The value proposition for what a great agency can (should?) deliver

By Robert Wheatley

What is powerful communication? Well you know it when you’re confronted with it, right? When it moves you. When it evokes a strong feeling or visceral response. This leads us directly to discovering the value proposition for an agency such as W&T. What is it exactly that we deliver to our clients?

Hopefully it includes transformational ideas that can alter the course of a brand’s trajectory and business results. To be sure the usual litmus test of our capability is often examined through the lens of campaign-able events and larger-scale integrated projects and programs.

That said at a fundamental level PR and social media communication is made powerful by how we use specific words and pictures to convey a story. In-other-words WHAT we say and importantly, HOW we say it. With sentiment. With anticipation. With passion and emotion. Please watch this video all the way through — then let’s talk some more.

Was there an “aha” moment here? Yep. A change of verbiage delivers a change in behavior. Sure this is a story well told. Point has been made: words matter. They can be used to great impact or something less than that. You can state the obvious — or develop dramatic new context by altering the way a brand message or proposition is conveyed.

Every so often we come face-to-face with process working to overtake ideas. With the urgency to “get the word out” driving the program boat, sometimes there’s a chance this momentum will super-cede the need to devote time and energy to creating a stronger and more compelling message.

Words can take you somewhere unexpected – or not. What you say can be simply a statement of the obvious – here’s my product, my feature and my benefit. Or, with a change of positioning, you can alter the course of brand history with a thought that grabs consumers in compelling fashion.

This is what we’re on the planet to accomplish at W&T. To find the right context that inspires and engages.

What say you?

YouTube functionality supports converting engagement to sale

By Robert Wheatley

Scanning the recent edition of Google’s recent self-published e-zine Think Quarterly, I ran across an article on functionality improvements at YouTube that permit viewers to buy items they like within the production via a point/click hotlink to another web platform.

Video is an engaging and entertaining medium. With high involvement categories that naturally attract an enthusiastic fan base, you can immediately see the business-generating opportunities when taking advantage of viewer interest and converting “in the moment” to a purchase opportunity.

The site above, You-Tique, is a great example of a fashion business aggregating a series of trend videos around everything from “What’s New for Spring” to occasion based ideas, such as what to wear for a hot date. The use of a Stylist expert helps set the credibility and value equation at the right level right out of the gate.

From there viewers can watch a model wearing the products and click to buy while viewing the video. It’s easy, pretty painless and, in my opinion, way more effective than looking at still photos of a product with narrative information alongside.

Zappos has figured out that online e-tailing gets compelling when you combine the right products with exemplary service. So who knows if the folks behind You-Tique have similar policies for returns and friendly live support. That said, the concept of watch and buy is just plain captivating.

You get richer story telling, context, validation and other benefits that outshine static web site galleries by adding the flavor of video production to the whole proposition. May not be right for every product category but this peek at the future is exciting none-the-less. Think Quarterly says the click through rates for You-Tique have been stellar…

What do you think?

How a strategic mission can fuel the next historic move in marketing and PR.

By Robert Wheatley

Most of us have experienced a point in our careers when the stars aligned as our PR campaigns and marketing programs achieved dramatic perhaps even monumental results. A moment in time when we almost can’t believe what we’ve just witnessed in business growth, consumer buzz, perhaps major media attention — or to leap-frog a much bigger competitor with a better idea the world says yes to.

Life’s achievements, career or otherwise, are to be savored — and we hope dearly, to be repeated. No one-hit-wonder here. Nope, not a one-trick pony, right? We always say this under our breath with a slight tinge of trepidation that maybe the big outcome will be hard to come by a second or third time. So we push ahead eager that some of the magic and creative lightening will strike twice and hit the results jackpot again. Dumb luck you think? No….

So what is the grist of this success made of these days?  Is there a consistent theme within these experiences and projects that metaphorically or mathematically blew the doors off? It is highly probable they were big bets representing a strategic swing for the fence. Some risk capital, personal and otherwise, was expended. Let’s explore some evolutions in the current path to remarkable marketing achievement….

Finding Your Mission…

Lately we’re seeing some organizations up the ante and scope of their marketing and outreach efforts by enveloping their brands in an initiative that draws from a more cinematic scope and mission.

Take ConAgra’s recent announcement of a multi-brand campaign entitled Child Hunger Ends Here. No small cause and one that resonates with moms everywhere who understand and appreciate the plight of less fortunate children. The project unites a portfolio of their packaged foods brands under a single banner.

Or Pepsico’s massive “Refresh Project” – an initiative that falls from the company’s efforts to emphasize social values while working to embed greater meaning into their brands and businesses. Refresh invites investment proposals from all comers at the local level for arts, music, community and education projects.

And the comprehensive, “Live Music Series” lifestyle program from Jim Beam bourbon that helps unlock the social connections inherent in their business category. Beam is sponsoring and presenting an array of music events, offers and experiences. What resonates here is the commitment to relevance with their core target audience’s lifestyle passions and aspirations.

By definition we’re wading into territory populated with larger-in-scope, transformative projects that carry with them the potential to impact brand and business behavior. And in doing so fulfill the definition of what we would call a “BIG” idea: bigger in agenda, bigger in reach, bigger in ambition and hopefully attached also to bigger outcomes and long-term benefits.

Efforts in this vein surely will work harder to break through the rust of rampant, epidemic indifference that exists virtually everywhere. Sounds good, but what’s the path look like? Let’s examine five key elements that together bring some magic to the table when working to elevate the brand’s mission and meaning to a higher level:

1.    A historic sense of gravitas, mattering and purpose – consumer behaviorists tell us that people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves (And so by the way do employees, too). Projects that spring from a foundation of greater meaning, value and symbolism in turn infuse the business with superior significance and worth. There’s just a richer conversation to be had than the year-to-year rework of product feature and benefit messaging

2.    Momentum to ante-up a clutter-busting focus of resources (not tonnage in spend but in cross-channel deployment) – more horsepower is secured when the concept also waves the flag of moral imperative or corporate calling. The aggregation of assets on a single platform creates potential homerun clout. Much needed in a marketing environment already riven with attention deficits and loss of grip in conventional media channels

3.    The concept is drenched with inherent merit, married to simplicity – and thus it immediately gains power and demands attention. Said another way the intellectual space a brand can expect to own exists in direct proportion to its meaning and value to the consumer. Projects of larger scope won’t work successfully if burdened by too many agendas or alternative messaging priorities all competing for brain time. Instead the simple thrust of hunger, community betterment and music are liberating in their ability to finally get somewhere with a human who invests very little mental territory with any one idea before moving on

4.    Relentless devotion to consumer insight – These platforms all spring from understanding consumer aspirations, values and passions. Hunger, what gives? It’s the common thread of value and importance moms place on their primary role as caretaker of their children’s welfare. This is an over-arching common trait and mission within moms’ understanding of what matters. Matching the brand agenda to this prevailing behavior embraces the emotional ties so important in building brand relationships

5.    Corporate reputation and brand reputation no longer separated – both are intertwined. Consumers watch and observe businesses to see if actions match words. Are an organization’s beliefs and values of equal priority with the demands of commerce and balance sheets? You are making a statement about what you believe in, what is important as a business and as a brand. A strategic mission creates an internal and external flagpole all stakeholders can rally around and salute. In doing so the faceless corporation gets an endearing face and the business results can benefit from this humanizing experience

Yes there’s a process required to correctly sync an organization’s DNA, values and understanding of the consumer’s lifestyle priorities with a mission that makes sense. But in equal measure it requires one other thing to make this “jackpot” moment recur. Fearlessness.

Go for it. Life is short and no great thing is accomplished by staying in the comfort zone.

What do you think?

We all want our brands to be loved, don’t we?

By Robert Wheatley

There’s been a fair amount of marketing media buzz of late about the recent promotion from Kellogg called Share Your Breakfast. It asks consumers to share a photo of their breakfast – and with each post a donation is triggered towards a morning meal for children who have trouble getting the right nutritional start on their day. Just brilliant. By all accounts to date it’s successful, too.

Sure it’s relevant to moms and their concerns plus the message is simple, therefore sticky and compelling. But what’s really going on here? Below is a statement we’ve included in a few client and new business presentations that sums it up:

“Science now proves what brand strategists have always sensed. We human beings have a need to believe in and act upon something that’s greater than ourselves… Let’s realize the significance of this discovery and impress upon ourselves that a brand is a belief system. Want greater rewards? Then impart your brand with greater meaning…”

One of the poster child examples of this might be TOMS Shoes, a business designed from the ground up to embody this idea. In their unique case, the company gives away a pair of shoes to needy children in foreign countries for every pair they sell. One-to-one is how it’s described. And the company recently announced plans to take this concept to the next level – which we’ll assume for now will be some expanded foray into new product categories with the same premise its core.

Have You Found Your Higher Purpose?

The concept of finding a brand’s higher purpose isn’t just an articulation of cause marketing strategies. It could be some other element of passion within a target consumer’s lifestyle that your brand can help enable.

Our point about this concept of higher purpose though, is not so much recommending an “add on” project to the annual marketing plan. We see it as fundamental to relationship creation between brand and user. If you are willing to consider it that way, then higher purpose is part of the fabric of successful brand building in the age of consumer control.

A Key to Powerful PR…

Moreover this kind of thinking delivers the grist for powerful public relations and social media programs. It can take a campaign to another level once you’ve discovered through insight research what your consumer’s truly care about. Imagine if you will the compelling voice a brand can secure as advisor and partner in helping consumers do what they love to do. Everyone has a passion for something. It’s in how you position the brand as a “friend” to be helpful and supportive that the magic can happen. That’s often in the form of transformational ideas that imbue your brand with greater meaning and in doing so greater value.

To be sure that value can be found in the dynamically different and laudable efforts of companies like TOMS Shoes — where helping others is baked into the business model. I for one look at that with deep respect and admiration. It’s unselfishness at its apex, and as it turns out a great business too.

What do you think?

The word “remarkable” now transformed for the digital age…

By Robert Wheatley

Yes, there was a time – way back when in the very early years of my career that I succumbed to an age old maneuver popularized by the likes of P.T.Barnum — and others way before me who discovered the media magic of a stunt.

I built the tallest cake in the world. At least it was the tallest then at 36-feet and weighing in at well over a 1,000 pounds. Why you ask? My client, a local independent TV station in the Seattle area had just completed a new broadcast tower that would be the highest man-made thing in the city. How to gin up some clutter busting awareness for something so benign as a massive pile of steel tubes? Sure it would radically improve the broadcast signal thus reception for this channel (stop laughing already — I know this sounds reminiscent of rabbit ears), but, yawn, it just didn’t feel like it would be rewarded with more than a mention here and there.

What to do? Wait I know, let’s build the tallest cake in the world in a popular shopping mall and sell pieces of it for charity! How cake got into the mix in my head I don’t quite remember but baked goods were always a favorite of mine. Perhaps the best move of all was the Associated Press photographer I had hired who got the perfect vertical moment-in-time photo: a large crowd gathered around TV news cameras pointed upwards to the ceiling just as the baker — standing on a giant lift – leaned over to place the last layer of cake that topped the world record. It was media magic around the globe – the remarkable photo and story ran everywhere…west coast, east coast and beyond.

Remarkable then not so remarkable now…

So this cake gambit brought added value in the era of push marketing communication when businesses were at the top of the heap in controlling the flow of news and information outward. Now we’ve seen it all, been there and done that. Shock and awe from around the world sits in our hands via smart phones. Thus the sheer novelty of really tall cakes seems quaint and underwhelming like the 4^th of July farm tractor parade in a rural town.

We’ve dialed out the noise, disconnected ourselves from irrelevant stuff, put a hold on what’s coming at us as we self-select only the media channels that most reflect our personal interests and passions. We’re in the era of “me.”

Today remarkable means a brand and business has found a way to connect with us directly – as if in a personal conversation that’s about our self-interests not their own. We are amazed when businesses seem to know us personally and understand our needs. And even more surprised when the effort includes tangible acts of unselfishness and dare we say “friendship” behaviors that transcend the traditional “sell-buy” dynamic that pervades the old transactional style of marketing.

No what’s remarkable now has evolved. Not about stunts, cakes, shotgun media hits and PR by the pound. Today best practices aren’t found solely through the lens of a TV news camera trained on a larger-then-life stunt. We gain more ground now through intimate connections and relationship building. It’s tougher, requires more patience, more strategy, more effort and more insight than a Guinness record-breaking cake will ever serve up.

What do you think?

(The cake tasted great and editors ate it up, literally – ok, I’ll stop here)

Mediums or channels we trust hold sway

By Robert Wheatley

Click to enlarge

Data recently published in a study conducted by digital agency Razorfish confirms that when it comes to engagement between brand and consumers, the popular channels of choice begin with the tried and true.

The top-two picks by consumers in order of importance not surprisingly are email and company web sites. Why? History, longevity, experience and therefore trust.

This doesn’t mean that other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter are unimportant. It just means that they are still emerging channels where the consumer experience is still in its “training wheels” phase.

The eminence of trust…

This information telecasts once again what is the preeminent insight about interacting with consumers in the age of consumer control: it’s trust. Trust in the channel. Trust in its use and value. Trust in how the interaction takes place. Trust that comes by way of our understanding and sense of control over the conditions in which we interact.

What’s important here perhaps is this over-arching issue and our ability to get focused on it. Thus how does one maximize trust?

Here are some trust-optimizing tips:

1.    Don’t push — sales messages, rather inform, educate and entertain

2.    Build an environment that invites conversation and feedback. We have more trust intrinsically with those we believe want to listen and understand our needs and concerns

3.    Borrow equity from outside influencers and experts. I’m not downplaying the value of celebrities for example. But I do believe we’ve entered the era of experts. And in doing so have come to understand that it is the outside third parties who have credibility in a subject area that we listen to the most. Outside experts can validate what we claim about our product, service or experience

4.    Adopt the style of reporters.  Editorial content creators in the old-media age acquired audiences by becoming a reliable source of useful, interesting and valuable ideas and information. The reporter’s style is to present information factually and with a nod towards validating what’s being said with respected sources. This rings with more value than blatant promotion, which often comes across as self-serving

5.    Look for trust-breakers. Within the platforms we know consumers prefer such as opt-in email and web sites, are there areas in your content or how consumers are invited to interact that impede trust? Are there policies, procedures and process that can be interpreted as either unfriendly or self-serving. Think about it and perform a “trust audit” to assess the consumer experience holistically

6.    And the king of all trust-makers: unselfishness. Imagine caring enough about your core consumer that you work hard to understand their passion and interests, and then actually work to help them enjoy and experience those very same things? What if you emphasized and invested in being helpful and supportive, before you look at the sales transaction side of the relationship?

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but trust really takes root when your audience believes you actually care about them and their welfare. And caring is made real by doing – through tangible demonstration.

Oh my, what have we done here? We’ve actually landed on the structural pillar of sound public relations strategy. What is PR supposed to do in helping you build your brand? Identify those avenues and mediums for you to demonstrate and prove what you assert to be true about your mission, values, product and expertise. To develop an environment of trust and belief.

We’ve come full circle. Trust gets you through the whole concept of successful brand engagement doesn’t it?

What do you think?

Great Moments in Trailblazing:

By Robert Wheatley

You know what’s great about powerful ideas? You can recognize the strengths almost instantly. And yesterday that happened at ragan.com’s review of Whirlpool’s web content strategy. So today we’re applauding and recognizing some terrific work in PR and brand building. As we’ve said before here at the Brand Trailblazer blog, if you look at your best consumers as walking wallets and view the relationship with them as transactional, you are risking failure in your ability to engage and communicate effectively.

On the other hand, treating consumer relationships the same way we regard our closest friends and family (we truly care about them) opens the door to an entirely new spectrum of programs and strategies — aimed at building relevance for your brand in the lives of those you hope to sell to. We call this finding and mining your brand’s “Higher Purpose”.

Whirlpool offers us a terrific example of this kind of thinking, well executed, that demonstrates a profound understanding of how brand relationships are built in the era of consumer control. Whirlpool has created the Institute for Fabric Science and Institute for Kitchen Science as platforms intended to help, advise and engage consumers on problems and needs they may have in their daily lives around cooking, cleaning (appliances) and laundry.

This works to establish Whirlpool as an expert knowledge broker and advisor on issues the consumer faces. Further real people are involved in the content creation and delivery, which helps humanize the brand. It takes about a second to see the vast array of potential extensions these platforms offer for earned media activity and additional multi-media content creation, so vital to aggregating and activating an audience at Facebook.

Monica Teague, Whirlpool’s Senior Manager for PR and Brand Experience had this to say in her Ragan.com interview: “And that’s the whole point of the Institute of Fabric Science and its sister, the Institute of Kitchen Science. Acting as a resource—versus promoting products—goes a long way in developing brand loyalty.” Amen to that. And we would go a step further to point out that now brands are obligated to earn permission for a relationship with consumers based on their ability to authentically connect with lifestyle needs and aspirations. It’s this kind of thinking that helps forge real bonds with people over time.

In the absence of strategies like the Whirpool effort, brands risk disengagement and commoditization – where finding a lower price becomes the only emotional value consumers experience with your business.

Bravo!!

This is the first in our series of question/answer posts about effective communication, best practices in PR and social media and an occasional look inside Wheatley & Timmons.

Any burning questions you would like us to weigh in on? Let us know!

Hyper-consumption falls as new era of meaning and purpose takes hold

By Robert Wheatley

We are sitting at the threshold of a new epoch in brand marketing and communication. One where old voices tempting consumers to look for the thrill in upward mobility and finding the joy in toys is being replaced by a soulful search for things more meaningful, more substantive.

Now more than ever there is a need to align your brand with a new set of consumer-driven values, to chart a different course with a refreshed voice and message, more in sync with this seminal shift in consumer attitudes. Are you ready? Read on…

The economic “thwack” on the side of the head…

Leave it to one of the worst economic disasters America has seen to finally bring some closure on the continual debate between judging one’s life by the things you buy vs. the “softer values” of contentment, happiness and belonging. Hyper- consumption may well be the biggest casualty befalling strategies for marketing and business as the economy searches for a new path to growth.

While the cauldron of behavior change continues to boil…

Sure enough the pocketbook difficulties (owing more but having less) faced by consumers here and around the world remain bitingly fresh. According to a recent report published in Food Business magazine, consumer spending at restaurants declined 2.2% in 2009 from the previous year. While that may not sound like much it is nevertheless quite remarkable. The data just released by the Economic Research Service of the US department of Agriculture indicated it was the first year-to-year decline reported since 1949, and the largest single drop in the restaurant business since the height of the Great Depression in 1938.

Today Mintel research reveals that beverage alcohol sales were off by 4.9% in the on-premise channel (restaurants, bars and clubs) over the same period. As we cut back in restaurant visits, we’re moving our adult beverage consumption to the home front, up 1.2 % over the same period and over 21% since 2004.

Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?

In a Forbes magazine report showcasing a new consumer attitude study from ad agency Euro RSCG , we find that saving rather than splurging is preferred now by 87% of Americans. And that 79% of us have way more respect for people who live relatively simple, debt-free lives than we do the bling-centric luxury lifestyle folk. Says Forbes: “Robin Leach has been sucker punched by Ed Begley Jr.”

Having possessions for their own sake and a sense of a life well lived are being separated from each other. Eight in 10, according to the study, believe that society has become too shallow, focusing on things that don’t matter. In a way you might say the “hyper-consumerist” life didn’t pan out the way consumers thought it would.

So what does this mean?

The data helps us see a new picture emerge:

• 80% of consumers are now shopping more carefully and mindfully.

• 54% are paying attention to the environmental and social impact of the products and brands they buy.

• 57% believe that cause participation matters.

More is less today about accumulation of goods. Instead our focus is on community, simplicity, a sense of purpose and belonging.

Successful brands in the digital age grow because they’re learning to align themselves as enablers, facilitators and supporters of consumer lifestyle interests and concerns. So, too, the message in brand communications and PR must adjust to acknowledge the desire for greater meaning, for personal growth, giving back and cause involvement – living simpler and less cluttered lives.

How can your band and product portfolio help consumers live a more satisfying life? And help them realize their desire for greater meaning? For belonging and sense of community?

What say you?

Connections to key lifestyle interests invoke openness to engagement

By Robert Wheatley

“The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” — George Bernard Shaw

Business growth opportunities abound for brands that fully understand the conditions and events that set in motion openness to communication – as in “I’m listening.” Much of the time consumers are not. The presence of brand communication at any given moment is not nearly as important as the audience’s willingness to pay attention. That may feel a bit like saying water is wet. But hear us out: lifestyle interests and events drive the readiness to listen. There’s an optimal time and place when consumers will be primed to engage.

Our point: brand communication gains a whole lot more traction when it occurs in tandem with relevant consumer behavior than it does randomly. Yet all too often, brand outreach is showered broadly as a form of messaging rain, timed to coincide with retail distribution or promotion period considerations more so than consumer lifestyle connection. In effect, brands remain ever hopeful that consumers will simply collide with the message storm or will be magically lured into engagement through its ubiquity, entertainment value or sheer novelty.

Lifestyle events prime the pump of openness…

Brand communication and PR strategies anchored to a foundation of real insight about the consumer’s relevant lifestyle concerns and passions will help crack open the door to hyper-targeted communication that conveys the right thing at the right time to the right person.

Getting Alignment With Target Audience Interests

Here’s a living example — Nesties – as defined by market research firm OTX and on-line retailer The Knot – are a unique segment of 25 to 32 year old female consumers. They represent the low hanging fruit for an array of household and lifestyle products. When these women become engaged to be married it triggers a period of three to five years devoted to wedding planning, new household creation and starting a family. These events in turn motivate an array of purchases.

It is the events and changing conditions in their lives that activate a behavioral response. Collectively Nesties are long-range “planners” who feel they have primary responsibility in setting up their new households and take responsibility for decorating, cooking, social activities, household chores, caring for children and pets.

This group shows evidence of predictable purchase behavior. And offers brands an audience already receptive to establishing a relationship that could continue beyond these formative years. So investments should be made in carefully crafted dialogue focused on this unique tribe — and grounded in positioning the brand as helpful and involved with her changing lifestyle needs, concerns and aspirations. This will lead to business growth.

Finding The Optimal Moment

Strategic timing and location of communication can also yield added engagement value. Meaning if it occurs when a person is actively doing something germane. A simple example of this is what we call leveraging a food brand’s kitchen footprint or in effect building its “share-of-countertop.” There is increased receptivity to brand messaging when the delivery timing coincides with related consumer’s behavior – in this case when working in the kitchen space. An obvious starter is to provide useful meal ideas, entertaining suggestions, tabletop recommendations, recipe preparation hints and serving suggestion guidance. It is an optimal environment for having a conversation — because the consumer is naturally open to it and their brain is switched on to the subject matter.

Nailing The Best Message

Messaging gains power when it is configured around the consumer’s lifestyle interests. Finding this sweet spot of alignment is what we call identifying a brand’s Higher Purpose. When the brand positions itself as an enabler, facilitator and supporter of a consumer’s personal passion, you’re able to forge powerful outreach tactics from this base. Consider the strategic possibilities that could fall out of sharpening your focus on consumer groups devoted to specific lifestyle interests such as fashion, travel, music, art, pet care, food enjoyment, cooking, child rearing, fitness, sports, home decorating or improvement, self-improvement, gardening, outdoor recreation, entertainment, entertaining, relationships and socializing. We could go on. The point is: the days of the hard sell, transactional style relationship are over and that form of messaging is out the window with it. So you want the consumer to understand some of the unique functional benefits in your product. Ok. And the path to getting their ears switched on springs from your willingness to be generous and unselfish — and thus play a role in their passions. It’s a richer, deeper and more personal relationship you want to construct.

The end result will be increased brand relevance, preference and sales.