Never Rest on Your Brand's Laurels

By Marc H. Rudov

One Million Acts of Green

Imagine Tiger Woods announcing that, because he won the US Open in 2008 and is ranked #1, he would win again in 2009. Tiger's too smart for that (by the way, he didn't win in 2009). He knows that presumption -- resting on his laurels -- would kill his brand and ultimately backfire.

Now, envision a sales VP telling his CEO that, because their company is ranked #1 and a big customer purchased their products last year, that customer will buy again this year. The CEO would fire him. Resting on one's laurels in sales also backfires!

When a rising, aggressive company begins to achieve critical mass and buzz, customers and prospects flock to its new brand. There's an electricity in the air, as business flows over the transom. Often, though, presumption of success sets in like rigor mortis.

Recently, I told a marketing exec at Cisco Systems that I no longer understand the Cisco brand. In fact, there is no Cisco brand. The company has become a giant purveyor of many networking products for a wide span of customers. With all that diversity and complexity, it needs to have a simple, compelling, unique brand that ties it all together. It doesn't.

Instead, Cisco's homepage contains messaging about "the human-network effect" and "one million acts of green." Sorry, I don't get that and certainly can't fathom it in 15 seconds. Said this marketing exec: "Our Website has nothing to do with our go-to-market strategy. Besides, everyone in the industry already knows what we do."

1. The Website is fundamental to a company's go-to-market strategy. To say otherwise indicates a paucity of marketing expertise, savvy, and priority in the company
   
2. Presuming that people know what your company does epitomizes resting on your brand's laurels. Cisco is a fine company, but CEO John Chambers must end this attitude of presumption: it weakens the brand and needlessly raises Cisco's cost of sales. Ultimately, it will backfire.

A Gasping Patient

Have you ever noticed that, in any economic downturn, CEOs cut marketing dollars first? It's true. This is akin to a doctor cutting oxygen to a gasping patient. Ludicrous.

In general, CEOs have difficulty quantifying the value of a brand -- they think it's nebulous gobbledygook. Is this true in your case? If so, cut the gobbledygook, and its authors. Invest more dollars to create a strong, unique brand that will attract customers, like moths to a lightbulb, and lower the cost of sales.

Rx from The WhiteNoise Doctor™

A company must keep its brand strong to remain unique through the constantly evolving industry, marketplace, and market forces. What your company achieved last week, last year, or last decade is nice, but it's history. Today is what matters.

Next time you catch yourself thinking, everyone in the industry already knows what we do, stop. You are resting on your brand's laurels. Now, visit your largest customer to deliver that message, with that attitude. I dare you.

If you wouldn't communicate with presumption to one customer, don't let your Website do it to thousands or millions of them.

Never rest on your brand's laurels -- or, eventually, you'll be sleeping on them.

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor, the creator of GutShare™, and an internationally known media personality.
www.MarcRudov.com | www.GutShare.com

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Brand Always Pulls the Revenue Cart

By Marc H. Rudov

Delete Your Website

Have you ever sold products or raised capital over the phone? What you realize quickly is that, if you don't grab the listener's attention in 15 seconds, you fail. As you dial each successive number, you iteratively tailor the pitch until it works.

This is the essence of branding -- yet, so few executives draw that association. Imagine that every viewer of your Website will "hang up" if your brand fails to grab him in 15 seconds. That's exactly what happens. Brand matters.

In previous articles, I've posited that nebulous brands confine their owners to the white noise of me-too competition. Nowhere is a weak brand more obvious than on a company's Website. How a CEO can incur the expense of designing, posting, and maintaining a site that doesn't clearly and quickly (in 15 seconds) convey his company's brand -- like a well-honed telephone pitch -- is a mystery to me.

Many executives tell me, to my surprise, that they place little priority on their Websites -- choosing instead to confer on their salespeople the job of branding. Huge mistake. Salespeople can't brand, and it's not their job to try.

Here's an idea: If you don't view your Website as the chief branding platform, delete it. Why not?

Backwards Priorities

But, before deleting (or deprioritizing) your site, remember this: Prior to a sales meeting, the prospect looks at the vendor's Website to: 1) assess its ability to articulate a value proposition, 2) verify that its marketing and sales orgs are in-sync. If the site's brand messaging is murky or impossible to decipher in 15 seconds, the prospect worries that the meeting will take too much of his time.

To use a horse & cart analogy: brand always pulls the revenue cart. Never, as they say, put the cart before the horse. How often do companies subordinate their brands to other revenue-acceleration activities, like SEO/SEM and hiring more salespeople? Answer: all the time. Backwards priorities.

Rx from The WhiteNoise Doctor™

The #1 priority, in every economy -- especially a recession -- is to feed, water, groom, and exercise your branding horse, so that it will pull your revenue cart.

Putting the cart before the horse always fails -- in every situation and venue. Where is your horse?

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor, the creator of GutShare™, and an internationally known media personality.
www.MarcRudov.com | www.GutShare.com

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Treat Each Brand Like a Trademark

By Marc H. Rudov

Stringent Labyrinth

Have you ever applied for a trademark? I have -- to officially register my unique brand and protect it from copycats. That's key to emerging from, and remaining above, the white noise.

I succeeded in getting my trademark, thanks to my lawyer's skill in navigating the USPTO's (United States Patent & Trademark Office) rigorous approval process, which takes about one year:

1. Examination: USPTO lawyer reviews for: a) likely confusion with a registered mark, b) merely descriptive of product or service, c) primarily geographically descriptive, d) primarily geographically misdescriptive, e) merely generic, f) primarily a surname, or g) scandalous/immoral. Applicant has six months to respond to a refusal or abandon the process.
2. Publication for Opposition: If step #1 is successful, USPTO lawyer publishes mark in Official Gazette -- after which any party believing it may be damaged by mark's registration has 30 days to oppose. In that rare event, trial determines validity of opposition (e.g., applicant's mark is confusingly similar to opposer's mark).
3. Registration: If step #2 is successful, and mark is currently used in commerce, USPTO attorney registers it and issues a registration certificate.
   

As you can see, getting a trademark requires enduring a stringent labyrinth -- jumping a huge hurdle. One never should attempt this feat cavalierly. The same rule applies to branding.

Lazy Dartboard Branding

In essence, I paid a nontrivial sum, collaborated with my lawyer to execute a deft application strategy, and waited one nail-biting year to acquire my circle-R protection -- all for a three-word moniker.

It stands to reason -- in light of the money, effort, and time invested -- that I required my trademark to add significant value to my brand. No whimsy here. I traveled the path deliberately and purposely, with reason and calculation.

Imagine my incredulity, then, when on 15 June 2009, IBM's homepage greeted me with this inexplicable brand messaging:

More transparent. More efficient. And, above all, more citizen-centric. In other words, smarter government. See how the planet's getting smarter.

Huh? What does all that mean? I have no idea. It certainly doesn't pass my 15-second branding test, and it certainly garners no GutShare™. Yet, there it is for millions to see. Lazy dartboard branding: If today's message doesn't stick, throw another one tomorrow.

Had the marketing exec who posted this gobbledygook on IBM's homepage tried to trademark it, he would have failed. In fact, he never would have submitted it to the USPTO, knowing that it doesn't merit a trademark. Why use it at all, then? Good question.

Rx from The WhiteNoise Doctor™

Marketers must treat each brand like a trademark, as if the USPTO will scrutinize it. The results will amaze. No more incomprehensible slogans and meaningless jargon that neither attract customers nor sell products.

Make your brand pass both the GutShare™ and trademark tests. The trash will end up in the trash, instead of on your homepage. And, the surviving gem will do its job: attract paying customers.

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor, the creator of GutShare™, and an internationally known media personality.
www.MarcRudov.com | www.GutShare.com

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Cerebral Selling Doesn't Sell

By Marc H. Rudov

A Boatload of Emotions

It always astounds me when people opine that branding is for consumer products and that industrial purchases are made with pure logic. Neither opinion is even close to accurate. So, why would anyone attempt a "cerebral" sale? Good question. But, it happens all the time.

Branding is the act of creating a unique identity for a company or product. The resultant brand, by definition, must contain a huge emotional component -- even for purveyors of industrial, scientific, commercial, and military goods and services. So, when you hear "XYZ Corporation" or "Intelli-widget" and don't feel a strong interest or desire to own the firm's product or stock, its brand is a failure.

Every business executive wants to be a hero, to avoid being labeled a chump, and lies awake at night in fear of a botched decision, a lost sale, or a rival trying to usurp him. That's life in a political nest. Accordingly, any business decision -- even signing a purchase order, or recommending that it be signed -- carries with it a boatload of emotions.

As I explained in "GutShare vs. Mindshare," all decisions, in all aspects of life, are made with the gut, which combines the logic and emotion of every issue and produces a visceral feel for whether the decision at hand is correct or incorrect. Anyone who tells you that business execs make logic-only decisions is either naive or possesses a low EQ.

Clogged Sales Funnel

The sales funnel, home of dealflow, is a company's chief revenue bottleneck. A clogged sales funnel, the consequence of weak branding and poor management, is the bane of every CEO.

In the ideal world, the CEO creates a strong brand, makes his company unique, and employs a salesforce of ordertakers. In the real world, however, most brands are weak, buried in the white noise, and salespeople become the default branders -- each with his own product messaging. No wonder the sales funnel is clogged!

The diagram below shows that strong branding -- being a unique standout -- accelerates the sales process and yields higher revenues. A strong brand, which is like a lightbulb to a moth, reduces closing time and, therefore, the cost of sales -- because salespeople easily move prospects from awareness to interest to desire to transaction.

A Result of Strong Branding

Awareness, interest, and desire aren't cerebral words; they're emotional words. Buying is, at the end of the day, an emotional/logical process. Cerebral selling doesn't sell because customers don't make cerebral purchases.

There are those who believe that, if a customer isn't moving fast enough to buy a product, he needs more data. Wrong. Either the product in question is blatantly inferior, or, more likely, the customer's not identifying personally with its benefits -- if he even knows them. In essence, he fears that owning the product will lead to personal failure. Can one assess a customer's fear by peppering him with "logical" arguments? Hardly. Cerebral selling doesn't sell.

Oracle Corporation, the world's largest purveyor of database software, succeeded by selling to CEOs while its rivals sold to engineers. Likewise, EMC Corporation, a global leader in storage systems, leapfrogged its competitors by selling to CEOs instead of engineers. In both cases, these vendors understood how to unclog the sales funnel by making technical products indispensible business tools to boards of directors -- a result of strong branding.

Rx from The WhiteNoise Doctor™

If you're in a sales situation and find that the dynamic with the prospect is totally logical, you have one of three problems, maybe all three:

1. Weak branding
2. Little knowledge of the prospect
3. Not talking to the decisionmaker.
   

Result: no sale or slow sale. Cerebral selling doesn't sell.

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor, the creator of GutShare™, and an internationally known media personality.
www.MarcRudov.com | www.GutShare.com

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

How Selling Kills Sales

By Marc H. Rudov

Vendor-Centric Agenda

Words -- love, hate, lawsuit, bailout, bankruptcy -- elicit strong emotions and behaviors in and from us. Selling is no exception: it leads to defensiveness, where a purchaser feels that an unneeded or unwanted product will be pushed on him. This dynamic is both a mood killer and a sales killer.

There often is a huge disconnect between vendor and customer -- originating with words. As I illustrated in "Your Product Is Not a Market," vendors falsely equate markets with products. Wireless market? No such thing. Markets contain purchasers, not products. Misusing these words, consequently, causes branding dissonance.

By the same token, the words "selling" and "sales" cause branding disconnect and dissonance. Any user of these words tends to focus inward -- on the vendor-centric agenda: product, quota, bonus, commission, output, inventory, profit, and stock price.

Guess what? Purchasers don't think or care about your vendor-centric agenda. They have an agenda to acquire value -- employing metrics like ROI, security, cost of ownership, and ease of use. Therein lies the conflict: one party is selling, the other seeking value.

Each vendor strives to create a unique selling proposition, or USP, a simple phrase designed to capture the essence of its product. Notice how many USPs -- We run the tightest ship in the shipping business (an old USP of United Parcel Service) -- are product-centric, devoid of the customer.

Vendor/Customer Vignette

A few years back, I was consulting for a producer of trader turrets used on the massive trading floors of investment banks. I visited several of my client's customers and asked each (typically a VP of trading administration) to articulate the biggest problem he faced every day -- not necessarily related to technology or my client's product. Surprise: No one had ever asked such a question! Why? Vendors tend to focus on products and selling.

The complaint: my client's salespeople were constantly bypassing these decisionmakers, selling directly to "star" traders. Back in the heyday of Wall Street, star traders were untouchable and incorrigible, wreaking budgetary havoc on their employers, and my client was totally unaware of it. Why? Focused on selling.

Because I brought back new information about nonproduct problems, my client resolved the issue and increased customer satisfaction. Focus on value increases sales.

Rx from The WhiteNoise Doctor™

Customers seek value, not products. CEOs, therefore, must become value executives, not sales executives. And, by the way, customers know the difference.

As long as your company exhibits a palpable "selling" orientation, while your customers have a value agenda, the result will be branding disconnect and dissonance. This is how selling kills your sales.

I'm not suggesting that you eliminate your sales organization -- just all evidence of a selling orientation: product/vendor focus and branding. While you're at it, replace your unique selling proposition with a unique value proposition, and your customers will respond accordingly -- as will your sales.

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor, the creator of GutShare™, and an internationally known media personality.
www.MarcRudov.com | www.GutShare.com

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Use Mirrors to Attract Customers

By Marc H. Rudov

What About Me?

Window shopping is the practice of viewing, but not purchasing, the merchandise displayed in a storefront window. Such ephemeral browsing is not limited to storefronts. It also occurs on Websites, magazine ads, billboards, and TV commercials. Why? Lack of connection.

People make purchases when, with easy convincing, they believe those purchases will solve their problems or grant their wishes. They do not want to, nor should they, exert any energy to figure out a vendor's product. This is the vendor's total responsibility.

How does this work? The vendor/brander creates messaging that reflects customers' needs right back in their faces. This is Sales 101. The best branding vehicle is, therefore, a mirror.

Unfortunately, the branding vehicle used most often is a window. Take the typical Website, for example. It is a window fronting a product display. The prospect who happens upon this window views the merchandise -- elaborately arrayed and labeled -- and asks a fundamental question: What about me? Indeed.

White-Noise Drivel

People buy product benefits, not products. Unless vendors brand their products in customer language, there are no product benefits and, consequently, nothing to buy.

And, falling back on that worn and tired claim, "saves time and money," is not branding. It is not a unique value proposition. It is boring, lazy, unimaginative, overused white-noise drivel.

Donald Trump knows this axiom quite well. He sells opulence and prestige, not real estate, and makes that quite clear with his messaging mirror. Wealthy people around the world respond well to what they see in Trump's mirror.

Before purchasing a vendor's products -- whether consumer, commercial, or military -- customers try to imagine themselves using, sharing, and benefiting from them. If they can't conjure any gut reactions, window shopping is the result.

Rx from The WhiteNoise Doctor™

In any branding campaign, the customer -- not your product -- must be the star. And, the customer must feel that he's the star and will remain so after owning your product. Look at your homepage. Is your customer the star?

Displaying products and reciting their attributes will not convince anyone to become a customer. Unless the prospect's plight and lingo are explicitly reflected back to him, your messaging will go in one ear and out the other -- no sale for you.

Use windows to attract window shoppers. Use mirrors to attract customers -- but make sure those mirrors reflect them, not you.

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor, the creator of GutShare™, and an internationally known media personality.
www.MarcRudov.com | www.GutShare.com

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Cloud Computing: Branding Fog

By Marc H. Rudov

Incarnation du Jour

When a product has inherent value and its leading purveyor brands it properly, customers will grasp and demand it instantly. Otherwise, "educational" seminars begin sprouting like weeds to fill the void. The latest example of foggy branding is cloud computing.

For the unindoctrinated, the "cloud" is technospeak for the amorphous, nebulous blob that encompasses the Internet and all its working parts. When engineers draw network diagrams, they depict the vast Internet, literally, as a cloud.

John Gage, the fifth employee of Sun Microsystems, is credited with coining the phrase "the network is the computer." Perhaps, if you're selling Sun servers. But, do customers view it that way? With cyberspies hacking the US's electrical grid, maybe not.

Since the dawn of computing, there's been a periodic swing between remote computing, once called timesharing, and on-premises computing. Cloud computing is the latest incarnation of remote computing -- the software, numbercrunching, and network resources external to the customer's walls.

Ultimately, end-users will gravitate to the incarnation du jour that satisfies their selfish interests -- the one they can understand, afford, and control.

Irrepressible Urge

Technologists, unfortunately, have an irrepressible urge to use their vernacular in branding, as if the whole world gets buzzed by buzzwords. We've seen this, for example, with Web 2.0, a concept nobody can define. No surprise there are lots of Web 2.0 seminars.

It matters not how "cool" cloud computing might be or how much it excites the various vendors selling it. What matters is whether cloud computing makes sense to a large audience in 15 seconds. It doesn't, and the number of seminars explaining it is inversely proportional to its visceral appeal.

Five Key Concerns of CEOs with Each Technology Purchase:

1. We understand, explicitly and implicitly, what it is and why we purchased it
   
2. It increases our customer satisfaction and profitability
   
3. It makes our internal operations more efficient, effective, and economic
4. We feel safe with and in control of it -- regardless of who runs our IT department
   
5. It won't be obsolete in two years.

Failure to incorporate the aforementioned in product naming and messaging will lead to massive customer confusion and resistance. In other words, branding failure.

Rx from The WhiteNoise Doctor™

Remember Rudov's Rule: You can't build a brand they don't understand. What's more unfathomable and undefinable than a cloud? Very little. Yet, network execs, like Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com, are using it as a branding platform and a competitive weapon. How does this help any potential customer?

A cloud is meaningless to people; it is nebulous and unclear. A cloud is fog. Fog blocks our views of beautiful landscapes and causes shipwrecks, plane crashes, and car accidents.

Why, all of a sudden, will "cloud" become crystal clear when computing is tacked onto it? It won't. This is a futile exercise in branding fog!

Unless customers see solutions messaged in their language, in unambiguous terms, they will resist or ignore them. Should anyone have to attend a third-party seminar to understand your offering? Never.

If you want your revenues to hit the stratosphere, get your head out of the cloud.

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor, the creator of GutShare™, and an internationally known media personality.
www.MarcRudov.com | www.GutShare.com

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.