Georgia Business Directory Network Interview

I want to thank Diane Bogino over at the Georgia Business Directory Network. She really made the interview a fun experience and I’m very impressed by what she’s been building with her video blog.  Thanks for everything!

Schnicks and Stones – High Velocity Interview

Well I had some good fun yesterday visiting the High Velocity Radio show, which is part of the RadioX network.  Hosts Stone Payton and Todd Schnick really do a great job of making their guests feel welcome and giving them a chance to shine.  I had the good fortune to be on the bill with Grant Carter, CEO of Team Doctors, and Marna Friedman, owner of Mpressive Solutions and author of The Small Business that Could for Women.  We each had about 15 minutes at the mic and all got hit with Stone’s favorite zinger “Tell us about your biggest mistake.”  The whole show is almost an hour, but if you’re in a hurry there is a brief excerpt, which clocks in at 3 min. 44 sec., where I talk about how branding happens whether you intend to or not. I hope you can check it out

The Portable Personal Brand

Is your personal brand portable? Is your message easy for others to carry and spread?

Sometimes we get too caught up in our own message – we labor over the words, trying to get the nuance just so; making sure we get the essential essence of our value proposition; delving into details; artistically articulating skills, services and strengths… only to find out that everybody else refers to you as “the guy with the funny hat”, or “you know, that lady who sells real estate”, or “the dude with the stale coffee breath”.  It happens.  But there is a lesson to be learned here: if you show up often enough people will remember you, but are they remembering you for what you want or for what they find convenient?

What if you could combine the two?

The portable personal brand is about getting known in that straightforward, easy to identify, easy to remember way, but also in a way that points people toward your value.  You can’t do this with  a complex message: “Oh you know Dave, he’s the guy that went to art school after getting a math degree, and went on to startup companies and then built a career in marketing, blah blah blah…” It is too much. I can’t remember it all and I lived it, how can I expect someone else to carry all that info?  And even if they could what would they do with it all?   But if I give myself a label, “the brand therapist”, and tell people one thing I can do, “help people brand themselves to get more business” then maybe, just maybe someone might remember that.  Maybe then, when someone meets a person with a murky message who is not getting results, they  will say “Oh you should talk to Dave, the brand therapist, he can help you”.

Simplicity is portability, but there is a trade-off:  there is more I can offer, but I have to leave it out otherwise it is distracting and cumbersome. There is certainly more you can offer than will fit in a sentence or two, but it is unreasonable to expect people to remember it all.  And if it isn’t simple it won’t function as a trigger.  When you network you will meet great people who are willing to help you, don’t you owe it to them to make that job easier?  Equip them to help you with a simple way to understand your value. Build a portable personal brand that makes it a reflex to relay people to you who need your help.

Interviewed on ThriveAMERICA

David Cohen interviewed on ThriveAMERICA

I just wanted to give a shout out over to Brent Brooks at Blank Stage Productions and thank him for having me as a guest on their video blog: ThriveAMERICA.  As an interviewer Brent was great – friendly, prepared and he went out of his way to make me feel comfortable as a guest.  Thanks Brent!

The interview is about a half hour long, but is broken up into 10 minute sections.  I hope you’ll take the time to check it out as we discuss the three Rs of branding and the three Cs of communication.  Brent even got me talking about some business mistakes I’ve made and some ideas for the future.  I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please remember to click on the stars to rank the video.

Thanks!

David Cohen discusses branding on ThriveAMERICA

Zigging over Zag

I just reread Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands, a terrific book for anyone who wants to know more about how to build a brand. The author, Marty Neumeier is absolutely brilliant at communicating the concepts that make for a successful brand.  He also provides some incredible, nuanced insights into the nature of customer loyalty – an understanding that customer loyalty begins by being loyal to your customers and is only truly acheived after the customers have gone through a process of their own. They begin with a mere acquaintance with your brand, become a customer, and eventually reach a state where they begin to feel they deserve the loyalty they are being consistently given by your company.  At that point the loyalty becomes a two-way street because a “belonging” mindset has been achieved.  However if loyalty is not what you are consistently giving your customers you will be teaching them other behaviors and a very different mindset toward your company.

What are you teaching your customers?

Branding with vinegar or without?

I’ve been meaning to mention a book that I really enjoyed: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. It examines some of the quirks in our buying behaviors and some of the types of judgments we make based on perceptions and preconceptions. This is an area where a brand’s mystique or prestige can have a big influence. There is a fun case study in the book where they went to a pub and offered a taste test of two different beers, but (warning: spoiler ahead) they were really the same beer with one of the glasses having a few drops of vinegar added – when people were told about the vinegar before tasting almost all of the participants preferred the untainted beer, however when the next group of participants had their turn they tasted the beers first, gave their opinions, and only then were told about the vinegar. Amazingly most of them preferred the vinegar laced beer. The only difference in the taste experience was the knowledge of the addition and the preconceptions most people have about the taste of vinegar.

What if we take this idea and move it to a different scenario: Imagine a handbag on the shelf at some big-box retailer, and then place the handbag with a new label in a high-prestige high-fashion boutique…. For many, the two bags represent completely different experiences – experiences which are governed by perceptions, peer influence, and aspirational values, rather than objective measures such as qualities of materials or workmanship.

What I find interesting is that I think the disruptive and democratizing influence of the Internet is encouraging a higher degree of authenticity in branding. Consider in my handbag example. Suppose some less than starry-eyed consumer notes that the big-box bag and the high-fashion bag are in fact identical in every way except label. The outraged consumer decides to write a blog post and publish pictures exposing the situation – the word spreads as readers of the blog mention it to their friends and link to the article from their own blogs and emails – maybe a consumer reporter picks up the story and investigates – Suddenly the high-fashion brand’s reputation appears tarnished, perhaps the big-box retailer’s cachet is slightly improved (less likely), but no matter what a pressure is applied to the brand-conscious high-fashion company to make sure that the next bag they produce exceeds the big-box bag by some measure that is meaningful to the brand cachet of the firm, be it quality, or cost of materials, or design, or originality, etc. It is a pressure toward authenticity, specifically an authenticity to the expectation promoted by the brand itself. Authenticity to the brand promise.

I think the concept of considering a brand as not a label, but an agreement between producer and consumer, a settlement between promoted values and actual experiences, is not only empowering, but is essential to the successful practice of branding in the Internet age.

I’m getting worried about Nike.

I’m getting worried about Nike.

A little holiday shopping led to this observation: There’s too much Nike at Nordstrom’s (hey I don’t spend all my time at Walmart).

While Julie tried on shoes it occurred to me that Nike is proving that it is possible to over-emphasize the new. They are competing as a fashion brand, and letting that agenda cloud their core message. C’mon, what do frilly purple boots and UGG knock-offs have to do with “Just Do It”?

Fashion is Nike’s differentiator in a field of athletic wear, but function has always come first. The function is the promise. Once upon a time a waffle-iron inspired a brilliant innovation: a better tread for better performance. A brand was born. It was a beacon. But when fashion eclipses function, the message just gets foggy, and a recession will punish foggy brands.

Do they have the DNA to become a fashion house? Can they build it or buy it? If not, they should throw out the fuzzy boots and get back to making moves that fit the focus of the brand (like this idea).

Nike means victory – on the athletic field, not the runway.

Disclosure: no positions

Full disclosure: Julie bought the UGGs.

Cool hunting in a recession

In my last post I left off as I sped on my way to Walmart with a short, but important shopping list. Well, sped isn’t the right word. I kind of puttered around a bit and eventually got around to it. The problem was the list. There wasn’t a sexy thing on it. Nothing to rev my engine. Just a few of life’s little essentials. Yawn.

Does a recession have to be boring? I’m craving a little pizzazz – I’m hunting for a sexy brand story to be my beacon of hope as these financial waves keep crashing.

So who has a little sex appeal and makes a strong brand promise? Who gives you what you expect every time? Who never fails to captivate, always commanding our attention? You could call him Mr. Aurum, but ask OldGoldBug and he’ll tell you… it’s gold! Shiny, shiny gold.

Oh you can argue about how it will perform at any given moment, you can argue about when to get in and when to get out, but we can never quite get gold out of our collective imagination. Gold happens. It is like a force of nature. But is it really the brand story that I’m looking for? I mean, who controls gold? We get on board, and ride the ride, but we don’t have the reins. We don’t have a hero. There’s sex appeal, but where’s the role model?

Gold may shine, but it is not a beacon.

So maybe we need more than sex appeal. Maybe the hunt is for a brand that sets expectations and consistently meets them.

What about Coke? Coca-Cola is like gold you can drink, right? In a world of choices it is one we love to choose. Small players will flounder, experimental flavors will come and go, but Coke will endure. It has all the comfort and nostalgia of gold – we can taste it in our minds before we even pour a glass. You can’t do a much better job of turning expectation into anticipation than that. It’s refreshing even in a recession. But where’s the new? Coke hasn’t been around as long as gold, but it is older than you and me.

So here I am in Walmart cool-hunting for a brand that might have a story to tell despite the economy. An”it” brand – a “brand that can” in the shaky days ahead. I know you’re thinking “cool” and Walmart… might as well look for a contact lens in a bubble wrap factory, but their might be a glimmer of hope. The rumors are flying about a certain brand phenomenon making its way into the world of “always low prices” – the iPhone.

Yes, I’m picking Apples over Blackberries this season. The iPhone promised fun and great design and usability and cool. And it delivered. RIM doesn’t know what it is promising anymore. It is slipping into the purgatory of “me-too” when it should be trumpeting its difference and focusing on context.

Now there are some who might argue that putting the iPhone in Walmart will dilute the perceived value of the brand, but at this point all the cool kids and early adopters are already on their second iPhone. The allure of the iPhone is now moving through the mainstream middle and starting to convert some late adopters. And they’ll find plenty of them at Walmart. But that’s only part of it. You see Apple gets the idea of context. Steve Jobs understands alignment. The iPhone exists in harmony with iTunes, the App Store, and a continuity of experience with Mac OS X. The iPods and iPhones are gateway drugs for a Mac experience.

Apple is a beacon and the iPhone is their bright light, and even in a recession we’ll be following that beam towards new and better designs, and consistently (and insanely) great brand experiences.

Twitter goes mainstream – will it survive?

Just an observation: Twitter is in the the process of “crossing the chasm”.   Once accused of being the playground of narcissists and navel-gazers, the popular micro-blogging service is now going mainstream.  How do I know?  Well a few months back I used Twitter’s contact feature to see if there were any Twitter users in my Google contacts that I  was not already following.  There were three.  I did the same thing again a couple of minutes ago and there were now 120! And these weren’t techies, new adopters, and geeks.  All of my friends that fit those categories were already on the service and had been for some time now.  No, these folks are financial planners, real estate agents, business owners, interior designers, consultants, bankers, etc.

So my question is why?  Is it because the usefulness of Twitter has suddenly become widely understood and embraced by the majority?  I’d like to say yes, but somehow I doubt it.  I think the sudden rise in Twitter popularity is due mostly to CNN and the election coverage – and this is why I ask the question, will it survive?  Twitter’s ranks are filling, but will the new users add value or just consume resources?  Will they find a useful means of communication and embrace some kind of monetization of the system, or will the fail-whale dominate the site in between massive doses of sales pitches and self-serving links to personal and company websites?

Twitter, I’m rooting for you, but I think the jury is still out.

Interviewed by Bev Ann Bonds

Just a quick announcement.  I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Bev Ann Bonds and her esteemed colleague, Lee Kantor.  Bev Ann has a regular podcast called Georgia Business Coaches Radio, which is part of the RadioX family of podcasts. Bev Ann made me feel right at home and we had a great conversation about branding for small businesses.

Georgia Business Coaches Radio Show Interview with David Cohen of Equation Arts