I’m writing this month’s article from Prague, Czech Republic, shortly after returning from a walking tour of this vibrant city on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. It’s a wonderful day and the citizens (and tourists like us) enjoyed all that the city has to offer. With so much history and beauty, it’s hard to believe the Czech Republic is less than 20 years old as a country. After all the years of Communist oppression and turmoil, the country has emerged with it’s own personality and attitude that is not unlike many of the new brands that have established themselves in the marketplace in the past few years.

We tend to think that building a brand relationship is a long-term process that takes years of marketing and research to reach the top of the consumers’ preferences. Yet, it really is simply a matter of doing the right things first to determine where your brand’s niche is and how you can differentiate yourself from the competition in order to generate sales. Granted there are those “Hall of Fame” brands like Coca Cola, McDonalds, IBM, etc. that continually renew themselves and maintain their preference with the customer. However, there are plenty of new brands on the block like Zappos, Android, Whole Foods, Smart Car, LG, and Under Armor that have created powerful brands by following the steps necessary to define their brands before they ever started marketing them.

It all starts with having a Vision for your brand and determining what is going to differentiate you from the others in the same market. Not simply providing a new name or a new version of an existing brand, but creating one that meets a customer need and providing the value that will warrant their trial—quickly.

Next, you have to do the research necessary to quantify where your potential will be and who the competition is. A SWOT analysis is helpful, but it’s important to evaluate the market potential, the customer attitudes and perceptions, and the competitive perceptions before you move forward.

Taking these first couple steps with a sense of urgency can establish a brand quickly or (as in the case of Prague and it’s homeland) re-inventing a brand by building on its strengths and addressing its weakness before moving forward. An effective marketing and communications plan is a lot easier to develop once you take the time to make sure your brand is relevant and interesting.

COMING SOON: BRAIN BRANDING. THE MANUAL.
An easy to follow guide to building a brand that resonates with your customers.

Whenever I talk with marketers and ad agencies, the conversation inevitably gets to whether breakthrough creative or a sound brand strategy is more important to the success of a product or service. Of course, I always answer “Both!”. What’s really important is the order in which these two challenges are addressed. So often, marketers (especially retailers) are so pressured to produce some immediate results that they rush to get out a new campaign or spot and make some noise that will result in more sales. Now, if the brand strategy that’s in place is already working and well developed, getting new creative may just be the answer. However, usually the fact that what’s currently reaching your customers isn’t working well is the result of poor branding in the first place.

This seems obvious to me and I believe that the really creative advertising gurus also agree that the brand comes first and then the creative. I recently received a DVD in the mail from a good friend, Cedar Hames, who is CEO and founder of a local agency here in St. Petersburg. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Paradise Advertising, Cedar sent a complimentary copy of a PBS documentary from a couple years ago, title “Art & Copy”. The show featured interviews with some of the true great creative minds in the advertising business talking about their craft and some of the outstanding work that is legend in our business. The group included Mary Wells, the late Hal Riney, George Lois, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow, and others. To learn more about the program, go to http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/art-and-copy/film.html and I’m sure you can download or get a copy of the 90 minute program.

I won’t go into the details of each person’s comments on the program here, but it became obvious to me that they are/were all risk takers who dared to breakthrough with great spots like VW’s Think Small, Apple’s 1984, or Braniff Airlines’ Flying Colors. However, to the person they spoke highly of their clients and the direction they received from them. This was manifested in a brand strategy that reflected a thorough understanding of the market, the customer, and the competition. Developing a successful brand strategy is part of the process and opens the door for art and copy that truly breaks through and resonates with the four buying styles we talk about in our book (co-authored with Robyn Winters): BrainBranding—Activate the Brain, Stimulate Your Brand.

With so much mediocre advertising out there today (a great deal of which is from top companies and major brands), it would be beneficial for many of the marketers responsible to sit down and listen to what these “icons of creativity” had to say. It will make for great advertising and, more importantly, for successful brands.

If you have been reading these articles over the past couple years, you know that I have often questioned the strategies of stores like JCPenney and Kohl’s since it seemed that they must have had investments in a printing company or paper mills with the amount of print advertising that they have been pouring out. Moreover, it was hard to tell one sale ad from another and to understand if these sales circulars and the strategy behind them really broke through to the customers and motivated them into the stores. Differentiation certainly was not one of the objectives in my opinion.

That’s why I was really interested when JCPenney made some significant moves in marketing in 2011. In addition to Ron Johnson taking over at CEO and bringing his Target and Apple heritage with him, Michael Francis also made the move from Minneapolis to Plano as President. The results, I think have been noteworthy. I’ve always felt that Penney’s did a great job with running stores with exceptional displays and merchandising and their aggressive broadcast advertising under Mike Boylston was some of the best in the industry. However, they seemed to be obsessed with trying to out-promote their similar competition. How often can you have “lowest prices of the season” or a “one-two-three day sale” before the customer gets bored and ignores you. Certainly, Kohl’s continues to follow this promotional format, but their brand has been carefully developed with a new and younger shopper who has rejected JCPenney as “their mother’s store.” It was time to break that mold, and I think they are shaking it up with a good, sound creative strategy. The Ellen DeGeneres campaign not only broke through with humor and universally liked spokesperson but it also made a logical and sensible argument that has made WalMart the largest retailer in the world—no nonsense, every day low prices. The other broadcast spots have complemented Ellen’s message and have added some real creativity to what has been a retail wasteland in broadcast. The stores have been upgraded and the merchandise is better than ever.

However, I think it’s the print advertising that stands out more than anything else for the jcp brand. It’s not simply Target advertising with a new logo. There are strong messages to go along with outstanding layout and photography. Simple yet striking. The ads make you want to read on and moreover, take a trip to see the stuff in the store. Yes, they still promote special prices on the first and third Friday (who’s going to remember that?) but in the atmosphere of these striking ad messages, even that seems to make sense. A recent article in the New York Times discussed the fact that most customers really liked and used coupons. Yes, we do (especially for pizza!). But the success of the largest retailer shows that a believable low price strategy can trump the one week specials over and over again.

Finally, what about the name change? They had to communicate that things have changed and while the jcp logo is simple and contemporary, I think it sends a message of new and young, while maintaining the identity of the parent that has a long heritage in fashion and home. It will be interesting to watch what happens now since it will likely take the customers a while to come back and give jcp a try, but with the sound brand strategy in place and the creativity that’s already been shown, there’s a great chance for success.

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Recent reports by CBS News and The Bloomberg Report rave about the performance that KFC restaurants have had in China. With over 3200 stores there now, the chain is outselling McDonald’s and the other US fast food chains significantly. While domestic performance isn’t as great, my trip to KFC’s first restaurant in Corbin, KY, gave me a clue as to why the chain is one of the strongest brands in the business.

Over the door inside of the original Sanders Café is a sign that defines Good Will as “The Disposition of a Well-Pleased Customer to Return to the Place where he has been well Treated.” This is identified as the definition by the US Supreme Court, but it certainly is also the benchmark of successful brands who deal directly with their customers. It’s interesting that KFC is doing so well in China when the experience here does not always live up to the above definition. However, when you read more into the reports and learn how not only has KFC’s parent YUM Brands made a practice of hiring local managers for their stores and operations, but also the restaurants have catered to their customers by having local favorites to the menus and added design and architecture to make it feel like they are at home and not in an American icon in a strange place.

Marshall Field, the department store pioneer, best described Good Will as the only asset that a store’s competition can neither duplicate or destroy. It is, in fact, the basis for a long-term relationship that also defines a successful brand. While Colonel Sanders built his brand on his secret batter recipe (which the company still keeps securely locked up in Louisville), he also understood the importance of treating his customers with a smile and with respect. The original café displays a lot of evidence that the reflect a respect for the customer and the warmth of family place to dine. On the same trip, we stopped at a McDonald’s in Lima, OH, that was designed with fixtures and accessories that made it feel not just like an upscale restaurant but gave it a warm, homey atmosphere as well. (The mocha frappe was as good as ever, too.)

As I look at stores and restaurants that are struggling recently, I think it would be good for them to take note of the Colonel’s adherence to building good will by building a brand that resonates with their buying style and keeps them coming back to a place “where they are well treated”.

To learn more about how to make your brand more successful, watch for our new book: “BrainBranding. Activate the Brain—Stimulate the Brand.” Co-authored by Robyn Winters and myself, the book will be available on Amazon and Kindle later this month. Watch for our announcement soon.