Branding: It's all in the details

The buzz about branding is everywhere from corporations to job seekers. Branding is about the customer-, or interviewer-, experience at every level of communication with the brand. Organizations obsessed with branding stand out, as shown by two different companies over the last week.

Last week, I spoke at a conference held at a hotel. The first day, I pulled into the parking lot and noticed an empty soft drink bottle discarded in the spot. It was there the second day, and the third too. It wasn't in my way and was no big deal, but it stood out that the hotel did not clean its parking garage.

How often should a hotel clean its garage? What is the standard of excellence for that? I don't know, but as part of their brand, it stood out that they do not clean it daily.

One of the reasons it stood out to me is because of a different experience elsewhere.

The same week, I was eating in a window booth at Burger King. The window was on the drive-thru side of the restaurant. A uniformed BK employee was crouched on the ground in the drive-thru lane. I worried she would get run over by a hungry driver, but she moved when she heard the car coming. After the car took its food, she went back to the lane and bent down again.

This time, I could see what she was doing. She was scraping gum off the drive-thru lane. She was using a putty-knife-looking-tool to scrape gum! I couldn't believe it!

Burger King cares enough about their brand, and their customer experience, to ask an employee to scrap gum! Frankly, it made me think they must pay close attention to their food too.

Branding is essential because every experience impacts trust. Every time your customers interact with your organization, trust is affected for better or worse. Build bridges to your customers by paying attention to the details, or risk burning bridges. Both depend on the details.

If this lady snags clients, I'm changing strategies!

I just posted about foreign spammers when the email below came through to my in-box. It was not caught by spam filters, which could prompt people to think it is legitimate. Truly, though, how could anyone think this is legitimate? If this woman gets someone to help her, them I just might alter my marketing strategies!

Here's the email, exactly as it was sent to me:

Beloved One,
Please i am very sorry for the inconveniences and embarrassments this may cause you. My name is Miss Linda Yarah, 20 years and single from Abidjan , Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa. The only surviving daughter Of Mr Williams Yarah who dealed on Gold and diamonds during his days Before he was shot my an assassins hired by his brother on his business Trip to Ethiopia on the 20th of August 2008. My mother and my only brother happened to be a victim in the incident while I was schooling In France . I read Mechanical Engineering in school and will send you my BIODATA and Pictures.Honestly, I am in serious agony and pains since the death of my parents. Meanwhile a week before the incident took place, we had a family meeting and my late father informed us that he deposited the sum of USD$8.500.000.00 (Eight Million, five hundred thousand US dollars) in one of the Invesments banks in our country.Now I want you to help me provide an account where this money will be transferred into for an investment in your country. I will offer you 50% of the total amount for helping me and use the other 50% for an investment in your country after my Education. I will give you the contact of the bank director who will give you more information and directives on how you will receive the money in your account. I have discussed with him on my plans to transfer the money into your account and he supported the idea so that my wicked uncle will not locate me and kill me. Waiting to hear from you quickly with your telephone number where I can call you for more details.
Thanks Miss Linda Yarah.

While I'm tempted to say, "Whoever falls for that gets what they deserve!" sympathy for the feelings they will have upon realizing the truth are more prevalent.

I would hate it if my clients felts betrayed, scammed, or disappointed by my services. Yet, some sales reps employ similar tactics and have a similar lack of concern for others as Miss Linda's author. If that spammer gets clients, I won't really alter my strategies. After all, I rely on clients for positive word-of-mouth and repeat business. I want to see people I contact again.

Sales People are like Spammers

The recent return of foreign spammers filling up the spam folder annoyed me at first.

Then, it made me scoff at their ridiculous techniques. Do they really think sending emails in a foreign language to Americans is going to get us to buy things? Do they really thing random emails, without knowing anything about the potential buyer, will generate sales? Do they really think using fake names and being phony elicits business? Ha, I scoffed!

Then, the foreign spammers whom I scoffed at made me think about sales people who essentially employ the same tactics:

Sales people constantly use words potential buyers do not understand. They blast into their sales process discussing the ins and outs of their products without realizing the customer does not know the rep's internal terms. They don't even realize they lost the customer and now her questions are just polite, not interest.

Sales people randomly target customers. They send out a thousand mailers with generic information hoping to appeal to someone. They make cold calls without knowing anything at all about the person on the other end of the line. With the internet, it would only take a minute or two to appear a million times more credible, but many sales people do not bother. They'll just move on to the next person and hope someone pays attention to them. Here's a tip: pay attention to the prospect if you want her to pay attention to you.

Sales people's phoniness gives the industry a bad name. There are some good sales people out there, but the fake ones ruin it for everyone. Feigning interest in someone only until they buy or don't buy can come back to haunt a sales person. If the prospect buys, the reps often lose interest as the customer is turned over to someone else. If the prospect does not buy, the rep loses interest and won't even fake it the next time they happen to meet. Little do they know, but reps who behave in such a phony manner cost themselves business.

I learned a lesson when deleting the 47 foreign spam messages today: do not be like them!