Developing a Great Personality
To make your brands well-liked and respected, your company needs to develop its personality. It needs a public face that shows its real values, a persona that marketing can convey in stories that create empathy and move consumers to buy. Developing a brand personality requires paying attention to every detail of marketing, from packaging to product design to customer interactions. Your goal is to create a unique, authentic personality that attracts buzz and spreads easily by word of mouth.
“Personality is the unique, authentic and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about.”
Apple extended its unique brand in 2005 when it launched the iPod shuffle, its smallest iPod. Because the shuffle resembles a stick of chewing gum, Apple put a warning label on U.S. shuffles reading: “Do Not Eat iPod.” In the U.K., the label said, “Do Not Chew iPod.” These labels created a flurry of blog posts and plenty of word-of-mouth buzz that reinforced the quirky personality of the Apple brand. Most companies lack Apple’s flare and insouciance. Corporations are far more likely to be faceless and to elicit no consumer emotions at all. Faceless brands are ordinary, but brands with personality can be loveable and recognizable. Consumers who like your products will respond to your brand’s authenticity and uniqueness. Help them by providing a brand personality that transforms your company from faceless to appealing. When a company develops high likeability, it assumes a new relationship with its customers. People react differently to people – and companies and products – they like.
“Personality is the key element behind your brand and what it stands for, and the story that your products tell to your customers.”
Ordinary companies hide their corporate personalities for a number of reasons. They are accustomed to thinking that having layers of staff and management inspires customer confidence. They rely on advertising to project their personalities, cling to consistency and stifle employee individuality as a form of risk management. The problem is that ordinary companies cannot compete in today’s marketplace.
“Clearly, being faceless doesn’t work anymore.”
Take the case of Kmart versus Target. Kmart, an expanded department store, opened in 1962 as a discount arm of the Kresge department stores. It focused on price, but not on style, and became a routine, inexpensive place to shop. In contrast, Target became the second most profitable discount department store (after Wal-Mart) by carrying current, branded clothes and attractive products, thus creating a paradoxical new niche as an “upscale discounter.” Target emphasizes style and price, and understands what drives its customers’ purchasing decisions. Kmart didn’t see that its consumers cared about design as well as cost, and hit bankruptcy reorganization in 2003.
Building Customer Relationships
Companies that want lasting bonds with their customers should engage their clientele – and their employees – more deeply, instead of marketing just to attract new customers. However, as marketing opens up to include staff and customers in shaping a company’s personality, your firm has to relinquish some control over its message and the choice of messenger. This can lead to the emergence of powerfully effective “accidental spokespeople.” For example, pudgy Jared Fogle from Indiana became Subway’s spokesman, though he is not a professional actor. Fogle lost 100 pounds eating Subway sandwiches. Someone from Subway’s regional ad agency read about his successful diet in a local newspaper. The agency featured him in a commercial, although the national brand manager protested. Fogle, a “real” person, soon became the center of Subway’s U.S. ad campaigns – a perfect demonstration of how ordinary people can become promoters of your brand.
“The problem is that many organizations today are stuck dealing with their customers, partners and employees in a faceless way.”
Accidental spokespeople are passionate about your company or brand. They voice support on blogs, through social networks, and in group forums and Web sites, such as Wikipedia. The dilemma is that when people outside of marketing advocate for your company, marketing professionals have little or no control over the messages, or over their supporters’ points of view. Even given this risk, companies such as Virgin, Intel, Boeing, Dell and Moleskine allow employees to start corporate blogs or participate in outside message boards to strengthen their corporate outreach to customers, suppliers and the media.
“Personality can often be the secret weapon driving great companies to build the kind of customer loyalty their competitors envy.”
Virgin America launched its new air service by creating buzz on a blog, holding a contest for passengers to name its new planes and introducing special onboard features. Virgin also selects flight attendants for their straightforward, friendly personalities. This combination of features generated exceptional reviews from passengers and gave the airline a distinct personality.
Assessing Your Personality
To determine if your company has its own special persona, assess the three pivotal factors of personality by screening it with the “UAT Filter.” Ask if your company is:
- “Unique” – To be one of a kind, find a product, service or experience no one else is delivering. Priceline, eBay and Cirque du Soleil provided new services and events. Adjust how the public sees you by how you describe yourself. Sell your local specialty item somewhere where it is unknown, or import something no one else sells locally.
- “Authentic” – Being authentic requires transparency and honesty. To be authentic, tell your real history, show your commitment to your customers, nurture your employees as distinct individuals and adopt a mission that transcends your bottom line.
- “Talkable” – Project a buzz-worthy message that people will talk about. Offer something unusual, have a “hook” or special feature that generates word-of-mouth enthusiasm, and – if the Internet already is hopping with comments about your new widget – don’t get in the way. “Step back and let it happen.”
How to Build Your Company’s Personality
The elements of building a corporate personality include storytelling, blogging, warm customer service and tactical marketing strategies.
“Creating a back story requires a different way of thinking about the foundation of your organization, but is not likely to cause any serious resistance within your company.”
Marketers tell stories to inject identity, personality and emotion into the sales process. A solid backstory built on genuine history can give your business credibility, present it in human terms and – if you tell the story in natural language and not jargon – create empathy, a critical element in developing an authentic personality. A good story incorporates compelling characters and challenges; it sets up and resolves a conflict. Backstories frequently involve a passionate customer, a dedicated inventor, a smart listener, a person who becomes a likeable hero or an underdog who overcomes obstacles. James Dyson is a good example of an “inspired inventor.” Sales of the powerful, bagless vacuum cleaner he invented soared when he became his company’s TV spokesman and appeared on commercials to explain how he developed his machine. He was believable and likable, and customers loved his product.
“Stories help marketers to put product benefits or values into emotional terms, which is a key ingredient in a backstory.”
Bosses often do not look kindly on employees who put their opinions of the company on blogs. Image-conscious leaders worry about how blogs present them and their firms to the public. Due to habit and to a reluctance to be the first to do something, corporate leaders tend to fear change. Their belief that the status quo is working well enough is a “success barrier” that prevents companies from anticipating impending change. Internet-savvy colleagues and staffers may be able to persuade higher-ups to recognize the benefits of blogging as one tool in developing a corporate personality.
“The main problem with the small print is that it creates an atmosphere of distrust and makes customers suspect that you are hiding the truth from them.”
How your staff members treat your customers also demonstrates your company’s personality. For the best results, be ready to achieve a real impact in those rare moments when you have the customers’ undivided attention, either face-to-face or when they open your product. In today’s “attention economy,” getting someone to focus on your offerings isn’t easy. Customers’ selectivity about what they pay attention to affects the entire buying cycle. This four-stage process starts with research and moves through purchase, interaction and sharing. Marketers spend most of their time and money on the research phase, placing ads and using keywords to draw in customers who are searching for items they want. But after customers buy your product, you have another chance to show your personality as they share their purchase with other potential buyers.
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” [– Herbert Simon, Nobel economist]
For example, San Francisco’s Personality Hotels uses guest comment cards that incorporate stick-figure sketches to emphasize how they are different and to encourage guests to share their experience online. Doubletree and Starwood hotel chains also have tried to build unique personalities. Other products, such as the Apple iPhone and the Nintendo Wii, intrinsically show off their personalities and generate word-of-mouth due to their innovative designs and features.
- “Curiosity marketing” – Attract customers by making your offering interesting. Marketers can use mystery, games and contests to make their products memorable. Apple uses this technique to market the iPod shuffle.
- “Karmic marketing” – When you do a beneficial act without expecting to receive a reward, karma may give you a hand. Zappos.com, the largest Internet shoe store, sent UPS to pick up shoes from a customer who did not have time to return them – that kind of service earns attention from buyers.
- “Participation marketing” – You gain credibility when you become part of a dialogue with customers, though no one expects you to moderate the discussion. When your company becomes a trusted, information-contributing member of an established community, it is more credible. Starwood Hotels connects with consumers by having an employee participate in a frequent flyer blog. Dell employees use Internet message boards to address customer concerns and detect new trends.
- “Un-whatever marketing” – Position your product as the opposite of everything else in its category. This technique works for companies that want attention even if they are not market leaders. In the 1960s, 7-Up positioned itself against the major cola brands by being the “Uncola.” Taco Bell stretched the traditional boundaries of its industry by offering vegetarian items. Virgin “challenges the long-held assumptions” of industries it enters. For instance, when it launched Virgin America, it put a laptop plug at each seat, and offered on-demand movies and seat-to-seat text messaging among passengers.
- “Sensory marketing” – To differentiate your product, appeal to the consumer’s senses, beyond sight and sound. Closing the door on a Ford auto makes a distinctive sound. Tropicana marketed a new kind of orange juice with a fresh aroma and texture.
- “Anti-marketer marketing” – Ignore or trivialize conventional marketing techniques to show that your product sells based on its merits. This technique puts you in the same corner as your customers; together, you comment on the deficiencies of your competitors’ marketing. Axe men’s care product ads tell male customers that its body spray will make them irresistible to women. Another Axe video mocks its own campaign and marketing in general.
- “Fallibility marketing” – Turn a mistake into an opportunity to showcase your corporate personality. A problem can become a benefit if a company admits and corrects it quickly, and then apologizes. Southwest Airlines shows that it regrets flight delays by compensating customers with free tickets. Using fallibility marketing requires actively listening to the conversation between your employees and your customers.
- “Insider marketing” – Present your customers with special information or services that are not available to the general public. People love getting VIP treatment, like special access. Make it exclusive and keep it exclusive to retain its special quality.
- “Useful marketing” – Create valuable content that complements your brand’s reputation and provide it for free as an essential ingredient in your marketing mix. Weber Grills offers cookbooks, recipes and outdoor cooking tips on its Web site. Apple lets users download a variety of practical programs and online content. One online travel site lets you create a list of every city you have ever visited, so you keep coming back to it.
- “Incidental marketing” – Transform a small part of your business into the focal point for a new marketing effort. The prizes inside Cracker Jack boxes generated a huge following for the brand. New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team is made up of Maori tribesmen, who do a distinctive tribal dance before every match to build morale and intimidate their opponents. This makes them unique among the world’s rugby teams.