least start thinking about in ways I had not previously). Where I did get disappointed was towards the end where it felt like many of the great topics could have been developed and discussed more. It felt like they got short-changed and he was in a hurry to finish the book.
Still very good. One that is probably worth reading several times over.

Just finished this one. Great read. First time I’ve read anything from Patrick Lencioni. From what I’ve been told many of his other books have a similar format. He tells a story (the Fable) that is interesting in its own rite, and uses it to set up the lesson(s) to be learned. Then he provides some practical discussions and exercises on how to overcome the Five Dysfunctions of a team. I really enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to adding a few more Lencioni titles to my repertoire. Add this to my “highly recommend” list.

One of my favorite quotes from the book, “If you make everything important, then nothing is important.”