Work Your Brand

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Somewhere in the remote Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, a 101-year-old great-grandmother is making you look bad. Her name is Panchita, and by the time you finish your morning blog rounds, she has already cleared brush, chopped wood and made tortillas from scratch. And here’s the best part: She’s not alone. People across the world are focusing on creating more of a healthy lifestyle. Joggers take to the streets, others go to the gym, and more people than ever are eating a healthier diet. Why? Taking care of your anatomy produces positive rewards.

The same is true for your brand. When’s the last time you examined it? Are you keeping it healthy? Are you feeding it on an ongoing basis? If you work with it, it will work for you—just like your body.

When you want to improve your lifestyle, you go to your doctor’s office. When you want to improve your brand’s “anatomy” and learn how to leverage it going forward, you come to Brand Camp.

We at Aartrijk would like to help you discover the answers to questions like, what should we spend on marketing and communications? Equally important, where to spend it?

The third Brand Camp will be held at the very cool Hotel Boulderado in beautiful Boulder, Colorado on May 7-9, 2012.

At this fun-filled outing we’ll explore “The Anatomy of a Brand.” Think of your firm’s brand (any type, any size) as you would yourself—a unique individual, a human being. For example:

Your brain: the rationale side, where you respond to specific features and benefits that are must-do’s (an insurance policy if you’re a carrier) or are value-added.

Your heart: where powerful emotions reside, where consumers make “soft and fuzzy” decisions on buying or keeping brands that often override the rationale brain.

Your ears: where you as a brand. You need to listen more to what consumers are seeking, where research is key.  And social media’s impact on those ears? “Your ears just got larger,” says Charles Wasilewski, one of our facilitators.

Your eyes: keen vision on where your brand is headed, your brand positioning, where you want to be in three to five years. For smart brands, this process never stops.

Your mouth: where you should speak with a strong, clear, consistent voice.

Your feet, your hands, your nervous system, your sense of survival—all of these things are important as well. We can’t wait to explore these concepts at Brand Camp—we want you to join us and go home with a clear roadmap for your company’s brand and your personal brand.

Some of the sessions include:

• Elements of growing and maintaining a healthy brand.
• The end of insurance business as we know it: An exploration of the future of the agency distribution system in light of changing demographics, diversity and social technologies.
• Key trends and action points for brands.
• Top 20 countdown: A rapid-fire discussion of top branding ideas, misperceptions, brand challenges, or lessons learned.
• Brand refresh: A panel of marketing execs will evaluate what worked and didn’t work in their re-branding efforts.
• And, of course, special evening networking events.

Join us. We’ll see you in Boulder on May 7.

Einstein, Lincoln and Carroll: Still not crazy after all these years.

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“Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.” — Albert Einstein

In other words, beware trusting your future to false conclusions drawn from real facts. If he hadn’t died in 1955, I’d swear Einstein was describing what passes for common knowledge or collective wisdom these days. Consider the following:

• Omega-3 fatty acids top every healthy eating list, single-handedly driving salmon to the top of the healthy eating food chain; except a massive recent study found they also create two and a half times the risk of men getting aggressive high grade prostate cancer ().

• Dark chocolate in modest amounts is great for you; until a recent study found so are chocolate milkshakes, milk chocolate, chocolate drinks – and the more the better!

• Wine was discovered to be good for you, delighting oenophiles everywhere and driving sales of resveratrol supplements sales through the roof – until a recent study found beer works just as well, delighting sports fans everywhere.

In each of these studies, despite the clear facts contradicting accepted wisdom, researchers, the medical community and health officials everywhere found it difficult to let go of their preferred storyline. For example, how do you reconcile these two direct quotes from the chocolate study story:

• “The researchers compiled a systematic review of seven studies using data from 114,000 patients and found that people who consumed the most chocolate had a 37 per cent lower risk of developing heart disease and a 29 per cent lower risk of suffering a stroke than those who consumed less chocolate.” (emphasis mine)
• “Lead author, Dr Oscar Franco, from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, said: “Chocolate may be beneficial, but it should be eaten in a moderate way, not in large quantities and not in binges,” he said. “If it is consumed in large quantities, any beneficial effect is going to disappear.” (emphasis mine)

Huh?

Moral of the story: Facts are great, but beware of those touting conclusions that better fit their preconceptions than the data. Before acting on a given “truth”, ask yourself if the facts lead directly to the stated conclusion. Here are but two of a myriad of business examples:

• “Bricks and clicks” is superior to just clicks. (Ever notice how the only ones espousing this as gospel have massive assets tied up in bricks?)
• Younger generations prefer social media, so agents better get there and fast. (Why ignore the majority of the marketplace, and arguably the ones with the most assets to protect/invest, in a stampede to youth? Besides, given recent experience with social media by certain politicians and myriad celebrities and politicians, perhaps we should rephrase Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote to read “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to tweet and remove all doubt.”)

With apologies to Lewis Carroll:

“Beware the false conclusion, my son!
The truths ignored, the preconceptions that catch!
Beware the nattering expert who spins, and decide for yourself
twixt agenda and facts!”

The Myth of 24/7

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When I speak with insurance agents and brokers, I hear a common belief that in today’s world, 24/7 availability is required to be competitive. And who can blame them? In our instant gratification society there is an expectation that consumers want full access to all information whenever they want it.

But what exactly does “24/7” mean and is it really necessary?

If you believe the argument that auto insurance is a commodity, then the 24/7 expectation is justified. Yet, what your customers are buying from you, the agent, is more than a quote or a policy—they also are getting a personalized service built on a trusted relationship. Perhaps geckos don’t sleep but living, breathing insurance agents need their rest.

Clearly, mobile, social, and Internet technologies have created more channels to reach the consumer and for the consumer to reach you. Whether it is high noon, midnight or a weekend, 24/7 capabilities have made predicting when a customer will want access more difficult than ever—and added a level of expectation that for most agents is impossible to achieve. Rather than getting pulled into the 24/7 games of the online and direct carriers, use these technologies to amplify the unique value you offer as an independent agent. Use those technologies to build a strong online brand personality and engage with your community.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you don’t need to have “after hours” emergency contact numbers and a website with some self-service options. Just don’t lose sight of the fact that your customers are doing business with you because they value your expertise and have access to you and your advice and guidance in time of need. I think your customers value that more then being able to “shop” insurance at 2 a.m.

What’s your take and how are you using the new technologies to strengthen your brand?

Going Up—The importance of an “elevator speech”

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Can you describe your brand accurately? Can you do so in the amount of time it might take for a short elevator ride?

Only those who truly understand what makes their brand unique can deliver what’s sometimes called an “elevator speech”—that is, a descriptive couple of sentences that are clear, succinct and framed from the perspective of the customer. Not only should you be able to deliver this elevator speech, but so should everyone in your company.

Give it a try—it may be harder than you think. Ask those you work with what they might say too. In most companies, the answer will be different from person to person and department to department. If you find a dramatic divergence in answers, it may be time for some inside marketing so you can ultimately deliver a more powerful, consistent marketing message to the outside world as well.

We’re not talking about developing a clever ad campaign or a memorable tag line. In reality, those things should ultimately flow from some of the insight gleaned from a good elevator speech. Instead, the goal is to answer one of the most common questions in the book, “What do you do?”

To craft a truly engaging elevator speech you need to answer two basic questions:

1. What do we do better than anyone else?
2. How does it benefit the customer or client?

In other words, tell me something unique and tell me why I should care.

 

And, it’s not always easy, but try to keep focused on only a few areas of expertise. You can’t be all things to all people—that’s when you end up being a nobody to everybody. Pick your real areas of skill and hold them up with pride.

Be sure to move beyond a simple list of products or services too—don’t say you offer risk management programs; say you have a 10 point risk management review that you use annually with clients to minimize exposures and last year you reduced claims for newly signed clients by over 12%.

Things to avoid in an elevator speech—all those facts that are impressive to you but provide no direct benefit to the customer. How many years you’ve been in business; how much profit you made last year; how many employees you have on payroll.

So get busy…you never know who might be standing there ready to strike up a conversation the next time the elevator doors open.

Tebow This: Does Your Brand’s Muscle Memory Need Changing?

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Tim Tebow was the biggest brand in college football just three years ago. During a career at the University of Florida from 2006-9, he set records in career passing efficiency and total rushing touchdowns in the Southeastern Conference (considered by many football fans to be the most competitive conference in the country).

Tebow’s teams sported a 48-7 record during his four-year career and won two national championships. He won the Heisman Trophy, emblematic of college football’s best player, in 2007, when he became the first college football player to both rush and pass for 20 or more touchdowns in a single season.

Now, Tebow is among the biggest brands in professional football, in just his second National Football League season. His number 15 Denver Broncos jersey is the largest-selling among all NFL players. Last weekend, he threw a game-winning touchdown pass in the first play of overtime to capture Denver’s first playoff victory in six years — spawning a record 9,420 tweets per second, according to Twitter.

But the two Tim Tebows are totally different brands, even though both have been successful.

So, what would one of the most-successful college quarterbacks of all time even need or want to change?

The answer: Because.

Tebow’s lifelong ambition was to play in the NFL as a quarterback. Not so easy, despite all the accolades: Many pro scouts considered his throwing motion (where he drew the ball back to his waist, rather than his shoulder, before throwing) to be unsuited for the NFL. Mel Kiper Jr., an ESPN pro football scouting analyst, was quoted as saying: “I don’t think he can be a full-time quarterback.” Given his relatively large size for a QB and his ability to run the football out of the shotgun formation, Tebow was labeled a running quarterback — faint praise and to many a way of saying he didn’t have what it took to succeed in an NFL offense.

Tim Tebow had a track record to think he was good enough. But he took it on himself to change. In a recent documentary about his preparation for the 2010 NFL draft, Tebow said:

“What we wanted to work on with my throwing motion was, really, get the loop out of it. Make it as quick as possible.”

Tebow’s goal became to change his muscle memory (a specific motor task put into memory through repetition) in order to show professional scouts that he was ready for the NFL. He needed to get his body to routinely make a different throwing motion, after four highly successful years in college. It took this elite athlete several coaches and about three weeks of 12-hour training days to change. Noted one of his coaches: “It’s going to take … 2,000 to 3,000 times doing something before you start to ingrain it in your muscles.”

Evidently, he changed enough: Tebow was selected by the Denver Broncos with the 25th pick in the first round in the 2010 NFL draft, and led his team to the NFL playoffs after the most recent 2011 season while leading fourth-quarter rallies for his team.

What lessons does Tim Tebow provide for you and your insurance brand?

1. Sometimes you need to change your brand because somebody else thinks so.
2. What you do well and what you need to improve both feed your brand.
3. Even the best at one level have to change to get to the next level. (A brand’s muscle memory might be doing something because it’s successful, but that doesn’t mean it will be effective in the future.)
4. Forgetting what you did before, and changing to something new, is difficult. It takes time and toil.
5. It can take a purposeful and sustained effort to create a new routine and a different environment.

Question: What do you think needs changing in good insurance brands?

UPDATE: See a story in American Agent and Broker about insurance industry spokespersons.

Photo attribution: Flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/