Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

When I was at Marqui, we transformed a technology-centric brand to a prospect-centric brand quite successfully. I inherited a technical software company look in Maestro CMS, a regional Canadian software company looking to reinvent itself.

The goal of the new executive team was to create the “salesforce.com” for marketers in Marqui. Our product would help marketers manage their web site, launch their own email campaigns; anything it took to help marketers communicate online with customers and prospects and measure the results.

We needed a different degree of brand engagement with our prospects as we broke into the United States. We were in an incredibly fractious market, and needed to quickly stand out from the rest of the software companies fighting for marketers’ attention. But first, we needed to figure out who we were, given our daunting objectives and the new team in place.

Marqui, Meet Your Brand Promise

First we went through a series of exercises to profile ourselves as an organization, and our promise to the world. Some interesting findings emerged. Our newly formed executive team’s attributes were largely dominated by the following:

• Independent-minded
• Self-sufficient
• Adventurous
• Restless
• Ambitious
• Curious
• Take a stand

These “Explorer” tendencies resolved into the following brand and (product or company) attributes:

• To help people feel free (Marqui freed marketers from relying on others)
• Marqui was rugged and sturdy (Had all the features marketers needed)
• To help people express their individuality (Marqui helped enforce a company’s brand, which is their individuality)
• Can be purchased for ‘on the go’ (Software as a Service – could access Marqui from anywhere)
• Wants to differentiate from a successful ‘regular guy’ brand (Our vision - develop a Center for Marketing Excellence to support that “salesforce.com for marketers” vision - which became the raison d’etre of our blog)
• Our explorer culture created a new and exciting product or experience (our company was distributed in three states; as such, it was important that our virtual teams worked well in creating the vision)

Examples of other “Explorer” brands are Starbucks, Virgin Airlines, Levis, and Patagonia. We felt we were in good company - that there was a good fit between our brand attributes, our vision and our team.

Marqui, Meet Rachel

Step two was to profile our prospect for the entire organization to understand. From a sales, marketing, engineering and support perspective, it was imperative to have a deep understanding of Rachel.

According to the AMA in 2004, Rachel:

• Was 42 years old
• Was a marketing communications director leading outbound marketing efforts for a mid-size organization
• Made approximately $80K
• Worked 50+ hours a week
• Was likely divorced, with no children
• Led a team of 4-6 marketing specialists

She enjoyed running a marketing organization, but was coming under increasing pressure. Rachel had lost her control of her marketing domain as it moved increasingly online. Dependent on her IT team (if she was lucky enough to have one) or outside resources, she longed for the simpler days when she felt the freedom of control of her own destiny.

Marqui, Meet your New Heart, Soul and Face to the World:

Marqui’s brand promise - quite literally - was to restore Rachel’s ability (that freedom and control) to manage her own domain. Once we had a good understanding of Rachel’s persona and her challenges, our brand needed to support our promise. We looked back to a simple time - the 50’s and early 60’s - when technology held the promise to simplify our lives.

First we came up with “Jack” - the delightfully simple logo that elegantly payed off the Marqui name. Jack was certainly capable of leading people to new places, in a friendly, safe manner, illuminating the way. He fit our explorer brand. Armed with Jack and our explorer brand attributes, Rachel’s needs for freedom and (at the same time) control, we were able to be very specific in guiding our creative agency in giving Marqui a heart, soul and face to the world.

Here are some of the files associated with the updated Marqui brand:

The 50’s road trip theme was complete with stamps (for our paper communications with prospects), postcards for direct marketing and brand awareness, and the tiny touches that made our brand completely engaging. We created little artifacts to play with our brand - we had a dog, “Buster;” a vintage airplane (which later found its place in Aviation Gin); and “Jimmy,” complete with his Ray Gun - to use in illustrating our brand’s promise, the ease of our products and the company itself.

Our prospects adored the brand. At trade shows, on the speaking tour and online, we were constantly complimented for our vibrant, fun, engaging brand. “You don’t look like other software companies…” The brand itself pulled people in.

This is probably the brand work that’s made me the most proud in my career in marketing. We had a ton of fun with the process, and - although it feels today as if the brand manifested itself exactly as it was meant to be - we did go through a deliberate internal reflection and a creative process that illuminated our final choices.

The brand lived on until the company, after two years of trying to hit the US market, retrenched in 2006 and remains a regional software company today.

If you’ve got a heartbeat and are looking to improve your business results in “today’s economic climate,” it’s likely you’re looking into social media these days. In the years I’ve been consulting and participating in social media, there’s never ever been more interest in the space, which is delightful to me.

But the reasons you should (or shouldn’t) try Twitter or Facebook or (insert the latest social media darling here) are often unclear - until you begin answering questions about your brand.

Amplifying Conversations Online

Social media are blogs, podcasts, videos, and news that enable people to participate with your brand by commenting, rating products (think Amazon) or statements (”like” is the new Black), by uploading files (think YouTube, Flickr).

As my esteemed colleague Dawn Foster notes:

“Social media is generated by the people and for the people with content created by anyone with a voice (average Joes, village idiots, respected journalists, CxOs, etc.).”

The important thing to note is that each of those groups are out in force online with loud, amplified voices. Putting your brand in their hands is exactly what you’re looking at when you’re looking at social media.

When people ask me for an overview of social media channels they might consider, I always start with the caveat that it will depend on their prospects and customers, and where they hang out. And then I’ll talk about specific types:

• LinkedIN is on the business-centric end of the scale of social media sites. Traditionally it’s been used for recruitment, hiring and general networking; but there’s a growing use of LinkedIN Answers that allows participants to develop thought leadership for their products, services and brands inside of LinkedIN.
• Business blogs are becoming more popular, with even the most regulated companies like banks and healthcare organizations entering the blogosphere - too often, these blogs are treated as extensions of the PR department’s mouthpiece, so fall flat in their potential to drive thought leadership and compel conversations about a market. Consumer trust of corporate blogs is dropping as a result.
• Facebook’s use by brands is growing quickly, as are the aging population demographics. Many large brands are exploring Facebook Pages and Groups where users can post their own content in support of their favorite products, groups, even cities.
• YouTube is arguably the most viewed social network. The #1 activity of people who are active in social networks is to watch videos online, according to Universal-McCann. More than 100M people watched videos on YouTube in October, 2008. The average visitor watched 92 videos in the month. Much of that activity was driven by the election, but the power of the medium to attract viewers is indisputable.
• Twitter, the popular microblogging site, has grown more than 750% in the past year, with 5K - 10K users joining every day. Twitter is oft used by customer service folks to make sure user experiences are good, and is a source of immediate hits of a brand’s online reputations - whether they’re good/bad/ugly. But with everyone jumping on the bandwagon (heck, you’ll even find John McCain Twittering - albeit “slowly”), it’s only a matter of time before the digerati leave it in droves.

When Social Media is Good:

1. Brand awareness - Skittles recently turned over their corporate web site to feeds from their Facebook page (with more than half a million fans) and Twitter (where they quickly found the dark side of social media - some people posted bad/nasty stuff just to be seen on the Skittles.com site. Remember Dawn’s ‘village idiots?’) But they got HUGE press as a result. Regardless of the adeptness of intention, awareness is one result.
2. Brand engagement - letting users interact with your brand is a great opportunity for your company to learn from your users and advocates - in areas like product development (asking questions about what customers would like to see in future products, etc.), research and stimulating awareness among their peers.
3. Thought leadership - when surgeons at Henry Ford hospital in Mass. Tweeted a surgery live, they got great press and were able to position themselves as innovative and forward-thinking.

When Social Media is Not Good:

1. When it doesn’t have the support of the leaders of your organization - you must get buy in and support from the folks at the top
2. When it doesn’t support the strategic goals of your business - that’s why you and I would start any social media conversation with a series of questions about your brand…
3. When your brand values are not embodied in every employee in the organization.

As I’ve told many people, had the social web been as active in 2000/2001 when I was at Enron, the folks in charge would never have been able to hide the things they did - precisely because of my last point. Neither the leaders nor the foot soldiers of any organization can be out of synch with the values their brand holds - and exhibits in the social web. There are too many opportunities for employees to share their observations and ideas in public.

Ping me when you’re ready to answer some questions. I’d love to have a fun discussion about your brand, and your values and objectives around it.

Then we’ll get to the social media stuff.

I receive a newsletter every morning about the economy from an analyst at Bear Sterns, now JP Morgan. It’s one I actually enjoy reading.

However, this morning my newsletter came with a big surprise… apparently, Andrew Graham’s out of the office this week, and some staffer sent a notification that he’d be gone for the week to everyone on the list. And…

Instead of blind copying everyone, they copied everyone, and I now have personal, private emails for everyone else who gets his email newsletters.

I’m pretty sure that staffer is getting their head handed to them on a plate right about now.

I have the integrity to delete the note and the email addresses associated with it. But can I trust everyone else on the list to do the same?

So a little lesson to all marketers - our email addresses should be protected as fiercely as our phone numbers, home addresses, etc… THINK before you send a mass email of any kind. Are you protecting the rights of everyone on the list?

I’m afraid that I keep reading more marketers are adopting email as a communications vehicle in this economy, and I believe we’re going to see a lot more of this kind of mistake. I have a separate email address for my newsletters, and recommend you do the same. It might just help to protect you in cases like this.

A second peanut plant (this one in Texas) run by the Peanut Corporation of America has just shut down operations as a result of government pressure over the salmonella scare.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today that the number of cases linked to the current peanut product outbreak has reached 600, and said that as many as eight people may have died as a result.

At the same time, sales of jars of peanut butter- which are not affected in this recall - have slid 22% in four weeks. As I mentioned on Sunday in my Stopping Spreading Fear… post, food producers - in the face of consumer hysteria - are relegated to buying print and PPC ads to fight the hype and hyperbole that have surrounded the lack of information in this case. They just aren’t ready to move fast enough - this time.

I can only take heart in the hope that this (lack of) response to a major food / health issue will never happen again. With government coordination, and soon-to-come business participation, we’ll have the facts (FACTS! Not conjecture… or silence…) available as they unfold next time.

The systems are available. People are using them. Businesses and the associations who represent them are just going to have to get them implemented NOW, in preparation for next time.

Sign me up for some of that.

In her blog yesterday, pharma marketer Ellen Hoenig-Carlson elaborated on my peanut butter post and said:

“Yet…what I also find interesting is that the US GOVERNMENT seized the moment during this crisis to launch a social media collaboration…”

Food and pharma are highly regulated, especially around health claims. Few companies (Johnson & Johnson is a notable exception) have leveraged social media to interact with consumers.

I find it rather ironic that the very government entities who regulate business communications are providing the majority of peanut recall information in the social media realm.

The CDC has a little site up complete with blog links, video links, e-health cards you can send to friends (!?!), RSS feeds, podcasts and even a link to their mobile web site. And, to fly the flag for safety, you can even put little badges (code provided) on your site.

I love the garbage can - proud to have thrown away products! But hey… if it gets people motivated, so be it!

As Ellen noted:

“WOW! Government actively using and exploring social media, twitter and the like, before private business…

Who would have thunk…

Attention industry and marketers alike…are you ready?”

Perhaps with the government leading the way, they will be able to speak more freely, especially when and where we need them to the most.