Differentiation: It's not just being different

Michael Deiner, Brand Activation Manager at JPL in Harrisburg PA, writes in the Brand 3.0 Group in LinkedIn: "Every time I read an article, white paper or blog about brand strategy development, the term “Differentiation” is featured as one of the key elements. Yes, differentiation is a key element in building an effective brand strategy, but it doesn’t stop there. Simply saying the same thing in a different way does not create the required space between your brand and your competitor’s brand. http://tinyurl.com/yf3ae3v"

To which I add:

The issue of differentiation in branding reminds me of what William Zinsser, in On Writing Well, notably said about style:

"Style is organic to the person doing the writing, as much a part of him as his hair, or, if he is bald, his lack of it. Trying to add style is like adding a toupee. At first glance the formerly bald man looks young and even handsome. But at second glance—and with a toupee there is always a second glance—he doesn't look quite right. The problem is not that he doesn't look well groomed; he does, and we can only admire the wigmaker's almost perfect skill. The point is that he doesn't look like himself." 

Other words, the differentiation is either there or not. It can't be embellished into reality. Michael, your advice – research your competition, your market, your own offering – will reveal what differentiation exists and can be reinforced over the long haul.

Conveying this differentiation is all about achieving clarity. Really, this is what good branding people get paid for. In most cases, effective branding is closer to sculpting than building. The essence is already in there. To produce, you chip away the unneeded material rather than assembling something from parts.

Nonprofits and brand

Got into an interesting LinkedIn conversation, excerpted here. If you are in non-profit leadership, this is good reading. The question, posed by brand strategist Colin Dowling, is this: "What's your thoughts on the importance of branding for non-profit organizations?"

Well, the "Brand Gurus" group had a lot of thoughts. Among them:

"The term Not for Profit has no meaning in the world of business, only in the world of taxation. Each and every NFP is competing for the recognition and the pocket of a consumer, just like any other brand would do. And therefore, branding is essential in the NFP world, especially when many similar causes are represented by so many different organization." – Ilan Geva

"Branding is essential in the world of Non-profit. But, the two greatest impediments to branding in the NFP world are budget (which tends to be non-existent) and discomfort with the concept of branding itself. Many folks enter the world of non-profit with a desire to escape the negative aspects of the for-profit world, of which they perceive branding to be a part." – Phil Granoff

"Branding should be viewed as an essential aspect of reaching your audience, not as a trick of the corporate world. If you do not have a brand image, how do hope to stay in the minds of the people you hope to serve and the people you hope will fund your efforts?" – Michelle Johnston

"For the NFPs I've worked with - I am on the board of one now - branding has traditionally been viewed as an expensive nice-to-have. In my work, I try to explain that building a brand need not be expensive. In fact, it already exists - the choice is not whether or not to brand the organization, but rather whether to try to control/enhance the brand image or not. The investment of time spent thinking through the brand fundamentals pays back enormous dividends." – Peter Sonenstein

"When done well branding can be a key difference and core asset for a not for profit organization . . . . increased donor support and loyalty, enhanced volunteer and board recruitment and greater awareness to name but a few." – Stephen McGill

Underlying the consensus here on the value of branding for NFPs is a related need my company is now discussing with foundations: the need to be a lot more clear about goals, metrics and outcomes.

Many endowments have taken a significant hit in the fiscal crisis and will be slow to recover. Among foundations, the funding engine for most NFPs, the new chatter is "How do we get more impact from our resources?" I see this as a cultural change: the foundation as investor rather than as funding provider. Meaning, "How do we do better with return on investment?"

Returning to the underlying need, foundations tend to think and communicate in terms of intentions. But they're soft on describing the outcomes they're seeking. And if they've not defined expected outcomes for themselves, so how can they enforce accountability on the nonprofits they fund? This is a vicious cycle in the NFP world. Research, metrics, efficiencies? From what I've seen, most program officers are too busy managing grant requests to tackle these challenges in a substantial way.

Clarity on outcomes will help foundations tighten their brands. Among other virtues, tighter brands can lower the volume of applicants, freeing foundation resources to focus on efficiency and accountability.

Case study: Sphere LLC

We branded a consulting start-up as approachable, insightful and distinctly valuable – the very qualities it would advise its market of bankers to express to their customers.

Shelly Schwieso came to Amalgam wanting to leverage her 20-year career with Wall Street and Main Street financial organizations into a startup consulting firm. Her vision for the company, Sphere LLC, was to offer workshops and follow-up consulting to banking executives struggling with the huge regulatory, technological and market changes in the industry.

Sphere’s inspired approach to financial advice combines the practical value of Shelly’s experience and her talent for scrutinizing trends from across the worlds of commerce, finance and management. Sphere would advise bankers on building business through differentiation (marketing) and innovation leadership (organizational development). The point of engagement with bankers was simple and refreshing: In an environment of chaos there is always opportunity!

In just two months, Amalgam was able to transform this entrepreneurial idea, a company name and a pile of notes into an identity and a set of sophisticated marketing and presentation tools.

How? For starters, Shelly realized the value in investing in marketing communications – a decision true to Sphere’s own business-development advice to bankers. Through weeks full of late-night emails and lunch deliveries, we worked very closely with Shelly to nail down Sphere’s value proposition and brand it into an array of business communications – a website, presentation deck, sell sheets, workshop booklet, folder and white papers – that would best complement her greatest marketing asset: the impressive Rolodex she’d compiled over a stellar career.

Not only did Amalgam’s mix of consulting and design help focus Sphere’s business plan, it allowed for the kind of intense collaboration, quick reactions and soup-to-nuts service you just don’t get at a typical agency. And in Shelly we got the ideal client for boutique firm like ours: focused, intelligent, considerate and responsive. We love to report wonderful engagements like this one, all the while recognizing they're the result of chemistry between client and consultant.

The New Deal(er) -- Cars at Costco

The article clipped below from the blog gas2.0 illustrates a logical next big step forward for superstores and the latest crack in the foundation of the car dealership business model. This has some big brand implications.

The plight of the the Big 3 automakers overshadows an exciting volatility in the US auto market. As trust in your father's car brands erodes, new ones -- domestic and foreign -- are making a serious run at the mainstream. They're riding a wave of new car types (crossover, ultra-compact) and power plants (electric/hybrid/even compressed natural gas). In a way, the auto industry is returning to the entrepreneurial energy of its pre-GM roots. Many of the emerging brands, as with the Chinese brand the article describes, are as yet unknown to the US market.

But in the superstores they have a powerful channel. In the logic suggested by this clip, Costco (or Wallmart, Target, etc.) emerges as the trusted brand that draws consumers to cars, as opposed to the vehicle brand, which at one time was primarily responsible for imparting this value. It'll be interesting to see the coming segmentation of vehicle types/brands within store brands.

Car dealerships are closing everywhere, and of course car dealers are down there with lawyers at the bottom of the trustworthy list. By contrast, superstores are on a 20+ year run of changing consumer's expectations about the everyday shopping experience. Is anyone still surprised to find above-ground swimming pools being sold under the same roof with books and vegetables? This means that America is trusting Costco, Walmart, Meier and the rest to sell us all sorts of products even though (or maybe because?) nobody working in the store knows anything about them.

Back to the cars: Befitting the times, emerging models are mainly cheap, tiny, cubist. In retail terms, that means easy to stock. They're also styled with that aura of freshness, fun and disposability that make them easy to merchandise. It's easy to see how the single display car one already finds on the premises at Costco could transition to an auto department with cute little whizbangs ready to roll down the aisle and into the bed of the family pickup along with the soda, franks, and office furniture.

clipped from gas2.org Chinese Electric Cars Coming To Costco, Wal-Mart Written by Jerry James Stone Published on March 31st, 2009. Posted in Electric Cars (EVs), International issues While seeing Chinese cars on display at the Detroit Auto Show has become somewhat common these past few years, there is one place they were hardly expected: Costco! Yes, the big-box discount store Costco could be selling the Chinese-designed and Mexican-built vehicles says one auto exec. The CEO of GS Motors — Kathleen Ligocki — told the Hybrid Cars website that she thinks the US will follow in Mexico’s footsteps. GS Motors sold 4,000 China-made vehicles in Mexico last year at…Costco and Wal-Mart.

Humanizing brands

A recent article in Ad Age made me step back from my skepticism about the value of social applications (like Twitter). On one hand, they're the rage. On the other, they can be creepy (Remember way back, like, a year ago, when it wasn't that desirable to have someone following you wherever you went?) The question persists: How do we connect with a growing online audience? The answer offered by the article is to simply be human, rejecting the hyped-up, aggressive marketing models for pushing your corporate reputation. Connect with your audience members on their terms and engage them rather than attack them with a targeted message.

When I created a Facebook group and page for Amalgam, as well as this blog, I was apprehensive that we would be perceived as trying too hard, but in truth, we are showing that we're not just a company on a directory list. We are not just faces on a website. We are people with viewpoints!

Related to reaching an audience on its own terms, Fallon just launched Skimmer, a new free app that gives users one interface to keep up to date with their various social networks. Emphasis on "free". This humanizes Fallon as a brand because they recognize the need of consumers. Said Fallon creative director Chris Wiggins in a MinnPost article today: "Our overarching philosophy at Fallon is that for ad agencies to continue in the same direction — interrupting people with what they're engaged in to deliver a message — isn't effective now and is becoming less so all the time, especially with today's socially connected people online. Interruptions work if the message is entertaining enough (which also hints at deeper meaning with the brand), but it's just not enough and is far too limiting."