A backwards glance shows seismic shift in the PR world

By Robert Wheatley

It was without a doubt one of the most powerful PR campaigns I’ve ever been associated with. An entirely new product category created from scratch off a compelling, dynamic public relations strategy. Yes, I said PR — not advertising or sales promotion. Over $100 million in sales (and that’s in 1994 dollars) was achieved and an 84% share of market within 16 months of launch. It was the introduction of First Alert brand carbon monoxide alarm products.

Recently we heard from the Wall Street Journal that futurist Richard Dawson believes newspapers will be irrelevant by 2022. The reference point for this incredible shift can be more fully appreciated by briefly looking backwards to a moment in time when conventional print and broadcast media were popular and respected sources of news, information and influence on consumer behavior and public opinion.

Here’s the story of PR campaign media strategies that were built from a full-scale deployment of earned media tactics.

• And the approach is no longer as relevant. New businesses are now developed in an interactive, narrowcast environment without push-button scale-ability

The lesson: the old rules no longer apply. New media protocols, planning processes and program strategies literally demand a transformation of our beliefs about brand building, PR strategies, how PR firms are put together. Thus how we look at messaging, outreach, measurement and evaluation of ideas is different than it was even 10 years ago.

When editorial media ruled!!

It was 1993, the firm I owned at the time, Wheatley Blair, was hired by First Alert, the leading home safety products brand in the US. They had invented the residential smoke alarm category and literally owned the retail market for them. Rich Timmons, now principal and President of Wheatley & Timmons, was the global marketing chief at First Alert – a marketer who had followed conventional paths focused on TV advertising and who was going to do something unprecedented: launch the next biggest thing to come along in his company’s history through PR.

A new category: Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarms

We were awestruck the moment we learned that CO poisoning was the largest source of accidental poisoning deaths in America.

First Alert had created the first affordable residential detector for this previously unseen and little understood hazard that claimed at least 1,500 lives every year and injured thousands more.

The Silent Killer

How do you convince Americans to protect themselves from a hazard you cannot see, taste, smell or touch? And after all, headaches are common and ubiquitous, right? We created a theme that dramatically defined the threat.
• Poison center physicians, indoor air quality experts, leading fire service officials and others were recruited to help explain the problem and support the solution
• We built the Carbon Monoxide Information Bureau to house the scientific and medical evidence
• Brought together consumers who had lost loved ones in CO accidents to personalize and make the hazard tangible and real

Launching a Media Tsunami

Media tours were conducted with CO survivors and coordinated with local fire department representatives. We booked medical expert appearances on TODAY, Good Morning America and all of the network news programs. Placed in-depth hazard education features in national newspapers and virtually every major daily in the US. Similar treatments on family protection were secured in women’s service, lifestyle and DIY magazines. We assembled an in-house TV news production department that was producing a regular flow of 90-second video news packages.

Our tracking on consumer media impressions within six months topped 700 million and grew to over a billion. There were 6 o’clock news stories in major markets about lines outside stores exclaiming that First Alert alarm products were sold out. A major trade publication featured a quote from a senior buyer at Walmart who described First Alert CO alarms as the “cabbage patch doll of the hardware department.”

A business was created. A category established. First Alert doubled in size. Thousands of lives were saved in the process. Importantly, editorial media in virtually all channels was the instrument of awareness, education and motivation. The decline of traction, audiences and the splintering of media into hundreds if not thousands of platforms of self-interest make this story simply a reflection of a another age in media communication.

The same product launch, repeated today would be wholly different and geared to empower individuals to spread the word as much as media properties are addressed to influence the influencers.

For First Alert we constructed a media machine that hummed and produced and delivered editorial attention. That is no longer the way communication operates. Yet many still attempt to apply the old rules of quantity thresholds to a world now devoted to the quality and personalization of encounters with communication.

Nine years after we began, the agency moved on to represent Kidde, the other leading category brand. We helped them secure the number one market share position. This dramatic video PSA was part of the effort:

How would you launch the CO alarm category today?

Agencies that lead bring more value than order takers

By Robert Wheatley

Hugh MacLeod is a creative and insightful expert who regularly exposes the soft underside of the marketing world — and helps us laugh at ourselves. His thoughts, expressed as graphic images, can be down right powerful. Today’s post in some respects is a perfect foil for a few of his engaging ideas. (Check out gapingvoid.com – and subscribe to his daily image emails).

Great work falling from great ideas can transform the future direction and growth of business. Yet more often than not, by definition, it will require clients to stretch, to have faith and take risk. And none of this will see the light of day unless agencies step up to passionately support and defend solid out-of-the-ordinary thinking. This is often the price of strategic concepts that are unique, unexpected and disruptive (in a positive way).

An insightful article on this subject was published today by Cory Treffelett of Catalyst SF. You can read it here . In his excellent piece he accurately describes the difference between a vendor and partner style relationship between agency and client. Essentially the order taker vs. the leader.

Good agencies are in the strategic idea creation business. Clients make investments in programs and concepts that will grow business, build brand reputation and attract or retain new customers. No easy task. And I can recount over the years in virtually every instance of needle-busting results, innovative concepts always supplied the accelerant. Thus risk and leadership is demanded of the agency.

The path of least resistance is easily followed and at times it feels much safer to stay within the comfortable bounds of serenity — a quiet surf made calm by the absence of tough discussion that can whip up a big wave or two along the way.

Fear – collectively our greatest enemy
What stands in the way of great ideas and game-changing initiatives? It’s fear. Fear of rocking the boat. Fear of losing the account. Fear of failure. Fear of disagreement. Fear of ruffling feathers. Fear of slaying sacred cows. Fear of the unknown. Fear of folded arms and taught expressions. Fear of shaking heads. Fear not being loved. Fear of losing the budget. Fear of the boss. Fear of mistakes. Fear of conflict. Fear of perception leading reality. Fear of risk, of making the big bet. This insidious human condition interferes so many times, closing the gate on otherwise powerful moves that may occasionally require a willingness to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

This is not a call to arrogance and conceited behavior by the way. What is in the client’s best interests at all times will be growth and development of their brand and their business results. The fact that innovation is often at the fulcrum of transformative periods only means that risk will be part of the mix in bringing these things to fruition. Clients who are challenged by their agencies to accomplish more through bolder initiatives are needed now more than ever. And are often in short supply for all of the reasons mentioned above. Just take the order, do the work and make sure everyone is happy and smiling all of the time? No great thing was ever accomplished by simply riding the existing wave. Blazing a new trail will be required of us.

Agencies and Clients Together Offer the Best Formula…
There’s an old saying, “an agency is only as good as its client.” Well in some end-game sort of reference I suppose this is true if all you ever hear is no. Should clients run from risk and punish their agency for bringing bold ideas then Houston, we have a problem!! Ultimately however, agencies have an obligation to bring this kind of thinking routinely. It should be the rule rather than the exception.

Clients can help this process by openly inviting and encouraging their agency partners to challenge them, to say no when its necessary, to think big, to look for new territory to trail-blaze. In essence to disrupt the category conventions and accepted brand behaviors that can deter major leaps ahead. Clients also acquire an obligation: to be willing to approve and fund campaigns with risk involved. And be prepared to accept a mistake along the way and learn from it.

This kind of healthy give and take — lively discourse built around discovery and epiphany — is essential if transformative programs are to get out of the developmental garage. Our daily mantra should be to make this quest genuinely a part of our culture and operating philosophy. To do less is to compromise the values and integrity of what we’re on the planet to accomplish.

What do you think?

Shedding light on the evolution of effective PR in the digital age…

By Bob Wheatley

Every so often this question comes up. Partly because we cast our firm as the “merger of brand strategy guidance and PR.” I mean, aren’t clients really covering that brand strategy thing all on their own? And what does that have to do with PR anyway? Isn’t PR a tactic focused on editorial media communication – code for getting reporters, producers and bloggers to publish something favorable?

• There are so many wrong-headed thoughts and clichés bleeding from the last graph. It’s time to shed some light, shine a beacon on a new understanding of what great PR truly is. And bring a clear rationale to the reason why brand strategy guidance and PR should be, and in our case are, married.

Granted in varying degrees, some companies treat agency resources in more of a silo fashion – essentially keeping the terms of engagement focused on tactics. But here’s the rub: the difference between communicating for awareness’ sake and the kind of communication that helps build brands and open new markets, is firmly attached to how brand strategy and outreach tools feed from one another.

Successful brands now are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning to their users. We called this a “higher purpose” or strategic mission. And often in the early stages of an engagement with a new client, we are doing the spadework necessary to unearth the right path to alignment between the brand’s DNA and the lifestyle passions and interests of core customers.

It is in the grist of this strategic mission that we find the unusual coalescing of communication that is sought out and engaged by its prospective audience (the consumer is now in control of engagement, not the other way around), and our ability to construct a meaningful relationship with the brand – one that can withstand the tests of competition and even a bad economy over time.

Sure you can cast PR as an outreach tool that simply translates features and benefits through an “earned” media pipeline that runs alongside paid (ads) media as another message delivery vehicle – albeit one that is understood to be more credible. But that’s not going to result any longer in demonstrable, measurable connections between the deployment of PR strategy and bottom line business growth. Simple awareness or being in the presence of a message is not the same as acting on it.

Any PR is good PR?

Is mention in an article really the main thing? Well certainly it represents an achievement because you can’t buy it. But that’s only going half way to paradise. The real deal here is when your message truly connects with the audience on a consistent basis and in areas that go far beyond product features and benefits. Sure product coverage is important but it can be so much more when done in the context of an over-arching strategy for the brand that is chocked full of greater meaning and intrinsic value to the consumer.

PR is no longer a below the line tool anyway. PR has now merged with “owned” media to become a brand publishing and media platform universe. It combines what’s long been known as editorial outreach, with building online communities and social networks that make brands media players themselves – and in doing so jumps the shark of editorial gatekeepers to message directly to consumers (but in a fashion that’s very, very different from advertising).

• So brand strategy guidance naturally must spring from a deep dive into the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Combined with a working and thorough understanding of the brand’s competitive set and category behaviors. As well as respectful efforts to fully understand a brand’s historical legacy and cultural fabric.

Most importantly, however, is the requirement to invest in consumer insight so we can know with some measure of confidence what those lifestyle passions and interests look like. This sets in motion a platform for communications and PR strategy that resonates, engages, delights and validates what we hope consumers will believe about a client brands relevance and value to them.

This is our calling. Our path. Our way. Our point of view about PR.

What’s yours?

By Bob Wheatley

Periodically we celebrate excellent work, great campaigns and ideas that represent a measure of vision and innovation. For the most part we chronicle higher-calling projects that can impact brand behavior. But every so often a more tactical bit of communications wizardry comes along that you just have to recognize and salute for its sheer out-of-the-box brilliance.

Certainly there’s strategic linkage between the Tropicana brand of OJ and sunshine – the warmth and glow often attributed to Florida orange groves where this delicious fruit gets its healthy props.

So the brand evidently decides that working with portable sunshine can serve as a platform for effective, engaging and maybe entertaining online video communication – as well as serving to underscore a bright metaphor that’s tied to the juice’s origins.

• I would have loved to be in the Tropicana conference room when this idea was presented — just to see the reaction, the questions and the process that led to approval. I say that because of the boldness and uniqueness of the project.

Just imagine for a moment: in a small Arctic Circle town in northern Canada each year they go through a period of near total darkness – a continual and unrelenting nighttime. So Tropicana sends an expedition to the town, hauling in a giant gas filled balloon-like object in the shape of the sun. The orb is erected and lit, spreading artificial sunshine and undoubtedly some cheer to local residents…. Not to miss a product tie-in opportunity, the crew passes out OJ bottles to the enraptured onlookers as they marvel at the spectacle of man-made sunshine.

The entire story is deftly shot on video with a thoughtful music track underneath and made share-able with the rest of the world through YouTube and Facebook. Watch it here:

Bravo to Tropicana for bringing a little light to the lives of these Arctic dwellers — and then allowing the rest of us to observe and enjoy the experience. Disruptive isn’t it? Unexpected. Entertaining. Memorable. Emotional. What do you think?

Hovering above the technology “feature” weeds…

By Robert Wheatley

Wow, last week was “Apple Land in America,” with all of the online and mainstream media conversation around iPad. Marketing sites did comparisons of buzz-metrics between Jobs and President Obama’s State of the Union message, with Apple winning on most scorecards. Apple continues to blaze new trails, even in their deft handling of the sales message.

Brands look at the Apple phenomenon with envy. Wouldn’t we all want our brands to glow with similar outsized levels of consumer devotion and enthusiasm? Truckloads of breathless media attention and positive coverage oozing out of every channel we can dream up?

There’s a very simple yet dramatically important aspect to Apple’s behavior that bears mention. So much of the time in marketing and PR we’re focused on the essence of the new feature and benefit. We sit down in a conference room to review in every detail the various achievements the R&D department has wrought in discovering new recipes, technologies or bringing measurable improvements to an existing product.

And so communications follows this path to creatively move the “what’s new news” through various media channels. On the other hand, Apple religiously and routinely focuses its communication from a slightly different angle: the consumer first and itself second.

Sure the product messaging is there, but the twist is vital, important and matters to achieving a better outcome. The overview tour of iPad is conducted from the user experience point of view. It’s about you first and how the product answers the need, rather than me first and my wizardry.

What’s missing?

The lesson here all too often is about remembering to put the consumer in the driver seat on messaging. Framing the new product in terms of the consumer’s real need and then connecting to your solution’s deft handling of same. Steve Jobs talked about iPad in the user context. How the product makes common tasks like Web browsing and book reading more engaging and interesting.

Simply said: consumer first, me second. The shift is important because relevant messaging trumps the easy-to-fall-into trap of specsmanship. Consumer self-interests govern our willingness to engage and listen. Apple smartly knows this and frames the message in this way.

Consider a new food product that comes to the table answering first how it solves a preparation dilemma cooks would immediately recognize.

Or maybe a household appliance that springs from real-world concerns expressed by time-stressed homemakers.

So often in the consumer electronics world its about increased lines of resolution or connectivity improvements and expressed as such. Apple understands the specs and technology advances aren’t nearly as compelling as the experience itself.

What do you think?

Sea of sameness interrupted here and there with unique ideas

By Robert Wheatley

The National Fancy Food Show in San Francisco started last Sunday with a bang as 17,000 retailers, distributors and brand minders came together at the Moscone Center to see and taste what’s new in specialty foods.

The convention is remarkable in its fantastic array of vendors from around the globe who showcase their products for US retail distribution. Especially cheese, cheese and more cheese that populated both exhibit halls. The air was heavy with the zesty pungent dairy-air of hard and soft varietals mostly from Europe and North America. It’s hard to imagine any of the Showgoers having to retreat for lunch given the wall-to-wall noshing – all of which was occurring at a break-neck pace as everyone attempts to canvas the acres of product categories and companies.

Even with all of the chocolaty goodness, it’s hard not to notice the pervasive sameness and slim distinctions between competing offerings. So we see in dramatic relief the problem plaguing so many businesses in the era of over-choice and saturation. It just all runs together. For any business unveiling its version of Chevre, infused olive oils or extreme Cocoa chocolate, your eyes glaze a bit as many overlap together in a noisy heap of feature/benefit style selling.

There were some standouts — interesting items you could tell were more like Purple Cows as Seth Godin would call them – ideas that exude their own natural charm and glow with built-in interest.

Speaking of cows, Slow Cow borrows a chapter from the Red Bull school of functional beverages and produces its polar opposite: a concoction that slows you down with a layer of relaxation.

The grist underneath this proposition gets interesting as you explore the nature of life’s mounting pressures, alongside a desire for better blood pressure and a reaction to the relentless push, push and more push that accompanies life in our dog-eat-dog business world.

A healthy respite sounds about right. So this new category gets interesting as you see the possibilities around it for punching through on an issue many may be pining for: some liquid relief.

Although all things bacon may be so very “last year,” the savory, smoky, salty punch of breakfast protein was back in an array of products from sandwich spread and seasonings to desserts.

Chicago high-end chocolatier Vosges hit a taste high note with their bacon-infused chocolates. A generous sample covers the tongue with caramel, chocolaty sweetness followed by a quick after-note of smoky savory-ness that offered a dramatic counterpoint to what you anticipate from a chocolate bar. Even more exciting was their new and unique line of spice inspired ice creams.

In a word — awesome.

Also interesting was Bay-area based Hint. Clean, straightforward packaging promotes a hint of natural fruit flavor at zero calories and no added sugars.

Honestly, I thought it would be no taste, too. But to my surprise the fruity flavor was there and discernable. A sweetness was also evident, but again without the added sugars found so often in these beverages.

Parents will love this option for their kids because it comes without the down side.

The winners and losers here in the longer run will be an outcome of how they invest in building their brands. Yet, for so many the pre-occupation is pushing the product into the pipeline without much effort given to considering how brands are built. Noticeably absent was any reference to consumer insight on preferences and interest in these offerings or the trends on which they’re based.

• Uniqueness and differentiation are vital to getting traction with consumers and markets that are already saturated with similar products making similar claims in similar categories.

Those who can punch their idea far enough to the right or left to create a new category they can own have a shot at a sustainable business that can increasingly accumulate value for its owners in the longer scheme.

Speaking
I had my shot at the event to help bring some of these brand-building ideas to life. Here’s my deck if you want to take a look:

Happy couple now resides in Springfield, MO

By Robert Wheatley

From left to right — Andy Hopson, strategist and consultant to our firm and Noble, Bob Noble, CEO of his namesake agency and Rich Timmons, President of W&T standing in front of Noble’s 50-foot fork totem –an iconic nod to their firm’s heritage and expertise in food communications.

Our agency, like many these days, is in a constant state of reinvention as we work to align ourselves with the changing media landscape and resulting client communication needs. Chief among the requirements of effective communications and brand strategy guidance is the overwhelming need for up-to-the-minute insight into trends, consumer attitudes and behaviors.

We’re about to introduce you to CultureWaves…

Just a little background to start: We happen to believe in strategic partnerships, especially when a combination can change math so that 1 + 1 = 3 or more. And so it is that we are embarking on a partnership with Noble, a fascinating advertising, test kitchen, new product creation, Internet media and insight firm run by the visionary Bob Noble and his team of experts from, of all places, Springfield, MO. Yes they have a growing Chicago office, but the nerve center of Bob’s operations flows from his loft building environs on the business end of a shopping mall plaza in the Show Me state.

Bob’s unique take on the changing landscape is to re-think the agency business model. Voila, we had a simpatico going right out of the chute from our first meeting, as we share the same view that old agency business models and tactical capabilities simply won’t cut it in this increasingly social media-driven world.

So Noble has launched a unique, proprietary “human insights engine” called CultureWaves. Key to its functionality is the software underneath that Noble created called Neemee. So what’s it do, you ask? CultureWaves is fueled by hundreds of “farmers” – essentially a large group of intensely curious human observers who contribute articles and ideas to a searchable Thought Bank. So the magic isn’t in algorithms but in thoughts and perspective that flow from real people.

W&T now plugged into Neemee and CultureWaves…

Candidly we’re still in the training mode over here, so we have much to learn about extracting insights. What we can tell you is this — the entire process is much about discovery and the ability to aggregate information in one place in such a way that patterns and trends become noticeable. And that in turn can lead to new ideas and observations around emerging human needs and interests.

The end game is simple. We want to increase our value to clients by helping them see emerging trends and needs on the horizon that they can meet and fulfill. At the end of the day, brand relationships are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning. And how can you possibly expect to divine the elements of relevance without firm human understanding of what people are into these days.

Human behavior rules…

Often said that agencies exist to help brands better understand how to influence consumer attitudes and behaviors, and in doing so to earn permission for a relationship – one that hopefully drives brand preference and thus sales. So knowing more about human behavior serves to fulfill our primary mission.

So far the journey proves to be fascinating. In the coming weeks, we’ll reveal more details about the CultureWaves model and share our learning with you.

Stay tuned.

W&T comes up big in awards season

By Robert Wheatley

There’s winning and then there’s winning. Our firm struck gold twice for Nature’s Variety pet foods. And silver once for Thermos brand. It’s award season, the time when industry peers assess and evaluate the finest work out there to determine the campaigns worthy of a best-in-class trophy.

For W&T the win isn’t in the trophy. It is in the validation of our strategies, insights and work by those who arguably can tell the difference between medium and outstanding. Interestingly the Gold level recognition is for the same program on behalf of Nature’s Variety pet foods.

Bravo to all of our brilliant team members who made this happen and at the source of all the effort and great ideas that led to this outcome…

Publicity Club of Chicago has awarded a Gold Trumpet in the Marketing category to W&T for Nature’s Variety, and a Silver Trumpet in the same category for Thermos brand’s Hydration For All campaign. At the hotly contested national Sabre Award competition, Nature’s Variety is one of five finalists for the top prize in marketing, the Gold Sabre. Getting to this level is no easy task as the largest global brands on the planet participate. Our work bested a broad field of iconic household names with very deep pockets.

The Rotation Diet campaign for Nature’s Variety was an outcome of a close collaboration between agency and client. Our goal was to identify the right path to building distinction and differentiation into an emerging pet food brand that is fighting for growth and share. In the end the victory is found in the client’s business results. So here’s to 20 percent year on year growth at the bottom line! This outcome is really our finest hour. And importantly an hour now acknowledged by our peers and colleagues.

Likewise the strategic campaign for Thermos similarly helped fuel sales and distribution growth in a difficult economy. The core idea: leverage Thermos as part of the rising tide of consumer interest in moving off of drinking water in plastic bottles and on to more environmentally appropriate solutions. The project put Thermos in the center of public and media discourse on the evolution of hydration and water consumption.

As a former national award judge, I understand the criteria separating winners from the rest. It is not just a judgment on the freshness of an idea or its superlative execution. Rather, it is the result that weighs heaviest. The goal of marketing communication investments for any brand is acquiring and keeping more customers. The extent to which W&T’s work contributes to client business growth is the real measure of excellence. That our peers agree is just icing on the cake.

By Robert Wheatley

Still sitting in the wings, or actively participating…

Not a day goes by without yet more evidence that social media platforms are no longer add-ons but integral to brand communications strategy. Yet many organizations still remain on the sidelines unsure of the right path or unconvinced that there’s any there
there with respect to meaningful outcomes.

If you can buy the idea that peer-to-peer influence is powerful and that conversations are occurring all around us on a daily basis about brands and business, then we have common ground to discuss the dimensions of this new media space. Here’s a quick digest to help absolve some of the lingering skepticism.

By now you may have seen the awful YouTube video about seriously misguided Domino’s Pizza employees abusing the food. Yet another story that demonstrates the ability of average people to gain instant global notoriety, good or bad, in today’s wired and transparent world. Buts social media should not be looked upon as simply a technology enabler for mischief.

What does this media environment look like?

As defined by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, here are the general categories of social media communication and their basic functions:

1. Viral Marketing
   Messages and communication designed deliberately to achieve pass-along distribution.
2. Community Marketing
   Create and support special interest communities (user groups, fan clubs, discussion forums) by providing interactive tools, content and information.
3. Evangelist Marketing
   Coalescing and cultivating brand ambassadors, advocates and volunteers to help spread brand messages.
4. Influencer Marketing
   Engaging experts, opinion leaders, people in positions of respect and authority to help educate and influence the views and attitudes of others.
5. Referral Programs
   Tools intended to help enable current happy brand fans to recommend and refer brands ton their social circles and family.

These categories ladder up to new ways of interacting with current and potential customers. The genesis of all this in response to overwhelming evidence that pushing messages through interruptive media channels alone is no longer the best path to constructing a sustainable brand/consumer relationship.

You are definitely in good company…

Social media is no longer a horizon opportunity, employed by a hand full of risk-taker brands. Here’s a look at the current state of affairs in social media activation.

According to Netpop Research LLC, of the 136 million US broadband users over the age of 13 years, 76 percent of them (105 million) are now contributing to social media through a variety of activities ranging from uploading photos and videos to blogging, tweeting as well as rating and reviewing products. Since 2006, of the total period spent on line, time spent communicating has grown by 18 percent, while time spent in entertainment pursuits has declined by 29 percent. Communication is evolving to become a form of entertainment.

So brands and businesses are responding by investing in and building their social media participation. New research recently released by Aberdeen Group profiles the new era of social media programming as a core element of brand marketing communications strategy:

58% of companies have dedicated resources devoted to social media marketing.

61% of companies have online community platforms (e.g., discussion forums, ratings and reviews, etc.).

68% of companies increased their investments in social media marketing while 34% are keeping their investment level that same as last year.

84% of companies aim to track and measure the ROI of their social media marketing activities.

58% of companies have dedicated resources devoted to social media marketing.

By Robert Wheatley

Can happiness build a better brand?

Granted it feels a little wishful and maybe even goofy to say happiness can be linked to business success, but hang in with me, and you’ll see how this pays out.

You have to love the story of Zappos. In less than a decade it’s gone from idea to around $1 billion in sales. Not bad. You’ve probably encountered the hall-talk and legend of extraordinary customer service and devotion to culture which grounds most word-of-mouth about this Internet e-tailer.

After browsing through some of the Tweets at Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh’s Twitter page, I discovered a link to a podcast from a recent presentation he made at a conference in Austin, Texas. It’s worth a listen. The talk goes on for a while… it remains engaging due in part to Tony’s affable, informal story-telling style. And helpful because of the insight he conveys around the “magic” ingredients that have helped propel Zappos from shoe seller to multi-category storefront.

His presentation hits a crescendo near the end when he moves beyond storytelling to advising, translating the powerful Zappos experience into some specific and focused direction that can benefit other businesses and brands. So here it is without further set-up:

Happiness

That’s right. Businesses and brands can find a path to success through a happiness strategy. Hang with me here before you conclude this is going to be psychobabble. The infrastructure that supports extraordinary service at Zappos, the investments made there to enhance the service experience and outcomes involves clear dollar and cents decisions and allocation of assets.

But underneath you can see the point emerge: it is their single-minded focus on culture and hiring the right people to fit within that world, that helps create traction with consumers. In relating this success to other businesses, Hsieh says that in the end happiness lies at the core of engagement, brand building, and business success. In customer interactions, employee attitude, longevity, turnover and, the feelings consumers have towards his brand.

He confesses to having studied happiness carefully and the triggers that bring it to life. Not surprisingly he relays that research studies consistently confirm that happiness sought-after and thought to flow through better jobs, relationships and money prove fleeting. In the end, it turns out human beings have a structural need to be a part of something larger than themselves.

Bingo: The Higher Purpose

As if he had been quoting chapter and verse out of the Wheatley & Timmons belief system about brand development, he talks about the compelling need for businesses and individuals to define a mission and higher purpose that transcends the daily balance sheet concerns of commerce.

Brand relevance springs from forging connections to a consumer’s lifestyle aspirations, desires and wants. What kind of vision, community and purpose can we craft for our brands that achieves higher purpose, meaning and therefore systemically delivers the recipe for happiness with those we wish to sell to (happy = satisfied = loyal = potential heavy user = brand ambassador)?

We all crave happiness as human beings. It is a fundamental driver in our lives. The notion of higher purpose and mission is linked to this sense and certainly fits strategically with how brands can earn a valued place in the lives of their best users. Hsieh says he’s been able to move the path in his organization for employees from job to career and then on to calling. And within the concept of calling he’s unlocked a reservoir of happiness internally that translates externally into the grist that authenticates the stories of incredible service experience.

For brands, a higher purpose becomes an enabler of relationship with core users. The unselfish acts of a brand that are intended to help facilitate lifestyle passions is a powerful vehicle to differentiate and elevate the entire strategic conversation about go-to-market strategy. Appropriate we think in the age of consumer control. Makes me happy.

What do you think?