Here’s a
real story from an enterprise software salesperson. As any good salesperson would do, our salesman was going through
a list of prospects in his territory, calling them up to introduce himself and
his company. As goes the nature of such
calls, some were more successful, some less.
One of the calls, though, ended rather abruptly. As soon as our salesman said his name and
his company name, he was cut off. “I
don’t take calls from stock brokers!” said the person on the other side and
hung up.
What
happened here?
Obviously,
the prospect did not
recognize the name of the company. In addition, he acted based on his perceived
reputation of some stock brokers that tend to make this type of unsolicited
calls.
What do you
get when you add up these two factors –
recognition and
reputation? To me, that’s
branding.
Your brand
recognition and reputation have direct impact on your ability to reach your
target audience. They will affect how
many of your calls are taken, how many mail pieces end up unopened in the trash
(both the real and the electronic version), and how many people show up to your
seminar. In short, recognition and
reputation will determine how much of your time and money go down the drain
trying to reach prospects that will not even give you an opportunity to tell
your story.
Speaking
with enterprise software executives, I often hear comments such as “branding is
only for big companies” or “we cannot afford to do branding”. One reason for this attitude is that many
still equate branding with advertising.
There is enough body of evidence to show that conventional forms of advertising,
especially print, are indeed ineffective for most enterprise software companies
(search engine advertising is different and can be very effective in driving
leads).
Not just
small companies are moving away from print advertising. Siebel Systems has recently announced it
will stop using print ads altogether. Explaining
Siebel’s decision, Michael Greckin, Group Director for Global Advertising, characterized
print advertising as expensive, hard to measure, creatively limiting, and not
driving leads (
read more about it).
Even when
it works, advertising cannot buy you reputation and respect. Recent surveys published in BusinessWeek,
Forbes, and Fortune rank Amazon, Google, and Starbucks as some of the most
respected brands in the US. You would be
hard pressed to recall any of their ads; these companies do little to no advertising.
About
the same time, a less known but rather interesting survey was conducted by a
smaller enterprise software company. The
survey showed that while many executives in its target market heard of the
company and recognized its name, only a few could clearly articulate what the
company did.
Recognition
without positive reputation has little value.
It can even be dangerous. Going
back to our sales call story, the prospect hung up on our salesperson due to a
combination of mistaken identity and bad reputation associated with stock
brokers. Given this reputation, a
broker from a well-recognized firm is likely to get a similar treatment when calling
on this prospect.
So if
advertising is not the answer, how can you best promote your brand?
If you’re
running a small software company, my advice to you is to focus on reputation
rather than recognition. Instead of
worrying how many people hear about your company, make sure that anybody that
does hear about it associates your brand with the values your company stands
for.
To use a
familiar example, take Southwest Airlines.
Today, it’s the largest domestic airline in the US. Since it was a small startup, its marketing emphasis
was not on reaching more people, but rather making sure that the people they
reach know Southwest Airlines for the low-fares and great no-frills service
that gives them the freedom to travel more frequently like no other airline
does. Southwest Airlines does
advertise, but the advertising reinforces a strong brand message that has been cultivated
over years through customer experience.
Needless to
say, you better figure out what your company stands for before you can
communicate it to others. Interestingly
enough, many companies do not have the discipline to bring sufficient level of
clarity into this exercise.
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts; you cannot be a great brand to
others before you define it to yourself (
see past article
on the topic of positioning).
Once you
figured it out, here are some of the things you can do to build and maintain a
strong brand reputation:
1.
Talk
to Your Customer
Who are you
out there to serve? Every person within
your target market that visits your website, reads your press release, opens
your direct mail piece, or looks at any other form of communication coming from
your company, should immediately understand that you are talking to him or
her.
2.
Communicate
Value
Much of the
marketing communication produced by enterprise software companies is still
product centric. Don’t rush to tell how
great your product is. Explain what
problems you help your customers solve.
A
recent McKinsey study measures branding along the dimensions of relevance
and differentiation. To make sure your
brand is relevant to your customers,
you need to be brutally honest with yourself.
Scrutinize your website and every marketing communication with the “who
cares” test.
The more
concrete you can make your value statements, the easier it would be for you to
get attention. If your solution can
save your customer several million dollars a year, it would certainly pass the
“who cares” test. Do not hesitate to say
it, provided that you have the data to support it.
3.
Differentiate
While you
don’t need to rush into product details, you do need to make it clear how you are
different from others. A strong brand
is characterized by clear differentiators, be it great technology, outstanding
service, or the depth of your domain expertise. Your differentiators must be demonstrable. Rather than saying how great your technology
is, use case studies, user testimonials, and third party endorsements to show
how it helps your customers be more successful.
4.
Deliver
on Your Promises, Admit When You Don’t
There is no
better way to ruin your brand reputation than failing to deliver on your
promises. But no company is
perfect. You’ll keep your brand
reputation by asking your customers how you’re doing. Ask them to tell you where you failed them, and be willing to
admit when you do. Then tell them how
you’re going to fix it, and make sure you follow through.
5.
Advocate
Best Practices
Knowledge
is one of the most valuable assets you can leverage to build your brand
reputation. Use your internal expertise
to deliver value to customers and prospects beyond your product. Encourage your company leading minds to take
a leadership position in the development of industry standards and serve as
evangelists to best practices.
Use your
marketing resources to provide a stage for your customers to share their vision
with their peers, through webinars, user group meetings, and other
opportunities. You should also build relationships
with industry experts outside your company.
Invite them to participate in your marketing activities and contribute
from their knowledge to your customer community.
6.
Support
the Community
Do
something to make the world a better place beyond the benefits of your solution. Contribute to a good cause, match employees’
donations to charity, or sponsor their participation in community
activities.
Such
activities give everybody involved a sense of pride and ownership. They help you connect with your customers on
an emotional level that goes beyond business relationships. As every business has its ups and downs,
this is something you can always be positive about. And it reminds us all that, by the end of the day, it’s the people
that make the difference.
These are
some of my ideas about branding in the context of enterprise software.
How
do you make your brand stand out?
