Archive for the ‘Brand Value’ Category
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
You don’t have to work with Anoroc very long to find out this is one fun bunch, wound tight. You release that spring and you’ll never know what you’ll get. Crazy wacked out design ideas, or words flowing from the copywriters that send most of us to our dictionaries. Mostly what jumps forth is energy.
That’s what we bring to our hospice clients. Energy, tons of it, plenty to share with everybody! We share the energy with our clients and look for opportunities to extend this energy through the organization to each employee as they roll out the re-vitalized brand. Rebranding and logo redesign can be very personal to employees so it’s our job to create enthusiasm and success with your internal market.
My top 10 ways to a successful rebranding:
10. Organization wide involvement. Get them involved early in the process.
9. Find out their insights on the current brand, where it’s going, what it really means to your employees.
8. Get the CEO and Key Stakeholder’s backing to ward off the potential “de-railers”.
7. Don’t jump straight to the pretty external stuff. It’s not a shallow cosmetic exercise. It’s the company’s public perception. It’s a change in thought and work processes.
6. Make your employees feel they are #1. Keep them involved, achieve commitment. After all they are #1. Right?
5. No surprises unless they are good for all involved. You don’t like surprises. The CEO doesn’t like surprises. And the Board of Directors sure don’t like surprises.
4. Be honest.
3. Create a process to track success.
2. Create positive buzz.
And the #1 way to a successful rebranding is………………………………………….
A Celebratory Launch Party (with an explanation of the meaning of the new brand, messaging, logo, colors, mission statement and values of the company).
Tags: anoroc health, Hospice, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, hospice marketing companies, hospice social media, marketing hospice
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Saturday, August 14th, 2010
We are in the midst of creating a brand reinvention for a client. As you know, there are almost endless hours of research involved. This particular client occupies a very emotional healthcare segment. Amongst them and their competitors services are close to being the same, mainly that is due to regulations. So the brand strategy becomes somewhat more intense because we’re fighting to differentiate. But that’s great, we like to fight hard, at Anoroc. But beginning this project with the goal to build a brand essence that allows my client to ‘own’ a compelling belief, must start with an in depth clarity about the intended target.
Though my client has several mid-size competitors they also face growing competition from national companies (one that recently sold for several billion dollars). During the competitive analysis I expected to see pretty great branding from these ‘big boys’. But what began with an expectation to see great work, incredible consumer engagement strategies, in-tune social influence marketing, emotional branding, ended with me banging my head on my desk and moaning. OK, so I am sounding a little mean here, but it was that bad.
They forgot to listen to Bill. “You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen,” William Bernbach. The websites, collateral, every brand touch point was completely void of any indication these national companies had any understanding of who they were speaking to, what their best prospects believe, or how to motivate engagement.
Copy was written as if the reader was a test subject. For instance, an article on how to cope with the passing of our loved one during the holidays called the reader “the bereaved person”. Brand imagery focused on the ‘service’ rather than outcome. Think of an oil change ad where the gloved mechanic is smiling over the open hood of the car. Now put him in a nurse’s uniform add harsh lighting, and throw his arm around grandpa who looks like he just ate road kill. Get the picture. And I’m not exaggerating. Believe me, Forrest would run.
What do we buy as healthcare consumers? We don’t buy the oil change. We buy the car speeding down the open road, in tune, running well and on it’s way to Willoughby.
Tags: anorac, Anoroc, healthcare and social media, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, raleigh advertising agencies, raleigh marketing agencies, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies
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Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Depending of course on numerous client dynamics, we often, very often choose emotional branding over conventional branding when creating or re-inventing brands. I just personally believe in the power of storytelling to inspire and captivate. My opinion is not solely based on the fact that I am an admitted sap. It’s also based on close to two decades of calculating ROI ‘til my hair hurts. We’ve seen how impactful story telling has increased our client’s market share by 300%. In any book that is a home run. And we’ve hit those balls out of the park most of the time. Emotional branding’s strategic objective is to forge unshakable and meaningful bonds with consumers. Through these bonds brands become a significant part of a consumer’s life story, aspirations, self view and an important link in their social network. Do you know anyone who owns a Harley?
What I recently found interesting is the history of emotional branding and how to a very real degree a history that is repeating itself. Though the term “emotional branding” officially arrived in the 1990s, it has its roots in public relations campaigns of decades ago. Who can forget Edward L. Bernays’ 1923 Torches of Freedom march.
In the 1920’s, working for the American Tobacco Company, Bernays sent a group of young models to march in the New York City parade. He then told the press that a group of women’s rights marchers would light “Torches of Freedom”. On his signal, the models lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager photographers. The New York Times (1 April 1929) printed: “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of ‘Freedom’”. This helped to break the taboo against women smoking in public. Bernays actually sponsored my application into PRSA. That was a great day.
Jump forward to the 1930’s and the Great Depression. Job loss, savings loss, bankruptcy and displacement made citizens feel that corporations could not be trusted, were greed driven and needed supervision – sound familiar? Almost overnight they needed to find ways to regain trust and bring consumers back. Companies like Standard Oil (now Exxon) hired PR strategists to help them reposition themselves as “identifying with the average American vs Wall Street”. Standard Oil continued their foray into emotional branding when they hired Roy Stryker to work on their public relations documentary project from 1943 to 1950. In selecting photographers for the project Stryker looked for those who possessed an “insatiable curiosity, the kind that can get to the core of an assignment, the kind that can comprehend what a truck driver, or a farmer, or a driller or a housewife thinks and feels and translate those thoughts and feelings into pictures that can be similarly comprehended by anyone.” Emotional branding at its best.
Jump to today. Once again companies are shuffling to gain trust and position themselves as ‘one of us’. Here’s one of my favorite examples – Chrysler Group’s campaign for the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee (http://www.jeep.com/en/2011/grand_cherokee/sitelet/). The ad focuses on the spirit and craftsmanship that once made the United States the country it was. The campaign, created by the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, also introduces a new tagline for the brand—“The things we make, make us.” How’s that for generating warm feelings of community? It even has cowboys for God’s sake.
I am going to end now as I need to go to Lowes so we can build something together. Think I’ll take the Audi instead of the BMW cause I prefer winning to loosing.
Tags: Anoroc, anoroc agency, branding agencies, emotional branding, Greart Depression, Public Relations, raleigh advertising agencies, Raleigh design firms, raleigh social media, The History of branding
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Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Kudos to the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic last week announced the creation of a Center for Social Media. The goal of the center according to the Mayo Clinic press release is ‘to accelerate effective application of social media tools throughout Mayo Clinic and to spur broader and deeper engagement in social media by hospitals, medical professionals and patients to improve health globally.”
“Mayo Clinic believes individuals have the right and responsibility to advocate for their own health, and that it is our responsibility to help them use social media tools to get the best information, connect with providers and with each other, and inspire healthy choices,” explains Mayo Clinic president and CEO John Noseworthy, M.D. “Through this center we intend to lead the health care community in applying these revolutionary tools to spread knowledge and encourage collaboration among providers, improving health care quality everywhere.”
The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, a first-of-its-kind social media center focused on health care, builds on Mayo Clinic’s leadership among health care providers in adopting social media tools, which began with podcasting in 2005. Mayo Clinic has the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube and more than 60,000 “followers” on Twitter, as well as an active Facebook page with well over 20,000 connections. With its News Blog, Podcast Blog and Sharing Mayo Clinic, a blog that enables patients and employees to tell their Mayo Clinic stories, Mayo has been a pioneer in hospital blogging. MayoClinic.com, Mayo’s consumer health information site, also hosts a dozen blogs on topics ranging from Alzheimer’s to The Mayo Clinic Diet.
Mayo has also used social media tools for internal communications, beginning in 2008 with a blog to promote employee conversations relating to the organization’s strategic plan, and including innovative use of video and a hybrid “insider” newsletter/blog. This employee engagement contributes to Mayo Clinic being recognized among Fortune magazine’s “Best Places to Work.”
The center will accelerate adoption of social media for health-related purposes, starting at Mayo and then within health care more broadly. Through this work, Mayo Clinic looks to help improve health literacy, health care delivery and population health worldwide. And now with their newest push into social media, they can take it even further.
Tags: anoroc health, healthcare and social media, healthcare social media, hospice and social media, hospice social media, mayo clinic, raleigh social media
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Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Just finished reading a great article by Tim Bradshaw of Financial Times, Who Wants To Friend A Brand (http://bit.ly/8YxE5V). In his article he points out how social media has fundamentally transformed marketing from a monologue to a dialogue. If you’ve read many of my blogs you’ll know this is what Anoroc refers to as moving away from ‘Sham Wowing’ and onto real communication.
I love what he says here: “When first faced with the prospect of marketing on social networks, many people ask a reasonable question: how many people want to be friends with a brand? The answer – surprisingly, perhaps – is: millions do, on a daily basis.”
And as experienced brand managers at Anoroc we know this is true.
Much of our brand research begins with focus groups that ask: “How do you want this brand/company to communicate with you?” And unsurprisingly enough we hear social media as a chosen platform most every time.
Bradshaw points out that more than 10m people each day become a “fan” of a brand on Facebook. The world’s largest social network – with well in excess of 400m members globally – plays host to more than 1.4m branded fan pages on Facebook. BrandZ Top 100 brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks, along with other smaller brands outside the Top 100 such as Adidas (brand value or BV of $3.3bn in the latest MBO list), have each “befriended” millions of people.
“A lot of our best brand builders are also some of the best companies using social media,” says Joanna Seddon, chief executive of Millward Brown Optimor, which compiles the BrandZ ranking. “A lot of the leadership in social media is really centered in the top 100 brands.”
When Anoroc reviews ROI studies from our campaigns we’ve learned that Bradshaw is speaking Gospel here: “Social media has matured rapidly in recent years. Sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter offer scale and reach to rival Google – still the most dominant single site for online advertising – and many television channels. The best advertisers use social media alongside these traditional channels for a combination of brand-building, direct sales, customer service and PR. The worst simply ignore them, blissful only until they realise the complaints and accusations that disgruntled customers are telling other would-be consumers.”
“Social media have given consumers a voice to respond, as well as hundreds of channels through which to do so,” says Debbie Klein, joint chief executive of Engine, a UK-based agency group. “These websites have fundamentally transformed marketing from a monologue to a dialogue. Brands cannot hide.”
And brands that hide, may never be found.
Tags: Financial Times, hospice and social media, NC advertising agencies, raleigh advertising agencies, Raleigh advertising companies, raleigh design, Raleigh design firms, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies, raleigh social media companies
Posted in Anoroc, Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Marketing, Purchase Intent, SEO, Social Media Influence, Social Networking | View Comments
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Again I am up on my soapbox. I know no one is surprised. Forgive me in advance. But I just read a blog post by a company who claims to be ‘experts’ in social media. The post was reviewing a Web site with what they claim is “an impressive amount of social media integration and with social media connectivity built into every page.” The site they were touting had the ‘now usual’ links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the compulsory blog. Sorry – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and simply having a blog does not qualify as an impressive amount of social media interaction. Especially when these tools are one-way conversations mainly about the company, mainly a sales pitch, and void of strategy to meet end user’s needs, wants, desires, or concerns. In fact, it is difficult to tell whom the site is speaking to. This is not interaction. Let’s look deeper: the company’s Facebook page is full of typos, Discussions (tab) has no discussions but spends the real estate telling you how great the company is. There is no link to resources, no interaction and the posts are mostly again about the company. In addition, page set up is one Facebook offers for stores, not for brands or service providers. Their Twitter page attempts to give advice but there are no links for more in depth information and the posts are condescending. Nor does it ask: What are you concerned about? How can we help you? The Tweets are directed as one way communication. Blog topics are not centered around providing useful information and the blog is faceless offering no level of affinity between author and reader, who is writing this? Not to mention poor site design, unbalanced page layout, poor typography for the target, confusing copy, grammar and spelling mistakes… What put me up on the soapbox is not so much these common missteps in social media (companies sometimes are simply doing the best they can with limited resources, time and budgets). What made this SBM (soapbox moment) is a ‘social media’ company blogging the world that this is how it should be done while trying to sell you a one size fits all social media package for $2999.99
So world, let me tell you about a company who is doing it right. And it did not come in a shiny branded online community $2999.99 package but most assuredly was developed from strategy, end user research and knowledge. Check out Caregiver’s Corner, San Diego Hospice blog (http://sandiegocaregiversblog.com/). This is a lovely example of a resource strategy. The design is clean, the end user is directed immediately where to go by their self interest/need. The posts are personal and informative. The end of each post carries a short description of its author. Note the Twitter feed on the bottom right. Though some Tweets are about their organization (and a limited number should be) many lead the reader to more in depth info. They share useful information from other hospices, communicate with followers, and seek input on topics (what do you think about this). This is interaction.
Their Facebook page is equally well done. Here’s how they describe the page: We made this page to connect with all the families who have been a part of San Diego Hospice, to honor the people who support us & to talk with anyone who wants to know more about what we have to offer. And they’re right. Boxes house a long list of Useful Resources from caregiver resources, legal advice to networking opportunities. The posts are interactive and contain droves of useful information.
It took many words to get to my point but I am finally there. Impressive social media is not about the tools you have but how you use them. If you are in a service industry that provides healthcare, eldercare or personal care services your social media strategy should be focused on being a true resource, connecting with the gatekeeper, building affinity and establishing trust. Forget about ‘selling’ your services and instead start with these simple words: “If I was my target what would I want.” And if some vendor wants to sell you a package complete with a ‘strategy session’ – RUN FORREST RUN!
Tags: Anoroc, anoroc agency, eldercare providers and social media, healthcare and social media, healthcare social media, Hospice, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, hospice social media, raleigh advertising agencies, Raleigh design firms, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies, San Diego Hospice
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Friday, February 26th, 2010
Beyond creating the strategy that determines what users will gain from engaging in social media platforms, is creating tone and voice. For social media platforms to be engaging to women in the caregiving cycle they must embody key characteristics.
Anoroc’s hospice research has determined much about this target. She will most likely see herself as a caretaker and nurturer and it is important to establish a tone that speaks to her with an understanding of this emotional perspective.
Women, in general, are more emotionally connected and therefore are likely to tune into emotional benefits over functional ones. They include emotions in their decision making as opposed to basing them only on rational elements. So don’t be afraid to give them a ‘feeling’ to show the emotion, the ‘what matters’ behind your brand. She will see hospice services as typical among all hospice providers – unless your hospice provides a unique service that makes her world function better – you better ensure your social media platform provides her with the emotional connection she is seeking.
Women also want a dialogue, not just a transaction. That means encouraging a two way conversation on your social media platforms vs solely spouting company news, successes, facts, or services. She really doesn’t care and if this is all you are doing you can wish her a fond farewell.
Research is proving that women are engaging in social media in droves – wonder why? Because women strive to establish links and connect through affinity. Since women seek commonality and look for similarity between themselves and the ‘speaker.’ Make sure your social media platforms are not a nameless, faceless entity. Many organizations newly embarking into social media are making this mistake – remember this online world is about connection, nobody wants to connect to a nameless ‘site monitor’.
Hospice agencies that we have taken down this emotionally supportive and resource driven path have seen an increase in census of 60% plus. Equate that with not only the potential to your bottom line but the potential of increasing the number of families given a better end of life experience. And to those of us who know how profoundly hospice can improve the quality of life for both patients and their families – that sounds pretty dang good.
Tags: Anoroc, healthcare social media, Hospice, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, hospice social media, raleigh social marketing, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies, raleigh social media companies, social influence marketing, women in social media
Posted in Anoroc, Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Healthcare, Hospice, Marketing, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence, Social Networking, Women | View Comments
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
As we said in Part One, to understand the potential positive impact that social media can have on those who are providing care to a loved one, we first need to truly understand the caregiver. To move the hospice gatekeeper through the decision cycle your social media platform must resonate with her on an emotional level and provide the resources she seeks.
So who is she? What does she want? She will likely be working at least part time and taking care of children. She sees herself as the ‘caregiver’ to the family. She is a nurturer both to herself and others but mainly to others. She is emotionally driven in her purchasing behavior and looks for benefits/outcomes rather than specifics. If she does not have direct experience with hospice she will have heard of hospice through the media. She will not have a complete picture of hospice most particularly in regards to pain control, symptom management and bereavement support.
Her psychological purchase prices (what she must overcome to choose hospice and ask for that referral early on in the caregiving cycle) include:
Am I giving up on a cure?
Am I abandoning hope?
Will my loved-one feel that I am not fighting for them?
Will the care be as nurturing and as compassionate as I would provide?
Will I have the support to really handle this?
Worry about opinions/feelings of other family members.
In the process of creating social media strategies for specific demographics we also need to determine the wants and needs of the on line community end-user. Our hospice research determined our caregiving female’s tangible wants and needs to be:
Information and resources
Knowledge – answers, understanding of benefits
Support
Helping hand in a relevant way
Quality of life for a loved-one
Options
Solutions
Quality of care – physical and emotional
Balance
Her intangible wants and needs include:
Connection
Rational replacement for guilt
Understanding and empathy
The most successful social media strategies that a hospice can engage in are ones that support this key demographic by enabling her to move beyond her psychological purchase price, and that meet both her tangible and intangible wants and needs. More to come on doing just that in part three.
Tags: Anoroc, anoroc agency, healthcare, healthcare social media, Hospice, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, hospice social media, north carolina social media agencies, raleigh social marketing companies, raleigh social media, raleigh social media companies, social marketing, women in social media
Posted in Anoroc, Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Healthcare, Hospice, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence, Social Networking, Women | View Comments
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
I just read a piece on ‘Why Positioning Fails’ that I basically agree with. But it fell a bit short. As I read it I was coining a piece along similar lines about internal communications. And I thought about it just a bit, and decided that my piece was right… and so was theirs, but not all companies can be as ours. Our brand, and many we serve, are about one simple thing. The truth.
And by that I mean your external positioning must be the truth. If you’re the good guys – then be the good guys. Be good to your customers and your own people. If you’re supposed to be about equality and partnership – then practice it with your people and your vendors. If your brand is about compassion – then be compassionate to your clients and your employees.
While the ‘Why Positioning Fails’ piece urged you to take a few basic steps regarding positioning that are certainly not incorrect – Involve staff in process, Give your team direction, Promote the positioning internally, Help your team become evangelists for your firm – I submit, that there is an easier way. And hence, I present my take.
‘How Internal Positioning Works – considerations for internal communications.’ We’ve positioned numerous companies – externally – but only you can position your company internally. And if you don’t, it won’t take long for the truth to come out.
Involve your staff in the process: That’s not good enough. Make it known throughout your entire company what is important about what your company does… what is the end result? This needs to be a ‘why do we come to work at all’ level, a basic understanding of standards and principles. We can all earn a paycheck doing a variety of other things. Why do we choose to do it this way?
Give your team direction: That’s not really adequate either. All of our roles combine to generate whatever you’ve directed your company to generate. Is that something as good as the next? Something passable? Or are you in pursuit of excellence? Those are not funny questions by the way. Some companies strive to be the cheapest – some to maintain a short term profit and quit –some strive to be the best. Decide which it is, I have a hard time with not reaching to be the best. I’m striving for a level of personal satisfaction, and I believe every one of us knows when we achieve a bar that makes us proud.
Promote the positioning internally: You might do this by accident, and if you don’t do it at all you need to close up shop right now. Encourage and support passionate work. Tell someone they did a great job – say THANK YOU – point out why their bar of excellence made a difference. (I remember the first time I called a particular designer and mentioned the project they had just mounted for presentation – I could feel her tense up on the other end expecting a problem. I told her that I was proud to be able to present work of that level at our meeting – thank you. She didn’t know how to respond – no one had ever treated her decently in the workplace before.)
Help your team become evangelists for your firm: This step is not necessary if your company has heart and you’ve accomplished the previous three steps. And if it doesn’t have heart it’s an enormous challenge to fake it.
So the moral of the story is you have to care and have heart if you expect your company’s “truth” to support positive external positioning.
Tags: anorac, Anoroc, anoroc agency, engagement marketing, raleigh advertising agencies, raleigh marketing agencies, raleigh social marketing, raleigh social media agencies
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
It was a high-five kinda week last week. We had two refreshing meetings, both with new clients. They’re the kind of clients we know will make great partners. The kind of clients that make our job easier.
We begin a lot of relationships at Anoroc with this sentence: “You’re not paying us to tell you what you want to hear.” We mean no disrespect. We simply mean to build a brand that has a chance, you got to get out of your own head. So when clients do this naturally (this is a tough one for many) when our relationship is only a nanosecond old, it’s exciting in our world.
Marketing Soap Box Moment (MSBM): After 20 years in branding, I can quickly narrow down failure to one major cause (obviously they’re others, but this is a big one): assuming others will behave the way you do. Don’t do it, not ever. You are not your customer. I grant you that you may be right when you tell us you know more about your product than any customer could possibly know. Or that you have strong opinions about what you think your customers should do, or want. But if that’s how you develop your marketing strategy, then you have a strategy based on what customers should do instead of what they actually do. And that’s a strategy that will fail.
So back to our refreshing meetings. Here is what ranked the first high-five:
Client: “So we had our logo for a while.”
Us: “Great, what do you think about it.”
Client: “Well I like it, but that’s not what matters. I want to know what you think, how it works in the market. Same with everything else, I’m not paying you to be nice, tell us how it really is, can you do that?”
And the second high-five:
Us: “So we tested your site and people seemed a little confused as to what you were asking them to do. They did’nt really understand the action that needed to happen.”
Client: “Wow, that’s incredible. It makes sense to us, but we’re too close to it and we’re not the client. So we’re ready to re-think all of it, to any degree your research determines.”
Yep, we’re a little expressive. So if you seen any of the Anoroc team running around high-fiving you can bet your Play Doh, a ‘brand’ is about to happen.
Tags: anaroc, anarok, anoroc agency, branding, branding agencies, north carolina social media agencies, raleigh advertising agencies, raleigh marketing, raleigh social marketing companies, raleigh social media, social marketing, social marketing companies, social media
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