Client vs. Customer: Your Mindset Matters

It’s important to revisit this issue regularly to ensure you’re maintaining an appropriate branding and “client service” mindset that can impact your business success. It’s NOT a B2B vs. B2C thing, and it’s imperative when branding places.

5 Ways to Use ‘Story Power’ to Connect People With Your Place

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

 “Whoever tells the best story wins.” – John Quincy Adams

There is a non-stoppable and growing trend of collaboration between places and their “fans” who help create stories for and on behalf of the brand to promote awareness and growth. Stories are among the most powerful brand elements that must be present to establish your place’s personality and reinforce your brand’s promise. Through storytelling, people share their experiences related to your place, those experiences trigger emotions from and a connection with other people, and the snowball effect of that connection invites and draws more people to your place.

While this may not be a new revelation for you, are you really doing all you can to make the best use of truly valuable storytelling in your Placemaking initiatives?

1. Let the people tell you WHY.
   Destination marketers must play a pivotal community leadership role by collecting and sharing the best stories of WHY, not just WHAT. Rather than focusing on telling your target market what make’s your place so great through your own marketing messages — on your website, in your marketing collateral, or in your social media postings — let them tell you THEIR stories. This will allow you to connect with people through your shared passions about why your place is special, their personal experiences with your place, and will ultimately help you build lasting relationships with them. It can also create ideas and momentum to drive your marketing campaigns.
2. Co-create new stories about your place with the people.
   According to Mark Lightowler, site author of Storytelling To Create Impact Brands, the best way of creating relevance for your brand is to ensure your brand plays a part in your target audience’s personal story. It is not just about you creating a great story for your brand, but about knowing your audience and their story and how your brand fits into that story. He suggests that you engage with your clients [residents, visitors, businesses] to create a new story together. This new co-created story is the one that gets told by the people in your target market to their networks, getting your brand closer to even more people.
3. Let peoples’ stories drive innovative Placemaking.
   Build resident and visitor communities on your website and social media sites to encourage the exchange of stories and ideas from the people. Post polls/surveys to get their opinions about the positive and not-so-positive aspects of your place to generate discussion and reveal the areas on which your Placemaking efforts should focus. Establish contests to invite residents, visitors, and businesses to propose projects that can boost the image of your place as a whole or of a particular ‘hidden gem’ that just needs some creative attention.
4. Listen and respond in your social media channels.
   Encourage all stakeholders to participate in the discussions about your place, its activities, and what it offers. Let them know you care about their personal experiences and ideas and how you can apply them to improving your brand and building a destination of choice. This will result in establishing the critical emotional connection with the people who matter most, enable you to achieve likeability among them, and strengthen their loyalty to your place brand.
5. Harvest the enthusiasm of local hearts and minds.
   Many places have experimented with “community journalism”, with publications and local news outlets encouraging and even hiring locals to help develop and serve their communities. Some of these initiatives have not been as successful as hoped, but I believe community-member ‘journalists’ are capable of capturing the true essence of a place and what’s going on there. Places just need a well-established plan for managing these news sources, and ensuring the appropriateness, credibility and accuracy of the information reported. They also need well-developed and reliable public relations and risk management plans for addressing public response to these home-grown stories that can potentially either portray the positive realities of a place or otherwise tarnish its brand identity.

Do you agree or disagree with the potential value of any of the ideas I’ve presented here? Do you have other suggestions for using story power to connect people with places?

Trust and Places: Do People Really Notice?

I believe people DO notice the places/destinations that inspire trust. In fact, they reward those places that emit an aire of trust with brand loyalty in their decisions to come to your place and to spend money there, and brand advocacy in their social networking interactions.

5 Tips to Ensure Your Place Brand is Of the People, By the People, For the People

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

[This article was originally published on PlacesBrands.]
Abraham Lincoln’s unforgettable 1863 Gettysburg Address speech ended with the words “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” I assert that this notion also applies to place branding for your neighborhood, community, or city. Here, I provide 5 tips for people-focused branding, which is vital for destination branding success and for ensuring your branding initiative does not perish.

Place branding is not about coming up with a catchy logo or slogan. Ultimately, destination brands are about PEOPLE. Every single visitor and the population that lives and works there now—those are the people who make your destination what it is.

1. Involve ALL key stakeholders who can impact your brand identity.

At a minimum, your key stakeholders should include your destination’s local residents, local business owners, current loyal visitors, cultural/special event organizers, DMOs/local tourism groups, economic developers, and other local government entities (because of the potential economic impact of branding your community). While the great diversity among stakeholders makes the all-inclusive approach more complex because of probable fragmented stakeholder relationships, questions such as who are we, and what are other people’s perceptions of us, what promises do we make, and what sets us apart from other places are questions that have to be answered by and agreed to by your place’s core stakeholders.

Two critical principles are Partnership and Shared Vision. The stakeholders need to work together using a partnership approach, to ensure buy-in and brand credibility. They must also share a vision, be committed to it, and take co-responsibility for the future of the place in order to formulate a clear brand strategy.

2. Don’t just view your place and your brand from your own internal perspective.

Avoid just promoting a perception that YOU have of your place. Consider how you view your place versus how your target market views it. Through market research, have potential clients (both internal and external) identify in their own words their most important motivational factor(s) for visiting, residing in, or setting up shop in your community. Gain an understanding of any issues they think currently exist for your brand. Get tourist/visitor perceptions of your destination, and opinions on what your brand stands for in their minds.

3. Include stories and experiences from visitors, residents, and local businesses, and embrace the experiences shared by others about your place on social media and travel rating sites.

Ask both locals and visitors to help shape the story of your place and your brand image, crafting a story about the reality of your place’s reputation, and making them an equal part of the story…because today destination authenticity is designed organically on the street. It’s the collective stories that make-up the experiences of the people in a community that are the real, enduring brand essence…the ones that people will build a reputation monument to.

Greg Robeson, in his article Destination Branding: Find Your Unique Voice, suggests having locals and visitors wander the streets with a camera/video recorder, getting lost like a first-time visitor might. Have them record what they see, and not necessarily in the usual visitor spots or hangouts. This will tell a deeper and richer story of your place.

Also, collect written and audio/video testimonials and pictures from insiders and outsiders that can help sell your place and its hidden gems by demonstrating authenticity and differentiation. Get connected with social travel review sites, such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc., which allow clients of your destination an opportunity to spark authentic conversation about your place based on their perceptions and experiences. Be sure to monitor these conversations and respond to the people who review your place to foster real engagement and to build trust with your brand.

4. Make sure that locals live the brand and take pride in your place.

Don’t underestimate the value of locals in co-creating a brand identity that matters to them. Involve them as much as possible and they will become ambassadors for your place, spreading the word and making your place more attractive to outsiders who you wish to draw in.

Internal selling of your brand is necessary to ensure they are 100% behind the eventual brand vision and are enthusiastic supporters of their own brand. Also, make sure that the community (its people and businesses) use similar, consistent, and compelling messages to deliver the brand promise. Finally, be aware that outsiders visiting your place are attuned to the behavior of your current citizens and the way they treat the non-locals in their home community.

5. Make an emotional connection with your target market, which should include the local residents and businesses you want to stay to maintain your place’s distinct identity.

It’s all about delivering an exceptional experience that is memorable and emotional to the proper niche. It’s also about crafting a unique picture of your place at every level of interaction with the people you target. Destination branding initiatives often fail because leaders try to turn a place into something that is everything for everyone.

In his book, Destination Branding for Small Cities, Bill Baker suggests that it’s better to target and attract the right people from the beginning, as opposed to trying to attract everyone and not delivering for some of them. Identify markets (visitor, resident, business) that fit the existing destination experiences and align with existing community values. Create a brand that truly uncovers what makes your destination special, so potential clients feel the emotional connection both in the marketing messages and through the experience they have when they’re in your place.

The actions of people speak louder than words – and speak louder than any logo or slogan.

Do you agree or disagree with the principles of any of these tips about who to include or why? Do you have any other suggestions for making a place’s brand people-focused?

Destination Client Loyalty Tied to Engagement

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

Note: I’ve taken it upon myself to change references to “customers” to be “clients.” Read my Client vs. Customer: Your Mindset Matters article to discover why. I’ve also taken perspectives provided about interactions with companies or businesses and applied them to places, since these same principles are just as relevant to destination client loyalty.

“In today’s crowded marketplace, creating loyal, engaged clients is more important —- and more challenging — than ever,” says Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty 360 – The Loyalty Marketer’s Association.

I say the challenge is comparable to a competitive game of tug-of-war, where you may be aiming to pull your target clients in one direction but they may have an edge in pulling your loyalty-building initiatives in another direction.

Johnson predicted 11 key trends would dominate the Loyalty Marketing Industry a couple years ago . I’ve highlighted two that focus specifically on client engagement, and are relevant to visitor and resident engagement:

Relevancy will be a key driving force of client loyalty, engagement. Today’s clients want loyalty programs to be “about me” — individual, relevant, meaningful, etc. Personally relevant deals are the second most frequently chosen reason for spending more with a company [or at a destination], mentioned by 48% of people, according to new research by Ipsos Mori and The Logic Group. Data collection and usage is extremely important in building relevancy.  Brands need to use the information they collect strategically to show clients they’re listening and give them what they’re asking for.

Goal of client loyalty initiatives will be to engage clients. Marketers now realize that although spend and number of transactions are important, client engagement is the holy grail for loyalty initiatives. Because with engagement comes loyalty, advocacy, trust, passion —- the soft side of the client relationships that directly impacts the bottom line.

Knowing why your audience cares is as important as knowing what they care about, feels Erica Friedman, President of Yurikon LLC in New York, creator of “Microniche Marketing” (TM), a process that harnesses social media by finding your audience – engaging your audience – rewarding your market , and author of SocialOptimized. “Be the resource for info and perspective in your field,” she says.

In 2011, Mike Cholak, consulting practice executive at Convergys, provided his Top Ten Customer Engagement Tips.  “What we’ve learned about delivering a superior customer experience in the past year is well worth building upon in the coming year,” said Cholak.  He provided ten tips gleaned from their proprietary research on the client experience, and their client management work with Fortune 500 companies in the communications, technology, banking and financial services, retail and e-commerce, and health care industries.”

Here, I’ve selected four of Cholak’s tips that I feel are most relevant when branding places:

1. Listen to the voice of the client and amplify it throughout your organization or destination. Your employees and destination stakeholders need to be as sensitive to the current state of service as are your clients.
   77% of clients said that in the past year the quality of client service provided has stayed the same or gotten worse, while 50% of employees [stakeholders] at those companies providing the experience think service has improved.
2. Aggressively promote the fact that you want feedback. You want to know when you get it wrong. And, make it easy for clients to contact you.
   41% of clients who did not bother to report their bad experience (34% defected without saying a word) said they did not bother because there was no convenient way to report it to the offending company [ or place].
3. Listen to and engage clients on social media.
   80% of clients who had a bad experience took their story to the court of public opinion, and 12% used social media to amplify their voice. On average, an individual using social media reached 45 people with their individual tweets or postings. And, for those clients who could recall reading about a friend or colleague’s bad experience, 62% said they avoided doing business with or stopped doing business with that company [or place].  Social media will play a greater role in client care as the Millennial generation and those who follow it increasingly gravitate to this communication medium to create communities, share their experiences, and express their opinions.
4. Invest in the experience and don’t lose clients, because you likely won’t ever get them back.
   Only 16% of clients who left a company [or place] after a bad experience said they would be willing to do business with [or visit] that company [or place] again if some effort were made to win them back. Don’t burn the bridge by not providing the best experiences, and don’t focus so much on diverting your clients from helpful agents that you damage the relationship.  Millennials are the most forgiving (40% willing to reconsider), while Gen-Xers (16%) present some opportunity and offended Boomers (4%) and Seniors (2%) are nearly impossible to sway and incentivize.

Sharon Bailly, Owner at TWP Marketing and Technical Communications in New Hampshire said in a LinkedIn group discussion a couple years ago, “Too many companies [or places] think they are communicating with the client when they are merely knee deep in a monologue about how wonderful their company [or place] is.”  Listening to and engaging with your target audience is key when trying to establish loyal clients for your business or loyal visitors, residents, and businesses when building loyalty for your place or destination. It’s not about what you think or how you want to say it, it’s about what’s being said about you and how you respond to it.

Do you agree that these tips and principles for fostering business loyalty are equally applicable to fostering destination loyalty? Do you have any other suggestions for better client engagement when it comes to building client loyalty for places?

photo credit: jasoneppink via photopin cc

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3 Growth Plates for Destination Branding

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

Crafting your brand based on your values is a critical initial step in promoting growth for your destination–an investment you can’t afford to forgo. Following are what I call the 3 primary “growth plates” for branding and growing your place, community, neighborhood, or city to promote residential, visitor, and economic growth.

Growth Plate 1:  Brand Identity.

Branding is much more than a name and a logo.
It is about discovering the thing deep inside you and your destination that creates unique value for your client visitors and residents. If you clearly and consistently brand your place, you’ll have a laser-focused understanding of your destination’s values, personality and goals, and a self awareness that dictates all your actions. It’s the cornerstone of a strong place identity.

Growth Plate 2:  Brand Promise.

A brand is a promise – the emotional and psychological deal you make with your client visitors and residents. To inspire others with your brand, you must believe in everything it represents. Just as no two snowflakes are alike, so it must be with your brand. Only when you prove you are different and trustworthy will people talk about you, show their loyalty, and recommend your destination to their friends.

Growth Plate 3:  Brand Value.

Strong brands elicit strong emotions, opinions, and responses from your target market that contribute to the growth of your destination. All good business decisions are made in alignment with the established brand. Your brand differentiation determines the position and strength of your entire marketing framework, and serves as a constant internal point of focus.

Do you have any stories to share related to these benefits about how properly branding or re-branding your place or destination, or NOT properly branding it, either contributed to or hindered the success of your brand?

Are You a Mensch? 10 Ways to Raise Your Brand

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

“Every [person’s] goal should be to achieve menschhood—to be ethical, decent and admirable. To be a mensch is the highest form of praise one can receive from the people whose opinions matter.”
~Claudio Schmidt

If you are a mensch, you are honest, fair, kind, and transparent, no matter whom you’re dealing with and who will ever know what you did.  In his book Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki lists 10 ways to achieve menshdom and, ultimately, trustworthiness with your clients (or anyone):

1. Always act with honesty.
2. Treat people who have wronged you with civility.
3. Fulfill you unkept promises from the past.
4. Help someone who can be of absolutely no use to you.
5. Suspend blame when something goes wrong and ask, “What can we learn?”
6. Hire people who are as smart as or smarter than you and give them opportunities for growth.
7. Don’t interrupt people; don’t dismiss their concerns offhand; don’t rush to give advice; don’t change the subject.  Allow people their moment.
8. Do no harm in anything you undertake.
9. Don’t be too quick to shoot down others’ ideas.
10. Share your knowledge, expertise, and best practices with others.

To engage clients, being someone of noble character and undeniable integrity goes a long way. It also goes hand-in-hand with your brand, which you represent. Your character is a part of your brand’s identity.

For more on demonstrating genuineness as a leader and in all your interactions with others, check out the book (from which Kawasaki paraphrased the author’s insights in the list above), The Leader as a Mensh: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow (by Bruna Martinuzzi).

Do you have any stories to share about how a character flaw demonstrated by an individual negatively impacted a brand’s image?

The 1 Question at the Core of Brand Loyalty

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

A Google search will lead you to numerous articles or sites that provide tips for building brand loyalty. Interestingly, it doesn’t take long to realize that the brand that often comes out on top of brand loyalty survey results—Apple—“thinks different” and drives loyalty by not following the usual tip lists.

As Kristy Krueger put it in her article, The Secret to Apple’s Brand Loyalty: Think Like a Three Year Old: “As I look to my own brand hero, Apple, I ask myself – How do they do it? How do they inspire and command brand loyalty? Is it because they can actually answer my three year old’s question [and provide the answer to the ‘why?’]? Could it really be that simple?”

Apple’s mission statement is focused on what it believes in, not on what it does. The Apple Job Opportunities page expresses their approach this way: Simplicity isn’t simple…It means forever asking, “Why is it this way?” and “How can it be better?” It means rethinking every customer experience until the clutter has fallen away — until all that remains is what’s essential, useful, and beautiful.

Whenever Apple has problems with its products, its customers are incredibly forgiving and patient. They understand that issues can sometimes arise and they’ll continue to buy Apple products despite any mistakes they might make. According to Scott Goodson and his Forbes article, “Is Brand Loyalty the Core to Apple’s Success?,” when you think about how incredibly passionate Steve Jobs was about Apple products, ensuring they were of the highest quality and cutting-edge design, you can understand why people are willing to be lenient.

For an interesting delve into Apple’s brand loyalty success, check out this blog article by Sam Fiorella: 12 Most Loyalty-Driving Brand Tactics… According to Apple.

Could building brand loyalty really be as simple as constantly asking and answering the ‘why?’ question (with just the right balance of simplicity and innovation)? Or is Apple an exception when it comes to brand loyalty-building strategy–a matter of comparing Apple to oranges, per se?

Social Marketing: 7 Things Your Business Might Not be Doing Right [Infographic]

Co-creating Your Brand Story With Clients

by Rob Wolfe – Connected Places Global

“Engaging your customers in your story can be just as valuable as engaging them with your product.”
~ Vanessa Merit Nornberg, Inc.com author & business owner

Among the brand elements that must be present to establish a brand’s personality and deliver the brand’s promise are stories that help define the brand. As social media marketing becomes more relevant each day, who is telling these brand stories and why they matter to buyers also becomes more relevant. There seems to be a growing trend of collaboration between brands and client advocates who help companies build stories for and on behalf of the brand.

According to Mark Lightowler, site author of Storytelling To Create Impact Brands, the best way of creating relevance for your brand is to ensure your brand plays a part in your target audience’s personal story. It is not just about you creating a great story for your brand, but about knowing your audience and their story and how your brand fits into that story. He suggests that you engage with your clients to create a new story together. This new co-created story is the one that gets told by the client to their network, getting your brand closer to more people.

While there are many articles and sites on the brand-storytelling trend, I suggest you check out the article, “The Human Side of Brand Storytelling” by Gunther Sonnenfeld, which provides examples of two companies— Whole Foods Market and Procter & Gamble – working with customers to create social media content and build brands through storytelling.

Do you have other inspiring examples of companies using client storytelling to build their brands? Have you or your company had personal experience in this area with your own story to share to spark discussion on this topic?