Author Archive for Nick Rice

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How to hit a moving target

Published on August 21, 2006 in ROI, business, entrepreneur and strategy. 0 Comments

Great article in BusinessWeek today. We all know how hard it is to innovate consistently. Yet some companies do it all the time; Disney, Apple, Starbucks, Target, Amazon, Land’s End, Catepillar, etc…

How do they do it? Here are the keys to beating the competition:

  1. Experiment fearlessly
  2. Don’t just get bigger, get unique
  3. Why compete? Create new markets
  4. Obsess about customers, not rivals
  5. Give as good as you get
  6. Get personal
  7. Stay hungry

technorati tags > innovation, competition, strategy, market share, business week

Best blogs in Branding

Published on August 19, 2006 in branding, entrepreneur and social media. 0 Comments

Small Business Branding and Marketing was named on the Canadian Trademark blog as one of the branding blogs they’re tracking.

I’m proud to contribute to a site that’s so well respected. Keep your eyes open for some major changes we have coming in the next few months.

technorati tags > small business, branding, marketing, branding blogs, small business branding, small business marketing

My posts on Small Business Branding & Marketing

Published on August 18, 2006 in branding, business, entrepreneur, management and social media. 0 Comments

With vacation winding down, here are my posts from my other blog, Small Business Branding & Marketing…

The Power of the White Envelope

Role of Creativity in Business

How to Succeed with Direct Marketing

Lead Generation Strategy for Small Business

5 Tips for Getting the Biggest Bang for your Buck

Let me know your thoughts.

technorati tags > small business, smb, branding, marketing, strategy, nick rice

Standing between OK and remarkable

Published on August 16, 2006 in branding, management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

Since I’m off enjoying a few days at the beach, I thought I’d just pass on some wisdom from Seth Godin.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/08/awkward.html

technorati tags > seth godin, awkward, product, strategy

Brand adjectives and alignment

Published on August 9, 2006 in branding, business, management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

I run across a lot of marketing managers that continue to think of their brand as their logo. Obviously there is much more to your brand than just your logo mark. I’ve read all of the classic brand definitions and here is mine:

Your brand is defined by the individual gut feelings of those people that has been exposed to your company and/or products and services.

Notice that they do not have to be current or previous customers; nor do they need direct contact with your offerings or corporation.

One thing that we tend to do with customers is get them talking about brands they favor. Doesn’t matter who or what. But it’s all about describing the company without necessarily talking about their products. Here are some examples:

Nike

  • fitness
  • athletic
  • speed
  • innovation
  • not as globally focused as Adidas

Chase Manhattan

  • late fees
  • always merging w/ another bank
  • lots of direct mail

Red Lobster

  • hopefully fresh
  • suburban
  • decent substitute for the real thing
  • average

Adobe

  • in touch w/ the creative industry
  • don’t screw up the Macromedia apps
  • trusted

A lot of product-driven companies like to talk about product features or industry jargon. No normal customer thinks that way. Most users are very pragmatic about their brand impressions. It’s basically a bell curve. They love a few brands, hate a few brands, and most are just stuck in the middle. If you can become loved, you’ll grow profitably. Preference leads to loyalty and that’s a powerful position.

If you’re responsible for marketing products, I contend that you must know what your customers and the general public think of your brand. Overlay that with your desired brand adjectives. If there is a gap, you’ve got a problem. And unfortunately you cannot fix it immediately – simply because you cannot completely control your brand. The best you can hope for is alignment between those gut feelings about your company, products, services and your vision.

What do you want to be known for? And don’t cop out by saying “exemplary customer service” or “industry leading whatever” or some crap like that. It’s hard work to change gut feelings. But you can with innovation and communication – and time. Consistent alignment is the primary driver of brand strength.

Do you have an alignment issue with your brand?

technorati tags > branding, marketing, strategy, alignment, brand promise, gut feelings,

Carnivale of Customer Service

Published on August 8, 2006 in business, management and service. 0 Comments

Maria Palma of “Customers Are Aways” invited me to be part of her Carnivale on customer service.

I believe that good customer service is pretty simple yet surprisingly difficult to execute. The very nature of service is putting someone else’s need ahead of your own. In today’s society, that is not something that comes natural to most. You truly have to want to help someone to succeed in customer service. It has to be part of your being.

Many moons ago, I started corporate American life in Tech Support. I was young and had never really worked with the general public before. In dealing with Tech Support calls, you really start off on a bad foot. Something is broken and it needs to be fixed – quickly and painlessly and there’s a good chance it’s out of warranty. On top of that, you’re just a faceless voice on the other end of the phone. It’s much easier to to go postal over the phone than it is when you’re sitting across the table. At that time, the company was very focused on keeping customers and prospective customers happy. Tech Support was the face of the company’s brand to 99% of the callers. We were instructed to be respectful, knowledgeable and empowered to do what we thought it would take to solve their problem. That’s all great. Unfortunately a lot of teams were also praised for taking as many calls as possible and not giving away free service (parts, service calls, etc…). Think about the recent fiasco with AOL – but it never close to that situation. Regardless there in lies the rub. Some Tech Supporters were naturally geared towards call volume instead of truly helping each caller. Luckily I stayed in a product group that was very hands on and always went above and beyond to help each user. And they loved it. I would get thank you letters, gift baskets, Christmas cards – you name it. And the beauty was that you never knew who was connected to the person on the other end of the phone. I ended up solving problems for the CEO of Caterpillar, IBM board members, and author Stephen King as he was trying to finish a short story. It was great and I learned a lot about helping people.

So here are the lessons I learned and currently live by:

  1. Treat everyone – everyone – with courtesy and respect
  2. Answer all voice mails and emails before you leave the office every night
  3. Never over-promise on something you cannot deliver (it’s much better to under-promise and over-deliver)
  4. Keep an eye on the little details – people notice
  5. Do what’s right for the customer – 99% of the people simply want to be treated fairly

We’re all consumers. We all have our own personal stories of bad service; they’re hard to forget.

Good customer service can overcome a lot of product issues. At the end of the day, just do what your Grandma told you years ago – treat others like you want to be treated. If everyone just did that, the customer service industry would be entirely different.

technorati tags > customer, service, strategy, support, carnivale, maria palma

The right priorites

Published on August 5, 2006 in advertising, branding, business, management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

This image from Hugh Macleod got me thinking.

Trust in a seller/customer relationship truly is paramount. Big advertising blew it – people are sick of being screamed at. Big business blew it – employment for life? The social media push is all about trust. It’s an amplified globe-shrinking Word of Mouth push. It is about customers taking back control and recognizing the power of their tribe.

I’ve seen it happen a thousand times – and I’m guilty of it myself. Once a creative firm (in-house or outside) sells a new idea; the client usually jumps right into “so how are we going to do it”. I’ve always thought they should be more concerned about ensuring their brand is elevated in the eyes of the customer instead of the technical details. I’m sure the thought process is “if I understand how it’s going to work, I’ll be able to know if it’s right”.

Most clients are focused on the wrong thing and it’s puts them at a disadvantage that is next to impossible to overcome. Focus on what your customer wants to hear (the why), not the technology (the what or how). Focus on solving the true business problem that’s prompting you to market/publicize/advertise/etc… Be brave enough to peel back the layers and write an honest creative brief. Make trust a priority.

technorati tags > marketing, branding, advertising, priorities, strategy, customer, trust

Brainstorming tips & tricks

Published on August 3, 2006 in business, entrepreneur, management and strategy. 0 Comments

I’ve used the SCAMPER methodology for brainstorming quite effectively over the years.

SCAMPER stands for:

  • S – substitute
  • C – combine/create
  • A – add
  • M – modify/magnify
  • P – put to other uses
  • E – eliminate/elaborate
  • R – reverse/rearrange

This is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. We’ve all seen that ingenious little tweak on someone else’s idea that sparks a new flurry of ideas. The SCAMPER methodology allows you to create in bitesize chunks. Instead of having to have an ideal moment of inspiration, these techniques get your brain thinking in ways that you may not be used to.

Let’s take a basic pencil.

S – substitute pencil for crayon, marker, chalk, lead, paint anything that play a similar role
C – combine pencil with lead pencil, #2 pencil, pencil and pen, pencil and paper
A – add pencil to a messy desk, journal of dreams, a sketchbook
M – magnify a part of the pencil you want to focus on – clean erases, visual display of how sharp the lead is and how much is left
E – what would a pencil be like without the six sides (easier to hold or harder), is it better w/ blue lead, does the audience need a pencil/pen combo
R – is there a way to rearrange a pencil? Not sure, it’s pretty well baked.

After a while, you can see how these methods get you thinking differently about a simple pencil. It’s easy to put yourself in the shoes of the Dixon-Ticonderoga marketing manager planning his/her next campaign.

Anyway, use the SCAMPER techniques to find new solutions to problems. Once you begin to understand and apply each letter, you’ll be able to dissect how other companies came to their conclusions on product names, features, and design.

technorati tags > brainstorming, techniques, scamper, product, development, features, design

SmallBusinessBranding.com – It’s official

Published on August 2, 2006 in business, entrepreneur and management. 0 Comments

Just a quick post to let you know that I’ve officially began writing on SmallBusinessBranding.com.

Here are my two initial posts:

  1. Hi, my name is…
  2. 5 tips to getting the biggest bang for your buck

I’m truly excited about the opportunity to work with business owners and executives. Helping corporations and organizations improve has been a passion of mine for a long time.

technorati tags > small business, branding, blog, marketing

Gen Y is driving technology consumption

Published on August 1, 2006 in ROI, business, management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

According to Forrester, North American 18-26 year olds are integrating technology into their lives faster than any generation previously. They spend twice as much time online as baby boomers. Almost half have broadband at home. Whether its blogs, IM, or social networks like Facebook, Gen Y is driving technology consumption.

It’s amazing how much this trend is changing the face of America. Pay phones are gone. Travel agencies are very hard to find. Land line phone subscriptions are falling. To most folks in the blogosphere this is not new news. But I’m still surprised at how many corporations are not embracing the shift.

Loyalty is the key to long term growth. The Web 2.0 trend is only exposing & amplifying what has always happened. People have always recommended products the love and bashed products they hated. Technology has enabled those local conversations to happen globally. It has created massive tribes of like-minded consumers with the power to shower explosive growth on a company or tank it.

Now more than ever you must make products/services that customers will love, not just be satisfied with if you want to grow. Keeping your customers happy is more important than short term Wall Street-driven changes. Be more competitive by beating the competition. Not by simply cutting price.

You should leverage technology to enable conversations. There’s still room for traditional market research, but you can learn a lot by paying attention to what is already being said. Before you had no idea what college kids in Idaho loved about your product without expensive focus groups that were automatically filtered because they’re staged research initiatives in a controlled setting. Now you can just tap right into Bebo, MySpace, Flickr, del.icio.us, xanga, etc… The list goes on and on.

Here’s the key; take advantage while you can. Every corporation on the planet is heading down this same path. If you don’t beat them, all you’ll hear is corporate marketing crap that is coming not the users themselves.

technorati tags > forrester, strategy, customer, loyalty, marketing, technology, integration