Brad Tonkin’s blog… How to build the most loved brand in your industry

In memory of Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)

Published on October 6, 2011 in Uncategorized. Closed

In one of my blog articles in November 2008 I coined the phrase ‘Apple it’.

This term evolved from my desire to encapsulate in just one short phrase what Steve Jobs stood for… That is, if you’re going to do something, do it beyond exceptionally well!

In late 2009, in an effort to ensure this expression would outlive Steve and his tenure at Apple, I changed the term to ‘Steve it’. Then, subsequently included a ‘Steve it’ chapter in a short business improvement book I published in 2009.

On a daily basis, the people in our organization and many of our clients’ organizations strive to live up to the ‘Steve it’ principle to improve the way we conduct business.

I feel extremely privileged and safer in the knowledge that Steve and his business wisdom will remain at the core of our business culture into the future.

Steve and his lessons will definitely never be forgotten.

Buying from zChocolat™ is a ‘Steve it’ experience!

Published on February 19, 2011 in Uncategorized. Closed

If you appreciate ‘class act’ businesses, you simply must experience what I experienced a few hours ago.

This is one of those occasions when I feel compelled to write about an organization that has highly developed ‘Brand Lovability‘.

This afternoon I went to zChocolat.com to buy a thank you gift for a client who had just recommended our organization to a perfectly matched prospective client.

I’d already read about zChocolat several years ago in Forbes Magazine so I new I was visiting a successful business.

What I didn’t expect was an amazing ‘Steve it‘ experience.

The process, the choice of product, the compelling uniqueness and quality of the offering, the overall care for the customers’ experience and the attention to detail… zChocolat has it all! It’s a seriously lovable brand and a lesson to us all.

Check it out.

Enjoy!

Beware of the high cost of reducing employee expenses

Published on February 13, 2011 in Uncategorized. Closed

Last week one of our clients gave me a tour of their newly renovated premises.

As we walked past the kitchen, I saw something that could seriously damage the ‘Internal Brand Lovability’ of their business!

It was a sign attached to a new Nespresso Coffee Machine instructing employees to pay $1 per coffee.

I didn’t say anything to my clients at the time, however I was compelled to send them the following email a couple of days later…

*********************************************************************************

Hi <name withheld>,

Over the weekend I couldn’t help thinking about your $1 Nespresso coffee charge for employees.

I can understand why you’re trying to limit costs but I’m worried this policy might not be sending the right message to your employees?

Please ‘Friend Frame’ it (as mentioned in my short book – Love Cap)… and ask yourself the following questions…

Would I charge a good friend for a coffee? Would I charge a client if they wanted a coffee?

By charging your employees and not charging your clients, I believe you could be damaging the culture and ‘Internal Brand Lovability’ of your business (or at the very least, you could be missing a great opportunity to improve both of these invaluable elements).

I believe your employees are more important than your clients and I believe your employees need to know you sincerely believe the same.

Something to think about and for us to discuss at our next meeting.

Regards,

Brad

*********************************************************************************

Question… What policies are damaging the culture and ‘Internal Brand Lovability’ of your business?

To learn more about ‘Brand Lovability’ and the concept of ‘Friend Framing’, see my short book entitled Love Cap at http://www.tonkinbrands.com/love-cap-download. It’s free and anonymously downloadable.

Aston Martin tries to destroy its brand

Published on November 6, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

I never thought this day would come.

For 16 years, I’ve been referring to the Aston Martin brand as a near perfect example of branding.

For millions of people around the World, the Aston Martin brand name has represented the ‘ultimate sports car’.

Then, after nearly 100 years of building this almost invaluable reputation, Aston Martin set out on a path to destroy its brand.

In March 2010, CEO Dr Ulrich Bez proudly introduced the Aston Martin Cygnet. Not another thoroughbred sports car, but a beep beep shopping trolley. A customized, re-branded version of the tiny, Toyota iQ.

In one wreckless act, the Aston Martin brand as we have come to know it, has been destroyed.

The Aston Martin brand, no longer stands for ‘thoroughbred sports cars only’ – A specialist.

Aston Martin now also sells ‘small, economical, city cars’ – A generalist.

I can’t imagine how any board of directors, could allow this to happen to such an iconic brand.

Hopefully this mistake can be rectified before irreparable damage is done.

Check it out… http://www.astonmartin.com/eng/thecars/cygnet

Let’s Steve it!

Published on April 6, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

Okay, this is the exciting part (if you’re ready to act on the information in my last 5 posts). This is where you begin the journey of turning your brand into the most loved brand in your industry.

First I need to explain the title of this post. ‘Steve it’ is a phrase that morphed from a phrase I coined and mentioned on this blog in November 2008 (It started as ‘Apple it’ but I changed it to ‘Steve it’ so the term would outlive Steve’s tenure at Apple). ‘Steve it’ is a metaphorical expression born out of my research of Steve Jobs and Apple®. It’s used to articulate an expectation of innovation, execution and performance at the highest level.

I began using this term around the office to clearly set parameters for tasks or projects, and have been recommending its use to clients ever since.

Now may be the time for you to ‘Steve it’ with the improvement of your brand. If you can relate to the content of my last 5 posts and you believe your brand’s characteristics have plenty of room for improvement, I’d recommend you get started. Lovable brands and the entities that create them, improve people’s lives. Lovable brands grow faster, they’re more enjoyable to work for and they’re more profitable. Why would we accept doing business any other way?

If you’d like assistance along the way, I’d welcome the opportunity.

The most important ‘Love Capital’ is generated within

Published on December 27, 2009 in Uncategorized. Closed

When it comes to developing Love Capital*, creating lovable brand characteristics* and Friend Framing* (*see previous posts for definitions), there’s one clarification I need to make before you get started.

Focus internally first.

All customers are important but some are more important than others.

Without doubt, your most important customers are your internal customers… your employees and suppliers… your internal friends. You already know that if you don’t attract and keep the best internal friends for a long time, there’s an extremely high intangible cost to your business and your brand. This cost normally manifests itself in the form of re-training, poor service, customer dissatisfaction, lost sales and unrealized potential. Sometimes we forget this critical maxim.

So we need to subordinate all external Love Capital efforts to our efforts within. Only when we’re treating our internal friends with the same consideration and compassion we’d normally extend to our dearest personal friends, will we be in a position to develop a brand with truly lovable characteristics for our external friends (customers, prospects and the community).

Use ‘Friend Framing’ to determine the lovability of your brand’s characteristics

Published on December 5, 2009 in Uncategorized. Closed

In order to develop your brand’s lovable characteristics, you’ll need a set of values for guidance. I believe the best frame of reference for this task is the concept of ‘friendship’.

You’ve heard the saying… “To have a friend, first you have to be one”. This clarifies everything! To have any chance of developing long term, mutually beneficial relationships with our employees, suppliers, customers and prospects, we need to treat them in the same manner we would treat a dear friend.

All we need to do when considering an existing or new brand characteristic is to ‘Friend Frame’ it. We need to ask ourselves the question… “Is this a characteristic I would want my customer to experience if that customer was a dear friend?”

Would I over-promise or bend the truth in any way? Never. Would I insist on a ‘no cash refund’ policy and only offer a store credit if my dear friend was not satisfied? Definitely not. Would I want to know if my dear friend was happy with their purchase? Definitely.

Can you see and feel the power of this ‘friend framing’ paradigm? It’s an extremely potent, all encompassing ‘true north’ concept for shaping a lovable brand.

‘Lovable characteristics’ will determine your brand’s Love Capital

Published on November 2, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

People fall in love with brands in the same way they fall in love with people… They fall in love with lovable characteristics.

Remember your first love? You fell for his or her personality, their infectious laugh, their stunning good looks, their cheeky smile. You fell in love with their unique, lovable characteristics.

Finding love for your brand is no different. Lovable characteristics are everything in the battle for your brand to become number one.

So how’s your brand looking? Lovable?

The following 4 brand characteristic categories will help you determine the lovability of your brand.

1. Destructive characteristics.

This category is typified by characteristics that, put simply… piss people off. A brand with destructive characteristics is often associated with rude, unfriendly and inconsiderate people, policies and practices. Such a brand oozes indifference.

Picture your local restaurant displaying a sign at point of payment… “No separate billing” or “minimum $10 purchase for debit card use”. Or the website message that says… “Click here to chat with us now: Offline”. Or website forms that don’t retain data when you click the back button to edit your input.

Destructive characteristics are everywhere!

2. Non-descript characteristics.

This is the characteristic category you’ll find associated with most brands. These characteristics belong to the brand next door where the name, trademark, positioning and overall brand story are sub-standard, inconsistent and characterless.

Picture the building company called Superior Construction whose trademark looks like this [Superior Construction]. This brand came out of a Weeties® packet. The name is common, bland, average (unlike Google® and Yahoo®), the trademark is characterless, of home-made appearance and lacking professionalism. Superior? I don’t think so.

3. Misguided characteristics.

Brands distinguished by this type of characteristic often impress at first glance but only because they’re the best of a bad bunch. The brand name, trademark and positioning may tick all the boxes but it’s never enough to overcome a ‘misguided characteristic’ contamination.

These misguided characteristics are failed attempts at being lovable. Strategically sound, structurally floored. They often lack personality, warmth and empathy for the customer.

Picture the brand manager who knows she should communicate with you regularly but doesn’t understand how to do it properly. Her regular, impersonal, insensitive, uninteresting, self focused emails are treated with disdain, disinterest and disregard.

4. Lovable characteristics.

This characteristic is rarely found in close proximity to its own kind. A small percentage of brands can boast having one or two lovable characteristics but few brands are imbued with enough lovable characteristics to become truly lovable brands.

Thankfully we can be guided and encouraged in our quest for more Love Capital by learning from Apple, Disney, Obama, Ikea, Ben and Jerry’s, Harley Davidson and Dubai.

So what should you do with an incumbent brand that has little or no Love Capital?

Change the brand’s characteristics so they’re more lovable. In the world of branding, a leopard can definitely change its spots – but be careful – not all spots are easily changed. Your brand’s core identity spots (niche, target market, distribution method, etc.) may not be safely changed without changing the name and visual identity of your brand.

This particular subject could fill a book of its own. Suffice to say that if you believe your brand may have core identity problems, you should definitely consult a branding expert.

Your brand’s lovability should be its main source of advantage, success, profit, etc.

Published on October 19, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

So why should we measure and strive for lovability?

Well, we’ve known for a long time that people are mainly influenced by emotion when deciding whether to support a product, service or entity. So, from a branding perspective, it makes sense for us to focus on this human trait and wrap our offerings in a thick layer of positive emotions.

Consider these 3 potential advantages…

Lovability leads to efficiency. Think about it. The more lovable your brand, the higher the percentage of prospects who’ll want what you have to offer. There will be less friction when trying to turn these prospects into customers. You’ll get more referrals, more free publicity. Your cost per lead and cost per conversion will fall. These real cost savings will transfer to your bottom line.
Love [the experience often caused by being lovable], is usually the basis for a lasting relationship. That’s because when love is in the air, breaking up is hard to do. So if we want long term, lasting relationships with our customers, it’s a no brainer. We must continually look for ways to make our brands more lovable.
When people are in love, they’re more likely to be loyal. Therefore, becoming more lovable in order to attract ‘loving’ supporters is definitely worth the effort. If people love your brand, they’re more likely to support your brand at a higher level.

Love Capital… A rare, valuable and essential commodity

Published on October 13, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Thanks for your patience.

It took a bit longer than planned, however I’ve now finished the manifesto I alluded to in my last post. I’ll upload it in sections over the coming weeks. It’s called… Love Cap.

Love Cap [luv kap] – Shortened form of Love Capital

Noun. Informal.

Definition… A form of wealth. A measure of the total love felt for a brand by its customers, prospects, shareholders and other stakeholders. In this definition, the word love represents any of the 35 odd positive (primary, secondary and tertiary) emotions humans are capable of feeling about a product, service or entity.

Love Capital is a newly defined asset class, the value of which can predict the future potential of your brand. It‘s the measure of the love felt for your brand by all stakeholders.

Consider your brand or the brand you represent. If your brand was a person, would you be instantly drawn to them? Would they have characteristics that are more appealing and magnetic than all the other people you know? Would they be the type of person you’d like to have as a dear friend?

In the vast majority of cases, the answer to these three questions is no.

Most brands (possibly your brand), have few characteristics that are significantly more attractive, more magnetic or more lovable than competing brands. Most brands are just brands with inadequate Love Capital.