brand experience

Mar 27, 2014

Delivering on Your Brand’s Promise?

Getting the most from employees starts with giving them what they need. This doesn’t include a chorus of Kumbaya and a round of group hugs but it does mean investing time and energy into understanding them. And here’s the amazing thing that happens when you invest time in your employees, it pays dividends.

Harvard Business Review has indicated that highly engaged employees, on average, are 50% more likely to exceed expectations than the least-engaged. And companies with highly engaged people outperform firms with the most disengaged folks – by 54% in employee retention, by 89% in customer satisfaction and fourfold in revenue growth.

And here’s the other amazing benefit of working to ensure your employees are engaged. Employees nowadays are looking for more than just a j-o-b. They are looking for an experience. And not just any old experience. They want something meaningful. And so do customers. Disney Institute and McKinsey Company recently released a report indicating that companies that focus on giving their customers a consistently exceptional experience enjoyed a 2 percentage point advantage over their peers in revenue growth and an increase in employee satisfaction and engagement of 30 percent.

And while not every company has the resources to be able to offer programs like giving employees time to work on creative projects of the employee’s choosing, I’d like to believe that every company can invest in attracting and developing strong leaders to drive employee engagement.

How do you make this happen in your organization? It starts by opening your mind, looking at things with a fresh set of eyes and asking questions. The innovators will look for better ways to do things and those brave enough will take action.

By John Paulo Cardoso

Category: Branding, Spyder Works

Tags: brand experience, brand expression, company culture, employee engagement

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Mar 4, 2014

What do we want Made in Canada to mean to consumers?

‘Economic Action Plan 2014 announces that a private sector steering committee will be established to lead the development of a “Made-in-Canada” consumer awareness campaign.

‘…To help address the interests of consumers and highlight the quality and range of Canadian products, as we compete in more diverse export markets, the Government will undertake consultations with the private sector to develop a “Made-in-Canada” branding campaign…’

As a proud Canadian, my right-off-the-top-of-my-head reaction to this proposed campaign is wildly enthusiastic. After all, we are most excellent shooters of pucks, drinkers of beer and extractors of petroleum. We are growers of wheat, sayers of “I’m sorry” and exporters of Arctic air masses. We are Canadians and right now, at least, our national identity is about our success at hockey and freestyle athletes who spend much of their time in the air, upside down. But this is more than own the podium. This is a sustainable increase in sales.

The first of my whole cranium full of questions about this campaign has to do with who we are targeting. The stated purpose is consumer awareness. But to me, any Made in Canada program has to win the hearts and will of both manufacturers and their customers who each must believe that a Made in Canada logo will add cachet to whatever they’re trying to sell. As Canadians, we love our country. We’re proud of our country. But, we’re also savvy enough to realize that a Made in Canada program has to stand for something beyond red mittens and waving the flag.

If we’re consulted at Spyder Works, and I hope we are, my first concern would be confusing Canada-the-country with Canada-the-manufacturer, exporter and purveyor of customer satisfaction. Which positive attributes of a successful country contribute to the positive attributes of a brand? Do Canadian companies reflect where they live? And another question I have is whether Made in Canada is the same as Imagined in Canada ? We have increasingly become a knowledge economy but many of our inventions, inspirations and innovations are actually made in China, or Mexico, or India.

If we are to put aside the Olympic celebration and ask what Canada really stands for, what are we really selling here? On the plus side, we are an inclusive and diverse society that makes an honest effort to take compassionate care of our citizens. We are brave peacekeepers. We are well educated, creative and open-minded. We are home to many well known global brands in many different categories like Lululemon, Roots, G Adventures, Bombardier, Blackberry, Agrium and Magna. We are friendly and polite. We are active and activists.

We talk a lot about innovation, but I don’t think the world necessarily notices. But maybe, most noteworthy of all, with a population of 34 million, we are not a big country. We are not Walmart or Home Depot. We are more like a boutique with a hundred locations and we are not going to undersell anyone. Maybe that’s what we need to talk about. What is it about our Made in Canada boutique and Made in Canada logo that could excite our own Canadian companies, Canadian consumers and the rest of the world?

By John Paulo Cardoso

Category: Branding, Spyder Works

Tags: brand experience, brand strategy, brand value, canada, customer experience, spyder works inc

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Jul 24, 2013

What do ‘most hated’ brands have in common?

I recently read a list of America’s least favourite brands on msn.com and was surprised that all ten of them are either financial institutions or communications providers? But, should I be surprised? What kind of evil do financial institutions, cable, satellite and cell phone carriers have in common that ticks off so many of us?

It’s the fine print. When a company woos you to enter a relationship with promises in 16 point type, and then hits you with cancellation fees, service charges and conditions in teeny tiny 4 point type, it’s not surprising that you might suffer from a little read rage.

I know that these love them or hate them brand lists proliferate and aren’t all exactly what you’d called peer-reviewed, but they do give us a window into consumer discontent, which in the world of social media is an increasingly explosive performance indicator. Unhappy customers now have the technology to tell their 30 friends and 30,000 browsers on the web about their bad experiences.

A representative of the msn.com bottom ten companies might remind us that the terms and conditions for cable, credit cards, satellite TV, bank accounts and mobile devices are clearly spelled out. And legally, I suppose that’s completely accurate. But I’m talking about building brands, not court cases. I’m talking about consumer expectations. And when you surprise consumers with leg hold traps in the fine print, you end up with a relationship that’s headed for the rocks.

So, what would I recommend to a financial services or communication provider client? I’d suggest that three years isn’t a long term relationship. Aim for a life-long relationship. And don’t think of a cancellation fee as a source of revenue but rather a financial settlement of a divorce with a consumer who’s never coming back. Contracts may bind us together legally, but they don’t really keep us together. The only thing that does that is wanting to be together. The same principal applies in branding. You may have a contract with your customers, but if they’re unhappy, you’re sleeping on the couch.

By John Paulo Cardoso

Category: Branding, Spyder Works

Tags: brand experience, brand value, customer engagement

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