Be Different or be dead

November 27, 2023

How to create a hypnotic brand that makes you standout

How to create a hypnotic brand that makes you standout.

What’s a business brand and what’s the purpose of having one?

Two basic components to a brand. The Promise—CONTENT—and The Look of The Promise—CREATIVE.

At the highest level, a brand for a business is an expression of their strategy in terms of the way that business communicates with its customers.

A brand is a declaration of the unique value and benefits a business intends to deliver to the customers it chooses to serve.

And a brand communicates the personality of the business it wants to convey.

At the highest level, the purpose of a brand is to grow revenues by:
▪️establishing trust,
▪️building long term customer relationships,
▪️generating customer loyalty,
▪️establishing a sustainable competitive advantage. A brand should answer that question “Why should I do business with you and not your competitors?”

Are businesses doing a good job at branding themselves?

Here are some typical examples of brand statements:

“I develop powerful digital marketing strategies that help businesses find new customers.”

“I help individuals reassess their life choices to discover their true paths to success.”

“I develop sustainable business models and marketing strategies to fuel small business growth.”

“I help manufacturing organizations improve their processes to reduce waste and grow profits.”

WHAT’S MISSING?

These brand statements address what the brand owner intends to provide:
- a healthier lifestyle,
- digital marketing strategies,
- improved processes,
- business models.

As a consumer, however, what these statements DON’T tell me is how each brand is different from their competition, and why I should buy their brand and not their competitor’s.

It’s THEIR view of THEMSELVES. They make no attempt to help the customer CHOOSE THEM in the face of alternatives they have available.

In other words these (and most other) brand statements focus on what the brand owner intends to produce with no comparison with the other choices available to the targeted consumer.

And, they typically speak to appearance—what the brand visually looks like, business values—what values the organization aspires to and personality—concepts like ‘rugged’, ‘innovative’ and so on.

SIZZLE DOMINATES SUBSTANCE

And it seems that everyone uses the same textbook approach to building their brand and so none of them are different from anyone else.

What’s an Hypnotic Brand. and why is it important for organizations to have one?

The Hypnotic Brand is different from the traditional textbook approach. It is focused on distinguishing an organization from its competition.

The Hypnotic Brand uses The ONLY Statement as its context: “We are the ONLY ones who…”

The Hypnotic Brand focuses on the difference between one business and every other business.

The Hypnotic Brand comes directly from the organization’s Strategic Game Plan.

It seeks to gain competitive advantage by being the ONLY ones who do what they do in a way people CARE about.

Example…

“Marine Co is the ONLY complete service partner committed to delivering solutions to grow a boat dealer’s business.”
The audacious brand would focus on elements such as long term relationships (not immediate customer-vendor), solutions (not flogging products), business growth (product sales).

Every organization needs an Audacious Brand to define their uniqueness in the highly contested markets they serve. To grow despite growing competition. To build customer loyalty and have a sustaining business.

How do you go about building a Hypnotic Brand?

ESSENTIALLY ONE STEP… Create a tight strategic fit for your brand.

Your brand must be tightly bound to the Strategic Game Plan—SGP—of your organization, it cannot be allowed to ‘float free’ to be on its own.

You need to be able to ‘see’ the organization’s strategic intent when you assess their brand statement.
If you can’t interpret the strategy being pursued by the brand, it means the brand is too cloudy and vague; it lacks strategic relevance.

Successful brands have a direct ‘line of sight’ to the strategy of the organization.

My Strategic Game Planning process makes it easy to establish the strategic imperatives the brand must serve.

By answering three questions it’s done.

✔️ HOW BIG do you want to be? — defines your growth objective for the ensuing 24 months.
An aggressive growth goal suggests that your brand personality should be bold as well perhaps conveying innovation and risk taking.

✔️ WHO do you want to SERVE? — identifies the customer groups you intend to target to generate the revenue from the HOW BIG question.
The WHO represents the customer group your brand is targeted at and ‘speaks’ to.

An hypnotic brand must be targeted at a specific customer group, NOT the market in general.

✔️ HOW will you COMPETE and WIN? — Declare the differences that define you. This represents the content you will use in your brand statement and it uses your ONLY STATEMENT as the way to do it.

As I’ve said before, It’s interesting to me that most brand pundits ignore that people choose one organization or individual over another based on the differences between them, not by the absolute singular claims they make.

Declaring “I develop sustainable business models and marketing strategies to fuel small business growth.” may accurately describe what you do for small businesses, but it says nothing about how you are special or unique among your competitors and hence why I should pick you to help my small business and not any one of them.

An Hypnotic Brand shouts out how you are different from everyone else.

Your unique qualities need to be woven into the brand statement, otherwise the recipient of it is left to their own devices to figure out why they should choose you out of the herd.

Some noteworthy brand statements.

YOUR ‘ONLY’ IS YOUR BRAND PROMISE. JUST ADD PERSONALITY AND VISUAL EXPRESSION.

“Marine is the ONLY complete service partner committed to delivering solutions to grow a boat dealer’s business.”

“ Garden Co. is the ONLY service partner who delivers tailored Property Development solutions for stratas. We only serve Strata Corporations.”

What does a business have to do to effectively execute on its brand promise?

Let’s be clear: the brand statement or promise is at best aspirational and bears little resemblance to the impact felt by the brand when implemented and experienced by customers.

It’s a paper brand position at this stage — a ‘brave idea’ only.

Because at the end of the day, if an organization can’t deliver on its brand promise, the promise is useless and is seen as a lie by all who witness it.

Your brand stays in the ‘dream’ stage until it’s edited, filtered and tested by all of the practical, operational factors that impact the brand’s efficacy.

In my experience, these are the ALIGNMENT FACTORS that either reinforce the brand dream or kill it.

▪️The frontline of the organization who engages with demanding customers day-in and day-out with aggressive competitors must believe the brand promise.
They must feel that they can deliver on the promise 24X7, because if they don’t believe, the brand dies.

▪️Operating processes that impact the way customers engage with the organization must support the brand promise.
If, for example, the brand promises a ‘friendly future’ but the internal policies make it cumbersome and difficult for customers to transact with the organization, the promise and delivery collide and the brand lie is borne over and over again. And the brand dies.

▪️Internal rules and policies affecting the customer experience must be in harmony with the brand promise.
If the brand promises amazing customer experiences but internal rules force the customer through hoops they don’t like, customers are pissed off, they tell their friends what horrific service is being delivered and the brand dies.

▪️Frontline people must have the personal attitude, life experience and competence to deliver the brand promise day-in and day-out.
Rude and uncaring treatment of a customer renders an organization as self-serving and narcissistic with utter disregard for the needs and wants of the people they serve. And the brand dies.

▪️The organization must be cleansed of the grunge and CRAP that gets in the way of employees delivering the brand promise. If frontline people are constantly fighting unnecessary internal roadblocks that get in the way of delivering what customers crave, again, the customer experience suffers and once loyal customers leave for a more friendly environment. And the brand dies.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.

- There are many organizations that decide to rebrand themselves without addressing these alignment issues and nothing changes.

- They create a new identity with a flashy new logo and tagline but the essence of the organization carries on the way it always has.

- Leadership seems to believe that the new logo will miraculously change their performance, but it doesn’t.

- They overhaul their web sites with a new look and feel but it can’t mask the ineffective delivery system.

- The same operations problems persist.

- The same employee morale issues remain.

- Competitive vulnerabilities continue despite the fact that how the organization is visually presented to the market has been morphed into something different.

And the brand dream dies…

Cheers,
Roy
My 75+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION.

My BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

‘Audacious’ is my latest.

• Posted 11.27.23 at 05:18 am by Roy Osing
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November 20, 2023

How Do CoNTRaRIAN Entrepreneurs Become Insanely Successful?

How Do CoNTRaRIAN Entrepreneurs Become Insanely Successful?

What’s a CoNTRaRIAN Entrepreneur?

Check this iconic quote is from Apple’s 1997 advertising campaign that encapsulates the essence of contrarian entrepreneurship…
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels…because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

There are many faces to a CoNTRaRIAN…

CoNTRaRIANs…
- Look for ways to DISRUPT current business models.
- Are driven to CREATE something new.
- BUCK trends and common conventions.
- Don’t ‘pivot’, they BREAK AWAY from what the herd is doing.
- JUMP not stagger away from the ‘norm’.
- Have DISTAIN for the status quo .
- Offend some; amaze others.
- Make people nervous.
- Apply their mindset to every challenge regardless of how big or how small.

Being CoNTRaRIAN is an effective business strategy…

- It works because it’s unique. Few do it.
- Most businesses do the same thing, which results in all having similar strategies.
- “Undifferentiation” is happening. Too much copying going on.
- Businesses refer to the same books and case studies.
- COPYING, CLAPTRAP, ASPIRATIONS, NARCISSISM are overused; words like “Better”, “Best”, “#1”, “Save the World” pervade, stultifying creativity and innovation.

We need an intervention to get off this track.

Success today requires businesses to stand out and be different from their competition in a way people CARE about.

A CoNTRaRIAN mindset is an excellent tactic to look for ways to be THE ONLY ONE that does what you do.

Most businesses go with the flow…

- They follow common methods prescribed by textbooks.
- They copy what their competitors are doing.
- Benchmarking seems to be an acceptable tool to feed strategy.
- CoNTRaRIANism is perceived to be a high risk approach even though there’s nothing more risky than being the same as everyone else.
- The heavy inertia of past methodologies prevents business from reframing their strategy to be the ONLY ones that do what they do.

Examples of businesses that have practiced CoNTRaRIANism…

The Grateful Dead — build stands to allow their fans to record and share their music. Gave special deals to their existing fans rather than using special offers to attract NEW fans.

The Heart Attack Grill — Las Vegas, where obesity and unhealthy eating is the theme.
✔️Famous for their Bypass Burgers from a Single to a $24 Octuple Bypass at 20,000 calories.
✔️Offered Flatliner Fries, which are deep-fried in pure lard. 
✔️Wine is served in an IV drip bag.
✔️Guests are referred to as “patients”.
✔️Diners wear hospital gowns when entering.
✔️Servers dressed as nurses and doctors.
✔️Anyone over 350 Ibs. eats free.
✔️Rated ⅘ by Tripadvisor, and ranked #155 out of 1,170 restaurants in Vegas.

Uber — Disrupted the traditional taxi model and ventured into the untrodden realm of ride-sharing.

Netflix — Rather than conforming to the rental store model, they introduced a subscription-based streaming service.

How does a business leader cultivate a CoNTRARIAN culture?

The end game is to have a culture that encourages CREATIVITY not COPYING; INNOVATION not IMITATION.

Some specific behaviors than need to be developed and rewarded:

1. Question the status quo and established norms.
2. Try. Try. Try.
3. Create, don’t imitate the crowd.
4. Think independently.
5. Ask yourself “How can I do this differently?”
6. Empower people to take risks and innovate.
7. Use customer complaints as a way to disrupt how the organization does business.
8. Connect and engage with other disruptors.
9. Celebrate incremental CoNTRaRY successes.
10. Look for long term sustainability in CoNTRaRY ideas.
11. Emphasize value creation over competition. Make it about being unique in delivering value that people CARE about as opposed to battling with competitors.
12. Ask “How can we take at least a right angle turn away from the traditional approach?”.
13. Establish ‘The Office of the Contrarian’ in your organization - leaders can take on the role of CCO

3 CoNTRARIAN Moves I made taking a startup internet company to A BILLION IN ANNUAL SALES…

The startup was in its early stages, so I had to look for innovative ways to stimulate performance and growth.

1. Business Planning - My Strategic Game Plan process emphasizes EXECUTION over precise direction-setting and disrupts the traditional planning approach.

2. Differentiation - My ONLY Statement process revolutionizes the standard Unique Value Proposition approaches that rely on meaningless CLAPTRAP & ASPIRATIONS to create competitive differentiation.

3. Customer Loyalty - Building and executing a Recovery Strategy to turn a service OOPS! into a WOW! is instrumental in building strong customer loyalty with retention rates at astronomical levels.
Recovery strategies are virtually nonexistent in organizations today!
The addition of a Recovery Strategy to ‘Do it Right the First Time” successfully exploits the power of ’FIX & SURPRISE’.

CoNTRARIANism isn’t a ‘bad word’. It’s the new way to get the creative juices flowing in an organization to stand out from the competition and deliver benefits that people CARE about.

Cheers,
Roy
My 75+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION.

My BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

‘Audacious’ is my latest.

• Posted 11.20.23 at 05:21 am by Roy Osing
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November 13, 2023

How Devoted Customer ‘Heroes’ Make Unparalleled Winners

How Devoted Customer ‘Heroes’ Make Unparalleled Winners.

Looking for a simple Move that will transform your organization into an unmatched high performing machine?

As I’ve said many times before, it’s not the technology, products and services that make teams standout in the marketplace.
Virtually all competitors have access to equivalent technologies and their product features are all basically the same, give or take.

Customer experiences, on the other hand, is the playing field where winners are created. Organizations that deliver dazzling, ‘gasp-worthy’ and emotionally drenched experiences for their customers always come out on top of the competitor heap.

These organizations understand that it’s the customer-infused culture that consistently delivers WOW! customer moments, and often in ways that create a great deal of discomfort for the leadership hierarchy.

My ‘Customer Hero’ Move is an incredibly powerful loyalty building tool that essentially dispels the ‘formality’ of an organization—hierarchical structure, internal rules & policies—in order to take care of a customer and their immediate needs.

Now a definition.

The Customer Hero is someone who advocates for a customer on the inside of an organization. This is the person who ‘does battle’ with all the rules, policies and red tape that is preventing the customer from getting what they want.

This is the ‘warrior on the inside’ who fights for the rights of the customer in the sea of restrictions that exercise the needs of the organization and not the customer.

And this is the zealot who is prepared to put themselves at risk and fight against the organizational ‘injustices’ that sometimes unfairly disable customer rights at the expense of horrific experiences and body blows to customer loyalty.

We need cultures that honor Customer Heroes.

We need Customer Advocacy to be something organizations WANT to do to themselves because they understand how important it is to long term growth and performance.

We need organizations that exist to serve the customer even though at times we have to ‘suck it up’, admit that one of our rules or policies is DUMB and break it for the greater good of long term customer loyalty.

We need leaders to get over themselves, lose their ego and practice what they preach. All too many espouse the Holy Grail of creating memorable customer experiences, yet don’t ‘eat their own dog food’.

They force policy down the customer’s throat and punish the employee who fights against it in order to actually deliver what the customer experience demands.

It’s time.

Time to declare the Customer Hero philosophy in our organizations and espouse advocating against disempowering processes that destroy customer loyalty.

Time to make customer advocacy inside our organizations a priority plank of our Values platform.

”We will be the customer’s Hero in our organization, fighting for their rights at all cost.

Time to honor and reward those Heroes who, against inertia and resistance, push forward unrelentingly to advocate for their customer.

And it’s time to assume the customers’ pain when they are forced to fight for their rights on their own.

It’s time to do the audacious thing.

Cheers,
Roy
My 75+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION.

My BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

‘Audacious’ is my latest.

• Posted 11.13.23 at 06:25 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink