Monday, May 21, 2007
Defining "Brand"
The truth is that contemporary thinking about branding is still in its infancy in most organizations. Somewhere along the way, we decided that "brand" was synonymous with "logo." In reality, though, the logo is only one piece of the puzzle.Basically, "brand" is just another word for "reputation," and "brand management" just means carefully managing all the consumer touchpoints. It's not quite as mysterious and sexy as the jargon we might be used to hearing, but it makes a whole lot of sense. For example, we don't typically think of manufacturing as a core piece of the brand, but why shouldn't it be?
For Dell, lean manufacturing is the foundation of their brand, not their logo or the design of their computers. They leveraged their incredible supply chain management expertise to create an incredibly powerful brand built on customization and brought to life as one of the first large-scale companies to offer custom-built PCs.
On the other hand, consider how manufacturing and supply chain management work as branding in the video game console world. When a new console launches, it's usually pretty hard to find one for the first few weeks. This is a good thing when it creates demand and a premium position for the brand, but not if it lasts too long! Scarcity turns against the brand if parents begin to associate it with frustrating wild goose chases all over town during the holiday season.
The list could go on forever, but you get the point. Of course the logo matters, and of course a unique visual identity for your brand is a valuable asset, but don't stop there. Think about expressing your brand across every consumer touchpoint, from chemistry to the people that drive your delivery trucks.
Labels: branding
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Chevron's Data Overload
Following up on my earlier post on information overload comes an interesting article about Chevron's massive overabundance of data:Chevron, the oil company, says it is drowning in data and will spend about 10 percent of its information technology budget over the next two years to get its head above water, reports Pui-Wing Tam in The Wall Street Journal (5/8/07). That’s a lot of money when you consider that Chevron spends “hundreds of millions of dollars” on IT each year. But it’s an ocean of a problem for Chevron, where the number of employee-created digital files has grown by 60 percent over the past two years. The article doesn’t say whether there is a connection between Chevron’s digital bloat and the price at the pump.
Labels: research
Salesforce.com's Ticker Symbol as Branding
One of the most clever, fun, and free pieces of branding comes courtesy of Salesforce.com, makers of leading customer relationship management (CRM) software. If you're like me, and aren't an expert on CRM, check out this demo of their app suite for some background on their offerings. It's a little stuffy, but appropriate for the space they're playing in.In a brilliant move, Salesforce.com took "CRM" as their stock symbol, instantly positioning themselves as quite literally synonymous with CRM itself. What I like about this is that the Salesforce.com team looked at something as mundane and unsexy as their ticker symbol as an opportunity to say something about the brand, to make a positive impression on the viewer. This kind of attention to detail tells you something about the people behind the stock symbol: they care, and they want you to know it. And what's more important to potential customers than seeing passion?
A brand is much more than just a logo, a tagline, or a color palette. It's the sum total of the consumer's reaction to every touchpoint surrounding your product, service, or idea. Think about what aspects of your organization can become jewels of branding like this. Go beyond the obvious, and show your passion.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Data, Information, and Knowledge
DataData is simply raw facts and figures: measurements, statistics, and so forth. Thanks in large part to technology, organizations have access to an incredible amount of data. They get it from POP, from customer service departments, from suppliers, distributors, retailers, sales people, and any number of other channels. Anything that can possibly be measured probably is, and it's probably stored in a database somewhere.
But what to do with it? Data is pretty useless on its own. In fact, it's worse than useless: sorting through all that data takes a lot of resources. We feel like we can't just ignore it, we can't just let all this data collect without doing something with it, but the sheer volume of data available is intimidating. Where do we start?
Information
Once data has processed, interpreted, and collected into some sort of presentable format, it becomes information. For example, a chart illustrating the top five widget makers in North America for Q2 2006 is a piece of information.
This is where most organizations stop. They take all the data, run it through a QA package or whatever that makes some charts, write a report, then pat themselves on the back. The worth of information is oftentimes measured by its "thud factor"- that is, how loudly it thuds when you plop it on someone's desk. It's like you're paying by the inch!
The truth is, though, that information isn't worth a whole lot more than raw data in today's business world. I mean, we've all seen what happens to this stuff. We get a huge mountain of a report, say "Oh wow, thanks! This looks great!" then banish it to the "stuff I have to read" pile on our desk... which means it never gets read.
And who can blame us? Who doesn't suffer from information overload? We all have way more "stuff to read" than we have time or energy to even think about looking at. It's basic supply and demand: as the amount of information increases, the value of information decreases. The really valuable stuff is knowledge.
Knowledge
Knowledge is information that is contextual, relevant, and actionable. It's insights and ideas that drive action, that become the fuel for design, marketing, innovation, supply chain, retail, and every other facet of an organization. It cuts through the clutter, the noise, through the constant barrage of information and speaks clearly and concisely.
As Guy Kawasaki says, we have to constantly ask ourselves, "So what?" It's not fun, but it has to be asked. Ask yourself "So what?" at regular intervals. See if there's anything you can take out, anything you can simplify. Use visualization and prototyping to tell complex stories in an instant. Above all, don't let yourself fall into the trap of mistaking information for knowledge.
Labels: research
