Today, I read an article where a marketing company was closing its doors because it felt it could no longer compete in a world of marketing noise. Apparently, this company was not able to separate itself from the general marketing information that was available to everyone.
I don’t think this company is alone. I think other companies will be experiencing a similar fate. Today, I am realizing that there really isn’t time to ignore our company brand message. It is more important than ever to look at reestablishing our brand in a world of a lot of noise.
It used to be that I could take our website and through advertising and some SEO changes, I could see results in a few days. Today, those days are gone. Today, it is all about changing the experience. This takes much more planning on the design and defining the experience.
As I started going through this process, I realized how “old” and non-exciting our client experience was. Today, I am focused on upgrading the brand through a number of changes. Here are just a few areas that I am working on:
- Physical Building – Painting and updating work surrounding,
- Get Employees on board with brand upgrade,
- Design website to a mobile experience first and not as an afterthought following company website
- Examine current brochures and work at eliminate unnecessary words and work toward a simple, dynamic experience
- Set aggressive timelines and introduce change ahead of time to prepare clients and highlight the benefits
- Update business cards with new background design, going simpler with key information name, address, phone
- Update trade show displays and go more for experience than key words
- More…
This year I have made it a priority to get more skin in the game. I am really looking at personifying our brand and setting the example. In some ways it is a culture change and in other ways it is building a renewed focus with respect to what is most important.
I picture this whole process like building a roller coaster. Last time I looked, you cannot take a part of a roller coaster and improve it. The best roller coasters are all about the rider’s experience. Defining that experience is critical. Also, if a person is going to build a roller coaster, he or she could build a copy of another roller coaster but over time that experience is only fresh for a short period of time. Building a new roller coaster takes a lot of thought and planning and last I knew most people aren’t quite sure how to describe that experience.
If I want to build something special, I need to listen closely to the people around me and our clients and then look at not only meeting their expectations, but exceeding them to create a better experience and not just improve a process.
The only way to separate our company from the noise is to focus on the overall experience. Target does this very well. Many people shop at Target with their mobile devices. They have been able to bring the mobile experience to the store and vice versa. It is the company I am following through this process. Check it out for yourself.
For now, I will continue to define the experience for the next few weeks and make sure it looks completely different than the current disconnected experience. Personifying the company brand is the start of this process and it helps get the wheels greased and ready for more changes at the experience level.
Good luck with your own company experience transformation.
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