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By
Jack Sims
Palm Breeze, Miami, Florida, 2002
ISBN 0.9725658-0-9
160 pages
Embracing the philosophy that customer is the heart of any business, the author
talks about building relationship and partnership with customers for a lifetime by
applying his own version of CRM (Customers Really Matter), and in the process,
experience tremendous and lasting growth.
How do you want to grow your sales from a $2.5M to $30M? This is not
fiction, this is a real story! Ask Durasol Awning, a retractable–awning
manufacturer, and they will tell you that marketing and branding are significant
reasons for its growth and success. It is really about developing a brand and a
brand name, and a point of difference to set the brand apart that counts. There
are so many brands in the market, how will your brand be noticed if you are in a
“me too” category?
What is Branding?
Defining branding is like defining love. One can define it in his mind, but it may
not match other people’s idea of what it is. Branding may mean different things
to different people. Branding should be done with a passion. There are no other
rules.
asset on their books. In the U.S., the brand equity in the form of “goodwill” is
addressed only when the company is being sold.
Having the right people in the organization is very important in bringing the brand
message across consistently. Make sure that you hire talented people who will
enhance and grow your company.
Expectation
Sspassion
Share of Wallet
passion people
Brand
product
promotion
placement
Share of Mind
Promise
4 Points that form the outer part of the Branding Wheel Concept
1. Promise. As a manufacturer of goods or service provider, you make a
branding promise to your customers to deliver products or service to a
level of accepted standard of quality.
2. Expectation. Customers have expectation on the performance of the
product based on the promises made by the manufacturer or seller. This
expectation should meet or even exceed the promised quality, value,
standards and attributes of the product.
3. Bigger Share of the Customer’s Mind. Brands are feelings, thus
emotional. The objective should be to connect creatively with the emotions
of the customers, then stir to occupy bigger share in the mind of the
consumer that customers automatically think about your brand when
buying product in the category you are competing in.
4. Bigger Share of the Customer’s Wallet. Branding and creating
awareness in the mind of consumers should result in bigger share of the
dollars spending in your category.
Be a dreamer! Aim high, reach for the stars! Plan, plan and plan!
How well do you know your customers? Do you really know who they are?
There is a need to do research to find out who the best business prospects for
your brand are and how you can reach them.
In most industries, there are accepted demographics of the target audience, and
promotions are designed based on these information. But, now-a-days, you
should do something deeper than this. You have to know who the individual
customer is, and certainly what their traits are.
Start by looking at the biggest group of potential customers and analyze the
profile of each customer. Get down to the LCD (lowest common
denominator): the individual customer.
Do market segmentation. This process is used to sort who the target audience
might be. It helps to identify the target audience down to a segment of one – the
individual. Take Amazon.com, who aims to identify every single visitor.
Think like a customer. Always put yourself in the consumer’s situation. It’s not
what you want, but what the customers’ want that matters. This philosophy will
surely help in making your advertising and marketing efforts work marvels for
you.
3. When consumers shop the category, is your brand the brand purchased most
often?
4. Are your brand’s claims defensible, or can they be challenged?
5. Can your customers easily identify your brand from the competition in your
marketplace?
6. Will customers pay what you think your product is worth? Will they pay a
premium price for your brand?
7. Is your brand timeless? Are there claims or time-specific elements in your
brand name that could affect the longevity?
8. Does the brand really deliver the benefits your customers are looking for?
9. Is your product or service relevant in today’s marketplace; is the category in a
growth or declining phase?
10. Are you communicating your brand’s image with consistent and multiple
quality impressions?
11. Does your brand have a better position (e.g., premium) in consumers’ minds
than your competitors’ brands do?
12. Is your brand delivering a consistent image across all communications?
13. Are you making sure that the brand is being featured in all of the media that
is effective in reaching your target audience?
14. How well do you know who your customers are? Do you know what they like
and don’t like? Do you know what they look like and what motivates them?
15. Do you audit your marketing programs to ensure their efficiency?
16 Branding Musts
1. The brand identity is how you would like the brand to be perceived, but
only the customer’s image of your brand is real, and that’s the only one
that counts.
2. Keep your brand focused; don’t try to be all things to all people.
3. Shoemaker, stick to your last.
4. Dollar-cost average your brand.
5. When you’re starting out, think “street smart”.
6. When you have a big ad budget, follow the advice in #5.
7. Write a set of brand guidelines.
8. Appoint a guardian of the brand.
9. Make your logo easy to read.
10. Stick with your advertising. You’ll get tired of it before 10% of your
customers have seen it.
11. Make a claim you can own.
12. If you are #1, then say so!
13. Sell quality.
14. Use borrowed equity wisely.
CRM is about building relationship and partnership with customers to keep them
for life through a transfer of trust between the customer and the supplier.
CUSTOMERS FIRST! This should be your mantra. One thing you can simply
cannot do without are your customers!
Interesting Statistics
1. It takes 7 times as much time, effort and money to get a new customer as
it would to retain the old one.
2. For every customer who complains about your company, there are about
8 to 10 people who didn’t tell you their real feelings.
Isn’t it nice to make all your customers in the A group? The good news is this:
CRM is about making all your customers into A’s.
Block C customers: This is a mixed group. Some of them may be new and
some may have been with you for a long time and may be just jogging along.
They are good clients, but make no real move to become B customers. They are
around 15% of the customer base. Being a relatively big part of the entire
customer base makes them an important group.
Block D customers: This represents about 80% of the customer base and
constitutes the largest group. They do only small business with you, but they take
a big amount of your time, efforts, money and other resources to serve. They are
still customers. This block has to be handled in special way; you may have to
make hard decisions about them. You should take a look at their upside
potential. What will take them to become C, B, or even A customers?
THE SAD NEWS IS THAT YOU MAY HAVE TO “FIRE” SOME CUSTOMERS.
Should you fire all D customers? Of course not! Some of them may have the
potential of becoming C customers. Or they may be A customers of your
competitors, wouldn’t you want them to be your A customers instead? Produce
an analysis of each and every D customer to determine what the upside potential
is. Then, decide if you want to continue doing business with that particular
company.
The objective of CRM is to move customers up the building blocks. If you can
move only 1% of your total customers up the building blocks, you can look for
performance improvement of around 15% to the bottom line.
The 4 building blocks can be extended up to 3 more: Block E will be for ex-
customers, block F for future customers and identified as potential patrons. Then
Block G as the greater majority, simply the rest of the category your products are
marketed in. These blocks may well fit into one or all 4 of the building blocks A,
B, C, or D.
Put the maximum amount of effort to get new A customers. You surely can’t get
all customers to become A customers, but you should try to get them to be your
B customers, at least.
All customers are not equal. Another benefit of a CRM program is that it will
make you put a value on the “lifetime value” of your customers. Estimate the
average lifetime that your customers stay with your company.
Now, who said that all customers are equal? Getting the lifetime value of the
customers helps you to make an informed decision on what direction to go.
Make sure that you are building relationship with your customers who can remain
as your partners in business for a lifetime. Work with these customers to help
them grow their businesses. You got to want your customers to grow, make more
money and buy more from you.
Are your customers satisfied? Find out from your customers if they are happy
with your company, the quality of the product, its level of service, attitude of
employees, etc. This is how you can move your customers up the building
blocks.