In the Disney classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” you’ll remember that each dwarf’s name described their strongest attribute. Dopey was dopey. Grumpy was grumpy. Sneezy needed Zyrtec. They all probably possessed other noteworthy attributes, too, but these were their key differentiators.
It doesn’t matter how big or small the difference is; it only matters that there is one. From a communications perspective, there needs to be something you can call your own. Some people call this your Unique Selling Proposition. Basically, it’s personality.

If Disney hadn’t identified the dwarfs with descriptive names, I don’t think anyone would’ve cared for them. Who would buy a snow globe featuring the fourth dwarf from the left? Even if it was only $2.99 with purchase of a kid’s meal? However, when you differentiate all seven and name one Happy, you open up the possibility of making a real connection with a specific audience. Similarly, focusing on a point of differentiation allows you to reach a more specific market.

It’s important to realize that choosing a main message or value proposition for your product’s positioning doesn’t negate it’s other strengths. What it does do is allow people to connect with it more quickly. The dwarfs’ names were short – one simple word. If they were any longer, we wouldn’t remember one or two – let alone all seven. Our brains like to compartmentalize information, and so processing one message is much easier than processing five key points about your product or service.

The good news is that once your customers are able to process your unique personality, you own that space in their brains. If Snow White needed someone smart, she didn’t approach Bashful or Sleepy. She went straight to Doc.

If you focus on what differentiates you and develop a concise and unique identity, that territory is yours.

He’s seen the band several times, and he was anxious for me to experience my first live show. I wasn’t as excited, but I agreed to go along. I don’t dislike Metallica, and even though I wouldn’t classify myself as a hardcore fan, I can always appreciate the craft of music–even if the genre isn’t totally my thing.

We settled into our seats next to another fan who could be classified as hardcore. He admitted that this was his 21st Metallica concert. Seriously? I’d guess he was in his early thirties, so I was surprised he could squeeze that many concerts into his relatively short lifetime. Then I marveled at his loyalty.

My thoughts were interrupted with a sound check that shook my pant legs. Impressive and frightening at the same time.

With the decibel level set to extreme, Metallica took the stage. They played lots of songs–a few that I recognized, many that I didn’t. Looking around the crowd, those of us who weren’t pumping our fists for the duration of the show were texting, updating Facebook status, or trying to capture the experience through photos or videos shot with our mobile phones. We were also outnumbered ten to one.

By this time I was over the initial shock of the volume, so I started thinking again. How do you generate so much loyalty that you can wrangle up 12,000 or so people into a single venue in any major city around the world and get them so energized that they’d stand in the same spot for two hours, pumping their fists to your music? I was impressed.

Michele turned off the audio in this clip for a couple reasons. First, she didn’t think her iPhone could properly process the volume. Second, the fans’ enthusiasm was more interesting than the music being played.

I guess I never really considered bands as brands until that moment. That’s probably a good thing for the many musicians out there. You might want to be noticed for your music first, right?

After the show, I talked with Chad about my musings and asked him what he admired most about Metallica. He went on to say that the band knows exactly who they are, that for years they rarely promoted themselves through the mainstream channels, but gained notoriety through their live shows. And they believed that if their fans were willing to pay to see them, then those fans deserved the band’s best effort every night. Their sound has evolved over the years, but Metallica’s core values are still the same: to rock louder, faster, and harder than everybody else.

Sounds like everything that a successful brand would do. Believe in the brand. Define a focused value proposition. Design for your customers and support them along the way. Reinvent yourself, while staying true to your original promise.

I started digging around to see if Metallica partnered with any design consultancies that we might know about. Several bands take pride in producing their own album covers or working with freelancers, so I wasn’t sure I’d find much. As it turns out, Metallica worked with the notable Turner Duckworth to revive their original logo and design their most recent album, Death Magnetic. More digging turned up a great interview with David Turner and Bruce Duckworth, in which the designers spoke about bands having a better understanding of branding than most companies–particularly Metallica, who has been successfully managing its brand over three decades. Reinventing themselves. Loving and believing in themselves. The whole bit. I felt validated.

I wonder if companies were to model themselves after successful bands, would they reconsider the way they think of themselves? Be more loyal to their customers? Love themselves more?

Recently I exchanged emails with one client who has engaged us to redesign their logo, but started to hedge just before finalizing the work. They asked if I could run down the opportunities and risks of changing the logo as I perceive them. I thought I would share my (edited) response here. It applies to anyone looking to evolve their identity.

Changing the graphic identity of any company is always a big step. Companies often get very excited about these efforts right until someone asks: “Do we have to repaint the trucks?” or “How much is that sign going to cost?” That’s about the time they get cold feet. If you find yourself at that point, ask yourself: How serious am I about it? Is it really a step my company is willing to take?

If you prescribe transformative changes and commit to implementing them, if conditions spell opportunity for you to gain market share, then perhaps now is the time to change your logo.

Is it absolutely necessary for your survival? Perhaps not. Is it the best way to signal a change? Absolutely. So the question may be: How committed are you to transforming your brand and signaling that change your stakeholders and customers? If there is not a broader commitment to change, then don’t change the logo. If there is, I can’t imagine not changing it.

If you’re contemplating such a change, you may already be in it. Are you embarking on new initiatives or strategies? Is it a new day in your market? Does your logo symbolize the best of what your company offers? Is your current logo becoming more or less valuable with age?

A new logo is the best way to signal to all stakeholders that your company is doing something different: You have been busy, you are worth another look, you mean something different today. Or, if your customer is new or never took notice in the first place, perhaps they will now.

Changing logos isn’t as scary as it used to be. It shouldn’t be a regular affair, but companies who deal in customer perception (which is to say, all companies with an eye toward the future) evolve their identities regularly. Customers are used to this.

It’s a big investment in your future, in terms of both time and money. But you’re going to be investing anyway – it’s just a matter of how. Invest in the current course, or in a direction that suggests a new future. It’s a tough time in the market for everyone, but it spells opportunity for someone.

People fear change, but to evolve is to change. Not everyone will agree at first. In fact, it’s practically guaranteed that someone won’t like any new direction. But in my experience, the best people will support progressive steps. It can take time, but good ideas generally win. What’s common practice today was new at one time.

Leaders lead. Have the courage of your convictions to confidently take a bold step.

A brand is nothing more or less than the perception of your organization in the mind of your audience. That perception is shaped by experiences – a series of touchpoints as they encounter your product or service. Word of mouth, a customer service agent, your friend’s sister-in-law who works for the company, the delivery truck, the sales receipt, and your website are all customer touchpoints that add up to what you know and believe about a company – a brand. The primary touchpoint of course is your company actually delivering – not just broadcasting – value to your customers. The brand promise is the promise you have made to deliver on that value.

Often have we been hired to refresh, repackage, update, or otherwise refine a “brand,” often referred to as “rebranding.” The trouble is, too often there hasn’t been enough attention paid to making the value proposition more compelling. If the graphics have gotten more compelling, but the value proposition has not, we risk false advertising, not to mention wasting a company’s investment in “branding.” Even if you don’t see this alone as a cardinal sin, we now live in a world where customers see through empty promises.

New communications and social networking technologies have made it increasingly difficult to be anything but transparent to your customers. Customers demand it of their commercial providers and politicians alike.

We’ve been following the work of Bruce Temkin (VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research), and we recently participated in a webinar during which he shared some of his latest research on Customer Experience. His findings continue to reinforce the premise of our work. Among the useful pieces that he shared was the following chart, which lays out plainly the difference between communicating and delivering value.

Rebranding should coincide with repositioning, attending to the right side of this diagram. Communicating the value proposition, designing a great experience, is essential but follows the hard decisions required to create a good position. Too often people see branding as only what’s on the left – making promises – or worse, just window dressing, just designing a logo. Don’t get me wrong, I love logos! We live in a world of global ideograms and visual language, and it is critical to understand and capture the essence of your brand and realize its potential in your customer’s experience. But be clear about your strategy first.

Lipstick doesn’t go on pigs, and brand is not a garnish. If you are considering a rebrand, really understand your core value – what you plan to offer to whom. As Tom Koulopoulos noted in a recent seminar, innovation begins with understanding what you’re good at. It sounds easy, but it’s not.

If you’re looking for a brand consultant, throw a rock and you’re bound to hit one. If you want to dig deeper and find new ways to add value for your customer, we can help.

The ArtPrize attempts to connect three very different audiences. A global audience of artists, a local audience of venues and an interested community of art lovers. Three audiences with different ambitions.

The logo we created for the ArtPrize strives to reach all these audiences. Calder’s La Grande Vitesse is a familiar symbol of Grand Rapids, a city that values public sculpture as an important part of its civic identity. Turned on its side and coupled with the letter form of a large A, the two create a symbolic equivalence. The abstract shape is a communicative form equivalent to the letter. To the Grand Rapids audience, this symbolizes not just the Calder, but the city turned on its side. A new perspective. To a global audience unfamiliar with La Grande Vitesse, the logo may represents a desire to transcend language. A code. A cipher. A key.

Barack Obama speaking in Calder Plaza, October 2008

A public vote is a core component of the ArtPrize. This attempts to couple the power of the internet to disseminate information with the cultural value of the artwork. An internet-enabled art must survive the cultural filter of such rapid communications. The work must market its value to an ongoing discussion or spark a new one. Controversy is one means to accomplish this. Cultural relevance is another.

The strength of internet communication is the ability of the audience to redistribute content. Linking, Digg-ing, Facebook-ing, etc. allows a message to disseminate fluidly. Each access point re-distributes a subtle interpretation of the narrative event. Each online venue exposes a new audience. A community quickly formulates dominant interpretations and reforms itself around the narrative. When we speak though this medium, we engage in a dialogue.

The problem with internet communications is that they are short lived. As long as a narrative has presence within the stream of information, it stays relevant to our cultural awareness. We form a communal memory that is very short. A Twitter post is good for a couple hours before it passes out of twitter consciousness. A Facebook post can stay relevant for a few days depending on the reach of the communicant’s network. The narrative must be continually reinforced to stay relevant. It happens over time. The ArtPrize is busily juggling the many streams of internet-enabled attention to keep focus on the project as it evolves.

The careful staging of a narrative online depends upon timing. When and where is the receptive audience interested in paying attention? What etiquette is appropriate to provoke the desired response? These considerations give the narrative the best chance to reach the desired audience intact. This is true for any online marketing, but should these become considerations for the artist?

The ArtPrize is very buzz-worthy. But what about the artist? Can the internet serve as the medium to bring art to the foreground in our culture? Can a local audience find a voice on the world stage? Does the public vote create a Lowest Common Denominator art?

Would the city of Grand Rapids have voted for La Grande Vitesse as its symbol? Perhaps. That Alexander Calder chose this form a public sculpture in Grand Rapids was his prerogative as an artist. Within his aesthetic, this form seemed most appropriate to its venue. Subjected to a public vote, would he have crafted a different form, one more appropriate to the broader aesthetic judgement of the public? It seems unlikely. Alexander Calder was an artist. He made his art to his own standards. The city entrusted aesthetic considerations to him alone. The public vote should have no impact on the character of the work.

Calder was already an international success when he was commissioned to create the first public sculpture to be funded by the National Endowment for the Arts through their Works of Art in Public Places Program. Before he began his design, Calder studied the architectural plans, scale, and materials of the buildings that were adjacent to the site. He designed a sculpture that responded precisely to the color, size, and shape of the plaza and the city and county buildings. That work, La Grande Vitesse, was dedicated to the City of Grand Rapids on June 14, 1969.
from www.sculpturesitesgr.org

To transform the city of Grand Rapids into a gallery for the world’s artists to express themselves is an exciting proposition. I suspect the works that resonate the most with me will not be the ones that the city’s population will choose to award the prizes to. That’s cool with me. As in the national election, the determination of the prize will depend as much on the charisma of the artist in presenting herself as on the character of her work. I hope to be shocked, surprised, awed and inspired by the result.

As an artist and writer myself, I am most interested in being inspired by the works. I hope to see political controversy. I hope to be subjected to bizarre aesthetics. And I hope the enduring result is to foster a flourishing local art scene enriched by such inspiration. I hope that the artists who come to present their works find Grand Rapids to be a receptive audience. I hope they stay to teach and continue to inspire local artists through exhibitions in local galleries. I hope to see local artists among those awarded national recognition and much needed encouragement. I hope that Grand Rapids can prove itself a worthy stage for the world’s expression while not losing sight of the many talented local artists whose work has been here all along.

Regardless of the merits of a public vote, regardless of the size of the prize, I hope to see art, in all its glory, telling its story in my city.

A little over a year later, I’m happy to announce that we continue to grow and fit into these new clothes. As I write this, we’re up to our eyeballs redesigning our firm. This year we roll out an evolved position, new service offerings, web offerings, and tools.

Our own medicine

A lot of our consulting work centers on strategic positioning, but it’s a lot easier to prescribe than to take one’s own medicine.  We want to live up to our name. So we’ve spent some quality time thinking through how we add value to our clients’ businesses. Where the need is, and how our offer is different and better.

Our deeper exploration on experience design has led us to three areas of focus, a process for customer experience innovation that can be described in three movements: Empathy, Strategy, and Realization.

On one hand, this process is the way we’ve been doing for the last five years or so. On the other, five years of learning, research, and reflection refine our model, language, and understanding. We’re a learning company, and this is just one point in the evolution of ideas. A significant one.

Empathy

What does empathy have to do with business innovation? A lot, actually.

Most organizations, as they grow, become more and more separated from their customers’ experiences. If a business doesn’t understand its customers – really understand its customers – how can that business deliver an experience that will keep customers coming back? We believe — and our experience demonstrates — the value of principles that Larry Keeley, Jeremey Alexis and others have been championing for some time now.

A direct, visceral understanding of the customer experience – empathy –  is critical for customer experience innovation.

Our Empathic Research methods are maturing to better help our clients learn about the context of their customers’ lives. What are your customers thinking, feeling, and doing as they approach decisions about your products and services? What is her mindset? What are his feelings? What are their beliefs? How inviting or intimidating is their decision, or your purchasing environment?

Empathic insights from this kind of research fuel the world’s most innovative experiences – products and services that disrupt their markets. We put Empathy to work to craft compelling experiences that help and delight people and earn customer loyalty.

Strategy

Most businesses would agree that a great customer experience is key. But how many create a plan for having a great experience? Too few.

Firms that aim to lead must develop strategies for engaging the customer in ways that are empathetic to their needs, and bring meaningful value. Crowded markets and shifting demographics will demand customer experience innovation is a key competitive differentiator.

Consider: What is your customer’s Ideal Future Experience? And how will you provide it? What are the most critical gaps you must close in your customer’s experience? How much of your budget should you invest in each stage of your customer’s life with your product or service? What are the Experience Touchpoints in the lifecycle of your ideal customer experience? You will need a strategy that synthesizes insights into your customers’ lives with your business goals.

We work with our clients to design, test, and plan product and service experiences that are engaging and memorable, that satisfy real customer needs, yield the behaviors you want, and build loyal relationships.

Realization

How many well formed plans wither and fail because they aren’t executed with precision, care, and craft? Too many.

Design development, management, and execution require training, experience, attention to detail. Today’s customer experiences are built by a wide diversity of creative talents in a world of rapidly evolving new media.

We’re lucky to have a talented group. Our designers regularly win international design awards. Our production partners are the best in the world. But we never take our skills or products for granted. We work hard to stay on top of the latest and best thinking in our fields of interaction design, graphic design, and environmental design.

Studying our customers’ customers’ real needs – the people for whom we’re designing – results in work that is always inventive. We find fresh ways to deliver carefully crafted messages. We test our work, measure our results, and manage your design programs to be sure you are delivering on plan.

People Design 2.0

Did I actually type People Design 2.0? Yipes! It’s a cliché, I know. But clichés work, of course. That is why they exist. You might consider our firm as having entered it’s second release (and second decade) upon our name change. It did, but if that was the first release of People Design, we’re gearing up for the fully featured version. Did I just strangle that metaphor?

We’re excited about what the next year will bring, and what we will bring to our clients. Our new website will launch before long. It will describe our new services, embody new thinking, and be a better expression of who are are today. Our experience pays dividends in the form of better processes, tools, and ultimately a stronger team. Its adds up to our adding even more value to our clients’ offerings. We’re the same firm, only better.

We help companies conceive and produce innovative customer experiences. We work with leaders to gain customer insights, discover fresh approaches to their markets, and make this vision real.

Interested? Stay tuned.

When the eggnog starts flowing, I know my favorite season has arrived: Communications Planning Time!

I love pulling up my spreadsheets, tucking my calculator by my side, and digging in.

Seriously.

Yesterday I laid out an annual plan for one of our best clients. This is part of the work we do to ensure we are providing new and relevant content to all of their audiences on a regular basis. I mention they are one of our best clients because working with people who understand and value this part of the process always results in our best and most successful work.

When a company must communicate with many audiences, it’s important to begin with communications goals — what each audience should know, think, feel, or do about your offering. An annual plan helps you establish those goals and define your approach.

At this point, audiences, positioning, tone and visual direction, budget and recommended tactics have been determined. It’s now time to apply that to a workable plan.

Outline Your Process.

Your annual plan outlines your opportunities for creating communications experiences and prioritizes each.  It is a map for how and when you will provide opportunities for your customers to interact with your brand.

Schedule and Manage Resources.

Outlining these activities and tactics over the course of a year helps you schedule and manage resources. With a well managed communication plan, you can look for and take advantage of opportunities that you may have otherwise overlooked, and it gives you the chance to explore new ideas without sacrificing your tried-and-true tactics.

Work with Interdisciplinary Teams.

Marketing Communications draws together many disciplines and talents to develop programs that capture your audiences and shape their relationship with your brand. Advanced planning with an interdisciplinary team will help you deliver rich, effective, and well-focused messages through the most engaging and appropriate channels for your clients and your team.

Deliver on Your Promise.

The logic and processes developed through annual planning helps you deliver the right message, at the right time, in the right way, even building anticipation in your audiences, and ensuring reliable delivery of each communication.

Involve People.

Now, more than ever, audiences are willing to participate and value being included in corporate communications. Building audience communities, enabling viral marketing, combined with other more traditional tactics, build a more engaging approach that was not possible just a few years ago.

In any integrated plan, it’s important to develop material that can be used across media, layering and building upon the message, to maintain your audience’s interest and engagement. Annual planning structures that process so you stay on target, on message, and build audience loyalty.

Mind Your Budget.

Finally, the best reason we can think of to develop an annual plan is your annual budget. There is simply no better way to manage your work against budget than to have a clear structure for spending your communications dollars. With your audience goals in mind, your opportunities mapped, your strategy for layering your messages clear, your available dollars help you to choose your media with care, never letting the funding run out before your conversation with your audience is complete.

Our Pitch.

If you’ve never created a communications plan before, of course we can help you learn. If you are an old hand at planning, but feel your same old tools and channels just aren’t doing the job, we’d love to help introduce you to some new and less costly ways of reaching your audiences.

But whether or not you call us, the season for planning is here. Enjoy.

In the Creativity 38 Annual Awards competition, we have 12 award-winning projects, five of which won a Silver, three Gold, and one Platinum. Creativity 38 brought in close to 3,000 entries from 45 states in the U.S, and 44 countries around the world.

We also were notified recently that we won five awards from the American Graphic Design Awards, presented by Graphic Design USA. These will be featured in an upcoming issue of GDUSA.

Of course, we can’t forget about our local Addys, the recognition program sponsored by the Ad Club of West Michigan, local affiliate of the American Advertising Federation. The Grand Rapids Art Museum trademark and identity system, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts capital campaign brochure, and the Herman Miller ICFF New York tradeshow space all won medals: two silvers, one gold.

But the best part is our second Webby Award for our work on the GRAM website. We’ll take any kudos, but this one’s especially special because it’s so hard to get.

Our Statement of Purpose

We may not always accomplish all four objectives. However, if we don’t accomplish all four over time, we have not succeeded.

Now you can only get so much out of a 60 minute presentation, but there were a few things we gleaned from this hour that I think serve as good reminders to any business owner, large or small, and point to some of the reasons Starbucks was able to decommoditize coffee. And why they’re not perfect.

1. Have a strong point of view.
2. Stay focused.
3. Get big, but stay small.
4. If you’re small, make yourself look big. This helps build trust and confidence with your customers.
5. Take the common and make it uncommon. Think about the naming convention for cup sizes at Starbucks. This is part of their plan to play to the intellect of their consumer base; not just to annoy people.
6. Market to your employees; they can be your best source of advertising.
7. One of my favorite sayings is “people will support what they help create.” John Moore says it in other words… treat your employees as partners, not pawns.
8. When you start using low prices as a market differentiator, you’ve just run out of ideas.
9. Products fulfill a need; experience fulfills desires.
10. You must make some compromises for growth; like the Starbucks drive-thru for instance (can you say Dunkin’ Donuts?)

Starbucks may have achieved rock star brand status, but they’re not without their mistakes. You may have already heard about the 3 hour “coffee break” in an effort to reenergize their baristas and get back to the art of making cups of caffeinated deliciousness. This is just one of their public efforts to refocus; and admit they may be losing their luster; what with the finger puppets, the mediocre food, the music, and the movies they plug. And when will they offer WiFi access? Come on ‘bucks, catch the bus!

Speaking of catching the bus, Starbucks has very little web presence, according to Moore. I had to say, ‘according to Moore,’ because I’m not sure he’s right. The day before this luncheon I noticed an “Addicted to Starbucks” group on Facebook; so maybe they’re on their way. Point is, if you have 7,000 locations around the country and some very loyal lovers/haters, and social networking tools at your fingertips; go ahead and give people a third place to gather and give their feedback. Maybe Kenny G would never have made it to the Starbucks countertop.