WOW Branding

Recently after being in a long-term relationship I found myself to be fabulously free and single. As an out-going, independent, modern gal my first instinct to meet new people was to go through the inconspicuous, the “be-who-I-want-to-be” route of on-line dating.  Through this experience I became acutely aware of all the branding involved in this modern world of dating.

At my disposal the three dating services that popped out at me were Plenty of Fish, Lavalife and E-harmony. In short, Plenty of Fish resembles the traditional night club of the dating scene, Lavalife’s positioned as a urban online lounge or a trendy coffee shop and E-harmony has replaced the traditional “meeting through friends” scene. Not only are the on-line dating companies specialized and target specific, I too was becoming a commodity.

After a couple of weeks of sending smiles, “ping-ing” people, or checking profile photos and passing judgement, I found myself browsing and selecting potential candidates with no substance or merit. I was picking out my ideal man like I was shopping at the grocery store - looking for good colour, freshness and ideally, some firmness.

In the end I came to the conclusion that online dating only succeeds through our failure and desperation of finding the “happily ever after”. It does amaze me how consumed we - social interactive beings- have been trained to communicate with the least amount of effort ever. We have become a digitized generation, lowering our social skills through the use of social online networks.

After my experiences online this fabulous commodity has gone offline, appreciating the real life - with real people.

To be continued....

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My favorite entrepreneurial stories are those in which an undying faith and belief are required to combat the ridicule of doing something different. Casting the right vision and purpose for a company has to come from somewhere deep inside if it is going to be completely authentic, meaningful and sustainable. 

I came across TomsShoes.com—a company founded by Blake Mycoskie and built on a very compelling brand promise. For every pair of shoes you buy, they will send a pair to a child in a developing country as part of their One for One movement. 

I came across an interesting article today on CanadaOne.com that I believe we all should read titled 7 things you need to know about why people buy. Although all the points hit home, the two that really struck me from a branding perspective were #5 Framing and #6 Too Many Choices.

I'm sure that most of you have seen the Susan Boyle/Britain's Got Talent video by now on YouTube. I saw it last week when the views were fewer than 10 million and it has already surpassed 40 million. If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out - it will make your day.

Low expectations are fertile ground for growing brand loyalty.

Companies spend a lot of money creating awareness and desire for their brands. Building positive expectations before the purchase. And so they should.

But here’s the catch, if the company fulfills its promise (price, service, quality, etc.) it merely lives up to what is already expected from its customer base. The customer is satisfied, but is not turned into a raving fan, passionately promoting the experience and the brand to anyone who cares to listen. There’s not a lot of brand equity to win by just doing what’s expected.

Now, at some point most products or services (if not all..) will fail in some area. Or, to put it in brand lingo terms, the product does not live up to its brand promise; the battery on your Mac laptop suddenly dies, the air-condition in your Toyota goes cold, the concierge at your hotel forgets to give you that wake-up call.

Not only is that annoying in itself, but the process of fixing the problem is in most cases the real pain in the...

For instance, your 14 month old vacuum cleaner sucks.. and not the way it’s supposed to. The mouth piece breaks in two and all you can do is vacuum small circular areas the size of a golf ball.
Now, subconsciously you’ve already gone through the scenario: Trying to find a relevant phone number on the manufacturer’s website, figuring out the specific part number, navigating through their phone maze, shipping the broken piece and finally getting the new part delivered straight to your front door - when you are not at home. In other words, you expect an experience you could do without.

And, this is where the opportunity is. The vacuum cleaner manufacturer has a perfect occasion to turn you into a raving fan of the brand by having a post-sales system in place that eliminates those steps mentioned above. Simply because you don’t expect to be wow’ed.

Here’s an example from my own world. I recently had a new faucet installed in my kitchen. About six months later the shower head (yes, it came with that..) didn’t work and I was immediately dreading an experience similar to the vacuum cleaner spiel. But to my great surprise, and relief, it turned out to be a completely hassle-free experience. No sending parts back and forth, no trying to find the receipt or arguing that it was covered by warranty. Just a quick phone call to a very nice sales person, and three days later the part was delivered to my home at a scheduled time.

I had never heard of this particular brand before, had no emotional connection to it, even though I use the faucet every day. But the fact that it broke down, or rather, the fact that Pegasus (for that is it’s name) had a system in place that completely wiped out my (negative) expectations, and transformed me from a brand ignorant to a brand evangelist for the company. No marketing dollars they could have spend, could have placed the brand so effectively on my short list as this post-sales system taking advantage of my pre-conceived, negative, expectations.

And next time I, or anyone I know, need a product within their range, you bet I’ll be a passionate Pegasus brand evangelist. The product failed, the brand prevailed.