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By Jeff Kear
By now, it's pretty common knowledge that, in most sectors, return customers are generally a company's best source of revenues and that brand loyalty is a big driver.
But what's new in this scenario is how companies are moving beyond traditional methods of building a following for their products and services and creating a well-integrated, multi-component brand experience.
For example, at one time Nike kept customers by keeping their feet comfy and cool (both meanings of "cool" apply here). Today their customers have dozens of other brands from which to choose, and even though Nike is still the king of the hill, they must do much more to keep their customers coming back.
For example, And1, Nike's nearest competitor in the basketball shoe category, has created an experience around its brand by selling video "mix tapes" featuring basketball playground legends showing off their mad skills and by subsequently launching a tour featuring these phenoms.
To stay ahead of the pack, Nike has branched out their marketing into hundreds of different venues and platforms, enabling them to create an entire experience around their brands.
On top of their ever ubiquitous advertising and athlete endorsements, Nike now showers people with their brand message and vibe through event sponsorships, online entertainment, product placement in video games and, the ultimate immersion, Niketown retail stores. They have even opened test venues like the Runner's Lounge in Vancouver, BC, a place where athletes can meet, chat, refuel and even test drive Nike's running shoes. (And they say it's all about the shoes.)
And what's the cornerstone to building such an experience that is reinforced with each encounter? The answer: A compelling, unique language used across many platforms.
The operative term here is the word "language," and its reach extends far beyond brand identity statements, taglines and catchphrases. When you devise an entire language around your products or services, you can more easily:
* Maintain consistent messaging across all mediums
* Differentiate your product or service from competitors
* Create the full-immersion experience that a customer now expects from a brand
For Nike and many other brands, great design and imagery may make someone take notice, but it's the message and the language that often get them through the door and even close the sale.
A great example here is the Mini Cooper. As a new owner of a Mini, I must admit that the stylish and unique look of the car was the first thing that caught my eye. But it was the language that Mini used in describing its car that hooked me.
Short, direct phrases. Spry, playful diction. A nimble sense of humor. Phrases like "Let's use our horsepower for good" and "Curves, dips, fish and chips." What I got from the language was that this was one quick little British car with a big, brash personality, and I had to try it out. And then I had to buy one.
So, after all this talk about coming up with a language for your product or service, where does one start?
Here is a brief outline for how we begin to devise a language for a product or service:
1. Begin with the brand basics - If your company already has a brand identity definition, a brand position statement and well-defined value propositions, then this is your starting point. If your company hasn't defined these, then you will need to (a good starting place to learn about how to define your brand is David Aaker's series of branding books).
2. Listen to your customers' speech - This may require eavesdropping on sales calls, making store visits or even contacting customers yourself, but, whatever the setting, you will need to listen closely to how your customers talk. Focus not only on what they say but how they say it, attending to their diction and tone. And take good notes, as I've found that customer statements can often make their way into marketing copy without much alteration.
3. Get emotional - In creating a brand experience, you want a customer to relate to your products and services on an emotional level. So write down a list of emotions that you want your target customer to feel when using your product or service. Keep these emotions in mind at all times when creating your brand language, as the words and phrases you use should elicit these feelings in your customers.
4. Narrow your message - One of the biggest marketing mistakes many companies make is trying to be everything to everybody and throwing as many messages as possible at their target audience, hoping something sticks (political campaigns are notorious for this). Customers can smell the desperation of this tactic, and what usually results is lower retention rates.
I recommend determining 3 core messages to communicate and then prioritizing these messages so you lead with the most compelling one. Then you can determine several supporting messages/points that can bolster these core messages. By creating this hierarchy, everyone in your organization is always aware which core messages should be expressed in each and every marketing communication.
5. Find words and phrases you can own - Once you have determined what to communicate, then you need to determine how to say it. Not only that, but you have to create a way to say it that is specific to your products or services and that differentiates you from your competitors.
To do this, I take each core message and begin a brainstorm session, writing down as many words and phrases that communicate the core message while expressing the intended emotion in the appropriate tone. (Some people first conduct a competitive analysis of how their competitors are using language, but I do this afterward, as I don't want their language to direct or influence my brainstorm.)
Once you have done this for each message, you can step back and begin to prioritize the words and phrases, selecting those that best express your brand and can become the basis for your language.
6. Put your language to work - Each marketing communication is individual and unique, and you can't use the same text for every application. However, you can use your brand vocabulary (i.e., the words and phrases at the root of your language) as the building blocks for each piece of marketing that leaves your company. This can not only make your job easier (because now you always have a rich source of content at your fingertips) but it ensures consistency across all campaigns and reinforces the brand experience.
Creating your own brand language make take time, but in the end it leads to better integrated communications and more loyal customers who appreciate the experience of buying your brand.About the Author
Jeff Kear is a principal at Kear|Stevens, an integrated marketing communications firm in Denver, CO. During his career in marketing and advertising, Jeff has created revenue-generating marketing communications for nationally recognized brands such as Budget, MetLife, Moosehead Beer, Qwest and Toyota. Before his work at Kear|Stevens, Jeff served as a senior-level creative at a few well-respected Denver ad agencies as well as a marketing and communications specialist for a Fortune 500 company.
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